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Taking Back the Weekend

Although the weekend is technically defined as the period between Friday night and Monday morning, for me, it's really all about Saturday. It's a day that's entirely my own. No part of it is spent at work (unlike Fridays) and let's face it, when you have to get up in time for church, Sundays never really feel like a day off.  So, why, on a day that's entirely mine, do I spend so much time doing things I'd rather not be doing?

As much as I hate to admit it, my Saturdays too often fall short of my restful ideal. Instead of spending my time doing the things I love, I'm catching up on the housework I neglected during the week (or feeling guilty about not catching up!) Instead of spending my time with the people I care about, I'm meeting up with the cashier at Tesco. Well, no more! I'm taking back the weekend!

This is my own personal project for the year. The goal: to reclaim my free time. The method: take an idea and put it to the test - keep it up if it works and axe it if it doesn't. I'll be combining my own ideas with those from various websites, blogs, books, family members and friends. I'll also be posting on my adventures (and misadventures!) Here's to the weekend!

Secret Recipes

Baking is something I've always enjoyed doing, and some of my earliest memories are of helping my mother in the kitchen. I willingly helped her stir the batter and roll the cookie dough, although I harboured resentment when my clean up duties extended beyond licking the beaters clean. She really did keep us well supplied with home baked goodies - so much so that "store-bought cookies" were a novelty (my favourite were the Fudgee-Os that we got at Aunt Merlene's). There are staple recipes that Mom has been making for as long as I can remember, but some of my favourites are ones she's received comparatively recently from people who didn't believe in secret recipes.

Secret recipes are all over the place. The 11 herbs and spices that go into KFC's Original Recipe Chicken remain a mystery, and thank goodness no one knows what they put in Coca Cola. To be sure, in the realm of food retail, secret recipes are a huge asset, but they're not for me. If I've made something that another person has enjoyed, and she asks for the recipe, I have no problem in giving it to her. What's the point of not letting her enjoy it whenever or wherever she likes? Refusing to share the recipe doesn't improve the quality of the food and is of no benefit to me.

Why not share the secret?

Abstainer vs. Moderator

Happy New Year everyone! That seems like an odd greeting to me, but as this is my first post of 2010, I'll let it pass.

I'm not sure how many of you have heard of Unclutterer.com, but it's a "blog about getting and staying organized". To be honest, I can't remember how I discovered the site. Anyway, today's post got me thinking, and I've come to the conclusion that, as much as my mind balks against it, I'm an abstainer. It's much easier for me to avoid a temptation entirely than to try to exert some sort of control over it. I often find myself wishing that I was better at moderating things, as the self-control it requires appears to make it the nobler trait.

I think the following story aptly illustrates my point...

Every year, David's grandmother gives the grandchildren a Terry's Chocolate Orange. There are various flavours that the grandchildren can choose from, but it's some form of chocolate orange. When David and I were dating, and I started spending Christmas in Scotland, Granny Anderson kindly included me in the tradition. Now, I make no secret of the fact that I like chocolate....a lot. Things like potato chips and sausage rolls, which are equally unhealthy, aren't a big issue for me, but chocolate is another matter entirely.

This particular Christmas Day, I decided to have a segment or two of the orange after opening presents. After lunch, I helped myself to a couple more segments. During the course of the afternoon, a couple more. By the end of the day, through a series of indulgences, each moderate in and of itself, I had worked my way through all 20 segments. Only after the fact did I look at the calorie information on the box. I'm not sure which made me feel worse: the amount of chocolate sitting in my stomach, or the fact that, at 47 calories a segment, I had consumed 940 calories (47% of my daily requirement). David later summed up my view on the matter as "I'm going to consume 940 calories anyway, so rather than doing it over several days or weeks, I might as well do it all at once".

So, going on the above, I'm clearly not a moderator. It would have been easier for me to put the chocolate orange on the snack shelf in the kitchen and leave it there, than to open it and slowly work my way through it.

I guess being aware of the fact that I'm an abstainer means that I can work within the constraints of my nature. I can, and indeed do, put snacks on a top shelf in the kitchen because I can't reach it without going through the bother of digging out the step stool.

So, to echo the question in the Unclutterer blog, which one are you?

The Rest of October so far...

Here are some of the things I've been up to...

There's a car boot sale that takes place on Sunday mornings in Errol. Dave and I got up early one Sunday morning to go along and while we were driving out I remembered that I had a camera in my bag so you're just seeing the outskirts of the place. Sorry.

A couple of weeks ago there was a coffee house at the Gate and Dave did a set. Here's one of the covers he did.

My hand mixer had been on the blink for a few months. The only way to switch it off was to turn it off at the wall, and the gauge for controlling the speeds was broken so you had to maintain pressure on the gauge to keep the speed you wanted. I was thinking about getting a new one and then decided that since the warranty was lapsed anyway, I might as well try to fix it myself first. So I took it apart, gave it a good clean and put it all back together (with no parts left over!) And it actually works properly now! It took me about 1.5 hours but I was pretty pleased with my venture into kitchen tools DIY.

Mixer being taken apart and cleaned.

Mixer put back together.

The cake I made the next day with my mixer.

River Ness 5K Cont'd

As promised, here's more about the weekend.

Karen (one of the girls I work with) picked me up on Saturday afternoon and we headed up to Inverness. On the way, we stopped off in Dalwhinnie for a snack break. While we were sitting in the car, I noticed the sign "Dalwhinnie: Twinned with Las Vegas". The two places couldn't be more dissimilar. Dalwhinnie is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere that basically consists of a small pub-hotel and a petrol station. I'm not sure how decisions are made on which places to twin, but this twinning seemed particularly ironic.

We got to Inverness just before 4pm and unfortunately missed the final boat tour of Loch Ness for the day. So instead, we just drove along the loch and checked out some of the local tourist shops. People come to Inverness from all over the world for the Baxters Loch Ness Marathon so there were lots of interesting people to meet.

Saturday night we loaded up on pasta at Bella Italia and then headed back to the B&B for an early night.

Sunday morning the plan was to drop me off at the starting point for the 5k (my race started first) and then for the rest of them to head to the 10K starting point. Unfortunately, we lost our bearings and were heading to the wrong starting point. Finally got ourselves sorted out (the GPS feature on my phone, which I hardly ever use came in handy at more than one point that weekend).

The race itself went well. There was a bit of an incline for the last kilometer and I hadn't really done any training on inclines so I was getting pretty tired by that point. I kept thinking of what Thom used to tell me when we ran for the bus nearly every day of high school - "Don't think about being tired, just put one foot in front of the other". It was good advice, Thom. When I made the turn into the stadium there was one of the running marshalls telling us it was just 100m to the finish line. There were lots of people along the sides of the track cheering you on so it did give a bit of a second wind. There was a company there taking pictures of everyone as they crossed the finish line. Click here for a link
Just after the finish line you get your medal, T-shirt, banana, water, and goody bag.

After I finished my race, I went around checking out all the different stalls in the stadium. There were tents where you could get food, check out the charities that were being supported by the runners, buy really expensive running gear, and listen to different bands. There was even a historic re-enactment group there that gave the crowd a scare when they unexpectedly fired off one of their guns while rehearsing. I then headed back to the side of the track and watched everyone else come in. I got talking to the lady beside me. Her name was Melinda and she was from Santa Barbara, California. Her husband was doing his first marathon and they'd combined that with a vacation in Scotland.

The trip back to Dundee was pretty uneventful except for the deer that dashed across the road in front of us. Thankfully, it was far enough away that we didn't hit it.

Here's a link to the rest of the pictures from the weekend:

River Ness 5K

River Ness 5K

I just arrived back from Inverness. It was a good trip but I'm glad to be back. I managed to run the whole distance and completed it in 31min 2sec. After doing this one, I think I'd be open to trying a 10k at some point next year.

I took pictures while I was there, but it feels a bit late to post them now. I'll do my best to get them up this week, along with a few more details of the weekend.

The Heating is On

It's finally October, which means that the heating can go on without guilt. For the last two weeks I've been using our home group on Tuesday nights as an excuse to put on the heating. Now I can enjoy it myself! There seems to be some sort of psychological barrier to using it before October. I just don't like being bested by the elements. It's probably something similar to Dave's aversion to wearing a coat in early autumn.

Of course, now that the heating is being used with greater regularity, I'm aware of all the strange noises coming from the radiators. Dave's attempt to bleed one tonight was relatively successful if the accompanying water spray was anything to go by.

This Sunday is the date of my first 5K race. It's taking place in Inverness and I'm heading up there tomorrow afternoon with a girl from work. She'll be doing the 10K race, but since I'd never done any running at all before 11 weeks ago, I thought I'd start small. We're planning to check out Loch Ness while we're up there. I figure I can't be that close to it and not go, especially since I've already lived in Scotland for nearly 3 years without seeing it.

The race is at 10.15 on Sunday morning so it'll all be over by 11. I expect to be back in Dundee late Sunday afternoon and will try to remember to post any pics I've taken.

My New Camera

Last week I got a Sony Cyber-shot camera as an early birthday present. The original Cyber-shot that I was given years ago sadly gave up the ghost, and since I'd really liked it, I stuck with the brand. I loved borrowing my sister's when I was a teenager and she must have gotten so sick of me stealing it all the time that she coordinated efforts for me to be given my own (thanks sis!) The memory card for it just arrived today. The camera's internal memory holds about 3 12mega pixel pictures compared to the card which can hold over 800. It's kind of funny that the memory card for my camera has a bigger capacity than my first laptop. A sign of the times, I guess. I've been having fun trying different settings and taking pictures of random things. Here's a sampling:

My impulse buy at Tesco. I went for groceries, and in addition to food, I came out with a magnetic kids' calendar for the fridge.

Dave thought I was being a bit optomistic putting on the sun icon.

Flowers from Elspeth.

My latest cross-stitch project.

Saturday

The birds outside are being very noisy just now. I think they're protesting against the clouds and wet that have been dominating today's weather. My laundry day has been partially thwarted by the weather, but I've persisted in washing the clothes despite the fact that I'm not sure how I'll dry it all. There's no rain at the moment, so I think I'll keep the clothes out for as long as it's light outside.

I've spent the last month visiting family and it's been fantastic. Loved seeing Mom and Tom in Montana, and then Thom and Louise were here in Dundee for a little over a week. It had been almost 2 years since I'd seen any of them. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have any pictures of Thom and Louise's visit, but they took loads so I'm sure they'll eventually circulate around. Although I haven't been able to see my sister this summer, she phoned this afternoon and it was great to catch up. Dave and I are hoping to get to Halifax next summer. It's been far too long since we've been there.

I spent this afternoon helping Elspeth wallpaper Dave's gran's bedroom. I haven't done any wallpapering since we did our hallway and stairs last year and I have to say that this time around was much easier. It probably has something to do with the lack of high drops and steep stairs in the bedroom! Most of the time I don't mind DIY since there's a great sense of accomplishment when it's all done.

Dave's away at a stag night tonight and I'm meant to be researching for our trip to London at the end of July. We booked tickets for "The Lion King" this afternoon and checked out a few activities we'd like to do while we're there. We'll be staying with the same family that Sharaya and I stayed with in April.

Not much researching going on at the moment. Instead I'm watching "Grand Designs" and doing another one of my schedules (love organising!) Birds are still noisy.....

Photo Links

I've decided to post my pictures from London and Montana on Facebook and put a link to it on the blog since there are so many pictures and it takes ages to put them up here.

General Vacation
Yellowstone
London

Enjoy!

River Cruise

Bridge at Westminster Pier where our boat left from


Our cruise boat at the pier. London Eye and London Aquarium in the background.

Happy that there are life jackets on the boat and that I'm in a prime position to grab one.

War Memorial

Blackfriars Bridge

Ministry of Defense Building. It has a nuclear shelter and underground tunnels that lead to Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament.
A famous bridge...here are some hints:
1. It's made of self-cleaning stone, so every time it rains, the bridge gets washed

2...it's the subject of a children's song....it's.....

St. Paul's Cathedral - blocked by another building
Royal Festival Hall

Guns of the HMS Belfast. I can't remember the exact distance they can fire, but it's huge.
HMS Belfast.
The Gherkin buiilding that features on the opening shots of the Apprentice (my current favourite TV show)

Houses of Parliament and "Big Ben" (spot the misnomer)

Houses of Parliament.

Walking from St James park toward St Stephens Tower

St Stephen's Tower [couldn't get a picture of Big Ben ;)] British residents are the only ones allowed to go up the tower. Unfortunately, Sharaya didn't qualify. Might give a go the next time Dave and I are in London.

View from the Thames

Close up


Protest across from the Houses of Parliament. Something to do with Sri Lanka. This picture is mild compared to the protest that took place on Monday . All the streets around the square were blocked by protesters and there were loads of police.

Escape to London, Buckingham Palace and St James Park

Waterfront at Ayr - the town where Dave's grandmother grew up. It was pretty close to Glasgow Prestwick which is the airport we flew from to London.

Ayr

Ayr

More Ayr

Our ride from the airport. Yes, we were in the back of a rental van, like pieces of furniture.

In the back of the van....

Buckingham Palace.

Guards outside Buckingham Palace.

Palace gates.

The commoners outside the palace gate
Me - one of the aforementioned commoners


Queen Victoria Memorial

Across the road from the Palace. View of the Memorial Gardens.

Entrance to St. James Park
Police in the park