Auntie Knows Best

I have had an absolutely fabulous day! My cousin Chloe and I, along with my friend Anne went to Harrogate. We went to Betty’s Tearoom in Harrogate where we had an amazing (if somewhat expensive!) afternoon tea with champagne. It was delicious, although I thought the sandwiches were rather mediocre, but the cakes were fabulous! I was even given a couple of chocolate hearts by the waitress after Anne told her we were there for my mini-hen-do. Betty’s is wonderful. Beautiful surroundings and fantastic food. You do have to queue to get in though as they don’t take bookings!

After eating yummy food we went to Harrogate Spa where we spent a couple of hours in the rather wonderful spa baths enjoying the heat and the plunge pool as well as the steam room. The baths were renovated a few years ago and they are lovely. They were quite busy today but it wasn’t too bad. We felt very relaxed after a couple of hours in there and now Chloe and I are sitting on my sofa watching a DVD and having eaten lots of pizza! The Mister on the other hand of getting drunk at Leeds Beer Festival for his stag-do. I dread to think what state he might be in by now!

Pics of the day!….

As we have people coming to stay this weekend I decided to do a little bit of baking and I made a Gache Melee (not quite sure how to do the little circumflexy things!)

Gache melee (pronounced gosh may-la) is a Guernsey dish and it is basically apple suet cake. It is truly delicious and can be eaten hot with ice-cream or cold on it’s own. I love it, even though it isn’t exactly healthy! So, here’s the recipe… not all that accurate though but these are the instructions I got from Mum several years ago!

5oz self-raising flour
2oz suet
3oz sugar
1lb cooking apples
1 egg
a bit of nutmeg (a teaspoon or so I guess!)
a bit of milk
a pinch of salt (although I forgot to put this in this time!)

Chop up the apples into smallish pieces and put into a bowl.
Whisk the egg. Add egg, suet, sugar, flour, salt and nutmeg to the apples.
Add a little milk and mix together. I am not sure how much milk I put in… just enough to bind it all together but not enough so it is soggy!

Put in a moderate oven for 1 – 1 1/2 hours.

Serve up and eat! I have to admit that these aren’t exactly magnificent photographs… but why waste time taking pics when you want to eat it!! Yummy!! I have to admit that I usually make double quantities because otherwise it is just not enough!

I got the job!! I thought I had done an OK interview but I wasn’t sure whether I would get it or not. They originally told me that they would let me know today but the decision was made by 4ish yesterday so they phoned me then. Not sure when I am going to start as they have to take up references and get the CRB check done but at least I can go off on honeymoon knowing that I have something to come back to.

*Big happy dance!!*

Things are all going well but I do have a couple of requests!

I have a job interview tomorrow for a full-time drug worker position in the homelessness team in the city centre. Looks like it would be right up my street and it would be so nice to get a job sorted for when I return from honeymoon. So prayers for a good interview would be fab.

Also, my flat still has not sold due to the complete incompetence of the council where I used to live. They had coloured in the wrong building on the plans and unfortunately the other people’s eagle-eyed solicitor happened to pick it up! The flat has been sold several times with this error in place but no-one has actually noticed! So now the council has passed this issue from department to department and now someone has to go out and redraw up the plans etc. This problem has already delayed the sale by a couple of weeks and looks like it will delay it by a bit longer. Originally I wanted to have it sold by the end of this month before the wedding but unless a miracle happens it doesn’t look like this is going to happen!

*sigh* – it was all meant to be so straight-forward!

I have had an utterly fabulous day. I went to Harrogate, indulged in a little shopping and a spot of lunch and then went to Harrogate Spa. On this occasion I didn’t actually go into the spa bit but went and had three treatments.

I started off with a body scrub and then I was wrapped up in what felt like a bit of plastic sheeting and covered with a few towels. It was the most peculiar feeling. Half way through I wondered if this was what being in a body bag would feel like! It wasn’t entirely unpleasant though, despite the plastic making me sweat and it feeling a bit itchy. However, once I had been in the shower and washed everything off my skin felt fantastic! After that I had a marvellous back, neck and shoulder massage followed by a Vitamin C facial. This last treatment was amazing, although the sensations of different textures on my face such as cold, smooth cleansers, rough flannels, a stick face mask and soft oils was strange, especially when you can’t see what is coming next!

I think I must have had 3 or 4 naps throughout the treatments and it was just lovely to be pampered for a change. I am going back to the Turkish Spa bit in a couple of weeks with Anne and Chloe for a mini hen-do. So will report back on what that was like then!

Nope, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the planet, but being unemployed is surprisingly busy! I have been making presents, cleaning the house, cooking and going out to play. Oh I should also add that I have a job interview on 16 March. I would appreciate prayers for this as it could be perfect for me, and would mean that I could start after we return from our honeymoon

The weekend before last The Mister and I went over the Manchester. We briefly popped into the museum because Paul wanted to see the giant Ron Mueck statues which were o display. In the evening we went to see Jonatha Brooke and her band play. Despite it being a really small audience it was a fantastic gig, even though the venue was absolutely freezing. Obviously they were relying on lost of body heat to generate warmth! After the gig we popped to see our friends Andy & Norman at their restaurant Ning. If you ever are in Manchester and want to eat fantastic Malysian food I recommend you go and visit them!

Last weekend The Mister and I took a drive up to Stockton-on-Tees to see Tom and Anne and their brood of children. The main reason for going to visit was for the thanksgiving sergice of their youngest son Mark and as they have asked me to be godmother we thought we should go. Rather conveniently it also tied in with the local beer festival and as Tom’s parents were visiting we were all able to go out and play!

So that just about brings up to date all the exciting news We have settled well into the house and today I went for an absolutely gorgeous walk through the woods. With scenery like this who could fail to love this part of the world!!

I would love to tell you all about Black and Blue and The Hanging Garden both by Ian Rankin. However, as I read them both at the beginning of the month I cannot actually remember anything about them. They were both John Rebus detective novels and I definitely enjoyed reading them, but as so often happens the stories have all blended into one. Sorry about that!

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I listened to Hoping for Hope by Lucy Clare on my last and final journey back to Hatfield and back. It was about Liddy who discovers a couple of days before her 50th birthday that she is not in fact going through the menopause but she is six months pregnant. I thought this was going to be a fairly typical mid-life crisis story, but what I got was a rather sweet story about a whole family who have a bit of a crisis. I predictable story but nice characters and I enjoyed it.

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The Secret History by Donna Tartt is about a slightly weird group of college students who are all taught by this equally weird classics teacher. Basically all that happens in this book is that the students do loads of drugs and actually kill someone and the rest of the story is them trying to cover up what happened, and one of the students gets killed as a result. That’s it. No real story to be honest. The reviews on Amazon rave about this book but I thought it was rather rubbish to be honest!

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That’s it… a rather pitiful 4 books this month. I guess moving and lots of stuff going on has meant I have been a bit busy to read!

In honour of the Winter Olympics here is my cat Delilah practising for the Skeleton Bob. Heh.

Well we have had the most amazing few days moving me from Hertfordshire to Yorkshire.

On Thursday Mum and Dad came over to help us move and they were both absolutely amazing and they worked so hard. Dad gave The Mister a bit of a masterclass in packing a van (now he knows why I am so anal when it comes to packing the car when we go camping!!) and we almost got everything in. Rather annoyingly we couldn’t fit about 4-5 boxes in so I am going to have to go back down next week ans pick those bits up and tidy up the flat a bit. So, once we had packed the van we drove Up North and stayed overnight in a Travelodge so that we didn’t have to unpack anything.

Friday was equally busy although unpacking the van was a great deal easier than packing it! After unpacking the van we managed to unpack quite a lot of stuff so that it started to feel a little bit like home. We also had an enormous new bed delivered from Ikea (and I have to say it is probably one of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in!! Mum and dad left at 2ish and we carried on unpacking.

This morning we took the train into Leeds – where we are living isn’t far away but the train takes 10 minutes and we don’t have to struggle with the traffic or parking. Brilliant. We went and bought out wedding rings, that took us all of about 10 minutes! Then, back home to the house to unpack a bit more, the Sky man came to sort that out and we have just collected the cat, Delilah. She is currently sniffing around the house, calming down a little but seems a bit confused that all the stuff from her previous home has been transplanted into a new environment. She will be fine even if she has to stay in for a while!!

So, big thanks to everyone who prayed for a smooth move – so far it has all gone swimmingly. Here are so pics of our new abode!

Today it is all happening!! My flat is going to be packed into a van and move Up North. at the moment I am sitting surrounded by boxes. It’s amazing just how much stuff was stashed into this house – it wa a little bit like the Tardis!!

Last night The Mister and I went to my surrogate Mum and Dad’s house for a leaving meal with about 20 people. It was brilliant and there were people there I haven’t seen for ages. Good food and company and plenty of good wine. Auntie Billie turned up and joined me with a bit of wine-drinking (thank goodness The Mister has now passed his driving test!) and we had a brilliant time.

I so realised last night just how many wonderful friends I have. My surrogate mum and dad have been amazing to me over the last 10 years and I am not sure that I would have been so happy here if I had never met them. They are two of the most generous people I have ever met, both materially, but also emotionally. Their large and racous family have provided me with a safe space to be me, and of course as Auntie Billie is their eldest daughter, that contact has always been fun.

So last night was a little hard, but also positive. These people have seen me through some of the most difficult church-related problems in my life, but somehow we have all come out live and kicking. So, celebrating my move with them last night seemed like a particularly fitting end.

I have been very blessed with great friends, and I am sure I will find more Up North. I just have to be prepared to get out there and get on with it!!!