Jezebella
Playing the Angel
Maintenance Day 18
Take 2 of this, I had got all the way to the last few lines of this post when darling Lily took that opportunity to sit on the keyboard and zippppppp it was all deleted!! She is feeling very festive and excited with the tree, baubles (always endlessly fascinating to cats) but her very favourite thing is the wrapping. She has to “help” or should that read hinder?? All wrapping processes!! Last night she was too cute when I was locked away with the selotape, scissors and paper, she stole the ribbons, she jumped on the piles of wrapped goodies, tried to chew on the sellotape!! Christmas is obviously great fun for cats too!!
Back to the journal though a mini digest, if you will of the last 3 days.
Monday 21 December
What started out as a good day, ended up with me, like so many others being stuck in traffic hell for 4 hours 15 minutes!! Fine if I was driving to Yorkshire, not so fine because it was just over 7 miles I covered in that time!! Headed into work early as we had the entire team coming in for festive breakfast, so needed to get that on the go. We did the full English and some Christmas scones. Everyone sat down up stairs, the only warm room in the unit and feasted, well breakfast feasted. I had some scrambled egg, tomato, beans, grilled mushroom, 2 pieces of bacon (didn’t cut the fat off so kind of naughty here) a proper Cumberland sausage and a thin slice of wholewheat toast. I ended up leaving a fair bit of it. Nice to see I can stop when I am full. We then doled out the Xmas boxes (all the bits from the fridge that wont keep over the close down) and my bosses doled out some Xmas wine to us all. A general feeling of good cheer was about I think. Much scrubbing of the kitchen and washing back all the bits from the 2 Saturday weddings and the final paperwork. I left at 1:30 to drive to Greenwich to deliver client gifts. That took me 2 hours, which is bad, but do able. It was only raining and sleeting at this point. At 4pm when I left Greenwich to drive the short trip home (happily planning a nice cup of tea and some lunch because usually it only takes me 20 minutes home) the snow came down!! And then down some more and then a whole lot more!!! The water immediately turned to ice and off course the roads had not been gritted. This turned into traffic hell!!! Bumper to bumper, nobody can move, everyone was sliding and it just got worse, with 2 bus accidents, and a whole lot of roadworks. I was pretty scared and thank god had full charge on my phone so chatted to my mom to keep me going. At least now I am pretty good at driving on an ice rink!! Should probably apply to Top Gear!!! Thank goodness I had some water, and an apple with me, as I had not had lunch!! I did think that at least I had a whole lot of food and drink in the car if necessary!!! The final 25 meters home was the worst. I could see my house, just couldn’t get there. It took 27 minutes to do this part of the drive. The road was pure ice and on a huge downhill gradient. I finally got home shattered 4 hours fifteen minutes after I left. Em, kindly made dinner of gammon steak with a bit of mushroom risotto and some left over veg we had banging about in the fridge. I had planned a huge whiskey to calm my shattered nerves, but decided against it in the end. A pud later of apple and berry compote with yoghurt, and jelly, a hot bath and I crawled into bed!! So much for an afternoon of rest and relaxation before the Xmas Preparation sets in, in earnest!
Tuesday 22 December
Today, was probably not my finest hour, but a valuable lesson learnt. Breakfast of the usual porridge, banana , raisin and honey goodness. Some cleaning and sorting then headed off to Westfield for some shopping. We decided to take the train as we were meeting chefs for drinks in the evening. Delays of up to an hour on the trains as our line comes from Kent which was pretty snowed in!! Eventually made it to Shopping Mecca, Met up with a supplier who gave me a fabulous gift – a bottle of Bollinger!!! Woohoo. Just to add to my already lovely champagne collection. We found a place making home made burgers for lunch as our Xmas treat What a disaster!! We were seated promptly, given our diet cokes promptly!! The 40 minutes we waited for the food to arrive was not funny. The restaurant was busy but not full to capacity and one would think that they would staff up during busy periods!!! Obviously not!!! Eventually I called the manageress over and told her this was completely unacceptable!! I explained I was in the industry and asked if there were problems in the kitchen!! Her first comment was “there is nothing wrong with the food!!” makes you wonder! I said if the food was not with us in the next 10 minutes I would pay for the drinks and leave. It felt good to be assertive and stand up for myself. I also pride myself on giving great customer service. If she had have come over earlier and said “look we are under pressure etc but your meal is on it’s way” I would have been less angry. She then avoided us for the rest of our time there and sent someone else over with the meal. Not the best but not too bad either. I was proud of myself for not ordering sides or chips or mayo, or any of the so called bad foods. Luckily they discounted the bill, but I have still put in a written complaint. Got the bit of shopping done and headed to town to meet the chefs which is where it all went tits up!! 4 glasses of red wine and half a packet of crisps!! I was pretty plonkered but it was fun. I also had a pie when we got to the station at 11pm!! Very naughty, very stodgy, tasted great and now I hate myself. I also had a square of dark chocolate when I got home.
Wednesday 23 December
Waking up reminded me of exactly why I prefer my new lifestyle and enjoy not drinking to excess!! The headache from red wine and general feelings of hangover were awful!!! I think it has taught me a brilliant lesson. It was fun at the time, but not worth it in the long run!! Scales wise I am still ok, have even managed to loose 500g since the beginning of this week. A hearty porridge breakfast and 2 neurofen with buckets of water rehydrated me and set me right. Off to Croydon for the last minute shopping which was relatively easy and then on to the Sainsbury’s for the last bits of food shopping!! I have never seen the shop that busy! We queued over an hour to get to a till and the queues were right down the aisles. I ran around and took photos of it all because it was so bizarre!! Everyone was however in great moods, and just smiled and chatted and waited with patience. The great thing about this time of year is that it really brings people together. Everyone laughing and chatting and singing carols while they waited. It really felt festive!!! Made it home at 5pm and tucked into the sushi we had brought for lunch!! Gorgeous, added a little smoked salmon as 3 tiny tuna rolls were not going to do it! Scrubbed the house for Mom and Dad’s arrival, cleaned the fishtank finally!! Those poor fish I feel terrible for neglecting them!! Got all the washing done and set about wrapping the final gifts. Put the carols on and had a wonderful time wrapping with Miss Lily. Dinner was some grilled salmon with beetroot, a bit of root veg and some ratatouille (oh the joy of having ready things in the fridge!!) A long hot bath and finally it felt like Christmas!!! I cannot believe I have got all the gifts wrapped and done and dusted before Xmas eve!!! A real miracle of Christmas for me.
I am about to have breakfast now, have the heating on and the turkey for Boxing Day is roasting away merrily!! Covered in lovely sage, sea salt and black pepper. I will get a bit more mise en place done food wise then we are heading into town to fetch Mom and Dad. Food for tonight and tomorrow is all planned and healthy!!!
I will blog as and when over the next few days, but would like to wish you all the most Wonderful Christmas full of Peace, Love, Hope and Joy!!!!
Seasons Greetings!
Jez (feeling very festive)
xx
Take 2 of this, I had got all the way to the last few lines of this post when darling Lily took that opportunity to sit on the keyboard and zippppppp it was all deleted!! She is feeling very festive and excited with the tree, baubles (always endlessly fascinating to cats) but her very favourite thing is the wrapping. She has to “help” or should that read hinder?? All wrapping processes!! Last night she was too cute when I was locked away with the selotape, scissors and paper, she stole the ribbons, she jumped on the piles of wrapped goodies, tried to chew on the sellotape!! Christmas is obviously great fun for cats too!!
Back to the journal though a mini digest, if you will of the last 3 days.
Monday 21 December
What started out as a good day, ended up with me, like so many others being stuck in traffic hell for 4 hours 15 minutes!! Fine if I was driving to Yorkshire, not so fine because it was just over 7 miles I covered in that time!! Headed into work early as we had the entire team coming in for festive breakfast, so needed to get that on the go. We did the full English and some Christmas scones. Everyone sat down up stairs, the only warm room in the unit and feasted, well breakfast feasted. I had some scrambled egg, tomato, beans, grilled mushroom, 2 pieces of bacon (didn’t cut the fat off so kind of naughty here) a proper Cumberland sausage and a thin slice of wholewheat toast. I ended up leaving a fair bit of it. Nice to see I can stop when I am full. We then doled out the Xmas boxes (all the bits from the fridge that wont keep over the close down) and my bosses doled out some Xmas wine to us all. A general feeling of good cheer was about I think. Much scrubbing of the kitchen and washing back all the bits from the 2 Saturday weddings and the final paperwork. I left at 1:30 to drive to Greenwich to deliver client gifts. That took me 2 hours, which is bad, but do able. It was only raining and sleeting at this point. At 4pm when I left Greenwich to drive the short trip home (happily planning a nice cup of tea and some lunch because usually it only takes me 20 minutes home) the snow came down!! And then down some more and then a whole lot more!!! The water immediately turned to ice and off course the roads had not been gritted. This turned into traffic hell!!! Bumper to bumper, nobody can move, everyone was sliding and it just got worse, with 2 bus accidents, and a whole lot of roadworks. I was pretty scared and thank god had full charge on my phone so chatted to my mom to keep me going. At least now I am pretty good at driving on an ice rink!! Should probably apply to Top Gear!!! Thank goodness I had some water, and an apple with me, as I had not had lunch!! I did think that at least I had a whole lot of food and drink in the car if necessary!!! The final 25 meters home was the worst. I could see my house, just couldn’t get there. It took 27 minutes to do this part of the drive. The road was pure ice and on a huge downhill gradient. I finally got home shattered 4 hours fifteen minutes after I left. Em, kindly made dinner of gammon steak with a bit of mushroom risotto and some left over veg we had banging about in the fridge. I had planned a huge whiskey to calm my shattered nerves, but decided against it in the end. A pud later of apple and berry compote with yoghurt, and jelly, a hot bath and I crawled into bed!! So much for an afternoon of rest and relaxation before the Xmas Preparation sets in, in earnest!
Tuesday 22 December
Today, was probably not my finest hour, but a valuable lesson learnt. Breakfast of the usual porridge, banana , raisin and honey goodness. Some cleaning and sorting then headed off to Westfield for some shopping. We decided to take the train as we were meeting chefs for drinks in the evening. Delays of up to an hour on the trains as our line comes from Kent which was pretty snowed in!! Eventually made it to Shopping Mecca, Met up with a supplier who gave me a fabulous gift – a bottle of Bollinger!!! Woohoo. Just to add to my already lovely champagne collection. We found a place making home made burgers for lunch as our Xmas treat What a disaster!! We were seated promptly, given our diet cokes promptly!! The 40 minutes we waited for the food to arrive was not funny. The restaurant was busy but not full to capacity and one would think that they would staff up during busy periods!!! Obviously not!!! Eventually I called the manageress over and told her this was completely unacceptable!! I explained I was in the industry and asked if there were problems in the kitchen!! Her first comment was “there is nothing wrong with the food!!” makes you wonder! I said if the food was not with us in the next 10 minutes I would pay for the drinks and leave. It felt good to be assertive and stand up for myself. I also pride myself on giving great customer service. If she had have come over earlier and said “look we are under pressure etc but your meal is on it’s way” I would have been less angry. She then avoided us for the rest of our time there and sent someone else over with the meal. Not the best but not too bad either. I was proud of myself for not ordering sides or chips or mayo, or any of the so called bad foods. Luckily they discounted the bill, but I have still put in a written complaint. Got the bit of shopping done and headed to town to meet the chefs which is where it all went tits up!! 4 glasses of red wine and half a packet of crisps!! I was pretty plonkered but it was fun. I also had a pie when we got to the station at 11pm!! Very naughty, very stodgy, tasted great and now I hate myself. I also had a square of dark chocolate when I got home.
Wednesday 23 December
Waking up reminded me of exactly why I prefer my new lifestyle and enjoy not drinking to excess!! The headache from red wine and general feelings of hangover were awful!!! I think it has taught me a brilliant lesson. It was fun at the time, but not worth it in the long run!! Scales wise I am still ok, have even managed to loose 500g since the beginning of this week. A hearty porridge breakfast and 2 neurofen with buckets of water rehydrated me and set me right. Off to Croydon for the last minute shopping which was relatively easy and then on to the Sainsbury’s for the last bits of food shopping!! I have never seen the shop that busy! We queued over an hour to get to a till and the queues were right down the aisles. I ran around and took photos of it all because it was so bizarre!! Everyone was however in great moods, and just smiled and chatted and waited with patience. The great thing about this time of year is that it really brings people together. Everyone laughing and chatting and singing carols while they waited. It really felt festive!!! Made it home at 5pm and tucked into the sushi we had brought for lunch!! Gorgeous, added a little smoked salmon as 3 tiny tuna rolls were not going to do it! Scrubbed the house for Mom and Dad’s arrival, cleaned the fishtank finally!! Those poor fish I feel terrible for neglecting them!! Got all the washing done and set about wrapping the final gifts. Put the carols on and had a wonderful time wrapping with Miss Lily. Dinner was some grilled salmon with beetroot, a bit of root veg and some ratatouille (oh the joy of having ready things in the fridge!!) A long hot bath and finally it felt like Christmas!!! I cannot believe I have got all the gifts wrapped and done and dusted before Xmas eve!!! A real miracle of Christmas for me.
I am about to have breakfast now, have the heating on and the turkey for Boxing Day is roasting away merrily!! Covered in lovely sage, sea salt and black pepper. I will get a bit more mise en place done food wise then we are heading into town to fetch Mom and Dad. Food for tonight and tomorrow is all planned and healthy!!!
I will blog as and when over the next few days, but would like to wish you all the most Wonderful Christmas full of Peace, Love, Hope and Joy!!!!
Seasons Greetings!
Jez (feeling very festive)
xx
