Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings…

I don’t know why, but that line has been in my head all morning.

It’s been a good week, started a(nother) new schedule at work, I have my Sundays free again! And I’m working Wednesdays and Thursdays with Mondays and Fridays off. This is so I can cover for a member of staff who left. On the bright side, this means two days a week I am working with no direct supervision, a very cool thing.

Monday I had my introductory appointment at the Doctors surgery. I didn’t actually get to meet my doctor, I just went to see his assistant since it was just to get history etc. I’ll arrange an appointment later on so I can meet my doctor and talk over a few things with him. Thursday I went to meet my new gynaecologist. It’s a very alien thing to me to be seeing one while not being pregnant, but apparently here I need to see one in order to arrange birth control and have an annual check up. I took a friend’s advice over who to see and she was fantastic! We talked for a good long while about my health in general so she could get an overview and more importantly she listened! She was also blunt and to the point, but in a nice way if that makes sense. It was she who told me what I’ve known for a while but haven’t really wanted to admit, that I need to lose weight, but she wasn’t nasty about it, we talked and she’s set some targets for me and I feel comfortable about it.

On that note I went in search of local swimming pools. I cycled to one this morning that looked nice, and even looked like it was free (I could get into the pool area with no one stopping me) but there was nowhere to store my things while I swam.. and since I would be swimming without my glasses on and unable to keep an eye on them I don’t feel comfortable with that. Friday I’m going to cycle up to another pool a little further away, they charge $3 a swim, so I’ll see what they’re like, and hopefully they at least have lockers.. I don’t mind going a little further and paying more for some peace of mind.

Earlier this week we finished off the kitchen cabinets, getting the glass for the top cupboards and hanging them, we’ve had the bottom doors up for a month or so now. It looks good, I’m happy with the overall effect. It’s taking a bit to get used to, actually having to open doors but it definitely looks good.

Wednesday night we went to see Goran Bregovic and his Wedding and Funeral Band. This was the show we got free tickets too when the Bass Concert Hall messed us about when we went to see Spamalot. I really don’t think I can describe how wonderful this show was! I have never seen so many people up dancing in the theatre! A gypsy brass section, classical strings, gypsy singers and a group of tenors with Goran Bregovic at the front with his bass guitar and another guy who was just crazy on the drums! It was mind blowing how fantastic it was!

It was a busy week, Thursday night we had the Fuff boat trip, DmentD’s department at work put it on every year. We drove up to Lake Travis where they had hired the party barge. We sailed out for about 10-15 minutes or so and then docked so people could swim. We ate, we drank, we had a good time, and then sailed back. A fun evening, a nice change from the usual routine.

This weekend we were going crazy in the garden. A stretch of fence had to come down along the side of the house, and then rather than rebuilding the entire thing we just put up a few feet so it covered our bedroom window, and went under the eaves (so when we put guttering on that side we can have another rainbarrel, and it will be inside the fence). And then we put in a gate and a removable section. It sounds silly, but I’m proud, I helped build a gate and it’s still standing.. Okay, DmentD did the actualy building I lifted and held and carried and made a few observations.. while refilling the drinks to keep us hydrated.

This Wednesday is the Biometrics appointment, getting my fingerprints taken for the green card.

Up on Curious Confections.

DmentD and I got to make it together which was nice after the last few cakes which have had me cake during the day and then him decorate while I was in school, coming home just in time to help with the clean up!

We made it an extra cake taller (3 2″ deep cakes as opposed to our usual two) to the the proportions right. It was a semi new recipe, we had done it with orange and so we made it with lemon instead, a little tweaking needed so the tartness of the lemons didn’t overpower the rest of the cake.

I will now always remember to melt my chocolate (for modeling chocolate) in the bain maire rather than the microwave.. especially when it’s white chocolate, that doesn’t want to melt fully and wants to leave me with lots of non melted chips.. that I then have to pick out so I can dye it black!

I know, I know, I’m a bad person for not updating in so long. But now I’ve started my externship I have less to talk about, so I have to wait for enough news to build up.. and hope I can remember it all!

DmentD and I were given tickets to a Cowboy Mouth concert as a wedding present. They’re a band from New Orleans, and DmentD is a big fan of them, and he’s gotten me liking their stuff too. It was a fun evening, they give a very high energy performance and get the audience going too.

On the immigration front we’ve got the appointment through to go get my fingerprints taken, so the FBI can check them out and make sure I’m not a criminal! It’s in a couple weeks time, a whole lot sooner than we anticipated. We’re keeping everything crossed that everything else runs ahead of when we think it will!

The garden is growing well, we have enough beans for about one meal each! The peas seem to be dying off, a combination of things we think, we got about a half dozen peas off them, I don’t think we’ll bother with them next year. The garlic is going as strong as ever and the peppers have been moved into their final pots (aka buckets!) and are looking good. We’re getting to use some of our herbs now which is nice, some basil and parsley and rosemary. And the peanuts are doing their ‘thing’ which is interesting to see, they grow a flower and then the flower dies off and a shoot goes from where the flower was into the ground. That will then grow and produce the peanuts, currently we have some shoots heading for the ground now!

Some friends of ours got a new puppy that we just had to go and visit *grins* a French bulldog and so adorably cute!

My externship is going well. I’m enjoying the work (though I’m still getting tired as I’m not fully used to the schedule yet) and I seem to be progressing well. I’ve been allowed to cover a wedding cake in buttercream and it was deemed good enough that they didn’t need to go over it, and I’ve covered a grooms cake in gamache. I’ve done a couple of cakes for the cabinet for walk in orders as well. I get to make lots and lots of croissants (the sheeter is a miracle invention that makes this so much nicer than rolling it by hand), kolaches, cookies, muffins and lots of breads. I feel like I’m being treated as an equal which is nice (as opposed to the free labour/idiot extern!) and I’m progressing well, I’m at the point where they give me a recipe, we talk through it to make sure I’m okay with it (if it’s something I’ve not done a lot of) and then I’m left to myself to do it.

A while back I discovered a ‘woodland’ path near the house, it’s about a 2 mile circular path, fairly scenic to walk through, you wouldn’t realise you were two minutes from a busy road! I walked back from the bus that way the other day (in my experimentation to find the best route back to the house) and decided I’ll stick with that, it’s not the shortest, though not by much, but it’s definitely the shadiest which is a winner for me. It’s obviously where all the squirrels hide out, when they’re not trying to commit suicide under the wheels of a car.

Saturday, after lunch, we were told about a new cupcake place in town (which puts us at well over a half dozen cupcake shops in town now!) called Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop, so obviously, in the name of research, DmentD and I had to try them out. Given how unimpressed we were with Hey Cupcake (probably one of the better known places in town) we didn’t have high hopes, however some friends had given them a good review. The store itself was very pleasant, small, but light and airy with everything well displayed. Set specials everyday and a wide selection of ‘standards’ the server behind the counter was also very helpful. I tried the James Brown (chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream), and then from the specials DmentD had the Banana Puddin’ (banana cake, banana pastry cream, whipped cream, vanilla wafer) and I had the French Toast (maple cake, cinnamon cream cheese frosting). They were actually pretty good. The cake was for the most part fairly moist (though I found the chocolate cake a little bland), and while I’m sure the buttercream had at least a little shortening in it (to allow it to be stored at room temperature) it tasted good. The French Toast was really good, I liked that one, a little too much cream cheese for my tastes but tasty. DmentD liked the banana cake too. Definitely one of the better places we’ve tried, I’d recommend a visit.

I treated myself the other day with some baking, making scones and then some bara brith. For those not familiar, bara brith is a Welsh tea bread, texture wise similar to a fruit cake (the nice kind, not the American kind *grins*) or a quick bread. The raisins are soaked overnight in some strong tea with the sugar then the following day you add the rest of the ingredients and bake it in a loaf tin. I failed to take pictures, but eaten sliced with butter it’s gooood *grins*