The DodgyDossier

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-28T23:59:00

2004-06-28T23:21:03Z

Uncle. . .

pK's friend, Robanne with hubby & 10 month old daughter, came for a visit on Saturday.

Daughter couldn't walk but could pull herself upright and totter along whilst leaning against something. So now our TV has a line of baby handprint along the lower half of the screen.

Also reminded that our carpet is perhaps over due for replacement:

Concrete floor;
threadbare carpet;
baby falls backwards whilst sitting on floor;
baby finds carpet doesn't protect head from Nasty Concrete
adults find baby has fine pair of lungs

Eye-opener when we went to our local favourite pub. We were asked to leave *gasp!* when we brought in the pram. Apparently they "didn't have a license for children under 16". Hmmm. Next pub less than 50 metres away didn't have any probs with the pram.

Enjoyed having the baby for the afternoon. I'm definitely cut out to be an uncle, I think:

Visit baby;
hold baby;
smile at baby;
give baby pressie;
wave goodbye to baby.

One afternoon with a 10 month old baby is enough for a month.

Had a bottle of wine with them during the day, and as they were leaving A & R arrived (and I'm sure there was a flicker of broodiness when R saw the baby. . .)

Over the past week, we've been in the midst of selling our sofa to A & R; as they were here, they had a good wiggle around in it and appeared to be pleased with said sofa. Deal concluded, it was off Cafe Pasta for dinner.

More wine; followed by another bottle. Didn't realise how drunk I was until pK castigated me for waving goodbye too enthusiastically to A & R when they departed by train.

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-25T22:09:00

2004-06-25T22:00:54Z

IP Telephony. . .

Finally got a bit of software working at the office: firefly

Quite cool: connect a microphone and speakers to your PC and you can make free phone calls via the Internet. We're now using it to communicate with our resellers in Australia and the US - should save a bit on the phone bills. Took a bit of wrangling to get it to work via our proxy server and then through the firewall, but, YAY!, got there.

Half the office then spent half the afternoon 'phoning' each other with the software. It was a slow day

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-25T01:08:00

2004-06-25T00:24:44Z

Football?. .

All anyone could talk about today in the office was football (Euro2004). Even our cleaner (a quiet lady from Poland) had strong vocal opinions.

I don't follow football - can't see why everyone is so het up about it; apart from Becks, Owen and Rooney I couldn't name any other player in the tournament.

Actually, there was one occasion where my interest did peak. A colleague put together an Office Football Team whereby each colleague was matched up with a footballer in the tournament whom they most resemble. Helped out with the match-making, although most of my time was spent assessing the footballers: ugly; ugly; URGGHH; ugly; cute; ugly; cute; cute; GORGEOUS <make mental note of name>; ugly; ugly.

Although England are playing Portugal tonight, I spent the evening watching the newly arrived DVDs - a couple Frasier episodes followed by a mini Third Rock fest.

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-23T22:03:00

2004-06-23T21:50:09Z

Surprise! (Well, sort of). . .

Arrived at work today and found a package from Amazon on my desk. Unexpected! Yay!

Picked it up - very light so it must be DVDs. Couldn't remember ordering anything so quite excited opening it.

Found Frasier (Season 2) and Third Rock from the Sun (Season 1 and Season 2). DVDs which I love, but do not possess.

Initial reaction: a gift! Someone must have read my Amazon Wishlist. Had a warm glow and quickly read the packing slip to see who was being nice to me (thought it might by pK).

Apparently it was me who bought it. Actually felt a bit disappointed despite now having these DVDs in my possession. Checked my email and found that I did ordered them over a month ago (opted for the cheapie delivery where they will only send the items when all are in stock - one of the DVDs was only released last week).

Still, at least there's lots of DVD watching in the weeks to come.

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-21T13:56:00

2004-06-21T17:27:45Z

Pride before a fall. . .

Last Friday (18 June 2004), buoyed up by the success of the last dinner party, we invited another friend (Aussie G) over to dinner. Cooking's getting easier!

Decided on red Thai curry (again; but this would be the first time someone else tasted it besides myself and pK); and a stirfry with black bean sauce.

Anyway, no-one was hungry initially so we drank wine and chatted for an hour or so, which probably was a mistake as I hadn't eaten anything for 8 hours. When I started cooking I was more than a bit tipsy. Insisted that G and pK come into the kitchen as I cooked - pK was happy to; G was very dubious ("what? sit in the kitchen? whilst the food is being cooked?").

A colleague at work suggested that when making a red Thai curry, it's best to fry the garlic & onions, added the curry paste (this time I used much less curry paste after the last fiasco), then the meat and finally the coconut milk and other goodies. Thought I'd give this a try as I really wanted to impress with the curry. So, heated the wok. Possibly it was a bit too hot as the fat spat like crazy when I added garlic and onions. Added in the curry paste and, fook me, curry fumes hit the kitchen with a vengeance. pK and G retreated from the kitchen with watering eyes and I had to stand next to the open kitchen window.

Added the chicken and the coconut milk as soon as possible. Oh, it was such a relief once that milk was added. Called the others back in to chat and wine whilst casually cooking the stirfry.

Served up the food with great expectation. . .

Sat down and tasted a bit of Thai curry sauce. It wasn't very spicy - not enough curry paste. If that wasn't bad enough, the chicken tasted bland - despite me cooking it with coriander, garlic, ginger and some veg. Bugger.

Told the pK and G what I thought and asked them for their opinion. They agreed it was a bit bland (WAAAH!!)and G then added that the black bean stirfry was a bit sugary - like an anglicised version of the dish.

What?!

Hadn't tasted the stirfry up to that point, so had a quick taste. He had a point (WAAAH!!)

G's prognosis was that there wasn't enough coriander in the Thai curry, and the stirfry wasn't cook at a high enough temperature. Not sure if that was the correct, but I'll do that next time.

Plus I'll stay *&@! sober whilst cooking.

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-20T23:09:00

2004-06-20T22:33:08Z

Blog Backlog [2]. . .

Another quick recap of past events that occurred during the blog blackout.

Thursday 10 June 2004 - pK and I hosted our first dinner party together in the flat since pK moved in (for our Maltese friends - S&P - and N).

Took place about one week after Jo and Stv moved out, so it was the first time I get to tryout my culinary skills acquired whilst they were staying with us (and to use some of the ingredients they left us - thanks guys!).

Plan for the evening was red Thai curry (you'll probably note that this dish is a recurring theme. But when Stv made it, it tasted gorgeous. And I saw him making it. Looked easy).

Informed the guests a couple days beforehand what I was planning. Discovered that S doesn't like coconut. Nor curry. So no go on the red Thai curry front. Opted to do a stir fry.

Took the day off work to do shopping and dinner party preps. Got to supermarket, and realised that I didn't know, exactly, what ingredients to buy to do a *good* stirfry. I've done stirfries before. But I appear to have an innate skill to do bland very well. Many things I cook, unfortunately, taste bland despite my adding various seasoning goodies.

So, anyway. Picked up a packet of Oyster stirfry sauce and [a lemon grass tangy-tasting] stirfry sauce and literally bought everything listed in the example recipe printed on the back of each packet.

Took that lot home and then headed out again to buy additional plates and bowls. I should mention that we do have a decent set of matching plates and bowls, but only for 4 people. We had 5 people dining; as this was to be our first dinner party, we were going to do this properly. Which meant everyone was going to eat off matching crockery.

Brought those back to the flat and was totally pooped. So much so, I vegged out for the rest of the day til the guests arrived. After all, I figured the stirfry should only take about 10 mins to do, even though I planned on 2 different dishes (pork with Oyster sauce; chicken with the lemon-grass sauce).

Guests duly arrived and we talked and drank wine for 30 mins or so. Everyone became hungry, so off into the kitchen to do the stirfry.

Which is where the problems began.

Firstly, two dishes were to be cooked and we have 2 woks (yay!) as pK also had one when he moved in. But the hob doesn't have room to accommodate 2 woks. A wok and 2 small saucepans is probably the best that can be squeezed on. So, OK, one dish cooked in wok; second in a small saucepan; and rice in another small saucepan.

Secondly, had no idea that preparing food prior to cooking it could take SO long.

Eventually got the rice on the go after trying to figure out how much was needed for everyone and then washing it. Next, turned attention to the stirfries.

Veg needed washing, trimming, then chopping. Meat had to be trimmed and cut up. Not enough room on the worktops to accommodate amount of ingredients for 5 people (actually there might have been if I had worked in a more tidy, less panicky, fashion).

Anyway, everyone's getting really hungry as I still wasn't ready to serve after 30 mins in the kitchen (where on earth did the time go!). In the end I didn't have time to follow the instructions on the back of the sauce packets, so all the dark coloured veg went into the oyster sauce stirfry and all the colourful ones went into the lemon grass stirfry.

Busy stirring both dishes as they cooked when I noticed the rice in the small saucepan had not only absorbed all the water, but had expanded and was on the verge of spilling onto the hob. Luckily S wandered into the kitchen and promptly sorted that one out.

But it was a success overall! Everyone thought the food tasted great :) although deep down I suspect that it probably tasted so good because:

everyone was starving (and anything tastes good when you are hungry enough)
everyone was very tipsy (a few bottles of wine had been drunk during the evening by time the food was served)

Well, actually it was a near success. Totally underestimated the amount of food I needed to cook - people were almost licking their bowls clean.

Oh, and our posh very ornate Italian candles (bought from a trip with pK to Rome) turned out to be almost volcanic. Once lit, they looked pretty for about 10 mins then one side of the candles proceeded to literally melt within the following 5 mins. Rivers of blue wax flowed down the candle stick holders onto the mat below. I've never seen candles behave like that before (I tried explaining what happened to friends at work, but I just get blank looks).

As N said: cheap wax.

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-18T12:39:00

2004-06-18T14:15:51Z

Blog backlog. . .

Quiet day today in the office, so a quick recap of the past 2 weeks or so.

pK had his flatwarming (Sat 12 June - nearly 2 months after he moved in). Good turnout. Actually managed to get my alcohol intake spot on - enough to overcome my inherent shyness (I was actually flitting around talking to people. Yes, I know. Amazing.); but not too much alcohol (ala last New Year's Eve party - in bed, drunk & sound asleep by 10:30pm. Then sick as a dog for the first week of the year).

Can't remember much of what I was talking about last Saturday though. I do hope I kept my mind out of the gutter.

Some of the highlights I have some memory of:

Maltese Sandra's Britney pants. I think I got just a little over-enthusiastic about them. Sorry about that Sandra.
Greg's Triple Combo (let's just say: Lucky; locked bathroom; hide & seek)
The Great Racialist/Racist debate between Zara & [Ed's brummie friend who, for the life of me, I cannot remember his name]. Took place well after midnight, neither would back down and dictionaries were drawn at 10 paces. Can't remember the outcome actually
Zara's brother Paul parading around topless. W00t!

Very good party though.

Even if I do say so myself.

And I do.

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-18T01:28:00

2004-06-18T00:49:55Z

Badminton. . .

Met up with pK after work for a 2-hour session of badminton.

A foursome was playing on the next court. Felt slightly uncomfortable as the players on the next court seemed to be rather good.

They would run up to the shuttlecock and gently tap it to send it skimming just over the net. Some of their rallies were admittedly good, with the shuttlecock zipping back and to across the net at speed. All you could hear was a small *dink* as the shuttlecock hit the racquets.

Whereas pK and I would hit the shuttlecock as hard as we could, sending the shuttlecock arching high over the net to the back of the court. The shuttlecock would make a swooshing noise as it hurtled through the air.

I found it quite embarrassing at first:

them: *dink*dink*dink*dink*dink*dink*dink*dink*dink*dink*dink*dink*

us: *thwwakk* swoosh *thwwakk* swoosh

Tried to play as they did, but always ended up hitting it hard again.

Anyway, I kept telling myself that we were there to burn calories and *enjoy* ourselves, and it didn't matter we played with no finesse. I almost convinced myself.

Our first match lasted 10 mins, and I was pooped already. Booking the court for 2 hours was a bit ambitious (we decided to call it a night after 90mins)...

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-17T23:04:00

2004-06-18T00:26:05Z

Back again. . .

Can't believe it's been so long since the last blog entry, and so much has happened.

pK and I decided to have a *quality* evening together yesterday. We would cook dinner (red Thai curry!) and eat together at a properly laid out dining table (very civilised) with background music; and no TV for the entire evening.

The previous Thai curry I cooked tasted bland.

So this time I added extra curry paste, some veggies, coriander and other herby things. Left it all to bubble away for 20 mins and then had a quick taste before serving it up.

I have to say that little taste made my eyes water. Over-compensated on the curry paste, I think.

So, our quality evening was spent talking to each over dinner with pK blinking back the tears and me blowing my nose every 5 minutes because the curry was making our eyes water so much.

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-02T15:20:00

2004-06-02T14:37:26Z

Looong Afternoon. . .

Bored today at the office.

Furniture Collection people phoned to confirm. They're coming to take away the table and chairs! I shall miss their colour-clash. For about 5 minutes.

The Big Hair is no more, tamed by the barber. Not *quite* what I had envisioned, but it'll do, although it looks a bit front-heavy(?) from some angles. Or so my colleagues say...

Finally, an attempt to eat a sensible lunch today (getting more than a tad concerned with weight now) - a Zinger Chicken Salad. Was asked to pay a bit more than expected - didn't argue as I wasn't wearing my specs so I couldn't quite clearly read the (large, brightly illuminated) menu on the wall behind the counter. Had a quick squint when she was getting my change, but no luck - bit too fuzzy.

Got back to office - found she had put a bag of fries in there too.

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-01T11:59:00

2004-06-01T11:07:49Z

Conscience. . .

At work now.

Thinking whether to tell the Furniture Collection people that the table and chairs are green.

And that they are in a flat on the seventh floor. . .

It took 2 mins to type this entry. It took nearly 10 mins to find out how to spell conscience

dodgydossier @ 2004-06-01T09:49:00

2004-06-01T09:16:46Z

I Can't Get Rid of It. . .

Phoned the Furniture Collection Scheme to get an idea of what time they are coming to collect the dining table and chairs (I didn't take today off work so I'm hoping that they're coming very early....)

They're not.

I'm not in their book. The gentlemen asks who I previously spoke to when arranging the collection. 'He sounded like an elderly gent,' I reply. A pause at the other end of the phone, and he says, 'that might be possible'. It then occurs to me that I might be speaking to the same person. I do hope he is elderly in that case...

Anyway, a new collection is booked for this Thursday. Looks like I'll have to book the day off work: 1-3pm is the only time available.

dodgydossier @ 2004-05-31T23:01:00

2004-05-31T23:19:43Z

That Dining Table. . .

Currently have problem of having two dining tables in a flat that barely has space for one.

I own one and pK owns one which was fine when we lived in separate flats. Now that he's moved in, we have a major clutter problem.

Decided to get rid of mine on the grounds of Taste. To be honest, I don't know what possessed me to buy a round green wooden farmhouse-type dining table with matching green wooden chairs. It may have been the green tiles on the tabletop; or perhaps the tie-on green & cream chair cushions

It doesn't match the red/cream walls or the blue carpet. And, admittedly, it doesn't belong in a small flat (a fact which friends are only now willing to tell me since they know I'm getting rid of it. And to think it's been in the flat for 4 years and no-one previously said anything).

And, yes, the blue carpet too will go in due course.

Getting rid of that dining table has not been easy. First port of call: ebay.co.uk.

Took pic of said dining table and chairs; put ad & pic on ebay; waited for bids to roll in.

Nothing. Not a single bid. I was actually embarrassed by that. I thought you could sell anything on ebay. Although, with hindsight, perhaps a 50 pounds reserve was not the wisest of things to do.

Next port of call: Richmond Furniture Scheme who will collect said dining table and chairs and recycle it to people in need. Better still, they collect free of charge and I get a goody-good-doer warm feeling inside for helping someone less fortunate.

So I phoned them; leave message; wait for return call. That duly came a week later (very well-spoken elderly chap) and they appear to be quite picky(!). Told them it was in good condition with some minor marks.

That leads to a short pause at the other end of the phone line.

He re-iterates that they have to be in good condition as recipients may not accept them. Plus, as they have limited storage, the collection driver will inspect the items and may refuse to collect them if they are not deemed to be of acceptable quality.

And I'm thinking @#*&! I'm offering you a free dining table & chairs in good condition. How on Earth can you be so picky!?

Which, nevertheless, has got me a bit worried. So, today, a beautiful Bank Holiday Monday, I spend indoor scrubbing the green dining table and chairs in order to achieve that 'good condition'.

Scrubbing reveals that there are perhaps a tad more 'minor marks' than anticipated. So, after a few hours scrubbing with a bowl of warm soapy water, out comes my Lord of the Rings paint set to touch up the chips, scratches and other maybe-not-so-minor marks (and it takes at least 40 mins to mix a green to match - if you don't look too closely - that on the table).

And I'm actually pleased with the final outcome. It's looks almost new.

Collection driver comes tomorrow. He better take it after all the work and sacrifice I made (I spent a beautiful day indoors!).

dodgydossier @ 2004-05-30T23:58:00

2004-05-31T19:54:06Z

Buffy Appreciation Day. . .

Finally met pK's sister, Catty, 10 mins before they left to visit relatives - no sense in prolonging the occasion. One moment of hesitation after being introduced - do we kiss, hug, shake hands or merely nod and say hello. We eventually briefly hugged after a false start or two.

After they departed, spent rest of day watching Series 1 of Buffy with Stv, Jo and 6 bottles of wine.

Bonus: Stv cooked lunch and Jo cooked dinner.

Lovely lazy day.

dodgydossier @ 2004-05-29T23:16:00

2004-05-31T12:56:37Z

She's Here. . .

pK's sister arrived Sat afternoon from Manchester.

Not exactly keen on meeting her after she casually outed pK to their mum over the phone (their poor Old Dear is in South Africa and took the news badly). And she refers to me as The Other One.

So, she arrives at the flat in the afternoon and I'm out in town with N :) Visited a cocktail bar that's newly opened (can't remember the name) but didn't feel comfortable in there - interior is predominantly white, minimalist and seems to be a place for posing.

Saw "The Day After Tomorrow" - decent enough film to spend a couple of hours (definitely reduce the schmaltz by editing out the irrelevant minor subplot of moving sick child to safety). Not a film to keep on DVD though.

dodgydossier @ 2004-05-28T23:40:00

2004-05-29T00:16:57Z

Just A Tad Hungover. . .

*Bleagghh* Woke up with my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. The day went downhill from there.

I think it was mixing the red and white wine last night.

Still, managed to get to work, albeit at noon. Had my excuse lined-up: I'll be here til 8:30 this evening as I need to patch the Servers; but I can only patch them after work-hours to avoid disrupting everyone as they will need to be rebooted.

The first person I saw as I entered the office said: Gawwd, you look well hungover, you do. No wonder you're only just coming in at this time.

pfffft, thanks.

Sat at my desk reviewing logfiles etc. That usually puts me in a reflective mood where I can make the most profound insights into my life. . .

I'm definitely starting to feel fat. I'm certainly drinking more - will have to cut back. That's going to be hard (I hear that switching from lager to bitter may help. This warrants further investigation with Google). And I need to go to gym more often. Pleased that I went for the first time after so many months this week. Disappointed that I managed only one visit during the whole week. I'm aiming for 2 visits next week.
Hair is not only Big, it's becoming Unruly. Will have to find time next week for a barber visit, much as I hate going.
I'm becoming addicted to blogging. I'm hoping that this is just a phase.

Postscript: Google reports that lager is 230 calories per pint. Bitter is only 182. I'm officially a bitter drinker now. Heh, I'll lose 50 calories for each pint of bitter I drink.

dodgydossier @ 2004-05-27T23:18:00

2004-05-28T23:03:02Z

Naked Turtle Revisited. . .

Stv and Jo arrived to stay for a week.

Decided to take them out to the Naked Turtle restaurant in Sheen, only a 5 min bus ride away. Been there before (I blogged about it previously; if I was really clever I supposed I could insert a link to that blog entry).

Unlike last time, we managed to get table indoors (woo!), right in front of the musicians (woo! woo!) and actually got our main course before 11pm (10:40pm to be precise - woo woo woo!)

And the four of us still managed to get through too much wine :@)

Opted to phone for a cab rather than wait for a bus home.

Whilst waiting for the cab, a bus went passed. . .

dodgydossier @ 2004-05-26T18:28:00

2004-05-26T17:49:40Z

Birthday Present . . . (belated)

Reading pK's blog (incestuous, I know) reminded me his birthday pressie finally arrived through the post (only 2 months late)

Cut a long story short, pK bought me helicopter ride for my birthday, so I did the same for pK. We can now go together!

Anyway, it was bought from redletterdays.co.uk and on their website is an option to personalise the gift. Good idea, I thought, especially as it's free and it shows some thought (although, I note, *mine* wasn't personalised). . .

So I enter a message using our private (and, OK, admittedly silly) nicknames for each other, thinking that there would be a card with the message attached to the gift.

Pressie duly arrives (2 months late as previously mentioned) but with no additional card with my personalised message. Humph. Fine.

pK opens the pressie and inside is all the usual paraphenalia with regard to the helicopter ride: how to book a date for the ride; how to get there; restrictions; and lastly, the official ID that is to be worn around pK's neck throughout the event.

Unfortunately my personal message is printed in bold on the official ID. . .

dodgydossier @ 2004-05-26T17:43:00

2004-05-26T17:03:33Z

More Redecorating. . .

Stv and Jo are arriving some time this evening to stay for a few days before their World Wide Jaunt. So last night we finally started to get the flat ready. . .

Kitchen is an ongoing redecorating chore which has, so far, last for weeks. . . . All we wanted to do was paint 2 walls and it's so hard.

Anyway, as was blogged a few weeks ago, the walls have been stripped and last Sunday they were sanded down ready for painting. Final job before the actual painting was to repair the missing chunks of ceiling plaster that came away with the wallpaper.

Got tube of Polyfilla. Applied said Polyfilla to numerous gaps in the ceiling plaster. Thought I'd play safe and applied extra Polyfilla to ensure the gaps were totally filled and a smooth finish once it was sanded down.

Didn't start til 9pm - Polyfilla, sand down, paint wouldn't take more than an hour or 2, we thought . . .

12am - and still sanding down the Polyfilla. I had no idea Polyfilla becomes so hard after drying. It was like sanding down concrete, and we have so much excess to get rid of. And I kept getting blinded by the dust falling into my eyes (*how* are you supposed to sand down a ceiling with having to look upwards).

Gave up in despair, with the kitchen again covered in a layer of dust.

Got to bed at 1:30am after cleaning kitchen and bathroom.

Poo. I was hoping Stv and Jo would see the flat in a better condition.

dodgydossier @ 2004-05-26T17:20:00

2004-05-26T16:42:28Z

Al Fresco. . .

Had a mortifying experience Monday night :(

We (we being pK and I) live in a block of flats on the seventh floor. Fantastic views of across London etc etc. Anyway, being 7 floors up means we benefit from the heat from the lower storeys.

Normally that is A Good Thing.

But Monday night, being warm and fairly humid, was not comfortable. Sticky.

At this point I should mention that our bedroom has a door opening onto a small balconey at the rear of the flat. So, to make things a little more bearable we open the balconey door and bedroom windows to let in a bit of cool night air.

And things came pleasant. Very pleasant. And natuire took its frisky course.

It was only when we were lying quietly again afterwards, that I heard hushed voices from the balcony above. . .

I don't know who lives up there, but more importantly, I hope they don't know who lives below them.

dodgydossier @ 2004-05-25T15:01:00

2004-05-25T14:06:26Z

I knew it! I KNEW IT!

It's not my fault. It's in my genes: Big Hair

Hmm... goes to explain my bushy eyebrows too

It's bigger. . .

2004-05-24T17:41:44Z

Back at the office now. Making coffee in the office kitchenette; looked into the mirror and saw my hair had got bigger - it's beyond bouffant. And I'm sure that's physically impossible.

Gym and big hair do not mix.

Thank god I work flexi-time. Most of the staff have gone home for the night so I can hide my shame.

Lunchtime

2004-05-24T16:54:39Z

My first visit to the gym since... lots of months ago.

And, boy, has it changed. Didn't recognise any of the staff on duty and half the exercising machines had changed.

Thought I'd take it slowly today - break myself in gently. A bit of cycling and a bit of step-machining (whatever it's called).

Cycling went OK (230 calories. Wahoo!) - some initial hesitation as these were different machines compared to those the last time I was there (sat on the first available cycle and thought 'crap - these have *so* many more buttons than the old machines and they are *definitely* not clearly labelled'. Saved by the fact that I saw a 'Quick Start' button and the instructions: Start pedalling for Quick Start. I'm a pro when it comes to the gym).

Stepping was fine too - whilst I was actually stepping. After my 10 min session finished, I got off the machine and immediately had to (discretely) cling onto it to stop myself falling over. Very light headed. Called it a day at that point and headed back to the office.

It's big. . . .

2004-05-24T14:03:59Z

I'm having a Big Hair Day.

Throughout last week it was manageable and looked reasonable.

Today it's gone bouffant. I don't why. Possibly it's from yesterday's sanding dust (although it was thoroughly washed afterwards).

Anyway, it means having to find time to go to a barber somewhere in the next few days, and I hate going for haircuts (I rarely get a cut that I'm really pleased with, and I have no idea what to ask for).

Cooking for two

2004-05-23T22:12:35Z

Spent afternoon sanding down kitchen walls prior to painting. Crappy afternoon, especially as the entire kitchen needed cleaning afterwards to remove a layer of fine dust.

Decided to cook with pK this evening. Had a look in the fridge to see what we had:

eggs
bacon
frozen veg
frozen chips
frozen veggie burgers

Veggie burgers were iffy (use by date: Aug 2003). I thought they would be edible (frozen after all), pK was dubious.

Decided to phone home to check. My mum said they would be OK ("as long as they don't look too dried up"); pK's mum said not to eat them.

So, a dead heat. We decided to use them as they didn't look too dried up. Couple of lessons learnt this evening:

1. do NOT drop half-defrosted veggie burgers into a frying pan of hot smoking oil ( especially when wearing a t-shirt);
2. scrambled eggs taste gorgeous with worcester sauce;
3. we don't know how to make an omelette (unless omelettes are supposed to end up looking like scrambled eggs);
4. Find of the Week: Dettox Anti-Bacterial Surface Cleanser doesn't half clean a cooker. Used it to remove all the dust from the hob and it also shifted all the grease and baked-on thingies too. We have a new-looking cooker! :)