Technology is great but it cant change time

So if you've read my hiatus post you will know there were a couple of big changes in recently, marriage, new house and the topic of this post ... one of my best friends moving. 

Now usually this wouldn't be a very big deal I mean with phones and social media it's never been easier to stay in contact with people. Except my friend moved to a foreign country... 

Cue time differences and excessive service charges for texting. The service charges are easy to get around as there are loads of free internet messaging apps you can download onto a smart phone. 

Personally I use Viber which you can download free from the AppStore for iPhone but there are loads of others. I like viber as its easy to navigate and has a desktop platform for Mac like iMessage does. 

So that's the service charges gone but what about time difference. Like my title stays technology is great but it can't change time. My friend is 8 hours ahead that means when I get up at 6am it's 2pm over there, say he goes to bed about 10pm here it's 2pm and I'm still at work, then when I go to bed at 10pm it's 6am there. This makes instant messaging nigh on impossible as I'm at work in his evenings and he's asleep during mine. 

It's a real pain because sometimes you just want to have a chat with your friend. Instead we are mainly going with longer messages or delayed messages. It's ok but if you're like me you feel bad not being able to reply to people straight away so it's taking some getting used to. 

Today however we were both free, 8-3 me UK him 4-10pm so we got to actually Skype. 

It was great, technology cant change time but when you can actually see the person your talking to it makes them feel a lot closer than they might actually be. 

My friend is 3500 miles away but just for a while today he could have been round the corner.

xXx

Life happens when you are busy doing other things ......

Sorry for the hiatus ... Life took over for a while. It's been a hectic few months, we got married, moved into a brand new house and one of my best friends moved countries.

Cue lots of DIY and organising for us these last few months. Life has been a bit hectic following the move, we have moved to the other side of the city so it's necessitated shift changes for the hubby & I am now playing taxi. It's not a bad thing as we can get up together and they are more routine than his old shifts but it's still a big change.

Moving also meant we have missed out on going to the gym a lot in the weeks just after the move as we had deliveries and needed to go out to get things after work. We are getting back into it now but it's a bit harder then before due to the later shifts. Hopefully now things have calmed down we can get get into a rhythm again.

The house itself is now 95% sorted, there are just little random bits to sort like getting some shelves in our landing cupboard to make use of the large overhead space for linens. Asking the family builder about expanding our under stair cupboard and sorting through some bits that seem to be currently stored in the garage so I can get the car in. So like you see these are fairly unimportant but just bits we would like to do. Only real thing we need to do soon is tiling the splash back in the kitchen.

In terms of my friend moving the cliff notes is that as of august one of my closest friends is currently residing in South Korea. It's an amazing opportunity and I am so thrilled for all the experiences he's going to get, but it's hard. We've gone from talking to nearly daily whenever something popped up to an eight hour time difference. There is a very small window where we are both awake to IM so trying to embrace delayed longer messaging.

I've got some experience with long distance friendships as another of my best friends lives in LA so that's an 8 hour time difference too. If she wasn't actually American I might start to take it personal that my friends live so far away. Really glad my last best friend is just round the corner... Well sort of she lives in Cumbria so that's an easy drive away for visiting. 

So anyway that's a cliff notes version of the last few months and now hopefully I will have some more time to read, blog, relax and go to the gym. 

                                                                           xXx

Tea!!! ... I love a pot of tea ...

If you have had the good fortune to meet me in person and visit my house you will know that I am a big fan of tea. There is nothing more soothing then curling up with a nice warm cup of tea.

I think its a family thing, my whole family loves tea, if you visit my aunts house she will offer you a second cup before you are half way down your first!! My mum always offers tea when we pop round or more accurately I will have been in the house for 10 minutes and will hear 'emma run and put the kettle on' hehe 

Then there are my friends who also enjoy a fine cup ... or several. If you visit A or Ns house you are offered a variety of teas from their cupboards usually an earl grey or lady grey. In contrast fiancé's friend L offers tea by the ever filling mug full, he's a big fan of tea after Uni and follows the same rule of thumb as my aunt ... if you are half way down a cup its time for another. 

Anyway I wanted to write up a little post about some of my favourite teas.

This is my current collection: 

PG tips was on offer so who can turn down a giant box - it will keep us going for a while an keep my work draw stocked. 

Peppermint - I discovered the joys of peppermint tea after I developed a bad stomach last year. My stomach would get really bloated and hurt after I ate, didn't know what was wrong but a pharmacist suggested  I try colpermin peppermint tablets, they contain pure peppermint oil which settles the stomach. I did a bit of research and discovered that mint has been used for years to settle bad stomachs and ease bloating, peppermint in particular is really good. So after that I bought some peppermint tea, this way I could take a little bit of peppermint throughout the day. 

Both the tablets and the tea really settled my stomach. Now I keep peppermint because a) its nice and b) its great if you are having a 'fat' day, it soothes my stomach and makes me feel normal again. 

Green tea and Green Tea with lemon - This was bought for the fiancé when he was still loosing weight as it helps to increase your metabolism. Green tea has been drank for centuries by the Chinese and has been found to help increase metabolism a bit like chilli. Its really nice if you want  a light tea for an afternoon or for with your lunch. Fiancé isn't a bit tea drinker and found it a bit sour so did a little reading and discovered that if you add a little lemon it gives a bit of a lighter taste. Hence why we also have green tea with lemon tea bags, stops him having to add lemon juice. 

Red berry - I got this one after trying some different fruit tea at the coffee stop next to fiancés training sessions. I wanted something fresh and light to drink but a bit fruity so picked up this red berry one from Tesco to try. I looked at some of the expensive brands but didn't want to shell out on tea bags to find they were too sour or sweet for me. This turns out to be really nice its fresh and fruity but not too strong that you feel like you are drinking warm Ribena hehe 

English breakfast - this is a fairly light standard tea which can be drank when ever you fancy it really. You can add milk or drink it black depending on how you feel. I find that some normal or breakfast teas can taste a bit bitter but this one is really nice with or without milk. Personally I don't take sugar, I used to take loads when I was little but slowly stopped taking it at all. All my immediate family are milk only even the fiancé and sisters partner, but that wasn't really their choice hehe the rest of us just forgot to put or offer any sugar to them. We offer guests sugar ... but family you have generally been making them tea so long that you just make up a load of cups and hand them out normal for everyone then black for my sister in law. So now neither of them take sugar either hehe probably a good thing as we generally don't have sugar in the flat, if you want any it has to be caster sugar out of the baking cupboard. 

Now for my Twinings  teas: 

Lady grey - this one I love either black or with a splash of lemon. Its a bit lighter then an Earl Grey so a good starter tea hehe if you feel like branching out from PG tips etc. I couldn't tell you how it tastes with milk as I only ever take it black. 

Mango & Strawberry - this is my latest tea addition I picked it up on offer in Tesco the other day. I wanted something similar to the red berry but with a bit more citrus so thought I would try this one. Its turned out really nice, fresh like the red berry but with a little something sweeter from the strawberry and a hint of tropical from the mango. 

I tend to drink my fruit teas a little cooler then other tea as I feel like you loose some of the flavour when they are very hot. Might just be my taste but if you find that you cant pick up the flavour very well leave it a few minutes. 

The last little gem hiding in my tea stores is the little balls in the baggie on the left. These were from my mum they are tea flowers. You might have seen them in some Asian restaurants, they are awesome. You out the little ball in the bottom of a large wine or other big clear glass then fill with warm water, the little ball opens up to reveal a flower which flavours your tea. I cannot wait to try them they look so pretty, this one is jasmine, I might even try it this weekend. I will be sure to write a post about it and no doubt will take loads of pics. 

So there you have it my little tea collection. I thought I would finish with a little pic of my other tea love .. tea pots. If I had more space I would have loads of tea pots you can get loads of really fun ones but always check the spout no use having a pot that pours terribly. 

LtoR - Nana's teapot older then me, Cow from my bro (ornamental as its got a broken spout :( ), Red spots from fiancé, Butterflies from fiancés parents. Can't have tea with out a milk cow then my tea spoon/tongs and teabag dish. 

As I have been typing I am sure that my mango & strawberry has gone cool so I will have to put some more in from the pot ... oh dear ... what a shame hehe 

Let me know what your favourite teas are and if you find any fun tea related things like the tea flowers. I hope this may have inspired you to try some new and different teas.

xXx

What a wonderful weekend ...

So this weekend was full of good friends and good food. 

Friday: 

Our friends from Cumbria travelled down for a quick visit. They had been to stay a few weeks ago but unfortunately fiancé had to work both days so this time it was nice for him to be able to see them during the day. Hehe it was also nice that there wasn't an lengthy gap between visits like there had been for the last visits. As anyone will tell you its hard to organise visits as you get older as life gets in the way and everyone has conflicting plans so it was great to get to see them so soon, also good as S is one of my bridesmaids hehe 

For dinner fiancé served up a delicious chicken, prawn and chorizo paella, it was delicious as ever. Boy makes a mean paella. We try to serve something different whenever we have friends visit to make sure we mix it up, having friends over is also a great opportunity to try new things and experiment/expand your repertoire in the kitchen. 

Along with our paella M brought ingredients to make raspberry mojitos ... yum. They were awesome, he used fresh raspberries crushed in the bottom with the mint and sugar. Really fresh and fruity, they were a delicious cuban treat with our spanish paella. 

Giant paella pan, check, crusty bread, check, mojitos, check ... 

After dinner we sat and watched a film whilst drinking more mojitos, the drinks and company were excellent the film however was not. Got off to a good start then failed miserably but oh well. 

Saturday: 

On the morning we took our friends up to Lumley Castle to have a look as they had not seen the venue for the wedding, then we had a spot of lunch. Roast chicken submarine rolls and crisps. Then they had to get home as M was going away on business Sunday so needed to pack (last minute packing is such a boy thing) 

Saturday evening we went round to some local friends for a chilled BBQ. Unfortunately it was rained off so we did indoor BBQ hehe you have to be prepared in the UK, bloody temperamental weather.

Good night chilling with friends and catching up with come people we haven't seen in a while.  Lots of wedding talk from the girls, the hosts got married just under a year ago, I am nearly finished my wedding planning and our other friends have just booked their wedding so started the planning in earnest. So of course we were looking at dresses for C and I got to see L's finished wedding album, its really nice to chat with other people who are getting married or who have recently got married as you get to compare and swap ideas. 

Sunday:

Today is full of busy, its the last day of our holiday :( sad face back to work tomorrow, we started with brunch, then home for fiancé to watch the first game of the season for Spurs then round to my mams to car pool up to my brothers for a family birthday tea. 

So brunch ... it was awesome!! 

I was chatting with a friend from LA last night and told her we were having US style brunch she replied by asking what we considered a US style brunch ... I answered honestly with I wasn't sure but thats how our Texan friend had described it. My friend then described some of their brunches and I have got to say us English are lacking on the brunch front, the Americans know how to brunch! 

As this was our first visit to N's house for food so I took along a hostess gift, brunch appropriate boxes of Twinings fruit tea. Usually when we visit friends for food we take a bottle of wine and a dessert but that didn't seem appropriate. 

N then introduced us to Texan style breakfast tacos. It was amazing, homemade flour tortillas filled with huevos rancheros (scrambled egg, chorizo and pepper mix) topped with cheese and salsa!! It was delicious, these are apparently available at Texan schools pre wrapped in foil for the kids to eat for breakfast ... I would have loved to have these before school. We also had bowls of greek yogurt with fresh fruit and some granola with Earl Grey tea. It was amazing, we shall definitely be stealing the recipe for  the eggs and trying it again. 

After brunch we came home and the fiancé sat and watched the football while I blogged. (he is very happy as his team, Spurs, won) Now we are off to my mams to head up to my brothers for family birthday tea. Its a family tradition we have, and since my brother and his wife's birthdays are close together we tend to have a joint party either between or when its convenient ie best weekend around them for a family get together. Well I best be off. Blog later. 

xXx  

What to wear for a wedding ...

So this July myself and the fiancé are going to our friends wedding. This is also the first non family wedding we shall be attending together :). Its going to be an amazing day, and huge. The ceremony is at Ampleforth Abbey then the reception is a marquee at Byland Abbey!! 

This invite is stunning, thick card and the type is
raised so you can feel it. 

So I have decided that weddings are like buses ... when one comes along another 2 follow. Our first wedding is July, then September, then January (Abbey, Castle, Castle) then finally it is our wedding in May!! Exciting times ahead. So many weddings also means lots of wedding outfits! 

I know we could just wear the same outfits but I dont want to look the same on all the photos or you cant put them up, and I like having lots of pictures as memories. Any way down to the important aspect of outfits! I know what I'm wearing to the last one hehe picked my dress out the other month, it arrives in January! For wedding guest attire thats a little different. Fiancé was easy, he knew exactly what he wanted and found it straight away the lucky bugger.

So this is fiancés wedding attire, a lightish grey pinstripe 3 piece Aspen and Court suit from Greenwoods. There was an amazing deal on when he bought it in which he also got a shirt and tie of his choice then a pair of shoes bundled with the suit for £150!! So he has gone for a lavender shirt and a silver tie with purple paisley print.

So with him in grey and purple I decided that my outfit either had to be/contain purple or at least contrast with purple. Now I say this not because I want us to be matchy matchy but because as a couple I dont want us to clash, since we will be in pictures together. I went out looking for a flowery dress as its a summer wedding and found some nice ones in Fenwick's. But before spending a small fortune on a dress I wanted to look up at Boundary Mill to see if I could find a more expensive dress at reduced price. 

I went up with my mum and sister, who also needed outfits but they needed then for my wedding. People might say its a bit early for them to be looking, but if you think about when the seasonal stuff comes in this is the best time to start looking. See with our wedding being May they wanted summery dresses but most of the summer stuff has only just started coming into the shops so if you dont see anything you like your a bit stuck. As such by starting to look now they had all this season to look for something. 

We ended up with mountains of stuff to try on. I had a fabulous Hobbs dress that was silver with purple flowers but it just wasn't my size, 8 was a little too tight when I sat down and the 10 was way to big. So I tried on a different all purple Hobbs dress and it fits lovely. Very classic cut and gorgeously made being Hobbs.  I know I had wanted a flowery dress but purple/lilac doesn't seem to be in this season so instead I am going to look for a floral pashmina to wear round my shoulders, might also see about a little cream cardigan incase its a cool day. 

I love the bow detail at the front. 

I am not sure what sort of colours to go for with a pashmina. Should I look for a cream base with colourful floral print or look for a bright base with some floral detail? I feel like I need to have a pattern as the dress is a block colour so more block colour on top will be boring. What do you think? 

xXx

A wonderful weekend in Didsbury

So myself and the fiancé spent the recent bank holiday weekend in Manchester with our friends. We went to stay at their new apartment with some other friends from Southampton. We dont get to see these friends that often so it was really nice to get together for the whole weekend and chill out. We were also celebrating the fact that Saturday was exactly a year to the day of our wedding!! So it would be exactly a year until we were all celebrating again, but in a more formal setting and with different outfits.

Our friends apartment is amazing, its in an old converted hospital so all the ceilings are very high and the exterior is amazing to look at. The surrounding flat  blocks were also really nice all finished to a high standard so they made the area look really cute. Anyway aside from a beautiful exterior the interior has been done really well, its like visiting an expensive hotel with plush carpet and close up artistic canvases of the building.

Their flat is really nice too, rectangular space with the bedroom and lounge on the exterior wall and a second bedroom almost like a mezzanine level over the kitchen dining part of the lounge. Its hard to explain but very cool as the little second bedroom has little slat shutters you can open and look down on the lounge from.

Anyway after we had arrived and caught up on life we went into the city centre to visit an art gallery. It was really nice, the three girls went on a fashions of the 17th century tour while the lads had a wander round. There were some really amazing paintings on display and some very peculiar ones. The gallery had an exibit on that was really odd, all the pieces were exquisit compositions but the subject matter was a bit unusual at times. I will let you decide, the artists name is Raqib Shaw.

After a few hours in the gallery we went back to Didsbury to get ready for dinner. Fiancé had decided to try out a new outfit he found on Pinterest. Casual shirt, black waist coat, burgundy casual dicky bow,  blue jeans then tan shoes and belt. He looked very cute, totally rocked it.

                                             

Our meal was amazing, we went to a local restaurant called Alberts (http://albertsdidsbury.com/) the staff were really friendly and the atmosphere was cool. My main was  a little bit late and our waiters looked distraught, kept looking over from the pass where they were hurrying the kitchen along, then profusely apologised for my wait. After our lovely meal we went for a walk to a local pub, which was huge, for a drink then decided to call it a night. 

Right to left, Groom, Bestman, Groomsman.

On Sunday we went back to the Trafford centre to play mini golf. Having never been to the Trafford centre it was definitely an experience. A bit like the Metrocentre or Meadowhall  but with more decoration. The mini golf was really good, well maintained, clean and actually a lot of fun. We played 18 holes but had to go round as two groups so it was girls followed by the boys. Strangely enough the boys were a little bit more competitive then us girls hehe

The couple that mini golfs together...

I love the fiancé and the groomsman in this one!

Well hello ... 

A baker, an engineer and a med student walked into a bar ...  heheh After mini golf we decided to have a look in Selfridges. The med student had no idea what this was so fiancé (baker) explained, I knew making him watch Mr Selfridge would come in handy. The food court was amazing! I could have spent a small fortune, and thats just on American candy hehe we kept it under a small fortune and just got some Hersheys kisses, a pot of Lucky Charms and I treated the fiancé to a pot of Reeses peanut butter, he was very happy about this.

After running round the food court we decided to go for a wander into the main clothing area. Did you know there is a Primark inside Sefridges?? well I didn't. It's the tidiest Primark I have ever been in, no clothes on the floor they were hanging on rails and there was a really nice capsule collection to choose from. I bought a cute long sleeve light grey crop top and a little blue and cream handbag. Then was presented with a giant yellow Sefridges bag! it was awesome much nicer then the plain brown Primark ones hehe 

After we got back from the Trafford centre the lads cooked us an amazing dinner, we drank lots of wine and fizz. Then played a rather hilarious game of Balderdash until 2 am!! On the monday 2 of our group went home and the rest of us went decided it was such a nice day we would go to a local park and have a picnic style lunch. Then we went for a stroll round the park and got home just in time to pack up and head for the train. 

Overall it was an amazing weekend. 

Good Food, Good Friends, Good Fun!!  

xXx

Wedding fairs and Husky Trekking ....

So these past two weekends have been full ones.

On Saturday I went to a wedding fair in Harrogate with my two friends, both of whom are engaged and getting married in the next few months. It was rather amusing, all the vendors were asking who the bride was and looking rather stupefied when we responded ... "all of us". I think they thought we were having them on but it honestly just happens to be a coincidence that all three of us will be married in just over a year. 

We had a rather hilarious trip in the end, the fair had a catwalk show which involved choreographed walking and twirling for the girls (pagent style) and co-ordinated boyband style dancing for the three male models. We were in hysterics at the lads, two of whom were more father of the bride and the third well his performance was more queeny then prince charming hehe The whole thing was set to loud pop music with strobe lighting and a voice over announcer. Whilst it was hilarious as an actual catwalk show to show you potential dresses at the different local shops it didn't do very well, they were all ill fitting and the models didn't suit them at all making us rather disinclined to visit the shops.

Whilst we were there I got to try on a really amazing dress, its a maggie sottero one and looked absolutely stunning. Which means I will now be taking a trip down to Harrogate with my mum to have another look at it and see what else they have at that particular shop. Dress shopping is so much fun I love getting to look through all the different dresses they have, some are hideous some hilarious and other simply divine. I would post some pictures but then that would be telling hehe 

On the Sunday we went husky trekking, it was amazing!! My brother bought us it as a christmas gift and I would highly recommend it to anyone. We had an amazing day and I really want to go back and do it again, even if it was just to meet the huskies again hehe They were the cutest things ever and the actual trekking on the scooter was beyond fun. We got to meet all the ladies huskies who were thrilled to meet us and we even got to see some 12 day old pups who has only just started to open there eyes then meet the charming little lady below who was the cutest fluffiest puppy ever. She's only 4 weeks old and already strong as an ox. There were also three 4 month old pups who were just the bounciest little things in the world, two were entirely white and the other was red. One of the white ones is what they call a fluffy because they have thick long hair, he looked like a sheep all fluff funning around like a loon. 

Is this not the cutest little girly in the world!!

Here are the adorable huskies who pulled my scooter for the trek. 

Biscuit

 

After the trek we went to have a look at the ruins at Whitby but they had just closed so this was as close as we got. It was absolutely freezing and windy as hell, hence the fly away hair and fact I am wearing like four layers hehe 

Cuddling up to the boy in the cold. 

 xXx