Wash day blues

So I see Kirstin's pink jacket, pale pink I might add...not the best colour for an outer garment for the youngest of my genes, and it needs a wash. For once it is actually hanging on its coat hook which is rather impressive. I gather a load of light coloured washing from upstairs and happily set up the load. Kirstin is propped up on the couch, leg resting on an ottoman, crutches by her side, she is not going anywhere so I seize the opportunity, knowing that the jacket will not be required for a while.
After the load is done I set about hanging everything up and discover that Kirstin has something in her pocket, in the old days it was always full of pebbles, stones and such, but this feels like keys. I unzip the pocket and my hand brings out a freshly laundered IPod Nano. Have you ever done such an expensive load of laundry? It is actually worse than expensive, Kirstin bought the IPod from me, I paid E80 for it at a store in Dundrum, a Christmas present mistake for my eldest. When I tried to return it the store refused and so it sat in a cupboard for a while. Kirstin decided to buy it from me and found that it was E45 online, so I sold it to her for that price. Now I have to replace the thing, her jacket was not in the wash so technically it is not her fault but my very, very expensive mistake.

Phew!

I made it through Easter relatively unscathed. Unfortunately my two little darlings absolutley insisted that I share the Lindt gold bunnies that mysterioulsy appeared in the dishwasher overnight - never ever have I heard whoops of joy from my lasses upon opening the dishwasher to begin the unloading! I was quite restrained, a nibble here and there, and thank goodness they actually obeyed my orders of NOT buying me anything for Easter so it was made a little easier.
I took advantage of a wonderful day yesterday and we went up to Marlay Park for a nice long walk - the ice cream truck cruelly beckoned in the car park afterwards but again we managed to drag ourselves away without a sugary icy treat. After all that I decided that perhaps the scale would be kind and made the fatal mistake of climbing on earlier this evening. I am just not going to believe her, she is lying to me, nasty little piece of work skulking in the corner of the bathroom. Oh and perhaps some more veggie soup and starvation until Thursday....IF I decide to go.

A girlie day in Dublin

Jessica is doing Romeo and Juliet in English this year and her teacher suggested that the kids make an effort to see the play at the theatre. As Malcolm was not too keen I decided to take the girls while he is in Florida. I called the Abbey and booked the tickets earlier this week for the Saturday matinee, which also happens to be the last day of the production –cutting it a bit fine!!!
We do not go into Dublin often enough so I planned to make it a great day out. We caught the bus, I love sitting upstairs and enjoy the view, luckily we catch the bus at the beginning of the route so the front seats upstairs are always available.
Once in town we popped into the theatre to collect the tickets, I was fairly sure I could find a decent spot to eat nearby too. Sadly this was not the case, there were a couple of pubs but I felt a bit strange going into a pub alone with the kids for lunch – just not the done thing in South Africa, I am sure I will have got over it by the time Jess is old enough to order her first pint!
I often see a place in Temple Bar could Eliza Blues and love the look of it so we decided to walk back to the Southside for lunch. The girls were impressed with the place I had chosen and after a long discussion they decided to share – Jess would order the burger, Kirstin the chicken and bacon wrap, I had been craving a steak and the sirloin on the menu seemed .like a good choice. The waitress was back within 5 minutes, very sorry but there are no burgers today, how the hell can a restaurant have no burgers???? I was annoyed, Jessica absolutely loves burgers, and if there is a burger on the menu you can rest assured that she will order it. She decided on the wrap. Our food arrived and we all tucked in, my medium rare steak was medium well and tasteless, my potatoes were barely cooked and sweet. Usually I send food back, but we had a time limit so I ate my bland meal quietly, the kids did enjoy their wraps and chips so all was not lost. Suffice to say I will not go back, The Shack in Temple Bar serves up very tasty fare and next time I do not know where to go that will be my fall back.
After lunch we speed walked/wobbled back to the theatre, I am fascinated at the pace of my youngest daughter, her legs are shorter than ours and she MOTORS, I had to jog to catch up! The play was okay, it was fairly basic, no new scenes or wardrobe changes really, Romeo wore jeans, a waist coat and a white T shirt and Juliet started in a cute pink dress but ended up in a pair of jeans too. I certainly did not feel cheated, the tickets were cheap so I guess the budget was very low, and Jess absolutely loved it. Kirstin got confused, but still thoroughly enjoyed being there and watching a live performance.
I often walk past a little café called León, there are quite a few of them in Dublin and their windows display an array of wicked desserts and cakes and the opportunity for tea and cake after the theatre with my girls in such a lovely setting could not be passed up.
The place was very busy when we arrived but we got the seat of the house – next to the fire and after a long cold walk it was just perfect! The girls ordered hot chocolates and the assortment of ice cream – I KNOW!!!! I opted for an apple and pear tart topped with cinnamon ice cream and a low fat (LOL – after the tart!!!) latté. We sat there all cosy and warm, our order took an age but it really did not matter, the setting was great and we enjoyed each others company and the ambience of the café. I tasted the kids ice cream – Haagen Dasz is better, I hate to say, but the hot chocolate was divine!
After tea I stopped in at a grocery store I had walked past and wanted to poke around in called Fallon & Byrne…. I had no idea that it was a bit of a tourist attraction. According to the lady behind the cheese counter people pop in just to se the place. They do have some wonderful things, EM would lurve it. I bought some parmigiano reggiano cheese – in fact Kirstin also bought her own little piece to nibble on for her bus trip home and I spotted fluff (melted marshmallow in a jar basically) too so I bought a jar of that for the kids to try. After wondering around checking all their goodies out for about 30 minutes we decided it was time to head home.
The kids loved the bus trip so much that they did not want to get the luas so we stood and waited at the bus stop for 25 minutes! While standing there we started chatting to this tiny lady, she really made me feel like a giant – if I sat and she stood we were about the same height!!! When the bus finally arrived we all got on and I headed upstairs, our new friend did not follow, in fact as we were heading up she had told Jess that she would not come upstairs. And so it was that the kids proceeded to nag me to go back downstairs. I felt a bit idiotic going back down and told the kids that it was a bit weird. They begged and pleaded and eventually Kirstin went to peak downstairs to see if there were seats next to Deena. She came back saying that yes there were, and how cute their new friend looked, so small on the seat of the bus, her bags next to her nearly as tall as she. I told them to go and sit downstairs but they wanted me to go down too. Eventually I caved in and feeling like an utter weirdo made my way back down.
The kids were sitting in the seat behind Deena, I slid in opposite them, she was reading a magazine oblivious to the two giggling girls behind her. They started chatting to me and she put her magazine away and turned to see us (Me feeling utterly stupid) sitting behind her. I told her the kids had decided that they wanted to keep her company. She was very pleased and so we all chatted…until she realised that she had missed her stop!!! Luckily it was only 1 further so she made a mad dash for the door wishing us all a Happy Easter and hope to see you again sometime over her shoulder.
Our stop was next and we wearily and happily walked home after a wonderful day out in Dublin.

Driving Miss Daisy style

Good Friday my foot. It started out horribly and got worse. Waking up at 04h00 to get my hubby to the airport was only the beginning. Of course I did not mind that tooooo much as he had done me the courtesy of a lift to the airport in the early hours in February, so how could I refuse? Leaving home late was my first gripe. Not very late, but late enough for me to get caught speeding on the M50. Driving at 80 km per hour on the M50 at 04h40 should be allowed, compared to everyone else I was SLOW, but the camera flashed and winked and my heart sunk – 4 flipping penalty points *&^%. I was in a 60 km zone, due to road works – but where I got my picture taken….NO cones and no signs of road works…just the fading tail lights of a speeding truck up in the distance. Oh well. At least I can say that was the worst part of my day! Malcolm did have his usual panic attack which involved him climbing into the back of the car while I was driving to search for his passport which he was all of a sudden very sure was at home. I was not very impressed, we were about 10 minutes from the airport and he had muttered something about his passport before we even set a tyre on to the M50, why could he not have checked then? The panic was for nothing, well actually for Malcolm it is a pre-requisite so ignore that comment, and I dropped him off at the departures area with all baggage, ticket and passport accounted for.
Now for the trip home, the M50 is the LONG way round, but as I was a virgin airport driver I decided to play it safe and go back the same way. I do know that I went around one traffic circle a couple of times but after that it was plain sailing all the way home. I even got to drive my car at 120 km for a stretch – yes legally and it felt so strange going so ‘fast’. Amazing how quickly I have got used to toodling along at 50 km, I felt reckless doing 120km, a speed I regularly exceeded back in S.A – if you are not doing at least 130 km on the highways you are TOAST. 60 km limit in the suburbs –equates to 80km on your speedometer and beware those who do not obey, hooting, flashing, tailgating or rude hand signals are almost par for the course.
After my experience on the M50 at 04h30 in the morning I see that a lot of the Irish have very similar speedometers to the South Africans, luckily without the aggression. As a ‘newby’ I am generally behaving myself and now with 4 penalty points coming my way I will certainly continue with my toodling.

Looking up

Last night I had hockey practice and it only started at 21h00. I have to take every opportunity to practice my limited hockey skills so of course I am always ready and unwilling to go out in the black of night to chase a ball around a soggy astro turf. Judging by last nights turn out most players are supremely confident in their ability to play and so it was that 7 of us played a game of hockey, thank goodness using the width of the pitch. I was on the 3 person team and we were huffing and puffing like a train running out of steam within 5 minutes. We had an absolute ball (he he)and I even managed to score THREE goals!!! Of course my big feet kept getting in the way and had it been a real game I am quite sure that my team would have been cursing me, and NOT under their breaths! Slowly but surely I am definitely improving though and I did even get my feet out of the way a couple of times. After the game we all went up to the pub and had a drink and a chat which was a fabulous end to the evening. I was also very pleased because Hillary said I must give her a call over the course of the weekend and we can go for a walk and a coffee and I am going to movies with Melissa tomorrow to see Dr Seuss's Who movie. Meriel also said that she works quite close to where I am working, so we will get together for lunch one Thursday. When I got home and told Malcolm about my evening he grumbled that if I think I do not have a social life now, he is not looking forward to the day that I do and I suddenly realised that I am making friends with great people and there is hope for me on my little island!
This morning I caught the luas into work and I bumped into one of the guys who plays for the Vets team and we stood and chatted all the way into Dublin....this really is starting to feel more like home!!!!

Awakening

So I got myself a wee little job. No exaggeration there, I will be working from 10 – 2 every Thursday. The money is mediocre but the craic is excellent. I get to play shop keeper, shop keeper. I remember my sister and I saving (recycling) all the old biscuit boxes, washed out tins, shampoo bottles etcetera and setting up shop in the outside room when we were kids, now I get to do it for real.
I am still looking for something more permanent, or even a few other temporary positions but perhaps the flitting about from job to job has not impressed the powers that be very much. In my defence, I have always put being with my kids above work and therefore mostly chose 6 month contract positions, or half day stints. The array of what I have done also may boggle the mind, jack of all trades, master of none is me. I have said before I am a quick learner, and I think I proved it yesterday. I have never worked on a till, okay granted, it is not too difficult, but there are codes and categories that have to be used for different things. I went in for a training session, 10 -2 , dipping my toes in, testing the waters. Only to dive in head first when I discovered that my new boss had terrible tooth ache and had to go to the dentist. Before I could stop myself I had offered to work a full day, which meant cashing up, balancing and locking up shop. The pain must have been severe because I was sent off to get an extra set of keys cut for the shop when I went out to grab a sandwich.
So, day one…deep end, best way to learn how to swim. I think I did bloody well, closed shop at 18h00 and balanced the cash by 18h15, wunderkind me! Of course I had to get out the banking from the day before to see how it was done but it was all pretty straight forward and having dealt with till slips from 4 barmen 3 times a week, at my last job (a year ago), has made me a bit of an old hand.
It is a great way to get me out of the house, the money really is negligible considering I am paid by the hour, but at least I am doing something different!
Walking through Dublin yesterday morning with the sun shining and people all busily on their way to do ‘stuff’ was awesome and then after closing up I walked back through Temple Bar and past lots of restaurants with twinkling candles and happy couples, drooled over a board of breads and antipastos’ at a great looking Italian place and decided that I do need more of this in my life. Hopefully this is the kick up the proverbial….that I have been waiting for, life is passing me by as I sit at home in my pyjamas!

Coffee morning - our style.

The day of my coffee morning finally arrived. I spent the day in the kitchen yesterday making lemon meringue pie and milk tart and the kids were salivating and hoping that there would be left overs after my social gathering.
Jess and Malcolm walked to the bus stop, Malcolm has a social engagement this evening so liquor will be involved and handling a motor vehicle will be prohibited. I needed to get things ready for my guests so Kirstin happily went off on her own this morning, usually I walk her down to the luas.
Enter disaster….

ACT ONE
Scene One:
11 year old girl in a pink jacket happily scooting along listening to her Ipod, sun is shining and her heart is glad, 2 more days of school and then Easter holidays, hooray!!!
Enter mean crack on sidewalk path…he he he he I am going to trip up cute girl on scooter.
Followed by two good Samaritans consoling young girl in pink jacket, one shoe and a holy stocking.
Finally call to mommy at home whose heart drops into her big fluffy pink pyjama pants, wearing her pink slippers and maroon nightie, and a red fleece hoodie complete the look.
Luckily one of the kind ladies has a word with distraught mother, sounds very nice and will stay with child until neglectful, bad, disorganised (should have set up cups, plates blah blah blah last night, and driven her to luas this morning) monster gets to child.
Worried, trembling, heart pounding mother jumps into little blue car and roars out of driveway heading to the rescue of wee soulie.
Guardian angel, not sure if belonging to distressed mother or inconsolable child, parts Dublin traffic with her magic wand.
Yes this is true…when I got to the busy main road expecting queues of cars and 15 minutes of stress, including 3 traffic light changes I reached the offensive traffic being second waiting to turn, I kid you NOT!!! Yeah, yeah it is Thursday and loads of people leave their cars at home and use public transport but still.
Another call to tear stained child to find out which side of the road and then I see the little huddle, my baby leaning up against the wall with two protectors.
Jump out of car on very busy main road in above described outfit and put all manner of goodies in boot of car, including a discarded shoe.
Help injured child to car, thank kind ladies profusely, recognising each other from morning walks and head for home.

Scene Two:

Pain riddled child limps into warm cosy house.
Carefully placed on sofa and foot propped up on cushion.
Ice pack found lurking at the back of cupboard, squeezed till bursting and all shook up.
Deformed looking foot (please no) not at all happy with more pain thanks to offending icy bag.
Nurofen should do the trick, Nurofen…..good.
Ice pack…bad, still bad.

Frantic call to husband – no answer.
Enter Google search engine. “Crumlin Children’s Hospital” and “Rockfield Medical centre.”
Call to Rockfield, very quiet, good news at last.
Frantic search for emails between coffee morning guests and myself.
Quick explanation, please come one hour later mailed to 2 people
Call to Tracy – voice mail, leave garbled message, something about injured child and possible x-rays.
Call from Tracy around the corner from my house, on her way.
What to do, what to do???
Could it possibly be broken, not swelling too much, but cannot touch it without hearing a little sob from the patient.
Husband returns call and explain what ahs happened. Not much he can do but a relief to have someone to talk to.
Enter Tracy!!! Super hero….
I prepare coffee machine, show her where the cakes are and give her a set of keys
Really strange because it is the first time she has been to my house!!!
She will be at my house for 10:30 coffee morning guests.
Heart starts beating a little more slowly.
Carry Kirstin to car.

Scene 3

Carry child into very quiet waiting room at Rockfield medical centre and a wheelchair is supplied.
This impresses the injured as she loves being wheeled around.
Whisked through by nurse who swabs the area with iodine. This produces a watery substance from the child’s eyes and causes a pinched look to cross her puffy eyed tear stained face.
Holds and squeezes concerned mothers hand very tightly.
Doctor comes through, prods, pokes and moves foot which causes huge discomfort and more of the salty liquid to course down cheeks.
X-rays are required to make sure.
KaChing.
Radiologist arrives and x-rays are done, with the required amount of grimacing and lots of intake of breath.
Much reminding of deep breathing as it will help filters through the glass protection from concerned mother to invalid child.
Back to our cubicle and much chanting of ‘Please don’t let it be broken’ ensues.
See doctor with x-rays, study his face looking for any reaction as he surveys pictures of child’s bones. Takes an impossibly long time to determine, much frowning and chin rubbing.
Turns to walk towards patient and sees mother’s expectant face and the doctor give a thumbs up!!
Relief flows through body of both as the thought of a cast had been very unappealing to both.
Compact bandage is applied to injured leg and a pair of crutches appears.

Quick visit to the pharmacy for some pain reducing Nurofen while bandaging is being done.
Quick lesson on how to use crutches, very unnecessary as this child ahs had the opportunity to experiment in the past with friends crutches!!!
Two hundred and thirty euro lighter a relieved mother and child exit the building and head for home.


So that was how my morning began. Of course it could have happened ANY other day and I could have spent the whole morning/day at Crumlin, paid nothing and had something to do. But no, it has to happen on the ONE day that socialising is taking place. Tracy was a life saver, she supplied coffee to all and when I got there everyone was standing around the kitchen counter talking and laughing like they had known each other forever. Milk tart and lemon meringue pie were produced as well as a delicious banana bread by Tracy and Mandy had brought crackers, chive cream cheese and smoked salmon which was a killer combination!
Cake was consumed, more coffee and tea and Kirstin sat and absorbed the accent and the familiarity of South African people together in a strange land.
In the end the coffee morning was a great success and much telephone and email address swapping took place. Slowly one by one people started leaving, children to collect, toddlers to be fed and life to return to its normal patterns.

Of course the day would not be complete until big sister got to see for herself just what little sister had been up to all morning. So much so that Kirstin came with me to fetch Jess from school. The withering look, how dare Kirstin sit in the FRONT seat, was replaced by one of pure and utter sympathy/panic at the sight of the gleaming prized possession of crutches. The story was told and much hugging and patting and oohing and aahing ensued, huge sympathy at the revelation that Kirstin was alone when she fell, no mommy in sight. A high five even wheedled its way in when it was discovered that I had to purchase the crutches as the girls can think of nothing much more fun than giving crutches a serious work out. All is well that ends well.

Kissing frogs

You can just imagine what this kid was thinking....if a frog turns into a PRINCE can you imagine what a pig turns into.....

Cuppa Koffie?

The other day a bee flew into my bonnet. He told me that it is about high time I did something about my social life. I was rather annoyed, I go to a weight watchers meeting, I joined a hockey club, I figure I have done my bit. Melissa and I are friends, we walk together one evening a week and I am going to her place for dinner tonight. Unfortunately she is also moving to the U.K in June, her ex boyfriend lives there, only her ex because he is now her fiancé, hence the move. Malcolm thinks it is mighty funny that the people I befriend leave the country…

There is something to be said for spending time with other South Africans, when I complain about the price of takkies, or how I miss biltong they know what I am talking about. Of course I would not befriend a person from SA just because we share a birth place but for some reason I can have a good long chat about all sorts of things when confronted with a fellow countryman. I even find common ground with other expats, when we lived in New York we had a family of expats, Zimbabweans, Australians, Irish, British and more. We got together for the “holidays” like Thanksgiving and 4th of July, it was awesome.

Anyway what I am trying to say is that I have organised a coffee morning at my house for a bunch of SA people to get together and have a cup of coffee or tea, (rooibos included) and a slice of milk tart. I even did a wee poem as the invitation. The S.A. shop Jabula very kindly offered to put it in their newsletter and I am happy to say that I have had a favourable response. In fact, an Irish lady who subscribes to the newsletter even emailed me asking if she could come! Of course I said yes, the more the merrier, for now… I certainly do not want 30 women descending upon me come next Thursday!!!!

I do not think there are any SA people in Ireland reading my blog, if so I would like to think they would have said something by now…but here is the invitation just in case!

Sometimes my days can be rather boring
So I decided to host a coffee morning.

Don’t dress up or wear a hat
All we really want to do is chat.

I will also make milk tart
but you must agree to do your part.

Let me know if you can come
So I know how much food is needed to fill your tum.

Ladies only!!!!

Natalie
Thursday 13 March
10h30
For more info email me at therules at eircom.net

Pictures that make you go... awwwwww

Friday humour

A man kills a deer and takes it home to cook for dinner. Both he and his wife decide that they won't tell the kids what kind of meat it is, but will give them a clue and let them guess. The kids were eager to know what the meat was on their plates, so they begged their dad for the clue. Well, he said, 'It's what mommy calls me sometimes'. The little girl screams to her brother 'Don't eat it, it's an asshole..

Another me me...

So K8 me me'd me..yes confusing I know and this is what I had to do, which brought back some memories, so thanks a bunch. Once completed, choose 4 victims, I mean friends and leave a message on their blog letting them know what you have done!!

Four jobs I’ve held:-
Bank teller
Window dresser for a pharmaceutical company
Nursery school teacher
Sports club bar manager

Four movies I’ve watched over and over again:-
Dirty Dancing
Over the Hedge
Little Miss Sunshine
Shawshank Redemption

Four places I’ve been:-
Cango Caves -Oudtshoorn South Africa
Mpumalanga - Graskop Sabie area South Africa
Martha's Vineyard - Cape Cod USA
Table Mountain - Cape Town South Africa

Four places I’ve lived:-
Johannesburg -South Africa
Knysna - Garden Route S.A.
Rye New York - USA
Dublin - Ireland


Four TV shows I watch:-
Prison Break
Men in Trees
Grey's Anatomy
Boston Legal

Four radio shows I listen to:

Only know the stations here!!!

98FM
Today FM
Spin

Four things I look forward to:-
Summer
Beach walks
Seeing friends
Having a house again so we can get another 'man's best friend'

Four favourite foods:-
Wood baked thin crust pizza
Thai spring rolls with sweet chilli dipping sauce
Lemon meringue pie
Pasta dishes

Four places I’d rather be:-
France
Italy
Knysna
Visiting a friend


Four people I email regularly:-
My mom
Karen
Tracy
Jeane

Now I get to pass on the fun so here we go.... and sorry no links, I just tried and for some reason I NEVER get them right first time, I tried about 10 just now and have given up!!!

EM
Hails
Conor
Isit

1 potato, 2 potato 3 potato BLUE

I was watching the RTE news last week and they had a story on blue potatoes. They have brought some seeds to Ireland from Scotland and have a successful crop which is now availalbe at Superquinn. I bought a pack and baked them the other night. Tasty, very tasty.

These blue beauties (think gentian violet actually) have been sent in to bring back the potato!!! Apparently they are hoping that it will entice the little ones into eating more spuds. Can you think of anything more delightful than a plate of BLUE mash?? Oh yes, that would be blue chips. Funny enough the kids who got to try it thought that they would not like it when they saw blue mashed potato, once they tasted it they did give it the thumbs up...my guess is because it tasted like....potato. Anyway they are supposed to be pretty damn good for you, all that blue/purple colour giving you a nice little injection of those wonderful anti oxidants we are all looking for. This picture may be a bit misleading as the skins really are deep purple in colour.

How could I have forgotten?

I had such excitement on Thursday night, I can't believe I forgot to blog about it! I skipped to Weight Watchers, had a brilliant week, stuck to my points faithfully, drank my water, walked every day and....................lost four pounds!!!! Walking on air, it was so much easier with those banished pounds! Of course the weekend was horrific, Malcolm's birthday, Mother's Day and "Houston we have a problem" (No lift off anymore...). So today I made what Weight Watchers refer to as 'free' soup. Leeks, celery, carrots, courgettes, cabbage and chicken stock. I will be enjoying it for lunch for the rest of the week to pay for my weekend sins!
I also had an interview with a recruitment agency, they were very positive, of course this was before the actual testing of my proficiency levels on word and excel, but I did warn them. It also happened to be one of THE crappiest days in Dublin, rain and gale force wind literally shoved me all the way to the luas, so I hope it was worth all the effort, I felt like a real idiot in a SKIRT but it was the smartest thing I could pull out of my very casual cupboard.

Moving along

And so we move swiftly along. It was a very busy weekend for me, spent the day shopping and cooking for Malcolm’s birthday dinner and cleaning up after myself. I considered leaving the mess for Sunday because it was Mother’s Day, but that would have been cruel. I do not think Malcolm embraced being 40 – it was a great time for reflection, but that is his make up, hopefully if I stay true to form mine will be one big party, but I guess it is a HUGE milestone and I will have to wait until I get there to see what it is like, and how many people I have befriended, at least I have a few years!
We were also made uncomfortably aware as to how alone we are over here and how out of sight out of mind seems to work. The telephone rang TWICE, the mobile announced a text message 4 or 5 times and that was it, now in SA, it did not stop all day. Bloody hell, it was depressing. At least Martin and Geraldine made a great big song and dance about it, the door bell went at 08h30 and I sleepily stumbled downstairs in my nightie and was greeted by a gold balloon topped baby bottle of Moet and a big blue card with heartfelt bellows of Happy Birthday being directed up the stairs, and they were on their way to Martin’s mums funeral!!!!
The dinner was fab, I made a saffron rice with prawns dish out of one of my favourite chefs, Bill Granger’s books, with a decadent salad of crisp parma ham, vine tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and lots of olive oil. This was followed by an almond orange cake with vanilla cream.
Sunday was a lazy brunch day at a little coffee shop around the corner and just got lazier until I turned out some blueberry pancakes….for dinner!!! Ah Sundays, gotta love ‘em.

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Have a fabulous year, seems we cannot see it in with a bang we will endeavour to make an entire year worth remembering! Love always
Nats