My Birthday!

As usual I like it best when my birthday is spread out over as many days as possible and this year has been no acception to that. Normally in the 6 months up to my birthday it is all I can go on about but this year I have been strangley quiet about the whole affair. This might have something to do with the fact that I have no entered in to the slow and steady 30's hill and the only way is down. No more can I say I am in my early or even mid twenties. I am 26. Oh the horror!

Now that I've added just a hint of melodrama to the post I can continue. This year I decided to join forces with another friend of mine who is also on the slippery slope and we chose the Monopoly Pub Crawl as the best place to begin. As my birthday was on a Monday and his on a Tuesday we decided to do it the Saturday before, inviting about 80 people and knowing that only 10 where going to turn up at best.

If you havent ever done the Monopoly Pub Crawl it really is great fun. This was the second time that I have attempted it, making your way round 26 pubs from 10.30am - midnight and drinking 13 pints (you have half pints at each pub) this is not a challenge for the faint hearted. Its almost impossible to keep to the time limits and last time we made it round 20 of the 26, feeling satisfied with out attempt. This year we wanted to try and beat our previous record however.

You can download the route here (we went for the quickest way, not the in-order of the board way). It's such a good experience but you do have to be prepared to move quickly, you can't really sit around or you wont make it round. Rather than bore you with the repetition of - we went to a pub, we had a half pint, we moved on - here are some fun pictures of the day!

We made it round 21 pubs in the end and went and got a chinese at 12.30am to celebrate!

***

On my actual birthday I woke up relatively early and opened all my presents :) My parent's got me a digital photo frame and some kitchen ceramics. My wonderful boyfriend bought me this gorgeous necklace which creates little rainbows if it catches in the sun and its just perfect.

I took the day off work as I think its the one day that I shouldn't have to work but as luck would have it the rain decided that it was a good time to show up and so my previous plan of a picnic went out of the window. Instead we spent a couple of hours uploading pictures on to the new photo frame before moving on to the very important baking of the birthday cupcakes. If you are a avid reader of my blog you will know how much I love to bake but I decided it was my birthday and I was going to be lazy so they were made courtsey of our good friend Betty Crocker.

Once they were iced and had cooled we packed some up and headed into town and Oxford Street so I could do a little bit of shopping before Leigh took me out for dinner at a yummy pizza place called Pizza Pilgrims. They serve wine in big carafes and I had a black pepper salmi pizza and Leigh had spicy sausage.

After that we went to go and meet my close friends for a few drinks, blowing out of a tealight (nobody had candles!) and general merrymaking. It was quite lovely.

Thank you to everyone who celebrated with me one way or another, and to the woman at the pub who ID'd me on my birthday so I got to hand it over with a "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY" cry. Also thank you for thinking I look young enough to get ID'd, you made my night.

xxx

Spooky weekend

Quite a late post but I was a) hungover this weekend and b)attempting to write an essay.

This is my 3^rd real Halloween – my parents also stood by the fact that it is an American tradition and therefore I was never allowed to trick or treat. I am a little bit old for that now but I can still carve pumpkins and get dressed up for Halloween parties!

As usual I went for the cuter pumpkin faces and Leigh went for a Dr Who themed one this year! We also had to have the obligatory shot of our cat ~ Pumpkin ~ named because we got her this time last year and it was just too cute not too!

We also went to a Halloween party over in Hoxton with a group of friends. Getting ready together was really fun with everyone’s outfits coming together. I had a bit of a panic on Friday as I couldn’t find my corset so I had to rush out at lunch and buy a dress (like I need an excuse?!) I also found time to do my nails in typical Halloween fashion......

I think the overall look was quite good though even though by the end of the night my makeup was completely melted and all down my face.

 We went to Primrose Hill to watch the fireworks across London on the Saturday. It is always a good spot for not only admiring the view, especially at night as it’s beautiful but because there is always a lovely atmosphere up there as everyone takes in the stretch of twinkly lights that is London. Unfortunately my camera is not good enough to capture fireworks going off in the distance so here is one from last year instead!    

xxx

She is my sunshine

Recipe - Mushroom, Bacon and Blue Cheese Soup

Trying to catch up with all my blog posts now I am back from Glastonbury. I will be posting about it soon but first here is a soup recipe.

I know it isn't exactly soup weather at the moment but I tried a similar one at Glastonbury and it was so good I had to try and recreate it.

Ingredients

25 g butter

250g Chopped Leek and cabbage mixture (I bought a pre-sliced bag from ASDA because I'm lazy)

200g sliced mushrooms

500 ml chicken stock

30g blue cheese

6 slices bacon, cooked

Method to the Madness

Heat some butter in large saucepan over medium heat and then add the leeks, cabbage and mushrooms. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Whilst your veg is cooking cut the bacon into smallish squares and then fry off in another pan. Once cooked add to the vegetable pan.

Make up the chicken stock and add to your mixture, bringing to boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to a food processor and add the blue cheese. DON'T DO WHAT I DID AND ADD TOO MUCH BLUE CHEESE. I've said 30g in the Ingredients but it really is best to add a little at a time otherwise it overpowers everything. My soup tasted like a blue cheese soup.

Might be best not to let any animals up on the work surface......

Blitz it in the processor. I tried to add chunky bits to mine but it didn't work – it ended up lumpy and horrible so instead I let the food processor do its work for 5 minutes so the soup was smooth.

Serve and try not to lick the bowl.

Fresh as a daisy

There is always something nice about starting a shiny new blog.

In this case though it is something of a challenge to leave behind my other blog on tumblr which I have been updating with my heart and soul for the last 3 years. I am having a few problems with the features on tumblr – you can’t comment on your posts and you can’t easily access old posts which means that you have to click like mad to get to old posts. I am hoping that I will love this one just as much as my old one!

But I’m not one to start something on a downer so welcome to my blog! I started blogging about 3 years ago and gradually it over took my diary writing and now I write all manner of things on my blog. I find it soothing to know that there is a record of my life somewhere out there, and I hope that the things I post about are helpful and provide some fun into a dull day.

For the most part my blog will be filled with recipes, London and my life in general as I skip along into my late twenties.  A little bit of background information is always required: My name is Cara, I am 25 and live with my boyfriend of 3 years and our cat of 9 months in the East of London. I moved to London 2 years ago and I wish I did more on a daily basis. I am in Business Development but wish I was in PR or Events. I am also a Open University student studying English Literature part time – I am currently in my 4^th year, with 2 more years to go before I receive my degree. It has been going on for so long I feel that I will never reach the end!

I am a social network-aholic. I like cheese in unhealthy amounts. I hardly ever wear make-up. I wish I had never given up horse-riding. I giggle a lot.  I can’t stand to be alone for longer than a few hours. I always dreamed of travelling but responsibilities won out. I can never find anything to wear. My life is a bit like candyfloss, full of happiness, sugar and air. How profound.

This is my life....