Today I've been...

I hope all goes well todayjeni and go for the ipad-you're worth it

I hope they see that you are a treasure, jeni. It's necessary to have people like you to give ATOS a bloody nose. [fingers crossed emoticon]

I am childminding today, GD is watching Peter Pan yet again, every time she comes, I am almost word perfect. I am happy to let her because she enjoys the story.

Thank you all thumb just bruised and dead,but am brave and the headache from too much medicinal wine is taking my mind of the lifeless digit.
jeni yes I watched the atos programme,and thought of you...you deserve your IPad 3 ....because you are worth it...really love you lotxxxxxx for you all

This morning I've been cooking to beat the blues:

Red Pepper Pesto x 4 lots for the freezer

Kartoffelsalat (German potato salad) - lasts for a week in the fridge and goes on getting better....but rarely lasts that long.

Courgette & Parsley Soup - picked from the garden

Baby leek and Red Pepper Quiche.

Take good care of poorly thumb. Let the rest wait on you for a wee while. You deserve to be pampered.

butty I find cooking therapeutic and feel that a morning pottering in the kitchen is a morning well spent, especially making soups, pastry and complicated cakes for my family. It must be that thing about cooking with love

nellie take care of your thumb. It sounds very painful (((ouch)))

This morning I went to my sister's group meeting and we had sitting exericses. I did feel a fraud, as most of the others had some form of disability, but I joined in anyway.
We were chatting until 2 a.m. last night - you would think that after 70 years we would have run out of things to say.
The library computes are very busy, I think mostly with people looking for jobs, so I won't be posting again until next week.
I hope you all looking after yourselves and there are no more alarms and excursions.

Hi Greatnan hope you're enjoying your holiday. I can easily chat with my sisters till the cows come home. When you get all those years under your belt, there's so much more to say!

See you next wee, greatnan and when. AlieOxon and I were 'ladies who lunch' today at Waterbury Gardens. Some heavy rain, but we dodged the showers and had a stroll around the garden centre righting plants blown over by the wind. I'm quite often in Didcot, so we can get together again.

Ye gods! I meant 'next week' of course...

Good to hear you have both met up Annobel and Alie. Looking forward to our get-together next week, Annobel

I was wondering where greatnan was hiding herself.

jeni, are you going to let us off our tenterhooks? [nail-biting emoticon]

Having my reappraisal! I passed but now feel exhausted. Very difficult cases.

Thanks to all for the goodwishes

butter can we have the receipt for that salad? (I love the older version of recipe

Oh well done jeni - glad you passed.

Today I went for a back massage as a relaxation ploy after the stress of last week. My DD said to me on the quiet that looking after my OH for 36 hours last week while I was away had been incredibly stressful because of his anxiety and that she now appreciated how difficult it must be for me sometimes - and that she and her sisters were always there to help if I needed it. So maybe my failure to cope with Dartington for a week has had some good spin-offs.

Congrats jeni

jeni Atta girl! I'm not surprised.

Great stuff jeni

Mishap I hope the massage worked for you

Jeni - Here's the original recipe, exactly as it was given to me!
(I changed the marjoram to dill)

Kartoffelsalat

Amounts are all not precise, one has to play around untill you reach YOUR
favourite amount of ingredients.
Potatoes for 4 persons, maybe 2 each.
Boil in peel and dont boil too soft.
When piercing with a knife one should feel a bit resistance.
Peel them and let them cool down almost completely.
In the meantime make marinade from:
1part oil (I take olive)
2 parts good vinegar (I take Balsamico white)
3 parts water
First peel and cut in cubes one big onion and fry in the oil untill
"glossy" like glass.(=not brown)
Add the vinegar, let simmer a bit and add
salt, sugar,majoram (quite a good spoon full if you like the taste of it) and add the water.
Let this mix simmer maybe another 15 min and the cool down.
When the potatoes are cold slice them and put layer after layer into a bowl.
Each layer should be salted acc. taste.
Add the marinade and let it settle at least half a day.
The amount of marinade should almost cover the amount of potatoes, later
it is soaked into them.
One eats this with grilled or fried fish or shrimps or hard boiled eggs and one can mix also
before serving well fried sardines cut into stripes under it. Only then it cant be kept
longer: the sardines will spoil it on the longer run.
Otherwise if nothingelse mixed into, it keeps about a week in the fridge and gets better and better the first days.
A good receipe for a boat trip, because it is served quickly and easy to prepare.
Guten Appetit!

Danke! Try it this weekend, sounds right up my street!

Well thanks for all your messages! I'm to bed!
Night all!

Finished my day of childminding by taking GD to her swimming lesson, she can swim on her back and underwater, great to watch because I never achieved anything like that at six years old.

A bit late in the day, but well done jeni - I also thought of you when I watched part of the Panorama prog. Couldn't take the whole thing as it still makes me seethe!
Re your Kartoffelsalat, butter - my mum always used to put gherkins in hers - do you? As you say, it keeps well, but rarely gets the chance. I love it with cold Wurst.

Morning, all! I am sitting here with my coffee figuring out what needs doing today. There has been a flurry of activity with the house sale, now that the home survey is done; the buyer rang, as anxious as we are to move on swiftly. He has given notice to his landlord now!

(We had quite a few viewings from young-ish people, living and renting in London, who want to buy but obviously can't afford to do so in London. It is, as I know only to well, not a bad commute from here.)

Yesterday I did really useful things, like going through the heaps of shoes and considering which ones to keep, which meant another bag for the charity shop, and also emptied the old freezer in the garage.

One step at a time!