Leek and Potato Soup

Reg had brought us a couple of pounds of leeks when he came on Wednesday. I also still have quite a lot of potatoes from the veggie patch stored in a sack inside our defunct freezer. So I googled a recipe for leek and potato soup - and there were a lot to choose from. In the end I did my own simplified variation.

1 lb leeks

1 onion

1 lb potatoes

2 pints Chicken stock - I used Knorr chicken stock pot as recommended by Diana

2 ounces butter (I used slightly more as I had the remains of a pack and didn't think it worth saving half an ounce, but you could taste the butter. The least you can get away with the better.)

Gently heat the butter in a large saucepan (I actually used my jam pan)

Finely chop the leeks and onion and soften in the butter (about 15 minutes by the time I had done the next step with the occasional stir)

Prepare the potatoes - most recipes said to dice the potatoes and then either mash or blitz the soup at the end. Delia's recipe used mashed potato to start with! I actually grated them being the rebel that I am - much less hassle.

Add the potatoes and stock to the pan

Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes

Season as required with salt and pepper

Most recipes said to add cream or milk, but this is unnecessary. Better not to if you are freezing the soup - add to individual bowls if wanted.

This makes enough for 4 people - we both had a good sized bowl of it for tea last night, I have filled and frozen a 600 ml container, and there is just about enough left for me to have a small bowl for lunch...

Another Action Packed Week

A week has gone by and most of the snow has departed from the lawn. But we still have thick ice on the drive - my narrow path has been well used.

Saturday watched Williams beat Henin. What a difference in physique...

Sunday saw Murray return to being Scottish.

Monday Paul came back via fixing Colin's computer.

Tuesday nipped into Duns to get and post birthday cards. My Aunty Margaret reached the ripe old age of 90 this week.

On Wednesday it was the first round of the Border Clubs knock-out (bridge). This is a handicap event with aggregate scoring played in people's homes. We (Reg, Malcolm, Paul and I) were defending the title. Reg picked us up about 12.30 and we drove on to near Melrose. We had a difficult task, giving away 2750 points over a 24 board match. The first 12 boards were pretty flat, and we only managed to pull pack about 1400 on the last 12. Oh well, that's that over with for the year but they did provide a nice tea.

Ros has asked Penny and me to play in the league for Berwick next Wednesday. A practice bidding session has been organised for tonight. I found an email from Paul this morning sent to us both asking us what certain bids meant...

Yesterday morning a man from Servico came to fix the drawer of the coffee table. It looks absolutely fine now. I also pointed out a small crack in the wood and a mark on the top of the table which he has also fixed. I am now a happy bunny.

Was very pleased to see two deer on the dog walk after moaning to Paul that I hadn't seen any yet this year. Even more pleased that the dogs didn't.

I have almost got Chip's Challenge out of my system. I have skipped a few levels - don't like the ones where you have to bounce around on ice mazes where it all looks the same. Even following a solution took almost all the time allowance. Level 141 though kept me failing for over a day before I gave up - I may yet go back to it. There should have been a warning for it - my left arrow key button came off with excessive use!

Almost 2 weeks now with no studying. It is the Scottish Masters in just over a week's time...

Men, Who Needs Them?

Paul departed early Wednesday morning for a bridge tourney in apparently snow and ice-free Iceland. He gets home some time on Monday. The bridge tourney is being broadcast on BBO, but I suspect Paul's team will have to be performing very well to be featured...

This is my sixth scrabble-free day in a row. Chip's Challenge has taken over. I reckon another two or three days before I finish it, and then hopefully I will have regained some enthusiasm for studying.

But today I have done other things despite not sleeping well thanks to Jen and Poncho deciding to howl like the hounds that they are in the early hours. And then this morning Jen decided to have a strop and not come and get her coat and lead on for the morning walk. Normally when this happens she comes running when you open the front door, but not today. So I called her bluff and just took Poncho on a walk. She had obviously done what had needed doing when I had thrown them out the back when I first got up...

Back home and switch the TV on to watch the tennis. Disaster - no satellite signal being received.

Oh well, I had another job that needed doing so no excuse now. We may be having a big thaw but not on our driveway, which still has a couple of inches of ice covering most of it. It was treacherous. So I have now cleared a narrow track from the top to the bottom. I knew Paul's spade was a great birthday present...

Back in and gave the dogs breakfast.

And then set about sorting the TV. Okay - most advice was to put sky+ box on standby. Wait a bit. Power it off. Wait a bit. Power it back on. Hmm - the good old switch it off and on again. Works for most things.

So manual out to check which cable was the power cable. Sorted. Now do I just pull it out of the box or turn it off at the socket. A lot of faffing to determine which of the multiple plugs/sockets/wires/cables at the back of the cabinet was the correct one, involving having to move the TV so that I could actually lean over the cabinet whilst waggling the cable to trace it back to the plug. Right. Pull out what I hoped was the right plug, count to 10, plug it back in. Press TV guide on remote and Hey Presto we have a picture.

Unfortunately I had missed the tennis so TV is switched off again...

What the Hell Was It Called?

A colleague gave me a copy of a game years ago in the days of floppy discs.

I had lost the copy and completely forgotten what it was called.

Paul denied remembering it at all despite the fact that we used to play it when we got home from work, being extremely competitive at trying to race through the levels as quickly as possible.

Every now and again I try to find it with a google search. But it is difficult when you can't remember its name. Was it classed as a maze game or a puzzle game? And the sheer volume of hits you get with searches such as 'puzzle maze game'...

But this morning I tried again. This time I tried something like puzzle game windows 1990s and there it was.

Chip's Challenge.

Not only that but you can download it for free.

No more scrabble study. We are both back to addicted competitiveness...

Coffee Flavoured Ice Lorries

So it took the delivery men over an hour to get their lorry off the ice with the aid of a borrowed shovel and spade from us and Paul going out there a couple of times with a kettleful of boiling water. We can now see about a 4-inch deep rut in the ice where one of the back wheels was.

They were actually damned lucky in that

1) No traffic was coming along the road to/from the bridge at the time

2) They actually managed to stop before sliding off the road into the land en route to the river

As it was they had managed to block all roads at Todheugh junction in one fell swoop...

Anyway they eventually got the lorry around to the back gates and unloaded our tables. Men went away grumbling, but it was their own fault. Not only had they ignored my directions to come via Edrom but instead had gone down the road that is clearly signposted as unsuitable for heavy vehicles. When I had pointed this out the driver told me that he ignored those signs all the time! Maybe he will think twice in the future.

We removed the tables from their packaging the following morning. The two side tables are fine. The coffee table on the other hand is not - the handle from one of the drawers had sheared in half and there was some scratching damage on the drawer. On a positive note they do suit the room very well.

So on the phone to the furniture company. Woman was very helpful - could I email her a photograph of the damage. I duly did this and also explained that there had been a problem with the delivery that may or may not have caused the damage. An email back apologising profusely - they had had issues with some of their delivery depots and my email had been forwarded. Would I accept £30 to get the damage fixed locally. I emailed back to say that was not really a viable option, but I would be happy to just get a replacement drawer delivered. Another email back saying would I be happy if they arranged for a company to come and try to fix the damage and if I was still not satisfied then to arrange a replacement. I said yes.

Watch this space...

I Deserve Another Piece of Cake

but Paul has finished it...

I was a little optimistic when I said I just had the bit of the path around the high bank to finish. When I looked in the cold light of day that is actually more than half the path :(

So back out this morning, another one and three quarter hours, and it and the remaining ice on the steps is now cleared.

Apparently our boiler is playing up and the radiators aren't working. I was totally unaware of that - don't sit around with extra jumpers on, get out and dig!!!

So Paul has heeded this advice and made a start on the drive. And now he has come back in he has turned the fire off because he is hot.

The ice that had accumulated on the roof before sliding off threatening death to anyone who may have been walking underneath at the time has damaged our gutters. A couple of slates are also down.

It could be worse. The SWOS (Sheer Weight Of Snow) has caused the roof of one of Margaret's barns to collapse. Luckily there was only the bull in the pen at the time and he was unhurt. Apparently this has been so common around here that there is a queue of farmers waiting for the insurance companies to get around to inspect the damage.

So more snow is predicted for later in the week. We have so much snow and ice piled up on the lawn that it will take a month of Sundays to clear even as it is.

This lump of ice from the steps makes my lump of rock removed from the fruit-tree-bed-to-be look like a pebble...

And just to really prove that ice is blue, not white.







Breaking news: the lorry delivering my tables ignored my directions to come via Edrom but instead came down the unsuitable for heavy vehicles road opposite Craigswalls and is now stuck at the bottom of the hill on a sheet of ice. Unfortunately it is now too dark for photos, but it may still be there in the morning...

I Deserve This Piece of Cake

Shock Horror - I am no longer cardboxing.

In fact I haven't touched it since I got back from Malaysia. I did open it up today and see 13000+ questions waiting...

I am hoping to have learned a lesson. When you are physically and mentally tired you find out if you really know the high probability bonuses beyond a glimmer, nay a nano-glimmer, of a doubt.

The problem with using the cardbox for studying is that after you have got it right enough times you won't see the anagram again for about a year and a half.

So for the last month I have been repeatedly going over the top 10000 7s and 8s. Once I am happy that I know them well enough (around 99% at a rate of 10 a minute) I will have a change.

So today I did the single solution 8s 2501-5000 (1486 questions) in 132 minutes missing 15 answers. I probably would have got those missing answers if I knew I had 16 minutes or so to spare at the time but I need to set some sort of time limit per answer. I did try setting the timer on the questions but this was counter-productive. If I didn't get the answer in the first 10 seconds I found myself watching the timer and not trying to solve the anagram!

Anyway, target met and it was time to take the dogs out for their afternoon pee break.

I don't care what the BBC weather site says - it was not 8C and thawing. There was no torrent of water from melting snow and ice down the path and steps at north facing Todheugh. The thermometer read 2C. And our path and steps are getting icier and more slippery every time we go out now.

So I decided on return to make an attempt to clear the steps. I managed to fight the shed door open and emerged with Paul's beautiful birthday present spade.

I was half successful. The ice on two of the steps decided to come away in one enormous slab after a lot of prising with the spade. The only problem was that they were so heavy I could hardly lift them to throw them onto the drive. The bottom step was less successful but I did manage to clear a small area - certainly enough to get my feet on. The top of the steps was a complete failure.

I then started just attacking the path to at least make it rough so you could get some grip on it. And then lo and behold in one place a big slab of ice broke away. This was enough to give me a weak point to keep going towards the front door. By the time I finished it was getting dark, but now there is only a small section from where it goes along the bottom of the high bank to the steps that still needs doing.

I hadn't looked at my watch until I got back inside. Nearly 5 p.m. - I had been out there over an hour and a half and felt absolutely knackered.

So now I am having a cup of coffee and eating a slice of cake that must be less calories than I have burned off :)