books by the bed

So here I am, mid cleaning, and listening to Bob Seger. I have decided to take a break and list the books I've read over the last couple of weeks which were in a pile by the bed. In no particular order of merit:

The other side of silence Andre Brink (****)
The photographer's wife Robert Sole (***)
The girl in the red coat Ronnie Ligocka (**)
The six wives of Henry VIII Antonia Fraser (*****)
Star of the sea Joseph O'Connor (****)
Holy Fools Joanne Harris (***)
Odd Thomas Dean Koontz (*)
Cold Mountain Charles Frazier (***)

Re reads:

Year of wonders Geraldine Brooks (*****)
An instance of the fingerpost Iain Pears (*****)

It's not been a bad crop, but I'm going to have to get down to Waterstones to buy the next batch. I'm sorry I can't make the list easier to read, anyone know how to tab in Quickpost?

Mrs McMuffin

amazing...i am

Just thought I would tell the world that I have cooked a very nice three course meal in about three hours, and there is hardly any mess in the kitchen. I still have a couple of last minute things to do, like actually cooking the food...

Today I have mostly been cooking:

Aubergine and Parma ham roll stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach. Followed by fantastic huge salmon fishcakes, with the secret ingredient of smoked salmon, which just makes the whole thing taste more salmony. Pudding will be a version of a Turkish pudding that I found on the internet. I can't remember it's name, but it is shredded filo pastry with ricotta cheese, again, and raspberries. The whole thing is then soaked in an orange and lemon syrup.

I am getting hungry just thinking about it...Must go and eat something.

mr mcmuffin is asleep

Mr McMuffin has been sleeping since about 9.30pm. He has had a hard day, having to physically be in work for the first time in 7 days, such a hard life. I suspect he's dreaming of the cooking that lies ahead. Yes, we've done it again, invited someone over for the weekend, so we don't get a day to ourselves. I have to say I really like entertaining, as I am very lazy about going out, but this does mean that we won't have had the house to ourselves for about 5 weekends. It really spoils my Saturday when I can't lie on the settee in my dressing gown with a pot of coffee, reading a book, and listening to the Biography Channel. I also like to watch Best of Cribs for the sheer nastiness of some of those houses, money really doesn't buy taste.

This weekend we have Mr McMuffin minor, and his new boyfriend visiting. He is very good company and I hope the boyfriend is too. The last one was quite nice, and he had actually grown up in Surfer's Paradise and assured me that it was a real place. But, he was a bit humourless in comparison to the McMuffins, so I never thought it would work out. Mr McMuffin minor has a lovely friend that I want him to marry, but they say that they don't fancy each, other which is such a shame as they get on so well.

Last weekend we had a visitor from Haarlem (or that Dutchy mini country as she describes it). It is so shameful to hear her fluency in English, which is her third language. She has a fourth, and plans to take another MA in Paris so she can sharpen up her French. Anyway, she was a perfect guest and even brought me a box of my favourite chocolates from the concession at Schipol.

I love Leonidas Chocolates. I know they're not the best in the world, but they are to me. When I was a child, my Dad had to travel a bit, and always seemed to have to go to NATO meetings on my birthday and miss it. He always came back with boxes of these chocolates, and chocolate waffles. It never made up for him missing the day, but it did help. As we all grew up and left home, he used to get us all our own boxes and carry pounds of these things back with him, just to see our eyes light up with greed. He is a good man, and they are good chocolates.

Our Dutch friend is really interested in languages, and her willingness to perfect her pronunciation is admirable. She is excellent at the Welsh 'll' sound (same as the ndbele 'hl' sound if that helps!) and can pretty much do any sound. She told me about the word that non Dutch cannot say, and that they used to prevent Germans infiltrating the resistance in WWII; Scheveringen. It has driven me mad all week. I managed to say it perfectly on 2 occasions, then it was gone, completely. If I hadn't done it at all I would have given up (I really can't do the African clicking thing, much to the amusement of my colleagues) but having got so close, I couldn't stop. As they say in the Netherlands 'Gottverdomme' (sp).

bereft

I had no idea how horrible it would be to live without the blog. I have had 'issues' about privacy/exposure but I now say to Hell with it all. I love our blog.

The best bit has been blogging by proxy, I've visited and posted on quite a few, and there are so many good ones out there. Ones that put our pathetic attempts to shame, but nevertheless I think we should link to them. What is the etiquette? The lovely Retro Girl at California Dreamin' told us that she was going to, but the Fabulous Norah as she is known in this household did it, and it felt like a present. Does anyone know what is the polite approach to steering people in the direction of great blogs?

I also found a blog which shall remain nameless as it would fill my mouth with bile to repeat it. There was a rant on it about the BBC and how the British public should stop paying their (get this) TAX DOLLARS towards it. Profoundly offended I tried to post, only to realise no comments were allowed, only emails. This struck me as so rude, like shouting rather than having a conversation. Reserve the right to edit, comment back by all means, but don't put it out there, blather on about 'Freedom' in public and then deny the right of reply publically.

Rant over and out.

why does Amex hate me...

I can't believe how bereft we have felt over the last week or so. None of our entries are that interesting and we never have that much to say, but we wos cut off because Amex couldn't get their act together. I completely exhonerate the TypePad people because I have had this problem before with Amex. For some reason they have taken against me. I cannot believe that the people at Amex, a massive, multi-national company, have it in for me, but it seems like they do. Why oh why does Amex hate me. Even their offers of Amex Gold cards cannot hide the fact that they hate me...

mail order husband

I am satisfied with Mr Mc Muffin, but was very surprised to find that I couldn't get another husband on the internet. I was just idly searching for information about Kiev and Sophia, and managed to find a lot of information about Russian brides. When I tried to find a Russian husband for myself, there was absolutely nothing except the excellent mail order husbands site, which is very amusing, but did not yield a handsome Russian Doctor for me to marry.

I don't want to be greedy, but if Mr Mc Muffin can get hold of a cute, well educated Tatyana and Svetlana, why can't I have a gorgeous Mikhail or Goran? It's not fair, and I want to complain to someone. It really is a man's man's world. I don't think we Western women will have achieved equality until we can buy some hopelessly mismatched man from an economically depressed nation. I should have the opportunity to be ugly, poorly educated and not very socially skilled, and have some bright, pretty young thing want to marry me.

Mrs Mc Muffin

things that go bump in the night

Mr McMuffin slept through the scary banging noises coming from downstairs last night. I could hear loud knocks about every 10 minutes, and thought that the strong wins forecast might be responsible. Then one sounded very loud at the front door, so I decided to investigate. I turned the lights on, because I know from watching horror films that bad things happen if you don't. As I went downstairs I could hear loud knocks on the front door, and eerie scraping noises. I was very brave and called out, asking who was there. I heard an unmistakeable yowl. It was little Slinky. He was so desperate to see us that he was hurling himself at the door in a successful bid for our attention.

Delighted by his achievement he ran upstairs, dripping wet, and landed on the bed. We are so lucky to have such a considerate neighbour.

Roma

I mean the city, not the "gypsy" people who seem to play a lot of fiddles or be begging with their drugged babies. Rome was fantastic, not an especially interesting point of view I admit, but as my expectations were't particularly high, a sign of the wonders of this city. for some reason, I could't get a picture of Rome in my head, I thought that there were lots of motorways, and the places of interest would be miles apart. Understand that no one said this to me, it was just some madness in my mind.

I had a wonderful time in the best company, and it was almost worth the month of panic about flying. Thankyou to our friends for making it so special. I love all the cities I've visited, and would gladly revisit any of them, but Rome would be a top priority. I can't believe I waited so long.

Mrs McMuffin

rome

Our trip to Rome got off to a bad start yesterday when our flight was cancelled as a result of the Italian air traffic conrollers going on strike for the day. We did not find out about it until we were just about to leave. We decided to go to the airport anyway, hoping that perhaps we could get on to another flight. Ended up having to turn back. As disappointing as it was not to be on our way to Rome, I must admit it was quite nice having what was in effect an extra day to do some of the things at home that we should have done before we set off. It felt like the day was extra long because we had got up so early. Did some shopping and had a lovely big cooked breakfast. Later on we managed to arrange for us to get on a 7.30am flight for the next day. And is how I come to be typing this post while sitting at a computer in Rome. I will write some more later.

mrs mcmuffin's top 10 films...ever

We really are crazy for listing. I just thought I would get a quick one in before going off to work. This is Mrs McMuffin's list of her Top 10 Films...ever. She may want to say something about them later. You can get all of them through amazon.co.uk.