Up she pops!

Aaaand she arises from the third go-round of this dumb virus I keep getting this year. Outrageous I say, when last year I didn’t get sick for a minute and this year I just get the same fricking thing over and over again.

This version was the worst, though, and I completely lost my voice. I couldn’t think straight, couldn’t put a sentence together, couldn’t breathe, and couldn’t go five minutes without sneezing. And the cough! I haven’t had a cough like this in years. No more, thankyouverymuch.

This has been my view for the last 10 days

Deeply pleasing under normal circumstances, a bit of GBBO (PLEASE can we talk about Rahul) but in a fog of grossness it’s a sub-optimal situation.

I did manage to get out on Saturday night for our 11th wedding anniversary, which we spent eating these AMAZING veggie dumplings at Nong Tang Noodle House in Chinatown, covered in their own housemade chili oil. The oil itself was spectacular, they had pots of it on each table and they were filled with star anise and secret bits and bobs that make it so much better than your average oil with a few chili flakes. They even make their own wine that they serve their edamame in. Everything was out of control good.

We also gave an escape room a shot, putting our collective wits together (old mate is the math man, if he’s not speaking in music he’s speaking in numbers and seeing as I can’t count he was going to be great at things that needed counting. Which, of course, there was). I figure go hard or go home so went with the 10/10 difficulty rating. We had 50 minutes in which to find and defuse a bomb, with clues on hand should we need any help.

Well, after the first 25 minutes when not much was making any sense, we called for a clue (despite our combined stubbornness). Turns out we’d missed a drawer containing a vital piece of the initial puzzle, but once that was open IT WAS ON. We tore through the next 10 or so challenges in about 15 minutes. The dudes running the show very reluctantly told us our time was up at the 50 minute mark, after feeling so sorry for us that the only thing holding us back was a dumb drawer we didn’t see. He even let us in to see the final challenge because we were so close to the end despite our setback.

Of course the next day I was feeling worse than ever after my late night, so the only thing for it is Christmas magazines, which will cure anything. Anything, I tell you! I hardly buy hard copy magazines, but make an exception for the Christmas editions, which I re-read every year.

It was also high time the Nigella Christmas book came out for Relaxed Leafing whenever the moment strikes. Not sure if I’ll make anything but I always at least consider it. I could totally do a cocktail from her list of very festive ones.

I also had a rad delivery from a friend in the UK who offered to have a peep through the charity shops in her area to see if there’s anything I might want. I did indeed want all of these royal mugs, especially the Chuck & Di one, as I have a matching small plate and we can’t have it to lonely can we?

I also bought a C&D tea cup and saucer set with matching cake plate for $12 from the op shop myself only to turn around and find it sold at a significantly higher price at a nearby antiques shop (minus the cake plate). That’s a high five for me!

Yesterday I felt the best I have in a while, so pottered around outside and in the kitchen. I made an outrageously good herby mustard potato salad (recipe here for The Organic Place), and, to fulfil my deepest cravings to PIPE ALL THE THINGS I made strawberry cupcakes from this old recipe of my nana’s.

It’s the dirtiest page in the whole book (more of which you can see here – the vintage ads are priceless!).

I made them strawberry by cooking up a punnet of strawberries and blending them, then adding half to the batter and half to the icing.

It should be noted that I made the icing too runny and forgot completely to put baking powder in the cake batter until I’d put it all in the paper cases. I had to spoon it all out and start over. My brain is not where it should have been these last few weeks!

I’ve also started a plant nursery for all the fellas who were about to die in the house. Hopefully I can bring them back to life.

I mean the mint’s fine, I’ve never been able to kill that.

But the lavender is looking much happier. I bought it earlier this year from a nursery in a very sorry state and hoped I could sort it out. She’s looking magnificent after a very sad winter.

And my kitchen fern, which everyone loves, has started to look faded and grey instead of vibrant and healthy. I figured a few days in the sun (not many as it doesn’t like it) and lots of water for a bit should help it along the way.

A few weeks ago I got my tomatoes out (a week early but who’s counting really) and built a new no-dig garden bed after weeds got to my last one. The very next day every single tomato and basil plant I lovingly planted in the no-dig bed was gone. GONE.

Every last skerrick of leaf and half the stems were chewed up. Nothing to speak of on the basil. It was destroyed in the dead of night by something. I know not what.

The tomatoes in the regular garden bed and in pots are fine.

See? Tomatoes.

No-dig bed? NO TOMATOES.

Tomatoes!

NO TOMATOES.

Even the cat’s unimpressed.