the button's blog

50g of soya mince (hence the name of the dish), soaked in 500ml of vegetable stock for ½hr.

This is enough for two people, with seconds. It's incredibly filling.

Pre-heat your oven to 230 degrees/whatever gas mark that is.

3 big sweet potatoes (£1 for 5lb off Lewisham market on Saturday ), peeled and cut into big chunks.
About 8 shallots (two bags for the price of one in Sainsburys at the moment), peeled and quartered.

I just posted this on some thread or other, and thought I'd save it here for posterity. Maybe the first in a regular feature.

Red lentil dal
8oz of red lentils, rinsed, then add 1½ pints of water. Add a teaspoon of salt. And 4 cardamom seeds, if you've got them. Bring to the boil, put the lid on & simmer for 30 mins.

Then, in another pan: -

It's my mum's 60th birthday tomorrow, so I'm off up north for a few days, coming back Friday.

I really am piss-poor at taking time off work. Once again, my "annual leave year" is nearly at an end, and I have to take the next two weeks off, or lose my holidays.

This appears to have got lost in the great board switchover....

Having been taken over by another company in the same line of work earlier this year, I found out today that the "proposed restructuring" is an "actual restructuring." With the creation of another tier of management. Lovely. Not that the new manager's job was advertised or anything like that -- it just appeared. Thus giving the senior manager the chance to upgrade herself to a "director."

It's got to be August, and I haven't had any time off work since Xmas -- other than an odd ½-day to do birthday shopping for mrs button, back in May.

So I've got all next week off. Not that I'll do anything other than tidy up the flat, but anyway.

Everything seems to stress me out these days, like it's not worth the hassle of arranging to do anything. Sigh.

Just got the final version of my "annual performance" thing back. Here's the edited highlights

And yet somehow I manage to spend 5 hours a day on the internet.

Bit of a poor turn-out for the all-members' meeting this lunchtime -- 11. We've been getting 15-20 in previous months (about half the membership), but I suppose it's annual leave time, and it's also fucking hot.

One of the reps is leaving to join the Met , but luckily someone other than me has expressed an interest. Plus she's articulate & stroppy, which is always good.

Woo! A blog..... Well, as predicted, my employer has started disciplinary proceedings against one of the union reps on -- as far as I can make out -- completely spurious grounds. Hardly surprising, but nonetheless.....