Life is Good

Sometimes it's nice to remind oneself of how the little things can add up over the course of just one week to make you feel happy and contented. It might be something nice someone said to you, an effort made on your own part, or simply retail therapy. Here's why I'm happy right now.

Last weekend N and I headed to a local, highly-rated cafe for lunch in celebration of a minor work triumph. We were told we would have to wait for fifteen minutes and were seated in around five, and even though it was packed our food came out incredibly quickly. And any meal which involves complementary cinnamon buns is fine by me!

Saying that, the portion size was massive and I felt yucky for the rest of the day, catalysing another cool thing about this week: I didn't eat too much, and what I did eat was highly enjoyable (with the exception of one failed stir-fry sauce). I recently subscribed to the BBC Good Food magazine on my tablet, which is totally worth the money. And I have started a love affair with real meat! This week I made this Crispy Chilli Beef, and this Pork and Peanut Thai Curry; and N made these Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs and this Honey Mustard Chicken Pasta, all of which were incredibly tasty, with the exception of the sauce for the beef which I somehow messed up.

Crispy Chilli Beef, photo courtesy of BBC Good Food

Added to this, a week last Thursday I finally joined the gym on campus. It works out really cheap if I actually go regularly (motivation!), and is awesome: everything is included in the price including classes, lockers and a towel service, the gym area is massive, and they have a lovely pool! I went swimming twice last week and tried out water aerobics yesterday which was so much fun!

Pork and Peanut Thai Curry, photo courtesy of BBC Good Food

So with that I'm starting to work towards my goals for this year one step at a time so as not to overwhelm myself. If I did that I would surely achieve nothing at all. In terms of my weight loss goal, I lost 1lb last week, which is perfect. And we've made a step in the right direction with wedding planning this week by finally setting up our savings account, exciting!

Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs, photo courtesy of BBC Good Food

I can't write a post about last week without talking about the amazing bread N made. He did a simple wholemeal loaf from Paul Hollywood's book, "How To Bake", and I think it may have been the best homemade bread I have ever tasted!

Honey Mustard Chicken Pasta, photo courtesy of BBC Good Food

This weekend was fun too. We went out for pizza on Friday evening, and I did very well with only eating some and taking the rest home. I worked on Saturday morning, but the afternoon involved an impromptu but very successful shopping trip with a friend, resulting in the bargainous purchase of this spectacular pot! I am christening it as we speak, so I will let you know how that turns out.

So that ended up being pretty wordy, but that can only be a good thing, it adds up to a whole lot of happy! What has made you happy this week?

Happy New Year!

So 2013 is upon us, first to recap how we spent the end of 2012.

I was waiting to tell about Boxing Day because I left my camera behind at our friend's apartment, but turns out that I didn't take many exciting photos, despite a few inches of snow! Unfortunately we didn't get to play in the snow because it started raining as soon as it stopped snowing, but we did have a lovely day playing with Duplo and board games, and eating leftovers, and of course partaking in the Boxing Day box, a family tradition that I couldn't bring myself to miss!

The time between then and New Year's Eve was spent doing some much needed chillaxing and not a lot else as far as I can remember, although I do recall an overwhelming trip to a massive supermarket which featured a British section, and a separate outing to the (very busy) aquarium and stuffing my face at the Cheesecake Factory!

New Year's Eve involved A LOT of food again, with N and I putting together lots of party bites, most of which I forgot to photograph :( I did capture this one image, which is of the second batch of food to come out of the kitchen! After this there was also dessert. Ah, happy memories.

And now it is January 6th. I don't usually mind taking down the Christmas decorations, but I feel like Christmas came and went before I was ready for it this year. Although I'm keen to get back to the lab (at least I am now that I've recovered from New Year, the first three days back were not fun!), and feel like I've been sitting around at home long enough, our apartment looks pretty bare now that the decorations are down. And we have a very sad looking tree in the corner, that we can't bare to part with. It's been there for over a month and it's barely dropped any needles, and it wasn't exactly cheap, so it seems a shame to throw it out! I was thinking bunting, any other ideas?

:(

So what does 2013 hold for our household. Well for N, it seems a fair amount of travel is in order, at least for the first part of the year. And for me, well I tend to set goals for myself all year round, but I do think this is a good time of year for reassessing and re-focussing. This year, I thought I might share my latest goals, to see if it makes me more accountable:

• Join Girl Scouts
• Lose my American souvenir belly
• Plan our wedding!
• Stop scratching my face

What are your plans for 2013? Good luck and have a wonderful year!