'A Splendid Time Is Guaranteed For All'

Happy November! Gosh, this year's whizzing by super-fast. Hallowe'en is done and dusted, Bonfire Night is on the horizon and before we know it, the dreaded C will be here once again. October had its high and low points. A bit of decorating was done, a few nice evenings out and day trips, a few finished projects, and a whole 'Stoptober' of R and me being Vegan. Actually, we were cheating somewhat as we do keep hens, so a few eggs may have been consumed along the way. Mostly by R, who argues that our 'girls' would all have been slaughtered had we not taken them on and, as we don't have a cockerel, none of them are fertilized, so they are 'cruelty free' eggs. That's our excuse anyway and we're sticking to it! So, I suppose I should say that, having been veggie for 33 years, all we actually did was give up dairy.

It was surprisingly difficult. Not from a cooking point of view, as many of our recipes are vegan anyway or can easily be adapted, but from a longing for cheese kind of way. I don't remember craving meat/fish in the same way when we gave them up, that was just tricky in that it was a whole new way of cooking. This time, I found myself dreaming of cheese - I kid you not! Dreams of veggie lasagne with melty, stringy, oozy, delicious cheese. 

There are, as you know, vegan alternatives to cheese. What you may not know is that most of them are foul and all are over processed with the consistency of plastic and do strange things when heated. If anyone can recommend a good vegan cheese, I would be so grateful. In the end I came to the conclusion that it was best to just ignore any cheese substitutes completely. Milk was a little better; we worked our way through a variety of alternatives, eventually settling on cheap Tesco's own brand unsweetened soya. R also likes 'Mylk' on his breakfast cereal. I don't eat cereal anyway, but I find the Mylk too 'coconuty'. That's the problem really, I want my tea to taste of tea, not coconut, almond, cashew etc.

Anyway, the big question is: will we carry on now that we're into November? And the answer.......  I think so. There's a bit of playing 'dairy chicken' in the equation - neither of us wants to be the first to give up! Do I feel better for it? Well, I was hoping that I would feel all Deliciously Ella ie. full of health and vitality. In reality, I have felt slightly bloated and at times a bit diarrhoeary - too much information?! It does seem to be settling down a bit though as we get used to it. It also makes eating out tricky. Most places now have at least one veggie option, finding a vegan option though, especially around our area, is more difficult. I found myself craving an Indian meal - until R pointed out that they probably use ghee. He is quite happy with Thai - but, well you know .... that's just more coconut! Eventually, I rang our local Indian restaurant and asked, in a completely unbiased way, what they used. The answer, to my great relief, was vegetable oil. Phew! So, for the time being, I think we are going to carry on. 

Golly, that was a bit of a ramble! Other things this month:

Whilst wandering by our local theatre one night, we noticed a queue snaking out of the door. Going in for a nosy, we were informed that the Beatles tribute band, The Cavern Beatles, were performing for one night only. No tickets were immediately available, but we were told that they tend to save a few on the front row in case anyone in the balcony has mobility issues. If they didn't, we could buy those. We waited and a couple of minutes before the performance began, they were ours! Well, loving The Beatles, my expectations weren't particularly high; I just viewed it as an evening out doing something different, given that most concerts we go to tend to be classical. I couldn't have been more wrong - they were absolutely brilliant. The first half was music from the early days playing in The Cavern and the second half was more Sergeant Pepper (incidentally, the first LP I ever bought). The audience was on their feet dancing and singing along and generally having a fantastic time. If you're a Beatles fan and they come to a venue near you - don't hesitate, just book.

 

Same venue, different night. We had tickets to see Jeremy Hardy's show. Having only seen him when E and I went to see a recording of 'Just a Minute', I had high hopes. In reality, it was okay. Some bits were very funny, some not so much. I realized that it wasn't the best of evenings when I found myself trying to see the time on my watch in the dark - never a good sign. Still, it was an evening out. 

Next, was a trip to the Ally Pally for the Knitting and Stitching show. I went to this last year and find that it's worth going just for the lovely building and views of London if nothing else. I took my vegan sandwich and water bottle along with me - just as well as it would have been slim pickings otherwise - and spent a merry afternoon pottering round the stalls. I made a couple of purchases before leaving and meeting up with R and L for a lovely (and vegan!) Korean meal.

My purchases: A skein of Life in the Long Grass yarn (Rusty Tin Shed) and a set of the larger Hiya Hiya interchangeable needles.

Other happies:

Stopping off in Burnham Beeches on the way to lunch with a friend.

Enjoying the fact that it's stove lighting season:

Decorating our downstairs loo!

Enjoying my Hallowe'en stitch markers and yarn:

Here's the finished object - a sockhead hat in one of Norah George's Great Characters of Literature yarn. This one was 'Dracula':

Finished socks in Sweet Georgia yarn. I think the colourway was 'Canary Island'. These were my first pair of toe up socks and I really enjoyed them. I used Sockmatician's toe up sock pattern which, whilst still having a heel flap and gusset, doesn't require you to pick up any stitches.

Deer in the garden munching apples:

Birthday Boy Hamish who was 6 on Hallowe'en:

Asking for a birthday ear rub - excuse the witchy tights!

Finally, our Hallowe'en pumpkin - it's supposed to be a bat!

Well, that's all for this week. L and E are both coming home this weekend, so I'm just off to give their rooms a quick spruce up. Wishing you all a fun filled November.
Toodle Pip for now. x