Right now

Here's a little sum for you.

Me & Ross + Chlo & J-rad + the East coast of Spain = Good times

Maybe its is a little presumptuous of me, 

seeing as I'm writing this ahead of time, 

to presume that I'm having a good time.

But whatevs.

I'm on holiday in sunny Spain (again presumptuous), 

with my hubs, 

my best friend & her hubs, 

the traditional white buildings of a Spanish village

and the beach and a pool.

How could I not be having the best time ever?

Dough-nuts

So we're just getting to the end of dinner and I remember that I didn't make any brownies, like I'd planned to.

Now, if it's just Ross & I for dinner, it's pretty rare that we have dessert.

But when we have people over, like we did last night, I feel bad if I don't serve something sweet at the end. 

Like I've somehow short changed my guests into coming over for dinner and literally only giving them dinner.

Surely that is not what a good Mormon hostess does.

Aren't we supposed to have homemade baked goods in our house at all times? 

Anyway, so we finish dinner and Chlo mentions that her & J-rad had Krispy Kremes yesterday.

Now, I love a good doughnut as much as the next person, but even I would draw the line at driving all the way to either Manchester or Preston just to get my doughnuts fix. 

So I said, "what?! You went all the way to Manchester? For a doughnut?"

Turns out they hadn't.

A Krispy Kremes had opened up near Ikea, which is only 10 minutes away.

Only-10-minutes-away!

Right then, I knew that I had dessert sorted.

Krispy Kremes for all!

 Honestly, my happiness was just about ready to spill out of me when they brought warm, glazed doughnuts to everyone waiting in the queue. 

Seriously, there are few things more delicious than that.

Lemon meringue pie, in doughnut form.

Genius.

Whoever thought of that needs to knighted.

At least.

Recipe for a successful Tuesday

Listen carefully...

When it's a random Tuesday and you don't really have any plans, here is what to do.

1). Pick up one friend.

2). Take said friend to the home of another friend.

3). Gently force one of the friends to try sushi for the first time. 

It might be a bit scary at first, but its worth it. I promise.

4). While you wait for other friends to arrive, make banana bread.

5). Whilst the banana bread is cooking, dress up one of your friends in a snuggie.

You have to get them to put it on backwards, because then it looks like they're rocking a cloak.

Harry Potter stylee.

6). Get another friend to pretend to be Dobby the house elf (you can choose a different elf if you'd prefer) and take a photo.

 7). Once you have the photo, send the boys in the group to Asda to get supplies.

Whilst they're gone, make and eat sandwiches.

I would personally recommend cheese salad with hummus on brown bread.

8). Whilst your still waiting for the boys to get back, play the piano and have some sort of group sing-a-long.

 9). When the boys get back, jump into the hot tub and eat at least three ice lollies each.

One Vimto lolly, one Refresher lolly and one vanilla/toffee cone.

10). During your time in the hot tub encourage the entire group to speak in 'special' voices and use lots of hand gestures.

11). When it's time to go make sure that you have lots of good songs to play while you drive home.

Sing quite loudly to said songs throughout the journey.

12). Pick up your hubs from work/

call in at Costco/

drop one friend off at her house/

go home and make tomato risotto.

 13). Go to the driving range with your hubs.

13b). Take lots of photos of him.

14). Go home and sleep for at least eight hours.

PERFECT DAY.

The birth of my apparent adulthood

When it's your birthday, there's a rule that you get to do whatever you want. 

Well, it was my birthday this last weekend, so I did. 

My birthday was actually on Saturday, but the celebrations started on Friday.

Just because I've used the word celebration, don't conjure up some kind of grand image.

I'm not one for going out and partying, so doing what I want basically involved my very best friends, pizza,  posh drinks, making lemonade, skittles and playing silly games. 

Please observe.

I read somewhere once that birthdays are natures way of telling us to eat more cake. 

Well, I don't love cake that much, so I had a birthday pizza.

A Costco pizza naturally.

These last two photos are kind of special.

Special as in precious because they're of me and my very best friends

 and special as in...special.

PYO

Let me tell you a little something about me and Chloe.

Chloe and I?

Me and Chloe?

Whatevs.

Me & Chlo lived together in our first year as students in Leeds.

Actually, we were the very first ones to move into our student house.

We'd never met one another before and we didn't really know each other, but on that first night away from our families, in our own house, we both ended up sleeping in my room.

We said that it was because we'd just painted Chlo's room and the paint fumes were still really strong, but really we were both just a little bit scared.

So on the first day that we met one another, 

we ended up both going to sleep in my bed that very same night.

That first day of knowing one another has pretty much set the tone for our entire friendship.

Completely comfortable.

Which is why on days when I have a lot of free time, like today, 

I text Chlo, jump in the car and go and do something a bit random.

Like strawberry picking. 

I don't know if the strawberries were actually nicer strawberries, 

or if there's just some psychological stigma attached to picking your own that makes them taste better, 

but honestly, the strawberries I picked today were the nicest strawberries I've ever eaten. 

Ever.

You'll have to take my word for it.

Plus, I got an entire punnet for less than two quid, 

which actually makes the whole situation even sweeter.

Anyway, picking strawberries today with Chlo was the bomb.

Pretty much the perfect way to spend a mildly sunny/mildly cloudy/mildly rainy afternoon.

We might even go again on Friday.

Would that be too soon?

Home slices

"Though we drifted apart, I still think of you as being right here. And although we have many new friends, it is our friendship that means the most to me."

Yesterday, these beauties came over to Leeds for une petite visit. It had been a while. Far too long in fact. But the thing is, with these girls I don't think any distance in time or space will ever matter. It's that kind of friendship. 

Me, Han & Soph were best friends pretty much from the moment that we met. I think that I was about ten years old. We were the private joke a minute, car wash ventures, shopping trips, sleepovers, code name givers, making up dance routines, smoothie making, boy obsessing best friends. You know the kind. 

Apart from the devastated journal writings of "I can't believe they've gone shopping together without me. I feel so left out." Which a few days later turned into "they were getting my birthday present and wanted to keep it a surprise!!" we were safe as house. (There's one of those private jokes I was talking about.)

Soph was the organised one that would plan what time we had to get up and schedule our time perfectly so that we were out the door when we needed to be. Because when your fourteen and your whole weekend revolves around going down Hillsborough, or to Meadowhall to buy a new top for the dance, having things perfectly timed is important! We would have never got anywhere without Soph writing down what time we would get up, how long it would take us to get dressed, how long it would take us to eat breakfast and all that jazz. Han was the complete opposite, and I fit** somewhere in the middle. 

We're all grown now, even though none of us feel like grown ups, and our friendship is different now. But yesterday, when we just sat in my living room and talked for a good few hours, it felt like although an awful lot had actually changed, nothing had changed at all. And that makes me happy. 

**I often think that the past participle of fit should be fat. As in "I definitely fat into this dress yesterday."

Stalker(ish)

At this point in my creative endeavours in life, under no circumstances would I call my myself a photographer. Yes, I like taking photographs and yes I love my camera, but me, a photographer? No.


Sometimes, when I have a camera in my hand, my inner stalker comes out. I don't know way. It just happens. I must have about 77 thousand pictures of Ross by now. And that's only with the slightest bit of exaggeration.


My camera isn't even discrete! It's a big, black in your face DSLR. I wouldn't give myself the label of complete psycho just yet though. I don't take pictures of people I don't know. Normally. Hardly ever. 


Take yesterday as an example. Throw me, the hubs & two friends into York, with my camera in hand, and this is what happens. Please note, these are just a handful of the few (hundred) that I actually took. And I feel like you should know that none of these pictures were posed or forced. They're just naturally this affectionate. It makes me just the littlest bit sick. Not really. 

So, moral of the story, if we're hanging out, I have my camera and you don't want a million pictures of yourself at the end of it, tell me. Either that or be aware that I will force you to watch a slide show of all of the photos at the end of day. Because I do do (ha) that. Just sayin. 

Dr. Seuss

This is my friend Annie. You can see just a little bit what our friendship is like from this picture. Basically, I terrorise her. In the most loving and friendly way you can think. (Because in this picture I haven't blocked her mouth or nose, so she can still breath. Like a said, loving & friendly.) 


There are lots of reasons that I have love in my heart from Annie. But I just want to talk about one Annie instigated love today. Dr. Seuss. 


Annie introduced me to the good Dr. last year. When I say last year, I don't mean calendar year, I mean academic year. She would read me Dr. Seuss bedtime stories and do voices and everything. She read the How the Grinch Stole Christmas to me so many times that I can practically quote the last few pages in their entirety. The Roast Beast is my favourite.

"And he... ...HE HIMSELF...! The Grinch carved the roast beast!"

When it get's to that part I am practically shouting the words. The Grinch is probably my favourite Dr. Seuss book. Even when it's not Christmas. 

I have other favourite too though. Oh, the places you'll go! ("And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed)")  The Lorax, I Had Trouble Getting to Solla Sollew, Oh, The Thinks You Can Think and Too Many Daves. I know, I know, Too Many Daves is a poem. It's still allowed to be one of my favourites though. 

When I was on my teaching placement last year (English placement, not French) I even thrust and forced my love of Dr. Seuss on my class. I probably spent a little bit too much of my literacy lessons reading them Dr. Seuss stories and even got them to write their own Dr. S style poems. They loved it. And so did I. Apparently writing in the style of Dr.S is more difficult than I thought it would be though. It certainly separated the movers from the shakers anyway. What does that even mean? Is it rude? I hope not!

"You'll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. 

You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. 

So be sure when you step. 

Step with care and great tact and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act. 

Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. 

And never mix up your right foot with your left." 

(Oh, the Places You'll Go)

Wise.Words.To.Live.By

I'll Tell You What I Want....

What I really, really want.....

.....Are more days like today.

A cheeky lie in the morning with a big bowl of cereal. Time with friends, especially time spent in the Spice Girls exhibition sand then eating burgers. Taking lots of photos and drinking chocolate fudge brownie milkshakes. 

I have this friend...

This is a genuine story of a friend. Not one of those stories that you start by saying "well see, I have this friend....." when you blatantly mean "I'm going to tell you something about myself, but it's a bit awkward/embarrassing, so I'm going to pretend that it's a friend's situation, even though we both know this story is all about me." 


Infact, this isn't even a story. It's just a post. It's a genuine post about my friend. My friend is Katie and she makes me laugh. Katie has beautiful crazy curly hair that is a beautiful shade of ginger and that may or may not have been enhanced by Henna. But who cares about things like that? (The Henna I mean) Katie has a beautiful singing voice, can give a really good massage and is a bit adventurous with spices in the kitchen. She's everything that you could want in a friend really. Oh, and she's a dreamer. 


But one of the best thing about Katie is that she is funny. And I mean the kind of funny that makes you belly laugh for so long that you get stomach cramps. And the kind of funny that is just instinctual. A natural part of who she is. But we'll get onto that. 

I met Katie for the first time on the day that I moved into my first student house. Back in the olden days of September 2006. I remember admiring her beautiful hair and thinking that she was wearing false eyelashes. (See the picture below.) She wasn't. But her eyelashes are so long and curly that everyday looks like a false eyelash day for her. We officially became housemates and friends (of the best variety) exactly a week later. 

One of the first things that astounded me about Katie was her will power. For the first three months of our friendship Katie didn't eat chocolate. And I don't mean she didn't eat chocolate bars, she didn't drink hot chocolate, eat chocolate cake, eat chocolate ice cream. Nothing even chocolate flavoured passed her lips. She was as stubborn as an ox. The no chocolate thing was a new years resolution. So she then went normal and started eating chocolate again. But I think now she might have given up again. Don't ask me why. Katie's odd decision making is all part of her charm. 

I remember one time having a discussion with Katie about something. I don't even remember what exactly the conversation was about. Actually I do. Mr.K was trying to convince a group of us that a banana is infact a herb and not a fruit. Katie agreed with Mr.K. And how did she know? She could remember exactly where she first learnt it. "I read it in a newspaper in 1997." It's saying things like that that make us love Katie. And oh, believe me, there have been lots of similar quotes and occasions. So many infact that they are now fondly called Cakeyisms. 


Here are a few...
There's not enough perspiration in the air.


(When going round the table on Thanksgiving saying what we're thankful for.) 
"I'm grateful for my parents, especially my mum and dad."

(After admiting she thought Coling Firth is hot in Girl with a Pearl Earring.)  
"But then again, I find Barack Obama vaguely attractive..."

(Whilst ordering DVD's of Amazon.) 
Katie: "£13 postage and packaging?? Thats a joke!"
Chloe: "Why don't you just pick them up from Asda instead?"
Katie: "Yeah, but will Amazon deliver to Asda?"

(In reference to not getting the cervical cancer immunisation) 
"To be honest, I think I'm just going to risk it..."

"If you go on myspace you can actually myspace Robert Pattinson!"
(30 SECOND PAUSE)
"Not that i've done it or anything...."

"I wish I was half Latino..."

(After we drove past a phone box which had been smashed) 
"I makes me sad to see smashed glass on the floor."

"Does anybody else find it really weird when people write educational books and then dedicate them to their wives?"


"Every time I hear a low flying plane I think *gasp* The Second Coming!"


"My Grandad's got like a seventh sense."

Katie, I love you.

 Thank you for being in my life.