Tender Part II

It has been two years today since I miscarried and at the time I never thought I my sadness would disappear.... My heart still aches when I think of it, but that had to happen to me and if it didn't our MissL might not be here.

I have two best girlfriends who are expecting babies in the new year. I am mega excited for them both because their pregnancies could not happen to more lovely girls.

This week I am in the midst of organising, not one, but two birthday parties. MissL turns one next Monday but we are celebrating this Friday afternoon with good friends. MissM turns six next Tuesday and she's having a celebration with some school friends on that day. I can't wait for either party.

Raise your glasses to us, *clink, clink*, because life truly can be beautiful.

I posted this song two years ago because I love it and summed up my life at the time. It still does. But now I view this song is a better light. And I simply love this live version - simply beautiful....

Stand Up

We've been seeing a lot of this lately...

Time to get serious about gates for the stairs me thinks.

Time too, to get serious about some kinda barrier in front of the television.

There has also been a lot of this too. *sigh*

A Two Night Getaway

Ramadan is upon us here in the United Arab Emirates. Not really a good time for a Westerner here (lots of rules and regulations to abide by, otherwise you just might find yourself in the slammer!) but one thing is there is a rule of no more than 6 hours in the workplace. Bewdy. That means MrL is home by 1pm each day for the Ramadan month. Whoop whoop.

So after MrL returned home from work on Thursday afternoon the four of took off, to Dubai Marina for a two night stay. (Remembering the UAE working week is Sunday to Thursday.) The Dubai Marina is only a quick drive (about 45-50 mins from where we live) up the highway and is basically the first place you get to from Abu Dhabi.

I booked a two bedroom apartment at Oasis Beach Tower, located on The Walk (photo below) at the Marina. Surrounded by high rise apartments and hotels, cobble stone streets, walking paths and too many restaurants, I would live there in a flash if it wasn't for the fact that MissM is happy in her current school and the road down to Abu Dhabi is too dangerous to travel back and forth on constantly for MrL.

Our apartment was huge, the King size bed was more like a King-size King Size bed (was huge!), MissM was thrilled to have a tv in her own room, the shower was lurv-lee, the kitchen was big and modern and the view from our 20th level balcony? Priceless.

That's the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Jumeriah in the back ground of the gorgeous Arabian Gulf.

It was very relaxing, spending quite a bit of time by the lovely 33 degree heated pools (there were two), a couple of wanders along the Walk (talk about humid!) and time in our apartment.

After checking out on Saturday, we took a drive up to the Souk near the Burj Al Arab. Even though I have seen that building like over a dozen times, I am still in awe of it's presence. An absolutely marvellous piece of architecture.

We drove along the Palm, to the outer 'frond' which ends up opposite the Dubai Marina.

What a view.

(Our hotel was the 'silver' building on the left.)

Back home in the afternoon, it honestly felt as if we had been away for a week, not a couple of days.

I'm looking forward to doing it again sometime.

Ma-suffer-in-your-jocks

Yeah, we are childish around here.

Ma-suffer-in-your-jocks = Mussafah.

Mussafah is an outer suburb of Abu Dhabi, off the island (as Abu Dhabi is an island) and is a place best avoided. Think of the industrial area of your local town/neighbourhood/city. Now times that image by like a thousand (!) and there you have Mussafah. Not one of the prettiest or one of the places I would choose to live in my life.

Now Mussafah is divided into two sections (it is a large area), the commercial side (which is no where like your local High Street - ahem!) and the Industrial side. Now the industrial side is very, very interesting. It is like one huge, massive junk yard. Yep - got that vision in your head? Just imagine buses, trucks (thousands and thousands of trucks), stores full of dusty and rusty items, shit everywhere you look, round-abouts, roads, car horns, labourers (it is where most labour camps are) with no pedestrian road sense. So it isn't the most glorious place on earth but it certainly opens your eyes!

Mussafah is best avoided at the best of times, however, it is where the majority of car dealerships have their service sheds. And you guessed it, my car (known at Tina), was overdue for a service. Now in Australia when you get your car serviced, you pass your keys over to the person behind the desk, tell them how many kilometers the clock is at, tell them any other issues and they say to you "your car will be ready in 6 hours". Here is in Abu Dhabi you still drop your car off and talk to the person behind the service counter but they say to you "your car will (possibly) be ready in 3 days"! True.

So Tina is in Mussafah, as I dropped her off on Tuesday. Did you read that? I dropped her off. I alone dropped her off. I battled the midday traffic in Mussafah. Woo-hoo!

If I can most certainly drive there and live to tell the tale, I can most certainly drive practically anywhere.

(The photos in this post, I took earlier in the year on a quiet weekend.)

Parmesan Chicken Breasts with Crispy Posh Ham

I think the best cookbook I have bought this year would be Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food. It is a book aimed at teaching people to cook proper meals, but even if you can cook, there are some corker recipes in there.

This chicken breast is very tasty. I didn't use prosciutto, but rather streaky bacon which he does suggest to use. (Either that or Parma Ham)

*Taken from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food, page 242, published 2008*

Ingredients

30g Parmesan cheese

2 sprigs of fresh thyme (I used dry)

2 skinless chicken breasts, preferably free-range or organic

freshly ground black pepper

1 lemon

6 slices of prosciutto

Olive oil

Method

Grate your Parmesan. Pick the thyme leaves off the stalks. Carefully score the underside of the chicken breasts in a criss-cross fashion with a small knife. Season with a little pepper (you don't need salt as the prosciutto is quite salty). Lay your breasts next to one another and sprinkle over most of the thyme leaves. Grate a little lemon zest over them, then sprinkle with the Parmesan. Lay 3 prosciutto slices on each chicken breast, overlapping them slightly. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with the remaining thyme leaves. Put a square of clingfilm over each breast and give them a few really good bashes with the bottom of a pan until they're about 1cm thick.

Put a frying pan over a medium heat. Remove the clingfilm and carefully transfer the chicken breasts, prosciutto side down, into the pan. Drizzle over some olive oil. Cook for 3 minutes on each side, turning halfway through, giving the ham side an extra 30 seconds to crisp up.

Either serve the chicken breasts whole or cut them into thick slices and pile them on a plate. Serve some lemon wedges for squeezing over, and a good drizzle of olive oil. Lovely with mash and green veg or a crunchy salad!

Serves 2

Mobile

We knew that MissL would first crawl in London and we were right. For weeks and weeks beforehand MissL would sit on the ground and bend over, legs twisted underneath her (very frustrating to watch!) but no other attempts to get mobile.

But now there is no stopping her.

She particularly likes to chase a little (toy) Hamster MissM owns which scoots across the floor - let me introduce you to 'Quinky'. He is pretty cute.

MissL likes to follow him across the floor,

even attempts to follow him under chairs and tables, and then sits and watches him.

Being mobile is terrific, I'm sure MissL thinks. Me too!

Stay Tuned...

...I might just have found my Recipe blog mojo back!

Portobello Road, on a Sunday

Ever since blur sang about Portobello Road in 'Blue Jeans' back in the early '90s I have wanted to visit. I didn't buy any air cushioned soles but we did buy MissL the most gorgeous cupcake bib!

Portobello Road is located in the lovely suburb of Notting Hill, just north of Kensington. We walked from our Hotel in Earl's Court (with a bit of a complaint from MissM) but we got there. Lucky we got there relatively early as when we were leaving it seemed like every man and his dog were heading down the road.

Full of funky little shops selling everything from Gumboots to rock t-shirts, to fancy cupcakes to souvenirs, we rather enjoyed our stroll up the hill. Some shops had amazing fronts to them, like this one which had hundreds of old Singer sewing machines in the window...

We should have got a sausage from Banger Bros. but we didn't. Think I regret that.

In the end we were battling with the crowds and left to make our way back down to Kensingston High Street. Lunch was had in a cute fronted pub just off the High Street (roast of the day thanks!) and we walked back towards our hotel stopping into some of our favourite stores for a browse and a buy.

Of course we were rewarded with a jug of Pimm's at a pub quite near our hotel. It was well deserved. =)