New thing every week in 2016 #1

Last year, inspired by Liz at Distract Me Now Please, I started my 'new thing every week' series. I really enjoyed recording the new things I'd done every week, both big and small, so I thought I'd continue the trend for 2016.

I'm not always very good at making a conscious effort to do something new every week which means that the entries aren't always particularly exciting. However, I'm still impressed that I've somehow managed to do a brand new thing every single week for two years!

I'm going to split this series into five instalments which I'll publish over the next few weeks.

So, to begin with, here are the new things I got up to between 1 January and 10 March 2016.

Week 1: Tried adult colouring books

Week 2: Bought a star-shaped bowl

Week 3: Went to Locke and Remedy

Week 4: Played Cards Against Humanity

Week 5: Went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Week 6: Got up early on a Sunday and watched a film instead of reading in bed!

Week 7: Walked to The Captain's Wife

Week 8: Had afternoon tea at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich

Week 9: Had a hot chocolate at the Wales Millennium Centre

Week 10: Marched to Cardiff city centre as part of the Homes for Wales rally 

It's definitely been a nice varied bunch for my first instalment... check back in a few days for the next post in the series! 

Fake Christmas 2016

I recently celebrated 'Fake Christmas' with my university friends - you can read more about this joyous annual tradition in last year's blog post.

We travelled to Kirsty and Vernon's new house in Minehead for the 2016 edition. There's nothing quite like packing up the car with Christmas presents and Christmas food in the middle of January!

We all arrived from our different corners of the UK on the Saturday morning, and I was welcomed with an Options hot chocolate and marshmallows as I don't drink tea or coffee. An excellent start!

January's obligatory diet quite rightly gets ignored for the weekend of Fake Christmas, so I was delighted when Liz turned up with some rather amazing (and massive) white and milk chocolate chip cookies. Although we all had loads of catching up to do, the room immediately fell silent as we tucked in to these beauties. 

It was so lovely to have one more Christmas in the middle of January... let's face it, January is never a fun month between the weather, post-festive slump and aforementioned diets. There were even Christmas serviettes ready for the occasion!

Kirsty had been preparing the spectacular Christmas dinner and all the trimmings for quite some time and, as always, it was well worth the wait. The cauliflower cheese was a particular highlight for me, as well as the roast potatoes. I think you'll all agree that nothing beats a hefty roast dinner (if you don't agree, we can't be friends). I've pictured the meal with and without gravy... feast your eyes on this!

After a lot of mutual appreciation and a universal need for a post-food nap around the table, we decided to open our presents. We now operate a Secret Santa arrangement rather than buying a present for everyone, and I had two lovely presents from Fee... a travel mug chock-full of Friends quotes and a Soap & Glory Hand Food gift set. The Sugar Crush bottle smells divine! 

After opening our presents, the motion to play Cards Against Humanity was almost unanimously approved. I didn't want to play at first and thought it would be best if I just watched , but it was actually hilarious even for an inoffensive creature like myself. Playing it with eleven people was definitely very interesting!

Although we were all still really full even after playing Cards Against Humanity for hours, there's always room for cake. Liz had made her traditional Fake Christmas cake and it was REALLY good. Between the cookies and the cake, Liz should definitely be crowned the Fake Christmas queen of desserts.

It won't surprise you to hear that I'm already looking forward to Fake Christmas 2017!