Ramblings of a cluttered mind
I've started drafting a post half a dozen times but I don't seem to have anything interesting to say. I really want to post more regularly, but creatively I seem to be in a slump (ideas, but I can't get them onto paper) and I seriously doubt any of y'all are interested in my day to day life.
My one vaguely interesting piece of news: Last week I made muffins for the "world's biggest coffee morning" event at work, in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support. We had set the goal of making (and selling) 800 cakes. I made raspberry cheesecake muffins from the recipe![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
draigwen gave me a while back and carrot cake muffins. They turned out really well. Yummy.
Saturday I made roast duck stuffed with apple and ginger from a recipe in Olive magazine. Gorgeous stuff. I don't get to make a proper roast often so it was fun to take over the kitchen and indulge myself. Mum always says food tastes better when you haven't had to cook it; I disagree. I get a real sense of achievement from planning a meal start-to-finish and having it come out right.
All the stores seem to be preparing for Christmas already. Tesco has an aisle full of mince pies and novelty chocolates. M&S has Christmas cake next to the Halloweeen display. Boots has started pushing those crappy gift sets no one ever wants. It's not even October! Or is it my calendar that's wrong?
I've started my annual search for a decent pair of winter shoes. I hate this because I can never find what I need for a price I can afford. What I want is a pair of clogs with a heel that's high enough to be comfortable, and not so high I can't wear them for work. I'm fussy, I know. I thought with clogs being "in" this year I'd have an easy search, but instead I can only find them in cripplingly high heels. Or in prices I'm not willing to pay online. (Either my feet are an unusual shape or no one makes foot-shaped shoes any more; if I buy shoes online I end up returning them more than half of the time.) I did finally find a pair of clogs on sale, so I took the risk. I think they'll be too high, but as long as they fit maybe I'll get used to it.
On the creative side, I have this idea for an SPN story...John-focussed this time. But it's just in fragments in my head. I have this feeling that, if I can bring it all together it'll be an amazing story. It's basically about why John made the choices he did - why didn't he warn the boys about the demons? Why didn't he contact them after Jess died? Why did he leave Dean with that cryptic warning instead of telling them the truth? And it would totally turn the canon on its head, but be completely consistent with the canon at the same time. I think. If only I can grab onto it long enough to get it on paper!
And finally - tomorrow the Ryder Cup begins in my town. I really want it to rain. A lot. Or, better still, how about some equinoctial gales? Or both! Yeah, I'd love it to be both. I have nothing against golf, but this tournament is horribly disruptive to my town and I'm not buying all the propoganda about the money it's bring in. Because it's not. The transport arrangements for the tournament are set up so no one coming has to enter Newport itself: no benefit there. The building projects that would have benefitted the town were cancelled by the recession. For some reason, most of the schools have been closed, forcing parents to take time off work and disrupting businesses all over town. And while I have nothing against the golfers, I have everything against Terry Matthews, who owns the resort. He tried to knock down a listed building on the grounds just because he didn't like the look of it. He deliberately built his hotel two storeys higher than he had planning permission for and our local council were too cowardly to tell him to knock it down. I would have. Bastard thinks money makes him above the law. The worst thing is the way he insists on calling the location "Usk Valley"; 'cause admitting it's in Newport would be so declasse! Well, he might be above the law, but he ain't above the weather. So join me and pray for lots and lots of rain.
My one vaguely interesting piece of news: Last week I made muffins for the "world's biggest coffee morning" event at work, in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support. We had set the goal of making (and selling) 800 cakes. I made raspberry cheesecake muffins from the recipe
draigwen gave me a while back and carrot cake muffins. They turned out really well. Yummy. Saturday I made roast duck stuffed with apple and ginger from a recipe in Olive magazine. Gorgeous stuff. I don't get to make a proper roast often so it was fun to take over the kitchen and indulge myself. Mum always says food tastes better when you haven't had to cook it; I disagree. I get a real sense of achievement from planning a meal start-to-finish and having it come out right.
All the stores seem to be preparing for Christmas already. Tesco has an aisle full of mince pies and novelty chocolates. M&S has Christmas cake next to the Halloweeen display. Boots has started pushing those crappy gift sets no one ever wants. It's not even October! Or is it my calendar that's wrong?
I've started my annual search for a decent pair of winter shoes. I hate this because I can never find what I need for a price I can afford. What I want is a pair of clogs with a heel that's high enough to be comfortable, and not so high I can't wear them for work. I'm fussy, I know. I thought with clogs being "in" this year I'd have an easy search, but instead I can only find them in cripplingly high heels. Or in prices I'm not willing to pay online. (Either my feet are an unusual shape or no one makes foot-shaped shoes any more; if I buy shoes online I end up returning them more than half of the time.) I did finally find a pair of clogs on sale, so I took the risk. I think they'll be too high, but as long as they fit maybe I'll get used to it.
On the creative side, I have this idea for an SPN story...John-focussed this time. But it's just in fragments in my head. I have this feeling that, if I can bring it all together it'll be an amazing story. It's basically about why John made the choices he did - why didn't he warn the boys about the demons? Why didn't he contact them after Jess died? Why did he leave Dean with that cryptic warning instead of telling them the truth? And it would totally turn the canon on its head, but be completely consistent with the canon at the same time. I think. If only I can grab onto it long enough to get it on paper!
And finally - tomorrow the Ryder Cup begins in my town. I really want it to rain. A lot. Or, better still, how about some equinoctial gales? Or both! Yeah, I'd love it to be both. I have nothing against golf, but this tournament is horribly disruptive to my town and I'm not buying all the propoganda about the money it's bring in. Because it's not. The transport arrangements for the tournament are set up so no one coming has to enter Newport itself: no benefit there. The building projects that would have benefitted the town were cancelled by the recession. For some reason, most of the schools have been closed, forcing parents to take time off work and disrupting businesses all over town. And while I have nothing against the golfers, I have everything against Terry Matthews, who owns the resort. He tried to knock down a listed building on the grounds just because he didn't like the look of it. He deliberately built his hotel two storeys higher than he had planning permission for and our local council were too cowardly to tell him to knock it down. I would have. Bastard thinks money makes him above the law. The worst thing is the way he insists on calling the location "Usk Valley"; 'cause admitting it's in Newport would be so declasse! Well, he might be above the law, but he ain't above the weather. So join me and pray for lots and lots of rain.