Thursday

 Morning, everyone.  It's mildish and dry outside and we had some sunshine yesterday after a very dull morning.  Nice.

I really enjoyed personal training yesterday, delivered online with a programme devised to match the equipment I have - a step, a balance ball, a balance board and weights.  My balance has never been amazing; as a child I was fine on a bike but anything like roller skates were a disaster.  Now I'm getting old(ish), balance becomes more important so it's worth working on and it's definitely improving.  We might be back to face to face next week, maybe not.  It depends what Lindsey's 'ruling body' comes out with and she says I have the choice anyway.  

Not long after that, Thermione III arrived and I had a joyous hour or so unpacking her, connecting her to my internet and washing all the bits and pieces that came with her.

Here she is in the kitchen, taken just now, with apologies for the lighting.  My Thermos have always stood on a thin plastic chopping board.  She has built in scales which can be damaged if you drag her across the surface but it's safe to slide the board.  Life is too short to remember to lift!

Diane, the scales now weigh in one gram increments.

This is a close up of the interactive bit, the touch sensitive screen.  I called up a recipe that I intend to make, we always have home made biscotti for Christmas and I often bag some up as gifts.

If you press the down arrow, it scrolls to the full recipe.  When you press 'start cooking', it takes you through the whole process, step by step, setting the machine for you and prompting when you need to add something.
I will probably use cranberries as well as or instead of apricots and make sure I use Christmas spices.

I started with rice yesterday, which could be done in the old one but which now has a rice cooked setting and uses the absorption method.  I'm usually poor with rice and it comes out claggy but this rice was much better.
Each meal today will use Thermione but breakfast and lunch are not now things, it just uses a different method now.  I will be boiling some eggs for breakfast, using the egg function - Diane, a new feature is that on some settings the blades no longer turn or turn intermittently, like an occasional gentle stir.
Lunch will just be a reheat.
Dinner will be a Cookidoo recipe, chicken with peppers as it uses one of the new features.

After a chat with Beth via Facebook, we have decided to move Christmas Tree Day to this coming weekend.  There's every chance that the following weekend she will be going to pick Alex up from uni and that, of course, takes priority.  I didn't want to leave it for a fortnight so it's this weekend.  So I will have to get all the presents, currently on one of the beds in the guest room, sorted and wrapped.  Maybe a very pleasant task for today.

I'd better stop now and start the day.  I'm on my second coffee so it's about time really.  Have a lovely day and be safe.  xx