Monday, May 21, 2007
Niceness and Weekends
A very nice weekend that. Nothing spectacular, time with the kids, puttering about in the garden, friends over for lunch, just… nice. It certainly doesn’t hurt that I’m starting to seriously distress. Nothing like resigning to not care about work so much. That too will queue up again in the new job, I’m sure. For now though some months of gradual slow down.
That has its downsides too. I won’t be quite so in the thick of things, my opinion will be sought out less, I’ll be asked to fewer meetings. That would be ego damaging normally, but for now, it will just be.
Back to the weekend. Pirate Pete was in a school swimming gala last week. He only did OK, and didn’t really want to talk about it. I didn’t push it much, turned it around to talk about how he swam (he has this tendency to lift his head to check out how he’s doing, not a good thing). In his swimming class he attacked the lessons with a bit more vigour than usual. Because swimming was one of my sports I find myself wanting him to do well, to be turned on by it. Must be careful about that, he has to choose his own sports.
The afternoon was pretty chilled. There where the usual odd jobs (a bit of guttering to be fixed), holes to dig (LL went shopping last week (where many women are turned on by a fine pair of Jimmi Choos, my LL’s head turns for a fine specimen of peonie (she’s dangerous to let into a garden centre unsupervised))), footballs to kick. Dinner was simple, some grilled Mackerel and a fresh loaf of bread.
Sunday we had some old friends over for lunch. LL’s known them since her early twenties. They only live a stone’s throw away, and are amongst our closest friends. Doesn’t hurt that the kids get along really well. He’s an odd sort, very conservative, but a strict vegetarian. He’s also a fussy vegetarian, doesn’t like tomatoes and has made it very clear that lentils really aren’t appreciated (says that its always pulled out when he goes to visit).
I have taken him on as a personal challenge, and put the boat out to find food he’ll like. Ninety percent of the time I’m successful, and mostly hit the target this time. Steamed carrots, new potatoes in butter with lots of chives, Spanticopica (a Greek pastry filled with spinach and feta (really easy to make if you can find pre-made filo pastry (which is very time consuming to make by hand, easy, but time consuming (I buy it))), Rhubarb crumble with ice cream. For the rest of us I did some marinated tuna steaks grilled quickly on the BBQ. All that went down really well. What I thought was the bees knees though, only went down so so. Fresh Asparagus and Hollandaise sauce. The later has this reputation of being a nightmare to prepare, but once you’ve got it down, it’s a snip to make, only takes about 15 minutes start to finish. I love asparagus and hollandaise, it ranks up there in my top 50 favourite dishes.
He ate the asparagus but left the hollandaise in a puddle on the side of his plate. There is no pleasing some people!
I think he does it to keep me pushing the boat out for the next time they visit…
That has its downsides too. I won’t be quite so in the thick of things, my opinion will be sought out less, I’ll be asked to fewer meetings. That would be ego damaging normally, but for now, it will just be.
Back to the weekend. Pirate Pete was in a school swimming gala last week. He only did OK, and didn’t really want to talk about it. I didn’t push it much, turned it around to talk about how he swam (he has this tendency to lift his head to check out how he’s doing, not a good thing). In his swimming class he attacked the lessons with a bit more vigour than usual. Because swimming was one of my sports I find myself wanting him to do well, to be turned on by it. Must be careful about that, he has to choose his own sports.
The afternoon was pretty chilled. There where the usual odd jobs (a bit of guttering to be fixed), holes to dig (LL went shopping last week (where many women are turned on by a fine pair of Jimmi Choos, my LL’s head turns for a fine specimen of peonie (she’s dangerous to let into a garden centre unsupervised))), footballs to kick. Dinner was simple, some grilled Mackerel and a fresh loaf of bread.
Sunday we had some old friends over for lunch. LL’s known them since her early twenties. They only live a stone’s throw away, and are amongst our closest friends. Doesn’t hurt that the kids get along really well. He’s an odd sort, very conservative, but a strict vegetarian. He’s also a fussy vegetarian, doesn’t like tomatoes and has made it very clear that lentils really aren’t appreciated (says that its always pulled out when he goes to visit).
I have taken him on as a personal challenge, and put the boat out to find food he’ll like. Ninety percent of the time I’m successful, and mostly hit the target this time. Steamed carrots, new potatoes in butter with lots of chives, Spanticopica (a Greek pastry filled with spinach and feta (really easy to make if you can find pre-made filo pastry (which is very time consuming to make by hand, easy, but time consuming (I buy it))), Rhubarb crumble with ice cream. For the rest of us I did some marinated tuna steaks grilled quickly on the BBQ. All that went down really well. What I thought was the bees knees though, only went down so so. Fresh Asparagus and Hollandaise sauce. The later has this reputation of being a nightmare to prepare, but once you’ve got it down, it’s a snip to make, only takes about 15 minutes start to finish. I love asparagus and hollandaise, it ranks up there in my top 50 favourite dishes.
He ate the asparagus but left the hollandaise in a puddle on the side of his plate. There is no pleasing some people!
I think he does it to keep me pushing the boat out for the next time they visit…
