Just Jo!

Last nights dinner ended up being stuffed Portobello mushrooms. I’d almost run out of oil, so I had to supplement it with a little chilli oil. Just enough chilli oil to give it a big enough kick that had Olivia staring daggers at me, “You used chilli oil, didn’t you??!!” She’s not that keen on chilli oil. Ha! My work here is complete!!
We also had the second viewing of Hoodwinked. Olivia manages to correct herself now, but not quite, it’s called ‘Perihoodwinked’….
Did anyone watch the Oscar’s last night? I didn’t, but just on the off-chance I ever get nominated for something bizarre, I have my speech all ready to go….thanks to Miss C and The Academy Award Acceptance Speech Generator.

The Lego/crystal mining/paper model town (a la Paint Your Wagon) has now morphed into a prison complete with inmates breaking rocks….
With incense burning amongst the buildings to add atmospheric ‘effects’….Martin Scorsese may have just won his first Oscar, but it is now time for him to step aside.
It’s still taking up an inordinate space in the middle of the front room though….I can see some kind of natural disaster (ie earthquake, flood, volcano, mum’s foot) that totally wipes out the entire town….

It’s also the start of Fairtrade Fortnight and here’s a link, for those who live in the vicinity, or who may be visiting in the next two weeks, to find out what’s happening in Exeter….oh my goodness….that was a bit of a sensible, grown-up link….I may need to sit in a dark room for a minute or two….just ’til I get it out of my system anyway.

We had another wasted morning here before going into town. We got the bus today….I had big bills to pay….I would have been very wobbly on me bike from the shock. I don’t know about you, but if I’ve just paid out £230 in bills, I need a huge slice of chocolate cake. The plan was to go to The Plant on the Cathedral Green because they do a really, really good vegan chocolate cake. And big slices too. But it wasn’t open. Curses!!! Fortunately, we had a back-up plan. Herbies. (The link says some meals are vegan, the majority can be made vegan though.) Just down the road. But that extra few minutes walk meant that we so obviously needed extra sustenance. So a quick snack to recover from bill-paying hell turned into lunch instead.
We got a table, (only just mind, packed in there it was) and had soup of the day, which was carrot, leek and butterbean. Very nice, Olivia had garlic bread with it, I had granary bread. Dessert for Olivia was ginger and citrus tart (a great favourite!), and for me was baklava, both served with vanilla Swedish Glace. We like Herbies. A lot. The food is always good. Highly recommended indeed.
Olivia couldn’t finish her tart, so I forced it down, then we waddled up to the museum.
Last summer, ’something’ was found in our back garden. But I’m not allowed to say what it was. Because Olivia wants to blog all about it. We took it to the museum for identification. Very exciting….but you’ll have to toddle off to Olivia’s to find out. Because I’ve been banned from saying anything. At all. Ever. Go on and have a look. Go on. I find it very hard to keep my mouth shut. Did you have a look then?! She’s got a photo of ‘it’ too. Needless to say, our entire back garden will be excavated over the coming months.
We’ve still got Chinese new year buzzing around in our heads, and as I’d promised Olivia months ago she could have one, we got a Chinese parasol today,

plus a couple of other bits. But Olivia’s blogged about them too. So if you went to see what ‘it’ was, you’ll know what else we got and what we did at the museum. She got another pack of trading cards, but they’re all doubles.
We both got new shoes. Olivia’s being more than twice the price of mine. But as I don’t ‘do’ shoes, I resent paying a fortune for them. Mine only cost £4 today. Bargain. And a really practical cream colour too.
With all today’s expenditure, it’s pretty obvious that today was Child Tax Credit Day. Oh yes!!! It is also Stock Up On Lush For The Month Day. Guess what I’m doing tonight? Olivia just asked what film we’re watching tonight. Bugger that! It’s Lush tonight! Yes, I know I had Lush last night. And the night before. And the night before that as well actually (ooh, I have been extravagant this week!), but that was ‘old’ stock….I have ‘new’ stock now. But that also leaves me with a dilemma….should I have French Kiss, or Amandopondo, or Marathon (with a Brazilian flag), or Blue Skies or Happy Hippy (makes a good bubblebath. Showers? Pah!!!)or….or….or….? Ooh….decisions, decisions. Oh, and there’s dinner to think of as well. I think it is a valuable learning experience for Olivia, in an autonomous way of course, to get her own dinner, while I ponder upon the miracle that is Lush….
Forgot the jokes today….I have oodles of Lush in the house, c’mon! My mind is elsewhere!!