Jubilee weekend

We have just had a four day weekend. Its been wonderful. I stayed home on Friday and finished the decorations for Keira's christening cake (will post pics next week) and then spent the rest of the day in the sun. On Friday night, we went to Joanne and Willy's for Chinese. On Saturday we slept late, which was much needed. I did a whole lot of washing, including washing my car! Karl and his father managed to make some kind of suspension contraption in the garage so that our sofas are not leaning on each other ( forgot to take pics). On Sunday, Mark and Christima and Barry and Harps came down, to see the Olymoic torch. It passedat the bottom of the road, and we waited in anticipation, I must say I was disappointed, I dunno what I expected?! A bigger torch maybe?

Anyway, after that the 8 of us went out for a yummy dinner at Harry's. When we got home, we set the fire, poured some wine, put on our pjs and were subjected to anotehr quiz. It was so much fun though and competitive as always. We fell into bed at 2am. We spent Monday infront of the fire watching tv. And while the boys were away, playing golf, the 4 ladies watched the Help. Harps, Christina and I have read the book and we were eager to see it. So Karl hooked up the laptop to the tv and we thoroughly enjoyed it. 

On Monday evening, Karl and I went up to Belfast for a braai at Orna and Enda's place. We met some really cool and interesting people. And got home just before midnight. 

Today, Christina, Mark, Karl and I started interval training for running. It was all going very well until Christina fell. She already has a weak ankle, which she hurt a couple of months ago. So Mark had to run home and get the car and fetch her. So today was mostly spent reading and watching tv as if started to rain a bit. We also got my mother-in-laws 60th birthday party plans sorted.

I am flying to England tomorrow morning, to meet my good friend Clare and her bump :) On Friday I head off to Ellesmere Port (near Chester) to see the Bellis-Jones' and my precious goddaughter, Keira Lilly. I am so excited. Now I just need to do my hair and pack.

I might be off the radar for a week or so, but will update when I get back. xx

St Paddys day

We started the celebrations a bit early, and I made a batch of green cocktails on friday night, and we took them over to Sinead and Hugh's for dinner and a dvd. 

Sinead and I finished the cocktail mix and moved on to wine I think? I woke up on St Paddy's day with no hangover! To be honest I wanted to climb Slemish for my first St Patricks day in Ireland. The problem with that plan is that so does the rest of Ireland!! Apparently it gets so crazy that you have to park miles away and have to queue for hours to get up there. So instead I made more green cocktails and we went over to Willie and Joanne's for dinner and drinks on Sat eve.

yummy chocolate wine that we got FREE with our Indian takeaway!

digging in

defo hometime!

So I walked up slemish on Monday instead and it was dead quiet and so mucky, i slipped a few times, but at least I can say that I did it!

Slemish

it was freezing up there!

Also went to my very first spin class, and it actually wasn't THAT bad! Will defo be going back!


Counting down the days till Mel arrives!
xx

Birthday weekend part II

So last Saturday night, my good friend Joanne, decided we were gonna celebrate my birthday in 3D style... dinner, drinks and dancing. We went to her home town of Ballycastle, about 30 mins from where we live. We went shopping on Thursday evening (instead of Zumba!) and bought very cheap, but very sexy dresses. I'm actually gutted that we didn't get a photo together in our new dresses. I did try a new hairdo though, like a side bun-thing...

We went to a place called the Central for the first part of the evening.

I had the MOST AMAZING chicken stack ever! Its roasted chicken on a bed of champ (an Irish version of mash), with fried onions on top and a creamy peppered sauce! YUM!!! Karl had a bacon and avo (?) burger, which was really well presented.

After dinner, Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday started playing and this cake arrived on our table. It was really very sweet (nearly cried, but didn't!).

After dinner, we gate-crashed a wedding. The girl in the pink dress and her hubby were invited to the evening do at a friends wedding (in a nightclub!?) so we all went along for a few drinks. After a few long and uncomfortable stares from the wedding guests (probably wondering who on earth we were), we moved to the Glenshesk, more commonly known as "Sin City."

And thats all I remember (just kidding!) We were home and in bed by 2am :)

Gluten-free weekend

Mark called us on Friday evening wanting to know what we were doing for dinner. I didn't even realise that they were coming to us on Friday eve, and panicked to get their cake done in time. Luckily it was ready when they arrived. We basically spent Friday evening in front of the fire, watching tv. On Saturday morning, Moira taught Christina and I how to make the St Brigid's cross.

Barry and Harpinder only arrived at around 6pm last night and then we had to get ready for the dinner. The ladies had pre-dinner cocktails :)

We arrived at the restaurant just after 8pm, and did the whole family photo thing

The waiter took his own sweet time to show us the specials menu, so Barry got up to give us the low down!

The in-laws are going on a cruise for Moira's 60th in May. They bought a package, all inclusive except for lunches and drinks, so we all put some cash together as a gift.

Add caption

 

We headed off to Johnny Joe's for a few drinks and some music. The music wasn't that great, so Harps took things into her own hands...

Christina HATES photographs! She's always trying to block my shot of her. This one came out pretty well though

I think we got home shortly after midnight. I attempted to take off my boots and failed! I had on a pair of socks, a pair of tights AND a large pair of woolly fleece socks on and shoved my feet into my boots, not thinking about how to take them off later. This is Karl trying to take them off for me..

Then came the cake-cutting ceremony practice round (Mark & Chris are getting married this New Years Eve)

Christina seriously at 6 slices of this cake last night. Since she can't eat gluten, its not that often she gets to eat cake, so she had more than her fair share of cake last night (and this morning for breakfast!)

Mark does this funny thing (if you beg him enough!) that he saw in Lethal Weapon. White bread brown bread in a South African accent. It was soooo funny that I dropped the camera (oops!) in this clip.

We all ended up sleeping at the in-laws last night. And needless to say we all slept quite late this morning. The rest of the day was spent sitting around, chatting, reading newspapers and watching Modern Family episodes. That was until Christina decided it was time to bake some more gluten free stuff! Christina made traditional Irish soda bread, which is delicious with butter and jam, especially when its hot off the gridle. 

And I tried these marble mini muffins out, also gluten free.  

Karl's granny is with us for the afternoon, and my mom-in-law jumped at the opportunity for another family pic (I look really fat in this photo because I'm squatting in a very uncomfortable position, and my shoulders are hunched so it looks like I have no neck. Well, thats my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it!)

Everyone has left now, and we are still at the in-laws place (its nice and warm). Sunday evening pizza is a bit of a tradition in this house. So after our pizza, we will head up the road to our own wee house. I need to gather all my things for my first day at my new job in the BIG CITY :)

Icy Ireland

The weather has been pretty terrible. Something about Siberian conditions :( On Thursday, there was a 30 degree difference in temperature between here and home! 

We went to the village of Armoy yesterday, to look at a car. We are gonna sell my car and get a small corsa, if its diesal, Karl will take it and I will use his Astra. The car was in terrible condition, so we passed and the search continues. On our way home we saw this..

 

frost flowers

 Even the mountain streams are frozen!

We are all going out tonight to celebrate a whole lot of things: Mine and Harpinder's graduation, Mark & Christina's engagement, Wille's birthday last month and Moira's one coming up. So we are getting dressed up and going to Harry's for dinner. And after across the road to Johnny Joes (the local pub) for some live Irish music. 

I made an engagement cake for the lovebirds, and because Christina can't eat gluten, I used a normal recipe, and on advice from Tash just substituted the normal flour for gluten-free flour, and it actually turned out rather well. Its a white chocolate and orange sponge cake. Very moist, and very yummy!!

Rock and roll Friday night...

Karl is still away and his parents are going out to see his granny tonight. So, I went out to Camerons for a puzzle to keep me busy, but found this instead...

So tonight I'm going to sit and do ladybird sudoku with a glass or 2 of merlot in front of the fire. Will post pics of the finished product (being optimistic!).