The inside out t-shirt story

Yesterday, I set out for work, trusty rucksack on my back, an audiobook playing in my ears. About fifteen minutes into my walk, I looked down and realised that my t-shirt was on inside out. Quite obviously inside out.

I debated walking back home to change it but realised I was too lazy so I thought I’d just do it while walking.

I’m a multi-talented, multi-tasking genius, thought I. I can do this!

And so began Operation Inside Out T-shirt.

Bear in mind, I hadn’t got to the river yet so I was walking along a normal street with houses and people and cars.

I started by putting on a jumper I had brought with me but not putting my arms in. Then slowly, without letting the jumper rise up and reveal all, I managed to get my arms out of the t-shirt and push it up around my neck.

Picture the scene, girl walking along street, a rumpled up t-shirt around the neck of her jumper, which has empty arms flapping in the wind. The girl’s wrists and hands are sticking out from the bottom of the jumper holding onto a rucksack and her face is a picture of confusion.

I walked for a good minute or so this way before working out how to get my arms back into the jumper while still holding my rucksack. Why I didn’t just stop and put it down, I don’t know. But I didn’t.

Once I’d got the t-shirt off, I swapped it the right way round and put it back over my head and tucked it back inside my jumper. Now I had to work out how to get my arms out of the jumper, pull the t-shirt down underneath it and get my arms through it, still holding the rucksack and not ending up half naked in the street. I was pretty exhausted by this point but I am stubborn and was reluctant to admit the foolishness of my plan.

And so I soldiered on, hands flapping about the bottom of my jumper, clutching my rucksack, trying to put my arms through my t-shirt under my jumper.

Eventually I got the t-shirt on and the jumper off and the mission was complete. I was knackered. It took three cups of tea in work to get back to normal.

A word of advice if you find yourself in the same situation, just go back home and change it around like a sane person.

This thing that happened

On Monday, instead of going to bake Victoria sponges and lemon drizzle cakes in The Orangery, I did this.

Not my best angle but you get the idea. And now that is what my days are filled with. That and learning Italian, but that’s for another post.

I spend my days scrutinising the people who leave empty-handed and trying to work out why. Or discussing shop layouts and stock and local produce and using fancy Star Trek-esque handheld terminals to scan things and doing my best I-totally-understand-this face while thinking lots of what-on-earth-does-that-mean thoughts.

In other news, say hello to my little niece/nephew.

Isn’t that amazing?!

Um, other news… There must be some. Er, I saw the Muppets film and it was great. I also just finished reading a book called Head Over Heel by Chris Harrison about moving to a little village in southern Italy – in the heel, hence the name. It was a fabulous book and I’m quite gutted I’ve finished it.

I really thought I’d have more news for you, given the amount of time since my last post. I clearly think I’m more interesting than I actually am….

Supper Club: round three

Last Friday, we had another Supper Club event at Ham House. While not being afforded the luxury of prep time that we had at Supper Club number two, we still completed the task efficiently. My photo-taking was sadly few and far between so I will just describe it. We fed almost 40 people this time.

As they arrived, they got a glass of bubbly and these canapes to nibble on.

From the top; cheese straws, mini Caprese salad (tomato, mozzarella, basil), a fig prosciutto and rocket salad, palmiers with parmesan or rose harissa.

Next up was a boiled egg with asparagus soldiers.

The mains consisted of a lamb navarin, or a wild mushroom tart for the vegetarians. There was then a cold salad and a warm salad (roasted butternut, purple sprouting broccoli and courgette with an orange dressing, which sounds mental but tasted delicious) and roast potatoes with fresh rosemary. I did get a picture of my manager fighting with the tray of potatoes, which had got stuck in the hot cupboard.

For dessert, as it’s getting near to Easter, we made a bread and butter pudding using hot cross buns…

… and served it with a choice of homemade plum swirl icecream or double cream and then, as they sat back and thought it was time to relax, we brought them homemade marshmallows, plain or chocolate covered.

And there you have it. Supper Club success once again.

Last minute plans

Sometimes, last minute plans turn out the best. Yesterday morning, Danda and I had planned to spend the day in Windsor. We would go to the castle and have a walk around the town and over the little bridge. We were quite looking forward to it.

We walked to the train station and, as we were buying train tickets, Danda just said, out of the blue, “Do you fancy going to Westminster Abbey instead?”

Without any good reason not to, I agreed and we headed in the opposite direction, toward London instead of away from it.

I’ve never been inside Westminster Abbey, despite having been in London for eight years. It really was too spectacular for words!

The Abbey was built in 960 and various refurbishments and additions have been done since. It’s crazy thinking about how old it is. I mean, you’ll just be walking around looking at stuff and then you stumble across this on the ground.

1420! Ham House seems positively modern with its 1610 start date, compared to the things here.

Other times, you suddenly realise that what you’re reading….

…says King Henry VII, Elizabeth of York and King James I! So many people who shaped the country and society I now know are buried here with little plain stones to indicate where and who they are.

There are lots of very important people here, everywhere you look, basically.

As you walk around, you also begin to appreciate the architectural brilliance of the Abbey too.

There are lots of little pockets off the main chamber that are full of memorials to people long forgotten. They are either to people of battle-related importance or really rich people.

On this last one, there was a story about the woman dying in childbirth and so her husband created this memorial to her, symbolising death crawling up and trying to drag her down and him attempting to keep hold of her. A close-up on the death figure looks like this.

There are also a lot of historically interesting bits and pieces around, like this sword.

Just King George VI’s sword. Yeh. No biggie.

After a quick look around the burial places of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots…

…we headed to Poet’s Corner to check these guys out.

The writing’s not clear on the last picture, but it says Geoffrey Chaucer! His actual resting place! Mind-blowing.

Up on a column, I saw one of my personal favorites.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I loved reading him at school.

After all this fabulousness and wonderment, it was time for some lunch.

My butternut soup was really very very good. All the food was good actually.

We then saw the Supreme Court and nipped in for a quick nose around.

My brain was pretty knackered by this point so we headed home for a much needed cup of tea.