Higher Love

I'm loving this song. Its an oldie, and the original artist is Steve Windward, but this cover is amazing! Have a listen if you can...

2011 at a Glance!

Wow, I can't believe we are at the end of another year, and how much has changed for us over the last 12 months!

I turned 30!

We had our wedding blessing in the Glens of Antrim

We went to Italy on our honeymoon

Melissa moved back to South Africa

Karl got the job in Northern Ireland

We packed up our flat and sold our car

We moved to Northern Ireland

Jimmy and Fionnuala got married

I got a new car :)

We visited Ryan and Jenny for his 30th

I went back home for a wee holiday in Oct

We moved into our own place and started to nest

 Natasha came to visit

Our besties, Robyn and Andel are PREGGERS!

My brother got married

Christina and Mark got engaged

I got my Masters!

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary!

Weekends away to Dublin, Dundalk and Malahide

I got a part-time job

I discovered very hidden baking and creative talents

I got to spend Christmas with the Graham clan for the first time.

And thats the year in summary. It seems like so much time has gone by in a blink of an eye. If thats 2011, I can't wait for 2012! While I miss home, and everyone is making me naar with comments about the heat and the sunshine, I am happy, and know that moving here was a good decision for us. Looking forward to the new year, challenges and all/ Have a happy and safe one! xx

A Different kind of Christmas

Christmas wreath I made for our front door.

We have been out every night since last Wednesday, and boy am I feeling the effects of that. As I write this, Karl is still sleeping. Those of you who know Karl, know that he never naps unless he is ill. He is totally wiped out. On Wednesday it was Karls friends party, Thursday was the grand opera in Belfast, Friday was my work do. Saturday night we went to church and then had pizza and wine with everyone, and Sunday was Christmas. We woke up on Christmas morning and Kalr and I opened presents. That was followed by many calls to and from friends and family in South Africa which took up most of the morning. I was tasked with making chocolate mousse (did you know you use marshmallows in thie recipe?) and Moira ordered some lemon and orange cupcakes too. SO on went the Christmas music while we baked. Got to parents-in-law just in time for some lunch and then went door to door down Glen Rd with the family to the rest of the Grahams. Had an awesome skype call with the people of 14 Fleur Rd, and tried hard not to cry and SUCCEEDED! :)
We had our Christmas dinner at 6pm and it was delicious!! Everything with all the trimmings.  And of course our Christmas chat with the Klaasens put a HUGE smile on my face.

After dinner we headed to a friend's house for a few drinks, we stayed there til 3am!!

Geraldine thought that the floor would be more comfy (its not because she fell or anything! lol)

Carey Floorcare

I think we slept till about 11am yesterday and then got up and came back to the in-laws for round 2! We had another dinner with all the trimmings and then we went visiting family friends and the day ended with us all going up the road to the Graham cousins and we played trivial pursuit, cranium and articulate, a game similar to 30 seconds. We laughed and played til well after midnight.

Christmas was definately different this year, missed my family, missed the sunshine and missed the beach. Instead of the usual sun dressy thing, I was well-wrapped up. Hopefully next year I'll have some of my family over for the holidays and hopefully this time we'll have a white Christmas!

We are sitting around the fire, waiting for dinner # 3 before heading off to a pub quiz :)

Easter 2012

So its official! Melissa is coming to visit. She just walked out the door of Flight Centre in Cavendish with a ticket to Dublin! What an awesome way to start my holiday! I am over the moon! 3 weeks of silliness and travel and good times! My poor husband! Mel and I are going to revert back into our 16 year old selves and our unhealthy co-dependant ways :) We'll probably spend 2 weeks here, exploring Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and then we are off to Spain and possibly France for a week with all the brothers-in law and cousins and their significant others! Its gonna be amazing :) Not feeling so homesick anymore, because Easter is just around the corner! BELIEVE IT!
                        

A foreign Christmas

Well, so much for a white Christmas :( The snow has melted and the temperature is back up to a toasy 10 degrees. Last week the temperature ranged between -1 to 5 degress and it was miserably cold. I'm getting all these wonderful emails and pictures from everyone back home who is on holiday and on the beach or sipping sushi and its starting to make me ever so homesick... Fine, we have roaring fires and mulled wine, but what is Xmas without a braai, some sunshine, mad family antics and a pretty summery dress! It does feel pretty weird to be so far away from home when there is so much festivity taking place back in tht Mother City. Thankfully Karl is off work for about 10 days, so we're gonna do a few things, just so it feels like we're on holiday too. Not much planned yet, just gonna take it as it comes and explore every inch of Norhtern Ireland.

We went out last night to see Karl's friend who is here from the US. Tonight we are going to Belfast to see a comedy show that STARTS AT 10PM!? And tomorrow is my work (haha, I only started here last week) Chrsitmas Party, which almost everyone in the Glen is invited to. So I'm going to be all partied out for Christmas, and might just end up sleeping through all the festivity! :)

Have fun in the sun (although apparently its raining at home) and have a cocktail or 2 on me.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

As you know, we celebrated Christmas on Saturday, so it now feels like Christmas is over, but its NOT! Our dinner was fantastic, and the food was even better.We cleared out the room that Karl and I shared at his parents place, and set up all the tables and decor in there.

This is the arrangement I made at my flower arranging class last week.

Christina is gonna kill me, but I couldn't resist putting this up. She was trying to catch a snooze before the festivities.

I made potato and leek soup for starters, and then roast veg with the main. Moira made turkey, gammon and sausages with stuffinf and gravy. Aunt Margaret broke her arm, but she somehow still managed to make the mash and a baileys (sort of like amarula) cheesecake. Christina made a rocky road cake, Harpinder made banana bread and Fionnula made cake!

Finn's xmas tree cake

the girls hard work!

And I made a chocolate fudge and carrot cake snowman (who is melting a bit!)

the beginnings of a yummy pot of mulled wine - cool Jamie Oliver recipe - very easy

Jimmy & Fionnulal

Xmas Charades game

And Santa :)

 I am actually on my way to work.... sort of. Helping out with a friend's business over the busy Xmas period for a few days a week, so at least it keeps me out of trouble! xx

More cake and the first of the snowfall

Friday night was a lot of fun, just a pity I was so tired after all the baking! Our house is just not big enough to accommodate everyone, some eventually had to sit in the kitchen. But the good thing though, was that the house was lovely and warm with all the bodies in it! The last of the bunch left just after midnight, so we still got a decent amount of sleep in the end. Here are a couple more pics of the yummy things.

Lemon and orange cupcakes, they were a hit - very easy and yummy recipe (mail me if you want it!)

Made a choc swiss roll ice-cream cake too, and despite the weather, they ate most of it!

Well, I woke up this morning to the snow! I was like a 5 year old. It is so beautiful, and oh-so-cold outside. Karl had to clean his back and front windows.

I actually have to drive into town today to get things for our Xmas dinner on Saturday, and today is the only day I can do it! A bit nervous about driving in the snow, but I have to learn sometime! All I want to do is curl under the covers with some soup and watch it snow! Enjoy the pics. xx

view from our front door! can you see the road is covered with snow.

my car :(

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Blog comments issue

Robyn and Ash pointed out that they are not able to comment on my blog, and I think I've managed to sort that out? Please comment if you can, so that I know it works?! Have a good weekend. xx

The Great Bake-off (not really!)

I know I've been quiet. Had a really bad throat infection (compliments of Karl!). He started coughing last week, and refuses to take meds unless he absolutely HAS to, so I got it. Only really starting to feel better now, but the cold weather isn't helping, its down to 1.5degrees this eve :( Well, here are the pics of the cake I made last week for Karls aunts birthday, its was actually quite yummy too, and very easy to make. put raspberries in the middle of the two layers.

Today is my auntie Margie's birthday, as well as Karl's birthday. I spent all of yesterday baking for him to take cale to work, made a large 40cm x 30cm chocolate cake.

I was supposed to go to flower arranging tonight, so we celebrated Karls birthday last night, made his favourite: sticky bbq ribs and some cottage pie, so yesterday was HECTIC, I actually got backache from standing all day! I also got up super early to make him breakfast as I was supposed to be out tonight, but I started feeling a bit light headed so I decided it was best to just stay at home and recover. We are having a few family and friends over for cake etc tomorrow eve, and Karl decided that he wanted a Herbie VW bug cake! It wasn't THAT difficult, but it didn't help my back much today either. Its out of proportion, but its my first car cake, so give me a break!

Gonna wave Karl off tomorrow morning, and then crawl back into bed for a few hours. Then make cheese scones, orange and lemon cupcakes and a chocolate tart, before cleaning and and doing my hair! Roll on SATURDAY WHEN I DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYMORE COOKING OR BAKING!

Sofas and flowers

Our sofa finally arrived. Was a bit worried about the charcoal colour, but I actually really like it.

Went to the flower arranging class with my mother-in-law yesterday, and really enjoyed it, everyone was so creative! Looking forward to the next one.

It Karl's aunts birthday tomorrow, but we are having her bday dinner tonight, and I promised her a victoria sponge cake, so I better get on with it, still need to do my hair :(

Anniversary weekend away

On Friday, the eight of us headed to the Rep of Ireland to a place called Dundalk, where Christina is from. Half of us stayed in a hotel (compliments of groupon!) and the other half stayed at Christina's parents place on Friday night. We went out for dinner to a place called the Windsor, and did our Secret Santa draw, with Barry dressed as Santa!! I don't have pics on my camera but Barry has some on his, so will upload them another time. Needless to say we had quite a late night, and only surfaced at around 10am. We left for Newgrange at about 11am, and the journey which should have taken us half an hour, took us 2 hours! Thats what happens when you leave the gps at home! :( We passed the time by having a few competitions along the way tho. Christina, Mark, Barry and Harps in one car and Karl, Jimmy, Fionnuala and I  in the other, and  both cars had to write down the names of all the counties in ireland, and the other one was to name all the states in the US. there was some fierce competition, but thankfully, we tied, otherwise there would have been some kind of revolt. The Grahams are a competitive bunch!


Newgrange is pretty amazing, since it was built 5000 years ago. whats weird about this site is that archaeologists are not sure why they were built, and only few human remains were found in them. There are also several of these types of structures all over Europe. Whats amazing is that the roof box was constructed so that on the days of winter solstice, it aligns with the rising sun, which illuminates the whole dome for 17 minutes. How people so long ago, with little equipment managed to construct this thing is incredible! Especially considering that their lifespan was approximately 25 yrs! There are also interesting drawings on the stones, and there are many different interpretations.

After Newgrange, we stopped off to get things for dinner and we all headed for Christina's parents place, as we all stayed there on Saturday night. We made dinner, watched x-factor, played cranium, and had a little bit more wine, and laughed til it hurt! I think we were all burnt out from the night before though, and were in bed before midnight.

After breakfast and the handing over of gifts for our anniversary, Harpinder, Barry, Jimmy and Finn headed for Belfast and Karl and I left for Portmarnock at around midday. It was about an hours drive from Dundalk and its beautiful! The hotel is also a golf estate, and the view from our bedroom window was the first tee!

After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we headed out for a walk on the promenade. Despite the sunshine, it was pretty chilly, but it didn't seem to bother anyone, people were out with their baby strollers, dogs, and toddlers, and some even ventured into the Irish Sea!!! I love this sleepy seaside town. It reminds me so much of Cape Town.

After the walk, we showered and changed and got ready for our dinner at the greedy goose. its was a 5 course meal! But they cheated as tea/coffee was also included as a meal, but the food was AMAZING! I had a prawn and shrimp platter, lamb hotpot, and duck in phyllo pastry and ended it with raspberry and white chocolate and raspberry sorbet. Karl had deep fried mozzarella sticks with tomota jam, a pork platter and a beef rib dish and dessert was chocolate parfait with butterscotch and hot chocolate. It was the perfect ending to our first wedding anniversary.

We got home yesterday afternoon, and Karl went with me to the forest to collect acorns and small twigs for my next project. I am starting a flower arranging course with my mother-in-law on Thursdays, and we are making xmas wreaths, so we collected a few bits yesterday. We are also having a very early Xmas dinner on 10 December, because the fiances and girlfriends are going to spend this xmas with their families this year, so we decided to have a big formal xmas party with everyone where we exchange our secret santa gifts etc. Just another excuse to eat and dress up really! Everybody is bringing a dish etc, so I'm trying to co-ordinate that at the moment. Thats about all from my side at the moment. xx