Candles, Traps and the return of the Mercy Dash.

It's a picture taken in my parent's bathroom at the weekend. It's shows a hard skin scraper and a candle.
Nanny (my mum) lives with Shouty Grandad (my dad) so you can imagine I've seen some odd things in their bathroom from time to time! nanny looked at me with a straight face and said, once she'd taken the hard skin off her feet, she rubbed them with a candle which makes them nice and soft. ???? (Well how come she still needs the foot scraper then?)

Little Fink (11 yo daughter) and I replaced the crayfish traps in the local river on Tuesday, we'd tried to get permission to locate them at a more secluded spot but there was no one around to ask so we used our regular place. Wednesday, Nanny and I went to check on them and 1 trap was missing. It looks like the rain had swollen the river causing one trap to move with the water. It appears the anchor string broke and fell in the water allowing the trap to become beached on the shallow gravel. A branch had recently been broken of a nearby tree (just call me Miss Marple) so I surmise that someone took the branch and manoeuvred the trap out of the water and away. . However, the loss of the trap was almost worth it, just to see Nanny knee deep in the river searching for the missing trap wielding an extendible decorating pole with a big hook taped to the end. (3 crayfish in the remaining trap, killed, cooked and frozen)

On Sunday I had arranged to go metal detecting with Nanny, the fields our club has permission to dig on are about an hours drive away. Hold that thought......
Many years ago, I used to share a house with KT, we were young and daft, had parties and loads of fun. We encountered the phenomenon known to us as The Mercy Dash. This was generally accepted to refer to the urgent trip to the toilet required after a night on the beer - if you know what I mean. It's been 13 years since KT and I shared a house and I had forgotten about the fabled Mercy Dash.....until Sunday.
So imagine, if you will, me - we've been walking the fields for an hour, no loos for miles around, then suddenly it's Mercy Dash time. Oh boy did we get home quick! The downside of metal detecting.

8 Crayfish down! Hundreds to go.

Ok, so now I have caught 8 crayfish, eaten 3, 2 frozen ready for a feast and 3 in the freezer awaiting despatch. I'm really looking forward to cooking properly with these, although I have to admit, they do give me the heeby jeebys when they are alive and flapping their tails and claws!

Just spent a lovely afternoon with Shouty grandad and Nanny, rootling through old photos and listening to Shouty Grandad's antics with his recent bed purchase. He's currently waiting for a £50 'goodwill' gesture from the bed guy and 2 new beds to be delivered - Don't ask!

Crayfish countdown begins

The traps are in the water! It took me ages to find a decent spot, it wasn't deep enough in much of the river. The access to the water was tricky too, most of the ground near to the water wasn't ground at all, it was interlaced reeds, which I found out when I stood on it and started to sink!
I've baited the traps with Felix, prawn flavour cat food! Hopefully no one will steal the traps and when I go check on them tomorrow, we'll have crawdads for tea?
Watch this space......

Busy Weekend at Fink Mansion

Phew, what a weekend. Mr Fink and I headed off to Wickes, B&Q, Homebase etc to check out the showers. Didn't buy one. While I was in Wickes, The Oracle phoned me and invited me out for a drink (coffee) and a gossip. So we went to the local pub and had a lovely gossip, put the world to rights and solved all kinds of problems! then I dropped her off to meet with her sister and I went home. When I got in I had the most awful headache and felt really sick - must have been all the caffeine from 5 cups of pub coffee. Never again!

Saturday I went to work, when I finished I found several patients wandering round the deserted department, they were lost - my worst nightmare, I just know I'm going to get them lost even more by trying to help them! We found where they were supposed to be and I went home. In the evening we met Nanny and Shouty Grandad at the swimming pool for the Cubs District Swimming Gala. Little Fink came first in her heat of the 25m breaststroke and third in the final. Her team came 2nd out of 16 Cub packs. We were all so proud of her.

Sunday we did the housework and then GWTBO and Nanny S came round for dinner which Mr Fink cooked brilliantly. Afterwards we were treated to a game of Triv and some magic tricks from Little Fink. A thoroughly entertaining afternoon of entertaining!

Next week I have Bob The Plumber (Plumb-bob geddit?) coming round to start the bathroom refurb and the Ovenu cooker guy coming on Thur to clean my cooker. (Note to self - Do not ask the Oven guy to marry you again!)

HSJ Awards 2009

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the HSJ Awards at the Grosvenor Hotel in Park Lane, London. One of the doctors I work with had been nominated for an award for the system he has created to make the Radiology department work more efficiently.

We were collected by limousine, drank champagne all the way to the hotel (I learned a new skill - how to open and drink champagne in the back of a moving car), enjoyed a brief champagne reception and headed for the Grand Room for the event. My eye was caught by the beautiful chandeliers - stunning. dinner was delicious, asparagus starter and lamb main. For dessert we had lime creme brulee - hmmmmm yum.

Then we had an introduction from the Secretary of State for Health - scruffy man didn't even wear black tie. We were entertained by the host, James Nesbitt - all the awards took ages as all the women wanted a kiss from James! My boss met him outside and instead of getting his phone number, she told him off for smoking!

Unfortunately our doctor did not win the prize but we are all very proud of him and know how hard he and his friend worked on the project.

After the awards there was a charity sale of paintings, Dali, Matisse and Picasso no less and also a charity Casino in the top part of the Great Room.

I went for a wander and ended up standing next to a croupier, I was observing a lady playing next to me (poker) and thought she had a good hand by the standards that I play to, but she folded? I asked the croupier about the hand and she immediately knew that I had been playing Texas Hold 'Em poker, she was dealing Diamond Stud poker. So I learned how to play that too!

She was very kind and informative.

All in all I had a brilliant night, I'm not sure that my birthday meal on Wednesday at the local carvery is going to be so swanky but I'm sure we will have a good time!

Bring me my Crab Hammer!

Friday night, Mr Fink took me out to our local fish restaurant for a meal to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed oysters and grilled sardines for starters. For mains I asked for crab and he had Sea Bream. When the crab arrived, I realised the difference between dressed crab and whole crab. Guess which I had ordered! Mr Fink had finished his dinner by the time I had dismembered mine! It looked like an alien autopsy by the time I had finished!

It was lovely, we had a smashing time and laughed as much as we did 8 years ago. Thank you Mr Fink. We returned home to Torchwood and I have to admit I cried a little.

Food for Thought - Happy Birthday Mr Fink

Today was Mr Fink's forty (ahem) th birthday! He was woken to presents and a huge Happy Birthday badge from Little Fink and a bacon and scrambled egg breakfast from me.

Little fink had asked me to book a table at Frankie & Benny's to celebrate and of course The Glum's were invited. Mr fink didn't know the venue for the meal until we were nearly there, he did know The glums were coming so we were a little puzzled as to why they were hiding in the cinema next door until we arrived? Odd!

We all enjoyed lovely food, sharing and trying everything. The 3 children (Marsha, Little Fink and Bambino) shared an enormous pud called The Godfather. It had chocolate brownie, cream, ice-cream, wafers, berries and all manner of things on it. Bambi had one all to himself and I bet him he wouldn't eat it all. I owe him 5p and he almost finished it before I'd eaten my slice of cheesecake! (Bambi is usually the one that things happen to, but today at was I who spilled my sauce down my front!) We had a lovely time, good conversation, good food, good friends.
Thank you and Happy Birthday Mr Fink (The Glums win the prize for the largest birthday gift - we could hardly shut the boot of the Finkmobile!)

Hope, Cheese and Mountains

The Fink's weekend away started with a long drive North, we arrived at a proper English pub with oak beams, roaring fire, lovely food (See Sunday's Observer if you don't believe me), lots of laughter and loads and loads of hikers, bikers and locals. The Cheshire Cheese Inn at Hope in Derbyshire was a delight, the publicans were friendly and accomodating, the room (had it's own sitting room) was charming and had old fashioned uneven floors. We loved it.

After dumping our gear and having a couple of drinks, he went to explore, there was a river running the other side of the road from the pub which was also over looked by Lose Hill and Win Hill, we walked into the village of Hope and had a drink at the Old Hall pub. It was big and modern and had little soul so we headed back to the charismatic 'Cheese'. As we were heading back up the road, 2 people in a car stopped and asked us for directions! We must have looked like locals rather than the very prevalent hikers! We enjoyed a smashing meal and another few drinks and headed off to bed.

After a huge breakfast the next day we headed off on our travels up to Lady Bower Resevoir and Snake Pass, up to Glossop and down to Chapel En Le Frith (how did the French get up here?), back across to Hathersage and up to Mam Tor. I was quite happy with the view from the car park but Mr Fink, having been couped up in the car all day was like and excitable spaniel and was dying to climb the hill. I KNOW I can do with the exercise so off we went. This was my kind of mountain climbing, large flagstones all the way up. I was still huffing and puffing though when I got to the top. The views were fantastic and I felt a real sense of achievement. All thanks to Mr Fink for being patient with me! On the way back we dropped into the village of Castleton which is overlooked by Peverill Castle, had a mooch round, there is also a pub called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese!! We headed back to our Cheese had a fab dinner and bed.

On Sunday we headed off to Surprise View just outside Hathersage. We set off walking to the viewpoint which was beautiful, then headed across the moor towards some massive boulders that stood out against the skyline. We made it to them and Mr Fink had a climb! Reminded him of Pulpit Rock on Portland. We made our way down across the moors and rocks back to the car, another mountain conquered! Later on that day, while i was having an afternoon siesta, Mr fink went for a walk into Castleton, apparently as he was crossing a field full of ewes and their new lambs, they started to gang up on him and tried to chase him out of the field!

On our last morning, after another enormous breakfast, we thanked our hosts and made our way to Lady Bower, Derwent and Howden Reservoirs. Derwent Reservoir was used by pilots of 617 Dambuster Squadron as practice with their Barnes Wallace bouncing bombs as the dams closely resembled the targets in Germany. The area is beautiful and breathtaking, my advice, if you choose to visit, go early and beat the rush! We left Derbyshire via some of the villages that have cropped up in my family history research of Mr Fink's paternal line. Riber = only saw the outskirts but very quiet and tucked away. Holloway = Beautiful, scenic, pictuesque, small, old. Tansley - old, quiet, only saw the outskirts and Crich = not as pretty as the others but set in beautiful countryside. All in all a lovely trip and great to spend some time alone with Mr Fink. (Little Fink is on adventures with Nanny and Shouty Grandad at the moment, somewhere between Ironbridge and Tewkesbury! More of that later, when she returns!)

The Big Picture

I love chatting to Little Fink, over breakfast this morning we've covered, bullying, violence to children (after an article on the news), organised religion (the pros and cons), cults, utopia, corruption in government and how to make the world a better place!

We've come to the conclusion that the world would be a better place if people were just nice to each other.

How profound.

On a different tack, Mr Fink was relating the tale (or should that be 'tail') of his quest for edible fruit. Mr Fink finds it hard to eat fruit that has a blemish or a bruise and certainly would never touch a blackened banana. For his lunch he bought some pears, all in pristine condition, he left them on the kitchen worktop until he needed them. When he opened his lunch the next day, he noticed lots of little holes in the pears? He came to realise that in the night, the cat/s must have jumped up onto the kitchen side and sunk their fangs into his pears!!! Poor Mr Fink, no fruit that day!

How does a cat's mind work?

Mr Fink and I have just had our dinner, pasta with smoked haddock. Yum. Our two cats, Harry and Badger, thought so too. I gave them the skins and a little of the meat off the fish and they yummed it up.

Badger immediately shot out of the cat flap and was gone into the night.

Where did he go in such a rush?

I think he rushed out to find all his little catty mates and said to them boastfully, "Guess what I just ate, go on guess. Smell my breath go on, smell it."

He came back in looking really pleased with himself!

What the hell's going on with the food?

This morning i was running late. Little Fink distracted me into forgetting to remind her (no wonder I'm confused) to have a shower last night so she had to have one in the morning - and get her stuff ready for sleep over at Nannies later - and get PE kit together - and find clean uniform. 

I was in a bit of a daze - I got my work lunch out - Uncle Benn's express rice - vegetable pillau flavour - put it in the micro for 2 minutes, turned to watch the kettle boil for my heart starter (1st pint of tea of the day) then BANG - something exploded. Bugger - I forgot to open the rice packet before putting it in the micro. Rice everywhere and little time to clear it up and redo my lunch.

I love the smell of curry in the morning - not!

That which doesn't kill us, makes us stronger. No?

Poor Little Fink, bunged up, sniffing, sneezing, coughing.

"what can I do to help her feel more comfortable?" I thought. "I know, I'll put some Vick's on her chest to help clear her blockages."

So I usher the snot laden child to the bathroom, lift up her jammy top and slather the Vicks all over her chest.

A short while later, she is at the coffee table with her laptop and I note the improvement in her breathing.

"Mummy." she says, little face screwed up against the vapour,

 "I can't see." Ah bless.

Mr Fink now has the dreaded lurgy and was unable to attend the first celebration in the annual calendar of Christmas. Last night it was the gathering of the Fink clan at GWTBO house, this consisted of take away, jokes, fun, babies, Death by Pictionary (terrible amount of cheating from SOME people. One person who will remain nameless, shamelessly whispering "Think Paris" as a clue to the word Eiffel Tower. Shame on you) and lots and lots of laughter.

My favourite comments of the night were....Woogie talking about a hirsute GWTBO, "Grandad wasn't born, he was knitted!" and Blitzen (Doner's girlfriend) when playing Pictionary trying to guess a US President, "Is it John Bush?" (But she more than made up for not knowing him name with her enthusiasm and air punches when her team were doing well!

The babies were beautiful and full of beans and everyone had a brilliant time. Thank you.

It's not till NEXT year I tell you!

It's that time again, my Birthday! Why does everyone think I am 40 today? I'm 40 next year!

My birthday started well, I had to wait in the the washing machine guy as on Sunday - after the Buncefield Bash, I opened the washing machine and suddenly thought..."Why are my feet getting wet?". The darn thing wasn't emptying so we called in the man and he arrived, fixed the problem - a hairband causing the blockage! (That's £50 you owe me Little Fink).

I've been very lucky today, I've been given lots of cards with nice sentiments written in them, "good friend", "lots of fun", "yar hoo and a bucket of poo" (you know who you are 'Big Mac') and I was also given some lovely presents. Including a timeline of the various Doctor Who's from Little Fink and some beautiful jewellery from Mr Fink.

He is currently cooking me a birthday dinner and is smells super dooper!

I love birthdays! Yay me!

A Rubbish Way to Diet

Picture the scene.

It's Tuesday morning (I am not a morning person), I have about 20 minutes to, empty and refill the dishwasher, feed the cats, get Little Fink's breakfast, make sure she has brushed her teeth and hair (with the correct brushes - you have no idea how absent minded she can be), empty and fill the washer, fold up dry clothes and hang out wet ones, make my sandwich for lunch, gather all our bags, coats and luggage and dash out the door to get the car and go to school.

I have prioritised the tasks and decide to only do those I need to do to get out of the door, so the dishwasher, washer and airer go out the window til i get back and I concentrate on feeding the cats, Little Fink and my own lunch. I put the cereal etc on the table and start on my sandwich.

Ooh, no boss in this week, I'll have something stinky, cheese and gherkin, yum.

Made the sarnies, just cutting them (sarnies ALWAYS taste better cut into triangles rather than oblongs - fact) when Little Fink picks up the juice bottle and fills her cup, she slips, the head of the bottle goes into the shallow cup producing a spectacular fountain of orange rising up in the style of 'Ole Faithful' all over the work top and specifically ALL OVER MY SANDWICH.

To be fair, there wasn't that much cleaning up, just the floor, the wall tiles, the base unit cupboard doors (inside and out) the sink and draining board. the majority of the worktop was relatively dry because the juice had been soaked up by MY SANDWICH.

No time to make a new one, we grabbed the bags and ran out the door.

It's no way to diet you know!

Crossed lines of communication

I think I must be reaching 'that age'.

Observe - Mr Fink and I were watching 'Grumpy Old Men', Rick Wakeman came on, moaning about something or other.

I said to Mr Fink, "He's doing an evening with Rick Wakeman in St Albans soon, I thought about getting tickets."

Mr Fink, "Who?"

Me, "Rick Wakeman of course, you donkey."

Mr Fink, "I didn't know, Arthur Smith was on the telly at the time, i thought you meant they were doing it together - get your facts right before you have a go at me!"

Oops.

Changing the subject, we had a super weekend - Mr Fink's cold permitting. We had dinner with Shouty Grandad and nanny, then took them up the field for a bit of metal detecting (Nanny found 1p), bike riding (Little Fink) and rounders (Shouty Grandad couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo, Mr Fink and I did ok and Little Fink improved greatly). A glorious day with blue skies, sunshine and shorts - which of course Shouty Grandad blames our colds on because we shouldn't "cast ne'er a clout til May is out" Yes Grandad and I suppose we caught the virus through our exposed knees did we?

Now wash your hands!

Picture the scene.
Little Fink and her sleepover buddy, AbuDhabi come down in the morning - Little Fink's intention is to show off her new found cooking skills and to make AbuDhabi scrambled eggs for breakfast.
It was hot last night so they are only in vest and knickers, standing barefoot on the kitchen floor, ready to start breaking eggs.
I took one look at them and said,
"That look, just does not have 'hygene' written on it - anywhere. Go put your clothes on!"

Kids, "But we've washed out hands!"

Hot lunch anyone?

How groovy it this idea. A flask that you put your dinner in, microwave to get it good and hot, put the lid on, take to work and eat a couple of hours later. Brilliant. I want one, I got one.

I picked Little Fink up from school, one of the mums, whom I think of as The Oracle - like in The Matrix (she is the font of all knowledge and knows all the gossip - if it's happened in our town, she has the inside story), The Oracle asked me how my 'healthy eating/diet' was going.

So I told her about my super new lunching gadget, come lunchtime I was pretty hungry and looking forward to testing how warm the food had stayed. Salami pasta with ratatouie. Yum.

I couldn't get the lid off. I didn't have lunch, the diet is going fine!

One of my colleagues came into the office to ask what the banging noise was. It was me trying to break the vacuum seal on the tub. No hot lunch for me!

No luck. Mr Fink (via email - he likes to be alerted to my misfortunes, it brightens his dreary days) helpfully suggested I return it for a refund. I aksed, "What with my lunch still inside?"

So, it sits on the kitchen side, waiting for big strong Mr Fink to come home and release my lunch.

By Golly, I Think I've Cracked IT

Flushed with sucess with my no smoking I have decided to stop taking sugar in my tea and coffee.

I was just saying to Mr Fink, my next goal is to get fit and loose weight, if I cut out one food each week I should be thin in...oooh 3 years.

Next week I plan to give up lychees and curly kale. The week after, caviar and venison. I love it, a plan with no flaws.

I get the impression he is not listening to me?

A lot to catch up on

Where do I start? I went for a Christmas meal with my old department on Friday. The food was terrible. We joked about the chef being on holiday and the hardness of the pheasant, the tepid nature of the veg and the general disjointedness of the presentation of the courses. I won't name the pub but it's between Hilliers and the narrow bridge. Things started to brighten up as soon as I got home, mum was there with Little Fink, Ched and Doris were on their way.

The evening went well, lots of drink, talk and catching up - too much of all three for me by all accounts! Saturday was taken up with shopping and preparing for the Buncefield Bash - a celebration that we are all still here after such a large explosion. The guests arrived (apart from the ill ones and the stay at home ones). The kids played and drew a beautiful montage for my wall. We talked, shared stories, laughed, played games. Allan lit fireworks and we all admired Mrs Glum's Buncefield cake, a triumph of victoria sponge, chocolate icing, jelly baby firemen, chocolate matchstick girders and coloured coconut 'flames'. Wonderful. Best of all, my favourite thing... my friends all around me, enjoying each others company. We even managed to make some decisions about our joint holiday.

Ched and I stayed up after everyone sensible had gone home or to bed and talked the night through about all and nothing until 6am. Usually we only realise it's time for bed when the sun comes up - there's nothing like watching a sunrise with your best cuz.

Sunday morning came and went, Little Fink, Ched, Doris, and I went swimming in the afternoon and lost our hangovers while playing with the foam floats, along with Mr Glum and the Glumettes. Meanwhile Mr Fink made Finkpie (Shepherds pie to you!) and after feeding our faces with it and Doris's pickled onions, Mrs Glums pickled cabbage and beetroot (Ched and Doris have polished off a whole jar of Mrs Glum's pickled cabbage at one sitting before now!) I sat down for a siesta, Doris and Ched went to the Spice Girls concert and all was quiet.

A wonderful weekend, over too quickly.

The day after the hike/sleepover

Well, 'little Fink' arrived home this morning, shattered and sleepy, she had a wonderful time. Mr Fink was feeling every one of the 6 miles they walked! Little Fink said after they had returned to the Scout Hut, they all had hot chocolate and biscuits, the 30-odd boys scramled for the loo to brush and wash and she had a bathroom all to herself - being the only girl! Once the lights went out, the boys started chucking various items of clothing at each other and were generally larking about when Akela intervened and told them to go to sleep, apparently this continued well into the early hours! Good fun by the sounds of it.

Today we are having a gentle day, after visiting the Fink-in-laws, he and she have gone swimming and I'm waiting for the parsnips to brown!