General Stuff

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Netherland is the New Arctic Circle.

A week or so ago Amsterdam staged its 'International Fashion Week'. This blog entry has nothing to do with that I just wanted an excuse to purger a fashion-like saying .. you know the ones - " Pink is the New Beige", "Fat is the New Thin" (I wish)!

The temperature in my little corner of the Netherlands can only be described as Arctic like. It has been snowing all day but, bizarrely, nothing settled so all my hopes of staying at home this evening, in front of a nice warm fire, instead of giving hockey training in the freezing cold were scuttled. (We can not use the hockey fields if there is snow on them). Smallest Baby Clog and Oldest Baby Clog also had to train this evening.

Cloggy has succumbed to the Flu - REAL FLU - not the man flu and has taken his first sickkie in 7 years. He really isn't very well and I have been performing a poor rendition of Nurse Cratchett all day.

All in all today has been a bit of a nightmare which has left me with little time to think carefully about my self inflicted task of feeding the Family Clog for less than 50 euro's let alone go shopping.

What do you feed sick people? SOUP!
Did I have any cans of soup? NO!

So I made my own using the stuff in my pantry and a few Leeks from the garden.

Potato and Leek Soup with a side of Cheesy Toast.
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Ingredients;
6 Potatoes - pantry
4 Leeks - veggie patch
A good lump of Butter - pantry
Handful of parsley - pot on the window sill
Chicken Stock - freezer
Cream - Oldest baby Clog picked it up from the store on the way home from school.

Cost = 70 cents.

All I can say is that it was flippin YUMMY!

Tomorrow is also going to be a nightmare day. The Engineers are going to be here at 8am to install the new heating system, Cloggy is still going to have the Flu, Smallest Baby Clog needs to finalise her Carnival Costume, Knobbly-Clog has a vet appointment, I have to give training AND its market day which means that the Fish Man is in town and I am determined to serve up fish for dinner!

I'll let you know how this all works out tomorrow evening, in the mean while here is a picky of me soup, Dumbarse and Knobbly-Clog assisting with the washing up and the blurred images of Haackey D1 and JA1 training this evening.

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By Giddy Iddy - Posted in: General Stuff

Wednesday 10 february 2010 3 10 /02 /2010 00:48

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The Blessed 'Delia' saves the day - kinda ..........

In rest of the western hemisphere the Pre-Christmas frenzy is in full swing ..........

In my little plot of the world we have been spared all of the seasonal advertising malarky and general hype due to the fact that Cloggy STILL hasn't figured out how to position the satellite dish properly and get rid of all the free German porn channels so its safe to turn the TV on again. (I think he's holding out on this point in the vain hope of breaking the parental control lock I set on the receiver).

A few days ago, whilst looking for new school agendas for the Baby Cloggys in a local bookstore, I came across an English magazine section where multiple Christmas Editions were on sale. In a moment of weakness I purchased 'Good Food' and 'Country Living' and took them home. The first had a whole menu for Christmas Lunch and the other an article, with pictures, on how to make your house look Christmasy. It was then that I realised the following;

HOLY CRAP ITS NEARLY CHRISTMAS AND I HAVE DONE FECK ALL ABOUT IT!

A frenzied 2 hour Internet shopping spree later (god bless amazon.com ) all Christmas presents for far flung family and friends had been purchased - with much love and thought, honestly - and I turned my attention to other seasonal stuff.

"Turkey - readily available
Veggies - readily available
Booze - can float the Titanic with the amount of alcohol stashed in the Cloggy household
Christmas Tree - Farm at the end of the road
Decorations - Ikea is open late
Christmas cards - donated a goat to an African family instead

Christmas cake ............ THE DUTCH DON'T DO CHRISTMAS CAKES ....... Damn it I'm gonna have to make it myself! Where did I put the Blessed 'Delia Smith' Christmas recipe book?"

After a while I found 'Delia' in one of the last remaining unpacked moving boxes and looked up her Christmas cake recipe and discovered that I should of made the cake in November in order to feed it properly with brandy after it was baked. Also not all of the required ingredients are available in Swampland. What to do?

WING IT!

I replaced all the required liquid ingredients with Brandy and added a bit more for good luck along with an extra load of flour to soak up the excess moisture and a bit more baking powder just in case. I replaced all the missing fruity required ingredients with pears that had been poached in cognac and dried - chopped finely of course :O/. Treacle has been replaced with Stroop (and more brandy).

To be honest I was a little afraid when I put the beast in to bake as I had cleaned the oven on Monday. So far so good - god knows what the thing is gonna taste like though but at least I can feed it with extra brandy over the next 2 weeks!

cake

By Giddy Iddy - Posted in: General Stuff

Thursday 10 december 2009 4 10 /12 /2009 00:17

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Been a while ........

CRIKEY ......... TIME DOESN'T HALF SKID ON PAST YA IF YOUR NOT PAYING ATTENTION!

Some people may attribute my 2 month blogging coma as a sign of great age and ensuing dementia, others may have explained my absence to a short spell in rehab but the simple truth of the matter is that I have been gosh darn run off of me feet!

One minute I am clearing up the debris caused by 6 weeks of summer vacation and the next minute its 63 shopping days til Christmas. 63 days that is if you live in the normal world, in Swampland its considerably less cause all the shops are closed for no bloody good reason on a Monday morning and all day on Sunday.

I guess I should pay more attention.

Here is a brief catch up of stuff that has happened over the last couple of months;

Hamish's demise has been attributed to a Mexican stand off with Cloggy's Rooster.

Oldest Baby Cloggy turned 20 and received a basket of socks as recognition. He still refuses to move out.

Cloggy has become the 'Marco van Basten' equivilent for the girls under 10's team at Haackey Hockey Club.
Smallest Baby Cloggy plays in this team and has come home with a few choice words about her fathers coaching techniques - I suppose if she has to learn to swear she may as well learn it from the master himself.

Middle Baby Cloggy is not improving with age but he has a wicked back hand shot so we forgive him.

And me ...... Well I had the most excellent conversation with the Jehovah's Witness's a few weeks ago. I pointed out the slight flaw in their recruitment technique - i.e. If God has already chosen the few (and it isn't that many) that will ascend into heaven on the day of judgement why the feck would they want to shorten their odds of being in the Almighty's selection by expanding their brethren? They refused to let me take a photograph but did leave a couple of their God bothering flyers.
Personally I prefer the Mormons, there is a lot to be said about a religion that advocates stock piling of canned food for Armageddon.