Bah humbug .....

I absolutely LOVE Christmas, but I utterly detest Christmas shopping! Every year I dream of being one of those super organised people who has all their pressies bought by the first week in December, yet every year I find myself running around at the last minute, doing battle in the mall with my fellow disorganised shoppers!

Shopping for friends and family back home is tricky as you end up assessing gifts for their postability (yes, I claiming that as a new word) rather than how much the person will like it, and that is not how i like to pick gifts. Last year I relied on Amazon (God love them!) and Marks and Spencer but still felt that my selections fell a little short of my usual standards.

This year, I have decided that I'm only going to do a mini on line shop for family (I cant leave them completely empty handed on Christmas morning!) and then bring back really kick-ass presents for everyone when we come home for a visit in June, ones that people will really enjoy and that I will be truly happy to give!

It's bloody miserable outside today, so I guess it's a perfect day to sit in front of the computer and get my on line shopping done, and maybe a little research on the rest so I can limit the time I have to spend at the mall this week.



It also felt appropriate to bust out my Oscar t-shirt! Hopefully I'll be feeling a lot less grouchy by the end of the day!!



Laters ...... x

A weekend of wine :-)

Howdy folks! We're just back from our weekend in Monterey and had a fantastic time! We weren't sure if we were going to make it or not as Hubby is having a very busy time at work just now, but luckily he managed to get away!

The hotel, The Anton Inn, was certainly not one of the nicest places i have stayed, but it was cheap and clean and the beds were comfy so I wasn't going to complain!



We arrived around 8.30, and our partners in crime Eric and Rose had already checked in and were out collecting some pizza to have in their room along with a couple of bottles of wine - yum! This was the first pizza I had had since the first cholesterol test and dear God, it was amazing!!




We had a nice chilled evening catching up while Hubby did a little work, and were tucked up in bed by midnight :-)

We had a leisurely morning on Saturday and hooked up around 11.30 to head downtown. We had a lovely wander along the seafront and ended up at the Taste of Monterey wine tasting rooms where we got to try some delicious wines.




Now, I'm a bit of a peasant when it comes to wine tasting. I know what I like, but I have never really bought in to all the flowery descriptions of what the experts can taste in the wine, and I am definitely calling bullshit on the description for one of the wines we tried!! "Blackness followed by a barrage of tar, wet sand, leather, river stones, plums and smoked meat" Really? Really?!?!?! Luckily, it didn't taste as disgusting as it sounded!

After a quick peruse around their gift shop we set off for our next destination - another tasting room! :-) This one was Wine from the Heart, and if you ever find yourself in downtown Monterey please promise me you will go in and check it out!! It's a really cute little boutique wine shop, and we were thoroughly entertained by our new friend Vergudo! He took the time to go through the ins and outs of how to taste the wine properly and introduced us to the aroma wheel which provided much entertainment! Wet sand did not make an appearance, but we were amused to see things like cabbage, skunk, kerosene and many more on the wheel. I have to say, I think you're doing something wrong if you can smell any of those in your wine!

Sadly we had to get back to the car before our meter ran out, otherwise I think we would have spent most of the afternoon with Vergudo! By now it was after 2pm and we were feeling a bit tipsy so decided it was definitely time for lunch!! We went to the restaurant at the golf course near our hotel and had some yummy fish and chips - oh yeah, and more wine!



We were back at the hotel for the wine and appetisers hour, which turned out to be a huge disappointment. After all the delicious wines we had been trying all day, the cheapo crap they were serving did not go down well at all - even if it was free! - and I was expecting a little more than cubes of cheddar and grapes for the appetisers!

Not to worry - Eric and Rose had come prepared with a gigantic bottle of prosecco which more than helped erase the taste of grotty Merlot from our mouths!






We were very surprised when we polished off the prosecco so easily (No really! We were!!) and by now it was about 8.30 and we were getting hungry again so we headed over to An Choi, the Chinese across the road. This is another place you really should check out if you are in the area!! Hubby and I shared a shrimp and chicken chow mein and it was delicious, and Eric and Rose enjoyed their meals too. Plus, when Rose realised that she had left her purse there, the lovely man came over to our hotel and delivered it straight to her room - now that's what I call service!!

We polished off the last of our wine back in Eric and Rose's room, and not surprisingly, found ourselves to be shit faced so Hubby and I staggered back to our room and put ourselves to bed. A poor night's sleep meant that I was shattered this morning so sadly I missed out on the walk to the beach, but I enjoyed a quiet hour to myself reading my new book before we checked out and came home.

Once again, a HUGE thank you to Eric and Rose for an awesome weekend away!! :-)

Poor Hubby is back in the office already, and I suppose I have enough time to unpack before joining the ladies in the pub for the football in an hour. Better go and get some more coffee on too ......!!

Laters :-)

Balls .....

So, today I got the results of my latest cholesterol tests, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I really felt like I had made a good effort over the last three months, but my levels have not improved as much as I hoped - my total cholesterol has gone from 261 to 243, and my LDL has gone from 159 to 143.

As I write it occurs to me that I don't actually know how much it should have or could have dropped in this time frame (note to self - ask the doctor!) but I was definitely expecting more! Time to have a good hard think about all the changes I thought I had made, and perhaps a rather brutal assessment of what I actually did and what I need to do better ...

Hubby hasn't had his follow up yet, and I'm a bit more hopeful for him as he has been better at taking his supplements and eating his oily fish, and he has started swimming regularly while my attempts at an exercise routine are a bit hit and miss. He actually has to go to the doctor for his test (I just got my blood taken at a lab and the doctor emailed me the results) so I think I will tag along and prepare some questions so I can set some realistic goals and expectations.

Luckily I have not been having any cravings for steaks and cheeseburgers as they will clearly not being making any appearances in my diet in the near future, but I was looking forward to the occasional egg and a trip to the cheese counter again *sigh*

My results weren't all doom and gloom, though, as I now no longer have dangerously low levels of vitamin D - hurrah!! Yes, you read that right - I moved from rainy Scotland to California and got myself a vit D deficiency and had to take prescription strength liquid sunshine capsules for the last three months. Oh, how I laughed!

Anyhoo, I cant sit around chatting all day! We're off to Monterey for the weekend with friends and I have to get packed and organised. I'll tell you all about it on Monday

Laters ..... x

Adventures in Veggieland

So, back in September Hubby and I had cholesterol tests done and discovered that they were ... ahem .... a bit on the high side! Our lovely doctor gave us three months to start making the necessary changes and we have our follow up appointments in the next week or so.

Our diet needed a major makeover :-( Farewell, bacon. So long, steak. Ta ta, cheese *sob* 

In an attempt to maximise our progress we basically adopted a mostly vegetarian diet, which has actually been a lot of fun and I now find that I have pretty much gone off meat! 

Now, I'm not saying that I have given it up for good as I consider bacon to be less a meat and more of a basic human right, and there are many meaty meals that I would be devastated if I could never have them again (Hubby's BBQ chicken, Jared's tri tip, Cameron's jambalaya to name but a few ....)

But I have really enjoyed the challenge of trying to make interesting veggie meals that my carnivore Hubby will eat voluntarily!

Here are a couple of my successes from the weekend

First up is a curried butternut squash soup which I really enjoyed!

Last night I made a wild rice pilaf, which is probably the fanciest thing I have ever made in my life and I was really impressed!








I may even make it again for the dinner we are hosting on Christmas Eve, although as Katy kindly pointed out, no-one else likes Brussels Sprouts so perhaps i'll do some different veg, (and something meaty for everyone else to enjoy ......!)





I have made a few other veggie gems which will be making future appearances on the Kavanagh menu, and I will try and remember to photograph them and share them with you.

Oh yeah, and I'll let you know we get on at the doc's next week ....!!

Guess who?!?! :-)

Hello again, my lovelies!! I know, I know! I don't call, I don't write - basically I suck as a correspondent! But, as I sit listening to Nat King Cole crooning the Christmas Song and basking in the glow of my Christmas tree, I do feel the need to reconnect.

Hubby and I have been quite busy since last we spoke but I wont bore you with the details, as anyone who knows me has probably already heard all about them. (And if you are unfortunate enough to have randomly stumbled across this blog then you probably don't care!)

Instead, here are a few photos to show you the highlights .......

We spent another happy afternoon getting drunk in the sun at the Vintage Santa Clara wine event. For more info on that event see my post from last year.

Our first visitors from Scotland came to stay - hurrah!! It was soooooo awesome to have them here, and incredibly surreal! I wish they hadn't had to go home :-(

Halloween came around again and Hubby carved his first pumpkin.

After much research and debate, he settled on Jolly, the pirate fish.

Whaddya think?

Hubby also turned his hand to making our costumes and created these awesome jellyfish!

They were spectacular, but dear God, they caught on EVERYTHING and were a bit of a nightmare to lug around all night! But I guess no-one ever said it was easy being fabulous ... *sigh*

For Cameron's birthday we did a group trip to an idyllic place called Sea Ranch where we spent a wonderful weekend eating and drinking and relaxing

For Hubby's birthday we were in Austin, Texas, for the first Formula 1 grand prix at the new Circuit of the Americas track









Despite having to slum it in a Motel 6 *shudder*, and a disappointing early departure from the race for my boy Mark Webber (above) we had a brilliant weekend!

We were lucky enough to be invited back to spend Thanksgiving in Arizona with Eric & Rose's families, where once again we were spoiled rotten and generally had a wonderful time










A huge thank you to our hosts for your hospitality and generosity! :-)










And then, all of a sudden, it was December!! Not quite sure how that happened, but here we are!! We still  have a couple of wee adventures to squeeze in before the end of the year, and I shall do my best to share them with you, along with any other nonsense that pops in my head! (And we all know my head is full of nonsense .....!!)

Love and hugs and stuff, and thank you for reading!! :-) xxx