Recycling Day

I successfully made the loaf of bread on Monday, and have just baked my second. The second one was doing well until I decided to prick it just before I put it in the oven. All that seemed to do was deflate it somewhat, so I won't be doing that again. Still the second one seems lighter in the middle and crustier on the outside. I've put pictures of the first one here for you to see. Made with honey, herbs and pumpkin seeds it tasted lovely although it is clear I need to add more yeast to make it rise further. I'm still working on the right combination. We will get there. I do have the luxury of time to perfect such things. That said, the results are very nice and are proving cheaper than popping down to the shops at the moment. Pumpkin seed and sunflower seed this time so it should have some nice sweet undertones.

Today is recycling day. It's a once a fortnight event which, ironically, occurs on the Wednesday I don't have to sign on. I'm beginning to conclude that Wednesday could officially be designated as "the most exciting day in my week" although that may seem a little sad, I guess.

People have been really good over the past few days. I've had friends pass on a couple of jobs I might be interested in doing, which is really good. Another strange irony is that two separate individuals seem to have pointed me in the direction of the same job. Even stranger is, both are former work colleagues, and neither of them have ever met or even know about each other. If I were to believe in omens I might take this as one, although I actually think it's more that both know there are some previous experiences which could at least prompt the agency to give me a call and find out a little more before sending the "thank-you for your application, due to the high quality, and number of applicants..."

It's been a quiet week on the job front. Nothing of any real interest although I did get a call on Monday afternoon about the option of going for the job I'd applied for on Friday. I did feel a little sorry for the guy who called up his company seemed to be playing a little bit of catch up. Mind you I suppose this is another case of keeping my fingers crossed as it would appear that the job is seen by more than one person as quite right for me. Added to that there are people out there who may end up calling me if I should not see a job.

Other than that it's been a rather quiet uneventful week. I purchased a new vacuum cleaner the other day. It's not such a decadent use of my limited recourses as it at first seems as it was a) on sale, and b) purchased entirely using my Nectar points. I've saved rather a lot of these due to the fact that you can boost them a lot by shopping online - which is something of a favourite pastime of mine when I have money. The woman in the checkout seemed rather shocked at the fact that I had not only enough points to buy it but that it really didn't make a massive dent in the number either. I'm saving the rest for something else useful and which I need. The cleaner practically glues itself to the surfaces and shows how much dust has probably been flying around here for ages. It might even explain why I've been stuffed up with some kind of cold thing for the past week or so. Allergies, not infections perhaps.

I'm bashing this out whilst listening to Canned Heat today. The blues season on BBC 4 probably helped with the choice. The slightly dirty bluesy sound seemed rather apt as the soundtrack to today's labours. There are a couple of other developments that I'll address in a future blog as I'm not keen to discuss the particular topic until it's all done and dusted.