One of those Days... Yes, really!

What more can I say?!  It has been one thing after another, all trivial but none the less all happening to me & I feel I should have stayed asleep today "/


Finally got to sleep around 2:30am/3am this morning after waiting up for Duncan to finish work, catching up with Coronation Street from being away last week, having some food & then going to bed... I first woke at around 6am briefly, but dropped back to sleep for a while (dreaming of the most amazing family home in Bicester that I last dreamed about over 7yrs ago, don't ask me where it is or if it actually exists - I can tell you where it's supposed to be & the whole layout of the downstairs to great detail tho, lol) anyway  I have digressed - I finally awoke properly at 7:45am, my alarm was set for 8:30am & the first thing I hear is Duncan on the PS3, Cameron & Hermione playing & Anneliese whining, just another normal day at home so I decided to try & catch up with FB on my iPod touch...


Here starts my woes of the day, I reach over to my bedside lamp to turn it on & discover Duncan had removed the bulb to replace his blown bulb & left me with none... Gee, thanks! Lol, then FB kept crashing while loading, so that was a no go.  I figure that Smurfs Village may be working now it's had an update, but alas no that kept crashing on loading too. Same thing with Bejeweld & I am starting to feel like giving up, but for good measure try Words with Friends - hallelujah an app that works today!  So I played for about an hour before my battery depleted after all the failed attempts at other apps "/


I lay in bed for approx 15 minutes deciding if I should get up or not & Duncan comes to surprise me with a wake up kiss, but I surprised him instead by having my eyes closed & then opening them just before he kisses me Lol...   I decide that I am going to get up as I have Hermans to sort out, need to shower & wash my hair etc, etc.


So I get up take my clothes down to the bathroom, make a coffee, sort Cameron & Hermione out to do some homework while Duncan goes to sort out logs for the fire, was planning to jump in shower at 9:30am everyone needed the bathroom first... I decide to update my FB status via txt message as it was the only way this morning due to my iPod being temperamental! Hermione was reluctant to do any writing & Cameron had got no further than one sentence of a poem he was writing, so I assist Hermione with her writing & ask her what she want's to write & say I will write it down so her spellings are ok & she can then copy it while I am in the shower, Cameron does another sentence of his poem in the meantime & then says he can't think of anything else that rhymes.


An hour passes with discussions about what Cameron can put, trying to persuade both children to actually write something down & trying to keep Anneliese out of their way as well, so I figure at 10:50am I may just get in shower... alas not yet as kids still bickering putting each other off not co-operating etc, etc.  Finally manage to jump in at 11:15am & am washed, dressed & drying hair by 11:30am to come out hoping the kids have sorted their act out & got on with homework - no they haven't :(


11:40am comes around & Duncan is struggling getting the chainsaw to start - I am thinking this is a doomed Sunday as everything everywhere is going wrong for everyone!!!  Around 12pm my brother stops by so I make us all a hot drink, that may make things better?!  Nope as I take Duncan's & Mik's out to them I slop Mik's coffee all over my hand, WTH the cup wasn't even overfull!!!  Lol, gotta laugh else you'd cry eh?!  My brother asks if I am ok so I briefly explain that today I must be jinxed & should've stayed in bed, I say the kids are messing around, I think I left my camera charger in Disneyland Paris, my iPod is being an ass etc, etc. Told you it's all trivial stuff but it was one thing after another.


I go back inside to drink my coffee & feed Herman as I had figured it was better to bake him & his babies tomorrow given the fact everything was going more & more pear shaped for me.  Elaine had been txt'in me all morning as i had originally planned to pop round & pick some loaf tins up from here to batch bake on route back from Tesco, altho I had decided at 11:35 I was not going to attempt leaving the house alone so she shortly turned up after I had gone back inside so I made her a cuppa... by a pure stroke of luck the tea came out fine =)


Elaine is my hero today as she got my 3 items for me & is coming to straighten my hair at 7:30pm then we're off out to The White Hart for a bit of karaoke with Jason as she has missed not going out since last Friday & I think nobody should come near me in case I turn them to stone or something with my bad luck today, lol!!!


Now Elaine stopped for a couple of cuppa's & a chat etc, I quickly flicked thru last weeks pictures with her & then she had to go - next bit of bad luck, I forgot to give her the money for the bits she picked up - doh!!!  Good job I am seeing her later so I can pay her back.


My brother comes in to chat with me & I start looking on eBay & the internet to replace my lost camera charger, a daunting task when they don't make that model any more... then I have a bizarre idea of looking in the camcorder case & bingo it was there!!!  Lock me up at the funny farm now I say.


Well my brother goes & leaves us to it & about an hour ago 3pm ish, I decide I may as well blog about my down day thanks to some brief FB comment chats with my good friend Jason - This blog has not been easy to write at all, Hermione finally finished her homework but all three children have the devil in them today & have been squabbling all day pretty much... I have made numerous typing errors, but hopefully have fixed them all now - apologies if i have missed any & the grammar or spelling is off, but I officially give up now "/


Duncan is now cooking the Sharp Family Roast in the kitchen as he is a true knight in shining armour - I fear I may burn my self if I go near anything hot today, hence Elaine is straightening my hair later (plus she does a much better job than me with it as short as it is) lol.


Better late than never, my blog is complete... hope you are still awake after reading this?!

Herman causes kitchen chaos!

Who is Herman I hear you ask?!  Let me explain...

Early this year I was given a tub of yeast mixture with a list of instructions as follows:

Herman is a friendship cake that you cannot buy but give away. Herman is alive. He grows slowly because of the yeast process. It also takes ten days before you can eat him. Herman shouldn’t be put in the fridge & also requires to be covered by a tea towel. He grows at room temperature.

Hi, my name is Herman.
I am a friendly cake. I can live a long time & travel a long way.

This is how you should look after me. I am made from natural yeast, which is ready in ten days. Then you should divide me into four parts so that three friends can spread the friendship & pass it on to their friends & so on.

Do not put me in the fridge & make sure that I'm not too hot, but I like to be warm. Put me in a large bowl so that I can grow, but do not cover me with a lid, just a clean tea towel. I need to breathe.

Day 1: Herman arrives

Day 2 & 3: Stir Herman well several times a day with a wooden spoon

Day 4: Herman is hungry, please feed him with : 200g sugar, 125 g plain flour, 200ml milk. Stir well.

Day 5,6,7 & 8: Stir well a few times a day

Day 9: Herman is hungry again. Please feed him with: 200g sugar, 125 g plain flour, 200ml milk. Stir well.

Day 10: Divide me into four, one for you & three for your friends.

Add the following to the part you have kept:
150g melted butter
3 eggs
250g plain flour
100g brown sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
2 apples, peeled, cored, grated
100g dried fruit.

Mix well & pour Herman into a large greased tin, or 2 smaller ones. Make sure it has about a quarter of the tin to rise because otherwise it will overflow. Sprinkle with brown sugar, then bake at 150°C, Gas Mark 2 for 1½ hours.

ENJOY!

Sounds simple enough, right?!  Well earlier this year when I got my very first Herman everything went perfectly & we enjoyed a few batches of Herman giving only a couple away & keeping one to re-grow... finally after about 8 Herman’s (I cook in 2 smaller loaf tins) we decided to give all three away & Herman was no more after the last slice had passed our lips :(

I had been hoping to acquire another Herman offspring but alas, there were none to go round every time I heard of a friend with Herman his offspring had already been allocated to other people much to my disappointment.  Now imagine my surprise after a few quiet months 7 no word of Herman when I noticed via Facebook that my friend was in possession of a newly grown Herman!!! So I was hot on my keyboard commenting on the said status asking if there was any possible chance I could have one of Herman’s offspring - my lucky was with me as low & behold I was told there was some offspring left & I could have some =)

So, Monday morning (10/10/11) I pop round to my fellow blogger Jason's house to enjoy coffee with him & his lovely wife Claire (both very good friends of mine & Duncan's)... we sit, we chat, i get baby Herman in my pot & pop him in my bag, we drink coffee, we chat some more then it's time to wander off home, life is good!

But what I don't know is... baby Herman is not happy, baby Herman is getting angry in my pot, baby Herman is not liking the dark of the bag, so baby Herman starts seeping through the lid into the bag!  I get home, all cheery as I finally have another baby Herman all of my own to nurture & grow so I head into the kitchen to put baby Herman into my cherished Mason Cash mixing bowl (it's nice & large, perfect for baby Herman to grow) - what happens next???

Well, I start getting the few bits of shopping out of my bag & notice baby Herman has tried to escape.  So I figure let's take the lid off the pot so he can breathe & everything will be fine.  So I take my pot out & try to open the lid... how tight did Claire do it up?!  It wouldn't budge at first & panic starts to creep in as I am thinking baby Herman has already started seeping out, will his temper go completely over the edge & will he manage to explode my pot?!  I keep trying & after a few attempts it finally slowly starts turning while more of baby Herman is escaping; now my pot has about 5 threads on the lid... I'd undone the first thread, was slowly moving onto the second thread & BOOM!!!!!!  The lid from my pot propelled into the air & about a third of baby Herman had covered me & the kitchen!

I have never seen anything so funny, my coat needed washing, my hat needed washing, I had to wash the cover from the dogs cage, wipe down my cupboards, wipe down the walls & mop the floor - my, oh my can baby Herman fly!

After approx 30 mins, my kitchen was back to normal & you wouldn't guess anything had happened there... Baby Herman looked tiny when in my bowl so I fed him & now he is happily growing as he should be =)