The curious phenomenon of passport photos [Scanned]

Firstly, good news!  I have my new passport (finally!).  This is a Very Good Thing.   Secondly, I don’t really know how I managed it but I did.   For years I hated my passport photo.  About 6 months after I had it taken I cut all my hair off and for the majority of the next decade, wherever I went I had passport officials scrutinising my photo and me as if they were thinking ‘Is that really her?’  I even had bleach blonde short hair at one point and that took a little bit of explaining to the official I was trying to persuade to let me into Australia.   Even with the differences in hair style, I hated that photo.  I looked chubby, I looked pale (dark clothes didn’t help), my fringe was curling every which way and my eyebrows were in really, truly quite desperate need of an appointment with a lot of wax.   In effort to correct this with my shiny new passport, I wore a light shirt and my hair looked good and neat on the day I had the photos taken.  Of course, the Foreign Office then sent me the whole sodding application back as the photos had too much glare.  Grr.  So, I had them done at Australia Post across the road and that took 3 goes to get shots that were the right size and didn’t have any glare on them.    I was in a rush.  I was harassed and consequently, in my new passport photo, I look pale (dark tops again), my fringe is curling every which way and although I don’t look quite so chubby but there are more lines than a decade ago.  The only good thing about the whole debacle is that my eyebrows are now, at least, not in desperate need of tweezers.   I really don’t know how I managed to end up with a practically identical photo but I have.  I think cameras have it in for me.

Rain [Scanned]

It’s raining L  Quite a lot actually.   My poor seedling coriander and sweetpeas are going to be mangled yet again L   Grr

Cooking

My husband, for all he doesn't eat much vegetables and stuff, has the happy knack of being able to throw things together and it comes out wonderfully. He cooked me a meal of redclaw marinated in lime, lemongrass and soy with rice and courgettes the other day and it was set out so beautifully it was a shame to spoil it. It was worth it though, it was delicious! And the mango curry he made the other day was simply stupendous. Anyway, my point is I love cooking but I have a tendancy to get stuck in the same couple of recipes for ages without attempting anything new and I, alas, do not have the happy knack of chucking things in and turning out marvels. I need receipies. So I've made a resolution to myself. At least once a week I will attempt a new receipe. Or find an old receipe that I have not attempted in a long time (Chicken Everest springs to mind) At least once a month one of those receipies will be a desert or cake or something (as I have a wonderful book from my lovely best friend which I got for Christmas - Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess - which makes my mouth water just looking at the pictures and I never know where to start as they ALL look brilliant). I intend to be on the lookout for Charmaine Solomon's 'The Complete Asian Cookbook' and I'm always on the eye out for Ken Hom. I shall possibly have to start looking out for other good types of recipies otherwise I'll get stuck on Asian which will defeat the purpose. Keep your fingers crossed and I will keep you posted.

The washing up saga

Now, I don't mind washing up. I know that sounds a bit odd but on the whole, it's quite a calming exercise when you're standing there with hot soapy water over your hands. It's a time for contemplation. I wouldn't have been complaining at all had I occasionally managed to convince my husband to do it once in a while. Surely once a week is not too much to ask? Sadly, it was. Given that we also cook separate meals I would have two lots of pots and pans to wash up (or not quite two lots when he uses the barbeque). Every. Single. Day. So, after the evening meal it was always he'd go and flop on the sofa whilst I spent ages putting away the dry dishes from the night before, doing the washing up, then cleaning up. To make things worse he always asked why was I doing that and why couldn't I go and sit down and do it all in the morning. I hate leaving the washing up for the morning. Coming downstairs to make your breakfast and seeing a disaster zone that you know has to be cleaned before you can even sit down is something I loathe. Especially when I have my mornings timed to perfection so I don't have to get up a second before I absolutely have to. (I don't do mornings) On top of this I do most of the laundry (he may put a load on once a fortnight) I do the housecleaning (he may mop the floors once a fortnight or less) I clean the fish tanks and filters when they need doing (he may do them occasionally - I've learnt not to believe when he says he'll do it soon, because he won't. He'll do it then, or not at all) I take most of the rubbish and recycling out (he thinks that putting the recycling in a bag and putting it in the garage for me to take out later is 'doing the recycling') and I do all the washing up (sometimes he would rinse all the dishes and pile them up, but it still meant me washing up). So I complained. I nagged. I mentioned it at every damn opportunity. I wanted a dishwasher. He didn't really want to spend the money and then worried that the kitchen wasn't set up correctly and didn't want to have to pay for a plumber to install it. So after a couple of heated discussions, I figured it was a lost cause so imagine my surprise when I got home on Monday night (the night after the talk about plumbers installing it costing too much) to find a nice, shiny new dishwasher in the kitchen. I'm in domestic heaven. It's so easy! You quickly rinse the plates/glasses etc. as you finish with them and just put them in! Set it at night and in the morning you have clean dishes! It takes me a quarter of the time in the evening it used to take me to clean up which means more time giving my husband attention so he's happier. He doesn't have to listen to me complaining so he's happier still. It's also so quiet, you cannot hear it unless you're right next to it, it's great! Now I just have to work out what I want next...:)