Weekend roundup!

Haven't blogged much this week so here is a quick round up!

I have had a quiet week. I have booked on to Karate lessons starting in September so I am spending the next 6 weeks building my fitness up as well as my core strength and flexibility. I bought a skipping rope to aid me with this. Today I tried skipping for the first time in about 25 years! 100 jumps nearly killed me! How did I used to skip for hours and hours as a child!???? Anyway I am going to persevere with the skipping!

I have a couple of interesting news stories to link to here.

The first is a story about more troubles hitting the Equality and Human Rights Commission

The second story has been on the front page of BBC London website for most of the week and is an interview with my friend Helen who has had swine flue whilst being pregnant! I have known Helen for nearly 10 years and I always thought she'd make headline news one day but not for having flu!

I have a busy week ahead of me with an test on Tuesday at my Japanese class and an endoscopy on Wednesday!

Rhubarb fool

It's been hard for me to find nice food to eat at the moment as I can't eat anything with too much fat in it or anything too rich or hot/spicy! I am living on rice, Japanese food (which I'm not complaining about) soups, bagels, soft pretzels and salads.

I have been able to eat a small amount of cake as long as I have baked it and made sure there isn't too much fat in it and plenty of ginger as good for my tummy!

Tonight for pudding I made a rhubarb fool. It was so easy to make, tasted delicious and doesn't have to be high in fat! Just sweat some chopped up rhubarb on the hob with about 30g of pale brown sugar, tea spoon of ginger and one of mixed spice for 15 mins until soft but not mush! Then mash or blend with a hand mixer until smooth. Then stir in some greek yogurt - and you can use the fat free stuff! I then added a squirt of maple syrup and sprinkled with chopped hazel nuts! Put in the fridge to cool and set slightly!

Of course real fool is made with custard but there is no way I can eat custard right now but low fat greek yogurt is ok!

The fool is sharp but full of warm spicy sweetness and nuttiness!

Race for Life Update

Just to let everyone know I completed my Race for Life 5K power walk today in Hyde Park. I haven't been able to train too much due to being a bit unwell lately but I still managed to get in a couple of miles walking each day for the last few weeks. So I thought I would probably walk it in 50 minutes. Last year before my arthritis got too bad I could jog 5k in 35 mins.

I started off today at a pretty fast pace and managed to do my first km in 11 minutes but I then got a real move on and did the next km in 8mins. Soon I realised I could walk it in much closer to 45 mins if I really rocketed! In the end I crossed the finishing line at 46 minutes! I was so thrilled!

It was a very moving event to be involved in and I had a really lovely day. Jase and I then went to have a nice meal at Taro, one of my favourite Japanese restaurants.

I will post some pics that Jase took of the race in the next day or so

Now I am off for a long soak in the bath.

Weekend in Rosewell - the Spitfire

This weekend Jase and I went to visit friends in Rosewell, near Edinburgh. Jase's good friend Rupert was celebrating graduating with a PhD. We had a fabulous weekend. We were all spoiled rotten by Jen's fabulous cooking and hospitality. I got the recipe for rhubarb spiced cake from her which turned out very well - if I say so myself.

The house was over run with children - at one point 6 girls all under the age of 5! We were kept entertained by Rupert's marmalade cat, and a family of housemartins nesting outside our bedroom window.

I also got to sit at the wheel of Rupert's 1973 Triumph Spitfire pictures below courtesy of Jase's flickr pages - click on the pictures to see more from the weekend including a passing hot air balloon and lots of bees.

Ginger Marmalade Loaf

Loaf
Originally uploaded by JasonGDoig

Here is Jase's picture of the ginger marmalade loaf I baked this evening. I am taking the baked goodies into work tomorrow to sell to raise money for Cancer Research. You can visit my sponsor page for the Race for Life at http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/thehappysalmon.

RhubarbSpiceCake

RhubarbSpiceCake
Originally uploaded by JasonGDoig

Here is a picture of the rhubarb spice cake I made, Jase took a pic for me and put it on Flickr!

Japanese Canteen

This lunch time I took a stroll along to the Japanese Canteen at the bottom of Marylebone High Street. It's a takeaway / cafe selling very speedy cheerful Japanese food, including bento, katsu kare, noodles, ramen and sushi. I had a chicken katsu kare which was remarkably authentic, washed down with a can of green tea. The service was very friendly even though there is a warning on their own website that due to their commitment to speed the service can sometimes be brusque! Jase says he has read bad reviews of Japanese Canteen but my experience was good.

Phedre and tennis

Yesterday Jase and I wanted to find somewhere to watch the Andy Murray match before going to the theatre. I had read in the paper about Bankside Mix and there "Big Screen" where you could relax and eat and drink and watch the tennis on their "big screen," The logo (left) should have alerted me to the very British nature of this "Big Screen" set up! It was in fact a caravan with a TV screen on one side. Yes, a caravan sized TV screen is pretty big but not much use when every office worker in the vicinity had got there before us and the packed the place out! If you we under 6 feet tall you had no hope! There was much drinking and smoking which although outside still made the air really smoky and in the heat quite uncomfortable! I am sure the caravan screen is great for less popular sporting events but it was a bit of a disappointment for us. Get there early is my advice!

We left the caravan TV and had a meal in a very touristy spot along the south bank. The restaurant served steak and chips, fish and chips, and chicken and chips, as I am having to eat a very low fat diet at the moment I opted for stuffed peppers but the waitress brought me Thai fish cakes which to be honest I would have preferred. I got my peppers in the end but when we asked for the bill they had added a mystery £10 to it. It was sorted out as soon as we mentioned it but we shan't be going back to the place!

The theatre was much more successful. Helen Mirren and the rest of the cast of Phedre were superb! It was a great performance the very simple staging evoked the Mediterranean perfectly, the costumes were spot on. The direction was crisp and unambiguous and the acting was just marvellous. It is a nice short play which helps because Racine isn't everyone's cup of tea!

Oh Deer!

I just wanted to share with you all, this fab pic Jase took of a deer in Bushy Park at the weekend. If you click on the pic it will take you to Jase' Flickr photos, well worth a look!

Oh dear, really sums up my day too! First of all a toilet door at work fell off it's hinges as I opened it. Very amusing for everyone when I told them. Luckily I wasn't hurt in any way so I didn't have to fill out an accident / incident form! Then this afternoon we had a 2 hour power cut at work which was much fun. By 4:30 I was having a glass of pimms in the pub! The electricity came back on just as we left work - oh well!

The heat wave continues and it has been very, very hot for Britain. I haven't been too badly affected by the heat - it used to really get to me but I think I must be getting used to it now!

Of course the last few days have been dominated by news of Michael Jackson's death. I am sure all of us will have had and heard many conversations about Michael Jackson. I think the most interesting conversation I have had was on Friday with the lovely Polish woman who did my pedicure. She talked to me about growing up in Communist Poland and the inspiration Michael Jackson was to teenagers in Poland. Very interesting and totally unexpected angle on Michael Jackson's life. The heatwave and Michael Jackson's 80s classics do just go hand in hand. Just hearing the opening beats of Billie Jean and I am 10 years old again, on top of the climbing frame in the park wearing a lemon yellow and white teabag t-shirt, listening to the Thriller album and thinking I was the coolest girl in the world!

For those of you not around or old enough in the 80s to know what a teabag t-shirt is - I promise you, you don't want to know. An 80s fashion they won't be reviving I hope!