The Great Bake off...

Lately i have turned a little into Nigella and become a kitchen goddess (i did once say i was being like Mrs Beeton to which mys sister told me she died at 27 so changed my mind!). Here are a couple of my cake bakes made recently, toffee apple loaf cake and chocochino cake, both yummy and come highly recommended!

2010 update...

OK hasn't time flown! Now in April and what can i say has happened? Not a lot really! Lets start with school, as per usual the same crazy day to day goings on are happening, though now people aren't happy. As well as dealing with post Ofsted stuff we now have the problem of too many staff to the number of children coming to the school in future years, solution...making people redundant, nice! So the process has been happening and it is not fun, except for the bit where the union reps went hell for leather at the head and governors, it was like watching Prime Minister's question time! So rather than being pushed, i jumped! Without meaning to i saw a job advertised, Daniel drove me down to check it out as it is in Derby and i ended up applying for it. Well turns out my luck has changed with interviews as i ended up getting the job! Yay. I have escaped finally to an outstanding school with excellent results and a completely different atmosphere to where i am at the moment. It will be a shock to the system when i start in September but i am looking forward to it!

Holiday's are also booked for this year, China in the summer and back to Vegas for mine and Sarah's 30th birthday! How exciting. Lots to sort for the summer, visa's, if we need jabs, currency and all the other normal holiday related tasks like making lists of things to take and do! Should be an amazing holiday though.

On the subject of holiday's Daniel took me out in the pimped up converted AA van during Easter camper vanning! We had an amazing time and the weather was so nice. We went to North Wales, Conwy and went to the Welsh Mountain Zoo. That was fun especially the big brown bears who were entertaining the crowd. We also saw a bird display as well as an array of other animals.

The next day we went into Conwy, took a walk round the city walls and i can tell you i was not best pleased with how high they were! We also went into the castle where even Daniel was not the most comfortable with the height of the towers! We also spent a large portion of the day walking around the town looking for a betting shop as it was the Grand National. After seeking out a Betfred, bets were made but unfortunately our horses did not come in, boooo. There was a statue that Daniel was calling Conwy's Nelson, however after seeking it out it turns out it was no bigger than two foot tall! Which was similar to the world's smallest house that they have in Conwy, it was tiny even by my standards!

We decided to spend out last day in Llandudno at the seaside. It turns out that Snowdonia was not open to the peak so rather than going half way up we thought we'd save it til another time you can get to the top so rather than up a mountain, we went up the Great Orme! We were not best pleased when we got all the way up the hill to the cable car station to find out that they only take cash! We were further displeased when the lady said there was a cash point at the top of the Orme! Helpful! So we trekked all the way back down into the town and then back up again! The cable car was not the easier journey to make, dangling in mid air over virtually nothing, again you could probably imagine i was not best pleased! But once at the top it was a geographers haven! I obviously went rock collecting! When we came down we took a walk on the pier only to see a giant evil seagull hover above a guy eating an ice cream, who when he turned away pecked it out of his hand, cone as well! He looked like he papped himself and everyone around him couldn't help but laugh! Needless to say when we got our fish and chips we sat with the lid on sneaking out a chip when no seagull was looking!

During out little camper vanning trip we became awesome camping chefs! Our food was amazing, aside from the running out of camping gas mid sausage cooking, it was smooth sailing on the one camping stove we had. Because of the foodies we are we took many a picture of our camping cuisines, next time we're going to try some recipes from the camping cook book! I'm looking forward to it. The van itself is amazing, not your normal camping experience i can tell you. A futon style bed, fridge, microwave, sink and DVD player all installed in the back and it is currently getting a heater put in too! Once you've experienced the van you won't want to go back to a tent!

























I will keep you posted on the next camper vanning adventure!

Another case of bad luck!

Well i definitely have the world's worst luck!!! Yesterday wasn't going too bad until a Y11 failed to turn up for her mock exam, found her wandering at 2pm and ushered her in the finish it! Didn't think no more about the day until i got home and realised i had no key! Drove back to school to look for it, which i couldn't, which is when mild panic set in! Ringing and ringing the flatmates, no one was answering, tried to break in again no luck there so gave up and went to Meadowhall for some retail therapy! Wandering round the shops got a call from one of the flatmates to say that he's got home but can't get in...his key won't turn in the lock! We tried again to break in but it wasn't happening so i rang the landlord, needless to say he wasn't best pleased but there was no need to make it sound like we'd done this on purpose!!!

Whilst he was thinking what to do, i rang a locksmith who said the pin had probably dropped in the lock, quite common as it seems, though the landlord was not willing to pay £118 + VAT for them to gain entry so we had to resort to waiting for him to turn up and have a look at the situation. The lads downstairs were very accommodating and looked after us well, fed and watered!

As the landlord is such a lovely man (sense the sarcasm!) he realised what we were trying to explain to him on the phone and had a genius idea (hmmm!!) of getting up to the patio door and seeing if it was open. So in the piddling down rain he lays a rung on the roof of his car, stands on it and with a mop tries to open the door...it was locked. So his next genius idea was to drive back to Derby to collect the spare keys (yes he is that stupid he didn't think to bring them) and try entering via the flat downstairs.

Almost two hours later he returns, after we had tried to remove the wood he had used to block the door, which turns out was not coming off (clearly the landlord himself did not do that job, it was far too professional), he again tries to get up to the patio door with the idea to try and unlock it, this time with a chair on top of the roof of his car, i honestly thought i was going to have to ring an ambulance, but we did find it very funny! Now if he had listened to me earlier he would have agreed that it wouldn't work as there was a key in the other side of the door! He wasn't amused with the idea of breaking the glass panel in the door but instead at 11.20pm decided the best idea was to kick the door in!!! As i say a lovely man!!! At least we were now in!!!

Now that was all last night...onto today! After no sleep due to the original situation of which the landlord made into an epic...my key that i originally lost was found, the laptop completely died, the science experiment took forever to wait for the results of, we were getting so impatient!!! The kids did everything else they could possibly do and their homework whilst waiting for the damn experiment to give us results!!!! And then had a delightful meeting for two hours after school.

I honestly think i have the worst luck in the world...surely by now I've paid my dues and deserve a dose of good luck...please........

Two weeks from hell...

Well a lot has happened in the last month! After a very hectic, but very cultural, half term in London being back at school has been mental. So where to begin...myself and Sarah spent half term grabbing bites to eat and seeing shows. Now when Sarah suggested going to see John Barrowman's show i thought it was a stand up one man band style show, bit of singing, few jokes...but no, La Cage aux Folle turned out to be about a transvestite club! Having said that it was very funny and the guys had amazing legs!

Thursday of half term was day of doom, my birthday! It wasn't too bad i suppose, went to the National Gallery, then for some food, we do love Wagamama's, then on to see the Jersey Boys. It was again awesome and we had a good view, however the boys themselves are no where near as hot as the Vegas lads!

The week wasn't going too bad till the end when a not very nice blast from the past rings out of the blue with some horrific information, which, like he always manages to do, screws everything up that was going well now!! Boooooooo, consequently i was not a happy bunny and things needless to say turned sour! Oh well, all men are arseholes! I knew that so technically i shouldn't be too surprised that things went belly up!

This did mean that i had plenty of time to do work...which was lucky as our school had the dreaded phone call from the big O...Ofsted! Ahhhh, after spending two days preparing beyond all belief they arrived. I was starting to feel a little cheated having not been observed the last time they visited and it was looking the same this time, until my last lesson they could have potentially turned up in and low and behold in they walk. Thankfully the kids were perfect, the lesson went really well and the feedback was good, so obviously i was extremely pleased! We are still waiting now though to find out the results for the school, so fingers crossed...

Fright night for sure!!!

OMG, I've started this evening watching a DVD of a lady giving birth! And it was not good, the DVD froze as well as the head was coming out, it was far too much information for my liking! Teaching science is definitely interesting, i can get on board with the reproduction topic and quite happy doing all the other parts of the topic but this giving birth stuff is proving difficult to stomach!!! I can definitely see the benefits of adoption of why people are too posh to push, it is not pleasant!!! I tell you, getting the DNA out of the kiwi is much more my kind of thing than child birth!!!

School is definitely interesting at the minute what with our Alton Towers trip too. We had one who threw up in the bin and another who couldn't go on one of the rides due to size, we felt very sorry for him. Aside from that it was a good trip, exhausting though, mostly from all the screaming. We were sitting on oblivion and the top before you fall down to what feels like your death and everyone goes silent...then i scream, for no reason as we weren't moving! Must have been in anticipation for what was coming!!! Good day was had by most, if not all though and certainly by us!!

Where does time go?

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since we started the new year at school, time has flown, mainly because it has been so busy. Well people have been counting down to the next holiday since the first day back so needless to say we'd all rather be somewhere else! It seems like a lifetime ago when we were travelling around the US, oh how I'd wish to be back there again! For the weather as well as everything else!

Been down to London to visit and my what a traumatic journey that was! Typical the one weekend i have to go down, there was a crash between 3 lorries on the section of the M25 i have to go on, so they shut the whole motorway! Hours and hours later i eventually got home at 11pm after leaving at 3.30pm! I honestly thought i was going to have to sleep on the motorway in the car surrounded by foreign lorries and the thought of that, coupled with a lady saying she thinks we're here for the night, almost made me roar! Hopefully my next journey down at half term will be a lot smoother!

What am i doing in London during half term i hear you cry! Well Sarah and I have tickets to see the Jersey Boys, yay, on my birthday, yay!!! Beats trying to come up with something inventive to do for the day or sitting dressed in black mourning it!! I'm sure I'll fit in time for a few drinkies too!

Anyway back to the week in hand, the weather better hold out for our Alton Towers field trip on Friday, keep forgetting we are going it's come round so quick! As long as the kids behave it should be a good day, and anyway we go for free so can't complain!! Wonder if Hazel will get pooped on by a bird again, haha.

Anyway back to the Sunday night dread feeling before work Monday morning, and i don't even have any Las Vegas' to watch as waiting for season 4 and 5 to arrive! Hurry up Amazon!!!

The Last Supper

So it's the last day of the holiday's today before going back to school, booooo. I really don't want to go back, but i think no one does! I did today though try to recreate my delicious dinner from Bahama Breeze in Vegas - chicken with Jamaican jerk seasoning and mango glaze, mango and pineapple salsa, cinnamon sweet potato mash and seasonal veg which was green beans. So i couldn't completely recreate it as have no mango but it was a twist on this meal. Cajun chicken on a bed of spinach with cinnamon sweet potato mash and seasonal veg, green beans. It was yummy, am very pleased with myself! Awesome!!!