House of Plaaaaaague!

Urgl.

It's been a bit tough over the last few days, although also great fun. We had a crowd to stay - the Cheese Board and Chopper, to celebrate the latter's 30th. I cooked/prepared an enormous feast of this:

Starter:

Crevettes with home mead dips (marie rose, aioli, sweet chilli salsa), cheese wheel melted in oven for dipping bread.

Main Course:

Venison and duck stew, assortment of salads, cold meats and general samplings. Roasted garlic to spread on bread.

Palatte cleanser:

Home made champagne, grapefruit and lemon sorbet.

Dessert:

Lemon cream on a shortbread pastry base, with honey-almond biscuits and apple & cinnamon ice cream. I love my ice cream maker. Also my new biscuit recipe.

We were supposed, then, to move on to the plethora of Mellis cheeses chosen by Chopper (as were all the assorted tasters), then to chocolates and rum. We simply couldn't manage this, so we went through and I attempted to sing and play the guitar. It was a bit dismal, as I've been suffering from a horrid, fluey cold for several days now, and the worst day was definitely Chopper's party. Typical. Cooking turned out to be a bit of a nightmare as a) I felt quite nauseous and the sight of food was pretty uninspiring and b) I couldn't smell a damn thing! I've always relied heavily on my sense of smell for cooking, and not to be able to get a whiff of even the strong garlic in the aioli made things quite interesting. I had 2 hot showers in a desperate attempt to clear the sinuses, but it didn't help. Nor could I tell you what any of it tasted like, save the pudding, which I managed to get some idea of. Citrus obviously has a strong taste as well as flavour, meaning even my blocked nose couldn't keep it from having an effect. Reports were good, but I was deeply frustrated. What I really wanted was a detailed description of everything I'd made, but god help me - how boring would that have been as a conversation?

Well ... certainly no duller than 'the best lavatories in Scotland', which is what we were reduced to ON MORE THAN ONE OCCASION!

So singing was less than impressive, as I could barely croak adequately, but it seemed to perk everyone else up and keep them from falling asleep in their chairs. Blarney, especially, was in fine voice and acted as my deputy with admirable aplomb. Koios, too.
Koi and Blar, in Fine Voice
'Course, without my singing to distract people, it only highlighted how utterly bollocks my guitar playing is. I vow to learn more than the 4 1/2 chords I know and actually sound like I know what I'm doing.
Being Mingin' & Singin' & Makin' Merry Like Christmas
On Sunday we went for a brief coastal walk, then ate the cheese and remaining bits from the night before. Goooood. My nose was clearing, and I felt ten times better than the night before. Alas, it was Fisher's turn to suffer. Once everyone had headed off to their respective homes, Fisher collapsed in a heap, struck down with acute nausea. This meant we had to cancel seeing Arrow for his birthday meal, which truly sucked the big one. We'd been so careful a) not drink too much the night before and be hungover, and b) not to eat too much at lunch so we could enjoy supper - both sacrifices going to the dogs when the Evil Cold settled so cosily in Fisher's tum. She ended up spending the evening snoozing and groaning on the sofa, while I watched all the recorded football of the weekend and blew my nose every ten seconds.

Looovely.

Oh, and Spurs lost to Newcastle, 1-4. Christ, wasn't that just the icing on the cake.

I really ought to go for a run today, but even though I'm feeling much better I'm still quite bunged up and snotty - which doesn't fill me with enthusiasm. I've also got to finish my massage homework, and make the nedding packs, while Fisher is snowed under with work. I'd best get on it. Thank God I feel better. My brain wasn't working at all over the weekend. I kept saying things like:

"Can you kettle the pass me?"

Hey ho. To cheer me up, one of my virtual acquaintances from a forum I frequent sent me a great mix CD which arrived this morning. Huzzah.