Well, here we are at the end of my first "proper" day unemployed - i.e. a day when I should normally have been at work and wasn't ... I'm not counting the weekend ... and I have been a busy little bee.
Definitely less problems with the eating today, simply because I haven't been sat still and unoccupied long enough to think about it!
I was up bright and early this morning for my first stop, which was the dentist's over in Birmingham. One quick check up, a couple of x-rays and a clean bill of health later and on to more interesting things. I headed over to Merry Hill (blurgh) for some more travel kit shopping. Still not got a new pack, but now know which one I'm getting, but did pick up some nice new North Face walking trainers for £30 less than I saw them at Cotswold Outdoor yesterday, a shiny new camera (a Panasonic Lumix FS30) which also had some money off and a some smaller bits and bobs like replacing my holiday sunglasses and a jersey maxi-dress. And yes, I realise having holiday sunglasses sounds odd - I have several pairs of sunnies - more expensive designer-y ones for everyday wear, and some aviators too - neither of which would survive the beating of a holiday like this one; proper full on sports ones which might go, but I like something a little more glam for everyday wear - so then we get to my tried and tested Bloc's - a deep, wrap-around black frame with wide arms, but built to withstand a battering and with a proper UV protection - a little bit glam, a little bit sporty ... and not too expensive for when they do eventually get broken - my last pair survived Scotland, numerous mountain-biking outings, windsurfing in Egypt, touring Croatia and skiing in France this year, before I managed to something to crack the frame at some point in my bag.
Anyhoo - back to today - I just had time to grab lunch sitting in my car (thank you Boots Shapers wraps for being reliably tasty and low points) before trundling back to Malvern to go make like a pin-cushion for the nurse. One typhoid jab later and I was free to leave. I came home via the supermarket, and can I just say, I'm getting so much better at actually leaving with what I went for, and not all kinds of other goodies (for which read "baddies"). I rang the new recruitment agency when I got home and then spent the next 2 hours on the phone to them and reading job specs they sent me over - those guys are seriously efficient and enthusiastic! A very productive couple of hours.
Finally, when all the dust settled I decided on a little kitchen experimentation. With all the baking I've done recently, the one thing I've not touched on is savoury items like bread. I've been itching to try pizza dough for ages, but for some reason savoury baking scares me ... maybe it's the yeast and all the special flours. Anyway, I did some looking up on simple dough recipes yesterday and found one that didn't need any special flours on the BBC Food website. Since I had some time to kill, I set about trying the dough and bodging my first home-made pizza!
Not a bad effort all in all. It needs a bit of work, but I can see it being really good with a bit of fine-tuning - I nearly stuck my hands together with the dough (less liquid required I think), and the pizza sauce needs a bit more flavour (I wasn't sure whether to add a stock cube or not - in retrospect it needs it), and next time proper cheese - I didn't have any mozzarella as it was a last minute plan, so I nicked some of my flatmate's Edam instead - it's ok but not the same. The dough rose though and held on the pan - that's a good start :o)
Half of the pizza was plenty, and was only 7.5pts - not bad at all.
In all the kerfuffle with the recruitment consultants, I didn't make it to the gym this evening, but all the walking round earlier means I've saved some points anyway.
2 comments:
Yep being busy and productive makes it all so much easier - well done you for achieving so much. Zxx
I'm always wary of savoury baking as well - I'm useless at pastry! However, my hubby taught himself bread making (and pizza dough) from a book called "Bread" by Richard Bertinet - it shows you exactly how to knead the dough, so that even if it is quite sticky and feels wet, you work it over until it comes together better. I can highly recommend it - Hubby is now famed for his foccacia! My dad uses the same book.
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