Wot no crisps?

For some reason over the last few days, I’ve really fancied a packet of crisps (and not for any reason that some people might jump to conclusions about). We don’t usually have them in the house and don’t eat them very often, but I really fancied the texture and crunch of some. Not necessarily the flavour even.

Today I decided to give in to that call and popped to the local supermarket happy in the knowledge that they carry a decent range, and I was sure to find what I fancied. C asked me to get a couple of other bits whilst I was there, most importantly the bacon required for tomorrow morning’s bacon sandwich.

Off I went, on a bright sunny afternoon, podcast blabbering away in my ears, feeling good about the day and the impending munching on some salt and vinegar Walkers crisps.

The local supermarket is only a few minutes’ walk away so it didn’t’ take long. The crisps are positioned just inside the entrance on the left-hand side of the store. There were probably about 30 different varieties. But….. would you believe it, not a single salt and vinegar flavour in sight.

I’m not just talking about Walkers, ANY brand. There were simply no salt and vinegar crisps of any make. Plenty of cheese and onion, plenty of spice Thai curry, plenty of prawn cocktail. But NO salt and vinegar. Disaster.

I then spent the next 5 minutes staring at the wall of crisps trying to decide what, if anything to have now. When you have something in your head and you’ve primed your taste buds, nothing else will really do, will it? I ended up selecting a bag of ready salted Hula Hoops. Mildly miffed and not really wanting those but figuring that I’d fundamentally come out to get a bag of crisps I wasn’t going home without one.

Fortunately, they had the bacon. All will be well in the morning.

Overindulgence just for one day

Why is it over the Christmas period apparently its ok to eat food, snacks, drink tons of alcohol, and generally put on your own body weight in food again? Essentially, its one day. Essentially its just like having a Sunday roast. So why do we obsess over all the additional stuff?

Don’t get me wrong, I do it too. I love all the special foods that they only seem to bring out at Christmas. I could eat a whole plate of pigs in blankets. I can shovel food in my face until the point of feeling physically sick at the thought of another “wafer thin mint” (see Monty Python sketch in The Meaning of Liff).

I don’t tend to eat breakfast so Christmas morning was just a cup of coffee for me. We had to go ringing so wouldn’t have had time for much else anyway. When we got home, we had more coffee and 2 mince pies (seemingly extra large ones from the bakery stall in town) whilst we were on the family Skype. We had a 3 bird roast, enough to fed 4, and all the trimmings for lunch. We had half the meat for Christmas day and will have the other half for Sunday lunch. That was washed down with a bottle of Moet & Chandon that we’ve had for a while. Then followed by an epic chocolate orange cheesecake that I’d made. The recipe said that it made 12 servings. We’ve cut it into 6!

We have hampers of food that family members have been generous to send, and chocolates etc that people have given as gifts. I couldn’t even look at it. After such a lunch, I couldn’t eat again. I stuck to water for the rest of the day, and only at about 9pm did I have another mince pie (they need to be eaten before they go stale). Couldn’t possibly eat another thing.

I weigh myself every day. I know you’re not supposed to so that, but it helps keep me focused from day to day. On Christmas morning I had already put on 4lb in the week due to additional snacking and the Christmas Eve curry we’d eaten the night before. On Boxing Day the scales of doom said that I’d actually lost 1lb since Christmas morning.

I’m not going to obsess about going on a diet just yet as there’s too much food in the house to consume yet. But once the overindulgence is done it’ll be time to refocus, and be more considerate about those who were unable to have a hot Christmas day meal.

Bells, bakes and business

Such a busy day.

Gave C the option of cake or cookies for today’s baking experience. He opted for cookies. I had a quick gander through the cookie bookie then decided on ginger as the key ingredient. Googled gingernut biscuits but found an alternative recipe. Bashed out ginger cookies, with extra stem ginger for heat. Had a batch of them done first thing.

That was before bells. Assisting my sister in her Ringing Room session whilst she’s consolidating Ipswich, Primrose and Norwich at the moment. The great thing about Ringing Room is that you can put out a request for assistance and the wonderful #bellringing community responds. A regular group of 8 from across the UK, who have never met in person (obviously I’ve met my sister!), gather, ring and offer support and advice.

It was a bit chilly this morning so I needed to do something to warm up and decided that there were Christmas presents ready for wrapping, so cracked on with that. This is the most advanced I’ve been with Christmas preparations in, forever! Had a need for something warm for lunch and attacked cheese on toast. 😋 Simple, yet effective.

A #bellringing meeting followed with lots of good things discussed, agreed and actions assigned. It was noted again, that C was on cuppa and snack duty. Something that he doesn’t require prompting to do.

I then finished reading the fabulous Troy by Stephen Fry. I’ve read all 3 books in the series in a short space of time because they are so easy to read and such fun too. I’m slightly bereft that I’ve finished them. Have nothing to read now.

Only then did I allow myself half an hour to do nothing. I snuggled under my sofa blanket and shut my eyes for a while. I didn’t quite get to nap as C and I were chatting about all sorts of things, especially plans for the Association Training Day, but it was nice just to relax for a bit.

Dinner and a glass (or 2) of wine, followed by giant chocolate orange buttons and televisual viewing sorted for the evening.

Tomorrow’s going to be another busy day 😁

Being fed and watered (and flowered)

Most of Saturday daytime was taken up by attending the virtual meeting of the Central Council of Church Bellringers Executive and Workgroup leads meeting. Although technically neither of those things, I am generally invited in my role as Public Relations Officer so that I have some idea of what’s going on.

The Exec and I meet once a month (the Exec meet otherwise as Trustees at different times so I’m not party to discussions I shouldn’t be), then once a quarter there’s a larger meeting that includes the Workgroup leads too. Saturday was that day.

On these occasions some element of logistics is required with regard to lunch and other refreshment throughout the day. C and I have it well sorted.

Before the meeting started in the morning I put in my lunch order, as there’s only half an hour break allocated. This time C sourced vegetable samosa, garlic and herb focaccia and a custard doughnut whilst he was in town, from the bread stall in the High Street. The samosa and bread were duly served warmed up at the alloted time.

C had also sourced a poinsettia whilst he was out, which made its way on to the windowsill during the course of the early part of the meeting, before the lunch break.

At lunchtime the afternoon cuppa order was placed and timing agreed. At the alloted time, whilst I was on screen, my mint tea accompanied by a chocolate orange brownie that I’d made yesterday was delivered, in full view of the other participants on the video call.

This prompted 2 participants to message me privately, via the chat function. One simply said “you’re lucky” the other put in their order for “tea with milk and no sugar“.

A little while later the first messager advised that his tea cuppa had now arrived. I replied to say that mine had come with the brownie, which was met with raised eyebrows and mouth gaping, and a tiny spec of jealousy me thinks!

I’m lucky that C helps me facilitate attending these meetings by picking up the domestic slack. Its all in the planning you know.

Double Trouble

Every now and then, half way through a workday afternoon I get a real hankering for cake or biscuits. I’m supposed to be dieting but a long afternoon often needs a sugar boost to get me through to the end of the day. Its really not helpful having an M&S and WHSmith on site. It makes it too easy to pop along for a snack.

For some reason, Wednesday was a day that needed feeding. I’d brought my breakfast in and had it at about 9am. Yoghurt and grape nuts. Pretty good. I’d brought my lunch in too, homemade leek & potato soup with a slice of C’s homemade multiseed bread 😋. So far so good.

I had a couple of video conferences over the lunchtime period so I’d eaten my soup by 12:30. After the calls, I went for a walk around the hospital site to get some fresh air. Despite being damp out, it was warm and quite pleasant.

When I got back to my desk, I ate my Fibre One cake bar, swiftly followed by the popcorn bar, which I sometimes save for snack later on. But I still wasn’t satisfied.

Purse in hand I went to M&S firmly resolved just to get a small packet of biscuits. But I want cake. I REALLY want cake. But I want something savoury too. And something sweet for a sugar kick.

Before I knew it I’d got 2 packets of sweets, a packet of pitta chips and a twin pack of lemon curd whitby buns (why don’t they sell them in singles?).

I know, I’ll have the sweets this afternoon because I need a quick sugar hit, then save everything else for tomorrow.

Apparently not. I’ll get back to my desk, then scoff the lot. Now I have a sugar high and full up so I’ll not want my dinner. Doh!

What time is lunchtime?

Lunchtime seems such a strange time of the day. You can have an early lunch, brunch, a late lunch, a liquid lunch, skip lunch, desk lunch, long lunch, a working lunch and everything in between. But when exactly is it lunchtime?

When I’m at work I tend to get hungry pretty early. I start work at 7:30am, have breakfast around 8:30am but by 12 noon I’m usually hankering after my lunch. Depending on whether I have meetings or not will depend exactly what time I get to eat but its usually some time between 12 noon and 1pm.

Yet when I’m at home or on holiday lunchtime might not be until nearer 2pm. Or yesterday for example was 4pm and we hadn’t had lunch yet because we’d been busy. So is it too late for lunch now because its getting on for dinner time? Or is it a late lunch now? Or is it afternoon tea? At what point is it no longer lunchtime?

I’m got something to eat at 4pm but not much because I didn’t want to fill up and spoil dinner later. So am I having lunch or a snack?