Christmas crafts

This years Christmas crafts for presents were quite difficult to decide what to do as I was struggling for ideas. There will get to a point where there won't be much left to make! 

I ended up finding a template for a remote control holder shaped like an owl which I thought was cool so attempted to make it. It turned out OK really, the shape of the head part could be a little better but I think it still resembles an owl!

On pinterest I also saw some Christmas decorations made out of scrabble tiles and gave those a go too, not sure how well they turned out or how well they travelled so hopefully they were still in one piece when they were unwrapped!

 The final thing I made this year wasn't a present but for our house. The prevent owners of our house had hooks on the mantle piece, I'm assuming for their stockings at Christmas which look a little untidy if they don't have anything hanging on them so I made a Christmas garland. It was a take on the one Kirsty made in her homemade Christmas programme but instead of hearts I went for bells. I think it turned out OK and looks good hanging from our mantle piece!

Save the date!!

We've booked the wedding!!! After searching many venues and visiting on open days and checking dates that were not too far away we have settled on Park Farmhouse Hotel which has a stunning barn for us to have the ceremony and evening reception in and pig sties for the wedding breakfast. We did see a lovely venue but if the weather is rubbish then there was very little inside space to use so we thought we'd go for the barn option as inside looks great and outside it is surrounded by fields that look great - and the racetrack!

So now it's time for people to save the date and us to get into gear and start looking for everything we need so signing off for now (mainly as we won't be doing much due to the lack of funds to now pay for said wedding) but be assured post wedding ala Arnie - I'll be back!

Holiday Baking

There is only a couple of days left of the summer break and time to think about everything we have done over the past 6 weeks. Obviously you want to do cool things all year and not just cram it into the 6 weeks but I think we have achieved a lot.

Over the summer we have stayed in 6 hotels and travelled to/through 4 countries - here in the UK then France, Belgium and Thailand.

We have finally taken the shed down!

We have been to only the one wedding this year - unlike the other year where we had 7!

Lots of Belgian beer has been drunk along with many a cocktail and an enormous amount of food has been eaten!

I have also made many baked goodies as the Bake Off is back in full swing. This includes cheddar and cheese scones, treacle and ginger tray bake, goats cheese and red pepper muffins, ciabatta rolls, pizza, Mediterranean tarts, double chocolate cheesecake and macaroons!!

Spa F1 - Race Report

Race day!! Wonder what will happen today - and what the weather will be like! We were all kitted up and ready. It was difficult to get a spot as it was busier as predicted but we headed back to our corner and settled there. It was great. Actually people think it's boring to watch cars just going round but because you can't fully hear the commentary or see the screen the whole time you actually lose track of who is where in the race. All we knew was that Lewis and Rosberg was battling it out and we could tell the different by spotting their gloves as they went round the corner! We were watching them go round and round then all of a sudden Lewis comes limping past with a flat tyre - what was going on!!!??? We went and had a quick look at the screen and from what we figured out there was some kind of beef between the Mercedes team mates - not so friendly team mates! Turns out Rosberg had hit Lewis!! The weather held out for a dry race but because of all the drama Ricciardo ended up winning! We'll watch the race back when we get home to see all the ins and outs of what happened and the possible backlash to Rosberg!

Last night in Nemur we headed into the square to get some food - this time we had some Italian Tex Mex - a fusion of some kind! It was good, interesting but lovely and another delicious cappuccino! We wandered a little more round Nemur city then headed to the shop to stock up on beer - as were weren't having to carry our cases, once they were on the coach we didn't have to drag them anywhere so we loaded them up with as much beer as we could!!

Going to our first F1 was great, we had so much fun and as we aren't adverse to camping anyway the weather doesn't really matter or spoil the mood so we loved it!!

Spa F1 - Qualifying Report

So going for the coach option meant our journey from home took forever!! But on the plus side we get on the coach, they drive us straight to the track, at the end of the day you get back on and don't need to think about getting home, it's all sorted.

Upon reflection my qualifying report is split into three sections - they day, the night and top tips.

The day

So our day was great, the journey to the track was good and entry was really easy. We wondered what the deal was once we were in but as soon as we were through the gate the track was right there! Having done some research before hand we decided to go to the Kimmel straight and settled ourselves on the hill for practice 3. It was good there but it was so busy and unless you are there at the crack of dawn it is difficult to get a good spot so we thought before qualifying we'd go investigating and see if there was anywhere else to sit. We ended up at corner 8/9 again on a steep slope but with a great view, not too far from a TV screen and also on the corner they had to slow down quite a bit so you actually see them approaching, round the corner then off again. We were all settled when the heavens opened - luckily we were equipped in full waterproofs! But then the rain turned to hail after qualifying had finished! We tried hiding in the woods with everyone else but this is when the coach comes in handy as you could strip off the waterproofs and just sit there! We had a great day, as did Rosberg on pole, experienced all weathers and saw the cars in their full glory. On our way wandering around the track during GP2 we were near another corner when a full on crashed happened - polystyrene everywhere and car in the tyre wall - luckily everyone was OK but it was a dramatic end to our Saturday at the track!

The night

Our hotel was in Namur so we thought we'd go exploring, grab some muscles and frittes and obviously some Belgium beer! Wandering around we totally felt like we were on Somewhere Street - a Japanese programme that Sarah introduced me too where you don't see the host, they walk round with a hand held camera exploring and meeting people. It's all translated, it's a great show! Namur is totally a place that would be on that show, quiet Belgium back streets with bars full of people drinking the beer. You turn down a quiet street and end up in a square with a grand church and interesting sculptures. We got our muscles and frittes and ended the meal with a delicious cappuccino - different from ours and no milk but instead lots of whipped cream! We then found a pub and had some of our fave Belgium beers - Orval, Rochefort 8 and a kriek. There was a very interesting games machine in the pub, not like an arcade machine where you hit a button and hope, this you needed to think about!! We had a little corner shop nearby our hotel so we stocked up on snacks to take to the race and noticed they had a fridge full of cheap (well compared to the UK) Belgium beer so before we come home we're going to stock up!

Top Tips

•  Take chairs - you never know what the weather will be like and they provide a welcome relief from the floor - camping ones are also easy to carry
• Cover all weathers - we were thankful for those waterproofs
• Suss out where to sit for the race on qualifying day - it will only be busier on race day so best to figure it out the day before
• We didn't do this but we did see people with shovels to flatten out the hill - not sure about that one!
• An over sized poncho to cover you, your chair and your bag for really heavy down pours isn't a bad idea to have in case the weather doesn't let up as I ended up sitting in a puddle
• Get there early for a good seat or go for a very steep hill where people don't get in the way
• Walk past long queues for toilets, food and drink as there will be a shorter one not too far away

Tomorrow is race day!!!

Shopping Spree

Our last day in Bangkok and we are hitting the malls. We have allocated all day as there are an insane amount of malls here, each are several floors and I'm talking 6, 7, 8 floors each! We didn't visit them all (as we only allocated 1 day!) but we did go to Terminal 21, Siam Paragon/Discovery and MBK. Each was completely different to the other - even Daniel liked the shopping and that speaks volumes!

Lets start with MBK - 8 floors of fake goods! No joke. Each floor had different items on it so there was the souvenir floor, clothes, phones and other tech, bags, I could go on. We walked around pretty much every floor and got some bargain souvenirs. The phone/tech floor was a little concerning when you see several booths selling phone numbers - what if you saw your own phone number there! Luckily we didn't but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those numbers were already in use! We were here so long we had to stop for a coffee to refuel before moving on!

Next stop was Siam Paragon, one of the largest malls in Asia apparently. We didn't buy so much here but we did have the most awesome lunch at a Korean Fired Chicken restaurant - BonChon Chicken. Apparently it is coming over to London, I hope it does it was delicious.

Terminal 21 was different again, this was set out like an airport terminal when you walked in and then each floor took you to a different destination. From Rome to Paris, London to Tokyo, Istanbul to the USA with San Francisco and Hollywood. Each floor had over sized iconic landmarks of each location and quirky shops that kind of fit with the destination. It's a great idea, I love it!

Our shopping spree day was tiring but awesome!! 

For our final meal in Thailand we went to Cabbages and Condoms, a restaurant that I have been teaching about for years. The idea behind the restaurant is to promote safe sex to prevent the spread of disease and also try to control the population as it was growing at a fast rate. Each meal they hand out free condoms and the money raised goes into helping different causes. The restaurant is also decorated with condoms in very creative ways. I wanted to go and take photos to show the kids and see if I could pick up some information. It turned out to be great, the food was fab - as it has been everywhere we have eaten whilst being here - I collected lots of information leaflets and photos and they also had a shop and stall with items made from a village initiative so we did our bit and I bought a scarf!

 

On our way home we found an English pub! Since its our last night we stopped in to get back into the British way! The football was on, beers on tap, full of English people and a Sheffield beer trail poster on the wall! Just like home, lol. We've had a great time here, yet there were so many things we didn't have time to do. The people have been great, the food amazing and the sites unbelievable.

I would say Thailand definitely lives up to its name as the Land of Smiles!

Touring the Temples

Early start today - pick up is at 7.30! Definitely no time for breakfast today! Dressed appropriately we headed off for our city and temple tour taking in 3 out of the cities 400 temples. We are barely scratching the surface of the temples in the city but the 3 we are seeing are good ones! Each has a different draw for visitors.

Our first stop is the temple that has a 5.5 ton solid gold Buddha - yes that is right - solid gold - worth £28mil ish! Even though it was quite early the temple itself was reasonably busy. It wasn't very big and on the way up the stairs to see the gold Buddha a guy came out of nowhere and started taking our pictures - like cameras right in our faces, it was totally like we were being papped! Yet another celeb experience of our holiday! I'm walking past with my sunnies on and hand over my face! Turns out he was using the pictures to make badges to sell - if he'd said this he might have found people would pose instead of looking away! We climbed the rest of the way and there it was - the most shiny Buddha you have ever seen. Apparently it was discovered under layers of plaster - what a great find. Apparently it is one of Thailand's most important Buddhas but having said that there are a number of these.

From here we headed to another important site - that of the reclining Buddha. Now we have seen one already in the Monkey Temple cave and we thought that was large but wow this was humongous! Trying to take a photo you can't get it easily in one shot. Its feet were made of mother of pearl - this was definitely a highlight. Around the temple that housed this giant Buddha were statues showing how to massage as apparently there are important links between this site and the traditional Thai massage. There were a number of elaborately decorated pagodas. In the base is where you place the ashes of loved ones and the pagoda forms a kind of memorial, but they have run out of room for pagodas so now the ashes go in boxes in the walls behind the many many statues of Buddha.

 

The final temple on our tour was the marble temple. Not so much a complex of buildings like at the last place but one elaborate and sparkly white temple, made from Italian marble. It was very quiet when we arrived mid morning and when we approached the temple we found a ceremony going on inside. Young apprentice monks were being ordained to be a full on monk. They were all dressed in white, bowed, with their heads shaved. One at a time they would approach an older monk where he would give them their orange robes. They then exited the temple to an area outside where the elders helped them get dressed in their new orange attire. They then had to go and speak individually to an elder monk before collecting their pot to collect offerings from the locals for the monastery. It was fascinating to watch and see them dedicate their life to the religion. You can do this for just a period of time and not your whole life and then return to your regular life after. That was interesting to find out - this is only for boys/men though, not women.

 

 It was definitely interesting visiting these 3 temples - each completely different to the one before. We did drive past the Grand Palace and down what was essentially like our Mall to Buckingham Palace. A fancy street, well decorated mostly for the Queen's birthday on the 12th. They had was looks like St Paul's Cathedral at the end -well a mini version. We then headed back to the hotel for a rest before our river night cruise tonight.

 5.15pm was our pick up - this leaves 2 hours to the ferry - we nearly missed it! I kid you not, the traffic was ridiculous. Now I know it's Friday but we sat at the end of our street for about an hour - no exaggeration! The pick up guy was panicking as we were late for our next pick up and we started discussing what to do instead! Slowly we crept along and eventually the pick up guy jumped out, ran along the road to collect the other person and ran back along the street, whilst we sat in the traffic! We made it by the skin of our teeth. No time to look in the mall attached to the dock, it was straight through - flower pinned on, photo took and to our seat! At least then we could relax. Table 1 didn't make it and we left without them - we hovered around the river then went back and picked them up. At least our food came in courses, theirs came all at once! The food was amazing but there was a lot of it. Spring rolls and crispy baskets filled with chicken and sweetcorn to start, then Tom Yum soup, then a main of rice, fish, green curry and prawn and broccoli - each! Then fruit, mango and sticky rice for pud! The views were good with the Grand Palace, Temple of Dawn and others all lit up and there was also some traditional dancing on our boat too. I'm glad we made it!!

Bangkok Baby!!!

We've made it! Bangkok baby! They offered us an earlier flight but due to the transfer at the other end we'd be waiting either way. Exiting the airport one thing you first notice are the massive, humongous billboards, ours are tiny in comparison. They next thing you notice is the traffic. Complete gridlock in places. As we were approaching our hotel the buildings got taller, building work was going on in many places - though here it wasn't bamboo for scaffolding - they still didn't wear hard hats though.

Bangkok probably as expected reminded me a lot of Shanghai and Beijing and probably other Asian cities too. It's incredibly crowded, congested, hot, polluted and surround by high rises. And out hotel was one of those high rises - again as expected. We walked into reception which was decorated in a very European grandeur way. Our room was on the 9th floor - out of 26 - the top being an Indian restaurant - apparently the best in Bangkok with stunning city views so we are going to go tonight.

Our room was pretty standard and going to check out the view at that moment another torrential downpour. We are doing well at missing the rain when we are out and about!

After chilling a little we headed down to the lobby bar to check out the tours and take advantage of happy hour then made our way up to the 26th floor for a curry. The views here were stunning - now dark lights in the restaurant meant the sky lit up with the lights from the buildings. As we booked we had a seat by the window - boom. The curry was nice - nowhere near the spicy curries we have at home and also not as spicy as the Thai food we have been eating.

The restaurant also had a roof terrace - on the 26th floor! You felt like you could plunge to your death as there was nothing stopping someone from climbing over the edge! I wouldn't advise it! I was rooted to the spot anyhow with legs like lead!

A great intro to this mega city, tomorrow we have our free temple and city tour so we'll suss out a bit more of what Bangkok is like then.

A taste of traditional Thai

Today is a day of the traditional, cooking and a show. We're very excited. Our day started by being taken to the market by the executive chef of the hotel. He took us round the fruit section first, making us try the traditional tropical fruits mangosteens and the potato fruit. Little worried about the ants over the fruit but soon get past that. He then bought us two bags worth! Then we hit the fish section with some of the biggest lobster you ever did see then round to endless rows of veg and herbs stalls - all the way making us smell and name the ingredients. we stopped at a dry spice stall where we explained we usually use pastes as there are some ingredients we just can't get so he bought us some spice mixes! He's too nice. We stopped at the noodle stall with every noodle you ever did see and picked ones to cook with so we went for the large flat ones which you can't get at home and then finally got some desserts on the way out like sticky rice filled with banana little parcels - the desserts are nowhere near as sweet as we are used to. It was fun - we didn't go round the meat bit but did everything else!

When we got back and gave them half hour to set up the heavens opened - a good day to do a cooking course! We returned to the restaurant, donned our chefs hat and apron then set about making a green curry paste from scratch. We made the curry with shrimp. Then we made the traditional spicy soup - this with chicken then the chef made up a dish with the noodles we picked at the market and had that with squid. It was amazing. We then had to eat it all! It tasted amazing - all because it was made with love, ahhh. We had our picture taken with the chef and our certificates. Definitely something different to do on holiday. Hopefully Daniel will use some of his skills when we get home - hee hee!

We didn't do much in he afternoon as we were picked up at 5ish for our night out to Siam Niramit. Our next instalment of our traditional Thai day. Back in the minivan this time off to Phuket town to see Siam Niramit - a show that takes you to the historic areas of Thailand then through their belief system - which ironically was similar to Dante's Inferno which is talked about in Dan Browns Inferno that we are both reading. Hell, mythological world then heaven. It then takes you to the celebrations Thais have throughout the year. But before the show there was dinner to be had and demonstrations to be seen. We had dinner first so we didn't miss any entertainment, it was a buffet and I have to say they had an impressive dessert section. Whilst eating we could see out the window an almighty rain shower. What now - all the demonstrations were outside!

We walked down the stairs and straight into the Thai boxing demonstration they had moved indoors - not as great an atmosphere but we were at the front of the action. That finished we turned around and right in front of us again were two elephants first picking up baskets then cash off the floor with their trunks, then hula hooping on their trunks. They also looked really happy. They had a little dance to some music then also took a bow! We didn't unfortunately get to see the elephant war parade but did see some Thai dancing. Squat and tiny steps with very precise fingers! Very fancy costumes as well!

We then had to hand in our cameras in a very efficient system I must say and we were seated.

The sets were amazing - colourful and at one point a whole river of water appeared which was deep enough for a guy to dive in. There was rain inside and an array of animals from chickens to goats, to an ox and of course the elephants. The baby one still looked soo happy dancing, placing a basket in the water and bowed at the end. There were boats, large heads, aerial displays, mythological creatures, dancing, lights, it was excellent. You name it - it had it! What we couldn't understand was why the Scottish family on our trip moaned so much about everything, from getting the tickets, the buffet, the show - there is no pleasing some people. They went back to their hotel to have a sausage on a stick - clearly uncultured!!

Partying in Patong!

Ok well not quite partying in Patong but it is well and truly a party town. After a day of lying around - literally all day - at the beach, the pool and our spa on our balcony - we put our glad rags on and got the shuttle to Patong.

 

Well this is where all the people are, it was rammed! We left the shuttle at a complex like Century City in LA then headed out onto the hot and busy streets - this is what we expected Phuket to be like. We were so hot we had to stop in an Irish pub on hte beach front for a drink - only to then have a group sit next to us who sat next to us in a restaurant in Krabi - and I had the same outfit on - doh!!

We had a lovely meal in a nice and busy restaurant then headed down Bangla Walking Street which basically means it's pedestrianised. There were so many bars here with scantily clad ladies holding drinks promos. The only real disturbing part of the street were people - men and women - promoting a ping pong show - I'll leave that up to your imagination!