The Rules of Rain

We have lived in our house for almost two years and during that time, we have made do with a cheap wooden table and chairs to use on the back patio. As they are not for the outdoors, P and I have had to move them in and out of the garage and shed whenever we've had guests. With the temperamental Brrringlish weather, there have been occasions when the sky has opened up while we were mid-meal and we've not only had to usher our guests indoors, but dismantle the table and carry it all under cover as well!

So this year, we finally had a little bit of spare cash and decided to splash out (no pun intended) on a proper outdoor furniture set. As it is my nature to do intensive research before any major purchase, I read up on the benefits of wrought iron vs wood vs aluminium before making a decision.

With my penchant for shabby chic, I longed for an ornate white painted wrought iron antique set. However, many I found were incomplete sets or only sat four people (we normally have at least eight for our barbeques).

I love the look of wood as well but they turn from a nice mid-brown to silvery grey in the elements. They also have to be cleaned every spring and then oiled again. Too much maintenance, so a big no no.

The best option then seemed to be recycled aluminium, which isn't heavy like wrought iron and doesn't rust. After searching online, I finally found a beautiful cream painted octagon table with eight chairs. As it was quite expensive (I'm more used to antique markets and eBay where I can pick up great bargains), it actually hurt my heart (and not to mention my bank balance) to purchase it. But after much discussion with P, we decided to go for it as we have some important guests visiting us in May and June.

So here it is in all its costly glory. It even comes with chocolate brown seat pads and a matching parasol:

As sod's law would have it, it has rained EVERY SINGLE DAY since we bought it. In fact, the last full sunny day was the Friday that the furniture arrived at the end of March and it took P and me five hours to put it all together.

After speaking to one of my Brrringlish friends, he advised me of the three things you can do which will guarantee prolonged heavy rainfall:

1. Purchase an outdoor furniture set
2. Impose a hose pipe ban
3. Buy a barbeque

Believe it or not, many areas here are in 'drought' at the moment. I use that term lightly as we have had several severe thunderstorms and howling winds over the last few weeks. I don't want to speculate on how inefficient the water companies here are...but put it this way, they are much better at leaking water than storing it.

The major water companies have been enforcing a hose pipe ban since 5 April. So while you are not allowed to wash your car or water your plants and lawn with a hose, you can still use a bucket and watering can. It doesn't bother us as we have not had any need to use our hose pipe. My umbrella however, has been in use pretty much every day.

I haven't given up hope for the summer yet though. I have been praying every day that warm, dry days will return soon. But once the rain finally stops, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are P and I going to buy a new barbeque, not even if our current one falls apart!

Opportunities and Opulence

It has been very quiet on the blog front but that has definitely not been an accurate reflection of our lives.

Recently, my boss was asked to take on a new roll pulling together various customer and complaints teams within the bank. His success will depend on whether he is able to bring our excessive complaints numbers down. It is a big job and I will be joining him on this new challenge, which we start on Monday. It will be very exciting and although I am slightly daunted, I also intend to take a more active role as his 'right-hand man'.

At the end of last year, I started a professional mentoring programme with two senior level PAs. One is within the bank I work for and the other supports a managing partner in a well-regarded consultancy. Between them, they have over 50 years of PA experience in various companies. I meet them regularly to work on my developments areas. I am not one to sit in meaningless classes just to tick a training box and I have found that mentoring works really well for me. It is motivating and has sharpened my focus on where I want to go in terms of my career.

I have started the ball rolling with my boss and run a few ideas of how I can be a bigger asset to him. So far, he seems as keen as I am and the next step is to turn words into action. I know that I can be the MVP (most valuable PA :-)) on the wider team but I need to invest more time into learning about the new area.

This week, I also had a bit of an additional boost. One of the junior team PAs asked me to be her mentor! To be honest, I thought she was joking at first so I didn't think much of it. I am not sure if I am the right person to be influencing young, innocent minds! She asked me again a few days later and I still wasn't sure if she was serious. I spoke to her team leader who confirmed that yes, she actually did want me to be her mentor ha ha. I have agreed to do it as I know it will help me to grow as a person as well. Our first meeting is in a couple of weeks time so I will keep you updated on her (and my!) progress! Eek.

It hasn't all been work, work, work. I've also had some fun purchasing stuff for the master bedroom. I used part of my small bonus to purchase a beautiful 19th century antique French Fauteuil (that's armchair to the likes of you and me). When I showed my boss the photo of it, he said that now all I need is a Versailles Palace to go with it! Uh huh. I've also got a hand-made painted clothes ladder for our 'not clean not dirty' clothes. I have a tartan footstool on order to put in front of the chair but as it is custom made, it will take another two to three weeks for delivery.

I have also managed to find gorgeous vintage prints and old lace pictures to complete a feature wall over my dressing table. Aside from the Italian mirror, all the other items, including the small carved painted shelf, is from the same lady who has a stall at my favourite antique market. I have collected them from her over the past year or so. I love the various shades of grey, mushroom and cream chalk paints she uses. Her stuff sells like hot cakes so I literally take the items off her hands as she unloads them from the back of her van. P has observed that I am akin to a circling shark going in for the kill ha ha. Hey, that is all part of antique shopping etiquette i.e. you snooze, you lose, baby doll! All of these items are one-offs and I have learnt that if you don't grab them when they are available, it will be a long time before you can find a suitable replacement.


We were busy with visitors in January when we had a big Chinese New Year party and we spent last weekend with friends in Cambridge. It's my birthday (21 again, yah right) in three weeks and we are having a few people over for lunch. Our good friends from Northampton are coming to stay. They are bringing their very sweet and mature 12-year-old grand daughter as she loves the dogs and wants to spend some time with them.

It is miserable and rainy today so I shall be at home making chocolate-chip cookies and dark chocolate brownies. I am bringing them to work on Monday to help break the ice with my new team. All part of my newly-found skills in stakeholder management ha ha.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Winter's Wonders

We've had the most amazingly temperate weather this year and our climbing rose was blooming right into December. Well, until two weeks ago when the frost arrived with a vengence. Our stunning roses were literally frozen in time. If you click on the photo, you can see the bits of ice on top of the flowers. Its beauty really takes my breath away:

The grass was covered in frost as well:

I do miss the long summer days where I pottered around the garden for hours: deadheading flowers, feeding and cutting back plants and just staring in wonder at how lush the garden looked.

But as I am discovering, winter brings its own pleasures as well. We are on a two-week break from work and have been doing bits and pieces around the house. We have plans to put shelves up in the living room on either side of the vintage mirror over my sofa and I have been slowly collecting items to put on them. The centrepiece will be a pair of old American tin ceiling tiles, one on each shelf. In front of these, I have decided on vintage pressed glass candlesticks, which I have been ordering online. They are being delivered one by one. I love the anticipation of receiving each package, opening it and placing the 'new' old items on my dining table, really for the big show once the shelves are up!

In the summer, it stays light until 10pm (my bedtime), so I never bother with candles. But one of the loveliest things about the nights coming early is that you can light candles to keep the house looking cosy. Not all of my candlesticks have arrived yet, but here are a few ready and waiting for tapered candles to complete the picture. The simple glass ones with the tea lights are vintage French jam jars.


I have also been busy trying new recipes, the lastest of which is a crumble-covered cherry cake. I plan on serving this on Christmas day when we may have some special guests for dinner. In anticipation, I have even bought a vintage footed glass cake stand. I purchased three of them this year to give as presents but have realised that I need/want one too! I even found a vintage cake knife to go with it. Isn't this just so pretty? I adore the fluted edge of the cake stand. It will look all the better on Christmas day with a cherry cake on it, warm from the oven and daintily dusted with icing sugar.

I hope that you are all enjoying the festive period as much as we are,
and we wish one and all a very

December's Delights

It is hard to believe that 2011 is almost over and we are less than two weeks away from Christmas. We have been busy with continually doing up bits around the house and with various social activities.

The highlight of the month is a surprise visit from my BFF Yellow Fever last week. He had a business trip to a nearby country and in cahoots with P, planned a secret visit to surprise me! We had a great time with lots of alcohol, day trips and as we say back home, 'talking c*ck'!

One of the things that P and YF did was drive around and pick up a few pieces of shabby chic furniture that I had bought online for my ongoing interior decorating of the house. We had a massive flat screen on the master bedroom dressing table which we haven't watched in the 1.5 years that we have lived here. All it did was collect dust. I decided to get shot of it, 'girlify' the space and it now looks like this:


The boys went to pick up the Italian mirror and re-furbished chair from a lovely lady who lives about 100 miles from us out in the countryside. I think P's white-knuckle driving down the narrow country lanes caused YF some concern but he lived to tell the tale (just!).

YF flew back to the Small Island on Friday and barely able to catch our breath, we had our annual Chrismast dinner for four sets of close friends last night. It gave all of us a chance to get together before the mad festive rush. Here is the kitchen diner all set for the gathering:



I cooked teriyaki chicken, pork loin in soy sauce, cabbage with dried shrimp and bok choy in oyster sauce, all served with steamed rice. For dessert, one of our friends made a dark chocolate tart with ice cream. Afterwards, everyone played cards. The sessions get very competitive with husbands destroying wives' games (and vice versa), lots of raucous laughter and much 'big talk' around the table. It was a loud and fun night with great friends.

P and I now have another week of work before we have a two-week break yahoo! We will be chilling out, going for long walks and seeing friends. Can't wait!

Vintage Heaven

With the dark afternoons and colder weather setting in, we have been spending a lot more time indoors. What that DOES mean is that I tend to do a lot of online shopping. And of course, we still visit antique markets whenever we can.

A couple of my more recent purchases include this vintage French bottle carrier which has been 'reborn' as a magazine holder. The wooden handle comes complete with long-dead woodworm holes. :-) And the woman's shoe lasts are a pretty pair from the past. I also have a man's pair but I will show those another time.


This tiny (it's about 8cm by 8cm) French glass and brass jewellery box holds my Alex Monroe bird necklace. I think it's exquisite.


One of my colleagues is moving to a different business unit and I've bought her this little dish and rose soap as a farewell present.


And these two vintage glass cake stands (filled with home made carrot cake) will be given to other friends.


I do love finding a bargain. The shoe lasts were only £6 whereas even online, they sell for around £25 or more. What I love about vintage is that every piece is unique and things made in the years of old tend to be longer-lasting and better quality. My dream is to one day run my own business sourcing items for clients and helping them put shabby chic looks together. But at the moment, the security of a job at a bank still holds me in its thrall. Even if I do dislike most of the people I work with!

Busy Busy Busy!

We have done so much in the last month or so: our trees were cut back for the winter, my stepmum's nephew Dr J came to stay for five days (he has moved here for the year to do a MSc) and we got a few new items for the house!

If you scroll down the page, you can see what our garden was like at the height of the summer...and this is what it looks like after the tree surgeon got going with the chainsaw. It allows so much more light in.


Last Friday, Dr J flew in just past midnight and P went to pick him up. I had been out with my colleagues earlier in the evening, so stayed home to sleep off the excess consumption of alcohol! After a hearty breakfast the following morning, Dr J went to central Blundon to look for property and found a great little one-bedroom apartment in a fab part of town, but more about that later.

As predicted in my last blog, we had a bit of an Indian Summer and on Sunday, it was blazing hot so we drove down to Brighton to show Dr J a little bit of Brrrringland. We walked all along the promenade and ate oysters, freshly made donuts and fish and chips. We also ran into these amazing Great Danes. The blue (that is what those grey coats are called) Dane is just a year old and already 168lbs. In comparison, Georgia Rose is 8lbs. Isn't nature amazing?


During the few days after that, Dr J did all the necessary things like opening a bank account, getting a mobile, finding his way around his new college, etc. Finally on Wednesday, he was ready to move into his own place so we drove round to his new pad for a nosey. It's in a gated development and is similar to my apartment on the Small Island: stylish and in a great location. There is even a balcony just like I used to have and reminded me of those lovely mornings when I sat out and enjoy my coffee. It's very central but on a quiet street, so the best of both worlds. I must admit that both P and I were extremely envious. We love our little surburban house and the peaceful area where we live...but there is nothing like having a pied a terre in the middle of a vibrant and exciting city!

Afterwards, we went for a drink with Dr J to his local pub (great buzzy place with lots of character) and he looked like the cat that got the cream. I think he is going to have an amazing year here and we are really happy for him. I must admit it was a bit sad when he left our house. We didn't know him very well before he came so this was a great opportunity to make a new friend.

We've also managed to make a few new purchases for the house. I got a very early wedding anniversary present from P in the shape of a vintage leather Finnegan's hat box and I bought myself an ornate framed picture of antique botanical prints. I just love them:


The guest room also has a new addition with this pine chest. It probably came from a big old house as it has "Down Stairs 1862" painted on the front. How cool that it is dated!



Our little coffee corner also has had a makeover with a vintage Tate & Lyle sugar crate, now turned into a shelf for my gardening books and magazines.


Work has been extremely busy as well so I can't wait for our two-week break over Christmas. Before that though, P and I have our four-year anniversary (is it diamond?!!) and his birthday to celebrate. We have quite a few lunches and dinners planned with friends over the next two months so lots of lovely days to look forward to!

In the mean time everyone, keep well and be happy!

Autumn - Hazards and Happiness

We spent most of today outdoors in the garden getting rid of the summer bedding plants and putting in bulbs for next year's spring colour. We even got some time on the deck chairs!

It has been really cold for the last month but there is meant to be an Indian Summer for at least the next week, hopefully longer. We didn't think we would be sitting out on the patio again this year but as usual, Mother Nature dictates and we are left surprised.

What is no surprise is that Georgia Rose was up to no good yesterday when she was on a walk and got herself stung several times on the face by wasps. She has to sniff everything and chase anything that moves. She was already stung on the lip by a bee a couple of months ago. Does she ever learn? Obviously not, and this is the result:

Compare that to what she looks like normally:

We took her to the vet straight away and she was given antihistamines, which has luckily helped to reduce the swelling overnight. For a while there, I thought my miniature dachshund was turning into a bassett hound.

Even though we've had to compost a lot of the summer bedding plants that were turning brown, there have been some surprise performers in the garden.

To my delight, these foxgloves (they normally finish flowering by June) have just kept on giving:

This autumn bulb that I put in a few weeks ago has also popped up:

This plant called Scabiosa Miss Willmott has absolutely got me entraced. The petals open one at a time:

This is what it looks like in full bloom:

Our climbing rose seemed to be stagnating for a while, but has suddenly had a foilage spurt and is ready for the second rush of blooms. I look forward to seeing it all flowers again soon.

When we planted this hollyhock in June, it was less than 12 inches tall. Now, it is the same height as me:

And here's a selection of the 200+ bulbs we have recently put in the flower beds and pots:

I still have a whole box of different tulips to put in next month. Those go in later as they don't start to root until a month or two after daffodils. I can't wait to see what comes up next spring, hopefully lots!

I also had a lovely email a few days ago with some great news. My dad, stepmum and her sister are planning on coming to visit us in May!!!! You know what that means...yes, I don't have to cook for as long as they are here! I'm smiling already. My stepmum and her sister are both excellent cooks and I'm going to be cruising on yummy highway. P is also looking forward to it as it means a change from the dozen recipes I normally rotate. The fact that he gets on really well with them is a bonus too ha ha. I am hoping that they will stay for the entire month of May but let's see if they take my 'hint'.

They are all lovely company and I already have loads of places in mind to take them. We may go up to the Lake District for a long weekend and take day trips to the many lovely little towns a shot drive away. I am also planning a girls' day out to the world-famous Chelsea Flower Show. I have never been before so I am quite excited about that. Hopefully I will be lucky enough to meet some of the garden presenters I see on the BBC as I do have my favourites!

I also hope that we have beautifully warm and sunny weather so that we can spend time on the back patio in the deck chairs 'singing song and talking c*ck'! :-)

Anyway, the next 'to do' on the list is to start thinking about Christmas i.e. designing our card and sourcing presents. I still can't believe it's the end of September but as they say: time flies when you're having fun!