![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
On Tuesday I finished work for the year, as I couldn't be arsed to work all the way up to Christmas. I baked a cake for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
tea_cantata's birthday and took it to her mini-party at the Carlton, by which point the filling was oozing out a bit. I think the recipe needs a bit of adjustment. It seemed to taste OK though. After the party we drove pseudomonas around town to deliver him and a spare monitor to his home. On the way I was stopped by the police...but only because they were stopping everyone at that point to check for drink-driving. We sat around drinking tea and chatting for a while, then departed around 1.
On Wednesday I went out delivering Christmas cards while tea_cantata went for a long lunch with her colleagues at Sheridan House (the Lib Dem office). Most of the card recipients were out but one friend works from home and was happy to have a chat for a half hour or so. I went home, had a late lunch and then went out to my doctor's surgery to get warts treated (ouch). On the way I picked up tea_cantata and afterwards we went to her doctor's surgery to refill a prescription. I had great difficulty finding and getting into the surgery, managing to botch a U-turn, but we got there in the end. In the evening we cleaned and tidied the house a bit, attempted to do our Christmas food shopping, and prepared some pastry for mince pies.
On Thursday morning tea_cantata finished the mince pies while I attempted to find the remaining food items. My target items were:
- Meat-free egg-free frankfurter-like sausages. I will eat meat and eggs if they come from free-range animals, but in general they won't. I succeeded on this but only at great expense: Arjuna sells tofu wieners at £2.79 for 4.
- A miniature of Grand Marnier, Cointreau or similar. We only needed 50 ml for a recipe and didn't expect to feel like drinking more. I failed on this and had to get a whole bottle.
- Pickled red cabbage. Sainsbury's claimed they would have this in stock, but they didn't. I couldn't find it elsewhere either. Maybe I should have tried Cornucopia on Bene't Street?
All in all this seems like a pretty pitiful reflection on either Cambridge food shops or perhaps my knowledge of them.
We then packed up our various food items, electronics, presents and so on and set off towards my brother's home in West London. We had hoped to leave shortly after 12 but I spent a long time hunting for the abovementioned items and we took a while to pack so it was nearly 2 by the time we left. There was a bit of a jam on the way out of Cambridge, on Long Road and Trumpington Road, but it wasn't too bad. The M11 was pretty clear and I had little trouble with it thanks to my earlier practice on the A14, and the first part of the M25 was similarly not too bad. Then a little way round we ran into jams and moved pretty slowly for the last 15 miles or so. Finally we got onto the M4, stopped off at the services for a toilet break and a late lunch, and made our way into London. Things got hairy after we left the motorway; the signage and lane markings around this area are pretty useless and I repeatedly found myself in the wrong lane with little warning or opportunity to change. Eventually we made it there around 6, which is pretty bad for a journey of a little over 100 miles.
We've now sat around, watched a lot of TV, had some takeaway burritos, and I'm about ready for bed.
no subject
You could probably try that Indian grocers at the bottom of Histon Road, they seem to sell just about everything (and even if they don't have any red cabbage, get yourself some nice lime pickle or something).
no subject
no subject