an evening without John

Earlier this evening I was at the gym, pounding my feet to the beats and wondering what I should blog about. 

I thought you've probably had enough of me talking about baking & food, because that seems to be all I have done lately. Sewing? well, there's been a fair bit of that lately, and there's definitely more to come, so I wanted to avoid overload there. Running? Maybe. But the composition of the post about running didn't flow in my mind.

I returned home and resigned myself to the prospect of no blog post today. Then, my friends, the moment presented itself. But before I share the full story, let me bring you flowers, because the story is not a pretty one, and I like to share pretty pictures.

One big floppy rose deserves another: 

I know these are definitely not my best ever photos, but really, I didn't want to start with a photo of what's to come.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, I had just returned home from the gym and was cooking dinner as John was out for the evening. I thought I would do him proud and cook a proper meal, rather than settling for a bowlful of freshly baked granola. So I cooked up a simple yet tasty pasta dish with pepper, spinach, gorgonzola, chorizo, creme fraiche...that kind of thing. I decided to multitask and make carrot & coriander soup for lunch tomorrow and this is where things started to go wrong. The soup caused a distration from the main task in hand. 


Then two friends started talking to me on facebook. Distraction number 2 = danger ahead. As I munched away at my food, still talking on facebook, I thought to myself, 'this chorizo tastes ever so slightly odd. Must be my imagination'  and carried on eating. I was one mouthful away from finishing when my nose alerted me to a very distinctive and disturbing smell. 'what on earth is that? kind of smells like plastic but my saucepans are metal so that can't be....'

I turned around to see smoke billowing from the hobs. 'Wow, that soup's really going for it!' I thought to myself. Isn't it funny the things we think, even when we know something is not right?


The smoke was billowing from my empty pasta pan which still had the plastic colander on top. Oh dear. Oh very dear. The following equation went through my mind at this point:

Empty plan + heat = burnt pan. 
Empty pan + heat + plastic = melted plastic & toxic fumes!

Another funny thing - I am nothing of a mathematician or scientist, yet sometimes I think in equations. Fair enough, not particularly scientific ones, but equations none the less.


Next thought, as I covered my airways with my t-shirt with one hand, turned the hob off with another, and wondered how to break away from my facebook conversations without being rude - 'So this is what happens when John goes out for the evening and leaves me to cook! What a great story this will make!'

I dashed outside with the colander and ruined pan, airways still covered, now desperately needing fresh air. What to do next? Ring John, because he will know what to do in his calm, brilliant way. 

Next, run back inside & retrieve essential items from the kitchen - laptop & water seemed essential at the time. I think I had gone into survival mode because water - and plenty of it- seemed highly necessary and important. (Nevermind the fact that I only migrated from one end of the flat to the other, with a bathroom + plentiful supply of water right next door - I needed my big bottle of H2O.)


See?

Once I had opened all of the windows in the flat, I felt it was safe to grab my camera & record the little incident.

Impressive, no?


Lessons learned:
1) stick to granola
2) I am unsure of the spelling of colander, and that troubles me
3) melted plastic really stinks
4) don't try to do too many things at once
5) the chorizo was fine - I was tasting the smell of melting plastic