Retirement

&Juliet The Musical – an overnight break to London

June 24, 2020

&Juliet is the last show I saw prior to lockdown due to the Covid 19 Pandemic. As Lockdown is easing gradually we are now beginning to plan where we want to go and what we want to do. I thought I’d write up and share my review. I’m hoping this review will get your juices flowing for a show or a night away somewhere. I love visiting the theatre, you may want to read my previous review of Motown the Musical.

One of my main hobbies is entering competitions. This trip was a prize I won from entering an on air competition with Heat Radio. It was not a condition of the prize that I wrote this review.

I’ll briefly outline the prize: Travel to London, a night at The Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel in London, dinner at Scoff and Banter and 2 tickets to &Juliet at The Shaftesbury Theatre.

I took my friend Ilsa with me and we visited in the middle of January.

We travelled First Class from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston. If you haven’t had the opportunity to travel First Class let me tell you it’s a lovely treat. If you book in advance you can get some great deals. As well as comfy seats you get food and drinks included served to you in your seat. The journey from Manchester to London is just over 2 hours.

1st Class Travel

The Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel.

This is a fabulous hotel officially in Camden and really close to Covent Garden and the British Museum. Our room was spacious with a huge bathroom and our own Nespresso Coffee machine. Staff were very friendly and helpful. There is a lovely lively bar area in the hotel We were also booked for breakfast, which was a mixture of buffet style and waiter service. There was an excellent choice. Lots of windows making it light and airy.

Hotel Room

Breakfast

After check in and dropping our bags we went for a stroll close to the hotel. There is so much to see close by. We wandered up to Covent Garden and of course had to pop into the Charlotte Tilbury Store. Having just returned from a week in Fuerteventura I was trying to have a no spend trip but my friend treated herself to some cosmetics. The store was very well staffed and they were very attentive without being pushy. One thing I love about anywhere I go and particularly London, are the pubs. London have an infinite number of fabulous old pubs with great history’s. We visited 2 to quench our thirst!

Charlotte Tilbury shopping with a beer pub

Time for a refreshment

Cross Keys Covent Garden

After another mooch around Covent Garden watching the street artists and admiring the sights we made our way back to the hotel to get ready for our evening out.

Covent Garden London

Scoff and Banter

The restaurant was approximately a 2 minute walk from our hotel. It is part of a small chain, this is how it describes itself:

“At Scoff & Banter, we celebrate hearty and contemporary British cuisine. Discover a home from home with lovingly prepared seasonal British cooking, using the finest locally sourced ingredients. Find your classic British favourites at one of our four London locations”

The restaurant has a good vibe and features cool marble floors and comfortable leather chairs. On the walls specially commissioned artwork gives a modern interpretation of the Dutch masters. It is located just 5 minutes from Theatre land. It’s perfect for pre-theatre dinner and post-theatre drinks.

Artwork Scoff and Banter

We enjoyed a 3 course dinner with drinks, as it was mid January it was fairly quiet, but the food and service was really lovely. My choices were, Starter: Cornish Crab cakes with chilli lime sauce.

Cornish Crab Cakes

Main: Herb-crusted rack of lamb, layered creamed potatoes, minted pea purée and rosemary lamb gravy

Scoff and Banter Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

Scoff and Banter Crusted Rack of Lamb

Dessert – well it would have been rude not too! : Warm Bramley apple crumble, served with Cornish clotted ice cream or vanilla custard

Bramley Apple Crumble

All totally delicious accompanied with a glass of Prosecco.

I feared I may snooze during the show after all that but I soldiered on! It was then time to walk the short distance to the Shaftesbury Theatre to see &Juliet.

The Show &Juliet

Ironically this show had been in Manchester prior to coming to London. It had received great reviews from friends who had been to see it. I had chosen to see a different show.

&Juliet Opening Stage Set

The Shaftesbury Theatre, like nearly all London Theatres is old, having opened in 1911. I love the feel inside these old buildings, they all maintain their original features and have graced so many great shows and artists over the years.

Inside The Shaftesbury Theatre

The show &Juliet is a remix of the Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet – it asks the question What if Juliet’s famous ending was really just her beginning? What if she decided to choose her own fate? In essence the show outlines an alternative ending – she didn’t die and proves when it comes to love, there’s always life after Romeo with a modern day twist and contemporary songs.

The plot is surprisingly fresh – it’s the 16th century sort of, and Anne Hathaway comes to London for the premiere of her husband William Shakespeare’s new play, she doesn’t like the ending and changes it! Anne Hathaway is funny , bossy and has William under her thumb. The story line progresses with songs you all want to sing too cleverly slotted into the plot. Some of the vocals are top class. It was a very enjoyable show and if I’m brutally honest not one I particularly wanted to see. My prize also included interval drinks. Really spoiled.

All in all a fabulous trip away – only one night but we packed a lot in. Thank You Bauer Media and \heat radio.

Myself and Mr Fitz often have one night away, planned right it can feel much longer and you come back refreshed. I highly recommend you try it.

Do you ever go away for just one night or love a good theatre break. What are your favourite shows or have you been to a show you weren’t sure was for you but were pleasantly surprised.

Let me know I love to hear recommendations. I’m already starting my wishlist of places to visit next.

Easy fruit scones – Mary Berry Recipe

May 31, 2020

I have been baking a lot during lockdown and after a few failures I searched for an easy fruit scone recipe and came across one from Mary Berry.

You may have read my earlier post about how I’ve been reducing food waste during lockdown and that I enjoy cooking my own meals from scratch.

My mum was a fabulous baker making delicious scones in minutes as well as fabulous steamed puddings. I envied how quickly she could throw ingredients together to make such delicious goodies. She taught me a lot about cooking and at school, (many moons ago), Domestic Science as it was called then was my favourite subject and one of my best!

I think I’m quite a good cook but whenever I make a batch of scones they never rise as much as I would like and just don’t taste as good as shop bought ones. Mr Fitz likes a scone and even better when they are freshly baked form the oven and still warm. Now he’s retired I decided I would search for a new recipe or technique which would improve the taste of my scones. I have many cook books but decided to Google for a recipe for easy fruit scones.

I found one from Mary Berry and I love it. It is a quick easy fruit scone recipe and I’ve used it several times now and each time they come out exactly how I want them to be. In fact during a video chat amongst a group of friends the weekend before last, one of my friends who also has baked for many years commented that she too had been baking more but her scones were not as she would like. I pointed her in the direction of the Mary Berry recipe and she too has rejoiced at how lovely they are.

Therefore I felt I wanted to share this recipe for easy fruit scones with my readers.

Mary Berry’s fruit scones

Cooking Time 10 minutes Makes 10 scones

Ingredients

75g (2 1⁄2 oz) butter, chilled and cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
350g (12oz) self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
1 1⁄2 tsp baking powder
30g (1oz) caster sugar
75g (2 1⁄2oz) sultanas
About 150ml (5fl oz) milk
2 large eggs, beaten

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C (fan 200°C/425°F/Gas 7). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.

Put the flour and baking powder into a large chilled mixing bowl. Add the cubes of butter, keeping all the ingredients as cold as possible.

Rub in lightly and quickly with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and sultanas.

Pour 100ml (31⁄2fl oz) of the milk and all but 2 tablespoons of the beaten egg into the flour mixture.

Mix together with a round-bladed knife to a soft, but not too sticky dough, adding a bit more milk if needed to mop up any dry bits of mixture in the bottom of the bowl.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, lightly knead just a few times only until gathered together, then gently roll and pat out to form a rectangle about 2cm (3⁄4in) deep.

Cut out as many rounds as possible from the first rolling with a 6cm (21⁄2in) cutter (a plain cutter is easier to use than a fluted one) and lay them on the baking sheet, spaced slightly apart.

Gather the trimmings, then roll and cut out again. Repeat until you have 10 scones.

Brush the tops of the scones with the reserved egg. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until risen and golden.

Remove and cool on a wire rack.

Per serving

Calories: 238
Saturated fat: 5g
Unsaturated fat: 4g
Sodium: 275mg

Fruit scones on a baking tray before cooking

Brushed with egg before baking

They are delicious easy fruit scones in fact I have baked another batch this afternoon, and we enjoyed them sat in the garden still warm with butter that was melting. We had run out of jam and to be honest we usually just prefer them with butter alone.

Fresh from the oven

But before I go I must answer the age old question if we do serve with jam and cream which way do I prefer? I’m a jam first then cream kind of a gal….

Try this recipe and let me know what you think. Do you have a tried and tested recipe for anything that you love – let me know in the comments if you do. Also please take a look at what I’ve been reading in lockdown

Keep staying safe.

Weight gain around the middle during the menopause

May 13, 2016

Weight gain around the middle

Like many women of my age weight gain around the middle has caused me to hate the shape my body has taken on in recent years. I have become the stereotypical middle aged, menopausal apple shape and I detest it with a passion.

I am only 4 foot 10 inches and have been petite most of my adult life. I felt that things started to change in my 40’s for me when I stopped working shifts and became a full time University student to study for my Masters Degree in Health Sciences. It was a great 2 years, studying at home sat in front of the computer for hours not having to dress smart. I could slob about in track suit bottoms. Then I would travel to the University every week along with my colleague. We were sponsored by our employer to attend and retrain. We were staying in a hotel every Wednesday night, eating in the pub, regular breaks in the University refectory. Within 3 months I had gained a stone and a half. No running up and down a busy Neonatal Unit burning calories. From that time onwards I was never able to lose this weight and despite taking up running, going to the gym and paying a Personal Trainer it stayed and I have continued to gain weight. It got worse again when I returned to shift work at 50, again for my role. I then returned to nights, days, 13 hour long shifts, short 7.5 hour shifts. Sometimes working nights and day shifts in the same week. This I feel totally knocked my metabolism off kilter. This coincided with the menopause. Weight gain around the middle has blighted me and nothing helped me shift this. I can lose 7lbs and then plateau. I have tried Slimming World, Weight watchers and an Extremely low calorie diet, living on liquid replacement drinks of 450 calories a day. This did help me lose 1.5 stone, but it didn’t stay off too long after my husband came out of work and took over the cooking. His Desperate Dan portions contributed to more weight gain around the middle.

What I have done to try and lose the weight

18 months ago my GP advised me that I had to try and lose weight due to a medical problem. She had great empathy and prescribed me Orlistat, a fat binding tablet to help me. She and other medical colleagues have all said that due to my hormonal state and irregular shift patterns I could not maintain a steady Cortisol level and this was inhibiting my chances of losing the weight. I was informed by my GP that in some people these tablets do not work. Well yes, you guessed it I was one of the people they did not work for. I lost my usual 7lbs and that was it. If you’re not familiar with these tablets they bind to fat and help you excrete 25% of your fat intake in your stools. (Sorry for those of you with weak stomachs!). It also involves eating a low fat diet or the side effects are very unpleasant!

So here I am half a stone lighter but stuck! I feel I need a miracle worker. I am surrounded by colleagues who are losing weight for fun on slimming world and I’m not.

I am very interested in clothes and fashion. I regularly get compliments on my appearance. I have to say I work hard at buying clothes that disguise my weight gain around the middle. However they are not the clothes I wish to wear. I long to wear the lovely body con dresses worn by Lorraine or Ruth Langford. Sadly it’s not to be, to add insult to injury I also have big boobs! Fitted jackets are also problematic.

This week I decided to go shopping to buy some dresses for summer and a couple of social events I have been invited to. This was an unmitigated disaster on the whole. Changing room mirrors are brutal as we all know. I came away with nothing that I really wanted, no smart dresses, just a couple of casual tops for my summer holiday overseas. I came home feeling very low indeed.

But I am a very positive person – my cup is always half full, and I found some positives. I went to a charity ball this week and wore a cocktail dress that I have had in my wardrobe for a couple of years it had only had one previous outing. I admit it was tighter than when I last wore it, but overall I was happy with how I looked in it.

I then thought about where I had got this from. It was from a design brand called So Fabulous, I have a few of their pieces that I buy online from Fashion World. Reflecting on this I realised that all my favourite dresses were purchased from that website. Other brands I have purchased from Fashion World that suit my shape are Joanna Hope and Closet. This provoked me to have a browse and sure enough I found several that I liked. I ordered them and when they arrived I was delighted with them. There is light at the end of the tunnel – hallelujah! Thank you for this fabulous company.

They are a mixture of dressy and casual and are fabulous. They were a pick me up and made me happy about myself again. My best dresses tend to be A line and I have accepted, that although this shape is not top of the fashion charts at the moment, they suit me and can make me look OK and disguise weight gain around the middle. The message is find a style that suits and stick to it. It’s no point squeezing myself into a body con dress just because I want one if it’s going to accentuate my middle! My pet hate is ill fitting clothes.

There are other fashion brands that I can always turn to such as Wallis and the wonder that is Pepperberry, by Bravissimo for ladies with big boobs. Their clothes are worthy of a blog post of their own.

Now I have decided on my personal style that doesn’t mean I am going to give up the quest for weight loss. I have a new strategy, after much soul searching I realised that I was probably consuming more wine and beer that I cared to admit. If I put my hand on my heart I was not counting these empty calories in my diets. I was probably consuming the equivalent of a day and a half’s extra calories per week. This is one of the pleasures and vices of my retirement. Lots of lunches with friends plus lazy evenings in front of the TV without the worry of an early start for work.

So I am abstaining from alcohol for the next 4 weeks before my holiday and following a slimming world diet. Watch this space and see if there is anything to report on this front. Onwards and Upwards.

Have you got any tips for weight loss in the menopause?
Or is there a go to fashion style you favour for your body shape?

I’d be interested to hear from you

Moving House – Tips for survival and sanity

February 15, 2016

Moving House How I survived

Moving house is recognised as being very stressful

Moving house is recognised as a very stressful event this describes how I coped. I started this blog at the end of last year and was enjoying the process. As well as starting to blog I was in the process of arranging and preparing for moving house. Contained in this post are my hints and tips for moving house.

If you have read my bio and earlier posts you will know that I took retirement from the NHS in July 2015 at the age of 55. I wanted to enjoy life rather than continue in the throws of tiredness and lack of sleep that my career was turning my life into. I took early retirement. That was 4 years ago and never for a moment do I regret that decision. It is the 4 year anniversary of our house move this week and I thought I would share with you my hints and tips for a stress free house move.

As well as the decision to retire Mr Fitz and I also decided to move house. We had lived in the same house for 30 years, since we got married.

We approached the move with much trepidation – 2 of the main questions we asked ourselves were:

Where to move to?
What if we didn’t like our new home.

This was a huge decision for us after so many years of happiness in our previous home. I won’t dwell on why we decided to move, however in a nutshell the area was declining rapidly and we felt that house prices would soon plummet because of this, and secondly and more importantly I could invest some of my pension pot into bricks and mortar, rather than it stagnating in the bank.

Once we made the decision to put the house on the market and an Agent had been selected to act on our behalf we then started to look seriously at properties we liked. I have to say I had become an almost obsessive browser of www.rightmove.co.uk since December 2014.

The act of selling and moving house is not without it’s trauma – we immediately had viewings and in fact had 16 in total before we agreed a sale at a much reduced price, we had lost a sale at a slightly more increased price somewhere along the way due to confusion between ourselves and our agent – allegedly!

Having people view your much loved property is an experience in itself. 3 generations of a family would regularly come and browse, politely express interest, ask if we could sell privately without the use of agents and then disappear into the sunset. One viewer thrust her young baby into her husbands arms, demanded that he stand outside in the front garden then charged through the house. As she was leaving she then admitted she wasn’t selling her home or moving house at present she just wanted to see what houses in this area looked like! Blooming cheek…..

In the meantime whilst starting our serious search, we had looked at a couple of new builds. One was the last on available on an established estate and had been sold the day before we made an enquiry. We then looked at a new build on a development on the early stages of development . We loved the show home and wanted to commit to buy a plot. We were informed by the representative that she didn’t know when any more of the show home models would be built, how much they would be and we were asked to purchase a house that didn’t have a show home anywhere in the area. We left to consider our options, feeling very demoralised and frustrated – we naiively thought that buying a new build would be easy. When discussing this with family – my nephew, who himself has previously owned a new build said we may have had a lucky escape and he would never buy a new build again. Well his words have stayed with me as he was so correct. In fact very few more have been built on the development and it looks a forgotten site. So glad we didn’t get what we thought we wanted at the time. I am a great believer in Fate and this reinforces my beliefs.

Following this unsuccessful viewing my husband tried to cheer me up and suggested we have a drive around a few local areas for inspiration, rather than using the website. He drove around the areas I had been thinking of but nothing inspired us enough. He then drove to a different area, still close by and drove through an estate that is around 20 years old that we remembered being built and really liked at that time. I hadn’t considered this. It’s a little off the beaten track, away from Manchester Metrolink routes and only one daytime direct bus route. However, it was love at first sight. It was the isolation that we fell for – horses in fields and farmland surrounding the Estate. Bliss – just what we wanted.

So this answered our first question – Where to move to?

Whilst our sale was progressing I ‘stalked the estate’ I knew every property that was for sale – many sold very quickly. We had decided to purchase a detached property – our first. There was one house we really liked and I had my heart set on it – but one evening logging onto my saved properties on the aforesaid web site I saw the dreaded ‘Sold Subject To Contract’ message on the property listing. I was crushed yet again, there were another couple of detached houses in our price range for sale but not as nice as this, the garden aspect was a big want for us. We had lived with a sunny house and garden all these years and did not want to sacrifice this on moving house.

However, fate played it’s hand again and the next day another detached property came onto the market, and all things considered it was probably better than the one I originally set my heart on, in the fact that the garden was much better and had a south facing aspect.

In a nutshell we successfully made an offer and bought this property.

As for advice about anyone moving house here are my tips for a smoother, preparation and reducing stress are:

Be organised – I had a project book in which I documented conversations with everyone I spoke to by telephone regarding services etc. I documented names, dates and times of conversations. These were useful when things that were promised weren’t delivered. And I did have to refer to these notes on more than one occasion!
All contact with solicitors and Estate Agents were via email or telephone conversations were confirmed with an email and filed in folders in my Email. Despite keeping records we did encounter communication problems with our chosen agent.
Plan ahead – make contact with service providers well in advance e.g Sky. BT, Utilities.
Use the internet – my best friend, to research how to do things, there is a wealth of information out there which I successfully utilised
From my internet research I found a very useful tip regarding packing. I allocated each room in the new house a colour. Boxes were labelled with tags of that colour and were also numbered. On removal day I blu tacked a corresponding tag on room doors and my fabulous removal men duly obliged and set boxes down in correct rooms.
As I packed each numbered box I listed its contents on a template I had made on my PC. This was invaluable at the other end when trying to find things! Especially when we decided to nip out for a pub lunch on our second day in the house and my husband asked the question “do you know where my tan leather shoes are?” I could duly oblige and locate them in a jiffy
I used the impending move as an ideal time to renegotiate my Sky, phone and internet contracts. I was able to get discounts on all 3. I used the argument that as I was moving it was a good time to maybe change my provider. It worked with all 3!
There is a lot of negative press around Solicitors but I have to say ours was exceptional. Kept us updated with any new information, always available to answer any queries and didn’t provide us with a hefty bill.
You hear people say that you must pester your agent and solicitor all the time to keep the process moving. Having now had the experience of a house move – I echo these sentiments entirely. My best friend was my smart phone so that I could fire off emails to all concerned whilst I was out and about and on the go. I did try to keep some humour in my messages so as not to alienate anyone. However, I do think my agents must have dreaded logging in each morning to see what my latest daily email contained. It was necessary though as my buyer was very slow at moving the purchase along, despite paying lip service that he was very keen and wanted to move in as soon possible, he kept raising issues that slowed the process down. Gentle pressure on my agent was vital – I don’t think we would have completed yet if I hadn’t. So the message I’m sending to you is – Be Persistent, Firm, and Humorous!
Our move was arranged for 4th December – not the run up to Christmas I’d imagined in July when I finished full time work, I envisioned baking foodie presents and cakes for friends, all presents and cards wrapped early – not having everything boxed up before and after the move. I’m posting a photo of my Christmas prep!
My kitchen was only just fully functional the week before Christmas due to storage issues! I had hoped to have completed the move by the end of October. Ah well there’s always next year.
On the day of the move as well as the colour coding of my boxes I kept a few vital supplies with me. I would recommend doing the same. I had a bag of supplies I needed which I will break down and then I kept certain items in the car, so they didn’t get thrown into the back of the removal van.
Contents in my bag for the day, not including my handbag, were:
- Kettle
- Milk
- Tea, coffee, sugar and cordial
- Mugs for us and removal men.
- Biscuits – one friend advised me to provide good quality biscuits – always go down well with the removal boys!
- Passports and walletts
- Black bin liners
- All purpose polish and dusters and washing up liquid.
- Soap
- Loo roll
- Hand sanitiser
- Hand and tea towels
- Blu tack
- Room planner, coloured post it notes, sharpie pen
- Paracetamol
- Pen, Project book
- Laptop with charger
- Mobile phone charger
Objects in the car:
- My dog’s ashes! (strange I know) I plan to bury them in my new garden. These were precious to me and I did not want them lost or damaged.You’ll see from an earlier post that I had only recently had to have him put to sleep.
- Our duvet and pillows – this would keep them clean and ready to be put straight back on the bed – the day is extremely tiring and you want a minimum of fuss once in.
- I also packed a small travel bag with items necessary for an overnight stay in a hotel – clean underwear, nightwear, change of clothing for both of us and toiletries. Again so that there was no rooting around in boxes, no matter how well labelled they are, to be able to get to bed and start again the next day. Also if the dreaded worse happens and you hit a snag on the day that stops you moving in to your new property – and Yes! unfortunately that can happen, at least if you have to find a hotel or beg a bed at a friend or relative, you have what you need immediately to hand.

Needless to say the move went well, our removal company and the men who came were very helpful, they even helped me reconnect my Sky TV box! We did have a blip and a delay when the funds for our purchase seemed to get lost within the electronic banking system did not arrive at our vendors for solicitors for a couple of hours. This was a nervy time – my Removal men sat in the van outside our new property and were given cups of tea by one of our lovely new neighbours and my husband and myself were sat in a pub close to the vendors Estate agent awaiting the go ahead. A very long hour and a half! I have to admit I was close to meltdown, but it all happened eventually and our move was complete. We moved our belongings in and then took a 5 minute walk to our local for a meal and a couple of glasses of much needed beer and wine. We were exhausted. The pub landlord sold us a couple of bottles of beer to take out and even provided a bottle opener as we weren’t sure where ours was! We encountered so much friendly assistance in various ways that day and are so thankful for it taking the stress out of moving house.

To answer our initial second question -What if we didn’t like our new home?

Not a problem we absolutely love it! and manged to get it the lounge and bedroom fully set up and cosy for Christmas. I had booked measurement for blinds prior to our move – I cannot reiterate enough that preparation in advance is so important. This reduced delays and allowed the settling in period to be reduced to a minimum.

My husband – King of his new Castle

Festive finishing touches – presents under the tree

I didn’t know I could love a house and it’s surroundings so much. So, after all the hard work and occasional pain – we are in and gradually getting fully settled. I will write again about storage and organisation methods that I have used in a future post.

I welcome any comments or stories you have about your experiences of selling, buying and moving house.

Feel free to contact me by email