Bread Challenge #4

I have not fully returned to my bread baking routine since our trip in June, which is probably fine since we haven't gotten back to our gym routine either! I could make excuses, but really I just haven't made the time for baking. My creative kitchen energies the last few weeks have been focused on making smoothies, which we have been sipping while watching the Olympics, and buying, chopping and freezing fruit for future smoothies.

However, on Saturday I found myself with a couple of hours and a few old bananas. It was the perfect opportunity to make a tasty quick bread. Since I am not capable of following a recipe without substituting, my version of Banana Nut bread becomes Blueberry Banana Bread. The mix of banana and berry is pretty hard to mess up. Add to that a little lemon zest, plain yogurt and the slightest bit of ginger and cinnamon, and you are starting to create my favorite quick bread. The best part though- I didn't over cook it! No dry saw-dusty, I-really-need-a drink-with-this banana bread.

I didn't manage to get picture of the whole loaf, since I ended up pulling it out of the oven just before we dashed off to make it to a friend's wedding and by the time I got to it on Sunday morning bits of it were already missing. Here is what it looked like when I enjoyed a slice for my lunch:

p.s. That nectarine was so juicy that I managed to get juice all over myself, my desk, and computer screen. Most of this lunch break has been spent eradicating the sticky.

Summer in Scotland

Summer in Scotland arrives in batches- days of dryness and sunshine interspersed with days of wetness, flooding and grey skies. This week what the weather man describes as high pressure has brought a lovely streak of decent weather. We haven't seen a drop of rain since the heavens split and let loose a torrential downpour on Sunday- many of the streets near us flooded, leaving us struggling to find a clear route home from church.

But overnight the pools of water and heavy clouds disappeared, replaced by bright blue skies. The chance to wear t-shirts and sandals (and to potentially get some colour) brings the city to life. The main streets fill up with shoppers, sun bathers, out-door cafe/restaurant seating, and teenagers savouring their last few days of freedom before school starts again. Instead of umbrellas, trench coats and wellies, the crowds are clothed in a sea of sandals, sleeveless shirts and swishy skirts.

Today I am sitting in my office enjoying the warmth of the sun and listening to the sounds of bagpipes floating in through my open window. The annual Glasgow Piping Festival is under way- adding kilts, tartan dress and tourists to the mix of those wandering the roads of Glasgow. Since my office is just a couple blocks from George Square, we've been treated to a steady stream of piping demonstrations, drumming and tuning all week. The sound of bagpipes and drums have become the background music to my workday and it is a nice change from the jarring sounds of the construction site across the street or the normal stream of 80's music, which my co-workers turn up in an attempt to drown out the drilling. (The bagpipe tuning and practising over and over of the same musical phrase has been less enjoyable, especially when it took place directly below my open window.)

Sunny days in Scotland are few and far between, and I have come to cherish them in a way I never thought to do when I was enjoying the year round pleasantness of California. When you live through days and weeks of soggy shoes and ominous skies, a little sunshine makes any day a good day.

Hedges and Umbrellas

Lately I have found myself getting really irritated by hedges (not so much the hedges themselves as the people who plant hedges in their front gardens and then don't bother trim them). Some of the hedges I walk past on my way to the train station have seriously gotten out of control and are actually starting to take over the side-walks. These plants are so massive that I can no longer fit between them and light poles in certain places and as I walk down the side walk, my umbrella is constantly getting stuck. (I even whacked Ross in the eye one morning with my umbrella when I pulled to dislodge it from a particularly beastly hedge.)

It is this hedge-umbrella war that really gets the blood boiling. Summertime is normally the time for overgrown foliage in Scotland, as the warmer weather and longer days spur on the growth of greenery. And normally in summertime, I wouldn't need to worry about the right of way for my umbrella. But I live in Scotland and this summer has been a particularly wet and dreary and, did I say wet? The use of my umbrella on my daily commute has become a necessity, and not being able to walk down the road with it up is a real frustration.

Still I was starting to get a little concerned when I found myself muttering and even bordering on shouting at hedges on my way home from work. But I was sure my craziness was the fault of the neglectful hedge owners- I mean they surely can see the impediment their hedge growth is causing for pedestrians!

Until I was humbled last week, when my umbrella became royally stuck walking between the light post and a perfectly trim and tidy hedge. It got me thinking...

Maybe my umbrella is too big?

Vending Machines

There are several vending machines at work located near my office and they are a source of endless laughter and frustration at work. Dealing with students is never boring, but throwing vending machines into the mix definitely adds to the load of ridiculous questions/requests we receive.

I think that most people would agree that vending machines are less than reliable and that you use one at your own risk, but apparently students are not most people.

You might think, from the long stream of students coming in to complain about vending machines, that our office was labelled ‘Maintenance’ or ‘Complaints Department’. My co-workers always try to be helpful and polite, but occasionally listening to the long stream of complaints- about how 'the machine ate their money', how 'the coffee was too hot' or 'the coffee wasn't hot enough', how 'there isn’t a decaf hot tea option', how 'the machines are out of coke', how 'the soda wasn’t cold enough'- is enough to make you feel like beating your head against a wall would be a better use of your time.

We tell the students that we will contact the company responsible for maintenance of the machines, but that we can’t fix it ourselves, nor can we issue refunds. And then they complain that we aren't being helpful or suggest that somehow we are too lazy to deal with the situation.

The best story of all though, is the lady who came in and rudely interrupted the whole office to announce that the hot drinks machine was not working properly and had eaten her money, and she 'demanded to be compensated immediately.' She became belligerent when we explained that our office wasn't able to issue a refund, and she suggested that one of the staff might have the money in their purses to reimburse her. (She was pretty offended that no one jumped up to volunteer.)

We asked her which machine she had used and she responded, 'It was the hot drinks machine with an out of order sign on the front. The sign was covering the coin slot and I had to remove before I could put my money in. I saw that the sign said 'Out of Order', but it is the only hot drinks machine on this level and sometimes people put signs up like that even when the machine is still working...'