Football, fruit and firewalking

I had a busy day yesterday, involving this:

I went to see Charlton (my football team) play Fulham in the FA Cup. A friend of mine’s a Fulham season ticket-holder and as soon as the draw was made, he rang to see if I wanted to go.

It was brilliant. To my shame, I hadn’t been to see Charlton play for ages and I wish I did go more; I love the atmosphere of live football, I love watching the game… I didn’t love the 4-0 scoreline of course, but then it’s only the cup; this season’s all about the league 🙂

I’d worn my Charlton shirt because I’d thought we were sitting in the neutral end but it turned out we were in the Fulham end, which meant I had to keep my jacket zipped up. Not that Fulham fans are likely to have a go, that is, they’re more likely to say something like “I say, I’d really rather you didn’t support the other team if you don’t mind”. Even if they did try it, It’s be something like “Do you mind awfully if I thump you on the nose?”

It’s not great sitting in the other stand but the Charlton stand was at full volume all the match, even when we were 4-0 down, mainly singing “top of the league” or “FA Cup, who gives a f***, Charlton Athletic, we’re going up” and, the one that made me laugh most about 85 minutes in, “one goal, we only want one goal”!

It was great but it was a long day so I’ve not done a huge amount today. I went up to the yard this morning, came back and cleaned the house, then got (slightly) creative in the kitchen.

I’d stored the apples from my tree in the shed and they’re just starting to be past their best so I peeled, chopped, roasted and blended them into more creamiest-ever apple puree. Very hard to resist 🙂

I used some in these cookies:

So addictive; don’t say I didn’t warn you!

And I made another version of these “truffles“, using dates instead of golden syrup:

Deeeeeeelicious! I’ve got bad, the last few months, for eating a couple of these cookies as part of my breakfast so I made those instead; much more acceptable in the morning.

I suppose trying to cut out at least one unhealthy habit almost counts as a New Year’s resolution… and another almost-one was to do more exciting things this year. I’m hopefully going to Dublin with a friend in the spring but also…

They’re organising a massive summer-long festival in the town where I work and they’re doing lots of things to raise money for it. And one, of them, as I found out the other day and immediately volunteered for – is firewalking.

Yep, I’m going to be walking on hot coals. And although even as I volunteered, I was wondering at my own sanity, I’m also so excited, it’s going to be brilliant. So excited, in fact, that I just wrote “walking on hot colas”. Which would be a different kettle of fish altogether… 🙂