Daily bread

The weekend is a good time for making fresh bread and homemade soup for the week's lunches.

It takes a while chop up everything to go into the salad!

It's been another busy weekend of catching up with contracts, but at least good food is made for tomorrow...

A change of pace

I'm currently on a two month contract with the University working in the Molecular Ecology & Evolution Group. I have to admit that I am quite enjoying myself, but there has been quite a large change of pace from working at home.  With extra cycling, showering, clothes washing and making food. The evenings have been quite busy getting ready for the next day and the weekends used to work on other contracts for our company.

Like most Universities, Exeter is currently undergoing massive expansion and building works.  But there is one place it seems they are not interested in building on - The 'Nature Reserve' is a small section of hillside with a 50 to 60 degree slope that you'd have trouble walking up or down.  This areas has kindly been left to wildlife.

Misty is settling in well, although she has a lot of crazy moods and rushes around the house chasing imaginary foes.

Last Friday was my 15th blood donation.

Kindling

A couple of weeks ago, we bough a reconditioned Kindle from Amazon Warehouse Deals. Basically, if someone buys something and sends it straight back, then the warehouse checks it over, and certifies it for release.  I find this particularly pleasing, not only because it cost £70 less than the brand new alternative, but also because it fulfils the key environmental principals of reduce, reuse, recycle.

As I'm still working my way though my Christmas books at the moment, I've only read one book on the kindle so far, but I've been very impressed with the usability, readability of the e-ink display, and also the fact that I have a number of books open and it knows where I am in each book.

The other key advantages are that books are searchable, and that you can highlights sections that interest you. I now find myself wanting to highlight sections in the paper backs I'm reading!

The end, and the beginning...

In the first week of January we picked up this 1.6 kg bag of sprouts at a very reduced price from Tesco.

This weekend marks the end of the sprouts! but we still have Christmas foods in the house, including a tin of biscuits and a Christmas pudding from Grandad, boxes of tea from Gary and Dewi and a year's supply of jams from Bryony and Mark (oh, and approximately a million hazelnuts that we collected last autumn for Christmas - despite daily shelling the nut bowl does not seem to have reduced at all!)

Our company is still ticking over quite happily and just about pays the bills each month, but like the sprouts, January also marks the official end of our meagre savings - so I've been applying for full time jobs again (don't worry if you gave us money toward our honeymoon - that is still safely ring fenced!)

Despite receiving very positive noises from my first choice of employer, things are moving along very slowly indeed.  So I've decided to take an interim research post back at the University for the next couple of months.  Tomorrow morning I'll be back in the rat race.