Center Parcs - Day Two

We got up pretty late but I was amused by all the birds outside out room. 

And they liked us too. 

Especially when I fed them, I gave them a little bit of hot cross bun, part of an apple and a bit of a chocolate croissant. 

Then it was time for adventure golf, we had spectators. 

I was fairly rubbish as is tradition. 

The boyfriend was fairly good as is his tradition. 

As you can see I lost rather spectacularly. 

It was a little rainy so we looked round some of the shops. 

There's a ton of well known brands to choose from like Fat Face, Superdry, Puma, Cath Kidston, Nike, White Stuff... lots I can't remember haha. 

Lots of sports stuff and swim stuff. 

There are a lot of activities to pick from if you want to. The sword fighting looked fun (I'd sword fight the s*!t out of the boyfriend) but it's more lessons than epic battles sadly. 

There's a lot of restaurants to pick from.

And even a mini supermarket. 

With most things that you'd need really, as a lot of people self cater here instead of eating out. We really only brought breakfasts with us as we don't have a kitchen being in the hotel. 

The bakery is pretty good too...

For lunch we went to Dexter's Kitchen, a fast food type restaurant. 

We both had cajun chicken burgers with sweet potato fries, garlic mayo and yogurt dip. 

Mmmmmm. We had a bike ride round the lake and then the game was on (til the break of dawn!) for basketball. Obviously I lost as I am terrible but I did improve at cycling from the first day where I was clinging to my wobbling bike as I rode out of the cycle center saying "Ohhh noooo I've forgotten how to ride a bike!".

Then pool, obviously I lost as I am terrible... again (sighhhhh). 

Then time for dessert pancakes.

Then we went to the tropical swimming pool for hourssss, we were literally in there for about four hours, it was great. Wasn't really hungry after our big lunch for a proper dinner. The boyfriend got a baguette and crisps and a cake but I decided on a giant doughnut. 

Center Parcs - Day One

I won't lie - I was pretty excited about coming to Center Parcs for the weekend. 

We couldn't check in til 3pm but we got there a bit early to take a look round and have lunch and stuff. Here's the lake - unfortunately it was closed for the winter so I couldn't push the boyfriend over the side of a canoe. 

There's not much signal here but there is wifi, enough to show us how crappy the weather was due to be this weekend, but oh well, we are English, we're all used to the rain aren't we? 

We got cheese and bacon pancakes at the pancake house for lunch (yummmmm).

And then we decided to pick up the bikes we hired for the weekend to beat the rush. 

Chose a lock, I obviously got purple. 

There were tons of bikes to choose from.

I absolutely adore my little bike, I went for a traditional style instead of a mountain bike and it's awesome, it even has a little elastic bit for me to put my handbag on the back and no stupid gears to faff about with. I'd quite like to keep my bike, I'll be sad to get rid of it at the end. Also you can ride it in a skirt. 

We stayed in the Lakeview Hotel and it's really nice here, also I think we got a good deal because we booked quite last minute, the long weekend was £209. 

All the Christmas lights are still up which is really pretty. 

In our room our bathroom was real nice with little double sink and heated floor. 

The sofa is ridiculously comfy and so is the bed.  

Nice little flat screen and DVD and CD player. 

We had a great time in the swimming pool and then we cycled to the country club to go for dinner at the pub there the Forester's Inn. 

We honestly had the nicest pub meal we've had in a really long time, it wasn't very crowded at all and we shared the baked Camembert.   

Then I had really tasty chicken and the boyfriend had fish and chips. 

Then a little night time cycle back and a bath for me, check out this weird tap though, you just set it to the temperature you want and turn. 

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. 

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!

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. 

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. 

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!

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.