Farmed in Iceland, Not.

Mr Him has taken to new style eating like an elephant to a trampoline.  He's landed with a darn great bump into clean eating.  Before landing and busting the material he decided that if birthdays are in twos and seminars in twos then his 29th February swansong supper would be in twos. He had fish and chips and fish and chips again.  Yes he cooked double. 

I asked if he'd give me one of them but he advised me that he had a separate meal in the oven for me.  He hinted my meal was accompanied with fresh sweet potato fries. All was well, or so I thought, but he went on to say it was crocodile. Yes that great, easy to come by, British traditional food, that we all have lurking in our freezer, crocodile!

I exclaimed that we didn't have any crocodile!  He insisted that we did as he did actually find this, as it happened, lurking in our freezer. We argued a bit about the existence and non-existence of the crocodile but finally I had to believe my eyes and mouth for I was certainly eating crocodile.

We eventually ascertained that Miss 21 had bought it to feed to the automotive engineer.  Well she still has one burger left to feed him.  

 I related the story of the crocodile at work.

  'where did she get it from?' was asked by a general populace of colleagues listening.

 'it's farmed,'  I enlightened them.'Iceland.'

Faces looked puzzled. 'the shop not the country,' I added on realising what was going through their heads.

Mr Him gets his Groove On

Birthday series two saw Mr Him, and this is his words,  'getting his groove on'.  We went to a local fund raiser for the British Heart Foundation. 

The town donated up to a fortune for Mr Him not to 'get his groove on.' The band tried everything from  stopping the music to handing Mr Him and everyone else lollipops to keep him occupied as the rest of us danced to 'My girl lollipop.'   I threatened that if he continued to 'walk like an Egyptian ' I'd get the next camel home. 

Unfortunately he we gyrated until midnight  and my samsung health app went into measuring frenzy mode. 

At this point we decided we'd better go  home for a cuppa to rest our weary bodies.   The next day I could barely walk downstairs.  Luckily Mr Him could and so he roasted two ducks and potatoes and parsnips to accompany green veg and we fed some young family members, Mr Him's son, my oldest miss 21, her automotive engineer and the yogurt churner extraordinaire who is now 18. I made an apple and blackberry crumble using some of the autumn picked berries and apples.  Oats were mixed with flour to make the topping. 

We had a fun conversation over the cooked fowl and then turned to a game of Cards against Humanity. What evil parents we are!

Not Satisfied with One Seminar

This week, dear reader, I was honoured to go adventuring in London. I had two seminars to attend on one afternoon (like birthdays I'm not satisfied with one). One event  was in north London and other the City.  

I planned my agenda to the minutest coffee break. First hour and a half in North London then at ten to three exactly I arose from my chair and left making my way to King's Cross. 

There the circle line carried me to Mansion House tube and a short walk to second venue in time for coffee.  

I was in Painters Hall. 

This is the home of one of the Livery Companies of city of London, The Worshipful company of Paint-Stainers. At this point you are probably impressed, or proud that your Anna is anything to do with Worshipful. I must disappoint you, I'm not. 

You can read about Painters Hall here. The list of livery companies is quite interesting.  I wonder when we'll have a Guild of Bloggers. 

As I arrived just before coffee the refreshment room was empty and gave me a perfect opportunity to capture some images for you, by camera not Paint-staining I add hurriedly. 

We had an evening meal in a similar room to this. It was business attire not black tie.

I know you're agog to know what I wore and whether I spilt drink down me.  Here it is and no I didn't.  

On my other channel Mr Him explores green veg, here

Episode Two of The Weekend

I received this lounge feature, a Tinkle machine,  from Miss 21 and the automotive engineer. It makes a lovely flowing aquatic noise.  It will be perfect for getting guests to go home after they've had too much of our beverages. I'll switch it on to create ambiance of gentle streaming water.  Gone is the so last year idea of turning the heating off. 

Mr Him invented an alcoholic drink for me. After a couple of these I had to turn off the tinkle machine.  

We went to a local Italian chain restaurant Prezzo, for lunch. 

 I wore a new blouse and decided to christen it with Prezzo Royale which I poured elegantly down the front creating a raspberry waterway. It looked a river of red weed out of War of the Worlds. 

I ate crab cakes followed by a Prezzo Royale and rocket and wild mushroom pizza.

Honeycomb cheesecake and a  Prezzo Royale followed.

We walked waddled home a new way, through a private lane, and admired the houses, blossom that's about to bloom and the odd stained glass window. 

Miss 21 and the automotive engineer made bought me this lovely cake from Sainsbury's. It really is light and not as rich as it looks. 

Approaching my bedtime Mr Him turned on the Tinkle Machine.  It works.  

Meanwhile on my boring blog I've  had an accident with coconut oil. Visit Boring Blog here  and add it to your follow list as I'm updating that pretty regularly too now. 

Birthday Weekend Episode One

What a weekend dear reader.  Someone not a million miles from this blog had a birthday.  Someone not a million miles from this blog has decided to  have another one next weekend.  Not that I'm  greedy. 

On Saturday night we had family drinks in our local (English for drinking establishment or watering hole. ) In attendance were Miss 21, Mr Him,  the automotive engineer boyfriend of Miss 21, the yogurt churner extraordinaire  (remember him here and here) , the rescuing girlfriend in orange Clio ( remember her here.)  And finally the mother of yogurt churner and coincidentally the mother of his twin brother.  It's great that the younger generation are now old enough to join us for a night out with a beer or two. 

For entertainment we played with a selfie stick and then conversation turned to what fish they each had.  'I've upgraded to a Tiger Shark, ' said Mr Him.   'I've got Megalodon,' trumped it from the automotive engineer.  Miss 21 has an electric shark.  I know that if i played this phone game I'd have frog spawn.

I made conversation discussing the benefits of coconut oil with the rescuing girlfriend in the orange Clio.  (BTW do not put this on your hair if you aren't staying locked in your house in the dark for 3 days, more on that another day.)

A pleasant evening was had by all.  Episode two of birthday weekend Series One is later this week.  Remember to set a reminder to read.  Series Two is next week. 

In the meantime entertain yourself with my boring blog here. It will give you hummus houmous hummus tips, not humour tips, and other fishy stories this week.   In fact why not add my Mutton style blog to your reading list so as you do not miss anything boring. 

My National Wine Drinking Day

Yesterday was National Wine Drinking Day.  Do my colleagues realise?  Er, no. However much I  suggested it by saying beverage and South Africa in one sentence the hint was not taken .

Instead I was offered a teabag from Zimbabwe

 (flavoursome but not as fulfilling as wine). 

"No!  A South African beverage," I said emphatically.

"Tea from Rwanda?"

  'No! ' I said, ' South  Africa!'

"Chocolate from Thorntons?"

"Well, OK then, as long as its  white."  No pic, I ate it too fast. 

Meanwhile, on my other channel I had an episode with boots. here 

A Swine of a Valentine's

Dear Reader, once again Mr Him decided that we needed to establish whether the Great Crested Grebes were feeling the mood of valentines.   They were not.  We did see the early morning rowing school,

Sussex old spot pigs

Luna saw pigs for the first time

and our chihuahua got mucky (and frowny) once again.

We did not venture to the pub this time but ventured home for a roast pork (no, we did not smuggle an old spot into our car however much Mr Him tried) lunch with a glass or two of Prosecco as it was Valentine's day.

Later in the day Mr Him grew a beard and a moustache.   He does that sometimes.  I'm still trying to work out how he manages it in an afternoon when he's supposed to be doing jobs.

The Miss 21 and her automotive engineer boyfriend successfully chose each other a valentine's present (they went into the same shop one after the other to get the other a surprise). I'd like to see what planned looks like if this is a surprise gift each! 

In the evening the four of us played a game of writing date ideas onto slips of paper and put them into a jar.  This jar should keep us going for a year of ideas between us.  When we pull an idea out we will put it back in the jar so as the other couple can have a chance of picking it too.

Over on the flipside I've updated my food diary and am struggling to understand why I feel so much better on a diet that looks so unbalanced (like me.). Ah now I understand  here