Brahms with my Praline, I dont think so

Thank you all for my Birthday wishes last week ;o)

Whilst out shopping last week I bought a birthday cake to have, not a proper one because that would have been plain greedy, but a coffee sponge roll, which was really scrummy ;o)

If you click on the link it will take you to my flickr page

The day itself was good, I even got cups of tea made for me at work, which is generally unheard of! I always seem to be the one who makes most of the drinks. I swear they would die of dehydration if I didnt make the drinks.

I even did the right thing and bought cakes for everyone or rather pastries...

...I bought three croissants, one pain au raisin, and a maple pecan plait for me ;o) Theres only five of us.

When I was back in London my boss even told me not to feel I should make the drinks and to only make them if I was making one for me. I even half joked on another occasion that I wait til Im dieing of thirst before I make the drinks!

I got this mailing the other day from the Chocolate Tasting Club, I really did consider going for it, but thought to myself do I really want to pay another £7.00 for a CD? The answer to that was a big fat no! Especially as Im not really a fan of classical music.

Talking of unheard of things, I normally bring to work some sort of food thing when Ive been away on holiday, and my colleague brings me back a bar of chocolate (which is really nice of him) when hes been away, the other people dont tend to bother. Im the only person to send postcards too.

My boss went to Turkey for a golfing break and actually bought us back some Turkish Delight, so it was actually the proper stuff ;o) It was really nice too, I ended up having two pieces one mint and one rose and they were coated in coconut with a nut in the middle.

I weighed myself this morning and knew that I was bound to have put a bit of weight on after having all those yummy things, so was well pleased that I only put on 200 grammes. Im going to try to be (or rather reasonably) good from now on. I know who am I kidding ;o)

not so souper

On Thursday I tried another new soup from Pret a Manger, this time I went for Spinach & Nutmeg (Spinach, nutmeg, potato, sage, cream, butter, onion, celery & organic vegetable bouillon) the taste was ok, it was just devoid of lumps, so it wasnt very filling. I was hungry for the rest of the afternoon, and as James (and the numerous charity collectors - sorry I didnt mean to scream at you "never mind the starving millions I want feeding") will testify a hungry Amber isnt a happy Amber!


As followers of Als blog would have seen, I made a mission statement so to speak, to eat a portion of chips on every beach in Britain - I should have said England really - but as ever I speak first (should that be comment first?) and think later! I now have to include Wales and Scotland also, Im not quite sure how many beaches there are, "but it sure will be fun finding out". As I said I can cross off Southend ;o).


Its my birthday on Wednesday and James has bought me a new camera, I have had a little play with it (but was told off because its not Wednesday yet!), I will try and upload the few pictures Ive taken (be warned theres a scary self portait in there to ;o)).


I hate wasting food and on Friday James said to me "theres some Walnut Pave left - if you dont want it I will throw it away", I had to eat it - it wasnt just "some" bread it was half the loaf, and I felt incredibly full after eating it - so full infact that I couldnt eat a chocolate! Yes, I was that full!


Considering I ate all that bread, I was well pleased that when I weighed myself this morning I only put on 100 grammes (I wasnt too pleased that I have had to pay again - oh well two weeks free is better thatn a smack in the kisser!).

theyre trying to make me healthy!

Theyre recognising me now in Birleys when I go in for my half a lamb sandwich (this still makes me smile as it sounds so greedy), I normally have it on white bloomer bread. I was waiting in the queue and the lady (I think she is either Spanish or Portuguese) asked "half lamb, no butter, no salt?" (Ive never liked the texture of butter or margarine anyway so its not like Im trying to be super weight conscious or anything) and I said yes please. She then got a slice of brown bread, I didnt say anything as I thought it would make a nice change, and it did ;o).

On Monday I met my friends for lunch and we ended up going to their staff canteen. Incidentally lunch is now down to two friends as one of them has gone and got herself a proper job in Westminster (she was temping previously and her assignments were nearly always in the city). Hopefully once she has settled she will be able to wrangle herself a longer lunch period and get the tube down to Bank. Anyhow back to the lunch...

...I ended up having chicken wrapped in bacon with herby polenta, and it was really nice. My boss was really surprised that I was only back 10 minutes late and asked me if my friends didnt like me anymore ;o).

Did anyone see my review on the Innocent website? Well here it is...

Click on picture for a larger view ;o)

Talking of Vegpots (yes I know I brought it up myself) I bought a new one today Mexican Sweet Potato Chilli.

While doing the big shop yesterday morning, I was looking through the doors whilst waiting to be let in and my heart sank when I saw that the self scan wands were out of order so (in a fit of temper) I took the bags that I had positioned into the trolley and threw them into the front section. They finally let us in and I went to have a schmoozy at the scanner holder and saw that the other side wasnt out of order (what a refief that was) so I got the scanner and had to put the bags back to where they originally were positioned. yes James I did check the Coinstar first!

I went to scan the first thing I picked up (a punnet of strawberries if your interested) and when I pressed the trigger the light didnt come up on the scanner! I thought damn the scanners must all be out of order :o( my heart sank again.

I was merrily down the dairy aisle and I see a man with his wife and they were using a scanner too, so i asked him if his scanner was working as blah blah blah and he said it was. So I gave the scanner one more try and hey pesto it started working. I shouldnt have got my hopes up as halfway through scanning the bits I had got, the scanner decided to die and came up with the dchp error.

Then about five minutes later it started to boot up and did its start up sequence (James you would have been mesmerised as well as paranoid), and all my scanned items appeared on there again and I carried on scanning my bits and the bloody scanner died again and did the whole start up thing again. Only this time it didnt die again so I presume whatever the scanner problems were finally fixed.

Although when I left the out of order sign was still on one side of the scanner holders, so who knows.

I have recently started watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy after seeing a parody of it on South Park in the episode South Park is Gay! I couldnt believe how right they had got it. I was watching an episode yesterday. I looked around at James who was shovelling Kellogs Frosties into his mouth, and I thought if Carson saw you (in your jogging bottoms and oversized t-shirt) I could just hear him saying "Sweetie Ive heard of casual but you are the limit" , I think styling James would be a challenge too far for the Fab 5!

Incidentally I was watching Professor Regans Nursery and I was completely gobsmacked to hear that Kellogs Frosties are mainly eaten by young men (as opposed to children) I was waiting with baited breath for her to say they were especially popular in the East Anglia Region, in the Essex town of Chelmsford ;o)

I weighed myself yesterday morning (for free again) and was well chuffed that I lost 300 grammes, especially as I had the polenta earlier in the week.

Signed book

On Thursday in Metro is saw an advert for Waterstones saying that Gordon Ramsay would be doing a book signing of his new book Great British Pub Food on Friday. So knowing that James is currently at a loose end (and a good way of prolonging his suffering) I thought I would ask him if he wanted a mission (I had to make it sound glamorous didnt I ;o)) to go and get the signed book for me. He said he didnt really want to do it...

...I then had to go to Plan B and guilt trip him to do it! I think the twenty phone calls I did Friday morning saying "no dont worry about it" and putting the phone back down must have done the trick ;o).

The new British Spring Greens Innocent Veg Pot wasnt nice at all (I even did a review on the website saying that I didnt like it), definitely not one that I will buy again! So what didnt I like about it? I think it was mainly the underlying mint taste (it wasnt nice like mint chocolate but horrible).

On Friday while walking past Starbucks I saw a sign for their new frappuccino, dark berry mocha, the nice people in our store even did us a free sample to try on Saturday morning (we totally loved it), it reminded me of the raspberry mocha I drank loads of while on holiday in LA a couple of years ago ;o).

I went into Boots this morning to weigh myself and there was a sign on the machine saying that between now and 5th May you can weigh yourself for free (what a bargain it means it will save me £1.00) whopee doo ;o). Anyhow I lost one pound which I was really chuffed about as I had half a garlic bread with James earlier in the week and no less than four drinks yesterday in Starbucks.

the long short week

Why is it that short weeks always last longer than normal weeks? That always flummoxes me! I always know that by Wednesday afternoon I am over halfway through the week, but on the few weeks that we have a bank holiday then the halfway mark comes Wednesday evening, which is why psychologically its longer!

Last Monday the new series of Hells Kitchen started with the rather sexy Marco Pierre White running the pass. Im sorry James but if Marco said to me "let me take you away and hand feed you chocolate all day" then I would have my bags packed before you could say "did you check the coinstar?"

You will be pleased to know that the chilli and chocolate sausages were really nice! They had chilli in them with little pockets of dark chocolate that melted as they cooked, the combination really worked well together ;o). The sausage lady didnt make them this week, but will make them again either for next week or the week after. I was speaking to her husband and he said they sold out last Saturday too and also sold out at Barleylands. Hopefully the sausages will continue selling well (and not just because it was Easter).

While doing the shopping this morning I bought a new Innocent Veg pot, British Spring Greens, hopefully it will be as nice as the others are.

On Tuesday morning at Liverpool Street Station I came across this sign at the Bishopsgate exit escalators.

I always walk up and down the stairs (and that is always during the peak periods anyway). It will only affect the people who would want to use the escalators whilst going in the "wrong" direction! Upto a few weeks ago they were renovating the escalators (one at a time) and they were running in the "wrong" direction, as trying to walk up/down the stairs would be a complete nightmare when everyone is walking the other way!. It reminds me back to when I was at school we had "up" stairs and "down" stairs but at hometime and lunchtime everyone would walk down the nearest staircase!

I knew after all the chocolate I ate last week it was inevitable that I would have put on some weight this week...

...even still there was a teeny part of me hoping that there would be a small loss, huh! fat chance of that happening! I shouldnt really have been surprised that I put on four pounds!

Like I said last week the bad weeks make the good weeks seem better (I just have to keep telling myself this) ;o)

Cold and grotty

No Im not talking about the weather but I am talking about me...

...yes I had a cold last week. I came down with it Sunday night.

I struggled into work Monday morning being very sniffly, and ended up coming home at 12pm!

Luckily the cold had gone by Friday, so my Easter hasnt been ruined ;o)

Having not been out all week (apart from going to work on Monday) I was feeling stir crazy by Friday, and me and James decided to go to Southend, plus because it was Good Friday there was free parking too ;o).

Everytime I go to the beach I have to have a portion of chips (it stems back to something me, my Mum and Brother would do to keep warm - even on Summer days ;o)).

On Saturday I was pleased to see that the sausage lady had remembered to bring the chocolate & chilli sausages, so I dutifully bought six of them ;o) Apparently the ones she bought to Chelmsford on the Friday had completely sold out! And if they sell well then she will continue doing them whey hey ;o) I will be trying them later in the week and will let you know what they are like. I have a feeling they will be nice (at least I hope they will be ;o)).

I have had a chocolate filled day today...

...I opened up my chocolate tasting club easter egg. I have scanned the menu card for you to see ;o). I have already scoffed the dark half of my egg already (and it was as yummy as I thought it would be). I also bought to Starbucks with me my easter egg sandwich and ate half of that too ;o).

I will probably have the milk chocolate half tomorrow (I mean I might as well be bad in a big way ;o)). I will try and save the little chocolates and chicks to eat during the week (once Ive finished my current box).

James also gave me these lovely little hand decorated eggs...


Not surprisingly I havent weighed myself this week - I already know it will be bad next week as I didnt do much on the exercise bike as I was ill and couldnt be arsed to!

To be philosophical the bad weeks make the good weeks look better ;o)

Happy Easter ;o)

They knew I was coming!

Firstly let me set the scene...

...its 2am and i cant sleep! I have the total opposite of writers block - I have lots of words just whizzing around my head, so if this keeps changing direction just bear with me ;o)

I guess your wondering did the sausage lady do my suggestion of the sausages with chocolate in? Well, I looked on the stall as we walked past, so James could check the book stall in the market (a different market to the farmers market), and there was no sign of my suggested sausages. I came back half an hour later, and I was told that she had done them (and they were different but really nice), but she had packed them in the wrong box, and were currently being enjoyed in Loughton! But shes going to make sure she brings some next week ;o) So like me you are going to have to wait another week before finding out what they taste like! Whod have thought that one of my suggestions would actually be made into sausages!

London was on heightened security last week because of the G20 summit. I was meeting my friends for lunch on Tuesday (we were going to their staff canteen), and I was met with this sign in the reception area ;o)

It always makes me laugh ;o) I may have not liked my name as I was growing up, but noone else has an alert named after them ;o)

On Wednesday we got to dress down, so we could blend in with the protesters. It wouldnt have surprised me if the protesters came into London wearing suits so they could blend in with the city workers! My boss took great delight (he braved it by wearing a suit) in yelling at anyone coming in to our office in casual gear "protester protester get out".

The Bank of England is about a 10 minute walk from where I work, so it wasnt surprising that there were so many security guards outside of the office buildings. Our building kept the front doors locked and told everyone to make sure we had our fobs with us so we could enter the building and not to let anyone come in behind us (unless they had a fob too).

The protesters were pretty close to where we were, but luckily they were in a contained area, the camp that was set up in Bishopsgate outside of the European Climate Exchange was on my normal route back to Liverpool Street Station, so I made sure walked a different route back. My boss decided to have a look at the camp on his way back but the police had cordened it off anyway.

I think lots of people decided to have Wednesday off, as the trains wernt nearly as full as they normally are and when I went shopping at lunchtime the shop was nearly empty and I just walked straight up to a cashier ;o) if only it could be like that normally...

On Thursday a protester decided to scale Lloyds, which is a minutes walk from our office, typically it happened before lunchtime so we didnt get to see it!

Anyway its 3.15 now and Im starting to feel tired so I will continue later ;o)

Its now 12.50 I ended up getting up at about 6am so hopefully I will sleep better tonight!

My Chocolate Tasting Club Easter Egg turned up during the week, I havent opened it yet, and am planning on having choc filled day next Sunday ;o) I also bought an Easter Egg Sandwich to eat too! And sorry James Im not sharing any of it...

...its all MINE ;o) Im currently working on some Aversion Therapy so he associates eggs with pain, thus doubly ensuring the safety of my Easter Eggs...

...Ive given him a special collar to wear, I think it is working as he has started saying "eggs are bad", although he is ok with fried and scrambled eggs, he just doesnt like anything that comes in shells ;o).

I weighed myself this morning and have lost another 300 grammes - Im please about this because I have had quite a few scrummy things over the past couple of weeks, and was sure that I had probably put some weight on!