The Great Outdoor Playground

If you're out and about (or oot and aboot)
in Scotland you may see the Anderson family wandering around.

It's what we do in our free time: explore the great outdoor playground!

This is the Buckie Harbour wall.

Foodie: UK Style Part 1

Lest you be confused:

I am NOT a foodie.

To me a foodie lives for exotic and gourmet foods, loves sushi, and can pronounce foie gras correctly.

For obvious reasons I don't appear becoming a foodie anytime soon as I:

- Can't stand the taste of kale 

- Still eat mac and cheese from a box. Living those blue box blues, for reals.

- Shudder at quinoa with the eensy "worms" that are suddenly produced by cooking it

(by the way I feel ridiculous with the "KEEN-wah" pronunciation. 

I'm a rebel and call it like I see it (read: the hillbilly way) "quinn-no-uh")

I live in the UK. 

I eat food in the UK.

I sometimes take pictures of food in the UK.

I've had the rare, the outlandish, the delicious, and the classics.

Would you like to see some?

These are a candy.

They taste just like those orange Circus Peanuts candy you get in the USA.

I liked these until I read the back of the package...

BEEF GELATIN

Comparison: what I'd do in my free time, if I had any

I have four children. 

I don't have free time.

But I sneakily take time from important tasks to pretend like I've got free time.

This is including but not limited to:

- laundry

- washing dishes

- grading papers

- mending (I know it's 2015 and this is like so 50 years ago and SO Cinderella, but it's true)

- the tapestries

- and the draperies

and oh yes, one more thing:

- bathing

I'm not proud of it, but I can place the last item well down on the list if the need to procrastinate arises.

So I thought I'd pretend like I had free time and imagine what I do with it:

I'd compare pictures of my children all at the same age.

So I did it tonight.

(Laundry, get thee behind me.)

April 2015 

Caedmon is 8

and he's eating candy money.

I'm sure there's a good analogy or hidden meaning here.

Calf-roping, Aisle 4

Well our lives have been a teensy bit crazy lately.

So I wanted to just do a short little "here's what we've been doing" in a few photos.

As per usual, I blog when there are other pressing things to do. Today's avoidance is called: grocery shopping. 

I used to love to grocery shop, because shopping is shopping, yo. 

But since plastic bags have become currency here (they charge 5p per bag at ALL stores) that adds significant time onto my weekly trip, and I have to remember to bring bags along with me.

So yes, in procrastinating I'm hoping in the next 20 minutes it takes me to write this that 

- the government will reverse it's law to charge for cheap-y plastic bags, 

- there will be grocery-packing-leprechauns at the end of every lane

- Lidl's (grocery store like Aldi) will stop checking out your entire purchase in 5 milliseconds making you fumble for your wallet and hurriedly repacking your [unsacked] groceries whilst the rest of the lane stares at you.

This is like some kind of hideous and twisted calf-roping event to me: 

The great check out challenge, where I attempt to reload my cart and pay in record time.

I feel like I should be applauded when I shove my wallet back in to my purse, 

snatch the receipt, and pitch the last of the groceries in the cart.

"Ladies and gentleman, we have a NeeeeeeW record! 

We were unsure at the beginning as she had the minor fumble re-stacking the 3 dozen eggs purchased,

but she recovered by flinging the non-bruising onions into the cart."

"Yes Donny, Mrs. Anderson may have a new record 

but if we look at the stats we'll see this is one of her lower scores;

she's gotten one loaf of bread squished, every single dang tortilla chip smashed, 

and all the frozen items scattered throughout the cart. 

She's going to get docked major points on those."

Ok, so it's obvious I have issues with grocery shopping.

And yes, I do have these conversations in my head.