Sarah Downton Beads and Jewellery

Friday morning

I love 4 day weeks, they seem so……short. The downside is that they reduce my days available for bead making unfortunately. I shall be going down the garden to my studio shortly as I have a mammoth 8 hours available to me today that I hope not to waste, although I do have some ‘paper’ things to do first. I have to say that the weather is putting me off somewhat, but I’m sure I’ll get over it.

So T5 (or Terminal 5) at Heathrow is up and running. lol. I can’t but help laughing, but I do feel sorry for BA as the whole project has gone so well, to time etc., and it’s not like they didn’t test all the systems rigorously. Having worked as a project manager and engineer in Industry I know what an achievement this is. Of course they forgot to factor in the mass of people problem with parking and getting in the way of the staff. Life would be so much easier for them and British Rail if there weren’t lots of pesky passengers around to get in the way and mess things up. It’s the same with the hospitals really, which reminds me of an entertaining episode of ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ where they had a hospital fully staffed with all sorts of management, not so many medical staff and absolutely no patients. Ahh, the old ones are the best……tongue firmly in cheek.

Now I have to go and decide what to make today, an arduous task, not. I think I might break out the silver foil again today and makes some real jewels of glassiness. Yippee I can’t wait.

Wednesday morning

It’s Wednesday morning again, and am I smugly doing my accounts? Am I heck. I did that once only, then reality took hold and strangled all the hope out of me…..not really, but there’s always a more important job to do than accounts. It’s a bit like housework in that respect. The thing is, I do think about doing it every Wednesday, then I realise that there’s something more important to be done. Take today, I have a big deadline I’m working towards on Friday, well 2 actually, so I MUST work on that job or I will miss it, as it’s actually a Thursday deadline for the post, which means the deadline is actually tonight as I have to have everything prepared this evening. So should I be number crunching? which if truth be told is only there to support the main event, which is my bead and jewellery making. I don’t think so. Mind you when these dates are past I will have a bit of a breather, and look, it’s then the start of the new financial year, which brings with it the joys of stock taking, whoopee. I think I’ll leave any attempt at counting my stuff until the school spring break.

Thursday morning

Today’s big question is…..how long does it take to cook cauliflower? This is not a veg that we normally have, but my parents brought around an exceptionally good one and it’s been sat in our fridge for several days hoping to get cooked. A quick look at my oldest (but more often than not) most useful cookery book ‘Margarite Paten’s Everyday Cook Book’ revealed a section on cooking vegetables that had us hooting with laughter. The cooking times were on the long side to say the least. Take fresh peas in the pod, once you’ve removed them how long do you boil them? I’d say about 1 minute, maybe 2 tops, my old book says 10 to 15 minutes. Oh dear. It says cauliflower sprigs take 10 minutes, I’d guessed at 4 to 5 minutes, so we used carrots for a point of reference. We normally cook them cut up for 3 to 4 minutes, but Margarite quotes ……..wait for it……25 to 30 minutes. EEEekkk. Even good old Delia, in her ‘How to Cook’ series says 20 minutes for small whole carrots. All I can say is ‘no wonder there’s so many people out there who hate vegetables. The poor things must have grown up with over cooked soggy piles of cauliflower and carrot, that just mush to a sodden mess of yukkiness. Urgh.

Fortunately my mum never overcooked her veg when we were growing up, she did used to go a bit towards the longer cooking time, as it was traditional to use the longer times, but suddenly decide to shorten her times further. I remember having crunchy cooked carrots, I think she’d boiled the water and waved the carrots over the top! Now we all cook our veg to a T, just enough to keep the firmness, but not crunchy….. perfection. I love me vegetables.

Tuesday morning

Who knew last week would be so busy and exhausting? It was a sad and also happy week that passed, as we attended a funeral one day, followed by arranging and attending a birthday party the next day.

We’re also in the process of having a real good clear out at home, anyone who’s come here for tuition will understand what I’m on about and probably wonder why we didn’t do it sooner, although time and will power do play an important role. Anyone who knows me will know that I hate housework, and that there is always something more interesting to do than tidy up, but the time has arrived, I need to cleanse my soul and the house, and purge the extra baggage from my life. This includes the old settee that we bought when we got married and that didn’t really fare very well, it was one of those where the cushions are all loose and flop and sag just when you look at it. It’s a real shame, but it would have cost a fortune to re-upholster and re-pad everything, just to end up with another saggy seat! Rick took great delight in taking a saw to it so it would fit in the car on it’s journey to it’s final resting place, also known as the dump – something they show very well on the new DFS advert actually! I’m not quite sure how long this eagerness to rid the house of old trash will last, I hope it lasts long enough to actually make a difference.

Monday lunchtime

What horrible weather we’re having today. I decided to stay home and avoid the wind gusts and lane closures on the M25 today, and now the wind is picking up and we’re having thunder and rain as I type. Yuk. I’ve spent the morning tidying my studio and desk, dipping mandrels, attacking the washpile and updating my website slightly, by this I mean that I’ve added a couple of  recommended B&B’s to my tuition page and 2 links to sites listing accommodation. Now it’s hailing and blowing a gale, and what’s the betting that it’ll be at it’s worst when I have to collect my daughter from school?

Friday  morning

It looks like I stuffed up my last entry, unfortunately Rick came home and picked holes in my discussion instead of smiling. OK I know some of the bits were not technically correct, but when you’re having a  bit of fun is that really important? What about artistic license? and this isn’t Wikipedia where we have dubious statements with more research necessary (and yes, I know that’s not what they say, but for your information I have just spent a futile 5 minutes or more trying to find an article there that has these notes so I can quote the correct phrase). Maybe I should start putting a disclaimer at the bottom of every post stating that I haven’t checked all my facts and that some events are fictional and not based on any person living or diseased……oh no, that should be deceased. You see it’s very hard, for me anyway, to blog quickly, because I like to get it right, so I find myself zipping off in cyberspace checking things that I’m unsure of, like the spelling of someone who’s dead. So I ask myself the question, is it more important to post regularly and quickly, or less frequently and more factually? OOO, sounding a bit like Carrie Bradshaw there. I think I’d rather post more often and not get too bogged down with accuracy myself, especially since I haven’t been here as often as I’d like recently. So, my conclusion is, get on with it!

No trees were cut down for the creation of this message, however a rather large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

Wednesday morning

Mothers Day…what’s that all about? Or should I say, who on earth sets the date as it always seems to be completely different? Is there a group of insignificant people who get together in a small dark room and decide what Sunday to pick, or is it a representative from all the major greetings card manufacturers who choose the best date to fit in with their around-the year-marketing? Have you noticed how there’s always something to send a card for lately? Even St Patrick’s day has got in on the act…..perhaps the gap was far too gaping between Mothers day (which we’ve already noticed has a very moveable date) and Easter. A quick look at Wikipedia tells me that Paddy’s day is also one of these moveable dates, as it’s normally 17th March (not long now) but can be moved also. In 1940 apparently it was celebrated on 3rd April, so it didn’t clash with Palm Sunday. Now this leads me nicely on to Easter…why is this always different? I appreciate that as it falls on a Sunday that it can’t always have the same date, but the difference in dates always seems to be huge, so again, I ask the question, who decides this and why is it always so different? Also why are we celebrating the resurrection on a Sunday rather than the Sabbath which is a Saturday? It’s always puzzled me that one. Of course if we chose the correct weekdays we’d then have Holy Tuesday, Maundy Wednesday, Good Thursday and Easter Saturday……hmm, maybe it doesn’t have quite the same ring about it.