Happy Friday all! Hope you all have a busy weekend, with lots of running planned 🙂
I hope you’ve survived today, being Friday the 13th, and a full moon. Spooky!
I stumbled across this on the satire site Waterford Whispers News and it really made me laugh. I hope you enjoy it for what it is, no offence is intended!
@TheWelshWookie and I are settling down with a Cava to watch Spain v The Netherlands.
What are your plans for tonight? Do you ever run holding hands with anyone? 😉
Today marks the 70th Anniversary of the D Day landings.
Today, I’ve been thinking about how different life could be, if those heroes hadn’t given their lives for the liberation of Europe, and secured our freedom. To see the images of the 2,000 or so veterans paying their respects to their fallen comrades on the beaches of Normandy has been poignant. Thinking of coming off those boats, onto a beach into heavy gunfire, and then through land mines must have been truly terrifying.
Even watching ‘Great British Menu’ has been an eye opener, with the veterans’ inspiring stories. Who knew that ladies were flying airplanes? Until recently, I didn’t. It sure puts my issues into perspective.
The simple things I take for granted: a run along the harbour, copious food, a glass of wine, a dip in the hot tub. My typical Friday night.
For these simple pleasures, I am thankful.
True heroes.
Are any of my fellow UK-based bloggers (or BBCWorldwide watchers) Â fans of the Great British Menu?
You all know how much I love to eat. I love to watch programmes about delish food too! I watch loads: Masterchef in all its forms, Hells’ Kitchen. The Great British Bake Off, Saturday Kitchen…. I could go on and on……
Well, this week is the Scottish heat of GBM, and I’m fully supporting Jacqueline O’Donnell 🙂
I LOVE her pink apron:
You may remember that back in January I wrote this post about The Sisters Restaurant? I had the sea bass in a lobster cream sauce:
It was absolutely delish!
Well, Jacqueline runs The Sisters along side her sister, Pauline. I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed for Jacqueline, and all will be revealed tonight in some areas, and tomorrow in Scotland.
What’s your favourite foodie show?
On Saturday, @TheWelshWookie and I went for a little run around Tarbert Harbour. It was a damp day, with blustery showers, but we were lucky and managed to time our run between them: more by luck than design, I hasten to add 😉
And, the village has had a new arrival: our brand new ferry is here, and almost ready for action!
Our current ferry, MV Isle of Cumbrae, is a lovely little lady. But she’s a bit tired and ever so slightly old fashioned. But we’ll miss her.
Her replacement is a hybrid ferry, both diesel and electric, and she is much bigger than her predecessor.
She’s MV Lochinvar, and can carry 150 passengers and 23 vehicles. She’s brand, spanking new, and only the second of her hybrid-kind in the CalMac fleet.
I can’t wait until our next visit to Portavadie, so we can see what she’s like inside and on the water 🙂
When was the last time you were on a ferry? Where did you go?
You all know how much I LOVE my food. Well, Madrid far surpassed my foodie expectations!
They definitely have a sweet tooth; even savoury dishes are often sweet, especially sides like coleslaw.
Here are some of the highlights. I apologise now for the quality of the pics: it may or may not be related to the amount of alcohol consumed 😉
We did the RnR half on the Sunday morning. And, in keeping with previous RnRs, we refuelled at Hard Rock Cafe. We tested out a few of the cocktails, and I carb loaded on the brisket with fries. Yum!
On Monday, we spent lots of time in various tapas bars. As I’m sure you know, if you order a drink, you’re given a lovely, tasty snack.
We tried out Alhambra, and were treated to chicken wings. We supplemented these with a meat platter, pork loin with peppers and goats cheese in a blueberry sauce. Yum!
Stuffed to the gills, we headed onto La Torre del Oro on Plaza Mayor, where we had beetroot and onion, and a potato salad. We also had olives but by that point I could not fit in any more food! This bar is a favourite with celebrities including Bruce Springsteen, and it has been visited by President Carter and several Kennedys.
 
Tuesday, I had a proper Iberican jamon pizza. Yummy!
And on Wednesday, we were back to tapas during the day, including these dainty smoked salmon, cream cheese & dill sandwiches, and cheeses in Cafe del Oriente. Yes, as you can tell, we had some vino to go with it…..
In the evening, we visited Botin, which is the oldest restaurant in the world. Goya, Ernest Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene and Frederick Forsyth were all frequent visitors. It was amazing: we had the suckling pig, as recommended and mentioned by Hemingway in his novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’. I then had Bartolillos de Madrid, which are little pastry parcels filled with a lovely, sweet custardy cream. Oh, my!
 
 
Thursday saw us visit Mercado de San Miguel. It was so busy, with locals and tourists feasting on all kinds of delights.
There was lovely seafood and savoury snacks:
These are not cakes – they’re buffalo mozzarella:
And, of course, sweet treats:
For lunch, we tried another local speciality: bocadillo con calamares. Amazing!
And, of course, we had yet more tapas….. these are little breads topped with cheese and a spicy sausage, and of course, patatas bravas:
 
Here’s one of the final dishes I had on Friday: it was fried sardines with padrons de pimentos. It tasted amazing!
We also had churros, frozen yoghurt and lots of beer and wine 😉
 
If I’m not at least 15 pounds heaver, I’ll be very surprised!
Oh, how I love you, Pinterest. I can easily while way hours, scrolling through workouts, fashion, motivation, home interiors and books.
But, how often do I find myself scrolling through tasty treats? All. The. Time.
Sometimes, it’s healthy stuff that I pin and save for later. I’ve tried out lots: some are more successful than others. Disasters include cinnamon quinoa breakfast bars (far too dense) and black bean brownies (dry, dry, dry).
Other times, I can’t resist the naughty stuff. And that’s where I’ve been drawn to recently.
And I’ve found a recipe that not only works, but gives me a warm, tasty, chocolate hit whenever I want it, as all of the ingredients are store cupboard staples. And it’s pretty naughty.
It’s a chocolate mug cake. Dreeeeaaamy! Have you ever tried it?
It takes about twenty seconds to throw together:
Grab a mug. Add in:
1/4 cup of plain flour
1/4 cup of sugar
a pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of cocoa (I use Green & Blacks)
Give the dry ingredients a quick mix together.
Then add in:
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of water
Mix it all up. If it’s a little dry, add a little more water.
Pop it in the microwave for 1 minute, 40 seconds.
Oh, my. It comes out with just that slight gooiness that is heaven!
Delish!
What’s your favourite pinterest find?
After temporarily disappearing from Blogland over the weekend, I thought I’d explain why.
Friday night, @TheWelshWookie and I had the Hue and Cry gig that I was telling you about last week, and it was brilliant! The Kane brothers were entertaining as ever, and the play through of their ‘Bitter Suite’ album remained true to the original, with a few of the tracks updated a little. It was amazing!
We had a couple of drinks at the venue, along with a couple more later, including an apple & guava cider, and a nice GnT. Perfect.
On Saturday morning, we had a 5K planned. But, although I certainly felt fresh enough for a run, I decided to sleep in instead. It was bliss! We then hit the shops, as I had a few more bits to pick up for the wedding. @TheWookie got a new long sleeved running top from Run4It, which is lovely.
And, on Saturday afternoon, we had a great time: my nephew, Kieran, was a mascot at the SPL football match between Partick Thistle and Hibernian! He’s only five, but he was so great, and had a brilliant day. Kieran is a huge football fan, and Partick Thistle are his team: he goes to the games with his dad and granda.
Kieran went along early on Saturday with his dad and his granda, where they met the players and had a tour of the stadium. Next, he (along with the other two mascots) had a kick about on the pitch while the players warmed up. And just before kick off, Â they led the teams onto the pitch, and were there for the referee’s coin toss.
He must have been a lucky mascot, as Thistle won 3-1!
@TheWelshWookie and I went along to support him, along with his mum (my sis) and his brother, Aidan who – at three – was going to his first ever football match. He loved it too! My other nephews Ryan and Liam also came along, as did my other sis Angie, her BF Ryan and Kieran’s auntie and uncle Alison and Chris. It was a fab family day out!
I even, erm, ‘enjoyed’ a pie and bovril at half time 😉
After the game, we were all invited to the hospitality suite where Kieran was presented with a signed football by the Man of the Match, Kallum Higgenbotham. Lucky boy!
We then had a fab night back at my sis’ house, with a few vinos and a Chinese takeaway.
Sunday was grocery shopping, and driving home, tired after a busy-but-fun couple of days!
Have you ever been a sports mascot before?
Welcome to the weekend once again! What do you have planned?
I have an eight mile run tomorrow morning, followed by a weekend of watching more Six Nations rugby action 😉
Tonight, I was going to post a Foodie Friday blog. But, when I checked, I didn’t have enough pics to share! 😮
So, here’s a picture to make you smile instead:
#ATWRBR2014
Don’t forget to email Kyla tomorrow with the number of kilometres you have run this week. I can’t wait to see how far we’ve run during the first week!
Usually, recovery means – to me – a recovery run. Or a rest day. At the moment, it has a different meaning.
I’m recovering from my HenWeekend 😮
We had a weekend of roller coasters, fun, laughter, pressies, food, oh – and some alcohol, too.
We had a blast! But, the details are staying under wraps. What happens on the Hen stays on the Hen 😉
I’ll share one pic. Me, doing my Titanic impression on a fake boat…… I swear, it was fun at the time!
I’m hoping to catch up with the blogs I’ve missed during the week, and I’m planning on resuming normal service tomorrow.
So, who’s was the last Hen/Batchelorette party you went to, and where was it?
Hi everyone! Who’s excited about tonight’s football?
This pic made me smile a lot!
I always have mixed feelings: it always seems a long time until the start of next season!
For us in the UK, it’s on into the wee small hours of the morning: I usually last until the half time entertainment, then fall asleep 😉
I saw this on Fitfluential’s facebook page, and thought I’d share:
Will you be participating in fitfluential’s challenge or will you be enjoying beer and snacks? Who are you supporting?
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