Cake & Zoo
Awesome weekend!
The preceding week seemed to drag, despite my routine returning to a kind of normality with kickboxing and thurstails (we went to Slug & Lettuce and Strada). I'd also had some horrible luck with my bike being nicked sometime in the last week or so. It was locked up, but I had only used a chain lock and I'm kicking myself for not knowing better since all bikes that used a chain locked were stolen from the same courtyard just a few weeks ago. It wasn't worth a lot, and since we don't have insurance I haven't even bothered reporting it to the police, but I'm miffed. I've had that bike for about 10 years. I remember saving up for it and going to buy it from the Raleigh shop in Oxley in Wolverhampton. It's mine. I've also lost my only means of transport. I used to use it fairly often just to pop to the shops, which are a good 10 minute walk away. I will pick up a second hand one from somewhere but I'm rather annoyed that I have to :(
After all that, Friday night was very much welcome! After work I popped in a couple of shops in my search for a new bag. I was rather frustrated, couldn't find anything I really liked that much and felt guilty about spending money (despite that I really do need a bag, my old one broke). I almost bought a gaudy orange thing in Primark's sale as a stop-gap but wisely decided against it and headed home to enjoy my weekend.
We had a lovely thai curry with prawns and then had a bash at making Nigella Lawson's chocolate fudge cake. Mmmmmm! When the two halves came out they looked like two giant muffins. David wanted to eat it as soon as it came out of the oven. I feebly tried to suggest that it would be better when the cake cooled and firmed up, but we didn't have the patience for that ;) Thankfully it survived being dug into as soon as it was assembled. It is very nice! The icing is insanely sweet though. And I was right, it was even better a day or two later. It's also huge! After pigging out on it for a couple of days there's still half a cake left. So much for losing weight!
On Saturday we went to Dudley Zoo as they were running a 2 for 1 offer. We had a bit of drama because we realised almost as soon as we left home that we'd left the voucher pinned to the kitchen notice board. We pressed on, thinking we'd be able to bring the voucher up on my phone, but then it turned out it was only on facebook, on the left hand menu of Dudley Zoo's facebook page. My phone forces you to view facebook's mobile version and the left hand menu doesn't appear. Uh-oh. We went to Dudley Library where David has a membership, only to be told we couldn't use the computers til he paid the £17(!) fine he has outstanding on his account. Thankfully there was an internet cafe round the corner where logging on and printing a page was quick and painless - otherwise we would have had to give up and we would have driven to Dudley for nothing.
We'd already been to the zoo back in February and really enjoyed it. We met Jill the Raven and totally fell in love with her (see my video of it here) and we were looking forward to seeing her again more than anything else. Unfortunately she seemed to be in less of a good mood this time. She wasn't speaking, and although she was sociable and wanted to play with us - passing twigs back and forth between the bars - she was trying to trick us by getting us just close enough for her to nip at our fingers. Ouch! I suppose it didn't help that the zoo was much busier on this occasion so there were chavvy families screeching at her every five minutes.
Last time we'd been the resident tiger had recently died, but this time they had a new tiger, and a black bear. We were lucky the tiger was sunning itself in full view so we got to watch it for a few minutes. They're so beautiful! I'm always surprised how their movements such as cleaning their paws etc are identical to how domestic cats behave, they are so closely related. We got to see the sea lions being fed, which was great, and also stopped by the penguins who were funny as always. We unexpectedly made friends with some beautiful brown goats. They got added to the list of 'animals we'd have if we had a massive garden'.
One of Dudley Zoo's best features is the lemur woods. They have an enclosed area where the lemurs are free to jump around the trees freely and people can just walk through. They are completely unafraid of people and they're not interested in being petted but equally, are happy to jump around alongside you or walk past you on the hand rail as you're walking along the path. They are delightful! They move about so quickly that there seems to be loads of them, but I asked a keeper and there's actually only 22 lemurs in the whole area.
The lion enclosure was right next door. You could tell they were about to be fed as they were pacing around quickly and becoming more and more agitated. Two of them were almost dancing with each other in the way they were pacing back and forth around a small entrance to a caged area. I think they get put in a cage before their dinner is put into the open area and then they're released. We watched for a while but it was taking a long time so eventually we left to go and pursue our own dinner. As we were heading out of the zoo we heard a mighty roar from up the hill behind us - they had obviously finally been fed! I wish now we'd stopped to watch.
We stopped for some fish & chips in Black Heath. Orange chips, no less. Only the Midlands knows how to make proper chippy food. This is a fact backed up by our recent experience in Dorset, where we went to one place where a long line of locals were queueing up at their local chippy. We joined them only to be woefully disappointed when we were presented with a pitiful portion size and crap chips for an obscene price. I'd have blamed it on being a tourist trap if it wasn't for the queue of local people who obviously thought this pathetic offering was acceptable. Poor southerners don't know what they're missing out on.
After this we decided to visit Merry Hill. In the end, we didn't actually spend very long in there, and it was a casual saunter more than my usual determined shopping spree. I finally found a bag though, in Oasis, and decided just to get it there and then and worry about the cost later.
Friday is pay day, thankfully! Money's been a mess this month with repercussions of Prague, going to Blackpool, and a few unexpected bills. Things should hopefully settle down now and I'm determined not to overspend at Christmas. I've got to start thinking about ideas actually. I'm planning to make gingerbread houses like I did a couple of years ago. I'm wondering if I could sell them but I'm not confident they'll turn out well enough for that.
Sunday we went for a walk round Highbury Park, cleaned the flat a little, and then I hibernated under blankets and watched Downton Abbey, complete with successive cups of tea and lovely chocolate cake. Bliss! :)
The preceding week seemed to drag, despite my routine returning to a kind of normality with kickboxing and thurstails (we went to Slug & Lettuce and Strada). I'd also had some horrible luck with my bike being nicked sometime in the last week or so. It was locked up, but I had only used a chain lock and I'm kicking myself for not knowing better since all bikes that used a chain locked were stolen from the same courtyard just a few weeks ago. It wasn't worth a lot, and since we don't have insurance I haven't even bothered reporting it to the police, but I'm miffed. I've had that bike for about 10 years. I remember saving up for it and going to buy it from the Raleigh shop in Oxley in Wolverhampton. It's mine. I've also lost my only means of transport. I used to use it fairly often just to pop to the shops, which are a good 10 minute walk away. I will pick up a second hand one from somewhere but I'm rather annoyed that I have to :(
After all that, Friday night was very much welcome! After work I popped in a couple of shops in my search for a new bag. I was rather frustrated, couldn't find anything I really liked that much and felt guilty about spending money (despite that I really do need a bag, my old one broke). I almost bought a gaudy orange thing in Primark's sale as a stop-gap but wisely decided against it and headed home to enjoy my weekend.
We had a lovely thai curry with prawns and then had a bash at making Nigella Lawson's chocolate fudge cake. Mmmmmm! When the two halves came out they looked like two giant muffins. David wanted to eat it as soon as it came out of the oven. I feebly tried to suggest that it would be better when the cake cooled and firmed up, but we didn't have the patience for that ;) Thankfully it survived being dug into as soon as it was assembled. It is very nice! The icing is insanely sweet though. And I was right, it was even better a day or two later. It's also huge! After pigging out on it for a couple of days there's still half a cake left. So much for losing weight!
On Saturday we went to Dudley Zoo as they were running a 2 for 1 offer. We had a bit of drama because we realised almost as soon as we left home that we'd left the voucher pinned to the kitchen notice board. We pressed on, thinking we'd be able to bring the voucher up on my phone, but then it turned out it was only on facebook, on the left hand menu of Dudley Zoo's facebook page. My phone forces you to view facebook's mobile version and the left hand menu doesn't appear. Uh-oh. We went to Dudley Library where David has a membership, only to be told we couldn't use the computers til he paid the £17(!) fine he has outstanding on his account. Thankfully there was an internet cafe round the corner where logging on and printing a page was quick and painless - otherwise we would have had to give up and we would have driven to Dudley for nothing.
We'd already been to the zoo back in February and really enjoyed it. We met Jill the Raven and totally fell in love with her (see my video of it here) and we were looking forward to seeing her again more than anything else. Unfortunately she seemed to be in less of a good mood this time. She wasn't speaking, and although she was sociable and wanted to play with us - passing twigs back and forth between the bars - she was trying to trick us by getting us just close enough for her to nip at our fingers. Ouch! I suppose it didn't help that the zoo was much busier on this occasion so there were chavvy families screeching at her every five minutes.
Last time we'd been the resident tiger had recently died, but this time they had a new tiger, and a black bear. We were lucky the tiger was sunning itself in full view so we got to watch it for a few minutes. They're so beautiful! I'm always surprised how their movements such as cleaning their paws etc are identical to how domestic cats behave, they are so closely related. We got to see the sea lions being fed, which was great, and also stopped by the penguins who were funny as always. We unexpectedly made friends with some beautiful brown goats. They got added to the list of 'animals we'd have if we had a massive garden'.
One of Dudley Zoo's best features is the lemur woods. They have an enclosed area where the lemurs are free to jump around the trees freely and people can just walk through. They are completely unafraid of people and they're not interested in being petted but equally, are happy to jump around alongside you or walk past you on the hand rail as you're walking along the path. They are delightful! They move about so quickly that there seems to be loads of them, but I asked a keeper and there's actually only 22 lemurs in the whole area.
The lion enclosure was right next door. You could tell they were about to be fed as they were pacing around quickly and becoming more and more agitated. Two of them were almost dancing with each other in the way they were pacing back and forth around a small entrance to a caged area. I think they get put in a cage before their dinner is put into the open area and then they're released. We watched for a while but it was taking a long time so eventually we left to go and pursue our own dinner. As we were heading out of the zoo we heard a mighty roar from up the hill behind us - they had obviously finally been fed! I wish now we'd stopped to watch.
We stopped for some fish & chips in Black Heath. Orange chips, no less. Only the Midlands knows how to make proper chippy food. This is a fact backed up by our recent experience in Dorset, where we went to one place where a long line of locals were queueing up at their local chippy. We joined them only to be woefully disappointed when we were presented with a pitiful portion size and crap chips for an obscene price. I'd have blamed it on being a tourist trap if it wasn't for the queue of local people who obviously thought this pathetic offering was acceptable. Poor southerners don't know what they're missing out on.
After this we decided to visit Merry Hill. In the end, we didn't actually spend very long in there, and it was a casual saunter more than my usual determined shopping spree. I finally found a bag though, in Oasis, and decided just to get it there and then and worry about the cost later.
Friday is pay day, thankfully! Money's been a mess this month with repercussions of Prague, going to Blackpool, and a few unexpected bills. Things should hopefully settle down now and I'm determined not to overspend at Christmas. I've got to start thinking about ideas actually. I'm planning to make gingerbread houses like I did a couple of years ago. I'm wondering if I could sell them but I'm not confident they'll turn out well enough for that.
Sunday we went for a walk round Highbury Park, cleaned the flat a little, and then I hibernated under blankets and watched Downton Abbey, complete with successive cups of tea and lovely chocolate cake. Bliss! :)