Ch ch changes

I've decided to leave Blogger and create my own blog in Drupal, well I say I've decided, I looked at my husbands blog and decided that I liked it better than mine. So I got him to create me a website where I can post my blog. So from now on my blog is going to be http://www.sarahbriggs.co.uk

I can't guarantee that I will update it regularly but you never know.

Bye Blogger, it's been nice having you for the past 7 years.

Cars and Cakes

Since my birthday the rest of 2010 has been a little uneventful, Christmas came and Christmas went. I received lovely presents including: Toy Story 1 2 & 3 on Blu-Ray, cake decorating ideas book, Outnumbered series 3, cake tins, star cupcake molds, 3 tier cooling racks, Radley Umbrella, Money, winter coat, chocolates, pasta set, Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows for xbox360, Stephen Fry’s autobiography and lots more. I spent Christmas morning opening pressies from my hubby and mine to him, which included a special surprise of a Magic Wand (the one that featured on Dragon’s Den) which he loved. We then went to my In-Laws to open more pressies and spend the day with family having a nice xmas dinner. Boxing day was spent visiting my parents and having another xmas dinner and opening more presents. The rest of the holiday was spent relaxing at home and new years was spent at home playing games and getting drunk with K’s friend Andy.

We are now into February and to be honest the last month or so has gone by in a blur. We got our new car at the end of January, again sticking with a Ford Focus (different colour) and it is very lush, even the radio speaks to you, which is very cool especially for hands free. I can now see out of the back window which is amazing, our last car had privacy windows and I hated them. It is very nice to drive and has parking sensors so no more accidentally crashing into walls, plus I’ve got better at parking.

I have decided that I need to brush up on my design skills so I’ve been following some photoshop tutorials in Photoshop Creative magazine, I’ve done 3 tutorials now and I think my first one is the best so far. I have also been baking, I’m getting rather good a cupcakes and I’m making my Nephews 7^th Birthday cake, which is going to be a Red Square Lego Brick. I’ve not worked with Fondant for a long time but I’m quite good with rolling out pastry so I don’t think it should cause too much of a problem.

Celebration

I wasn't expecting my next entry to be in 2011 but as you all know I'm rubbish at updating my blog. So I left off with telling you all about my birthday celebrations. After my trip to London my actual birthday was spent with my husband and family, we went to a local restaurant called Taybarns where you can eat whatever you want and however much you want. The choice is varied with something for everyone, which is why I like it there. Whether you want Fish, Pizza, Full roast, Chinese or BBQ they have everything not to mention a really nice salad bar and desserts, especially the profiteroles. Which is always a must have for the husband, my choice of dessert is usually hot with custard.

On the Friday night I went out in town with friends and a few work colleagues, cocktails in Olive to start then more cocktails in Vodka Revolution, a few drinks in Varsity then more drinks and dancing in Reflex (80's bar) a good night was had by all and no hangover the next morning. But I must confess that I don't get hangovers, ok I tell I lie I did have one once but that was after drinks lots of bottles of wine at a Christmas party and I was very very drunk.

To spin out my birthday a bit more on the Saturday night my husband and I went out for a meal to Frankie and Bennys with hubby's side of the family (my now in laws) this was also very nice and enjoyable. I really like F&B's especially their hawaiian pizza (ham and pineapple to normal people) and probably 9 times out of 10 that's what I usually choose, I have been known to have Lasagne, which is also very yummy but usually it's the Pizza.

In October for an extra birthday treat my work mate Karen and I went to Birmingham to Cadbury world, this was amazing. It was like we were in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the chocolate smelt and tasted fantastic. Even though we went the week before half term it was still relatively busy and it was a good job we had booked our tickets in advanced. There were a few school outings but they were all well behaved. When you first go in you get a free Curly Whirly and a packet of Cadbury Buttons, you then start the tour going through how the cocoa beans are produced and how Mr Cadbury started his own business and how it evolved. He initially went into the tea business before discovering that he could make more money from Chocolate, and I'm so glad he did, I'm not really a tea fan, more a coffee person and chocolate, see it's all in the bean.

You then get the opportunity to tour a little section of the factory where you get your next freebie, a bar of Dairy Milk. Now this bit of the factory tour is nicely sectioned off, you get the feel of what goes on in the mixing and the making of the chocolate but you only get to see a tiny little bit, this bit is when the dairy milk bar has been made and is going along one of about 15 conveyer belts to be wrapped and packed. But it is very interesting all the same and the smell of chocolate is sooooooo good. I think if I moved to Birmingham I would have to get a job there, I know what you are thinking, surely you would in time hate the taste and smell. Well you'd be wrong I could eat chocolate everyday, granted I'd be the size of a blue whale but at least I'd be happy.

Anyway moving on after the factory bit you get to be herded in to a little ride, imagine in Disneyland the "it's a small world" ride but instead of nice looking flowers etc you are greeted with weird looking cocoa beans dressed up doing various fun activities. I know this is the fun bit for the under 10's but these things are very disturbing, at one point I was rather scared. They have strange little faces and look almost "Mr Potato Head" like. You get to have your picture taken at the end of the ride for prosperity, that's if you succumb to their devilish prices. The ride travels at snail pace so I'm not quite sure why they thought that you would want to have your picture took at the end of the ride for, it's not like Alton Towers. But I'm sure there are parents from all over that have caved to their children's request and have got these pictures. After the ride you then walked back through the factory taking in the lovely smells again to the next part of the tour which was a series of rooms that depicted how the packaging and advertising of Cadbury products have changed over the years. This was very interesting and they had little interactive screens with quizzes that you could test your knowledge of tv adverts and when Cadbury chocolates were released etc.

The next part of the tour was in another building marked "Essence" this is where you watched another short film about how Mr Cadbury discovered the "glass and a half of milk in every pound of chocolate" and how the slogan and image has been used in marketing and advertising. After the short film we went into another room where you received a warm shot of melted chocolate, with a choice of topping. I went for rice crispies and it was very delicious.

Opposite Essence is Bournville world where there is a mini version of the Bournville village which Mr Cadbury built around the factory for all his workers and their families. There is more detail of one particular family and how they started working at the factory and how their family has grown and how to this day still live and work in Bournville. Also in this part of the factory it gives you an incite into how the hundreds are chocolate bars get packages and shipped out on large pallets. On the way back to the car we had to stop off at the Cadbury shop which was massive to buy more chocolate for ourselves plus friends and family. On the way home we stopped off at Nottingham retail park for dinner at F&B's. Yes you guessed it I had Pizza.

This was then the end of my 30th Birthday celebrations.

Brought to you by the Letter B and the numbers 3 & 0

I have now been in my 30's for over 2 months now (and its taken me that long to comprise this blog entry as well) I have to say it hasn't been all that bad, it was a little stressful on the day but I managed to cope. I also managed to spread my birthday celebrations over 3 weeks. First I had 3 days in the Isle of Wight, which was very nice but emotional as the main reason we were there was to scatter Nan's ashes, it was a really nice evening but very sad, to celebrate we spent the next day visiting all the places on the isle that she loved.

On the Sunday I got dropped off at heathrow and got my tube to Covent Garden where I was meeting my husband for 3 days in London. It is here where the real birthday celebrations were to begin, starting off with my first present, a visit to the Radley store for my bag, then to Russell and Bromley for the protector spray for the bag. Spraying a bag in the confines of your hotel room, where the window only opens a tiny bit isn't the best plan, having nearly gassed hubby with the spray we went out for tea to Garfunkles where I had a yummy pizza. We like Garfunkles very much their burgers and pizzas are very nice, it's a bit like Frankie and Bennys but down south.

The next day we did a lot of walking, which helped to burn the calories of the previous nights pizza, we started off at Covent Garden the walked the entire length of Oxford St to Marble Arch stopping in shops along the way especially Selfridges to have lunch in the Square Pie Co stand, their mash is amazing and the pies are better than Pukka. Our next journey was going down park lane where all the really nice car dealerships are, unfortunately they are mega expensive but nice to look at. Hubby enjoyed the car window shopping but decided that if we ever won the lottery then he would enjoy taking a trip to the Austin Martin dealership.

We followed the road then along Piccadilly to Waterstones where we stopped for a drink in the swanky lounge area on the top floor, the conversations at this bar are usually quite interesting. Not that I condone listening to other people's conversations, but it does make wonderful entertainment and you can gain a little insight as to what their lives are like. We decided that a Subway was on the cards for tea, but not before stumbling across Foyles book store. I had forgot there were one of these in London, we are Borders fans but since they went into administration we haven't found a good enough book shop for hubby to get really obscure computing books from. That is until now omg Foyles is massive the whole computing section is about as big as Waterstones in m'hall, hubby was in heaven and the staff were really nice too, a bit eccentric but friendly.

The next day we spent on another walking trip, again starting off in Covent Garden but calling in on the new addition to the shops, yes I'm talking about the new Apple store that has opened there. I sort of like it, but prefer the one on Regent St as they have a cinema like bit where you can listen and watch demonstrations on how to use stuff, and pinch their WiFi. After the Apple store we walked down to Jubilee bridge and crossed over the Thames. We walked along passed Blackfriars bridge to the Tate Modern. There wasn't much that took our eye their apart from an exhibition on Surveillance photography so we asked one of the information people where it was and she gave us free entry tickets (worth £10 each) I'm glad we got them free because it wasn't as good as I was expecting.

We then decided that we'd had enough culture and carried on walking back across over the Thames via Millennium bridge and headed towards St Pauls. We stopped for a cup of tea in Cafe Rouge then proceeded to walk along Fleet St and the Strand, back through Theatre Land to Leicester Sq where for tea I decided to treat my husband to an Häagen Dazs ice cream. Now this restaurant is amazing the flavours of ice cream are so nice, I had a Belgian Waffle Dream which comprises of a scoop of Pralines and Cream, a scoop of Dulce De Leche, a warm Belgian Waffle, Sweet Maple Syrup and freshly Whipped Cream. Hubby had his own creation. It was time to go back to the hotel after the ice cream. The next day was home time, but the celebrations didn't stop there. Tune in to my next entry to find out what I did in my actual birthday and my trip to Cadbury World.

Age is just a number

Yes I know I have been the world worse blogger these past few months, and I'm always coming up with excuses but last month I had a bereavement in my family my Nannan Jean passed away so my mind has been elsewhere. She was a remarkable woman, a bit scatty at times but that's what made her the best, she never said a bad word about anyone and she devoted her life to her family. She took all her 3 grandchildren on holiday in the caravan just about every year as we were growing up and every Saturday we went over to visit and she'd play games and put on a buffet tea, never complaining just happy surrounded by all her family. She will be dearly missed by everyone who ever met her but she is looking down on us and making sure we keep out of mischief, she is now free of pain and will be having a good ol chin wag with my other Nan. Love ya Nan xx

In other news my title of my blog will soon be a lie as on the 30th September I will be 30. In a way I'm looking forward to it as I'm spending 3 days in London with my hubby and going out drinking and eating wonderful food, but in another way I'm not looking forward to it as it means I'm not in my twenties anymore, I'm in theory a third through my life (that's if I live to be 90). But I'm planning on having a nice week of work and just enjoying the moment, plus my husband is buying me a Radley bag which I'm very excited about.