Fruithawk playing the water flute

December...destroyer of finances!!!

Still no internet so I'm being very sneaky on another computer! Christmas is nearly upon us, it's been a very expensive month already, it was our first wedding anniversary on the 4th and then it was Fruithawk's birthday on Sunday. Both occasions required me to take her out for dinner and drinks afterwards, not to mention presents and champagne with breakfast, and having people around for a small lunch time party, it all adds up! The cats really got into the party spirit though!

The days events went something like this.....

I woke up early on Sunday still full of cold and chest infection, I got up and proceeded to blow up 20 ballons, then put up a happy birthday banner on the wall. I then placed all her presents and cards on the coffee table with a sprinkle of happy birthday and star confetti.

I then cooked a breakfast of sausages, bacon, eggs and toast and and placed it in the living room with the champagne.

I called for her to get up and she came down stairs and had breakfast and opened her cards and presents.

We finished the champagne and were then in the party mood (sort of, I still was not feeling great) and listened to her new CD's whilst preparing to have a few friends over for some nibbles and drinks (and jelly and ice cream of course!) and then we hit the rum and wine.

A few short hours later we hopped onto a bus into town and I took her to see Burlesque which she has been itching to see for a few months, due to it featuring her fave artist Christina Aquilera.

Then we headed to another part of town and I took her to a Moroccan restaurant iv'e been wanting to visit for ages called Marrakech. The food was superb and I think it is my new favorite place to eat in Hull! I opted for the Lamb Tagine and Fruithawk had a Red Snapper grill accompanied with a bottle of wine, we just had a main as we were still full from the lunch time party food.

We then stayed out and got ridiculous and worked our way through another 4 bottles of wine in the various bars and cafe's down from the restaurant.

We headed home and the following day she stayed at home feeling worse for wear whilst I had to get up and go to work (feeling worse for wear). That's the difference between having an actual job and someone who does a PhD. :(

Can't believe it's been so long!

Hopefully I'll get some internet sorted out soon!

Easter in Bruges

On Easter weekend Fruitylicious surprised me with a trip to Bruges via P&O North Sea Ferries. It was a fantastic couple of days getting merry on the ferry, wandering around the streets of Bruges for a day, cruising the canals on a boat, drinking Belgian beers, eating Belgian waffles and trying "the best cup of hot chocolate in Belgium" in a little tea room above a chocolatiers!

Fridge Magnet Excitement

Well it's back to work for another week of late shifts, although I don't mind them as there is no one around, so I don't get drawn into office politics and some of the pettiness that is so ever present during the day.
Speaking of work...I'm currently finding plenty of personal amusement in trying to "bring back the Filofax" at work, yes single handedly trying to bring it back into fashion for no real reason other then the confused and disgusted stares bringing me much amusement.

Yesterday was nice and relaxing! I got up with Fruitylicious and we had breakfast, then she jogged to the Uni Netball courts for some Sunday practice, with a team she had never played with before. Meanwhile I pumped up the volume on my stereo and listened to a few albums, including U2 - Achtung Baby, Jimi Hendrix - Are you experienced? and Bill Nelson - Plaything.
Later when she returned home, we took a walk to the local pub for something to eat and a few pints of 'Black Sheep'(well I did, she opted for pure orange and soda water) and after I had had enough of 'The Independent on Sunday', we returned home for a DVD and general pottering-about-iness.(I had intended to do some homework for the ever so dull NVQ in 'Business Improvement Techniques' that I'm doing for work, 5S, continuous improvement, Kaizan and all that rubbish, but really couldn't be bothered)
I should also be reading up on Chemistry, ready for the degree in Chemistry that I'll be starting in September.
I later spent a little while trying to gather a few ideas for a play that I want to write. Fruitylicious's sister down in London, told me of a theater production company where if you send in your plays, they read through them and if they are any good, there's a chance they could get performed.

Started playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on my XBox last night, I've borrowed that and AVP off my brother. I'm also thinking of trading in a few old games and getting Final Fantasy XIII and Bioshock 2.

Finally happy 5th blog birthday to Fink!

I'll leave you now with one question....is it wrong to be excited by the arrival of new fridge magnets??? I ordered some on the internet the other day and can't wait for them to arrive, I think I'm becoming one of those weird people who collects fridge magnets!

A Very Morich Shopping Experience

Have you ever walked past one of those foreign food stores and wondered what kind of stuff they sell? I decided yesterday to pop into one of these places, a local shop called 'Indian Continental Stores' whilst walking back home from the city center.

As I entered the store it was like stepping into a store in downtown Bangladesh, with shelves choc full with odd looking labels in foreign languages and jars and packets containing their curious contents. (I would have taken photo's inside but the owner seemed a bit suspicious of a pretty fly white guy walking around his store as it was and if I had been taking pictures the little Indian fellow could have thought I was casing the joint!)

There was so much information for my eyes to take in, 25Kg sacks of various rices and spices, pickles, powders, fruit, veg, etc. I meandered along the shelves until my eyes settled upon a small jar of 'Mr Naga's Hot Pepper Pickle'.
I immediately picked up the jar to read the ingredients (luckily they were listed in English as well as it's native language) and found it was made up of 70% Naga Morich Chilli's (one of the worlds hottest chilli's) and decided right then that I needed this little jar in our cupboard back home. I then waited in line with a few other Indian folk, paid for my Spicy delight and trotted off home to try it. It's good stuff and really quite hot (although still not a match for Dave's Special Reserve Insanity Sauce) now I just need to cook a few dishes I can add it to!

Speaking of Chilli's, there has still been no sign of growth from my seeds and have taken Fink's advice and put them in a large plastic bag (with a few air holes) to retain warmth and moisture! Hopefully we'll get some positive growth action ehh!!!

Growing Chilli's

For Christmas Amy got me a chilli growing kit, due to my slight obsession with eating chilli peppers and chiili based sauces, and the there is the fact that I try to add a chilli to anything I cook.(much to Amy's annoyance)

I planted them in their little Coir pots 12 days ago and so far they haven't germinated. I'm slightly disappointed because it says they should germinate at approx 10 days. I'm not giving up hope and I'm sure I will see little green shoots appearing soon enough....hopefully!

I'm growing 5 varieties; Anaheim, Hungarian Hot Wax, Jalapeno, Tabasco and Demon Red and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they look like when they fruit and also tasting them of course!
If I'm successful then I'll turn it into a yearly hobby and move onto some of the more challenging ones!

I suspect the cold weather is the major factor in their lack of germination as it says in my instruction growing guide the optimum indoors temperature should be between 18 - 20C and our kitchen gets very cold, although I do have them in direct sunlight and have a little heater on in the kitchen during the day which should help.

I'll keep you posted with any developments!

Beautiful Uke and Obscene Hot Chocolate

It was my birthday yesterday and I was woken by an excited Amy at 7am so I could open my presents. We had the day off and getting up at 7am wouldn't have been anything to moan about if it wasn't for the bottles of wine we had stayed up till 1am drinking the night before. However, I was delighted to find she had bought me this beautiful Ukelele so she was quickly forgiven.
The day was a laid back n enjoyable one, which included a walk to a local coffee house to sit and read some magazines. Whilst there we decided to indulge in an obscene hot chocolate each, but all that cream proved too much for me and I had to accept defeat, alas I did not finish it.

Firsts

Again so long since my last post, but I do now finally have the internet again, so can start visiting some of your blogs.
Since my last post Amy and I had our first Valentines day together, as it was our first one we decided to do something different from the usual romantic meal, as to be honest we had enough of those in Cuba to last a lifetime. So what did we do, well I took her to watch the wrestling!!!

Last Saturday I was also best man at my brothers wedding and gave my first nerve wracking best man speech, which to my surprise was received very well, with the full room laughing all the way through it.

A few snippets...

...let me just say that the formative years I spent in the company of my younger brother, means that he’s had as much a part in developing the content of this speech as anyone. So although I have tried to make this speech as funny and exciting as possible, it is in fact boring and uninteresting, not to say that Danny is, but the past doesn’t lie!...

...When Danny asked me to be his best man I thought ‘well doesn’t he have any actual friends?...

...To be honest, I’m actually amazed Danny ever met Shemel. In fact before he met Shemel he lived solely in his bedroom playing computer games and I think his only previous long term relationship was with Lara Croft...

...Danny once told me that before Shemel he didn’t believe in love at first sight.....I assumed that was because he’s partially sighted......but seriously after meeting Shemel, that has all changed... (my brother is actually partially sighted and that one went down very well!)

It really was a fun reception, other highlights included me making a tit of myself by being first up on Karaoke singing 'Simply The Best' and throwing out some shapes on the dance floor to Vanilla Ice and Jedward!

Highly recommended

Moving on from the winter weather, I took this photo of mine and Amy's feet in December whilst enjoying a morning on the resorts beach. We stayed at the 'Paradisus Rio de Oro' and would recommend it to any couple wanting a quiet retreat!

We are having a few friends over for dinner tonight which should be fun, the wife has gone for a slightly Mexican theme, including chilli con carne, fajita's and Pinata table confetti!!!

Early morning isolation

It's 7am and iv'e been at work half an hour! It's just me and my colleage Pete in today and so far there is no sign of him. Iv'e been in since 6:30 and so far I just have my bouncy ball to keep me company! It's reminding me of that film Castaway with Tom Hanks, he only had a basketball to talk to, didn't he shout "shut up Spalding" when he was arguing with it? If I start talking to my bouncy ball (Mr Reboundington) I'll start to worry!!!

Who will go for the bacon butties??? It would have to be Mr Reboundington because I can't leave a bouncy ball in charge of a chemical plant, he can't use a telephone in case of emergency!!!

Oh good Pete's just arrived!!!

Wintery scenes

A collection of images I took last week during the recent snowfall!

A few images I snapped recently after some snowfall!