Yummy steak at Grill on the alley for Herry's Hen!

Mmmmm, Chateaubriand, mussels and chocolate & rasberry torte of a Sunday evening! @herrygilly is to be wed 31st march and last night we sent her off with a dose of cocktails and bubbles. The Grill on the Alley in Manchester was our venue for the evening, their cocktail bar is my favourite in the city, try a glass of prosseco with their rose liquor, oooh delicious. Here is Helen enjoying her bubbles. Search Amazon.com for

Christmas Markets in Manchester

OK, I know it is still November, but working in Manchester for 6 years made Christmas come early through the magic of the European Christmas Markets.
The markets opened on the 18th November this year and will be around until the 22nd December (21st for the arts & crafts) The markets are squares filled with log cabins, festive lights, quaint stalls with holiday fayre. The smells are just fabulous, mouth watering pork, würst, schnitzel, raclette, Glühwein, pancakes to name but a few.

Opening times:

Manchester World Christmas Market Brazennose Street 18th Nov to 22nd Dec 10am - 7.30pm (8pm in Dec)
Manchester European Christmas Markets Albert Square 18th Nov to 22nd Dec 10am - 9.pm
Manchester German Christmas Market St Ann's Square 18th Nov to 21st Dec 10am - 8pm
Manchester Christmas Arts & Crafts Market Exchange Street 18th Nov to 21st Dec 10am - 7.30pm (8pm in Dec)
For full details see the Manchester Markets website

We are off there tonight, no longer working in Manchester I am hankering for a bit of the Bavarian action, and as if we need an excuse, it is a year since Rob proposed so I will certainly celebrating (hopefully he will to!)

Thursday night at IKEA - a free dinner

Rob and I spent the evening at Ikea last night. Following the receipt of many a generous gift of Ikea vouchers from our wedding guests and absentees, we are overhauling our home.  So a massive thank you goes out to all those people.


£1114 of vouchers later, we are the new owners of a set of PAX/ Malm wardrobes, a dining room suite, bookshelf, mirror and a giant red julebukk with two little babies. (piccies to come)
I'll be back next weekend to purchase Christmas decorations and crockery.
While we were there, we dined at the restaurant, Rob had meatballs, I the Gravadlax (currently on the attack phase of the Dukan Diet so I am on protein only). The meal came to £10.05, and we were presented with a voucher for the same amount, which we can spend in store as of the 6th of December. Well worth dropping in for!

Back to the gift vouchers, we have some fabulous personalised stationary from printing.comhttp://www.printing.com/ in Helmshore, and are finally getting through all of our thank you letters... we are only 3.5 months down the line, must get a wriggle on!

Weight Watchers, Make-a-Wish Charity Evening at the Rovers Return and beckoning summer!

Week one of the Easter holiday draws to an end, but no Sunday night blues, as there is another week to go. Sorry to brag but after 16 years of the rat race, I’m still yet to get over the novelty of working term time only.

A few exciting this to share with you:

Cake Action at the Rovers

I have been invited to put my cake making skills to good use for a charity evening in aid of the Make a Wish Foundation.

Friends from 3sixtymedia, Susanna Rowlands and Matt Carruthers (pictured left), are scaling the heights of Kilimanjaro January 2011. I’ll keep you updated with training progress and why they have chosen to undertake this daring feat, but in the meantime can invite you to the aforementioned charity evening. The Rovers Return replica bar at Granada TV, Manchester is the venue for the evening, 22nd April; tickets are available for £5, email mattyboymatt@hotmail.com.

I’ll get more detailed information posted this week.

Weighing Bananas – to skin or not to skin

Okay I know it may sound odd, but I have a weighing dilemma. This will probably mean nothing to you unless you are a Weight Watcher (or fellow Fat Club Member as I like to call us), and non-dieters may wish to skip to the next section, who actually weighs the banana with the skin on?!

16 years ago (ouch!) I was told by my first ever leader, to weigh with skin on, however the points tracker has a medium banana at 100g.... if you can really find a medium sized banana that weighs 100g with the skin on you are a better hunter than I!

Last week I selected a medium (as I honestly believe it to be as it wasn't small and there were much larger ones available) left the skin on and cut it in half, that was still 104g.

To be honest I have been giving them the wide berth, as you do not get enough return for your points. But at desperation point I have been over cautious and weighing with the skin on, and resenting them greatly!

I will check with my leader when I get back off holiday next weds and update with the official 2010 approach!

Little People - Entertaining but exhausting

I love my sister Lucy’s children inside out and back to front, she has two girls, Jessica 9, Emily 6 and a son Callum who is 3 but looks about 5! The girls have stayed with me on a number of occasions, usually with the aid of my other sister Sophie, or my fiancé Rob. This week however Callum was joining his big sisters for the first time.

Thursday, we visited Reddish Vale Farm in Stockport. I would thoroughly recommend it. The farm is open to the public Apr-Oct, at a fairly priced entrance fee, children over 3 years £2 and £3 for adults. We were greeted by friendly staff and went straight to the nursery section where we were able to pet 3 week old lambs, chicks, ducklings and baby bunnies, all available for purchase… so we need name suggestions for a grey and white bunny!

Other facilities are bouncy castles, climbing frame and a toy tractor zone that is very similar to bumper cars. There is a good-sized coffee shop with indoor and outdoor seating, although we only grabbed an ice cream on the way out to have on the drive home.

Over the two days, we visited 3 play parks, a Crown Carvery (great value for a family approx £3.59 a head) and two other centers. The first for Friday was Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary in Rossendale; they only ask for a mere 20p donation for parking, so please spend some money in the gift shop, they deserve every penny you can spare. We had a wander round cooing at the numerous cats, dogs, rabbits, donkeys and horses, but you can book dog walking sessions, the surrounding countryside is a perfect setting for a stroll with a rescued pooch.

Next on the schedule was one last stop on the journey back home, a place I have been a few times for lessons and have been waiting for an opportunity to drag the kids along. I am talking snow play on a sunny day, the Chill Factore at the Trafford Centre. £6 for 30 mins snow play may not sound too unreasonable, but when there are 3 kids to pay for, it soon mounts up. Children must be supervised, but here is where Chill Factore redeem themselves, it is only £1 for the accompanying adult, something other venues could learn from. Half an hour was just enough time as little Callum was freezing and I was developing a rather sensitive head. We ditched the snow boots with good intentions of warming our bodies with hot chocolate, at least until we got to Fredericks Ice Cream parlor en-route to the coffee shop. Heaven in a tub.

We hit rush hour on the return to Hazel Grove, it was 1800 by the time I got home, and the headache had developed into a migraine during the 2-hour drive. I was overjoyed then to find Rob watching TV from our bed. I dropped a couple of Anadin and climbed into bed with that combination of hunger and nausea that accompanies the start of a migraine. 3 hours later I awoke, groggy, but no headache, starving with no intention of leaving the bed…. Hello Zaidys?….. Chicken kebab and garlic bread in bed, how decadent?

And finally, summer is officially here in Stubbins

It is officially summer when I can sit on my bench at the front of our house. Yesterday morning I enjoyed a cup of tea and a nice chat with neighbour John. Last night we had vintage cava and G&T’s on the bench, oh yes, summer has arrived, and long may it last.

Clare x

Buddha Lounge, Boundary Mill, Afternoon Tea and iphone Easter Eggs

Spoiled rotten!! I was presented with a cup of tea in bed, along with my birthday cards. We are saving for the honeymoon so had agreed not to waste money on birthday presents for each other this year. Rob wanted to get me a token gesture, and as anyone who knows me will know, I am a sucker for chocolate. In that I was born on Easter Monday, my birthday usually falls on or around the Easter period, so I tend to get at least one Easter egg as a birthday present and I certainly never complain.

This year was no exception, Mr Hallam had purchased a large Thorntons egg, yummy, I particularly love the Continental selection, so thought I'd sample taste for my birthday breakfast. Rob wanted to tuck into the egg, and as I cracked it open I noticed an addition, something wrapped in kitchen towel. Assuming it was a selection of chocolate bars, I eagerly opened the parcel, laughing to Rob about how cute he was to add extra bits. The paper fell away, it was not a selection of chocolate bars after all....... it was an iphone!!!!!

Rob had painstakingly heated a knife and sliced (hacked) into the Egg, placed the bounty inside and sealed it all back together. Could I be marrying a better bloke? I think not.

The whole day was lovely, Mum and Dad came over and we had afternoon tea in the Spread Eagle in Sawley near Clitheroe. Would thoroughly recommend it, finger sandwiches, clotted cream and jam scones, moist lemon drizzle and ginger cake, and an Eccles cake. Although I am not a fan of Eccles cake, Daddy is so they came home wrapped in a serviette for later. We were actually a little early for afternoon tea, but they are so welcoming and accommodating, they bent the rules for us. I have eaten here a few times, so can also recommend the Meat Platter, in fact if you just want a drink it is worth coming the the Spread for the location and decor alone. We moved on to Boundary Mill to look for wedding outfits for Mum and Dad, and I ended up buying my bridal headpiece, eek!

Tabatha, Graham, Brad and Bernard joined us for the evening. We had the early sitting at the Buddha Lounge in Ramsbottom. Always greeted with a lively atmosphere, we were seated in the window and served efficiently. The food is beautiful, I had the succulent chicken parcels in pandan leaves, followed by Massaman Curry with coconut rice and for desert, I had to have the Movenpick swiss ice cream. I was a little worried that we would be rushed in that the second sitting is at 21:00, but we were never pestered, even though we didn't actually ask for the bill until just after five past.

I had a wonderful day, despite turning 32, and would like to thank peeps for coming over to spend time with me, and a big thank you to all the lovely cards and messages I have received.

xxx