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Tuesday 31 December 2013

Puff Pastry Obsession Continued...

So, I have a well documented obsession with puff pastry, and I decided I would try a new creation. First I did a regular stir fry with a little soy sauce. 


Then I cut my pre rolled puff pastry sheet into 4 quarters and spooned some stir fry onto each part. 


Added a bit of stilton.


Cooked for 10 mins at 180c (I have a fan oven) and et voila! Tasty and not too unhealthy; I got the low fat puff pastry too, I couldn't tell the difference. 

Sunday 29 December 2013

Do You Stocking?

Now that Christmas has passed for another year, I can pose a question - do you do stockings? My family have always done stockings and now the boyfriend and I do stockings for each other too. We have developed rules over the years, the stockings must contain: an orange (may be chocolate), nuts, chocolate coins, and each item cannot cost more than £10. 

This is the stocking I did for the boyfriend, I find men hard to buy for, I just don't think there is as much for them in the shops as there are for women. The big win here was the yo-yo which he messed around with for ages. 


And I did my Mum a stocking this year too, I found her really easy to buy for, I kept seeing things and thinking oh yes she'd like that and having to stop myself from buying too much! Got lots of her favourite make up brand samples (more were added too after this photo) from eBay and a make up counter. 


But always the same feeling after doing a stocking, what on earth do I put in next year? I used to have a lovely stocking for myself with a skiing Santa but unfortunately I forgot it and left it at my Dad's house when I moved, it's probably been chucked away by now :( ho hum!

Wednesday 25 December 2013

Christmas Day

Christmas Day is here again, and I got some really nice gifts.


Mr Pussycat is not enjoying his visit to my mums house because of her pussycats but he is enjoying the dining chairs.


My sister and I made turkey napkins whilst waiting for dinner today. 


Mum won the movie quiz and the speed bingo, my sister and I won the next guess the celebrity game and then we watched old family movies and watched Toy Story 3. 

Sunday 22 December 2013

Christmas Preparations

My Christmas preparations have been rather shoddy this year due to me being on placement until this week and also working and so I have failed dreadfully on such things as Christmas cards. 


Pussycat and I have been keeping the tree watered though and our decorations arrived by post, hurrah. 


And the advent calendar has being going strong. When I have a 12 hour shift this is what gives my very early morning a slight lift. 


So this week I finally did some Christmas shopping, I got in super early and asked the boyfriend to drop me off one his way to work. This of course meant that the shops were not quite open and I was forced to eat a delicious breakfast. 


And then, I struck, I was the first one in and out of all the shops, look at the emptiness - glorious!


I trundled along happily and when it started to get busy around 11ish, out of the city I popped off home. Brilliant. 


This is the future of Christmas shopping. In other news one of the previous occupants of our house has been sending us christmas presents by accident, so far we have been sent a game for people called Richard, The Hobbit on DVD and also a book about the game show Pointless.... all I can say is that I think we have saved someone from some mediocre gifts this Christmas. Also due to the digital age of information stealing the invoices included with each order have no information for which to contact the actual owner of these gifts! I wonder what we'll be sent by mistake next. A week ago I was at home and a delivery driver dropped me off one of these - http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Millennium-Falcon-7965 

Very sadly he realised his mistake, brought us the correct package and building work was unable to commence haha. 

Saturday 21 December 2013

Once Upon A Time

Well chums, I've been busy on placement lately, so I thought I'd tell you all a story, about my 21st birthday, as long ago as it was now.  I'll apologise now for the dodgy photography, it was taken in the days of non decent camera phones. So I was all set to go to New York for my birthday and I was taking the train to London to stay with my Great Aunt before leaving the following day from a London airport. 


The other passengers and myself boarded the train and were sitting down when we head a commotion in the next carriage, a woman accusing a man of stealing her phone. She went to get the police at the station who came quickly, meanwhile another passenger and myself saw the accused man reach into his pocket and drop her expensive phone into the bin. The other passenger and I looked at each other shocked, then we both got up and swung into action blocking off the rest of the train to the man and very obviously watching him. The police came and confronted him and fished the phone out, then he was arrested on suspicion of theft, we had to give our details to the police as witnesses and the train was then allowed to go. The police had asked if I would be around during the next week to give a statement but I said I'd be leaving the country for a week to go on holiday. I rang my Aunt to let her know my train was now late, she didn't sound pleased. 


I sat back on the train thinking no more of it until I got a phone call. Could I please get off at Stratford, a police officer would be waiting for me if I could quickly give a statement. I rang my Aunt to let her know I'd be a little bit later, she really didn't sound pleased. And so I got met by a lovely police officer to go and have my statement written down. I was explaining where abouts I was in the carriage and so I drew him a little floor plan map of the train carriage and where everyone was standing which he asked if he could keep and I said sure. So with that all done, it took some time, I said goodbye to the nice policeman (and got a snap in for good measure). 


But then my train ticket was invalid, so I was given this - 


Obviously I had to keep the card as a souvenir haha. Anyway, off I went, really very late now, and I found out why my Auntie didn't sound pleased about me being late. My family was all waiting to take me out to dinner as a surprise. Oops! Months and months later when I'd forgotten about it I got a letter asking me to go to court as a witness, how embarrassed was I when the magistrates and whole court was passing around my crap drawing of a train!

Sunday 1 December 2013

Doodle Pots - Holt

The boyfriend and I borrowed his nephew this weekend and fancied doing something a bit different - the weather was crap - and so we took a trip to Doodle Pots of Holt. 


Where you pay a studio fee of £3.75 per person to cover glazing and paints etc and then you pick out some blank ceramic items that are priced individually to paint. 


The boyfriend picked a rather sensible looking mug.


But the nephew and I opted for some Christmas decorations. 


I'm excited to get them posted through once they've gone in the kiln, even though the price was rather eye watering! It was fairly busy though, lots of people doing hand printed ceramics for dads. 

Sunday 24 November 2013

Uhm... I went grocery shopping and this happened...

I just saw him there (the Christmas tree is a he) and he needed a home, I know it's November but... look how bushy! 


So much to the annoyance of the boyfriend I got him, and took him home for Mr Pussycat to inspect thoroughly. 


Lovely and bushy... we're away over Xmas so I need to make the most of our tree. And he has a nice little pot so we I can keep him nice and healthy. 


I found this in the Christmas decorations bag too, mwahaha. 


Also the boyfriend and I got his and her mugs because they were on sale. They didn't have a Mario so the boyfriend got Yoshi. 

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Lion King & The Natural History Museum

Yesterday the boyfriend and I decided to go out for the day and took a trip to London. We started at the Natural History Museum. 


I always think the building looks so great, and free admission too. 


So we had a wander around but it was pretty busy. 


There was a queue for the dinosaurs but most of the rest of the museum you could get round OK.


Some of the displays were massive, we hoped they'd have a T-Rex though and they only had a head of one so the boyfriend was disappointed. 


But all in all, lots and lots of dead animals. It made me think I might have my beloved cat stuffed so I don't miss him. 


Then it was time for hot dogs and milkshakes. 


Then the Lion King.


I was feeling excited waiting. 


And checking out the African drum boxes.


When Pretty Woman showed up, check out the thigh high shiny boots... classy! And then me and the women of the couples sitting either side of us got the giggles and we all had to get a photo. Luckily pretty woman minced up and down the stairs fairly regularly so we were all kept amused. 


The view was pretty good though, I managed to get a couple of sneaky photos in, like the Sistine Chapel all over again!


The costumes were really good though and the stage was really versatile. Definitely glad we went, the show started at 2.30pm and it didn't end til just past 5pm so I was glad we didn't go to the 7.30pm showing, we would have never gotten home!


Then it was a quick look at Embankment all lit up and home - phew!


Monday 18 November 2013

My Birthday

Well I had a super birthday yesterday, I woke up and opened my presents.


Chillaxed and watched cartoons because I'm cool. 


Put my cards up.


And then had some friends round for take out pizza. You may remember the boyfriend's cake challenge I issued him last year of a cherry bakewell castle complete with moat and drawbridge. This year I asked for a treasure chest and I think he did rather well! 

Friday 8 November 2013

Walking Down Embankment

On our trip to the Old Operating Theatre the other day, me and my student nurse friends took a lovely (if not slightly long!) walk along Embankment and saw the sights. 


As well as getting rained on a fair bit... 


I hadn't seen the shard since it's been completed (although have to say it doesn't seem all that exciting on closer inspection?). 


Came across a lovely food market called Borough Market which was really nice to look round. 


Except we'd all just eaten so... not strategically planned.


See the banks of the Thames at the bottom? We saw tons of people having a good old nose about them, perhaps searching for treasure?


And the Globe which I should really go and look round some time. 


Cleopatra's Needle, seems the Italian's aren't the only ones that nick Obelisks!


And of course the London Eye, doesn't it move so slowly?


My favourite London landmark, Big Ben.


And the houses of parliament which again, I really would like to visit.


And then we took a little trip to have a look round Camden Market.


Which I wasn't so impressed with although they did have a lot of tacky souvenirs which I enjoyed. 


And erm... lovely his and hers outfits?