Greetings from Oxfordshire...

Hello All!

My my what an exciting couple of weeks I’ve had! My life is in a bit of a spin at the moment and I don’t know if I’m coming or going!

One of my most amazing friends got engaged! About time too! So let’s all raise a glass and toast Rebecca and Brendan! I’m delighted for them both! They are such a amazing couple. They also responsible for one of the best wedding magazines out there... http://www.wedmagazine.co.uk/

Last weekend Mr P, myself and two friends headed over to London for the Hard Rock Calling Festival at Hyde Park. We had two days of music, rain and sunshine! We saw the Kaiser Chiefs and the Killers on Friday... and it rained in the evening. Luckily I remembered to pack the binbags and was sporting a very nice binbag skirt and jacket with an Asda bag as a hat! Stayed dry as a bone... though I did get some odd looks as I was walking through Knightsbridge after the concert to catch the tube.

On Saturday the sun came out and we were blessed with great weather. We were also blessed with a trip to Borough Market to stock up on goodies for our picnic in the park! We stopped off at Patisserie Lila for a morning coffee and I had the most amazing macaroons – lavender, pistachio and vanilla http://patisserielila.com/. Mr P and the others had cupcakes which were amazing! I’ll have to download the photos from the phone and upload them! We brought breads, cheese, olives, quiche, biltong, cherries, peaches and other goodies to feast on! All washed down with a pint of cider!

So the picnic in the park was amazing, and was followed by three hours of Bon Jovi and lots of singing and dancing! He was awesome! And even better... the sun was on full heat!

And to top my weekend, I’ve landed myself an excellent job! More to follow soon! And I’m off to Cornwall on Friday for a week and can’t wait to visit some of my favourite foodie places! Yay!

Cheers for now!

Nic xoxoxo

Girl about town... and men (and women) in lycra!

Totally off the food and craft thread I’m afraid... I need to ramble on about my other interests here and share my weekend experience with you all.

Firstly, however, there is good news from the Pengelly Belly Kitchen! The new oven has been installed! Say hello my double fan oven! I can’t tell you how delighted I am! I can now get back on track with cooking yummy creations which include a batch of cakes for the lovely boys from the Estates office who replaced it for us. My my, they do get spoilt. No wonder they like coming to our house.

Anyway way, back to the weekend. We were supposed to be climbing Snowdon and I was ready to make a stash of Pengelly Belly Granola Bars and Tiffin for the climb, however the walk on Sunday got cancelled because of the weather forecast – snow and high winds. Sorry, did you say snow!? Yes I did! And it did snow, so I’m glad we didn’t go. Snowdon will still be there for another day and I am determined to climb it again and get a good view from the top as last time it was foggy and I saw bugger all! As you can imagine, I was very disappointed. I’d been seeking myself up all week.

Then Mr P had a bright idea... careful now! He’d seen in his weekly edition of Cycling Weekly (here comes our shared passion along with food) that there was a premier cycling event taking place in London at night. It was the LG Markets London Nocturne Event which takes place around Smithfield Market. Since we now live within a sensible travelling time to London we thought that would make the weekend. So I packed a picnic, we hopped in the car and headed towards London. By 1230 we were sat in Hyde Park eating out picnic, watching the world go by. And of course the Trooping the Colour was taking place in London on Saturday as well and we saw the fly-by as we were sat in the park. Very impressive!

We walked over to Smithfield Market, via the Museum of London which was very interesting – worth a visit if you are ever in that area of the City, and then made our way to our spot in behind the railings to watch the cycling events.

It wasn’t all about professionals cycling – the event started off with Penny Farthing Races, Brompton Races, Time Trials and then the Pros. See photos here and here Very exciting! The crowds and the atmosphere was electric. The Pro race didn’t start until 0930 and the streets were packed. Everyone how cow bells that we rang out everytime they passed us and we were banging the boards on the side of the railings. The noise was deafening!

We also witnessed a spectacular crash which made me feel a bit ill. Ambulance please. Seeing a crash in real time vs. Seeing them on TV is quite a difference. After 10minutes or so, the guy did get up and walk over the finishing line (big respect) but he was a mess and was then carted off in an ambulance.

I must admit watching the pros was awesome. They went past us so fast that it actually took your breath away. Team Sky's Alex Dowsett was just amazing! He led from the front and lapped everyone...he even had time to cheer on the crowd! What a guy!

The whole event didn't finish till gone 11pm... and we didn't get home till 0130! A very long and exciting day! Just gearing up for Le Tour now!

Cheerio,

Nic xoxoxo

No oven and no water!

Hello everyone!

Sorry I've not posted for a week or two! We've been rather busy!

Last weekend we had some friends up from Cornwall and we went up to Sunderland to see Take That on their first night of their tour. Our friends had some spare tickets and Mr P and I thought we'd give it a go since we love live music. We weren't quite sure what to expect as we aren't avid TT fans... however.... (I  thought I'd never say this!)... the concert was AMAZING! The whole staging, singing, dancing, crowds etc was just electric. Robbie even did 20minutes of solo classics which was awesome! I'm really glad that we went!

When we returned from Sunderland, I just started to cook dinner and the oven kept tripping the electrics which is a nightmare! Luckily as we are currently renting our abode in Oxfordshire, the Estate that we rent from are obliged to fix the oven... but the suppliers haven't got the make or model nor have they got back to Estates, so I have spent a week cooking on the hob. However, good news is that since we still haven't got a working oven because the suppliers haven't come back to us yet, Estates are getting us a new one which is a double fan oven ... thank god for that! I can't cope cooking with a basic oven! So it's all worked out for the best. Roll on Tuesday when it comes!

And to make matters worse, there's been a burst water main locally and we've had no water since yesterday evening. It's back on now, but it's very grey and murky and they are still working on resolving the issue...

So no oven and no water makes life very interesting! Hopefully when life gets back to normal next week I'll be back cooking and back blogging on food!

Cheers for now!
Nic xoxox