Thursday 26 August 2010

Security

Dear Friends, Family, Fans etc...

Recently I have been getting a lot of spam posts, and its annoying me.

I have altered my settings so you have to type some of those letters before your post will be accepted. I'm really sorry about this!

Anna xxx

7/9/10

Security is working!

Sunday 22 August 2010

Sunday


Today Douglas was not feeling on top form, so he had a quiet day at home, whilst I went over to my younger brothers, and after a few games of swingbat and a nice chat, we walked down to the local swimming pool that has flumes, waves and a river rapid with his two sons, Carlo and Leo. Martha was away for the day with friends.

I took this picture just before we left. A few weeks ago, we found out that like his Uncle, Carlo is a big Spongebob fan, so we found him this colourful T Shirt on e-Bay.





When we got back from swimming, Carlo came up to me and told me he wanted to tell me how much he loved his new T-shirt, and Thank you Very much :-)

Kids can be so sweet sometimes!! lol!

Thursday 19 August 2010

Curry means Money

A few weeks ago, my team from work went to Heely City Farm to create some fencing for a paddock.




We saw what good work they do with inner city kids, the general public and adults with learning disabilities, and decided it would be great to raise some money for them.

Being a lover of a good curry, I suggested it would be a good fund raiser to make lunch for anyone in our office. My friend Robyn said she would be happy to help. We decided to hold our curry day at the same time as a "dress down day" also being held for the farm.

We got loads of orders from our colleagues.. I think about 30 people ordered in all!

On Tuesday, I spent most of my evening peeling, slicing and frying a very large bag of onions (with a large amount of garlic in too!).

On Wednesday lunch, I went to the local wholesalers and purchased large amounts of rice, naan bread and mango chutney...

After work I went back and purchased 50 chicken thighs! Douglas and I spent all of Wednesday evening giving the curry its first cook. I was a bit worried as it didnt smell right, but Douglas reassured me all would be well.

On Thursday evening, after a day in the fridge, the curry was ready for its final cook. The house filled with such a great smell.. I knew everything was going to be fine :-)

Robyn spent the evening making a huge vat of lentil dhall, which was our veggie option.

Another member of our team, Arshid, who used to be a chef in an indian restaurant kindly made us 70 veggie samosas (even kinder if you stop to consider that its Ramadan!)




The big day arrived and I was very excited. I managed to get all three vats of curry into the fridge, then Robyn managed to put her dhall in too, which was great.

We started serving at 11.45, then it was non stop until at about 1.15 our last customer arrived! We worked very well as a team, which was just as well since at times we had a queue of 5 hungry diners!! Everyone was most complimentary about the food, and some were very kind and washed their plates up so we could re-use them.




By 2.30 we were exhausted, all the food had gone, and we had cleared up the tremendous mess in the kitchen. I think the kitchen looked better than it had before by the time we finished :-) You can see how red I have gone with the heat, and that was just heating up pre cooked food. I think I would melt in a real kitchen lol!




After the final customers had paid and we had taken the cost of the food out of the takings, we had made about £85.00 for our chairty.. we were very proud of this!!!!!!!!

After such a busy day, and a few sleepless nights worrying about how this would go, I was glad to go home and collapse into bed for an hour and a half.

I would do it again.. but not for another year I think :-D

Friday 6 August 2010

Summer Holiday

Time flies!

I have been gently reminded that I have a blog (thank you DAIL lol) and that I really need to reassure my readers that Douglas and I are still alive.

well....... good news!

Douglas and I are still alive and kicking!!

Last week we went on our mini summer holiday up North to our usual destination of Pagan Camp, held in a couple of fields near Ripon.

As usual, rather than camping, we found a B&B fairly close to the site. I had told Douglas that it was a pretty standard B&B, but as a little surprise for him, I had booked a really rather nice looking place.... and booked into one of their best rooms!!!

The Old Coach House, North Stainley is a really lovely, and very superior B&B, with very friendly owners, nice breakfasts and very comfy beds. Our delux room had a bed about a mile wide, a really lovely powerful shower above a decent sized bath. Douglas particularly liked the old wooden beam in the ceiling.

We spent most of the weekend with our friends from the Pagan security firm, the Dagda (named after an Irish God) whom we have known for years.

Whilst on camp, photos are only allowed with the permission of all who appear in them.

Sadly, even in this day and age, many Pagans are not "out" and if their friends/family/employers found out, it would cause a lot of upset, so I only have one photo to share with you.. and thats one of a mysterious Green Woman who appeared on camp. You might be able to work out who she is.. but there are no prizes for doing so! (Photo will appear tonight)

Whilst on camp, I offered to be taxi driver for some people who wanted to go to the supermarket. He, a tall skinny morose fellow with a leather hat sat in the front, his girlfriend, one of the Dagda, sat in the back.

As you do, we got chatting, and I found out he came from Leicester where I spent much of my childhood. I enquired what area, then as I lived there too, I enquired what street, then the penny dropped.. he said "you are Anna Cossham, aren't you?" My jaw dropped as I realised that this "stranger" sitting next to me was someone in my class at junoir school.. and his younger brother was my younger brothers best friend for some years!

Small world, innit?

I didn't like this boy very much at school (he was always getting into trouble) and discovered that lepoards (and some school mates) dont change their spots!!!