Three things I’ve never done before…

It’s been such a great weekend! Quite a few of the students went to The Blackbird last night for Rock and Roll Bingo – which was the cheesiest thing, reminded me of meat raffles in Australia. The owner of the bar would put in a CD, and a voice would come on, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to rock and roll bingo, here’s how it goes…” and then count down. Random songs were played, and the first person to have their entire card crossed off won. I won a box of Haribo, which is just jelly candies, not bad, not bad! There was also a pub quiz, I wish I had taken a photo of the sheet, it was a piece of paper, and hand written onto it was the four rounds, and numbers one through ten below each. Ha! Like the meat raffles in Australia, the pub quiz and bingo were loads of fun. We danced, and carried on until we were pretty much kicked out, headed back to The Coach House for a quick glass, and all turned in at 3:30ish.

Orienteering was also a blast, it was a beautiful sunny day (but still cold!), Denise picked Ayane and me up at 11:30 and we headed over to Ballymaloe House (about 5 minutes down the road), checked in, and quickly realized we had NO idea what we were doing, and that people take it very seriously! There were several different levels, we did the entry level that was 2.8km, the grounds are so beautiful, and quite a bit larger than I thought. Some people were there to just enjoy the day, others because they are part of a club, but everyone was so friendly, and welcoming. It took us an hour and three minutes to complete the course, not bad for beginners! We had lunch in the café there, and not surprisingly it was tasty.

I came back to the cottage and started cooking… I had to take the gills out of the fish heads, which is so awkward, but feels quite good once you’ve done it! I made fish stock for Cioppino next weekend. There is a local lady that started a company (can’t remember the name), and will deliver the fish her husband catches in the morning to her clients in the afternoon, so I think we will order a couple for Friday to practice our fileting skills, and then use the fish for the soup. Jointed a chicken, roasted the pieces, made chicken noodle soup for dinner tomorrow, and have another pot of stock on the go now. I made a simple shrimp pasta with lemon, chilli, and parsley, roast veg, and a green salad for dinner tonight, so tasty.

It’s now 8:45, and I am going to do a bit of work and head to bed hopefully before 10. Up early tomorrow to milk the cows!

“We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.” – Unknown (a card posted on one of the boards at the school)