A few photos to share

Some photos from over Christmas and New Year, including a very frozen lake at Stowe Gardens and afternoon tea at The Dorchester. Ceviche was the dish that we made for starters on Christmas Day. It's a Peruvian recipe which involves marinating fish or other seafood in citrus juices instead of cooking. Very easy to make and very tasty!

Playing the tourist and enjoying dessert

Having a nice relaxing day at home after playing the tourist since last Friday. I had a friend from Edinburgh visiting and she had last been to London a good few years ago. We had four packed days and managed to see most of the touristy things. I took her on a boat trip along the Thames on Saturday, as that's such a good way to see a lot of things and get some lovely photos. The weather has been fantastic too, which is always a bonus.

The highlight for me was doing a tour of The Globe Theatre. I've been to see a performance there, but it was nice to get the guided tour and just spend some time just looking at the Theatre, without concentrating on a performance. It really is an amazing place and I find it unbelieveable how unsupportive Southwark Council were to the whole idea.

Yesterday was G's birthday, so we went out for a nice meal last night. We decided on a Viennese restaurant in Sheen called Cafe Strudel. The food was excellent and I had no idea that Austrian wine was so good! For dessert, I had a layered pina colada (a layer of pineapple jam under a coconut mousse topped with caramel and crumble) , which is probably one of the loveliest things I've eaten in a while. We'll certainly go back there again.

Flat-pack Valentines

G and I went for a bit of a different approach to Valentine's Day this year. We exchanged cards as usual - mine was silly, G's was arty and subtle. G gave me two tickets to see Eddie Izzard in December (SQUEE!), and I'm taking us for a slap-up lunch and wine tasting in the near future.

We had a lovely brunch of smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, toast and orange juice in the morning. Then our new bedroom furniture arrived... in the usual flat-packed format. We've been waiting ages for these to be delivered, and I was so astounded they even offered Saturday delivery that we agreed to accept delivery on Valentine's Day. Most of our afternoon was spent building our wardrobe, which looks fantastic now it's completed but needed way longer to build than we expected (isn't it always the same?).

Once it was done, it was time for a three course meal courtesy of Waitrose. We decided against going out for a meal, as you just pay a fortune for a set menu in a restaurant full of couples. There's something a little "factory farm dining" about it all! So, we had salmon, horseradish and lemon terrine, followed by sirloin steak, pommes dauphinoise and roasted vegetables, and finished off with chocolate souffle. Absolutely yummy and cost us about £15 to put together!

A slightly odd (but romantic in it's own way) Valentine's Day methinks!