"Snowmageddon"

Veggie Hubby bought me some clothes to survive the cold weather here, so we could go out and take some photos. Here are a few pictures from snowy Montreal....

The picture below was taken by Veggie Hubby whilst we were sitting in Starbucks. We braved the snowstorm just for a festive drink.
This picture below (of a shop window display - unfortunately not my own handiwork) is especially for Ms Cocoa.
So these are some of my pictures of the extreme snowy weather here. I am sure more will follow soon. In the meantime, here is a link to pictures other people here have taken of the recent snowstorms.

Bitter chill

I am finally on my long-awaited Christmas holidays, in Canada. It is very very cold, colder than I had ever imagined, and I don`t think my clothes are warm enough. I went outside earlier, walking around Montreal, and my knees and face hurt lots from the freezing (below freezing!) air. However, I did manage to have a nice warm sugar-cane flavoured coffee in town, at Second Cup. I was going to go out for a meal tonight in a veggie restaurant (serving coconut bacon!) but as it is so cold, and we couldn`t face the walk, we are staying in. Even Veggie Hubby is no longer used to this weather. I will put up some pictures of the snow tomorrow. There are lots of things we want to do here, but the weather is hampering us. It is -17 today, with a wind chill making it -29!

Rainy Saturday

Today it's very rainy. I would go outside, and do some Christmas shopping, but it looks very unappealing today - wet and dark. So... I'm staying in and what better to do (until Strictly Come Dancing starts) but blog!! I haven't blogged for a while because everything gets so busy in the run-up to Christmas (Xmas parties etc) and at work, things don't seem to be winding down either. I am dashing around the country and when I'm not off somewhere random, I'm doing lots of writing!Frankofile kindly tagged me - asking me to name five addictions in return for this beautiful award. I do think I can get easily addicted to things. Some things though that are most addictive I thankfully can happily go without e.g. smoking and alcohol.

1) Coffee- I like my morning cup when I arrive into work, it sets me up for the day. It's funny because for years I didn't like it and now I'm addicted to it. However, there is a caveat - I am not addicted to boring, plain coffee but to speciality coffees like mochas and cappuccinos. The more chocolate that is involved the better. An expensive addiction, yes, but a delicious one. Addicted as I am to coffee, I limit myself to two cups maximum per day.

2) Chocolate - preferably milk chocolate. I love how it melts in the mouth and it's lovely creamy texture mmm.

3) The Internet- I don't think I could function without email/blogging/facebooking/online news anymore. This is one addiction I don't exercise much self-restraint with!

4) Shopping - I am feeling a bit caged-in now because it's raining so much and it's a Saturday so I should be out shopping!

5) Bed - I love bed (although not actually my current bed as it is rock solid, and not all nice and soft). When I drag myself out of bed in the morning, I am often thinking when I can get back into it at night. I'm not looking forward to having to get up at 6.15am on Monday. At weekends, I love lying in although sometimes like this morning, I'm in such a routine that I wake up anyway.

So - I have to pass this blog award onto five other bloggers. I think I will pass it onto Dottie because I think it's such a fabulous award, and she deserves it for managing to maintain her blog whilst also getting a Distinction for her studies at the OU! Oh - I see Frankofile has also awarded it to Dottie but never mind - you have a second nomination for this award Dottie. My mind is blank, and I can't think of four others...

Copy and paste these rules/instructions in your post.
When you post about receiving this award, include who gave you the award and link back to his/her blog.
Post five winners and link back to them as well.
Post five of your addictions.
Add the award image.
Let your winners know you gave them this award by leaving comments on their blogs.

First Christmas

Since we have been together, Veggie Hubby and I have spent four Christmases on different sides of the Atlantic ocean. Every Christmas, he would ring me at 9am in the morning (3am his time) to wish me Happy Christmas! Last Christmas was the first we spent together. However, we didn't have the chance to get our own decorations because we didn't even have a home - in the month running up to Christmas we were living in B&Bs (the thought brings back bad memories!). We had only been living our flat for 10 days, and barely had the chance to even unpack, let alone think about getting decorations, when we left England to go to Canada for Christmas.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that this Christmas is our first opportunity to buy a tree and decorations. We spent this weekend getting some, which was fun! Here are some of our new decorations. So perhaps we are slightly early in putting up our tree, but we wanted to make the most of spending Christmas together. We can really appreciate it, unlike last year when we couldn't, as were living in someone else's house, and only had one small decoration.

Retail therapy

I haven't blogged for a little while as work (and Strictly Come Dancing!) is taking over my life... yes, weekends too :-( Ah well, the deadline is next week so it's nearly over now. Anyway, today I did a little retail therapy and bought myself a Radley bag. I've been wanting one for ages, and today seemed like the right day. My current bag (which isn't that old, just a few months) is already falling apart so I thought I'd better invest in a higher quality bag, and get one I really wanted. VeggieHubby always made me feel guilty about purchasing a Radley bag as they are made of leather, but this one only has a small amount of leather in it. I just love the little Radley dog.

Whiskers the cat

I just got a new pet cat for my blog, Whiskers. Well, I can't have a real one living in a second floor flat, so it's the next best thing (perhaps....). Feel free to play with him!

He is cheering me up from this horrible cold, and all the work I've got.

Hats and Scarves

It is a chilly November; the right month for hats and scarves. Here is Tatty Teddy wearing a scarf knitted by the talented Frankofile for my niece (which I accidentally ended up with) and two Innocent Smoothie Big Knit hats. I love the hats, which seem to appear on smoothie bottles every year around November/December time. Veggie Hubby and I wanted to buy one last year, but by the time we decided to, they had all sold out. So, when we saw them tonight, we bought them before we missed our chance. They are so cute. A group of knitters at work make them, as well as other charitable knitwear. Perhaps I should join them to make some Big Knit hats myself, but I think I prefer buying the hats to making them!

P.S. The flowers are a lovely birthday present from J&J - thanks!

Happy days :-)

I had a good day today, here are some reasons why....

1) Obama (obviously). After 8 years of "W" Bush, at last Americans have seen sense.

2) There are new Christmas drinks in Starbucks, and an absolutely delicious one - dark cherry mocha, mmmm. I couldn't resist it at lunchtime today. It doesn't take much to make me happy.

3) I had far too much work, which has been really stressful, but my concerns have been taken seriously and some of it was taken off me this afternoon and given to someone else.

4) It is Wednesday, but I only have one more day left of the week as I am taking Friday off. I can't wait, as I haven't had a day off in two months and am going to see "The Sound of Music" in the West End, and to a vegetarian American-style diner restaurant. I also am looking to cooking for some friends on Saturday.

5) I am going to the pub tomorrow for a birthday lunch with my lovely colleagues.

6) We have been waiting a month for some keys to arrive from my father-in-law. I was convinced that they had got lost in the post, but they eventually arrived this morning. This means that we have somewhere to stay in Montreal at Christmas. :-)

Is that enough reasons to smile for one day?

Snow and scandal

Last night it was snowing here, in October! It had been raining heavily beforehand, so the snow didn't settle, but it was beautiful nevertheless. I find that there is always something quite exciting about snow. Veggie Hubby and I decided to go for a walk in it, but it was so cold, I was glad to be back in the warm again when we got home.

This morning it was freezing too. I couldn't open any of my car doors, they were all frozen in. Very annoying when you want to get to work and can't even get into your car, and even more annoying when you see neighbours get in their cars and drive off. I never even realised that it was possible for a door to be so frozen it can't open, having a car door that opens is just something I take for granted every morning. I didn't know what to do, but following some advice from a man in a garage, I filled up a large bucket with warm water, carted it down all of the stairs from our top floor flat and threw it over the car, getting soaked in the process! It worked though, I was able to open the door at last, and drive to work, albeit an hour later than usual.

I am also interested in the current scandal in the media with Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, who left lewd messages on the answerphone of a 78 year-old man (the actor Andrew Sachs) about his granddaughter on their radio show. This story makes a change from all of the dull stories about the recession and the 'credit crunch.' I do think it is being blown out of all proportion when there are worse things going on in the world (even Gordon Brown felt the need to make a statement, and 20, 000 people have complained to the BBC) but still I was very shocked when I heard about it for the first time. They behaved really irresponsibly, not like adults, but like immature school boys, and their 'prank' wasn't funny. We should respect others; there is nothing worse than bullying. It makes it worse that he is a harmless old man. Imagine how Jonathan Ross would have felt if someone had left obscene messages on his answer phone about his daughters, surely he should have seen that he had overstepped the mark? It is unbelievable that Jonathan Ross has a contract worth £18 million. I never liked either of them much, especially Russell Brand, and I am glad that they have both been suspended from the BBC over their unacceptable behaviour, and Russell has resigned. Good riddance!

No Martha Stewart

Here is the Victoria sponge cake that I made tonight, which I believe is called a pound cake in Canada. I think that the cake was going quite well until Veggie Hubby decided to pour icing sugar all over the top of it when I turned my back for a second! I was going to sift it. I nearly didn't take any photos but VH told me that I should still take some pictures, because I am no Martha Stewart. Very true.

Christmas already?

I haven't blogged in two weeks, and time is really flying... Christmas is arriving already. I just heard a DFS advert "All I want for Christmas is you!" on the radio. In the shops today, I noticed many had prominent Christmas displays. You can already buy Christmas wrapping paper, cards and gifts, and it is only October. A very sunny October too.

I have noticed that in recent years, Christmas starts in shops in September with very small displays, which get larger through October and November. So, I cannot blame the 'credit crunch' as it isn't the first year this has happened. It ruins Christmas. I feel that Christmas should be kept special, in late November/December only.

On a similar note, next weekend the clocks go back. I will appreciate the extra hour next weekend, but not when it starts getting dark at 4pm. I'm not looking forward to commuting in the dark. If it was up to me, I would ban any Christmas advertising until November, and also keep the whole year on Daylight Saving Time. We should try to save as much daylight as we can!

Trip to Dubai!

I have been holidaying in Dubai for the last 2 weeks! I have been there before, and this was my 4th time there as I have 3 brothers-in-law there. Here is a sort of picture diary, I will have to show you in installments as there are loads!!!..... We flew by Emirates and CutyBaby received a cute little bunny toy, the flight was at 9 so she fell asleep, unfortunatly i was really uncomfortable, the noise and lack of room meant i really couldn't sleep urg! We travelled by taxi to my brother in laws place, this is the view from our balcony...

It was amazing,like seeing a moving photo every morning, so many cars and activity, it was alive. The weather was also very hot and bright, in fact going out in the day is usually avoided unless you have a proper car and a proper air conditioned destination! This makes outdoor locations like parks a no go area, however we discovered everyone compromises by going out in the afternoons. We went to a park in the evening, it was totally dark but the park was filled with kids and families having picnics!

There was an animals enclosure with loads of animals all put together... It was so different to over here, we certainly would not venture into any park after dark and nor would it be safe over here.

On one day we drove 2hrs to Abu Dhabi, I found this resembled America in many ways. We went to Sheikh Zayed Mosque, and apparently this was built for Sheikh Zayed who is buried here, by his son. This was architecturally the most beautiful building i have ever seen, it looked like a palace, white marble walls, engraving of flowers all through pillars which on closer inspection are actually flowers inlaid with real precious gemstones, the thickest plushest carpet you have ever seen, amazing ceiling designs, water fountains, the largest chandelier, it was calm, serene and stunning.

Moroccan

I realise that I write about food quite a lot, but I think the name Veggie Carrie unintentionally inspires me to write food-related entries. Tonight, I went to a Moroccan restaurant with my colleagues.


Here is the meal I ate:Here is the starter my meat-eating colleagues ate... below, can you guess what it is?


It looks like a cake, and smells like a cake, but it is not a cake in the traditional sense. It is... a meat cake! Well, not what it is really called obviously but what it is (I don't know what it is called, anyone know?). It is mainly chicken and some kind of red meat, but weirdly has icing on the top, and is flavoured by sweet spices like cinnamon too I think.

The most surprising thing, more surprising than even the meaty cake was the bill. For the 17 of us, it came to..... £657!!! They charged us for meals we didn't even have. It was such a rip off I couldn't believe it, and this spoilt an otherwise very enjoyable evening.

Chefs: good guys, bad guys?

I do not have any admiration for Gordon Ramsay. He is, in my opinion, a rude, arrogant man. I think that one of the main reasons for my dislike is because he hates vegetarians, and often brags about his dislike for them. He recently said “If my daughter ever grew up and married a vegetarian, I’d never forgive her.” Despite my dislike for the man, I bought his meaty cookbook for my brother and (nearly) sister-in-law last Christmas, as they used to like him. Perhaps they too now dislike him, because he has no time for them, his loyal fans who queue up for hours to see him. Recently, Gordan has gone down even further in my estimation. On one of his TV shows (The F Word) he turned a room of 'vegetarians' into carnivores in a publicity stunt, and then proceded to hunt, kill and eat an endangered puffin. Very smart.

Jamie Oliver, on the other hand, is completely different. I do not agree with everything he does, but he has many good causes, and I love his attitude. He really seems to want to do good for this country. Last night, I watched the start of his new series, Jamie's Minsitry of Food, in which he teaches poor families (who seem to use all of their benefits to feed their children expensive take-aways) to cook. His 'pass it on' theory of friends sharing recipes with each other is admirable (if idealistic). The idea is that he teaches two people to cook a few meals, and then for those two people to teach two more people to cook those meals, and then for them to 'pass it on' to two more, and so on. I also support Jamie's school dinners campaign; getting children to have healthier school lunches, by serving healthier food in school canteens and banning junk food.

My verdict: Gordon Ramsay - thumbs down :-( Jamie Oliver - thumbs up :-)

Award winning blog

Thank you to the lovely Dottie for very kindly awarding my blog with an Arte Y Pico award. I am very pleased to be the author of an award-winning blog :-) It seems to be a blog of sculptures these days, but this one is the best.
The rules of Arte Y Pico are - you must pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting content, or for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language!

Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link or the Arte Y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

I now have the honourable task of passing this award onto five others. So, here are my five picks:

1) Le bleuet for being the first blog I ever followed, and also for taking the time to translate everything in both French and English.

2) Ms C for her rants about life, the universe and everything (well, her car and house)!

3) Mystereous World for her cute animal pictures, and for keeping me up-to-date with Horace and Hermes.

4) Shop Girl* for sharing her story, past and present. Also, for trying innovative things out on her blog, like a Podcast!

5) Last but not least, Vraie Fiction parce que je l'aime. Sometimes, it is also nice to hear about something we have done together from a different perspective. Also, for the effort he makes to update his blog daily, and for his views about anything and everything.

Cliveden

Veggie Hubby and I went to Cliveden yesterday. It was a sunny weekend, and we decided to get out of our sleepy town and do something different. It seemed that lots of other people had the same thought. However, the woodlands were so vast, we walked around barely seeing anyone. As we were walking through the woods, we happened upon a fantastic view of the house, and then we got lost and ended up in the beautiful landscaped gardens by accident. Hmmm only four days to go until next weekend....

Birthday Party's!

Last week was very very busy. My little baby is turning 2 on 30th sept and I had decided to have a proper party this year. It turned into 2 parties as some people wanted to come earlier, so basically last week was spent putting up loads of pink balloons, banners, then making a whole load of cupcakes! Heres a pic of the cakes from the 'mini party'... these are coconut sponge with mascarpone and coconut icing. The others are coconut sponge with cream, almonds, strawberry sauce and a choc wafer.......

Then at the weekend I had my first proper kiddy party, it was so exciting! Having it all over and done with now I can say that I had a great time and wish Veggie Carrie could have been there too! Everyone started arriving at 12, and I let the children who were all under 2 play for a little while. The sun came out! and I had put a bouncy castle on my balcony (which is surprisingly large), and then when they got bored with that I had these giant caterpillar balloons which i brought out for each child, then we had a picnic with lots of food. I had made tiny cupcakes with strawberry buttercream which went down well. Afterwards we had a little treasure hunt in the grass. I gave everyone little goody bags, a balloon and cakes as they went home! Cuty baby was so tired she fell asleep afterwards. In the afternoon we let her open the presents which was fun and she now has some nice kitchen accessories!! Anyway it was alot of fun and i would love to do a few more!!

x

Boats

Hi everyone.I have lots to update you all with. Firstly outside my window recently there were these huge cranes and they were lifting something out of the sea (ok river) and as i kept watching it was a huge boat!!! I was imagining a huge sunken ship along the lines of the titanic, it was very exciting! Heres a pic of it, though actually it just looks a bit wet and mouldy....

Then as I walked along the waterfront, there was a huge display ship that looked like a pirate ship, like something from Pirates of the Caribbean!! And apparently it is a working and teaching boat, anyone can join up and learn to become a sailor. This boat is over 100 yrs old and was possible made somewhere in Europe. We even got to go onboard, have a look around, I had a peep into the kitchen.....

Monster Basil

"Basil" is growing into a huge monster who is ready to take over the world - beware! I was looking at his younger siblings in Asda last night, and they are more healthy looking, unlike this gigantic plant with it's brown lower stem. Perhaps we should dump this one and get a new one? However, we have got attached to Basil, which is why we haven't replaced him, and he still produces basil leaves. Tonight, Veggie Hubby and I shall probably have some (veggie) bolognaise to make the best of him.

P.S. Thanks to the owners of Basil's cousin for taking care of him in our absence, and for the sparkly new pot and compost! Hopefully they will help him to recover.

The Louvre

Veggie Hubby and I just returned from Paris, and even though the weather wasn't great we enjoyed ourselves. We went up the Eiffel Tower, and the views were incredible, we went at around dusk so we could see Paris by day, and then lit up at night. However, it was a very windy and rainy evening, and the tower was swaying at the top. You could really feel it moving- scary! It felt like being on a boat.

The next day, we spent a long time yesterday at The Louvre. It is so big, I think we needed to spend much more time there to see everything. My personal highlight was seeing the Mona Lisa. I grew up with a copy of it at home, so I feel a certain attachment to it, and it was really special to see the original. I also enjoyed looking at the Greek and Italian sculptures...

...but we spent most time looking at the Egyptian artifacts. Seeing these really gives you a glimpse into their culture.
I was surprised by how popular the museum was, and how many people spend their day looking at art while others are working at their desks. It costs 9 euros to go into The Louvre, but in the UK museums are free. My visit to The Louvre made me rediscover museums, and I think I will spend more weekends going visit museums in London after my visit there.

Can you read this?

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Ui nervtisy, i t dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Ratatouille- Le Festin

Veggie Hubby and I have been married for a year today, our first year of marriage has whizzed by. To celebrate, we're off to Paris tomorrow. We watched Ratatouille last night, the second time we have seen it. I didn't notice when I first saw it at the cinema, but the music is also beautiful, & I like that it's in French even if I can't understand it without reading the lyrics.

En vacances...

I am in my French holiday home in Brittany at the moment, hence my lack of blogging. Here is a picture of a nearby marina. I am having a kind of Internet detox. Instead, for the past few days I have been...

• Travelling on the Eurostar for the first time
• Reading 'The Book Thief' by Marcus Zusak (an excellent book narrated by Death about a girl growing up in Nazi Germany)
• Picking blackberries
• Watching the stars and Jupiter through a telescope
• Walking through a river with my dog
• Eating lots and lots (including Breton cake, galette, crêpe, croissants mmm)
• Climbing rocks
• Shopping in little artisan shops
• Taking photos
• Drawing pictures
• Playing games with my niece
• Improving my French
• ... and watching British TV in the evenings; it's good that I can watch British TV as the majority of French TV seems so tacky.

Pastries

Apart from cupcakes which are actually secondary, I love pastries! Whoops should have mentioned that before, but actually its true, i love pastries, I would eat one everyday with breakfast and a cup of tea/ cappucino/ orange juice. I eat cinnamon whirls, pain au chocolat, croissants, almond croissants, apple danish, chocolate twists- anything goes!! At the moment, the supermarkets seem to be constantly running out of the good stuff, especially my all time favourite- the maple and pecan, it seems that eldery pensioners who get there early manage to grap the good stuff (no offense!). So yesterday after 2 long pastry free weeks i decided to bake my own.......cinnamon whirls, and yes they tasted very yummy.....

Theres a funny story too, on my wedding day Dentist Hubby asked what I wanted for breakfast and i said 'just a pastry and some juice' now at the time he didnt know about these types of pastry and thought i meant the creamy cake type things,he wondered why i would want to eat that in the morning but went rushing round the hotel looking for cream cake at 7.30am! Anyway I think he did come back with the proper pastries in the end, an guess what he's addicted to them now aswell!! x

View from the window

11pm...

Gloomy day

On my way home from work today, the rain suddenly started pouring down. It was so heavy, I could barely see the road infront of me. I have seen heavy rain before, but not quite like that.
When I arrived home, I was happy to see that the roadworks which have been going on for a week on road opposite my flat were no longer there.... however then I noticed that they had moved next to my parking space. Delightful! It looks like an open grave. All the grass has also been driven over lots, it looks like a wasteland. All to probably give water supply to some new homes that have been under construction ever since we moved in, and were due to be completed in 'Spring 2008'. Thank you Thames Water.

I also see that is gloomy for Canada in the Olympic medal table. I checked to see where Great Britain is, and was pleased to see it is ninth place. I am not surprised to see this small island behind countries with much bigger populations like China and the USA. Then, I checked to see where Canada is in the Olympic tables, and checked again, and again. It isn't even in the medal table yet as Canada doesn't even have a single bronze medal. Even Togo and Kyrgyzstan have one bronze medal each! At least there is a Winter Olympics...

Peanut Butter Buttercream!

At the weekend I just could not resist, so i made these chocolate sponge with peanut butter, buttercream cupcakes! I ate one and it tasted good!!! I am still a bit wary of making them trully American style with a huge mountain of buttercream, probably as the content of butter and sugar required to make the icing is very disturbing. I made Dentist Hubby take them to work today as I dont think its a good idea for us to finish them all!!

x

Temporary inhabitants

We have some new temporary inhabitants in our flat, Horace and Hermes. Here is Horace (I think!). Even rodent-hating Veggie Hubby is starting to warm to them, he suggested that we feed them frozen peas tonight, and told me to take some pictures of the "little ones."

Olympics

I can't believe that the 2008 Olympics have started. I was there 4 years ago, at the Athens Olympics, and I'm sure I'll be there in 4 years time, for the London Olympics. I don't have many photos from them on this computer, but here is one. The Beijing Olympics just aren't quite the same, I wish they were being held somewhere else. Nevertheless, I am still looking forward to watching some of the events, in particular the gymnastics.

I have had a busy few days. I went to see The Dark Knight on Wednesday which was enjoyable but violent and too long. I am still saddened by Heath Ledger's death, he was the best thing about the movie. Last night, I happened to eat out again, this time at Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Veggie Hubby loves to eat burgers, as he prefer being Meaty Hubby but ends up being Veggie Hubby most of the time because of me. He now has an aim in life: to try every single option on the Gourmet Burger Kitchen menu, and has ticked off two so far. The vegetarian options are quite strange (but good) as really they are mainly just vegetables inside burger buns, rather than veggie burgers. My burger was sooo tall, it was a shame my camera was at home. Then, from tomorrow night I shall be gerbil-sitting my sister's gerbils Horace and Hermes, for a few days. Aww.

Eating Out- Ps I'm back!

Heloo everyone! I am back after a little vacation which i shall tell you all about in the wrong order! I am glad Veggie Carrie missed my cupcake blogging! So.... Last week my little brother came and stayed with us which was fun as its his school holidays. He was very useful in keeping CutyBaby occupied as she has now reached 'phase tantrum'. Anyway, so the weather was really hot and we walked into town. One day for lunch we walked around everywhere and all the food seemed to have finished, so finally we tried M&S and for under a £10'er we managed to get a mexican chilli bean wrap, an egg roll, a pasta and spinach salad, a somosa, mango smoothies, 2 bags of tortillas and some salsa= amazing! Frankly the food was delicious, fresh, and for the price very very good and filling. I shall definatly be going there again. Now in contrast another day we decided to try a local Italian place called 'Artista'. They didnt have hardly any vegetarian options and in the end we ordered one vegetable pizza, and i ordered a pasta tagliatelli with mushrooms. Now i specifically told the waitress that i wanted it with LESS mushrooms, and their menu described it as 'Pasta with prawns and mushrooms in tomato sauce'. Ok so when the food came, the pizza was large and tasty. I tried one bite of the pasta dish and it tasty very very 'fishy' and i immediately didnt like it, prawns do not taste that fishy. After a while of picking out the mushrooms, i started to think there were other things in there apart from 'mushrooms' things that looked suspiciously like mussels!!!!!!!!!! URG all i have to say is that the menu definatly had not said it would contain other seafood, and the thought of the mussels urggggggggggggg, it was totally disgusting. And it didnt taste that good either. Moral of this story= never eat out!!!
x

A reflection on the nature of Veggie Carrie

On Monday, Veggie Hubby wrote a philosophical blog entry about the nature of his blog, and it has inspired me to write my own meta-analysis. I started writing my blog on the 18th February 2008, and since then have written over 100 posts. I decided to write a blog to because my mother started one about her French adventures, as a way of keeping in contact with her children. I didn't really know what I was going to write about, but thought I would give blogging a go. My first blog entry was a book review, but soon, encouraged by a little poll I conducted, I decided that it would be more interesting to write a diary-type blog, even though my life is fairly mundane. At the time, I didn't have a job, and neither did Veggie Hubby, so it gave us something to do. When we didn't have as much happening in our lives, we had more to blog about. Perhaps it is because I don't want to write about my job, even though I do a lot of interesting things there.

I also randomly discovered ShopGirl's blog soon after I started blogging. Her blog is such good read as she has such a positive attitude, I really enjoy reading it. I never really thought or intended to get to know someone via a blog, but I'm very glad that I have. I have found some other great blogs too since then, some of which are listed on my blog list. I am also really glad that Ms Cocoa occasionally posts pictures of her beautiful cupcakes, even though she seems to have recently gone missing as a co-author! Please come back Ms Cocoa. I think that Ms Cocoa must be too busy having Cuty Baby to take care of, and making too many cupcakes.

It is funny how other people find my blog too. My most popular blog entries seem to be those related to food, especially low fat carrot cake, which I have mentioned here before. Another very popular, more recent food-related entry is my one about the absolutely scrummy Quorn picnic eggs. My most popular blog entry among Australians and New Zealanders, and probably overall, is the blog entry about the fascinating but sickening Painted Babies documentary about American beauty pageants. It still astounds me how parents can dress their young children up like Barbie dolls, and exploit them for cash prizes.

I just want to finish by saying that occasionally I find blogging frustrating as I want to keep it as anonymous and uncontroversial as possible. Sometimes, I feel restricted by the constraints of my blog. Nevertheless, I enjoy writing my blog as it makes me reflect on my life, and perhaps motivates me to do more interesting things so that I can blog about them.

Eating in

It has been in the news recently that due to the credit crunch people prefer to eat a restaurant-style meal in rather than a meal out. Domino's pizza has soaring profits (but I wouldn't have a Domino's pizza, it is far better to get a supermarket one in my opinion- cheaper, healthier, tastier and more ethical). VH and I bought a new M&S promotion - 2 dine for £10. This includes a main meal, side dish, dessert and bottle of wine. We chose roast sweet potato cakes with a mint and yoghurt dressing (actually, there was no choice as it was all that was left!) and roast Mediterranean vegetables with a balsamic vinegar dressing. For dessert we had profiteroles but saved half for tomorrow. We also had a French wine called 'Froglet'... I find the name quite amusing. It was a tasty meal, and good value. We are lucky to have an M&S just around the corner from us, but we rarely go in there as it is generally just ready meals these days, which I suppose is kind of what we had tonight. I have also added a picture of some pretty carnations that VH bought me the other day. Flowers that are nicer than the ones in Zizzi.

Personal services not required

Oops, I haven't blogged for nearly a week. Work is destroying my blog I feel; when I was briefly unemployed I was a better blogger. It is sooo hot which is good, as it is July.:-) However... Veggie Hubby and I are slowly roasting in our flat. It is so hot and even with the windows open all of the time, it doesn't seem to make any difference. What else has happened in my exciting life this week? Well, I took my car to the garage for it's expensive service and MOT. It passed the test but has a rusty front brake and all four tyres have cracks in them, and one has a nail in it! It doesn't sound great, does it?

On Wednesday night, I watched a reality TV show called 'Personal Services Required' about people looking for domestic help. There are two families per episode, who trial three domestic helpers each. Some of the people on this series have been hilarious, the funniest was that one woman was looking for a housekeeper and asked for him to accompany her to Tescos wearing a chauffeur's hat! The woman in the documentary yesterday employed nine staff including three personal secretaries.

It made me think about domestic help... I really don't think people should pay other people to look after their houses, and should do their own housework. When my parents used to have a cleaner, I found it a real invasion of privacy. However, that was just for a morning a week, but these people who clearly don't need cleaners and are around the house themselves should, I feel do their own cleaning. It is just lazy, and the people in this documentary seem to have delusions of grandeur. It is sickening that they have money they can just throw away by paying a housekeeper's salary. For some things, I feel I have no choice but to pay someone e.g. taking my car for it's service. For other things that I can do myself (or Veggie Hubby can do) I feel I should do myself. Not that I could afford £18K from my salary to employ a housekeeper anyway..

Veggie Hubby often says that he 'likes to be served' meaning that he likes to go to restaurants. I like restaurants too, but I really feel they should just be for special occasions, as you can make your own. I don't feel the need to be served. This may make me sound a bit like a Communist, but I feel that everyone should be treated equally, there shouldn't be hierarchies where some people are more important than others. However, in any job there is always a management structure and hierarchy.

Dirty Dancing and Zizzi

I had a great day today. I am not sure if Veggie Hubby had such a nice day though. I bought the special edition of Dirty Dancing this afternoon and watched the film for the hundredth time tonight (ok, I am exaggerating, but only slightly). I think it made Veggie Hubby want to vomit. I just love this movie, it is one of the few films that I can watch over and over and still enjoy. Tomorrow, it is time for all of the extras... I'm sure VH will be thrilled! I hinted a lot that I wanted this for my birthday and for Christmas last year, but to no avail, so I decided that I would have to take matters into my own hands and buy it for myself. Haha.

Veggie Hubby and I also ate out tonight, which we haven't done for a couple of months. We went to the Italian restaurant, Zizzi. Veggie Hubby refused to go to this restaurant for a long time because of it's (unmentionable!) meaning in French. I persuaded him to go there for Valentine's day 2006 as we both love Italian food and I was curious about it. It was a big mistake as my heart-shaped ravioli was burnt, and the service was very very slow. We were out shopping today, and there wasn't much choice of restaurants so I suggested that we go to Zizzi (a different branch of the same chain we went to in 2006). We thought we might reconciliate ourselves with it, and whilst we had a good time, I don't think we will ever go there again.

I ordered a calzone, which I have never tried before, and it was very burnt. I should have complained, but didn't. When a waitress walked past, she said that she would get a fresh one for me, as I was paying for it and I shouldn't be paying for that. So she kindly went and got another one for me, and also got a fresh pasta dish for VH so we could eat at the same time. She also offered us a complimentary drink each. My new calzone looked fine on the plate, but underneath it was also burnt so I just ate the top half. However, VH enjoyed his chicken pasta and we shared the most delicious dessert ever, an amaretto cheesecake. Mmm, it was better than chocolate.

All work no play

I have been a very bad blogger recently, and have been getting behind with reading blogs too. My job is taking over my life, which isn't great. I have been working long days, writing lots which puts me off writing for fun, and travelling around the country too. Anyway, I got a draft report I have been slaving over (around 250 pages at the moment) sent off today, so I can relax a little this weekend.

I'd love to go to the cinema, if only it wasn't so expensive. There are so many films I want to see: Wall-E this week, and The Dark Knight when it comes out next week too. There are other films I would like to see too, but they wouldn't be of interest to Veggie Hubby. Why is it so expensive to go to the cinema during peak times? £7.20 per adult seems like such a rip-off. You can buy DVDs for less than that. I prefer going off-peak/on Orange Wednesdays when possible. In a way, I prefer watching films at home as you don't get the distraction of annoying noisy people talking loudly and eating popcorn. It's probably worse at the moment with the school holidays starting, they will be packed with annoying teenagers. Perhaps this is just cognitive dissonance as I don't want to spend that kind of money seeing a movie.

Airbrushed to perfection

I am very impressed with myself, Big Brother has been going on for a while now (a month?) and I am not watching it!! I have watched most of the other Big Brothers, but this series I decided to avoid and have. It just goes to show, when you set your mind to something it can be achieved, even if it is just avoiding BB. If I wasn't with Veggie Hubby I would probably be watching it, as it passes the time easily, but he doesn't want me to watch it so I don't. In other unmarried years I was living mainly apart from VH so I could watch it, but this year with us sharing our little flat it wouldn't be fair of me to subject him to it.

Instead, Veggie Hubby and I watched a documentary presented by Alesha Dixon tonight, about the fashion industry's airbrushing obsession. I probably wouldn't have watched it, but her personality is so infectious, I thought I would give it a go. Alesha phoned around many magazines trying to get a photo of her on the front cover that wasn't airbrushed, and most were not interested. Surely Alesha is beautiful enough, she doesn't need airbrushing? It puts me off buying women's magazines actually, for putting up such fake images on their front covers. This is cheating the consumer. Of course, covers sell magazines, so it is not surprising but it is sad. What was interesting was that airbrushing is not so important for the men's magazines as it is for the women's/teenage girls mags. This is a pity as these distorted 'perfect' images of celebrities can lead to self-esteem issues and anorexia in impressionable young girls who look at them, and think that is how they should look.

Retro cake

Veggie Hubby and I made this pineapple upside-down cake last night. It is so yummy that it has half gone already. That is why I don't make cakes too often. We altered it slightly as our pineapples were in juice not syrup, but I think it turned out OK anyway. I wasn't sure whether to make it or not as thought it would be heavy and not very summery, but I have been eating it cold and think it is summery enough.

Other than that, I am feeling really a) exhausted from all the travelling b) hot as the weather is so hot these days, and our flat is like an oven c) hay-fevery d) my throat is on fire, I have a bad cold developing. I can't wait for a relaxing weekend, and having the chance to recover a bit from the busy few weeks I've had....

Hitch-hiking

UGGGHHH I hate train travel. Yesterday, I got the train to and from Portsmouth, for work. I had an absolute nightmare with the trains on the way home - the final leg of my journey home which should have been a 25 minute journey ended up taking 3 hours!!

I found some people at a station near to home, and we decided to get a taxi. One guy called a taxi. A crazy drunken man came up to him and took his phone off him saying he owned a taxi company and would ring them; we thought he wanted to steal the phone, but he was just well-meaning & drunk. Then, the guy whose phone was nearly stolen said his mate was driving past in a few minutes, and would pick us up and take us back in his Land Rover. The group of us got into the back of the Land Rover, and I hitched a lift home! I've never done that before. I got back at 9pm - such an exhausting day, and I was so glad to be home. Quite an adventure!

There were a few perks to the day. It was lovely and sunny, the hottest day of the year. Also, the place I went to treated me really well, and put on a lovely buffet lunch for me.

Travelling

I'm travelling a lot at the moment. Tomorrow for instance, I am off to Portsmouth for the day for work, and at the weekend I went to visit family. I've got lots more UK trips planned for work in the next few weeks. Not to forget my daily travel to work. I'm feeling quite exhausted, so my blogging isn't very frequent at the moment.

Here is a cute little kitten that sneaked (snuck?) into my brother's house. Unfortunately, his cat, whilst happy to play with the kitten outside, is too territorial and chased this poor kitten under the car. Talking about animals under cars, I nearly killed a squirrel whilst driving along a country road this evening, it is the third kamikaze squirrel in as many months, they just come out of no-where. Luckily it managed to run across the road in time.

The weather here is really too hot, and we haven't put on the heating for months. Our flat is on the top floor, and the heat rises from the floors below, making it like an oven. We can't open the window much as VH and I both have hay-fever. This is a small downside of the summer. Anyway, I'm going to not write much now as I have to be up at 6am tomorrow :-(

Feel-good Friday

I've noticed that other blogs have 'Feel Good Fridays' with music videos. I considered being different and blogging about 'Musical Mondays,' but it's Friday night and I'm in the mood for music. Here is my favourite song of the week, Gabriella Cilmi's 'Sweet about me.' I always listen to the radio whilst driving (ie. a lot!) and I love it when this song comes on. I actually like most songs that play, I think listening to a song so many times makes you familiar with it and love it, even if it isn't the kind of music that you would normally listen to.

Creative Carrie

I had a fun day at work today... we had an arts and crafts afternoon, and there were a lot of activities going on. I made a fascinator, amongst other things. It wasn't as impressive as some fascinators that my colleagues made, but unfortunately I don't have pictures of them to put up. Without the comparison, I don't think it looks too bad though. Some of the fascinators I think could be worn to weddings, or Ascot. Not mine, however. I wouldn't be seen dead in it (not that I have any weddings or social events to attend!) but it was fun to make & nice to get paid making it. This is why I love my job. :-) P.S. Please see Ms Cocoa's post below.