Camden

Today I met up with Tony in London for an afternoon of shopping in camden.
:D
And we got to have street market food which is possibly the most delicious food in the whole world! I had chinese for a change- usually I gat moroccan- it's all amazing.

After eating far too much food, we headed out around the market for a look-see.

My biggest regret of the day is not buying these:

However, they are £90 still even in the sale, and the soles on them are spongey so I doubt I'd get my moneys worth of of them (The rule = £1 per wear in 1 year = The cost of the item, the only exceptions are evening wear or items who's life expectancy is well over a year, e.g cars, bed linen or really good boots).

I only bought useful items- I got a hippy looking rug for the bedroom and some new cushion covers to replace some of the ones in the front room which have gotten broken/stained/worn.
I'm pretty proud of my house purchases lately!
Our place always had it's own "character"- you'd know we lived here as soon as you walked through the front door!

Tony got his mum's birthday present, and we did lots of mooching- Camden is really pretty, and it was nowhere near as busy as I'd expected!
All the train "Chaos" (It's not chaos, it's planned engineering work and it happens every year, people just need to learn to read! Especially up by us- there have been signs up since september warning people about festive travel restrictions) seems to have scared people away, or stopped them attempting to travel.
Bigger fools them!

Boxing day

Nothing really exciting to report here I'm afraid- our 1st grown up xmas together as a couple has been followed by our first grown up boxing day!
Traff had work at 8am, and finished at midday -we met in spoons for some brunch (he had an all day brunch, I had a jacket potato with pulled pork and honestly it was the smallest jacket potato I've ever laid eyes on! maybe the staff are trying to tell me something?!)

We had food and then headed into town- not to hit the sales- but instead, to buy ourselves a new washing rack from wilkos!
Very exciting.

So we got home about 3pm- I put the laundry on and changed the bed as we had some way of drying it (The old laundry rack gave up on Xmas day and folded itself up with all the washing on it, stuffing up the hinges).
I never thought I'd get excited over laundry.

As a reward for our sensible shopping we got some new xbox games in CEX- Traff got all the retro Sega games on one disk, and I got 2 new guitar hero games.

We spent the afternoon with Traff trying to teach me how to play Sega games- I'm quite good at columns and street fighter now but really rubbish at Sonic 1. Apparently Sonic 2 is easier...
Karl came over to play with Traff and that seemed to be much more successful.
We ordered take away pizza- after we found the xmas dinner in the oven having been too pissed to remember to put it into the fridge yesterday (oops!)- and followed that up with guitar hero and gins!
:D
It has been an awesome day!

festive cheer...

Looks like my parents have had an awesome day too- I suspect there may have been some alcohol involved...

Xmas day!

Xmas day! :D
We got up at about 9am and had presents- We had loads of awesome stuff and we need to thank lots of people.
We were all wrapping papered out by 11am and ad cracked open the celebrations. Traff got me Harry potter top trumps so he spent quite a while teaching me to play. It turns out I'm not very good at it.
I lost twice.
Traff also got me the new Placebo album and a rasputina one- he got xmas bang on! :D
I had a new urban decay lipstick from my Nan, dresses from my parents and sister and lots of quirky household goodies. Including indoor firework fountains from Kirstie- I might try them on the festive cheesecake later! I had lots of new books, sewing patterns and crochet.
Hayley got me some trashy baubles for my tree and bananas with googly eyes!
Ray got Traff his favourite footballers signed captains band. his year is now made.

We got all washed and dressed and phoned family- It's been a really weird day because we haven't seen anyone except each other! It's been good though- just a shame we're both snotty and gross!
I ate Kirstie's delicious home made gingerbread for breakfast and had to make decisions about how many items of clothing it's possible to wear at once.
I am wearing my new white Vera Wang dress- I wanted to wear my new xmas jumper (from my mum) and snood (hand made by Hayley!) but it was a few too many layers for indoors with the central heating on!

Whilst Traff made the dinner I painted my sun catcher and made my mosaic- and I didn't get any glue or paint on me or on the sofa!
:D

I put my seattle (gravy coloured) T-shirt on over my dress for dinner.
After dinner TV and mooching- I forced traff to record the national ballet as theres no way he'll watch it but I can watch it tomorrow.
We planned to watch the Kurt and Courtney film on netflix but we're both so tired and icky I can't see us both staying awake for a whole film- we'll have to watch stuff in shifts!

Xmas eve

Today did not get off to a very brilliant start- I forgot that my alarm for work was still set for 6am- I hadn't heard it at Jay's because
a) My phone was 3 floors below my sleeping place
b) I forgot my charger so it was probably off already by Monday morning- and deffo off on Tuesday!

I now have a full on cold- complete with headache, bunged up face and cough- So once awake that was pretty much me done for.

Traff tried to go to Tesco this morning for milk and spread-but gave up having seen how crazy the car park was- he managed to get in a sneaky waitrose shop (Only dawdlers and old people- no crazy xmas shopping at 10am apparently) but he forgot to buy more Lemsip, So I was dispatched to town an hour later.
Wilkos was less crazy than I had expected.

On the way back through town I had a look in some of the charity shops and see if there was anything worth having- I got a black Paul Costelloe coat for £11 and 20 super retro 70s baubles for £1.
Bargains!

I spent the afternoon trying to fit all the new baubles onto the tree and reading a new Jodi Picoult book that Traff got for me- I'm not a massive fan but I did like "My sister's keeper". It's an easy ready. it'll keep me quiet over the festive period.
Traff made home made chips for tea- Which were amazing! They made Xmas lunch at his work yesterday and had loads of potatoes left over- They presented Traff with them as he was leaving because he's vegetarian so would appreciate a whole carrier bag of potatoes.
I'm reasonably sure it's not just vegetarians who eat potatoes- but I'm not knocking free food!

I'm listening to the Classic FM xmas requests show- trying to work up motivation to actually practice playing something this week- and enthusiasm for mass later.
I'm so tired and snotty I doubt I'll be awake at 11 to go to church, let alone awake enough to follow an order of service.

Wales

I arrived in Wales really late on Friday night- after my ice cream eating antics- All ready to be in Cardiff early for Alice's 2nd Birthday.

Getting up early enough was not an issue- Jay started hoovering at 5:45am because he was awake. We headed to Sah's early and had a chance to catch up with Sah and Dan before all their families arrived- It was lovely to catch up with Chaz, and Steph- as well as Sah and Dan's parents who I haven't seen in ages- Not since the last wedding!

Once Sah and Dan's was full of relatives, we decided to make our escape- We headed up to see Baker and Helen- and Bowser.

You can't see in so well from this angle, but he is a pug, not a wig.

We followed this up with a chinese and a million episodes of House.

On Sunday, Jay took me out for a spin on his bike- We chose a rubbish day really as the weather was much better on Saturday than on Sunday- I did enjoy the adventure once I'd gotten used to it- but I still think the car is the way to travel.

The wind is so noisy!

Not to mention the time it takes to put on all those extra layers of clothes- I thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion walking up the steps to the house afterwards!

We stayed in on Sunday- Jay cooked his speciality Pineapple pork- Which was very impressive and we watched more house.

On Monday we met with Sah and Alice in Cardiff- Jay had xmas shopping to do and Sah had birthday shopping to do- It wasn't crazy busy but I was glad we got the train rather than trying to park- It would have been a bit of a nightmare!

We were sucessful in getting everything we came for- and we had lunch in spoons too! They don't serve Cawl in spoons in England- I have to take every opportunity that is presented to eat this delicious national dish!

On Monday evening, Trist, Hayley and Dai came over to Jays for a mooch and a catch up- Trist bought 2 boxes of wine and drank most of them to himself. Which was interesting.

Cafe Rouge & G&D in Oxford

After my last day of work before Xmas I headed into Oxford to meet with Soph, Ray and Abi.
This should have been an easy 45 minute drive for me- I know Oxford reasonably well and I I know the drive to Oxford very well.
My genius self thought it'd be quicker and easier to set the Sat Nav for the Abingdon road Park and ride- I just set it for "The Abingdon Road, Oxford" figuring that if I ended up at the wrong end of the road it;d be easy enough to fix.
My SatNav took me to Cumnor.
In the end I cut my losses and parked in the Westgate multi storey as I was the wrong side of oxford anyway and on the roundabout for Botley. I was convinced that the second level took you out into the shopping centre- So I was very surprised when the Second level thought me out in the mens loo.
It's Level 4.
For future reference.

I caught up with Ray in the Shopping centre- and she assured me she knew exactly where we were going- We ended up walking allllll the way round the outer perimeter of the Ashmolean to get to Cafe rouge- maybe we worked off some of our ice cream that way...
Abi met us there, and showed us the fancy gin shop next door- I know what Januarys pay cheque will be spent on!

After dinner we had a walk around and looked in some of the shops- I love going to the oriental supermarket in Oxford- It honestly has everything you could ever want.

We then met Soph at the Station and walked to St Aldates for Ice cream- I love G&D ice cream- my only complaint is that because it's fresh every day by late evening there isn't as much choice.
That said- 9/10 I can still get my 1st flavour choice so I shouldn't be so mean. Abi was gutted as they didn't have banana flavour- I had pistachio and hot chocolate sauce- I'm not sure I like pistachio ice cream as much as I thought I did- but it was still awesome.

We had a good catch up and ate waaayyyyy too much ice cream in one sitting.

Work Xmas do

Today is our departmental christmas do! I'm so excited but also exhausted all at once. Today I tried to submit my passport application. It was rejected on the basis that the ink on the form wasn't a "black enough black" and my counter signatory had used a "/".
I walked home from work to get the passport photos, with the intention to pick up the car, drive to the post office and then drive back to work- forgetting that Traff his tattoo appointment so would have taken the car.
So Today I had my passport rejected and walked just over 9 miles- thankfully my colleague gave me  a lift home or I'd have walked 12!

So, I'm pretty tired out now!

The party is at Tina's house- And Helen's doing the cooking so we have chilli for tea and she got a massive cake from costco too so that will be delicious.
Costco cake is always delicious.

I'm taking my blackberry baccardi and Twister.

Big Bang fair @ UoE

On Tuesday I attended the University of Essex's Big Bang STEM fair- And it was pretty cool!
I attended with reps from BigBang and from Set Point Herts so I had to try and look super efficient and people wanted to shake my hand quite a bit.
I even got to be on the VIP list!
Unfortunately this meant I had almost no opportunities for photo taking.

Prince Charles opened the Science fair at 11am- There was a huugggeeee police presence with riot vans and helicopters and lord knows what other secret policing activities.
I missed the arrival of the Prince of Wales because I was waiting for the STEM people. Boooo!

We did get to go and sit in on some of the activities- There was some cool stuff! There was an awesome activity from Colchester Zoo, looking at wildlife forensics with loads of examples of things which had been siezed by customs- turtle shells, animal pelts, tusks, skills etc and looking at endangered species and the impact of poaching. There was also an awesome workshop looking at the introduction of non native species for pest control. It was gruesome.
We got to see a "Gastronout" show- by some bloke who does kids TV shows- he was eating bugs and trying to get the kids to join in.
They weren't having any of it!

I got to see the bloodhound car- So that was exciting and a structure building activity run by the princes trust- which looked interesting.

It was a really inspirational day- I just wish Essex wasn't quite so far away!
And I got to have orange and cranberry cake for breakfast. Double win.

Christmas cookies

Today has been a bit mental- I ran out of work as soon as my day ended- usually I stay late and chat with my colleagues and get bits and bobs done for the next day- Not today!

I went straight to the sorting office to pick up my parcel from Hayley- I assumed that I would be able to post my last few xmas presents off from there, as it is a Royal mail office.
It turns out you cannot.
And it took them forever to find the parcel-  I was watching the clock the whole time!

I went straight from the sorting office to the post office- on the other side of town, and from there I went on to tesco to get cookie ingredients.
Super productive hour and a half!

I got home and started on the cookies immediately- before I ran out of energy.
Bakery Kitchen:

Then I iced them (I wish I'd got some cute xmas decorations from tesco now- ah well, next time):

And jarred them up ready to be taken to Cardiff- I made some for Jay to thank him for letting me stay, Some for Sah, Lis, and Chaz.
The rest are all for us.
We will be christmas fatties!

Salt Dough xmas tree Decorations- From the Etsy blog

You will need:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweet cocoa powder
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 to 1 1/4 cups water
Parchment paper
Rolling pin
Cookie cutters
Plastic straw
3D fabric paint in squeeze bottles
Mod Podge or clear gesso
Small sponge brush
String or ribbon

Preheat the oven to 170°F. Cover two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Pour the flour, cocoa powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger into a large mixing bowl.

Toss the dry ingredients together with your hands. Add 1 cup of water and mix with your hands until it forms and elastic dough. This may take some experimenting – if it’s too dry, add a little more water; if it is too wet and sticky, add a bit more flour.

Roll the dough to 1/4-inch thickness with a rolling pin between two pieces of parchment. Remove the top layer of parchment paper. Use cookie cutters  to cut shapes from the dough; transfer the cut-outs to the parchment-lined baking sheets.

Before baking, use the plastic straw to make a hole in the top center of the ornaments. This is where you’ll tie string for hanging.

You may also choose to cut two holes, approximately 2-inches apart, in the middles of each ornament to thread them as garland.

Bake the shapes for 2 hours. Rotate the pans and bake for 1 to 2 more hours, or until the shapes are dry and rigid. Use the small sponge brush to apply the varnish. This will seal the cookies and intensify their natural color.

When the varnish is completely dry, use the 3D paint to decorate the cookies.  Allow the ornaments to dry completely, about 2 hours.

Thread ribbon or string through the holes and hang as desired.

Note: These ornaments are lovely hanging on pine branches, but they also make pretty gift tags for wrapped presents. This dough may also be used to make beads for jewelry. Baking times will vary according to the sizes of the beads, so keep a careful eye on your creations while they dehydrate in the oven. This recipe is not intended for consumption.