Monday 30th July 2012

Sunny with some heavy showers. Temperatures much lower (17C), so Summer's gone for the time being. The cat is happier in the lower temperatures though and is back on the bed with us at night (apart from her brief sortie to play with an errant table tennis ball at 2 a.m.

Did the long block walk OK, so tried to add the short one to it later in the day - this turns out to have been a mistake: no permanent damage, I'm sure.

Olympics continue and seem very disorganised; e.g. Korea and the women's epee and GB and the gymnastics: you'd think the organisation would have had enough practice by now.

Simple food this evening. We ate:

Fried salmon fillets, mashed potatoes, broad beans, shallot & parsley sauce.

Left-over cheese.

Sunday 29th

Sunshine and showers (and what showers!): 18C. Ali finished refurbishing the old garden shed. It looks great now and seems to be waterproof again (the showers were a good test). Walked round the long block again, but with some difficulty, probably due to having done too much on Saturday.

Apparently, the Olympics are still on.

The Intruder alarm system died again (it's started eating batteries: they're supposed to last a year, this one lasted 18 days!), the engineer came and decided that the main part of the system (the Panel) has to be replaced. Last time this sort of decision was made the on-call engineer reported it and we heard nothing until I chased about a month later. We'll see what happens this time (I pay a significant monthly charge for the service and alarm monitoring,,,),

 

I cooked lunch: We ate:

Hot smoked salmon & noodle stir fry (ginger, spring onions, onion, garlic).

Ali cooked most of dinner. We ate:

Chili prawns (my contribution)

Lassagne

Cheeses.

Friday 27th July 2012

Not quite so hot, but still got to about 24C - sat around a lot while Ali did some more gardening -- I don't think I'll ever be allowed to use the hedge-trimmer again!

Managed to walk the short and long blocks together - this is about 2/3 mile, so some slight progress to be celebrated.

Start of the Olympics, so we decided to ignore it completely and went out to eat at Cote Brasserie in the Mail Box in Birmingham. We've been a couple of times before and I'm still impressed: a short (very French) menu, heavily influenced by Provence (particularly Nice). Good service, too.

We ate:

Crab & avocado salad

Duck Rillettes

Veal escalope

Duck with cherries & watercress

Crepe with strawberries

Creme Brulee

Thursday 26th July 2012

Another hot day; not quite so sunny, though. Managed to walk twice (big block + little block) so some evidence of improvement, I think.

Discovered that the roof of the garden shed is leaking. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but as I'm not allowed to lift anything heavy and it's probably not a great idea for me to try and work up a ladder, we'll have to find someone to re-felt it for us.

Next door neighbour (who has always had some odd habits) has taken to mowing his lawn (on his noisy ride-on mower) after 9 pm. Then he lights the chimenea (fuelled, apparently, with old socks) on his patio, so we have to close the windows to avoid suffocation!

We ate:

Grilled chicken breast with mozzarella

Ratatouille

(Bit of a fake ratatouille, because I had no aubergine or peppers, so lots of onions, garlic, tomatoes, courgettes, tomato puree, basil. It was pretty good, I thought.)

Wednesday 25th July

Dry, Very warm, but incredibly humid. More sunshine would have been nice, but temperature was around 28C. Long Facebook chat with my friend/colleague Helen in China - always a delight. Usual walk round the block.

So, hottest day of the year, what did I decide to cook?

We ate: 

Casserole of lamb with red cabbage.

It may not have been the most seasonal dish (and i got very hot cooking it) but great evidence that if you buy cheap cuts of meat and then cook them for a long (4+ hours) time, the results are amazingly good!

Tuesday 24th July

Hottest day of the year, so far. Unbroken sunshine: dawn to dusk. Really quite pleasant. Spent a lot of the day sat in the garden reading (I love the Kindle screen, it really does work in bright sunshine). Walked round the block.
Drank pastis at 5 p.m. in the garden - never understood this as an aperitif - it numbs my tongue!


Dinner was on Pizza Hut delivery!

Monday 23rd

Sunny and Hot: hardly a cloud in the sky. A colleague visited and we sat in the garden discussing academic issues. Started to get really hot (for here, in recent times at least) at 25C. Ali came home and mowed the last lawn. We celebrated with the last of the champagne while sitting in the sun. Forecast for tomorrow is hotter (then it will get cooler at the end of the week).

Usual walk round the block.

We ate:

Seafood risotto (prawns, mussels, squid).

Sunday 22nd July

A sunny day! Temperatures reached about 23C! Had my hair cut & trimmed the beard. Shopping (cat food & litter, lunch, bits for dinner).

Ali worked (too hard) in the garden. Cut 2 hedges (neither of which are ours) and mowed 2/3 of the lawns. She's getting really good with the hedgetrimmer and has generated 15 bags of garden rubbish that will be collected tomorrow.

We ate:

Champagne (Lanson Black Label)

Sea bass meuniere with samphire

Duck breast with anya potatoes, broad beans (from Wales) fresh peas, red wine reduction. (2004 Wine Society Pauillac).

Cheese (Manchego, Cornish Goat cheese [not sure if the goats are Cornish or not, :)] ).

Treacle tart.

Saturday

Sunny! Met Office say that summer's here. To Wales to visit the Mother-in-Law. Lots of cars full of people going on holiday. Many idiots on the motorway.

Home early evening; quite tired, so Indian Takeaway (well, delivery really).

We ate:

Poppodoms

Mumbai Mix special biryani (not great, over-spiced).

Chicken Passanda

Peswari Naan (always good for a laugh).

Friday

Weather mixed, but largely dry. Went food shopping: first time for a month! Nice change, but remarkably tiring.

As a special treat we went to Bohemia this evening - we rarely visit twice in a month, but it's a good place to eat,parking is easy, we know we'll be treated well and the food is good.

We ate:

Smoked Salmon, soured cream & blinis

Tomato & mozzarella 'terrine'

Twice cooked breast of lamb with bubble & squeak

Chicken & bacon roulade with tarragon cream sauce

Ginger syrup pudding

Lemon syllabub in a brandysnap basket

Thursday

Only a little rain. Walked again + a personal achievement that I won't mention here, but was quite liberating. Electronic interaction with some colleagues. Started thinking about the next edition of the book which is due next year. Loads of work to do, but not quite ready to start.

Set up some more visits from friends and colleagues. Played some guitar and continued trying to learn a couple of new songs. Generally a pleasant day.

We ate:

Pork chops, tenderstem broccoli, mashed potatoes.

Wednesday

Mostly dry with occasional cloudbursts. Garden is sodden and there are weird weeds growing in the lawn!

Finally feeling that I'm connecting to the real world a little. Selwyn visited.

Somehow, I filled the day with trivia and didn't feel like cooking, so

We ate:

Fish & Chips (from the chip shop)!

Tuesday

Dry all day, I think. Walked round the block (sorry to repeat, but this is still a challenge after the spinal surgery, so I need to celebrate it). Friend/colleague visited; she's had some bad news about her mother, so think good thoughts, please.

Still not bored with inaction, but starting to think it might be nice to drive again ...

The weather forecast for next week is good! Apparently the jet stream's moving north at last.

This evening, we ate:

Chicken with tarragon & cream sauce, crushed new potatoes with shallots, garlic & parsley, green beans.

Monday

It rained on and off; mostly on. Struggled round the block again; no obvious change/improvement.

Had new flooring laid in the bathroom (the fluffy blue/grey carpet showed every drop of water, so it had to go!). Now have vinyl that looks quite like tiles. (thanks Garry from A1 Carpets at Weoley Castle; another great job).

We ate:

Alaskan salmon fillets with anya potatoes, fresh peas (maybe the last of this weird growing season) parsley sauce.

Sunday

Predominantly sunny, but not warm. Went to visit my mother (this is the furthest I've travelled since my surgery), nice to go in my car, though Ali has to drive.

Went to the Boldmere Harvester for lunch:

We ate:

Free salad starter

Fish & Chips

Gammon & chips

Mixed grill (steak, sausage, gammon,chicken, egg) & chips

Cheesecake

Chocolate fudge cake (I didn't do a dessert).

Saturday

Mostly dry with some sunny periods. Went shopping for a plant pot (more complicated than it might first appear) and then for a plant to go in it.

Courtesy of the local Chinese takeaway, we ate:

Ribs in BBQ sauce

Chicken with spring onion & ginger

Cantonese sweet & sour chicken

Noodles

Friday

Mixed weather; some showers.

We ate:

Mushroom, onion & egg pasta with sausages.

Thursday

Sunny for most of the day! 2 visitors! Ali spent hours in the garden wielding the huge trimmer (the garden [and Ali] has survived).

We ate:

Turkey & peaches in soured cream with tagliatelle (I've mentioned this before, it IS better tasting than it sounds!).

Wednesday

Another showery day. Visited by a colleague just to prove that there is a world out there!

Escaped to Bohemia (first real 'outing').]

We ate:

Chicken Paté

Smoked salmon + blinis

Twice cooked breast of lamb with bubble & squeak

Chicken roulade with cream & tarragon sauce

Cheese

Treacle sponge

Tuesday

Trying to remember what we ate - I can't!

Hopefully will follow this up later ...

OK, I've been reminded:

We ate:

Lamb steaks, left-over potatoes, green beans, gravy.

Monday

Home alone! First day on my own since leaving hospital: feeling quite grown-up.

Sunny for part of the day, so managed to walk round the block again. Very hard work!

Watched my students graduate via the Internet: ain't technology grand?

We ate:

Smoked haddock risotto.

Sunday

The sun shone (well, for a couple of hours), so was able to sit outside and watch Ali mow the lawn -- what a great job she did. 

Wimbledon Final (hooray).

Managed to do some cooking again:

We ate:

Kir Royale

Warm chicken liver salad on red Cos/Romaine lettuce.

Roast monkfish stuffed with pesto and wrapped in Parma ham, dauphinoise potatoes, peas, red wine/honey reduction.

Cheesecake

Saturday

Been quite an active day for me - actually managed to prepare 2 meals (breakfast & lunch) and went outside for a walk. May take me a while to recover.

Watched Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in the evening - great feel-good movie.

Our day of eating:

Breakfast

Bagels, cream cheese, strawberry jam.

Lunch

Beef stir-fried with spring onions, shallots, bamboo shoots & noodles.

Dinner (Courtesy of the  local 'Indian' again)

Mutton Biriyani

Chicken tikka korma

Naan

Californian off-dry Echo Falls White Zinfandel.

Friday

So  wet! Flood warnings all over the country; glad we chose to live on a hill.

Able to do a bit more around the house, so cooked bacon sandwiches for breakfast. Progress is composed of small triumphs!

Busy day for Ali who went swimming and visited a friend's house to water the plants and take in the post while he's away on holiday. [For some reason she refused to finish mowing the lawn - as if the fact that it's under water is an excuse :) ]

We ate (from the Chinese takeaway):

Chicken with green peppers and black bean sauce

Crispy duck with plum sauce

noodles,

Thursday

Sunshine! Went to the nurse to have wound checked (it's fine). Feels quite strange to be out of the house - is this how people become institutionalised? Sat in the garden watching Ali use the strimmer. Had a visitor! Wimbledon rumbles on ...

Ali continues to cook. 

We ate:

"Italian-style" sausage & tomato.

Wednesday

Can't remember what the weather was like, showers, I expect. They've decided to dig up some of the pavements in my road - even though the job of replacing them was 'completed' only about 6 weeks ago! Glad they're using my Council Tax wisely.

Watched some more Wimbledon (I must be recovering because it was boring).

Ali's still cooking.

We ate:

Fish fingers, chips, baked beans.

Tuesday

Still raining. Slightly more comfortable. Cold. Wimbledon (!).

2-for-1 day at Pizza Hut delivery.

we ate:

Super Supreme.

Meat Machine.

Monday

Raining. Wimbledon. Discomfort. Not a great day.

Ali's still in charge of the kitchen [we discovered that shelling peas was still beyond my capabilities :( ]. At least I can drink again!

We ate:

Gammon with mashed potatoes, peas, parsley sauce.

Sunday

Housebound. Not moving a lot, but slept better with a slightly modified drugs regime.

Ali cooked. We ate:

Home-grown salad with parmesan.

Lassagne (probably the best in the world).

Pannacotta

Saturday

First outside visitor - Thanks, Nicki!

Takeaway 'Indian' (Thanks Mumbai Mix, Weoley Castle).

We ate:

Poppadoms

Chicken Makkani

Lamb Biriyani

Naan