Okay I'm watching One Pound Gospel - and I have decided that Sister Angela is really annoying - probably a good match for the dumb ass boxer though.

:)

I'm pretty happy with myself at the moment. I created a spreadsheet (using four different text documents) that lets you type in a food id number, and it throws back at you the relevant nutritional details about that food.

This doesn't sound too complicated but really it is! For me it is!

It saves me having to buy the program from someone else anyway.

Jdramas

I finished watching Haruka 17 this afternoon - it wasn't too bad but what I've started watching looks really good - One Pound Gospel! Yay for TV that's isn't an Australian version of an American show or Seven's povo coverage of the Olympics.

Bored

I my gawd - I am soooo bored. And do you know why? It's because I didn't waste time this weekend and got almost all the things done I wanted to! That's it - I should go back to being a procrastinator! No wait, I'll procrastinate next weekend.

So what did I do today?

I put up a shelf in my room. Which made the taeyang shelf look terribly crocked. So I rehung that while I was at it. C worked on his assignment so he wasn't around to hinder,,, I mean help,,, so it went up pretty quickly.

And because the shelf was an old shelve I decorated the edge with lace - lol - I hot glued this fugly piece of lace around the edge :P



I also got some sewing in

Nice things

I got in and did some sewing last night while I watched Dead Like Me on DVD.

This morning Chihiro climbed into bed with us. She always does when it's just C but hardly ever with me - basically because we share the same side of the bed. She will take over the bottom half and leave me with just the top half so I have to scrunch up or move my legs at funny angles - which she will get sick of and leave. But this morning she stayed in bed until I got up.

Why?

Why do I put in so much effort? Why is this not enough? Why do I have to explain to a parent that their child can't cook something because they didn't show me their recipe during the week and they instead have to cook something from the recipe book that they were given? Why do I have to put up with them complaining that the recipes I provided are a waste of ingredients? Why would they let their child cook muffins that they knew they didn't like the taste of? Why do I bother?

fanlistings

Since flickr started tightening up on rules - I deleted my fanlisting pics - thinking that I had them saved in my images folders.

Well it turns out I only had some. Anyway I signed up to photobucket and reuploaded some of them. Unfortuanatly I didn't have the loveley complex pic anymore so I had to go to the fanlisting website and sadly they no longer exist :(

I signed up for Nodame to replace it Yeah for Nodame!!!

You've got mail

Yes indeedy did I get mail:



I can't take very good photos of what I got because it's a little too dark now!

Toffee

3 cups of white sugar
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of white vinegar
decorations

thick bottomed large pot
wooden spoon
bowl of cold water
skewer
patty cake tin
patty papers or spray oil

1.Put all the ingredients into a thick bottomed pot - you want the pot to be quite larger then the amount of ingredients.

2.Put onto a low heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.

3. Put the heat up and bring the syrup to a boil. DO NOT STIR! At this stage I put in the food colouring and watch it spread and evens itself out.

4. Leave the syrup to boil for at least 15 minutes. To test the consistancy of the toffee, put a little bit in a bowl of cold water and scrape it together. I like toffee to be a little crunchy but still tacky - this usually takes 19-20 minutes.

5. While the syrup boils prepare your tins (oil or line with patty papers) and ready your decorations.

5. Take the pot off the heat and wait for the bubbles to subside.

6. Pour into the prepared tins and leave for about 5 minutes. To check if your toffee is ready for decoration use the skewer to gently press the surface - don't use you finger as the syrup may still be very hot.

7. Decorate to your hearts content!

Wounded

Feel sorry for me - my hands and arms look like mince meat. I was in a cat fight last night, literally.

Last night, just as I was begining to snore, there was a cat fight. I sent C out to find out what was going on, partly because it's amusing to see how Chihiro reacts to other cats.

A few minutes later, C has not been able to find OUR cat, but we did find the laundry window,,, open. Carol had obviously opened it yesterday and Chihiro found it too.

So we go outside, and see Chihiro at the corner of the house with the cat next door. C follows them and picks her up on the other side of the road.

She was okay until she saw me - this is just my own private theory mind you - and takes a bite out of C. Somehow I have her, but I'm falling down and kind of land over her and it went down hill from there.

She came in after being tempted with food, and has been ignoring me since then. The feeling is somewhat mutual at the moment because my hands really hurt.

Nodame

I just caught up with the scanlation of the Nodame - so I'm all happy and chirpy! I love that manga/drama/anime!

So much to do - but very little motivation

So I have been wandering the Internet and saw a link to this:

Keath

I think I like buying the 'homemade' dolls - I would rather pay more for them then have a doll that a company churns out. So I really like Keath.

We've had a bit of bad week. At the moment quite a few of us are talking about how long we really want to be teachers for - we are honestly not being paid enough for the abuse we get from 'clients' and community. All I can say is that most of us are great teachers offering great education opportunities - and most of what we do is taken for granted or misunderstood by people who have no idea about the role school now has to play.

Three things

I did three nice things this morning. Firstly I recoloured the pink streaks in my hair. I did really well keeping the bathroom clean - up until I had to to get rid of the bottle and the alfoil - that's when I made a mess! There ended up being dye on the sink, on the floor, on the back of the door!!! Honesty I don't know anyone can make more of a mess cleaning up then I did.

I then went ahead and cut a fringe. I have been wanting a fringe for a little while now - so I just did it - it had been years since I cut my own fringe so I had a little heart attack when I made the first chop.



And then we went to the Post Office to pick up my zines that I had ordered from Shelbyville.

I don't know if this link works - but this guy is cute - his name is Arno - and it's a doll just so you know.

arno

And this guy cracks me up:
naughty esheki
super esheki

Iguana no Musume

Ok so I don't usually review dramas that I watch - but I have to say something about this one. Let me preface this review with the acronym "PMS" and the words "highly emotional"!

This drama is about a girl, Rika, who believes that she is an Iguana, as does her mum. In fact when the mother looks at her daughter all she sees is some freaky human sized Godzilla - as does Rika when she looks in the mirror. The rest of the world sees her as human.

So one of the little hiccups I had with this was the question - how does she do her hair and make-up in the morning if all she can see of herself is lizard skinned and bald?

The second issue I had was how accepting people were about the mother's borderline crazy-as-a-coconut actions.

The third happens later in the drama, when people found out that she is an iguana. They were 'okay' with it - as if it was fact. I would be rather shocked if my best-friend suddenly said "I'm really a cane toad" and would possibly, in the nicest way, suggest therapy.

However - aside from those three things - I loved this drama. It was kooky and melodramatic. Elton John provided the theme song. So many episodes had me big snotty tissue crying. People died, the ending was sort-of happy but you need to overlook the poorly transcribed sentence about her not loving her own daughter.

Overall - I put this own down as a must watch drama.


Reflection of Rika!

Well I'm back - I had a root canal done on my tooth - expensive and a little painful - I'm waiting for the pills to kick in right now.

So the trip to Townsville went pretty quickly - I bought an Eee PC (it's a tiny cute laptop)

Right now I'm trying to fin dmy password piece of paper - because I can't remember my password for facebook.

Gah!

For weeks I have been ebay stalking some fabric - ramie linen - from a seller and I have kept missing the sale! So yesterday I finally won it - to have her email me and say she had sold out of it. Wait? You sold out of 13m of fabric? Surely you would have cut off 13m from your roll to make sure you had your ebay sale ready?

I left neutral feedback something like - Seller could not send item. Thanks for letting me know :)

Usually I pay immediately after I have won a single item but I guess I'm lucky I didn't because it would have negative feedback. Man am I too nice?

smart?

I was nominated by Bec for the Smart Classroom Teacher Awards - but I had to get my response to selection criteria in last Friday.

It was weird - the entry form was due on the 6th - we faxed it in on the 5th just to make sure. I never got the application kit - so I kept ringing up during the last week of school - no response on Monday, rang and left a message on Tuesday. They finally got back to me on Wednesday.

They gave me an extension until Monday (yesterday) because they said the hadn't received my entry form - but they didn't email my an application kit like it says the will!

So yesterday I rang and left a message in the morning, then again at lunch time - until finally at 6:06 pm the women sent me the kit!!! Considering that my extension would have been over at 5 that afternoon I thought it was all a bit rude - and still no return phone call mind you to apologize! Anyway - I sent in my application at 6:26 - and if that's not good enough then they can shove it!

I really like food blogs - but I am too lazy to have one, that and the fact that I cook at night time so the photography wouldn't be very good. Anyway - I had some left over spinach tart from last night and decided to photograph it before I ate it!



Easy Spinach Tart

20cm square baking dish
3 sheets of short crust pastry
Spray oil
1/2 packet of frozen spinach
4 rashers of bacon
6 eggs
salt and pepper
1/3 packet of unsalted nuts – I use slivered almonds or pine nuts
1/3 packet of grated cheese

Method
1. Set the oven to a moderate temperature.

2. Partly defrost two sheets of short crust pastry, I do this in the microwave, zapping each sheet for 10 to 20 seconds. Spray the baking dish and press a whole sheet into one corner – I have about 3-4 cm of the pastry overlapping the top of the dish. Cut the second sheet into 10 cm strips and press them into the dish so that the dish is covered and the overlapping is even all the way around. Leave the third sheet to lay flat until you need it.

3. Put half a packet of frozen spinach into a covered microwave dish and zap it for 3 to 4 minutes, until defrosted

4. Remove the fat and rind from the bacon and then dice.

5. Crack the six eggs into a large mixing bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then whisk until the eggs are a little fluffy and thoroughly mixed.

6. To the egg mixture add the bacon, nuts, cheese and finally spinach and mix well.

7. Pour the egg mixture into the baking dish and smooth out.

8. Using a pretty cutter and the last sheet of pastry, cut out small shapes and place on top of the egg mixture. Cutting the pasty while it is still part frozen works best. Glaze the pasty with milk or egg – but I always forget to!

9. Place tart into the oven and cook for 40 minutes or until the egg mixture sets.