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.