On my day off.....

It was the best thing knowing when I woke up this morning that I did not need to go to work, shame tomorrow morning isn't the same ;) Anyway, last night we planned our day and decided to head to Brazos Bend State Park.


It is about 1 hours drive south of us. The park opens at 8am in the morning so I said we should get there early to make the most of it. The alarm went off at 7am and we managed to be out of the house by 8:15am! To avoid rush hour traffic, as most companies do not have Veteran's Day as a holiday, we went all the way down Dairy Ashford putting up with the lights, pot holes and 20 mile an hour school zones. In a funny way I reckon it didn't take us much longer, and certainly less stressful, than fighting with the commuters. Since we had no milk in the house this morning, after I polished it off in last nights scrambled eggs, we went to Starbucks for a coffee and bagel, actually that was from Randall's and it was one of my favorites jalapeno peppers and cheese!

It was amazing escaping from the built up city limits straight into the countryside. Obviously it is utterly flat just huge field and sparse houses, that didn't have trees or hedges to show their boundaries. Some of the fields had crops in them, well corn, one field had some cows in it and the rest, not a lot. The road was straight except where you had to turn a corner at a field edge, like where the horses and carts turned in the past. It was tough staying within the speed limit along the single carriageway road. I must have been the only one because all the huge F350's (big double axle Ford pickup trucks) zoomed past me!

We paid $10 to enter the park for the day - you have to leave by 10pm when the gates shut! There was no one about which was lovely. It was only us and the man with the leaf blower in the car park. We first started off with a walk around Elm Lake, well actually we were meant to be doing the Horseshoe Lake trail, but turned the wrong way! There were plenty of signs warning us about the alligators. Apparently, there are 300 adult alligators in the park so I was hoping to glimpse at least one. The walk around Elm Lake was nice with lots of bird life, including quite magnificent herons, ducks with bright red beaks and much more - listen to me the twitcher!! Apparently, the swampy look of the park is just how Houston was before it became the metropolis it is today! There was a lot of algae on the water but the birds seemed not to worry, and the tortoises we saw were covered in it, so they obviously didn't mind it either. We looked for the alligators nostrils poking out of the water - but saw nothing. Not even one basking in the glorious sunshine. After Elm Lake we moved the car to explore the other side of the park along Big Creek and the Brazos River. The walks were through woods and it started to get really humid, not to mention annoying little flies following us - even the deet didn't put them off! I got stung by huge mosquito looking thing - so that was the last time we stood still for more than a couple of seconds. We saw absolutely no one for our whole walk - I can imagine at weekends it normally gets quite busy.

Still no alligators spotted!

The trees had lichen draping from their branches which look spooky - sort of and there were big creeper/vines just like Tarzan would have enjoyed swinging in!

OK the park warned you about the alligators, but they forgot to tell you about the wild pigs. We were casually walking through the trees on the path chatting when we heard what we thought was a dog, but it wasn't. We then saw next to us a light red brown pig get up from just beside the path and fortunately run into the bush, followed by another one. Both of us stood stock still in surprise and shock. The conversation that followed, was what do you do if a wild pig charges - stay still or run?!

Well in the end we were so sick of the little flies that we ate our sandwiches in the car, but there were picnic tables with BBQ all over the place that looked like fun. In the end we never did see an alligator, possibly it is the wrong time of year - so now we will have to go back!

The gardeners were here when we got home. I don't think I have ever seen them because I am usually at work. It is a team of three Mexican chaps, one is on the lawn mower, one with the strimmer and the other with the leaf blower. They cut our backyard grass with the strimmer!! But he does make a good job of it because the big mower is quite tight to get around the pool! The leaf blower man them came into the back and I notice he blew over Berty and Boris, the chilli plants, but give him credit, he picked them up. He then blew all our leaves into the neighbours yard -since they don't pay for them, I guess that is only fair?!!

This evening I had to go to the gym because it is a trainer evening, but I was extra good and managed a swim beforehand. Meanwhile Stu cooked us a yummy beef chilli with steak that was just falling apart - hmmm and there is plenty left of for the freezer.

No more pumpkins

Gosh, I am pooped tonight after going swimming this morning and then the gym this evening with Stu. When I was in the changing rooms this morning, about to go to the pool, a lady asked me if I was going to the master class. I looked at her blankly and said no I was just going for a swim. She tried to convince me to take part in the swim session, called master class, where they swim 2500 yards (therefore, 100 lengths!). I said I would be there for sometime to complete that! I did wimp out, but I was glad I did, as they were all much better swimmers than me and they had fins so they were all zooming up and down the pool! Tonight Stu and I had a rowing race and in just 4 minutes we both thought we were going to die - I pipped him at the post! We also went on the bikes, but this evening the bikes had there own TV screens so I watched 'The Office' (USA) while cycling away :)

The pumpkins have been finally thrown away after my one got increasingly like an old man without his teeth and Stuart's pumpkin became more evil looking, and was more of a cyclops by the end! The ants and flies enjoyed living in them as they rotted down. The funny thing is we were not the only ones with old pumpkins. Some of theirs have completely deflated!

Tomorrow I have got a day off as it is 'Veterans Day'. It is a bit weird to have a day off in the middle of the week, but it breaks up the week.

Curry Night

Stuart out did himself - putting on a magnificent spread for the first on our curry nights! The whole day was spent preparing and cooking. My only contribution was cooking the poppadoms at 8 am in my PJ's. We didn't want the house to smell of smoke (hot oil), so I had to do them early. However, Stuart came up with a fab idea of doing them on the BBQ, therefore no smell inside. We tried with just our gas starter, but unfortunately it couldn't get the oil hot enough so I had to do it in the kitchen. As I said that was my contribution, along with laying the table!

We managed our weekly hot yoga, which was not as tough as last week; less of the strange balancing exercises and getting you body to contort in ways that are just wrong! After yoga we had to go back to Target because the previous nights purchasing had been a complete failure, I don't know how we, or rather I, did it, but 50% of what we bought was wrong. I picked up the wrong size of table cloth and a fitted sheet rather than a flat one! Both of which I only realised were wrong after taking them out of the packet!! So I had to try and fold them back into the tiny boxes they came in - anyone who has tried to fold a fitted sheet neatly knows how difficult it is! The guy exchanging them couldn't of cared less.

In all, we had nine for dinner, a mixture from work and Aberdeen University! I said we had to sit to eat pretty much as soon as everyone arrived as I said it was going to take sometime! Well it did, with our four course extravaganza finishing with jelly and Neapolitan ice cream!! Stuart made three different curries, a chicken butter balti, for those that like no heat, a chicken tikka masala, for the bit more daring, and a beef vindaloo, for the really brave! All were fab, except Stu was slightly disappointed as the vindaloo as not killer enough, even with 5 spoonfuls of chilli powder, half a pot of cayenne pepper and a blob of Dave's Insanity sauce! Although, I think Danny would disagree that it wasn't hot enough!

One thing we have discovered is mint jelly sauce does not taste like it does back home. To go with the poppadoms, Stu made up a riata, basically mint and natural yogurt. As soon as he mixed in the mint jelly we knew it was going wrong. The rieta was a lurid green colour and I tried a bit of the jelly sauce and it tasted of spearmint chewing gum! Now the yogurt tasted of spearmint, and a little bit sweet. Amazingly, some folk actually liked it but I could not bring myself to eat it!!

We finally wrapped up the party around 2am this morning still sitting outside, although getting bitten by mosquitoes I have found this morning. However, big news, Stuart had the Vortex, the electric mosquitoes catcher and killer, on all evening and it had 7 bodies in it this morning!!! So it does work, technically, but just not that efficiently!

Poor Laura had to get up to go and play a soccer match at 11am, with still a lot of curry in her belly! We are just having a lazy morning sitting around the house having finished the dishes. I am not sure what the rest of the day entails, but probably not much :)

I see it is 3 degC in Aberdeen just now - brrrrrr...... Hope all the flood water has drained away by now.

Chef's in the kitchen

I feel like I haven't been on the blog for days. It is Friday night and we are both a home watching TV after a busy day, mine at work and Stuart's in the kitchen! We are having a curry dinner party tomorrow evening and it is all homemade, and the curry recipes are British Indian Restaurant (BIR) recipies. As a tempter, just look at the wonderful naan's that he baked today and will put in the freezer until tomorrow hmmmm :)

I felt like I had a day of running around at work I am not sure I achieved everything I wanted to, but I certainly didn't sit back and do nothing. I treated myself by going to Hollywood Nails for a manicure and pedicure. I was trying to be really brave when she uses the grater on my feet. I have now discovered the only way to deal with it is to put on their horrible massaging chair. It runs big plastic knuckles up and down your back, the pain makes me forget her tickling my feet! My nails were done beautifully, but within seconds of getting off the chair I managed to smudge them - grrr!

I met Stuart at Target because I needed a table cloth - my only one is a rather grand one from John Lewis's. It is cream and certainly wont stand up to curry stains. The new one isn't really dark, but quarter the cost if it gets spills on it! If you wonder why I didn't get a disposable one is because they didn't go with our colour scheme :)))

At HEB we got accosted by the wine salesman, who was a Brit. He tried to convince us to buy very expensive Pinot Noir to go with our curry! Stuart took the bottle from him saying thank you very much, and when he wasn't looking, we put it back on the shelf!! It took quite a long time to find anything suitable, and only the taste test will tell if we managed it. Stuart noticed one thing quite odd in the wine selection. Back home you get a lot of Chilean Shiraz, however, we could not find any Shiraz in the Chile section. Maybe the Brits consume it all!!

The house smalls amazingly spicy tonight so just imagine what it is going to be like by tomorrow!

Curry shopping in Houston

Mark didn't appreciate my blog about my snotty nose, so tonight I am going to write one about my juicy cough - only joking I wouldn't subject you to that!!

My trainer was nice to me tonight and because I cancelled Monday I have got him again tomorrow - no rest for the sick!!!

Today Stuart went off in search of an Indian supermarket to stock our cupboards with curry ingredients. Stuart went to the Indian Groccers on 59 and Hillcroft. He said an assistant stalked through the shop asking if he needed help. When Stuart rattled off the ingredients he wanted the shop assistant was a little taken aback, and left him alone. Stuart made curry stock, a base for many curry dishes - it tastes just like spicy tomato soup. He also tested out homemade onion bhaji, which we plan to serve at out curry night on Saturday. They were very good and healthier (oven baked), rather than the usual deep fried bhaji. Tomorrow night we have to try out the homemade naan bread.

Stuart also managed to find a brand of tinned tomatoes that are really only tomatoes. We have been caught out recently with tinned tomatoes containing a lot of added sugar and salt. The only down side is that they only come in huge tins, so like the tomato puree, we now have a a fridge of plastic boxes of tommy tomato produce.

Just a cold, not piggy flu!

I was out of action last night after Stuart's cold took revenge on Sunday night. Work was a real struggle and in the end I left at about 2:30pm with a head full of the cold and feeling very sleepy. Stuart enjoyed sending me jokes about having piggy flu :(
At home, I laid down on the sofa with my Stuart McBride book, to remind me of Aberdeen, and promptly fell asleep after 2 pages. Stuart went out and about, leaving me to sleep. The evening was very quiet night in front of the TV, watching Family Guy! I ate spicy pumpkin soup, as you always have soup when you are sick:) By 9pm I was beat so to bed for more sleep.

Today I was feeling better a little hoarse and snotty, but other than that, not bad at all. I haven't faced the gym for two days so I am dreading going tomorrow for my session with the trainer.

Our glorious days have continued and we managed a quick walk down the bayou before sunset. It is funny as the time change is a real pain here because now the evenings get dark sooner, so by about 6pm it is pitch black. I don't care about light mornings!

As you can see life has been quiet for both of us and very little to comment on.

Trick or Treat?

Sweaty Yoga was difficult this week with two new moves that involved getting your leg up onto your shoulder. Neither of us could achieve that but we did our best! Stu got picked on by the teacher for trying to get rid of his blocks (blocks help those of us, who are not quite as flexible as the teacher, achieve the same positions), when he was meant to be balancing his leg on his shoulder and lifting the rest himself off the floor with his hands! As usual the guy on my left was amazingly flexible and managing all the manoeuvres - he even helped me along on some give advice!! Di opted out of hot yoga so instead did normal gym stuff while we

The afternoon was spent looking at costumes. The place was heaving with people getting their last minute Halloween costumes. We all had ours but thought we might be able to get some extra accessories. In the end we came away with some costumes bits for Chris, Laura's boyfriend, to wear. Laura had told me Chris wouldn't want to dress up, but there was no let up in our house hold so he was going a purple pimp!

Stuart took Di and I to the Phoenician Market, a Greek, Middle Eastern, Turkish kind of place. It is the same place where he wrote about the freshly made pitta pockets on a conveyor belt through the shop. It had amazing selection of dried spices for a good price, unlike the standard supermarkets. Di bought more than we did to take back to Denver. You can buy Crunchies and other types of yummy proper chocolate - but, I resisted yesterday.

We then had to go to a standard store to buy a big bag of sweeties for the trick or treaters that we knew would be coming around. We set out the pumpkins, even though mine was starting to look like an old man who forgot to put his teeth in - we nicknamed him 'gummy'! In the fancy dress box we found some cob web stuff so Stuart decorated the hedges with it - spooky house! Well we had quite a few groups of sweetie grabbing children. The kids say trick or treat, but they don't do any trick or little skit, they just hold out their hands for sweets! Mind you they all had great costumes and the really little ones were very sweet. Stuart took great satisfaction in jumping out in his costume. One of the little boys was trying to stay as far away from him as possible while grabbing a handful of sweets.

Laura turned up as a zombie nun and was feeling sad as she had got all dressed up for kids to come around to hers but none came - between you and me I think she would have scared them off!! We all had homemade pizza before getting dressed up and heading off to our local for their live band and Halloween party. As usual we were all freaked out by Stuart's costume but the rest of us looked pretty cool too! You always get ID'd at pubs here but the poor bouncer was having problems with every ones makeup, wigs and masks! When we walked in we all thought we were the only ones dressed up, we nearly were if it wasn't for the bar staff! However later on there was a best fancy dress costume competition, which we all entered, and by that time more people had turned up in costumes. Although I think it was a fix as none of us were even short listed for best costume, mind you the prize was $100 of bar tab that I don't think any of us needed. The winner was a shocker!! It was a man dressed in a cardboard cut out of part of a woman's anatomy - that is all I am going to say!

This morning, with the clocks going back we actually got up at a reasonable hour and enjoyed bacon butties made with homemade bread. Fortunately we had frozen bread as we found the bread machine lying in bits on the kitchen floor with a well kneaded lump of dough stuck to the floor. A little perplexed how it got there, Stuart put it back together and tested it and it seemed to be working! God knows how considering it fell off the surface on to a tiled floor. He put in new ingredients and started it up. We then discovered that it wasn't a ghost who had pushed it off the counter but it in fact managed to walk itself while doing the mixing operation!! All is fine it made a lovely loaf for Di to take back to Denver in her suitcase.

Another stunningly sunny day with blue skies and temperatures in the twenties. It was too good to sit at home so we went for a bike ride to George Bush Park. We didn't get too far into the park as we came across a flooded path. The park is a dam and is used to reservoir excess water, and after all the rain last week there was certainly plenty of water to catch! We still managed 17 miles and felt we deserved some lunch when we got back home.

We took back Di to the airport this evening and have both been sitting on the sofa nursing our colds. I have an ever flowing nose, well actually one nostril, which is even more annoying as I feel all lopsided! I have been taking disprin like my mummy told me to do :)