My Life's Ingredients

Feels like not much ... but then... I didn't get up until 11:30am. ;) Currently the 3rd load of Wolves wash is in (yep ... we're back to that again!! ;) ), 2 loads of jerseys currently trying on the racks. Oh ... and I finished DH's quilt... the binding...just in time for Superbowl on the 7th. :) I am still no good with it, even WITH the ironing binding instead of sewing. The back is wonky ... the front looks a bit off as I had to pull more of the binding to the back (lesson learned - use more width for binding next time!!!). And it looks smaller (width-wise) than I'd thought. :o BIIIIG SORRY, DOUG!!! But I hope (and know) you'll enjoy the quilt no matter what!! :) Weekly appointment at 4:30pm, then making the "Haggis, Neeps & Tatties" soup a la New Covent Garden Food Co , "Soup for all Seasons" . We LOVE it! :) And after proper Haggis, Neeps & Tatties at St. Andrew's Day, we tend to have the soup version on Burn's...

Christmas seems to be laden with tons of food, doesn’t it? ;) And I love it. Cookies, Duck/Goose, red cabbage, dumplings (so far the only time of the year we actually have dumplings – a German staple food!), Stollen… YUM! Usually we have a traditional German Christmas on Christmas Eve (no bland Turkey!!!) and then on Christmas Day we visit the inlaws and MIL is cooking the traditional British Christmas fayre. What I never understood is that with a dry bird like Turkey the Brits only use Cranberry Sauce or Jelly … why not opt for Gravy? We always have gravy with the Duck … you need gravy for the Dumplings anyway! ;)   Every year I tell myself to start the baking earlier … and every year I only start making the Stollen (non-marzipan) and cookies the week before Christmas or in the worst case on Christmas Eve. *I REALLY HAVE TO CHANGE THAT!!!*

Today we went shopping ... non SB shopping at the "MTZ" which is a very nice shopping centre like the American Malls but with more outdoor decor. ;) Had a look at the Multimedia shop "Media Markt" (for CDs & DVDs) then went up to get my annual "Mettbroetchen" while my mum was searching for a jacket in different clothes shops and DH was looking for cheap LEGO. ;) Then I got more of my other "stash" obsession - Teas (leaf teas - no tea bags allowed there!). Got a new Roiboos (Lemon), an Easter Tea (black with flavours) and now bought a 100g bag of China Keemun tea (which I found through Sharon as tea bags at Whittards). Really looking forward to drinking that one. I also got a taster bag for another type of Keemun. For lunch we took Mutsch to Starbucks - yes, they are sprouting in Germany as well!!! - and treated her to a Cappucino and a NY Cheesecake, while I opted for the Chai Latte with Raspberry Cheesecake and DH had a Strawberry Milks...

Today we went shopping at the "Stempelmeer" - an SB shop which is 35 mins by car from my mum (and I only knew of its existence since 2007!!). It's my usual place to get my "Stamping Bellas" although I was already worried they wouldn't carry them anymore as I couldn't find ANYTHING about Bellas on their website. :o I had arranged for one of the editors of the "Scrap-Art-Zine" (SAZ), Jana, to meet up who visited her hubby in Frankfurt. Was absolutely fun, we had a chat about stash, the fact that I forgot to extend my SAZ sub (I promise I will re-sub, Jana & Nat!! LOL), SB trends etc. Really fun!! But of course forgot to take a photo of us two together!!! :( Then went shopping - 5 Bellas, 2 Mags, 1 Maya Road stamp tin "Cupcakes" and 2 "smellalicious" scented embossing powders from Gel-a-tins ("Chocolate Bliss" & "Apple Fresh") and I was €103 poorer. ;) That's the stamps, I tell you!! :) I ...

Day 15 - Skype! Originally uploaded by Wolves05 Photo 15 of 365 was taken shortly after I've been off SKYPE with my best friend Sharon - we've not talked since she'd been up end of November and texts/e-mails/Facebook messages just don't count. So we've been on SKYPE for nearly 2 hours! ;) Don't you just love Skype? We've installed it at my Mutsch as well, now we just have to try and figure out whether we get it to work ... might try to speak to her tomorrow or Monday - would be great to speak to her before she's off to the next OP end of this month. I've also spoken to my best friend (from Germany) Markus (Sharon and he have to share that spot!! ;) ). He was planning to come up for a visit in Autumn (which he couldn't do because of work & health) and then for Hogmanay (where the prices were just HORRENDOUS) - so we invited him up for SuperBowl weekend ... which he got a good flight price for and he'll be up from 31.1. - 4.2. WAHEY!! Haven...

It's cold and it's chucking down with rain. :( And that since yesterday afternoon. Not forgetting the gusty wind to boot. I'm glad I don't have to get outside much today - just went to the Doc's for the monthly Zolly this morning and will have to take the car to the Cinema and the inlaws in the evening. However, our house seems to be always colder than it's outside... so I think I will switch on the heating in a bit. LISA - you mentioned something about that, can you please e-mail me the name of that device so I can forward it to Doug? Else ... for a week now I got the craving from time to time for "Knaeckebro t mit Kaese" (cheese - either sliced or spready one - on crispbread). Don't know why, I didn't even eat it that much as a child... hohumm... But it's NICE!! :) Currently trying to get Wolves stuff done before Tuesday - and the list seems to be never ending. Also have to make some Halloween cards and a "Get Well" card fo...

Was considering to eat more fruit anyway, since we've been to Germany, as my mum's going through quite a lot over the day. She always cuts them up in a bowl and they always look very yummie!! :) So on my way back from the "drive through" post box (ha! THAT'S an experience ... it's at the Post Collection Office Sighthill at Cutlins Road!! A post box that is getting emptied at 7:30pm so always good to know!) I went to Tesco's and got some yummie Pears (don't like the squishy soft ones!) and a Pineapple ... and here is my dessert for today: Yummie Pineapple, Pear and Plum (in the bottom of the bowl).

Didn't get enought sleep, today is my day off and I usually catch up on sleep on those ... and should be still asleep for another 15 mins or so. But no, we've got a slot for an uplift for our blinking dishwasher (yes, we FINALLY are getting somewhere with it ... i.e. uplift and refund of money and then we've got to search for a new one) - between 7 and 11!!! Just hate it when they give me that slot! Usually they don't arrive until 10 or 10:30am for that. But bet you that they would stand at the door at 9am if I decide to sleep longer! Currently having my cuppa, then decide on breakfast. With all that heartburn/acid reflux last week I quite fancy a bowl of semolina. Which is quite funny - lots of people don't like either semolina or Farina but I LOVE my "Griessbrei" (Semolina Pudding) - did already as a child. Now I just have to find out if we still have a jar of Morello Cherries in the cupboard ... they go nicely with semolina pud! :) Oh ... and there you ...

DH told me last week about it ... we have a (Drumm roll) QUIZNOS in Edinburgh!!! It's on South Bridge, opposite Pound Stretcher, just 2 doors from Subway !!! And today after work I went in and got my dinner ... went for the Steakhouse Beef Dip. :) Was nice.. yummie! :) I shouldn't have had a look at the menu in the US though ... FAR MORE YUMMIE SELECTION!!! Hope they'll increase their menu over here as well over the months, like Subway did.

Well... with a little luck I will and help from 3-4 other people mainly. :D The Wolves have their first weekend camp this week and we've got approx 35-40 people in total. Now ... that's for breakkie, lunch and dinner Saturday and breakkie & lunch Sunday. I've shopped/cooked for about a 1/3 of that in the past but my brain doesn't even imagine how much cereals and milk I would need for just the breakfasts!!! :o Specially as I've seen what the guys can devour! Currently getting help from the ladies on UKS (Brown Owls/Guides/Scouts) and hopefully will be able to get stuff together... ;) Shopping list has to be ready tonight so our HC and DC can go to Costco tomorrow.

Well... Friday usually doesn't count for the FANS of BritBowl, but the helpers start much earlier. :) We left Edinburgh at 2pm, fully packed car with the BAFL Shop stuff we didn't sell at our home games and a poor Allan being slightly cramped on the single back seat. Weather to start with was ok - so no horrendous rain like last year!!! Had a fairly good drive down the A1 but when we arrived before Newcastle we had the annual problem with the bridge crossing!! Don't know why, but arriving at the bridge at 3:30pm just doesn't work. We were stuck for about 15 mins for no apparent reason!! :( And yes, we had the same problem last year. Once we got past the Angel of the North, the traffic was flowing again. There was a car with a nocked bonnet on the other side with a police car around, so I can only assume it's that "human curiosity/morbidity" that made the traffic slow down. The rest of the trip went ok, we stopped at the Service Station before (?) Scotch...

Yesterday I suddenly got the idea to have a look at patterns for carving pumpkins ... not sure where this came from, just suddenly popped in my head. You'd think me planning my trip to Sheffield this weekend, down to London the week after and our cruise would be the first thing on my mind ... but no, it's not. :o That's going to happen soon, I hope. :) Had 6 beetroot in our veggie box this week ... so the rest of this week food will be BORSCHT!! :) Have to check it's cooking ok ... quite fancy eating that Russian soup again. OK, gotta dash ... check the soup, get an e-mail out to the Edinburgh Scrappers for the Secret Santa Swap ... aaaah! And DH and I may be going to Ratho tonight for some time at the spa.

Well... that's what it becomes here in Scotland: One shot at a BBQ. And if it's blimming windy, then so be it!! :) Doug and I went to get the van and then the kit from JKC while my Mutsch and her friend Gabi went into the city to do some sightseeing. On the way back from JKC we did our usual tour around Aldi and Lidl and got some nice BBQ stuff (Aldi had chicken and prawn skewers in the freezer ... a summer special) ... and as usual we didn't arrive home until 3:30pm which caused a little (???) irritation with the man of the house. While he was trying to get the BBQ going (and moving it about 4 times until he placed it where I was about to tell him to put it after the 2nd move) I was working on my 4 salads, just to have a little variety. We had a tomato & onion salad, my special pasta salad, a green salad with artichoke hearts and halloumi cheese and a cucumber salad. Went out to get some garlic bread and was about to put that in the oven when our visitors arrived ...

It's good, it's yummie, it's MORE-ISH!! :) Chip suggested to us to try Quiznos whenever we see one, as it's better than subways apparently. He suggested it when he's been doing the little jobs around our house. We saw a Quiznos at the Metro Centre in Gateshead when we went down on our trip to Whitley Bay and Newcastle in May, but we had already put our hearts on dinner at Big Luke's (All you can eat BBQ ... not what we expected, and no need to rush back). Today when we drove back up from Leicester we agreed we would swing by Quiznos just to check whether Chip is right. We had some Tuna Pasta salad from Asda (not nice, we had 1/2 between us and the rest and the 2nd went into the bin!), croissants and leftovers from our lunches from the convention (apples & crisps). Arrived in Gateshead and Doug suggested we'd go to the Team Valley Centre to see whether we could find the Hobbycraft store. I went in, saw the Sizzlix Sunset Alphabet for £49 which I really...

... and I am going totally nuts. It's just not fair that symptoms during a 2ww (2 week wait) can point in 3 directions ... either it's from the "bullets" (progesteron pessaries), a sign for the period to start or the long awaited signs for getting a positive result!!! Couldn't go back to sleep this morning at 7:30am after I have "put the bullet in", watched a bit TV (gosh... I KNOW why we're out at JKC on Sundays ... there's absolutely NOTHING on TV!!!), packed the bag with the Kit for Doug to take to JKC and then went searching for a piece of paper which is missing from the last game day - suffice to say ... I couldn't find it, but the living room is a little bit tidier than it was before. Have been spending a couple of hours reading my book "Crusaders Gold" by David Gibbins. I've read his book "Atlantis" last year and just had to buy the new one when I saw it at WHSmiths. It's one of the few things that keep m...