Friday 3 February
I cruelly dragged Olivia out of bed this morning. She got on with her Bible activity book – Joseph’s Coat of Many Colours now – while porridge was cooking.
We watched some school programmes this morning. We haven’t had the TV on since Monday morning. I think the novelty of day-time TV is already wearing off because she hadn’t even noticed; but she did say she loved school programmes. She only sits still for any length of time if she’s very tired or very ill anyway. There’s usually something much more interesting to be doing instead of just being sat there.
We popped down to the shops after lunch so Olivia could buy the ingredients for her tomato soup; she wanted to make some bread rolls as well. They didn’t have everything at the local supermarket – so after dumping it all in the kitchen – we got the bus into town. We saw Lou’n’two (plus one) again. It has been freezing today – even snowing a bit. I just happened to mention that we’d be in Spain in less than two weeks, and she told me to shut up! How rude! What are the chances of it snowing when we’re over there in southern Spain? A big fat NO!! can’t wait.
When we got home, Olivia made an immediate start on the rolls. She wanted to make ciabatta ones, although it was a close run thing between them and sunflower seed rolls. She chopped up the onions and cried – which she was actually quite pleased about (weird child) – peeled and grated carrots successfully; made a simple stock; opened tins of tomatoes; and cleared up the mess as she went along (admittedly with a bit of prompting!). she just had so much fun, especially when it came to using the mixer and hand-blender. She supplemented Lisa’s original recipe by adding dried basil and oregano (her favourites) and dried chilli (not her favourite). I was surprised about the chilli, but I suppose she’s seen me adding a little to so many things, so many times, she’s become indoctrinated.
The all-important taste test? It was really good – ooh, Lisa, you’ve got some serious competition! I can just see a cook-off at dawn!
We watched ‘Frida’ later on. I’ve had the DVD on loan from the library for about 2 ½ weeks – the fine will be big … fingers crossed the computer goes down again. Olivia’s been almost obsessed about Frida Kahlo ever since she saw a trailer for the film on another DVD. It was a good thing we watched it up in my room so I could shove her head under the duvet at certain … let’s say, ‘graphic’ moments.
