Cooking and James Bond...

So half term is going to be a little different this year.

Saturday was a miserable day - it rained all day, so we really didn't miss out on much.  We spent the morning doing chores and were just wondering what to do in the afternoon when one of Tom's new school friends phoned him...he plays cricket and has a model railway....they were on the phone for 4.5 hours and only finished because it was tea time and we had ordered pizza from the local restaurant.  Wowzers, I have no idea what they were talking about but there was lots of giggling and model railway videos happening.  He was very happy so why interfere.

Sunday was a nice day - we saw it from the house and garden!  Once we knew about the isolation, we bought a box set of Roger Moore James Bond films - it is what Tom is in to at the moment.  So after a morning of faffing, we watched Live and Let Die - the voodoo one, which was fun.  The Roger Moore ones are almost like cartoons - not too violent and not too sexy/ist for Tom.  He loves them.  After that he was on Yorkshire Pudding duty as we were having roast ham - they were as good (and big) as always.  He stayed up for Top Gear this evening - one of his favourite programmes - wasn't as funny as usual, but still Tom was transfixed.

Monday, another miserable day.  Tom spent the morning on the phone to Rebecca talking trains, we watched The Man with the Golden Gun in the afternoon and then he spent the evening on the phone to Florrie.  I got on to Environmental Health to find out if I can make cakes / chocolates with an isolating child in the house.  They called back, the bottom line is that they don't know!  However, they were happy for me to continue making cakes / choccies as long as I keep to all Covid rules and Tom doesn't develop any symptoms, but to inform any customers of the situation, so they can make any decision.  Seemed sensible enough.  They said that it is thought it isn't transmitted through food, but it can be via packaging.  It is all still a bit like the blind leading the blind really.  Oh and Tom was dumpling man today - to fill out our Ham soup,  very good they were too.

Tuesday another grey, miserable, rainy day.  We aren't really missing out on much this week by staying in.  Today we had a cooking and James Bond day.  The morning was spent preparing Butter Chicken.  Tom was the chef today, it took him over an hour to prep it all - he made it completely from scratch - no jars or pastes, everything came from the spice cupboard.  It smelt wonderful as he put the marinating chicken in the fridge.  After that we weighed out the fruit ready for the Christmas cake.  This year it is being soaked in whisky.  

  

 

After lunch we sat down to watch the next Roger Moore - this time it was 'The Spy Who Loved Me' - must say I didn't remember much of this one, the villain wasn't scary enough and James just shot him - no nasty ending for him which was disappointing.  However, loads of gadgets which is always a bonus.  Then a quick walk to the village in the rain and wind to get some cream and coriander for the curry before a game of Ticket to Ride (Matt won) and then Tom finished off the curry.  It was absolutely delicious.  I'm not sure what he thought of it as it was very different to any Butter Chicken he has had in a restaurant, but Matt and I really enjoyed it - so many layers of flavour, so aromatic.  As he was cooking it he said he would like to do more cooking - I don't need to be told that twice...  Bake Off is tonight - Japanese Week...

   
Wednesday, was an apple processing day.  Relations between us and our neighbour have got (slightly) better during the year - mainly because we see each other and no-one else!  Anyway, Tom came round to ask if we would like some apples - I of course, couldn't help myself and said yes.  He came with a huge box full of them.  Immediately Tom said apple crumble and I said apple chutney.  So we spent the morning making our treats.  I flooded the house with the smell of vinegar which Matt really enjoyed (he hates anything vinegar!) but it was worth it as a couple of hours later I had 8 jars of apple chutney.  It's a shame it is only me in the house that likes it - think I will probably end up giving most of it away, but still it is satisfying to make it myself.  The afternoon was spent with 007 and For Your Eyes Only, which I vaguely remembered.   All good, quite enjoying these days at the moment, nothing better than snuggling up with your nearest and dearest watching a corny film whilst you hear the rain drum on the windows.

Thursday we heard that Year 6 at Ingleton Primary have gone into isolation - their teacher Ms Middleton has Covid and is quite ill which is very sad, especially as she probably got it off one of the kids.  This means of course that Florrie now has plenty of free time so she and Tom ended up having a video lego session together in the morning whilst Matt headed to Settle to deliver Pat's birthday presents and have a very socially distanced chat.  In the afternoon, Tom made a gammon and onion quiche and we watched Octopussy, which was fun - I enjoyed all the Indian locations as I have been to most, also Q had a starring role in the action!  The plot was quite hard to follow though - we all got confused at one point.  

Friday, Tom spent the morning making a lamb rib stew which then cooked gently in the slow cooker for the rest of the day.  The afternoon was spent watching the last of the Roger Moore films: A View to a Kill which was fun - a better villain and lots of way out there gadgets and those wonderful words "Pay attention 007!".  Late morning it finally stopped raining.  Matt went to do the waterfalls walk to stretch his legs and I did a short walk in the evening as it got dark.  Was nice to be in the fresh air again.  Oh and I delivered a chocolate cake in Bentham - thought it prudent to deliver my cakes whilst Tom in isolation.

The Roger Moore Collection

Our favourite film: The Man with the Golden Gun - unanimous

Our favourite character: Q (Tom and me), Jaws (Matt)

Favourite baddie: Scaramanger - unanimous

Favourite gadget: Underwater Lotus in The Spy who Loved me (Tom) the crocodile boat in Octopussy (Matt) the watch with the dymo label printer in The Spy Who Loved (Me)

Saturday morning we realised that Tom hadn't actually done any of his homework yet, luckily he didn't have much, so I got him started on that, Matt did some work and I went to deliver a birthday present and ended up having a long chat with Alice, whilst stood in the wind and rain.  The afternoon was spent watching Queen of the Elephants a documentary about a family of elephants in Africa - a nice change to James Bond - although more upsetting with a baby elephant death which got us all going.  Boris is addressing the nation again this evening - looks like another lock down is upon us.

   

   

So yes lockdown is upon us - from Thursday onwards but doesn't include schools which is where most of the infections are taking place and then being spread into the community (well that seems the case in this village anyway) - so don't quite see the logic.  Also they haven't included a travel ban - surely if you stop most from travelling then the virus will mostly stop travelling?  Anyhow, we have until Thursday to enjoy a last meal / drink out (whilst being sensible of course - haven't been to an establishment for ages) and to use local shops.  However, Tom is still in isolation and the weather is still grim so Sunday was spent inside again.  Once again Tom wanted to do the cooking and Matt suggested Lasagna - a family favourite...he's made bolognaise and cheese sauce in the past so it wasn't difficult, but it was lengthy - took him 3.5 hours - but he stuck at it, only needing intervention from me on how much of everything to use and to lift heavy pans.  I had got out 2 packs of mince from Cornvale for him to process.  He made 2 x lasagnas and then had enough bolognaise sauce left over for a family spaghetti bolognaise and 2 portions for school lunches.  Not a bad haul.  The afternoon was spent watching Gold Finger (our tribute to Sean Connery who died yesterday, Honor Blackman also died earlier this year) and playing games whilst Matt went to the pub with some friends.   He came home needing lasagna, it was in the oven waiting and my oh my it was delicious, tasted just like mine.  We polished off the whole thing, naughty but oh so nice.  Then showers and Top Gear.  Tom has home school tomorrow - not exactly sure how that will work, but I guess we will find out...

Half Term Interrupted!

So Tom broke up for half term on Thursday and we celebrated that he had managed it all without having to self-isolate.  So so many have had to do so, so much learning time lost by so many children - you do wonder what the overall effect is going to be on their education.  

Teaching is all a bit random at the moment. Teachers can't get within 2 meters of the children, so they can't help them in the classroom.  No practicals, teachers can't touch paper handled by pupils which makes marking impossible, homework is marked by viewing across the classroom (eg Tom had to draw a bar chart of something for physics.  I asked him how the teacher marked it - apparently at registration they had to show it as their name was read out - basically all the teacher could check was that they had done it, not if they had done it right or not - I'm taking it upon myself to do this for him - he had done it wrong, so I made him do it again!)  There have been tests - but the children have to mark them themselves, Tom did a geography test and was marked down 2 points by a fellow pupil but on looking at it he had got them all right?!  He does quizzes on the computer - but once again it is a bit random eg.  "What sea separates Europe and Africa?"  He wrote the Mediterranean Sea - he got it wrong because he should have just written Mediterranean.  Same again for the Ocean separating Europe and America - he wrote Atlantic Ocean, he should have just written Atlantic.  In that quiz he to a low mark but got pretty much everything right - just not exactly how the computer programme wanted it written.  So it is all a bit random.  

For food studies (or whatever it is called now), he had to make a salad.  They had to do it at home and then send in a photo.  I found this really hard.  His idea of a salad was lettuce, cooked carrots, raspberries, pineapple and 200ml of apple juice????!!!!!  It is almost as if he has never had a salad before.  Should I let him go ahead with it or should I guide him to make a salad which is actually a salad?  In the end he made one but kept the carrots raw and without the apple juice and uploaded the photo alongside loads of photos of professional looking 'proper' salads.  

We got some effort grades through on his last week - all were good.  Guess which subject he got the lowest grade for...yep...food studies.  This tells me that I probably should have intervened more?!  Oh hum, he has room to improve I guess.  The annoying thing is that his kitchen skills are probably better than most but the teachers will never know will they because they won't actually see the kids in a kitchen with their own eyes!

Anyway, we were celebrating no self-isolation which was great - he was going to spend a day with some Alpacas on Saturday with Florrie (her birthday treat) and then we had booked The Den at Gauber bunk barn for a couple of nights - just to get away.

On Friday we headed north of Sedbergh to go for a walk to Courtley Spout - a rather lovely waterfall.  We were half way up it when I got a message from a friend asking if we had got the dreaded email re self-isolation?  Matt fired up his email on his phone - yep - we had got the message of doom.  Some one in close contact with Tom (ie in the same class as him for something) has tested positive and he needs to self-isolate until Tuesday 3rd November.  Bugger!  Neither me nor Matt need to isolate - just Tom, so we can go out for provisions / walks etc, but not him. 

Luckily the path we were on was deserted - think we only saw about 2 other people on our path the whole time.  We decided that as we were there and as it was deserted, we would carry on with the walk so we did. It was a steep walk, with great views, good for the soul - especially as we knew we wouldn't be able to get out again for the next week and a bit.

We then came home and here we will stay until next Tuesday.