What if...

What if things went backwards?

To celebrate Chuseok - the Korean thanksgiving, we had a potluck traveling backwards dinner.

We started off at the first apartment with Dessert and coffee.

This included some delicious almost gooey biscuits made by Sarah,

Some scrumptious chocolatey cake - I have no idea who made it and it was gone before I could ask anyway.

and Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting from Stephanie.
(repeat: chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. And there is really nothing more I need to say about that.)

Then we moved to the next venue for main course.
Spaghetti and meatballs from Kelsey and garlic bread from Marv. Who doesn't love a good garlic bread?! (apart from those guys in the twilight.)

yeah, it's pretty awkward being the third meatball.

And salad from Paul.

Sometimes at delicious dinner parties, you want to kick the salad in the face for being so obnoxious and healthy. This salad was so good that I didn't even want to smack it. In fact I had a third helping and then picked the olives out the bowl like a trained little squirrel. Well done salad.

We changed location again for appetizers - Little tomato and cheese boats of heaven - that's what I call these from Cam:


Also pizza from Paddy and deviled eggs from Karl. Nicole and I supplied a little mountain of Cheese and biscuits. (Basically since it's the only thing that I can't screw up in the kitchen.) Final course was cocktails and drinks.

What a fab night :) Definitely you should try this at home :)

Flight of Death

A little "fun" experience I had on my recent flight to the UK...

We had just boarded the aircraft at Incheon International - South Korea. Now, the people who are in the seats next to you are going to be next to you for the next 9 hours or so. Therefore it's worth your while to be amicable - I'm all about the quick friendly chit-chat as you are trying to get organised in your little airplane seat.

At this point (five minutes into meeting my airline companion, I have realised that this is way beyond  quick pre-take-off small talk. I know his name, his family, his occupation, all the languages he speaks, his cultural heritage, his university studies, his travels in Korea, his view on Obama and his aversion to spicy food. We have not even taken off yet.)

Decide to employ subtle tactic of "pretend to be deeply interested in something else".

Pull out iPhone:

Ok. Clearly iPhone technique is not working. Put iPhone away. Decide to be "deeply engaged" in the inflight entertainment book. As in "I'm-sorry-I-can't-really-talk-right-now-I'm-kind-of-busy".

Decide to turn head 90' and look out the window.

New friend: WOW! blonde hair! So, is your mom blonde too?! Oh cool! pink streak in your hair! I bet your mom doesn't have a pink streak in her hair! Or does she have pink streak in her hair? I don't know!

* * * * * *

We had taken off and I decided the best way to deal with overzealousness of new friend was just to fall asleep. I did give a warning.

me: um... hey, i'm gonna try fall asleep right now.... I'm gonna take these little pills and they are hopefully going to put me into a deep deep sleep.

new friend: OK! no problem! I will just keep talking until you fall asleep!

me: um.. well.  I'm not going to reply to any questions or anything... cause... I'm going to be trying to sleep. You know what I mean?

New friend: No problem!

(yip. this conversation happened.)

i struggle to fall asleep on planes.

DON'T DO THIS.

(more like "YES?! WTF GUY?! WHY DID YOU WAKE ME?!?")

Take wretched details to save myself three more hours of "banter". Try unsuccessfully to fall asleep. Toss, turn, scratch, fight chair, smash pillow, bang head against window, smack shins against chair, curse, get tangled in blanket, hit elbow into armrest, crack neck, put feet on chair, put feet on armrest, put feet on window, put feet behind ears. Get pins and needles. Finally get some sort of "rest"

Sleeping on a plane is NOT easy for me and

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have now landed in Dubai"

* * * * *

 THE END 

* * * * * 

Ps. you think I make this stuff up?

I don't.

7 things

1. Tofu will never taste as good as it does at 3:30am.
2. Girls are easily able to talk about shampooing and shower routines for up an hour.
3. The right thing to say is often not the easiest thing to say.
4. Sometimes you just need a good cry.
5. Pinterest will sap your soul (and your sleeping hours) from you. Be warned.
6. Sometimes you just need a good cry.
7. Three day weekends are QUITE fine by me.