Auld Lang Syne...

Happy New Year! (A bit early, I know, but I have plans to sit on my backside all evening eating sushi and watching films.) My plans with friends have fallen through but to be honest I'm not really bothered - today I am taking advantage of my new cookbooks (in particular, the one about how to make your own sushi - really looking forward to rustling up some homemade norimaki rolls) and am generally pottering about doing not much besides watch cack films, and will be singing along badly to the party tunes that are sure to grace the airwaves on every radio station across the land.

I have a feeling my sushi-hating folks may make an appearance later on, and I will be kicking out my Other Half into the street (most likely in his knocking-about-the-house shorts and t-shirt combo) just before midnight to be our first-footer, but that's about it. I quite like not having plans tonight. It doesn't feel as forced. Anyway, whatever you're doing and whoever you're with - hope you have a good one. Here's to 2009; may it bring everything you wish for.

xx

Shake, rattle and norimaki rolls...

I'm on holiday from work this week. It's great. I don't have to worry about staying up late on a school night and dragging myself in the next morning to face my colleagues, looking like Wurzel Gummidge's lesser known sister crossed with the corpse bride, oh no. (For those of you who don't remember Wurzel Gummidge, he was a scarecrow. And quite a freaky one at that.) I'm just frightening my Other Half with that guise on a daily basis instead of my co-workers. Being a lady of leisure has many fringe benefits. There's the lie-ins, time to potter and the knowledge that you can go anywhere and do anything (or not - but it's nice to have the option).

Going out during the day and laughing and pointing at people who have to work is near the top of the list of pluses, though. But so is going out to eat. Oh yes, lunch somewhere lovely without having to plumb for a Boots Meal Deal, and without looking at the clock on your phone every two minutes and wondering if you have time to finish and make it back in time for the weekly team meeting. Which is why my good self and The Other Half decided upon a leisurely meander around town in the sunshine followed by some sushi. And I'll stop you there - that's not a euphemism. Sadly, the world and his dog were conspiring against us.

Mishap #1 - no parking spaces. Not a major issue, but we got dizzy going round and round the multi-storey. Mishap #2 - when we did finally find a space, the heavens opened as we left the car. I did not plan ahead and bring a brolly. Mishap #3 - umbrella-less, my hair began to frizz and both our jeans were soaked up to the flamin' knee. Mishap #4 - long queue at sushi place. Seems a lot of people had the same idea as us to avoid said rain. Mishap #5 - chef warfare. This is the one we really couldn't have planned for. A heated argument erupts in the open-plan kitchen. A plate of norimaki rolls crashes to the floor. Something whizzes past our heads. Then we feel the dreaded splat. We look at each other. Two waitresses look at us with open jaws. Both of us resemble abstract expressionist artists let loose in the studio. Except the canvas was our shirts and the paint was hoi-sin sauce.

Maybe this is my karma because I laugh and point at people who have to go to work. Anyway. I'm off to wash the gloop off my already rain-sodden jeans. Think I might have been better off at work today. And I definitely need to sort my hair out.