Prospero Año Nuevo

Well that's me over and out for another year as I am off to Barcelona to ring in the New Year.

I doubt I will be online as Lynne goes travelling without a phone and avoids the internet whilst away. However, I'm definitely going to try and keep up the blogging streak, that I am currently on, in 2013.

I hope it's a good one. 2012 sure was and there is a lot to further reminisce about....watch this space!

Happy New Year to all.

The Cinema in the Snow

When it comes to the festive season there are many things that can be done to get into the Christmas spirit. London has a lot to offer, whether you want to head out into the cold or stay indoors snuggled up on the couch. Or, if you like, you can combine both! 

Which is exactly what we did; the night we went to the cinema in the snow.

This is a room we found in a street off Brick Lane. It was empty except for the wardrobe in the corner.

So we went through the wardrobe door to see what we could find!

We found snow! 

Inside the wardrobe was a room filled with snow and chairs facing a screen so that we could enjoy a Christmas film in this ''winter wonderland''. There was also a bar serving mulled wine, popcorn and hot chocolate (with or without a cheeky shot of liqueur).

Wine and popcorn - cinema for adults.

We chose to watch a classic Christmas flick, Home Alone.

This is when Jess told me off for taking a photo during the film.

If we're being completely honest - it was cold and the temporary chairs weren't the most comfortable but as a way to get into the Christmas spirit less than a week before the 25th - it was a great success!

Merry Christmas ya filthy animal!

Anyone who's my friend on facebook may have noticed.

I am really enjoying the fact that I can now take photos on my phone and immediately post them.

This was very apparent last night.

Yesterday we enjoyed Boxing Day by having a few people round to eat, drink and be merry with us. We combined leftover food with some fresh cooking for a tasty buffet. We cracked a few bottles, including some fizz with a strawberry syrup in it and a bottle of vodka that had been festively frozen. We then settled down to play Scattergories together - living with the two most competitive people this was definitely an experience.

I documented all of this with my phone, which really doesn't take great quality pictures but it really doesn't matter. Last night sure was memorable!

Eating In - The Christmas Menu.

With the 3 of us orphans looking after ourselves this year we decided to cook exactly what we wanted. It was a little bit traditional, a little bit random and it was a whole lot of delicious!

I know a lot of people have lovely champagne breakfasts and start Christmas Day by treating themselves to foods they wouldn’t usually have. We had vegemite toast and juice. Jess went a little fancier and had fruit salad with yoghurt and a coffee.

There was, however, Champagne.

Between breakfast and heading out we got to taste Jess’ famous homemade French Onion dip.

We also had some Pop-Tarts.

When we finally got to our late Christmas lunch/early Christmas dinner this is what had;

Starter of homemade Pigs in Blankets. They were served on a Crisp Apple Salad dressed with homemade Honey Mustard Dressing.

We had decided that we couldn’t have Christmas without some kind of seafood so there was also a side of prawns wrapped in potato.

Our main was Roast Chicken with Lemon, Garlic and Thyme. This was served with Cheesy Potato Bake, Roasted Mediterranean vegetables and Ashlee’s famous garlic bread.

Considering this was the first time I had ever made a Roast Chicken, I was pretty happy with it. 

The cheesy potato bake was made to my Mum's recipe, probably not as good as hers but not a bad effort.

Whilst not the traditional roast veg to have on Christmas Day ours were yum.

Roasted courgette, red onion, aubergine, peppers, cherry tomatoes and garlic.

Ashlee once again wowed us with her abilities to make our breath stink. 

And it was well worth it!

The main event;

Dessert was Hot Chocolate Sauce Pudding served with vanilla bean ice-cream and strawberries.

We accompanied all this food with numerous a couple bottles of wine and ended the day verrrrry full. And also very happy!

How to do Christmas...

… when you are young, single, poor and live over 10,000 miles from your family, in a city that’s cold.

Yeah I’m counting myself as young for the purpose of this post as I may be too old to believe in Santa but still too young to be spending the day with anyone who does. The single part is only about 4 days old but still relevant to how the day would pan out. I am poor in the sense I don’t have a lot of disposable income –probably due to the fact I am always booking holidays – so Christmas Day was never going to be a lavish affair. This year my immediate family were scattered all over – Mum in Sydney, Kathy in Perth, Jenny in Iceland and myself in London – so I knew I wouldn’t be spending my day with them. I had the next best thing though – my London girls; Ashlee and Jessica. We planned to spend the day together keeping warm by eating, drinking and being merry.

Christmas Eve was when we finally got a tree which was a fantastic addition to the living room. The three of us Skyped a variety of people, attempted to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and drank Bailey’s before heading to bed. Christmas morning we had breakfast together, Skyped some more people and then took a holiday photo that would be worthy of making the cover of a card next year. 

It was then present time where we were all spoilt by friends and family – and we were very good at being surprised by our gifts.

                                               

After some more phone/Skype calls and a little bit of food preparation we cracked open the first bottle of Prosecco. We then sampled Jess’ homemade dip and some cheese before heading out of the house. 

After a nice stroll to Crouch End we found a pub called The Railway Tavern where we joined locals for a nice cold beverage. Here we were lucky enough to finally get some Christmas crackers (they weren’t reduced on Christmas Eve!) and be given free Prosecco!

After the pub we went back to the flat to start cooking and eating. The living room was converted to a dining room and lovingly decorated by Jess – we all got individual place settings.

We then began our feast, with just enough time between courses to first of all have a little rave. This was 4.30pm.

After the rave came the main course.

After eating we all fell into food comas and decided to have a little break in front of the TV before braving dessert.

After dessert we cracked on with the wine but after struggling to keep or eyes open we decided to call it a night.

All in all a lovely Christmas Day. To all the other young, single, poor and way from your families – I hope you had a good day too!