The weather constantly changing, has left me with a cold, but I won’t complain, I’ve heard all the jokes! Most days it is a lot warmer, but we are still getting a fair amount of rain, apparently the ‘Experts’ are predicting that we will have 25% more than usual December and January, and 60% more in February, I would love to know where summer fits in?
I went earlier this week to have the stitches out in my mouth, you certainly feel the psychological effect, once you are back to ‘normal’ , now I am waiting for my appointment next week to be sized for a plate. I think I have come to accept that I am going to be struggling to eat Christmas goodies!
Christmas… well I gave in, and Marcela and her Mum have put up the tree and decorations, I bet it’s too much to hope that they let me take them down on Boxing Day!
I decided to revive a UK Christmas tradition, Christmas pudding, or as some of you know it, Plum pudding, it was an absolute pain trying to find the ingredients, and some I had to substitute, like the soft brown sugar, try to get it here is like trying to find gold dust, I ended up with granulated, and put it in the Bullet mini blender to turn it into powder, which was the closest I could get. Flour is hit and miss, we selected the grain flour we thought was closest to UK plain flour, whether it was, is anyone’s guess.
Cooking apples, don’t exist here, you have two options, both eating apples, green or red!
The Brandy, I had to put under armed guard, Marcela has never tried it, and wants to, I ran the risk of not having any, and I will still need more to feed the puddings, and make the brandy butter nearer the day.
Notice my mistake, two puddings, both in simmering water stood on plates toi keep them off the pan bottom, but I didn’t think to put the lids of the water pans back on, and I think that was my biggest problem.
Despite cooking for eight hours and looking fine when I removed them, other than a bit palid, which some molasses might have resolved (always next year).
when I came to remove them the following morning, they fell to bits, I don’t mind admitting my mistakes, but I’m not rubbing salt in the wound, by showing photos, anyway they taste fine, so are back in the bowls, recovered and stored in the larder.
On the woodwork front, I have nearly completed my router tablesaw wing
I am just waiting on a router bit coming so that I can cut my own T-track into the table top, you cant buy T-track here, maybe in the Cities, but outside, they look at you as if you are stupid.
My old Router benchtop table
I removed the top, and laminated two pieces of scrap plywood together
to make a new top, sanded the old legs
put a bevel on the edge of the new top, two coats of stain three of laquer
and we have a new coffee table for outside on the patio, it’s certainly not fine furniture, but it’s functional!
Finally the part I have been dreading writing about…Pepe! He had his appointment with the Oncologist yesterday, having seen the results of the tests, and examining him, he said that the form of cancer he has, has no cure, so we are looking at palliative care, and he wants to start him on chemotherapy next week, the best we can hope for is slowing down how fast the cancer takes hold. At the moment, the only thing upsetting Pepe, as I think I have mentioned before, is his damaged cruciate ligament, but more on that later.
I have made it clear, that I will not let Pepe suffer from any treatment, I rather he have a shorter happy life, and the Oncologist agrees, he is looking at four sessions of Chemo in three week cycles, week 1: chemo, week 2: another chemical, week 3: rest. However if after the first session, Pepe is seriously ill, of after an ultrasound the cancer has not shrunk, then the treatment will stop, and thereafter it will just be pain relief when he needs it.
Now, all we can do is wait, and hope, I have to say, Marcela held herself together brilliantly, albeit there was a little relapse last night, but being her first dog, it is understandable, so Pepe’s first treatment is next Thursday, but first he has to have an ultrasound to use for comparison.
An Englishman in Colombia 