Doctor meeting, Internet Explorer 8 and McAfee Security Center/BT NetProtect Plus, Earth Hour

We met with the Doctor on Friday. Good news (of a sort) he is going to schedule surgery to fix the problem and he has confirmed that it isn't cancer either. We now have to wait for the hospital to get back to us with the date of surgery.

Yesterday I installed Internet Explorer 8. I had been putting it off as the McAfee website says that it does not support IE 8 as it is beta software. When I DID try the Beta version of IE 8 I got a blank screen in McAfee Security Center which made it impossible to use, so I had to uninstall the Beta version. Recently however I downloaded BT Netprotect Plus which is the BT branded version of McAfee Security Center (without the Spam filter). BT's website also said that IE 8 is not supported with NetProtect Plus. This is despite the fact that BT/Yahoo are promoting IE 8 on their home page. When I checked on Friday on McAfee's website they said there was a problem with Microsoft's software and they would not support IE 8 until it is fixed.

I raised a support query with Microsoft. They came back to me saying they could not comment on third party software but suggested I installed the software in "safe mode".

I thought "huh?" and "why?" but I went along with the instructions provided. However after downloading the install package and trying to run it in "safe" mode I was given an error and told the installation could not proceed.

After restarting in normal mode I ran the install package again. It took only a few seconds to complete.

I checked BT NetProtect Plus/McAfee Security Center and it is working just fine. IE 8 is working fine too. It still doesn't load as fast as Google Chrome or Opera but the extra functionality is on par with these two if not better in some places.

When I checked BT's website and links today it appears that they have removed the warnings now! You can download IE 8 from Microsoft by clicking here.


I cooked (shop bought) crispy duck with pancakes, and an apple and blackberry crumble (home made). All seemed to go down well. The cats liked the left over duck!


Crumble Recipe
7 oz plain flour
1 oz whole wheat plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
5 oz dark brown (molasses) sugar
4 bramley (cooking) apples (about 2 lbs)
4 oz blackberries (NOT blackcurrants)
1/2 oz caster sugar


Cut the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour and baking powder until it looks like breadcrumbs. Then mix in the dark brown sugar.
Peel and slide the apples, add the caster sugar, stir and microwave until slightly soft.
Mix in the blackberries.
Cover with the crumble topping.
Bake in the over at gas mark 5 for 40-50 minutes

serve with custard

Last night was "Earth Hour" - we dutifully sat in near darkness for over an hour. Luckily we were only watching TV! We watched Housesitter with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn and then part of Brokeback Mountain. We gave up on Brokeback Mountain as it was too difficult - they kept mumbling and had strong "southern" accents too.

Interview trek

I had a manic interview day yesterday.

I drove to Brighton (Hove actually) for interview number one, then drove up to Redhill where I parked and got the train to London for interview two. I then got the train back to Redhill and drove home. 150 miles of driving, plus time on the train.

I had my SatNav on in the train: its fun seeing it trying to plan a car route as you keep moving along the train line. It assumes you are on the nearest road of course.

Maria is now seeing the Consultant in Alton on Friday - hurrah!

Boiler ongoing

these are some pictures of the valve the engineer changed for us.

This seemed to fix the problem with the heating not turning off.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) on Vimeo

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) on Vimeo

this is SO good, you MUST click on the link NOW and watch the whole thing.

By the way, she has actually seen a few bits of the trilogy.

Mothering Sunday

The In-Laws came over on Saturday night to celebrate Mothering Sunday.

We had Asparagus with Pancetta as a starter; Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pudding, Carrots, Beans, Roast Potatoes, Roast Parsnips and gravy as the main and Profiteroles filled with Chantilly Cream and topped with hot chocolate sauce as a dessert.

Recipes are below. The Profiteroles are by Gordon Ramsey, the Asparagus was from a Channel 4 website but I used Taleggio not Parmesan. I served a french Merlot and an Australian Sancerre with the food. Followed by coffee.

Asparagus wrapped in pancetta with parmesan and
butter recipe
Ingredients
30 stems of asparagus
15 slices of pancetta ham
120g of cheese of your choice
Method: How to make asparagus wrapped in pancetta
1. Boil asparagus for 1 minute then put in cold pot of water. When cold wrap 2 stems of asparagus
with a small amount of cheese in a slice of pancetta ham.
2. Place in oven for 10 minutes before serving. Serve 3 bundles on each plate.

Profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce recipe
Makes 30 profiteroles
Ingredients
Choux pastry
125ml milk
200ml water
150g plain flour
1 tsp golden caster sugar
? tsp salt
100g unsalted butter
4 medium eggs, lightly beaten
Chantilly cream
1 ? a vanilla pod, split
300ml whipping cream
1-2 tbsp icing sugar
Chocolate sauce
200g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
30g unsalted butter
3 tbsp clear honey
125ml full fat milk
Method: How to make profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce
1. Preheat the oven to 200oCIGas 6. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Place the milk, cold water, salt,
sugar into a pan and set over a low heat. Once the sugar and salt has dissolved add the butter. Once
the butter has melted, bring to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat then tip in the flour and beat vigorously
with a wooden spoon. As soon as the mixture starts to come away from the side of the pan, stop
beating and tip onto a plate to cool.
2. Return the mixture to the pan, then gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, mixing well
between each addition, until you have a smooth paste. (Alternatively, transfer the mix to an electric
mixer and gradually add the eggs while the mixer is running on a low setting).
3. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Spoon the choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a
large plain nozzle (about 1.5cm in diameter). Pipe a small blob of the pastry mix under each corner of
the greaseproof to keep the paper in place. Now pipe about 20 walnut-sized balls onto the baking
sheet, spaced well apart. Level the peaked tops with the tip of a wet finger then bake for 18-20
minutes until well risen and golden brown.
4. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before filling.
5. For the Chantilly cream scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into a large mixing bowl. Add the
cream, and icing sugar then whisk together until the consistency of a soft meringue with floppy peaks.
Spoon the cream into a clean piping bag, fitted with a small plain nozzle. Pierce the base of a choux
bun with the tip of the nozzle and pipe in the cream. Repeat with the remaining choux buns.
6. For the chocolate sauce, break the chocolate into small pieces in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl
over a pan of simmering water and heat. Add the butter and honey stirring from time to time, until the
chocolate begins to melt. Gradually whisk in the milk until you have a smooth sauce and warm
through. Serve the cream-filled profiteroles with the hot chocolate sauce drizzled over.

A Creative Use for Sheep

Okay, all you shepherd wannabes out there ...   Check this out:   http://break.com/index/light-up-sheep-art.html

 

Recipe Exchange

We got invited to join in a recipe exchange the other day. We send a recipe to a complete stranger, add our email to a list and send it out into the web to 20 "friends"/"victims".

In return we get 400 recipes back.

I was able to correct the spelling error in the title of the email and sent off our contribution: my famous prawn risotto. 

Prawn Risotto – for 4

Ingredients

2 shallots or a small white onion

1 clove of garlic

300 grams Arborio rice

125 grams of unsalted butter

50 grams of grated Parmesan cheese plus extra to serve

15 ml of olive oil

1 litre of hot chicken or fish stock

150 ml of white wine (Sancerre perhaps)

250 grams of prawns raw or pre cooked – larger ones are best (or more if you want everyone to get lots of prawns. I use 2 x 250 gram packs of tiger prawns)

100 grams of petites pois – defrosted if frozen

Salt and pepper (white pepper is aesthetically better but I prefer freshly ground black pepper)

Method

Turn on the radio or have someone in the kitchen to talk too.

Chop the shallots and crush and chop the clove of garlic

Add the olive oil and half the butter to a deep non-stick frying pan/sauté pan and heat until the butter melts, then add the shallots and garlic and fry gently for a minute or two without letting them burn or colour until soft.

Add 100 grams of Arborio rice and fry gently for a couple of minutes stirring all the time then add 150 ml of white wine and keep stirring. When the wine has been absorbed add the stock, a ladle at a time while stirring. Do not stir too hard or you end up with mush! Keep the heat low.

After 20 minutes or so of listening to the radio, stirring and adding stock you will have a creamy risotto base. If needed add at ladle of water if the rice is still firm to the bite and keep cooking until it is softer. Add the petites pois and the prawns if using raw ones, if using cooked (pink) prawns wait a couple of minutes and then add them – you only need to heat them through but the peas need to cook. Keep stirring gently otherwise it will burn / stick to your non-stick pan.

When ready to serve, add the cheese, the rest of the butter and season to taste. Stir until the butter melts through and the cheese is mixed in.

Sprinkle more parmesan over the risotto as required when served.

You can add a side salad if you want

Back to the Chemist

The pain relief drugs that I picked up yesterday were WAY too strong, so I went back today and picked up some more.

You can buy these new ones over the counter, but why buy them when you can get them "free at the point of delivery"

Quiet days

Sunday and Monday were very quiet... Not doing much, taking pain killers mostly and updating the "pain diary" - keeping track of what hurts and when.

Yesterday (Monday) Maria broke out a jigsaw: one of the Christmas ones that we hadn't started yet. I went into town to get some things, drop of a request for more pain killers at the doctor and I ran in Alan at Tesco, he's looking good, the chemo treatments seem to be helping a lot.

I rang the insurance company as we'd had the renewal forms through. It appears that they have been over charging me for insurance for years as we have separate policies for contents and buildings. I merged them, and that alone has saved £450 a year. However the lowest alternative quote I have is about £200 less than the latest combined quote from the current company. I'll do some more digging into best value I think.

I rang her boss at work, she hadn't been told anything about why Maria was off - communication breakdown or protection of privacy perhaps.

Today I went to the chemist to get the pain killers. I also rang the bank about the mortgage as our current deal ends on 31st March. I signed up for a new "tracker" mortgage which will save another £40 a month.

Update

Maria spent the night at Basingstoke, but was sent home on Thursday evening with pain relief. She's going to be having a CT (or CAT) scan and seeing the consultant in a couple of weeks time. They also took blood to test for "other nasties" as they called it. 

We've started keeping a "pain diary" so we can track how the pain moves around and how bad it is as we were finding it hard to remember the details in the hospital.

back to Basingstoke

We went back to the Doctor today as the pain had got worse. He sent us down to Basingstoke again. Maria got admitted and is scheduled for another scan tomoorow.

Basingstoke North Hampshire Hospital

We've been spending time at the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke this weekend.

We initially went to the "ThamesDoc" - our GP's out of hours service - at the local community hospital, The Chase at 8:30 on Saturday night as Maria had severe pain and her leg kept going numb or feeling "hot". She got sent to A&E by the doctor at about 9 pm as he said she needed an ultrasound scan. We got to Basingstoke about 9:45 and got seen by the triage nurse fairly quickly. I had managed to drop her off at the main entrance, park the car and then spent 15 minutes roaming round the hospital looking for the Emergency department. The Emergency Department is BEHIND YOU as you stand looking at the sign by the Main Entrance, so of course I went the other way :-). After having blood pressure and temperature taken by the Triage nurse we were then moved into another room, blood was taken and we were left to wait. After an hour her blood pressure and temperature was taken again. A bit later a Doctor came to see her. He said they didn't do ultrasound scans overnight so she should go home and see her GP on Monday, but he would request a scan anyway. We got home soon after 1 am on Sunday.

This morning, I'm over in Alton at 9:15 for a meeting. I've made an appointment for her to see the GP at 3 pm as well. Then Maria calls to say that the hospital have rung up and would like her to come in for a scan at 11 am. So I leave the meeting and head home, then then we go back to Basingstoke, arriving at 10:50!

They tried the scan at 11:10, but complained that her bladder wasn't full enough, so we got sent away to drink water for 40 minutes. When we got back we'd been elevated to seeing the consultant - Dr Green, and also testing a new ultrasound machine too.

They found the cause and explained the pain. Dr Green is going to refer her on to "Obs and Gynae" for treatment so I won't be going into any details here! So she rang the GP to cancel the appointment and to let him know what was going on.