May

Eurovision 2013

We had a great Eurovision party last night, with tons of food and drink. I found a bag full of booze this morning while cleaning up, when the hell are we going to drink that if we’re practically teetotal? We haven’t cooked all day and I don’t think we’re going to have to cook tomorrow either, there’s so much leftover food everywhere!

My favourites were Denmark and Greece. I mean, how crazy was the Greek entry?

Getting the house ready for the party made me create a new sofa/window seat, it’s rather cosy actually, maybe I’ll leave it like that for now.

4 days ago Short URL Comments

Home/Seasonal

eurovision/party

May

Getting ready for summer

It feels like the good weather has arrived. It did arrive 2 weeks ago then suddenly we were back in winter, which was rather confusing. But today it’s sunny and the kitchen door has been open all morning. The sun really hits the back of the house quite strongly in the morning (washing up with shades anyone?) so I’ve had to buy blinds for the kitchen window.

We have also started planting lots of stuff: strawberries (on the right, it’s growing incredibly fast! When I bought it it was smaller than the striped jug), basil (please don’t die this time), chives, spinach, spring onions and god knows what else.

I also got a lupin plant because it reminds me of Iceland, where it grew everywhere. I can’t wait to have all those pretty purple flowers adorning my garden!

Is anyone watching Eurovision tonight? We’re hosting our first Eurovision party!

6 days ago Short URL Comments

Home/homemaking

flowers/gardening/kitchen/plants/spring/summer

May

Running bug

I’ve caught the running bug. I never thought I’d say this but I have. I have always been really bad at sport, any sport, and I’ve tried many. But a few weeks ago, with more daylight hours, I decided to start gently and do a two or three runs a week on top of my ballet workout. This reached a whole new level when a colleague challenged me to do a 5k run and now I’m doing the couch to 5k challenge. And I’ve entered a 5k race at the end of June. Whaaaat?!

So yes, I’m running now. I download the NHS Couch to 5k podcast and it’s really good! It’s like having a personal trainer by you all the time. You combina walking (with Radio 2-sort of music) and running (with more dance-y stuff) and it’s great. Each run so far has lasted 30 minutes, which is great because the runs I was doing before starting this programme were only about 20 so this feels like a step up.

I’ve found that having decent and fairly pretty sports clothes helps too, so I’ve got two outfits. The light blue above (which matches my watch and trainers, and the pink one below, which matches by iPod. I might be doing sport but I’m still girly, y’know.

I don’t know if I should buy new (pink) trainers like the ones below. I find ALL trainers really ugly, but if they are pink, and as I have to wear pink for the race, I might try something like this…

One thing is for sure, I am only going to be a fair weather runner. Winters are for staying in and eating mince pies. It is cold enough in May for me, let alone January!

11 days ago Short URL Comments

Uncategorized

health/sport

Apr

Midweek dinners

Homemade flatbreads filled with spinach and chickpea falafel and hummus. Midweek dinners don’t get any better than this!

26 days ago Short URL Comments

Food/Home

dinner/food/vegetarian

Apr

Good TV

Until a few months ago, we didn’t even own a TV and now all of a sudden we’re watch so much of it! There is s much good stuff around.

Arne Dahl, BBC4, Saturday 9pm

This replaces The Killing, Wallander et al, will it be as good? Too early to say. The bad facial hair is a bit distracting.

Broadchurch, ITV1, Monday 9pm

Scandi-inspired interesting thriller despite it being on ITV – please stop the cruise ads already!

The Great British Sewing Bee, BBC2, 8pm

I already mentioned this one in a previous post, it makes me want to make stuff!

Lost, LoveFilm

Yes, this is an old one, but as we never finished it we decided to watch it from the beginning. We just finished season 3 and we better hurry up because LoveFilm warned me that it’s not going to be available for streaming forever.

The Politician’s Husband, BBC2, from 25 April

Hello David Tennant again! This looks very interesting, good actors as well. Will it be the British Borgen?

Now I have to manage to fit in running, zumba and some ballet, ha!

40 days ago Short URL Comments

Home

entertainment/film/leisure/tv

Apr

Bakeries

Sometimes I wonder why in some places there are so many bakeries (like in Barcelona, where you can find one every 20 metres) and so few here in Britain? It’s not like we don’t like bread and cakes here, is it? I do like Waitrose bakery, but I wouldn’t consider Greggs to be one, it’s more of a fast food place, sorry if I sound picky here. Baking is a serious matter.

That said, I am glad there aren’t more places like Forn Mistral around here… I’d be the size of a whale by now!

They have the most amazing, mouth-watering little chocolate croissants you’ll ever have – and yes, I am partial to croissants.

40 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Food

bakery/baking

Apr

Chocolate a la taza

Have you ever had chocolate a la taza? It’s the Spanish version of hot chocolate but it’s much thicker and darker and usually accompanied by churros (sort of donut fingers) or melindros (sponge fingers), my favourite.

The husband made melindros and chocolate at home once and they were delicious. Yesterday we tried to repeat that but the chocolate went a bit wrong (I blame the package’s instructions). We used this chocolate powder, available in most Spanish supermarkets.

It’s finger-licking good! The best place to have it is by far La Pallaresa, a very old-fashioned café in a narrow street in Barcelona which I visited last week. It’s become a tradition every time we go to Barcelona.

40 days ago Short URL Comments

Food

baking/chocolate/melindros/merienda/sweet

Apr

New hobby?

I’m totally addicted to The Great British Sewing Bee – and Tilly’s blog. Perhaps sewing could be my new hobby? Last week my mum taught a few stitches to finish up my latest knitting project (more to come soon) and to be honest it is quite difficult. I have ever even used a sewing machine! Have you picked up a new hobby recently? Is a book enough to pick up a new skill?

40 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

homemaking

hobbies/hobby/knitting/sewing

Apr

Easter

I had a lovely 4-day weekend for Easter. There was a lot of baking, a decent amount of crisps too, watching TV boxsets, sunny walks (and some cold windy ones too) and an Easter brunch with friends.

These are my special Easter muffins, I love the pastel colours!

Flowers!

Food for two…

… and Easter Monday brunch. How amazing are my friend’s brunches, right?

And finally, the sea!

50 days ago Short URL Comments

Food/Seasonal

baking/brunch/easter/eggs/porthcawl/walks

Mar

Lent resolutions

I completely forgot about this, which I guess is a good thing?

I have given up crisps for lent.

There, I said it.

I was started to show signs of irrational cravings and processed-food addiction so I decided to take control and give them up for a few weeks. I’m not religious or anything, but the 40 days of lent seemed a structured and achievable goal. It has worked so far, I even managed to resist the temptation when the boss brought three 24-packs of crisps to the office the other day to cheer the staff up (well not me!).

That said, come Easter Sunday, I’m having a bag of Doritos tangy cheese all to myself, thank you very much.

68 days ago Short URL Comments