Been Busy

On Saturday we went to Norwich, we did our bit for Norwich's economy well, John Lewis's, getting the last of Simon's outfit for the day and other sundries. We were on our way to Castle Mall when we spotted a Charity shop - The Big C that had a bridal boutique upstairs.

It was a treasure trove I got myself a tiara £6.50, we had a look around, of course a charity shop's stock is always changing, they had some great stuff amongst perhaps the slightly tired and worn. Retro wedding dresses mostly from the 60s 70s and 80s but they even had one that dated back to 1947, it was stunning, in ivory satin with shoulder pads and a bias cut. Definitely worth a look for anyone looking for clothes for a wedding.

And then today we made chutney, rather like Dan we had a bit of a surfeit of produce but unlike Dan we didn't grow it ourselves rather Simon's granddad donated it to us either from his garden or from when he went scrumping in Sandringham. I prepared the spices first, I had to make the quatre épice then spoon out the right amount for the chutney (the rest is in the fridge awaiting the next casserole). The smell of cloves, light brown sugar, ground ginger, raisins and nutmeg was Christmas cooking. We had to start out in two pans as I underestimated the volume occupied by the uncooked ingredients but we got down to one in the end.

We bought jars especially for the chutney yesterday, there was more than enough of the mixture to fill all three jars.


We zizzed up what was left over in the blender to make our very own special brown sauce and boy is it smashing! Very smashing indeed.

The one with all the shopping

Went to Cambridge today to meet up with Anne to look for suitable dresses. I didn't have any expectations of seeing anything suitable, really it was an excuse to have a shufty round the shops of Cambridge with Anne and catch up on her news, We were just looking at dresses to get some ideas for what I wanted.

I didn't even know that the shop existed.

I don't think that it's like that shop from Discworld; the one that only appears when the plot requires. Actually I think that Anne knows Cambridge a bit better than I do. We thought we would try it on a whim, no doubt attracted by the jewel like colours of the dresses and the sparkle of the bling glinting in the afternoon sunlight. 90 minutes later we left, having resisted the fuschia velvet evening gloves, the diamanté hair grips and a malibu trimmed stole that was particularly hard to put down. We may not be so strong when we return for yes dear reader the dress have been found the colours chosen and the deposit paid, now the fun stuff can start.