Reaching for Sirius

As I think the theme will be this year, February was quite a busy month.

We started off celebrating Dad's birthday, the middle of the month was all about Mum's birthday and ended with a very special little one's 5th birthday.

Dad's birthday was an unusual one this year as instead of going out for a meal we stayed in and had Christmas Dinner in February making use of the left over (whole) turkey that we had from Christmas.  All the trimmings.  It was amazing.  The evening before Fuzz and I decorated a cake for the birthday boy - cycling theme obviously(!), I think Dad liked his presents and enjoyed his day.

A couple of weekends later, Fuzz and I spent the Sunday at my place doing a massive baking session for Mum's birthday.  As she spends a lot of her time making beautiful cakes for everyone else, we thought it was only right for us to make something wonderful for her.  Our power Sunday afternoon produced, vanilla cupcakes, lemon tray bake, raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes and 3 lots of cornflake cakes!  Wow!

On Mum's actual birthday we all went over and had a lovely evening, spoiled her with flowers, cards and presents and she cooked us a delicious Shepard's Pie, as only Mum's can.  We were all on top form and laughed the evening away.

The following day was Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Day.  Following traditions, this saw Fuzz bringing out her specialist pancake making pan and making delicious pancakes ready for us to add sugar, lemon, ice cream, and for one particular odd-ball...gravy!!

The week ended with a trip to the Wok n Grill in Trumpington, which we were all really looking forward to, but sadly was let down by the very hands off approach to customer service.  None the less, I think we all enjoyed our meal.

The last Saturday of the month ended up being an unplanned Saturday off for the boy.  I cannot stress how awesome this was.  It never happens, either he works in the day, the evening or sometimes all day and all evening... It was so lovely to have the WHOLE day together, not worrying about needing to be back by a certain time.  We spent the day chilling out together with plans to Prezzo, which I have to say is my new favourite chain.  We decided to go all out and have 3 courses and it was lovely to have some proper face time.

Photography classes are rolling on by and with the warmer weather on the way, I'm excited to put my newly learnt skills into lots of practice, much to the annoyance of everyone else I'm sure!

March is set to be another busy month, I don't think we have one free weekend, but I'm very excited for the fun times that lie ahead.

OK, so week 2 of 5 things I'm grateful for any I'm already running late.  However, with a serious bout of the Monday blues, I'm determined to try and remember some of the good things that have happened last week to try and shake this off.

1. Spending quality and civilised time with my mum and sister in the form of going to the theatre.  OK, it was only the local theatre, and we went to see the Reduced Shakespeare Company, not exactly the most highbrow, but

2. Continuing with my adult education course, thoroughly enjoying it and making a new friend.

3. Pay day! - I know this is a bit materialistic and probably not in the spirit of this, but I have to say that after moving house and buying lots of new things, it's been a long time coming and was very welcomed.

4. Snuggling down under the blanket and enjoying some good tunes with the man friend.

5. Ditching the TV and having a long, indepth, worldly chat with my mum.  She's so awesome and I feel so lucky to have her.

After such a lovely weekend, I've already got a couple of things for this weeks 5 things, so here's to Monday getting better and having a good week.

One of the things I really enjoy, but rarely make the time to do, is cooking.

I used to be more of a baker (currently obsessed with GBBO!), but back in July I was lucky enough to go on an intensive 3 day cookery course at Cookery School in London, and this is where I learned that cooking is actually really easy and I really enjoy it.

A good friend cooked this for me once and I was hooked, stole the recipe off her and it's now one of my go-to favourites.

There are many excellent things about this recipe, it's super quick to make, only about 20 minutes in total, perfect if you've got home late from work and want something substantial to eat.  It's really easy and completely customisable to your tastes.

The only warning I have is to not eat ALL the Parmesan cheese before it goes into the pan - on numerous occasions I've been nibbling away and had to grate a whole load more cheese to use in the pasta!!

Ingredients:

• Penne pasta
• Peas
• Parmesan cheese
• ~8 sun dried tomatoes
• 1/2 tub of cream cheese
• 3-4 tsp green pesto

Put your pasta on and set the timer for 10 minutes.  I'd recommend that you use a big pan, as you'll be adding to this later.

While the pasta is cooking, chop the sun dried tomatoes (I like to take the excess oil off the tomatoes just by dabbing them with kitchen roll) and grate the Parmesan cheese.



When the 10 minute timer goes off, add your frozen peas.  Bring the pan back up to the boil and leave for maybe 3-4 minutes, until the peas are cooked.

Drain the peas and pasta

Add the cream cheese to the pasta and stir in.

Also add the Parmesan, pesto and sun dried tomatoes and give it a good stir.



At this point you can basically add more or less of anything to suit your tastes.  The Parmesan will remove some of the moisture, so if you feel it's too dry, add some more pesto or cream cheese.  Don't be afraid to add a good load of pesto, the first batch I made myself, I only added one tsp and it wasn't enough!

Voilà.  If you have any left over Parmesan, you can add this to the top of the pasta.  I sometimes have a little salad on the side, but in honesty it's amazing by itself!

I'm jumping on the GlossyBox wagon.  Well I've actually been on it for a few months now and with each month have been meaning to blog, but just haven't got round to it.

My GlossyBox arrived at work last week, but I was on annual leave so the box was waiting for me on my desk, making my return to work slightly easier!!



Initially looking at the card I was a little underwhelmed, but after having a second look, I'm actually quite excited about this festival-themed box!



I think the headliner is the HD Brows Eye & Brow Palette.  I've got Bombshell, which is for blondes (not great as I'm brunette, but I'll work with it.)  You can use the palette in a whole variety of way - to fill in your eyebrows, as an eye shadow, highlighter and even eye liner!!  Exciting!

Next up is the Clynol Salon Exclusive Enrich Colour Shampoo.  Now, this is well timed as I've just spent a considerable amount of money having my hair coloured and am looking for a shampoo that will make the colour last as long as possible.  This shampoo promises that after 30 washes you'll still have 90% of the colour.  Quite a claim in my opinion.

Then there's the Monu Golden Glow.  I've never had a huge amount of success with fake bake, but always willing to try something once!!  And it doesn't smell of biscuits!!

The Jelly Pong Pong (cool name huh) Lip Frosting, initally looked a little to pink for me, but comes up really nicely on the lips and smells amazing!!  You can use it on your cheeks as well, but my personal opinion is that it's a little too heavy for blusher.  I have to say lip glosses have turned out to be my favourite glossy box products as I just pop them in my handbag and end up using them all the time.

Finally there's the Elizabeth Arden Visible Difference Skin Balancing Lotion SPF 15.  Elizabeth Arden is amazing, but for me SPF15 is a little on the low side, but could definately be used in the cooler months.

To top it all off, there's a lovely bonus product of a selection of Elizabeth Arden Visible Difference products, cleanser, serum and SPF. 

Overall I'm pretty impressed with this box and looking forward to trying everything out!

So, I've managed to fail at completing the 30 Day Shred. I'm hoping all isn't lost though, and will try to pick it up again tomorrow.

I watched a program last night about Victoria Pendleton, and when I was watching it, realised that that's what I want, to be really good (not just good or very good) at something. To have the drive and ambition to carry on with something even though the hard days.

Don't get me wrong, I try really really hard with my work and have always managed to get through the days, even the really tough ones, and I think I'm good at it, but sometimes I feel it's a challenge. The geeky stuff just doesn't come naturally to me, I have to learn and practise and practise and learn some more!

I used to play the keyboard and did it quite well, got up to grade 8 and passed a couple of the exams with a distinction. I've always wanted to learn to play the piano so maybe that's something I can do.

I guess I'm just fed up with myself starting things and not finishing them.

Could do better.

So I've been very bad and missed 2 days!! And it was really hard to do tonight, but I'm so glad I did!

Still finding it challenging, but I'm able to do the majority of the work and tonight especially I am very finishing very sweaty and physically worn out! (and I'm not a sweaty person!)

Only 4 more days of level 1!