Situation Normal

The festive break in the weather was very pleasant. The weather broke up a little as Mr L returned to his desk on Monday, and that is just as it should be. We had a mixed bag through the working week, but yesterday was simply stunning. I decided that we must certainly go for a long walk today. That was around tea time last night. Shortly after that the wind got up and it blew hard all night (keeping me awake), peaking a little while ago at 70mph or thereabouts. There are real waves in the bay and the sea is trying to get into the garden. It’s raining hard at times and the windows are all covered in salt as the wind is from the South. The house is very dark and gloomy and we have to have all the lights on. The heating is on but the draughts cut through and override the comfort level.

It is all very bleak.

Last night we made some marinade and put some pork into it and this morning we roasted the Char Siu. There are Char Siu Bao in the offing! Also potsticker dumplings, prawn and pork balls, spring rolls, and sesame prawn toast – all with a side of Special Fried Rice. (All a bit hit and miss as there are limits to what we can buy here at the best of times and right now the shop is bare – there has been no delivery since before the New Year and none expected before Monday at earliest. These will be very much a Sanday interpretation of Chinese cookery!) It was all to be done for today’s dinner and all cooked from scratch, apart from the Spring Roll wrappers, which are in stock.

Now I find a complete lack of will and energy for cooking – even despite the glorious smell of the roast pork cooling in the kitchen. (Yes, the door is shut firmly – Nell will not be scoffing that pork!)

Dim Sum dinner is now deferred until tomorrow. Mr L is making aubergine curry today instead and we’ll hope for a bit more light in the kitchen tomorrow. No doubt I shall be out cleaning windows before we can cook. I have not made Chinese dumpling wrappers before and it is bound to be fiddly…

Postie came today and brought me some baby yarn for crocheting with, courtesy of Ravelry user SalutingMagpies, from the UK-RAK group. Together with Fenny‘s book, that leaves me fully prepared for the next Craft Club meeting.

Things are generally slow on the knitting front. I am trying to rest my arm as much as possible and adding only slowly to both the Thorfinn socks and the Butternut Scarf. I do have to confess to having fallen off the stash wagon last night, which was total madness. (More of that later.) There’s a Solids Club skein, my last one, on its way from Natalie – and two UK-RAK packets coming as well – but as there was no boat this morning, and I assume it will be cancelled tonight as well, I guess I shan’t be seeing any parcels until Tuesday at the earliest.

Overall? I’d have to say that today is very much a chocolate day. If I still had a telly it would be a stoke-up-the-fire (hah!) and fire-up-a-three-hankie-black-and-white-movie day. An Affair To Remember would go down well right now. I can see that very shortly I shall be giving in and making mugs of hot chocolate. But first – I have to soak chick peas and salt aubergine.