Lamb Parmentier

Ooooh I’m so busy! Look at my Outlook calender – I can’t possibly meet you until next Wednesday…I’m in demand. People need me!

What am I going on about? Work. People at work who define their importance/brilliance/superiority by the number of meetings they have booked into their ‘diaries’ (in the UK we call them diaries – everywhere else its a calender).

Frankly it gets on my tits (which, BTW, are slowly evaporating as I am on yet another diet). I mean I don’t give a shit how many meetings you have, you still don’t deliver the goods and I need that Powerpoint presentation NOW!).

Anyway I am busy. Lots to do. Deals to make. Presentations to present. And I also need to prepare family-friendly fare that will be eaten at home and not shoved round the plate like the last stale custard cream on the plate at a particularly tedious strategy meeting.

So I decided to try out the French version of Shepherd’s Pie – Lamb Parmentier. It’s so easy – lamb, potatoes, stock. Period.

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Learning to Deal With Christmas One Tesco Visit at a Time

In this wonderful Isle we aren’t allowed to shop before 11am or after 5pm on Sundays (except in little shops for some wierd reason) – even on the day before Christmas Eve.

The only person I know who still goes to church is my mother, and, given the rapture, armageddon, doomsday (call it what you will) didn’t come to pass two days ago, i doubt whether many people will be swapping a trip to the local supermarket for a session on their knees praising the almighty.

Anyway, obviously today is going to be hell on earth for those foolhardy enough to venture out. Of course there are some who have no choice. Like me. I needed brussel sprouts and I needed the ingredients for Pigs-In-Blankets – two essential Christmas meal items.

I’d been awake since about 3am since our opposite-neighbours introduced us to the concept of 24 hour daylight with their latest festive lighting arrangement (it’s getting more outrageous each year), so by 10am I was getting bored has hell:

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I Went Christmas Shopping Today….

…and I found this:

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I needed it when I got home. However I am done. I’ve got everything I need. Until I remember all the stuff I’ve forgotten – but what the hell there’s plenty of time…

How to Make Commuting Fun

Film yourself driving home and then speed it up and add a banging house tune to it.

This is about 1/2 of my daily drive home – but as it was Friday it took about an hour as opposed to 30 mins. I was so bored I filmed the whole thing.

How else can you entertain yourself stuck in this kind of drudge?

Olympic London has lost the plot – well it was always going to happen…

I’m trying not to become a GB (Games Bore) but this I could not resist. London Olympians are being treated to ‘Olympic Lanes’ – dedicated traffic lanes only officials and athletes can use when driving to and from events.

Like it isn’t hard enough to get round the Capital anyway! However the chaps and chapesses that have come up with this amazing logistical solution seem to have cut a few corners:

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