Latest adventures!

Hi there,

As I mentioned in my last post I have been out and about quite a lot recently, I realised that my last proper post was mid-way through May. And here we are, Mid-way through June now!!

So, here are some photos of what I've been up to.

We had our annual Club Supper at my rugby club. This is an end of season sit down dinner where awards are given to players from all three mens' and the womens' teams. We get dressed up all fancy, usually we see each other covered in mud so it makes a change! Then we all get really smashed on free wine and it descends into chaos shortly afterwards. Which is why there aren't that many photos of the event!!

My friend Rhiannon won an award for 'best team spirit' - I was so proud!!

The morning after we all went for a very hungover brunch at one of my favourite places: Baroosh (post to come on there soon!). Needless to say it was slightly emotional.

Rhiannon's boyfriend Steve turned 30 recently and had the imaginative idea of hosting a 'Cowboys and Indians' themed party in the park! Knowing how much I enjoy fancy dress I was there like a shot.

And it was a lot of fun.

I met up with some friends I hadn't seen in years and went to a delightful little deli in Reading called Picnic.

I treated myself to a delicious chorizo and cous cous salad...

...and a big old slab of chocolate cake!!

If you're ever in Reading you should check them out, details here.

At the end of May I went away for a weekend of carnage with my rugby pals. We all drove down to Bournemouth for a 7's Rugby Festival. We played a bit of 7's but mostly drank, danced, paraded around in ridiculous costumes and watched a lot of rugby played by people taking it a lot more seriously than us!! Oh, and drew on each other's faces. As you do.

And we're really awesome at human pyramids!

Our Saturday night dress code was 'Airline Suave'. I obviously had to challenge the status quo by not dressing as an Air Hostess or Pilot, instead opting to don some garish high vis gear and go as an Air Marshall.

I certainly stood out!!

I had a great time. I wore hardly any make up, my hair was a state and I spent a whole weekend with some really good friends playing and watching some awesome sport. Exactly how a festival should be if you ask me, I think the meaning of festivals has been lost somewhere and now everywhere you turn it's full of hipsters trying to get photographed for a street-style blog or website. Not my cup of tea I'm afraid. I like to dance like a loon, pull stupid faces, get sun burnt and not give a damn about what I look like or who's watching.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the concept of 7's rugby, normal rugby union is played with 15 people a side and lasts for 40 minutes each way. 7's is much faster and more challenging as you only have 7 players per side and play for 7 minutes each way. It's a lot of fun as no one has a set position so it pushes you out of your comfort zone and forces you to think on your feet. I'm definitely going back next year!

I'm not sure if I mentioned in here that I was bought a vintage pin up style photography shoot for my 30th birthday back in February. Recently I received the photos back from my experience and am so happy with them. I feel she really captured my sense of fun and femininity and I really enjoyed dressing up and posing for the camera!

I've become obsessed with an app called 'Snapchat' on my phone. You can take photos of yourself then draw and write things on them. Then you can send those photos to your friends. It's quite amusing and pretty addictive!

I hope you've all been having fun in the sun recently. Although I don't know where it's gone now!!

Here's hoping it makes a return soon.

Lx

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Blogging in theory....

Hi there!

So, I haven't blogged in quite a while. I wish I could apologise and put it all down to working long hours or being out of the country a lot but it's neither of those things.

The fact is that lately I've been feeling somewhat ambivalent about writing anything in here. I enjoy blogging and I love reading about what other people have been up to, but to be honest I don't feel like I have much of a message right now. I'm finding it difficult to figure out where my voice fits in to an ever increasing community of people that have a hell of a lot to say: some of it really good, some of it bad and a large percentage of it truly ugly. I see people subjected to trolling comments and criticism of anything they wear right down to the company they keep or the way they write, yet in the same day I see people idolised and placed on pedestals for living what I deem to be a rather vacuous and insubstantial existence.

So where does this leave me?

I live in a small town in the Home Counties, we have very few independent restaurants, bars or clubs. I'm not complaining, I like where I live; but I'm just making the point that pretty much everyone knows the menu of Pizza Express off by heart so there's little point in me posting about going there for dinner.

I don't buy a lot of clothes or beauty products, certainly not enough to blog about on a regular basis. Plus I don't have a fancy camera or good lighting in my flat so I can't achieve the same level of photography as other bloggers I read, admire and would love to emulate.

I cook. A LOT. But mostly functional, quick meals that are healthy, taste good and rarely unusual. I don't have a lot of time to spend concocting fabulous meals from scratch to show off my cooking prowess, nor can I style my food to make it look beautiful and take good quality photographs of it.

I am happy with my life the way it is, I play a lot of sport which I enjoy, I have great friends and family and a wonderful boyfriend. So why do I get lifestyle envy when I read other people's blogs and feel like I have to spend loads of money or go out all the time in order to have something to write about in here?

I guess what I am trying to say is that I only plan to write about things that matter to me from now on and the emphasis will be on quality, not quantity. I work in Marketing and have good knowledge of social media, I know that in order to blog successfully you need to post often and accumulate lots of readers. But I don't want this blog to become all about filling empty pages with vapid photos and meaningless copy.

If you like what I write and we share similar interests then I hope you'll stick around, even if I don't post three or four times times a week. But I promise you it'll be honest, authentic and from the heart.

Until next time,

Lx

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Stuffed Aubergines

Today I'm going to give you a little recipe post. At the moment I am not eating carbs in the evenings as part of my health and fitness kick. Sometimes it's hard, I love bread, pasta and potatoes and tend to feel unsatisfied if my evening meal doesn't contain one of these foods! However the bonus is that I can eat more protein and veggies to make up for missing out on the carbs.

As a result I have been trying to think of meals to cook in the evenings that won't leave me feeling hungry. I know stuffed aubergines isn't a new, cutting edge recipe but they are quick and easy to make, you can get a lot of variety out of the ingredients you use for the stuffing, they're generally pretty healthy and best of all, they taste damn good!!

Serves 2 - You will need:

2 large aubergines

1 small red onion

1 green pepper

2 mushrooms

500g extra lean turkey mince (optional)

garlic

garam masala, salt & pepper for seasoning

tomato puree

parmigiano reggiano

First start by cutting your aubergines in half lengthways then scooping out all the flesh from them so you're left with the shells of them.

Dice the flesh along with the onion, mushrooms and pepper then fry gently with some chopped garlic or garlic paste and a little olive oil until soft.

This meal is delicious as a vegetarian option, but if like me you need some extra protein then add your turkey mince to the pan and brown it off.

You'll want to add the seasoning at this point. It's fine to just use salt and pepper if you like but I add garam masala as I love the depth of flavour it gives. Turkey can be quite a bland meat!

Add the tomato puree, I tend to use about two tablespoons of it, then gently simmer until the mince and vegetables are all coated in the seasoning and puree.

Next grab your aubergine shells, brush them with a little olive oil and pop under the grill for about 10 minutes at 180 degrees.

Once they're nice and brown you can remove them from the grill and spoon your filling into them.

Grate approx 100g of parmigiano reggiano and divide equally between your aubergines.

Then put them back under the grill for approx 5 minutes or until the cheese has browned.

 Then enjoy!!

Lx

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The Tempest

Friday's healthy lunch - chicken & duck crystal rolls and duck sushi.

Friday's unhealthy lust - a navy and neon lace dress from Whistles.

Shopping obsessed at the moment, I also want this outfit from New Look. I don't normally even like their clothes!

My hair was unusually massive on Saturday so I thought I'd take advantage of the volume and do a bit of a trashy 80's look....

I think the title of this post is quite apt. I don't know about you guys but here in the Home Counties we had atrocious weather over the weekend - quite a departure from the glorious heat and sunshine of the Bank Holiday. In fact, whilst driving over to my Sister's house for dinner on Saturday night we were treated to an incredibly dramatic hail storm, complete with thunder and lightening!!

I saw a tempest of a different kind over the weekend too. I have been lucky enough to have had a few cultured days out recently, what with my trip to 'Pick Me Up' at Somerset House previously and yesterday I went to see The Tempest performed by the RSC at The Globe Theatre.

As a lifelong Shakespeare fan I was super excited, so without further ado (about nothing. Ha ha.) I'll show you some photos that I snapped on my day out.

Big smile listening to Spotify on the train journey.

I wore my new stripy dress from H&M.

One of my favourite places in London, Borough Market. Most of the stalls were shut yesterday which was odd!! So no foodie lunch for me :(

The brand shiny new entrance to The Globe.

Being a gift shop geek!

The theatre is amazing, difficult to believe when you're sat in it that it has been here for over 500 years.

Smug at being undercover when we experienced a brief rain shower!!

We weren't allowed to take photos once the performance started so unfortunately I haven't got any of the fantastic actors or all the incredible costumes they wore.

A healthy interval snack of wasabi popcorn from Pret a Manger, surprisingly delicious and only 137 calories for the whole giant bag. So of course I ate all of it.

I managed to take a sneaky photo during the second half of the performance but then put my phone away as I was paranoid I'd get told off for taking photos!!

After watching the play we wandered along the South Bank to the Tate Modern as we had tickets for the Lictenstein exhibition. There are definitely no photos of this I'm afraid as the security guards at the Tate were enforcing a no photography policy throughout the exhibit so I didn't dare even try!! Sorry!

The exhibition was interesting but not being the biggest fan of Lichtenstein or Pop Art in general I think I preferred the play!

I always love to walk past St Paul's.

I bought Elle for the train journey home and couldn't resist a far less healthy snack of Tangfastics. I'm ashamed to say I snaffled the lot as well!! I got my 'just desserts' though, I felt really sick for about an hour afterwards.

And finally 'Mister Whatlisawrote' enjoying his eye of newt flavoured lollipop that I bought for him from the Globe gift shop.

All in all it was a lovely day out with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law who are two very fab ladies to hang out with.

Hope you all had a super weekend.

Lx

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