Our Festive Feasts

After living with two of our best friends for most of a year, we couldn't not celebrate Christmas with them before they go home, especially since none of us know what Christmas will look like.

All of the supermarkets here have epic Christmas ranges that come out and Waitrose in particular have some crazy amazing things that we really want to try, so it was an easy decision to organise two in the weeks preceeding Sarah and Daniel's departure. 

The majority of our weekends have included a roast, but it's all the trimmings that make it festive, so feast #1 included:  

• Homemade mulled wine with a spice pack from Germany, in Sarah and Daniel's Christmas market mugs.
• Baked brie in a seeded sourdough loaf (because we found lacto-free brie that is as good as any other brie and Sarah needs to eat as much of it as possible before they leave)
• A set the table with candles, lights, Christmas crackers and a few special ornaments purchased that day from a local gift store (see the above photo 😆)
• Pork roast, roast veg (potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, caulifower, brussels sprouts), Yorkshire puddings and gravy
• A peach bellini berry trifle, garnished with edible silver stars and chocolate shavings
• A platter of chocolates - Heston's buck fizz candles, salted caramel acorns, christmas trees, whiskey truffles, Malteaser reindeer, brussels sprout choccies....

The interlude between mains and dessert was provided by the newest chapter (11) of The Mandalorian. 

Final thoughts? SO FULL.

***

Feast #2 was where we learnt from our mistakes. We left a bit more space between each course - an hour and a half between entree and mains, and nearly two and a half hours between mains and dessert - so we didn't feel *quite* as stuffed at the end. 

So how was this feast different from last week's, I hear you ask? Well, it looked a little bit like this:

• Cola ham with maple and mustard glaze
• Potato gratin with a side of roast veg (carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, zucchini and brussels sprouts - okay so this and the Yorkshire puddings didn't change but why fix what's not broken?)
• Dessert was far less cooking intensive and provided by Heston :D We had a mini clementine Christmas pudding and Plant Kitchen Christmas pudding, served with homemade custard. 
• We also had Heston's night before Christmas mince pies - rich fruit and carrot mincemeat with cream sherry, in carrot and caraway pastry with smoky sugar. YUM.

We finished the evening with Monopoly Deal and full dishwasher. 

Not gonna lie, the pudding and mince tarts weree good but Nan's will also be the best, but it was a nice substitute ;) 

GlasGLOW

 GlasGLOW 2020. Wow. 

Essentially, every year (this is the third year) the Botanic Gardens gets decked out with a light show fantastic and this year was no different. With exception of making Covid-allowances (ticketed time slots, a one-way system, reduced capacity, etc), it was a genuinely great night out. Admittedly, it's not for everyone with the story being aimed at younger folk, but given it was our first night out of isolation, it was wonderful.

The night was cold but not freezing, and so still with a few low lying clouds - perfect for reflecting the lights from the Gardens. We had to queue to get in but the line, though easily 200m+ long, moved pretty quickly. And then we began our journey! 

First w were 'reborn' with our superpowers:

We walked through the Pumpkin Patch:

Met our nemesis:

Learnt how to use our powers:

And then had the final face off!

We made a stop before the final battle for hot chocolate but I drank it too fast to get a pic, so instead, here's some shots as we left:

And in case you wondered, we did indeed defeat the bad guys, which had a neat references to Close Encounters of the Third Kind 😂 A lovely night out, something different, and exatly what we (or at least I) needed.

Guy Fawkes

Remember, remember, the fifth of November.

Guy Fawkes Night fell on a Thursday this year, and at the tail end of our isolation period, so we were bound to our flat to watch hopefully from our windows. 

While the official fireworks display was Covid-cancelled this year, it's the done thing for families to purchase their own fireworks and set them off in backyards, common spaces, and celebrate as per King James 1's Observance of 5th November Act: which was an enforced annual public day of thanksgiving for the Gunpowder Plot's failure in 1605. Nowadays, it's much more of a relaxed celebration which has lost a bit of it's original focus. 

From 6pm, with full dark settled across the sky, the fireworks began and once again, we became grateful for our flat's location. Facing out to the street and on a corner of the building, we have 180 degree views and got to see so many fireworks - big ones, small ones, quick successions, once off's. We saw them reflected off low hanging clouds, saw the air become hazy, and the smell of smoke permeated everything by the end of the night. Until 11pm, there were constant pops, crackles, snaps as they went off around us - it felt like we were in a giant bowl of Rice Bubbles :P 

Unfortunately, my attempts to take photos of the fireworks were poorly timed and impeded by trees/rooves/distance...so instead here's a photo of the view sans said fireworks. 

How to spend the weekend at home when you were meant to be travelling

Step 1: Reel in shock. Mourn the change of plans. Have a long shower, wallow in trakkies, order in take out. Paesano pizza is a firm favourite for cheering us up. 

Step 2: Cancel the plans. Get refunds where possible, notify your Airbnb hosts, have lovely conversations with people who are willing to help. Feel exhausted and headachey.

Step 3: Turn mundane things into fun things. Pick things you want to cook or bake (Portugeuse custard tarts, banana and date bread), things you want to do or finish (books, board games, watch some movies in honour of Halloween), and make meals special - put on your fancy frocks, remind yourself how to tie a tie, and dish out the take away onto plates.

Step 4: Mark it off as another chapter of 2020: The Year That Covid Took.