valentines day

today was valentines day. herself had the day off. this was not for romantic reasons but because my boy had his annual review at school. beefburger children like my boy have a thing called a statement. this tells teachers and other people how they are special and explains why they sometimes get in a muddle because of thinking of other things. each year the teachers have a meeting with the peeps to go over what my boy has been up to. this is called the annual review. originally it was to be in the morning which was why herself took the day off. but himself was on a course about motor skills ( i think this is about how to steal cars) so the review had to be moved. herself took the opportunity to go to the gym with mrs captain and then managed to persuade mrs captain to make her lunch too.

anyway the peeps went off to the review. they were gone ages. when they got back they had a huge load of food. this was not donated by the school but in fact was the result of a panic trip to waitrose after the review. my boy it seems has not been an angel. he has been dissing the teachers and being heavy with some of the pupils. on the good side he has been working hard at his work. mostly.

the peeps felt a bit low after the review. herself in particular was a bit of a nightmare at school by all acounts so always feels like she is in trouble if she sets foot inside a school. anyway they decided to go to waitrose where they sell lovely grub. hereslf seems to have run amok. it would appear that himself had to put his foot in front of the trolley to stop her rushing off while he asked her what she was planning on having for tea (he is having cowballs and my boy is having chips and what are known as intact peas). herself was buying vegetables which always make himself go clammy, especially the aubergines. herself got him to let go by saying she would scream and pretend he was a mugger. as he has a fine beard and is rather sartorially challenged (that means scruffy for those who don't have a dictionary handy) this would probably have worked and as he knows she rarely makes an idle threat the vegetable fest carried on.

anyway, the plan was to have a nice meal. herself decided to look on the waitrose website where there is a recipe finder. what you do is put in the ingredients and then it tells you what to cook. however when herself put in aubergine, purple sprouting broccoli, curly kale, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, cheese and potatoes it ground to a halt. himself suggested that she put in "help" but this resulted in a huge number of recipes with no relation to the ingredients.

in the end they settled on mediterranean vegetables. there was a long discussion about the size of tray to cook them in. himself explained in very simple terms, as in "nod, if you understand..." - that if they cooked all the vegetables it would lead to a serious case of global warming and further, that surely the leftovers lesson had been learnt from the red cabbage?

herself had to move the bunch of flowers that himself had bought for her from the sink. before she put them in vases she thought it would be nice to take some photos so she went off to get both cameras. "where have you gone?" called himself, weakly. just then she returned. "i cannot believe you have been distracted again,"he said, "you are taking f-ing photos!" unfortunately the pictures she took are still in the camera. she thought it might be prudent to try and help with the kitchen stuff. although i am not sure how welcome her attentions are in that department...