We are parents!

It seems like such a long time ago since I updated this blog (and in fairness, it has been quite a few days!)

Where to start, well, I guess it’s best to start with the biggest news – One of the chicks that Jeff and I incubated hatched! Sadly only 2 out of the 10 we initially incubated were fertile, so last weekend we were hoping for both of the fertile eggs to hatch. On Friday night, I texted Jeff as I was bored and asked him if he wanted to go to a local pub. As he didn’t have anything else to do, he said yes and we met for a drink. The day before, Jeff hadn’t been in the office – he’d been at a local mental health hospital, helping the staff do some gardening (a volunteering thing his work signs up to). As  result of this, he was rather achey and his legs hurt so I suggested that we go back to his and I could give him a massage – one way of repaying the hundreds of hours he has spent massaging me!

After getting back to Jeff’s house and making his legs feel ever so slightly better, Jeff put together all the motion shots that his web cam had taken over the last few days (basically, Jeff bought a web cam and aimed it at the incubator so we didn’t miss anything!) I really didn’t believe that the egg had moved, but low and behold, I saw it with my own eyes. If you’ve ever seen ‘Paranormal Activity’, it was like that – you’re looking at the screen and then –WOAH! But even then, I suggested it was gravity and nothing else. Jeff said he could have sworn that the egg was chirping, but I said that once you want something so bad, you end up convincing yourself you’ve either seen or heard things that aren’t there.

That being said, I then thought I had heard something – but convinced myself that it was probably the birds outside, eating some of the bird seed. However, after looking at the eggs, I saw that one of them had a hole in the bottom, yes, one of our eggs was hatching! I nearly burst into tears and as the egg was hatching at the bottom and not the top, made the STUPID mistake of opening up the incubator and turning the egg around.
Jeff and I stared at the egg for ages – I finally left at 11:00pm, however as soon as I was home, logged straight back into Jeff’s ‘Hatch cam’ to see if any progress was made. I think I got about 3-4 hours sleep that night and at 5:30am on Saturday morning got up, had breakfast and went straight back down to Jeff’s house to see if any progress had been made. Unfortunately, the chick had not made any progress at all and at 08:00, I made the decision that we should help it out of the egg.

This is something that has divided a lot of chicken breeders – some say that you should never help a chick out of the egg and that if it’s not strong enough to break out on its own, then it will not be strong enough to survive. They also say that the chick has to break out on its own, as it helps it reach full maturity. On the other hand, some people say that helping chicks can save their life and they can go on to grow into strong, healthy chickens and have a normal life. I regretted opening the incubator as it meant that the humidity went down and therefore toughen the outer membrane of the egg, meaning it was too tough for the poor chick to break through – therefore, if we didn’t help, it would die and it would be my fault.

I got a cocktail stick (which was recommended) and started pulling bits of the shell away. This went on for the next 12 hours. I’d pull some of the shell and membrane away, then wait. The worry was that if the chick was still attached to the inner membrane, I could damage it and therefore the chick could bleed to death.

It got to about 4:00pm and whilst watching TV we heard a ‘crack’, the chick had managed to get both it’s legs out of the shell and was trying to talk. Unfortunately it still had a lot of the shell attached to it and it couldn’t get free of it, due to the low humidity. Jeff made me wait until after we had had some food to try again and with a massive cut of some nail scissors, the chick was free! I burst into tears and promptly put the lid back onto the incubator and left the chick in there overnight.

She is absolutely amazing – not that we know it’s a she, yet! Within an hour, she was walking inside the incubator and chirping and by the next morning, she was fully fluffy, very mobile and very vocal! We moved her into her brooder and after 30 minutes of her chirping quite loudly as she was worried about her new surroundings, she settled in incredibly well.

Unfortunately the other egg didn’t hatch and as we didn’t want her to be lonely, we got her a Teddy bear to cuddle into and also put some big shiny marbles in her box, as well as some crumpled up paper to play with. Within an hour she was pecking chick crumbs off the floor and within a few hours she was drinking and also pooping! I think both Jeff and I were quite amazed at how perfect and cute she was.

Her name is ‘BamBam’, after one of my work colleagues and we have her for 2 weeks, until she goes to my work colleague’s house as he has chickens and she’ll be able to live on his farm, with other Orpingtons. She’s a black Orpington, hence why she’s not the normal ‘yellow’ colour and my friend has Buff Orpingtons so he’ll be able to tell which one she is VERY easily.

For the last 2 days, Jeff, myself and a lot of friends have been logging into ‘Chick Cam’ constantly to see if she is OK. I went round to Jeff’s house yesterday to check on her and couldn’t believe how much she had grown in 24 hours. I picked her up for a bit of a cuddle and she didn’t seem to mind at all, in some ways, she actually likes company as when Jeff and I left the room, she chirped quite loudly for a while as if to say ‘Oi! You! Don’t leave me’  - I think for this reason, Jeff and I are going to get her some more toys and a mirror so that she thinks there are other chicks around.

It was one of the most emotional things I think I have ever been through and poor Jeff had to put up with me continually worried and crying on Saturday. The next set of eggs are in the automatic incubator and are due to hatch in two weeks. However, unlik the manual one, we don’t have to touch it at all, apart from to top up the water every few days and therefore when the chicks are due to hatch, we are just going to let nature take its course and NOT open the incubator. I said to Jeff, I don’t think I’ll be as attached to the next lot of chicks as I didn’t have to turn the eggs for 18 days, nor help them out of their eggs. I know we were always going to have to give the chicks up (both Jeff and I live in rented houses and it’s not fair on the neighbours to keep chickens, nor fair on the chickens to keep them in such a small space) but it’s really going to upset me when we have to give BamBam up.

Apart from hatching chicks, Jeff and I have continued our healthy eating – Jeff is following the ‘no carbs’ diet and I’m doing the low GI / Low carbs / Low fat diet, which means that mine is slightly less restrictive in some ways, but more restrictive in others – Jeff can have all meat, whereas I can’t really have fatty meats such as sausages. I can have vegetables, whereas Jeff can’t – yet Jeff can have as much cheese or egg as he wants – I can’t. Regardless of what we’re doing, it seems to be working as both Jeff and I have lost weight. We’ve still got a way to go (well, I think Jeff is gorgeous as he is, but I know I’ve got some more to lose… currently a size 14, want to be a size 10!) so we’re going to see how long we can keep it up and just be sensible on what we eat.

That being said, I’m still making lots of lovely cakes and things to eat for my work colleagues, recently I’ve made a wonderful ‘red velvet cake’ topped with yummy vanilla icing, I’ve also made some really gorgeous peanut butter brownies. We had half of one each but could easily have eaten the whole lot! I took them all into work and my work colleagues devoured them really quickly. I guess that’s one of the bad things about being on a healthy eating plan – you can’t really eat the things you bake! Yet, stopping baking and cooking for months would make me quite unhappy as I really like to cook!

Another piece of news – Jeff and I have booked Iceland! We’re already going to Cologne in December for the German Christmas markets, however yesterday we put a deposit on a holiday to Iceland in the New Year. I’m really excited as I’ve always wanted to go and see the Northern lights and considering a year ago, I didn’t think I would ever see Jeff again, it’s lovely to think that we’re back together and can experience these things as a couple. ALSO… we’re going back to Northumberland in August so that Jeff can see his family and so I can enjoy the scenery and have a few days off work.

I love Northumberland and whilst I am Southern, I really do think that the North has a few things that the South doesn’t – the people in particular seem so much more friendly! Jeff and I already have an idea of what 3 course meal we will cook for his parents (it seems to have become a ‘thing’ – Jeff and I cook for his parents) but I think we’ll have to practice a few times before we go up as one of the courses is Scotch eggs and we’ve not made them yet.

I’m seeing Jeff tomorrow and cooking for him. I thin I’ll probably spend a good deal of the evening staring at BamBam and cuddling her (may as well make the most of it!). I think we’re also planning on going for a walk along the canal on Friday night. We went for a walk along the same canal on Sunday afternoon as I wanted to get out the house and clear my head (as it was so emotional!) and it was lovely. Apparently you can walk for over 33 miles, however we only managed about 1.5 before we turned round and went back. If it’s raining, I am sure we’ll find something else to do, equally as enjoyable :-)

-Molly

Weekend in Amsterdam

Oh. My. God!

Amazing holiday!

We had such a fantastic time in Amsterdam and I can’t believe we’re now both back at work and it’s over.

Last Thursday I headed over to Jeff’s house after work, we cooked, he packed and we went to bed relatively early (after filling up all the bird feeders of course – the birds would get hungry if we left them for a few days!) We set the alarm for 06:15, but I was awake before then, as was Jeff. We set off, drove to Heathrow and parked in the Long stay car park – If you haven’t tried driving to Heathrow and using their car parks I would certainly recommend it. Whilst there is a mini bus journey of 3-4 minutes to reach the terminal, the mini buses were really frequent and we were standing at the mini bus stop for about 30 seconds before one trundled up and picked us up!

The flight was only 45 minutes and we got a taxi to the Hotel. The hotel was brilliant. We stayed at the ‘Convent Hotel, Amsterdam’ which I had found on Expedia and checked it out on Trip Advisor. At the time, it was ranked 20th out of over 300 and I’m pleased to report it certainly didn’t disappoint us. The room was immaculate, really clean and the bed was exceptionally comfy. It was also in a wonderful location so we could walk to Ann Frank’s house within 10 minutes, the red light district within 15 minutes and a pancake house within 10 seconds!

We arrived at our hotel just after midday and true to our ‘usual’ holidays were out the door, investigating instantly. ‘Let’s go to the Heineken experience’, I suggested to Jeff and with that, we walked out the door, turned left and off we went to sample Amsterdam’s most famous beer. On our way to the brewery we found the most amazing ‘arcade museum’ if you’ve played any console in the past 30 years you’d be pretty amazed at how many feeling can be invoked by playing some of the console games you played as a child. I used to have a Nintendo, whilst Jeff was apparently a whizz at the SNES. We wandered round and played on various consoles for a good 45 minutes and it was brilliant fun – I even beat Jeff at Super Mario cart :-) I don’t think he was overly happy with that... Hehehehe.

We continued to walk down to the Heineken brewery and were able to bypass the queues as I had bought our tickets online. The tour was pretty cool and I certainly learnt a lot about beer, even though I don’t drink it myself. You learnt the history about the beer, how the beer is bottled, what goes into the beer and you got a funky wristband with two tokens which you could exchange for.... Heineken! You even got to 'be the beer' and were shook around, had water sprayed on you and were 'bottled', which was quite amusing.

After the tour we decided to go and get something to eat and on our way to the brewery had found a pancake house about 2 minutes away. We popped in there and had our first Amsterdam pancake – For Jeff, he had a savoury one with cheese, bacon etc, whereas I kept with tradition and had one smothered with chocolate. One of the odd things about Amsterdam, as well as a lot of other European countries is – where on earth is the fresh milk when you get tea? I am a bit of a tea fiend and I found that I had to ask for fresh milk, else I got random condensed stuff. Still – it certainly didn’t ruin our holiday and when in Rome....

After the pancakes we decided we’d do a canal boat trip as there was a canal boat stand opposite the Heineken brewery. We bought our tickets and popped into a small pub for 45 minutes to wait for the canal boat trip to start – it was about 1 degree outside so there was no way we were going to wait outside and freeze! The canal boat trip was lovely, however both Jeff and I were incredibly tired as we had got up very early that day – also, there were 2 very annoying children in front of us who wouldn’t 1) shut up and 2) stop fidgeting around – unfortunately the boat was a glass boat with no open windows so there was sadly no opportunity to throw them overboard. As we were listening to the tour, it got dark which made Amsterdam look even more beautiful, but also made Jeff even more tired so he kept falling asleep! I think we were both glad to finish the tour and walk back to our hotel for a break.

That night (Friday) we decided we wouldn’t eat far from our hotel so went to an ‘all you can eat’ Japanese restaurant which was brilliant! You had 5 ‘rounds’ and could order 5 dishes per person, per round – so between Jeff and myself we could order 10 plates each round. We ordered loads of really odd things like ‘Octopus balls’, ‘Squid balls’ and marinated lamb chops – all of which was utterly divine. We were so stuffed when we came out and were very glad our hotel was only a couple of minutes walk away. The first night I slept pretty well which was surprising as one of the things that I was really nervous about was sleeping in the same bed as Jeff as throughout our relationship before – he snored really badly. Thankfully the £50 of snoring stuff he had purchased just before the trip seemed to do the trick and we both managed to get some sleep – it also helped that the bed was really, really comfy.

So – Saturday morning. I had booked Ann Frank’s house tickets online so we had to be there at 10:45 in the morning. We were out of the hotel by 09:00 and headed out to find some breakfast. We found Ann Frank’s house and right next door was a pleasant looking cafe so we headed in there for some munchies. We ordered some pastrami with cheese and gherkins on bread – not my favourite Dutch breakfast but at least I tried it! Jeff had the same, just without the cheese and he decided to try the Dutch hot chocolate ‘Chocomel’ which was quite nice, but personally I don’t think I topped the Italian hot chocolate I tried in Rome last year.

Ann Frank’s house was very moving – I had been there before when I was last in Amsterdam but as Jeff hadn’t ever been to Holland before, I thought it was a good idea to make sure he had done the ‘Top Ten’ bits and I think he enjoyed it too. I was again, glad I had booked the tickets online as the queue was pretty massive! After Ann Frank’s house we wandered down the canal and decided to go to the Rijksmuseum which if I’m honest, I was a bit disappointed about. They’re currently doing renovations, so a lot of the museum is closed and we managed to go round the entire Philips wing in about 30 minutes! For 12.50 Euro’s each, I just thought that was a bit of a rip off and whilst the paintings and exhibits on display were very interesting, it was just a shame there wasn’t more there – Still, at least we did what we could.
After that it was lunch time... However, rather than eating, I was obsessed with trying to find the Dutch ‘Cat Boat’ (Poezenboot) which is where all the stray cats stay in Amsterdam. It was only open between 1pm and 3pm and I was desperate to find it as I am rather keen on the 4 legged creatures :-) (http://www.poezenboot.nl/?taal=uk) After a few wrong directions, we finally managed to find it – we were rather knackered, having walked for over 90 minutes trying to work out where it was, however I thought it was worth it. We managed to get there whilst it was open and stroke the stray cats inside – obviously I stole all of Jeff’s change, combined it with whatever I had in my purse and left it as a donation – if I could have taken the cats home with me, I would have done! What a wonderful thing to have seen – all the stray cats being well cared for and hopefully finding new homes.

Once I had seen enough cats, both Jeff and I agreed it was time for food, however we just couldn’t find anywhere nice to eat and the places we did look at, looked very full. Both of us were very knackered and Jeff seemed to get a bit snappy, which meant I went rather quiet and subdued – after just not finding anywhere nice we headed back to the hotel and just chilled for a little while before heading out again and grabbing a pancake from the cafe right next to our hotel. Thankfully this time around Jeff and I seem to be better at communicating with each other and sorted out the ‘issue’ – he apologised for being a bit snappy and explained why and I made sure I didn’t harp on about anything and stopped being quiet – I’m not counting this as our first ‘argument’ as both of us listened to the other person and it seemed to blow over pretty quickly – which is VERY different to how we used to discuss things.

The pancakes were brilliant and after a rest in the hotel I took Jeff to the red light district. Jeff was very ‘gentlemanly’ about the entire experience and not once did he say anything rude or derogatory about the prostitutes. Nor did he comment on how they looked, which I appreciated as I’m not the most ‘secure’ person about my looks and being with someone who kept saying ‘Corr, she’s a bit of alright’ or ‘Wow, she’s stunning!’ would probably not have been a pleasant experience for me. We wandered around for a bit longer and Jeff bought me a waffle from a kebab shop – was this a ‘normal’ waffle? Hell no! It was the best waffle I had ever tasted and after this weekend I have to say that the Dutch seem to have got the whole pancake / waffle thing down rather well.

Unfortunately Saturday night did not bring very good sleep as Jeff’s snoring kicked back in – this left me rather knackered on Sunday morning! We checked out by 10:00 and went to the Sex museum which only cost 4 Euros and was good for a laugh. We did try and find some more pancakes but actually opted for a lovely cafe in Dam square and ordered a ‘full English’ which I don’t usually like doing as prefer to actually try some of the local cuisine, rather than the stuff you can get at home – that being said, the breakfast was lovely and when we had some food inside us, we went to the floating flower markets. We actually bought some tulip bulbs – some black and blue ones and some red and yellow ones – we’re planning on planting these in tubs, in Jeff’s garden in a few weeks time so watch this space! We also bought some sweet pea seeds as I thought they would be nice to grow and they smell gorgeous.

Our last lunch in Amsterdam and we decided on the most famous pancake place – ‘The pancake bakery’ which is close to Ann Frank’s house and has over 100 pancakes on the menu. It was really busy and in order to get a table we had to agree to share it with another couple which was fine with us. Jeff went for a ‘Brazilian’ (oo-er missus!) which had pecans and amaretto in it, whereas I decided to make my own with ice cream, chocolate sauce and amaretto – it was absolutely gorgeous, however I couldn’t finish it, nor could Jeff! We left feeling totally stuffed 

We headed back to the hotel, got our suitcases and got on a train to the airport. Our flight was ever so slightly delayed and the queue at passport control in England was utterly horrendous! I think we were standing in a line for nearly an hour which seemed really stupid – God knows why Boarder Control can’t sort it out! Ahh well... I think both of us were too tired to be annoyed.

We got back home at 19:00 which wasn’t too bad at all – I immediately filled up the bird feeders which were totally empty (not surprising) and Jeff sorted out things for work and dealt with ‘house things’ before I cooked, we watched some TV and went to bed by 22:30. Jeff had to be up by 05:30 so he left me in bed and said goodbye whilst looking very gorgeous as he has a job interview today.

It was an absolutely wonderful, wonderful holiday and I can’t wait until our next one which is in April – We’re going to Northumberland for a few days to take photographs of Puffins, visit castles and generally enjoy spending time together.

-Molly

Amsterdam - 3 days and counting

I can't believe we're nearly off to Amsterdam!

Jeff and I used to travel a lot when we were first together - sometimes abroad and a lot of short UK breaks and it was always good fun. When we first got back in contact (22nd November 2010) I suggested I book a weekend for us, sort everything out and it would be a total surprise. Jeff agreed and transferred  some cash to me (quite nice that he had that level of trust in me and didn't think I was going to spend it all on chocolate and never speak to him again!) and I booked our holiday.

I kept trying to put him off the scent and I think he thought we were going 'Up North' in the UK. Whilst I am awful at keeping secrets I did manage to keep it - well, that's until I texted my Uncle and Aunt, telling them I couldn't visit them as I was off to Amsterdam and then stupidly showed Jeff their reply - he could still read the bit about Amsterdam - Stupid, stupid me. Still - I think he was quite excited. He's never been to the Netherlands so it's completely new for him. I've been once - a couple of years ago for a weekend with a friend and whilst I had a lovely time, my friend got quite stroppy for some of it, so it wasn't the best holiday I have ever had.

The last time I saw Jeff was on Sunday for a few hours before he had to go to work. I caught him in his kitchen, chocolate coating random fruit as it happens! The chocolate covered apricots turned out so well, Jeff decided to try other things such as raisins and cranberries. Whilst I want to go as long as possible without arguing with him, there was a bit of an undercurrent when he refused to let me run off with the bowl of melty chocolate! (I know it was because Jeff is trying not to sabotage the healthy eating regime... but even so - melted chocolate, how can anyone resist?). We had a lovely few hours and in that time managed to fill up Jeff's bird feeders again (Oh my God, the amount of birds he currently has in the garden is brilliant! They're very greedy though...) We also had a chat about what to do in Amsterdam.

Well, we've booked the car parking in the airport and I've booked tickets to Ann Frank's house and the 'Heineken Experience'(I can't stand the stuff, but apparently the tour and the museum are quite interesting) and printed out all the information on our flights and hotels... I'm staying round at Jeff's house on Thursday night and then Friday morning we fly out to Amsterdam! It's only for a couple of nights, but it should be absolutely brilliant as we've not been away for so long together and the last time we did go away - whilst it was good, our relationship wasn't in a great place due to all the issues I've mentioned in previous blogs. So, second time lucky hopefully :-)

- Molly

The downside to Christmas holidays

I love having time off work, I guess most people do - You can have lie ins, do what you want, eat what you want and promise yourself that the diet starts next year, drink loads and spend time with the people you love.

Sadly Jeff and I are apart over Christmas and even when we were together before, this was the case. His parents and family live about a 6 hours drive away, so he left on Christmas eve to be with them and won't be back until the 2nd January. My parents and family, on the other hand - only live an hour away, therefore I can travel back and forth to see them over the Christmas period without having to spend all my time with them.

It seems quite cruel at the moment - having only got back in contact with Jeff, to be seperated at the moment. We email and we had a really lovely 2 hour chat tonight, however we won't be seeing each other for another few days and when you've not seen someone for over a year and then suddenly, out of the blue, start making contact with them again... it sucks Donkey balls to not be able to continue seeing each other.

I guess in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big issue - it just seems it at the moment as we can't be together. I can do 'perspective' and I can understand that considering some women have to say goodbye to their partners for months whilst they are in the army / work abroad etc, the Christmas period is absolutely nothing - I think it just feels like eternity at the moment as we enjoyed the last month so much, rediscovering each other and enjoying spending time together.

Both of us have had crappy things happen to us since we said goodbye - and what really hurts is that we can't hug or touch each other. I think, when we were on the phone tonight, both of us would have given anything to have 5 minutes with each other...

Still, only another few days and hopefully we will be back together. Until then, we shall email like crazy and enjoy the time with our family and friends as hopefully... we'll have the rest of our lives to spend time with each other.

-Molly

Memories

I hate clichés.

I therefore hate agreeing with any of them, especially when they’re as trite as ‘You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’.

When Jeff and I split in October 2009, I forced myself to ‘not’ think of all the things we had done together as it just hurt. The longer we were apart, the less it hurt, but knowing that you’re never going to do any of the fun things you did with someone you loved again is not something you’ll get over quickly.

When Jeff and I got back into contact, we spent (and are still spending) a long time talking about what we did in the 3.5 years we were together and some of the memories we had. Surprisingly, it seems that nearly all memories we have are good ones with just a smattering of arguments.

We just did so much ‘stuff’ together. So many mini breaks to the most random of places – sometimes they were posh breaks with 5 star hotels and massively expensive meals, at other times they were travel lodge budget breaks and stopping off at KFC for a bite to eat – the only constant was that we were together and always enjoyed ourselves with doing stupid stuff.

Our two ‘main’ holidays which conjure up a lot of memories for both of us are abroad.  Prague in 2008 was utterly breathtaking and we did so much sightseeing it was unbelievable. We walked everywhere and were completely knackered, yet didn’t seem to mind as we saw so much. Berlin in 2009 was also incredibly fun, however sadly this was tinged with upset due to my job being a constant thorn in my side and the fact I was so exhausted when we went on holiday. Both holidays saw us looking at lots of architecture, reading up on the culture and history of the country and generally trying to ‘experience’ as much as possible – be it eating currywurst , smoking a cigar or trying to say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ in the local language.

Other fantastic memories include staying in a travel lodge in Exeter and travelling down to look at the Eden Project and being stunned at the beautiful scenery in Northumberland – Jeff and I went on a boat trip to find Puffins, but sadly they weren’t there. We did, however, find a lot of seals on another small island! We also went to Scotland and stayed in Traquair House which is a wonderful place (Dating back to 1107, Traquair was originally a hunting lodge for the kings and queens of Scotland. Later a refuge for Catholic priests in times of terror the Stuarts of Traquair supported Mary Queen of Scots and the Jacobite cause without counting the cost – according to the website!) and had a mini break to Ipswich, where we found a wonderful Thai restaurant and a gorgeous beach in the sunset. We also travelled to the Lake District and despite it raining nearly all weekend, we still managed to go to a number of National Trust properties and have a nice boat ride on an Ullswater Steam boat.

One year, we decided to go to Center Parcs – Jeff paid for it as a present for my birthday. Sadly it rained all weekend and I remember not being overly happy about cycling to various places in the park, in the rain. Oddly – I’ve got some exceptionally fond memories from that holiday as we managed to entice a very tame duck into our cabin and fed it bread! I also woke up one morning to find Jeff by the window, whispering at me to bring my camera and when I got there, there was a deer standing right outside, just staring at us. I think the thing that topped off the weekend was us both getting massages in the spa and being tucked up under warm blankets, listening to the rain outside whilst being really sleepy. It’s funny as at the time, I don’t think either of us would have rated our holiday as ‘amazing’, but I don’t really remember the bad parts – only the fun we had together when we did falconry or eating random Mexican food.

However, it wasn’t just holidays that we remembered – we did loads and loads of ‘day trips’ to places. We went to the Goodwood festival of speed in 2007 and 2008, visited the New Forest on more than one occasion and popped into a few local pubs to sample their local tipples. We used to cook together as well and both of our main memory is me, burning Jeff’s old work surface as I was stupid enough to put a baking tray on the bottom of the oven and place it straight onto his work surface (Sorry Jeff, you were right about that one – It DID get quite hot!) We went to firework displays every year and went to really enjoyable classical music concerts all over the place.  We had picnics by the river on a sunny day and visited butterfly farms, which had me jumping around all over the place trying to take nice photographs of butterflies.

We ate at so many restaurants – all over the place. Places where you cook your meat on a stone, places where you have raw fish (I adore Japanese food), places where you pick the raw fish you’d like the chef to cook for you... I always enjoyed eating with Jeff as he’d always let me try (read: steal) some of his food so I could see what it was like – One thing that made me smile was our first ‘posh’ meal after a year of not seeing each other and he still offered to give me some of his food to try :-)

I don’t think Jeff and I are planning on redoing all of these things – sometimes it’s best to keep the memories in your head. However, whatever happens and for however long it lasts, I think we’re both really looking forward to 2011 and seeing what new ones we can create together.

- Molly