Thursday…damp, damp, damp!

SalvosI have just realised it has been over six weeks since I wrote the blog (although I do wonder who is still reading it?)

So just after my bit of DIY, I headed north up the St Annes to stay with Martin and Stephanie, friends from University. We headed over to Headingley in Leeds to a Pizza restaurant we used to frequent as students, where we met up with our other two house-mates from those days (Jon and Elaine, and Tom and Carol) The photo shows the four of us outside Salvos.

In a burst of nostalgia, we headed off to our former home Canterbury Drive photographed here when we actually lived there! It hadn’t changed much, but we posed outside for another photo! Martin, Stephanie and I headed back to St Annes in the afternoon. Next day, after a walk along the Blackpool Promenade, Martin and I went sailing on the Ribble estuary before I headed back home, via my parents, after a very enjoyable weekend.Canterbury Drive

On the home front, I have been doing some baking! I started off with cake – this is a coffee and walnut cake I baked a few weeks ago. This skill also came in useful when I went to my sister’s for her Birthday. On this occasion I baked a chocolate cake, shown in this picture (together with her family!)Cake

Moving on from cake, I have also been trying my hand at bread making. I do have a bread maker, which I use for making the dough, but I have found that turning out the dough, knocking it back and proving it outside the machine, before baking it a conventional oven, gives best results. as I hope the picture shows!Cake

I have also been experimenting with flavoured savoury breads. So far olive (with Mozzarella and oregano) and sun-dried tomato (with Parmesan and basil) The tomato needs more practice, but they were made for when David and Frances (and their daughter) came to visit two weeks ago. The sun smiled on us and we ate outside in the garden. You may remember that I stayed with David and Frances for a week while I was homeless last December!Bread

The sun has been welcome in the garden, where the runner beans have reached the top of their poles and are producing flowers. The pots have also looked good, and this photo shows the two hanging baskets. There are some more garden photographs in the gallery!.

On the health front, I had a visit to the eye clinic at St Thomas’s about a month ago. I still have dry eyes, but I have a new medication for night use which is certainly soothing, and I hope will eventually solve the problem. I am expecting a referral to the cataract clinic, as these are slowly getting worse. However the visit to London was an opportunity to see my youngest daughter, Rachael, who is doing a three month internship during her summer vacation. We had a very good evening at a restaurant in Borough Market!Garden

I had also been planning to go diving, but the last two planned dives were cancelled because of bad weather, and the expedition to Devon has had to be cancelled for other reasons. That was very disappointing as I was looking forward to doing some camping (no accommodation) but I hope that we will get a couple of dives in the local area next week.

So a busy few weeks! There will be a few stressful moments in the next few weeks as the divorce rumbles on, but I need say no more about that at the moment.

But despite that, it is very much ‘Onwards and Upwards’! 🙂

3 Responses to “Thursday…damp, damp, damp!”

  1. Clive Burkin on 03 Sep 2012 at 11:25 am #

    Pete, We always read your blog… well, once or twice a year at least, but you are never far from our thoughts old mate ! Cheers, Clive

  2. Frances on 11 Sep 2012 at 5:18 pm #

    Have just logged in and I can testify that the bread as well as all the other food we had, was delicious. Borough Market is a great place to visit – you must have been in foodie heaven. Take care. Frances

  3. Richard on 19 Sep 2012 at 7:39 am #

    Hello Peter,

    Yes still extant but involved in all sorts of stuff including a adventure trying to trace Sharon’s Irish roots.

    You would not believe how few Augustine (O’) Sullivan there are.

    The main problem is that all, well almost all, of the census records prior to 1901 have been destroyed.

    Still we went to Cork to have a look around and was surprised to see beggars in the street and the survival of ‘The English Market’ given the history.

    In our case the Augustine Sullivan who we believe is Sharon’s Great Grandfather has an Army record (in itself a unusual thing for an RC) and it claims he was born in New York!!!

    This produces a significant road block at the moment as we cast around for clues.

    Good to see you are putting school chemistry to work in reviving baking skills

    We too visit Borough Market but mainly to look and get ideas as too touristy to get bargains.

    Last month we went to the market and walked up towards Covent Garden and ended up in Jamie’s Italian which was my last choice but the food and service was excellent, so I have to revise my prejudices.

    Good luck with diving, will that mean onwards and downwards?

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