Horse Meat and Food Standards (by sarah)

Ok so everyone has been going on about the horse meat in the beef burgers and there have basically been too reactions 1) Oh my god! and 2) hahahahaha.

The first one tends to be along the lines of 'oh no I ate poor horseys!' which for people who eat meat is a bit silly. As has been pointed out they are moaning about the wrong animal being minced up for food. Is a horse really more valuable than a cow?

It could be argued that the horse is more intelligent but the people arguing this will nearly always be bacon eaters too and pigs are really intelligent. The other thing is that this seems horrific to the English but the rest of Europe eat horse! All the time not just when there is a cock up.

People need to assess what they are actually eating rather than burying their heads in the sand. I have friends who don't like the idea of the animals being killed but will not give up meat - they just buy bits that don't look like animal and try not to think about it. Maybe if they thought about it a bit more things like this wouldn't slip in under the radar.

This is interesting as Alaric doesn't even eat fake meat as the idea is alien to him. And this brings me to the point that though I think the reaction is silly, there is still the matter that people where choosing to by minced cow and not minced horse and the choice should be there. Not just for ethical reasons either - now I am not a vegitarian but have issues with cow fat. They make me sick weather in milk or the meat so for me a mistake like this could have serious health consequences. Say I was buying lamb burgers and they happened to contain cow - I would be getting sick and not know why. This is a safety issue.

Also if they have managed to put the wrong meat in there what else has accidently slipped in?

This mess is also going to result in a hell of a lot of food wastage at a time when people are queueing at soup kitchens and food banks are struggling to supply what is needed for all the families in crisis and that makes me want to cry or throttle someone. I know it would seem like a solution to give the patties to them but that would only work if they could be guarenteed safe otherwise you might be making a bad situation worse.

Lets hope it ends up in the bacteria vats for gas and electricity production than in landfill.

Pain, Peceptions and What Not (by sarah)

As those who follow me on facebook, twitter, text message or in the flesh will have detected I am in pain at the moment - I am having a flare up not just with my back and shoulder but also with my hands. Not surprising really as it is pregnancy hormone that kept these pains at bay for the last few years - instead giving me the pelvic issues. My hands are not working brilliantly but they have also been a lot worse in the past.

They are not completely useless lumps of rubber like they were at the end of my degree.

But they are weak, I can not open the baby's beaker so we need three of them so I don't have to refill whilst Al is at work. I can't open cans nor chop veg or lock/unlock the door. We have ways around most of this and those we don't we are working on.

But it is always depressing but I am being kept in ok spirits by Alaric and friends.

I am also awaiting the stuck coil to be removed and the pains associated with that which is stressing me out - I just don't like the idea of it being there at all now plus it is now spiking me. I'm trying not to be negative about things but I am being overly persermistic about stuff. Pain killers make me thick, pain makes me thick, I feel thick and dull and fat and boring to be quiet honest.

But again I have ways around this so it isn't really that bad - I just need to moan about it. Hopefully I can stop boring everyone with it all now!

Also I had injections in the top of my spin in 2003 to help with inflammation and pain and stuff - it feels like these have worn off? Is that possible? I was hoping to get longer out of them as I was told I could only ever have the injections three times in my life.

Snow Garden (by sarah)

More snow fell after I took the pics and I regret not having gone out with the birthday money sooner and gotten my camera as it ment I was restricted to the half an hour of Al getting ready for work and his smart phone! However I did discover that the broken camera still records film ok so I did take some vids of the girls which I will attempt to process later on!

I made Al stop to take a pic of him as he left for work but alsa the camera went with him!

But here is what I got! None of the kids paying sadly 🙁 Though it turned out Mary hated the snow where as Jean spent hours out in the garden making snow angels and just walking around in it, sticking it too the walls etc... I made soup out of frozen veg in the freezer, and then Mary went down for her nap so I ended up building a snow man with Jean and having a snow fight where we both got covered!

Old Snow Pics from The Bakery (by sarah)

With the snow falling and having a broken camera I decided it was about time I dug into the archive and aired some of the snow pics that have been lurking around for the last few years. As I said yesterday I am both sad and happy not to be there anymore where snow is concerned. It was fantastic for sledding and pretty pictures but our water used to freeze and we couldn't look out the windows of the house for having to put bubble wrap on them to try and keep warm.

The new house is very different with double glazing and central heating and so snow is not the issue it used to be. A heavy frost could have us stranded in the valley so snow was a complete grind everything to a stand still.

Enjoy the pics - I'm sure there will be more!

Snow At The Snell-Pym’s (by sarah)

There will be more photos later but I am restricted to Al's camera phone at the moment and he is now walking into work!

I think this pic sums it up nicely though! (It was taken through the double glazed door as was a video of her pouncing the snow which I will try and process and youtube late today 🙂

Obviously the girls have not gone to school and nursery and so I will get no work done today (boo and hiss no really I do mean that). Jean is excitedly hunting out her warmer clothing and disguessing snow dragons with me - apparently there needs to be a story about them for bedtime tonight :/

I think today maybe a diet breaking day as I have to take them out in the snow to play and I am not feeling too hot at the moment so hotchocs and marshmallow floaters are my self bribe for going out there. It's options hot choc for me and I may even skip the marshmallow but we will see.

The snow is getting heavier so I think it's here to stay for a while.

I am systamatically sad we are not at The Bakery for the snow and really exstatic we are not at The Bakery for the snow but more on that later!