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?

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