Time on my hands

So I have been reading, and its a great way to let your mind wander away, well my mind. Though I am sure that some of you would agree my mind well wanders away enough on its own and probably clearly needs parental supervision anyway...

Here is what I have been reading over the past couple of weeks -

Mary Reilly - Valerie Martin

The Chocolate Run - Dorothy Koomson

Going Dutch - Katie Fforde

Cents & Sensibility - Maggie Alderson

Those Faraday Girls - Monica McInerney

And currently, but not for much longer...

How to Kill your Husband - Kathy Lette

What..! I mean nothing, its Kathy and she is damn hilarious, so there!

Lizzy's Lodge

One bright sunny Saturday in June, at the hight of a London summer, 5 of us trooped off to see Buckingham Palace or Lizzie's Lodge as I have come to affectionately call the place. After all I do work around the corner and live less than an hours walk away. Though still awaiting my invite to afternoon tea...hmmm.

Anyways Matt, Me, and a couple of my girlfriends from my last job, Shauna, Jade and Sam made an afternoon of the summer opening of the Palace. We arrived via St James Park and walked along to the gates at the side of the palace.

We were then, checked, herded and screened via security, de-phoned and de-cameraed (not physically, but the threat was there), before being hustled and bustled through to be plugged up to enable us progress silently with our own little audio guides through the staterooms of the glorious palace.

Glorious indeed, such a well maintained palace, and it has to be, as bits of it seem to fall off quite randomly it seems, with a piece of the roof to have apparently nearly hit Princess Anne not that long ago. Its very sparkly and very detailed, and gold, gold and more gold.

My favourite room was not the banquet hall done up to within an inch of its life for a state banquet (also where Jade got most publicly berated when her mobile - oh the shame - went off), but the gallery. The gallery was a purpose built room for George IV to house all his paintings, and it is very revered as it has paintings by Rembrandt, Holbein, Rubens and even a painting by my much favoured Johannes Vermeer - The Music Lesson. The music room was also a favourite, as it had the most beautifully decorated ceiling.

Following on from that would be the life sized statue at the bottom (pun intended) of the Ministers staircase, of Mars & Venus (by Antonia Canova)whereby Mars has a very nice bottom indeed...hehhe

I have included a few photos of the Palace, well the outside anyway, as per the standard... no photos allowed.

Me, with Jade, Sam & Shauna
The Palace verhanda...needs a better roof though...
The garden, not a Hills hoist to be seen
The back of the Palace
Gorgeous tree in the garden
View from behind the pond back to the house

Get in ma belly...........

Randomly thinking, since I am not eating all that much at the moment, I am entitled to gorge myself on comfort foods.

This had me thinking of what exactly my comfort foods were, so I started thinking and writing and thinking a bit more, and it ended up that, these are ..."a few of my favourite things...", and not necessarily in any particular order.

- Raisin toast, or brown toast for that matter with lots of butter and hot, hot, hot

- Tim Tams, especially with a nice cup of tea

- Roast dinner, beef or lamb, with all the trimmings, roast potato, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots, broccoli, beans, cauliflower cheese, gravy and a great big Yorkshire pudding, with a pint of Cider

- Freshly cooked hot chips, soggy with lots of chicken salt and tomato sauce

- Tomato or Pumpkin Soup or Sweet Potato...(OK insert any soup here, except for Pea & Ham and French Onion...)with toast and obligatory slatherings of butter

- Ham and cheese toasty toasties...and if you have to ask me what that is, well you are just missing out!

- Baked beans on toast...Heinz only, English original Heinz only at that, no BBQ sauce, no Organic, just original.

- Kettle chips in sea salt and balsamic vinegar, making my mouth water!!

- Bacon sandwiches with lots of tomato sauce

- Proper muesli with Greek yogurt and honey, and that is full fat yogurt thank you very much!

- Fresh hot cinnamon donuts (reminds me of after grocery shopping treats when I was little, thanks to my Mum)

- Cherry Ripes, and the new double dipped 70% cocoa Cherry Ripes, are divine! Usually I would say a classic is always the best, but well this is a first for a new version being better than the original.

- Hot chocolate on a really cold day, even better with marshmallows, the big fluffy Pascall ones you get in Aus.

- A damn good, well cooked piece of steak and by that I mean medium rare (more rare than medium) and if its Wagyu beef all the better, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

- Any big stew with lots of vegetables and meat with a tomato based sauce, I am there, slow cooked is the best!

Oh and you know I could go on, your suggestions are welcome, as there is always, always plenty I could add to this list!!

Flowers everywhere.....

The tributes to my Mum, lots of beautiful flowers, thank you all very very much.

It is time...very much so....

For me to do a proper update on here, I know its been some time since my last update and well plenty has happened. These days I barely get any sleep (though I only have myself to blame, I am merely stating a fact not whinging and moaning).

I am very much looking forward to this August Bank holiday long weekend where I plan to spend at least 2 days completely chilling and ensuring I sleep in LOTS. Albeit, with team McGarry downstairs knocking up some French doors, I am thinking this might be slightly optimistic.

Anywho...I am off to bed...and yes its well past midnight...

Welcome Aimee Mary Healy...

My lovely friend Fatima and her lovely partner Michael recently (1st August) welcomed their second little princess into the world, Aimee (a sister for a very vivacious 4 year old Hannah to play with).

I used to work with Fatima at Work Directions and when both Vicki and I visited her at home it was like old times, gossip and Fatima insisted on feeding me...ah bless.

Congrats to you both...she is adorable and I had a lovely cuddle.

Fatima, Me and Vicki with Aimee
With big sister Hannah
With mummy Fatima
With Auntie Vicki

If you want to find all the cops...

They're hanging out in the donut shop! No, I am not reliving my 80's youth and love of the Bangles - in particular the song Walk like an Egyptian - I am just pulling you in, making you wonder what on earth I am talking about!

Confused, concerned, do I have a few screws loose....are you worried, well don't be. Just check out this photo of all the police cars lined up on Petty France lane where I work, there were at least 50 cars, all filled with "bobbies". I did say I was well protected, and no there were not all there for my benefit - most likely visiting Scotland yard (this is not the first time it has happened after all).

I just had to take a snap...so If you want to find all the cops...they're hanging out .......... with me!

Well what do you say..........?

OK enough is enough, for two days in a row I have finally got a seat after standing for a while on the tube only to be immediately faced with the dilemma of a potentially pregnant women standing in front of me. And almost seconds after I have just got the seat!

I say potentially, and loosely, because, seriously how do you tell? Is it how they stand, how they hold themselves,are they just fat, is it just a bit of a belly? Well no one else is standing for them, so why should I. Especially when for the most part the sitting people are always men: men who absorb themselves in a newspaper, their phone, i-phone, or close their eyes, being oblivious to the fact that women are on the tube, or anyone else for that matter at all.

However, back to the question how do you tell for sure and what is the etiquette behind it? How exactly do you ask? Would they be offended? What do you do if they are offended?

Do you just casually stand and ask if they would like the seat? This is probably the best approach as then no real harm can be done, you didn't say anything damaging. Even better to stand up not say a word then have them sit down. If you do say something, most likely in that case they'd say yes and just take the seat offered.

However, as women, and I most definitely would do this, they would then start thinking, "why is that woman, when I am a woman offering me her seat?" Automatically following that you'd be thinking...."oh my god she thinks I am pregnant...oh crap back the gym it is!".

So then, you'd be standing, they would be sitting and they would be giving you dirty looks, or embarrassed ones, once the little conversation played out in their heads. You might get the seat back even if they are that offended. Though highly unlikely, out of, again, punishment or embarrassment...and generally on your side and theirs.

Moral of the story, faced with the dilemma, think like a man; absorb yourself in a newspaper, your phone, i-phone, or close your eyes being oblivious to the fact that anyone is on the tube................

One Summers Eve.....Chelsea Physic Garden

Ok after coming back from Australia, I remained a bit out of it, just kind of gradually getting used to being around myself again, and then my friends. Weird but was kind of enjoying nights in after work, sitting on the deck reading the paper and weirdly enough doing the ironing.

Well, odder things have happened I am sure. Anyway, enough was enough, a week and a half with amazing English summer weather I had to do something and it had to be outdoors. Walking to work and home was not enough, I love the view from Chelsea bridge, but hey there can be too much of a good thing...is that possible!!

Anyway, so I did a Google, firstly on Buckingham Palace (oh dear a whole other story and blog, to come I assure you) and found that the Chelsea Physic (pronounced like the beginning of Physician) Gardens was open till late on Wednesday nights in July and August. Well it happened to be a Wednesday and July, I had no other plans. So what the heck, I went to check out the oldest Botanic Gardens in Europe...1600's.

It was very cool, and amazingly warm. It has banana plants that fruit in winter, so yes, its actually quite warm in that tidy little space in Chelsea, right near Embankment and the famous Gordon Ramsey restaurant (I walked past it on my way to collect my dinner from the most poshest Tesco's I have ever been in, location wise).

It was gorgeous and I just did a wander around, taking in the smells and the beautiful colours. I had an audio guide and found out about the gardens, the original curator being Mr Sloane (aka Sloane Square) himself, about the oldest olive tree, bees and how London has lots of them, the male and female Ginkgo trees, ferns, and best of all the Mandrakes (yes just like in Harry Potter apparently they scream and you will die - old wives tales - if you pull them out of the ground and hear them do so) which were hiding underground, as they do!! It was gorgeous, god I love an English summer.

Some pictures below - Enjoy!

Chesire Garden Wedding

Another visit to Stockport, my third or fourth actually (Matt comes down here most of the time, aren't I lucky) saw me at a friend of the familys wedding. The wedding of Gemma and Gareth. Matt's family used to go on family holidays to France with the Rodgers family (Gemma is the 2nd youngest sister). So lucky Matt, his sister and 4 other girls. His sister tells me theres lots of photos of torture there, and I cannot wait to see them!

Summer weddings are just lovely, and this one was no exception. The church was the small family church and after a short jovial (I have never seen a minister so young and not giving everyone a sermon!) wedding we headed back to their parents house, just around the corner. After lots of photos and much throwing of confetti of course, of which I still have a handful in my bag, care of Matt's niece Tilly.

The garden was gorgeous with a stepped garden, marquee, small dance floor and a massive great tree that must have been about 300 years old setting the scene. The brides brother in-law was the chef, her sisters were the bridesmaids and all their children participated too.

The food, a never ending buffet, was amazing; duck spring rolls, wee pots of bangers & mash, salmon bagels, roast beef, strawberries and cream, lemon tart, chocolate tart, fruit shaslicks, a chocolate cup cake wedding cake and at 10pm that night we had hot chips..mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... AND we left just as the fireworks started...but you could hear them all down the street, and see them so we still saw them in the end.

It was a lovely day, and I finally go to wear my new dress...good thing there are more weddings to come!
Matt & I at the Church, yes the Bride was late..
Matt's Sister Cathy, her hubby Steve and Tilly
The stunning garden
Matt stealing all the cakes
The actual cake, the yummiest cup cakes ever...
Matt wearing Tilly's Koala ears
Well what can you say...ehhhee