Day 77, Level 1: Christmas Eve, Day 277, blustery, The Holiday and chopping chicken

This may be Day 77 of Level 1 - but it is Day 277 of me posting. That's every day for 277 days! I'm quite astounded that I've actually managed to do it in some shape or form for each and every one of those days since initial lockdown in March. 

Poor Michael ended up having to do some work this morning which he wasn't too pleased about as he'd [supposedly] finished up for the year yesterday. At least it was stuff he could do from the Omaha bench on his laptop! Seems he was sorting out stuff that other people had left unfinished before heading off for their break. Mike to the rescue ... there's a danger in doing that ... people become reliant on you doing that ... and, as is usually the case, those with the good work ethic end up picking up the pieces! 

Blustery today, and raining on and off. That's good for the garden - and the fig trees - but not ideal for summer fun. At least it's warm. And hasn't been too humid these last few days. But that's just a hiatus I'm sure, the humidity will come again and care little for those of us who loathe it!

Indi is in heaven. Here's a photo of her settled on Michael while he watched the NBA basketball this afternoon. He supports the Portland Trailblazers - who played later in the afternoon but went down. Indi has a kind of accusatory look here, with her colourings and green eyes that say quite a lot! She's actually happy as, and purring, and couldn't care less about having her photo taken even though she's giving the evil eye!

My other animal, Ziggy the racehorse, was nominated to run at Rotorua on 28th December but ... he got a horror draw AGAIN. It's unbelievable. We've scratched him. We've decided we won't put him through another race with a bad draw, it's just too tough, especially when it's time and time again. So we're looking at other options in the New Year. Perhaps he will start it off in real style for us! If he gets a good draw, that is a distinct possibility. 

I pottered happily in the kitchen, relaxed, did some puzzles and generally did nothing more than nice things I "wanted" to do - nothing I "needed" to do! It felt lovely. 

Brett arrived late afternoon with more food and wine so we did a rearrangement of fridge and freezer. at 5pm we had oysters (yes, again, it's tough!) and I made butter chicken for dinner with basmati rice, papadums, naan, raita and chutney. A mellow Xmas Eve dinner. 

Brett and Michael were keen to watch the movie The Holiday (Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law). I didn't think it would be my cup of tea but settled in to see what it was all about. I lasted about 30 minutes - which was quite good going because it definitely wasn't my cup of tea. Hollywood trying to create an English village and cottage - spare me, there's no way a writer for a newspaper lives that far from civilisation.

I did a bit of googling and discovered that the scene when Cameron drives along (well, careers along out of control) a village main street was filmed in Godalming, Surrey- where my friend Lyn lived in the 80s. I posted some pics from a party at her place in an earlier post. 

Apart from its title, it got a "no" from me and I disengaged and got on my laptop instead.  

And so ended a mellow Christmas Eve. It really was a very relaxing day. Hope it was for you too!

And tomorrow ... well it won't be quite so relaxing, but it will be nice. And hopefully the weather will be too, although I expect that wind will stick around. 

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:
Chopping Chicken ...

Vegetarians don't need to take note ... but it is much easier to chop up chicken into bite-size chunks when it is semi-thawed. I discovered this myself years ago but keep forgetting it. Today, the chicken hadn't thawed out and I was about to finish the defrosting in the microwave when I remembered my own "hot tip" kitchen hack. 

The chicken was in the perfect semi-frozen/semi-thawed state for chopping. You have so much more control of things when the meat stays firm. Much quicker, much easier. It might look and feel a bit "processed" as the pieces are quite block-like, but once the chicken does fully thaw, it relaxes and looks normal. Easy peasy chicken chopping!