suburban_bliss

09:22 pm: Fantastic Christmas Fudge
This is not a true fudge, but tastes like it and takes 5 minutes to make, including opening up the tin of condensed milk and lining the baking dish with foil etc.

NIGELLAS CHRISTMAS CHOCOLATE FUDGE

350g Dark Chocolate 70% cocoa mass (use Lindor or Lindt)
1 can of condensed milk
2 tablespoons butter
150g raw, shelled Pistachio nuts

METHOD

Line a small, square dish with bakers wrap, foil or silicon. Melt first 3 ingredients in a pot over a gentle heat. When melted, stir to combine. Crush the nuts slightly so that they are broken into smaller pieces or not as it suits you. Stir nuts into chocolate mixture. Spoon mixture into dish, smooth the top and cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate. When cold and set, cut into little squares with a very sharp knife. This is so rich that you can only eat one or two little squares at a time. The fudge melts very easily so keep it in the fridge (or in your stomach which is a much better option).

I have made this recipe to try it out and it is truly delicious.

10:28 pm: 1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (I'm also crossing out any that, after eating them, I would never try again)

1. Venison
2. Nettle Tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht (Beetroot soup)
10. Baba ghanoush (Aubergine dip)
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (not street cart specifically, but close enough)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava (very rich and sweet flaky pasty stuffed with nuts and dipped in a sugar syrup)
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac
37. Clotted cream
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer (curd cheese - have made this)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (I wish)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
101. Elephant
102. Rhino
103. Mopani worms
104. Raw boerewors (sausage)
105. Sharon fruit (persimmons)
106. Brown cow (Coca-cola and milk)

I do not know what a lot of these things are, but my curiosity has been piqued, so I will be doing some googling!


Tags: buuuurrrp!!

05:23 pm: Health issues
UPDATE

I started off taking 14 units of the 24 hour insulin (Lantis). The dosage gets increased once a week by only 2 units. I am presently on 24 units per day so it has taken 6 weeks (including the week that I stayed on 14) to come within normal parameters. Now it's just a case of fiddling with dosages of the rapid acting insulin for mealtimes. My sugar levels have become a lot more stable and I am very happy and so is the doc.

Took Jem to the doc today and while I was there had my blood-pressure checked. That has come down too. Hopefully the cholesterol has also! I will go back for a checkup and to have blood tests done at the end of October. An HBA1C (tests the mean average of sugar levels over a 3 month period and also gives and indication of triglyceride levels) and a cholesterol test. I am wondering if having high sugar levels on a constant basis influence cholesterol and blood pressure readings and when the sugar levels normalise, the other do too.

I have had so much fun recently. I found a stash of 10 year old New Scientist magazines. It's so interesting to read about certain topics and know that so much has changed in 10 years. 10 Years ago 3-D printing was in its infancy (experimental in labs) and now circuit boards are produced this way. My favourite part of the mag. is the "Last Word" on the back page. People write into the mag with interesting science questions and the question is answered the following week.

Fascinating reading.

08:39 pm: Spring is here!
For those lazy summer evenings, this is the ultimate ice-cream.

Enjoy.

MARGARITA ICE-CREAM

150 g Icing Sugar
125 ml Lime Juice (freshly squeezed or from a bottle)
2 Tbs Tequila
3 Tbs any good quality Orange liqu.
500 ml thick cream (Pick and Pay)

(This recipe can be doubled successfully)

METHOD

Mix the first 4 ingredients together.

Beat the cream for a minute or two. Add the mixture and beat until mixture becomes thick.

Pour into serving dish. Freeze. No churning etc. required. This ice-cream does not freeze as hard as other ice-creams do (due to the alcohol content).

Serve in Margarita glasses. Frost the edges of the glasses by smearing the edge of the glass with lime juice then dredging with an equal mixture of salt and sugar.

Judging from the reactions of the D&D crowd (complete concentrated silence), I guess it was a hit!.

10:40 pm: Medical Stuff
I eventually took the bull by the horns and went to my gp for a diabetic checkup.

I have been going to the Centre for Diabetese and Endocrynology for about 10 years. During this time I have been dealing with one specialist (who has semi-retired, which makes getting an appointment a bitch).

For the last few years I have been unsatisfied with his handling of my disease. Don't get me wrong, he was professional all the way through. The only problem is that I felt that he had lost interest in what he was doing. I can't put my finger on anything precisely but it's just a feeling I got. I would mention new treatments, interesting developments and he would either pooh-pooh them or say that he found no merit in them and wasn't particularly interested in trying any other regime for me, even when he could see that the current regime wasn't working too well.

I can't blame him 100% as I am sure that I wasn't completely honest with him, not wanting to put myself in a bad light but only fooling myself in not doing so.

Anyway, the results from my GP were very, very encouraging.

You see, I have lost interest and have stopped caring very much. (Yes, I do care on a deeper level as I don't want to lose a limb by the time I am 60 or have to go onto dialysis because my kidneys have given up the ghost, or drop dead from heart disease. But the greatest fear of all is saddling my family, especially my wonderful husband, with a cripple). Nothing that I do (diet, insulin fiddling) seemed to work at all. The only results are high sugar, high despondency and high frustration levels.

My GP asked me a few questions, looked at my regime and said that the insulins that I am using are very outdated and clearly not working. He assured me that it would be and is very difficult to keep your sugar-levels stable if you are on the wrong type of medication for you. He is looking at putting me on a very, very long acting insulin with short burst of rapid-acting insulins for meals. What this does is lowers the amount of insulin you need for meals as the body has all the (long acting) insulin it needs for doing other stuff. The lowering of the amount of insulin taken also results in less insulin resistance - a circular thing as the less insulin you need the less you use which makes you more sensitive to the stuff which means that you need to take less for the same effect.

He took 3 different blood tests : a HBA1C (this tests the mean sugar levels for a period of 3 months). I warned him that the results for this would be very high and that he was not allowed to be shocked and pass out. He promised. Another test was for cholesterol and I am not sure what the 3rd test was for.

He took blood pressure and was a little concerned with the results - he said that it would be ok for someone not a diabetic - but for me a little too high.

There was no protein in a urine sample (perfunctory dip-stick type test) which is good news as it means that the kidneys are functioning ok. Oh, now I remember, the 3rd test was for an in-depth analysis of kidney function.

There has been NO macular degeneration of my eyes. Considering that I am over 40 and have been diabetic for 20 years this is close to miraculous.

The pulses in my feet and legs was very strong and he was very happy with that.

He wants to get all the tests back before he changes my insulin and before he decides how aggressively (his word) he is going to attack the problem.

He also wants me to loose quite a bit of weight. Good luck with that! He wants me to do more exercise. Again, good luck with that.

It's time to face up to the realities of this disease and my own shortcomings. I HATE, HATE, HATE exercise and will do anything to avoid it. I HATE, HATE, HATE diet food, and going on diets as I quickly get completely neurotic and obsessive and let the diet overcome me until that's all I can do - eat, sleep and talk "my diet". Been there many and many a time, don't want to go there again.

I have another appointment in 10 days time.
Hold thumbs for me.

04:27 pm: Movies
Boys and I went to see Night at the Museum 2 on Friday. Not at all funny, but then again, neither was no. 1. Some amusing characters though. A very strange lisping Pharoah and I must agree Amelia had the most stunning figure her brown "slacks". The boys enjoyed the slapping monkeys and the aeroplanes.

Really enjoyed Ice Age 3 in 3-D. It was worth the extra ticket price. Syd was up to his usual tricks and the possums were very, very silly. Mammoth babies are very cute. Quite a romp and lots of LOL situations.

05:23 pm: Bungled burglary
So we were burgled on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

This is what happened.

On Thursday morning Lizzie (my domestic worker) phoned us on the house phone. My gardener (Josh), who lives on the premises found one of the garage doors partially open, a cottage pane broken and the window open to the study.

The robbers had stolen all 3 bicycles out of the garage. In the process they had scratched my car (the bicycles were stored in front of my car). Chris was so unhappy as his new bicycle was a birthday present bought in June. They had pulled the garage door so roughly that the arm that runs in the track is buckled and the screws holding the door to the arm are loose. The door does not close properly and Josh has to wire it closed every night from the inside.

They had broken the window pane, opened the window and used a broken branch to scrape stuff off the tables inside. This is what they caught in their fishing expedition: a CD case with games in it. I don't think they took anything there (this was discovered in the garage where they obviously took stuff to see what it was in the light): my first-aid kit which they used to patch themselves up with as there was blood everywhere from broken glass. They also got the UPS which is no use to man or beast. It was mostly a nuisance burglary.

Outsurance will pay for replacement of the bikes and the UPS. The damage to the window and the garage door has to be fixed via householders Insurance.

This means two lots of excesses have to be paid, apart from the endless phone calls to insurances, security firms, visits to police stations etc.

I took my car for assessment on Friday and some of the scratches came out using a rubbing compound. There are only 2 tiny nicks of paint that may have to be fixed and am not sure that it is worth it. The excess for the car and contents would come to R2200.00. To fix the car would come to R2300. Without the car being fixed the excess for content only will be just over R900. It's worth thinking about whether we can live with the tiny nicks (I know I can) but don't know if hubby will accept this.

The excess for the door and window will probably be R1000.

We had an appointment with our security company on Saturday and the rep suggested that we upgrade our current system - this will cost R15 000.00.

So, it will cost us R2000 and the loss of our No-claims bonus plus upgrading our security.
Shit.

07:43 pm: A hit!
Try and work this one out.

Background:
Joe and his girlfriend live at No. 5, in the cul-de-sac where we live. He had another girlfriend, Marlene a couple of years ago. They broke up but still remained business partners. As Marlene moved out, so new girlfriend moved in.

Friday Morning.

My friend across the street sees an ambulance go by her house at about 6:45 and turn the corner into the cul-de-sac. She thinks it may be for our house and follows the ambulance. The ambulance passes us by and stops in front of No. 5. The driver of the ambulance says that a man has been shot in the neck.

Mienel goes onto the property and finds the girlfriend and the maid in the kitchen. The maid is busy washing up. The girlfriend in busy drinking coffee and smoking a ciggi. Mienel asks what is going on and girlfriend says that Joe has been shot. Mienel asks whether she can pray for him and the girlfriend says by all means and leads her into the lounge. Mienel asks her what happened and this is the story:

Girlfriend wakes up around 4:30 and can't sleep. She opens up the garage door? and then goes to the lounge to watch TV (there is an interconnecting door from garage to the house). Intruders (4) break in and ask for money, jewelery and guns. She replies that she doesn't have anything. They pistol-whip her in the face and ask her again. They hit her again on the side of the head. She screams and Joe wakes up. He runs down the passage and the burglars shoot him in the neck. The burglars flee. She can't phone the police/ambulance because she has no air-time. She runs outside and buzzes on the gate of one of the neighbours. They do not hear or the doorbell is broken. She goes inside and tries to keep Joe awake by asking him the rugby scores and praying for him.

The maid comes in much later, hears what has happened and phones the maid next door who alerts the master of the house. He phones the ambulance and the police.

Mienel asks her if she is going to phone Joe's grown-up daughters to tell them about the shooting. She says she doesn't have their numbers. Mienel asks her if she can phone Marlene to tell her to contact them - girlfriend and Marlene do not get on and girlfriend is angry with this suggestion. Ambulance driver asks girlfriend if she wants a ride with Joe in the ambulance. She declines and says that she is sure that the police will have questions for her. The police have not arrived as yet. Joe is in bed, shot execution style at the back of the head - the bullet is lodged in his head (no exit wound) and he has been beaten about the face. He has lost vast amounts of blood. Mienel asks if anything was taken and girlfriend replies that nothing was taken.

Mienel goes home and phones me at 7:10 to tell me the news. Allan sees ambulance leave No. 5 at about 7:20.

Mienel goes back later to give girlfriend her number. The police are there and questioning the girlfriend. She says there were two men not four. She says that Joe's phone and her car-keys were taken. She is totally calm. It may be shock - Mienel can't say.

Now.

Mienel phones Marlene later that day. Marlene has heard about the shooting. The driver that drives the delivery truck has been to the house and took it upon himself to phone Marlene. Marlene says that she has contacted all Joe's family. She says that they are no longer in business together. On Friday, Joe and his girlfriend were supposed to start their new business together, from home.

Apparently, Joe signed over his entire business to the girlfriend about a month and a half ago.

Police and Mienel observations.

1. No blood in the passageway at all. P&M
2. No sign of pistol-whipping on girlfriend. M
3. No sign of forced entry. P
4. No sign of footprints, disturbed greenery around the house. P
5. Why did it take girlfriend so long before she contacted ANYONE? P&M
6. After being shot in the head in the passageway - how did Joe land up in the bedroom, girlfriend did not say that she moved him? In fact, she remarked to the maid that maybe they should take Joe to a hospital but that he would be too heavy for the two of them to move him. M
7. No sign of any type of struggle. P&M

Do you smell a rat?

Joe is in Milpark in High Care in a critical condition. The surgeon is too scared to remove the bullet as it is very close to the spinal column.

More info as drama unfolds.

05:54 pm: Hey ! Happy Birthday jadedflame
Hope you had a stunning day!
From all of us.

11:26 am: Kitty-Kat
My cat is determined to spend the winter without touching anything cold with his paws.

This may be a problem when going outside to do the necessary. I have noticed that he spends only a minimum of time outside then races back inside and either crawls into our bed, or asks for the door to the bathroom to be opened for him (undertile heating). He has also taken to sleeping in the lounge as well (underfloor heating).

While making this post he came and squirmed onto my lap and when I threw him off gave me a very dirty look.

Now he is scratching on the bathroom door!

05:10 pm: Hey - this looks like fun!
1. You can ONLY answer 'Yes' or 'No'.

2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages or comments you and asks—and, believe me, the temptation to explain some of these will be overwhelming. Nothing is exactly as it seems.

Copy and paste this into your notes, delete my answers, type in your answers, and tag as many of your friends as you'd like to.
________________________________

Kissed any one of your Facebook/LJ friends? — Yes.
Been arrested? — No.
Kissed someone you didn't like? — Yes.
Slept in until 5 PM? — Yes.
Fallen asleep at work/school? — Yes.
Held a snake? — Yes.
Ran a red light? — Yes.
Been suspended from school? — No.
Experienced love at first sight? — Yes.
Totalled your car in an accident? — No.
Been fired from a job? — Yes.
Fired somebody? — No.
Sung karaoke? — No.
Pointed a gun at someone? — No.
Did something you told yourself you wouldn't? — Yes.
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? — Yes.
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? — No.
Kissed in the rain? — Yes.
Had a close brush with death (your own)? — No.
Saw someone die? — Yes.
Played Spin-the-Bottle? — Yes.
Smoked a cigar? — No.
Sat on a rooftop? — Yes.
Smuggled something into another country? — No.
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes? — Yes.
Broken a bone? — No.
Skipped school? — No.
Eaten a bug? — Yes.
Sleepwalked? — Yes and Yes and Yes.
Walked on a moonlit beach? — Yes.
Ridden a motorcycle? — Yes.
Dumped someone? — Yes.
Forgotten your anniversary? — No.
Lied to avoid a ticket? — No.
Ridden in a helicopter? — Yes.
Shaved your head? — No.
Blacked out from drinking? — No.
Played a prank on someone? — Yes.
Hit a home run? — No.
Felt like killing someone? — Yes.
Cross-dressed? — Yes.
Been falling-down drunk? — Yes.
Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? — Yes.
Eaten snake? — No.
Marched/Protested? — No.
Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? — Yes.
Puked on an amusement ride? — No.
Seriously & intentionally boycotted something? — Yes.
Been in a band? — Yes.
Knitted? — Yes.
Been on TV? — No.
Shot a gun? — Yes.
Skinny-dipped? — Yes.
Given someone stitches? — No.
Eaten a whole habenero pepper? — No.
Ridden a surfboard? — No.
Drunk straight from a liquor bottle? — Yes.
Had surgery? — Yes.
Streaked? — No.
Been taken by ambulance to a hospital? — Yes.
Tripped on mushrooms? — No.
Passed out when NOT drinking? — No.
Peed on a bush? — Yes.
Donated Blood? — Yes.
Grabbed electric fence? — No.
Eaten alligator meat? - Yes.
Eaten cheesecake? — Yes.
Eaten your kids' Halloween candy? — Yes.
Killed an animal when not hunting? — Yes.
Peed your pants in public? — No.
Snuck into a movie without paying? – No.
Written graffiti? — No.
Still love someone you shouldn't? — No.
Think about the future? — Yes.
Been in handcuffs? — No.
Believe in love? — Yes.
Sleep on a certain side of the bed? — Yes.

01:08 pm: Happy, happy
At last, Firefox has been re-installed by hubby.

Now I can catch up with entries and comments and maybe even make a post (apart from this one)!

11:41 am: Ok, I can and do understand that other people think differently to the way I do.

But. I really hate it when people have uninformed opinions. You can clearly see that there is no thought behind their opinions except age-old prejudices and hundreds of years of religious non-sense.

I am speaking about the legalising of prostitution and a conversation had between my sister, mother and I.

07:58 pm: Happy Birthday wishes
Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes.

Had a very nice but very busy day.
Hopefully this @#$%^ bathroom will be finished before Easter.

10:09 pm: I am a bathroom whore, a bathroom whore, a bathroom whore ....
(Sung to the tune of "I am a muffin man" from the 70's group The Wizard of Oz) which my father bought by mistake. Most people - please ignore the comment as you will NOT know the group.
collapses and starts weeping,
singing loudly, tunelessly,
gnashing of teeth,
feeling sickly,
Starts Monday.

06:23 pm: Who are they kidding?
HUGE MAJOR RANT

We all want to be "eco-friendly", "leave a smaller footprint", "go green". We pick up our litter, give money to charities, recycle our cans and bottles, make compost heaps for our gardens, use different light bulbs, try not to use heaters in winter, change to taps that incorporate air so you use less water, put bricks and waterbottles filled with sand into our toilet cisterns, tell our children not to spit and wash our hands after using a public toilet.

Looking in a home improvement magazine I spotted an ad for bamboo flooring. There was a HUGE blurb about how wonderful it is. Bamboo grows at a phenomenal rate, grows very easily and when harvested the whole plant isn't taken. It is very, very strong and can be used for flooring, carpentry products, furniture, just about anything.

When I contacted the company I found out that the price of bamboo flooring is MORE EXPENSIVE THAN REAL WOOD FLOORING. I am not talking laminate flooring here, REAL WOOD. I kid you not. MUCH MORE.

WTF?

When I asked WHY the product was SO expensive I was told that there wasn't much call for it. No shit Sherlock. Also that it is very labour intensive to produce. Oh, really. Surely that is needed in this country - if you are so CONCERNED about the environment, everyone and everything in a hug-a-tree way then you WANT to employ more people. Labour in this country is, after all, CHEAP.

Therefore my conclusion on all this eco-friendly talk is that it is a LOT of CRAP as only the trendiest people who want to show off how truly "good" they are to their friends will get these products AND CAN AFFORD THEM.

THEY ARE ONLY FOR THE TRULY RICH.

So, no more feeling guilty. @#$%^& off and leave me alone with my unfriendly stuff.

09:13 pm: I have just sold my first baby
The baby in question is a 1996 Ford Laser Tracer.
She was the first car that was bought for me "out of the box".

She has never given a moments trouble except for some metal sheer in the sliding mechanism of one of her seats and 2 - 3 new batteries. That's it.

I will miss her.

May she drive the rest of her life in peace.

08:55 pm: Happy Birthday Melancthe
Happy birthday, happy, happy birthday to yoooouuuuu!
From the family.
Hope you had a stunning day today.

05:36 pm: Do you really want to be scared ... do you?
You spend a lot of time in bathrooms.

Even if your bathroom is really ugly you still spend a lot of time in it.

It's time for an ugrade. My master bathroom in truly hideous - a 1970 special. The tiles on the wall are little mosaic tiles. There is a pattern on occasional tiles - a woman in a crinoline and a man standing next to her with a banjo. The mosaics are only splashback level above basins and bath and the rest of the walls are bare - sorry - not bare, but have been painted with white contractors PVA which cannot be washed. If you wash it all that happens is that you leave a filthy wet print behind and the paint comes off on the cloth. Next - absolutely no, zilch, nada towelrails. We hang our towels on the rails that were put up for dutch curtains in front of the windows.

The floor is CARPETED - double yuck with BROWN carpets.

ALL the tiles in the built-in shower have come off the walls.

Now if that description wasn't frightening enough - the prices of an upgrade are truly terrifying.

Bathroom Bizarre has very nice stuff - at a price. I suppose they can call themselves a discount store when you look at prices of the fancy Italian imported stuff but they are NOT cheap.

I found a Chinese importer (where BB gets all their stuff as well, I am convinced) called Xquisit Bathroom (Strijdompark) that has the same stuff at half the price.

This is what is needed:
1.Bathroom fittings (bath, taps, toilet, basins and pedestals etc)
2.Custom made shower door
3.Downlights
4.Tiles (wall, floor, listellos, shower mosaics etc.)
5.New Cornices
6.Towel racks and accessories
7.Building costs (including gutting, cementing, plastering, tiling, new ceiling, cornices)
8.Electrician
9.Plumber

So far I have quotes for 1 - 4 and it's nearly R30 000.00.

Everyone know that it's the labour that costs the most and I haven't got quote for those yet - they have been promised for tonight.

We will see.

09:26 pm: Chok'lit cheesecake
Have just finished the last piece of chocolate cheesecake. It's the best - ever. My oldest son says that he now knows what he wants for his birthday.

Yet again it is Nigellas recipe.

It's also very easy to make.