Sunday night chit-chat

What are you:
Reading
Bed book: Princess Bride (William Goldman) - more than halfway through now
Tram book: Arguably (Christopher Hitchens) - I should read more collections of essays and short stories.  Food for thought and I can often start one during the short tram journey to work and finish it at lunchtime.
Kitchen book: Candide (Voltaire) - started this in March but someone spilt something near it and it got a bit wet so now I'm finally getting back to it.  Another one of those books I've had on my to-read shelf for years.

Watching
Going to settle down to watch either Iron Man 2 or Music and Lyrics.  I want to go to see Iron Man 3 while it's still on in English but can't remember much of the second film so it would be good to re-watch it.  On the other hand, I think I'm more in the mood for a rom-com.  Went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness yesterday which means yesterday was a bit of a Star Trek feast as I watched the first J.J. Abrams Star Trek film in the afternoon.  Now I want to watch the original series again. :)

Listening to
Just the sound of the soup bubbling away in the kitchen at the moment.  Trying to get at some podcasts on iTunes but that bloody program just does not like me.  One of these days I'll figure it out, I'm sure.

Cooking/baking
It has been a weekend of soup with me trying to do a mini-detox.  One large pot of vegetable soup made yesterday, one of carrot and ginger soup this afternoon and there's another one on at the moment so that I could use up the rest of the cabbage and chard.  I added potatoes to this one as well as some wild garlic and the sweet potato that has been lying untouched for months and lots of 'Indian' spices.  Have had one small and two very large portions of soup today, have some in the fridge for tomorrow, nine servings in the freezer and still the last pot to puree and deal with.  I also still have a big bunch of rhubarb to use up and will probably just stew most of that tomorrow and use the rest to make a mini crumble.

Happy you accomplished this week
Posted off my niece's birthday present (and it arrived).  Got a few odd bits of decluttering done, including the kitchen windowsill and also managed to cook and use up just about all the food I had waiting to be used, including my massive haul of veg from the market yesterday.  And I sorted out the few games I have and put them all together in a box, which looks much tidier on the shelf.

Looking forward to next week
Not sure I'm really looking forward to it but I have my first two of five laser treatments tomorrow and Tuesday.  I'm not really looking forward to it and it's a pain that I have to pay for it out of pocket but if it finally releases some of the giant knot in my left shoulder/neck area...well, less pain I could definitely look forward to.  Added advantage to these appointments is that I will need to leave work early to get to them but it will be too late once they're finished to go back to work so I will actually be at home at a decent hour, too.  And we have the last of our multiple May bank holidays on Thursday.  Also, registration for the community college opens this week so I will be registering for the preparation course for the proofreader's exam I want to do next year.

Thankful for today
That I can eat just soup all day for no reason other than I want to try and eat healthily and not because it's all I have.  While looking for a recipe for carrot and ginger soup I also found a recipe for carrot-stuffed onions which I can't wait to try.  And longer and longer evenings.  They'll never match the long evenings in Dublin but still, bright until after eight and still not quite dark by twenty to ten is pretty good.

Bonus question: what chore around the house do you dislike doing the most?
Dusting!  It was this realisation which helped to curb my habit of buying cute little ornaments.  I now have very little other than photos and candles out on display.  The candles I use all the time and dusting the photos isn't quite as cumbersome a chore since it's always nice looking at photos of family and friends and good times.

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