Kim’s Birthday Cake Construction

This week was Kim’s birthday, it’s a tradition in my family to fill the house with balloons (or bedroom, whatever) and so I was up the night before at 3.30am blowing up 50 balloons with two cats watching me looking very confused.

But it is also my new tradition to demand stupid birthday cakes and it’s only fair that I should make one in return right? This years theme was The Little Mermaid. I gathered supplies from Tescos.

I decided to recreate the scene with the shark, you know, this one.

First I made a pirate ship out of two cherry Madeira cakes and waffles stuck on with icing.

Then I created Ariel (be impressed by my super artistic skills).

    Then came fondant Flounder

And a shark to boot.

Then I had to make some sea water to add some structural stability so I turned my Betty Crocker icing blue.

Bluer!

Perfect, add the masts.

Decorations time…

And then candles! All done, 1 silly birthday cake.

I’ve requested Jurassic Park this year, I can’t wait.

A Little Trip To Cambridge

It’s Kimberly’s birthday soon and I’m working that day so I decided that whilst we had some time off together I would take her on a little trip to look round Cambridge. Only I didn’t tell her about it because she wanted a surprise so I surreptitiously siphoned off her clothes into a suitcase the week before.

But Cambridge was really pleasant, we just went for the two days and one night. We started off with lunch at a cafe called Fitzbillies which is famous for its Chelsea buns (read here – Things you may not know about a Fitzbillies Chelsea Bun). Although I think they should be famous for their little chip potato thingies, oh they were delicious.

The buns were good too, buns always remind me of elephants for some reason. Just look at the sticky goodness.

Then we went punting which I booked online, I was glad I did cuz there were a lot of people shouting out to try their punting company – not just by the river but all over town!

We sat right at the back which was nice because we got a good view. Kim made some American buddies from South Carolina whilst I served as the tour guide/personal photographer to some random lady from Singapore who had questions for me.

You can see our pals here. Our chauffeur (that’s what they called the punt driver) was very funny and we only managed to hit a couple of other punts, including one that had gotten stuck horizontally across the river (note to self – never self hire a punt, they’re lethal!).

Sadly the bridge of sighs had scaffolding on it but other than that it was really beautiful to explore the backs (that’s what they call the part of the river that goes past all the backs of the famous colleges).

I also enjoyed our little duck companions that followed us the entire trip.

After the punting we had a bit of a wander around Cambridge. I quickly located the Fudge Kitchen. Mmmm Fudge.

And we made some fudge buddies too.

We had a look around Kings College and the Chapel.

It was nice but… I find a lot of churches quite samey. I think we’re spoilt with so many beautiful churches in England that I’ve become a bit immune to their loveliness.

However I did enjoy a small exhibition on miracles, this was my favourite miracle.

I personally think they might have been scraping the bottom of the barrel and bit with the prune miracle but whatever… well done Agnes. After our travels we went to our hotel which was very nice and recharged for a bit before heading out to Zizzis for dinner. Now I know you shouldn’t go to chains when you’re somewhere new but it was right by our hotel so we got lazy but we also got cocktails!

Just look at this monster pizza I got!

 

 The next day we went on a touristy bus trip thing which was very nice and informative.

And we had a quick browse round the Sedgwick Museum which was free (bonus!).

Then we browsed the shops and stopped at Chocolat Chocolat to get some rations to take home (they’re already gone, they were tasty).

A quick bite to eat and we were gone, back to Great Yarmouth.

Endings and Beginnings

Kim and I are settling nicely into Yarmouth. It’s so nice being near the beach and out of the busy city. And there’s so many shops about I think I’m actually closer to everything than I was when I lived in Norwich city.

Kimberly’s been unpacking and Barclay’s enjoying a new den.

And I’m all finished at UEA now which to be honest I’m really glad about. I didn’t enjoy being a student, I much prefer working and I start my new job soon. I went to the sewing room to get all measured up for my new uniform today – what a treat, sewing rooms are from the days of nurses in hats and capes and are few and far between. At my last job you just got asked what size you were, got given a size that was as near to as possible and you had to get on with it! I got chivvied along by a seamstress to behind a curtain where she judged which dress fitted me and my “bosoms” (her word, not mine!) best, she turned it up for me, offered to fit me a popper to the top and even got me a nice belt – lush! In the mean time I’m off work until the weekend (gotta fit that last bank shift in as I’m destitute!) and then it’s induction week.

Not long now…

Hello Fresh

   Have you seen those adverts on Facebook for Hello Fresh? I had and I wanted to try them out but they were a little too pricey for poor old me so when I saw a Groupon offer for them I thought I would give them a go, especially now Kimberly is around to help out. You go to their website and pick what sort of box you want, we’re both a bit fussy with meat so we chose a vegetarian box and it came in the post Thursday.

And when you open it up there’s some glossy things to read and a little magazine that I chucked because… well I don’t care what they’ve been up to at staff HQ, I want my food damnit.

We got our recipe cards included which are handy and you can reuse (at least you can if your girlfriend Kim doesn’t spill food all over them) and they come in a nice little wallet for you to store them in.

All the food is also in the box of course and they have a clever way of storing the refrigerated goods in a sort of cool pack wrap that’s biodegradable.

The first recipe we made was a courgette pasta dish (or courgetay as Kim pronounces it to my endless amusement – apparently it’s called zucchini in America) and it turned out really tasty.

The second dish was a kind of greek salad and pitta bread which was tasty but so filling, we had loads left over afterwards.

The last dish was an aubergine curry (or obbergine according to Kim, apparently this is called egg plant back home) and we both agreed this was the best one. Again the portion sizes were huge so we saved a portion each for lunch tomorrow.

All in all we both really liked Hello Fresh, it was nice to try new dishes and make stuff together, none of the meals were too difficult or took too long to make and it was nice to have everything supplied for you ready to go. If it was cheaper I would definitely order boxes regularly but as it is, I think just for treats… and for next week cuz I forgot to cancel the subscription – doh!

If anyone wants to try a box for free then contact me – I have 4 free boxes to give away?

Collecting Kimberly

Well… what a disaster, from start to finish. I went to collect my girlfriend Kim from Heathrow at the beginning of the week. This involved getting up super super early to travel. Look at how the coffee lady spelt my name… seriously. I should have known this was an omen for things to come.   Goldie and I got stuck in traffic on the M25 for ages.

Then I finally got to Heathrow, Kim’s plane landed and I waited… no Kim. I waited some more… no Kim. She’d only gone and gotten held up in border control! I got an announcement on the loudspeaker to go to a special red phone in the airport and verify that I knew her… sigh! Then we had to go pick up Kimberly’s cat Bunny at the animal centre we couldn’t find and when we got there that took hours, sigh! Here she is in cat prison.

Finally we got on the road on the way home about 45 minutes away and little Goldie started to drive funny… I pulled over and the ABS light lit up. One recovery later with many suitcases and cat in tow we finally got home (£450 to fix poor Goldie, who is a car by the way, not sure I made that clear!). Phew. The kitties hated each other first and there was much hissing and growling but with a little time and a LOT of cat drugs they’re starting to warm up and we’re starting to settle into our home.

Preparation Day!

The day is almost upon us that Kimberly moves in!! Ahhhh there’s so much to do! I mean I’m pretty prepared, I got her new PJs and toiletries so she can crash after her flight and I even got some wine and stocked the fridge so I don’t have to do what I usually do and go shopping after discovering the fridge is bare (much like Mrs Hubbard). Just look at this key I got Kim, isn’t it so funny? I think the locksmith guy thought I was a bit mental.

All week since moving day I’ve been getting furniture into our new house in Great Yarmouth, the latest thing is the fridge freezer. The worst thing was the sofas (one took a bite out of a wall which is now inexpertly filled with poly filler… oops).

But I’ve been on placement full time at the hospital so it’s been a bit mad trying to fit everything in. Now I gotta clean clean clean in an attempt to convince Kimberly that I am not disgustingly untidy (Ha, I am). I even got my car cleaned outside AND in (the luxury!). Barclay’s just chilling out watching me vacuum, smug little animal.

   Little does he know that it is the last day of his single cat-hood because Kimberly’s bringing her cat Bunny. So then I’ll have two willing participants to dress up*. Ugh gotta drive to Heathrow tomorrow 😦

*Barclay did not consent to this.