Still coughing

Haven't managed to shake the cough, it's been over a week. I went to the doctor and he said my lungs were not infected so I just had to wait the cough out. Easy for him to say, he doesn't have to sleep with it. So I wasn't getting any drugs from him, I decided to research online for natural antibiotics and came up with:

Garlic
Echineacha
Manuka Honey

I went to the health food store today and stocked up, fingers crossed the week shows a difference. The honey was £17 for one jar!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it. And that was the cheapest one there. No way is that honey going on toast, it's 2 teaspoon consumption when I'm sick.

Macarons my way

I decided that I would have a go at making macarons on my own! I chose the basic French meringue receipe I got from the course and put a passionfruit butter cream in the middle. I also used a nice tangerine colouring. Well it took 3 days for the egg whites to be ready to be whisked so tonight they were ready to go. As you can see they came out looking awesome but when I tried to take them off the mat obviously not cooked enough in the middle. The second batch was better, think I will have to increase the temperature in the oven. I did manage to make a small batch although sizing was a problem, they ranged from small to massive! Think I need to practice my piping skills. I also bought a new book by the acclaimed macaron baker, Pierre Herme. He is amazing and the book is fantastic with so many flavours for me to try!

Sad news is my Ipod broke on the weekend so had to buy a new one today. It is lovely and red though!

Sunday Roast in Notting Hill

After being inside for a few days I needed to get out. The weather had been amazing so I met up with Louisa & Jen in Notting Hill for a Sunday roast at The Mall Tavern. Even though the weather was warm the meal was lovely, not too heavy. The Mall Tavern is rated one of the top 12 Sunday Roast places in London. And it was reasonably priced. Jen & I had the beef, whilst Lou tried the pork belly. We even splurged and had dessert. Strawberry deconstructed cheesecake for Lou, Raspberry & lemon mess for me & Artic roll (flavours: Licorice, caramel & original) for Jen. Can't say I was overly impressed with any of them as mine had too much lemon curd and not enough fresh raspberries. Lou's biscuit base was sprinkled over the top so not enough to compliment the creamy texture of the cheesecake and Jen's 3 different flavours of arctic roll, well only the caramel one was just ok. If you like licorice though you would have loved the black one! Yep check out the pic.......

After lunch Lou & I headed into Kensington Palace Gardens for a stroll. It was so hot people were lying in the park in their bikini's! Let me just say some people should leave their t-shirts on, no matter how hot it is. After a brief stroll it was time to go home for a nap!

I can see clearly now..............

Yesterday I went to the surgery and got my eyes lasered! The bit that took the longest was the waiting. I got there at 10am and after another quick eye test, 2 questionaires and a brief on what I was to expect after the surgery I was ready to go. Was quite nervous as everyone had someone with them but I was on my own, didn't think it would matter but would have been nice to have someone to chat too. A couple people went in and came out smiling so that was good.

Finally they called my name and I head in. Don't forget I've got this dodgy cough so was a bit worried I might cough and move whilst under the laser. They put the anestic drops into my eyes and I had a lovely hair net put on. Had to wait a couple of minutes so my eyes went numb and they took me in to the room. I laid down and the optomitrist pulled over one machine, the wavefront technology machine. He said this is the one that will hurt, feel uncomfortable. It was like they took a suction cup and put it under my top eye lid & under my bottom lid. It was like they were suctioning my eyeball up. This is the bit that was uncomfortable and it pinched. The right eye hurt more than the left but luckily it was over in 20 seconds. The next bit was the laser bit with another machine. As I couldn't feel anything it was totally fine, it was like I was in a swimming pool looking up to the surface. So I could see him doing something with my eye but it was all watery so it was fine. The laser went for about 15 seconds and then it was finished. All done.

Then I spent 15mins relaxing in a dark room, then it was time to go home. Had a quick check with the Optomitrist downstairs then it was into a taxi and home. My eyes were really starting to hurt now as the medicine was wearing off. All i wanted to do was get home and put more drops in them. Ofcourse it was the brightest, sunniest day ever. My eyes were really heavy and my eyes kept streaming with tears. I just wanted to sleep. Got home about 4.30pmish, ate some food and then went to sleep. Have a look at the eye covers I have to use to sleep in!

Woke up this morning and I could see everything! It was amazing. I went for a checkup this morning and they gave me the two thumbs up and sent me home. Only one more week of putting drops in and then given the all clear!

Raspberry berets before a tournament, good idea? NO

Helena's last day was on friday so we hit the bars to celebrate the start of a new adventure. Everyone rocked up to Apt bar in Bank and we started getting stuck into happy hour! Apt make a brilliant Raspberry Beret which goes down way too smoothly. The tunes were being mixed and I was dancing on the floor for the whole evening! Had so much fun until someone mentioned that it was after midnight, so missed the last tube. Pants! I had to be up for a softball tournament the next day. Finally a bunch of us jumped into a cab and managed to get into bed about 2amish, only to wake up at 7am feeling RANK! A couple of neurofen, 3 glasses of water and it was out the door and off to Chiswick to get to the first tournament of the season. I took a plastic bag with me on the tube though as wasn't feeling the best and wanted to be prepared. I did manage to get there without any incidents, although I was late. Luckily we had so many players it didn't matter that I missed the first innings. The sun came out for a bit but then was hidden most of the day behind clouds, but the rain stayed away which was good.

We had joined forces with the Tornadoes so we were a combined team called the Tornadoe Jumpers! I started to feel better after the 3 game, a bottle of pepsi & sausage sandwich. It was a great day of softball and we managed to get into the lower final and beat the Meteors which is fantastic as we are playing them on Wednesday in one of our league matches so we do have some bragging rights! Finished up about 7pm so it was then time to trek it home, walking in the door at 9.10pm. I was exhausted. I ate some food then tried to watch a bit of telly but kept nodding off, so it was off to bed.

This morning I met Michelle in Clapham and we went to our Macaroon making class. The teacher was really strict and a bit scary but after awhile she warmed up. It was a fantastic morning and I'm excited about getting in the kitchen and trying a few variations on the receipe she has given us. I will be taking the ones I made to head office tomorrow to share them around as they are soooooooo tasty I can't have them in the house otherwise I will eat them all myself.

I bought some flavouring - passionfruit, wild strawberry, pineapple, rose and I also got a clear baking mat so I can make the macaroons.

Life in general

Had to umpire my first game of the season. Didn't go too badly, reckon all my calls were fair for both teams. It was interesting to see how other teams in our league are because we haven't seen them play before. It's our first year in the new division!

Bought a deal from Living Social for having my eyebrows threaded. Went on Thursday after work to have them done. The lady said threading is an ancient Chinese tradition and it's alot better than waxing or plucking. It didn't hurt too much but she reckons I have over plucked my eyebrows so have to let them grow a bit more. She said to use castor oil on my eyebrows to encourage them to grow. I have bought some Jamaican Black Castor Oil, should get it Monday or Tuesday so will see how it goes!

Friday night went to Abacus with a bunch of friends. Only stayed for a couple of drinks then it was off home.

Saturday met up with Andy & Tom and we watched The Avengers. Amazing. Really enjoyed the film especially as Thor, Captain America & Hawkeye were in it. Worth it just for them. Afterwards we headed down to the South Bank and walked along from London Bridge up to Waterloo and over to Charing Cross. There we met Natasha and we all headed to Champagne Charlies for dinner. The food was lovely and service great. After dinner we walked around Covent Garden and had a drink in one of the local pubs. Although the fish pie didn't seem to agree with me (too cheesey) so I headed home early.

Today (Sunday) me, Pip, Lou, Tom & Andy headed into Epping Forest for our first trial walk. We managed to do 6 miles today and then we stopped at the Robin Hood for lunch. It's a really nice Thai restaurant. We are going to try and do a walk every weekend in prep for our Charity Walk in June. And to carry on the walking experience I have signed up for the Shine London Walk Marathon. A bunch of the girls are also signing up, it's 26 miles through London at night! We start at 9pm and hoping to finish it before 9am! This is happening late September so after June it's continued training through the summer.

A couple weeks......

We had our first game of softball for the season and we won 23 to 8! What a brilliant start to the week. It's been quite rainy and wet lately so I wasn't sure if we were going to get to play but we managed to pull it off.

I was also invited to a celebratory dinner for the Athletes Village at Formans. A famous fish restuarant. It was a lovely evening. The food was outstanding, especially the dessert which consisted of 3 shot glasses. 1 with an extremely rich chocolate mousse, 2nd one with a version of Eton mess in it and the 3rd with a delightful pear concoction with caramel salt icecream. Delicious!! The view from the restaurant was fantastic, a perfect view of the stadium which happened to be testing it's lights. It was really nice catching up with people from the project as well.

Friday night we went out to celebrate Stilly's birthday. We ended up at Bluu bar in Hoxton Square. It was great fun, lots of laughs. Stilly seemed to enjoy himself. Got the last train home and it was a public holiday on Monday so spent the next 72hrs doing nothing but lying on the couch or lying in bed relaxing! It was a brilliant time doing nothing, not having to work!

Clare's 40th Birthday

Even though Clare's actual birthday isn't for another week, she decided to celebrate early. We all headed down to The Hoxton Pony in Shoreditch and drank cocktails out of china cups. A bit strange but didn't taste too bad. Then it was downstairs to dance the night away. I'm obviously getting too old because on Saturday all i could do was move from the bed to the couch. Alot of fun was had though.

 
 On Sunday me, Clare & Amber went to attend our makeup course in North London. It was quite interesting listening to the makeup artist speak but I'm still not sure I will spend so much time putting so much stuff on my face every day. The amount of layers she spoke about sounds ridiculous. I  made plenty of notes so might try it on the next night out.

Sunday night I met up with Helle and we watched Titanic in 3D at the Imax at Waterloo. I love that movie, and even though I have seen it before, everytime I still wish that Jack might survive. They both totally could have shared that floating bit of wood, she was way too greedy. I did forget how long the movie was so after 3hr 30mins our legs started to cramp up, but it was still worth it.

I love Stifler

Got a couple of free tickets to go and see American Pie: The Reunion, so Jen & I grabbed some dinner and headed down to Haymarket cinema in town. It seemed like we were watching ages for the movie to start when they suddenly announced that the stars of the show were here! It was hilarious and I think Stifler is amazing. They must have had a few drinks before coming out as they were making jokes at each others expense. Well worth the wait and the money was super funny too. Defo worth going to see.

Louisa's Birthday

For Lou's birthday we went to Las Iguanas in Spitalfields Market for dinner. The food there is really tasty and not too badly priced. I had some octopus to start followed by prawn fajitas! Lou loved her pressies and it was nice catching up with the girls.