Waddesdon Manor

A day out to Waddesdon Manor, a National Trust site within an hour of Milton Keynes. Upon entering the estate, the drive way felt like something out of Pride and Prejudice, opening up to reveal the house at the end. 

To remind us that we weren't inside the BBC mini series, a brightly coloured sign advertising that this holiday season, Waddesdon Manor has a Reindeer Trail and an Enchanted Forest. I'm possibly imagining I might see at least one real reindeer among some interestingly lit trees taking visitors on a trail into the depths of the grounds. I should have reined my expectations in - just a touch. 

Bear in mind, these attractions are quite possibly aimed at young children, the Reindeer Trail ran by the side of the extensive play ground down to the stables, which incidentally could have come from the Black Beauty movie, and included interestingly lit reindeer made from willow branches under interestingly lit trees. The Enchanted Forest was an indoor display of white fake trees dotted with birds and a sleigh at the end where I insisted that we pose for photos.

The outing wasn't complete without the compulsory visit to the gift shop, a stroll in the cold where the last remnants of snow refused to melt with the recent rain, so as to deserve to be patrons of the on site tea room to have, in this case, a cream tea. Perfect family day out.

Christmas @ Costa

Jazzing up the Christmas week at work, we've been dressing up. First day was supposed to be a Xmas theme, but turned into PJ party as no one but myself came in to work in a costume. It's a good thing I don't mind looking ridiculous. Most people ducked into Tesco to grab what they could to assemble a costume.

PJ party and my Minnie Mouse/Xmas colours outfit

Beauty & The Beast footwear

Second day of dress up and we went for a beach / Christmas down under theme, using the 'ice cold' yellow promo t-shirts from the summer.

Trapped on the M1

My journey to work takes me about half an hour door to door, with about twenty minutes on the M1 motorway going one junction from fourteen to fifteen. The snow started to fall very gently about Saturday lunchtime and didn't stop for the whole afternoon. Jack and I were let off work an hour early and off we started on our journey back south. Coming out of the Tesco car park there was a queue, the start of many, we saw a Land Rover slip and slide coming round the roundabout, not the best advertising for one of those monster cars I see around, which I thought would do better in the snowy conditions. I guess if you can't use 4x4 drive, it doesn't matter what car you're in.

The roads were moving no faster than about twenty miles per hour, there were massive snow banks building between the lanes, cars were going up the hard shoulder after an ambulance went up it. People were ducking out of cars to have a cigarette, Jack included, then catching the cars up a few meters down the road. I even turned off my engine at one point as we were going no where. We saw a stranded old style mini, a motorbike whose owner we saw further up carrying back a can of petrol. And at MK, a guy on a moped with nothing but a Adidas jacket on. 

The view for the most of the time on the M1

Getting of the M1 at Milton Keynes was a pretty awesome feeling, having spent the best part of three hours crawling along. The roads in MK were even more covered in snow, saw a car getting stuck up a little incline to a roundabout, if I had more than a fleece and my leggings I might have stopped and got out to help, actually, who am I kidding, at that point I just wanted to get Jack and I home. Next time I go out, I will have the 'survival kit' in the car.

With Hannah due to fly back to the UK on Thursday, I've been following the travel chaos fairly closely, hoping and crossing all my fingers that she gets back in time for Christmas. The temperature is not predicted to rise above zero most of the week, so there is little chance that the snow is going to melt. With no snow tyres it is pretty slow on the roads as slipping will happen and braking is not fun at any speed over thirty miles an hour.

Digging out a path to the house

I had a snow day from work on Sunday and spent the day very much like a day I would spend at Niseko in the snow. Out in the snow in the morning, back to the house to lounge around in my thermals, watching a movie in the arvo and of course eat. And the snow was of Niseko quality, soft, light and fluffy, very fun to frolic around in the white stuff again.

Out and about in the snow

Costa Love

A few fun facts about Costa, my coffee obsessed location where I now spend most of my days...

Within the UK, Costa Coffee is now bigger than Starbucks and Cafe Nero combined, we are enormous, and are just getting bigger. Globally, we are the third biggest coffee retailer in the world after Starbucks in the USA at number one and Tim Hortons in Canada at number two.

We've just launched our first TV ad, not sure if I'm a fan, it's kinda cute, but I think it sends a deeper message than 'look at the monkey's try to make coffee', like it or not, it was a statement which got people talking. (FYI: The agency who did our ad also did the Ikea cat advert, or so I've heard.) Five professional monkeys were used in the making of our ad and was computer generated to appear like there was a whole studio of monkeys.


A new drink has made it's way on to the menu since the last time I worked at Costa, the flat white. I have heard of a flat white, but only because I've been hanging out with Aussies the last couple of years and they describe a flat white as a latte with no foam which is not really how we make it at Costa, our flat white has it's own unique recipe, a stronger coffee with smooth, velvety milk, different from anything on the menu.

There is a lady from New Zealand who comes into my shop, and I asked her the other day how our flat white compares to a flat white down under. She seemed to think that is was comparable and the closest she could find in the UK to one she would get back home. One point Costa.

Cocktail Party!

Ice - lots of, spirits - a good mixture, mixers - a selection, one blender and an extensive home cooked Asian menu. Mix creatively and shake well together for a fun evening.

Bex's Bombshell

Nic Squared - Rum, rum and more rum.

Cocktail night host and chef

Nev's Pina Colada type cocktail

Bagged & Tagged (Liam's concoction)- which turned out to be a pretty nice one.

Another one from Nic & Nic - Nic Cubed

A second one from me, a little too strong, needed more milk.

Sue's turn - little too much cinnamon.

Legs Eleven

I've always wanted to go to a real bingo game, and last Sunday, armed with a borrowed blobber, which I have been told is actually known as a dabber, I reckon it sounds better as a blobber, I went to Beacon Bingo in Northampton accompanied by a few of my work mates in the first of our Xmas nights out. As you can guess from the photos, we went in costumes - pirates. The experience was a lot different from the bingo games I used to play in my English classroom.  

Pirate Bingo, the start of Xmas work fun!

Blobber, check!

The atmosphere in the hall is really intense, it's almost like no one is breathing properly as the numbers start, as soon as a 'claim' is made the whole hall exhales. Phew! The numbers are called at quite a sharp pace so you have to concentrate to keep up with what's been called. The whole thing is computerised, the numbers are produced from a computer, each bingo sheet has a number reference associated with it, so that when a 'bingo' is called, a member of staff shouts this number and the computer can tell the officials if it's a valid bingo or not.

Twenty quid buys you six books to play over about ten games of bingo. The session starts at 19.30 and lasts from about two hours with a few breaks here and there. There is a mixture of games played nationally and within the Northampton bingo hall we were in. The prizes got progressively more lucrative as the evening went on, up to £1000 for a line.

Me and my bingo buddy.

No Bingo prizes for me this evening.

I didn't win anything, shame, I had already earmarked the money for a plane ticket somewhere. We did have one winner in our group, Sophie, she won twenty quid for getting a line. Probably not somewhere I'd go every week, but it was a different night out.

Rest of the 'motley crew'.

Autumn Colours

Autumn in Japan is about going out and about to view the leaves as they change colour known in Japanese as ''momoji gari'', bringing a little Japan to UK, I went a little leaf viewing myself. A leaf viewing expedition in Japan would probably have also included an onsen visit, something that I really miss now I'm officially back in the UK for the foreseeable future.

Autumn light though the trees.

Pretty feathers

Photo Finalist!

Yes I am, I am a photo finalist! I found this competition in a random magazine when I was traveling though Cyprus to Lebanon, tlm-The Travel and Leisure Magazine. I am one of twelve with a chance to win a new camera where the winner is decided by public vote, hopefully I've round up enough support, fingers crossed! Of the twelve there are two photographers with two photos that made the final twelve, below are my favourites from the final twelve, to see the others see this link. I reckon the camel is my biggest competition.

I've entered a few competitions this summer with no results, it's a pretty easy/clever way for companies to get some free photos to use in their marketing materials, as the small print usually states that the company hosting the competition can use the photos as they wish.

A Locals Recommendation, Kent - Rebecca Watson

Bounding through the barley, Cornwall - Rose Pearson

Cornwall village - Dianne Stanford

A camera-friendly camel - Daniel Coutanche

Turtle Bay

Milton Keynes, a paradise for any retail chain outlet, we've got pretty much all of them. I'd pretty much come to terms with the fact that there is little to no independent shops, bars, restaurant, to be found here. But, guess what, Milky Beans now has a place to eat/drink that, as far as I'm aware, can't be found elsewhere. Wooooo Hooooo!! Welcome to Turtle Bay, a Caribbean themed bar/restaurant that stands where Dim T used to in The Hub.

New restaurant in Milky Beans!

Got chatting to one of the bar staff a few nights after the opening, he confirmed that the creator of Las Iguanas - a Mexican restaurant, is the same person who created Turtle Bay. Turtle Bay is set to be a chain, one opening in Northampton next year sometime, but, for now, we here in Milton Keynes, have the first and only one.  

Island bar right in the middle.

Shrimp and mango curry with mango relish.

Nearly all the cocktails were rum based.

Would definitely recommend this place to a friend and will be returning to sample more from the menu. There is a £10 off two main meals voucher on their website which is valid until late February and appears to be valid any day of the week. There is a three day happy hour, lasting from Sunday though to Tuesday, or 12-19:30 Wednesday to Saturday and the cocktails are strong, delicious and totally worth it!

End of 2 for 1 cocktails.

Dim Sum in Leeds

Day in Leeds visiting Hannah in her uni town. Having Googled places to eat dim sum in Leeds, I found this place, Maxi's, a little hard to find with the one way street around the town but found it we did, and the food was pretty good. They even made us a noodle, sweet-pork dish that wasn't on the menu.