What is going on

Thought I would write a catch up blog entry as I have been pretty lazy about sending e-mails and posting here. Funny, with all this time on my hands you would think all I would be doing is sending e-mails and trying to think of clever posts. I guess part of me feels guilty when I do things like that during the day. My new outlook on my time off is not to feel guilty about how I spend my time. I am just going to try try try and enjoy it.

I am in my sunny-ish bedroom right now finishing off the "chicken" pot pie left over from last nights dinner. I don't know if anyone else is a fan but one of my all time favourite things to eat was Marie Calendars chicken pot pie and since turning vegi I truly miss it. Given all the fake meat products out there and the afore mentioned free time I thought I would give a try making my own. The results are nothing short of delicious. I used a recipe I found on epicurious and tweaked it to be more Marie Calendar like and used fake chicken for me. I added fresh broccoli and carrots and used frozen peas as well as the ingredients the recipe called for (except I did use a regular puff crust instead of the dill one it called for). Yum-my. For a mid-day snack I might have a small sliver of the carrot cake I made, which is also delicious and was also made from a recipe from epicurious. So, as you can see, I am cooking/baking alot with good results! I enjoy making nice meals for dinner and I try to send the bake goods with Martin to work so I won't eat them at home. A piece of cake now and again won't kill me though!

When I am not cooking I am trying to exercise of some sort. I walk quite a bit and run at least twice a week with a couple of DVD work outs in between. I am sort of embarrassed to admit this but I bought this exercise DVD done by the host of big brother, who is well known here but probably not at home. It is actually quite entertaining-which I think is the most important thing for these type of regimes. Sometimes it is just too cold and miserable out to go for a run or walk or bike ride and it is nice to have something to do inside that gets my heart rate going and keeps me entertained as well. I like it so much I haven't even opened the pilates/yoga dvd I got. I also think it works, which makes it even better.

I am also in the process of packing. The house doesn't technically belong to us yet but we are scheduled to move in next weekend. I have a wall like barrier that doesn't allow me to think about life in the new house because something bad could still happen. Hopefully everything will be finalized in the next couple of days and we can start to get excited. Right now excitement is not an emotion that is registering. I know it is exciting, and I am excited to get excited, but not just yet.

Bad news is I still have not applied for my visa and until I have the visa in my hands I can't work. I have been having issues with the bank sending me the statements I need and the delay has been extreme. Once the application is sent I should hear back in 6 weeks. 6 weeks seems like a really long time from now and the idea of not earning any money until then makes me nervous. I have registered with some recruitment agencies but they won't even submit my CV in for consideration of jobs until I have the visa. But at least I have met with them so that the day it arrives I can call them up and tell them get going. Get me a job.

Hmmm, what else. Well, I will hopefully be volunteering with Kew Garden soon. I wanted to work in the actual garden but apparently they have plenty of those type of volunteers. Instead I might be working on a seed exhibition they are having. Should be a nice way to spend half a day a week. Our own little garden is coming along nicely. We have three sowing periods and the seeds from the first batch are doing quite well! I am still waiting for the peppers to come up but I can see them trying so should only be a couple more days. You can see them all below...

We are growing tomatoes, onions, peppers, basil, thyme, rocket, corn, lettuce, green beans, carrots and parsnips. We also hope to get some strawberries. And there are some flowers mixed in there. I can't wait until they all grow up and I get to eat them. Yum.

Well, the pot pie is gone now and I think I will try to go for a run while the sun is out. And then, carrot cake! Yay!