Fantastic Mr [Fox] Chicken! March 13, 2010

Orangu-Chan February 10, 2010

Most of you will know that my lovely boyfriend makes beautiful music in his spare time. Up until now he’s mainly focused on pop music both within his former band, Circa, as well as a solo artist, whereby he writes, performs and produces tracks to rival the likes of Justin Timberlake and Calvin Harris. Fewer of you will know that he has also written music tracks for videogames such as Supercar Challenge. And probably none of you will know that he also recently volunteered to write the music for this short documentary, charting the plight of Orangutans in Borneo and the amazing work of International Animal Rescue.

Enjoy!

x

Duck Tales – Eggstremely Eggciting News February 3, 2010

Since the cold snap, Hueyetta and Louie had been living inside with us. They had a make-shift pen in the kitchen, which they had started breaking out of by the end… After that we invested in a proper pet-pen, which was much better until they worked out how to unzip the doors… But, now that the mornings are a little less frosty, they’re back outside in their duck pen and are loving it. (More on that to come in another blog post!).

Anyway… just before the duckies moved out, they had started “getting jiggy with it” – particularly awkward when you’re trying to cook dinner and you have to ducks going at it in the corner of the kitchen… And even worse was the fact that try as he might, poor old Louie couldn’t seem to stay on long enough to finish up. It’s been about 2 weeks since this naughtiness began, and back then we started to think about eggs. Ducks should start laying when they’re about 6 months old and tend to lay an egg every other morning. Our Hueyetta was born in August, and she seemed fairly happy and healthy so we were counting on eggies in February – and sure as eggs is eggs, this morning we were blessed with the news that we are now proud grandparents to Eggburt!

Mother and egg seem healthy and happy, and Hueyetta & Louie were back to their naughtiness by the time we left for work this morning. So all being well, in a couple of months time we might even have some fertilised eggies to incubate and hatch for some new additions to our ever-growing brood.

x

Byron Burger January 26, 2010

My brother has recently started working a few roads away from me, which is cool because it forces him to see me without me having to travel to the depths of Hertfordshire for the pleasure…

Anyway – we’ve made it a fairly regular thing to go out for lunch every few weeks. We take it in turns to pay and everything. Up until now, I’d been doing fairly well in the luncheon stakes. We started out fairly small with a cafe, moved on to fish and chips (and mushy peas – yum!), after that I managed to trump him with a quite frankly scrum-diddly-umpscious meal of cumberland sausages with mashed potato and veg, served in a GIANT yorkshire pudding. (Thank God for the good old White Horse‘s traditional pub menu!) Admittedly I did make a school boy error in leaving most of my yorkshire pud until the very last thing, and had a total batter-overload when I tried to down it in one…

But I digress. All this was before Christmas, and we hadn’t met up for one of our regular lunch dates until last week. That’s when he sprung it on me… BYRON on Wardour Street opened in November last year. It’s difficult to describe in that on first look it appears to be a fairly upmarket restaurant come gastro-pub (without the pub attached). However, on closer inspection it is in fact a sort of British take on the American burger bar, with friendly waitresses, cosy tables adorned with carafes of water and boxes of condiments (including a fabulous hot sauce), as well as a wacky projector screen wall. I’ve walked past it countless times, each time promising to go back for a meal at some point and yet never quite managing to follow through. Simon had apparently been there 3 times since we’d come back to work on 4th Jan – such is its sheer greatness.

And so it was that we ventured in out of the rain last Wednesday, to be greeted by a mouth-watering menu of burgers, fries and sides, salads, extras and desserts. Obviously Simon and I went for the Byron burger which is served with dry cure bacon, mature cheddar and “Byron sauce” (we’re not sure exactly what the Byron sauce is made of, although at the time we did discuss the possibility of it being “special” in more ways than just the taste). And, in true London style you can even choose how your burger is cooked (mine’s medium-rare, thanks). It was the best burger I’ve had in a long time, and to be honest I’m just glad I’ve got another week and a half (due to my brother’s ridiculously crowded diary) to think of somewhere else to go…

… Claridges anyone? The Ivy? Maybe I should just cut my losses and stick to Nandos…

x

House of Mouse January 25, 2010

Hello!

Firstly I should apologise for the radio silence over the past couple of weeks. It’s been a rather odd time, and I’ve been hugely busy without being able to talk about it… That may all sound fairly secretive, but the reason for this is that I’ve actually had a couple of interviews over the past few weeks (the second and final one of which took place last Monday afternoon) and didn’t want to talk about them in case I jinxed it. However, the entire process is now over, so I’m back and raring to go with lots of ideas for new posts to write over the coming days. Now – back to those interviews:

When I moved over to the European office at Sony PlayStation, I had to move onto a temporary contract since they didn’t have the headcount to allow me to transfer on a permanent one. I was therefore only ever supposed to be here for a year (from last July) and the plan was to start looking around for another job post-Christmas. However, a couple of weeks before the Christmas holidays, I noticed a job advert in one of our trade magazines for a European Product Manager located in Hammersmith and the little cogs in my brain immediately began to whir, wondering whether this was in fact an advert for a job at my old home – Disney. Having worked at Disney about 3 years ago now, I still know a majority of people there and so made a couple of enquiries and ended up sending my CV through to them just in time for Christmas. The following week, I was off work (during which time I was mainly on the sofa, watching movies, eating my body weight in snack food and drinking wine) when I had a call from Disney, asking whether I could go in for an interview during the first week back in January. I jumped at the chance and booked a morning off work for a 9am interview.

When 4th January rolled around, and with it the necessity to go back to work (ughh), I had all but forgotten about my impending interview. That was, until I realised that all the SNOW (which I may have mentioned previously on this very blog) would in all likelihood be making my journey to Hammersmith all the more treacherous and time consuming… And so it was that I left the house on 7th January, wearing my very best business dress, tights and walking boots. Yes walking boots – in fact the ones I climbed Kilimanjaro in. Because it was literally that icy. :-s Somehow I managed to make it there without breaking my neck and the interview went okay. I’m not very good at judging whether an interview goes well or not – and this one was made all the more difficult because one of the girls interviewing me was someone I had frequented the pub with on more than one occasion during my time at Disney… So, once I’d left I tried to forget about it and went on with my working week.

The following week, however, a couple of unexpected things happened – firstly I was offered a permanent contract at SCEE (yey!) and secondly, I had another call from Disney who, to my surprise, wanted to see me again! This time I would have to write and present a marketing plan for one of their upcoming (and quite frankly stunning) games – Epic Mickey. Having spent the last week and a half working on PowerPoint presentations for an SCEE company conference, I have to say the thought of having to write another one in my spare time was not the most inspiring way to end my week. However, I was delighted at having the chance to go back in to show them exactly what I can do. And, to be honest, I quite enjoy giving presentations – not least because all the preparation before hand enables you to go in fully loaded with all the ammunition you’re likely to need to survive the onslaught of questions that will likely arise.

And so I spent an ENTIRE WEEKEND planning, writing, organising, and making my marketing plan look pretty. When Monday afternoon came around, I was more nervous than I have been for a long time. So much so, that when I arrived at Disney’s head offices in Hammersmith and one of my interviewers asked how I was doing, I replied “nice” rather than “very well thank you, and how are you?”. She must have either thought me to be either retarded or just plain special… The presentation itself went as well as I could have hoped, and I think I handled myself pretty well during the round of questions too. And so, after about an hour I was invited to stay for another half hour to speak to the Marketing Director – who was one of the nicest and funniest people I have met in a long time. She was extremely welcoming, very honest and had a sense of humour that meant I literally spent the entire interview laughing… And so, once again she must have thought I was either incredibly unprofessional, drunk, or bizarrely relaxed about having just sat through an hour’s interview and to now be sitting with the European Marketing Director.

Luckily for me, it seems is was the latter (and more positive) of these in both cases, as the following day I was offered the job! And so it is with much excitement (although I’m sad to be leaving SingStar) that I can say, I’m officially going back to the House of Mouse as of 22nd February! Yippee! And that explains where I’ve been for the past couple of weeks! But it’s good to be back, and I’m looking forward to writing some new posts over the coming days – so make sure you keep checking back.

Take care and love to you all!

xx

Duck Tales – Breakout! January 12, 2010

As you may have gathered from my recent blog posts, we’ve been having some rather unusual weather here in the UK over the past few weeks in that it’s bloody freezing. As well as this meaning our daily walk to and from the tube station is more difficult than walking up a bobsled track (eins, zwei, drei!), it also means that our darling duckie-boos are having to lodge with us as it’s too cold for their little butts to stay outside all night. As such we’ve had to build a make-shift pen in the kitchen and, up until now it’s been fairly painless. Sure they do plopsies at every given opportunity and require daily cleaning. Sure they need to have sole use of our bath-tub for about half an hour each day so that they can swim, splash and make a holy mess in the absence of the frozen pond outside. But at least they’re well behaved. That was until a few days ago…

It all started when at the weekend Huey – or Hueyetta as we now call her – thought it would be funny to jail-break. As such she spent a day planning out a safe route before making a run for it, and heading on into the lounge for more fun and games (and plopsies). Of course her darling husband Louie wasn’t far behind and they now seem to be making a habit of breaking out at every given opportunity. I would say roll on summer, but in all honesty I’ll miss the little buggers once they’re back outside. It may sound strange but they’re almost like children. They both have such funny (and naughty) little personalities that I’ll really miss the troublesome two.

In the meantime, here’s an awesome bird related video that we took before we got our very own duckies. We were out at Green Park feeding ducks and geese and found this particularly hungry chap, who seemed so desperate for a mouthful of bread that he would double-footed jump up to get it!

Enjoy!

🙂

The Snowman January 7, 2010

As those of you that read the comments section of “Happy No-snow Day” yesterday will be aware that my office closed at 3:30pm yesterday to allow people extra time to get home safely in the snow storm. By the time I left, it was around 4pm and the pavements in Willesden Green were already a death-trap – and that was before another night of freezing temperatures to solidify all the snow. So, this morning (and I apologise for my fashion faux-pas Leila, but safety first!) I had to resort to wearing these rather attractive hiking boots to work:

Particularly attractive when worn with tights and a black shirt-dress, I have to say. Despite looking like the littlest hobo and one pretty convincing “Bambi on ice” impression, the boots (and the fact that “the boyfriend” kindly walked me to the bus stop) prevented any broken bones. Sadly though, we still haven’t had enough snow for another full Snow Day. 😦 However, lots of people outside of London (my sister and niece included) have been having a fabulous week, and have been making particularly good use of the snow through sledging, snow ball fights, making igloos (or eggloos, as my niece calls them) and generally having a good time. However, by far the best way to put all that snow to good use is, in my humble opinion, to make a snowman. And over the past couple of days, people have really excelled themselves at this one, and looking through these has brightened my spirits on another otherwise non-eventful no-snow day.

Good work, people of the snowy Great Britain!

🙂

George’s Sunday Dread January 4, 2010

I spent most of yesterday afternoon cooking – homemade egg pasta for freezing, roast dinner, chicken stock for freezing, baked potatoes for lunches in the week… And, since cooking is one of my favourite pastimes, I really enjoyed it. However, one thing I did not relish was the reminder (via the baked potatoes) that this week it’s back to work. 😦

Having had two full weeks off, during which time I only got dressed when absolutely necessary (i.e. to leave the house), today was always going to be a bit of a shock to the system. Even George had a severe case of the Sunday dread, which he illustrated by curling up underneath his log for the night – something he only does when he’s in an especially bad mood.

He was still there this morning, and I had to force him to come out to warm up so that I could feed him before I left for work. (Lizards can’t digest food unless they’re warm, so I sat him right underneath his heat lamp at 6:15 this morning). I think he dislikes early starts even more than I do!

Anyway, this morning was the official start of our new fitness regime (further spurred on by this ingenious story about members of “beautifulpeople.com” dating website being struck off the list for gaining weight over Christmas – it seems it’s a harsh world for singletons at the moment). It began after a restless night’s sleep with an alarm call at 5:50, followed by our core exercise routine (to improve balance and core muscles) for around 45 mins, and then 15 mins of cardio.

Breakfast consisted of rolled porridge oats, which release energy slowly during the day, a boiled egg white for protein (no yolk since sadly, as with a lot of tasty food, it’s all fat…), and half a grapefruit to aid digestion. I then walked all the way up the escalator at Oxford Circus, and again used the stairs at work. (I’m refusing to get lifts from now on – every little bit of exercise counts!) And I have to say that despite the early start the whole morning really set me up for the day. I felt great and was raring to go back home to start our weights programme at the earliest opportunity!

In fact the only negative outcome of the whole day was that I arrived at work on one of the coldest days of the year so far (albeit that we’re only 4 days in), to find that our heating was broken… And even then, we had our emergency supply of hoodies (God bless gaming merchandise!) to help warm us up.

And luckily for me, my fabulous new boots, which I had ordered from eBay pre-Christmas and since forgotten about, also arrived all the way from China just in time to warm my icy toes. They’re almost boxing-boot-esque, and are very funky. I officially LOVE them!

Lessons to be learned – on days when the Sunday dread is setting in, and even George has decided it’s best to stay underneath his log and have a duvet day, wrap up warm and soldier on if only on the off-chance that you might end up with a pair of brand new boots at the end of it all!

Happy Monday!

🙂

New Year’s Resolutions 2010… January 2, 2010

I’m not normally one to make New Year’s Resolutions – mainly because I lack the self-control required to actually stick to any of them. This year, however, I’ve made an exception for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I absolutely need to jump on the old weight-loss band wagon before I balloon (I’m currently at my heaviest ever, and if I want to fit back into my early-2009 jeans, then I’ve got to do something about it). Secondly, there’s a tonne of gym equipment in our spare room that has done nothing but gather dust over the past 6 months. And lastly I now have someone to reach my goals with (because I think it’s fair to say that both my boyfriend and I have overindulged somewhat in 2009). He’s therefore agreed to be my gym buddy, and we’ve already planned out our new fitness regime – which centres mainly on lots of exercise. I have to say that, after having had two weeks off during which I’ve done pretty much nothing but binge on Christmas food, and watch our enormous collection of Christmas movies, I’m quite looking forward to a new, more active lifestyle!

Anecdotally, on New Year’s Eve this year we stayed home and cooked a yummy three course meal (seared A-grade tuna with salad; shellfish curry with basmati rice and greens; and finally Christmas pudding soufflé) played a few games and watched some movies. However, at midnight we decided it might be nice to go into our garden and let off a flying Chinese lantern, which I’d bought just before Christmas.

It is said that if you write a wish on the outside of a lantern, it will rise into the sky and your wish will come true. Our wish was for a “happy, healthy and prosperous 2010”. In retrospect that may have been slightly too much to ask for, since the result of our efforts was that our lantern got stuck onto some scaffolding, fell into the neighbour’s back garden and meant that we had to spend the next 20 mins making sure it didn’t set anything alight… The only blessing was that I hadn’t written our names on the damn thing!

Happy New Year!

🙂

Secret Santa January 2, 2010

This was my first Christmas in my new job and, as such, I was really quite nervous about joining in with the traditional department Secret Santa. In my previous job, I’d always been pretty confident in my choice of gifts, ranging from slogan t-shirts to youdoo dolls to the obligatory blow up sex toy. This year, however, I wasn’t especially close to the person I was buying for, and I wasn’t sure whether my new colleagues were altogether more sensible than my previous ones. I therefore began on a desperate mission to come up with something inoffensive, personal and unique – and all for the princely sum of £10.

Those of you that know me will know that I can, when pushed, be fairly creative. And luckily my creative juices seemed to be in full flow when I came up with my brain wave – personalised wedding cake toppers for the soon-to-be married couple! A genius idea! Only the websites that sell them charge anywhere from £75 to almost £300 per pair. Argh!

And then, having looked at some pictures I thought “hang on – I could do that”. And so I purchased myself £10 worth of Fimo and sat down with my lovely boyfriend one evening (who was somewhat bullied into assisting me by making the groom) to start out Fimo adventure. Two evenings, six pairs of Fimo eyes and a small coronary when the bride started wilting in the oven later, and the results were the beautiful couple below.

On the day of the Secret Santa giving ceremony, the usual blow-up sex toys, bottles of wine, and various chocolates and toiletries made their appearance. But our lovely Fimo couple stole the show, and I am officially Secret Santa’d out – until 2010 anyway…

As for Fimo wedding cake toppers, orders are welcome in the comments section below – and you will all of course be given a friends and family discount.

😉