Spring blossoms all around

 Blossoms of different colours and sizes everywhere.  Nightmare for those who suffer from pollen allergies but heavenly for some of us.

 These buds will be out in the next couple of days and it will be a sight to behold.

 I like these ones especially as they look like white roses and the branches are  heavy with them.

Dairy free cakes baked at home

My pre-teen has nut and dairy allergy but she loves cakes.

We stopped buying cakes a long time ago. frown emoticon

Then something amazing happened, she took it on herself to learn to bake. She is now making the most amazing cakes without butter, chocolate or cream. They are moist, fluffy and delicious.

Because I said so

Teen this morning told me a friend from her school, A, 16, is going to have an arranged marriage when she turns 18 and A has no problem with that.

That started it ...

"You know if I ever marry it won't be an arranged one?", she said looking angry.
"Of course darling, I know", I answered and continued, "but if you happen to bump into someone accidentally who happen to be everything you look for in a man then you won't have a problem marrying him, would you?".

"Oh my god, is it like that film where the mum find the girl a boy", she literally shrieked.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490084/ 

To annoy her ever more I with my most innocent smile said, "Yes, baby that is what I am talking about"

New Directions

How do you change your career direction in your 40's?

I don't know but I am about to try.  You will need a clear direction, determination, confidence and support from family. I was told I have to be like a dog with a bone to get what I want.  This is the year to see if I am that dog !!!

Rainbow reminder

This is where I worked until last week.  I took this photo as I was leaving work couple of months ago to get the beautiful rainbow.  Now it is the only photo of the place I worked.  

New Year resolutions or not

I remember making a resolution this time last year.  It was not to have any resolutions. Now looking back I can see this was the only time in my life I had no goals for the whole year. I am sitting here on the last day of the year and I don't have anything to look back on...and I don't like it.

I love lists; I go to shop with a shopping list, I make a list of things to do around the house, and if I have my way even my cat will have a list.  I now know I love new year resolutions.  They give my life a purpose.  I like looking back on New Year's eve to tick the boxes and feel like I achieved almost everything I set out from the 1st day.

So I will make my resolutions and will add to it with glee on the first week of 2015 as I have done in previous years.  The only difference will be I won't feel guilty about the length of my list.  I will enjoy making and adding to my list.  I will have one for this blog, to keep writing at least once a week and to take photos add to my blog.

2014 - a good bye

2014


So here I am on the the last day of 2014 - will I be sad to say good bye?.......  I don't think so

There was the bucket challenge, there was the new job, there was the end of a contract and for the first time in my life the threat of redundancy.  As I am sitting here no one had come forward to take on the company that went to administration on Christmas eve.

When I started my job with City Link in February 2014, it was only for a short time, or I thought. Now looking back I can see I took it for granted, the job was paying my bills and I got too lazy to find another.  I would have never met the people I work with anywhere.  That must be  my redemption.  I got to know their problems and my own seemed small in comparison.

I had seen many new faces coming in for training and many old ones leaving.  Some I was glad were leaving some I was worried about and some I knew would find their feet sooner rather than later.

Today as I drove to work to see them for the very last time, I had mixed feeling will I cry? will I be angry? will I pose for pictures? By the time I got there only a handful left and they had cried all their tears and their eyes were red but dry.  A child came in to with her dad to say good bye to us and found the empty seats too scary and was not sure if she wanted to stay.  I couldn't blame her, I was feeling the same.

I have their email addresses, will we keep in touch?  I should hope so.

...................my sincere wishes for all of us for the new year is for some good news on the job front.

My review of the book "Rocking your Role" by Jenny Garrett - week one

I was given this book as a gift by a good friend.

I read the blurb at the back, turned few pages to give a cursory glance and put it at back of the bookcase.  Yesterday,  as I was leaving my house to sit for an hour waiting for my children, I looked for a book to ease my boredom...... This book caught my attention.

At the waiting room I opened up the book and started reading.  I have read a lot of self help books in my time.  Not all of them worked for me but some clearly did and this one I can definitely say is one I like to put in the later group.

It has a 12 week Action and Reflection cycle. I am only on the first week of workout. 

I will let you know how I get on.


In the mean time, this website http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15903624-rocking-your-role
will give you a clue as to what I am about to find out !!!

New Sandwich filling, an accidental discovery

A new sandwich filling I discovered while I was about to clean the fridge:

What you need

• At least two days old bread - 2 pieces
• Half-empty jar of pickled jalapeno pepper pieces(that you bought for your daughter's pizza making at school)
•  Almost full jar of pesto("its basil mum not wild rocket, you know I don't like the taste of basil")
•  The oil left in the jar of roasted peppers(the one you like so much and when the last of the pepper is gone you don't know what to do with the oil..that one)

Method: toast the bread lightly, pour some of that lovely oil(depend how much you like roast pepper infused olive oil, in my case a lot), get a spoon and get some of that pesto spread on to the toast. Decorate with pieces of jalapeno peppers(not too much if you don't want it to bite you back..they are hot !!)

Sit back with a cup of black coffee and enjoy !!!

(p.s Now I need to I patent my sandwich filling)

New Year already

It is my daughter's 16th birthday today.  That made me think about my own 16th birthday.  I need to do more now that I am a mother of a young adult !!!

So much has happened since the last post.......

Hi

Changes all the way
I am now my own master
Happy and at peace
With everything and everyone I love around me

Life is good !!!!

Mothers day

Today is mothers day
Happy Mothers day to all mums
Every mum is special
To their children
I myself am a mum and I have a mum
So I see it from a daughter's side and a mother's side
I am lucky to be both
I had a lovely day
I got homemade presents made with care and love
I gave presents with love made with care by others
All in all a good day for all

dancing buds 

Foggy leaves

Snow in 2012

It snowed twice so far in February.  For about a week it was so cold almost every night temperatures were reaching -8C.  

 Fresh snow...street view

 Dad pulling a sledge with his son so early in the morning...

 snow heavy on the branches

 snow made the trees look white...

Nikon D200

 The new M&M shop in Leicester Square.  It was fun exploring.

 The fountains at Somerset House.  Our new fascination!!

 Somerset House statue

I am trying out my new camera Nikon D200.  I have tried it out in London the other day and I like it.

London through our eyes

We went to London couple of times last month.  Although it is only 20 minutes on the train, it feels a world away and we venture to London  only when it is necessary.

We have a list of places we want to go: some of them tourist attractions and some not so.

First place we went was Somerset house.  We were lucky, the fountains on the courtyard were on and there was an exhibition by Ai Weiwei. To top it all, it was a sunny day.

Once inside, we were enthralled by the spiral staircase:

Second place we went to see was Cleopatra's needle on the banks of Thames.  We were excited by the two sphinxes guarding the needle.

Then we were off to have some lunch.  I read about the place we wanted to go for lunch as it was described as 'one of the places in London very few tourists visit'.  So we went to check it out.

It is the cafe in the Crypt in St. Martin in the field, Trafalgar Square.  It is opposite 'National Portrait Gallery'.  


We will be going back to see more places soon.

Happy New Year

This Christmas was snowy and it was wonderful for the first few days.



This was the first time Tigz had seen snow and he was running around burying his head in holes he had dug out.



Wishing you all a magical 2011
Hope this is the year for lucky breaks
and wonderful surprises...

Continue to grow the way you are
Pick and choose your friends carefully
Surround yourself with positive people

The world is yours to conquer
Happy New Year

Kitten news

Tigz is now nearly 6 months and started behaving like a teenager !! He wants to go out all night and if I don't let him out he will make noise at around 3.00 am..when I do let him out he is at the door making lots of noise at 5.00 am to let him in !!!!






So cute




he looks like Mixie the cat that adopted us and changed our mind about cats !!!

Twilight saga

I just finished reading the forth book 'Breaking Dawn'...

I had read the other 3 and watched the movies too....in my opinion in the third film 'Eclipse' the director followed the book as much as he could and I liked it for it...if I was directing I would have done it this way too...

I felt the same about the 'Harry Potter' films...each director had their own way and it was a lesson in itself..

My dilemma

I just finished reading 'The Rice Mother' by Rani Manicka. Author's first book but excellent indeed. I couldn't put it down. That is where the dilemma started. I have heard of actors/actresses taking a character and turning themselves into the character and living like them for the duration of the shooting of their film and sometimes beyond depending on how committed they are....I read a book and I get into the character's head and I start to live the book...how weird can it be!!!This has been happening for a number of times now. First I thought it was a particular author ...now I know it is not them it is me!!! What do I do now

read the review here on http://www.sawnet.org/books/reviews.php?The+Rice+Mother

Tigz

Our new kitten is here...
9 weeks old and rather cute