St Patricks Day

First I must apologise for the lack of postings recently - I had a rather nasty bout of man flu last week and it left me feeling rather lethargic and sorry for myself - all back to normal now though I'm happy to report.

I'd not been to the gym for over a week due to my dibilitating runny nose, so heading back there on Saturday morning I was feeling a bit aprehensive. Thankfully it all went well and I managed to run off nearly 800 calories which I was very pleased with. Subsequently I have been on Monday, Tuesday and Weds nights this week, managing to do gradually less each night as the tiredness kicks in. I've decided to take a break from it tonight, just to allow my batteries to recharge - I might try to have a go on the bike at home instead.

Yet again I'm on annual leave from work next week, and seeing as the weather is getting better, I'd like to think that I could get some bits done in the garden. I need to replace a couple of sections of trellis which broke during the recent snow we had, but I was shocked at the prices - I'm not mean but fifteen quid for some badly nailed together bits of wood - thats taking the biscuit !

In other news, my friend Sara lent me her bread maker on my last visit.
I'd said to her previously that I fancied trying to make my own bread and had been looking at getting a cheap bread machine.

So, to take a break from baking cakes I've started dabbling with bread.
I'm currently on my third loaf - my first attempt was a plain white loaf which I added some wheatgerm to, just to zhuzh it up a bit. It looked really good and the taste was ok, but there seemed to be something missung.

My second loaf was another white loaf, but this time I added some chopped walnuts and pecans into the mix, and gave it a liberal squirt of maple syrup. Again it rose like a dream and smelt fabulous whilst cooking, but the taste just seemed not to be right.

My third loaf which I baked earlier this week was a wholemeal one - I figured it might be the flour that I'd been using that wasn't giving me the right taste. This time I threw in a handful of chopped walnuts and sunflower seeds to give it some texture.

I didn't take a picture of this one as they all look very much the same - next week I might use it just to knock up the dough, and I'll shape and bake the loaf in the oven - that might be more fun.

I gave a couple of slices to Baked by Brian last night for him to give me his verdict - hes been emailing me today so it obviously didn't kill him !

Times flies

Well will you look at that - my last post I was half way through my week off and then suddenly I've been back at work for a week and not given you any updates !

ok, so here it is in a nutshell
I had a lovely day out with Sara and the kids and dogs at Black Park - I took the camera and managed to get some nice pictures which I have put on Flickr. Sara had very kindly got me £20 worth of vouchers for that cake shop I told you about in Rickmansworth (Cinnamon Square), so I shall be making full use of those before too long.

On the Friday my boss was having his leaving drinks 'do' after work. It started off in our regular lunchtime haunt (Passion Bar) where he had got them to lay on some food which was really tasty. KSR had quite a good turn out of people and it was a nice atmosphere in there. We left Passion at about 6:30 and caught the train to Oxford Circus, where he had reserved places in a club called Loop (which was right opposite John Lewis in Oxford Street) despite it not being too bad in there, I didn't really want to spend the night in a straight bar with my workmates, so I had arranged to meet up with my friend Brian in Soho.

We did a bit of a pub crawl (The Village, Comptons, The Yard) and ended up in Bar Code which was surprisingly good. Brians friend Dr Napper had joined us during the night and suggested we went downstairs in BarCode to the 'Bear Cage' - not something I'd have normally done but I'd been drinking on an empty tum and was game for most things !

Now, my usual routine when I go to London is to have a few drinks and start posting rubbish onto Facebook - however my phone inexplicably died half way through the night and left me unable to do any updates

so consequently I had noting to keep me occupied on the train
I fell asleep
woke up in Berkhamstead
and had to pay £30 for a taxi to get home - but it was a Lexus !

never again - until the next time !

Hopefully baking this weekend, so there should be more to read on Monday !