Fridge Magnet Excitement

Well it's back to work for another week of late shifts, although I don't mind them as there is no one around, so I don't get drawn into office politics and some of the pettiness that is so ever present during the day.
Speaking of work...I'm currently finding plenty of personal amusement in trying to "bring back the Filofax" at work, yes single handedly trying to bring it back into fashion for no real reason other then the confused and disgusted stares bringing me much amusement.

Yesterday was nice and relaxing! I got up with Fruitylicious and we had breakfast, then she jogged to the Uni Netball courts for some Sunday practice, with a team she had never played with before. Meanwhile I pumped up the volume on my stereo and listened to a few albums, including U2 - Achtung Baby, Jimi Hendrix - Are you experienced? and Bill Nelson - Plaything.
Later when she returned home, we took a walk to the local pub for something to eat and a few pints of 'Black Sheep'(well I did, she opted for pure orange and soda water) and after I had had enough of 'The Independent on Sunday', we returned home for a DVD and general pottering-about-iness.(I had intended to do some homework for the ever so dull NVQ in 'Business Improvement Techniques' that I'm doing for work, 5S, continuous improvement, Kaizan and all that rubbish, but really couldn't be bothered)
I should also be reading up on Chemistry, ready for the degree in Chemistry that I'll be starting in September.
I later spent a little while trying to gather a few ideas for a play that I want to write. Fruitylicious's sister down in London, told me of a theater production company where if you send in your plays, they read through them and if they are any good, there's a chance they could get performed.

Started playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on my XBox last night, I've borrowed that and AVP off my brother. I'm also thinking of trading in a few old games and getting Final Fantasy XIII and Bioshock 2.

Finally happy 5th blog birthday to Fink!

I'll leave you now with one question....is it wrong to be excited by the arrival of new fridge magnets??? I ordered some on the internet the other day and can't wait for them to arrive, I think I'm becoming one of those weird people who collects fridge magnets!

A Very Morich Shopping Experience

Have you ever walked past one of those foreign food stores and wondered what kind of stuff they sell? I decided yesterday to pop into one of these places, a local shop called 'Indian Continental Stores' whilst walking back home from the city center.

As I entered the store it was like stepping into a store in downtown Bangladesh, with shelves choc full with odd looking labels in foreign languages and jars and packets containing their curious contents. (I would have taken photo's inside but the owner seemed a bit suspicious of a pretty fly white guy walking around his store as it was and if I had been taking pictures the little Indian fellow could have thought I was casing the joint!)

There was so much information for my eyes to take in, 25Kg sacks of various rices and spices, pickles, powders, fruit, veg, etc. I meandered along the shelves until my eyes settled upon a small jar of 'Mr Naga's Hot Pepper Pickle'.
I immediately picked up the jar to read the ingredients (luckily they were listed in English as well as it's native language) and found it was made up of 70% Naga Morich Chilli's (one of the worlds hottest chilli's) and decided right then that I needed this little jar in our cupboard back home. I then waited in line with a few other Indian folk, paid for my Spicy delight and trotted off home to try it. It's good stuff and really quite hot (although still not a match for Dave's Special Reserve Insanity Sauce) now I just need to cook a few dishes I can add it to!

Speaking of Chilli's, there has still been no sign of growth from my seeds and have taken Fink's advice and put them in a large plastic bag (with a few air holes) to retain warmth and moisture! Hopefully we'll get some positive growth action ehh!!!

Growing Chilli's

For Christmas Amy got me a chilli growing kit, due to my slight obsession with eating chilli peppers and chiili based sauces, and the there is the fact that I try to add a chilli to anything I cook.(much to Amy's annoyance)

I planted them in their little Coir pots 12 days ago and so far they haven't germinated. I'm slightly disappointed because it says they should germinate at approx 10 days. I'm not giving up hope and I'm sure I will see little green shoots appearing soon enough....hopefully!

I'm growing 5 varieties; Anaheim, Hungarian Hot Wax, Jalapeno, Tabasco and Demon Red and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they look like when they fruit and also tasting them of course!
If I'm successful then I'll turn it into a yearly hobby and move onto some of the more challenging ones!

I suspect the cold weather is the major factor in their lack of germination as it says in my instruction growing guide the optimum indoors temperature should be between 18 - 20C and our kitchen gets very cold, although I do have them in direct sunlight and have a little heater on in the kitchen during the day which should help.

I'll keep you posted with any developments!

Beautiful Uke and Obscene Hot Chocolate

It was my birthday yesterday and I was woken by an excited Amy at 7am so I could open my presents. We had the day off and getting up at 7am wouldn't have been anything to moan about if it wasn't for the bottles of wine we had stayed up till 1am drinking the night before. However, I was delighted to find she had bought me this beautiful Ukelele so she was quickly forgiven.
The day was a laid back n enjoyable one, which included a walk to a local coffee house to sit and read some magazines. Whilst there we decided to indulge in an obscene hot chocolate each, but all that cream proved too much for me and I had to accept defeat, alas I did not finish it.