Boxes and Lollipops

100 Happy Days - Day 44:  Love seeing how Dilbert's boss could work in the company I work for in real life! It's all about 'ticking boxes'!

100 Happy Days - Day 45:  How to scare children into not eating lollipops - lol!

Using My Loaf

100 Happy Days - Day 34:  Prior to getting a bread-making machine  for Christmas, I had pretty much given up eating bread.

Still, there's something immensely satisfying having one of these cooling in the kitchen at the weekend!

This pic is of my current fave loaf, wholemeal with sunflower and poppy seeds.

#100 Happy Days - Day 28

100 Happy Days - Day 28:  In aid of Sport Relief, the usual bakers at work were selling cakes and I was 'persuaded' to buy this doorstop of chocolate cake.  No, I couldn't eat it all but I tried!

Hmm...considering I don't see myself as a 'foodie', a lot of my Happy Day posts are about food! Strange!

#100 Happy Days - Day 19 and Day 20

Out with the gym girlies again (100 Happy Days - Day 19) - instead of going into city centre, we met up at LM's house. Her mum turned up while we were there - she was fab, a shame she didn't stay longer!

We then ate at Ambiente, a local restaurant.  The tapas was great, best I've had in a long time, I'd definitely go back there again.

Home at a decent time (ie before midnight) with a fuzzy head after a top night out.

100 Happy Days - Day 20: The pesky squirrel didn't manage to dig up all my bulbs after all. It was a lovely spring day today - my hangover was mild enough to allow me to venture outside into the sunshine so I had this nice surprise waiting for me.

#100 Happy Days - Day 15 and Day 16

100 Happy Days - Day 15: Came across this story yesterday  - not a topic that people (even women) generally talk about, but this story has to be read.

So heartening to see that some people are not in it for money or fame but for the betterment of others.

Shocking that some poor women are still living in the Dark Ages in some countries. Bravo that man who has given freedom (and jobs) to so many women in his country.

100 Happy Days - Day 16 - My usual quick and easy pasta dish, which does look a bit like chow mein but isn't!

I've used mostly low carb spaghetti, bit of lean steak mince, mushrooms, red peppers, onions and celery and a puttanesca sauce with extra garlic - yummy!

Shopping and Food!

Given the choice between shopping in the Trafford Centre or City Centre, I will usually pick the latter.

Always gives me good memories from when I first started coming to Manchester in my late teens, before I moved here permanently.

100 Happy Days - Day 13: Early afternoon on Market Street with time to kill! Looks different without HMV there though (moved into the Arndale now.)




100 Happy Days - Day 14:  Made a enough chicken curry for a coupla meals to stick in the freezer - reminds me of chip shop curry that we used to have in our shop - yummy!

Grill and Goals

On Friday, it was my friend and colleague JR's last day on our team. After nearly 15 years, she is moving onwards and upwards into another role in another department. I wish her all the very best but shall really miss working with her. Am glad that she's still at the same company so I can still catch up with her.

For a little leaving do, we went to The Hale Grill where I had an excellent steak and even had room to squeeze in a dessert. So this is my 100 Happy Days - Day 11, celebrating JR's new job with some great food!

For 100 Happy Days - Day 12,  today's win over Southampton (first time in 11 years) takes Liverpool to 2nd in the league...dare I start dreaming just yet!? 

Genre

100 Happy Days - Day 9: This sports headline made me happy - am loving Man U's annus horriblus!

Came across this website (Worlds Without Ends) which had some interesting reading challenges on offer. Or, if you don't fancy any of them, you can pick or 'roll your own' challenge.  I've gone for the 'Women of Genre Fiction' Challenge: Read 12 books by 12 new-to-you women authors in 12 months and write 12 reviews.  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

Sounds simple but actually not, since I only just realised recently that I don't read many books written by women. Anyway, this is a great way to discover new authors.

So my 100 Happy Days - Day 10 is starting this challenge and I can already knock off two books off the list so only 10 to go!

Bit of a Fail...

Well this is a bit rubbish, being my first post on here of 2014 and we're halfway through Feb already! Just had a lot of stuff going on. Or maybe I've just been too busy watching tv and reading!

Anyway, my new year resolution is still intact and I'm starting to feel the benefits. My fitness is getting better and I'm finding I can push myself a harder.

Been on a bit of a budget since Christmas and certainly my bread-maker has come in handy when it's come to eating cheaply.  Have been well impressed with it - my favourite Christmas present of 2013! Another thing to help with my budgeting is the opening of the local Aldi supermarket - whilst I can't do all my food shopping there, I can buy most things there and already, I can see that for basics, eg meat and veg, it's a lot cheaper than Tesco.

Chinese New Year was at the end of the Jan - it's the year of the Horse and apparently, this is supposed to be a good year for me in all aspects of my life- hurray!

It's already started well - my life insurance/endowment plan matured after 15 years and with the stock market crashes of recent years, I was really just expecting (and hoping at least) to break even. However, it actually went to plan so I had an unexpected windfall! I'll not forget about my budgeting though - the windfall won't last otherwise!

Valentine's Day - well, the good news was that I actually had a date! The bad news? That's all it's going to be but it was very pleasant.

Anyway, I've decided to take up the '100 Happy Days" challenge - so perhaps I'll post some pictures on here...

Well, I'm surprised I've rambled on for so much... I guess I do miss blogging. I'll try to keep on top and try to fill in some gaps.

Harry Made Me Cry Again!

Was resigned to missing all the summer blockbusters due to Boom not getting enough time off but for once, things turned out alright and we went to see the last of JK Rowling's movie franchise, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2'. (This was after I'd driven to the old cinema which was all boarded up, shows how long I've been there!)

It's been a couple of years since I read the book so my memory of a lot of the storyline was a bit hazy but I think this (plus the film before) are now my favourites as I loved the books when they turned dark.

Top performances by the 'kids', actually the title of this post is a lie as Harry didn't make me cry, it was Snape, ie Alan Rickman who made me shed a tear!

Frankie and Benny's afterwards - food now sitting feeling very fat in my belly. I need to cut down, love handles are starting to appear, I swear! :-(

[posted in Jan 2012 - stuck in Pending]

Grazing

Still trying to lose my 'winter layer' - I think I'm sorta winning - in terms of going to the gym two or three times a week to do my aerobics and my yoga/pilates classes, I feel pretty fit but not at the level of 'body tone' that I would like.

My diet could be better - I don't tend to eat much during the week but at weekends, I eat a lot, a lot of it is rubbish, there's a fair bit of alcohol (though probably not excessive) and recently, I appear to have developed a need to snack, mostly savoury as opposed to sweet. Still on the other hand, I've also started to drink green tea on occasion instead of normal tea, so that cuts down my milk intake, although I've yet to do this at work.

A colleague suggested I check out graze.com - healthy snacks delivered to your door (or workplace) for convenience.  I was a bit dubious at first, thought it would all be flavourless nuts and seeds  with the consistency of cardboard but I was pleasantly surprised when my first 'graze box' was delivered this morning. Yes, I've got some seeds, but also some savoury Japanese crackers, mix of dried fruits and a flapjack. Yes, even flapjacks can be healthy compared to that packet of crisps! You get to choose from a huge range of snacks they provide, saying what you like/don't like, but what they give you in your box is always a surprise mixture from your choices.

Anyway, anyone interested in getting a free box can quote QFH6ZZH - think this is for a limited time only but hopefully I'll get other codes as I plan on continuing to buy from graze.com

Still struggling to get enough sleep these days, tired in the mornings, wide awake at night. I'm due a big lie in at some point to catch up. Also, I miss Boom when I don't see him...bummer! Must keep distracted and busy!

Best of British?

I'm working half day tomorrow so I can meet up with my parents to sort out things at the bank in town. I asked them where they wanted to meet for lunch but I already knew what my mum would say:

"Let's go to British Home Stores again!"

Of all the varied, fancy, award winning restaurants in Manchester City Centre, my parents keep wanting to go back to BHS (this will be the 3rd time in two weeks) because according to them, it's hard to find good old British meals in Hong Kong and they miss it!

True, they did mention that the restaurant looked a bit tatty and the service was slow but that didn't put them off tucking into their fish & chips and cottage pie - not entirely healthy but they are on holiday and entitled to indulge!

I've been on holiday and gone to the same restaurant several times before so I guess it's not that different but it's just funny since BHS wouldn't normally be on anyone's radar for clothes never mind dining.

Although as I made my way to the restaurant, I did see a couple of tops  that may need investigating for work wear!

May Blank Hols...

Yep, it's the first bank holiday weekend of May - I know I should update my blog but I know I probably won't so I'll just quickly jot some things down that are on my mind:

WWWWWL

No, not some new world war website but an acronym I learnt yesterday at work (the company is very fond of acronyms). What does it stand for (you may or may not be wondering)? "Why We Win Why We Lose". Ahem.

Football

With Liverpool's disastrous season and them being knocked out of the both Champions League and Europa Cup (last night), plus Ebbsfleet United being relegated from the Blue Square Premier League and the future unknown for MyFootballClub, I would like to say that I hope England provide at least a smidgen of football enjoyment for me this summer...

Flab

I noticed an extra layer round my waist due to overeating and no exercise these past few weeks - this must go.

Clothes

I seem to have a lot of clothes but am reluctant to throw any away - I shall make an effort this weekend to see if any items can go in the ever present charity bag.

Have a nice long weekend all!

Spaghetti Mishap

Cooking and drinking - they don't go together or maybe I've just too much on my mind to be multi-tasking right now!

Was cooking some pasta the other day.

Opened a bottle a beer.

Swig of beer.

Chopped up some veg.

Swig of beer.

Stirred pasta to stop from sticking together.

Swig of beer.

Continued until pasta ready and moved to sink to drain off water.

Knocked over bottle of beer with pan.

Caught bottle with left hand, almost like how Angelina Jolie does with the wine bottle in the film Mr & Mrs Smith….except I'm still holding the pan of pasta so...

Hot spaghetti and boiling water over right hand and wrist.

It didn't hurt at the time but later it did and now I have long thin spaghetti burn marks - looks like I've got some tropical worm disease. Skin still a little tender too.

What a muppet! :-(

They Get Worse with Age...

…hangovers that is and I swear I am still suffering from the prolonged after effects from the weekend!

My theory is that when I was younger, since I drank more and also more often, my body was coping with perpetual hangovers all the time so was used to it.

Now, drinking a lot doesn't happen as often so when I do over-indulge, my body is totally rebelling - not good!

So, I waved goodbye to my thirties with lots of wine, cocktails and gin, good food and laughs. Actually, too much wine, cocktails and gin.

On Friday, Boom took me out to Bem Brasil, a Brazilian steakhouse - it was fab. Everyone has these little discs on their tables, red on one side, green on the other. The waiters walk around with big skewers of all types of meat and if your disc is on the green side, they will give you a cut of the meat; if on red, then they know you don't want a slice. I ate a lot that night!

Saturday, met up with the girls at 3pm in Atlas Bar for some wine. The weather was sunny so we were sitting outside, it was very pleasant. We moved onto another bar (apparently…I don’t remember!) and then had a meal in Albert's Shed- I do remember having a lovely tuna salad and also that the glass of red wine that JH spilt did not end up thankfully on my white jeans but ended up over the couple sitting on the table next to us! Amazingly, they were ok about it, but JH was mortified and left them her telephone number in case they wanted to contact her with cleaning bills…

We ended up in Manchester 235 casino and by this point, I'd had so much to drink that I was totally oblivious to the fact that AM and HW had had an argument and were not speaking to each other… Hence I didn't understand why AM left early. But why was I drinking White Russians? Hardly brilliant for the waistline!

Anyway, stayed in the casino with HW, we didn't know what we were doing - at one point thinking we were playing Blackjack when it was actually poker - but we were winning and in the end, we broke even so that's a good night of gambling!

Got a taxi home, crashed out at around 1.30am, all lights left on in the house.

Sunday was a complete washout - I really couldn't get out of bed and all day, all I could stomach was one cup of tea, a bit of water and a couple of slices of toast! My head was banging, even when I was lying down! It's been tough at work this week as I don't think I've quite recovered but well, it was something that had to be done!

Jewellery featured high on the list for presents - I got a lovely bracelet from Boom (which I wore on Saturday and which I checked every 5 mins to make sure it was still on my wrist!), a necklace from the girls, plus some Euros for my hols, a necklace from my mate in Wales, BSG Season 4 boxed set from the boss (wooohoo!) , some flowers from an ex-colleague.

Have got a busy few days coming up - hope I get the time to update!

Leeeeeroy Jenkins

Well somehow, we knew the good weather we've been experiencing here wouldn't last and at the weekend, the heavens opened as usual. Temperature dropped so low that I even had to put the central heating on for a bit - given the stupidly high bill I've just had from British Gas, I tried to resist but Boom was shivering when he came round so I had to relent!

Still, it was a nice long weekend, which seemed to fly by at breakneck speed.

Long walks, trips out, cosy time watching DVDs...

We did none of those.

Instead, bar an interval to watch football (me watching Liverpool beat Newcastle on TV at the gym and him going to Middlesbrough to watch Man U maintain their lead at the top) we spent nearly 24 hours gaming on World of Warcraft.

Ok, so it wasn't 24 hours non-stop, not like this gamer, but more like 24 hours spread over the bank holiday weekend, in between numerous cups of tea and coffee, me cooking on a couple of occasions and a quick trip to Tesco to buy stuff for lunch.

Yes, we sound like a couple of sad nerds but hey, it's a hobby like any other hobby or interest - fun and enjoyable!

This hobby does take up a lot of time, I still manage to squeeze in time to read and listen to music but I think what's been sacrificed is time spent flicking the numerous tv channels for something to watch. Most evenings, the tv doesn't get switched on at all, which I'm sure is unheard of in some households.

At some point over the weekend though, we did have The Jeremy Kyle Show on in the background - it seems the programme just consists of DNA tests to prove whether some guy was the father of some poor child. There was one case where the guy was devastated to find that the child that he cared for and paid some maintenance towards (actually, us tax payers pay maintenance for….but I digress) was not his. The expression on the mother's face was that of 'deep thought' - she was trying to work out who else she had been shagging at the time and who could be the child's father - apparently, it could be one of three other men. I wonder if any of these three watched the programme and regretted meeting this trollop…? All of the men must have seriously been wearing beer goggles at the time or registered blind.

Must not go into rant mode…happy thoughts, happy thoughts!

Crafty Break

The Easter weekend went like a blur. A good blur.

Apparently, there was a bit of sunshine but I didn't really benefit from it - Boom was round for most of the weekend, so we were indoors WoWing on our laptops like a couple of sad (but happy) geeks!

On Saturday, we were so engrossed that we forgot to eat and ended up getting kebabs delivered at midnight....

Sunday was better - in between our gaming, I cooked twice in one day, which is almost unheard of for me!

Ate a lot of sugary stuff this weekend - need to make sure I work off the calories in my classes.

Caught up on my sleep, got stuck into some reading, feel more relaxed but still need a proper holiday - need to kick Boom up the arse to get organised!

Chocs Away

A disastrous result in the football last night against Chelski - Boom didn't gloat as much as he could have, for which I was grateful. Why should the mere result of a football match bother me so much? I don't know why, it really shouldn't matter but it does!

Aside from the fact that the new CEO of our newly merged company has announced that there will be no pay rises this year, it's been a real slog of a week at work so I'm really looking forward to the long weekend. Sure, the weather's supposed to be rubbish (though this hasn't stopped my hayfever from turning up early) but it's time away from the office and work.

Came into work this morning and and on my desk was a very large Thorntons chocolate egg, courtesy of the boss - very generous of him, although it'll no doubt be in my fridge for a very very long time!

I bought some chocolate from Thorntons myself the other weekend - white for the glamorous C, dark for Boom, none for me.

Anyway, hope people have a nice little break and don't overdo it with the chocolate!

All I Want For Christmas Is...

Well I dunno about anyone else but I had a most pleasant Christmas - stress-free, relaxing, lots of drink, too much food (maybe the other way round...).

I was given my own Christmas stocking (a blingy snow white one!) as the glamorous C's son still 'believes'. It was filled with goodies - I must have been a good girl!

So Christmas morning, after a heavy night of champagne and wine, we were woken up early to shouts of "IT'S CHRISSSSSTMAS!" to open presents. Although not technically a gift as it was an unwanted upgrade of the glamorous C, I still see my new Nokia mobile phone as such - it's so dinky and cool!

Long distance calls to speak to members of my family - it was good to hear what they did, albeit without me and when I heard my little niece on the phone say my name, I tried not to get too emotional. Shame I didn't catch my Gran though.

The glamorous C cooked a lovely Christmas dinner - I did my share of peeling vegetables, and slicing/serving the meat, and also kept the kids amused so she was able to cook with little distraction. We ate non-stop, drank gin and a load of Baileys and watched Top Of The Pops. The kids' dad came to pick them up so me and the glamorous C carried on into the night, catching a whole manner of festive tv, it was really relaxing.

We didn't get many chances to chat but the glamorous C is in a happy place right now - she mentioned that her new bloke had asked her to move in with him, that her next wedding would be a very small affair...wow! Maybe it's just me but things are like going way too fast for my mind to comprehend (they met on 1st Nov...) but if she's happy and comfortable with it, it's no business of mine to say anything, I mean what do I know?

Boxing Day, we stayed in our pyjamas until late afternoon, watched St Trinians on DVD (the recent adaptation), nursed a sore head.

Later, the glamorous C was off to see her sugar daddy and me...? Well, I went out too and after watching Pride & Glory, had a fab and fun (but very late) night.

The next couple of days are a blur of sleeping, eating (turkey sandwiches or cheese and crackers) and watching episode after excellent episode of Lost: Season 3.

Sportwise, the festive period hasn't been a good one for Ebbsfleet United, but has been excellent for Liverpool, who after beating Bolton 3-0 on Boxing Day, went on to thrash Newcastle 5-1, netting me a nice crisp tenner (my usual wager with the Geordie at work) and keeping the Reds on top of the league into the new year and on track to win their first ever Premier League title....

Today, I thought I'd brave the sales. Decided against going to the Trafford Centre so I went into a very chilly Manchester. When I saw the hoardes there, I developed a headache but after a coupla hours, I came away with a few bits and pieces, including some incredibly high heels (why? Because they were on sale...) and being organised for once, picked up Christmas cards for next year too!

Back to work tomorrow before another long weekend - I need to motivate myself for aerobics too, start as I mean to go on, etc.

So did Santa bring me what I wanted? Perhaps - only hope that it's not just for Christmas! ;-)

Munch Lunch

Didn't get to meet up with my uni pals for our usual annual reunion this year - we couldn't sort out a free date with the southern girlies. But still, JC invited me round for Sunday lunch and like I was going to pass up an opportunity for a good meal!

Sure she and CL (her hubbie and fellow uni pal) only live in Warrington which is barely 30 mins away but our friendship survives well on sporadic emails and annual get togethers.

Since my last visit, they've had a mega extension done to their house, which was big before but is now huuge! Very impressive, absolutely gorgeous, ridiculously expensive but wow , a cinema room with proper cinema chairs (courtesy of a local cinema that had just closed down!).

Thing is, everything looks rosy - fabulous house, wonderful holidays, three cute kids partaking in a bewildering number of hobbies; but the credit crunch is hitting them hard, resulting in JC soon to return to full time work and CL is going to be....a house husband! Not quite sure how that will work but they're going to give it a go, if they are to continue with their lifestyle.

And then LF turned up for a chat, so it was like a mini reunion - she's contemplating emigrating to Singapore, which is quite astounding considering her husband has lived and worked in the same little town all his life - not sure he's really thought about it, but hey, hope they go for it!

Hopefully, we'll arrange a weekend for a proper session in the new year, although there was talk of joint birthday celebrations next year.