Nutty as a Fruitcake

3391 burned, and I feel like I’ve sat on my bum all day. How does that happen? The Ki-fit doesn’t lie.

Breakfast was a rule breaker! I ATE IT IN THE CAR…. damn, damn, damn. I had to be down in Christchurch super-early so had to leave early too. So I made a coffee and a almond butter and sugar free apricot jam sandwich and two bites of flapjack.

Lunch was more straight forward. A packed lunch of roast beef sandwich, a piece of Brie, Clementine and some carrot cake.

Dinner was a Red Thai Curry made with chicken breast, coconut cream, yellow peppers, spring onions and Red Thai Curry paste and served with brown basmati rice.

Tired, tired bunny so a short posting today.

Warm moist air creeps over snow covered cold counties and we end up with a pea soup. I left Christchurch late, so was traveling in the dark, but as I started to climb over Cranbourne Chase the fog crowded in and I drove slowly down Zig Zag Hill it got even thicker. It was difficult to see the street lights!

Morning started with a breakfast of cheesy toast, a banana and fresh ‘tassimo’d’ coffee.

My main excitement today (apart from work!) was using our new HD video conferencing facility. It was quite an experience once we read the instructions! What is it about TV zappers that men are always the first to pick them up, assuming that pressing random buttons will just work. After several minutes of zapper ownership, the first male team was complaining that the system was rubbish, not set up properly, blah, blah, blah… Another male team member walked in, picked up the one page instruction sheet, pressed two buttons and we were talking to a team 70 miles up the road in perfect HD.

Lunch was packed. Seed rolls with houmous, lean ham, cucumber and watercress. Clementines and a handful of mini biscuits. I also took a portion of my plum compote, but released at the end of my day that I had forgotten to eat it.

After the perilous drive back, I looked at the weeks meal plan and started preparing the tofu, rice and stir-fry vegetables. I baked the tofu, sliced and covered in szechuan marinade. I added a spoon of the marinade to the vegetables, before combining with the rice, and put the tofu on top.

My daughter was taking her first exam of her MSc today…. it seems to have gone OK, which is good because she had worked incredibly hard.

It had snowed all night and we had about 2 inches of fresh snow on top of the existing covering. The Somerset countryside is amazingly beautiful, with every tree branch outlined in white. I had to drive over the Mendips to Bristol for a very important customer meeting. This is a 14 mile trip on snowy, ice, hilly roads. I was not looking forward to it.

Breakfast was multi-seed toast with peanut butter, a smear of mixed berry conserve and sliced banana. Served with a Starbucks Blend Tassimo Coffee. Comforting and invigorating at the same time.

While I was eating my breakfast, I was watching a strange bird tuck into its breakfast in the garden.. an apple impaled on the tree. It was a Redwing, which is a Scandinavian bird that migrates here for the winter. They usually stay out in the countryside but the prolonged cold weather in driving them into towns to find food. As my Beloved is a committed bird feeder, we have the best type of entertainment to watch while having the first meal of the day. The bird was so pretty and obviously very hungry.

This photo Andreas Trepte, www.photo-natur.de.

The journey was slow, but careful. I soon got into the swing of where the sliding risk was maximised. I was able to relax and enjoy to beauty of the snow. The car park at the Bristol end was interesting, but I got there in plenty of time. I met some of my team members in the cafe for lunch. The selection was excellent, but unfortunately no photos were allowed. I had some celery and apple soup, a salad roll and some yoghurt with apricot puree.

The meeting was very successful and the journey home was even more beautiful as it became misty. Black, white and misty .. a monochrome landscape.

Dinner today was a quick supper of a steak and onion pie from Farringtons ( on the blogroll), pak choi sautéed with a spoon of hoisin sauce and some mashed potato.

The thaw arrives tomorrow, meaning less adventurous driving back to Christchurch tomorrow.

Today was another based at our Dorset site, completing some Development Review for my first line and a few interesting conversations focused on a white paper that I am writing from one of our customers.

However there has been a huge ‘snow’ cloud hanging over my head. I have a very important meeting in Bristol tomorrow i.e. must not be missed and must be done in person. The weather forecast is for about 12 hours of heavy snow and indeed by the time I got home the thick snowflakes were coming down fast. So what to do?

• Travel to Bristol in the snow, stay in a hotel, get to the meeting and not be able to get back home afterwards?
• Or stay at home tonight and hope that the roads will be cleared in time for me to travel tomorrow?

My Beloved was unhappy that I would be traveling again tonight after a having already driven two hours home to Somerset so I decided on the second option. Having made the decision I felt a lot better… isn’t that always the way?!

Breakfast was of the cooked variety, at the hotel, accompanied by a tall glass of orange juice. I always get ‘a look’ from my fellow businessmen as I pass them with my breakfast, as they tuck into their ‘lighter’ breakfasts of toast and cereals. They think they have chosen a healthy options, but I’m having two portions of vegetables, a fruit portion, and some protein… a much more satisfying combination!

I was going to have a hot lunch in our canteen today but it was the dreaded liver and onion so I opted for a cheese and tomato baguette with coleslaw.

I broke my commitment to not eat in the car… I was very hungry (and stressed) by the time I filled the car with fuel and I fell into that trap of buying a snack of cheese.

Dinner was crumbed Haddock with spicy potato wedges. Hot and quick. Just what I needed to warm up after another snowy journey.

I’ve parked my car at the top of the hill…. we will see what happens tomorrow.

This is my first day away from home since starting my blog. This meant I was faced with having to take pictures of my meal at the hotel. I had a practice of flashless photography in my room first and I’m hoping the quality is good enough.

Breakfast was cinnamon porridge with a sliced banana and my plum comport. This was a lovely mix of hot and spicy, cold and fruity.

Porridge with banana and plum

I had a team telecon first thing, followed by a drive through the snowy countryside to Dorset for work. Only to be faced with an icerink car park when I arrived.

A busy morning and two lunch time meetings meant lunch was in three stages. The first at two o’clock, the second phase at three and the rest at five. My planned roast pork had to be replaced with leftover chili as we were piggies ourselves and finished the joint yesterday! Still the chili went well with the broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes. Two clementines and lunchies for something sweet.

The afternoon flew by and by the end of the working day my brain was buzzing. A quick drive to the hotel, a couple of phonecalls and I checked in. I bought a skinny vanilla latte from the starbucks on the ground flour and went to practice my photos. What do you think of the results?

I’m staying at the Village in Bournemouth, which is a good chain that is aimed at the business traveller Dinner was French onion soup which was tasty.

I followed this with a turkey burger with veg instead of chips. I drank spring water and felt too full at the end. It was well prepared but the portion size was way too large.

I think the photos have turned out well….. brilliant.