30th April 2011

We've been wanting to decorate our bedroom for ages and even bought the paint just after Christmas, however finding the time to actually get on with the job has been difficult. But today, taking advantage of the four-day weekend, Mr W has been painting like a demon whilst I attempt to tackle some de-cluttering.

29th April 2011

Congratulations to Prince William and Catherine Middleton on their marriage! Having watched the whole shebang on the television this morning we then joined our neighbours this afternoon for a street party to celebrate! The sun even shone for us after a rather dull start to the day.

28th April 2011

Tomorrow we're having a street party on our road to celebrate the Royal Wedding and what could be more British than trifle so this evening I've been making some mini trifles for us to eat at the party! Just need to add the cream tomorrow morning.

27th April 2011

After eating lots of big meals and chocolate when we were away last weekend, I decided that tonight I would be healthy and have a big salad with some smoked mackerel for my tea. Unfortunately I did have to have some salad cream with it but the good intentions were there!

26th April 2011

We have a funny sort of palm tree in our front garden but for the last year or so the top has been looking very droopy and some new leaves have been growing at the bottom, so yesterday Mr W took the plunge and cut the top off in the hope that it will resurrect the tree. I'm not convinced but am prepared to give it a chance, currently though it looks rather odd!

25th April 2011

The rare sight of our car being cleaned - Mr W even hoovered the inside!

24th April 2011

Today was our seventh wedding anniversary. Sadly the weather in Warwickshire wasn't quite as sunny as it was in Weymouth on our wedding day, but we still had a good day out at Kenilworth Castle and these are the cards we received.

23rd April 2011

It was very sunny in Stratford today and so Stephen took me for a jaunt in a rowing boat on the river Avon...

22nd April 2011

Whilst walking around Stratford-upon-Avon before dinner this evening we spotted these very patriotic Easter Eggs in the window of Thorntons. There was also a Charles, a Camilla and a Queen!

21st April 2011

We had our car's air conditioning serviced a couple of months ago but when the weather turned warm the other week we discovered it wasn't working and so it had to go back to the garage to be looked at again. I picked it up this afternoon and happily everything seems to be working now - good job too since the car temperature gauge was saying it was 26 degrees outside!

20th April 2011

This evening we went out for a curry with some friends from the running club. The restaurant do a "banquet" deal including starters, main course, side dish and rice or naan bread consequently our plates were all well loaded with food!

19th April 2011

The daffodils are nearly over, but now it's the turn of the tulips to bloom!

18th April 2011

After yesterday's party there was a lot of washing-up to do and so good use was made of my mother's drawer full of tea-towels. One that didn't get used however, although it made it out of the drawer for the first time in probably many years, was this useful calendar tea-towel - if only it was still 1986!!

17th April 2011

Congratulations today to my parents on their 40th wedding anniversary! To celebrate they held a party in their garden and this is the fabulous cake that my godmother made for them.

16th April 2011

My parents very kindly bought us several presents back from their world trip and this was one of them - a furry brown kiwi that makes the appropriate sound when you press its tummy!

15th April 2011

For my parents ruby wedding anniversary we decided to create a photo book for them documenting their 40 years of marriage, so whilst they were on their travels we raided their photo collection for suitable images and this is the final product...

14th April 2011

This weekend we're going down to visit my parents and help out at their 40th wedding anniversary party. I seem to have volunteered to make some coleslaw but as my mum doesn't have a food processor I've decided to take ours rather than have to chop cabbage by hand!

13th April 2011

Although my parents are now back from their round the world trip we've received four postcards from three different countries from them in the last two days. Yesterday we got two from the Cook Islands and today we had one dated 17 March from New Zealand (which they visited before the Cook Islands!) and one from Los Angeles.

12th April 2011

We went to see Kylie Minogue at the O2 this evening - it was a great show ending in a watery finale, even better than when we saw her a few years ago at Earls Court. Unfortunately it was tricky to get a good shot on my mobile but this is one from the big screens during her opening number!

11th April 2011

After the warm weekend it was quite chilly when we got home from our dance class this evening, I was keen to get inside into the warm whereas Mr W seemed more interested in playing with the neighbours' cats who were skulking round outside our house!

10th April 2011

Despite very hot conditions, considering it's supposed to be April in Britain, Mr W finished the Brighton Marathon today in 3h 48min - very proud of him!

9th April 2011

Mr W is running in the Brighton Marathon tomorrow and so rather than having to rush down in the morning we decided to stay overnight. We found a small hotel close to the seafront and rather bizarrely our room has this very high four-poster bed in it!

8th April 2011

Another sunny day and so I thought I'd grab a sandwich for lunch and eat it outside. I was going to go to Trinity Square Gardens by Tower Hill tube station but as there was barely a patch of grass to be seen I decided to sit by the sundial above the station instead, which was just as sunny a spot but much less busy!

7th April 2011

The sun was shining today, it was unseasonably warm and the crowds were out by the Tower of London at lunchtime.

6th April 2011

Whilst my parents have been travelling the world they've sent us lots of postcards, unfortunately though the ones from New Zealand seem to have taken ages to arrive. Looking at this article from the paper this morning it seems like the problem may have been that they just used our address rather than actually describing where we live - amazingly it only took 4 days for this postcard to reach Norfolk from the Canary Islands! Generally I think I'm lucky if a letter reaches Dorset from London in the same time...

5th April 2011

I was working from home today and realised this morning that I didn't have any food for lunch, so I decided to put the breadmaker on to make some bread. Unfortunately I only had time to use the 'rapid bake' option which never turns out quite as well as the slower bake option and today's lopsided effort was no exception...

4th April 2011

Turns out the story in Friday's paper about the bullet-proof umbrella was true, but I did correctly identify the edible newspaper and unicorns at the Tower of London as being April Fools!

3rd April 2011

It's very frustrating - I can make Yorkshire puddings to go with roast beef no problem, but for some reason I can never get my batter to rise properly when making toad-in-the-hole. More practice is clearly required but on the plus side it did taste nice!

2nd April 2011

Most people take wine, chocolates or flowers when they visit friends for lunch, today however we took a mango when we went to visit one of Stephen's work colleagues and her family. We did also take the usual flowers and chocolates but the mango was for their two-year old son as apparently mangoes are his favourite fruit!

1st April 2011

I'm embarrassed to admit it but I'm rubbish at spotting April Fools' hoaxes in the paper and so this morning on my way to work I happily read about edible newspapers, unicorns at the Tower of London and a bullet-proof brolly for the French president. It was only when I got off the train and remembered the date that I started to question what I'd been reading...