Update - The rest of February in Pictures

Updating's nearly over... here's all the non-food pics I took in Feb - I lost some as my Palm Pre has started overwriting pictures as I take them grr... but still here we go...

6th Feb - Birthday Drinks

So, if you remember from part 1 of my eating out update, I visited my old hometown of Maida Vale and had a lovely meal with my Mum and a friend of hers at Café Rouge.

I'd ordered a 'large glass of red wine' from the waiter, didn't quite expect the bucket I received but it still went down well *hic*.

Got to the party and thought I should stay off the vino as was already feeling a little tipsy from my 'bucket'o'booze' and was faced with a dilemma... soft drink or something a little more intoxicating - chose the latter but still was limited as I've given up all fizzy soda drinks (which makes me a little sad as I *love* dark rum and coke, and JD and Coke...and Vodka and Coke... oh dear) - especially diet coke (which I did get rather addicted to late last year!)... that will NOT be brought into our house and, on the rare occasion that I let my son drink something like that it will only be 'full fat' from now on (yes, I have been reading a lot of Jillian Michaels books!!), no artificial shit as far as we can help it :-)

So, the saintly thing that I am opted for Weston's Organic (check it) cider... It was lovely but super strong (a fact I would have noticed had I looked more closely at the label) I just assumed it was about 4% and gleefully imbibed...

Not so, at 6.5% this stuff is bloody strong. Unfortunately it is also bloody tasty and one led to another, and another... I think I drank 4 bottles.. that's TWO litres of strong premium cider.

Unsurprisingly I was a little merry, and spent most of the night talking a load of rubbish to whoever would listen (what's new I hear you ask?! ;-)

Here are some rather unflattering, but amusing, pics...

Ah yes, feeling nicely mellow in a helluva strong organic cider kinda way - wondering what the girl beside me is doing with her phone? Is it an iPhone App? Can you get one to check your breath or blood alcohol level? Whatever will they think of next?!




Okay, being propped up on my lovely friend L's shoulder - can you see how this was going...?!



I have this memory of being in the playground in primary school and 'touching tongues' with a boy, it was the grossest thing ever but still makes me laugh to this day

So I like to replicate it whenever possible ;-)



This is J and his lovely fiancée K. J is legend not only for giving me some stellar tips on bodybuilding and supplements like Alpha Lipoic Acid... but also for the way he, over time, sneakily and without her knowledge, stashed money away in a separate account that his wife-to-be didn't know about, in order to save up for a B-E-A-yoootiful engagement ring!

My faith in men was restored when I heard that story, it made me misty eyed and I like to remind Joe of this fact whenever I can :-D



And last but not least, here's the birthday boy who's adorable girlfriend organised the whole surprise drinks party and instructed him to wear the birthday balloon for the entire evening.



I think I've forgiven him for telling me I looked like a Tequila Girl in the top I was wearing!! ;-)

Unsurprisingly I felt a little ropey the next day... I don't think I drank again until...

14th Feb Valentine's Day

Don't get me wrong, I like a bit of romance and it's a shame in a way that my other half isn't more so... but then he never has been and to be honest I don't think that's ever going to alter anytime soon ;-) But I really REALLY begrudge the way bars and restaurants cash in on V Day!

The last time we went out for Valentine's Day was 2 years ago - we went to one of our local restaurants and had a meal which was nice... but that was it, it wasn't spectacular or romantic and didn't deserve the elevated price we paid for it!

So, last year we had friends round for an anti-Valentine's day meal which was rather nice - but this year it was even more low key!

In typical Joe and Tara fashion, neither of us bought each other's cards until the actual weekend, and both were from the same shop - the rather excellent Dust Boutique in Herne Hill which I've mentioned before as I bought my amazing skirt!

In terms of presents, I bought Joe a 'Grow Your Own' Domestic Goddess as, let's face it, he's never going to find one in me!



In case you're unfamiliar with these, they're teeny dolls you put in water and watch them grow!



Utterly pointless but hey, some of the most pleasing things in life are :-)

I also got my fella a Ferrero Rocher 'Rose' - rather tacky and made me smile ;-)

I in turn received some rather beautiful flowers...



...AND a rose - result!

Who's a lucky girl then? ;-)


The rose was given pride of place on the fireplace with our Hollywood Party pic and our soppy cards...



NOTE: The card on the right is the one from Joe, I almost bought it myself but thought he'd like it instead, which he did!!

So, in terms of the romantic meal...?!

Nah... cooked a nice meal but we were at home with the boy so it was a family Valentine's meal cooked in my polished chrome sexy slow cooker...

First I browned a nice beef joint and laid it on a bed of onions, leeks and some worcestershire sauce and stock



Added some more veg and left it to cook for a few hours...



About an hour before serving, added some broccoli and mushrooms




Et voila! Yummy (sort of) romantic dinner on plate :-)



After dinner Joe and the boy played PS3 for a bit...



Not terribly romantic huh? But actually a really great day - Joe and I did get out for a quick drink in our local superduper gastropub (gonna miss it when we move :'-( ) but didn't stay long as it was a school night after all!

16th Feb Shrove Tuesday(or just Pancake Day as it's known in our house!)

Well, what can I say? Give me an excuse to smother anything in peanut butter and I'm away!!

This was my second pancake - the first was the obligatory demarara sugar and lemon juice (years old tradition of mine), followed by the usual peanut butter and banana...



...I might have put a little bit of honey in there too, naughty!

And then last, but by no means least, the somewhat more saintly 0% fat greek yogurt, acacia honey and fruit pancake.



All equally delicious in their own wonderful unique way :-)

19th Feb NYE Reunion (aka let's use up all the booze!)

I realise that I still haven't actually put up the NYE in Wales pics up yet - ooops! Haven't had the time :-S

But, long and short of it is that we came back from Wales with a car literally groaning under the weight of a HELLUVA lot of booze that needed drinking!

So, we thought we'd do the decent thing and invite our friends round to assist us in its disposal ;-)

Unfortunately, 2 of the gang couldn't make it but we had an extra 3 people roundSo, we all had a lovely meal to line our stomachs start the evening off.

While we were letting our food settle, D discovered one of the presents I bought for my son this Christmas gone, Life in the Wild - it's a fabulous book...


...with more uses than first though!!



This looks great:



But I think my favourite on D was this one:



Next, D chose a lovely pic for his good lady wife, E:



And my 'wonderful' son chose this for me!



Little git!

Obviously retaliation was the order of the day:



And I think he was got back good and proper - OWNED! As he'd like to say :-D

So next, the boy went to bed and we stayed up to tackle the champagne (we had at least 5 bottles left from NYE!), wine, cider and beer collection we had amassed!

We gave it our best effort and, as obviously always happens (?!) after much wine was drunk, music listened to and conversation had... the dressing up box came out!

Well, one of the boxes, the rest were in my son's room and didn't want to wake him so we stuck to wigs and silly glasses :-D








Obviously the mask from my 30th Birthday Party had to come out to play...



...and the gorgeous feather boa my wonderful neighbour bought me :-)



From this next picture I surmised that I should never go blonde again.



Okay, so this last pic of the evening comes with a health warning as I think it's one of the scariest ever and has led me to believe that my boyfriend should have Hollywood begging him to play the part of the twisted evil psychotic villain in some future Bond movie!!

You ready...


...you sure?!



Okay here goes but don't say I didn't warn you!!




Disturbing huh?

Apologies for any nightmares this may cause.

Other pics from the month of Feb

Well, I did have a few but like I said, my Palm Pre has been overwriting pics as I take them.... soo annoying!

I do have about a zillion (that's a real number you know) pictures of food and various dishes I've cooked and eaten but won't bore you with that now!)

Here's one though, of a dude I saw on the tube, he might be the coolest thing ever so I deemed him more than worthy of a surreptitious snapping!



Right, onto some real blogging about my quest for FAME!

Toodles

TJx