Bridget McNulty

Button mushroom and thyme soup

// August 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Inspiration, Recipe of the Week, food

This week’s Recipe of the Week from Fresh Living magazine is (drumroll, please):

Button mushroom and thyme soup! The second successful soup I’ve ever made
Here goes:

15 minutes and dinner is served!

Ingredients:
Olive oil, for frying
½ small onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 packet (250g) button mushrooms, sliced
2 tsp (10ml) thyme leaves
¼ cup (60ml) white wine
1½ -2 cups (375-500ml) good vegetable or chicken stock
Salt and milled pepper
Toasted baguette rounds, for serving
Serves 1

Heat a glug of oil in a small saucepan and fry onion until soft.
Add garlic and fry for another minute. Remove and set aside.
Add a little more oil and fry mushrooms over a high heat until slightly browned.
Reduce heat, return onion to pan and add thyme and wine.
Allow to reduce by half.
Add stock and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove a few tablespoonfuls of mushrooms. Blitz soup with a stick blender until smooth.
Return reserved mushrooms to soup and allow to reheat.
Season and serve with toast.

* This is part of our Dinner for One feature in this month’s Fresh Living magazine. If you’re cooking for 2 or more, multiply all ingredients except mushrooms. For 2 to 4 people, use 2 packets of mushrooms and then add one tablespoon of cornflour or one diced potato for every packet of mushrooms left out (i.e. if it’s for four people, use 2 packets of mushrooms and 2 potatoes or 2T cornflour).

Day 20: Yet another succulent

// July 21st, 2010 // 5 Comments » // 29 Gifts, Nature, Philosophy

I know, I know, another succulent… But this one was actually requested by a colleague because her desk looked lonely.

And then my mug cracked, and instead of being sad about (yet another) mug breaking before my very eyes, I decided it was happy timing and filled it with some dirt and a plant. Because sometimes when things you love break, you just have to accept that they’re broken and make the best out of a bad situation.

Yip, I’m trying to insert a little philosophy into today’s succulent post, did you notice?

Small Daily Challenges

// June 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Decisions, Life (and the living of it)

Those words are all caps on purpose. You see, I think it’s the Small Daily Challenges that turn us into the people we really are.

Allow me to explain…
As most of you know, I recently got a job. This might not sound so extraordinary, except that for the last couple of years I’ve been working for myself – from home – freelancing. That means minimal interactions with people I don’t like, and no work I don’t enjoy. It might sound like a dream-world, but surprisingly, after a while, it starts feeling stagnant. If you only do what you like doing, you never learn how to do anything else. Aaand if you don’tt ever interact with people you don’t gel with, it’s difficult to learn Advanced People Skills (again, all caps intended).

So what I’ve learnt in my two months on the job (woohoo! Two months already!), apart from the heaps and heaps of practical stuff that has made me way more hireable, is that it’s the Small Daily Challenges that shape the kind of person you become. When faced with a snotty colleague, how do you respond? Do you retaliate or smoothe things over? Given the option of badmouthing someone who really deserves it, do you speak out or hold your tongue? In situations that are delicate and full of subtext, do you stir the waters or try to play peacemaker?

I think it’s this delicate dance of learning how to work with other people that turns us into someone who is admirable and trustworthy, or someone who you have to watch every word around. And I am trying, as much as possible, to be the former and not the latter. Who knew? An office job is as much about personal relations as it is about sitting in front of a computer.

I wonder what I’ll learn next?

Photo: Incase

What if…

// April 29th, 2010 // No Comments » // Decisions, Life (and the living of it), Links, Time

I’ve been thinking a lot, lately, about how much of our problems we deal with on our own – how many distresses we keep close to our hearts and only share with our partners or our journals. Things like money worries, illness, infertility.

As all those who know me will attest, I’m nowhere near ready for kids. I’m far too selfish for that – I love being able to come home and read for hours without interruption, I can’t imagine having to look after someone every single day for the rest of my life (even after your kids leave home, you never really stop worrying about them – we all know that). But this lack of desire for children is underwritten by a deep belief that as soon as I want to have a baby, I’ll be able to. And more and more these days, that isn’t the case. Infertility is becoming more and more common, and it’s one of those problems that nobody wants to talk about. Isn’t that crazy? It’s just like any other physical condition – it shouldn’t be something to keep hushed up.

But it is. Which is why I am so moved by this beautiful video by Keiko Zoll. It gave me goosebumps. When you have five minutes to spare, give it a watch. It’s the kind of video we all need to see, so that we can start talking about infertility and sharing the burden a little more.

What if we stopped dealing with difficult things on our own, and shared a little more? What if?

What IF? A Portrait of Infertility from Keiko Zoll on Vimeo.

For more from Keiko, visit her blog – Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed.

Effort vs. intention…

// April 29th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Decisions, Life (and the living of it), Time, book launch

I’ll have to be brief this morning, because I’ve got a day of nonstop Things To Do, many of them rather lovely (if you’re in South Africa, tune into SAfm at 1.30pm for an interview I’m taking part in on blogging… should be fun!)

I just wanted to throw an idea at you, and see what you think. It’s about effort vs. intention. Esther Hicks, who I’m rather a fan of (could you guess?) says that why things come to us has less to do with how hard we try, and more to do with how much in alignment our energy is. So, for example, if you really want a new job you obviously have to pitch up to the interview and do your best, but when you go home it would be more valuable to spend some time getting your energy to a good place – feeling happy and inspired and lucky and ready to receive a new job – than it would be calling the secretary every five minutes and hanging up before you say anything!

It’s an interesting idea, I think, because it could have the most extraordinary effects if it turns out to be true… I’m going to experiment with it and let you know how it goes, care to join me?
My experiment involves a long story about how I started applying for my Irish passport renewal in February, but due to me being a dummy and smiling too much in the photos and then having to take and post new photos, and then having them get lost in the mail, I’m now scarily in danger of not getting my passport before I leave for the USA. It takes 4 weeks, I leave in 3 and a half.

Now, apparently sometimes it takes 3 weeks, so there’s hope. And I plan on calling the Irish passport people (in Ireland) today to state my case – my book’s coming out! I need to get there on time! I will make every effort to do as much as I can to get my passport in time. And then I will let go and wait for it to come to me. Because stressing about it and trying to make up things to do to make it arrive won’t work. At all.

I don’t think.

What do you think?

UPDATE: 24 hours later, and I’ve spoken to the charming Irish Embassy people in Dublin (I was stating my sob story for her and she interrupted to ask me what my novel is called and how to spell my name!) All I had to do was supply the South African office with a telephone number, and the passport could be processed. The Irish folks seem to think there’ll be no problem getting it in 3 weeks. *Phew!*

The Shopping List of my mind:

// April 23rd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Life (and the living of it), Time

Sometimes my mind feels like a shopping list. Of a person who hasn’t shopped in a really long time… Do you know what I mean? Thoughts are on there that are urgent and really need to be bought (or thought, ha!), others kind of slipped in there by mistake, and others would really be better off if they were dealt with one at a time. In a quiet boutique environment.

But here they are anyway…. Are you ready for it? Welcome to the shopping paradise of my mind!

1. That was a really yummy lunch.
2. I have so much to do.
3. Why won’t iTunes let me submit my podcast, just cause I’m in South Africa?
4. I hope everyone in SA voted yesterday.
5. It is alarming how quickly winter arrived in Cape Town.
6. I’m worried about a friend who broke up with her boyfriend yesterday.
7. I’m anxious/excited for a friend who’s reuniting with her boyfriend today.
8. Thank goodness it’s a long weekend!
9. I really need to get some work-work done.
10. I really need to clarify our round the world budget.
11. I really need to make those changes to the Fresh Living article I submitted.
12. I wonder what’s for dinner?
13. I must pay my phone bill today.
14. I wonder if the I love the Labia stuff can wait till Monday?
15. Monday is a public holiday! Yay!
16. I have never needed public holidays as much as I have this month.
17. Pretty convenient that this is a month full of South African public holidays!
18. I’m going to the States in less than a month!
19. I have so much to do before then!!
20. When did I get so busy?
21. I can’t wait to chat to the Just the Planet people at 6pm tonight…
22. There’s some potentially amazing stuff in the pipeline for our trip.
23. Our flat smells like cheese on toast. Yum!
24. It’s my brother and sister-in-law’s 3rd wedding anniversary. Amazing.
25. I really need to write and reply to some emails.
26. Thunder in the middle of the day is so cool…

So there you have it! I’m 26 years old, and I have 26 thoughts buzzing around my head. Consider this a challenge, to write down the shopping list of your mind, and see if you can reach your age in numbers!

This too shall pass…

// April 9th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Inspiration, Life (and the living of it), Time

Probably one of my favourite lessons from Eckhart Tolle.

I’ve heard the phrase before, but always associated it with times of tragedy or sadness. When you’re feeling down in the dumps, remember that ‘this too shall pass’ and it makes the hard times easier to bear.

What I hadn’t ever considered, though, was that it’s also a helpful phrase when things are going well. Whenever you’re feeling happy or delighted about something, remember that ‘this too will pass’.

It might appear, at first, to take the air out of your balloons, but what he says is that if you don’t accept that everything is transient, there’s this sense of fear that surrounds anything that happens. Even as you’re enjoying whatever is going your way, you worry about when it will disappear. If you remember that everything that happens will pass, you take the fear out of it and open yourself up to the possibility of being firmly in this present moment.

What do you think? A wise way to approach life? I think so…

Convenient inconveniences.

// April 8th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Cape Town, Decisions, Life (and the living of it), Time

I’ve had a couple of days of fairly consistent inconveniences… that have all turned out to be really rather convenient.

Last week our landline stopped working, just out of the blue. We called Telkom, expecting it to be a long, drawn-out affair, and they promised to send out a technician. So we waited peacefully for him to arrive. And he did! Within 24 hours. And the problem was solved in less than an hour.

Then on Friday morning my cell phone went crazy, not switching on, freezing, not letting me dial out or answer calls. Without getting all uptight about it, I took it to the Vodacom care shop (it’s still under warranty) and they booked it in for repairs, no charge. It was ready in 3 hours, good as new!

That same day, my scooter got a puncture, in the back tyre. My poor man had to push it home in the dark (what a sweetheart) and I couldn’t drive it to the tyre shop (obviously). So I asked the tyre shop if they had a pick-up service (no luck) and then remembered that my insurance (1st for Women) offers free towing services. So I called to enquire, and they hooked me up with a tow truck, no problem! Best of all, they called back to tell me who the tow truck company was and what time to expect them, and then they called to check if he had arrived on time. The tow truck they sent was a six and a half tonne monster, which was great fun to ride in (it really feels as if you can just squish other cars like bugs) and it got me to the tyre shop in ten minutes. At the tyre shop, I found out I didn’t need a new tyre at all, just a plug, which cost me R35 (about $3.50) and took twenty minutes!

So out of three situations that could have been frustratingly time-consuming, irritating, and expensive, they were all simple, hassle-free and virtually free.

Now that is what I call convenient inconveniences.

(PS: I haven’t quite figured out whether it all went so smoothly because I have excellent service providers, or because I didn’t get fussed and expect it to be a mission. What do you think?)

Being honest.

// December 10th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Decisions, Life (and the living of it), Love, Philosophy

How good are you at it? Being honest.

Now don’t give the answer you think I want to hear. Be straight with me… Fantastic? So-so? Quite bad?

I’ve always thought of myself as an honest person. I don’t bandy words, I’m not deceitful, I don’t willfully mislead people. That said, I also don’t like that brand of brutal honesty that leaves no space for kindness and leaves people offended and hurt in your wake.

One of our pieces of philosophy homework for this week is to ‘love to speak the truth’. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? But I needed to chew over it a bit, to see how it actually works. Because there’s speaking the truth, and then there’s speaking the whole-truth-and-nothing-but-the-truth. Being brutal.

My teacher gave me one line that made it all a lot easier to digest. Are you ready for it?
Speak the truth pleasantly, not pleasant untruths.

Which, as far as I’m concerned, makes the whole bang-shoot a lot easier to do. What do you think?

Nose to the grindstone.

// December 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Blogs, Life (and the living of it)

Yip, that’s me. A mere few hours away from finishing all my work for the year and hooo-boy am I grumpy! I’m just so sick of working. Ready to be on holiday. Lying in my hammock reading a book. Waking up late. Not thinking about work.

And much as I know the grumps are caused by a resistance to the work at hand, and that if I could change my attitude it would all be much easier, it doesn’t seem to help.

I. am. tired. of. working.

It’s been a long year. Seems to be everyone’s chant at the moment, doesn’t it?
I’ll report back when I’m on the other side of this cement mountain.

In the meantime, check out 1000 Tiny Things I Hate (http://tinythingsihate.blogspot.com/) – one of the only things that can make me laugh when I’ve got the grumps!