The baby is here!

I am excited to introduce you to Fred Michael, he arrived on the 3rd of October at 2.31am. After a long an arduous failed induction of labour he entered the world via c-section. He is perfect, he has Jamie's nose and feet, my chin (poor boy) blue beautiful eyes and a great pout.

We are having to take things slowly and gently, because of the c-section, which is unusual for me but just as well because so far Fred is a bit of a night owl. Jamie and I are knackered and it's only been just over a week!

I will try and blog at least once a week from now on, but it may start of slowly as I am not doing much! The arrival of Fred does mean I can cross off another of my 30before 30 challenges :)

30 before 30 update

OK it has been 16 months since I started my 30 before 30 challenge, and it has been quite challenging so far!

To date I have completed 11 of my tasks I have (in no particular order):

Knitted Jamie a jumper

Made a Croquembuche

Entered a photography competition that I didn't win

Experienced a different culture in Cambodia

I went to see Wicked in the West end with all the ladies in my family

I finished reading the whole Bible again. 

I followed the Bible in one year plan, it took me two and a half years but I finished in the end! The problem is deciding what bit to read each day now that I am not following a plan, I'm sure I will work it out soon.

I got to see the Northern Lights in Iceland (I don't have a photo of them, this the whole story) 

I got my wedding dress cleaned and boxed

Jamie and I have got our finances in order (probably a good thing considering we are going to have a baby) for over a year now we have been giving to charities and our church 10% of our income and saving at least 10% again every month - we have spent some of it as we have gone along too! i will get round to writing a post soon about why we do this and why we think it is important.

I wore a dress or a skirt every day for a month (look how thin I was!)

I have also watched the sunrise and sunset on the same day, whilst in Cambodia.

I'm beginning to think that some of my plans are / were over ambitious. 

For example saving to go to New York, Paris, and Italy when we have a baby may be difficult, let alone saving a deposit for a house! Oh well I'm sure I will work it out and maybe make some substitutions to my list soon :)

Back to reality and 30 before 30 update

We are back from our Adventure.

 It was brilliant. 

We learnt a lot about ourselves and Cambodia, we ate a lot of new and good food, experienced a completely different culture; and have arrived back with great memories, a little tanned, tired, happy and cold.

It will take a few posts to tell you about our trip as we managed to fit so much into three weeks, this was mainly down to having Jane and Greg as our guides, travelling companions and interpreters. 

I only managed to complete one of my 30 before 30 challenges. But I am going to count two...

The first and most obvious was no 10. Experiencing a completely different culture. Massive tick for this one! 

In Cambodia it is...

• More important to "save face" then to tell the truth- this has proven a little difficult for Jane and Greg to get used to at times.
• Rude to point the soles of your feet at someone.
• Normal to chuck your rubbish in the river, ditch, lake, field etc...
• Normal to see five people on a moped.
• More likely for someone to have a TV then to have running water or a toilet.
• Hard to buy beauty products without whitener in them.
• Unusual to be stopped by a police man and not asked for a bribe.
• expected that someone will haggle when buying anything.  

 The Second is No. 28 Watch the sunrise by the sea.

During our trip we the sunrise a lot, I got a few photos 

and I also paddled in the sea at dawn

 but I couldn't actually see the sunrise... what do you think? Can I claim it?

  

Playing in the allotment

I have a cold. and i'm feeling sorry for myself so i thought i would share some photos i took whilst helping James and Hannah weed and dig their allotment.

 It was one of the last really warm days this summer.

The four of us spent the day chatting and working, it was really enjoyable and i'm hoping we will be rewarded with some veg next year! 

It was lovely to spend time outside in the sun.

Wicked!! (30 before 30)

Last Saturday I traveled to London to meet my Mum, Sister, Sister-in-law and two nieces.

It was a good ladies gathering.

For all of our Birthdays Mum bought us tickets to see Wicked.

It was great.

I had wanted to see Wicked for years, it didn't disappoint.

I knew a few of the songs and a bit of the story before we went.

Afterward we got the tube to Covent garden and had dinner in TGI fridays

Buy this point everyone had got a little fed up of my incessant picture taking, which led to a very funny photo shoot...

I had a lovely day and now I get to cross off another 30 Before 30!

We are going to Cambodia!

We have just booked our tickets so it is official... 

We are going to Cambodia!

Our friends Jane and Greg are living just outside Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, for a year.

(I didn't take this photo I borrowed it from facebook)

They are awesome people who among other things have taught us to appreciate board games. (we are geeks and we love it)

They are in Cambodia working for a church and helping to teach English to enable people to get better paid jobs and to help them change their situations.

Amazingly we have the opportunity to visit them.

Neither I or Jamie have ever visited such a different culture, flown so far, had to buy a visa to gain entry to a country, spent Christmas abroad or dealt with the sorts of weather that is normal in Cambodia.

It may be a bit of a culture shock which is why I am so glad we are able to visit Jane and Greg, rather than travelling completely independently. 

We will be spending the first half of our time Living in Jane and Greg's apartment and helping out in the centre. (I have never successfully taught anyone anything so I am a little nervous about attempting to teach English)

And then we are going to go exploring a little further afield.

We are fortunate that Jane and Greg are able to have a weeks holiday whilst we are there.

We aren't exactly sure of our itinerary, to some extent we are going to go with the flow. 

I am beyond excited.

Croquembuche (30 before 30)

Croquembuche- from the french meaning 'Crunch in the mouth' is a desert that consist of Choux pastry balls filled with flavoured cream, piled in a cone shape and held together by caramel.

Before embarking on this challenge I had never even tried making choux pastry and had never made a successful caramel.

Thankfully my friend Alison came to stay for the weekend, Friday we went for a wine tasting, Saturday we ran a sponsored Dog walk in the beautiful sunshine then Jamie and I went to a wedding reception in the evening and on Sunday after church we made the croquembuche. 

A pretty epic weekend! 

Thankfully I own the great British bake off recipe book from last year which has brilliant step by step instructions on how to make a croquembuche.

 

First we combined the pastry ingredients on the hob, Alison is good at stirring 

After leaving the mixture to cool and adding eggs, I piped little balls on to baking sheets. 

 The cooking instructions for Choux pastry is really complicated We had to wave the door of the oven to let steam out and then had to pierce each ball during cooking. (I sometimes wonder how people come up with this stuff).

It worked.

 We then made the white chocolate and lemon cream whilst the balls cooled.

 It was yummy!

 Piping the cream into the balls was surprisingly difficult, but we managed.

 The first attempt at making caramel didn't go well.

 Neither did the second, but Alison had the right touch with the third batch. 

I can see why they worry so much about it on the Great British bake Off!

Once we had managed to make the Caramel we assembled.

 We both took many photos! We were proud.

 Very proud...

I can happily cross off another one of my 30 Before 30 aims.

I have now completed 5 only 25 left to go!

Last week of Skirts and Dresses (30 before 30)

Sorry it's late, but here it is -

my last week of wearing skirts and dresses for July.

Boy am I glad to wear trousers again!

I have worn jeans for the last three days, it feels good.

I have enjoyed this challenge, it has made me think more creatively about what I wear and I have put more effort in to my appearance.

I went to a hen party last weekend, we went mountain-boarding and I even wore a skirt then!

I will share some of the photos from that great weekend soon.

I have now crossed 4 items from my 30 before 30 list.