Tuesday 25th February
15:56, London Home
Well, hello there. I am alive and well on this fine Tuesday. So, we all know how I woke up at 1pm yesterday because of reasons. And I did have this well-meaning desire to be up at 7 today, which, alas, did not happen, but I did manage to shave 2 hours off the heinous wake up time to bring it down to around 11am.
Now, in an ideal world, I’d have time to transition slowly from 1pm to 7am over the course of a week, but unfortunately, I have a very busy day tomorrow, and I’m going to have to shave off another 3 hours overnight to bring it down to a reasonable 8am wake up time. I’ve got to make a phone call at 9:30am, leave the house at 10am, lead the book club meeting at noon (that’s 12:00pm for you Americans), and attend seminars at 2pm and 6pm. It really is a hectic day tomorrow.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. How has today been faring? Quite well, I suppose. I’ve read some more Pride & Prejudice in preparation for the book club, all the way up to chapter 22, in fact. But I’ve also come to learn it’s 61 chapters in total. Can we finish it by noon tomorrow? Only God can tell. Ha.
In any case, it matters not if I complete it, and I reckon many other club members will be suffering from a similar predicament of wondering whether they should attend the meeting if they haven’t finished the book. I’ve assured them everyone is welcome and it’s only going to be a casual discussion and a chance to meet new people. Over tea and coffee no less! Oh! that reminds me, I need to buy some biscuits. Everyone loves biscuits. I’ll add it to tomorrow’s schedule.
Done. So. Today I woke up to a phone call from dad. He’s made it to his destination safe and sound and all is well. He forgot to pack some chocolates and biscuits he was meaning to take – hey, maybe I could use some for the book club? Actually, thats not a bad idea. But anyway, I’m glad he had a safe journey. Speaking of, mum and sis are on the way to Chicago, USA today. Wish I could be with them, but no matter, it’s my last year of studies in England.
After the call I looked at the time and promptly hopped out of bed. And just then, there was a ring at the door and my Holland & Barret express delivery arrived! It was literally in transit over night. Now I’m waiting on the glass spray bottles from Amazon. Then I will move forward in my extermination experiment.
After that, I continued to get dressed, quickly hoovered the whole flat since the hoover died on me yesterday halfway through, then walked to cafe Nero for my daily dose of Americano. I took Pride & Prejudice with me of course and read as much as I reasonably could. I simply love Elizabeth and Darcy.
Then I went home and randomly decided to clean the garden up. I stacked the loose bricks together, gathered the dried leaves in a bucket, swept the drain and stacked random bits of wood together. Most significantly, I locked the garden door, which I didn’t even know I could do but now cannot go without doing. Then I moved onto some laundry and a spot of lunch.
I wanted to try out the new strawberry reserves I purchased on a whim last night from Holland & Barret, so I had a bowl of Greek yogurt with some of the jam and a sliced banana. It was nice! Not substantial, so I also had the chicken wrap I made yesterday with an easy-peeler orange. Very filling. Perhaps not enough protein but I’m stuffed. I still have one of the cooked peri-peri chicken thighs stored in the fridge.
I plan to do some cooking this evening for tomorrow’s lunch since I’ll be out all day. I’ll pack something to take with me. Right now I’m thinking about using the couscous to made some sort of hot salad? The bell pepper is already cut so that can be used, maybe grate some carrot in there too, my single remaining chicken stock cube thingie, and either the chicken sausage or a can of tuna for protein. If I do the chicken sausage, I can also add some chorizo, which should be nice. I also have a bunch of parsley which is wilting. Oh! Also some frozen broccoli. That could be nice. It’ll be a mix of veggies, protein and carbs. Sounds like a decent meal to me.
By the way, after my gardening stint, my boots were so muddy that I had to immediately clean them, top to bottom. I got my shoe cleaning kit out and added some wax after the dirt was off, then polished it to perfection. Love these Chelsea boots. They were pricey but a good investment. I got them from Russel & Bromley for something like £250 because I was sick of my previous Chelsea boots being half a size too big. Honestly, something as small as a slightly too big shoe can cause the biggest grievance. It’s important to have comfy feet, or you’ll be irritated all day and not even know why.
Anyway, my laundry’s done, the dishes are washed and the gardens looking much better. But I’m going to do a bit of dance as a warm up, then do my pilates class using apple fitness. Love their classes. After that, a nice hot shower, then we can focus on more Pride and Prejudice. And when i’m bored of that, some French and Medical Law, hmm? We can end the evening with some cooking and a film. Great! I’m off then. Ta!
21:06, London Home
Hello. What a day. I’m currently sat at my desk sipping some Manuka honey tea. Love this stuff. So, I managed to keep my Duolingo streak, did some pilates and dance, took a shower, cooked a pretty decent thrown together dinner that sort of reminded me of a paella if you swap the rice with couscous, and made enough to save two extra portions. I used the rest of my large bell pepper, a shallot, lots of garlic, 3 of my skinny chicken sausages, but also shredded the chicken thigh from yesterday, sans the skin (which was peri-peri flavoured and would not have suited this dish). Then I also threw in 7 thin slices of chorizo, but cut into strips, and that really helped add some depth to the flavour.
I also went in with a chunk of carrot, which I grated for some extra veggies if nothing else, and a handful of peas. Finally, I used some tomatoe puree, a can of tomatoes that were hiding in the cupboard, a chicken stock cube, some dried mix herbs, and hot chilli powder. Oh! And the parsley that was starting to wilt. I forwent the broccoli. It turned out to be the tastiest couscous I ever had. It was actually juicy and full of flavour. Usually couscous is dreadfully dry and bland, and people add even more bland things to it like beans. But this turned out great! There was something so nice about its fragrance.
I say dinner was thrown together but a success nonetheless. I had some for dindin and portioned the rest for my packed lunch tomorrow and another portion for some other time.
I also collected a couple packages. The glass bottles arrived. I’ve cleaned them and set them to dry. Two different fly catching products also came. My boyfriend ordered those for me from Amazon. I set up two sticky fly traps. One in my room and one in the living room. The small amount of ribbon attached to each was pretty sparse so I had to come up with some ingenious designs to make the fly-catching product hang from the ceiling. I now want to read as much of Pride and Prejudice as I can. Mum and sis took a river cruise in Chicago today by the way. Ok. Ciao!
