Bunny Rabbits.

Bess has chosen a mate. Colin it is. Emma’s going to pick them up tomorrow after work. I’m so excited. But it does make me feel a pang of grief for Oscar. Colin’s arrival reinforces the loss of Oscar. But Colin is supposedly very lovely. He likes a fuss. Which is a good job because he needs to be groomed every day being a long-haired bunny. He thinks he’s being fussed when he’s being brushed so he’s quite happy. He’s old but we don’t know how old. I hope he lives a long time. I’d hate to think Bess needed to find a new mate again anytime soon. Pictures will follow soon.

 

Aunty Sue bought me a bunny rabbit cookie cutter. Today I made my first batch. Having made so many muffins lately, I automatically put the oven on gas mark 7. It should’ve been gas mark 5. Actually, they weren’t that bad. Slightly burnt at the bottom, but tasty. Especially because they were still warm.

I put the cookies in the oven in two lots. The second lot went in at the right temperature. Lots better. I made a round one for Emma because she likes things just so, you know. Me and Leah had a little play with the icing pens. I think the mixture’s about 75p from Asda. Just got to add a bit of butter or margerine and a couple of tablespoons of water. I got an oaty mix as well. For another day.

 

I was also assertive with the bank today. I got a letter the other day telling me there was a problem with my account. I bought something online last week which went over my overdraft by £1.08. The letter said I had to go into the bank and credit my account to get me out of the red and informed me there would be a charge. The letter neglected to say what the charge would be. I went in the bank with a few quid to deposit, hopefully covering the fee and leaving money in the account. I nearly fell over when they told me the charges were £38. And if I didn’t pay £31 of it today, my account would be in the red tomorrow, a new month, and another charge of £28 would be added. I was cross and upset. I didn’t put the money in but asked to speak to the manager. The manager was busy. I was promised that I would receive a call me before the end of the day. I wasn’t going to let it drop. £38 and another £28 all for £1.08. I’ve been with them 4 years and never had any charges incurred. I’m a student on a low bursary. I was really annoyed.

Anyway, the manager said they weren’t allowed to refund the fee unless there was a bank error but they did give me another number to call. They were actually pretty supportive. They told me the number was for the complaints department and that I should explain the situation and my current circumstances fully and tell them that I believe it is unlawful to charge such an extortionate fee for the sake of £1. I got through to one person who was very unsympathetic. I was basically getting nowhere. Thankfully my phone died. I redialled and got someone human. She (the lovely Dawn Barson apparently) refunded my account without any problem. I did head over to the cash point this evening and credit the account so there shouldn’t be any hassle. Phew.

New Placement. Sweets. Bunny Rabbits

Well, I’ve done my first week of my second placement. It’s great. Not much to say really. It’s just really good. There hasn’t been much ‘new’ stuff really. I’ve come across most of the ‘illnesses’, ‘disorders’, ‘conditions’ or whatever you want to call them. Mostly in previous jobs. I’ve also come across most of the personality types before. People who deal with their distress by screaming in the world’s face and people who deal with their distress by hiding away and trying not to get noticed. And (perhaps luckier?) people who have partners, children, jobs, responsibilities and this whole thing around mental health difficulties has come right out of the blue and takes a bit of getting used to. This week I’m reading up on schizophrenia and antipsychotic drugs. Next week mood disorders and mood stabilising drugs. After that, who knows. Hopefully I’ll have met my mentor by then and we’ll have a plan. There’s a fair bit of Uni work to be getting on with aswell.

The team are lovely. I haven’t met anybody who isn’t willing to answer my questions and take a bit of time explaining the implications of various scenarios. And everyone seems happy to give a bit of feedback and encouragement.

I’ve also been eating lots of sweets. From the best selection I’ve ever had at any one time.  I bought a nice little pick and mix in Banbury. I added the sweets from the chinese shop. I added the sweets from the weekly food shop. Then I bought a few bits and pieces of chocolate and sugary confection when I was out and about. The selection just got bigger and bigger. I was so impressed I had to take photographs. Here. Here. And here. I’ve stopped adding to it and it’s thankfully getting gradually smaller. If I carried on at the rate I was going, I’d be the size of a house. I do love sweets though. A lot.

Finally, bunny rabbits. It’s not going so well for Bess. She’s still away at the Bunny Bonding lady’s house. So far they’ve tried her with Mork, a gentle giant who lost his Mindy a while back. No joy. And with Cooper who has a very very sorry tale to tell. He’s all matted and manky and he has a scar across his neck where his throat was cut. We really wanted him but again, no joy. They’re now trying her with Colin. I don’t know much about Colin except that he’s pretty old. And very good looking. He’s a cashmere lop apparently. So far, Colin is the only one she hasn’t attacked through the bars. So there’s some hope. She’s not really a very nice bunny rabbit. Bless her cotton socks tail.

Happy Birthday Sue

Last night Sue and Baz came over. We went to Hatton for a while. I bought some beads from the bead shop. Just a few. 300 to be exact. They were 2p each and cost me 6 English pounds. I like them. Letters, numbers, animals, shapes, that kind of thing. I’m sure I’ll find a use for them.

To celebrate Sue’s birthday, we went to the Fernleaf Cantonese restaurant not far from where we live. I like it in there. The staff are very friendly and warm. The food is lovely. We had Peking Duck for starters. The duck was gorgeous and it was fun making up the pancake rolls. The main course was equally lovely. Sue, Baz and I shared four dishes. We had Cantonese style pork. I really liked that; it was probably my favourite. The flavour was lovely but it’s the texture that really appealled. It’s chewy. I like chewy. We also had seafood combination chow mein. With squid. I like squid. But I get nervous eating it. In case I choke. I didn’t choke. I was pleased. We also had a beef dish which is my usual choice and always good. And house special fried rice. With allsorts in it.

Emma had omelette of the chicken variety. She enjoyed it a lot. She says she would definately order it again. It did look nice.

The food was good. The company was good. The conversation was good. We chatted about all sorts of things.

  

We went back to our house and ate cake I made earlier in the day. Sue blew out the candle while we sang happy birthday. I presume she made a wish although I couldn’t be sure. Then Baz blew out the candle. We didn’t sing happy birthday though. Then it was my turn. Nobody sang and I didn’t make a wish. Jeanette, who just happened to appear briefly at the right moment, took her turn. And finally Emma, who informs me that she didn’t make a wish either. We ate the chocolate bunny rabbit cake. I liked it. I do like Asda’s 74p chocolate muffin mix. And the extra chocolate, the chocolate spread and finally the chocolate frosting merely adds to the appeal. The sunshine was safely boxed up to take home along with these. And the pink bunny couldn’t handle all the excitement and had a little cigarette to calm down.

  

All in all, I think we all had a lovely evening. I know I did. I hope Sue did. HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR TOMORROW SUE xxxxx

Happy Birthday Cake

Tomorrow is Aunty Sue’s birthday. Aunty Sue also goes by the name of Emma’s mum. I made a cake. With my lovely new bunny rabbit muffin mould. The pink bunny cake was made from a plain muffin mix with a few drops each of pink colouring and strawberry flavouring. I sliced it and sandwiched strawberry jam between the two halves. Then I covered it with pink frosting (vanilla frosting with pink colouring) and added some glittery sprinkles.

 

The chocolate bunny was made from the chocolate mix but I did add a little extra chocolate. This one was filled with chocolate spread and covered with chocolate frosting. I added three chocolate strands for whiskers.

 

The sunshine is plain mix with a drop of yellow colouring and a couple of drops of lemon flavouring, filled with lemon curd. I covered it with yellow frosting (vanilla with a bit of yellow added).

 

Icing pens are great. I decorated the board to look (slightly) like grass and sky and put the cakes on it.

 

Obviously I didn’t just make one of each. I have several spare bunnies and fairy cakes of various colours and flavours sitting on the tope shelf of the freezer. All neatly labelled. Ready for decorating to give away. Or scoffing after a particularly depressing shift on placement!

Leah came to stay on Friday…

Her and Emma had a great time sleeping in a tent in the garden while I slept soundly in my lovely warm bed. I blogged about it here.

It didn’t work.

After the great bunny muffin marathon the other day, I filled the mould with jelly, just to see if it would work. It doesn’t.

But I now want a jelly mould. Aswell as some cookie cutters. Baking and making of foods is much more fun with shapes. Especially bunny rabbit shapes. Because I am obsessed.

 

Short Burst of Creativity

I came across lots of handmade felt cakes and cookies on flickr and was prompted to have a go at making my own. I cut out these circles a few days ago. Took about 5 minutes.

Yesterday I blanket-stitched the tops and bottoms, stuffed them, stictched the icing on and added sprinkles. This is the end result. It was very much fun. And incredibly quick. I think I’ll make more at some point. When I need to be creative but don’t have a lot of time.

Leah tried them last night and was impressed. But found them to be slightly crumbly. She is a tidy eater and managed to catch the crumbs in her hand.

 

 

 

New Shoes. Purple Shoes. Other Shoes.

From no purple shoes to six purple shoes in less than two weeks. White pumps from primark dyed purple. Blogged here. Purple DM shoes from ebay. £7.50 plus a fiver postage. Arrived yesterday. Very good condition. Very happy with them. And some flats from New Look. Spotted when I was out shopping with my lovely sister yesterday. Reduced to £7. How could I resist?

 I also bought these a few days ago. Reduced to £20. They are lovely. But they aren’t purple. And these about three weeks ago. Only £5. Also very lovely. Also not purple. I think it’s time to stop buying shoes now. Even bargain shoes.

Bunny Rabbit Muffin Fun

On holiday recently, I bought this wonderful bunny rabbit muffin mould. Me and Leah had good fun with it last night.

  

Leah added all the ingredients and mixed it all together. Two maple and pecan. One chocolate and banana which Leah put together for herself. One with strawberries and a dash of pink food colouring. Because I like pink.

 

The pink one turned out okay, my very first ever muffin. It was a bit tricky to remove from the mould intact. Partly because I was impatient and it was still hot. Partly because the strawberries were from a tin and high in fluid so made the mixture slightly too runny. One of the maple and pecan muffins was great. The other one wasn’t. Not sure why. I did start to remove it quite quickly. I think that’s probably the reason. Leah’s was perfect.

 

The second lot was much much easier. The mixture was much gooier. Maybe because we didn’t add anything like maple syrup or fruit to it to make it runnier. Leah added banana to three and we left one without for Emma. They were very firm to the touch and stayed completely intact when removed from the mould. I would strongly recommend starting out with the chocolate mix. Although the maple and pecan tasted the best in my humble opinion.

 

74p for a box of mix. And an egg. Which is just about right for 4 bunnies. I shall definately be making them again soon

Goodies from the Chinese Shop

We didn’t find much in the way of presents on holiday. The Pooles were looking after the puddy tats and we wanted to get a little token of gratitude. [They would've been looking after Oscar and Bess too. But Oscar went away. And Bess is on holiday hopefully making friends with another bunny]. So anyway, we bought a load of stuff from this cool chinese grocers shop in Banbury and split it between the Pooles house and our house.

We didn’t buy the big money box boy (below) with strange gel confection inside. It was £6.95. Inside were lots and lots of little plastic tubs with peel-off lids. Sort of like mini philadelphia pots. But they were flavoured gel sweets. Lychee, mango, strawberry, other fruit flavours. A bit of googling reveals they are very popular in Asia and have been taking off in the west under various names. They are very healthy. Low calorie. High in fibre. Fortified with vitamins and minerals. Unfortunately though, they have been responsible for the deaths of several small children. So not that healthy after all. In each case they got stuck in the oropharynx and caused respiratory failure and/or cardiac arrest. The FDA has withdrawn several brands from sale in the USA. Glad I didn’t buy them. The way I throw food down my neck, I’d have surely choked to death in the middle of Banbury town centre on a Sunday afternoon. How embarrassing that would have been.

I did buy Pocky though. Loads of boxes of the stuff. Well, quite a few. Well, six. Five red (chocolate flavour) and one pink (strawberry). I wasn’t so sure about the strawberry. Very nice they are. Thin sticks that taste like pretzels. Dipped in chocolate or other sugary substance. There are several flavours. More here. The chocolate taste like KP choc dips. Really nice. Emma liked them a lot. Jeanette was also quite keen. As was Leah.

 

 

We got a couple of bags of fruit chews. They taste a bit like fruitella. They have juice added. It says so on the bag. And the wrappers. And a couple of bags of Oishi milk chews. They actually taste like full-fat milk. They’re lovely. But they do make you feel a bit sick a few minutes later. Or maybe that’s only if you eat half a bag within three minutes.

 

But the best thing in the shop was these magic creams from Jack n Jill. They are most odd. Three crackers sandwiched with chocolate spread. The crackers are unexpectedly pale in colour. And salty. The chocolate spread is sweet. Obviously. But, strangely, they are really lovely. And under 150 calories each. Not bad. Not bad at all.

 

Finally, we bought a few bags of bawang, corn snacks from boy.  They’re like popcorn that’s only half-cooked. Not exploded to the point of inside-out-ness. There’s a picture here. We bought a couple each of chilli cheese flavour, barbecue flavour and adobo flavour. I have no idea what adobo flavour tastes like. I believe it to be a blend of flavours used in traditional philippino cooking. It’s amazing what you learn on the world wide tinterweb.

I might make the effort and find a local oriental grocers shop. Mainly for Pocky.