Sheffield Xmas Brunch

Between Christmas and New Year we headed up to Linda & Mike’s lovely big house in Sheffield to catch up with the Brunch Bunch (minus Alien and Sonja / Graham). Unusually they’d not had as much snow as we had further south: as we passed Milton Keynes on the M1 the snows cleared and were much less in evidence all the way up to South Yorks. Maddie and Livvie have both grown considerably and were on great form, and Mike and Linda were the perfect hosts as usual!

We had all agreed to bring food, so Smeeta and I had spent the previous day making a nice big chicken curry. We found a suitable box to transport said curry in the car – but unfortunately then completely forgot to put that box in the car… Thankfully Charlotte had not been so absent-minded and arrived with a couple of different curries (recipes courtesy of the great Madhur Jaffrey I believe) which was more than enough for us all to eat heartily. Mike also dragged me off (kicking and screaming, naturally) to his local off-licence which has the most extensive array of regional bottled beers I’ve ever seen in my life. It was pretty hard not to just ask for one of each – but we came away with a good selection.

The next day we ventured out for a walk on the moors, where there was indeed plenty of snow and Mike navigated us around a big circular route in the almost surreal, foggy whiteness, miraculously returning us right to the car-park just as I was beginning to wonder where on earth we had got to…! I think even he was slightly surprised to see the car-park 😉

In the evening we headed to a local Italian restaurant for some excellent food before heading off home back down the M1. Great to see you all as always!

Smeeta, Sara & Bethan and Linda at the Italian restaurant

Jenny, Maddie and Howard

Dan carrying Isaac, with Charlotte

Merry Christmas

It’s Christmas Eve so naturally we’ve been baking. Of course. Shortbread and mince pies. Best eaten fresh from the oven with a glass of rose Prosecco (any excuse really). Was great to see Lucy and Bo just before Christmas, just a shame they couldn’t stay with us as planned because of the appalling snowy weather!!
We also put up Smeeta’s new Tom Lewis print which was framed just in time for Christmas. It’s stunning.

Big Snow

The Bathroom

On Thursday last week work finally started on our bathroom refurb: turfing out the Whirlpool bath which we rarely use and putting in a tiled shower at one end of the room, plus new basin and toilet (a bargain from B&Q.)

Dave spent a day removing the existing bath, toilet, sink and tiles and replacing the old window with a new wood framed one, moved about 6 inches to make room for the shower.

Martin plumbed in the pipes and controls for the shower and today Dave has plastered the ceiling and walls and boarded the shower area and floor ready for the lovely Porcelanosa tiles.

Can’t wait for it to be completed…!

And now the big slate grey tiles have gone up…