Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Saturday 10 December - Bath Christmas markets!


Current location: Bristol
11.11pm, Drinking red wine in a festive pub in Bristol with Claire, my sister. I'd come to visit for the day and we'd gone to Bath to do some Christmas shopping. The markets were brilliant, all around the cathedral, and we ate wurst, drank glühwein and I reminisced about the Berlin Christmas markets last year. What an awesome year it's been! Bath was beautiful and, as we came home and wrapped presents next to the tree while listening to Christmas songs, I felt very festive indeed!

(Pic taken from Christmasmarkets.com)

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Thursday 8 December - Christmas dinner #3 of 3 (this week!)




Current location: Blackheath
11.11pm, Getting asked to leave a bar. Not because we were raucous and drunken (15 netball girls?!), just because the bar was closing. We were on our netball Christmas night out and had finished a delicious meal in Zero Degrees, before moving onwards and upwards for wine and cocktails. When the next bar closed we headed to a very bizarre Mexican place and carried on the night in..style?! I always have so much (too much?) fun with the netball girls, and the hangover/lack of sleep is pretty much guaranteed.

Tuesday 6 December - Christmas dinner #2 of 3



Current location: Brixton
11.11pm, Being full at Sara and Emily's house. The six of us (Sarah, Catdog, Emma, Sara, Emily and I) had met at their house for a home-cooked Christmas dinner. Each 'pair' was in charge of a course, and Cat and I were on starters, so we made mushroom and stilton vol-au-vents. They're so easy and so tasty so I might start making them more often. Next up was Sara and Emily's mains: chicken, stuffing, roast potatoes, spiced cabbage, carrots, parsnips and I'm pretty sure there was more that I've forgotten. It was absolutely incredible; we all went back for seconds. Emma made her famous 'Granny's cookie cake', which we all somehow found room for (again, some of us may have, er, gone back for seconds...) then we all lazed around like it was Boxing Day, pulling crackers, telling jokes and singing carols. Starting to feel very festive now, and appreciative of my lovely, lovely friends.

Monday 5 December - Christmas dinner #1 of 3


Current location: Lewisham, London
11.11pm, Getting home after a Christmas meet-up with the City girls. Strictly speaking, this one wasn't a proper Christmas dinner, because we went to Pizza Express and all ate pizza (surprisingly) but it still had that festive feel to it! Love these girls, and love the excitement and anticipation that the Christmas season brings!

(Picture of a, erm, pizza Christmas-tree decoration taken from FG Pizza) ?!

Saturday 3 December - Birchwood house party


Current location: Wandsworth
11.11pm, Dancing in our friend's lounge. One of our friends from uni, Hamish, had a house party so four of us went along to see old faces, meet new ones, drink their drinks, dance, count, gossip, laugh, hide and all the other funny things that happen at house parties. I'd forgotten how much I love house parties – how unpredictable and fun they are, and silly you can be and get away with it. Catdog, Emma and I started off drinking pink wine and doing face masks at Emma's at 5pm too, which was the perfect start to a fab night.

(Picture taken four years ago at a house party in uni, when the three of us lived together).

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Tuesday 29 November - Hanson again



Current location: Greenwich, London
11.11pm, At the O2 (the Indigo bar in the O2), MMMBopping like I've never bopped before. Ruth, Nicky, Sarah and I were at a Hanson concert (yes, the second in six months), dancing, shouting, whooping, hollering, shrieking, singing, fist-pumping, jumping and generally acting like superfans. I bloody love Hanson, so very much.

(Images © Tom Clarke)

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Saturday 26 November - Birthday night in Angel, Finsbury Park and Dalston





Current location: On a bus to Dalston
11.11pm, On our way out for Ruth's birthday. We'd been to hers for Cava and homemade vol-au-vents (our new speciality) and then to a really nice Japanese/Korean place in Finsbury Park called Dotori, it was sooooo good. All full up but wanting to dance, we headed to Dalston where we took our shoes off and danced on chairs and tables in three clubs and then went home to eat leftover vol-au-vents. Happy birthday Ruthie!

Thursday 24 November - Puss in Boots premiere!


Current location: Soho
11.11am, At work, emailing my City girls (my friends from City University). We were meant to be meeting up for Book Club tonight but, due to various reasons (and the book being rubbish), we decided to postpone. Then magically my friend Sophie invited me to the premiere of Puss in Boots. We both turned up to Leicester Square a little dishevelled and, thanks to Sophie's press tickets, we then traipsed down the red carpet behind Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, clutching our gym bags and not getting papped by the millions of photographers. We ended up sitting by Jenny Frost and Amanda Holden and I was bloody excited. The film was hilarious; I absolutely can not recommend it enough, and loved that my evening went from a quiet night to an amazing night!

Tuesday 22 November - More quizzing


Current location: Angel, London
11.11pm, In the Winchester pub, talking to Curious George, the Quizmeister. We went to the quiz again and managed to come a respectable 5th. Yes, out of 7, but still impressive I think. Especially because one round involved making a mask...and the above attempt is all we could come up with.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Saturday 19 November - Ice-skating by day; roller-skating by night




Current location: Vauxhall, London
11.11pm, Skating around in circles to the sound of Madonna. Emma and I joined some of my lovely netball team for a roller disco in Vauxhall and, oh my goodness, it was hilarious. Turns out Emma could barely stand up on the skates (she resembled Mr Soft) but we all had the most amount of fun ever. I LOVED it!!

Earlier in the day, I had been ice-skating at Tower of London with Pippa too, so I was feeling pretty sore-legged as we may our way back to Emma's to carry on the party.

Friday 18 November - Friday night with (some of) the Higgos



Current location: Balham, London
11.11pm, Finishing dinner at my sister's house. Another one of my sister's, Pippa, had also come up from Cornwall to Kate's house, so three-quarters of the Higgins daughters were there, as well as Jim, Andy and a friend called Al. As well as the world's most beautiful niece, Ella. Or Princess Ella, as she is now known.

Sunday 13 November - I can't beLEAVE it's Autumn!



Current location: Lewisham
11.11pm, Pinning leaves to my pinboard. Andy and I met some friends (Jack, Ruth, Alex Ormerod and his girlfriend Jen) in Hyde Park and the colours of the leaves were just magnificent. Andy took some AMAZING pictures (see his blog here) and we all jumped around and tried to catch falling leaves. I love England in Autumn!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Friday 11 November - 11/11/11


Current location: Penzance, Cornwall
11.11am, In my kitchen with my mum, talking about my great-grandad. Today is important for this blog, because of course it is the 11th day of the 11th year in 2011. But it's also an important day for remembering those who fought in, and died in, World War 1. My great-grandad, Joseph May, fought in the Battle of the Somme, and was one of only two of his platoon that returned; he lost almost all his friends there. He was also gassed and sent home but, as soon as he was well, he was sent back to France! What an amazing man – and he was only one of millions. This haunting, excellent image of men in the Somme is from Royalulsterriflescom.

Today – occurring only once every hundred years – is supposed to be lucky, so I hope that it is does bring good luck to you all. It's already been a good one for me as, today, I hit 30,000 page views...something I wouldn't have even considered when I started this blog back in June 2010! I also hope it's an especially great one for both my friend Bree and my uncle Dennis - Both fab people in very different ways, and both celebrating their birthdays today.

Happy 11/11/11!

Thursday 10 November - Friends, family and farmhouses






Current location: St Ives, Cornwall
11.11am, Playing on the beach with my sister Pippa and nephew Zac. He is almost three and doesn't stop smiling, much like his gorgeous older brother Vinny. After a posho lunch, we went to pick Vinny up from school and then played some more, before I went to visit my lovely friend Kate. The two of us then headed over to Lily's new house! It's so exciting that Lily and Adam are moving and, even though they have a fair amount of work to do before it's a home, they are going at it with lots of enthusiasm and excitement. A bit of paint-stripping later, I headed home to watch TV with Mum. Just how a Cornish day should be.

Wednesday 9 November - Cornish cliff walks




Current location: Penzance, Cornwall
11.11am, Having my haircut in my local hairdressers in Penzance. I've come home for five days to catch up with my lovely family and rejuvenate my soul with some cliff walks and nephew time. Mum and I went for a walk to boat cove, and talked about how we look like each other. It's true, we do.

Monday 7 November - Pretending to be German again



Current location: Lewisham
11.11pm, Lying in bed, feeling full. Andy and I went to the Bavarian Beerhouse in Tower Hill, for schnitzels, goulash, steins and memories of living in Germany and Austria.

Friday 4 November - Ramsgate weekend!






Current location: Ramsgate
11.11pm, Sitting in an AMAZING house in Ramsgate with lots of my best friends, laughing a lot. Twelve of us had come to Ramsgate for the weekend, to stay in a beautiful four-storey house. It's hard to sum the weekend up, but the main element has to be laughter. We set off Chinese fire lanterns, we drank a lot of vodka schnee, we cooked a bit dinner for everyone, we played tennis, we walked along the 'beach', we went to a cancelled fireworks display, we played on the 2p machine in the arcade, we made a party in a pub, we played sardines, we drank a lot of wine, we ate a lot of pizza, we had one of the best weekends of my life. I was having far too much fun to take many photos, but above are one or two of our nights out. I love these people more than words can describe!!

Thursday 3 November - More pub quizzes!











Current location: Soho
11.11pm, In a bar in Soho. I'd been to a movie-themed pub quiz with my work friends and, even though we had done some helpful lunchtime 'revision', we still managed to come second from last. I don't think I'm very good at quizzes, even though I do love them! Our team (One Night in Harris, named in honour of Craig Harris, the boy version of me at work) drowned our sorrows with free beer and not-free bourbon and laughed at popcorn that looked like ghosts.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Tuesday 1 November - Priscilla, Queen of the Desert


Current location: On a train, South-east London
11.11pm, On our way home from watching Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, with Andy and my sister, Kate. It was absolutely hilarious and full of glitter, sparkles, songs, Australiana and lots and lots of make-up. Loved it.

Saturday 29 October - My birthday!





Current location: Brighton
11.11am, In Brighton with Mum, Dad and Andy, eating cookies. By this point I had already had such a fun birthday, even though it had only just started. I had lots of fun drinks with the work peeps and some other friends on Friday night, and received a gorgeous Patisserie Valerie cake from Susie (which is even sweeter and kinder than it sounds because she can't eat cake!). Then it was off to Brighton, where we shopped, ate, drank, went to a comedy show, went for a walk, opened presents and had a very celebratory time! Then Andy and I headed back to London the next day to enjoy a Sunday roast with my friends. I've already been super spoilt and next weekend 12 of us are off to Ramsgate for more birthday fun! I feel very lucky and loved and happy.