Happy Birthday Your Majesty!

Happy birthday Your Majesty! Well, kind of, as I know your birthday was in April. Did you know the holiday for Queen's Birthday is generic for any English Monarch on the thone? So when Charlie or Wills mount up it will be a King's Birthday holiday. That is if we haven't decided to cut ties with Mother England. We'd better not, 'cause I rather like having a day off in June.

I was hoping to feature on the Queen's Birthday honours list. Hmmm. For Services to Chocolate? Maybe next year. I think I should give out some honours of my own.

For services to food:
My Mum and Dad for surviving the worst soup in the world- a clam chowder purchased in Doc Martin's little village. Sorry - but actually I think I deserve that award for surviving a tomato with stringy bits of fish soup created by an aunt who shall go unnamed. I had that at least 20 years ago and still remember the horror.

Oh, I also deserve this award for gaining two and a half kilos in my first week attempting to lose weight.

For services to style:
Nood- or New Objects of Desire- a design store with all sorts of interesting bits and pieces at all sorts of prices (and outstanding sales). Guaranteed to make the uninformed vaguely alarmed when you say you've been there.

For services to pets:
To my lovely sister, Miss Ruby Two Shoes, for making a stylish doggy toy (with machine embroidery embellishment) that lasted about 20 minutes in the jaws of the beloved Miss Poo.

For services to wives:
My lovely husband, Mr B, for pressing on with building a new house when the poo hit the fan, and for being patient, kind, and supportive with an ever-changing, often deranged wife.

I'm sure there are many more honours that I could bestow on the masses, but I'm sure you want to hear what I did today.

• I talked to my lovely Mummy for ages. She and Dadsy got back yesterday from their epic holiday in Britain and a bit of Europe. They came back through Hong Kong and Mum said she is never eating Chinese food again. The air in Hong Kong is like being suspended above a boiling pot of Chinese food. I talked to Nanny too. Love my family XXXXXXXXXXXXX
• I had minestone soup for lunch that I made a couple of days ago.
• We went out to The House (yes, again) and did a walk-though on the foundation with Mr and Mrs CT. Then we went to Coffee Culture. I wanted a Denheath custard square, but they didn't have any. I didn't have a hot chocolate so that I could have a piece of citrus slice. Very restrained (actually Mr B is helping me to be restrained).
• We came home and I did not much and packed a few things and read.
• I had salad and smoked chicken with a pita pocket for tea.

Not much, I must say. The weather went all dreary.

By the way. So far one suggestion on something incredible I would do to amaze myself and other people (rather than climb Mount Everest). Thank to Miss M for the suggestion that I could enter the Special K Women's Triathalon which is on early next year. I think it involves a 300m swim (can't do a length at the moment, but at least I can swim), a 3km run or walk and a 10km bike ride. I have actually thought about it in the past, but the idea scared me a whole lot. It would be good for me to do the training. I could do the City to Surf walk/run too. Climbing Mount Everest sounds equally possible at this stage. XXX

Making a Mess

This little beauty is an Eton Mess. I made this for pudding tonight, but used tinned boysenberries instead of the traditional strawberries. I didn't take a picture, so good old Delia had one that I borrowed to show you. This would have to be the easiest dessert ever. Well, apart from a piece of fruit. I daren't display this on Taming the Chocolate Baby due to an unfortunate upswing in the weight department. Barbara came over for tea. I make tortellini in a mushroom, tomato cream (oops) sauce, and a salad. Then served the Eton Mess. All you do for this is mix meringues (crunched up- I bought some el cheapo meringue nests and smooged them into rough chunks), whipped cream and tinned boysenberries with a little of their juice. I didn't stir too hard because I wanted ripples of the purple boysenberries through the cream. Utterly delicious. Oh, I forgot to say that I sprinkled a few chocolate buttons over the top.

I'm feeling a bit better in the anxiety department. I had a big talk to Mr B, and we took Miss Dog for a lovely walk. Then we visited our neighbours. I had a cup of tea. We also popped out to visit our giant concrete floor and I stood on my kitchen and looked out at my view. I will be able to see the Port Hills from my kitchen window. We thought the floor level would be a lot lower than it is, so we are very pleased. It is more traditional up high. Plus we will have a deck instead of a patio outside the big stacking doors. That will make it like a wee verandah. We will have a paved area at ground level where we will eventually have a big table and chairs.

Don't you hate it when you go to the doctor and get a prescription and the medicine is either wrong for the condition, or makes it worse? You've still got to pay for it, and for the next lot that you have to get because the other stuff didn't work right. I've got dermatitis on my eyelid. A terrible thing for a girl who feels like a ghost without some eye makeup. I got some hydrocortisone cream from the doctor and now I've not just got nasty looking dermatitis on my eyelid, it has flared up to the side of my eye and it really hurts. Very disagreeable. I think it might be related to the perioral dermatitis I have had twice before. Called periocular dermatitis around eyes. That was cured with antibiotics. Maybe I need those again.

I'm watching Everest-Beyond the Limit. Such a great programme about climbing Everest (of course). It does make me wish to do something amazing that no one would expect that I could do. Climbing Everest would not be it. Ideas, anyone? XXX