The Boyfriend's Birthday

On Sunday it was the boyfriend's birthday, he's only ever have had one birthday party in his life and it was at McDonalds - the truth is he just doesn't want one! So this year instead of asking if he'd like one I decided he would be getting one whether he wanted it or not and invited just a few of our friends round that live nearby. 

I decided as the boyfriend had never had a traditional kids style birthday party I'd get balloons, party bags, games to play and a badly home made cake. These are the boys party bags...

And the girls...

Barclay the cat absolutely loved the rubber bouncy balls and he and I had a great time playing with those for sometime. He didn't however like the balloons which I filled the lounge with in the morning, I put banners up yet the boyfriend was none the wiser until later when his friends arrived. 

And out came the party food and pizza and then the cake. 

There were games and medals, three legged race, balloon race... here's the victor of the mummy game. 

Birthday parties forever!!

Birthday Train Cake

The boyfriend and I have a tradition where each birthday (see here - castle and treasure chest) we make each other a silly cake.This year for the boyfriend I decided to make a train cake and by make, I mean cheat and just stick together. First I got two Madeira cakes and chopped them into blocks for the train and the carriage. 

Then I got some Betty Crocker chocolate fudge icing and iced the blocks. 

Chopped up some strawberry laces for track, added Oreos for wheels, brownies and a mini roll for the train.

Then I piled up sweets on the carriage with a bit more icing. 

Et voila, 40 minutes and you have a birthday cake. 

Fire fire!

So this morning started with me setting the toaster on fire, put in my bagels and immediately saw plumes of black smoke issuing from said toaster. Turned whole thing off, took bagels out... inspected them...hmm...? Put the toaster on with nothing in it to test it, still smoking, looked inside and saw a small piece of very blackened bread and before I could turn it off again the whole thing caught light! Massive flash, tripped the circuits and my bagels were very much bread. But oh well. 

I haven't posted much lately because... well I haven't been up to many interesting things. My placement ended and I got a really good mark which I was really pleased with. I handed in a big assignment which I'm glad to have off my plate and it's now being marked. 

So now it's back to classes and I found out my next placement which is in the community. What else have I been up to... Oh we went to Delia Smiths for Valentines Day (that seem's like ages ago!), it was really nice. 

I learnt how to do a fishtail braid. 

Creme Egg Brownies

I decided as it's Valentines Day and I have the day off to make a treat. 

Feast your eyes on these, the recipe is here.

They're so gooey and tasty, even without the eggs they're the best brownies I've ever made. 

Graze

Have you guys tried Graze?

It's an online business that will post you healthy snack food, they have a new light box too for guilt free snacking.

You can rate snack foods before or after so they know what to send you and what to avoid. 

My cat tried some of the toffee dipping sauce but my favourite was the high tea box that had a little cake square and a tea bag in - how sweet. 

The website is here - Graze

Specialist Nurses

So I'm on placement at the moment on a ward, but I just wanted to write a quick note to any other student nurses and really recommend booking yourself on days with specialist nurses because it really is so much fun. So far I've seen respiratory specialist nurses, diabetes, tracheotomy and I've got days with site practitioners, smoking cessation and hopefully tissue viability. You learn a ton but not in a boring pushy way like in classroom but by actually doing, I've been having such a great time and I think because specialist nurses obviously enjoy their speciality (or else why would they specialise in it!) they don't mind being quizzed. Just ring them up with your diary in hand and they're usually more than happy to fit you in and you will find yourself having a crash course on their subject. 

Home Again

I didn't want to leave Center Parcs on our last day, we had a nice breakfast at the revolving restaurant there. This was our view when we sat down. 

As you can see the view got steadily worse as breakfast progressed but it was a novelty at least. 

And then instead of a lovely morning of swimming I had planned we drove home early because the boyfriend didn't feel well and when we got back we tidied the entire house ready for a house inspection, how rubbish can it get huh? Of course the house inspection person from the letting agency was in and out in two minutes flat. I did unpack and make use of my chalkboard mug from my brother though. 

And then today I half heartedly worked on an assignment I have at the moment, and oh isn't it cumbersome, have had to hand make (by which I mean faff about on paint and power point) these bloody nutritional labels for a zillion foods. 

Back to placement tomorrow, and then later work :( boooooo I want my holidays back!

Center Parcs - Day Three

We started off today with a deer spotting! I was very excited, the boyfriend less so. 

Our lovely friends visited us at Center Parcs today on £30 visitor day passes, Nadine and I started off feeding the ducks chocolate chip brioche. 

Then we went on a rather epic bike ride around all the villas which was really beautiful apart from at least three suicidal squirrels that took flying leaps in front of our push bikes. Luckily no one was hurt but we did scream and screech the brakes on a lot. 

The boys took their clubs down to the golf course which they said was really good and then we all met up for a pub lunch at Forrester's Inn. 

Then after that we spent absolutely ages swimming in the subtropical pool, we were all really bruised from the rapids afterwards and very pruney but it was great fun. Also I've been expanding my squashed penny collection you'll all be pleased to hear. 

Next, we'd reserved for dinner at Huck's the American style restaurant. It was really tasty. I had mozzarella sticks to start.

The boyfriend got bruschetta. 

And Nadine & Phil shared wings which they assured me were tasty. 

Next it was the main courses, we were all ridiculously full and the other three ordered a pitcher of Pepsi that was giant. 

Tasty; then it was time to say goodbye to our lovely friends, our day went by so fast. 

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.