Chrismas Came Early!

Chrismas came early this year in the form of Charlie, our new 10 week old baby tabby kitten. :)

I've always had a cat in my life since I was little, and with a 15 month kitty sabbatical I'd had enough of being cat-less.

I'd been putting off getting a cat for the longest time...partly because we live in a tiny flat, in the middle of town and I was afraid a cat would just run away and get hurt....partly because having a cat would be one more expense to take care of(consistant shopping for food and kitty litter, etc)...and partly because I'm trying to set up a cupcake business from home, which with a kitty living with us wouldn't make for very good edibles.

But then, while at a friend's house, I met a kitty who loved me and followed me around and basicall spent most of the night with me. It was that night that I had a mega dose of cat withdrawl. Same night, Ben mentioned that his cat had kittens (again), and i knew this time round, a kitty could fit into our lives.

So....ben gave us a kitten and called him our Christmas present.....WORKS FOR ME!

I did consider the possibilities of why having a cat this time would work:

-tiny flat with no garden? = better for a small kitten who doesn't need everything sprung on him at once and can just stay indoors.

-Kitten expenses? = i'm working more hours and hubby just got a pay rise so, not too much of a stretch.

-Previously we had no time to 'raise' & house train a kitten = lately, we've been having opposite schedules, so one of us will always be at the house to keep an eye on kitty, at least until he's house broken.

-The cupcake business = After the indiegogo success, I now have money to start my cupcake business, but it's not the right time to do so. It's winter, which is a less demanding time for baking(unless you count Christmas fruit cakes--yuk!) so i'm afraid if I start a regular stall on the market...not only will i be freezing, but no one will be out/buy anything.

SO! THE PLAN!

Hold off the Cupcake business until Spring [business will start off better, and that gives me time to finish setting up a bank account, aquire some stall supplies(tables/canopy/etc) and apply for a spot on the market]. In the meantime, we raise Charlie....he'll grow up, getting used to Robert and I...build some trust and a relationship with us so that in the Spring, before I start business, we can safely relocate him to my mother in law's house(a nice country house, with a catflap into the garden--perfect for a grown cat).

so, this way every way wins. I still gt to do my cupcake business and have a cat. before that, I get the joy of having a tiny kitten to cheer my winter blues.

Charlie is a cute cute kitty. We've only had him 2 days and both Robert and I love him dearly. He was scared the first night of being in a new place, but he soon adapted. He seems very comfortable with us now..he's hyperactive and plays with us, and curls up on our laps....our shoulders....the couch....basically everywhere we are. :P

Rob showed him how to play with his scratch post: at first he wouldn't touch it, but since Rob showed him, he can't stop playing with it.

He paws at the balls, to make the bells on them jingle...here we caught him standing and playing with it like he was a boxer.

At first it was just that....then he started jumping up on top of it and swatting the balls from above. Here he's just chilling on top while we laughed at how cute he is:

He's your typical feisty kitten, running around, up and down the stairs, making noise with his bell, but after an hour or so of that, he usually needs a half hour rest period:

His favorite spot is up on top of our couch, or on my legs.....which ever is highest and covered by my blue blanket.

3 week catch up

IN the end of October I had a cupcake Gig--30 homemade Cali Cat Cupcakes for an event at the Kings Head. I think it turned out very well, and that's my first official paycheck for my business. :)

Buffet table, with my cupcakes on the end.

My Cupcake Display. Gold Star Glitter cupcakes, White sprinkled cupcakes, chocolate star topped cupcakes, coloured polka dot cupcakes, and my design drizzled caramel shape-topped cupcakes.

As well as the cupcake Gig, we had our Halloween Party. The week before the party I was in major prep mode. We had to find the rest of Hubby's Mad Hatter Costume, which turned into me doing a little arts and crafts magic. We bought an orange and blue 'clown' hat, but then I spray painted it black, sewed on a red sash, and added the "10/6" note. Took a while, but It turned out beautifully.

The hat, all finished.

And then in between the hat modification, I was baking like a crazy person.

Here's the full snack table we had at our party: I made orange frosted sugar cookies, break apart spiderweb cupcakes(with a hand crafted spider on top), and some peanut butter eyeballs. 

Hubby and I also made some Jack-o-lanterns prior to the party.

Hubby's 'Angry Birds Pig'

My 'Cheshire Cat'

Alice and Mad Hatter

Batman and Robin(the only other people who went full out costumes).

At the start of November, we had a day off together so hubby and I went to tintern to see the Tintern Abby Historical site.

 

Those columns are amazing.

After that we went to the old Tintern railway station. They have an old stretch of railline that isn't used anymore, and turned one of the old train cars into a museam/gift shop.

We had tea and cakes afterwards in the Railway cafe(which was the old station). I had a lovely Lavender Cake...something I'm going to have to learn to make I think.

Then last week we went out to Cardiff, to do some various shopping and Pre-Christmas browsing.While there we went to have lunch at 'Ed's Easy Diner' a classic American Diner. Hubby LOVES diners, and this was no exception....with his oreo milkshake, burger, and I introduced him to 'chilli-cheese fries'. YUM YUM!

Along with getting us each a new pair of jeans, we are proud owners of brand new PJ bottoms as well. I love my Disney/minnie Mouse polka dot fleece PJs and hubby's PROPER proud of his flannel PJs. :)

Then just yesterday, we had a bit of a pamper day. Hubby and I both got our hair cut. Then I went for a lovely Hot 'Lava Shell' massage.

Best bit, was when I was done with my massage, the lady had me turn over under these nice warm fleece cover, and turned the massage table into this seated position and put a fleece pillow behind my head...so when she gave me some water to sip and left me to change at my liesure, I was just left sitting up in this nice cosy sort of bed.

These were the "lava shells' that she used. good for getting those knots undone in those tiny creavasses.

Then last night hubby and I finally used our Meal Voucher at the Mill Race. The voucher included starters, mains, and a bottle of wine--FOR FREE. All we had to pay for was our desserts. :) Good deal.

I even did my nails for the occassion, since I was getting myself all dolled up for the evening. It was a good night.

Yep, it's definately October

This October has proven to be better than last year, but it still isn’t as grand as the festivities back home.

Last year hubby and I did absolutely NOTHING for Halloween, which really bugged me because I LOVE Halloween and I LOVE October. It’s my favorite time of year. So….With that in mind, I think we’re going a bit overboard this year with the trips/outings/etc to make October fun.

The main event was going to Alton Towers theme park for their ‘Scare Fest’:

SCAREFEST:

There were 3 mazes. 1 which was free with your ticket…which wasn’t that great but it was housed in the ‘Alton Tower’ which is this huge castle in the middle of the park, so it was quite long and you had to wait to get into it.

The other 2 mazes were THE BEST, but you had to pay up to 13 pounds per person and you could only go through these mazes within a 40min time span.

One Maze was called ‘Carnival of Screams’ which, if I’m being honest, was a more cohesive, funnier and scarier version of Jokesters. You entered the maze through a carnival tent into this open-aired abandoned carnival ground where this clown told you the set up/creepy story and then you went into the ‘main tent’ where all the scary trippy carnival scares happened. SO cool.

The other maze, The Sanctuary, was set up to be like a hospital Pysch ward where this mad scientist conducted experiments on living people, turning them mad by brainwashing them(ala Clockwork Orange Style) to make everyone ‘smile’. Those were some of the BEST scares I’ve ever seen and the maze had some surprising twists in there.

The Park, OVERALL:

The park had some enjoyable unique rides…but it will never compare to my love of Magic Mountain, growing up there and working there.

Some rides, like ‘TH3RTEEN’ had some unique twists that would only be good for the first time, when it could surprise you. But I could see that after maybe the 2nd time those surprises would just become old hat and make the ride boring.

Some other rides, like “Air” and “Nemesis” seemed VERY similar to rides at Magic, almost identical, and I did enjoy myself on those, but still…made me a little jaded, like ‘yeah….been on this ride like 20x before….nothing new here’.


AIR, at Alton Towers Theme Park





Tatsu, at Magic Mountain.....kinda similar, don't ya think?





Batman                                                          Nemesis

And the attractions, namely “Nemisis: Sub-terra”…..were just plain lame. Nemesis was a good coaster, but they decided to make a sequel of it, except make it a lame attraction instead of a ride.

There was ONE good ride….OBLIVION. I didn’t go on it because I’ve been on enough coasters to know what I do and don’t like, but I would say that it was the most unique thrill-seeking ride at Alton Towers.

Going up.....

ONE STRAIGHT DROP DOWN...and this is the last thing you see before getting swallowed into a massive hole into oblivion.

A cool thing to note about Alton Towers vs. Magic Mountain is their ride picture experience. Instead of buying all the ride photos that you like throughout the day….you have an option to buy a USB wristband, which I thought is a cool idea in this new age.

The overall experience at Alton Towers wasn’t great (employees giving us the run around, giving out misinformation, not hearing out guest complaints, as well as WAYYYYY too many Park regulations not enforced—dress code, no smoking, no littering, line jumping), but for not being Magic Mountain, it was alright.

The other event this month (not Halloween related, but still fun) was going to see Ice Age LIVE! On Ice! Lyndsey, Greg, Robert and I won tickets at a Charity auction earlier this year and yesterday was our day to go see the show.

Hubby and I went down early to check out the shopping mall across the street from the theatre and ending up having a nice meal at T.G.I.Fridays which was SO BUSY, but good.

The theatre was small, but it was interesting to see how an Ice show in a small arena would work out. The pre show was set up just like the beginning of Ice age 1 the movie, where the squirrel runs across the ice to get his acorn and causes the ice to crack.

After that the show just became its own little mini combo storyline of all the movies (I think), but with Ice-skating, acrobatics, gymnastics, etc etc….all while in those gigantic fluffy costumes. I managed to sneak a quite photo to show you, but this doesn’t even begin to describe the type of things we saw in that arena.



Next up on October’s to do list is The Vidler Halloween extravaganza next Friday. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some good photos of our costumes for the next blog. J

West Midland Safari Park

For our latest adventure Hubby and I went to the West Midlands Safari Park. The first part of the day consisted of us driving through habitats of animals, Jurassic Park style.

Some parts of it, it just felt like driving through fields….we got to feed some deer and other harmless creatures.

Then other parts were on total LOCK DOWN, for the dangerous animals. We had to wait for electrified gates to open, drive through, get locked in, then wait for a second electrified gate to open for us to drive through to where the dangerous animals were kept.

It was cool to drive around and see most of the animals up close. Here’s what we saw on our drive through the Safari:

And my favorite part….the white Lions. They were so CUTE! They kept jumping up and down from their little perch/landing:

And my favorite park was feeding the Giraffes and having it stick its head through our sunroof:

After the drive through safari, there was a little Theme park to go in to….kind of like a Zoo with more carnival type rides and such.

We saw a Sea Lion training show, walked through a dark room where bats flew free around us, went through the reptile house where we saw some hostile Gaters and Crocks, saw some escapee baby Goats, mingled with some meerkats, and walked through Lemur Woods where Lemurs wandered freely around us.