I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and look forward to catching up with you all after the festive season. ... read more
Winter seaside
It's two days before Christmas and it's grey and cold outside - therefore it must be time to go on a family trip to the seaside. Surely? It was actually really nice to be outside and get the feeling of the wind through my hair as the four of us walked along the beach before having a mini-picnic in the car. We went to Sandilands in Lincolnshire which is about an hour's drive from where my parents live and is one of their favourite spots for winter walks. Despite the sky and sea being pretty grey there was much more of interest if you looked down at the beach that ... read more
Final Preparations
Today has really been a day of final preparations for Christmas. All the gifts are now wrapped and we've been to visit Mr C's family to deliver presents. All the washing is nearly done and I am starting to feel ready to start the festive season. Quite a bit of time seems to have been spent in the kitchen today. The final touches were made to yesterday's Rocky Road. Now we just need to remember to take it out of the fridge tomorrow and put it in a nice box for the journey north. Today I also made my first set of mince pies. I have helped my Mum hers many times over the years, ... read more
Edible gifts
It's been a while since I've done any baking and therefore I was quite excited to go round the supermarket earlier today picking up ingredients. My Dad's a big fan of Rocky Road and I therefore decided to make some so that Mr C and I can take it up as a gift when we go to stay with my parents on Monday. This is such a simple recipe and I love having these in the fridge for those moments when you need a little something sweet at the end of the day. I've got a few ideas though as to how to vary things in this recipe - possibly with the addition of rice krispies ... read more
Festive St Albans
Mr C and I took a wander into St Albans this afternoon to pick up a final few Christmas presents. We walked up into town past the Abbey which was a hive of activity this afternoon. Such has been demand in past years for the carol services, this year they decided to do Carols on the hour, every hour from 11am until 4pm. Outside the Abbey was a small craft market, in addition to the main Saturday market in the centre of the City. I thought it was a lovely touch and in beautiful surroundings - I just hope they use the space again for a similar purpose. The Abbey is very much the ... read more
Worse before better
It seems I'm destined to feel worse before I start feeling totally better. I'm now at the hacking cough stage. Coughing so much during the night that I (and Mr C, who is possibly in the early stages of all this) didn't get much sleep at all and my whole body feels shaken to pieces.Today was supposed to be my last day in the office before having next week off. I was supposed to be out visiting clients, but that was cancelled yesterday. There's nothing that can't wait until I'm in on the 29th, so instead I'm having a day concentrating on trying to make myself feel ... read more
Here’s one I made earlier…
I found this article on the BBC news website earlier whilst surfing during my lunch break. It's all about the current "fashion" for making home made gifts Blue Peter style. Well, if Brad Pitt's kids are doing it then I guess it must be fashionable!Like all articles these days this one comes back to the Credit Crunch as a reason behind why we're all trying to save a few pennies at the moment. I do feel quite cheered though to see that there are children out there who still want to do things like this rather than just hanging around on street ... read more
Recovering… slowly
This flu thing seems to really have knocked me for six this time round. I think I'm finally over the worst though. I seem to be feeling a bit better, but still have a deep husky voice - some one at work even referred to me as sounding like a sexy news reader earlier today!I am now way behind on all things Christmas related though. Mr C and I head up north on Monday to visit my family and as yet I haven't wrapped a single gift. The cards are at least written and posted (well at least I've sent all the cards I have, but still need to go and get more for people who in the first part ... read more
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer
I first heard of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society from Auntie Doris' blog and although I was fascinated by it at the time I have to say that I forgot about it somewhat until I saw it again in the local Waterstones when I was in there the other weekend. Now I've read it though I've been kicking myself for not getting hold of it sooner.I've always been fascinated by the German occupation of the Channel Islands and was even more fascinated after being taken to Jersey by Mr C for my birthday earlier this year. That weekend we were ... read more
The healing power of the duvet
It looks like it was slightly more than just overdoing it that made me feel under the weather last night. For the first time in years I've spent a whole day hiding under my duvet to try and feel better. I'm feeling slightly more human now, but still not great. Sadly though it means that the million and one things on my to do list still haven't been touched. Apologies if you're waiting for something from me. As soon as I can I promise to try and get back on top of things... ... read more