I love you.

Because of your good habits, wisdom and encouragement, it is 8.40am on my day off over here in the UK and already:

My kitchen is clean and tidy and wiped and the washing up is done

My bathroom is scoured

My living room is tidy with the table clear and wiped and the sofa re-plumped

MY BED IS MADE!

The first load of washing is on to whirl

And I have a list … a goddamn list! … of things that need doing and half of them are already crossed off.

12 months ago this would not have been thinkable. Thank you.

Lady Cluck xxx

My mood is up and down like crazy at the moment. I’m not feeling very well, minor physical ailments with no obvious cause - which is usually a sign of stress. I have bounced between euphoric and distraught over the last week or two and at the moment I’m finding it *really* hard to even out. I’ve not felt this rocky since my last depressive episode and that scares me a little. I’m stretched very thin in terms of effort and resources, what with working full time, taking on a study course, acting as a private tutor, trying to support The Boy, making future plans and trying to keep up with all of the regular social commitments. I don’t have a lot spare in the Effort Bank. Or the Sympathy Bank. The Empathy Bank is running a little low. And my Sense of Humour valve is approaching critical failure levels. 

As a result my temper, sensitivity and emotional responses are not reliable at present and are best treated with caution.

I am going on holiday on 1st June and will not return until the 18th. let us hope that I am in a better frame of mind and mood upon my return. Or I shall have to seek medical aid.

3 Recipes and 2 sets of tips now up on the cooking blog!

In the last 20 year, Manchester United have won:

12 Premiership titles

An additional 8 qualifying slots for the European Champion’s League (ie a top 3 Premier League finishing slot)

2 European Championship titles, and two further runner up sets of medals

9 FA Charity Shields

5 League Cups

4 FA Cups

1 Fifa Club World Cup (the only British club ever to do so)

1 Intercontinental Club Cup (Again, the only British club ever to do so)

—

All of this has been accomplished under the leadership of one manager. Not bad for a league where, at other clubs, the manager’s role resembles a game of musical chairs.

He has consistently maintained that no player is more important than the club, which has lead to some high profile departures, but has not dimmed the record of success.

Manchester United play fast paced, passionate, attacking football and maintain a positive can-do attitude. They don’t play for one goal and ‘shut the doors’ (go full defensive). They’re out for the hat tricks, the high levels of scoring, the experience and the passion and drive of the game.

Whilst I may not be as fanatical a follower as I was in my teenage years, Manchester United hold a soft spot in my heart and I am still always pleased to hear about them doing well.

Today they lost the Premiership to neighbours, Manchester City. And many Man Utd fans are grieving. To them I say this:

Manchester City, in the last 20 years, have won:

1 Premiership

1 League Division 1 Championship

1 League Division 2 Championship

1 FA cup

1 Charity Shield

They have not had a European success since 1970

They have been relegated (moved down a league) twice.

And in the last 20 years, they have had 14 different managers.

—

Do not grieve, my dear Manchester United fellow fans. Success is enduring for us, whilst for City - it is fleeting, and they deserve their moment in the sun after their fans have endured so much disappointment.

Be magnanimous and generous. We’ll be back.

adulting:

… or even things that you just don’t like, or aren’t useful/beautiful. The world is full of things that annoy and upset you; no need to have any of them in the one small place that you have control over.

Personal example: Like many females, I have Feelings About My Body. I won’t get into them…

I had just been thinking about this on the way home today. Time to put some things in a box and send them away I think…

This is my ‘other’ blog about food, cooking and how to make food for yourself. Come follow if you want to see more :)

busyliferecipes:

Inspired by unfuckyourhabitat and adulting, I have decided to set up a blog which is designed to teach and inspire people to cook.

People don’t learn to cook properly in high school, and those who learn to do so at college/university are blessed. Most of us are too busy with papers, lab sessions,…

My fiance and I agree on many thing but one of the first things that drew us together was a shared love of home cooking.

My fiance was told by his father that if he wanted to really impress a girl, he should learn to cook.

So he did. And he did ;)

I have to admit, I was knocked off my feet when, early in our relationship, he offered to make me dinner. Not take me out for dinner - *make* me dinner. I get a lot of comments from my clients expressing surprise, wonder and no small part of envy when they ask me what I’m making for dinner and I tell them my boy is cooking for me.

My advice to anyone who is looking for a long term relationship with stability and happiness would be to learn to cook. Learn to cook stuff that you like, that you BOTH like. Share a kitchen together and share the chores. Some of my most important life choices have been made over a shared chopping board. Adapt. Experiment. Don’t confine yourself to recipe cards and books. Once you’ve learned the basics and found out what flavour make you tick, go with it and see what happens.

So having made a good start yesterday with the bedroom, I decided to take the bull by the horns and do the kitchen.

The drying up is now gone and the sink has been scrubbed out too btw…

And after this was all done I had a little chat with my other half. Y’see, I read the ‘Unfuck your Morning’ post on a regular basis and I feel that some of it applies to us, some of it does not and some of it really fucking should.

So what did I do?

Well, now sellotaped to the front of our freezer is our mutually agreed ‘Unfuck your Morning’ list.

We eat really late. I mean, really late - 9-10pm usually. So by the time we’re done, the last thing either of us wants to do is washing up. We have no dishwasher.

However… We did identify drying up as something we are really BAD at. Stuff makes it into the rack and stays there until it is needed again. Big no-no on the food hygeine stakes. So we did agree to make sure it’s all put away before we go to bed. And then we will have room to scrape our plates and stack everything for washing up the following day.

This makes me happy. One of the things I do hate is getting home to see last night’s meal stuff left on the table and the cooking pots on the stove and mugs left by the sofa. This way, the sink will be empty, the drainer will be empty and stuff will be ready to dunk straight into hot water when the first of us gets in from work. The worktops will be clear so we can give them a wipe down too.

Filling the kettle is one that works for our house. Our water supply is all tied together. So if you turn one tap on, the flow from another lessens. In practical terms, what this means is if you’re taking a shower and the other person turns the cold tap on to fill the kettle for tea, you get scalded. This small thing makes us more likely to actually *get* a cup of tea in the morning without risking injury to the other when we’re half asleep.

Have lunch ready is to improve several things including my organisation, but it’s also for cost purposes and for my diet. Even if it’s a hastily cut two slices of bread stuffed in a snappy bag and a tin of soup for the microwave, I intend to try and take *something* for lunch each day. On good days it will be a pre-made salad or sandwich. But I am going to try and keep last minute options available too.

The list of stuff for my bag is for me. Without any of those items, I am fucked the following morning.

Charging my phone is not mutually exclusive to putting it in my bag by the way. I put my bag next to the charger, plug the phone in and pop it in my bag with the cable trailing out. If I don’t do this, I am guaranteed to forget it the next morning and as I’m a field based tutor, this is severely bad news for my productivity.

The loo cleaner and the alarm? - that’s straight from the ufyh list :) See, we do listen…

My work laptop I use at home a lot. And in the morning a crucial five minutes is often lost as I try to shut the damn thing down, unplug it, untangle the cables and shove it into the bag. There is no reason why I should not do this the night before other than laziness.

Finding my shoes… You have *NO* idea how much time I waste in the morning looking for my shoes. They get eaten by pillows, sofas, blankets, stuff on the floor, my laptop case, towels, all sorts of stuff that isn’t where it should be. So the idea behind this one is twofold. One - I’m actually able to leave the house on time because I HAVE my shoes. And Two, all the stuff that they might be hiding under gets put back where it fucking belongs before I go to bed and isn’t strewn around the house in the morning.

Choosing my outfit is another one straight off the list. It makes me feel more prepared for the next day if I know what I’m wearing. It’s one less decision to make when I’m half asleep. Doing such a thing has lead to me going to work in some extremely dubious fashion choices…

So. Here goes. We have agreed this list is good and we’re going to try and support each other in doing the stuff on it. By reminders and help. I’m confident this is going to sort out various issues for us.