Gorgeous!

Found this photo in the Sunday Times magazine and thought I'd share it. It's by top fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier and is simply a double page spread entitled 'The New Sexy' (Mr F-P said "since when was it new for this to be sexy?!"). The text next to the photo says: 'Patrick...... has started photographing bigger women. These meltingly beautiful portraits of earthily glamorous girls are fast becoming the new pin ups. Move over, skinnies: times are changing and now more really is more. Here's to the renaissance of flesh and a little bit more to hold on to'. I was disappointed that there was only one photo - I eagerly turned the page hoping for more! I've searched the net and can't find anymore of this collection of protraits, so perhaps they're not published yet. However, Demarchelier has quite famously said that skinny models are ugly naked! Go Patrick. Isn't she just heartbreakingly beautiful? Contrast her with this model..... nuff said!

Goodness, is it THAT long since I wrote in my blog?! That’s disgraceful. So, what has happened since I was here last? Well, I’ve been to Spain on holiday for 2 weeks, that was very nice, with plenty of €2 Rioja in the nearest shop! We stayed in a rented town house in Almuñecar, on the Costa Tropical. It was gorgeous, but built on 4 floors (not counting the roof terrace). The kitchen was on the first floor and the dining terrace, where we ate all our meals, on the 4th, AND THERE WAS NO TEA TRAY!

While we were there we visited Granada to see the Alhambra, which I’d wanted to see since I was about 12. It was really magnificent. And Granada was lovely, but it was TOO HOT. The whole fortnight was too hot, really, they were having a heatwave in the area.

We also got to see the fireworks to celebrate Assumption Day, on the evening before we came home, which was incredible!

What else?
I started my new job in August, and at the moment it's very similar to my old job except much busier. The real work starts on November 3rd when we start the training programme. Then we'll have 6 weeks of craziness, and then we can relax.

I went to Womad back in July with Mia, camping would you b'lieve?! Bought my own tent and everything!


Here it is!



We saw some interesting bands and some even more interesting sites. These were real fairies, of course. Even fairies drink coffee!



My faves were Babylon Circus, a French Gypsy Punk band, who not only played a really lively set wearing Horse-trader black suits and pork-pie hats in the scorching heat, but did a cookery demonstration as well! Marvellous.



Today's recipe, which I'm baking as I write, is Orange and Olive Oil cake (should have been Orange, Olive Oil and Pine nut, but I forgot to buy any pine nuts, so it's not).
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g (9oz) caster sugar
50g (1¾ oz) light brown sugar
200ml (7 floz) olive oil - probably best not to use cold-pressed organic extra virgin. I think the cheaper, lighter sort is best really, otherwise your cake might not be too nice!
400g (14oz) plain flour (I used gluten-free but the recipe is ornery flour)
1 heaped tsp baking powder
Finely grated rind of one orange
250ml (9floz) freshly squeezed orange juice (or not freshly squeezed, can't see it makes much odds)
40g of pine nuts, or none.

Preheat the oven to 180° (350°/Gas 4).

Brush 2 22cm (8½") baking tins (round ones I suppose, it doesn't say) with olive oil and dust with flour. Actually, as I haven't got 2 22cm tins I used 1 bigger silicone one (oiled) and then made 6 buns as well.

Whip the egg whites till they're stiff.

Beat the yolks with the vanilla till it's pale and foamy.

Add the sugar, whisk that (I used my electric whisky machine thing for all of this recipe), then add the oil a bit at a time and whisk it in.

Add the flour and baking powder and mix well.

Add the OJ and whisk it all up nicely.

Gently fold in the egg whites (nearly forgot to put that bit in there!).

Pour the mix into your tin/tins/bun cases whatever (it'd make a heck of a lot of very nice buns, this recipe!) and bake for 35 minutes. That's for the 2 22cm cakes. My buns (oo-er!) took 15 minutes and my large cake took about 50 minutes.

I think I'm going to make some sort of orangey icing for it in a bit, cos I've got some home made butter I want to use up (oh yeah, I made butter the other day, did I say?).

Kohlrabi

I ordered a Shropshires organic veg box in with my Tesco shopping yesterday, and it had one of these in it. I knew it was a kohlrabi (just one of those little bits of trivia picked up somewhere along the way!) but not what to do with it. Anyway, looked it up on t'internet today, and discovered that apparently it's very popular in Germany, which was useful to know as it helped in persuading Mr F-P to eat it! He's not one for tying new and peculiar looking vegetables. Anyway, the suggested uses for it seemed to be basically grate it in a coleslaw (which Mr F-P doesn't eat anyway, and besides, I bought a tub of coleslaw in M&S yesterday and how much do you need?), cook it in a cream and cheese sauce in the oven for an hour (a bloody hour?!), or mash it in with some spuds. Guess which one I chose. So we had potato and kohlrabi mash (with cheddar and mustard as The Boy is not a mash fan, but tolerates it if it's cheesy!), Quorn sausages in gravy made from a bottle of M&S red wine and rosemary marinade and Bisto granules, and broccoli and cabbage. It was bloody lovely!


Am off to do fake tanning now and dye my hair as the grey is creeping back in. Mr F-P and I are going to a charidee dinner on Friday - I've no idea what it's for (it's at Bramall Lane football ground, home of Sheffield United, so I suspect it may be football related) but as long as I get a good dinner and can wear my posh frock I don't really care. There might even be free champagne again!

Blegh!

I went for tapas with a friend on Tuesday lunchtime, and we shared a chickpea salad and some white asparagus spears with Manchego and olives, swimming in olive oil, and I had a lovely Spanish fish stew. It was delicious, but unfortunately I think it gave me food poisoning! I had to go home shortly after lunch and spent the rest of the day either sleeping or on the loo! I took Wednesday off too, as I was still feeling very dodgy, and also tired and miserable (Mr Fuss-Pott is away in Germany with a school trip so there was no-one to look after me!!). I'm back at work today, a bit 'wafty' and pathetic, and still very sorry for myself. But at least the fish stew has worked its way out of my system. I had to get a friend to take me to Tesco last night cos there wasn't a thing left in the house to eat and The Boy was getting hungry! So I've not got much to say about food today, except nectarines are nice!

In other news, The Daughter has moved out and seems to be settling into her little flat quite nicely, though I haven't actually seen it since I scrubbed the kitchen from top to bottom on the day she moved in, so it could easily be as much of a pit by now as her room in our house was! She did text me the other day to say she was coming round - to visit the cat!

Oh, and that job? I got it! I start week commencing July 14th. Dunno what all the fuss was about.....

Even bigger Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!

OK, I'm waiting now. I had my interview for this job on Tuesday. Five people were interviewed. Four more were interviewed yesterday. The interview team are cloistered in an office now trying to make a decision on which 2 candidates to appoint. I am totally convinced that neither of them will be me! That way, if one of them is me, I'll be pleasantly surprised. But having convinced myself I haven't got the job is not making the waiting any easier. I just feel really sick, I haven't slept very well all week, and I can't eat (a small bonus there then!). I'm trying to concentrate on my trip away this weekend, but it's not working. Someone has just booked me onto a training session for the new financial system (BIG wow!!) this afternoon so at least that might take my mind off it! Oh, it's just too horrible! I wish people would stop coming into the office, or even walking past it! I know all the nine candidates will be stressed with waiting to hear, but the thing is, if I don't get one of the posts, I'VE STILL GOT TO DO THE ADMIN FOR WHOEVER DOES!!!! Gah!

Aaaargh!!

I WILL finish my account of my trip to Marrakech at some point...... but just not right now.

I've just spent the day at work making up email addresses and dates of birth for 220 pretend people (something to do with training the staff to use the new Library Management System when we get it in a few months). Sound fun? Believe me, it was mind-numbingly tedious! I have also eaten far too much (again - Tuesday was more of the same!). From boredom. And now I've bitten my tongue eating crisps, which serves me right!

I am fatter than I've been in a long time. I don't want to go back to dieting. I love being able to eat nice things. But I don't want to get any fatter either. Just before I ate those crisps I heard myself tell myself (in my head, I'm not that crazy!) that I'd try harder tomorrow! Crapola will I! Tomorrow I have to sit at this desk and probably register 132 of those 220 pretend people - am I going to suddenly be able to take that level of boredom without eating everything within reach? I don't think so!

I'm soooooo tired at the moment too (probably to do with being so fat!). Also been feeling rather sad, with no idea why - it just washes over me in a wave sometimes. I don't want to wake up in the morning, and when I do I don't want to get up, and when I do I don't want to get dressed.

I have an interview on the 3rd of June for a job I really want, and know I can do. It's training the new Library Management System. I already work for the department that does the training. I do the admin. I can do the training too, I know I can. My colleagues know I can. But I still have to go through the 2 hour interview process, with the 2 practical teaching exercises. Because it's equal opportunities! There are 9 candidates!! NINE!! OK, so there are 2 posts, but what if I don't get either of them? I'LL STILL HAVE TO DO THE ADMIN FOR WHATEVER BASTARDS DO!!! I just feel like I really, really can't be bothered to show up for the interview. At least if I pull out now then no-one will be thinking I wasn't good enough to get it. It's just getting through the interview! It's at a much higher level than I'm at now, and there'll be people applied who already work at that level, and they'll know the jargon! It all seems like far too much hard work. Can't be arsed!

Blah blah blah. Miserable sod! Sorry.......

Marrakech Part 3

Breakfast at Riad Vert consisted of fresh orange juice, bread and jams, and coffee. Mr F-P asked the lady who served us if I could perhaps have some fruit and yoghurt. She looked at me in that same askance manner, and asked me if I wanted banana, orange and apple. I said oui s'il vous plaît, and she said, in French obviously, that it would take about 10 minutes. So I waited and watched Mr F-P enjoying the bread. There was the lovely French-style bread of the previous night, and also what looked like home-made English Muffins, and some little yeasted pancakes. Eventually my fruit arrived - I'd been anticipating a fruit salad with yoghurt. What I got was a plate with an apple, an orange, a banana and a knife on it. No yoghurt ever materialised. Anyway, I ate the fruit, and drank my juice and we battled our way through a great big pot of 'economy' coffee (hot, dark brown water!). Then we set off to 'town'..........



So, said Dominic when we asked him, to get to the main square, the Jmaa el Fna, all we had to do was to go 'droite et droite et droit sur' (right, then right and then straight on). Sounds simple enough, non? We managed the right and then right, but after that there didn't actually appear to be any 'straight on'! We were trapped in the 13th Century and couldn't find our way out. We passed metal workers' yards with little donkeys and carts waiting outside. At one point someone had tipped a truckload of stones onto the 'road' and were patiently shovelling it into buckets and moving it into a yard, while a lot more people who could have helped stood around watching. There were people carrying covered trays of unbaked bread to the communal ovens. Women in hijabs whizzed past on scooters. Car horns honked constantly and we were forever diving out of the way. I'd got flip flops on and after about 10 minutes my feet were FILTHY! Eventually a kindly local took pity on us and offered to show us the way - for a not-insubstantial sum of money of course! Anyway, above is a photo of the Jmaa el Fna from the cafe Argana, where we finally got a decent cup of coffee!



Once at the square it was easy to find ourselves on the map Dominic had given us, and after our coffee, and after Mr F-P had bought some very cheap Converse trainers, we walked to the new town to get some more money. You can't buy Moroccan currency anywhere except in Morocco, so on the advice of some idiot at Thomas Cook's bureau de change, we had taken our spendoes in Euro Travellers Cheques. Don't do this! We could only find one bank in the whole of Marrakech that would change Travellers Cheques, and their bureau de change was closed from 1 to 3 every day! (we didn't discover this pertinent fact until the following day!).

Anyway, in the new town, after a series of incredibly nerve-wracking road-crossing exercises, we settled at a table outside the Grande Cafe du Poste, which is rather swish and seems to be frequented by Moroccan 'yummy-mummies' with designer babies, designer jeans, huge heads on stick bodies, and trout-pouts. We had mint tea, and then coffee (Mr F-P had a cafe Moroccaine, which was a small stripey one in a little glass, and I had iced, which was a massive black one in a big glass with coffee beans on the top). Then we asked for a table inside so we could have some lunch. For lunch I had grilled sardines with tomato marmalade, and Mr F-P had a cheese omelette. There was lovely bread again. They don't even charge for it you know! Then I fell down the stairs! The floor outside the loo - which was upstairs, and was lovely with little flannels to dry your hands on - was being washed when I came out, and I had flip flops on, as I've already said, and the stairs were marble and spiral, and I managed to slip down the last 5 or so, in a skirt, so no doubt flashed my undercarriage to the 10 waiters who just happened to be standing exactly opposite the bottom of those stairs at the exact moment I fell down! What fun!

So after that excitement, and the very small bill, we went off to catch the open-top tourist bus to have a look at a couple of palaces, the Bahia and the Baadi, one a ruin and the other not.

photos here...... http://www.flickr.com/photos/arowan534/