26th September 2010

To quote Hannibal from the A-team 'I love it when a plan comes together'. After months of planning and subterfuge it was Mum's party this afternoon and she was suitably surprised to find a whole bunch of relatives waiting to wish her a very happy 60th birthday!

25th September 2010

Today I have been a demon baker making cakes for mum's party tomorrow. My godmother has made the birthday cake and some mini chocolate muffins but to supplement that I have been baking scones, mini cupcakes and millionaire's shortbread. There will also be piles of dainty sandwiches but these need to be made tomorrow. Happily my godmother is turning up early to assist with that!

24th September 2010

This weekend we are hosting a surprise family gathering to celebrate my Mum's 60th birthday. On the basis that I don't have 20 plates, let alone 20 the same, I decided to hire some crockery from a local supplier and so this evening I went to collect it. Good job it was only for 20 people as not sure I could have fitted much more in the car!

23rd September 2010

My mother will be horrified, but there are only so many hours in the day and I didn't have time to make Mr W a birthday cake so I bought this M&S chocolate creation instead and put some candles in it.  Not my ideal option but better than nothing, because what sort of birthday would it be without cake?!

22nd September 2010

This evening I walked from my office in the City to meet a friend for dinner on the South Bank. My route took me past St Paul's Cathedral where I saw this "Blitz" Memorial Statue. It remembers all the UK firefighters who died during World War II and a Service of Remembrance, followed by wreath laying, is held at St Paul's Cathedral every September.

21st September 2010

In a couple of weeks we are having a knitting evening at Brownies in order to produce lots of squares to be combined into large blankets for charity, however as I haven't knitted for years I thought I needed some practice if I'm to be any help to the Brownies.  I bought some wool and needles whilst we were at the table sale on Saturday and then tonight I took them along to Brownies to get some tips from Carol (Brown Owl) on how to cast-on, etc.. I've knitted about 2 rows so far, it's taken me about half-an-hour and to be honest I'm not particularly impressed with my efforts.  I'd like to blame the wool but in reality it's probably me and I think I'll need a lot more practice in order to produce something that could be used!

20th September 2010

Nice easy tea tonight of leftover lasagne from the weekend, unfortunately the cleaning up was less easy due to the sauce getting slightly welded onto the dish during the re-heating process!  Thank goodness for dishwashers...

19th September 2010

This morning we got up uber-early to be swim marshalls for our tri club's triathlon. There was quite a lot of concentration involved counting the number of lengths the competitors had done with up to three swimmers per lane for three hours, however we were amply rewarded for our time with this bagful of goodies!

18th September 2010

After a good couple of years procrastinating we finally took some of our junk to an indoor car boot sale today. Sadly it wasn't as successful as we'd hoped due to lack of buyers but it's given us a taste for selling so think we'll try a proper outdoor one next!

17th September 2010

Not very rock and roll, but just back from a couple of after work drinks with my colleagues and having an Ovaltine before bed!

16th September 2010

Chaos at London Bridge on the station this evening as the Cannon Street train to Orpington/Sevenoaks was cancelled and so we were all packed off to London Bridge to try our luck there.  Amazingly despite the crowds I managed to find a seat once the Orpington train arrived!

15th September 2010

One of the benefits of being back at LR is the 'free lunch', which means that if I chose to eat a main meal at lunch time I don't have to cook in the evening (Mr W has a canteen at his work too - I'm not really a bad wife) and we can eat fun snacks such as cheese-on-toast for tea. Tonight Mr W was out anyway and so I decided to make myself posh cheese-on-toast my grating the cheese and mashing it up with some milk rather than just throwing a couple of slices of cheese on top of the toast.  Unfortunately I added a bit too much milk and so some of the topping overflowed onto the bottom of the grill pan - whoops! The final result was tasty anyhow.

14th September 2010

Having missed last week because we were on holiday, this evening was my first time back at Brownies since before the summer holidays.  Lots of cute newbies and some who make us chuckle without even trying.  Tonight they were making mosaics with lots of little pieces of coloured paper which reminded Carol of a previous child who in order to pick up pieces of paper from the floor decided to put glue on the bottom of her shoes and run around - it worked apparently but neither the shoes or the carpet were in such a great state afterwards!

13th September 2010

After 4 years on secondment I finally returned to LR today - revised train journey, re-built computer, re-modelled canteen, but one thing was brand new - my pass!

12th September 2010

I've been wanting to try out the new Zumba classes at the gym for a while and so this morning I decided to give it a go in order to burn off some of those holiday excesses. It was definitely fun but think I will need a lot more sessions to get the hang of shakin' my booty whilst co-ordinating my arms and legs!

11th September 2010

The holiday is definitely over - this is our huge pile of washing to be done...

10th September 2010

Today on our last day in Las Vegas we did something different and went to the Siegfried and Roy Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage hotel. Watching the dolphins play with their trainers was amazing but most cute were these 11 week old white tiger cubs.

9th September 2010

Anything goes in Vegas, so as we were a bit late getting up this morning we rather naughtily had Chinese noodles for breakfast and they came with fortune cookies. My message was the top one and a couple of hours later I won 56 dollars on the slot machines! Stephen's was the bottom one and he's still waiting for some luck on the slots...

8th September 2010

We've spent the last couple of days visiting the many themed hotels in Vegas, but I think this one, the Excalibur, must win the prize for the craziest facade that wouldn't look out of place at Disneyland! Other bizarre things we've seen include a giant sphinx, a pirate show, animated fountains and a miniature Eiffel Tower. Las Vegas truly is the home of the weird, wacky and wonderful!

7th September 2010

It's 12.20am, so I think this can count as a new day for blogging purposes. We've been in Las Vegas for approximately 7 hours and I'm very excited to have already won some money on the slot machines!

6th September 2010

After a hot night at the Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley - I don't think the temperature dropped below 100 deg F (thank goodness for air-conditioned hotel rooms!) - we visited Badwater, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere, on our way to Las Vegas today.

5th September 2010

We drove to Death Valley today and it was hot! According to the car gadgetry, temperatures peaked at 116 deg F - that's over 46 deg C for those who prefer metric.

4th September 2010

Today we went to Mariposa Grove in the southern part of Yosemite National Park to see the amazing giant sequoia trees which grow there, including this 2700 year old giant. Still didn't spot any bears although we did see a very cute mummy and baby deer in the forest.

3rd September 2010

We spent today in Yosemite Valley, including a hike to the top of Vernal Falls. We saw lots of squirrels and blue jays whilst out walking but the only bear we saw was in the village store!

2nd September 2010

After a day on the beach in Lake Tahoe yesterday we hit the road again this morning and this afternoon arrived at Yosemite National Park.  This is the view as we were approaching the Tioga Pass entrance.

1st September 2010

Years ago when I went to Florida with my parents it seemed that we ate breakfast at Denny's nearly every day. So this morning I took Stephen to the South Lake Tahoe one to relieve the experience and see whether it was as good as I remembered. I didn't have the pancakes but they do do a pretty good omelette.

31st August 2010

My in-laws suggested we give this place a try, so we visited for breakfast this morning before we collected our hire car and left San Francisco. I can confirm that it was good!