Ice Palaces and Nicoise Salad

Whilst I loathe any family member being away from me, I have to confess that if my husband is away for work, I get just a tiny bit excited about a night at home alone.   It is not that I can't do what I want with him around but I do love the pottering around in silence.  Eating by candlelight by myself. Listening to the sound of the rain if it comes.  Watching a little bit of rubbish television whilst cooking dinner.   Curling up on the couch with Pepper the cat purring happily on my lap.   

He is a non tuna or salmon eater (unless raw), so as if spiting him, I always cook myself some salmon or tuna for dinner.

Tonight, here it is, a tuna nicoise salady thing.  

This is very easy.   So easy it does not even require a recipe but know this:  for perfectly cooked tuna and salmon, put a bit of oil on, pop on a tray, put in a cold oven and turn to 120 degrees. It will be cooked to perfectly medium rare in 25 minutes.  

Tomorrow night will be a salmony rice thing. 

And then, it is important to watch something he wouldn't be interested in watching for the millionth time.  Tonight it is:

I would love to have wallpaper in this image -  I love the combination of yellow with the birch trees.  It still looks modern all these years later.    The truth is I will not get through the whole film in one night.  I am a bit tired at the moment for that.  But even half is better than nothing. 

And of course it has one of my all time favourite scenes:

Did you know this ice covered house was filmed in the heat in Spain? It is not snow at all but white marble dust.  

It's pretty cold here at the moment, and in fact I have a fur hat just like Julie Christie's.  It is made of possum fur though (I bought it in New Zealand where the enlightened government allows the use of possum fur in clothes) not mink or whatever hers is and so is more ethically acceptable.

And of course, I pyjama up, with face mask on.  At the moment, it is this: 

This stuff is brilliant.  6 sachets for $30, and I use only half a sachet at a time.   Such great value and it gives my skin that tingling feeling which is compulsory if you want to feel it is doing any good.  

Weird Chemo Side Effect No 5: my hair is growing back.  Again.  This time, am not counting on it.  I just ignore the way it looks and tell myself I will worry about it in July.  Oh and I have little pins and needles in my fingertips. This is called neuropathy and is quite normal. In fact my oncologist said it is good if I have it it means I am responding to chemo.     Sometimes I think he says things just to cheer me up.  I dread to think what he must say to his really sad patients.     Mostly we seem to shoot the breeze about books and the latest Herceptin research coming out of New York.  I find it hard to talk about myself all the time.   Side effects and symptoms.  So boring and repetitive. I feel like I am complaining.  Weird but there you have it.    

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