Red pepper soup and my dad

There's nothing nicer than a bowl of homemade soup, particularly when I have yeast-free bread in the freezer! It's a slight improvement on the toast and prosecco diet :) I'm currently on. I'm sure cooking is a great therapy right now though I'm holding off making any more cupcakes in case I have a really bad day and decide to eat them all!

The best news of the week is that my dad has now been moved from NX hospital, where he's spent the last 3 weeks, into a nursing home where he'll be more comfortable. The nursing home is warm and the staff care more, as dad sleeps more and cares less.

It takes a special kind of man to be able to cope day after boring day with no tv, no book, no music, (his choice, not ours) and no stimulation other than someone popping their head around the door from time to time (and that was rare!) and our lovely family popping in to visit him. He's always managed to keep his mind pretty active, which is a blessing. The last time he was stuck in hospital staring at 4 bare walls and being ignored because he couldn't hear properly, he admitted that he'd kept himself sane by reciting to himself all the bus stops on different routes, one after another! He was a driver so naturally, he knew them all off by heart. As my brother has said, he's never cared much about his surroundings so although we found the bleakness of his hospital room disturbing, it's likely that he didn't care half as much as we did about it. When you've spent time in a POW camp, escaped from your homeland, been an alien in another country, learnt a new language and been shot by a stray bullet - you're destined for a life that's extraordinary and not just run of the mill.

My dad came into the country from Hungary on 3rd April 1948 as part of an operation called 'Westward Ho!' and he has had a most amazing life. On the document that confirms that he had been accepted to come and work in Britain it says:

The land and sea journey will take about 6 days during which time food will be provided.

Luggage: you are not permitted to take with you more than you can carry.

Currency: It is an offence to take out of Austrian more than 40 Austrian Schillings. In any case Austrian Schillings cannot be converted to English currency! They actually put an exclamation mark.. !!

For your personal comfort on the journey you are advised to take with you a blanket, a cup for drinking purposes and a knife, fork and spoon.

That was just the beginning of a new adventure for my dad that has been so extraordinary in many ways. Married to my mum for 58 years is a pretty impressive record. Attending the Olympics in 1948, he's a gold medal winner in so many ways in my eyes.

87 is a ripe old age for any of us to get to and I haven't had a quarter of the adventures my dad has had! My NY's resolution for 2012 has to be to start planning some of the adventures I only dream about to make sure that when I reach the same age as my dad, I've got a life story as amazing and as fulfilled as he has :) xx xx

We have a waterfall...

  I've missed the wonderful sound of the water crashing down the slipway, and now it's back!

Wintry weather

My tree adventures

My first Xmas dinner...

Though of course, although I love nothing better than a turkey dinner, I ordered red mullet with garlic green beans and olive mash! My Craftseller team had organised a lunch and bless them, they invited me along too. We went to Severn Shed in Bristol and had a great lunch. Lots of light banter, good food and happy faces - that's what I like and need right now xx xx

A night out with the girls!

There's nothing quite like a girly chat with good girlfriends! Lisa invited me to dinner at Tivoli with herself and Jayne and we had a fab time! I obviously didn't feel quite like myself because I chose fillet steak & fries as top of my favourites for dinner! I rarely order steak! I certainly wasn't disappointed. The steak was succulent, the Prosecco free flowing and all in all, we had a lovely time.
I topped off my gorgeous meal with a glorious liqueur, Tia Maria coffee - get me!

My adventure of the day...!

I love HduVin for so many reasons. It has the best rooms and my studio room for this evening is outstanding!
You know when you walk into a room and it takes your breath away..? Does that ever happen to you? It just happened to me when I walked into my bedroom for tonight.
To say its large is an understatement. I've stayed in some rooms here and I've been disappointed. I'd describe them as compact and bijoux! Like all size issues, it's all about expectations!! I expected to see a regular sized room and this one is huge! It has a giant wardrobe, a big three sweater sofa, a desk, side table, large LK g size bed and room to dance around it!! I'm I'm HduVin heaven!
I'm in the bar right now drinking tea and eating mini mince pies. I've eyed up the cocktail I'd like 'The Sparkling Poinsettia' which includes triple sec snd cranberry juice topped up with Champagne! It's on their Merrily du Vim menu. I love everything about this place. It's the little touches that turn a good hotel into a great one!

Sushi for lunch anyone?

I love doing extraordinary things, particularly at weekends. How many people outside Japan are sitting in a Sushi restaurant having Sushi on a Saturday lunchtime? And by that i mean good sushi, great sushi, not snacky English sushi! Chilling and doing what makes you happy is what weekends are for...
The prawn tempura was delicious. The miso soup, it always makes me ferl healthy The sushi platters absolutely wonderful. The plum wine on ice, my favourite xx xx

Back in Boston...

Lovely hotel, great city, cocktails and dinner... perfect :)

Frank and Jeans

My abode for the past 3 nights :)

Xmas fair

This morning I went to the Gardener Xmas tree fair! You pay $5 and get 21 raffle tickets which you put into pots by the trees you'd like to win! If I win the big baking tree, they're going to send me a cookie cutter!

Justine and Amys place

Jeremys brothers family live high up in the mountains in the forest so it was no surprise to see snow up there. It's not as remote as it seems but a far cry from Boston city! Its an amazing place for the kids to grow up in but a pain for shopping!! Amy is a fabulous cook and we had delicious homemade blueberry pancakes, lasagne with ricotta cheese, tiny potatoes seasoned with onions and garlic and spiral ham. What's spiral ham?! It's a sugar coated yummy ham which tasted delicious :)

A quick bucket of balls... For 3!

Guess what we did before going to dinner? Frank, Liz & Jeremy decided they'd like a half hour to whack some golf balls on the driving range. Hitting them seems tough enough so getting one to drop into a tiny hole somewhere on the green seems impossible!

Dive in... Me thinks not?!

Tonight I was invited to sample the dreaded scorpion bowl! A mix of fruit & alcohol with a sting of 75% proof alcohol in the centre! Dangerous stuff...!

The museum of fine arts, Boston

I love visiting galleries because there are always paintings there that surprise me! Best painting by far at the MFA was the Renoir! It took my breath away! I love Impressionist paintings so to see originals by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissaro, Degas and more just blew me away! I don't know what it is that draws me to certain paintings. All I know is that it's magical and I never want to lose that feeling.
The Degas 'Naked' exhibition by contrast was below par. I skipped round it wanting to find a gem but nothing struck me as much as the magnificent Renoir. It alone was worth the trip!

Things to be thankful for...

Fran & Jean have warned us that we'll be invited to say something at Thanksgiving dinner about what we're thankful for.
Jean says I should be thankful for that fact that I have the super-doopa down duvet and Liz & Jeremy unfortunately for them, don't!
I'm thankful for my new extended family here in Fitchburg, for health, happiness and wifi!

Thanksgiving dinner

I've spent my whole life wanting but never expecting to experience a Thanksgiving dinner. I'm so delighted to be here in Fitchburg and even happier that I'm spending Thanksgiving with my new, larger, extended family! Our turkey dinner was delicious with plenty of cooked turkey, greens, potato mash, butternut squash mash and gravy. Cranberry jelly was out of a can and shaped like a big sausage which we ate by the slice! It was tasty and although I missed the sprouts, I still have my UK Xmas dinner to look forward to when I get home.

Best bits of Boston...!

Beautiful brown stone houses, a walk in the park, children skating in the park, Sam lagrasse's sandwiches (though I gave the bread a miss!) shopping malls (pronounced maul!), beautiful hotels like ours, friendly service, open spaces, cocktails on 52nd floor of Provincial Tower, Post restaurant, squash bisque, glasses of prosecco, free wifi, the museum of fine arts and Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Boston is a beautiful city filled with great sights, wonderful restaurants & hotels, open spaces, friendly people and I love it!

I'm not for recycling... get me out of here!

Today I had my first experience with the very clever, talking recycling machine at Tescos! I seem to have accumulated quite a few bottles over recent months so decided it was time to take them to a recycling bank. I spent the morning tidying the spare bedroom and trying on every item of clothing I could find. I do have quite a few clothes and it's great fun to try ones on that I haven't worn for a while and find that some of the skinnier ones fit, yeah! Anyway, back to my recycling story :) One of our local Tescos has one of these new fangled automated recycling centres. I've noticed it when I get petrol but have never used it. Oh, my goodness, it certainly amused the hell out of me! It actually talks to you as you put items into the shute and everything was going swimmingly until it asked me to remove the little bottles which I'd put inside.

Do you find you talk back to machines that talk to you? I do! There I was talking to the machine and saying "No... !!" when a guy and his son came to use the other recycling machine. They both laughed at me! I smiled and said "It's like something out of the jungle. The door keeps closing on the shute and it's telling me to put my hand in and retrieve the two little bottles!" They were clearly amused by my dilemma! Whilst I deliberated about what to do, I could see the little bottles at the bottom of the shute and every so often, the door would close. All I could think was that if I put my hand in, the door would close and trap my hand inside!! By now, other cars were rolling up and as Mary Anne (as I've decided to call her!) was still telling me to "Remove the items and try again!" I thought, get on with it so I stuck a large bottle inside to stop the door closing and quickly pulled out the two little bottles. Apparently, as I discovered, the machine only likes one item at a time. Doh, I should have listened to Mary Anne's wise words! Despite my tricky moment, I was very impressed by this enormous machine! It's like a massive washing machine and food disposal system all rolled into one and I'm definitely returning when I've emptied a few more bottles! Mmm, time for another glass :)

What were you doing 5 years ago today?

I was writing the first post of my butterscotchartgirl blog! Congratulations, I'm 5 years old and loving the history.

So what do I love most about my blog?

The memories, of course. Life is like a massive box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. Sometimes you get your favourite and if you've chosen well then most days will be filled with lovely surprises and delicious treats. Occasionally though, I end up with the equivalent of the coffee one, ha ha! I love having somewhere to record my thoughts even if they're sometimes a bit crazy and off the wall. I love taking photographs and having somewhere that I can share them with good friends and family. I love being able to have a rant occasionally too. I love looking back to anytime during the past 5 years and knowing exactly where I was, who I was with and what I was doing. Can you say that? Most of all, I just enjoy every moment I spend writing. Aren't you glad I did :) XX XX

Luscious Lisa's birthday weekend!

Why have a one-day birthday when you can have a whole, delicious weekend of fun and laughter?! Starting with Lisa's birthday party on Friday, we began by opening a bottle of fizz at her flat and then moved onto Brasserie Blanc for dinner. It was great to see Lisa's mum and dad and sit with them for dinner. We all had loads of fun with a bar filled with inebriated Irish men so much so that we didn't leave until 2am in the morning! That's the beauty of Cheltenham, we can drink, eat, dance, drink some more and still stagger home to Lisa's in the early hours with not a care in the world :)
Saturday was a slightly later start of smoked salmon and scrambled egg before myself, Lisa and her friend Jenny walked into town to do some shopping. I couldn't pass by the Swallow Bakery without popping in for a cup of tea and a raspberry and white chocolate cupcake - yum :)
There's no better thing to do on a Saturday night than relax with my wannabesister, watch Strictly and X-factor and eat stirfry!

Sunday was the piece-de-resistance, we went to the races! It's actually rather nice to go when it's quiet. Me and Lisa had a fabulous afternoon sitting in the window with our bottle of bubbly, 2 glasses, a race card, some readies and a fish platter. It really doesn't take much to amuse us :)

I'm in love with Chloe!

I have spent the whole week indulging myself with a few little luxuries to cheer myself up. I have a brilliant new suit for business meetings and the jacket also looks fabulous and deliciously casual with my jeans, which btw are my 2010-fit jeans, yeah! I searched for Valentino when I was in London but it wasn't until I was in Harvey Nics in Bristol that I spotted this gorgeous gift set.

You know when you go to buy something, find it then before you buy it you try a few other options, just to make sure you're buying the right one? Oh yes, that's exactly what I did and that's the reason why I have fallen in love with Chloe! When it came to choosing one or the other I did what any sensible girl should do and bought them both!

Paper roses

Name that tune! These beautiful roses remind me of that infamous song released by Marie Osmond in the 70's. Ha ha, I was a David Cassidy fan and I had the poster to prove it! But I admit that like 99% of teenage girls my age, I was also quite partial to the gorgeously, handsome Donny.

...oh how real those roses seem to be.. but they're only imitation...? No, they're definitely real to me :)

Some things are worth waiting for...

For someone who is very impulsive, I'm can be extremely restrained when I go out 'home' shopping. I always think "I could be living with that for a very long time" which is why just 'liking' something won't do. I need to love, in fact really love something before I buy it and bring it into my home. The same reasoning also applies to men!

So today I went shopping for lampshades yet again and hurrah, I'm over the moon because I've found exactly what I was looking and more. My amazingly beautiful shades have that extra something that I never even imagined I'd find. I got such a buzz of excitement when I saw them. Then, fell crestfallen when I realised they were for pendant lights, not table lights. The bit in the middle was at the top, not the bottom and as they have guzillions of glass droplets hanging off them, it's impossible to turn them upside down. Mmm, not one to give up I scouted round for something, perhaps a gadget and wey hey, I found a handy, young male assistant! He told me to add an extender (woo hoo!) and hey presto, my feeling of great excitement returned :) I came home with two beautiful lampshades and two extenders and don't they look fabulous - thank Sunday for JLewis!