Banana pancakes.

It seems like things turned around for me in the past two weeks or so.
Whilst I haven't found a new job yet, my job is gradually growing on me. There's still the problem of too-few hours, but I feel like when I do find the right job things will look up in that department. Edinburgh has been a quiet city in the weeks following Hogmanay. Virtually no tourists are out, so that means it's very slow at the shop.
About a week and a half ago, I went out to Bar Salsa (a fun, crowded little bar at the top of Cowgate with very cheap drinks) and met up with Emma, Betty, Roy and three of Betty's friends visiting from Ireland- Conor, Nugent (Told Kerry immediately that I met one of her long lost cousins) and Jamie. Jamie and I got along really well and ended up spending the weekend hanging out together. I was really happy that I made a new friend and ended up booking flights (found some deals on easyjet) a week later to see him in Bristol (where he lives at the moment). So I'm off to England in 3 weeks to hang with him, which I'm pretty excited about, as we also may take an afternoon trip to Wales!
I've started taking a multi-vitamin which I think is definitely helping with general health, I'm feeling less lethargic. I started running again and it's going well. And of course, drinking lots of water and tea. I'm feeling healthy.
I also wanted to share a great little recipe that I threw together tonight. I grabbed a fiver and ran over to Sainsbury's to pick up some basics as I didn't feel like having carrot-leek soup for the third night in a row. I picked up a bag of frozen sausages for 1.14 which was a pretty good deal, although they aren't anything special. I ended up throwing a few of those together with spinach, leek, cream cheese and salt and pepper to mash up a topping for toast. It was a really easy and filling meal. Here's what I did:
About 150-200g of frozen shredded spinach
1 chopped leek
3 breakfast sausages, casings removed.
1 tbsp of light cream cheese
Salt, pepper, mixed herb blend and chili powder
olive oil

I started with removing the sausage casings (as I didn't want them in sausage form, Just the meat) and frying up the meat. In another skillet I put a small splash of olive oil and threw in my chopped up leek. Tossed this around. In the microwave I put the spinach in a bowl and zapped until warm, put in a tablespoon of cream cheese, and put in for another 30 seconds or so. My leek was nice and soft, slightly caramelized at this point. I put the leek in the bowl with the spinach & cream cheese. Once my sausage meat was cooked, I drained off the fat and mixed that into the bowl as well with salt, garlic pepper, a sprinkling of mixed herb seasoning and just a tiny dash of chili powder for taste. Mix until blended, and viola! My very own sandwich filling/ topping for toast. I spread a generous amount on top of a large slice of toasted multi-seed bread and had some cantaloupe and greek yoghurt for dessert. It was fantastic... It almost tasted like a pork burger, but with lots of green goodness. I figured that if I made another batch and added some bread crumbs and an egg to it, I could make some really tasty burgers. Something that I'll have to try again.
So I'm all full of yummy food, and in a great mood. Things are looking up. Many thanks to all of my family and friends for their kind thoughts and words sent my way.