I’m not a particularly jealous wife. Well correction, I used to be a terribly jealous girlfriend but that was because before Mr NQN I used to date a guy that thought he was god’s gift to women. And flirted with them just enough to make my blood boil and send me off into a jealousy infused tizzy (and I later found out that he actually dated one which rendered his pleas for me not to be so “paranoid” invalid).
But not Mr NQN, he has that wonderful Finnish reserve where he just doesn’t flirt with other women. However, a friend of mine from years ago liked to flirt with him incessantly…
“Why don’t you see L** anymore?” he asked me one day.
I was baking and that question seemed to come out of nowhere. I steeled myself for a diplomatic answer, thought better of it and replied
“The last time she almost showed you her boobs and she stroked your leg. So she’s dead to me. Now, have an owl cookie!!” I said.
“Oh cool! These owls are cute” he said picking up the cookie. And with that, I breathed deeply, the conversation about the booby, leg stroking friend now forgotten.
This one looks like the strange uncle owl
Click here to read the full story
| November 28th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
A few days ago I woke up with a start, let out a strangled “Arrrrrrgghhh”, partially woke up Mr NQN and then scrambled out of bed as if I had found a horse’s head in it.
Do you ever have those times where you forget about things? I just realised that in the chaos of the last few months I had completely forgot to put the Anthony Bourdain Medium Raw copies up for auction as promised! “How on earth did I let that slip?” I wondered chewing on my bottom lip urging my computer to turn on. But then sage, half asleep Mr NQN suggested that now was possibly a better time than any because people could buy them as Christmas gifts. So I took photos and here they are, your very own copy of Medium Raw, signed by the man himself during his recent time in Australia for the Sydney Writer’s Festival, all proceeds going to Tony’s charity of choice, Médecins Sans Frontières! Click here to bid on any of the copies.
The other thing that I almost forgot was Christmas. Well I couldn’t forget it completely, after all there were the telltale decorations everywhere but I was being forced at gunpoint or spousal sad face point into using google calendar after about a year of resisting. I love my paper calendar and although this means that I have to bring said paper calendar with me when I make appointments inevitably garnering some odd looks, I am still quite beholden to it. Mr NQN promised me something good in my Christmas stocking if I stuck to an online calendar (it’s like bribing kids to do their homework). I was flicking through the calendar, which he had populated for me deciphering my messy scrawl, and then I realised that we only had about a month to go until Christmas which necessitate another strangled “Arrrrghhhh”!
Click here to read the full story
| November 22nd, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
I’m not sure about you Dear Reader, but I don’t think that my nightmares are quite your garden variety. They’re not of monsters or catastrophes, they’re actually filled with visions of me living back in Tokyo and being lost and unable to find my way home. I haven’t had that nightmare for a while, at least for a few years and friends that have analysed it (don’t you love how everyone is qualified to analyse a dream if not a person).
They have suggested that the reason why I no longer have those dreams is because I used to be searching for something to do in my life where I fit in and enjoyed it and advertising wasn’t doing it for me and I was essentially lost for all practical purposes. I can concede that this is a rather feasible explanation and the fact that the nightmares about being lost stopped after I started the blog might be further evidence supporting this.
I used to also have real life nightmares of screwing up a recipe and although they didn’t permeate my dreams, they used to permeate my real life when cooking and I would panic. I first came across this recipe for brownie cookies at the Donna Hay 10th Birthday party celebrations recently held at the Museum of Contemporary Art. She has also launched her new iPad version which may also help those of you overseas that love the magazine but find waiting for a copy too hard (and it is free to download for the first month thanks to Destination NSW).
Click here to read the full story
| November 8th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
Every day for work I pack Mr NQN a lunch to take with him. Occasionally I will fill a bag with things that he can share with his colleagues although these have to be easily transportable as he rides a bike to work. Mindful that I used to overfeed the fish and cat (and I think they both died from obesity) I am cognizant of my tendency to overfeed others.
He usually get a sandwich, some fruit but I can’t help sneaking in a snack or sweet in the lunch. I figure he burns it off on his ride (ok we live about 6 minutes from the city by bike so he’s not really burning that much off) but I figure something sweet can’t hurt. Of course it’s that same logic that made my cat into a sprawling furry shape of Australia.
He has taken recently to riding distances in order to get his fix for exercise (I know, I don’t know what that is about) and one Sunday morning he awoke at 6am to ride from North Sydney to Homebush. He asked me if I had any muesli bars and of course I didn’t although a part of me wanted to jump up and say “but wait…I have an array of cakes and biscuits!” while showcasing the goodies like a Wheel of Fortune hostess.
Click here to read the full story
| November 4th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
A couple of weeks ago Mr NQN and I were both going to see the doctor. Not for anything serious but because I had purchased a deal from one of those discount websites. It was for a deal to visit a back doctor to get an Xray and then a massage. Of course I just bought it because I am a massage monster-I love them to bits. After waiting 6 weeks for an appointment we turned up and they did some Xrays and we had our massage. A few weeks later we returned to get our results.
Now this is where the difference between Mr NQN and I lies. He’s a sportsman and I am anything but. His natural instinct is to compete on everything. Mine isn’t although I become a fierce competitor if you get me on a topic that I care about and then Franck Eggelhoffer emerges and I must make something faaabulous (or I get very agitated if I don’t guess the answers on “Letters and Numbers”). Most other things I don’t give a hoot about and I don’t care who “wins”.
The doctor told him his back results and they were good. He was triumphant and grinning like a monkey. The doctor then turned to me and told me that my back was a mass of problems. I knew it would be, I’ve been wearing heels long before I should have and I’ve had a bad slip that had me on my back for two weeks. Mr NQN being the natural competitor looked happy at getting better test results until he heard her tell me that I had one leg that was slightly shorter than the other by less than 1cm!
Click here to read the full story
| August 1st, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
What is NQN up to now? 
NQN on Facebook
RSS
