Death by chocolate - yes please!

Had a busy day today. Ran around sorting out last minute visa stuff, did a bit of shopping, then came home to cook and bake. Decided to make death by chocolate cupcakes for no particular reason, and then discovered thats its our 10 month anniversary today! It feels so much longer, thats a good thing right? :) Anyway, at least we had something yummy to celebrate it with! :)

Weekend away

The weekend at Ryan and Jens was just what I needed! We had such a good time. Arrived at about 6pm on Friday eve, just in time to see Ryan. He was off to his leaving/birthday do with colleagues in Liverpool. Karl and I opted out of that one because we knew the next eve would be a crazy one! Didn’t get to sleep late because of the rugby, and let me tell you, I’ve never seen Karl get so worked up EVER, let alone for the Ireland match on Saturday, it was funny to watch him squirm and shout! Ryan made us the most delicious chocolate croissants and bacon butties and we were set for a bit of shopping in Cheshire Oaks. Was looking for some drinks, and came across these cans, which I think are super-awesome and super-convenient!

Ryan's gift

cool photo icing cake

After an afternoon nap, we were ready to celebrate. Think there were eventually about 40 friends and family that arrived. It was a braai, and people were lounging about outside in short sleeves and skimpy dresses, while I had on 2 layers, boots, a scarf and my coat. And it wasn’t my imagination, because eventually Karl got up to get something warmer to wear too! Karl got these really yummy fat angus aberdeen burgers-AMAZING!

yummy Angus Aberdeen burger

Got to meet a lot of Ryan and Jen’s friends from Tenerife and saw all Jen’s family, including her brand new nephew :) There were three Karls there that night, including my Karl, and the weird thing is that they all spell their name with a K! Had to get a pic of them!

The 3 Karls

 Ryan got a shot gun as a gift, which I tried to stay well away from. You basically fill up the magazine with a shot of alcohol and then choose your victim. Jagermeister is not my friend, and after one shot I played dead! I'll stick to my G&T thanks!

Do I really have to? :(

Ryan, saying his prayers

I’m slowly but surely starting to get my things together to come back home. Need to find my suitcase though. All my visa paperwork has come through, so I have an appointment on 29 September to submit. Let’s hope its smooth sailing! 

My turn to cook tonight, gonna make Ina Paarman’s cottage pie :) and Karl has requested death by chocolate cupcakes, so that should keep me busy. Off to the gym and then shopping for my cook/bake-off :)

Birds, cakes and ignorant people (not in that order).

Yesterday was my baking day, and let me tell you, it won't happen again very soon. After 3 hours of baking and making pretty fondant and sugar icing shapes, I decided to take a break and go to the gym. After 30 mins of cardio, I drove to the next town to pick up some stuff for my brother, which they didn't have in the end. And the just took a slow drive back, because the sun was shining yesterday, it was beautiful. Also, I have been on the hunt for peg bags. Karl said that the first time he ever saw a peg bag was in SA. My MIL's (mother-in-law) washing line is always filled with pegs, and whenever you wanna hang up washing, you need to get rid of the million or so pegs on the line. I have looked everywhere for them, and can't find any! My pet peeve here at the moment is ignorant people. Just because I look foreign, doesn't mean I don't speak english. While looking for these peg bags, I went up to a shop assistant and asked her where the pegs are. And she looked at me funny and said, they what? And I'm like, the pegs. And she said: and what do you do with them. I got very irritated and said: you use them to hang up clothes. And she said: OH, PEGS! and I said: thats what I said, pegs. Its so irritating, and its not an accent thing, its an ignorance thing! So guess what I'm gonna buy a few of and hand them out as Xmas gifts this said: peg bags.

Birds seem to like my FIL (father-in-law). While I was putting the final decor on the cake, he rushed inside with this little robin. It had flown straight into the window at full speed.

A bird in the hand and all!

Can you see where it hit the window?

My FIL put him outside on the table for a while. and he kept closing his eyes and shivering, so we got it a box and put it in the lounge, where it was a bit warmer. I was sure it was gonna die. Well, about an hour later, it was fluttering about the lounge, and my FIL had to catch it and let it go outside.

Fly away robin

Anyway, back to the cake. It turned out pretty well actually. I'm not a great fan of carrot cake, but it was so moist and yummy that I had 2 slices. We ended up giving most of it away to the family last night, because it was far too much. But now I understand why people charge so much for these kind of cakes, it takes hours of preparation! Here are the pics:

decorations took hours!

pretty, but cracked roses

couldn't find a cake board...

so made one out of a next catalogue

made 2 of these

buttercream icing - VERY RICH

not perfect, but it'll do

my masterpiece!

up close

I woke up with a cold this morning :( probably from walking up and down the road delivering cake last night, while only wearing a skimpy jersey :( Trying to find the rest of my corenza to kill it now. We're going to Chester tomorrow for the weekend, for my oldest friends 30th birthday, Ryan, and I just cannot be sick!! We are flying out of Belfast into Liverpool and then, because it was cheaper, on the way back, we are flying from Liverpool to Derry, which is about 2hrs away. So Sunday is gonna be full of buses, planes and trains! Wish me luck! Anyway, duty calls, my MIL wants me to drop off a few slices of the cake at her work, so gonna get dressed and go. xxx

Baker's paradise

Spent the last 2 days in Belfast at Barry and Harpinder's place. Karl had training in Belfast on Monday and Tuesday, so we just decided to stay over. Barry is on holiday and Harpinder is off work doing her thesis corrections, so I wasn't all by my lonesome. What I did discover in Belfast, is a baker's paradise! This shop is huge and it has EVERYTHING you need to make the most beautiful bakes. I could't resist, and bought a few things. As we speak I'm busy rolling out fondant and maiking decorations for my first ever fondant cake. Took me a while to get into it, the kneading is killing my arms, but hopefully it will be worth it. Gonna make a carrot cake and then fondant over it. Colour scheme is purple and lilac. Tried to make a ribbon, but its not really working, need more patience and time than I have. So, watch this space....

Spice up your life!

So I got out of bed fairly late on Saturday morning. Was just feeling tired, so read and slept a bit. When I did finally make an appearance, it was to make a chicken and mushroom pie for our monthly dinner party. There are 12 of us, and we decided to have a dinner party once a month at each others houses. So last night was Joanne & Willy’s turn to host. I made my chicken pie, Geraldine made steak and chips. Fionnuala made a tossed salad, Joanne made fudge, strawberry pavlova and chocolate fudge cake, and the others brought drinks. So every month someone gets a turn to bring a course or drinks or whatever.

The girls prepping

The meal

Anyway, my point was that I got up and went to the kitchen and sorted through the spices to start cooking with. And it dawned on me that we desperately needed a spice rack. And I just couldn’t be bothered to drive all the way (15 miles) to the nearest town to find one. So what did I do? I made one (Brother, you will be so proud of me when you see it!) I went up the road to Karl’s uncle Kieran and he helped me choose the right wood, helped me cut the wood, and showed me how to use a compressed air nail gun. And then I just varnished it, and hey, presto! We have a spice rack!

why am I in a t-shirt in Ireland?

that's why! seeing is believing!

end product

After that little project, I carried on making the pie. And Karl helped to decorate it! Redbay rallying is the name of the car rally club that the boys belong to. So now, I’m a retired rugby wag (although Karl is thinking about joining the rugby club in town) and a rally wag. So here’s what the pie ended up looking like.

designed by Karl

My mother-in-law is a hoarder of note! She was busy cleaning up her room yesterday and found this, along with ones for each of the brothers. All neatly wrapped and labelled. Can’t actually believe Karl was ever a little boy, but here’s the evidence!

Our memory foam mattress also arrived! It was a groupon offer, and we saved £750 on this deal. We could order the mattress in any size and still only pay £250 for it. So we got a king size JI’ve begged for one for years! Karl has crazy legs-lol! Basically he jumps around a lot in his sleep and it disturbs me at night and I wake up tired. But no more! The mattress is awesome! I sleep like a baby and hardly feel any movement from Karl at all! We actually forgot that we also had to get a frame for the bed too, and when we did remember we had hours of fun trying to assemble it. See the finished product below.

Done and dusted!

After weeks of editing, referencing, re-reading and re-theorising and STRESS, my supervisor gave me the go ahead to submit my thesis! I am so relieved. I sent it off to Phil yesterday to print and submit it for me. So, for those who cheered me on and who kept me going when I really felt like giving up, thank you. Its good to have family and friends who believe in me. Love you guys! Gonna watch the game now. GO BOKKE (nearly cried when they sang the national anthem).

Stranger things...

Forgot to put this up a few weeks ago. We had just arrived, and I went out to the garage to ask my father-in-law something. I didn't have my glasses on, but I saw movement in the tractor, even though I could see uncle Jim standing talking to my father-in-law. I burst out laughing and had to run back inside to get my camera.Uncle Jim never leaves home without her!

Clachan

So I’ve pretty much seen and done most of the sights in Northern Ireland, but I haven’t been to the hidden village yet. So a few days ago, my mother-in-law, aunt Margaret and I decided to go for a walk to check it out. Its a bit of a walk, but the views from up there are amazing, and we were lucky enough to have dry weather! 

So a clachan is a cluster of small houses, six maybe seven of them. And they don’t have churches, or shops or schools. It dates back about eighty years ago, and these houses are now ruins. A true clachan would have been a cluster of small single-storey cottages of farmers and/or fishermen, invariably found on poorer land. The community would share outhouses and sheep/pig pens and the children would typically all play together. The houses look extremely small though. 

Also got a pic of this young bull, who was ready to charge, maybe he didn’t want his photo taken, but then I realised it could have been my little red Nikon! (thats actually a myth by the way, bulls are colourblind!)

Green gages and other things

Well, I can't even really remember what I've been up to since the last time I blogged. Mostly been driving around, trying to get used to the rules of the road here. Even ventured as far as the town where Karl works (about 45km from home). Haven't quite made it to Belfast yet, want Karl to go with me a few times until I'm more confident.

Karl and his cousins and friends went to a car rally thing all day on Saturday, and I met Fionnuala in the nearest town for lunch - she's the newest addition to the Graham clan. And then we just went over to their place up the road for drinks after dinner (I hate saying dinner, but no one says supper here, so I've adjusted my vocab!). Other than the usual cooking and cleaning, haven't really been doing much. Been sleeping in a lot and reading like its going out of fashion. I did join the local gym though, and went this morning. They even have zumba, and I might just try it out. Gonna go 3 times a week.

Karl's aunt Margaret made green gage jam over the weekend. And I'm like, whats green gage? Apparently its a fruit that is a little bit smaller than a plum and tastes like a plum, except its green. Well, it doesn't look or taste like a plum, looks like an overgrown grape to me.

Green gage

What I have noticed while I've been here though, is that I am really addicted to coke zero. We have 24 cans out in the milk house (which is basically as cold as the fridge, so we keep all the drinks out there). And this latest collection came out of my bin today. I cleaned out the bin 4 days ago. Can someone say ADDICT?

My coke fix

It has also started to get really cold here :( I light the fire at about 4pm everyday and make it my mission to keep me going. Its not really my body thats cold, but my feet! As part of our welcome home gift, my brother-in-law and his gf gave me a pair of microwaveable boots! One of the best gifts I've ever received. You just pop them in the microwave for 2 minutes and then put them on.

Best gift ever!

And now, for the show stopper....... Guess which one is KARL!?!?

Karl WITH HAIR!!!