Lemon Meringue Pie

This is the best Lemon Meringue Pie that I've come across. The biscuit base instead of pastry makes it a lot lighter, and I always do three times the amount of meringue that it says, because, as everyone knows, that's the best bit!

Can't claim it's my own recipe I'm afraid, but it's a goodie! Enjoy!

Technophobia

It’s generally men of a certain age who are technophobes. Not even old men really, but late middle aged. In their last 20 or so years in work they must have worked with computers of one sort or another, yet they still stick firmly to their guns that they have no idea about “technology” – and they say it with the quotation marks too! Half the time I don’t even think they’re telling the truth. They must know something about computers, otherwise half of them wouldn’t have had jobs in the last 20 odd years or more. It’s not hard, most of these things are idiot proof and you just follow the instructions.

For some people it’s almost a badge of pride. “Oh no, I have no idea how to use this, I’m useless with technology”. They say this with a proud little smile, as though you’re meant to be impressed with that. Why would you be? When did this become something to be proud about? It’s all rather sad really.

As I said, it is generally men. Most women have had to come to grips with it, because the men won’t. It goes back as far as video players. How many people do you know who never knew how to programme their videos to record something? Or even now, refuse to embrace dvd’s because they’re to complicated?

I deal with this on a daily basis, and cannot understand how some people haven’t moved with the times. Fair enough, with the elderly people it is a bit difficult, but at least they have the gumption to ask for help. The technophobe man just shouts that he can’t do it because of course he’s just not very good with technology.

Why don’t these people pull their fingers out and join the 21^st century?

Interviews and Reviews

A couple of links that you might be interested in looking at.

About 2 years ago I was approached by another blogger to do an interview about expat life in France which you can find here.

And the other night I discovered that my blog has been reviewed – favourably I might add – here.

Just thought I’d share these with you. You can find lots of other interesting blogs through these two links as well.

Interesting Weekend

Well…that was an interesting weekend. I just met my biological father for the first time in 33 years.

To backtrack a little…on Bastille Day (14th July) my mum had been out for lunch, got home in the evening, switched on the computer, and found a message through Friends Reunited asking if she knew this particular person. She phoned me straight away, and basically said it was up to me what I did with the information. So I sent a message back via Friends Reunited giving my email address, and got an email back from his partner the same evening. He (J) doesn’t do email, so it was through his partner to start with. We started off exchanging a few letters and photographs, progressed to texting, then phone calls. And this weekend was the first actual meeting!

They came up on Saturday, and got here around 3ish. J and I nipped into town to get some steaks for dinner from the butchers, and left his partner here with Isla and F. Got back and had a lovely first evening – F and I got a bit sloshed – and we played Trivia which kind of broke the ice a bit – competitiveness will always do that! J&J went back to their hotel at about 2am! They stayed at the Lochinvar Hotel in the village, so was literally 2 minutes from the house!On the Sunday, F and I woke up slightly hungover! We had to go across to his parents’ to collect their car as F’s borrowing it this week as his clutch failed last week – the car saga continues! The only problem is, that that particular road is well known for making people ill! We had gone in J’s car, so it was me, F and Isla in the back. Neither F or I are good in the back of a car, but I wasn’t too bad. We had to stop though for F to get some fresh air as that road really makes him ill, even when he’s driving himself!! We had lunch in a café there, dropped F off at his parents, and I took J & J (his partner is also J so may have to think of something else other than initials!) into Dumfries to have a little look. We didn’t get out of the car but I showed them the nice places, and took them up to where I work. We then came home via Castle Douglas, and I showed them Loch Ken which is beautiful.

We had another lovely evening. I did a Raclette, which is a Swiss cheese dish where you grill meat on top and melt cheese underneath and have it with bread or cheese. It’s a very sociable meal and everyone was most impressed. We played Scrabble that night and I won! Obviously!

F had to go back to work on Monday morning (yesterday), but I had a couple of days off this week because it’s the October holidays. We went out in my car to a local distillery, Bladnoch, as J is a big single malt fan. We then went to the Isle of Whithorn, which is beautiful, and sat and had a drink by the little harbour there. Unfortunately, we got there just after the pub had stopped serving meals, so we went back into the town of Whithorn and found a café and had fish and chips. J and I did dinner together last night, and I set Isla to teach J (J’s partner J) how to use facebook, as she’s been on there for a couple of years but had no idea how to actually use it! While the dinner was cooking, J and I sat down and went through all the photographs he’s sent me so far, which was really interesting. Much better than just looking at them on my own. We had a lovely evening again, and they left about 11ish as they were leaving this morning.

So…today I’ve had a really lazy day! It was a lovely weekend, and very interesting, but it was nice to relax and wear scruffy clothes! All weekend I was well behaved, moderated my language, dressed nicely etc! Was nice to spend a day just slobbing! Went out to the doctors earlier, came back, had lunch and fell asleep on the couch! I woke up at 5.50, rushed down to the garage to get fuel for tomorrow – lucky that, as they close at 6!

So back to work tomorrow for a few days, and then it’s the weekend again! Phew! And next week I have three days off which will be lucky. Might be spending that weekend helping F pack up his flat as he’s trying to find somewhere else to live. We’ll see what happens!