Bbq upgrade!

My parents came for bbq bacon sandwiches for lunch.
And they bought us a new bbq!

It's awesome.

Bbq bacon sarnies

Genius!

Mermaid hair and roosters

Jenni and I had chores to do today whilst traff was at his job interview. I registered with the doctors to get my hand physio transferred to Swindon hospital- and the receptionist thought jenni was my girlfriend.
Then we got her a travel journal and had a mooch round town.
We met traff after his interview for dinner in rooster- ray's recommendation. It was seriously good.
So, after running around to get a paddling pool we were too busy to go in it!
Maybe later in the week. ..

Milkshakes with jenni

This was our super unhealthy attempt to beat the heat. The blue raspberry milkshake fron galones was amazing.   I might try and have another one before I head off for pastures new.

Classy

Ray and I ended up having dinner in andreas kebab and pizza place.
The guy behind the counter made hearrs out of ketchup for our chips.
It was cheesey.
And cute.
Until 30 minutes later some drunk idiot comes in and is racially abusive towards the k ebab shop guy. . So he jumps over the counter to punch the idiot in the face.
Welcome to Bedford.

BBQ at T & Mash's

T is off to London to train as a paramedic- So she had a leaving Bbq in her honour. It all started pretty classy. We made BBQ skewers with haloumi and vegetables on (The sweet potato was a slight error though) and took just enough alcohol to remain cheerfully on it.
The bar in the kitchen ended that.

So good tunes, alcohol on top, more BBQ food than you can shake a stick at, 3 kinds of desert and a trampoline equated to a very good night out.

Nazar

Karl, May, and I went out to celebrate Abida's QTS being awarded last week!

Yaay! 3 years in the making so definitely worthy of celebration!

May and I celebrated by drinking swimming pool cocktails- which are a delightful shade of green. Nazar was on my "To eat at" list so I'm pleased to have ticked that one off- and it was really really good! I would go again. I had an awesome lamb Tagine. I would go as far as to say it was better than the one I made (By quite a long way but I did really try!).

I did 2 hours of roller derby on Saturday morning, then went tint town with tats- for tea and cake as well as a mooch around town. we got a bit carried away so I also did 3 hours of walking on top of my skating. My legs kill!

Free dinner!

Jenni and I went for coffee after work today- it was a bit impromptu, Jenni was on her way to get a bus and I was on my way to a hair appointment so not a whole lot of planning!

We were both fed up of getting rained on so we headed for the nearest open-looking place, which was the newly revamped wetherspoons in town. It turned out they they were training a whole new staff team to go with the fancy new bar and hotel, so we were given free meal vouchers to help with staff training- All we had to do was order, eat and review! 

Awesome!

We got chatting to one of the girls behind the bar and she told us this was her first ever shift, If she hadn't told us we wouldn't have guessed!

Afternoon tea at Claridges

Ray and I were given an afternoon tea voucher for Claridges for Christmas, Which was an extremely generous and thoughtful gift from our Godparents.

I need to thank the gentlemen who gave me his travel card at Paddington station. Thank you for saving me £15 in train tickets and having to queue! you're a real gent kind stranger.

Before going for tea, Ray and I met up with Rosie to do some shopping- I'm still after a body suit to go with my parakeet skirt. It was really ace to meet up with Rosie as I haven't seen her in far too long. I think hat is the negative effect of whatsapp and Facebook. You don't "need" to meet with people face to face any more. I am still working on seeing my friends and family more often. I refuse to live in this age of technology! I will be nan-like!

Tea was served promptly at 3:15. Unlike the Ritz, or Harrods, this was actually pretty personal. There were real hotel guests eating- not just people with tea vouchers like at the ritz and the dining room is pleasantly proportioned. it's not huge but you're not very close to the next table.

In the "league table" of afternoon teas this one has just taken the top spot. It was fresh, the tea was delicious and plentiful, the scones were mini with the option of having more if you wanted, so we weren't stuffed before the cakes. It was well thought out and it felt luxurious. We had all the time in the world and the staff were super attentive, but not overbearing. Do it! if you never eat afternoon tea anywhere else ever that will be fine.

New snacks- Condensed milk turkish delight... and how to make it..

I didn't even know you could make turkish delight with condensed milk before today! When I saw this in budgens I couldn't leave without buying it.

I did offer it round at work and no-one else really seemed very impressed with it, but I think it's pretty damn good!

I really like turkish delight- especially the rose flavoured one and I can now add that I very much the like condensed milk version too, although it's really not as sweet as you'd have expected it to be!

Maybe I'll try and make some:

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/294150/Rose-Turkish-Delight

Dinosaur biscuits

Today was Glen's Birthday (And he's only 37.. he had been telling everyone his was 38 so he got a whole year back as a birthday present!) His Wife made us Dinosaur biscuits- which in itself is amazing.

And she put buttercream on top.

I don't really know what it's never occurred to me to do that before, but from now on home made biscuits should only have butter cream icing. Just what we needed as a Thursday sugary pick-me-up. 

Spiralizer dinner

Tina got me a spiraliser for my Birthday to encourage me to eat more veggies- it makes spaghetti from root vegetables and courgettes and seems to be the latest diet fad.
For Christmas she got me the cook book.

So for dinner I made sweet potato and quorn fillet bake. It was a bit of an experiment. It ended up as more of a stew because the Quorn didn't take in the liquid like the chicken would have done but it was still delicious!
That said, next time I'd try it with harissa paste to make it more exotic... and less liquid.

Hot chocolate

I have just found my new favourite kind of hot chocolate!
This stuff is awesome.  It's really chocolaty but not too sweet and it's just as good made up with hit water and a bit of milk which saves faffing about with the hob. Hurrah!  I found it in Holland and barrett and they have the normal 'chocolate' one and the 'coconut &chocolate' variety which now lives in my kitchen.  'Consume within 8 week of opening' no problem. 

This makes a very good accompaniment to the final fantasy VII film which I have only just discovered and I LOVE!

I'm so pleased netflix is putting up more anime- and bollywood films too!

Lunch with Kirstie :)

Ray & I met Kirstie for lunch in Didcot, It was ace to catch up as with us both being bust and my being far away we don't usually get to see each other very often. Unfortunately we'd only seen each other 3 weeks before so we didn't have as much to discuss as usual!

We went to Salinas 2 and had lamb and cheese paninis. Kirstie said that Lamb and feta is delicious, Lamb and cheddar cheese is pretty damn tasty too!
:)
A taste sensation!
I have some serious nostalgic love for Salinas 2, so this isn't intended to be bitchy, but there is a very "Anchor man" spelling mistake on the menu. It made me laugh.

Thali

Traff took me out for lunch!  Simply veggi in Kempston does a very yummy thali.

Traff's giant Welsh cakes

A valiant first attempt. Turns out you really do have to cook them on a griddle.  Or you just get rock cakes.
Cake is cake as far as I see it!

Fancy with Tina

Today Tina and I had lemon curd victoria sandwich and chai tea to give us plenty of energy for crochet!
I taught Tina to make granny squares. Her first project will be granny square slippers!

BBQ

We had a work BBQ at Tina's today with was lovely- Awesome food, interesting company and mostly good weather.
Traff spent most of the day on the trampoline- it poured with rain before I could have a go!

Lazy Saturday & Karl's Birthday

Traff went to the gym in the morning and I said I'd meet him afterwards to go shopping for a Birthday present for Karl.

On my walk into town I saw the raptor on the roof of the Riverside grill- I have no idea how long he's been there but that is some seriously cool garden ornament.

I went to the Nostalgia photography exhibition which was showing Jez Brown's work and lots of Sarah's hairstyling. It was very well put together and very retro.
I follow them both online so I've seen most of the photos as they were taken, but seeing them all together, in Sepia and sympathetic to the eras they were styled after was brilliant.

I also went to an antiques fair, I saw some very unusual items but nothing to tempt me to spend my pennies (I got a "you have too much tat" lecture from Traff on Friday and didn't think adding to my tat collection would do much for my cause!) It was lovely and cool in the church and the building is beautiful.

After the antiques fair I had a look round the market and there were some new and interesting stalls. Traff stopped me buying hareem pants in 3 different colours from the clothing man with the stella umbrella. He said I'd been watching too much Aladdin.
I think they looked nice and flappy. Flappy is a clothing quality you need in this weather.

We bought Karl a home brew kit for making pear cider- including the 40 pint fermentation bucket- We put the cider kit, sterilising tablets, some ciders and his card inside the bucket to present to him at dinner.
:D
We went to Dragons chinese restaurant in the evening with some of his friends from uni, and Jenni, it was a really good laugh, the food is cheap and cheerful and the desert buffet is completely random, so all in all it was a good meal out! They had a haribo bar! and churros! go for the puddings! sod the fried food mains.

Following the chinese we had a few pints in spoons, but we were so full and it was so warm that we didn't last very long. We all had the post dinner slump.

Alice, The Jolly postman and dinner with the girls

Jay and I went to visit Sah and Dan in Cardiff- Jay rode down and I followed him in the car as he didn't fancy the vegetarian food studio for dinner.
It turns out that Alice would rather like to be a biker- she tried on his boots, jacket, gloves and wrist supports.
She also made him read the jolly postman, twice, but he wasn't allowed to take any of the letters out. We also played the fishing game!

Sah and I drove to Penarth -leaving dan to read the jolly postman for a 3rd time- and met with Steph and Becca- I will be returning!
the food was amazing and super cheap too!