Sept 3 - In Which I Am Easily Persuaded

   I knew that I would have a little extra time up my sleeve this morning, and not so much in the evening, so I got on the cross trainer first thing.  I wonder how much longer I'll be able to indulge in early morning or late night Buffy.  I can't imagine there will be a long settlement.
  After exercise I ate my yoghurt berries and fibre toppers while I cooled down and watched the weather on Channel Ten's Breakfast.  I honestly don't know why I keep the TV on that, the male host Paul Henry is utterly unlikeable.  His female counterpart often has trouble disguising her complete disgust with him.

   I had a break from routine today, a training session to attend at Northland Shopping Centre.
It was on a subject I'm not keen on, and it certainly didn't change my feelings about it, but I did at least come away feeling slightly better equipped to deal with it in future.
  They had all kinds of snacks for morning tea including cookies, muffins and cakes, but I limited myself to a baby cheese scone with a teensy scrape of butter on each half.

   Lunch was also provided in the course.  Pictured are a ham mountain bread pinwheel sandwich thing and a salami one and two cherry tomatoes for scale (and because I ate them too).  As you can see, they were tiny little things, so not pictured are the other five pieces I had (one more ham, two more salami and two chicken) and also one more itty bitty cheese scone with butter and four more cherry tomatoes.  I was still a bit peckish after that but I put that down to boredom.
  I was sitting next to my counterpart from another centre and she mentioned she was having an issue with something I'm quite good at so I invited her to come and visit me at my centre to go through it together.  I like these training sessions in that way.  They allow all of us Office Admins to network and help each other.
  Because Northland is over Mr Smart's side of town, after the training session I headed over to his place for dinner.  I had intended to buy something helping like lamb steaks and salad to cook there but after standing dumbstruck in the Woolworths and the two butchers unable to choose anything (even with Mr Smart's helpful texted suggestion of 'Dodo Steaks') I decided just to head over and decide later.
  In hindsight, maybe buying dinner on my way would have been the smarter choice but I wasn't unhappy with the final outcome.  I was quite easily persuaded that I didn't want to cook and in fact that I might quite fancy an Indian takeaway.  We couldn't find the menu anywhere so we walked up to the local place and sat on the comfy couch in their lobby, chose, ordered, waited, collected and walked back again.
  Pictured is my Pudina Paratha (minted wholemeal flatbread from the tandoor), Lamb Sabzi which contained a good balance of lamb and vegetables, Beef Korma and Chicken Maharaja which was lovely, a bit like Butter Chicken crossed with Chicken Korma but almonds instead of cashews and dressed with homemade paneer. 
All this with lovely Jeera Rice which is Basmati rice cooked with cumin seeds and curry leaves, fragrant and scrumptious.  I had the pictured serve less a quarter of the Paratha and another smaller serve after that.
  After that lovely meal, Mr Smart and I finished watching The Cabin In The Woods which we had started the weekend before the one just gone.  Sometimes I suspect that Joss Whedon indulges in just a touch too much bud.  I still flinched at all the scary bits.  I'm not built for scary movies!  I don't think I'll have nightmares from this one though, it didn't take itself that seriously in the end.
  I headed home not too long after the movie to make ready for tomorrow.  I've remembered to defrost more berries, I've even written my shopping list for the rest of the week's lunches.  The weekly planner isn't finished yet, but I've at least done a couple of days ahead.  Hopefully by Wednesday night I'll have some time to devote to it and maybe get a head start on the next week after that!
  Jess