I had the carpal tunnel decompression surgery yesterday. I had the procedure done on my right hand over two years ago and it’s helped the symptoms on that hand. I am hopeful that the symptoms on my left hand are helped by the surgery as well.
I am desperate to get my hand back up to working properly so I am attempting to use it as normally as I would have. Everything is sore and movement is slow. But I suppose that is to be expected! I do get frustrated because I don’t remember my right hand being this sore when I had it done then! I think what I keep forgetting is that the procedure was only done yesterday! Duh!
My mantra today? One day at a time and slowly but surely!
Out of the blue over a month ago, I got asked if I wanted to be on the pilot of the after show of what is quite possibly my favourite TV show to date: the Great British Bake Off (silent scream – yes it still affects me that way!). For those who aren’t familiar with it, the Great British Bake Off (GBBO), which is now in its fifth season, is a reality TV show competition for bakers. There are 12 bakers and each week they have a theme and they bake a signature bake, a technical bake and a show stopper and each week someone is awarded star baker and someone bakes their last bake. At the end of 12 weeks (and 36 bakes) you have the winner of the Great British Bake Off. I credit GBBO for the resurgence in my drive to bake better.
GBBO was such a hit that the bigwigs at the BBC thought it was necessary to move it from BBC2 to BBC1. They also thought it would be good to raise the profile further by creating a post-show show, ala The Apprentice: You’re Fired. I thought it was an excellent idea. The more Bake Off the merrier, I say!
I had thought that that phone call was the end of it. I couldn’t do the shoot of the pilot and I thought I’d lost my chance to appear on the GBBO aftershow. But I got a call two weeks ago asking if I wanted to be part of the next episode of Extra Slice. Of course I did and of course I said yes (of course!!!)! The brief was to bring cookies and bring cookies I did! I brought Chinese almond cookies.
I so wanted to tell the world and his wife about the impending TV appearance but I had to sit on my hands and bite my tongue. Apart from everything being hush-hush and secret, I wasn’t even sure I’d get to see myself on camera. Also, it had a lot to do with the confidentiality agreement that I signed before we went down to shoot the episode. It was the closest I was going to get to the Bake Off (for the meantime!) and I was determined NOT to mess it up.
The day started off with a lot of rain and me and my curly hair! Ha! But nothing, even torrential rain (which it wasn’t really. Everything was just a little gray that Sunday), could dampen my excitement. I was going to be able to watch the next episode of my favourite TV show ever (ahead of most people) and I was going to get to see one of my favourite ladies of comedy for the very first time, in person! Jo Brand hosts An Extra Slice! Yay!
It wasn’t as if I didn’t know what TV production was like. I’d been to a few sets in my time (mostly school field trips) but I was unabashedly starstruck. Mostly because it was GBBO. It was good getting to chat to people who loved the show as much as I did and who loved baking as much as I did! Being in the ITV Studios was part of the excitement. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t take as many photos as I could! D’oh and the accompanying face slap!
You tweet it, it’s supposed to give you free orange juice . Didn’t work though!
While it wasn’t the GBBO baking tent, it was close enough. There’s something to be said about GBBO magic. There was a massive bonus though: Lisa Faulkner and Monica Galetti were two-thirds of the celebrity trio that joined Jo Brand. I love Lisa Faulkner from when she cooked her way into winning MasterChef and while Monica Galetti scares me, she’s quite an amazing chef and I am a fan! Charlie Baker rounded of the three and let me just say that he has lost a massive amount of weight from when he danced into winning Let’s Dance for Comic Relief!
It took about 3 hours to shoot the 30-minute TV show and I got home at nearly midnight. Was I bothered? Nope. Absolutely not. The three hours were filled with a lot of aughter and amazing entertainment. The guys at Love Production do an amazing job and the finished product is amazing (especially since I saw myself on telly — all of the two nano seconds! Ha!)! The experience of waiting around for everything to start wasn’t so bad either because getting a chance to chat to people, see what their bakes were, get inspired by other people’s creativity is something you can’t buy! Even talking about the experience now makes me smile.
I hope they call me again. I want to get a chance to bake a heck of a showstopper! But if I don’t get a call back, I’ll still look back on the whole experience with a huge smile. It was amazing. VERY.
I can’t upload the video because my account needs to be upgraded before I’m able to do that (I probably should have uploaded it onto YouTube. But you can view a bit o it on my Instagram account, if you want to! Just click here.
I am thinking of a redesign of the blog. But I am slightly torn because I love how it looks at the moment. I may have to change the theme but keep the colours.
But everything right now is just a thought and everything is still on a drawing board.
It takes me ages to get ready everyday. I like to take my time with my morning ablutions. Although that being said, I think I should streamline my morning routine so that I don’t necessarily have to wake up too early in the morning. Because I think I may benefit from a few more minutes in bed!
I started thinking about my morning routine when I read Emma Gannon’s blog entry called No, I Really Did Wake Up Like This. I copied off the first few words of my comment on her blog. There are probably 3 things that I need to be sure of before I go out the door (apart from my well-planned handbag – you know, the essentials: purse, phone, keys, headphones and kindle): straightened and neat hair, a non-shiny face, and eyeliner. This is my version of low maintenance. I very rarely go out the door without making sure those three things are sorted.
But before I get to the door, before I leave my bedroom I need to have done the following: injected Byetta (I am a Type 2 Diabetic, in case you missed it – wouldn’t blame you as this blog is filled with food related posts!), drank my Gliclazide, washed my hair, blow-dried and straightened my hair, moisturised, moisturised, moisturised, put my face on (mostly the eyeliner) and spritzed on my scent of choice (it is currently Escale À Portofino by Dior). If I don’t get my morning routine done, I feel out of sorts. There’s something about starting the day the way you’ve planned it. Sometimes I wonder if I dawdle too much or if there’s a more efficient way of getting ready.
Call it bizarre but it’s my armor from a Murphy’s Law day.
You know those days when everything is okay but you feel horribly horrrible? The sun was shining and it wasn’t too hot but I woke up this morning with a head that felt like it was meant to be on an elephant, my nose was running like it was meant to be a sprinter at the Commonwealth Games and my eyes were streaming like…well, I can’t really think of an analogy for streaming.
I drank hayfever meds and I took a couple of paracetamol tablet and went out with Alan because he wanted to get mango purée because I think he wanted mango lassi today. I didn’t say anything about my head but I did mention my hayfever to him.
It has made me horribly cranky today. I think it’s safe to say I’ve been acting like a brat an entire day. But I must say, it would’ve been nice to be pampered today and spoiled rotten. But I wasn’t.
Tefal called me and I missed the call. Tefal left me a message but I don’t think I’m going to call them. I know that leaving a message was the only thing that they could do on that day. But I never received anything else. You’d think they’d try a different avenue to contact me. But they didn’t.
The steam generator iron has gone to the bin and I am going to not pursue this whole thing with Tefal. I wish that apart from the phone call, they had written to me to arrange a time to call again. I realise that the onus to prove the fault is probably with me. I really wished they tried a little harder to get in touch. Maybe a second phone call. That would have been ace. Or even an email to say they’d tried to call but obviously missed me. But as it is, telling me that I have to call number if I want to discuss things isn’t really helping me and my issue with the £150 steam generator iron that started burning my blouses and trousers after barely 6 months from date purchase.
Thanks Tefal. But no thanks. I’m moving on from this but I won’t stop telling people to stop investing in your steam generator irons. They are just bad news.
I’ve had quite the active weekend and I’ve got about a gazillion blog post ideas as a result (mostly food related, but hey!)!!!
I need to make time to write these posts! I need to make time…or find time…or something! Can someone find me a real-life working time turner? Like the one that Hermione Granger in Prisoner of Azkaban had pretty please?
While I can always download the app for WordPress my experience with it hasn’t been very positive. When I used it, the posts don’t necessarily come out with the same margin settings and I seem to have these horribly LOOOOOOOOONG settings that stretch on forever — making me look like I don’t know how to make paragraphs! I’m sure there’s a simple explanation and there are probably basic app-related settings which I may have missed, but I’m not necessarily encouraged to use it again!
Here’s to hoping that I can somehow find a magic spell to allow me to “make” time!
I haven’t baked anything because of my stupid hand.
My left hand is swollen and I can’t close it to make a fist without pain shooting up my arm and down to my fingers. Carpal tunnel syndrome strikes again!
Bummer.
***
In other news, after sending my contact details as they requested, no, Tefal still hasn’t gotten in touch. Typical.
My last entry was about my Tefal steam generator iron and how it just wasn’t worth the money I paid for it. You’d expect something that was worth over £150 to last more than 6 months right?
I sent a tweet about how disappointed I was about my iron and @TefalUK has asked me to write them an email so that they can “look into it.” I’m fairly jaded about things like this so I’m waiting with a cynical view that nothing is going to happen.
On the 8th of January, I excitedly purchased the Tefal Gv8431 Pro Express Auto Clean Steam Generator iron. I was really excited. When I bought it it was over £150. It wasn’t an impulse purchase, £150 for an iron is a lot of money for an iron, steam or otherwise. But there were so many positive reviews, that I thought that all these people couldn’t be wrong about an investment iron, could they?
For the first three months, it worked like a dream. It cut my ironing time by about 40%! I was ironing like an ironing fiend. I was the Jenson Button of ironing. The iron itself was light and easy to maneuver which was a bonus for me and my carpal tunnelly hands. Then around about the fourth month, it started making a strange clicky sound. I thought it was because I’d let the reservoir go empty (I hadn’t!). But I thought maybe it was just because it was refilling the steam reservoir, or cleaning itself, or regulating the temperature. Because, surely, it wasn’t going to conk out on me!
Then about a month ago, the non-stick sole plate started sticking. It started burning shirts and trousers. What was worse was that it was transferring the burnt bits onto clothing that I was ironing. I found myself having to painstakingly remove the burnt on bits from the sole plates EACH time I had to use the iron. I had to even pause in between ironing sessions, have an ironing intermission if you will, so that I could let the sole plate cool so that I could make sure there weren’t burnt on bits and I could remove any burnt on bits. And before you ask, I was ironing clothes at the right temperature setting. I pride myself on knowing how to use a steam iron.
I thought that buying an expensive iron meant I was protecting my clothes, that I was making sure I was using a good product that would ensure that the ironing experience wouldn’t be such a chore, because, let’s face it, it isa chore. Six months into using this expensive piece of ironing kit, I am beginning to believe I was duped into parting with my money. Tefal claims it to be a top spec steam generator iron. It claims that you are able to glide through stubborn creases. And it’s true, you do glide through stubborn creases, like a dream, I might add. For about 6 months. Then gliding stops, the burnings starts, the ruining of the clothes begin and the nightmare is never-ending.
I don’t have the box to return the iron. I only have the manual and, of course, the iron. I’d like to return it, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to.
To say that I am annoyed it an understatement. I am unable to iron my work clothes for tomorrow. I have wrinkly clothes. I have this expensive clunky thing in my house that should solve my wrinkly clothes problem. But instead I am afraid to use it because it will burn my clothes. For all its wonderful promises, Tefal has over-promised and under-delivered and has majorly disappointed.
Yellywelly 