Yes! .. she can't go straight to bed all excited, she won't sleep


Z.

You should try making one of these:

  afternoon shackers ..... too much choccy in that ^^^ for me, not a great lover of chocolate, do eat it, but not very often, mostly when it's attached to a jaffa cake 

Actually the choccy isn't overpowering, Gel. It's got loads of fruit, cream, ice cream and cornflakes in it. It's a Japanese dessert called Banana Parfait, and I shall be sitting down to eat one in 10 days' time. Can't wait!

It looks lovely!!!!

whats the thing in the back of it...  the bit that looks like a wafer crossed with a the cardboard tube from the bacofoil roll?

ION  the meringue (note... not meran )  is cooked & drying in the cooling oven...    

To fill the time between now & cream whipping (& eating) time...  I am going to make an egg custard tart (to use up the left over egg yolks)

I am Nigella!

Lucky you Peter  But does that mean you're going to miss BB? 

I bliddy hope not! 

It's a wafer in the shape of a tube, just that.

Yeah, but for the sake of 16 days in Tokyo, I'll cope

That flipping Basil we so considerately got landed with has been taking the apples off my tree!   He likes apples, but because they are only little at the moment, he's trying them and leaving them lying around everywhere, because they are too tart  It's only a baba apple tree, we started off with 30 apples on it, now there's only 12 
If he doesn't give over, it'll be him that ends up in the apple crumble 

oh you lucky sod!

I would LOVE to go to Tokyo... its the one place I am determined to get to one day.   I am fascinated by a country that is as (if not more) developed than we are... and yet so very different.

I take it you've been before then.   Have you ever been to an oxygen bar?

I'm not jellus, don't think for one minute I am 

haha!

AJ loves apples too... but we have a huge orchard up the lane from us... its where we walk him, so we just grab an apple (a windfall of course ), throw it for him like a ball... he runs, gets it, takes a bite... and then looks to us for a new one! 

I was gonna say at least the apples at the top of the tree will be ok.. til I remembered that your dog is way bigger than my dog!

This will be my fifth time in Japan.

I think everyone should go there at least once. It's the nearest you can get to being on an alien planet. So strange to walk down the street and not be able to read most of the signs. And even more odd to see so few people who look like you - it's made me realise a bit of what it must be like to be in this country and be part of a minority race.

It's incredibly civilised, except for the cyclists on the pavements everywhere My favourite things of all are the desserts (to die for!) and the shrines. I love going to Meiji Jingu, which is in a forest in the middle of Tokyo. It's so weird to be among ancient trees and yet in the centre of one of the biggest cities in the world.

I've never been to an oxygen bar, but there are so many experiences to be had, I'm sure I'll make it one day.

   He's taller than us now when stood on his hind legs   AND, we can hardly feel his bones now, must be the bliddy apples he's eating 

Sounds fabulous Peter  if only and I wish and all that...... have been a good number of places, including india and russia when it was the USSR  And my parents used to do phuket annually at christmas each year for 5 weeks, up until dad had a hip operation, which also coincided with the tsunami year, how lucky were they! 

I'd love to go to India and Russia. Sounds like your parents had a lucky escape. You've reminded me that my holiday last year ended with two earthquakes and a typhoon. Talk about biblical!

YES!!!   that is exactly what I hope/expect it to be like! 

 
I have had that experience... and it is quite odd.   My hubby is half Hong Kong chinese and his Dad has taken us out a few times this multistorey shopping centre called ChinaWorld or something in London.      I was the only non-chinese person in the place...  

I quite liked it... but it was odd.  oh... I really wanna go!

I am a bit of traitor to my hubbies roots!   & there is no love lost between the Chinese & the Japanese.   But its the Japanese culture I love.   I used to do Shotokan Karate, and I loved the ritual and the philosophy of it all.

very!!!


I fancied Bora Bora when we were reccying our honeymoon destination...   but £5 for a can of coke, £60 for a cheap meal out...    we decided not!

Went to the Maldives in the end...  to an atoll called Medhufushi...   I would love to go back one day.

Japan is the only place I want to go that isn't tropical sun, sea & sand kind of destination.   Oh... apart from Vancouver...  I'd like to got there too.

we do too Ditty, even though we've never been  Hubby worked in Korea for a good spell, he loved the people the culture, everything about it, it's his dream to take me one day 

We'll have to wait until we're on our own tho, we just couldn't leave the kids in kennels 

I could make 'em all into apple crumbles, speed things along a bit  

But good choice the maldives  eldest son and wife had their honeymoon there

Yes... we have found ourselves unexpectedly bound to holidaying in the UK cos of the dog.

We do have the option of leaving him with my parents (along with the human kids)...  but for years said we didn't want to (we miss the dog...  we miss the kids less).      I do think we could probably manage a week or two apart now though...

Too expensive?

  

right, gotta go plate up the grub, last nights leftover curry, it always tastes sooooo much better the next day  

Rufus seems to love going to the kennels just as much as he loves being collected again.. in fact he just loves everything... reincarnation? If it exists I want to come back as a Golden Retriever


Z.

It's not really the expense, they are all rescue hounds, and the last time we left 2 of them in kennels over a weekend, we worried incessantly about them   and we were right to be worried!    So mostly it's a trust issue!  Never again 
Daughter looked after them last time we went abroad, but it was only for a week, but then she was at home then with Belle & Amber, so didn't mind, but can hardly expect her to look after the three of them now

Hey we had a fabulous week in anglesey earlier this year, another of our favourite places in the whole world   

Right food time!  Gone  ..........

I am off to whip cream 

My Mum's cat was like that. She loved going to the cattery every year.

Family are like pets sometimes.

Z.

THANK YOU Z!!!  

*clicks & nicks cow pic*

Bloody hell!   Ducky's bang on time!

*gets out banana pavlova as reward Ducky supper*

 

Da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Yummy! That was delicious


Z.

hahaha!

Z.

*tuts*

clears away Zaphs dirty plate!

GOOD MONDAY MORNING Shackers!

Tis a good week for JJ.... I can feel it in my water!

(where is my water?  does that mean in my bladder...   )