Tag Archives: quinoa

I’m Back!

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Having said that, I’m not sure I have much to say.

Life is very boring, I still have a head full of snot (though a lot of it is leaking out as I type) and I haven’t slept properly for two days, as I start wheezing and coughing as soon as I lie down.

None of this compares to being seriously ill, walking for hours to get water or being homeless in a war zone, but it’s human nature to stress your own problems and ignore the problems of other people.

We’re getting someone to come and do some roofing for us soon. It needs some routine maintenance and the gutters need doing. It’s going to cost about £300, which I don’t really want to spend. On the other hand, my roof is still sitting on top of my house and is in no danger of being spread all over town by an airstrike or a tornado.

After writing that I had a look at the story of a man from Sheffield who sent a burger into space on a weather balloon.

As global warming scares the life out of me and our government busies itself with breaking democracy I’m glad there are still people with time for pointless buffoonery. Strangely, it seems other people are doing similar things.

It’s hard to follow something like that. My lunch of quinoa with salad and mixed beans looks virtuous, but rather dull, compared to a pie in space.

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Hitler, Nazi, Boobs…

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Yes, that got you attention didn’t it?

We’ve been talking about how to title eBay sales.

It all started when the Boss noticed someone was selling Churchill Crowns for what seems like a lot of money.  They add “WW2, Hitler, Nazi, Silver” in the title line and sell the crowns for around £12, We normally think we’ve done well if we get £1 and we don’t even bother to put them on eBay as serious coin dealers don’t consider them worth selling. Even the Westminster Collection, who are not known for their modest prices, only ask £3.50 for them.

It seems to me that words like WW2, Hitler and Nazi are attractive to people who want to spend too much on coins.

And “boobs”? Well, from what I’ve seen on sites selling seaside postcards the word “boobs” is used to stimulate sales. I have descended as far as “bosom” in my pursuit of sales (we actually sold three cards from the newly listed lot overnight). I’m not sure how much pride I’m prepared to swallow in the pursuit of wages.

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Bamforth comic card

It makes me proud the be an eBayer. Well, actually it makes me question the entire basis of my life, but I thought I’d try some irony.

It also gave me a catchy title for this post. The alternative was “Salad Emergency!” based on my experience of making a salad from random fridge contents after Julia used all the bread.

Quinoa, tomatoes, olives, red peppers, pumpkin seeds with Balsamic vinegar. My fridge is far too healthy.

Quinoa, tomatoes, olives, red peppers, pumpkin seeds with Balsamic vinegar. My fridge is far too healthy.

Or “Shirt Tragedy” because my fifteen-year-old shirt finally gave way under the stress of covering my amply proportioned frontage. The loss is less keenly felt than the loss of the cats, but cuts deeper than such things as cricket defeats and the passing of Little Chef and their All Day Breakfasts. I liked that shirt.

In a couple of months it will rise again, as part of our Christmas Wreath project.

It’s that or throwing it away. It’s too worn to make good rags and Julia says no self-respecting tramp would be seen dead in it.

 

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The featured image is a picture of my lunch – quinoa, chia, pumpkin seeds, beans, chickpeas, sweetcorn, dill and spring onions, plus a mango and chilli dressing. Since I actually read the instructions on the quinoa and found out that you can use it straight from the packet lunches have become very simple – tear open a few packets, open a few cans, chop a smidgen of veg, mix. It’s very easy.

Lunch left me full and feeling virtuous. What it didn’t do was leave me feeling like I’d had a good meal.

I suppose that persistence will eventually pay off.

Before that I’d been to hospital for the regular blood-letting. It had been a bit thick last week and they decided another test was needed. If they had to rush about before work, deal with car parking then queue for a slot before being stabbed in the arm multiple times they might not be so keen on all these tests. As the needle slid in through the bruise left by last week’s test, all these things come to mind.

Then, to add insult to injury, the bleeding wouldn’t stop.

They put the signs up on the new shop today – my first day of proper work in the new shop. It’s looking good, though if you look hard enough you can see that fat bloke with the camera who gets in so many of my shots.

Collectors World, Wollaton Road, Nottingham

Collectors World, Wollaton Road, Nottingham

The final highlight of the day was sorting a thousand crowns for an export order, including brandishing an eraser in the vicinity of a few of them to make minor improvements. It’s a funny old world…

Charles and Diana Crowns – a marital mistake enshrined in numismatic form

Charles and Diana Crowns – a marital mistake enshrined in numismatic form. It’s like me having a coin struck to commemorate my diet.

New Day, Old Photos

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After being side-tracked by ebay I finally got round to adding the photos to yesterday’s post. Then I had the problem of letting people know that there were now photos on the post, as they are unlikely just go back on the off chance.

I was going to add them on this post and refer people back to the post.  Unfortunately I forgot. As a result I’m writing this post to refer people back (in case they want to look at photos of disappointing snow and a woman fighting a bird feeder). So that people don’t feel I’m wasting their time I’m going to add a selection of photographs.

The featured image is the poppies made from plastic bottles. They are still going strong, despite four months in miserable weather.

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Garden Gnome at Wilford, Notts

I thought the garden gnome was reasonably topical.

This memory problem isn’t an isolated one, I also forgot what my plans for tea were. Having agreed with Julia that I would make Welsh Rarebit, as we still weren’t hungry after our large breakfast, I went through to the kitchen, where the smell of cooking reminded me I’d put potatoes in to bake ready for…er…

I couldn’t actually remember what I’d been planning. Fortunately, baked potatoes and Welsh Rarebit seem to go together quite well, and with the addition of the remains of the gammon from last week passed for a meal. Don’t worry, we also had fruit to make it a bit more nutritious.

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Puffin at Bempton Cliffs

I threw in a Puffin photo because everyone like Puffins.

Tomorrow I’ll be throwing some vegetables into Monday’s stew so we will be a bit healthier. I’m planning on a few lentils too. It should be virtuous, even if it isn’t good.

It’s quinoa salad tomorrow too. If it’s true what they say about grains and salad and vegetables I’m going to be positively bouncing with energy tomorrow and stacked to the earlobes with vitamins.

 

A Salad, a Vicar and Time Management

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I have returned to cutting out bread and potatoes, and rice and pasta, and I’m feeling a lot more energetic again. Last time this happened I wasn’t sure whether it was cutting carbs or a new dose of pills that did the job. Looks like it’s the carbs, as the pills haven’t changed this time.

I’m currently making salads for lunch by using microwavable quinoa then adding herbs, tinned beans, vegetables and dressing. It’s probably still not as healthy as it could be but it’s healthier than cheese sandwiches and less harmful than buying a succession of plastic-wrapped supermarket salads. It’s also cheaper, which is something I admire. Once I start cooking my quinoa from scratch and boiling my own beans it’s going to get even cheaper.

In time I suppose I may even begin to enjoy it.

This afternoon I saw a vicar. I had to look twice as she was a woman and I’m still always surprised by that even though we’ve had women vicars for years and I’ve met several. What was actually surprising was that she was in the supermarket – you don’t normally see vicars about on a Sunday as it’s their busy day.

I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, it’s just something you don’t usually see.

Finally, having acted on the suggestions in the time management book I read a couple of weeks ago I’ve now completed a task I first started 25 years ago and had been putting off ever since. It’s nice to know that the techniques do work, even though I’m unlikely to achieve a high-flying career between now and retirement.

Of course, it isn’t actually that difficult. If you want to finish a task you just have to start it then keep going until you finish.

I didn’t really need a book to tell me that.