More Baking

Yesterday Jase took the day off to spend some time with me and we went to the British Museum. It's been a long while since I visited the museum properly. Jase and I had fun looking at the Egypt stuff. I always like to look at the mummified cats and crocodile. I was disappointed that Lindlow Man (Pete Bog) was on loan to Manchester so I didn't get to see him again.

We had lunch in the Museum's Court Restaurant which was very nice indeed - I felt like I was eating a Master Chef or Great British Menu meal!

I found the tube journey and even the overland train station pretty stressful which really brought home to me the fact that I am still not feeling completely well. I have looked into getting to work via train and bus rather than tube next week when I go back so as not too get too stressed by Oxford Circus or the tube generally.

Today I did some more baking and made peanut butter cookies - blurry picture below. Later I plan to make some soup.

Mind Mental Health Week

I called my blog the "Happy Salmon" for a few reasons:

• My last name is Salmon
• I really like the song The Happy Salmon by Geordie folk band the Tarras
• I am generally a happy person and seen by others as being happy
• Ironically I have had mental health "problems" for the last 12 years making me far from happy sometimes

At the moment I have been signed off work for 2 weeks by my Dr due to a "stress and anxiety related illness." It is the first time in about 10 years that I have had to have a significant amount of time off work. That's because work generally keeps me going and makes me feel useful and focused. But sometimes I over do things - not just in work but generally and I am glad my GP made me take some time to get "stable" because last week I was not in a good place at all and I am still not feeling great.

So I was very pleased and inspired to see the work Mind are doing around Mind Mental Health Week

Mind are focusing on men's mental health this year with Stephen Fry and Alistair Campbell being some of the famous men supporting this campaign. 75% of suicides are men - I think I need say no more. If I find it difficult to write, or talk about my mental health and I am a rather garrulous woman who has been encouraged all my life to talk about how I feel and to not be afraid to show emotion - I can not imagine how difficult it must be for men to talk about this kind of stuff, when our society enforces the belief that men should be strong and silent.

I am particularly impressed with Alistair Campbell's work in relation to mental health. What ever you think of him in regards to politics he has made an honest, confident and prominent stand on mental health issues. He will be showing his BBC documentary Cracking Up in four parts on his blog this week starting this afternoon. I missed the documentary when it was on BBC so I look forward to watching it on his blog.

Baking!

Over the last week or so I have done a bit of baking. I haven't baked anything in about 15 years since I was a student so I wasn't sure how my efforts would turn out!

My first attempt at baking was a birthday cake foe Jason just over a week ago. I made the sponge the old fashioned way and it took me nearly half an hour to cream the butter and sugar properly! I certainly felt that I had burnt off the calories in the cake by the time I had finished making it.
Jase liked his birthday cake - light chocolate sponge, apricot jam, chocolate fudge icing and mini smarties. A bit over the top but it tasted good!

Today being a bank holiday I thought I'd do some more baking and use the rest of the flour up so I made some scones whilst I watched the snooker! Below are a picture of 4 of the better looking scones.

Here is a picture of the 4 mutant scones I baked.
When I was at school we still did Home Economics where we were taught to cook and sew and stuff like that. Both boys and girls had to learn this stuff. Anyway in Home Economics baking and cooking I always got A+ for taste and a C or D for presentation!!!

The mutant scones tasted lovely!

Don't Panic!

I am working from home today. I have made the mistake of switching News 24 on whilst having my lunch. SWINE FLU, SWINE FLU, SWINE FLU!!!!!!! Grrrrrr.

The News love to make a huge fuss over something like this. There have also been too many Pandemic, Killer Bug, TV mini series and films in the last 10 years making the news look like the opening scenes to one of those melodramatic mini series. You know how the mini series begins innocent looking news stories calling for calm, cynics like me saying don't panic this is a big fuss about nothing, and then the slow creep becomes a mass pandemic and the opening credits run!

Well luckily it looks like the flu isn't spreading like wild fire and is outside of Mexico fairly mild. Of course this can change and even if it doesn't spread now come the autumn or winter it could come back. I just hope this leads to better cleanliness on the tube in particular, the amount of people who don't use tissues! My Mum believes that not having a tissue with you when you go out is like not wearing any clothes!

On a totally different topic check out my sister blog http://thesalmonleaping.blogspot.com/
with some info about a landmark report into disabled people's experiences of crime, harassment and safety. Shocking, and sobering stuff.

Millie and Rookie

I went up to Doncaster a few weeks back and took some pictures of my parent's dog Millie. They have had her almost a year now she is a young chocolate Labrador who was failed by sniffer dog school and so my parents were offered her! She is a bit chunky - although my Mum insists that Millie hardly eats anything. She certainly gets plenty of exercise.

Below is a picture of my cat Rookie who has lived with my parents now for 2 years. She isn't too keen on Millie and swipes at her when ever she gets the chance but generally she stays out of the dog's way!

Sakura video

A picture I took last year of sakura (cherry blossom)

I just wanted to post a link to these videos of Tokyo, in particular the one full of cherry blossom images.

It took me right back to last year and my fantastic holiday in Japan during cherry blossom season.

Right now I really need to get out shopping for cake ingredients and other birthday goodies for Jason. The spy robot I bought him seems to have gone down well. He has to build it first before it can start spying!

Testing email blogging

I think this April has been one of my worst for blogging since I started. It really hasn't been a great month apart from my fabulous weekend away for my birthday which was wonderful. I do feel like i am on the mend now though and normal blogging should resume. I am testing email blogging to see if it works ok and helps me post more.

I have tried to make the most of the sunny weather this week, and walked quite a lot.

Tomorrow is Jason's birthday and I plan to make him a cake. I shall post a picture - I hope it won't be worthy of cake wrecks!

A week off

I have had a week off, including a week off from my blog. I haven't felt great over the last week or so probably due to the kidney infection. Spent some of the last week in Doncaster and had a lovely day shopping and drinking coffee with Lorraine. The rest of the time I spent reading and walking and just mooching about. Sorry to say I don't really feel rested more restless!

I hope to post some pics from Great Missenden shortly.

Great Missenden

We arrived in a sunny Great Missenden on Friday night, the journey from Marylebone nice and simple and it only takes about 40 minutes. The walk to the Nags Head took about 20 minutes from the train station but it is a pleasant enough walk and the road isn’t incredibly busy.

The Nag’s Head is very nice indeed and our room had beams sloping ceiling. We had dinner in the award winning Nag’s Head restaurant. I had mushroom soup (creamy but not too rich), pork medallions wrapped in smoky bacon (very sweet and tender pork) and then rhubarb ice cream (fantastic.) Jase had smoky duck salad, Scottish beef and sticky toffee pudding - all of which he said was delicious. There is a wonderful wine selection too. As I’m still not feeling to great I just had half a small glass of rose D’anju which was very nice.

On Saturday morning we went for an explore and a walk in the local woods. It was very quiet but for the bird song. We didn’t walk for too long just 7 km or so. We had lunch in a local cafe and the spent most of the afternoon reading and watching the Grand National.

Cardigans causing a commotion

Well G20 disruption to London was a bit of a damp squib. The most commotion in our office was caused by Michelle Obama's wardrobe and in particular her fabulous cardigan. We all wanted one and to find that it is within my price range - if at that special treat price range - was such a bonus but understandably it has sold out as J Crew's website politely explains.

But Michelle Obama is so much more than a fashion icon and the BBC have a video clip of her visit to an inner city London girls school. Having taught in London I know how much that will have meant to the young girls and how much real inspiration she will have given to the girls and the staff.

So by not being affected by any protesters the week passed by pretty quietly. My kidney infection seems to be clearing up and I am getting ready for a weekend away in Buckinghamshire.

I just got a delivery from my brother and his family of Hotel Chocolat goodies for my birthday. A lovely surprise! A pretty in pink selection bag and a liquid chocolate selection. Dreamy!