The vixen’s traditional steak and ale pie for Valentines Day

Hello everyone and how are you this evening? I hope that your Valentines Day plans and evening are going really very well indeed. For once its Jenny blogging for you all today, it’s about time that I typed up a blog and so here it is. It’s not going to be a blog with our normal weather forecast and pictures, as I am going to have a much needed early night!

Here is the story about how cooking a pie on Valentines Day became a yearly Valentines Day meal for me and Motoko.

Going back many years ago, to when Motoko first came to spend a whole week with me once I got our house decorated and up and running. Motoko herself came to England to lend a hand to get the house ready for living in as well. In fact she used up more than half of her leave the year before on just coming to England to decorate and fix up our home which we brought together. I and Motoko still live in that house and we have made it a warm and friendly place and a place can call home.

Motoko arrived at the train station dead on time and I got a hyperactive phone call from her to say she was safe and well but very cold at the train station. So I chucked on my wet weather gear as it was extremely cold as well, so after I got geared up I hopped in my car and drove straight to the station. I felt sick with anxiety as this was the first time I was going to spend a whole week with her, living, eating, and sleeping together. So it was a big step for both of us and I had moments of anxiety for weeks. I tried to push the anxiety away as I drove to the station but it kept popping up. Something I never understood how Motoko could have fallen in love with a country Cumbrian lass like me. But she did love me and still loves me, and she has made me the happiest person I could have wished for, she really completes my life.

I got to the station in record time and sure enough there was Motoko sitting on her luggage looking chilled to the bone. Once she saw me she jumped up and dragged her case to my car and just as soon as I stepped out of the car to help her with her luggage she grabbed hold of me and gave me a passionately long kiss, that seemed to last a light time. I can tell you that I was shocked and I looked around at a few of the people that had stopped and looked at the event that had just taken place. Motoko then gave me the biggest cuddle I have had from anyone and looked into my eyes and said “I been waiting too long to gaze in to your eyes you know*. She then jumped into my car once we loaded up her luggage.

Once we got home Motoko ran around our home, looking in everyone and cupboard and remaking on what a fantastic job I had done adding the finishing touches here and there to really make it feel like home. The comments she was making were positive and full of happiness and enjoyment. I thought she would be suffering from jet lag, but my Eurasian girl friend was bouncing around the house like a puppy dog full of energy and playfulness. I managed to get her to sit down for a while once I made her a cup of tea, and she took my hands and told me that she wanted to hear everything that I had done since I saw her last and the entire local goings on. So I was only to happy to tell her what she asked to hear, and she was hanging on every word that I was speaking, I could tell that she didn’t understand everything I was telling her but she sat and listened to me, making small comments and remarks as I did so.

After I told her what I had been up to and what had happened news wise in the local Cumbrian world I lived in, I asked her what she had been up to since I saw her last, and so she told me. She also told me that now a few of the people where she worked found out that she was going out with a Cumbrain country lass like me, she had been getting slightly ridiculed and bullied verbally. Motoko then had a little rest from talking and gazed in to her tea up and then looked up at me and said “But you know Jenny, they can say what every they like you know, because I love you and so that is all that matters. Someday soon I shall leave Japan and my life there for good, to live with you here in our home. I mean that oke.” Motoko has said many romantic things to me and still does, but the words she spoke that day brought a tear to my eye. Motoko is a woman of her word, sure enough soon after we got married, she did indeed leave Japan and her job there to come and live with me here in England.

The evening became dark and even chillier, and I just got in from chopping up logs to find that Motoko had laid the table and also set up the sofa bed ready for sleeping on. She looked up at me and said “Let’s sleep down here yes? The fire makes it so warm and romantic.” I couldn’t say no to that, and it was cold in our bedroom. We would have to spend a night in our bedroom together for the first time soon though, but spending the fist night of our first full week together was a great idea. Motoko had even brought the bedding down and even brought my peter rabbit cuddly toy down as well and tucked him up under the bed covers.

Motoko sat me down at the kitchen table and asked me what I think my favourite meal was, and it was a good question and I had to think long and hard at this. My reply though steak and ale pie, with a good strong ale in the gravy. Motoko upon hearing this lent back in her chair and then pointed at the Rayburn and said “Hey girl you can use this stove hai?” her comment regarding the Rayburn made me laugh and as I laughed I saw her smile. I nodded in response and told her I could indeed use the “stove” with great skill indeed, she seemed pleased at this and then asked “you now have the components for this meal?” Again her comment made me laugh, even harder than before, I have never heard anyone use the word components instead of ingredients. I stood her up and showed her around the cupboard and the fridge and freezer and showed her that I did (by some luck!) indeed have more or less everything to make steak and ale pie.

Motoko then told me that she was going to cook steak and ale pie for me that evening, as it was Valentines Day and that I deserved a good meal. She then looked at me and said “Hey but it’s more fun to do this together so lets go!” I was more than willing, and besides she really had no idea how to cook the pie as this was the first pie she had ever cooked, and indeed the first time apart from boiling the kettle, it was the first time she had ever used the Rayburn. The whole thing turned out to be an evening of fun and laugher, and I think as much ingredients ended up around the kitchen as it did inside the pie. In the end we got the pie in the oven, now it was not the best looking pie in the world I am not gong to lie, but we both hoped that it was going to be tasty.

Time passed on and in the end the pie was ready to be consumed, and my word it may not look editable but tasted out of this world. Motoko really did more in cooking it than I did I must admit, but she was working under my direction! We both sat down and munched away at our wonderful pie, and once we had finished Motoko looked up at me and said “Jenny, each and every Valentines Day I shall now cook you this pie, and with each year I hope it shall get better and better”. Sure enough, each Valentines Day Motoko has indeed cooked me a steak and ale pie, and now she can cook pie to perfection. She can also use the Rayburn (which she calls a Rayburn now by the way and not a stove) just as good as me now as well which is just as well!

That night for the first time ever we snuggled up together on the sofa bed, with the fire as our heat and light. I felt her arm slide around me and pull me closer to her and she gave me a soft cuddle. I felt on top of the word, before we settled down to sleep she said “We are going to be oke” and she gave me a kiss on the back of my head.

Well that is the story and blog for the evening, I am so sleepy I have had to proof read this four times and even now I know there are a few mistakes here and there but I hope that you shall excuse them. It’s been a long hard day at work, and been a wonderful evening and now I am ready for bed. Below is a photograph that was taken by Motoko this afternoon, she sent it to my Mobile phone while I was at work. It made me smile I must admit, she is wearing my red catsuit.

That is all about it for the blog this evening but We shall blog again real soon, so take care!

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A happy waltzing giraffe, with a big appetite!

A very good and fun filled evening to you all, *waves in an over the top and sleepy way* today I Motoko am your host this evening. I am told that when we do a blog after this one, that my good wife Jenny shall be blogging, as I have typed and produced many blogs over the last few blogs haven’t I. People said they like your blogs which is nice which is one of the reasons we carry on, but of late our blogs have not had the normal pictures taken by us which connect to the blogs topic. So I would like to welcome the return of our pictures as well *dramatic music plays*. We have been rushed off our feet as of late with our job and we just have not had the time to sit down and take photos for our blog or think of ideas for a blog either. But we will or we shall try to make an effort to bring back our blogs normal pictures. Well now it is cold isn’t it, it was -5 when I woke up when I and Jenny got a call at 04:00AM this morning. It seemed there was another spot of bother at work, and once again Jenny rolled over taking the bed covers with her and so I knew what that meant. It meant I was not going to get much help from my wife on this matter. But is this cold weather going to follow us into the week ahead, let’s find out. Here is our weather forecast.

The weather is going to try and hide away from the brisk and unforgiving minus temps this time around it seems, and I hope so. If it rains like it says it shall do in the next few days ahead it shall be bad if that rain then freezes, we have already had to stop a few bookings due to the cold, bitter and cruel weather we have been having. At the moment we can ride out (no pun honest!) not having bookings but if it carries on we shall soon start to feel the pinch money wise soon enough, but I and Jenny are confidence and feeling strong this shall not come to pass. All we can do is hold our head high and carry on the best we can, and not let ourselves think the worst. One thing that I admire about my wife Jenny is her strong resolve, her positive attitude towards life, work and leisure. I may be a little older than Jenny and I may have had more worldly experiences than her but she has taught me a lot, and a lot about myself I never knew I had as well. Oh yes and I am very worn out today due to working a long cold morning sorting out this and that at work, and so please forgive any English spelling and grammar mistakes I may make thought this blog.

To the topic at hand then, and this is a fun topic about a video game to do with a very hungry giraffe, we all know giraffes are fantastic animals and so what can be better than a video game called “Hungry Giraffe”. On Thursday I was looking forward to a game, a fun little video game that was “Hungry Giraffe”. Working outside from 05:00AM till 17:50 I was looking forward to dashing home, having a good hot bath with Jenny and then have a welcome warm meal and downloading “Hungry Giraffe”. Yes, it’s not by a major big video game developer and yes it’s not going to get all these awards that The Elder Scrolls Skyrim has got but it’s a funny, cute, and additive game. Its how games of this type should be for it is cute, very well designed and drawn out, it’s additive and fluid. The music is fantastic, the best music I have heard in a long time from a game of this type. So while Jenny was making a light evening snack for me, herself and our great daughter Amanda, I downloaded and installed “Hungry Giraffe”! While the wife was finishing off making the snacks and Amanda was away as well making for cocoa for us all to enjoy, I had an idea to make a fast but cute video with “Hungry Giraffe” as the subject. So I can up to the bedroom and came back down with one of my cuddly Plushy giraffes I own, and sat in front of the TV., I had the “start” screen of “Hungry Giraffe” displaying on the TV screen, my giraffe in one hand and my small video camera in my other hand. Setting off the camera I walked in a dancing motion my giraffe from one side of the screen to the other. Then to finish off I thought it would be fun to zoon out and have the giraffe peeking out from the other side of the screen, and so I did just that. The end results pleased me and so while we played the great “Hungry Giraffe”, my video was uploading to YouTube.

Our joint YouTube gets a few views a day, and I knew that the video I made on YouTube would at lest get one or two views now and then. I uploaded the video really to try and make a few people smile or make them laugh, so I hope I did that, but I would never have thought that the people at Laughing Jackal Ltd. who made “Hungry Giraffe” would have viewed my video, but do you know they did! What is even more thrilling is that they sent the link to my video out via Twitter, and they even sent my link out via their Google + account as well. They also follow me on Twitter now as well and they also follow my Google +, both of which even greater! I am so pleased that they enjoyed my video, even if it was just over half a minute long.

I thought it was only good manners to so support for Laughing Jackal Ltd. and their new game “Hungry Giraffe”, but doing this blog, and so I shall try and type now a little about the game, which I hope you will find handy. So it’s all about a hungry giraffe, and you have to keep eating fruit, snacks and take-a-way food in order for you to gain speed and wiz on up the screen. Each time you eat your hungry giraffe’s neck gets longer and longer and you gain speed. There are things in your way that shall slow you down to work against you, such as weights which keep wanting to slow you down and try and force you down the screen and not up! You then get anvils, these are nasty things and if you hit own you knock your poor hungry giraffe out and he (or she!) starts to fall and you much snatch a snack in order to recover. You can get around anvils by collecting yellow hard hats, and once you collect one you can activate it and you can smash though the anvils. Chilly peppers are a super snack that boosts your speed and you blast your way though the screen. As you can guess this game is a scrolling game, and you scroll up the screen, as you progress. It’s so well drawn and if you get it for the Playstation3 you get high resolution graphics. The game is fast and responsive and I have not seen any lag in the controls. Soundtrack to this game is really stylish and light hearted and very classical. It’s composed in the style and format of a waltz, the music is relaxing and very well composed. Sound effects for the game is happy munching “yum” and “burps” as well as the sound you get when you over eat… everything feels well put together and it’s a great mini game. All in all I give this ten out of ten and Laughing Jackal Ltd. is a UK game development company, and it’s great to see UK games in tip top condition. Well done Laughing Jackal Ltd. on proving us with a cute and enjoyable game. Below is the game advert from Laughing Jackal Ltd. for Hungry Giraffe!

Below is the video I made to do with Laughing Jackal Ltd.’s “Hungry Giraffe”. I hope it at lest makes me smile, please enjoy it he he.

Today is also Catsuit Friday! So I hope you are all enjoying yourselves. I am wearing my black Libidex catsuit with Neon green front, and Jenny wearing a red Libidex Catsuit and Amanda in her new Libidex catsuit as well. As you can see from the picture below our very own hungry giraffe is also wearing a catsuit too!