Fish and Chips

Right going to get this confession done and out of the way now. Not sure it is a confession. I rather enjoyed it, and I don’t feel guilty at all!

This weekend I have worked a total of 20 hours. I have spent it all on site doing manual labour. I have been lying on floors peeling up glue, I have removed protection from every possible surface, door, windows, balustrade, chair, desk, sockets etc etc. I have put signs up I have told people off I have gone above any beyond my role of Document Controller, and today, all 12 hours of it, has definitely been the best day on site so far. I finally felt like a member of the team, its only taken 4 months!

Why all this work? Why on a weekend? We need to make PC tomorrow.  This is when we hand the building over to the client and they say yes its a good job done! Well that is the plan. I have to say at 8 am this morning it was looking very unlikely. Now? I think we might just make it.

Well anyway back to the semi-confession. The Project Manager (who has I think finally realised how fabulous I am), brought us dinner tonight. And for the first time since December I had

Fish and Chips! Ohhhh my it was the best fish and chips I have ever had.
It was hot, greasy, salty, vinegary and delicious! I am unrepentant. I have no regrets because I think I throughly deserved it and I bloody loved it!!
YUM!!!

Confession and a Weigh in..

Wow.. well what a week!

Things went a bit haywire on the 19th which was my sons 18th Birthday, culminating in the evening when I had a Steak dinner with him at our local Wetherspoons pub. It consisted of a large steak, chips, peas, ½ tomato and 1 mushroom. I did give ¾ of my chips to my son, so my meal was slightly less than the advertised 1001 calories!! (just). ONE THOUSAND AND ONE CALORIES!!!! Jjjjjjjjjjjjjjeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuuu!! Oh and on top of that there was the 4 large glasses of Rosé. That was a total of a whopping 1700 calories in one night. OOPS!!!!!

Oh and while I am confessing I also had a small (?) cooked breakfast in the morning. 2 weightwatchers sausages, grilled, 2 bacon medallions, grilled, 1 tbsp baked beans, 1 scrambled egg and a slice of tiger bread. Grand total of about 447 calories. Double opps!

I didn’t have lunch and I only snacked on a few grapes during the day (preparing my body for the influx of grape juice in the evening perhaps?!) and drank lots of water. We did do a lot of walking around Portsmouth so I am hoping at least some of that huge breakfast was worked off.

I obviously didn’t do Zumba on that night either, but I did go on Wednesday instead (which nearly killed me). And instead of getting a taxi to go and collect my car, I walked it (1.5 miles) early on the Wednesday morning so I think that’s another tick in the right box.

I am not going to beat myself up too much about the splurge on Tuesday night, after all its not every day your son turns 18 is it? Thank God!! I definitely lost a different type of pounds on that day! I thought as I had done so well for 5 1/2 weeks I could allow myself one night off.

So I come to the great weigh in. I know my instructor was hoping for 4lbs this week as that would make it 2 stone in 6 weeks. I had guessed Tuesdays splurge had ruined that aim. So I went with intrepidation and expecting a stern telling off, and I can tell you I lost……………………… 2lbs!! (and no telling off) Not bad me thinks and a darn sight better than I thought I would do, I just didn’t want to have put any on or lost nothing. So I am 2lbs of 2 stone. Next week its mine!!

CHIPS!!

I am craving chips. Not just any old chips, the chips you get from the chip shop. A little bit greasy, with lots of vinegar and a bit of salt. Perhaps with some curry sauce. Ummmmmm soooo tasty.

It’s not something we have ever had a lot off. At home on the rare occasion I made them they were oven ones. But chip shop chips were my once a month treat that I would pick up on my way home from work. More often than not with a nice piece of battered cod. I would get indoors and unwrap the yummy goodness and the cats would appear as soon as the smell wafted to wherever they were. They would sit patiently for their fish, normally getting about half of it, so I would have to buy a large fish.

Its been over a month since my last chippy night, so perhaps that is why I’m craving them. The craving is just for the chips. I had it last night, and it took all my will power not to pop into the chip shop at Ferring to get just a small childs portion on my way home. The craving has come back, started earlier today. I think I want to cry.

Chips out of the paper, chips warm on my lap, chips hot and tasty, vinegar splashed chips.. ohhh chips… sigh… 😦

I ♡ Tatties..

I am trying to give up carbs as part of this diet thing. It was either them or meat, and I’m sorry but I bloody love my meat.

I am finding I am having to ween myself off them. Yesterday with my salad I had 2 small new potatoes, today I had just one. They taste so yummy.

Then I thought just now that it is Sunday tomorrow. Sunday is roast day. Chicken, pork, lamb or beef with lots of veggies, but also as important, roast potatoes.

Golden and crunchy on the outside white light and fluffy on the inside. I had finally managed to suss how to cook the perfect roast potato about this time last year. Everytime since my tatties have been perfect. Par boiled for the right amount of time, right type of oil nice and hot, oven set right, shaking the tin and hearing their crisp shells crack against the sides, then taking them out and placing them on kitchen paper to get rid off the excess fat, and then serving them up on the plates with the meat and veg. And lastly pouring on that rich gravy made in the meats roasting tin, making sure it doesn’t spill onto the tatties and make them go soft. Ummmmm roast potatoes surely the food of the gods.

And then there is the jacket potato. The crisp brown skin opened up and a knob of butter forked into the soft insides. A good helping of baked beans and a generous grating of cheese on to. Or without the beans on a plate of salad and lovely sliced of cold cooked gammon.
Jacket potatoes the food of the demigods.

And where would we be without the mashed potato? Mashed till light and fluffy with a knob of butter and a splash of milk, seasoned with freshly ground pepper and salt (sometimes with a little whole grain mustard mixed in too). Served with anything, but nothing beats it spooned on top of mince, sprinkled with grated cheese and put in the oven to go golden to produce the comfort food of all comfort foods the shepards/cottage pie.

Then there is the humble new potato. Boiled, eaten hot or cold, as a salad or with a salad, with lovely spring lamb or some fresh salmon. Small and perfect in every way. 

I guess I should include chips. But the only ones worth mentioning are the ones eaten out of the paper on the beach or riverside. Sprinkled with salt and vinegar that stings your nostrils as you breath their heavenly scent when they are first unwrapped.

Potatoes, what can I say? I will miss you, but I know one day we can be happy together again, but for now I must say, not goodbye, just a fond farewell and adieu until I can take pleasure in your scrummyness once more. I will miss you…….