Five things make a weekend

[shewhomust]

1. On Saturday morning the Graphic Novels Reading Group hit Borders, with a budget and the instruction to buy graphic novels for the library. This was fun. I'm not convinced that it's the best way for the library to select which graphic novels it buys, nor even, necessarily, the best way to gather the group's input on which graphic novels it buys. For a start, quite a bit of our list was just not there to be bought (Grandville, to pick the most glaring example). We went off for a cup of coffee, returned for one last trawl round the shelves, and still didn't manage to spend up to our budget. Still, fun...



2. Despite, or perhaps as a result of, having been jabbed against both seasonal ands swine flu (in both arms, only one of which is still sore) I have for the last few days been on the verge of a cold. I think. Mildly sore throat (which for me is usually the first symptom to appear), mildly ticklish nose, tendency to overnight headaches, not sleeping too well and sleepy all day as a result. It hasn't got noticeably worse, but it hasn't got better either. Irritating.



3. When I'm anxious about something, it expresses itself in a recurring dream in which I have to do something and just can't somehow seem to get down to doing it. Of late it has - finally - stopped manifesting as being back at school and having to sit an exam. I don't think I'm particularly anxious about anything at present, still less about the impending meeting of the Council's Planning Committee (which will decide whether to proceed with the Market Place redesign), but when I'm not sleeping well I get to remember my dream.
   
   And on Saturday night I dreamed that I was trying to get to the cathedral for the Planning Committee Meeting (relocated there because it's a larger space), but was impeded by work which had been carried out in the Bailey (why was I going up the Bailey? shouldn't I have turned up Owengate? don't know, but the Bailey it was): they had roofed it over and painted it yellow.
   
   "I wouldn't put it past them," says durham_rambler



4. I have a bottle of pomegranate molasses, a kitchen-clearing ( perhaps house-cooling is the opposite of housewarming?) gift from weegoddess. Google gave me recipes, and on Saturday evening we had chicken with walnut and pomegranate sauce (and, for that matter, this evening we had chicken salad in pomegranate dressing, but this evening is no longer the weekend). I cheated a little with the recipes, in that I poached the chicken as per the poached chicken recipe, and then reheated the breast meat in a simplified version of the walnut sauce (I can't find the recipe I used, but next time I'd start with Claudia Roden, and go on from there).
   
   Anyway, the pomegranate molasses is delicious, much less heavy than the name suggests: sweet and tart and scented. Encouraged, I have bought some actual pomegranates. I thought I didn't like them, or rather, I thought they weren't worth the effort of removing the bitter pith and dealing with the seeds - but it's time to try again.



5. I'm a fan of Bob the Bolder's photos on Flickr, but I've only just discovered that he also blogs at Durham Daily Photo, which does what it says on the tin; all the local news that fits, served up with pretty pictures. I've made an LJ feed (durham_photos) so I don't miss anything in future.