Films

Over Christmas Mark and I have been making the most of our Sky Movies subscription, something we rarely use. Most of the films were ones we've seen before, but a couple were new ones...

Casino Royale: I really enjoyed this first time around when we saw it at the cinema but I'd forgotten just how good it was. Probably my favourite film from the following seletion.





Mean Girls: This was a new one - Mark had bought it for a couple of pounds in a DVD bargain basket a couple of months back, but even so we were putting off watching it! But it's actually really quite good - much much better than I expected it to be! It's almost as good as 10 Things I Hate About You'!
;)

Gladiator: I love this film and it's another that I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it. Joaquin Phoenix makes such a good baddie and I especially like how the score compliments the visuals throughout!




Inside Man: We saw this on our very rainy weekend in Belfast, and I've seen it again since on a plane. Still very enjoyable third time through though.





Enemy of the State: We used to watch this quite frequently on DVD, but not seen it for several years now. I always feel bad for Will Smith's character though, but I suppose without that there'd be no film so I can get over it!



Hot Fuzz: This was the other new one, and one I've been meaning to watch ever since it came out on DVD. I always enjoy Simon Pegg's work - Spaced is one of my fav series and Shaun of the Dead is another DVD we break out too often. And I wasn't disappointed - if anything it was better than I expected. The only thing missing was an appearance by Jessica Hynes (Stevenson)...

The Wedding Singer: This is another on our frequently watched DVD list - it has to be said the sound track is really very good. And I love the ending with Billy Idol - class!

Christmas!

Yey! I love Christmas, and it was wonderful to see Tully getting so into it this year too. It's just a shame Markie was so poorly that he missed out on most of the fun.

Jonny made a really delicious dinner - sorry Mum but I have to say it was the tastiest turkey in the world ever! I was very spoiled as he had made me my own personal dish of bread sauce! He also made the famous mile high pie as the veggie option (well, it's famous if you know Jon and Mand anyway!). I'm not sure he did it justice with his picture on his blog so I've added it in large size below! Yummmmmy!

Thanks to Jon, Mand and Sarah for letting us share their Christmas.

Big piece of pig!

The only thing Mark put in a special request for whilst I was making the shopping list was a giant piece of pig! As I'm not all that keen on pork (yuk!) I got this huge piece of gammon instead. Think it meets requirements?

Merry Christmas and all that!

Every year we go to visit Mark's Nan and Grandad on the last Sunday before Christmas, and the visit now symbolises the commencment of the festive period in my head. So, today being that auspicious day, we headed up to Accrington and I can start celebrating! Woo hoo!

Am I ready for christmas? Pretty much - after getting the fear about how busy supermarkets would be this weekend I ended up making a snap decision and went late on Friday evening. I even made a list (!) and so far haven't thought of anything I've forgotten so I'm quite pleased with myself.

The presents are all bought and wrapped with 1 rather important exception! Honestly, you'd think nursery could have given us more warning of the only thing Tully wants in the world for Christmas... But hey ho - it means Mark has something to do to pass his lunchtime tomorrow instead of staying at work - I just hope one of Asda, B&Q or Homebase come up trumps otherwise we'll have 1 sadly disappointed little girl on Christmas morning!

New Bedroom TV

We finally got round to sorting our broadband out the other week (we were still on a really old BT package that was 8 times slower and £5 more expensive than their current offering!), and as part of that we were entitled to free BTVision which we've put in the bedroom. The problem with this is that the current TV in the bedroom is the one I bought as a teenager and it doesn't have a SCART input... So finally, a good excuse to buy a new one! ;)

After much kerfuffling and investigating we decided on a Samsung one - and I'm really pleased with it. The only problem now is that we need a better aerial. Still, that can wait until the New Year!

Woohoo!

The search for giant bug balloons is over!!!! I should have thought to try Wilkos! The only problem now if finding chance to go there without Tully in tow in the next week, especially as she's asked if Father Christmas can bring her a yellow and pink one!!! Is it too decadent to get them delivered?

Oh, and is it just me that's excited by the idea of elephant balloons!?

More Christmas celebrations!

We had our company Christmas do last Saturday at the Radisson SAS at the airport. It was very pleasant: the food actually decent for once, nice location etc. The only problem was that normally we are supplied with rather more booze than was freely flowing this year. And whilst most people are mroe than happy to buy their own the prices were ridiculous! £5.45 for a glass of wine!!!!!!!!! Outrageous! The best thing about it though? We'd persuaded Mum and Dad to come and babysit and booked ourselves a room there so I got a really good and proper lie in! And when I finally managed to drag myself out of bed it was just in time to go downstairs for a full english! Bliss!

Then today I had arranged a lunch / afternoon / evening of celebration for our team. As I was a bit busy with other things (mostly work and small children!) by the time I got round to finding time to phone and book a tables not many places could fit our group in. In the end La Vina on Deansgate said they could take our party. Luckily the food was delicious and the wine very free flowing: well, what do you expect if I was in charge of organising it! The only downside was that Mark was also invited so we had to decide who got to stay on for the evening part and who had to come back to pick Tully up. As it's been a while since Mark had a night out I volunteered to come back so I hope he has fun! Still, I'm not having a bad night - catching up with things in general and watching a girly film - Love Actually to get myself into a festive spirit!

Oops, it's been a while.

Ho hum, once again time has passed me by and whilst I've been good at keeping Tully's blog up to date mine has fallen somewhat by the wayside...

In my defense I have been a tad busy - since I last posted I've been to Lisbon for a conference for a week. It was at the Dom Pedro hotel which was nice enough but not the style of hotel I'd choose to stay in myself. I wore myself out there though - I worked out afterwards I'd done about 5 hours of presentations across 2 days, as well as moderating for day which means being mic'ed up and getting up and down every 30 minutes making announcements, introducing speakers and answering questions so even though not presenting it was pretty tiring. The good thing about this trip was that for once I got a half day free to explore which was nice as I've never been to Lisbon before. It's a nice enough city but there are other places I'd rather visit again before going back...

I've also been up to Edinburgh for a couple of nights - the work part was quite stressy and not only because we went to the wrong place and had to jump in a cab and whizz up to Dundee where the people we were meeting actually were! It was rather amusing looking back but not ideal at the time! But it was lovely to be back in Edinburgh - it's a city I love and I'm determined to go back for pleasure instead of business soon. We stayed in the Radisson SAS on the Royal Mile so in a fab location and wandered up to The Thai Orchid just by the Castle for a very yummy dinner.

Work is somewhat hectic which I mostly love, but sometimes I do find hard to combine with being a Mum... Tully is wonderful in almost every way, but is also at a rather challenging age (or maybe it's just her!) and at times I feel like I've been strugglong to cope.

Still, I've a reasonably quiet run down to Christmas now which is good, and not too much planned over the festive period itself so hopefully I'll be all relaxed and ready to tackle next year! Or is that just wishful thinking on my part? Anyway, enough ramble for now. I'll try and not leave it so long next time as I'll be less likely to waffle on so much!