TheMcWoods

2011-12-31T14:20:00.004Z

The month of December has come and gone almost as fast as 2011. This was a particularly lovely December full of family, food, and celebration. My sister and parents arrived in mid-December and we were able to visit London, taking in a show (Legally Blonde) and hitting up Oxford and Regent streets before we all travelled north to Worcester.

We celebrated an early Christmas with our traditional family breakfast, followed by a Christmas dinner prepared by Lee and me. I think we managed to get most of the food out hot and at the same time.

We were spoiled by my family and I think they were happy with their gifts. Some of my favorites were a Paul Smith ornament and Emma Bridgwater joy plate.

Besides celebrating an early Christmas, my family also flew over to attend my PhD ceremony. It was a wonderful ceremony (I daresay it was even better than my MSc in Edinburgh). I felt a bit choked up when the trumpeters opened the ceremony and the procession of professors and staff began. I was touched that several former colleagues, current colleagues, and my former and current boss were also able to attend. All of the different caps and gowns from the different universities made for some great pictures.

We have had a blessed 2011 and are very much looking forward to 2012!

Istanbul

2011-11-29T19:19:00.004Z

Last month I had the opportunity to travel to Istanbul for a conference. It was a shame that the conference got in the way as the half day spent exploring the city was simply not enough!

My colleages and I only managed to visit Hagia Sophia as each time that we tried to visit the Blue Mosque it was time for prayers. But I've told Lee that it is somewhere that we need to visit together. The food, the colours, the shopping, the pottery...it was sometimes too much to take in!

Yay for dorky conferences in cool places!

2011-11-05T16:36:00.000Z

With Lee working shiftwork, our weekends together are pretty precious. We only managed to go camping once this year, but when we did go last month, we certainly lucked out weather-wise.

We usually head out early on a Friday, but as I was teaching the Friday afternoon, we decided that Lee would head out early solo and then our friends and I would travel out early Saturday morning.

We camped at the same fantastic little campsite at the foot of Snowdon that we did last year. It is a basic campsite, but we love that 1) it doesn't allow campervans and 2) it allows fires, which is rather rare. It is first come first served so Lee managed to nab us a lovely spot on the Friday afternoon.

Our friends had never tackled Snowdon, but our fearless leader thought that we could all handle the Watkin path (which starts just below the campsite). The weather was warm but manageable and we plodded up to the top.

The top of the path is fairly hairy with loads of scree - and something that one wouldn't really want to do in bad weather - but we managed to get up (and down) safely.

The top of Snowdon was an absolute zoo, so we only stayed up there long enough to eat our packed lunch. Someone had driven their car up to the top, and it quickly became a bit of a tourist attraction.

Of course one of the best parts about camping with Lee is his tasty fry-ups in the morning. It's worth sleeping on a one-inch matress for one of these bad boys!

2011-09-26T20:46:00.004+01:00

I think the most memorable part of our trip was our meal at the Ristoro di Lamole, which was a scenic and ever-so winding 8km drive south of Greve.

Lee had booked our table ahead of time and we were rewarded with a glorious sunset.

We're not foodies, but we love to eat and we both agreed that the food and drink were superb. Luckily for me (unluckily for Lee) we were following my 'husbands must drive in foreign countries' rule, so I was able to enjoy considerably more wine than Lee (although he did sample a bit - it would have been rude not to).

We also took a few day trips to some of the Tuscan hill towns of Volterra and San Gimignano.

We even opted to make a quick morning trip to Pisa, so we too could look like every other tourist.

I know that we would both love to go back to Italy. We were constrained by Lee's work schedule so the next visit would ideally not take place in the middle of summer. I am SO not good in the heat :)

2011-09-25T18:00:00.005+01:00

We were only in Italy for six days and barely managed to get even a taste of the country, but it was one that we savoured.

Somehow '2 scoops' was lost in translation...

We loved the serve yourself option!

Of the two large cities in Tuscany, I think I preferred our visit to Siena as it had a more relaxed vibe and fewer people than Florence. Siena was also gearing up for Il Palio, which meant that the streets were covered with the different flags and banners of the different contrade.

That said, I think Florence itself deserves an entire holiday. Preferably one that doesn't take place in August with hordes of tourists and queues a mile long...

2011-08-23T20:28:00.007+01:00

Two weeks ago Lee and I returned from a 6-day trip to the Chianti region of Italy. To say that it was a dream trip would be an understatement. We returned to England tanned (well I was slightly pinkish), rested, and vowing never to eat cheap olive oil ever again.

We rented this villa, which was 3 kms outside of Greve via Airbnb. We arrived there slightly later than expected (due to crazy directions from Google maps and a quick pitstop for a 4 euro tasting at the Vichiomaggio vineyard), where we were warmly greated by the owner. He showed us around, gave us the keys, and said see you in 6 days. Then he lit up a cigarette, hopped on his motorcycle and took off down the windy road back into Greve.

The villa was everything we had hoped; a place just to relax and read, and a great base from which to explore the region. My favorite part of the day was opening the shutters in the morning and just looking out onto Greve, then heading down to make an espresso to enjoy outside on the patio.

We spent most nights eating simple meals like this and just enjoying the sunset.

I managed to finally read the first Stieg Larssen book - about 2 years later than most people - and ended up kicking myself for just getting the one. Immensely readable and great for a holiday!

2011-07-19T19:03:00.004+01:00

Three months in one post - I'm rubbish at this blogging thing.

I spent most of the month of May in a mad scramble to finish and submit my PhD. The submission process was horribly anti-climatic though. It involved lugging 5 copies of my 360+ page thesis down to the main administration office, queuing behind people ordering transcripts and new student cards, and having a pimply-faced kid shove my £150 worth of theses on a shelf behind her. I expected fireworks, angels, or trumpets at least.

Luckily I had my sister-in-law's wedding to look forward to the day after I submitted. It was a lovely day and I will admit that Lee and I were pretty pleased with our little lantern set-up that we (along with lots of other helpers) had rigged up earlier in the day. I also loved the fact that I could wear a massive fascinator :)

In June I flew home for a quick one-week visit. We celebrated my Mom's 60th birthday with several meals out and my favorite Dairy Queen ice cream cake.

I was also happy to see that my idea to have 20 of her friends post pieces of a birthday puzzle had worked. The idea was obviously not my own, and inspired by Jordan Ferney's postcard birthday poster, but I did create a design all my own. Some friends even went out of their way to hand deliver or FedEx their card to my Mom because of the Canada Post strike.

I was also home to celebrate the life of my dearest Nana, an absolutely wonderful woman who lived a life full of joy. We were so touched by the number of people who attended her memorial service, with some friends travelling a significant distance to attend. Her church created a fantastic spread of food and I was reminded that church ladies do make the best egg salad sandwiches and date squares.

After returning from Canada, I needed to focus on revising and preparing for my viva/thesis defence. Lee kept out of my hair by taking our niece and nephew strawberry and cherry picking (and then whipping up some tasty jam - he continues to amaze me!).

After a solid week of preparation and anxiety manifesting itself as nausea, I went in to defend my work. I'm pretty sure I went into the exam looking like this:

(a picture actually taken by my Nana when I had to go into the Barbie display in Paris all by my myself...I was such a shy and nervous kid and I still remember the overwhelming feeling of fear)

Two hours of questioning by three professors later and I had passed (with minor corrections). To say I was relieved is an understatement.

I don't think I can officially call myself Doctor until the internal examiner signs off the list of corrections, but it didn't stop me from registering for a 10K run as one. Ha ha :)

2011-04-29T12:55:00.002+01:00

What an absolutely lovely wedding!

Enjoyed with my perfect breakfast, and served on a perfectly lovely tea towel.

Followed by some tasty M&S shortbread.

Even the Queen enjoyed it (Carrie - her solar powered hand bag had her waving away) :)

Now to enjoy the kiss and the rest of the day off! :)

2011-03-20T18:32:00.005Z

Hi Mom!

I've finally pulled my finger out and uploaded some pictures onto my computer. So here are the past 2 months in bullet points:

I helped to plan by boss's retirement party. It felt like planning a wedding, only the seating plan at our wedding was far easier to organize. Trying to figure out the hierarchy of senior doctors and academics without bruising any egos was challenging and rather stressful.

I enjoyed a lovely Valentine' day weekend with these even lovelier people (and Lee too).

I've baked lots of cookies.

Lee attempted to deal with the ongoing critter problem in our loft. Shame we didn't have any ski googles for protection!

I had a 'cultural' day in London with an old friend, where we visited the National Gallery and the V&A. Both were free and both were fantastic! Unfortunately, I only have pictures from the latter.

Lee and I went to Ireland for a long weekend where we spent one day in Dublin before picking up a friend and her boyfriend (who were arriving from Glasgow) for the drive down to Clonmel, where the our friend's wedding was being held. We only managed to do the big touristy things in Dublin (Guinness storehouse and a bus tour), but we rather enjoyed ourselves.

I am obviously a statistics dork.

The wedding was absolutely fantastic and I loved that the bride rocked a short dress and bright pink shoes. I've never eaten so much at a wedding and the lady at Dublin airport immigration was absolutely right: there was A LOT of drinking. The four of us left at 2:30 and the party was still going on. The bride and groom left the party at 4:30 but some guests were still enjoying themselves at 6 in the morning.

Lee won over the Irish guests with his choice of tie - apparently it was the Tipperary colours.

Our dear friend Alison couldn't make the trip over, but she was still there in spirit.

This past week I cleaned out the desk I've sat at for over five years. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone, and how much crap and paperwork I have accumulated. I start my new job tomorrow and I'm both nervous and excited. I hope my new desk will have enough room for all my textbooks, as they're cluttering up the spare room!

2011-01-23T19:06:00.005Z

January has been a good month. I had my birthday, I got a new job, and Lee has been a four-week course. This has meant that we have actually been on the same Monday to Friday schedule, which has been such a treat.

We decided that as there was no rain forecast today that we would head south to the Forest of Dean and get some exercise. We hired some bikes, managed to find some helmets large enough for a big fat heads, and headed out on the trail.

We finished the weekend with one of Lee's famous soups and I MADE BREAD! Bread, that actually tasted like bread! Woohoo!

I know that I'm around four years late to the Bittman no-knead bread party but I blame the fact that I didn't have a dutch oven. Well I've had a lovely dutch oven since our kind friends gave us one for a wedding. But it wasn't until this Christmas until I finally got (or got around to asking for) a stainless steel knob so that I could actually use it in the oven.

I felt so domestic after having made bread that I actually washed the kitchen floor. Somebody stop me.

2011-01-18T18:08:00.010Z

When is it too late to say happy new year? Or to enquire how someone's Christmas was?

I'm guessing that today, my birthday, is probably too late, but who cares. I'm the birthday girl!

Here I am at my seventh birthday party, celebrating in Strawberry Shortcake style, and looking pretty happy with my new Getalong gang character. His name escapes me. It was, sadly, a rather quiet party with just four guests: me, my sister and my parents. We had just moved to Quebec two weeks earlier and I had no one to invite. Not that this party scarred me for life or anything...

Lee took me to London for my birthday, which was a lovely treat. We failed to take advantage of the multitude of cultural exhibits available in this great city, but instead focused on eating, drinking, walking, and shopping.

Lee had a successful visit to Belstaff and I scored some good deals at Banana Republic and some new latte bowls at Anthropologie.

We even survived a dodgy trip on a rickshaw, with a crazy driver wearing a jaunty hat.

We did a 'flat white' tour of the city tasting flat whites at four different coffee shops (all staffed by Antipodeans): Flat White, Foxcroft and Ginger, Sacred Coffee, and Lantanta. My favorite was at Lantanta, while Lee preferred his at Flat White. Yes, we're coffee dorks.

By the way, we had a lovely and relaxing Christmas and new year. I spent my days baking, eating copious amounts of cheese, reading books and doing jigsaw puzzles. It was luxurious.

My favorite book of the lot was One Day by David Nicholls. I'm intrigued to hear Anne Hathaway's take on a Yorkshire accent when the film comes out next year...

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T15:35:00.005Z

I'm really looking forward to a full week of relaxing, eating, and drinking! As much as it saddens me not to be back in Canada this year, I just need to think of all of the poor people stuck in Heathrow waiting for a flight that may be cancelled and I feel a bit better about our decision not to fly home.

Our little fridge is full to the brim with the turkey, lots of smoked salmon (my fave) and all of the trimmings.

We even have a little brussel sprouts tree!

I was ecstatic to find some egg nog at TK Maxx last night (obscenely priced at £4.99), so we'll be enjoying a bit of rum and nog over the next few nights...

Lee is on nights tonight and tomorrow, which is a bit of a bummer, but at least we have all next week to look forward to. We plan to do a fair bit of walking and just enjoy the winter weather.

2010-11-26T19:09:00.002Z

Apparently this past Sunday was Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before the start of the Advent season. It is also traditionally the day to make the Christmas pudding, with each family member having a stir while making a wish. I don't have a Christmas pudding to stir, but I do love Christmas pudding decorations.

I wish our niece and nephew were still small enough to wear this little hat and mitten set from John Lewis.

I also love this decoration and pillow from Laura Ashley.

These bin bags are slightly naff but will support Oxfam.

I also love this year's Christmas stamps. All of my North American-bound Christmas cards will be sporting the 96p stamp!

As the Laura Ashley decorations were too expensive, I decided to have a go at making me own, using the tutorial posted by Bugs and Fishes. As a non-sewer, making these bad boys is quite an achievement.

2010-11-16T11:14:00.007Z

I've been bad. I've bought myself, yes myself, not anyone from my Christmas list, something for Christmas.

I bought these snowflake stickers to pretty up our windows.

I also bought these snowflake cookie cutters. I think I'll try to use them with either a shortbread or gingerbread cookie recipe.

Speaking of baking, I'd like to also try to make these shortbread buttons, from the beautiful blog Forty-sixth at grace.

{via forty-six at grace}

I downloaded a copy of the very pretty recipe here, which I think would look lovely framed in our kitchen. The recipe was illustrated by etsy seller evajuliet, who creates beautiful things in Montreal.

2010-11-14T17:18:00.002Z

Lee and I picked Barry's Bay as our group's next stop as it was pretty much exactly half way between Montreal and Collingwood - our final destination of the trip.

We wanted to have a taste of a Canadian cottage and started to look for some cottage rentals. Unfortunately the majority of places were (1) not open; (2) required a one-week rental period; or (3) required that we brought our own linens and towels. Luckily we happened across Barry's Bay cottages, which allowed us to have a cottage experience for 2 days and nights without having to drag our duvet covers around on the holiday. The cottage was nice and clean and had pretty much every thing that we needed for the time we were there.

The hot tub went down a treat, although the boys made the fatal mistake of sitting in there for over an hour and drinking beers. Lee had to stand outside in the cold in order to start feeling better and not quite so light-headed.

Even though it was a bit choppy on the water, Lee channeled his inner Ray Mears and took a few of us out canoeing. Even the youngest member of our tour group (2-year-old Ollie) accompanied his Dad on the canoe, encouraging him to 'go faster'.

Four of us took advantage of the numerous hiking trails in the area, although the boys (yes, it was the boys) did take us on a rather longer detour due to some poor map reading.

The hike up to the lookout point was hard work but definitely worth it.

Although it was just a short stay, I think we managed to enjoy the best of cottaging: some canoeing, some fire-making, some hot-tubbing, some drinking, and lots and lots of eating!

2010-11-06T06:24:00.002Z

After Kingston, we headed east towards Montreal. On the afternoon of our arrival Lee and I did a little exploring on our own. McGill has a lovely campus and I often wonder what my undergraduate days would have been like if I'd chosen to go there instead...

It started raining so we wimped out and headed indoors for some drinks. Apparently it was happy hour so we were pleasantly surprised when the waitress brought us an extra beer each.

Unfortunately the rain didn't stop for the next two days! I don't usually mind the rain, but consistent, pouring down, soak your shoes rain when you're on holiday is a bit of a pain.

We stayed dry in Notre Dame cathedral, which was absolutely gorgeous.

As it was noon (somewhere) we decided to hide out from the rain some more in a nice cafe in old Montreal.

The thought of smoked meat cheered us a little as we trudged through the rain towards Schwartz's. We had to queue for 15 minutes or so but it was definitely worth the wait! I was also pleasantly surprised with how friendly our waiter was as I've heard that they can be rather crusty and rude.

Our original plan was to visit Schwartz's and then climb Mount Royal, but the rain clouds didn't co-operate.

Once we had warmed up and dried off, we went to see the Montreal Canadiens play the Buffalo Sabres in a pre-season game. None of the Brits had ever seen a hockey game but seemed to enjoy it. I'm not a hockey expert in the least but I hope I was able to explain the concepts of icing and offside.

We had a bit of a stress trying to find somewhere to eat before the game (we didn't), so this $9.00 foam finger was my way of cheering up my husband. (Sally bought one too for Dean) :)

we didn't really have enough time to see even a small amount of what Montreal has to offer. But I did manage to enjoy two Montreal bagels while we were in the city! They were as delicious as I remember. Unfortunately we ran out of time to get to either Fairmount or St Viateur bagels to buy a few dozen as I had planned. We were in a bit of a rush to get to our next destination and I didn't feel right asking the entire group to make a detour just for me. Travelling with a group has its rewards but it can be hard too sometimes...

2010-10-28T18:35:00.003+01:00

The day after the run Lee and his friends went down to Niagara-on-lake. They went on a jet boat tour of the Niagara river rapids. It was a bit too cold for the open boat tour so they decided to stay dry and hop into a covered boat. They still look like they had a good time :)

I spent the day with my family and my favorite bit of the day was hitting up Ikea with my sister. Seriously, it doesn't take much to keep me happy.

Unlike my usual trips to the big Swedish box, (i.e. with Lee), this trip was unhurried, unrushed, and really rather pleasant. I could fart around to my heart's content. I didn't buy anything for myself but rather just enjoyed the time with my sister.

We also popped into Mountain Equipment Co-op, which has recently opened up out in the burbs. I bought this beauty:

When I first got my laptop two years ago my boss suggested I buy a backpack to lug it to and from work. I politely told him I was having none of it and bought a cute one-shoulder ladies laptop bag. Well I've had shoulder pain for months and I have had to admit that Prof F. was right.

So a new backpack it was! It is definitely practical, comfortable, and infinitely better for my shoulders (even if look like I'm in grade 7 or like a French exchange student according to my husband).

Lee and I re-united with the Brits (who were staying in Toronto) the following day and our convoy of two cars headed east towards Montreal. We wanted to ease them into long-distance driving, so decided to break up the 5-hour trip in half and stay one night in Kingston. [In all seriousness the concept of driving more than 3 hours is completely foreign to most British people. One can drive the length of this island in something like 8 hours!]

I had not been back to Kingston since Homecoming in 2006. We popped into an old favorite, the Kingston Brewing Company, for some beers and eats.

I was glad to see that the pub was still serving the 'Horn of Plenty' :)

The weather was lovely, which makes showing off a city to tourists so much easier!

I made sure to drive by my old student house, which thankfully (for the house and for the neighbours) was bought by some 'real' people five years ago. It looks so much better than when we lived there! I do, however, wish I had had the idea to have a hammock on my balcony!

Then it was off to Montreal.

2010-10-23T06:40:00.005+01:00

I cannot remember who first suggested the idea, but earlier this year Lee and I and four of our friends decided that we would take a two-week road trip around Ontario and Quebec. 'Brits on Tour 2010' if you will.

Just like two years ago (six days before our wedding), we decided that five of us kick off our holiday with a wee run around Toronto. [Our sixth member probably had a harder time keep her jet-lagged two-year-old occupied on the sidelines].

Lee and I were on track to beat our Edinburgh time but my pace absolutely collapsed at mile 10. Lee managed to (yet again) drag my ass around the rest of the course and we finished two minutes slower than our personal best but almost 13 minutes faster than our previous Toronto time.

Here is my 'I hate running' and 'why must there be a hill in the last mile' face.

Followed by my 'oh there is Mom and Dad - I should really smile' face.

As disappointed as I was in myself, I was so proud of our friend Sally who ran her first ever half marathon!

I think we were all relieved to be done so that the holiday could really begin (i.e. we could start drinking and eating crap food!).

2010-09-22T18:29:00.002+01:00

Almost seven years to the day that I first landed in the UK as a student, I am now a full-fledged British citizen!

Three cheers for the Home Office for processing my application so quickly! :)

2010-09-15T19:12:00.000+01:00

As much as I've enjoyed this summer, I'm loving the idea of fall. I love the clothes, the weather, and I'm loving the idea of our upcoming trip to Canada!

We will of course be visiting friends and family in the Toronto region, but this time we've expanded our usual trip home to include Montreal, Algonquin Park, and Collingwood.

I can't wait to see my family, my friends, and of course my friends' kids! I also can't wait for Montreal bagels (my last meal would seriously be a Montreal bagel with smoked salmon & cream cheese), fall apples, the changing colours, pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving...the list goes on...

Here's a short recap of some of things we've been up to this summer.

I geeked it up and went to Brighton for a conference in August. This was the first conference I've ever attended without the moral support of colleagues and I will admit that I was rather disappointed in myself because of my complete and utter inability to schmooze. I'm absolutely rubbish talking to people I don't know and end up getting red in the face and flustered. I know I need to work on this - I had just hoped that being thrown in the deep end flying solo at this conference would have helped. Oh well. I did learn a lot, saw some of the 'gurus' in the field, and had some lovely meals with this guy.

Lee thankfully came down for two nights so I didn't have to eat by myself every single night. We had a lovely meal at this vegetarian restaurant, which is Brighton's oldest. Delicious and inspiring.

Brighton is a lovely place. The shopping, pubs, and restaurants are incredible! Shame the conference got in the way...

We stayed at a great B&B called Motel Schmotel (love the name!) that was incredibly well placed, well priced and had the best breakfasts! We had breakfast in bed each morning! I loved the little egg cozies :)

I also had a lovely visit with an old friend from home who is currently living in Oxford. We did what most Brits do on a bank holiday: walk in the countryside.

I think if one looks carefully, the White Horse of Uffington can be seen at the top of the hill.

I also went to see Lee and five of his colleagues throw themselves out of a plane in order to raise money for cancer research. For a man who has serious vertigo problems and refuses to stand on the glass floor of the CN Tower, this was a major feat.

I admit that I felt relieved when the plane took off successfully and when I finally saw his parachute floating above me. Lee loved it and is talking about doing another jump next year.

Bring on fall!

2010-09-04T06:03:00.002+01:00

Just wanted to pop in from the blog wilderness to wish my Dad a very happy birthday!

You wont find us hiding in the backyard to surprise you this year, but we will see you in three weeks!

Love you xx

Weekend randomness...

2010-07-18T19:04:00.005+01:00

We decided that instead of getting rid of the bookcase that was sitting unused and unloved in our spare room, that we would re-purpose it as a pantry. It fits fairly well in the awkward corner of our kitchen and has freed up a lot of space in our cupboards.

To be honest I get quite a lot of joy out of seeing our dry goods in pretty little jars. It's sad I know.

Our pantry is nowhere as gorgeous as this one from Emersonmade. One day I hope, one day! [As an aside, her entire house is gorgeous].

While Lee was napping (in preparation for a night shift) I had a play around in the box of stamps that we've inherited from his stepdad's mom. There are literally boxes of stamps and Lee has gradually started to organize them into books. I had some fun playing around with some of the multiples that have little to no monetary value.

This will be a 31st birthday card [for my friend Norah who is a 'first class' friend].

I also will come out and say, for all the world to read, that I need an Ebay intervention.

I've bought 3 brand new dresses (2 Gap, 1 Banana Republic) over the past two weeks and I really should stop...but as none of them cost more than £8 (with shipping), my addiction continues unabated.

2010-07-09T23:08:00.002+01:00

After England's horrific performance at the World Cup, there is some good news for English football fans.

An Englishman, Howard Webb, will referee the Word Cup final for the first time since 1974.

Fingers crossed he doesn't bugger it up.

2010-07-04T12:52:00.012+01:00

Last weekend Lee and I travelled to north Wales to camp at the foot of Snowdon, which is Britain's second largest peak. The weather in the UK has been incredibly warm and dry for the past month or so, and we had such great weather the entire weekend.

We camped at a great little campsite, which we actually found through an article in the Times. We loved the fact that it was quiet, small, and allowed campfires! And it was pretty too!

This was our first experience with midges, which are horrible little things. Lee resorted to wearing a balaclava to keep them off of his face.

Oatmeal and coffee - the breakfast of champions!

We chose to climb the Watkin path - one of the quietest of the five routes up Snowdon - as it started just below the campsite. The first three miles were fine, albeit rather hot.

Airing myself out after the sweaty ascent :)

The last mile was challenging because of the loose rock and steep incline.

This is where we decided to put the camera away and focus on the climbing!

We managed to reach the summit in just under 2.5 hours and it was a relief to get up there and enjoy the views.

There is a steam railway up to the top so the summit was rather busy (as too was the cafe).

A cool dip in the stream was required

So too was a nice beer

The next day, my personal chef prepared a delicious breakfast that we enjoyed before heading back to England so that we could be home in time for the football match.

The route that Google Maps suggested was certainly scenic, but definitely not the fastest!

In retrospect, we probably should have stayed in Wales after England's dire performance against Germany!

2010-06-30T10:44:00.003+01:00

First it was the closure of the Royal Worcester building (after trading for over 250 years), now Worcester's other claim to fame is being formally axed.

The £20 note - which depicts the Worcester Cathedral and Worcester's most famous son Sir Edward Elgar - is being withdrawn from circulation and will no longer be accepted in stores from tomorrow. I thought it was a rather pretty note but such is progress I guess...

Hope Lea & Perrins isn't next!

2010-06-28T19:42:00.009+01:00

Our trip to Northern Ireland was not only a chance to have a holiday as a family, but to also reconnect with my Dad's extended family. We stayed with my Dad's cousin and her husband just outside of Larne. The views from their house were fantastic and we were warmly welcomed with a Canadian flag and oh so much food!

Seeing where my grandfather grew up, the church he attended, and where lots of family members are buried was, as cheesy as it sounds, really rather moving.

Dad's cousin mentioned that she had invited the family for a some tea and cakes on the afternoon of the bank holiday. Our little immediate family didn't really know what to expect. What does one wear to meet as many as 20 cousins (and all of their families)? The day was a blur of learning (and forgetting) people's names, copious amounts of tea, 'festive drinks', cakes, soda bread, sandwiches, and that was just for lunch! I thought it was the Italians that showered family with food. I now know that the Irish do it just as well!

I really can't describe how amazing it was to meet so many people with the same surname (and who all seemed to share my pasty white skin and big head). Certainly the highlight was meeting with grandfather's only two surviving brothers. I don't have any memory of him but it meant so much to all of us to be able to connect with his brothers, who both have such great wit and humour!

Here is my sister and I with some of our second cousins. (And yes, we made everyone wear name tags and how they were related!) Ha ha.

The weather couldn't have been better for our trip up to the Giant's Causeway along the Antrim coast the next day. The coast road is considered one of Ireland's most scenic drive and it really didn't disappoint. There were some narrow bends that made for some hairy moments but my Dad and uncle manoeuvred the standard right-hand drive cars with ease! :)

We visited the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge first and although it was a bit shorter than I had expected, it still was rather frightening to cross.

We were able to get some gorgeous views along the walk to the bridge.

I can't believe that not too long ago, there were no wooden planks along the bridge! Not too sturdy!

The Giant's Causeway was just as pretty - and just as busy - as I remember when I was first there in 2001.

Before we all flew back to either the UK or Canada, our family visited Belfast, which has changed immensely in recent years. I couldn't believe how busy and how cosmopolitan it felt, even compared with only nine years previously. Obviously things were extremely different from when my Dad was last in Northern Ireland in the mid-1970s. The city isn't without its problems but we had a lovely time and to be fair, the shopping was fantastic!

The funniest part of the day was finding a Tim Hortons kiosk in one of the small convenience shops. I wasn't completely shocked as there is one in Birmingham but the look on my sister's face was priceless!

Can I have a large double double?

2010-06-27T20:32:00.003+01:00

After our extended weekend in Edinburgh, my Mom and I headed north to the isle of Mull (via train, ferry, and bus). Lee could not join us as he needed to head back to England for work.

I've never been further north than Stirling and we were blessed with gorgeous weather with which to see the Scottish countryside. We stayed in Tobermory and Mom picked a great B&B in which to stay.

The B&B provided homemade shortbread and bread every day - need I say more? And the view from our room was fantastic!

Mom and I enjoyed a nice country walk around Tobermory where we happened upon the Isle of Mull cheese farm, which provided us with some tasty treats to accompany our oatcakes.

That evening we had a fantastic meal at the Cafe Fish, which we would both highly recommend!

On our second day on the island we joined a tour led by Mull Magic, a company that provides guided walks of the island. This was definitely the best way to see the isle of Mull and the isle of Iona. We were able to see and learn SO much more than we would have if we had just used public transportation. Ruth and Stuart were such knowledgeable and friendly guides!

After a lovely time on the isle of Mull we had to return to the mainland. But the trip was not over yet as we needed to head to Glasgow airport where we would flew out to Belfast to meet up with my Dad, sister, aunt, uncle and cousins for a big ol' family reunion!

2010-06-21T19:39:00.004+01:00

We were blessed with fabulous weather during a visit to Edinburgh. I love the city in any weather, but it is spectacular in the sunshine.

After the half marathon, my Mom kindly took us out for mussels at the Mussel Inn. There is nothing like celebrating with 1kg of mussels, fresh bread, and some cold white wine.

The next day, mom left us to explore on her own so Lee and I visited the Scotch Whisky Experience, which surprisingly neither of us had ever visited. The beginning of the tour is somewhat cheesy (picture sitting in slow-moving faux whisky barrels as some kind of ghost explains the manufacturing process) but the presentation at the end was really very interesting. We were instructed as to the four main flavours of Scotch Whisky. Now I know why I don't usually like whiskys from the Islay region - too peaty!

The tour ended with a tasting in this gorgeous room.

I also had never visited the National Museum of Scotland, even though I passed it every day on my walk to the university. It was a great place to visit for several reasons: 1) it's free; (2) it's pretty; (3) it has a great kids' section; and (4) it has a great view of the city. [Apparently the restaurant is fab as well but it was a little too pricey for us.] To be fair, we probably spent too much time in the kids' section.

Instead of lunch at the museum, we popped into Oink for lunch, where we split a hot pork roll. Soooo not healthy but ever so tasty.

On a non-Edinburgh related note, we went into the Jack Wills store as there isn't one near us at home. It kind of reminds me of Abercrombie & Fitch, but with much better lighting. I couldn't help myself from taking a picture of the changing room. It was bigger than our spare bedroom (and better decorated)!!!

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T09:18:00.003+01:00

Happy Father's day to all the Dads!

Especially, to my own Dad, who is one of the kindest, smartest, best dressed, and most well read men I know (and from whom I seem to have inherited my massive head).

Love you!

2010-06-16T20:40:00.004+01:00

Whoops. Where has the time gone? I don't know how some people can blog on a daily basis. It would appear as if I can barely do it on a monthly basis...

There hasn't really been too much to report and I have been rubbish at taking pictures. I hope that will change as we now have a super little camera, that we love. It has been taking some great pictures and is so wonderfully petite!

Here are some bits from the past 2 months.

Lee and I successfully made some apple and rhubarb jam. (Lee was the dork behind the chalk board).

My football team won the league and we were promoted to a higher division. Only a few more leagues until the likes of Arsenal! ;)

Lee and I successfully completed the Edinburgh half marathon. We were aiming for 2:05 and surprised ourselves by finishing in just under two hours (1hr 59).

Lee surprised me with these wonderfully naff shirts so we wore our nickname with pride!

Edinburgh was, as ever, fantastic and will require a post of its own. Hopefully I'll manage that within the next two months ;)

There is a rather large football tournament on at the moment and a PhD to write, which are both holding my attention...

Happy Easter!

2010-04-03T13:08:00.007+01:00

The sun has finally started to break through the clouds, the flat is full of daffodils, and I'm enjoying some delicious M&S Easter eggs*.

[* These things are delish - nothing like the cheapo, waxy-tasty North American eggs I had as a kid (sorry Mom!). Must stop eating them...]

If only I could find an Easter bonnet with matching gloves and umbrella for Easter Sunday! :)

2010-03-19T19:32:00.005Z

For my dear friend Robyn....

I'm sure you've seen this already on A Cup of Jo but it is SO true!

What a lovely print!

Shame I don't look as good acutally sucking back a G&T! :) [circa 2003 in my wild and crazy U of Edinburgh days]

2010-03-17T20:19:00.006Z

My most fervent reader (hi Mom!) has berated me over the past few weeks over the lack of activity on my blog. Apparently my Dad checks it daily and has been rather disappointed over the past month. Sorry Dad!

There really hasn't been too much to report over the past few weeks really. Lee was on a 3-week course for work, which meant that he was actually working the same schedule as me (9-5)! It really was rather lovely just to be able to hang out at night together and to know that we would have three solid weekends where neither of us was at work. We didn't do anything really (sad, I know). We just spent time pottering around Worcester, reading the Sunday papers, getting a coffee...

Mom made sure to also remind me that is was St. Patrick's Day today and that I should be celebrating my roots.

This, of course, calls for some traditional Irish soda bread using a recipe Mom and I have been using for years. I wish I could say that it was a recipe handed down by my Irish grandfather. Nope. This is the recipe that I found way back in Brownies while researching traditional Irish food for a project. A quick google search revealed that the recipe is indeed rather traditional as it only uses four ingredients: flour, buttermilk, baking soda, and salt. Any further additions (albeit tasty) are blasphemous.

As a special treat for Lee, I also made some Irish stew. With meat! This is a rather big deal in our house as we have significantly reduced our meat consumption over the past year (thank you Mark Bittman and Michael Pollan).

And to wrap up this rather Irish post, here are some places that I plan to visit in a few month's time:

Bushmill's distillery

The Giant's causeway

The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

The Canadian invasion of Northern Ireland will commence in late May as my mom, dad, sister, aunt, uncle, and cousins descend on Belfast and surrounding areas to meet up with my grandfather's family. I visited almost ten years ago when I was travelling solo through the UK, but I'm really excited to go with my entire family. It will be nice to see other people who not only share our last name, but pasty white skin and large heads! :)

2010-02-14T15:07:00.002Z

Last night we had a few friends over for a quiet cheese & port night. Lee and I have come to accept that we're old farts so we suggested that our friends should avoid the over-priced/over-done/overly-saccharine restaurants on Valentine's day for a night at our place sampling different cheeses. My boss gives me a bottle of port for Christmas every year so we had three bottles of the stuff!

Lee had to be at Stratford upon Avon for work so we picked up three types of cheeses at the Paxton & Whitfield cheese shop while we were there. It's a fabulous store with a tremendous selection of cheeses.

We ended up buying some gjetost, a Norwegian fudge-like cheese, some Little Wallop, a tasty goat cheese made by Blur's Alex James and some rather stinky (but tasty) Baltic cheese.

I was rather naughty and treated myself to this slate cheeseboard while waiting for Lee to finish up with his work.

Our friends brought a whole bunch of other types and it was great sampling such a range of different cheeses. Lee/Martha Stewart made the little flags to identify the cheese, which was rather cute and actually rather practical.

We will probably be having crackers and cheese for dinner for the next few nights as there were so many left-overs! Not that I'm complaing really! :)

2010-02-04T20:32:00.004Z

Is it wrong to buy one's husband a Valentine's card with a compelling desire to frame said card immediately after 14th February?

I bought this sweet little card from here.

No matter where we live - the UK, Canada, a small 2-bed flat, a house in the suburbs - my home will be where Lee is.

2010-01-31T21:20:00.005Z

Storage is a major problem in our little flat so we're also on the look out for (cheap) ways to store all of our things.

I love Michael Penney's blog at House and Home and the pictures of his house are fantastic. I think his place looks stylish yet accessible. What really caught my eye were his customized Ikea Billy bookcases.

Some better shots of the bookcases are on the video.

At less than £90 for all three bookcases, we decided that a trip to Ikea was worth our time and effort. Lee kindly drove me to Ikea on my birthday and valiantly managed to fit 3 large Billy bookcases in our not-so-large car. (I bought him a hotdog and some ice cream when he started to look a bit crusty - a common occurrence when men spend too much time in Ikea I'm told).

We've set the Billys up and I'm pretty happy with how they look. And goodness knows, we can store a whole bunch of our stuff on them! I'm definitely not skilled in curating or styling bookcases, but I do rather enjoy playing around with where things go.

We still haven't added the MDF trim (a la Michael Penney) to the edges and I'm not sure if we will. I'm a bit worried that if we ever move these suckers that removing MDF that has been nailed to the front would completely ruin the bookcases. We'll see how energetic we feel...

My colleague brought this bunch of Knobs (ha ha) into work after a trip down to Dorset, and I knew that I just had to knick the tin. Sorry but the word knobs just makes me laugh :)

I'm gradually adding to my collection of Penguin Classics. The whole collection is just gorgeous (via Design Sponge).

I plan to buy one of the collection every few months or so. Little Women is definitely next on the list! I don't plan on owning the whole collection as there are quite a few titles that (1) I don't like (Tess of the d'Ubervilles - ruined by Grade 11 English) or (2) that I have no real interest in reading (Homer's Odyssey). They're just so pretty together though, don't you think?

I've also added my little DIY bus blind to the bookcase. I do like the look of bus blinds but have had a hard time finding one I like that isn't over £100. This isn't a copy of a real bus blind per se but it does have some of the stops that the Edinburgh airport bus makes. Lee and I spent a lot of time on this bus as we flew back and forth to Birmingham when we first started dating. I may blow it up to a larger size when I find the cash and somewhere that can actually print large scale posters.

Via AT

Carrie - if you look carefully, can you see Ganesha? :)

2010-01-29T19:39:00.004Z

Even though I said I’d never do one again, I’ve gone and signed up for another half-marathon. Well, not just me. Lee has signed up as well (thank goodness).

We’ve signed up to run 13.1 miles this May in my most favourite city in the world: Edinburgh!

A few months ago, my soccer coach casually mentioned that he was going to run the full marathon. My response was to ask him whether or not he was on crack. Had he ever been to Edinburgh? Had he seen the hills?

A quick check of the route revealed that both the half and the full marathon completely avoid the major hills (i.e. the Mound, the Royal Mile, Arthur's seat) and simply follow the sea out to Musselburgh.

Apparently there will be over 20,000 runners this year so we thought it would be wise to book some accommodation for that weekend as soon as possible. I’ve had quite a lot of fun looking for places to stay and I loved the look of these self-catering apartments:

This flat on Windsor street is so convenient for everything.

The City Bothy, a more modern flat, looks so lovely and airy.

The Minnow House was my most favorite place. It looks absolutely gorgeous and is just around the corner from the start of the race.

In the end, we cheaped out and decided on a budget hotel that is right around the corner from the start of the race and the famous Valvonna & Crolla. We decided that the money we save on accommodation can be put towards a nice meal.

In other positive news, I've had 2 papers accepted this week! BJCP and PDS (who previously rejected the papers) have accepted our revised versions, woot woot! Another paper that had been accepted months ago also recently went online at QSHC. Now to write a few more! :)

2010-01-18T21:47:00.006Z

This ski bunny turned 31 today :)

I was just going through my list of 30 things to do before 31. I completed the majority of them, but there are a few left that will need to be added to my next list.

Make more use out of my library card (for fun reading not school stuff) - Ugh, I started strong on this but have failed in the last few months
~~Make a blurb book of our wedding (once the DVD arrives)~~
~~Bake real bread (involving proofing and kneading)~~
~~Travel to the continent with the hubs (maybe cycling in Brittany?)~~
~~Continue the tradition of an annual meet up with my former U of Edinburgh classmates (Glasgow 2006, Limerick 2007, Dusseldorf 2008, where's next?)~~
~~Camp somewhere listed in Cool Camping (one of our great wedding gifts)~~
~~Visit the Lake District~~
Have our 4-year old niece over for more sleepovers - We are a bad aunt and uncle
~~Buy fresh flowers at least once a month~~
Write letters to my Nana - Feeling very guilty about this one.
~~Skype friends more often (and harass those who don't have it to get it!)~~
Run the Stratford half marathon - Couldn't do this one because of a Cup Final for soccer on the same day (which we won!)
Print out the best of the digital pictures I've taken since moving to the UK and put them in some albums - The books are designed and will be printed once I've saved a bit more cash.
Finally get my UK driving licence (although driving on the life hand side scares the life out of me) - Epic fail. I'm disappointed in myself on this point. I need to get on this one.
~~Be more assertive with my boss/PhD supervisor~~
~~Enjoy a 99 by the river Severn with my husband~~
~~Moisturize daily~~
Continue saving for our dream holiday to Seattle/Vancouver in 2010 - This trip just proved to be too expensive. Bloody Olympics!
~~Get down to London more often (work-related trips don't count)~~
~~Go on several picnics~~
~~Write and submit two more research papers for publication~~
~~Buy more prints off of Etsy~~
~~Go for more walks after dinner~~
~~Use my cookbooks more often~~ - And I've got a few new ones for Christmas that I can't wait to use.
~~Wear more skirts~~
~~Finally get a new haircut - I pretty much have had the same long hair for years~~
Buy some 'fun' tops for going out (I find I only buy clothes that I can wear for work)
Be more productive during my commute to and from work (sleep does not count) - I continue to suffer from train-induced narcolepsy. I'm convinced it's genetics and therefore outside of my control :)
~~Use the Worcester farmer's market more frequently~~
~~Support our local businesses (green grocers, the butcher, our bakery)~~

2010-01-14T14:22:00.003Z

Here's another print to add to my list of ones I would love to buy:

The Type map by Bold and Noble (found via the lovely blog Pillar Box Post).

I love the design, although I'm slightly gutted that our wee Worcester didn't seem to make the print (stupid big Birmingham) ;)

The rest of my 'list' includes this Trees around Britain print, also from Bold and Noble.

And these lovely Canadian pinecone and leaves prints by Lovely Design.

Our bare, bland walls are just calling out for some colour!

2010-01-12T20:45:00.004Z

I managed to get a few deals in the post-Christmas sales. Monsoon and Topshop disappointed but the Gap came through (as usual) with some Merino wool sweaters marked down by 75%. I love Merino wool sweaters, although I need to make sure that my dearest husband never gets near any such sweaters as they usually end up the perfect size for our 5-year-old niece.

My favorite post-Christmas purchases weren't for me but for some friends who have recently had baby boys.

We sent these cute shoes were to our friends in Chicago. The father is British so we thought they would be a good fit.

I also bought these bibs and little babygrow for one my girlfriends that I played soccer with at university. I love Cath Kidston's prints and her football print was just perfect!

I think the best deal was certainly this linen set that I picked up for 70% off! I think it will be nice and cheery come spring.

For now, Lee and I will remain under our thick flannel set and Hudson bay blanket :)

baby it's cold outside!

2010-01-06T13:00:00.004Z

The UK has been experiencing its coldest winter for decades. The past few days (and nights) have been particularly cold, with the temperature not climbing above freezing. I consider myself a hardy Canadian, but I'm used to good heating and proper insulation, not old houses with no insulation, inefficient boilers and single-paned windows that just leak heat.

I'm so very grateful for one of our wedding gifts: a large Hudson's Bay blanket. We've been putting it to good use over the past few nights (as well as our comfy socks and toques)! Lee is working nights tonight so I may have to find a hot water bottle to keep warm :)

Schools in our area are closed for the second day and train and bus journeys have been severely reduced. There is only maybe 5 inches of snow on the ground but I cannot make fun as there simply isn't the infrastructure to deal with any kind of accumulation over here. I'm lucky enough have a flexible boss who encouraged me to work from home today!

Mom these pictures are for you to prove that we actually did get snow!

2009-12-28T08:10:00.010Z

Lee went back to work yesterday and I'm back tomorrow. I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine, normal eating patterns and normal bedtimes.

We had such a lovely holiday and were blessed to be able to celebrate two Christmases. Our trip back to Canada was wonderful and we were lucky to be able to visit with lots of friends and family. The cold weather made it possible for us to downhill ski for two days. This was only Lee's second time on skis and I was so proud of him as he was making parallel turns by the end of the second day.

We enjoyed picture-perfect weather for Lee's first attempt at cross-country skiing. I hadn't been since Girl Guides but soon we were both moving along at quite a good pace along the trails. We decided to try some of the more difficult trails but we both came to realize that going downhill in cross-country skis is far more difficult than in downhill skis.

Lee's pole had a bit of a run in with a fence.

We also tried some snowshoeing, which again Lee had never tried and I had not attempted since Girl Guides.

We were also lucky enough to be home when the Olympic flame made its way through my hometown. I must admit that I got a bit choked up when I saw it arrive.

We had a lovely visit with friends who were en route back home to Ottawa.

Niagara Falls is even more gorgeous in the snow!

We flew back to the UK on the 23rd so we had an early Christmas day and we were truly spoiled by our family.

Here I am sporting my sister's gift to me: an official Canadian Olympic Team sweater. I've wanted one since the Bay released their line of clothes for the Olympics and was so sad when I found out it had sold out. Yay for my sister for being such a quick little shopper!

The best part of the day was giving my Dad - the man who has everything - his Christmas present. Lee and I picked up 'Freddie' at the Christie antique show when we were last home in September and stored him in my childhood bedroom. The look on his face when we brought it down for him was priceless. Mom and Dad's dog Angus, was not impressed by the purchase.

We also ate my favorite meal at Christmas time: brunch!

Once back in the UK we made a made dash to Marks & Spencer on Christmas Eve to pick up some milk (for tea of course) and some breakfast goodies. Lee's sister kindly hosted Christmas lunch and really out did herself.

Here's hoping I can get to work tomorrow as they are forecasting....what for it.....10 cms of snow! England does not have the infrastructure to deal with any frosty weather so who knows, maybe my holiday will be further extended! :)

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T17:28:00.003Z

Merry Christmas!

Lee and I enjoyed a trouble-free return back to the UK yesterday and have spent today eating, playing with our niece and nephew, and just enjoying Christmas Day.

We had a lovely time in Canada and have returned with some great memories and probably a few extra pounds.

2009-12-17T21:02:00.003Z

These are the cheesy grins of two people who are very happy to have arrived at Pearson International Airport after leaving home 16 hours earlier.

I'm not sure if we'll ever transfer via Charles de Gaulle airport ever again (massive queues at security) but Air France wasn't bad and I was able to watch 4 (yes four) movies that Lee would never watch with me on the way over (Up, Julie & Julia, 500 summers and the Hangover).

2009-12-12T19:26:00.004Z

The nice thing about being married is learning new things about my husband.

For example, I didn't know that Lee knew how to tie a bow tie.

[at his work's Christmas party this week]

I also didn't know that he could make a mean homemade sausage roll or that he has a penchant for chalkboard decoration.

I also think he has rather good taste in his music downloads.

Cheers to you Woody!

2009-12-08T21:50:00.002Z

This advert just came on the television and as is the norm, I started to tear up.

It's just like the beginning of the film of Love Actually. It gets me every time!

Needless to say, I'm very excited for our flight back to Canada next week. This is the first time we've been back for Christmas since 2006! Our plan is to visit with as many people as possible and pretty much eat and drink our way around the greater Toronto area.

Shame a flight to Toronto at Christmas isn't £299 in real life. Ha ha.

2009-12-06T17:29:00.004Z

Friday was kind of a crummy day. I managed to dye one of my favorite pink shirts (it somehow made its way into a dark wash) and the paper I've worked on for ages was rejected by a second research journal. Some of the criticisms were valid and can be fixed, but some of the reviewers' comments actually question the whole purpose of my research. Ugh. A few tears snuck out after I got the email but I managed to keep them hidden. I would never want my all-male office to see me cry!! We do have the opportunity to resubmit so I hope to get things fixed and send the paper off this coming week.

I didn't want my foul mood to ruin my weekend so I turned to some of my favorite activities.

Reading magazines.

(I was over the moon to find Martha Stewart at our local WH Smith).

Wrapping Christmas gifts.

(Aren't these the coolest boots? I can't wait to see our niece in them!)

Listening to some of my favorite Christmas albums. God bless Spotify!

The Topshop brogues I bought off of ebay also arrived Saturday (gotta love the Royal Mail and its ability to deliver on the weekend).

I am rather worried that (1) they are no longer trendy and (2) if they are still fashionable that I am too square to wear them. They are, however, freaking comfortable and suit my I'm-an-old-lady-that-walks-1.1-miles-to-the-train-station self.

I wore them out today with thick black tights and a short black skirt and tried to pretend I looked as good as this girl:

Picture from the very lovely Anne Sage.

2009-12-02T19:43:00.004Z

Merry McWood Christmas!

We ordered our Christmas cards with this picture on the front from Vista print. We've talked about sending a joke card for several Christmases, and finally got our act in gear this time around. We even used our joke last name - the combination of our two last names....

Don't we look good? We tried to find the cheesiest outfits possible. I even tried to tint the picture to make it a bit more 1960ish....

2009-11-30T20:19:00.002Z

I'm not going to lie, we've had our Christmas tree up for almost 2 weeks. I figured that since we're heading to Canada on the 14th that I could bring out Christmas one month before our departure. I love having Christmas things out but I don't particularly like the fact that we had to get an artificial tree. I miss the smell and feel of a real one.

And don't get me started on our new fake tree. It is definitely not 6 feet tall (as advertised) and the base is naked and uggggly (hence our decision to shove it in an antique crate).

I also managed to whip up this little wreath using £5 worth of cheapo Poundland baubles. It's definitely not as nice as Eddie Ross's but I'm pretty happy with it. I'm also rather pleased that I managed to get all of my Christmas cards written and posted. Pictures of our cards to come!

Football/soccer was cancelled on Sunday afternoon due to a water-logged pitch so Lee and I headed into town so that I could point out some ideas for Christmas presents. Unlike my husband, I am finished my shopping (insert smug grin here).

After pushing our way through the throngs of Welsh pensioners who had arrived by the bus load for the Worcester Christmas Fayre we decided to pop into our local pub for a few beers. We never go for drinks anymore really so it was a very relaxing way to spend a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon. A Leffe blonde and the Sunday Times = bliss.

We also managed to finally order a Blurb book of our wedding pictures for Lee's mum and stepdad for Christmas. (There is 20% off all orders until tonight!). The book is a slightly abridged version of the one we made for ourselves (i.e. we deleted the 20+ pages of us and our drunken friends at the end of the night).

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

And finally, to cap of this rather random post, my favorite current British TV show is back for it's third (and final) season! Gavin & Stacey really does make my evening. Uncle Bryn is my favorite.

2009-11-09T20:44:00.004Z

Tonight was cold, Lee was going to be late home from work, and I didn't feel like doing any exercise as I was still sore from my soccer game yesterday. All I could think of was cookies. We had no treats or goodies in the house and I had such a hankering for something to have along with my cup of tea.

I figured I was out of luck as we had no eggs in the house but then I remembered these tasty ANZAC buiscuits, which require no eggs.

I also happened to have a bag of coconut just sitting in the pantry so this recipe was perfect. They are really easy to make and honey can be substituted for the Golden syrup.

Ingredients

85g porridge oats
85g desiccated coconut
100g plain (all-purpose) flour
100g caster sugar (I just used normal granulated sugar)
100g butter , plus extra butter for greasing
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Put the oats, coconut, flour and sugar in a bowl. Melt the butter in a small pan and stir in the golden syrup. Add the bicarbonate of soda to 2 tbsp boiling water, then stir into the golden syrup and butter mixture.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the butter and golden syrup mixture. Stir gently to incorporate the dry ingredients.
Put dessertspoonfuls of the mixture on to buttered baking sheets, about 2.5cm/1in apart to allow room for spreading. Bake in batches for 8-10 mins until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I finally have come around to using weight measurements instead of cups when baking. It actually is a lot easier just to dump all of ingredients onto my Typhoon scale.

2009-11-04T18:01:00.003Z

I gave a lecture to some med students about errors and why humans make mistakes this afternoon.

They looked pretty disinterested except for when I broke out some fun visuals:

Good times.

2009-11-01T11:08:00.003Z

Last night Lee and I went to our friend's house for a small Halloween party.

I sacrificed one of my two remaining tins of canned pumpkin to make some mini pumpkin pies. Lee artistically decorated them with some toasted pumpkin seeds :)

Here we are in all of our Halloween glory.

I thought Lee looked particularly creepy.

He was gutted to have come second in the costume competition to this rather creepy Jack in the box. Ha ha.

I'm currently psyching myself up for our big football (soccer) game against the first place team this afternoon. It's been raining heavily all morning and the wind is gale force. Yuck. Wish us luck :)

2009-10-26T20:37:00.003Z

This mug from Emma Bridgewater is too true.

Happiness is a cup of tea and a new magazine! The December issue of the magazine Lee bought for me as a subscription last Christmas arrived today. As much as I enjoy reading design blogs, there is something about the tactile experience of flipping through a magazine on the couch, in bed, in the bath...

I also pulled out some of my old Martha Stewart and Food & Drink autumnal issues for a bit of inspiration and reading enjoyment.

Happiness is also cozying up the flat with wool blankets for autumn.

Happiness is also going for a walk after dinner and (1) perving into people's houses for decor ideas and (2) making mental notes of houses for sale and trying to guess how much they are listed for. (Does anyone else do this?) :)

2009-10-24T11:10:00.008+01:00

On Sunday morning Lee kindly agreed to go to the famous Paris flea market, Les Puces de Saint-Ouen. My parents had bought quite a few antiques and bits and pieces there in the early 80s and we were keen to pick up some artwork.

Once we made it through the groups of men selling cheap Paris souvenirs, we found ourselves somewhat overwhelmed by the number of vendors. There was so much to see and some truly gorgeous pieces. To be honest, I was somewhat disappointed by the prices as everything that we saw was a lot more than we wanted to spend. I think I had envisioned more of a carboot kind of set up instead of well-coiffed vendors sucking back champagne and eating cheese and crackers at 11:00 am.

We fueled up with some tasty sandwiches and headed to Sacre Coeur, which neither of us had ever seen.

We happened across the cafe from Amelie on the walk down from Sacre Coeur. Lee had no idea why I was taking a picture of the cafe as he has yet to see the movie (I am working on that as it is one of my favorite movies and two Michael Sowa prints hang above our couch because of the film).

As Lee was such a good sport to go antiquing with me, I finally relented and agreed to try out the Velib scheme. I am not the most confident of bikers and one needs to be slightly agressive on the busy Parisian roads. I had a bit of a Sarah snit/panic attack when Lee got too far ahead and a taxi cab got a little too close. But I finally put my big girl face on, sucked it up, and slowly got into the swing of things. The scheme itself is pretty fantastic way to explore the city. We only paid 1 euro and were able to use the bikes for a 24-hour period.

Unfortunately neither of us looked this good on the bikes, ha ha:

From the Sartorialist

We popped back to the Louvre on the way back to our hotel to capture a few shots in the daylight.

There was a small church next to our hotel and I couldn't understand why Lee was taking pictures of it. When we downloaded them I figured out why.

That ball must have been placed there! It made me laugh anyways!

We went out for a late birthday meal for Lee on Ile-St-Louis and finished off the evening with a visit to Notre Dame.

2009-10-20T21:14:00.004+01:00

After dinner on the Saturday night we enjoyed a walk along the Seine and a walk around the Louvre. It was so relaxing and a beautiful evening.

We even figured out how to use the self-timer on our camera to get a few cheeseball shots.

Lee made the mistake of ordering a large beer at one cafe. They brought out a litre instead of a pint that we were expecting (and also charged us 15 euros!!).

We did a lot of walking on Saturday but it was a great way to explore the city (and to burn off some calories to balance out our cheese and bread consumption).

2009-10-19T20:39:00.004+01:00

My conference ended on the Friday afternoon so I took the TGV to Paris to meet the husband. He had arrived earlier that day on the Eurostar (his ticket was my anniversary gift to him - I figured it counted as 'paper').

Our goal was to walk as much as possible and pretty much eat and drink our way around the city. On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early, fuelling up with coffees and croissants.

We walked through St Germain de Pres, visited the Eiffel Tower, and saw l'Arc de Triomphe.

I completely forgot to bring the original picture with me, but I think we were pretty close to recreating this picture from when my family lived in Paris.

We probably covered 8 miles on foot so we hopped on the metro to rest up a bit before dinner.

Fantastic Mr Fox

2009-10-15T20:01:00.004+01:00

"Boggis, Bunce and Bean. One fat, one short, one lean. These horrible crooks, so different in looks, were nonetheless equally mean".

Fantastic Mr Fox is my favorite Roald Dahl book. I prefer it to some of his more popular books and even re-read it only a few months ago. Needless to say, I'm quite excited about the new animated adaptation of the book!

I'm pretty sure that I always imagined the characters as speaking with English accents, so I'm not too sure what I think about George Clooney voicing Mr Fox's character. Although watching the trailer, it does seem to work.

A champagne conference

2009-10-14T19:57:00.005+01:00

I'm back from the big dork-fest conference and trying to work off all of baguettes, cheese, and wine. The conference itself was enjoyable and a good experience for me in terms of working on my public speaking and schmoozing (talking business while eating a snack).

As Reims is in the champagne region, there was a champagne welcome reception, which was held in the town hall.

The champagne was flowing and there were little champagne elves that seemed to flit about filling empty glasses. Unfortunately I was too nervous for my presentation the next morning and only had one glass. I did manage to schmooze a bit and even met an Italian doctor who is a bit of a legend in our field. My cheesy grin is a result of him pointing out that his tie was covered in condoms (which he told me he proudly wears on his visits to the Vatican).

Even though I was extremely nervous, my presentation went fine. I kept to time and lucikly there were no difficult questions from the crowd. My colleague captured me looking rather dorky. Shame the hotel didn't have a hair dryer so I looked like a bit of a frizz ball for the entire three days.

After my presentation I was ready to relax and actually enjoy the conference and most importantly the food on offer! The best part of attending European conferences is the food (and booze). I only took a picture of the dessert on one day but the food was pretty tremendous over the course of the three days. And there was even a bottle of red and white wine on each table to sample. North American conference organizers should take note!

Me and my colleagues on the last day. Notice the wine bottles :)

one year.

2009-10-04T19:39:00.004+01:00

Happy anniversary to the hubs. One year has just flown by!

I can't wait to have our mini-honeymoon in Paris next week.

As our delicious wedding cake is sitting in my parents' freezer at home, I whipped up some carrot cake cupcakes for us to toast our big day! Off to sample a few... ;)

I'd like a Dutchie*

2009-09-28T16:43:00.000+01:00

I sure would love one of these Dutchie bikes.

London Cycle Chic seemed to like the Oma classic version although it's probably too heavy to lug up to our flat for storage. Boo!

And realistically, I don't know if I'm really as cool or as hip enough as the owners shown above....

* No Dad, I'm not referring to your favorite Tim Horton's treat!

Look smart to be smart

2009-09-26T15:09:00.008+01:00

Is it wrong that I've probably spent more time today looking for an outfit for my presentation at an international conference than I have actually writing it?

I hate public speaking but I just need to suck it up and do it. At least the conference is in the champagne region of France so I can drown my sorrows if I completely flub it.

Perhaps inspired by the fact that it is in France, I spent this morning trying to find a dress a la Mme Sarkozy. I thought she looked absolutely lovely in this dress.

Marks and Spencer actually had quite a few reasonably priced shift dresses.

Unfortunately they either didn't fit or they didn't have my size at our local store.

I did buy these rather lovely black court shoes though.

I am not very good in heels on cobblestones so if Reims is rather cobbly, I may just walk to the conference in flats and change into these. I'm attending the conference with all three of my male colleagues and my male boss and I love that I'm taller than them all when I'm in heels. (I really do think the majority of them suffer from short man syndrome).

Anywhoo, I did manage to find a black suit jacket and matching skirt at the store where I pretty much get all my clothes - H&M. Neither were all that expensive and I may wear the jacket as a coat when Lee and I meet up in Paris.

Yep, the hubs is meeting me in Paris for a quick weekend break after the conference! Needless to say, I'm VERY much looking forward to that part of the trip. We've bought the TimeOut guide to Paris and I've been scouring lots of blogs for inspiration on where to go and what to see.

I should go start to practice my presentation. I've realized over the past few years that I am someone that needs to practice over and over and cannot simply 'wing it' when under pressure (especially in front of a room full of academics).

Made by day

2009-09-21T19:52:00.001+01:00

This video made my day:

Found via PharmaGossip

Retail rewards

2009-09-17T18:06:00.007+01:00

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit".

That's what I did today to the group of lab-based researchers who were examining me for my mini-dissertation presentation and panel interview. I think I baffled them with statistics and was therefore allowed to officially progress into the second year of my PhD programme.

As a little treat to myself, I purchased three vintage maps of Edinburgh, Toronto, and Worcestershire. They are all places in the world that are important to me and I think they will look rather nice framed and hung in our hallway.

They were purchased from Etsy seller bananastrudel (found via the lovely blog Grace Happens).

Surprise visit back to Canada

2009-09-15T13:46:00.009+01:00

I love it when a plan comes together... :)

Lee and I arrived back in the UK this morning after a whirlwind week-long trip back to Canada. The goal of the trip was to surprise my Dad on his (rather significant) birthday. The look on his face when he found us hiding in the backyard was priceless and certainly worth the 8-hour flight.

We were able to surprise him again a few days later when we took him to the Twisted Fork restaurant in Oakville under the ruse of a normal family birthday dinner. Thirty or so of my Dad's friends and colleagues were waiting for us - all wearing a wide range of funny aprons. The restaurant was ours for the entire night and the theme was Carribbean, so the food included curried chicken, baked sweet potatoes, fried plantains, rice and beans, cuban bread, and key lime pie.

After a short session on knife and general kitchen safety, my Dad was asked to draw names to create small groups that would be responsible for cooking a specific part of the meal. This was a great way for guests to meet and mingle.

The staff were incredibly helpful and patient, guiding us through each aspect of the menu. I was part of the 'rice and beans' team and attempted to stir the onions by flipping the pan like the professionals do. I realized that I have very weak wrists and had to resort to asking for a wooden spoon.

The baked sweet potatoes were delicious but peeling several dozen gave my sister a serious hand cramp!

Lee and my aunt were on plantain duty.

The coleslaw team.

We had such a good time celebrating my Dad and the food was incredible!

While we were home we also managed to pop into Toronto where the TIFF had just started. We both wanted to see some movie stars but after only seeing Eric McCormack walking down Bloor street, I consoled myself with some street meat (a hotdog) outside of the Royal Ontario Museum. Classy, I know.

We're now back home and back to reality. I have to defend my first year dissertation on Thursday, so had better get cracking on my preparation. Thank goodness I have a lot of tasty goodies from Canada to keep me motivated!

(The pumpkin is impossible to get in the UK and is a must for Thanksgiving! I certainly wouldn't classify the baking soda as a treat but as it is so much cheaper than over here and is available in much greater quantities, I thought I would stock up.)

Thunder thighs

2009-09-04T21:54:00.002+01:00

Glad to see that my 'sturdy' thighs - which have always caused me grief when buying jeans - may actually indicate a reduced risk of heart disease :)

According to Danish researchers, men and women with a thigh circumference of less than 60 cm had a greater risk of coronary heart disease and premature death.

I'll choose to ignore the fact that the association shown by the researchers does not demonstrate causation just to make me feel better (I had a hard time trying on jeans at the Gap last night).

epi conference 2009

2009-08-19T20:54:00.008+01:00

I spent last weekend up in the Lake District with my former MSc classmates. We're such dorks* and refer to these yearly meetings as our annual 'epidemiology conference'.

I just love meeting up with these girls. We are quite spread out around the UK and see each other only once or twice a year, but we just fall right back into the swing of things so easily.

The weekend was very rainy and rather cold - certainly a lot different weather wise than the weekend with my parents in June. Even though it was just tipping down with rain on Saturday, we were determing to do some walking and conquer a few hills. We managed a short walk around Ambleside and ended up looking like drowned rats. Five hours of walking is a great way to catch up with friends you haven't seen in ages.

Checking the map before we set off

Oh look, something in the fog. Oh no, it's just another sheep.

We returned to the Ambleside youth hostel, where we were staying, completely soaked and replenished our calorie stores with lots of teas, cakes, and Eccles cakes.

On Sunday we hopped onto one of the many boat tours for a trip around Lake Windermere.

Next year we may choose somewhere with a greater probability of sun and warm weather. Berlin perhaps?

** We even used to call pur pub quiz team 'epidemiology is not the study of skin'

Edinburgh

2009-08-07T20:49:00.006+01:00

Today is the first day of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I can't believe this time five years ago I was trying to balance writing up my MSc dissertation with enjoying as much of the festival as I could afford.

I first fell in love with Edinburgh in 2001 when I was travelling alone through the UK. It is such a beautiful and friendly place and it was the first city where I felt completely comfortable on my own. The city is so compact and so full of history - and what other capital city has a castle smack dab in the middle?

A few years later I returned to do my MSc, where by luck (fate?) I met my now husband who just happened to be in the city on holiday with friends. I also met one of my dearest friends when the university's accomodation service decided to put two quiet Canadians together.

It was such a privilege to live on one of the city's most famous streets - the Royal Mile. Although it could be frustrating and even exhausting elbowing tourists out of the way, (and don't get me started on the constant bagpipe playing) views like this made it worthwhile.

I loved this sign outside of our building

There I am in the top left hand window :)

Some of the city's famous views:

Some views from Arthur's Seat

All quiet

2009-07-26T13:16:00.004+01:00

Things have been really quiet (and therefore not really bloggable) for the past few weeks. I'm writing up the mini-dissertation to progress into the second year of my PhD, which is due in a few weeks. My boss and colleagues have been on holiday a lot lately so it's been nice just to sit down and write without too many distractions.

The highlight of the past week was yesterday for two reasons: (1) we finally had a sunny day for the first time in weeks and (2) my good friend from soccer got married.

I love weddings. Especially ones in great big gorgeous house like the historic Chateau Impney.

The bride and groom looking rather royal ;)

Today is raining (again) so I've spent the morning in my PJs watching the film Juno, which I had not yet seen. Great film with great music.

goop

2009-07-09T21:05:00.003+01:00

I like Gwyneth Paltrow and rather enjoy her Goop newsletter (some of the recipes have been great). I was not, however, impressed with her most recent post extolling the virtue of the Clean Program.

The 21-day program consists of one solid meal and two liquid drinks or liquid meals - all for 350 bucks!

What a crock. What's wrong with just eating healthier foods? I'm sure you could buy quite a few more weeks' supply of real, whole foods for $350.

I wish Ms. Paltrow wouldn't validate the use of this kind of crap.

Weekend randomness

2009-07-05T17:50:00.007+01:00

Hopefully this will be us again in six months' time as we've just booked our flights back to Canada for Christmas!!!

I haven't been home for Christmas since 2006, so I'm very excited to go back and do some serious eating, drinking, and visiting. Merry, merry! :)

Now for some more summery comments...

How good was the Wimbledon final? I can't imagine remaining that focused for over 4 hours!

Because I'm a loser, I thoroughly enjoyed when they pointed out all of the celebs in the stands: Gavin Rossdale, Russel Crowe, Woody Allan, Sir Alex Ferguson.

And finally, I made this fab salad the other day. It's been far too hot to turn our oven on this week and this kind of salad is the schizz.

Cute tees

2009-07-01T15:24:00.004+01:00

Two of my good friends will be having babies in the next few months so I'm looking for some gifts that I can send back home to Canada. I'm loving the baby stuff at Twisted Twees.

I love this Dad and baby set:

I will certainly be buying this one for my friend Kat who loves that line in Dirty Dancing.

The political pants make me laugh. Now who wouldn't want a shot of Maggie Thatcher on their kid's butt?

Or maybe some racing pants?

Mom and Dad's visit II

2009-06-28T18:15:00.004+01:00

On Wednesday all four of us headed to Coniston for a 8-mile walk up the Old Man of Coniston and Swirl How. This was the first time any of us had been hill walking in the Lakes so we all were rather nervous and excited.

The warm weather and clear skies made for some sweaty walking but some spectacular views.

The final ascent did require a bit of scrambling but we all made it up in one piece.

The views were pretty spectacular.

I love this picture of Lee. Maybe it's just the wedding band.

We sorely underestimated the amount of water we would need (we're such rookies) so this Coke I had at the pub at the end of the route was the tastiest Coke I've ever had!

We could see England's highest peak in the distance, so Lee and I will definitely be climbing Scafell Pike soon!

Mom and Dad's visit

2009-06-27T16:40:00.003+01:00

My Mom and Dad left today after a fantastic week-long visit. I loved the fact that I was able to celebrate Father's Day and my Mom's birthday with them for the first time in years.

I had to work on Monday but early Tuesday morning we all packed into our car for a trip up to the Lake District. We stayed in Ambleside, which is a cute little village on Lake Windermere. Lee was in his element as there were more camping/outdoors shops than I have ever seen in one place.

We lucked out with the weather and enjoyed a few drinks beside the lake. We then hopped on this bad boy for the mile-long trip into town.

That night, Mom and I convinced the boys to try out a vegetarian restaurant in the village. It was really a cool setup. You get a two-course dinner and a cinema ticket to the old-school style cinema above the restaurant.

We saw a cute little British film called Waiting for Eric. It introduced my parents to Eric Cantona, a Frenchman who is famous for playing for Manchester United, strange proverbs and the kung fu kick on a fan. We were in bed early in preparation for a day-long hike.

Goodbye to Royal Worcester

2009-06-14T16:39:00.007+01:00

I bought this Bialetti Moka pot yesterday. First designed in Italy in 1933, it sure does work like a charm! Lee and I both like enjoying our espressos in our cute little Royal Worcester cups.

On the way home from a walk along the river, we thought we would stop into Royal Worcester to see if we could get a few more of the cups. I had realized that they were closing down and selling off all of the stock, but I didn't realize that the very last day was today!

The shelves were pretty bare but Lee managed to buy quite a few sets of bowls, mugs and plates for Christmas gifts for his brother and sister.

I bought myself a sweet plate from the Spode Christmas Tree line for only £2.10.

I left feeling rather sad that the entire site is closing. We can see the whole complex from our flat and I've always enjoyed telling my Nana that we could see where some of her china was made. There has been porcelain production in Worcester since 1751. I'm not sure what will happen to the site itself - I really do hope that the city council won't allow some developer to completely demolish the old buildings.

This sign was displayed throughout the buildings.

258 years. Canada isn't even that old.

Back to normal

2009-06-06T20:54:00.006+01:00

After two weekends of sun and high temperatures, things are unfortunately back to normal around here.

As seen by the view from our kitchen:

I think these kinds of rainy Saturdays call for housework and baking. I completed the former begrudgingly, but rather enjoyed the latter. I made these granola bars using a recipe found on this lovely blog.

My bars were very tasty, although still rather brittle. Some of the bars collapsed when I cut them so instead of shoving them in my mouth in the name of 'taste-testing' I decided they would make some lovely granola for breakfast.

I stored the granola in one of my favorite containers for keeping things fresh.

I have a guilty secret where these containers come from: instant coffee. I know, I know. The horror. Please don't judge. Instant has nothing on the coffee we make in our cafetiere but sometimes the convenience just wins out. And of course, I love the jars.

The jars themselves are very practical for storing all sorts of things. I use them in the bathroom for q-tips and cotton balls and in the office to store all sorts of bits and bobs.

P.S Carrie - remember making the car in the back of the picture in Grade 7 shop? I was so mad when Jeremy one the speed competition as he cheated! Ha ha.

A camping weekend

2009-05-31T20:31:00.009+01:00

I cannot believe the weather we've been having over the past few days! Is this really England? It's been 25 degrees and sunny, which made for an absolutely glorious weekend. Lee and I travelled down to North Devon with two other couples (and one couple's 8-month-old) for a camping weekend. We were finally able to put a few of our wedding gifts (a tent, some camping gear, and sleeping bags) to good use!

The view from the campsite:

After setting up our tents we headed down to the little village,

and stopped in here,

for quite a few of these bad boys.

As it was still school holidays, the campsite was pretty full.

The next morning, Becky whipped us up a hearty meal of bacon and eggs.

I was on tea-making duty (very important!). It was rather windy so I had to sit in our tent to shield the campstove (and read some trashy mags while watching the kettle boil).

After breakfast we headed out for a gorgeous 3-mile walk along the coast.

The boys took turns carrying the not-so-little (but wonderfully behaved) little boy.

We hope to do a lot more camping this summer as the meterologists predict a warm summer (although hopefully not too warm as England still is a third-world country when it comes to air-conditioning in offices and on public transit, ha ha).

I love long weekends

2009-05-25T18:37:00.007+01:00

We've had a such lovely, relaxing long weekend - I love bank holidays! Yesterday Lee and I went for a run along the river and followed it up with a big breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. We were padding our stomachs for the festive drinks that we would be having later on that day at our friends' wedding.

The wedding was such a great time. It took place at a gorgeous historic home and the weather could not have been more perfect. Following the civil ceremony we had champagne and canapes in the grounds while the bride and groom were off getting their pictures taken (how civilized!).

The grounds were spectacular.

I worked up the nerve to wear a fascinator throughout the day, as I don't think I'd ever wear one at a Canadian wedding.

Lee with the gorgeous bride.

There was a lot of champagne on offer, which led to some somewhat dodgy pictures ;)

I loved how the table names were named after places that the bride and groom had visited. We were seated at Oakville - where they went for our wedding!

We've spent today just relaxing and getting ready for the work week. I wanted to have some oatmeal cookies to have with our lunches but we were out of butter and eggs. Luckily I found a vegan recipe that required neither of those ingredients and it actually was rather tasty (although not the prettiest - but that could have been due to the baker, not the recipe!). I only used a third of the sugar recommended as I thought the recipe looked far too sweet.

Back that sh*t up

2009-05-17T13:48:00.004+01:00

This small box - a birthday gift from my Dad - saved my sanity last week.

For some unknown reason, my seven-month-old laptop completely died. The laptop had to be reformatted and all of my data and software was wiped cleaned so that it would start up again.

Thankfully I've been pretty good at backing up every Sunday night so I did not lose much of my data (only the work I did on Monday). I've spent the past week restoring the data from the external hard drive, re-uploading all of my software and being ever so grateful that my entire PhD was not lost...

Moral of the story: Back your shit up.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T08:11:00.008+01:00

To my dear Mom:

I decided not to send flowers, as I assumed that Dad would take care of that. Instead, this poster will hopefully be making its way to you in a few weeks' time. I think it would be apropos for your office.

Because Mom, you do ROCK! You're an incredible Mom, wife, and friend. Your work is full of passion and commitment. You make a mean apple pie and I'm secretly jealous of the fact that you can do the plank for 4 minutes! You are my favorite person to go garage saleing and deal-hunting with. We also could not have had such a beautiful, stress-free wedding without all of your help. I look forward to our weekly Skype conversations and our almost daily emails. I miss you and love you so much!

Let's get back to Les Trois Vallees next ski season!

Etsy purchases

2009-05-07T19:54:00.004+01:00

Number 22 of my 30 before 31 was to buy more off of Etsy. I've been squirrelling some money away for a little while specifically for that purpose. This week I put that cash to good use.

I've seen these prints from Blanca Gomez on a lot of blogs and they make me so happy.

Yesterday, I was very pleased to see that Elisabeth Bentz re-opened her shop (I have to admit that I've been stalking her blog to see when she would have some new products!). I bought 2 pairs of these pretty napkins.

I was gutted to see that I missed out on this gorgeous yellow apron (and secretly hoping that she makes a few more...).

Frivolous purchases? Perhaps. But they do make me very happy :)

A Sunday to myself

2009-05-04T07:53:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was lovely and strange at the same time. For the first time since last August I had a full Sunday to do whatever I wanted. No soccer, no training, nothing.

As much as I enjoyed this past season, I'm looking forward to a full weekend off for the next two months. Our season was recorded for posterity in our local newspaper, which Lee picked up for me last week :)

[There I am on the left with my Player's Player award. I was very touched and kind of embarassed to receive it - I think it was awarded because of my old age and not due to any playing ability ;)]

So what does one do on a Sunday off? I hit the gym for the first time in as long as I can remember. It still is as stinky as ever but at least there were fewer stinky creepers at 8 in the morning. I also hit up our local farmer's market as I really wanted to buy some fresh salad leaves, eggs, and some asparagus. The eggs and salad were no problem but there was no asparagus to be found. Given the fact that we live in what is considered to be the aspragus-belt of England, I was pretty disappointed. Luckily M&S came through in the end (and it was from just down the road in Evesham anyways).

I whipped up this light supper for Lee when he got home from work. Yes, I am a good domestic wife.

And not to gross you out, but this is the other reason why I'm glad to be done with soccer this year. My knees are in desperate need of a break. Otherwise I wll NOT be wearing any cute skirts or shorts this summer. [Can you tell I slide tackle a lot? Ha ha.]

Off to enjoy the first of two May bank holidays!

frilly purchases

2009-04-24T06:11:00.004+01:00

Tomorrow is the end of year dinner for my soccer team. I am an old lady so I don't really have anything fun for going out any more. I hope that these purchases will help me to keep up with the young ones on the team (it is rather depressing playing with people who were BORN in 1992!).

I bought this dress off of Ebay for half the price as I could not justify £40 for a viscose dress. It looks cute over jeans too. As I have a horrendous soccer-related bruise on my leg I will be definitely be sporting some nice black tights!

And I've already worn these shoes to a wedding last week and will probably wear them again at a wedding next month. Yay for the 10% student discount!

Araf

2009-04-13T21:29:00.004+01:00

Araf is Welsh for slow, which is what I'm feeling tonight. Lee and I headed out really early (we're old, so we're allowed to get up early on holidays) to visit Pistyll Rhaeadr, the highest waterfalls in Wales.

Although very high and quite pretty, this Canadian felt it had nothing on Niagara!

Probably because we were there so stinking early, there was a whole lot of fog hovering over the Berwyn ridge. Hiking in the fog wasn't too much fun as we could not find the path, which led to a few looks like this exchanged. (This is my "no we can't crack open the mini eggs at 8:30 in the morning until we actually know where we are on the map face"). Ha ha...

We both were a bit apprehensive about getting too close to the edge.

Of course the fog started to lift on our descent of the ridge. It was pretty fantastic to actually see where we had climbed and just how gorgeous the Welsh hills actually were!

Too bad we couldn't see any of this when we were actually at the top!

Even with the fog it was a great day out and good practice for the Lake District this summer!

Looking through pictures

2009-04-11T21:58:00.004+01:00

I have to admit that I rather still enjoy looking at our wedding pictures. Sad, I know.

This was my mantra for the day (yeah, yeah I know it's over done and the poster is everywhere but I still love the sentiment).

Mom's collection of milk glass looked quite wonderful on the tables...

I think my Dad thought I was nuts when I asked him to go to the St Lawrence market to buy a whole bunch of artichokes, but I thought they looked really good in the arrangements.

And I think my little birdies (which now reside on our window sill) looked quite cute.

The only thing about looking at the pictures is that it makes me miss my family and friends even more. Skype is a wonderful thing, but I miss my bestest girlies. I was so grateful for all of their help and support during the planning process and on the day itself.

Because Lee forgot to bring the bridesmaid presents to the rehearsal dinner (he blamed it on the fact that the Brits dish out their gifts on the wedding day), we gave the girls the gifts during our speeches. Their Cath Kidston book bags contained some personalized stationery that I made, an Etsy print, a bracelet made just the highway from us in Chipping Campden, and some British candy.

I also get such a kick out of looking at the candid shots that our friends uploaded to Flickr. Even though we put a little note about the Flickr site in our favours, it took a bit of arm twisting to get people to upload their pictures. But it was worth it to get some quality shots like these:

We're not Jewish but this was actually good fun!

And a bunch of drunks on the shuttle bus back back to the hotel at the end of the night...

A pass and a Blurb book

2009-04-01T21:14:00.003+01:00

I passed my test. It was easy and I don't know what I was worried about! They don't tell you your score, just that you achieved the minimum score of 75%. I kind of wanted to know how I scored as I'm a nerd like that....Now to send off £750 to the Home Office for my new immigration visa!

I'm also loving looking at our Blurb book, which arrived yesterday. We're both rather happy with how it turned out, although we both find it a bit weird to see ourselves in a book. I think we may make another one with fewer pages and splurge on the premium paper. We kept the design really simple and didn't add much in the way of 'accoutrements'.

We used the photo of the candle we lit for Lee's Dad as the back cover, which was Lee's great idea.

Random weekend thoughts

2009-03-29T18:28:00.006+01:00

Things that have made me very happy this weekend:

Pretty flowers for 1 pound

Very yummy cinnamon spice tea

Winning at football (and getting that much closer to winning the league and being promoted to the next division)

British Summer Time is finally here! It will be so nice to go for walks after dinner and it still be light.

Something that isn't making me too happy:

Studying for my Life in the UK test tomorrow!

I realize that I must do adhere to the rules and regulations of immigration but it really just seems another way that the UK government can suck more money out of me. I wonder how many British citizens could actually tell me what proportion of UK children live in single-parent homes (25%), or how many parliamentary constituencies there are in the UK (646), or how many women with children are in paid work (about 75%)?

I really hope the majority of the questions are like these: what is the Prime Minister's official residence (10 Downing street) or what does a 'gap year' describe (a year between school and university which students spend travelling or working). Fingers crossed I pass!

Saturday in the sun

2009-03-22T08:06:00.005Z

I don't want to jinx it, but I think spring has finally arrived in the UK (well the Midlands at least!). Yesterday we took an early train to Droitwich Spa, the little town where Lee grew up and just one stop north of Worcester. We wanted to enjoy a leisurely walk and break in my new hiking boots, which I plan to use this summer in the Lake District.

We walked the 10 miles/16 kilometres along the unused canal system and then along the river Severn.

There were some beautiful houses along the way

and I think we may have disturbed the horses grazing along the river Severn.

We had some lunch beside the river with Lee creating a new flavour sensation: a jaffa cake-infused cornmeal muffin. Delish.

[As an aside, it has taken me 5 years of living in the UK to realize that one can buy corn meal here. It's just called maize meal. Duh.]

No pictures of the couple of pints at the end of the walk...just a bad sunburn to remind us of a pleasant day.

Pictures of us

2009-03-19T10:08:00.005Z

Lee and I don't really like being photographed but Lindsay made us feel relaxed and not at all self-conscious.

I'm really happy with how the pictures of just the two of us turned out.

All pictures by Lindsay Parrish

Welcoming our guests

2009-03-16T19:47:00.006Z

We had quite a few helpers who arrived at the reception venue while we were off taking pictures. I'm so glad that they agreed to help us out as there were quite a few people who arrived rather early and they made sure that all of our table numbers and place cards were in place.

As guests entered the reception venue our friends explained the 5 "rules":

1. Find your seat
2. Sign the guestbook
3. No smoking on the balcony overlooking the boats
4. No drinking at the entrance of the venue
5. Have fun!

Having my parents' friends there ensured that the majority of our guests signed our Edinburgh guest book. The book now sits on our coffee table and I still enjoy leafing through it and reading all of the funny comments.

The seating cards were strung on twine that we attached to an old door that my Dad varnished.

There are significantly fewer seating cards in the second picture. This is because quite a few guests used theirs as name badges, which I got such a kick out of! All of my Dad's colleagues were wearing them - I guess they thought they were at a business conference. I'm actually quite glad that people did it as there were some wives that I had never met before, but I was able to address them correctly by name!

Here are a few 'name tag' wearers:

Faves from last night

2009-03-14T08:23:00.003Z

Last night I was a complete saddo and sat in front of the television for 4 hours doing work, drinking some red wine, and watching the BBC's Red Nose Day broadcast.

I did donate - how could you not? - and laughed out loud quite a few times.

My favorite skits were from the cast of Gavin and Stacey, which is one of my favorite shows.

Bryn and Nessa perform (Barry) Islands in the stream

Smithy inspires the England football team.

Tidy.

Shots of the wedding party

2009-03-12T19:44:00.006Z

After some mingling, some candid pictures and a lot of hugs, the wedding party and our families travelled in our hired school bus for the short trip to the photo location.

We quickly took all of our family pictures so that our grandmothers could get inside to warm up and then Lindsay took a few more shots of Lee and his groomsmen.

We were extremely lucky with the weather - I was worried about the possibility of rain - and were able to get a lot of great shots. Erchless Estate happened to have an art installation of a moose and some wolves, so we just had to take full advantage of them.

I love how the estate photographed and the fact that they don't require any sort of permit to take photographs there!

And every wedding party needs a picture of blue steel! (I think Lee's brother's on the far left had the best one).

This is the last shot of the entire group before the wedding party headed up to the Oakville Club to get the party started. Lee and I stayed back with Lindsay to take a few more pictures...

Next Sunday

2009-03-08T20:04:00.004Z

I really enjoyed Alexander McCall Smith's, The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - the whole series of books makes for such nice light reading.

I'm rather excited for the brand new series on the BBC, which starts next Sunday. Jill Scott is perfect as Mma Ramotswe.

I think HBO is broadcasting the series as well this March.

A little surprise

2009-03-04T21:47:00.006Z

My Mom arranged for a fun surprise for us when we left the church. Somehow (I still don't know how she organized it) she arranged for a chimney sweep to be waiting for us once we walked out of the church. Apparently in England it is good luck for a bride to see one on her wedding day.

I love the looks on our faces when we first saw him.

I think our guests got a kick out of seeing him, although a large proportion had no idea why he was there (even the younger British guests).

Silly me failed to 'air kiss' the chimney sweep. Luckily one of my bridesmaids was there to wipe off the soot from my face.

All pictures by Lindsay Parrish

The ceremony

2009-03-03T21:15:00.007Z

Unlike the majority of the day, I can clearly remember the ceremony. I remember feeling completely calm and just so happy as Dad and I waited for our turn to head down the aisle.

We decided to forego any flowers or decoration in order to help our budget. I think that the soft glow from the candles and the beauty of the church was just perfect for us.

Before we said our vows my uncle and Lee's aunt kindly read two readings: Union by Robert Fulgham and a traditional Irish blessing. We were so grateful to them.

I love how my Nana's bracelet looks in this picture

I spent so much time deciding on which song to recess to and have absolutely no recollection of hearing it. So my advice is don't stress about these things too much, you'll be too happy and too excited to take much notice. (Our recessional was Rondeau by Mouret).

All pictures by Lindsay Parrish

A few posed shots of the boys...

2009-02-26T12:27:00.004Z

Lindsay left us to suck back a few glasses of champagne so that she could meet the boys at the pub across the street from the church.

The Queen's Head made for a fun location for a few posed snaps.

The wedding co-ordinator from the church was such a great help during the entire planning process. She was particularly great on the day, sorting out the boutonnieres and hauling Lee and his boys out of the pub when as guests were starting to arrive at the church!

All pictures by Lindsay Parrish

A few posed shots of the girls...

2009-02-25T20:59:00.005Z

I didn't want too many traditional shots with the bridesmaids so Lindsay took a few casual shots around my Mom and Dad's house.

I love this one

All pictures by Lindsay Parrish

The girls get ready

2009-02-23T13:16:00.007Z

Getting ready at my parents' house was so relaxed and fun. It felt like we were getting ready to go out like in high school, except for the fact I was in a wedding dress.

I love this shot of my sister

When I get nervous I tend to make funny faces...Lindsay captured the evidence (and me holding up 'big girl' granny underpants in the mirror)

OPI's Edinburgundy - in honour of the city where we met

Feeling rather bridally but still rather self conscious...

All pictures by Lindsay Parrish

The boys get ready

2009-02-21T16:43:00.009Z

Lee and his boys got ready in our hotel room and much to my surprise, seemed quite comfortable getting dressed in front of our photographer :) We bought the groomsmen the white TM Lewin shirt, the wonderfully naff Union Jack socks and the Canada/UK cufflinks as gifts.

All pictures by Lindsay Parrish

yay!

2009-02-16T21:29:00.001Z

Our photographer dropped off our pictures at my parents on Saturday. Here are some of my favorites that my Mom emailed me. I can't wait to see all of the pictures in their entirety!

2009-02-09T21:08:00.006Z

Lee and I managed to make a start on goal #19 of my list this weekend. We found a good deal on a hotel and train ticket and headed down to London on Friday morning. Train travel was somewhat delayed due to 'adverse' conditions (laughable, really) but we got down there in good time. After hearing all of the reports of the snow in London (which brought the city to a standstill last Monday) we were expecting some snowy streets. Unfortunately there were none to be found and our hiking boots looked a bit foolish...

The British Museum was just down the road from the hotel and as neither of us had ever visited, we spent most of the afternoon just puttering around all of the exhibits.

We also hit the Marlyebone high street for some fun window-shopping and posh charity shop searching. No pictures were taken from our drinking session at a random pub or a late dinner...

Early Saturday morning my dear friend and former university housemate met up with us at the Portobello road antiques market. It was great to see him and it really felt like serendipity that he happened to be in London on business that weekend.

I dragged the boys to my favorite posh department store, Liberty, as neither had ever been. It's a beautiful store and it is fun just to look around at all of the posh goods (and all of the posh people). Both seem quite impressed with the place. Lee was happiest by his famous-person sighting - Paul Weller, who held the door open for us in the men's department. He probably was en route to the champagne and oyster bar...

I treated myself to my perfume, Petite Cherie by Annick Goutal, as I was running low and it is difficult to find in the West Midlands. I was quite happy to be seen walking around London with my purple Liberty carrier bag.

It really was lovely to get away for a few days....

Eating, walking, drinking, and eating some more = a very happy weekend.