You're Smoking Baby!

What you see above is what happens when you, by accident, microwave a half loaf of ciabatta for 10 minutes instead of baking it for 10 minutes.......and you put the metal grill in the microwave too. Just for clarification, our microwave is also a convection oven. Last night, well, this morning, at about 2 am, I had the munchies and badly. I'm still jet lagged so I was awake. I decided that I would bake the half ciabatta and eat the rest of my prosciutto. I put the metal grill in the microwave and the bread on top of the grill like I always do. I pushed the button and set the timer for 10 minutes and walked away.

I laid down on the bed reading a magazine and about 8 minutes in, I smell the bread. I thought it was odd because I had never smelled it like that before. A few seconds later, it got stronger so I decided to get up and check on it.

I opened the bedroom door and all I could see was a cloud of smoke. I held my breath and walked into the kitchen, opened the microwave door and yelled for Matt to come open the window, which I can't reach. There was so much smoke in the kitchen that I couldn't even see the palm of my hands. The scary thing is that the smoke alarm, which had brand new batteries installed yesterday, didn't even flinch.

We opened all the doors and windows and turned on the kitchen extractor. We had to leave the flat and step out into the hallway because the air in the flat was just unbreathable. Thank God we are the only ones on this floor and probably the building this weekend because we weren't exactly dressed for the public.

When the smoke cleared, pun intended, we went back into the kitchen to try to figure out what had gone wrong. Well, turns out that instead of hitting the oven button and setting the temperature, I had just microwaved the bread. To make matters worse, I had done all this with the metal grill in the microwave. This was a VERY lucky escape. If I had waited any longer to check on the bread, it would have caught fire. Even luckier was the fact that the metal grill did not touch the sides of the microwave, which is also metal or it would have blown up.

We had to leave the windows and doors open all night so the smoke would fully clear but now the place stinks of smoke, specially the kitchen. I feel like a total idiot. I have baked that bread in there many times and never made this stupid mistake. I guess mistakes happen when you have gotten used to a certain situation and don't even think about what you're doing but operate in automatic. Live and learn.

Weight Gain Distribution (Back In The UK)

After a long, sleepless, red eye flight, we arrived in the UK yesterday morning. Leaving Miami was a nightmare! While packing, and after buying tons of scrapbooking stuff, I was worried we weren't going to be able to fit everything in our two suitcases. We were able to do so and we thought we'd be fine.

When we arrived at the check in area, the guy tagging the carry on luggage picked up my Pelican case, which is full of my photo equipment, and told me it was too heavy to carry on the plane with me and I'd have to check it. Come again???. I explained to him what the contents were and how I would really appreciate it if I could just bring it on the cabin with me. He said I'd have to talk to the supervisor and I did. The supervisor was actually a nice guy. He gave me a little bag so I could put some of my gear in there to take some weight of the Pelican case until I got to the plane. All was good, or so we thought.

Next we had to actually check in. We handed the passport to the check in guy and proceeded to put the check luggage on the scale. Surprise!!!! My bag was about 15 kg over the maximum limit. We offered to pay extra for it but were informed that it's not about excess luggage but about the fact that Heathrow refuses to accept any piece of luggage over 30 kg. There was nothing but a few magazines I could leave behind so I was stressing a bit. We were offered a duffelbag for the oh-so-low price of $30 to put the excess weight in there. Matt's bag was also about 8 kg over the limit so we put some of his stuff there too. They would only take cash and we didn't have any. Luckily, my mom was still there and gave us the money. I was pretty upset about this whole situation because I had gone on 3 other flights with that Pelican case and multiple flights with that airline with heavy luggage and never had any problems whatsoever. This was the first time they even thought of gauging the weight of my carry on.

I realize the carry on weight limit is there for a reason but I think exceptions should be made on a case by case basis. For starters, the flight was nearly empty so it wasn't a case of lots of people with lots of carry ons. Second, with thousands of dollars worth of equipment, I think most people would have second thoughts about checking the bag in. Airlines do not take responsibility for photographic equipment amongst other things so if the bag should be lost, they'd wash their hands clean and would have no responsibility whatsover as far as the law is concerned. Even though I have insurance, that is a risk I am just not willing to take. OK, off the soap box now.

Miami

I arrived in Florida last night after a long, bumpy flight. I wasn't too tired but as soon as I took a shower and put my head on the pillow, I was out. It was weird to sleep on such a big bed by myself. I have been awake since 6am here and it's now 8:45am....damn yet lag. I kinda, well, not really kinda, I miss Matt....and apparently, he misses me too. It hasn't even been 48 hours since I left home and he has already booked a flight to come here next Wednesday! LOL That's what love does to you!

Parties and Ornaments

I haven't posted in a week but there hasn't been much excitement. Yesterday, we went to a get together with other American ex-pats. We had a nice lunch at a pub in Gerrards Cross. We talked, drank, and just had fun. After that, Matt and I went to a friend's birthday party. That was a lot of fun too, specially the party games!

Now I am getting ready for my trip to the US. We went to Harrods today to buy two Christmas tree ornaments for my parents. I wanted something that was obviously British. They had a lot of cheesy stuff but we did find something not so cheesy in the proper Christmas department, not the souvenir area. It's a green ball with the Union Jack and images of different London landmarks painted on. It wasn't cheap but I like it, and I hope they will too.