Nutella, I love you

I have a thing for Nutella. Always had, suite possibly always will. Baby hasn’t let me eat chocolate in weeks, but I’ve found out this morning that Nutella isn’t making me queasy. As such, I had to see if I …

The millennium Falcon

I had promised to my Star Wars mad husband a millennium falcon cake for our anniversary so here is it

In a Galaxy Far Far Away…

Oh my goodness me! You’ve got to check out Lakeland!! They’re selling a fair few StarWars baking things that will delight all StarWars fans! I believe I mentioned I was going to bake a Millennium Falcon cake for my anniversary next month, so I’ll be able to hopefully showcase it then.

I’m beyond excited with all of these things! I mean who wouldn’t want to tuck into a Wookie Cookie? Just typing that is enough to make me giggle. Wookie Cookie he he 😊

I just can’t wait to get baking. Also a trip to Lakeland’s store in Westfield Shopping Centre is definitely called for after work tonight!

Lazy weekend bliss

Today is Saturday. It’s a lazy day. Not entirely by choice mind you. Since my knee is still preventing me from much activity (it’s no longer the size of a small country, but the size of a small county), it was safer to stay home. Plus the weather is crap. And erm, the plan for today was to go watch a rugby game with my husband’s work gang. I really enjoy the company of his workmates, I am actually really jealous that he has great workmates, people you would actually enjoy hanging out with after working hours (trust me, that’s rare), but I just don’t get rugby. I do not understand how could anybody want to play such a rough game and not wear any padding, a bit like in American Football, but maybe not so OTT. I just don’t get it. See, where I come from, Rugby, as a sport, didn’t get a look at. It was football or tennis. Put me in front of any football game, I’ll enjoy it. Tennis, meh, I’ll get bored because to me it’s a game to be playing not to be watching. Rugby, I don’t get the rules, everything looks made up on the spot, fouls are never really fouls and so on… So I technically used the ‘I’m not feeling too great because of my knee’ excuse to get out of watching 80 minutes of a game I don’t understand. I feel like I’ve pulled a sickie without being really sick. Oh I can feel the guilt trip coming right up, especially as I never pull sickies for work. I always kept in mind that “boy who cried wolf” story. Beside where I work, most people pulling a sickie are just clearly too hungover to make it to work, and clearly don’t give a hoot about the impact it’ll have on the rest of the staff who will have to pick up the slack. If I’m too ill to get to work, I’ll still work from home. I blame my parents for this.

Anyhow, I will justify my ‘pulling a social sickie’ with this: I deserve to have a bit of “me” time. Had a crazy week in the office, I need to recharge my batteries (yeah plural, because if I was relying on just one, I’d not last the week in the office.). Plus husband will be able to talk about work/rugby etc. with his mates without having to explain the in-jokes and other references to me. So really I did it all so he could have a much better time. Ain’t I a great wife?!?

So what I am doing on my lazy day home alone? Well you’ll be amazed to know that I’ve tidied up the house, the spare room and dining room (yeah, check me, I live in London intra muros and I have not only a spare room, but also a dining room! Fancy or what? what’s less fancy is the reality that both rooms are rather small, thus hardly used because you couldn’t swing a cat in there -not that I’ve tried!) So yeah the spare room and the dinning room have been used as “storage for wedding presents” and “where my wedding dress went to take a nap”. So I finally decided to go through the wedding gifts and find them a “home” within the home if that makes sense. In actual fact, I’ve piled them up neatly in our bedroom so when my darling husband comes in, he will be able to take them to the attic. I’m not being ungrateful, but we are going to move in about 8 months (to quite possibly a flat without a dining room or an attic!)and I don’t want to have to re-pack all these things. It takes a fair bit of will power, because we got some really amazing gifts that I cannot wait to use, but I had and still have to be strong about it. So I’ve been moving stuff from A&B to C, I’ve also hoovered/vacuum-ed the house and mopped the floors. And gone through my wardrobes for nice clothes I don’t want to wear any more that can go to a charity shop.

With this done and my conscience clear, I have been watching various cookery programs (most of them re-runs) from the Great British Bake off, to The Cake Boss via Ace of Cakes. Or as husband refers to it my “baking porn”. I’m hooked on those things! I’m also flicking through various baking magazines, my baking books, and I’m trying to figure out what cake or cookies or whatever do I feel like baking today. And this is all I am planning to do for the rest of the day – bar sharing this here.

In an ideal world, someday (hopefully soon) I’ll somehow create the mother of all cakes, with flavour combo nobody’s ever thought of ( like geranium & lavender; earl-grey and lemon; Guinness and dark chocolate) and bam, hit the big time with my cake business thing.

I was and still am serious when I said that someday I’ll quit my job to pursue my full time hobby. But until then, I must keep on observing how the pro do it and work on my business plan. But I’ll keep that for a day I don’t feel lazy.

 

 

It all started with the appraisal

Hello,

I am going to do the mandatory presentation. Hi, I’m Bree, that’s short for Sabrina, but please don’t call me that. This is not work. This is not formal. I can already say that there will be some awkward phrasing, possibly loads of spelling mistakes, but that is only because English is not my first language/ mother tongue / Native tongue, etc. So I know I’ll make mistakes. Just keep in mind that “in real life” that makes me sound cute (and get away with things too).

So why am I here? like most people I suppose. I feel I’ve got things to talk about. Or perhaps I don’t, but I sure need to get this out of my system. Where I work, in some corporate company that shall remain nameless, although calling it the Thunderdome seems fairly appropriate, we have to do our yearly appraisal. Except that I’ve been working in the company for nearly 4 years, and I never got to do one. So I’m going through the form, and I have to evaluate myself. Judge my achievement and failures, how I should better myself, what are my goals etc. Sounds fairly simple. Except that doing this has become some sort of soul searching quest, where the recurring question that keeps popping in my mind is “What the ‘eck am I doing here?”.

This is not how I thought my life would be (at least on a purely professional level, as far as my personal life is concerned, it’s gone way beyond my expectation, but that’s not the point here). I’m not doing what I thought I’d do “when I grow up”. Not that being an Astronaut was ever really an option. But I never thought that at my age, I’d be the Executive Assistant and Office Manager (that means office dogsbody/gate keeper to the Thunderdome in actual fact) in a Corporate Blue Chip Company.

At the same time, I’m not too sure what I’d like to do. as in really do. there are a couple of things I’m utterly crazy about : Cakes and Moustaches. You’ve got to bear with me for a bit there. Moustaches are cool, not just as facial furniture on men (and cats!! have you seen Hamilton the Hipster cat?!?!). I have loads of moustaches things, t-shirts, necklaces, boxes, paper, pencils, clips… The only thing I wasn’t allowed to get was a moustache wedding ring – husband vetoed it big time – otherwise, I’ve got it.. pillows, bedlinen, you name it, I’ve got it. and well, I utterly, passionately LOVE baking. I always loved baking, but growing up I was sort of forbidden to “study” to become a pastry chef on account that I’d probably either eat all the cakes or just simply fail to get a “proper job” and then, because I’d not have gone through the general curriculum at school, I’d not have had my A-Level equivalent, and wouldn’t have been able to go to university, get a degree and avoid becoming some sort of hobo. It’s a bit of jump, but that sort of was my parents’ trail of thoughts. So I studied Law, and had the time of my life (not). But still I always had cakes.

So going back to my point. Filling in this never ending form of self-justification, I just realise that I need a way out. I need to start planing my escape from the Thunderdome. If Mad Max survives and leaves the Thunderdome, so can I.

Oh yeah, I am a nerd. and a klutz. but I’m sure I’ll have more time to cover this later.

I still need to think about what to put in my appraisal, I obviously have to sound like I’m committed to the Thunderdome and will endeavor to keep up the good work and bla bla bla.  If you have any ideas of what my 5 objectives should be (and apparently these have to be realistic and be work related – drat!) do let me know.

so yeah, I think this is the premises of this blog. Check me, I have a blog!! I still have heaps to learn about this blog thing, but I’ll figure it out as I go along (or just wing it, so far, it has worked!)

so I suppose I should sign off with something cool and meaningful right?

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