Browsing Tag

housewife

Why is waiting for something to be released so difficult?

Posted on 25th February 2014

When it comes to waiting I’m not the most patient person out there, whether that be waiting for a tube or waiting for a game to be released I find the whole process challenging. I’m currently waiting for the latest model of Roomba robot vacuum cleaner to be released in Europe, which is proving difficult as there is no definate date as of yet.

The endless cat hair’s that require my attention every day, multiple times a day in fact are beginning to drive me nuts. If it isn’t cat hair then one of the little darlings have decided to push their litter around the room. Once we moved from carpet to hardwood floors I knew it would mean much more maintenance for me.

To tackle this issue I have been working on persuading my husband, he’s now onboard (yippee) and agrees we need a Roomba in the house. I don’t know if you’ve seen much about them but they really have come leaps and bounds over the last few years and I’ve always been interested in them. Roomba make a variety of cleaning robots from vacuuming to dusting/mopping or even scrubbing the floors. The one I’m interested in is the vacuuming robot, as I think it will help keep that light level of dust down.

The latest robot vacuum cleaners even go back to their charging base now and they seem to do a pretty good job at keeping things tidy. We don’t tend to keep much on the floor so hopefully it shouldn’t get stuck too often, they also come with light houses so you can corner off areas where you don’t want it to clean. I think this will be useful as the cats might be quite upset if the vacuum were to steal their food.

The very latest model is the Roomba 880 which it seems only sensible to wait for it to be released seeing as it’s already out in the US now. So I emailed Roomba to ask when they intended to release the 880 for the Europe market, they said the 880 release date would be sometime in March/April/May so I guess that means spring. They couldn’t give me an exact date which is a shame but promised to put me on a list of contacts when they do have more information.

Should it get released any time soon then I’ll be sure to do a review of it and how it can help your housewife needs.

Check out this video for more information Roomba 880: A clean sweep

Roomba 880: The best cleaning robot is back with a new design

Recipes

What’s Cooking – Prawn and Crab Linguine

Posted on 19th February 2014

Back last year I ate at a really lovely italian restaurant, I don’t eat meat but I do eat fish so I ordered their Prawn and Crab Linguine. I actually had not tried crab up to this point but I was pleasantly surprised, the dish was amazing and soon as I was home I wanted to recreate it using some guess work and researching recipes online.

King Prawn and Crab Linguine

What do I need? (Serves Two)

1 tbsp olive oil
2 x shallots, diced
10 x King Prawns, shells and veins removed (I actually add more than this as we love them but just add an amount you are happy with)
100g White crab meat (I tend to buy the tinned crab meat but you could use fresh)
8 x Cherry Tomatos, halved (again add as many as you personally like)
1 x Red Chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 x Garlic clove crushed
Half a lime juice
Dash of white wine or Rosè if you prefer
1 tbsp of tomato puree
300g linguine, fresh or dried is fine
Salt and pepper to season
Rocket leaves to garnish the bottom of a pasta bowl
A sprinkle of parmasan

If you have dried linguine you want to start by boiling salted water in a large pan, if you have fresh you can do this while the shallots are softening.

Next fry the shallots, cherry tomatoes, garlic in the olive oil on a medium heat until they are softened. Add the king prawns, chilli, lime juice, white crab meat, wine and reduce for around five minutes. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

Cook the linguine as per the instructions, drain and put back into the large pan. Add the reduced sauce into the large pan with the linguine and stir in the sauce.

Take your pasta bowls and add some rocket leaves to the bottom, plate the linguine and finish with a small amount of parmesan. I used finely grated cheddar in the picture as an alternative but parmesan is best!

I usually serve with the wine that I used in the dish as I find this tastes the best, personally I like to use a nice Saugvignon Blanc.

Lifestyle Pre Baby

New year, new beginnings…

Posted on 7th January 2014

Like many people who live in the city, I did not start my journey here. It seems fitting thus to enlighten you to where I did start my journey. I was originally born in the west country, where fields of green, cider and the farmer accent are all the norm and people are unknowingly running a much slower pace of life.

If you asked me back then whether I thought I was living at a slow easy pace, I would have probably laughed at you and told you not at all. I suppose we all look to Europe for the “slow pace of life”, where in Spain they enjoy siesta’s for at least two hours a day! In France, where you rarely see a single soul out and about in their country side. No I would not have deemed the South West of England to be considered the slow pace of life.

That said, if you ask me now? I’d tell you that compared to the City of London, it really is. Usually the people of London are running or doing that fast paced walk to their destination here. There is an impression given that everyone is out of time, unless your a tourist then you stick out like a traffic cone in the fast paced crowds!

It’s easy to imagine that some people might get burnt out, isn’t it? Me, well I’m highly organised and frankly don’t really enjoy long slow walks anyway and I always moved at a much faster pace than my friends. It’s been six weeks since I moved here with my husband, it feels like we’ve been here forever now.

I suppose if you were looking from the outside you might say I’ve made some major changes over the last year. Others have always commented how they could never keep up and how I always expected everyone to move as quickly as I did. When those people did not, it would always frustrate me, this is something that ruled not online my home life but work too.

Back in the old West Country, I used to work in IT Support; mostly third line technical but I have always had a flare for managing projects. Being able to juggle lots of balls all at once, theoretically speaking that is! I never could actually juggle in real life for long, I did try though.

So having left that all behind to follow my husbands along his career path I am now trying to work out what my next goal is and what London holds in store for me. At the moment I don’t have a job, my husband runs his own company and I do the administration side of that along with other housewife chores.

To the next chapter!

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door!” – Milton Berle