I’m going to start this post by saying there will be no Christmas decorating going on in my house until after Thanksgiving, it’s the rule! Phew. Glad to get that off my chest. Also I have to keep telling myself this as I’m itching to put them out to feel festive, damn the stores looking all pretty and twinkly and Christmassy already. Now that it’s November, I’ll fill you in on what I got up to in October. It was so jam packed that we barely had time to breathe, but very fun for the most part.
I started the month visiting Peddler Market for the first time in Sheffield with Fran, which was DELICIOUS. We ate all of the things and drank delicious cider. This started my month of drinking all of the alcohol. I’m hoping to make it to December’s too as I loved it so much and can’t make this weekends. I got to have a few cuddles with my friend Bev’s adorable baby. Lucky for me he’s always quite smiley around me, suppose that means I get dibs on babysitting.
We’ve been cooking a lot of Gousto meals as they are quick and fairly simple, and we haven’t felt like going grocery shopping and planning dinners, talk about lazy. These fish bites with a sweet chilli dipping sauce were particularly yum. I decorated our front walkway with some pumpkins and it instantly felt like fall. Don’t know what took me so long.
Since it started getting colder, we also went to buy wood to stock pile in our living room. I love when the wood spot is all filled up it looks much nicer than an empty hole in the wall. I was actually quite impressed with local businesses decorating for fall and Halloween this year. It makes October that little bit more exciting and festive.
It’s been a month of gigs. We stopped into Cask Corner for a drink after going to a comedy show for the first time in ages, and there was an amazing band on playing Johnny Cash covers.
Neil Hammond of Divine Comedy is one of Adam’s favourite bands and were playing in Sheffield so we headed to the student union and staked out spots close to the stage. Holy crap is this place a horrible place for packed gigs. You couldn’t move, and we thought we were going to pass out from the heat until the last half hour of the show in which they turned on the air conditioning.
We bit the bullet however and went to another gig at the student union which was much better as it wasn’t as jam packed. We went to see Matt Berry and The Maypoles, mainly because we used to love IT Crowd and he was in it. Adam did have some of his songs though, and surprisingly I’d even heard of a few. It’s the strangest concert I’ve ever gone to but I weirdly enjoyed it. I booked tickets to have dinner with the Twits in London as Adam’s birthday present, so we went and made a day of it. We started out in Borough Market for lunch (and ice cream) and really wished we’d brought a cooler to buy all the cheese.
We had decided to visit the National History Museum as I still hadn’t been, and oh man, it’s amazing. I want to go all the time. It was busy as it was a Saturday afternoon, but luckily we only had to wait in line about 15 minutes to get in. The dinosaur part was the busiest.
I also became supremely fascinated with Dodo birds. I never knew that people are a bit unsure as to what they look like as old drawings depicted of them conflicted with actual skeletons found. I was even more surprised to learn that the pair of them in the taxidermy bird section were recreations. I was convinced they were the real thing! We went for a quick wander through Harrods and went down a back alley to get there and I found some super cute mews houses that looked like a blogger photo shoot paradise.
Arriving at the Twits we didn’t know what to really expect, and started off in the welcome bar with a can of Mr. Twit’s Odious Ale. If you’re not familiar with the Twit’s, they are a Roald Dahl story and are fairly horrible people. So why wouldn’t you want to have dinner with them?!
Pictures were forbidden but I couldn’t help snapping a couple sneaky ones of our food and a quick selfie once it was over. I didn’t dare attempt to try to capture the Twit’s, I’d have probably been turned into a pie! The whole thing was so much fun, but sorry, it ended the end of October.
The dinner was held in a place called The Vaults under Waterloo station, and there was graffiti covering every inch of the surrounding tunnels getting there, including people creating fresh masterpieces as we walked by. The cats have been on form this month being insane. Crash has discovered food happens at the dining table, and sometimes when I make lunch he rushes in and hops on the bench in anticipation. It’s ridiculous.
They’ve been super cuddly with each other too. Most of it starts with Crash being jealous I’m petting Jack, and then coming over and laying on him. Jack’s to lazy to move so a furry cuddle pile ensues. I love it. Last week I made 3 cakes. THREE CAKES! So impressed with myself. I made Adam two birthday cakes as we had a dinner on his birthday, and then a Halloween party to celebrate both his and Fran’s birthdays, where I also made a cake for Fran. I actually really enjoyed it but it didn’t help my month of eating absolute sugar.
Before one of our gigs in Sheffield we stopped to eat at Burger Co. and oh man, go here. I had a chicken burger that was delicious, and this Fiery ginger beer they serve is perfection. Adam claimed his beef burger was great as well, so thumbs up from us. Every year I carve pumpkins, I don’t skip it. This year we had our nieces and Adam’s sisters over to carve them and I’m pretty proud of our efforts. Mine’s the cheshire cat because that’s what I decided to be for Halloween.
Our Halloween party was nice, we had a nice catch up with friends that we don’t get to see nearly enough of. As I told everyone they had to dress up, anyone arriving without a costume got bits from my collection of random dress up things. Sarah got the day of the dead headband and a homemade mask and actually looked like she’d planned it. I however creeped myself out every time I caught my reflection in the mirror because my mouth was creepy as all get out. This is why I don’t excel at scary costumes, I scare myself.
We have a pretty busy November ahead as well so no rest for the wicked. This Saturday is bonfire night here in the UK and since we live on a hill we have been watching people set off fireworks all week. Tomorrow we are actually going to a fireworks show and bonfire that we go to every year though so we’ll get to see them up close.
How was your October? Did you do any fun fall activities or celebrate Halloween?