GoT, Deirdre + pizza

If you read my last post, it ended abruptly, the boyf kindly pointed out that I was posting a bullsh*t photo of melon in a bowl.
I was annoyed with him. He hit a nerve. I'm posting the sort of rubbish that I don't even talk to my colleagues about...and I'm stuck with them for 8.25 hours per day so I over-share a lot of  the minutiae with them.

Although I read a few blogs that have very mundane photos on there but I still go back to these blogs and enjoy hearing about the day-to-day. I think it is a question of sex. Women like the nitty gritty...men do not. Especially the boyf who has extreme aversion to chit-chat/small talk/pleasantries. I am working on him but its like carving out of granite with a cocktail stick. He is a challenge.

Anyway, lets get interesting. I ate out last night..and FORGOT to take a photo! Fake-ass blogger that I am.
I went to Vao in Sale and had a chorizo, goats cheese and sundried tomato pizza. Eaten in the presence of Deirdre Barlow.

http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/deirdre-barlows-best-bits.html

This is vintage Deirdre from 1989 according to the lovely Corrie blog people.

Hope you enjoyed your food as much as I did love.

 I love Game of Thrones. GoT from now on.
Check out this video posted by Bad Lip Reading.

Keep on trucking.


x Sunny

Scrapbook - get my craft on + melon

Hello,

Cruised down to my nearest Hobbycraft today. Windows low, shades on. I could have driven round all day it was nice with that sunshine out.
Bought supplies for my hen party scrapbook.

It may look like a hodge podge of patterns and colours but it'll make sense in my themes of the scrapbook "naked men" will have the animal print; etc. I've done about 10 pages today only 60 to go! My deadline is 7th May so I will not be dillydalllying on this one.

I ate some nice melon earlier.

In an exceedingly chipped bowl that I have owned for 12 years. It was  one of my uni crockery bowls.
I made a nice pork loin chop thing that I beat the crap out of and covered with breadcrumbs, parmesan, lemon rind. We had it with celeriac mash (first time cooking and eating, it was delish), broccoli, carrots, leeks and a tomato and onion sauce thing.
I took a piccie but it looked very sloppy on the plate. Presentation is not my strong point. 

It was all nice and we will be having it again...it'll have to be a weekend dish as it took me an hour and a half to get it on a plate. I have a 15 min messing about limit on weeknights + ideally 20min max cooking time.

Just been slagged off by the boyf for my shite photos so sorry all.

speak soon 

Sunny x

 

Yoga + hen party scrapbook

I was up with the birds this morning for an 8.30am yoga class.
It turns out it was a 9am class! Oopsie!

I waited in the car for the 30mins - listened to the Frozen title track. I heard the album has been #1 in the US charts for a massive amount of time, so I wanted to hear what the fuss was about. Quite the inspiring ballad-fest.

I've been designing the format of my hen party scrapbook today and have ordered the photos from snapfish as I had 40 free credits on 4" x 6" photos, but I needed 5" x 7".

I need to get my papercraft items tomorrow and get making the scrapbook look good.

No news for the last few days. I've resumed lunchtime reading. On the Book Thief at present. Will review it once I've finished.

Was craving cheese and potatoes on Friday.

It looks half good for me with the pretty salad on the side.
NB: The raw onion was removed by me once the photo was taken, it does not agree with me.

Enjoy Saturday evening. I've had my one and only beer for this weekend. Need to get my equilibrium back.

Sunny xxx

A bag that I didn't buy

The Easter egg and flanker chocolates (ripple, minstrels, etc.) have now left the building. Ahem. Well done me!?
We can now move on with a healthy lifestyle. Goodbye chocolate pig-outery til Chrimbo.

In that spirit, we managed 4 veg on our dinner plates - courgette, broccoli, cauli, onion. It was delicious with chicken in a tarragon sauce again.

I was ogling this bag to take on the hen party.

Its from Dune and is £55.
I didn't buy it, but I still think that tassel is the business! Isn't it beautiful?
I didn't buy it as a) Its synthetic b) its coral and c) I thought I might get crud on it from the hen party shenanigans!

I love the coral colour but most of my wardrobe is colourful. I don't want to walk around looking like a kaleidoscope. I need a neutral colour in a bag to anchor my look. One is on the hunt in the background and will update accordingly.

OMG. I can't believe I referred to myself as having a "look". Snort. Is "cobbled together" a look? There is a reason I don't post my outfits!

SunnyL Xx

Hen party recovery + statues

Hi there,

I think I hid it well but I was less than 90% yesterday, probably closer to 50%.
I couldn't even finish that frigging Easter egg as I felt so sick and stuffed to the back teeth with chips, 10" magarita pizzas and booze, including, but not limited to: port, lager, woo woos and white wine.

Yonks ago when booking the hen do I mentioned that I paid for rooms, dinner reservations, etc. I was being a doubting Thomas that the girls would all pay, but they did, so thanks lovely fellow hens.

Breakfast yesterday after the finale of the hen party was a gastronomic highlight of the weekend. It is also a great snapshot of my (un-)balanced diet over the weekend.

Sausage bap, apple juice and a custard slice. The coffee in the picture is not mine. Not putting dehydrating caffeine into my body, no siree. 

Sorry for the picture of yellow and brown food AKA fat blob foods. 
To refresh your eyes, here are a couple of nice statue objects from Blackpool on Friday with the lovely blue sky in the background. Love that blue.

Does it not look totem-esque, with an eagle head at the top?
Due to its rust colour, I thought it was some type of industrial art. Getting up close to it, we could hear some weird, ghostly groans. Actually, it was the musical tones produced by the Blackpool High Tide Organ. If I remember correctly, they were all in the Bflat scale (I think) which is a naturally occurring sound. 

The sounds are produced by 8 pipes that run from the sea wall up to 18 pipes in the statue. The water in the high tide pushes air into the pipes and voila!

I saved this photo as shuttlecock statues. I have since found they are supposed to represent dune grass as Blackpool was built on sand dunes. 

They were replaced with a sea wall at Victorian times and this sea wall has now been replaced by modern coastal defenses, which is when these statues were placed on the promenade. 

These dune grass statues sway in the wind. They make the most of the abundant sea breeze, the swaying is so relaxing. Nice. Oh to have been in a hammock swaying myself while looking up. Nicer.

Sunny L xx






 

Good Friday at the seaside

Happy Easter chicks and rabbits,

What a wonderful weekend, I had high hopes and they were surpassed.
We started Friday with a day out at the seaside along with thousands of others, all in a rush to enjoy the sun THAT day, all because the weather forecasters scared everyone by saying it was going to rain cats and dogs on Sunday (FYI no rain where I was all weekend).

So Friday where did we go?
Sunny Blackpool. Yes there's not a cloud in the sky and I had my sunglasses glued to my face, but there was a wind and I was still wearing 4 layers whereas other hardy Northern and Scottish souls were in their shorts and sandals. Lovely boyf caught the sun on his face, but the sun couldn't get through my trowelled on SPF15 foundation.

We went up the famous tower, to the Blackpool Tower Eye, as I hadn't been up before.
Factoid: It takes over a minute to go up in the lift. 
On the viewing platform, there is one of those glass floors that you can stand on and experience vertigo - the skywalk.
Factoid: The glass is 4.15 tonne in weight.

You can see the view past our feet looking down onto the Promenade. It took me about 15 minutes to get both feet onto that glass for 12 seconds to take the photo. I had jelly legs when we first got up there. 

I'm the crowned mini golf champion too. That emerald coloured golf ball must have been my lucky charm. 

Winner got a Blackpool gelato:

Hope you had at least 1 ice-cream over the holiday weekend.
I feel decidedly dirty and greasy after the hen do festivities. I'm made a half-hearted effort to try to restore equilibrium with a green tea and an apple but I'm still ploughing through my  Galaxy easter egg. Its going down well.
I'll get back to my marginally more healthy habits tomorrow.

Sunny in the sun xx

Hens...bridesmaid...beyond excited

Hello!

I was going to write about something else but I have exciting plans for this weekend and am beyond excited so need to share!! 

Yes it's a hen do, for a wedding at which I will be a bridesmaid! The gorgeous bride has her hen do this weekend - that I organised!
I was slightly stressed about it but have now decided to just go with the flow and just have fun.

Tiaras will be involved! Oh yes, it's all about being classy on this blog this weekend!
Although I am frustrated, yet sadly not surprised, that I can't get the tiara comb to comb properly into my thick curly hair. Bummer. 

To top off the cheese and the hen party tacky traditions:

Rainbow coloured willy straws!
What's a hen do without a willy or 10?

There's nothing like a girls' weekend with all your mates. What is it with us women being able to talk non-stop for 12 hours? Its such a gift that men miss out on. Poor them!

I am worried about coping with the drinking though. But as the self-appointed event photographer and default night organiser I have a lot to do (ha) and have promised myself that I will carbload and drink water as necessary so I hold it together for 2 days and nights :) There will be cocktails though, it is a celebration after all!

Enjoy enjoy enjoy the BEST bank holiday as (I know we know already) its 2 whole days adjoined to 2 weekend days AND in the Springtime!

Will update
Sunny x
 

Sponge cake and Easter countdown

Happy fake Wednesday! Celebrated this special day by eating Sponge.
Its not homemade, but it was made by Margaret and my Mum bought it for the boyf when she came on her visit as its his favourite.
I know the slice looks tiny, it is, but we've nearly finished the cake already.

 

I'm on Easter countdown so I can finally eat the weight of a new-born baby in chocolate without judgement. 
This has been looking at me for the past 6 weeks.

 

BTW I need to get a prettier backdrop than the gross beige rented flat blinds...

Anyway, in front of the dubious colour blind is a Galaxy chocolate egg. Chocolate in the shape of an egg tastes so much better than normal shaped choccie.

Been working like a busy bee this week and I have great plans for the weekend. Whoopy do do!

In the meantime, hitting the TV viewing hard: True Detective, GoT and Desperate Housewives all being enjoyed here.

Sunny x

Cakes and wildlife

My parents visited this weekend. 
I was massively looking forward to their visit as I hadn't seen them for a while and they'd be on my turf for a change.

They arrived Saturday lunchtime with these pressies from my Nan:

Welshcakes!
Despite being a proud Welsh woman, I've never made them.
There are many recipes online. Delia's recipe is here .

They are very moreish and should be eaten with butter, but I also shove them in by the handful on their own.

We ate fajitas on Saturday night with chicken and some slow-cooker chipotle pork.I did not like the flavour of the chipotle, its disappointing when a new dish doesn't work.

I also made this chocolate almond cake that I found at Annalise's blog. It's originally a Julia Child recipe. Did you read any of the Julie/Julia project blog? Watch the film? Both really good.
To be honest I think the cake was slightly overdone but we all enjoyed it and I've had 2 slices by now.

I walked off some of those cake calories by walking a few miles in the grounds of Dunham Massey. We were there with many many other people. I guess Sunday is family day.

There was bright sunshine in London for the Marathon runners.

Not in the North. That patch of blue sky is the most we got all day. The fresh air did us good and we built up appetite for a beautiful roast beef lunch. 

Some good animal sightings today. Fallow deer at Dunham Massey. They were everywhere and
they were numerous so it wasn't an impressive feat to take a piccie of them.

Then at the pub where we had lunch, a lady in the table next to us had what I thought was an over-sized handbag. Once she'd finished her meal, she produced a cute and meek black chihuahua dog from the bag. He was 15 weeks old and didn't make a sound. She let me hold him for a cuddle, I should have ran out the pub with him. I so want one. I previously dismissed chihuahuas as Barbie doll dogs but I was wrong. Plus, a chihuahua is the ideal dog for apartment living.
Its the doggy daycare cost that is the deal breaker for us on getting a dog.

Maybe I could even take him to the office with me in a big handbag?

Let's all psyche ourselves up for the working week. Positive things come to positive thinkers!

SunnyL xx

Latest skincare + haircare

Being in Mexico with my UK winter weather honed skin, I required liberal amounts of sunscreen. I used a bog standard general sunscreen on my face and body. 

Alas, and like previous times, my face erupted in pimples and allergy-esque spots. I've put this down to the sunscreen. My face is sensitive and I stick to Simple moisturiser normally. Contributing factors: foreign water; my sweaty-Bettyness; copious amounts of booze.

I inflicted this spotty, make-up free face on friends, colleagues and BBE (the boyf). Trying to let my skin breathe you see. This lasted a week, but then I had a work trip involving many meetings. I had to cover up and my usual foundation was too light for my nicely tanned face. I needed a fast replacement. Oh joy at working 2 minutes from the Trafford Centre. 

I really wanted to try a different foundation. My current foundation is Even better by Clinique. I stuck with Clinique though. I couldn't risk an adverse reaction and I've told myself that I can blend the colours as the tan fades.

I have Benefit porefessional primer that I love for my nose and inner cheeks. I wanted something for the rest of my face..so bought Clinique's universal primer. This should counteract my face's natural oils and help the foundation last.

Of course, 2 purchases meant bonus time. Look at my Summery tin! Enjoy it now cause it'll be leaving this weekend. Cannot have more clutter.

The foundation colour is brilliant. Its a great match to my skin. I like the primer too. I'm not sure what the effect is, but my make-up held well when I needed it and it makes my skin feel soft.

I have extremely curly and dry hair. My new favourite hair product was on a 3 for 2 promo at Boots. I had run out so of course did a bulk buy. Its L'oreal Everpure Colour Care Shine Serum. It smells nice, it makes my hair look less dull and together with handfuls of mousse my do looks pretty nice. I also don't like to wash my hair every day and it can be used on dry hair too which is a definite bonus.

I am craving some retail therapy right now. I have a weekend away coming up. I'm running out of time if I want to buy online so I must get a  wriggle on. Will let you know what I end up with.

Oooh, I have one final amazing purchase to tell you about..

Strawberries for 10p! Result.  I'm so pleased I found something as meanqueen at Life after money buys the majority of her greens on yellow stickered stock. I've finally managed it too.


Greetings on this lovely evening Sunny xx

Misplaced phone = cobbled together Mexico post

I feel bereft - I have (hopefully) left my orange-clad iphone at work. I don't want to think that I haven't left it there. Eek.

I had some absolutely average photos on there, ready to make some posts that I'm planning look a bit more pwetty. Instead, may I present the back-up plan.

We spent an hour or so in the town of Valladolid on the way to Chichen Itza. It's one of the oldest towns in the Yucatan Peninsula that was founded by some of the Spanish "Peninsular" settlers/conquistadors.

Here is their cathedral from the main square and then the main altar inside. 

It's a Franciscan cathedral which means it is an austere, simple Cathedral - look at the plain white interior.

I like visiting cathedrals and churches when I'm on the tourist run.

Valladolid's cathedral is attractive because it seems honest, humble, down-to-earth.

 

On the other hand, we visited St Peter's Basilica a couple of years ago and it's a wonderful place. It is so imposing from outside and the interior so lavish, for me it left as big an impression as on the devoted pilgrim visitors.

St Peter's square does lack palm trees though..Check out those 2 bad boys in front of the cathedral at Valladolid.

It was nice to spend a bit of time in Valladolid to see a Mexican country town. We had only enough time to walk around the town square. 

If you go to Chichen Itza it is very likely that you will stop here too. The main square was choc-full of tour buses.

 Next stop was a cenote just outside Valladolid. The only natural light was from this hole in the ceiling, they also have it lit up with electric lighting to allow easy access to the cave for we tourists.
The water in the cave was deep and it was so clear. This photo really shows up the blue of the water which might be caused by the high calcium content?

I was nervous that the water would be freezing cold and that I wouldn't warm up after taking my dip. None of it, the water was tepid - according to a diving watch it was about 24degrees. It felt like a little explorer in there - but with about 30 other people - but it was nice and I would definitely hang out there if I lived locally.

 Look at godzilla here. Sunbathing at Xel-Ha, which was a natural harbour used by the Mayas, but is now a natural environment water park. We did snorkelling, lazed about on some rubber rings and went on the zipwires.

It was a really relaxing and fun day, chilling to the max at the end in the hammock jungle. I really need a hammock in my life. A hammock with a waiter or an able and willing boyfriend on hand to provide alternate glasses of water and pina coladas.

I rarely talk about holidays because I feel I can't express well enough how wonderful everything was. I'm not sure I've done it this time but I did my best.

Fingers crossed my mobi is waiting for me on the desk tomorrow. 

xx Sunny 

Chichen Itza

Yesterday passed by quickly what with a lengthy work day, a lovely yoga session and episode 1 of the new series of Game of Thrones. 

I love GoT, don't we all? I can't bring myself to read the books though, I also couldn't manage anything by Tolkien. I think its all their made-up place and people names and use of vowels in the Gaelic way that put me off. I consider myself to be a reader but I can't read these classics of their genre. Even my brother and BBE (best boyf ever) have read them, and I consider myself to be the reader in both of those relationships.

It was a privilege to be able to visit Chichen Itza, I feel so lucky to have been there. Even though there were more people than usual due to the timing of our visit coinciding with Spring Equinox, it did not spoil it.
You can see the detail in this building that is in the older area of Chichen Itza. This is what I think is the Mayan area. It's the classic Mayan style that everybody knows from Mexico.

This is the trial version of El Castillo. It was actually built by the Toltec not the Mayan people. The Toltec people are outsiders who united with or tookover the Mayans at this area.

This is the Castillo, viewed from the shade. It was not surrounded by trees at the time, the ground was cleared for some distance to allow the people to pay homage to their gods.

This is about 4pm in the afternoon. We are all waiting for the sunset for the big Spring Equinox event. You can see the zigzag pattern starting to form on the diagonal edge that begins from the person holding the camera up to the pyramid top. This is the kulkulcan or feathered snake getting his markings. His head is at the bottom on the floor. You can see that other visitors were paying homage to someone or something they thought was there with their hands up in the air.

Top of El Castillo seen from a platform that is built with bricks delicately decorated with skulls. Its a well-known and gruesome fact that human sacrifices were made at celebratory times and at times when something was needed of the gods. It was thought there would be a mass grave in the platform but they dug it up and did not find any evidence of this.


If you visit Mexico flying into Cancun, you will be within 4 hours of Chichen Itza. It is a must-do.
What is a must-do for cleaning staff at all-inclusive hotels are towel animals. Give it up for our elephant. Muchisimas gracias to our lovely maid, Paulina.

x Sunny L

Best Mexico night out & holiday food

We spent one of the best nights on holiday at Coco Bongos. This is a famous club in Mexico, with one in Cancun and one in Playa del Carmen. We went to the PDC one and it was brilliant. Its a dance acrobatics party club. There is no live singing, but its like going to the BEST brilliant club ever. Everybody is up for it and everybody is welcome - old, young, people in shorts, flipflops. It was a happy place and I had gorgeous strawberry daiquiris on tap all night from our lovely waiter.

I confess that we were naughty and got the VIP tickets so we had a couple of chairs and the nice waiter. I loved the VIP service. If only it was possible in real life. 
I don't know if you can see in this photo the couple performing from hoops hanging from the ceiling. There was a lot of quality acrobatics. 
There was also a lot of paper confetti used in the production of this show! Like 5 times. I think it helped us maintains our exuberance.

Our all-inclusive resort had various a la carte restaurants onsite. My favourite was the French gourmet. My tuna salad starter was good. Apparently all the fish comes from the Tabasco area up in the Gulf of Mexico. 
2nd course was a cream of celery soup which was yummy.
Main course was  duck breast with raspberry sauce. I love duck and was pleased with my choice. I don't think the norm should be meat + 2 veg, it should be meat + fruit sauce.

Creme brulee for pud, which I only chose as I didn't fancy anything else. Oh me oh my, I haven't had it before but its so good with the brulee bit on top. I couldn't finish it all as its so rich but that's normal for me with creamy things. 

I am looking at the photo now and its making my mouth water remembering the taste.I wish we were having that for dessert after our roast today instead of fresh air! But you know its ok to be a porker on holiday but I fight my greedy tendancies most of the time.

I have some fairly good sightseeing photos for tomorrow.

Enjoy your Sunday and for all Everton fans out there, COYB! xx Sunny

Mexican food + jetlag

Hello,

Hallelujah I'm over the jet lag! I realized today at about 12.30. Only took 6 days.

I allowed myself quadruple my usual caffeine intake whilst getting back into the swing of things. Coffee at 9am? why the heck not. Un petit cafe at 10am? Oui pourquoi pas. Un cafe con leche at 11am? Si. Coke zero 500ml at 2pm? Bring it. Caffe latte at 3.30pm to get over that mid-afternoon lull? Another one as still not over the lull at 4.30pm? Still at work at 5.30pm, need a coffee to see you through? Yes, yes, yes!

I am now reducing the coffee without going cold turkey and have a new cold drink fave to replace the Coke. Meet my desk buddies. Peaches and Kenny. That peach stuff is delightful, you cannot taste the barley at all.

 

I'm obviously missing my Mexican diet staple of guacamole. I bought a very green and hard avocado on Saturday. I thought it may have softened by today, but it had not. Not letting that stop me, I took it to work. Maybe the subtropical office temperature would cause it to ripen in the 4 hours to lunch.
Nope.
Photo of my sad lunch.

You can see I managed to hack off some avo but I only managed to swallow the first bite. Edging in from the left are some herby green and black olives that I left in the fridge yesterday. Their oiliness let me swallow those dry dry oatcakes. My throat is thankful.

Due to the sadness of this lunch a Snickers was consumed at 3.30pm. That was very happy, its cherry on top was it was a winning pack so my next Snickers will be a freebie.

Wednesday you winner.

Sunny L x

Exotic fauna in Mexico, exotic beer in Manchester

I haven't yet filled you in on my Mexican sejourn.
I'm not going to now either (I need more time to sort out the photos so give me til the weekend) but I have one photo on my phone of this podgy little guy we met there:

An agouti. Looks like a hamster/rat cross on steroids. Very meek. Meeker than I'd imagine a rat on steroids to be.

After that riveting snippet, I also have another random photo from the Sunday before holiday.

Sunday before holiday involved beverages being taken at Media City and then back in the centre. I love a day time lady like bar crawl on the half pints.
My penultimate drink of the day was at Port Street Beer House in Manchester's NQ.
I went there on a friend's recommendation, my friend's suggestion was to have the chocolate beer but I forgot on the day. A total shame as I love choccie and beer but that means that there'll be a next time at this pub.

I went for a wheat beer as they're my favourite and it was indeed the above Schneider Weisse beer and it was delish. If you like beer it's well worth checking it out, menu's here: http://www.portstreetbeerhouse.co.uk

Cheers on that note,
Sunny x