Reconnecting #4: The other side of the world

There are always friendships that are with you for a long time, and then life happens and the friendship fades away. I first met my friend Tom when I was 16 and he was 13. His mum and my mum were both teachers at the same school, and our friendship started when it was the final day of summer term and the staff would do a bring and share lunch. Tom and I would be the ones that would finish off all the food.

This is Tom and I in 2006

Tom’s family moved away firstly to Wales, so we’d email each other and then when I was at uni when I had minutes left on my phone to use, I’d call Tom. Then he moved to Sydney, back to Wales, then back to Australia and currently he’s in New Zealand. Over the years with both of us being in the university bubble we lost touch, which happens with friendships sometimes. My dad says that if a person is important to you, then they’ll come back in your life.

Tom randomly popped into my mind the other week and I simply messaged him asking how he was. Coincidently he had an upcoming trip to the UK and asked if we could catch up while he was there. To be honest I wasn't sure we were going to meet up because I thought he’d want to catch up with lots of other people and wouldn't have time. But this afternoon we caught up! I hadn't seen or really spoken to him in 6 years and when we caught up it was if no time had passed. We managed to fill each other in on what had happened in the past 6 years and talk about now and the future. And we laughed a lot; even though we're older it’s great that our sense of humour is the same.

Tom and I today

So if you've lost touch with a good friend, just message them hi and ask how they are. There’s nothing to lose and a friendship could restart. 

New places and activities #5: Spinning around

For the past 3 or 4 years I have been going to Polenastics classes, which is basically gymnastics on a pole. It’s great fun and originally I went with my sister Lucy to try something new and to keep fit. When Lucy moved to London, I kept going to the classes, and made some great friends along the way who I call my pole sisters.

One of my pole sisters, Linsey (who I made the Malteaser macaroons for) I've been doing pole classes with for just over 2 years. She’s put up with her fair share of me accidentally kicking her in the face. And it’s a great sense of achievement mastering a move you've been trying to do for ages. For some reason I like the upside down moves, while Linsey is great at the graceful spins and layout moves (holding on the pole with your thighs.)

We decided a while ago that we wanted to do a pole photo shoot, because it would be fun and also would show us what we can do, and also think of what other moves we’d like to accomplish in the future. The photo shoot was last Sunday and we were both pretty nervous, but once we got there and started to warm up, we had nothing to worry about. It was at Polenastics Pole Fitness in Milton Keynes, and AJ was our photographer. I was expecting lots of people there, which would have been intimidating. But instead it was just AJ, and our two pole instructors Sam and Lauren from our classes to help us with the poses.

We were both really pleased with the photos and it’s great to do something out of your comfort zone as you gain a new level of confidence. Linsey says the next pole thing I should do is a competition. We’ll see about that!

New places and activities #4: Bargain hunting with a big price tag

Bargain hunting is my middle name. Actually it’s Faye, and fun fact Faye means fairy! Anyway I love a bargain and sale is my favourite word.

Shopping isn't a new activity I'm trying for the 29 challenge, and I bet you're wondering where I'm going with this. A few weeks ago I was on the Stylist website entering some competitions which I do every once in a while. They are free to enter and multiple choice, so no rocket science involved. I've never won anything from them…..until now. So when I got an email through I was pretty excited as the last thing I won was when I was 10 and it was £50 from a school raffle. I won a £75 coat from Oasis and a £500 voucher from Oasis. Yes £500, you did read correct!

So my new activity is spending a £500 voucher as I haven’t done that before. Question is how? Well I'm going to be savvy and try my best to stick to the sales to get more for my money, although I may treat myself to something full price now and again. This year has also been a very up and down year and there have been 4 great friends who have been there throughout. They are each going to receive £25 to spend as well.

It just goes to show that people do actually win these competitions. So start entering them, as you could be next!

New Recipes #2: Pumpkin Pie

Last week I had a Halloween fancy dress party; including me, 30 people came along all in fancy dress. It was the best party ever and with Halloween, there were bound to be a few pumpkins. Well only one friend dressed up as a pumpkin, but a couple were brought along. There was enough to make pumpkin soup, which I had made before, and pumpkin pie which I had never made before.

I had seen pumpkin pie being made at lower school when I was around 6 or 7. I had a friend at the time called Elizabeth who is American and her dad came into school and showed us how to make pumpkin pie, and explain about Thanksgiving as well which was pretty cool. Elizabeth then moved to Iceland and is now in the states, but we were pen pals for a little while. I had quite a few pen pals and kept the letters in a folder, and found these. It’s always fun to read back letters you received when you were a kid, and what was important then. We’re Facebook friends, so hi Elizabeth if you’re reading this!

Now back to the pie, how did it go? Well in true bake off style, there were some plumbing issues and there was a little leak to begin with. But pastry cooked and the filling set and it didn'/t taste too bad. Also at the party I got to know my neighbours and discovered they like to cook. I jokingly said if they need a tasting panel for their cakes, let us know. Well 2 days later I come back from work to find some hot banana bread on the door step. So pumpkin pie will be on their doorstep tomorrow. Have you tried making pumpkin pie, how did it turn out?

Reconnecting #3: The Fridge Magnet

I did this part of the challenge a few weeks ago, and was umming and ahhing as to when and if I should put this on the blog. I've moved on, so thought it was the right time. A challenge isn't supposed to be easy; if it was easy then it wouldn't be a challenge. In September I got dumped out of the blue, and I took it hard. Even though we only were seeing each other for 4 months, it still wasn't simple to move on. Sometimes people that are in your life for the shortest time can still make the biggest impact.

The reason he gave for finishing things was that the spark had gone, but this didn't match the actions of him. Although the reasons don't make sense, I still think he’s a great guy, and I've got no bad feeling towards him, so I thought it would be nice to be friends.

He went away for a 3 week road trip and during this time instead of moping around and missing him; I got my backside into gear and started screen writing (see my post about Team Talk). So as some time has passed I decided to write to my ex, not to grovel, but to say thank you for getting me writing again. The offer of being friends was also mentioned.

I haven’t had a reply, and to be honest I didn't expect one, as I text him about a month ago asking how he was, and heard nothing back. But it’s like that scene in Love Actually, the one where Andrew Lincoln has shown the ‘to me you are perfect’ cards to Kiera Knightley. And upon leaving he says; ‘Enough, enough now.’

And why is this posting called The Fridge Magnet, it’s what he got me as a present from his road trip. I knew it would come in use at some point.

So enough, enough now.

New film #5: Can one of my favourite books turn into my favourite film?

Cecelia Ahern is a very popular author, and most people recognise the name because of her debut novel P.S. I Love You. However my favourite book of hers, and one of my favourite fiction books, is her second title Where Rainbows End. I'm a fan of When Harry Met Sally; those long friendships turning into relationships, and for quite a while years ago I thought that sort of thing would happen to me.

The book, and the film is about Alex and Rosie, who go from childhood friends, to teenage years and coping with adult life; tricky marriages, kids, loss and career. What differs with the film is while the book spans from childhood to their fifties, the film spans over 12 years. It’s quite a difference, but the film covers all the major events in the book. Like most chick flicks, there could have been a bit more depth that there was in the book. The book achieves this by conversations Alex and Rosie have with their siblings, but the film just shows their siblings to be minor characters with the main purpose being to annoy the main characters growing up, rather than being confidantes for them. 

The highlight of the film for me was Alex played by Sam Claflin. I'm becoming a big fan of Sam Clafin. Me and my flatmate Charlotte who I went to see Love, Rosie with call him Claffers and we've even got a picture of him on our fridge! He had the right balance of humour and sensitivity, and isn't exactly hit with the ugly stick so it was a very easy film to watch.

Book to film adaptations are always tricky, and I think Love, Rosie pulls it off. If you've read the book, you just have to ignore the fact they've muddled some of the character names around! Which films do you think have been adapted from a book well?

New places and activities #3 and new food #6: Eating horror

I don’t usually do anything for Halloween but this year I went all out and celebrated twice, the second time was mainly to celebrate my birthday (which happened to be 3 weeks ago.) On Friday me and Twinee went to an Edible Horror Farm. It took place at Standalone Farm in Letchworth, where during the day they had kid friendly Halloween things to do.

So what is an Edible Horror Farm? Well we were given a tour of the farm in groups of 15. Our tour guide was an American ‘crime scene investigator’ who encouraged us to take pictures of all the crimes. The crimes were fairy tale ones, so we saw the three little pigs….dead, and the wolf from little red riding hood….dead. There were also various limbs hanging from trees covered in blood en-route, to add to the horror. I also got picked on to be the ‘team leader,’ so every now and then the detective made sure I was taking in everything. He also took down my name and date of birth, and later on in the tour I got called upon and I looked over to a field to see a scary clown and a grave with my name on it. I've saw my own grave!

After the tour finished, we got to eat lots of horror treats. There was a little house with a creepy lady, with lots of cake eye balls to try. A haunted tree had baskets hanging off it, filled with macaroons. And then there were 2 other barns, which had random things to try. These included rabbit poo which was really chocolate ganache and human ears which were chocolate brownies and these tasted great.

Two highlights of the food I tried was a ‘dead body’ made out of fruit cake, which also made me jump (the human alive parts, not the cake.) And also for new food number 5 I tried…..a locus! It was okay, tasted crunchy and a little nutty in flavour.

What did you do for Halloween, anything weird and wacky like an edible horror farm?  Also thanks Twinee for the great photos!