Happy Birthday to Me!

It’s official, the year of 25 is over. I cannot believe that I am now on the other side of my ‘mid-twenties'..a little scary I must admit..but before I launch into my birthday weekend I must first tell you about another celebration.  For the first time in I can’t remember how many years, I decided to celebrate Shrove/Pancake Tuesday.  Even though I do not participate in Lent, it very quickly become apparent that A LOT of people celebrate Shrove Tuesday in Scotland, so I thought why not get on board.  Still eating sugar like it’s going out of fashion (which by the way seriously has to stop in the coming weeks, yes I’m giving myself another week!) I made a chocolate pancake topped with some oreo biscuits and butterscotch sauce.  Possibly the easiest sauce to make with some butter, brown sugar and cream all melted together, heavenly. 

 

The end of the week couldn’t come quicker and before I knew it, I was at the airport and on my way to London.  This is my last planned trip before leaving the UK so there were a few things I wanted to tick of my list along with enjoying the hustle and bustle that the city has to offer.   After dropping my things at the hostel I made my way into the city with the first thing on the agenda being to get myself some tickets to a west end performance that night.  It was meant to be when I arrived and there were two tickets left to Stomp that night so I purchased them without any hesitation. With my night planned I headed to Covent Garden markets to grab some lunch and watch the word go by.  There were a number of street performers and the weather was lovely so I sat outside to have tasty pizza before going to meet my travel buddy who travelled to London later that day.  We took a stroll through St James Park and past Buckingham Palace enjoying the sunshine.  One other place I simply couldn’t leave London without seeing is the world famous Harrods department store.  A very pretty building but I can imagine that it would look so much better at night all lit up but the inside is amazing.  So much to see and if my bank balance allowed it so much to try as there was a massive food court with the most delicious looking chocolates, macaroons and fresh seafood to name a few.  Time to head back to Leicester Square for a pre-musical cider and a snack after my late lunch. The show started at 8pm and I really wasn’t too sure what to expect, I knew that the concept of the show was to create music with ordinary objects such as rubbish bins or shopping trolleys.  I was however expecting some type of storyline that tied the whole show together so I was a little disappointed when that didn’t happen, but wow it was a very talented bunch and there were some amazing parts of the show.   After an early start and exhausting day I was happy to head back to the hostel and do some socialising which turned into facebooking haha.

Birthday morning! Happy Chloe day haha.  With no real plans in the morning we decided to set off to check out Abbey Road and I am so glad we did. It was so funny watching people trying to cross the road with cars and buses having to wait getting annoyed and honking their horns. It was certainly a fun way to pass the time but there was no way I was going there without getting my photo taken.  Thank goodness there was a small break in the traffic and we pounced before anyone else got the chance.  We continued on into Camden with a small little pit stop at Lords cricket ground for a photo (there is no way I was spending much time at a cricket ground on my birthday!) and then found a lovely little cafe to have some lunch, I decided on a crab and avocado pate served with sourdough which was very enjoyable. Off to the markets to find me some birthday cake before heading to the most exciting part of my trip, the Harry Potter studios.  Lets just say the best part of my red velvet cupcake was the icing!

 

Harry Potter here I come, I was that excited anyone would have thought that it was the first time I had been let out of a house or something! I was warned that you need about 3 hours to work your way through the entire studios but wow, when they allow 3 hours that is going quickly and taking in about half of the stuff.  I could not believe how overwhelming everything was.  There was so much to see, so much to take in and so many things to read! There is so much I could write about but the things that I loved the most were the outdoor props such as the knight bus and number 4 private drive, the Grand Hall (I could not believe they actually built this entire room with the grand doors, it was MASSIVE) but most of all Diagon Alley.  It was easily my favourite part of the entire tour.  Such an amazing experience I totally loved it and was so glad I made the trip down to see it.

 

My final day in London, I had nothing else I really wanted to do, so I headed into town to wander around Westminster.   I somehow ended up on my way to St James’s park when I realised it was so close to 11am that I could see changing of the guards at horse guards parade which I hadn’t yet seen.  It was a little bit of a letdown haha but certainly passed some of my morning.  There was one other place I wanted to go back to and this was Hummus Bros.  I had been there once before and thought it was very good, but I was pretty sick at the time so I didn’t take any pictures or make any real reference to it so I thought why not head there again.  I decided on chicken with a side of tabouleh and to be honest it was a little too much hummus and if I didn’t have the tabouleh to break it up it was have been a struggle to eat.  It’s a great concept though and something unique that you don’t see every day.  My last little wander around and I managed to run right into the biggest toy store in London, Hamelys! I was def up for checking that out and when I entered the 5 story building I discovered a level dedicated to Lego.  It was so amazing with Lego figurines everywhere including life size telephone booths and the royal family!

 

Back in Edinburgh now and things are starting to wind down here with about 5 weeks to go before I head to the USA and Canada.  I have a lot to organise so I really should get on that, but hopefully in the coming weeks I have a few plans to share with you and some exciting things coming up.  Until then, take care xx

Sugar, Soccer, Sunderland & Scrolls

Well it’s been 9 months since I left Australia, but I have finally done it!  Yep I have finally ticked off going to an EPL soccer game.  Seriously, why has this taken me 9 months! I couldn’t believe how easy it was to organise a day trip to Sunderland to watch Sunderland V Arsenal but after organising it last weekend it seems as though this week went at snail’s pace.

I am not sure how exactly this happened, perhaps it was all the excitement for the game on the weekend but gosh my sugar intake this week has exceeded my whole sugar intake for the year so far!  It started out with a little chocolate Easter egg and then bam, the next thing I knew it was the middle of the week and I was baking! Refusing to leave the house to give myself this sugar fit, I raided the pantry to find a little flour, cocoa and brown sugar.  Well I could work with this, a little recipe searching and I was making a chocolate self saucing pudding.  A very simple dessert that took minutes to mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, eggs, milk & butter before covering it with more sugar and cocoa and boiling water and pop in the oven. Half an hour or so later, out comes chocolate goodness with a gooey centre and crusty top.  The only thing I would have changed was adding some ice cream on the side!

 

Still on my sugar high, the weekend finally rolled around and we were off to Sunderland.  Well only just as we did only make the train with about a minute to spare before they closed the doors.  There was some running to the platform, but the important thing is that we made it there!  I was warned before going to Sunderland that there is nothing to do there and we should spend as little extra time there as possible, I can see what they were talking about as it is really just an industrial town with lots of old old buildings then a huge much newer stadium randomly chucked in the middle.  It was a great stadium though and I was shocked at how close we were to the pitch, I could almost reach out and touch the players.  The Sunderland fans were much tamer than I expected but the atmosphere was still electric especially in the second half as the desperation to get a goal intensified.  Arsenal came out winners with a 1-0 victory, I am still not sure if I am going to support them, I’m not really a fan of there away strip haha.  It was a really great day and another big tick off my list of things to do before I go home.  After the game we headed back into Newcastle before we caught a later train back to Edinburgh. We found a pub not too far from the station to have a bite to eat, turns out it was a good choice by us as it was a sports club with more games on the big screen and a lot of supporters headed there after the game.  Since I had already eaten a bunch of rubbish this week, I decided why not continue and have some nachos. I honestly think it’s the best nachos I have had in a long time, the salsa was so fresh and clearly homemade as well as the guacamole being spot on.  Good impression Newcastle!  I wish we had more of a chance to look around Newcastle as I hear it is a beautiful town but we headed back on the train to Edinburgh for the night.

 

Today I have spent the day just pottering around the house and have actually been in the kitchen baking some snacks.  I wanted to give something new a try and I stumbled across a recipe for savoury scrolls so I gave it a whirl.  Similar to a scone like recipe I suppose I made the dough and kneaded away until I had a reasonably smooth mixture and then rolled out with a make shift rolling pin, aka a glass, topped with some cheese, bacon and tomato paste then rolled it up, cut into 12 little scrolls and popped them into the oven. 20 minutes later and out came some very successful looking scrolls.  They were not quite as light as I would have liked them but still tasted good.  Apparently this wasn’t enough to satisfy my scroll craving so with some spare pastry lying around I also made some sweet chilli, spinach and cheese pin wheels.  Very tasty and you can never go wrong with anything that involves puff pastry!

 

Time now to maybe clean up the mess I have made and prepare myself for another week at work before heading to London next Saturday morning for another action packed fun filled birthday weekend.  Until then, keep smiling :)

Let it snow!

Well it’s about time but I finally have a snow story for you!  Edinburgh, it’s taken you close to 4 months but you have delivered the goods.  It’s almost like I have never seen snow before, which is not the case, but I just can’t explain to people the difference between going away to ‘the snow’ for a skiing holiday versus waking up to a snow covered back yard (not that we have a backyard in our apartment, but you get my drift!).  It’s such a magical feeling to watch out the window and everything you look at is blanketed in white. 

Lucky for us the snow came on a Friday so we had all weekend to enjoy the winter wonderland.  We decided why not kill two birds with one stone and go and play out in the snow and climb Arthurs Seat, the main peak in the centre of Edinburgh.  In retrospect, maybe not the best idea we have come up with as my runners are not really equipped to walking in snow/ice.  Lets just say there were times that I was meant to be walking up the hill and I might as well have had ski’s on my feet and going down as I was on my butt a lot!

It is a spectacular view from the top of the mountain and ended up being a beautiful day.  There were so many families that had taken the opportunity to enjoy the day outdoors and many who had brilliant ideas to sled down once they had conquered the climb. Being the cheap civilians we are, our version of a sled was a garbage bag, nothing like these fancy sleds others were using!  I had spent enough time on my butt already making the decision very easy to get down as far as possible without having to walk.   It was so much fun but being overtaken by the real sleds certainly made me jealous! If it snows again, I think I may have to step up my quality of sled.

After an exhausting day of trying to stay on my feet, I decided to try and make a new and delicious lunch.  I have always enjoyed veggie burgers but I have never really tried to make my own. Trying to avoid the carbs in potatoes, I boiled up some sweet potato and mashed them up mixed with grated carrot, grated zucchini, celery, capsicum, egg and flower.  To give it a bit of flavour I added some curry powder and then kabaam, burgers were made!  I decided to coat them in some muesli to give it bit of a crunch and then cook them up in the fry pan.  I was surprised at how delicious they tasted with some salad and natural yoghurt.  I have already given them another crack and they certainly still need a little more perfecting but if you want a nice twist to having vegies, I would highly recommend giving this one a go.

That’s about it for me at the moment, but be prepared for a few interesting blogs soon as I have some exciting weeks planned with a trip to see a REAL soccer game, I couldn’t be more excited!  Come on Arsenal, I knew there was a reason I stumbled across your arena in my first few weeks of arriving.  For the less sporty fans I am heading to London for my birthday to go to the Warner Bros studios to see the making of Harry Potter! YAY!! Until then, keep smiling xx