Live Life Like a Diamond Ring
That's a cheesy line from a cheesy song by a cheesy band (Frankie Goes to Hollywood), but it's always stuck with me.
2010 sucked rocks in some ways and was brilliant in others. I'm not planning to go into detail; see the previous entry for a quick run-down.
New Year's Eve started at the DH's mum's house with a short visit to her, his brother and our sister-in-law, then on to A and A's for a housewarming/birthday/New Year's thingy.
We came home around 7.30, threw together a quick dinner and put some bad TV on, namely C4's "top 100 countdown" (of which we watched the top 10).
Weasel stayed up till 9.30 watching music videos, then the DH and I spent the rest of the evening watching (and mocking) the videos, eating chocolates and drinking fizzy wine -- all the things kids think their parents are doing after they go to bed.
Saw the New Year in and had a relatively early night.
New Year's Day itself was gorgeous -- sunny but not too warm. We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast, then I hung out the laundry and we had a quiet morning in.
After lunch we set off some bug bombs (borer are eating our furniture) and decamped to the Botanic Gardens for reading, dozing in the sun and fairly sedate walkies.
Came home, threw open the doors and windows to ventilate the place, then went back up the the MIL's house for dinner with the family and then a Skype conference with the DH's sister C and her family in Paris. I love living in the future. While we waited for them to come online we played Creationary, which is basically Pictionary with Lego, that the Weasel had bought at the Boxing Day sales with her saved-up pocket money. It's a lot of fun.
At one point the MIL, who is decluttering, brought out an aluminium contraption and said "I don't know what this is -- C brought it back from America, but I've never used it. If anybody wants it, they can have it." I cheerfully took it -- a Vietnamese coffee maker! I love Vietnamese coffee, and there's only one Vietnamese restaurant in town. Now I don't have to see them to get my hot, strong, sweet coffee hit. Most excellent.
Pretty much the ideal New Year's Day, that. (Well, we'd have preferred not to have to bug bomb, but we did, so we did.)
I slept in till 10 this morning (bliss). Wandered down to the Quarry Store to get a tin of sweetened condensed milk and had a couple of trial runs at making Vietnamese coffee. Neither worked particularly well, but I cracked it on the third go (decaf, thank goodness) -- the grind I'd been using was too coarse. It wants a finer grind than I'd been using. Still, I'm a happy happy clam.
I also dug out all the UFOs (Unidentified Frozen Objects) from the freezer, ditched the dead food and cleaned the containers, and finished freezing the chicken stock I made a couple of days ago.
There's more chicken stock simmering on the stove now. I'll finish it and freeze it tomorrow.
If this is starting as I mean to go on, this is looking like a good year.
2010 sucked rocks in some ways and was brilliant in others. I'm not planning to go into detail; see the previous entry for a quick run-down.
New Year's Eve started at the DH's mum's house with a short visit to her, his brother and our sister-in-law, then on to A and A's for a housewarming/birthday/New Year's thingy.
We came home around 7.30, threw together a quick dinner and put some bad TV on, namely C4's "top 100 countdown" (of which we watched the top 10).
Weasel stayed up till 9.30 watching music videos, then the DH and I spent the rest of the evening watching (and mocking) the videos, eating chocolates and drinking fizzy wine -- all the things kids think their parents are doing after they go to bed.
Saw the New Year in and had a relatively early night.
New Year's Day itself was gorgeous -- sunny but not too warm. We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast, then I hung out the laundry and we had a quiet morning in.
After lunch we set off some bug bombs (borer are eating our furniture) and decamped to the Botanic Gardens for reading, dozing in the sun and fairly sedate walkies.
Came home, threw open the doors and windows to ventilate the place, then went back up the the MIL's house for dinner with the family and then a Skype conference with the DH's sister C and her family in Paris. I love living in the future. While we waited for them to come online we played Creationary, which is basically Pictionary with Lego, that the Weasel had bought at the Boxing Day sales with her saved-up pocket money. It's a lot of fun.
At one point the MIL, who is decluttering, brought out an aluminium contraption and said "I don't know what this is -- C brought it back from America, but I've never used it. If anybody wants it, they can have it." I cheerfully took it -- a Vietnamese coffee maker! I love Vietnamese coffee, and there's only one Vietnamese restaurant in town. Now I don't have to see them to get my hot, strong, sweet coffee hit. Most excellent.
Pretty much the ideal New Year's Day, that. (Well, we'd have preferred not to have to bug bomb, but we did, so we did.)
I slept in till 10 this morning (bliss). Wandered down to the Quarry Store to get a tin of sweetened condensed milk and had a couple of trial runs at making Vietnamese coffee. Neither worked particularly well, but I cracked it on the third go (decaf, thank goodness) -- the grind I'd been using was too coarse. It wants a finer grind than I'd been using. Still, I'm a happy happy clam.
I also dug out all the UFOs (Unidentified Frozen Objects) from the freezer, ditched the dead food and cleaned the containers, and finished freezing the chicken stock I made a couple of days ago.
There's more chicken stock simmering on the stove now. I'll finish it and freeze it tomorrow.
If this is starting as I mean to go on, this is looking like a good year.