New Recipes #27-28 and New Activity #30: Thai and Mexican cuisine

For my food gathering I was going to cook Thai fish parcels, but with some late drop outs I decided to cook these at a later date and at the end of last week I did. Now I’m a real stickler to the recipes, even when it comes to something as simple as pancakes, so it may come as a shock to my friends that I didn’t follow the recipe.

The recipe said to use coconut cream and red curry paste. I didn’t have either, so I used Greek yoghurt, double cream and tikka paste instead. It was an easy way to cook fish, just wrap it up in baking parchment and foil and put in the oven. I thought that with the flavours being wrapped up, when I opened it up once it had been cooked the flavours would be really strong. However I was underwhelmed by it. It tasted okay, but didn’t really look that great.

The second recipe I made was recommended by my friend Rachel and I made it for her while we were at the fitness weekend. It was Mexican scrambled eggs and I think the last time I cooked or at least got taught to cook scrambled eggs was when I was 5 at school. The recipe was pretty easy to make, fry some tortilla wraps which have been cut into strips. Fry chopped chilli and a spring onion, then add that and 4 beaten eggs together and tada! I was expecting it to be really spicy but it wasn’t too bad and was very filling. I’ll definitely make it again as it was so easy to do.

Even though I've finished the new experiences part of the challenge I also went to my first pilates class over the weekend. As I thought the class consists of lots of stretches, but challenging ones. It was towards the end of the weekend so was a good way to wind down.

New Places and Activities: What have I learnt and what was the best

Going through the list of new places and experiences I’ve noticed there were no theme and a great deal of variety.

In terms of new places I’ve been to this past year, I wanted to go to the Gold Coast to see my friend Jasmine, but my finances took a turn. In fact the only place abroad I went to was Rome for a long weekend. I did however see more of the UK then I thought, with trips to; Bath, Stone Henge, Salisbury, Abergavenny and Whitney. All of which were very different. There were a couple of places I went to which I thought should be on the list, but after checking with my parents and friends it turned out I’d already been to them years ago.

Some of the experiences I had no idea what to expect going in; my first new activity in Chessboxing were completely random, but one turned out to be one of the best nights and one of the highlights of this part of the challenge. The same goes for the edible horror farm and seeing Cool Runnings on an ice rink.

The pole photo shoot, taking part in a parade and a festival tested the nerves but the end result was worth it.

Some of the new experiences were quite small and not as big as I predicted doing. Originally ice climbing, circus skills and going on Europe’s longest zip wire were going to be part of the challenge, but life changes and the people I had planned to do these activities with didn’t follow through. Instead making something from Pinterest and jump starting my car were part of my challenge.

The best experiences in the challenge were ones I experienced with people. Taking my dad to a rugby match was particularly special as he hadn’t been to Wembley Stadium before and the last time he went to a rugby match was in the sixties. I loved making brunch for my friends as there’s nothing better than people enjoying food I’ve cooked.

Thanks to meeting Matt, and him being obsessed with rugby, the sport is now on my radar. I went to the Rugby 7s festival which was a great present for my friend Ro (as she loves rugby players) and we had a really fun weekend.

I have no plans in stopping doing unusual activities that have no rhyme or reason. In fact I already have an idea for a series of activities to do next year! 

New Activity #29: Stone Pitching

During the National Trust working holiday our group was working on an area of the footpath to prevent further loss of soil and vegetation. To do this we simply dug ditches but the technique we used called Stone Pitching. The National Trust information board near where we were working said: ‘We also use a technique called Stone Pitching. This is an ancient technique that predates the Romans, the path line is dug out and stones are embedded upright, the gaps are filled with small stone and soil.’

The process was in two parts, the first was digging the ditch and we used pick axes for this. It’s not as easy as it looks as I said previously the group leader broke his finger doing this on the first day. But once you get a rhythm it’s quite straight forward, but like any physical work it can be demanding. After we dug our section of ditch, we then had to find stone to fit on the side nearest the footpath, which would stop the erosion. There was a slope so we had to make sure the stones were put in a gradual rise. The stones had to be hit with a mallet so they were solid.

We then needed bigger stones for the ditch part and this was like doing a jigsaw puzzle as all the stones were different sizes. And once we did all that work we then had to cover our work with earth so it looked like it had been there all along!

To finish it off a couple of days later we did some landscaping and I did some turfing which meant digging up some turf squares  and then making them secure by hitting them with a sledgehammer. For some reason I found this part quite satisfying.

The whole process was really interesting and I didn’t have any awareness before of footpath erosion and how you can prevent it. So this part of the trip was very educational.

New Places and experiences #27-28: Wet Witney

At the weekend for my friend Dan’s birthday we went camping in Witney, Oxfordshire. There were 7 of us and we stayed on a campsite for the bargain price of £12 each. We arrived on Friday evening and on Saturday we did had a look round Witney. Actually the main purpose was to stock up on camping equipment and get a fry up, both were accomplished. The fry up was a bargain price of £5 from a very nice pub and we ate while watching The Ashes. Well I watched The Ashes; a fry up and cricket, I was living the dream and could’ve quite happily stayed there all day.

Witney was very pretty and it would’ve been great to look around a bit longer, as we spent most of the time at the campsite.

On Saturday it was great weather but on Sunday it rained quite a bit, and that’s when we booked ourselves to go on Ringos. The campsite had a lake where you could do water sports and even though it was 29 degrees on Saturday, we thought there might be some availability to do some activities then, but it was all booked up. So on Sunday 4 of us went on Ringos which was inflatable rings that are attached to rope which are pulled around by a speed boat. We got 2 laps of the lake for £8.50 each which I thought was money well spent. Ringos were great fun, I didn’t fall off but I was a bit achy the following day. 

Reconnecting #26 and New Places #26: Celebrating 10 years of Friendship

This weekend I went away with 2 of my old house mates from uni; Emma and Lizi. We all went to Staffordshire Uni and were in halls together back in 2005 and then lived together in a student house for 2 years after that.

We thought it would be nice to catch up and stay somewhere, so we went to Abergavenny in a nice little barn conversion at the back of a lady’s farm. It was lovely and we picked great weather. So great I got sunburnt! Yes sunburnt in Wales!

I’d seen Emma about a month or so ago in Birmingham, but it had been 18 months since I last saw Lizi. She’s got the travelling and teaching bug and has taught in Hong Kong and will be heading off to Spain in September to teach as well.

                                   One of the first pictures of me and Lizi back in 2005!

It was great to catch up and we spent the whole time reminiscing, walking, talking, eating and drinking and laughing lots. Lizi brought a game called Dobble which was a great game but gets you very competitive.

Abergavenny was very nice. Going to see my Uncle in Wales my family may have driven through it when I was younger or stopped for a toilet break there, but I’d never stayed there. We walked up Skirrid Fawr which gave great views of the area and had a nice wonder in the area.

Mine, Lizi, Emma and Ro's (our other house mate who couldn't make it) friendship is one that no matter how much time has passed you can just pick up right where you left off. Towards the end Lizi reflected on all our lives in the years that have passed since graduation and sort of gave us all a little pick me up as she focused on all that we had achieved. Emma still lives at home, but her and Lizi have been travelling in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, as well as complete a teaching course and she’s secured her first teaching job starting in September. Lizi focused on the fact that I had been living independently since leaving uni and she finds that I worked in London for a couple of years was a great thing. Sometimes it takes a different perspective to help you remember what you've achieved even if you think you haven’t achieved much. And as for Lizi she’s been dancing to the beat of her own drum, travelling, teaching and exploring the world. Love you Liza-beth as I call her, please never change.

New Experience #25 and Reconnecting #24 and #25: A good old girlie night out

Last night my friend Laura (the one who I did a Neighbours day for) had a local hen do/birthday celebration which was a lot of fun.

When I arrived at Pitcher and Piano where the night first started, she wasn't there and was running late. I did vaguely recognise someone at the bar and it was her friend Helen who I had met years ago when working as a Wedding and Events Coordinator. So straight away I had someone to chat to, and it was great to catch up after all these years.

One of Laura’s friends bought some fake tattoos for everyone and not being a rebellious kid, I never had one growing up. So last night I had my first fake tattoo, a very mature Moomins one!

We then went to a local club called The Ivory, which I hadn't been to in years. The last time I was there, they started playing Justin Bieber and left straight away. When we arrived yesterday we were the only ones there for a good couple of hours, but as the main aim was to get cocktails it meant the group got served quicker than usual.

It’s also where my second bit of reconnecting took place, as the DJ there was a guy called Luc who was the DJ at the venue I was the Wedding and Events Coordinator at. We worked together for 8 months and I’d only seen him once since leaving the job. It was great to catch up and find out all that was happening in the wedding world. Although I was chatting for so long, the girls thought I was chatting up the DJ, but then had to explain that I used to work with him. Knowing him also proved usual later in the night as when the girls wanted a request for Laura I went straight to Luc and within a couple of songs her request was on. It’s not what you know but who you know!

New Experience #24: Cheesy Socialising

A couple of weeks ago it was my friend Kayleigh’s birthday and she wanted to have a cheese fondue and raclette evening. We held it in my flat as the kitchen is quite big and good to spread out. I’d seen how to do fondue before, but was had no idea about Raclette.

Raclette is a type of cheese and is cooked with a little table top grill. You put a small pan which is full of the cheese under the grill and wait for it to start bubbling. Raclette is served with potato, so once it’s bubbling you have a scraper to take the Raclette out of the little pan.

So basically it’s melting cheese! But there was so much set up it felt more technical than that.  

New Experience #23: Festival fun

Last weekend I went to the Sevens and the City festival at Saracens rugby ground. I heard about the festival on Wowcher and at £15 for a weekend pass I thought why not. The festival was music and rugby 7s matches being played all weekend. I went with my flatmate Charlotte, her friend Hayley and my friends Rachel and Ro. I bought Ro her ticket as a belated birthday present as she likes rugby....well rugby players.

Even before the festival had taken place I was really impressed with the organising, if we had any questions the organisers would reply to our emails right away. The campsite was right next to the ground and there were food stalls all around. It was a relaxed during the day; lots of rugby to watch and you could even stand right next to the pitch, well behind barriers. There was also a netball tournament and a cross fitness competition, and BMX displays as well.

On the Saturday night there was an American themed party as it was Independence Day. Luckily I bought a basketball top, courtesy of Dave on the market for £3, so I fit in. Some people really went to town on their costumes; a stag do went as ten pin bowling- the stag being the bowling ball, there were a group of Hulk Hogan’s and a group of Statue of Liberty's as well.

Ro and I ended up talking to a guy who went as Starsky out of Starsky and Hutch and thought his hair was a wig….it turns out it wasn’t. Back at the campsite it felt like the end of a uni night out as lots of groups of guys tried to sing Don’t Look Back in Anger by Oasis, which was always the last song played on a uni night out.

The Sunday was more relaxed and Ro and I went to watch some rugby in the morning and we ended up watching the England 7s team playing a match. Not a bad way to start a Sunday morning.

It was a great weekend, lots of fun, lots of laughs and lots of rugby watched. I’d love to go again next year!

New experiences and places #22: Performing at a Festival

On Saturday I performed as part of Toque Tambor at Rhythms of the World. Toque Tambor is the Brazilian carnival drumming band which I am a part of. I did a blog post before Christmas when I took part in a parade. Rhythms of the World is Hitchin’s music festival which takes place in the grounds of Hitchin Priory, which is where I used to work.

I first heard about Toque Tambor when I saw them perform a few years ago. Our set was an hour long, and we’d been having weekly 3 hour rehearsals for about a month which was hard work.

On the day itself we had a 2 hour rehearsal in the morning and then we performed in the early evening. I played the tamborim and there were other groups from Bristol and other parts of the country joining us, so there were about 6-7 tamborim players, as well as our own director on stage with us, which was a great help.

Great photography skills Fran!

Before our set, a band called CC Smugglers did a set and me and my friend Penny went to watch them stage side (really surprised security didn’t turn us away.) The lead singer was in my maths class at school coincidently.

I haven’t performed on a stage since I was 18, so a long time! I’m not sure how many people we performed for, but we were on the main stage. My friend Coops and his girlfriend Fran watched me as Rhythms is where they first met. And my dad Bobby also came to watch me, which was a nice surprise. It was if I was 5 again in school assembly and seeing your parents in the audience and did a little wave.

I really enjoyed performing and when you see the crowd dancing along then that made it even better.

New Activity #21: Dad and daughter bonding

Last Thursday it was my dad Bobby’s birthday and last year and this year I decided his present should be experience things rather than material presents. Going to see Casablanca was last years’ present and this year I took him to see Saracens vs Harlequins at Wembley Stadium.

Sport is mine and Bobby’s thing, we’ve been to quite a few football matches together and every year we go to the cricket at Lords. I haven’t been to see a rugby match before, and Bobby hadn’t been to live rugby since the 60’s and hasn’t been to Wembley Stadium either.

                                        How Bobby and I watched sport back in the day.

Our seats were about as high as you can get, and I think the last Six Nations match of England vs France spoilt the match. Purely because that was so exciting and dramatic, and while the match was entertaining, it lacked something.

                                                We were as high up as you can get.

Bobby and I did leave world record holders as we were part of the largest crowd at a club rugby match!

New activity #20: I got 99 problems….

Charlotte my flatmate and I like to bake, and the other week she baked some tai chi cupcakes. She gave one to me and offered one to my guy, but he was away on business so he said that I could have it. I said it would be a challenge, but one I’d gladly accept.

To make things funny I decided to film eating the cupcake to rap music, as he likes rap music. And this is the result. I sent it to a few friends as well who found it random, but funny. So thinking of the challenge and trying new activities, I decided to put it on YouTube. Who knows whether I’ll upload anything else?!?!

New activity #19: Jump starting

I’ve had my car Jimmy since August and apart from a little scratch he’s been doing fine. At the beginning of last week though, I’d left an inside light on and as a result the battery ran flat.

My dad didn’t have any jump leads and as I wasn’t using Jimmy to get to work, I waited till the weekend to use my guy’s jump leads that he has. For some reason I thought jump starting a car would take ages to, well it seemed that way on films, but it takes about a minute. All I had to do after was drive around for 30 minutes or so, and then Jimmy was back to his old self!

New Activity #18: I’ve got a ticket to ride

It’s a well-known fact to my friends and family that I have a lot of stuff. I’m constantly sorting and chucking out things and I’d love there to be a day when I have minimal possessions.

Part of the problem is I keep things for sentimental reasons, and one of these is tickets to things, and I’ve been wondering what to do with loose tickets. This is how I came across Pinterest. For anyone who doesn’t know what it is, its basically a virtual noticeboard to pin ideas, pictures, recipes, pretty much anything that takes your interest. I searched Pinterest for what to do with loose tickets and came across two ideas. The first being a ticket stub diary, which although sounded great, I knew it would gather dust and never be looked at again. So I saw another idea of using a shadow box to put tickets in, and this is what I went with for my first Pinterest project.

Thanks to my mum getting presents from pupils in her class, one of them gave her a piece of art in a deep glass frame. I’m not sure what happened to the art, but I got the frame.

My sister Lisa who is really into her craft, (she even has her own art blog,) always has an endless supply of materials that could be used for future projects. So the background is a page from an old calendar as it had tickets on.

I’ve put all my loose tickets with the Opry House Tour ticket from Nashville and some cricket tickets taking pride of place. To be honest it looks good, but most of the tickets you can’t really see. Anyone got any ideas as to how to improve it?

New Recipe #7 and New Activity #17: Ladies who brunch

My favourite thing to do is cook for friends. Whenever my uni friends came to stay, my favourite part was dancing in the kitchen to Stevie Wonder while making breakfast for them all.

During the Christmas break on lazy Sunday afternoons I would binge watch Jamie Oliver money saving meals programmes and note which recipes I wanted to try. One of the recipes was a great one for a brunch.  And then I had an idea that I could hold a brunch for my Saturday pole friends before class. I’d never made brunch before, and yesterday I held a brunch for Lucy, Teri and Harriette who go to pole class.

The timing worked out quite well as our class starts at 2pm, so having brunch at 11.30 was ideal. Brunch was in two parts, the first was a Giant veg Rösti from the Jamie Oliver money saving recipe book. It’s a really healthy dish, it has grated potatoes and carrots, peas, spinach and poached egg. The first course was a success as my friends had seconds and there was barely anything left on the tray after!

The second part of the course was a pudding board. I’d made this once before and last time it had 3 components which I think was too many, so I stuck with two this time and it worked. I loved the reaction of my friends, they saw me making the warm chocolate fromage frais, and then I started getting the lemon and orange mousse out of the fridge I made earlier in the morning and they were all very surprised. I finished off the board with some berries for decoration.

We’re quite a chatty bunch, but with both courses there was silence as the food absorbed us all! I loved making brunch and I can’t wait to host another brunch.

Because we were so busy eating and chatting (when the food was finished) I didn’t get a chance to get pictures of Teri, Lucy and Harriette enjoying the brunch. But I’m sure they’ll be round again for more.

New activities and places #16, and new album #2: Lectures and Live Life Living

This is me and my friend Laura, also known as Twinee and as you can see we look quite alike. We've only known each other since June, but it feels so much longer. We were both temping at the local council and kept each other going when the days dragged on with not much to do.

I've moved onto a different job but Twinee is still there and wants a new job, so I gave her a motivational day to help her get a job. There was a bit of job hunting, some life lessons from Susan Sarandon in a Oprah Masterclass and then we watch a few TED Lectures. During the job hunting we had Example’s new album Live Life Living on in the background. I was meant to see him in concert a few weeks ago, but my plans fell through. I've heard a few of his songs before, but not heard a whole album of his. It’s a bit strange listening to a summer style album in winter. It’s not what I’d usually listen to but with this challenge, in particular the new albums part, it’s all about broadening my horizons.

The TED Lectures is a free lecture series and there are hundreds on YouTube to watch. The first one we watched was by Susan Colantuono and was called ‘The Career advice you probably didn't get.’ To be honest most of it went over my head, as it was about middle management and higher management career women. Lots of buzzwords and business jargon, which one day might make sense to me. We then started to watch a lecture by Meg Jay called: ‘Why 30 is not the new 20’ but we stopped it after a few minutes as it said your 20’s mark out your future career style and how you should be set up and establishing yourself during this time. This freaked me and Twinee out as my career so far has changed quite a bit, so we stopped the lecture promptly.

The final one we watched was by Matt Cutts who works at Google, and it was called: Try something new for 30 days. This one reminded me of what I'm doing with the 29 challenge. So not an amazing start with Ted Lectures, but there are quite a few that look good. In particular one by Jane Fonda, who was one of the main inspirations for the 29 challenge.

New activities and places #15, and new phrase #3: Excuse the selfie stick

I’m not the greatest at taking selfies. A couple of years ago I went to New York on holiday and met Jake Gyllenhaal and had a picture with him. But I didn’t even chance taking a selfie in case I cut off his head!

Now when we my friend Linsey and I were in Rome there were lots of street sellers who were selling selfie sticks. Linsey jokingly said a much lower price than what one of them said, and he said yes. And after a bit of haggling, she bought one for half the price he said.

After that we seemed to only take pictures with the selfie stick. It took a few attempts so the stick wasn’t in the photo, but we mastered it by the end. The shots actually captured a lot more of the surroundings then normal pictures.

The day Linsey got the selfie stick was also the day we learnt the phrase; Excusee my umbrello, which translated is excuse me my umbrella. A useless phrase, but when said is a flashback to Rome for me.

New activities and places #15: 180!

My flatmate Charlotte and I love the show called A League of Their Own, and we are quite influenced by the show. If Freddie Flintoff, Jack Whitehall and Jamie Redknapp like something, we think we’ll like it too.

One episode they played darts and watching the darts looked great fun. So when we saw it advertised a few months ago in the local paper, we decided to book some tickets. Yesterday we went with a group of friends, and there were 8 of us in total.

After a quick google of the rules I was all set for a night of darts. It was good fun; the compare sounded like Darth Vader occasionally, and after a few drinks the atmosphere started to build up. It would have been great if there was more music as it was quite quiet at times.

Being a tad too organised, I thought it would be fun for me and my mates to think of darts names for ourselves, and I brought along paper and pens to write them down.

We went to a local competition called Apocalypse 2 at Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre. Maybe next stop Ally Pally?

New places and activities #13 and #14: I’m with the band

A couple of years ago I went to a music festival in Hitchin where I live called Rhythms of the World, and saw this great drumming band called Toque Tambor. They said that they hold classes and I thought that would be fun to do, but upon checking timings I wouldn't have been able to go as I was working in London at the time, and the commute meant I would miss the classes.

In September I heard about the band again and now could make classes, so I signed up to an 11 week introductory course. Toque Tambor is a Brazilian carnival drumming band, and a variety of different drums and percussion instruments are used to create the sound.

Over the first few weeks I decided to try each instrument; these included the Surdo which is a big bass drum. Although this drum is providing the back beat, it’s quite heavy to carry for a 90 minute class, and because the sound is so low and you’re the only person providing that beat, it’s easy to hear if you make a mistake! I then tried a Caixa which is a small snare drum, but making a beat with 2 sticks is more difficult then it seems. The Tamborim, the smallest but the loudest drum is the one that I settled on, and I picked up the rhythms to this instrument pretty quickly.

After the 11 weeks we joined the band (that’s the first new activity.) And yesterday I took part in my first parade (the second new activity) in Ware. It was part of a Dickensian festival, and even though the band and Dickens is a strange mix, the band said that people in Ware think it’s the highlight of the night.

Before the parade started I was a little nervous as the Tamborim players (of which there were 4 of us) are right at the front. Would I remember all the rhythms, would I stay in time? As soon as I heard the initial beat I was fine.

                               Me with Sue and Toni, some of the other newbies of the band.

Although it was freezing, the atmosphere was great and people in the street did start dancing and taking pictures. I've definitely got the bug now, here’s to the next parade!

New places and activities #12: Ho Ho Ho- Run Run Run!

I’m not a stranger to running, having done a Tough Mudder, but running in fancy dress is a new one for me. In particular running in a santa suit! Myself and my colleague Fabiana and lots of others took part in a santa fun run at work this lunchtime.

The main challenge wasn’t the running the 2.5km, but keeping the santa suit on, as it was quite baggy. I thought I’d be running with the red trousers round my ankles!

I think we completed the run in about 20 minutes which isn’t too bad, although the office was a lot quieter this afternoon!

As it’s the season for giving, if you want to donate for the charity we ran for, then here’s the link; https://www.justgiving.com/TheSilentKnights/

New places and activities #11: When in Rome

On Friday evening my friend Linsey (who features on the blog regularly) and I went on a long weekend to Rome. I've never been to the city before or Italy, so couldn't wait to get to warmer climates, even it was only for a couple of days.

The city didn't disappoint and we packed a lot in over a couple of days. We started off the Italian way by having pizza and gelato on Friday night. Our hotel we stayed at had a bar on the roof terrace and we even got free drinks from the barman!

Saturday was our main sight-seeing day, and we went on one of those hop on hop off tour buses, which was a great way to see the city and get our bearings. We saw from a distance the colosseum but quite a bit of it was covered up with scaffolding.

The main area we had a look around was Vatican city; we walked the 500 steps of St Peter's Basilica and we at the top we saw great views all around. The Sistine chapel was amazing, really hard to believe that it was painted in 4 years!

On Sunday we took it easy and just browsed the shops which we found while lost on Saturday afternoon. In fact getting lost was a bit of a theme, but the great thing about getting lost is you get to see more of the city.

I’ll be doing a few more posts on Rome as it covers quite a few things on the 29 challenge. But I highly recommend visiting. It’s a great city to explore and it’s made me want to go back to Italy and see the different cities.