Sweet Treats

Sunday was spent watching Formula One and then at another family gathering saying goodbye to my cousin who leaves for a six month sabbatical to Australia on Wednesday. But before all that I'd cooked up a batch of raspberry cream sweets.

Why? Because we're organising a Christmas fayre / cake sale / Christmas jumper day at work on Friday 13 December for Save The Children. It's their annual Christmas Jumper Day where you wear your best (or worst) Christmas jumper, pay £1 to take part and donate the money to Save The Children. We thought we'd go one better and sell cakes as well as have raffles. So far so successful. Thanks to Linda we've had around 35 prizes donated from various local businesses and crafty businesses on Facebook. It's really amazing. One prize includes a 4 night stay in a holiday cottage in Aviemore. The voucher is valid for 18 months too! Quite remarkable isn't it.

Anyway, the cakes. So I'll do my usual Mars Bar cake, coconut balls and i thought I'd try peppermint creams too. Put them in nice wee Christmas bags, sell em for a pound maybe.

I decided that as well as peppermint creams, I'd try strawberry creams. Couldn't find frozen strawberries on their own so opted for raspberries. I boiled and simmered them until they'd broken up and were a thick luscious sauce. Strained them through a sieve (a muslin cloth would've been for easier and less time consuming).

Boiling and straining

To my cream paste I added a few teaspoons of the raspberry sauce and mixed it again. I then rolled out the paste and used little cutters to make the star and heart shapes.  I chilled the shapes for a little while then melted some chocolate i had laying around and dipped ht shapes in.

So i didn't have a lot of chocolate left over. The ones i sell won't look so messy. Still taste great though

Pretty easy really. Pretty messy too. They taste pretty good but I'll add more of the sauce next time, whichever flavour I decide on. They'll keep for a few weeks on an airtight container but I'll make my batch for selling in the week of the fayre.

So if you're free on Friday 13 December and are in the area, come along, buy cakes, have a cups, win raffle prizes. Go on.

Angela x

M&M... &M &M - The quadruple M theory

If you're part of the inner sanctum, you'll probably know that work hasn't exactly been a bundle of laughs for the past year or so. For various reasons that would be unwise to go into on here. Ask me, in person, I'll tell ya.

Anyway. I decided last week that no longer would I be brought down by outside factors (or irritating people). I would make my work become the happy place it so used to be back in the days of the most awesome dream team trio of Me, Linda and Brigitte. We were a great little squad.

I no longer share an office with those two lovely people. That is part of the reason it's lost its sparkle.

Anyway... I digress... or something.

afternoon work snacks help too!

Last week it hit me. I can turn this around. I can stop caring about others and their woes. I can care about the people that actually make it a great place to be. Those mentioned above, some colleagues and the awesome (if at times frustrating) students. Because i actually love the work I do and I love being a vital part of those students lives. I like to think of myself as their big sister. All 500 or so of them under my care.

So I came up with the idea of the quadruple M... The Monday Morning Motivation Meeting. It's proper official like. I've set up the meetings and everything in my outlook calendar. The committee consists of two, Me and Linda. Our inaugural meeting was held this morning and what a difference it makes. We discuss what's to be done for the week, jot them down in various to-do style lists. We don't talk about other negative influence's. We talk about getting things done. We plan, plan and plan some more. We colour coordinate the folders and get organised.

In future meetings we'll talk about how to overcome certain obstacles. Basically how to win at being happier at work. And so far it's a winner. Half an hour at that start of the week. I think that's worth the time.

Angela x

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Blog-(ab)sence

I haven't blogged for a few days, or properly for a few weeks. It's not that there aren't things to say. There are plenty of situations that are cropping up on a daily basis but to blog about them would be like, well, no use. You see work has taken a funny turn recently. It's all silly nonsense and drama. Thankfully it's not directly concerning me (none of my business), but it still concerns me (in a worry sense) if you know what i mean.

Work is a place that all or most of us spend all or most of our waking hours. It should be a place where you can do things you love and get on with the people around you.

Unfortunately when people aren't adept to change then a few chinks in the armour appear. You get dissent. You get whispering in corners. You get a general feeling of unease and "what's gonna happen today" dread when you walk through the door. Like I say this does not concern me. Office politics is not my thing.

My thing is getting on with my work and try to make my day as enjoyable as i can. It's pretty tough at the minute admittedly.

Anyway, the weekend tomorrow. Hopefully there will be some clarity next week.

Angela x
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Mission 2012, update

Remember this post from December 2011... Angela's Mission 2012? have a read...

Well today I ticked off number 2. Do something for Sport Relief. Granted, I would have liked to have done something sporty or adventurous but it was a cake sale at work put together in a few weeks and raised nigh on £90 (at the time of writing this post). Not bad at all i think. It's always something that will go to a wonderful cause.

It's nice to know that people will gather to bake and buy and eat cakes all in the name of a good cause.

Lovely.

End of post. This was a wee short post today. I'm still a bit ill and although the sneezes have stopped i'm left with a red sore nose from sub-standard tissues.

Onwards.

Angela x

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One step, two step, three step, four step...

BBQ at work this fine evening was grand! Nice to get everyone together that don't normally come out of the offices. Granted... there were a few missing, quite a few in fact but one day harmony will be bestowed upon DASS and people will actually make the effort to attend such all too infrequent social functions. It was graduation day today for the students from my department and I am so proud of them all. We had a great year this year, i just hope they can all go on and live to their potential. Some are returning to do postgraduate study in September, some are heading to postgrad studies at other Universities and some are being very brave and stepping into the big wide world to get a job. Good Luck to them all!!

Brigitte is off on her summer holidays from today so it'll be Linda and I left in the office for the next few months. To sit and yap the day away like a pair of old fish wives (if only people could hear what we talked about!! oh no we couldn't share it - Excuse me!! Excuse me!! ha ha), to hide behind our desks pretending to be working by 9am when really we're checking t'internet for any blog/social networking updates (oh I do hope Douglas doesn't read my blog, ha ha, we do work hard Douglas - honestly!!).

I can't talk for Linda but I am really struggling to motivate myself recently. Don't get me wrong, work is great, I really enjoy my job, love working with the fab students and wouldn't want to work anywhere else. I think the reason is it's because this time last year I was busy planning my BIG adventure, buying kit, climbing my first munro, meeting new people, finding my feet on the hills... you get the drift. Now there appears to be some sort of hole... something's missing... what I need is a new adventure to plan. Or loads of mini adventures, I'm still undecided. Never mind, I'm sure it'll hit me like a ton of bricks one day, just like Everest did... hopefully! There have been a few discussions about different things. I thought I had it settled and then I was looking at other things, and back to the first idea and round about again. I will decide.

Ange xx

Thanks idmoore.

Max Richter rocks! as does Paolo...

"So let us change what we can and

Accept what we can't

Impart some of the wisdom

From that tried and tested man..."

Pack light... nae chance!

Saturday evening was spent on the floor in the bedroom with all my bits and bobs collected over the months laid out in front of me. There were countless amounts of Exped waterproof bags in a rainbow of colours and a myriad of sizes; socks socks and more socks; 4 different types of Compeed blister gel packs; 2 tubs of Tiger Balm (for my sore knees); lip balms; antibac hand gel; all purpose wash (my skin is going to be shot by the time I get back); a first aid kit; ibuprofen, paracetamol and a ickle bottle of Diamox from the travel clinic plus various lotions and potions and... well you get the drift. Pack light?? pah... nae chance!

So I got the pen and paper out and wrote a list of stuff that I might actually need. Do I really need 2 tubs of Tiger Balm? Are 7 pairs of socks really needed? I think yes to that question. I'll get 2 days wear out of them and after that they'll be humming I'm sure. I decided that I can't lock all my toiletry stuff in the one wash bag as I might need to get the blister plasters out during the day for any sore feet that may arise (I'm an optimist as you can tell!). So the list soon covered a whole page of A4 lined paper!!! Will it all even fit into my kit bag??

Luckily my t-shirts/base layers all fit neatly into one of those Pack-It thingy's - handy wee cube bags that you see what's in them easily. I've got my socks in a smaller one. The sleeping bag, although quite heavy, fits neatly into the side of my kit bag and I only need to roll up my thermarest which is also quite small and light (I'm sure once everything's packed it won't feel that light). My down jacket stuffs into it's own stuff sack but that can go in my rucksack. 3 pairs of trousers should suffice eh?? My hairdryer and straighteners can go into the top pocket of my kit bag......... ha had you fooled there eh! Of course I'm not taking them with me but you'll have to excuse the photos when I come back. My hair will be like frizzy lizzy, there may be lots of hat wearing in the pics!

Acht it's such a hard job trying to pack. Now if I was going to a deserted beach somewhere it would be easier - wouldn't it? nope....

Right... enough about this, I'm sitting here at the computer at work and should be doing actual work just now but strangely enough can't seem to focus at the minute! Partly cos my mind is racing with things still to be done and partly cos I'm bored as I'm in the office myself today - Linda on a long weekend holibob and Brigitte off to south of France - lucky her! I mean student comes to the window, I answer them; pile of grades to enter from workshop reports, i will do in 10 minutes after I've finished this most important of blog entries and go and get my 2nd cup of tea of the day. That's how it's rolling just now. I might try some social networking in between times too. Oops did i say that out loud! ha.

take care,
Ange xx

PS If there's a rocket tie me to it!

(obligatory musical reference above)