lornaland natter

girlie holiday...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:27:00 +0000

Myself, Debbie, George and Becca have just booked a girlie holiday to Portugal!

We're flying out on Sunday 31st May for 5 nights in the sun to Albuferia on the Algarve.

Very exciting - my first ever girlie holiday!!

L x

go the duds...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:51:00 +0000

Quiz night last night and The Duds managed to pull it out the bag and score 3rd place! :o)

It has to be said, that after the first round, we were pretty rubbish, after round 2 we were joint 7th (out of 10). Round 3 saw us do a little better but somehow, in round 4 we managed to snatch most of the points and finished a respectable 3rd earning ourselves £6! Since we're a team of 4 - £6 wasn't much use to us so we kindly donated our winnings to the charity pot.

Roll on 2 weeks to the next quiz!

L x

getting fit...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:19:00 +0000

So, another of my new years resolutions was to get fit, which should in turn tone me up and result in s a bit of weight loss... (that's the theory anyway!)

In the spring, I hope to start cycling to work again and i'm debating whether to go back to dancing lessons. On Monday though, I returned back to badminton and today, i'm feeling the delayed effects! I'm hoping that means I actually did some good!

L x

dinner at malmaison...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Friday night we headed off for dinner at Malmaison - my treat! I am nice sometimes ;o)

We started with a couple of pre-dinner G&Ts before heading off to the Brasserie for dinner at 8.30pm. Mal have a special offer on at present - 2 courses plus wine and coffee for 2 for £29. We had a limited menu to choose from - the "home grown and local" menu which had a choice of 4 starters and mains. IN the end, we both chose the same thing - pea and Gorgonzola risotto to start followed by coq au vin with a side order of cabbage and bacon. Yum! Of course no dinner is complete without dessert so we chose a bread and butter pudding which was out of this world!

After dinner it was back to the bar for a nightcap before heading home to bed.

L x

the national lottery...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:51:00 +0000

We've decided to play the lottery for a year - well, they say you've got to be in it to win it!

We've missed a couple of weeks of the year but I finally got round to signing up yesterday and have bought 8 weeks worth of tickets online. They're lucky dip numbers (although they gave us the same numbers for the whole 8 weeks) so we have no idea what they are.

Any wins under £100 will go into the holiday pot - anything over than that - well, we can decide what we do with it if we win.

So - here's hoping for a lucky year!

L x

weekend in brussels...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:00:00 +0000

We've just returned form a 2 night break to Brussels to celebrate Tim's 30th birthday.

We set off from Reading at 6.02am on Friday morning and arrived at our hotel (Le Meridien) around 12.20pm.

As expected from a weekend in Brussels, there was plenty of beer drunk, waffles ate and chocolate consumed :o)

happy 30th birthday tim...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:52:00 +0000

Happy 30th Birthday Mr C - welcome to the club!

happy birthday becca...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:44:00 +0000

Happy Birthday to baby of the group Becca who has made it to a quarter of a century! :o)

goodbye 2008...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:11:00 +0000

2008 was a quiet year travel wise but saw us achieve a great ambition of ours - we are finally DEBT FREE! Yes, completely debt free - no loans, credit card bills or overdrafts and since we don't have a mortgage yet, at this moment, we're completely free of any money ties! ;o)

Here's my highlights from 2008 in pictures...

April

Dan's 30th Birthday trip to Copenhagen

Dan's 30th Birthday Party

July

My 31st Birthday trip to Prague

August

Deb's Hen Weekend, Derby & Alton Towers

Johnson's Wedding

September

My first time as a bridesmaid!

Deb & Jay's Wedding

December

Dominican Republic

goodbye 2007...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:46:00 +0000

2007 has been an amazing year! Here's my highlights...

January

Trip to Brussels

February

2 weeks in Sri Lanka

April

Trip to Stockholm

June

Camping in Hay-on-Wye

July

Vegas!

My 30th Birthday!

USA Road Trip

August

Trip to the Races

September

Elton John Concert

December

Christmas in Barbados!!

happy christmas...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 13:44:00 +0000

Happy Christmas! This was the view we had on Christmas Day...

L x

update...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:33:00 +0000

Been a while since I posted so I thought i'd better write an update...

JULY

7th - Pre-Birthday drinks in Reading

12th - Fly to Las Vegas!

15th - My 30th Birthday!

I had a fantastic birthday and have been utterly spoilt. I think I could get used to this 30 lark :o)
The main birthday present was our trip to Las Vegas which was absolutely fab. It didn't stop there though, there was also a limo to pick me up from the airport and I had a shopping trip of dreams at Tiffany's! We celebrated my actually day in style with a Champagne Brunch at the Sterling Brunch in Ballys, had cocktails by the pool in the afternoon before hitting the town in the evening including a trip up the Eiffel Tower.

AUGUST

3rd - 5th - Mam & Dad came for a visit

18th - My birthday trip to the races

SEPTEMBER

5th - Elton John's Red Piano show at the O2
Had a lovely afternoon in London with dinner in Covent Garden, a stroll along the river followed by a fab concert!

25th - Dan & Lorna Day! A trip to Santa Fe for cocktails and dinner to celebrate.

29th - Drunken antics at Rich & George's housewarming

OCTOBER

5th - 7th - With Dan away on a boys weekend in Wales climbing Snowdon, the girls could party! A whole weekend of girlie shopping, lunching and drinking!

And that just about sums it up! ;o)

L x

elton john...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:39:00 +0000

I Love Dan! I'm going to see Elton John's Vegas show, the Red Piano at the O2 Arena in London :o)

Since we couldn't get tickets to see him in Vegas while we're there, he's spoiling me even more for my big birthday and has snapped up some tickets!

Yeah! Happy happy happy Lorna!

Thanks Honey!

L x

camping trip...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:28:00 +0000

Just got back from our camping trip to Hay-on-Wye and had a great time. We managed to escape the rain (except for some on Friday night) which is always good news when you're camping. The campsite although pikey as you like (we bought pampers baby wipes instead of using the showers!), was fab. We were in the woods, amongst the trees with a campfire which came in very handy for boiling water and cooking sausages for breakfast.

On Saturday we canoed 8 miles down the River Wye which was great fun - and no-one fell in! On Saturday night, Richard managed to convince us not to go for a pub dinner but to cook a whole chicken on the campfire. We were all a bit dubious but decided it was worth a try so headed to the Coop to purchase some food - a chicken, baking potatoes, foil, butter, cheese and bread.

After 2.5 hours of turning the chicken 45 degrees every 10 minutes, the chicken was declared done and it was absoloutely delicious! ;o)

All in all, a fab trip! Photos coming soon...

L x

travel map...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:25:00 +0000

Found another website to create travel maps. Check it out...

6 weeks to vegas...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:36:00 +0000

And the weather is already hot hot hot!

What will it be like in July!

L x

back again...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:26:00 +0000

Woo! It looks like most of the bugs that have been effecting my blog for the last few months have been fixed. At least the ones that show the photo, there still seems to be some problems with some of the archived posts.

So, now it's all working better, I guess I should think about stuff and things to write about...

L x

engagement cake...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Sun, 20 May 2007 19:54:00 +0000

I decided to make Jason and Debbie an engagement cake for their engagement (funnily enough). It took me a mere 6 hours, involved a total of 15 eggs, nearly 2kg of butter and a whole jar of apricot jam!

Ingredients

The final masterpiece!

Getting some practice in...

A small portion...

L x

congratulations jason & debbie...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Mon, 14 May 2007 19:40:00 +0000

Congratulations to Jason for finally popping the question to Deb!

And the extra good news that goes with it is that i'm gonna be a bridesmaid for the first time ever! Woooo! ;o)

L x

happy birthday dan...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 06:51:00 +0000

Happy 29th Birthday Dan!

Hope you enjoy your birthday meal at the Bel and Dragon tonight. And the boat day and the trip to Stockholm... ;o)

L x

random weather...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 12:03:00 +0000

I was just checking the weather forecast for next weekend's adventures in Reading and Stockholm when I decided to see what the weather was like in other places. Vegas is hot and sunny, Sri Lanka is hot and rainy while NYC is just plain random!

Check out the weather for the next 5 days...

And people moan about British weather ;o)

L x

my travel map...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:36:00 +0000

Found this cool website to track countries visited.

Look at all the places I've been too - a total of 10 countries. Though it's quite depressing that there's so many still grey places!

Flag	Country	Entry Date	Exit Date	In Transit
	United States of America	12 Jul 2007	27 Jul 2007
	Sweden	07 Apr 2007	09 Apr 2007
	Qatar	03 Feb 2007	17 Feb 2007
	Sri Lanka	03 Feb 2007	17 Feb 2007
	Belgium	05 Jan 2007	07 Jan 2007
	Greece	04 May 2006	18 May 2006
	Italy	07 Jan 2006	10 Jan 2006
	United States of America	02 Sep 2005	30 Sep 2005
	Greece	21 May 2004	04 Jun 2004
	Spain	24 Feb 2004	28 Feb 2004
	France	31 Dec 2003	02 Jan 2004
	South Africa	01 Feb 2003	10 Feb 2003
	United States of America	10 May 2002	24 May 2002

Here's hoping we get to add many more!

L x

bellagio fountains...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 12:56:00 +0000

I was looking round YouTube today and found videos of the Bellagio fountains which got me excited about my upcoming birthday trip.

I didn't want to watch any that I hadn't seen (they're so fantastic to watch live I didn't want to spoil it) but I managed to find a video of the song that we saw more times and any other "God Bless the USA". It was truly sickening and annoying but the fountains were still good and to me, the song now reminds me of our American Adventure in 2005.

Check it out - The Bellagio Fountains to "God Bless the USA"

L x

a fruit and veg story...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 18:19:00 +0000

We didn't do too well at the quiz this week. 2nd last! The runner however was particularly fun this week so I've decided to copy it here to share with you as it was a paper round, not a TV round.

All you need to do is fill in the missing blanks to this story. All the blanks are the name of either a fruit or veg and the number of letters are given in brackets...

A Fruit and Veg Story

_____(7) begin by telling you a story about Darren and Angela, greengrocers from Birkenhead and their regular Sunday adventures. Each Sunday they got up bright and early. Whilst Angela got dressed, Darren went for his early morning _____(4). Every morning, the first thing Darren did was go for a _____(3).

This week, they decided to go on a boating trip with Angela's Mam, melanie and her new man Arty, Angie's friend Anna was going to come too. Anna was a _____(5). Although she lived in on the Wirral, she was born in Malmo. Anna decided not to come as she had a blind _____(4) with someone she'd not me before and usually she felt like a _____(10) when she went out with two couples. They all thought this was a good idea as they didn't want to _____(6) from coming, but the car only had four seats and two _____(4) would fit better.

Darren had just got a _____(4) job in Belgium that paid lots of money, but this meant he has to visit _____(8) a lot, but the increase in _____(6) meant they could afford a new car, a little red _____(9), Unfortunately, as Angela reversed out of their drive, she scratched the car on the garden wall.

As they pulled up at Angela's Mam's house, Arty noticed the damage to the car, "Do you know the car's scratched?" aid Arty. "Yeah" said Darren, "_____(6) did it. I'll take it round to my mate, Mike, he's a mechanic". "By the way, how's the _____(6, 4) Darren?" said Arty , as Darren had been learning a new language to help him in his new job.

They all drove down to the river and got in a rowing boat. The boat was very small and there was not _____(8) and it was a bit of a _____(6). Arty sat at the front, Darren at the back with the two women in the middle holding the oars, Angela on one side, _____(5) the other. "I feel a right _____(5) sat at the back" said Darren. They set off against a strong _____(7). Arty saw a seal turn it's head in the shallow water near the riverbank. Darren below a loud _____(9) at it. "Your behaviour _____(6) me Darren" said Angela's mother. "_____(7) may" said Darren. "That Darren is incorrigable flower" said Arty to Angela's mother. "_____(5) a little Mother" said Angela in defence of her husband.

Finally, they reached another berth further down the river. They disembarked and walked towards the City Centre. "I'm hungry" said Arty, "I forgot to bring my usual bag of nuts". They argued about who should go into the shop as there was a big black dog standing next to the door. "Look at that _____(11)" said Arty to Mel. It was decided that Darren would go in. When Darren was in the shop, he realised he didn't have any money, so he asked the shopkeeper if he would accept his card. "No, but i'll _____(6) a cheque" said the shopkeeper. Darren bought a big bag of nuts. Finally he got out of the shop. "Where have you _____(4)" said Angela to Daren. Darren handed the nuts around but they made _____(9) as he ate them too quickly. After Arty had recovered, they all decided the whole day had been a disaster so they all agreed to go home.

And that's _____(7)

L x

PS. Answers can be found in the comments...

more travel adventures...

noreply@blogger.com (Lorna) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 22:45:00 +0000

Oh dear, we've done it again! Booked holiday no.4 for this year which will actually be holiday no.3 :o)

We're off to Stockholm for the weekend at Easter, going on the 7th back on the 9th. Well, it's Dan's birthday weekend so it's his birthday present too!

We've also done some planning on holiday no.4 - our Vegas trip. We've finally decided on the route for our road trip and made some reservations for motels.

The plan...
Day 1 - Drive from Vegas, NV to Williams, AZ along Route 66.
Day 2 - Day trip to the Grand Canyon South Rim on the The Canyon Train.
Day 3 - Drive from Williams, AZ to Monument Valley, UT. Afternoon at Monument Valley.
Day 4 - Drive from Monument Valley, UT to Page, AZ. Afternoon at Antelope Canyon.
Day 5 - Drive from Page, AZ to Springdale, UT. Afternoon at Zion National Park.
Day 6 - Drive from Springdale to Vegas, NV.

And it looks like it's gonna be pretty cheap. The accommodation for the 5 nights is about the same cost as 1 night at the Bellagio in Vegas!

L x