Mila's Pre Birthday Dinner

A great night at Teri-Aki in Cambridge for Mila's pre-birthday. Me, Mila, Colin, Steve, Adam, Charlie, Sabina & Annabel had a great night of eating and talking. I made a great tennis cake for Mila with two players, Mila Rendle & Sharapova (aka the grunter). A great time and now we are ready for our trip to Austria, Vienna. Can't wait to see Verena & Becky after so long!

A Long Week

Last week felt like it went on forever.

Mon-Tue : I was in Surrey

Wednesday : Went to London to go to the dentist but train got delayed so missed my appointment! Had to rebook for Friday. NOT HAPPY! Went for dinner with Jamie to a great Indian place near our house, then we went to see "No country for old men" at the Picturehouse. It was good, very very scary!

Thursday : Had everyone round mine, and I cooked cottage pie and we watched "Bourne Ultimatum" which was great. (I Love Matt Damon)

Friday: Went back to London to the dentist for my 2nd appointment for my teeth. All went smoothly, went to get on a train back to Cambridge and ofcourse we got stuck on the track for over an hour. Wasn't impressed. Got home about 6.15pm and Jamie came round at 6.30pm to pick me up. Me, Jamie & Lynette (his workmate) were doing a tv series marathon. We planned to watch the whole of series 3 for the show 24. We managed to watch 6 episodes before we flaked and had to go to bed.

Saturday: Up at 9ish to get back into it. We were going to go out to a party Zach was having but decided to power on and watch all the episodes. Finally we finished the last episode (no. 24) at 1am and managed to make it to my bed before falling asleep. FORGOT THAT IT WAS AUSTRALIA DAY UNTIL SOMEONE SENT ME A TEXT! WHOOPS

Sunday: Mila & Colin came round for brunch of pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, tea & juice. Was a nice catch up as Mila has been away for 2 weeks, skiing & work in New York. Then I did some much needed washing and headed down to Surrey.

Monday: Am in the office in Surrey now till Wednesday night. I'm going down to Portsmouth tonight to look at a place so fingers crossed it's nice and we can organise my moving in this weekend!

Dublin, Ireland

Naomi and I set off on Friday evening to Stansted airport for our flight to Dublin. A normal flight and we arrived and checked in by about 10ish so decided to have an early night so as we were fresh in the morning.

A lovely Irish breakfast and we were fuelled up for a day of shopping and sightseeing. We spent the morning at Trinity College then walking around the shopping district buying heaps of stuff! Luckily we both had our credit cards! he he he (Just joking). I bought 2 pairs of shoes, same ones, different colours and a couple of tops. It was great fun, then we headed over to the Guinness factory in the afternoon. Its a great tour although how much can you really say about Guinness until it gets boring? As it turns out quite alot. After walking around & up 6 floors of fascinating info we got to the restaurant for lunch/dinner. It was amazing, Naomi had seafood chowder & I had pan seared salmon. So tasty and great prices. We even splurged on dessert, an apple & berry tart with cream for me & chocolate brownie for Naomi. After we were totally stuffed it was up to the 7th floor which is a glass surrounded bar. It has amazing views of the city and on a nice sunny afternoon I can imagine how impressive it would be. We went to the bar and got our free pint of Guinness and managed to wangle some seats by the window. Well I've tried it in England and it still tastes awful! I did manage to drink enough so that the foam went below the rim of the glass. Naomi managed to finish hers!

It was back to the hotel for a rest then we got ready and hit the Temple Bar area of Dublin. We came upon the actual pub called Temple Bar Pub and decided we might as well be full on tourist's and went inside. It was fantastic, cheesey music & they had cider for me. We made some friends with 3 Canadian girls (Nadia, Indeara & Emily) so had a great laugh. A couple of Irish lads decided to join us (they were hammered) and it was so funny trying to understand them. Luckily their friends turned up, and they were semi sober so it was easier. We all headed out to a local dance club where we stayed until 2ish when we decided to head back. It was great fun but I was ready to sleep!

Sunday we were up and out by 11ish and we headed over to Dublin castle for a look, then we wandered around the area soaking up the atmosphere. Soon enough it was time to head back to the hotel for the journey back to London. At the airport Naomi got talking to a pilot and we hoped he might be ours so we could get VIP treatment but alas he worked for another company. We managed to get home in one piece, although Naomi did loose her wallet.

It always makes me laugh to see the English queue. They hadn't even announced our flight and one person stood up to queue and then it was a mad dash to get in line. They must have stood there for 20mins before they even started to let anyone through.

Knocking them down!

A night of bowling was on the cards for Friday night. We had two games and still I think I need alot of practice. Oh well, maybe next time. Atleast I didn't come last. After we headed over to B Bar for a chat and some drinks. Also a nice surprise was that Dina showed up after 6 months of travelling round the world. It was really great to see her and catch up.

We had brunch this morning at Mila's house. French toast, raspberries, croissants, bacon, eggs, bread, fresh oj & ofcourse tea. Nice! A quiet night tonight watching chick flicks is on the cards.

Christmas Take 2

Whoooo hoooooo!! Guess what was waiting for me when I got into the office today! My chrissy pressie from Fiona, Andrew & Lucy. I was so excited, I was going to try and wait till I got home but you know me, I couldn't wait. So I got :

1. 3 - Tier Cooling Rack

2. Professional Glazing Brush

3. Cookie Cutters

4. Salter Jam Scales

5. Small Flan Dish

6. Large Flan Dish

7. Square Cake Tin 8"

8. Square Cake Tin 7"

9. Mary Berry's Christmas Book

10. And ofcourse a roll of foil for free!

The Hills are Alive.............

After such a kerfuffle with the public transport system of the south east it was nice to leave it all behind me and head back to civilisation on Wednesday. I met up with Annabel & Sophie for dinner at the Cape Town Fish Market Restuarant in Argyll Street, next door to the London Palladium Theatre where we were going to see The Sound of Music. This restuarant was fabulous!! Definete 5 stars. Super tasty and great service, I think it also helped that we were right next door to the theatre so there was no rush.

We made our way to our cheap fantastic seats and sat down for the show. It was brilliant, I really enjoyed it and they did it so well. Apparently there was an original stage play and it was acutally based on a real family called the Von Trapps! Very exciting. So a nice end to my 3 days down south. Annabel & I made it back about midnight, just in time for me to fall into bed asleep!

In the middle of NOWHERE!

Yes I am offically working in the middle of nowhere. Currently I'm staying in Guildford, Surrey as my new project is based in Elstead, Surrey for the next say 6 months. Do you think there is public transport??? Yes but only at certain times. So had the biggest barry on the way in on Monday. Got the bus from Guildford which was fine, then had to get off and change buses. The driver had no idea where I was to get the second bus, so I started to get upset, walked to the local train station (Milford) to order a taxi to Elstead. Sorry all our taxi's are booked taking kids to school! SCHOOL!!! Get a friggin bus or walk you lazy little monsters. So stressed out I got on the train and went one stop to Godalming and tried to get a taxi from there. After awhile the line moved up and I got to work at 9am. Mind you I had left at 7am and if I was driving it would have taken 20-30mins from Guildford.

Anyway I tried to put it all behind me and the day went extremely fast. Now the next test, to get back to Guildford. Luckily there was a bus up the road, that is the country road with no street lights or sidewalk just muddy banks. So after trudging up a country lane for about 10mins and not seeing the bus stop, in the pitch black, my feet sinking in the mud I nearly sat down and cried. But no, I'm a Lambo, so I turned around to go back to the office to call a taxi. Halfway back a bus came! Hallejuah!!! Whoops wrong side of the road the driver said, I needed the other way to get home. For some strange reason apparently I was standing opposite the bus stop I needed. Obviously I missed it as it's just a space of muddy earth, how stupid of me not to realise! Anyway the bus finally came and I thankfully climbed aboard. Just as I was sitting there getting a bit tearful, Jamie rang to see how I was going. I have never been so glad to hear from someone. Luckily he listened whilst I vented, and managed to see the funny side once I was inside the warm bus. So got back to Guildford after only a 30min bus ride and decided I deserved MacDonalds!! And before you say anything the bus that takes me home doesn't run early enough to get me to work before 10am!

So this morning (Tuesday) I was determined to get the 2 buses all the way. The first leg went fine and I had the right spot for the second one. It showed up on time and on I got for the lady bus driver to say this is a school bus, adults aren't allowed!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!! NIGHTMARE. Anyway I think she could see I was about to cry and said she would drop me off this time. So finally I got to work at 8.30am after a mini walk from the bus stop.

I rang the bus company to complain cause I had looked up on the internet my route and they said I could get the second bus. Anyway after I spoke to the bus company they said that I could get it and that the lady was mistaken and not to worry they would have a word with her to let her know it's okay to pick me up!! Now I'm scared she will hate me for dobbing her in to her bosses and will either a. drive past and not pick me up or b. run me over. We shall see next Monday morning.

So all in all Guildford has been extremely eventful but not exactly positive. The people are really nice and the office is fine. I should have my own computer by next week, fingers crossed. I'll be treating myself again tonight to Wagamama's I think.

Should have wished for a car for Christmas I think!