Tamzy in Baltimore

Once we came home from New York, Tamzy spent about a week staying with us here in Baltimore while I got in a few days at work before we headed out on our big trip (which I'm sure y'all are gasping to hear about, all in good time :) ). I had fun partially showing her around and partially sending her off to visit the nicer parts of town. On my first day back at work I showed Tamz around the lab, showed her some melanoma cells down the microscope, then took her to Lexington Market, partly for the experience, but mainly for Faidley's lump crab cake, the best crab cake I have tasted!

On the Friday N finnnalllyy came home from all of his trips (Spain on this particular occasion), so we took the opportunity to visit Arundel Mills, a mall near the airport which has lots of outlet stores and a camping shop, to stock up on stuff for our trip "on the way" to pick up N. The camping shop turned out to be pretty rubbish, but we did spend an awful lot of money on some amazing bargains in the Merrell outlet, getting us both hiking shoes and me a lightweight waterproof. And having now used both I can testify that they were awesome purchases. I also may or may not have made an impulse buy in the Levi's outlet, but who can resist jackets this pretty, with so much money off?! (I went for the purple, not both, although I did also love the green and was very tempted!)

The Saturday started with a lazy morning, during which Tamz told us a story about how in Liverpool she cycles past a car on the way home from work every day with a bumper sticker saying "Eat Bertha's Mussels", and had wondered for ages what on earth it meant. Then the previous day she'd gone to Fells Point and seen a restaurant with "Eat Bertha's Mussels" on the side, so now she knows! Apparently they give the bumper stickers out to everyone who eats there, so we went there for lunch, and all left with our very own! This was followed by a trip to the roller derby. So much fun, as always :) Go Charm City Roller Girls!

The only picture I took at the roller derby.
Given what I work on it seemed like a very inappropriate name to me!

On the Sunday Tamzy and I decided to take the water taxi to Fort McHenry. This was new to me too, and totally worth it, if a little breezy! And it was fun for Tamz to learn all the history about how the Americans beat the pesky British on this site, inspiring Francis Scott Key to pen the lyrics to what is now the American National Anthem.

We also took her to some of our favourite restaurants, including City Cafe, and Joss' Cafe for her first sushi, both in Mount Vernon, and of course we had to have take out from Fusion Wok, our favourite establishment  in the food court downstairs, where the lady now even knows my order!

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?