It's snowing!

It has been snowing in Cardiff today. Not enough to settle, but it was definitely white stuff falling from the sky.

I had a quick panic when I saw it that I was going to be snowed in, mainly as Monday is the day I do my Asda big shop, so there was the chance I may have been snowed in with only 2 cartons of Um Bongo, some coleslaw, prawn cocktail and a tin of shortbread left over from Christmas.

My panic was shortlived when I saw that it wasn't even sticking to the cars or shed roof, so I knew it was going to be ok.

I haven't had the best luck with food over the weekend to be honest. Saturday we had planned to get a Chinese for tea and were really looking forward to it. We hadn't had one for ages and were starting to run out of those little plastic boxes the food comes in, so planned to have a treat!

We walked over as the Chinese is only in the next street to us. I even had a carrier bag in my pocket to avoid the 5p charge. As we got closer we noticed there were no lights on and the shutters were down. It had been closed down. As we trudged back I realised we couldn't even go elsewhere and pick one up as Steve had had a few beers and I had drunk a cheeky Pina Colada (which was pretty disgusting) while the football was on. So we ended up with a pizza. It would normally be a treat, but was disappointing when we were so looking forward to a Chinese.

It didn't get much better yesterday. I had planned to make a chicken and red wine casserole. I realised yesterday that I had forgotten to buy everything for it, apart from the chicken. Luckily, we had a spare bottle of wine and some veg in the freezer, so it wasn't a total disaster. It just goes to show how stressed I am at the moment.

Oh, and a final rant. Goodreads has ended its contract with Amazon, which means it doesn't use book data, including covers from Amazon any more. For me, this means that basically all of my book covers and page numbers have disappeared, making my shelves look very untidy! I'm not pleased. When I get over it a bit, I will have to spend ages sourcing all the info. Grrrr!

4 day weekend!!

Woohoo!! I have just had day 1 of my 4 day weekend. And I am loving it.

So far I have been to get some treats from Waitrose and Asda (and panic buy my mother in law's birthday present as someone forgot it it next week!), read some of my book and napped with Bruce.

My plan for this evening is to eat my treats from Waitrose, drink Prosecco and maybe watch some crap TV that I have missed out on over the last week. I'm also looking at the Cath Kidston website as I want a new bag and can't decide which one I want as they've stopped doing the one that I loved!

Oh, I also bought 3 books in Asda (it was rude not to, they were so cheap!) and 2 CDs which were on offer.

What is everyone else doing this weekend?

Ladies that lunch

Well my trip to London yesterday wasn't particularly exciting, although I did get to see Big Ben and walk through Parliament Square, and see a policeman with a very big gun!

Today has been very much more exciting though as I met my friend for some lunch and shopping in Cardiff and have had a loveley time.

We went to TGI Friday for food and decided to go all cosmopolitan and have some non-alcoholic cocktails to drink to feel like we were in Sex and the City. Although there were only two of us and we were in rainy old Cardiff. We had a brilliant waiter who presented us with a rose he had fashioned from a serviette.

He very much earned his tip, especially as he managed to wangle us a free dessert, which although we were full, we managed to find a little bit of room for!

By the time we had finished eating, I was convinced I would explode!! But I knew the best way to counteract all of the calories of the food (the cake had no calories as we didn't have to pay for it!) was to walk them off in the shops!

Town was rammed with people as there was some sort of pop concert planned with a band off X Factor (No Direction or something) so there were a lot of excitable screaming teenagers, who of course are my favourite type of people!

I didn't really get a lot, but it was nice to have a bit of a wander and a gossip with my friend and do a bit of window shopping!

I'm now home, still feeling pretty full and am wondering how late I can leave it before making a pie for tea!

I have a quick reading update, I have made a start on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but haven't really been able to concentrate on it to get into it, but I am also reading The Skeleton in the Closet by M.C. Beaton to have a bit of light reading even when I can't concentrate. I have a couple of book reviews to write too, so will post those when I am finished.

Tomorrow isn't going to be quite so exciting as I have my homework from creative writing to do and also a job application to finish, but these things must be done!

Tales of Christmas and the days that followed

I may be a little bit late but have some pictures from Christmas to share and tales of what we did!

On Christmas Eve Father Christmas paid a special visit to Cardiff to drop off all of our presents and even fill a little cat sized stocking for Bruce.

We then had a special Christmas eve dinner of hot dogs and watched lots of Only Fools and Horses!

Christmas Day is always a bit of a mad rush for us as we open our presents in our house in the morning and then go to my mum's for lunch in Cardiff and then up to visit my other half's family in Aberdare.

This is what Father Christmas bought me to read and watch.

Father Christmas also brought me Bridesmaids on DVD, the obligatory Beano and Dandy annuals and Brendan Sheerin's autobiography (which I am currently reading!).

We had a hearty breakfast of bacon sandwiches and then set off on our journeys laden down with presents. It was just Steve, my mum and I for Christmas dinner this year as my nanna wasn't very well and mum cooked us a big turkey dinner. The downside to this was that I don't like roast turkey, so I had mainly a vegetable and gravy based dinner to get over this one! It was the first time that mum had bought turkey for about 15 years as dad didn't like it either, so I couldn't really complain!

After pudding we started making the long journey up the A470 to Aberdare via Hirwaun. We spent some time with Steve's parents (his dad had drunk a few too many in the traditional morning pub visit in the village so was particularly chatty and pretty funny too!). We then went down to Steve's grans. When we arrived, his aunty and uncle decided we hadn't quite travelled enough that day and that we should all decamp to their house! By this point we were pretty tired so stayed just long enough to be polite and then I had the pleasure of the long, drizzly and dark drive back down!

We got back in our house about 8pm and I don't know what Bruce had been doing all day as this was how he ended up after about half hour of us being home!

This picture is a little bit like where's Brucie as we hadn't had time to tidy up our presents and quite frankly by the time we got home couldn't be bothered!

We had our more relaxed Christmas Day at home on Boxing Day. I cooked us a big chicken dinner (I like roast chicken and so do Steve and Bruce!) and we had a toffee pudding for afters.

We then watched one of Steve's action films from Santa and I read my book. We had a few drinks though the day and it was really relaxed and lovely. And I didn't have to leave the house apart from to take the bins out!!!

On Tuesday I defected to the dark side. I bought a Kindle with my Christmas money. Some of you may have read my post about e-books and be a bit shocked at this or think I'm going back on my word, but hear me out. I have recently got back into reading and after reading some of my friends reviews on Goodreads felt I was missing out on the big world of free books and cheap e-books. Also, as the money was a gift, it wasn't my money so was the perfect opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. (This is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!).

Things didn't go as well as planned from here. I went to my local large electrical superstore and bought a Kindle there so I could have it straight away and my experience started badly as the shop assistants weren't interested in me. As I was only spending £89 on an e-reader and not £3billiion on a 70ft LED 3D television, it took me ages to ask a few questions and then got greeted by them trying to sell me a Kindle cover for £40. No thank you!

I eventually got out of the shop with my purchase in hand (I had forgotten my bag for life and wasn't going to pay 5p for a bag when I have a large reserve of them under my stairs!).

I got home and unpacked the Kindle (frustration free packaging, my ar*e!) it took both of us around 45 minutes to switch the thing on! I thought there was something fishy with this, but put it down to me being technologically inept. When Steve eventually got it working, I was so pleased (after wanting to throw it through the window!) but my joy was short lived. About 5 minutes later the device froze! This carried on happening until it decided to not let me reset it anymore and Kindle sadly died.

I returned to said large electrical superstore chain yesterday morning and informed them that the device was broken and that I would require a new one. To my surprise, they were obliging and friendly (this came as a shock to me!). I checked it before leaving the store just in case and, hurrah, it turned on within seconds! I wasn't as technologically inept as I thought! This was yesterday morning and it's still working so it's going well!

I am enjoying the (free and cheap) e-book experience and have also downloaded an electronic version of one of my self help books so I can read it on the go without anyone knowing. I promise to stay faithful to hard copy print though and still love the feel of real books and would love to have a library in my house one day. For now, I'm just aiming for a comfy armchair in my study though (there are two bookcases and a desk in there so nearly a library!) and am planning to buy one this year IF I get my promotion on a permanent basis.

So this is what I am doing today.

This is what I will be watching.

And this is what I am wearing.

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas

I've been busy today preparing for Christmas (only 7 more sleeps to go! Eeek!) and thought I'd post a few pictures.

I've been preparing my pigs in blankets which I have frozen ready for the big day, and have also been baking mince pies. They exploded a bit in the oven but at least I know they are deep filled!!

I have also finished wrapping all my presents, including presents for my cat, Bruce. He always has a little stocking so he doesn't feel left out of the celebrations. Look at the cute cat nip filled gingerbread man he has this year.

I've also taken a few photos of my favourite Christmas decorations. I have quite a few vintage decorations that I have inherited, but I have saved these for a separate post.

Sunday brunch

As I've got a lot to do today I thought I would have a hearty Sunday brunch!

I decided on a sausage and cheese omlette and I reckon it looked pretty good! More on what I've been doing today later! X