Sandstorm...

This is what sunrise looks like when there is a dust storm hovering over the island.  The light is eerie and filtered but fortunately once the sun has risen it leaves us with a nice warm day.  This is good because the forecast for next week is stormy and wet - shame for any late visitors who have been lulled into a false sense of security.  In fact it isn't a good time for visitors as Cobalt Air ceased flying on Wednesday so yet another low cost airline flying to and from the island has gone bust making it more difficult to travel at a reasonable cost.

It was to be a quiet Friday - a lazy morning, pickleball this afternoon and then an evening in with some mindless TV and freezer surprise.  Last night I learned that I now have new joint favourite chocolate bar which scores equally as highly on my serotonin scale as the Montezuma Lime and Chili Chocolate.  I have to thank whoever brought this over for me - I am ashamed to say I have forgotten but hopefully whoever it was reads this blog!  I am now in love with Waitrose Milk Chocolate with Feuilletine and Sea Salt.

So what is Feuilletine????  According to Wikipedia Feuilletine, or pailleté feuilletine, is a crispy confection made from thin, sweetened crêpes. The crêpe batter is baked for a few minutes, and the crêpes are allowed to cool; as they cool, they become crisp. In French, these crispy crêpes are called crêpes gavottes or crêpes dentelles; but when crumbled into small shards, they become feuilletine.  Feuilletine is decorative and has a buttery flavour, but it is especially valued for the unique texture it adds to dishes. It is sometimes incorporated into praline, hazelnut paste, and other nut pastes. Although feuilletine is produced commercially, it was originally conceived as a way for a pâtisserie to make use of cookie scraps.

Hats off then to the whizz who thought of making an artisan chocolate with cookie scraps and sea salt - it is a winner in my book and rather more appetizing than the artisan doughnuts we watched the donut Apprentice candidates trying to sell this evening when we were watching our mindless TV.

It was hot and sticky down at pickleball and we were minus both Diana and Liselotte so I had roped in Keith to fill the gap otherwise with just four of us playing it could have done Mum in!!  Keith is a large jovial Welshman and a canny player - he used to play squash and table tennis which is evident from his strokes and he has the smallest ankles I have ever seen and I wouldn't have noticed had it not been for Diana drawing my attention to that fact - so small that you wonder how they manage to keep him upright.  When he and I are playing together we have the look of Gru and a Minion about us!

It was all very good natured today and Mum was on good form and up for a laugh.  We went back with her for a cuppa and a cuddle with Freddo.  We are happy that she has now got her TV sorted as the evenings would have seemed very long now Joyce and David have safely returned home and I am happy that she has a coffee visit with Nicky's mum organised for tomorrow.

We were hot and sticky when we returned home so although it was early we cracked open a beer and sat outside the kitchen to drink it.  I have a new tablecloth thanks to my neighbour and as it has a bit of red in it we have moved the red cushions outside - they will need to be taken in and out now that we are getting such damp evenings and overnight condensation.  The red ones were on the dining chairs when the back wall was red but it is now battleship grey and so we have some grey cushions on those chairs to match in.

Freezer surprise was exactly that, a surprise!  John had taken an unmarked box out of the freezer thinking it was leftover Chinese from our trip to the Farmyard the other week - this would have been an amalgam of his meal and mine and we had cheated and bought some microwave rice to go with it although we had bought Pilau which is better with an Indian.  He had also taken out the leftover pork from last Friday to supplement the meal - an ecclectic mix but all with a tenuous Eastern flavour link.  Fusion food to be sure!

On opening the unmarked box it transpired that it wasn't the leftover Chinese but a portion of Beef and Orange curry that I made ages ago and it was a much better meal to go with the rice and the pork.  In fact it really hit the spot - it was tasty and spicy and the beef was tender as was the pork and we washed it down with a bottle of Ramos and then stretched out on the sofas enjoying the peace.

I threw in the towel early and retired to bed with Miss Minnie-Mou - John stayed up to watch the footie as he was hopeful of a Wednesday defeat even if it meant the victors leap-frogged the mighty Blades in the league table.  He got his wish - Middlesborough beat Wednesday 2-1 and are now currently top of the table.