Menu -- 7th-13th October 2025

 

Tue: Stuffed marrow

Wed: Fish pie

Thu: Lamb Scouse

Fri: Chicken tagine

Sat: Risotto

Sun: Roasted veggies with pesto and feta

Mon: Sweet potato and leek lasagna

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I'm keeping a record of what we are eating. Hopefully it will make future meal planning easier.

Sail Away

It was an incredibly broken night for me. At 4.30am, my brain said, 'Enough! No more sleep.'

The crossing was 'bumpy' and the seats were horrible. Although I did manage to doze off a few times. It wasn't proper sleep, it wasn't even improper sleep, just a a pale imitation.

10am saw our arrival in Liverpool. We had a look around the World Museum whilst I was research a back story for Sophie.

At lunchtime, the gluten-free offerings were soup, scouse or salad. We elected to try scouse. It is the rich stew Liverpudlians are named after. Its main ingredients are lamb, potato and carrots. When we get back home, I'm going to give it  a try.

Manchester Cathedral is between the railway station and the Travelodge. We stopped in there to escape the almost biblical levels of rain. A cathedral guide was very happy to info-dump, her brain to our brains.

The first person to use the code '007' was John Dee. He had been sent by Elizabeth of England to Manchester to be the collegiate church's warden. It took a few centuries before it became a cathedral.

During the English Civil War, Salford (just across the river) an Manchester supported different factions. People would climb onto the roofs of the churches and shoot at each other!

Amy, First Storm of the Season

Storm Amy is brewing in the Irish Sea, and will start its rampage at around 3pm tomorrow. That's when we are due to sail to Liverpool! Our sailing has been brought forward to 7am.  

I'm all of a twitter, full of anxiety as to whether we will be sailing or not. It feels like anything could happen in the hours of darkness and we won't know about it until the morning. 

I want to go to Liverpool, and on to Manchester!

Mitred Squares in Riot

Many, many years ago, I saw the most fabulous knitted jacket in reds, purples and blues. It is the project that brought me back to knitting. Eeek, I've just realised it would have been 20 years ago!

Now I have to the time and inclination to make that jacket. More accurately, a similar jacket. I'm pretty sure the jacket I saw was made using triangles, and I'm going to use mitred squares. 

Cast on 30sts in yarn A (King Cole Riot DK Rhapsody).

1. Knit 15st, place stitch marker. K15.

2. Switch to yarn B (King Cole Riot DK Party), Knit to 2 stitches before marker, K2tog, K2tog, K to end.

3. Knit.

4. Switch to yarn. Knit to 2 stitches before marker, K2tog, K2tog, K to end.

5. Knit.

Repeat this pattern until there are 2 stitches left. Then knit the two stitches together.

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Make a second square, and then pick up the stitches on the sides of the squares to form a new square.

2025 Challenges - June

 

My challenges for this month are to write every day, and to take my medication morning and evening. 

Last month I was incredibly rebellious and my medication taking was 'less than optimal', or more accurately, 'piss poor'. The only person this really hurts is me. So, this month I decide to practise a little 'self-care'. 

The goal was to take my medication properly, each and every morning, and each and every evening. After four days, I felt so much better. This has been as important as push ups, walking and cycling.

I had been writing most days, but it felt like I was trying to squeeze and already squeezed orange, and I was hoping for more juice. A drop or two might come, but it was hard and very unrewarding.

A chat with a local author has changed my mindset. There was a realisation stories morph and change over time. I finally understood the phrase, 'Don't be afraid to kill your darlings.'  My novel was born out of lockdown when I tried to find way around money laundering (intellectual exercise). Over time it has morphed into a love story, and I've been struggling to maintain the money laundering aspects.  I don't have to! I can ditch that part of the story.

Now, things are flowing again. It has become so much easier to write. It makes more sense.  And I'm writing more each day.

The Case of the Missing Maid

A LGBTQ author I follow asked his reaers to join a Pride Challenge - read a book either written by a LGBTQ author, or whose protagonist is LBGTQ. There was a list of about 30 suggestions. Figuring that people normally worked from the top down, I started at the bottom. "The Case of the Missing Maid" by Rob Osler sparked my interest.

The book was set in 1890s Chicago, USA - a time when people were careful about disclosing their sexuality if they weren't straight. In this time period, it would have been far easier for women to set up home with another woman than it would be for two men. 

It felt like the author was hitting me over the head with the protagonist's (Harriet Morrow) sexuality. At one point, I wanted to shout, "I get it. She'd a lesbian!" I understand the importance of representation... hmm, new thought coming through... The author repeated numerous times about the restrictions placed on women, and the work they were allowed to do.  Did he really 'go on' about the lesbian aspect any more than he did about the restrictions on women? Am I so used to hearing about this that it slipped in under the radar and I didn't even give it a thought?

In many ways, it felt this was the set up book. The characters in the subsequent books will already have been introduced and have a back story. 

Did I enjoy the book? Yeah, it was okay.

Will I re-listen to it? Probably.

Do I want to listen to the next one in the series? If I don't get distracted, then yes.

Butterscotch Sauce

Ingredients

50g  butter

120g brown sugar

120ml double cream

Method 

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Add the sugar and cream. Stir until  well blended.

Bring the mixture to a boil, scraping down the sides occasionally. Boil  for 4 to 5 minutes.

When the sauce has cooled, transfer to a glass jar, and store in the fridge until needed. The sauce will keep for 3-4 weeks.