Hello friends!
I have been having a smashing time this week ... literally!
Last weekend, I decided on a whim to clean the oven. Not an urge that comes over me frequently I can assure you, however, I had cooked roast lamb when Eldest was over a couple of weeks ago and it had splattered fat everywhere ... ugh.
Thankfully, our oven here has a self clean setting, which involves heating itself to a gazillion degrees for three hours burning off all the grease and dirt in the process (it automatically locks itself and won't open until the cycle has finished and the oven has cooled). When it has finished, all you have to do is wipe out the ash from the bottom of the oven and hey presto ... all clean and shiny again! Genius! (I have in the past been known to buy a new oven rather than get involved with rubber gloves, caustic cleaning solutions and brillo pads! ... yuk!).
Well, some while later once it had done it's thing, and I was busy getting inky in the craft room, Mr B appeared, asking whether I would like him to wipe out the oven? (duh ....!) Yes please that would be very helpful (he's such a good cleaner-upper). What wasn't so helpful, was when he returned a few minutes later to tell me that the glass in the oven door had a big crack in it .... cosmic. Something else for Dennis the Menace (as we affectionately call our landlord ... ok so maybe the 'affectionately' bit is a lie) to add to his list. Luckily, we have a double oven so at least we can use that one in the meantime. Just as well, as Lionel and Doris are coming for tea on Saturday afternoon and I need to get baking! (more on that in a minute).
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| Oops! |
A few days later, on the way back from the early morning school drop off, I stopped at the supermarket to pick up some ingredients that I needed for a cake for Saturday's tea. As I got out of the car, I duly locked it I and was just putting the bunch of keys into my bag when they slipped out of my hand and landed on the tarmac with a thud. To my horror, as I bent to retrieve them, the plastic fob for the keyless ignition that constitutes the car 'key' completely fell apart, sending bits of plastic, circuit boards and batteries in all directions! Noooooooo!
After scrabbling about on my hands and knees for several minutes in the car park, I managed to retrieve all the various pieces, but looking at them had no clue how they might all fit back together! (I may have muttered the odd swear word ... or two ....at this point ) After a brief moment of panic - how on earth am I going to even unlock the car, never mind drive it anywhere?! - I pulled myself together, headed in to the store, sat down at a table in Starbucks and with all the pieces spread out in front of me set about trying to work out what went where. A group of men (who all looked to be in their sixties) looked on from the next table - probably enjoying their retirement, escaping from their wives and catching up with their muckers for an early morning coffee and analysis of the previous night's game no doubt. They were clearly wondering what on earth I was doing, although none ventured to ask ... or offer help ... thanks for that.
Hmmmm ... so this little round thing is clearly the battery, which must fit into that little round shaped groove there. Then this circuit board thingy looks like it slots in there. This plastic bit must clip in that piece there ... and then this metal bit - oh it's an actual key, LOL - clearly slots down inside there .. and then this half should clip onto that half ... YES!! Done it!! It was as I was doing the obligatory 'Get In!' gesture and high fiving myself (not an easy move that), that I noticed the extra bit still left on the table. Bollocks! Well where the hell does THAT go? **picks up fob to examine more closely. Curses as it all falls to pieces again. Resists Basil Fawlty-like urge to jump up and down on said pieces whilst screeching like a banshee. Sighs. Starts again**
After another two attempts, I finally worked out out where the extra piece needed to go, but couldn't for the life of me work out how to get it in. Holding together the almost assembled key, I headed back out to the car park and held my breathe as I pushed the 'unlock' button and heard the reassuring clunk of the door unlocking. Phew! Pressed 'Start' whilst still clutching the bodged key in my hand - also successful - Yay! I decided I had better drive straight to the nearest Ford dealers and see if they could fix it, (which they did in about 5 minutes), before finally resuming my day.
Right. Where was I? Ah yes, ingredients for cake. Stopped at another supermarket on way home to pick up ground almonds and some glacé cherries - can't go wrong with a trusty old fashioned cherry cake can you? Well, you can apparently. After hunting up and down the baking aisle for ground almonds - not to be found anywhere - I found a small packet of something called 'almond flour'. On closer inspection it said 'fine ground skinned almonds' ... the same thing possibly? Well, let's give it a try. Just as I was popping it into my trolley I noticed the price - $11.50! WHA?!? **gasps** I was about to put it back in disgust ... I could buy 3 cakes for that! ... but then curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see if it truly was ground almonds so I decided to chalk it up in the name of research and suck it up. Now I just need the cherries. They were nowhere to be seen either. Oh good grief, it shouldn't be this hard surely?! I spotted an assistant ....
"Excuse me ... can you tell me where I can find glacé cherries please?"
"Oh you're about a month too early dear" she said with a smile
"Sorry, what?"
"We only get those a few weeks before Thanksgiving ..."
Oh for goodness sake! Right ... Well you can keep your overpriced 'almond flour' as well then ...
Lemon drizzle it is.
So, who are Lionel and Doris? They are a really sweet South African couple, both in their 80's, that we met on one of our Sunday morning visits to Butterfields (our favorite Brunch place) almost a year ago now. Turned out to be their favorite place too and so we bumped into them on a fairly regular basis after that. Last February they invited us to their home for afternoon tea and treated us like long lost family - so sweet - and we left with armfuls of oranges and lemons from their citrus trees. Anyway, time marched on - they were going off on a cruise and then visiting family in Europe - and we hadn't bumped into them in months. In fact, we were beginning to wonder whether they were both ok. Then a couple of weeks ago, there they were, both looking the picture of health. We felt we were long overdue in returning their kind invitation and so they are coming this afternoon :)
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"It may be your speed that's causing the problem" Ethan offered. "Are you with Cox?" who are our cable/internet providers and the one most people seem to be with in our area.
"Er ... no ... I think I'm with Google..."
To give him his due, Ethan did manage to keep a straight face and there was only the slightest hint of a raised eyebrow, as he tried to respectfully explain that Google probably wasn't his internet provider and was usually just a search engine, looking at me with an invisible speech bubble above his head that only I could see which clearly read "Shoot me now!" LOL.
Let's just say that if he turns up later with a laptop under his arm, it could be a very long afternoon!
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| Lionel & Doris (without laptop, much to Ethan's relief!) |
Have a great week and hope to see you next time
TTFN
Bev x
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