NYC

A little winter trip to New York City, I went to see the Christmas decorations, see the sights, go shopping. Was a really busy trip, managed to catch up with Sandhya and Michael while I was out there. I loved Sandhya's apartment, full of all things Indian, sparkly, vintage, lovely! Haven't seen Sandhya since I was teaching English in Japan, so nice to see her again, she hasn't changed at all.

Went to brunch near the Brooklyn bridge, Top of the Rock, unfortunately the Rockefeller Christmas tree was covered, MOMA, The Guggenheim, walked the Brooklyn bridge, Grand Central Station, Central Park, the Friends building, Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, had cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery, walked the High Line.

The MOMA experience was ruined a bit by it being so busy it felt like a train station. Didn't have much time for shopping, too much stuff to see and do, load left to visit. I liked NYC, would totes go again! Photos from my trip.

Early Christmas at Annette & Seb's

A wonderful afternoon of drinking, eating Seb's delicious Christmas spread and playing Christmas games.

Halloween 2011

Not sure how I really feel about this day, it does seem a bit strange to send off kids to beg for sweets at complete strangers doors. We only had two people come to the door for which I wasn't even home. As an adult it seems more like an excuse to dress up, who needs an excuse!?! I love the pumpkin tradition of Halloween and this year was no exception.

2011 Pumpkin

Annette's Birthday Tea Party

Sugar and spice and all things nice, and girly, we gathered to Annette's house in our best dressed for a wonderfully twee afternoon of tea, champagne, sandwiches, and gossip. Each asked to bring a cake, there was inevitably an entire table of sugar to wash down all that tea and bubbly.

My addition to the party right at the top

Charity Fashion Show

In aid of Willen Hospice, Cotswold's hosted a charity fashion show one Sunday evening. They managed to get some really great items for the raffle and auction everything from socks to a place to run in the London Marathon. Whole evening was really fun, raising over thousand pounds for Willen Hospice. Looking forward to the spring collection show!

Raffle and auction prizes 

Master of Ceremonies

Stunt riders

All the models

Pride of Northampton 2011

A local event where local people are awarded for various categories, all that are centered around recognising the work people and groups do in the community. I went to the same event last year, a year on I am still at Costa and had the chance to go a second time. Adam Woodyatt who plays Ian Beale in the UK soap Eastenders was the host for the evening. Some people have done some amazing things, raising money for local charities, Coppafeel - for breast cancer, a young girl rescued her even younger cousin from a pond, there is also a dog there that has been trained to smell when his owner's blood sugar is too high/low as she has a very severe case of diabetes.

Sandy, my area manager giving welcome address. 

Showing a little clip about the Costa Foundation.

Amy and I with the host.

How relaxed can a cat get?

My London friends have bought a couple of kittens. The boy kitten, Bunny, has a bit of a hair fetish. Annette took these photos of Bunny getting very comfortable.

Hundred and Ten Miles

Summer at Costa is all about raising money for the Costa Foundation. Our store decided to do a sponsored bike ride from Milton Keynes to Lambeth in London - where they roast all the coffee beans and back which is about hundred and ten miles. 

Riding the £700 bike loaded to us from Trek.

We made it to the end, with myself cycling a fair portion of the way and a mile or few from the guys downstairs in Cotswolds, Costa, and a few customers who fancied a go on the turbo trainer. The last hour I was cycling to the end of the challenge, I managed to raise thirteen pounds, which I was really happy about. In total our shop raised about hundred and seventy pounds for the Foundation from the cycling and different activities throughout summer.

Got there in the end!

Chilli Festival

Bank holiday weekend I went to a Chilli Festival in Frosts, a local garden centre. Chilli Fiesta would have been a more fun name that fitted their theme - they had staff in sombreros, a mariachi band, a chilli focused BBQ and a little straw bale pen with micro pigs on display. There were also rows and rows of different chilli plants or seeds available for purchase. I sampled the grilled haloumi and veggies kebabs from the BBQ with a variety of chilli sauces, a chili jelly sweet, chili cheese.

Some fun chilli facts I learnt...

• Christopher Columbus brought the chilli plant to Europe around 1492, he mistook it for black pepper, hence why it is known as chilli 'pepper'.

• Chillies are full of vitamin A and C - twice as much as citrus fruit.

• Hungary is world famous for it's chilli powder, known as paprika. There is a Chilli museum in Szeged.

• Soaking chillies in vinegar with help reduce their strength.

• The best way to relieve the burning sensation from eating chillies is to drink milk, yogurt or ice-cream. Water will only disperse the oil around your mouth and make it worse.

• The hottest part of the chilli is not the seed, it's the white placenta inside the chilli.

29

I spent the night before drinking with Hannah and decided last minute to go dancing in Oceana which coincided with A-Level results night. Oh dear, everyone was eighteen and on heat. In the words of Ted Mosby, 'I am too old for this stuff.' Needless to say, I was a little hungover on my actual birthday. 

Spent the day at Wrest Park, a recently renovated English Heritage manor house and gardens that I saw publicised on the BBC. It was so new that the gardens were a little bare, the further we walked from the newly laid paths the gardens became more fun and secret garden like.

In the evening, I got together a group of friends at Turtle Bay for 241 cocktails, still a bit delicate from the night before I was taking it very easy. I am fast becoming a regular in Turtle Bay and when that shuts at midnight where does one go to in Milton Keynes? On this particular night, the easiest place was to Secklow Hundred, cheap drinks and kind of OK music. 


Let's hope it's a good year.

Sue & Liam Wedding

A hotel in Straford upon Avon where I went for this wedding, I have known Liam and Sue as a couple for as long as I can remember, it was lovely to spend the day with them. The tables were all Beatles themed and Liam prepared a quiz to mull over though dinner - nice touch. Video slideshow of the day.

Norway

This summer I went road tripping to the Lindesnes region in Norway with my family. We drove up though a variety of European countries before taking the ferry from Denmark to Kirstensand. For the week in Norway I had found us a lighthouse to stay in on the southern most point of Norway, Lindesnes Fyr, built in 1916 where at the time three families lived on site and is now a listed building. We stayed in one of the lighthouse keepers cabin right next to the lighthouse. Even though there were tourists coming and going, it felt really secluded and so peaceful. Photos from Views of a Lighthouse.

Norway is expensive, coffee and cake for four people was on average about thirty pounds in a fairly standard place. We didn't eat out, for a family of four it really was just too expensive, we shopped in local supermarkets and cooked at home. I was warned that alcohol in Norway was again, expensive and strangely hard to come by. We avoided the cost and hassle of finding any by buying our wine for the week from France - I highly recommend doing the same to anyone driving to Norway.

Around the lighthouse there were a few different walking trails that we embarked on as a family and that we all completed. A very pretty country, lots of greenery and water where everyone seems to have a boat or at least access to one. Onward from Lindesnes, we went up the coast to Stavangar, a main port for cruise ships as the take hoards of people up, in and around the most northern parts of the coast of Norway. We took a boat trip to Pulpit Rock a famous view point, unfortunately for us the weather the day we took the trip was pretty rubbish and visibility was terrible, clouds were covering the high sides of the fjord so we couldn't see the famous platform.

For me, the highlight of Norway, was a place called Skreli, a secluded fjord not far from the lighthouse. It was recommend as the 'most beautiful view in this area' from a guy who we met at the supermarket trying to find a different walking trail. The track to Skreli was a dirt trail and we didn't believe it was leading anywhere, we stopped to ask a farmer and he just motioned down the trail. When we finally came to the parking it seemed like there was nothing even there, but if you head up the trail and follow the signs it opens up to the top of a gentle waterfall down into the fjord. It really was stunning. We took a little stroll around the flat part then went back to soak up the sun and the view. Compared the to the fjords in Stavangar, yes, they may have been bigger, deeper, but they were a lot more crowded and not nearly so intimate. Photos from Norway.

Bettys

A good family run chain of tea rooms in Yorkshire, started by a Swiss orphan, Frederick Belmont in the early 1900's. We went to a rather popular Bettys in Harrogate where we took afternoon tea in the continental Montpellier Cafe Bar area. Delightful.

A Leeds Graduate

My sister has graduated, with a first, with Hons, with European, that's a lot of brackets on her CV. A lovely sunny day in Leeds, the venue where the university holds the ceremony isn't very big so each graduate is limited to two tickets, with the possibility of getting more tickets on the day on a first come, first served basis. 

We arrived just that little too late to get a third ticket for me, so after the first of many photo calls outside the Great Hall and the mini bottle of champagne we brought along for the occasion, I made my way to a lecture theatre to watch on a screen. The lecture theatre was reasonably full, and as we were all just watching on the screen we didn't have to clap continuously throughout, each person just cheered for their respective person they had come to see graduate. 

After the ceremony more photos, then we headed over to Hannah's department for official photos and a light brunch for graduates and families. We wondered around the campus, more photos, before Hannah gave up her robes and we headed to Harrogate for an Italian lunch and a stroll around a local park. Some of the best photos of the day here.

The whole day brought back memories of when I graduated which seems like so long ago. At the time, Richard Attenborough was the Chancellor of Sussex University and he was there at my ceremony to give a speech, shake hand my hand and give out my certificate.

Cluck Cluck!!

Two good friends are getting married next weekend and last weekend was the respective hen and stag evenings. Liam and the stags went to Nottingham, best man Neville dressed him in a Sheriff of Nottingham kind of outfit and the drinking began at nine in the morning which inevitably lead to mayhem, including some kind of accident with a plate of nachos. 

Bride to be

We hens started out way more civilised, with a pamper afternoon at the mother of the bride's house with oodles of sparkling rose, perhaps that's were it all went down hill?? Lovely! On to the Chinese buffet at Zen Gardens, where compulsory pink fluffy hen party accessories were waiting to adorn and the bride to be and her hens. I don't know what the obsession with penis and hen parties are, I'm pretty sure stag do's don't have vagina themed decorations and accessories. We had glow in the dark penis straws that we faithfully carried to every venue we went to. Sue had a t-shirt to wear for the evening and get the hen's and random men to sign a message for her as she embarks on married life. Needles to say, the comments ranged from very nice to blatantly naughty. More photos of the evening here.

Hens in Turtle Bay

June Photos

Collection of photos from June, pretty colours from the roses in the front garden and poppies on the drive to work.

Among the roses in our garden

Pretty Poppies

We went for dinner in Nottingham in a vegetarian place, Squeek, recommended online - disappointing food and over priced for what it was, but the decor was fun. It felt more like they hadn't actually changed it from the 70's rather than decorating their restaurant in the style of the 70's. After dinner in Squeak, went to a much nicer tea house round the corner, Lee Rosy's Tea, with a huge range of different teas on offer.

Retro decor in Squeek, Nottingham

Lee Rosy's Tea house, Nottingham

Wateside Festival 2011

Nearly a year of prep and the weekend was finally here! I was at the festival site at 8am to meet a delivery from Tring Brewery of five barrels of Jack 'O Legs ale, thought I'd be able to go home for a few hours before things kicked off, but no, things just kept appearing with only me to meet them, I wasn't going anywhere. Next was the generators, then the beer tent, the bar stock, bins, skips, bar engineers who build the bar inside the tent. I think everyone could tell I had no idea what goes in to building this outdoor bar. I had all the bits, just need a bit of knowledge to put it all together. Justin and Phil - the bar engineers, were pretty good to me, they explained everything, helped my put the ale beer engine and barrels together. They are like the Mary Poppins of bar bits. The tubes for the ale weren't long enough, they pulled out extra tubing from their tool box, nets for the tubes, again out the tool box. I did try to do a facebook update of what was happening on site as the day went on, embrace the social networks etc, but I just go so busy with festival 'stuff' the record wasn't as through as I would have liked.

Beer with no bar tent, building a bar, a working bar!

The weather did keep people away on the Friday night and the Saturday, think this was the best scenario for me as a beginner bar manager so I could get to grips with the equipment, the bar, the environment. I only had issues with frothy beer, which I couldn't problem solve, neither could my bar buddy, Colin, or Fred who has been doing the bar the last five years. We think it was because we were pulling so many pints by that point, that the beer in the tubes didn't have long enough to cool down.

I walked around the festival for about ten minutes on Sunday morning, apart from that, all I saw was the inside of the beer tent. I did hear the music, the bar tent is right opposite the main stage, but did question the choices of artist - heavy metal on a Sunday afternoon, not sure if that's appropriate. I managed to get a few of my Costa friends involved in working the bar with me over the weekend and also met a few others who were willing to help. Really appreciate the support, I wouldn't have been able to man the bar on my own. I didn't quite enjoy the six hours I spent waiting in the empty site on Monday morning for the generator and drinks guys to come and collect their stuff. Thankfully, it was a sunny day and I have an iPod. It was definitely a learning experience for me. All in all, it was a really fun weekend, and I'm already thinking of ways to improve for next year. 

Some of the bar volunteers over the weekend.

Trinidad

The town not the island, a good six/seven hour bus ride from Vinales. The bus dropped us off on a side street with hardly any room to move between the people scrambling to get your business in their casa. We went with Elio, a teacher of languages who lives just a short walk down the road. Sarah was well catered for as Elio's brother was a chef who was more inventive with dinners, not an omelet in sight. 

Streets of Trinidad

Canchanchara -a Trinidad special, firewater (rum), water, honey, ice, lime juice, served in bulbous clay pots, a delicious concoction for pre-dinner drinks. Another night for pre-dinner drinks we wondered into the Iberostar Grand Hotel, a Spanish owned hotel chain that felt like stepping into the Titanic. Full of art deco, vintage decor and a waiter with impeccable service so much so we went back the three nights we were in Trinidad. 

A day out at Playa Ancon, not as secluded as Cayo Levisa, yet just as nice, with a good mix of locals and tourists enjoying the sunshine. While on the beach there was the threat of another tropic storm which ended up just being very dark clouds coming over the beach - a pretty cool visual.

Playa Ancon

There were various tour operators, but we found them to not quite offer the full listing, the most helpful was a guy sitting on the Cubatur desk. We booked a tour out to the national park to the Guanayara trail with a waterfall and small pool to swim in. The road up to the trail was pretty rough, needing a 4x4 wheel drive. The taxi driver dropped us at one end of the walking trail and picked us up at the other end after lunch. We wondered the trail though coffee plantations at the beginning then it turned into lush forest, it took about two hours, a very relaxed trail nothing too extreme, no one but us and a couple of locals overtaking us. On the way back to Trinidad we passed what I think was a hire car with a few tourists in trying to get up the trail and not having much luck at all. They were going in the opposite direction, I hope they got to wherever they were trying to go.

Guanayara Trail

Trinidad had the most amount of shopping for tourists selling much of the same thing, art, lace, wooden trinkets, and buckets of necklaces made of seeds, all a little same, same, but different of which I bough just a few. 

We went to Cuba in low season, I hope that in peak season it gets busier, as we went to a few places that just had way too many staff for the number of customers coming in. Don't go to Cuba for the food, it's not that exciting, except the fruits, I had a variation of a ham and cheese sandwich every day the whole trip. Do go to Cuba to sit, drink rum, wonder around, listen to music and take your time. More photos of Trinidad here.

Viñales

Took the tourist bus, Vizul, to the valley of tobacco plants and the town of Viñales a few hours bus ride from Havana. Casa particulares are a cheap way to stay in Cuba and do a home stay with Cuban families at the same time. Viñales does not have a lack of casa's to stay at, we were met from the bus by a gaggle of women holding pictures/descriptions of their homes. Tamara and her husband took us back to their house a short walk from the main street. Apart from the first day we didn't see the husband again, and Tamara every so often, our hosts were really casa grand pa and ma who were so cute, they spoke hardly any English and between using my very limited Spanish and the international language of signs, we managed to communicate what we needed. 

It's the norm to get the meal deal along with accom at the casa as there aren't really many places to eat out. Breakfast was usually a plate of yummy fruit with bread and/or omelet. Dinner for me was vegetables with some kind of protein, fish, chicken or lobster. Sarah's a vegetarian and was served seven omelets in three days, that's a lot of eggs.

Top left clockwise: Breakfast at the casa, tobacco farmer, main street, Casa grand pa/ma.

Tamara persuaded us to go on a horse riding tour though the tobacco fields which had been harvested, the leaves now being smoked in huts then rolled. Our guide, Louis, took us to a tobacco farmer where he made a fresh drink from coconut juice with rum and honey. The house itself was under renovations, but there was a corner to have a drink and buy cigars and again, speak in my limited Spanish and the guide's broken English. Thanks to Manu Chou, I know how to say 'I like you' in Spanish and therefore I can also say 'I like rum', 'I like Cuba', 'I like horse', 'I like men'. Part of the tour was also to a cave with no lights, just a guide with a torch. At the end was a pool of very still, cool water, went for a little dip with a little nudge from the guide, I thought he was joking about swimming in it until he started undressing. I walked though the water to a second pool and got a little mud massage, very strange.

Before and after the tropical storm

Day trip to Cayo Levisa, a thirty minute boat trip from the coast and one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been too, the water was so clear blue. Apart from a small resort there was no one else on the island. I walked along the beach, past the huts and there was literally nothing but the sand and sea, I could almost see a pirate ship off in the distance.

Cayo Levisa

I really like Viñales, it was really relaxed, we had more cocktails in hotels that over look the valley and a few more in a local cafe waiting for a tropical storm to pass or in the Casa de la Musica. The whole trip felt like a lot of sitting and watching the world go by, it was lovely. More photos of Viñales here.