"his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes"

... I'm going to be a married lady!

Weekend

• Working (a bit)
• Morning cups of tea in bed (luxury)
• Driving around the countryside looking for nice places to live (more on this later)
• Dinner: a pieminster Heidi Pie (yum yum yum) and vegetables washed down with a glass or two of vino in front of the tv watching people build a house in the wilds of the brecon beacons followed by a film ... (this was Saturday night - this is what turning 30 / almost turning 30 does to you!).
• Mooching around
• Sunday lunch at the local lovely pub
• cwtching up and trying to keep warm,  it was so cold in London this weekend, brrr...
• A long journey home ... I left the big smoke at 4.30 I arrived home at 9.00.  I have made good inroads into my new book though. nice. 

Cast your vote....

At the moment it seems it's too close to call. Tomorrow the UK will have the opportunity to decide which party / parties will lead our country forward for the next five years. Tomorrow in one way or another history will be made: David Cameron would be the youngest prime minister since the 19th century, Nick Clegg would score the first ever win for the Liberal Democrats, Gordon Brown's fightback from the political graveyard would be epic and a hung parliament would mean a new sort of politics for Britain. The most important thing is to exercise your right to choose that future by going out tomorrow and casting your vote....

Bank Holiday Weekend!

Bank holiday weekends can be both marvelous and a tad frustrating. It is a fabulous feeling to have a whole extra day off work; on Saturday the weekend stretches ahead and that feeling of having a 'free' day of holiday is fantabulous. The only problem is that everyone else has the day off too, which is only right and proper of course, but in my part of the world invariably everybody plans to do the same thing, and the traffic along the coast roads is always chokka.

This bank holiday was different, I spent it on ... shhh.... a cruise with my parents, sister, Nana who is 90 and Great Uncle who is 92 (you'd never believe it if you saw them). It lasted four days and stopped at Zeebrugge in Belgium, Rotterdam in Holland and Le Havre in France. Now I have to admit I was dubious. Whilst I absolutely can't wait for our flotilla holiday in June, sailing the seas on a big tanker of a moving hotel has never really appealed but I decided to go in with an open mind.

Negatives:

• lack of relaxation, it's a really busy holiday and you are constantly moving from one thing to the next (most of those things involve food!). This was my day: get up, have breakfast, go ashore and explore, come back to boat, have lunch, go ashore again/watch film/use gym, have afternoon tea, get ready for dinner, have dinner, watch show etc, go for a drink, bed. Exhaustifying.
• There's a theatre on board ship which puts on nightly entertainment, on one of the nights there was a comedian who was really very funny but on the other nights we had the Cunard singers and dancers who were honestly absolutely dreadful and that's being nice! I now know where the negative description of 'cruise-ship cabaret' comes from.
• The thought of the environmental impact of these great big boats.

Positives

• The fact that it was perfect for my Nana and Great Uncle, they had a brilliant time and really enjoyed themselves. The fun and laughter over dinner every evening was wonderful.
• Visiting Belgium with my family. I grew up there and it was really lovely to be back on home turf! In the morning I went to Bruges with my sister and parents which was lovely and then after lunch K and I went to Blankenberge and wandered in the sunshine before triumphantly finding a supermarket in which we could buy our favourite childhood foods which we can't get in the UK. Yum!
  
  

  
• Visiting Honfleur which is so pretty, wandering around the art galleries and sipping cafe-au-lait.

• On the formal evening with everyone dressed in black tie hearing my great uncle say how proud his mother would be if she could see him and my Nana on board looking so smart.

Hello Spring

Hello lovely spring, hello sunshine, hello smiley people, hello blue skies

Goodbye coat, goodbye black tights, goodbye boots, farewell grey winter...

I just had my first alfresco lunch of the year, here in my local town's physic garden:

I feasted on vegetable soup and big juicy green olives, with the warmth of the sun on my face ... oh the loveliness!

Hello blog...

Hello Blog, it has been many a moon since my last post. I'm not too sure what happened, a little blog break turned into a great big blog break (6 months!). I've been so busy with work and rushing here there and everywhere that something had to give and that something turned out to be you. :o(

Nice things which have happened since last posting:

• I have a new cakemobile, it's beautiful and I love it
• N turned 30!! I surprised him by taking him to Paris on the Eurostar for the day!
• Many a weekend has been spent looking at houses / areas for our new abode
• We have booked a weeks flotilla holiday with Sunsail for June, sailing a boat with Mr and Mrs M around the Ionion. N is the only one amongst us who knows how to sail!! Eeek! I am designating myself ships cook. Is it too ambitious to think I can bake cake on board?!
• Planning parties! This summer I turn 30, my father 60 and my Nana 90 yay! I love a celebration
• Spring is here, the sun is shining and all is lovely!