Tag: slice of life

I've gone vegan for two weeks. I'm almost done week 1.

I crave dead cow and swine flesh.

Our diet over xmas was so shockingly bad for us that Katy wanted to do a 2-week detox diet where she'd cut out all meat, sugar fat and milk products. Since she has no will power of her own, she turned those big brown eyes towards me and convinced me to do it with her. I had no spine, so I agreed. All in all, it hasn't been that bad. We're making good food, but beef curry is better than chicken curry, soba tastes better when there's chicken in the broth to accompany the veg and tofu? it's ok, but it could do with a bit of texture.

So yeah, I'm a carnivore and I'm looking forward to grilling a hunk of dead cow soon.

A few days ago, Katy and I marathoned our way through the first season of Rome. Yesterday, we brought in the new year with a Grey's Anatomy marathon. We could have gone to the village hall and we had an invitation to go to Phil and Caroline's, but we were people'd out and we just wanted to spend some quiet time. It was a nice evening, and we finished the last episode with 5 minutes to spare for a bathroom break before the fireworks started going off on the BBC. Damn, they must have spent a small fortune for that display. Looked impressive.

Been feeling a bit bleh today. I think it's partly due to the diet of junk food and crap we've been living off since the holidays and partly due to the fact that I'm going back to work tomorrow (it's been almost 3 weeks now) and now the real world kicks back in. Bills and other money ugliness rear their head. We're going to have to deal with the estate agent to get them to fix the hole in our roof.

Ya. Get this. There have been hella strong winds in the past week hereabouts. Some time during the night this past Saturday, about a dozen roof tiles blew off. Katy noticed them scattered on our front lawn when she came back from work. There's a gaping hole in our roof that leads straight into our attic. We tried to call the estate agent but of course, they're closed. They had thoughtfully sent a letter a week before the holidays with emergency contact numbers. Unfortunately, the “emergency number whose answerphone will be checked many times daily” never actually called back and the “emergency mobile phone number if all else fails” is incorrect and missing a digit.

In a sense, we were lucky. It's not *that* big a hole, and though it has rained, it hasn't poured so there shouldn't be that much damp in the attic space. Furthermore, it's not our damn problem. That's one of the beauties of renting a house. All our stuff is insured and the house is their responsibility. Still, if it had been our boiler that broke down during new years, we would not have been amused.

In other news, I've gained weight. This doesn't surprise me, given the crap sugary, fatty, salty (tasty) diet we've been on for the past 3 weeks. I, like many others, will be hitting the gym when I get back to work. Honestly, I've let myself slip since the wedding, so I'm really going to make the effort of getting my ass back into shape. What makes me hate society as a whole though, is that the TV is full of weight-loss ads, diet and exercise program ads and – curiously – summer holiday ads. The first two are not surprising; advertisers are just tapping into the holiday guilt market. Katy rightfully commented on that last one though that it made perfect sense. Not only is it the next big expense for most families (barring paying off the xmas credit card debt) but it's also another way to tap into the guilt thing – you need to be slim to fit into that bikini for your holidays.

Bastards, the lot of them.

…is that I seem to have acquired a biological barometer just behind my right eye. Every time the weather takes a severe nosedive, I get a pisser of a headache – as in, can't-function-and-want-to-gouge-out-your-eye headache. Advil helps, but it's really annoying when one whole side of your head is pounding. Not fun, not fun at all.

Today, I have:

– cooked a pheasant and liver terrine, from scratch
– cooked beignets from scratch
– cooked our usual sunday roast (half a leg of lamb with assorted roast veg)
– installed a shelf in the bedroom to finally clear off the top of our chest of drawers
– unpacked and reconstructed my zen garden
– built the footstool for the Poang chair in the living room
– supplied Katy with copious amounts of tea while she was studying.

In a word, I'm tired – but it's a content tired.