Better than a kick in the knickers with a winklepicker

Brilliant. 4 days before Christmas, our PS3 has decided it can't read any disks.

The main Christmas prezzie I've asked for is a PS3 Game.

:(

Never mind. Mum and Stepdad are down this weekend on the Santa Run, and Vi's loving it. Me and Ma cooked a massive toad in the hole yesterday and she's treating us all to a chicken dinner tonight. Yum! Plus, I have finally baked all the cakes, with one left over for us.

There has been a slight hitch, however. When I bought the apricot jam for the glaze, Hubs asked if he could have some for his toast. 'Sure', said I, 'but please don't eat too much or get any crumbs in before I do the baking - I need about half a jar for the cakes.'

I get the jam jar out of the fridge today.

There is a tiny, crumby scraping left at the bottom of the jar.

Even though I told Hubs what the jam was for. Even though I have been baking for three days in a row now, and he knew I'd be needing the jam. He could have just bought more, or asked me to buy more, and not just kept schtum about it and let me find out about it when all the shops were shut.

The big, jam-thieving bastard!

Let's just hope that Marmalade works instead.

Oh God, my cake kicks arse! It's basically the consistency of Fudge Brownie but with fruit instead of chocolate. Apart from the occasional currant, you can't even tell what's cake and what's fruit any more.Eaten two fat slices of it this evening. Nummy!

And we've now watched all of BSG S4 (or the first half of S4... I'm not sure what they're calling these two half-series...) ( spoilers, obviously )

My soup kicks arse. And there's plenty left for tomorrow and maybe even Monday lunch.

Cookies next - I'm feeling very Domestic today.

I have had such a lovely weekend!

Got all the chores done pretty much first thing, and have managed to see two lots of friends, have a BBQ and a Sunday Roast. And a Dark Bounty milkshake :)

The birthday Bratwurst fest (codename: It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Wurst Of Times) was, as I mentioned slightly frantically last night, full of meaty, mustardy, international wonderment. Violet made lots of friends, tried cashews (which she loved) Toblerone (ditto) Pretzels (which she thought she liked, then decided she didn't), lots of salady things and BBQ'd courgette (which we had to refer to as 'Zucchini', otherwise Flo's bro and S-i-L didn't know what we were asking for) She gave some bratwurst a munch but wasn't impressed, but then she's not a meat fan. She was incredibly good and sat in a grown-up's garden chair at the table with us and our friends and happily picked at food from her plate like a big girl while we all ate. I was so proud! She spent a lot of time prodding a large marble ball in Flo's garden and shouting 'Ball!', as well as pointing at a ceramic chicken and shouting 'duck!' - close, but no cigar, kid. As I said, alas, her in-car Power Nap on the way back meant that she was up stupidly late last night. we finally got her down at quarter to 11, after a very long struggle which knackered us out so much that we fell into bed shortly after she did.

Today, our friends Anna & Russ came round, and I took the excuse to cook a proper Sunday Roast. I'm getting really good at the gravy now - go me! I did this lot with drained chicken fat instead of butter too - tasty! Since Vi was poorly on Christmas day and our Easter dinner was in the evening this year it was the first time that Vi has ever sat down to a Roast Lunch with us before. As I expected, she wolfed down all her veg and not much else. She quite liked the parsnips and stuffing, though. Then a nice constitutional around the Cathedral grounds via the milkshake shop. Champion. We introduced Anna & Russ to the delights of Pocoyo - they were very impressed.

This all might sound mightily pedestrian to those of you who are still young and sexy, but due to the combined factors of all our Uni chums moving away and the sproglet, we really don't get to see our friends much these days, and it's an immense treat for us to see one group of friends, let alone two, and to eat, drink and be merry with them. It's also started to get to the point where Vi is able to interact with adults as a child would rather than a baby, which I actually find really very exciting.

Oh. And I have found some lovely Blackadder icons. *Pointy*

Boo. I have attempted to make Vi a baked (new) potato with peas and cheese for her tea, as a change from all that bloody macaroni she usually has as her teatime starch and she wouldn't touch it! Tried some, then spat it out, then refused any more. Ended up eating a very large amount of cheesy peas and some hastily made toast soldiers to make up the carbs. *sigh* So either roast potato is OK but baked isn't or the next time I try her with roasties she'll spit them too. Any ideas for something quick I could do with sweet potato for her? I think they're too big for her to eat a whole one in a sitting, so baking in the microwave is out, and mash is no good because she likes to pick at chunks. My knowledge of potatoes is very limited since I don't really eat them.

May re-attempt rice at some point, but maybe not for a while after the risotto fiasco. That little girl is in danger of turning into a piece of macaroni.

Gorgeous day today, went for a long walk around the other side of the Cathedral... through the Cloisters and the remains of the Monastery. Vi had great fun running up and down the wheelchair ramp in a pretty little gardenny bit, attacking German tourists and petting a dozy cat.

I have sent off The Script. I'm actually a bit depressed about it because even though it's as good as I can make it I think the chances of them wanting to develop it are pretty slim, considering the amount of competition. In general, the whole thing's a massive shot in the dark.

I could probably do with a better strategy. Hell, I could definately do with a better strategy, but not only am i not in the least strategically minded, I'm also terrible at promoting myself. Grr.

In other news, I got weed on today. Daddy decided to wander off looking for Sudacrem while I held a naked babe on my lap, and... yeah. Yuck. And my Chilli-free Chilli Con Carne has been roundly rejected. I did, however, make a kick-arse Korma tonight so I hope she likes that.

And I hope for an unbroken night's sleep for a change. That would be nice.

Didn't do much of any use today - partially due to the fact that Vi decided she'd wake up at ten to midnight and stay awake til about quarter past 2, so we all needed a lie in. Have decided to bake for the extended rellies by way of their Chrimble pressies (since I'm seeing them all next week for the funeral anyway). Going to attempt gingerbread and mince pies at the weekend. Have never done pastry before. Should be interesting.

Need to check Vi still fits into the formal dress I got for Jools & Sylv's wedding blessing, for the funeral (OK so it's not black... it's dark purple cordoroy with little brown flowers and pink sleeves - formal, dark and muted) It was a bit of a tight squeeze at the blessing, if it doesn't fit her we'll have to get her a new frock - luckily I've seen some in grey, and even one in black around, so I can at least get something suitable. Her shoes'll clash, though. Did I mention, Vi now has proper shoes? They were from Clark's, little brown and pink velcro affairs, like trendy trainers, only £9 - bargain!

Bit of a boring post. Hey Ho.

Freezing out, innit?

Flo is coming over tonight, all newly PhD'd up. Am baking him some 'congratulations on being Doctor Flo' brownies. Have allowed Vi to taste the mix. Sugar and caffeine. Might end up regretting that.

I heart freeview! Flight of the Conchords and Charlie Brooker on BBC4 were both magnificent. Oooh look, a squirrel! Look at the lovely squirrel...

Seen today in Zara: jumpers with faux-leather patches on the elbows! am tempted to get one just so I can dig out my old tweed trousers and run around pretending to be Dr G.

It's been so long since I've properly watched a Drama on the actual telly, as it's transmitting, that I think I've lost the nack. Especially with a squirmy, tired babe who needs attending to generally - I kept having to stop myself asking Hubs to pause and rewind it.

Anyhoo.

Heroes.

Good, innit? :D It'll fill the Lost shaped void until winter, anyway.

Surprisingly Gory though, in a comic strip kinda way. Who's the serial killer - Itchy & Scratchy? Generally made me think of The Watchmen, what with the bomb and all.

Have been watching King Of The Hill from LoveFilm today as well - I keep forgetting how funny that show is. have spent much of this evening shouting paranoid nonsense in the style of Dale Gribble. 'My Dew!'

I made a big, fuck-off Ratatouille tonight and bunged a load of lentils in it too. Lucky I did, because my potatoes were rubbish, alas.

Ho well. Back to The Specials.

So we're about to go out to Nandos and the three of us realise that we are all dressed exactly the same - black TShirt/short sleeved shirt, beige trousers and black shoes/sandals. A couple dressed the same, but a couple and their best mate is just getting creepy. Walking down the high street we looked like a bloody cult! Not helped by the fact that Ian bought a bloody gollywog in the sweetie shop for comedy purposes. Now we look like a White Supremicist cult. Oy Vey.

Also today I made possibly the best toad in the hole ever (a culinary tour-de-force! - Evening Standard), and then lost at scrabble.

Have, however, spent a distressing amount of today alseep. Just off to do some more.