http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/en-EUhttp://backend.userland.com/rss092http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/http://data5.blog.de/design/preview/77/687c1eeb2b3fec3c190bfcb2b0c507_160x200.jpg <p>As I sit back on the train during my daily commute, I continually stare out of the window at the green fields that unwaveringly rush past the window. I wonder what England will look like after spending 4 months in the dramatically different landscapes of South America. One month from today I will be flying across the world and I can't really begin to contemplate how amazingly different it's not only going to be from England, but from Europe and the culture that I've always been in. Only today has the realisation and beginnings of anxiety actually start to set in, as things such as finishing work (next week!!) vaccinations and attempting and failing (I an sooooooo annoyed) to cancel gym memberships become reality.</p> <p>Friday evening and the rest of the weekend sees me meeting my fellow "adventurers" who I will be spending the next third of my year with (eek!) Bit nervous, bit excited but I'm pretty confident that they will all be lovely, interesting people. All i can think about is my forthcoming trip, even though i can't actually visualise 4 whole months of my life being away from everyone and everything that I know and love. I can't plan anything for this huge gap in my year, and I'm going to miss events such as my little sister's 18th birthday and the humongous party she's having in a really great restaurant. 4 weeks to go and that seems like a long time still.. ah well i have a lot of bikini shopping to pack in before then... hee hee. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/02/27/south-america-3789654/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/02/27/south-america-3789654/Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:39:18 +0100 <p>Returning from sunny switzerland to a surprisingly sunny england!! very shocked, not least at the absence of a tanned face, i was skiing for an entire week and yet my face still looks as white and pasty as ever. i'm defo going to miss speeding down mountains in the glorious sunshine with the glorious snowboarders, but i am not going to miss the food!! definitely not my thing.. weird fried potatoes with a fried egg, ham and a lump of bread was my swiss experiment on arrival which just sat like stodge in my stomach for the next 12 hours. i managed to find plenty of nice salads, helped along with plenty of my sister's plate of chips. im sure that my top class skiing (ha ha) didn't quite burn off the four course meals that the hotel gave us every night though.</p> <p>managed to stupidly burn a quarter of each arm yesterday, as i decided that due to the amazing weather i would ski in a T-shirt. extreme demonstration of the importance of sun cream on the slopes; i completely forgot about my arms... very very big mistake! celebrated our last day achievement of completing our first black run as a family (we are all now more or less competent on a steep slope) with yummy alcohol. strawberry cocktails and tequila slammers later and me and my sis staggered giggling up the icy slope to our hotel. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/02/16/sunburn_and_strawberry_cocktails~3736433/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/02/16/sunburn_and_strawberry_cocktails~3736433/Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:18:46 +0100 <p>It's official.. as of today, i am..... without chocolate!! well for the next 40 days and nights (strictly a little longer till easter??!! can someone explain why??) anyways, after polishing off a yummy scrumptious chocolate and banana pancake yesterday evening, I decided that I should take hold of my recent chocolate addiction. see I think that's what it's actually become.. an addiction, whether physically or emotionally i don't know. i thought it was the latter because i didn't think you could get physically hooked on chocolate but someone told me otherwise today.</p> <p>so at the end of day one 'sans chocolate' i report that it actually hasn't been too bad, i don't know if this was because it wasn't a particularly disastrous day, i tend to desperately crave chocolate in dire situations (or any resembling anything close!), so i guess maybe it's an emotional thing. my other reason for this chocolate sacrifice is that it's my only really bad food (the others being drinks; coffee and alcohol) and that if i'm not allowed it i may lose a bit of my fat weight and get flawless, glowing skin (ha ha, i'll keep you posted on these unrealistic thoughts).</p> <p>However, I am going skiing on saturday, for a week in switzerland with the folks!! hurrah!! am looking forward to much fresh air in the mountains with much alcohol to soak it all up at night. Being stuck at the top of a snowy mountain, late in the afternoon, with no energy left in your legs to get you to the bottom and feeling completely drained of energy....sometimes... requires a little bit of chocolate, very yummy swiss chocolate of course. i do feel however that this may be my downfall. only time will tell... </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/02/06/chocolate~3690621/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/02/06/chocolate~3690621/Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:19:48 +0100 <p>last sunday did not see one of my lazy days; lying in bed till midday, eating a huge roast and chilling on the sofa watching sex and the city... nope, last sunday i climbed Snowdon! i know.. wth?! i spent all day with my dad, my dog, a rucksack of tuna sandwiches and soup and a humongous mountain. actually found it extremely exhilarating and despite my red, wind-torn skin and unbelievably painful legs for the next 3 days it put me in a really good, happy mood and increased my confidence about my fitness levels. couldn't believe how many little children and little dogs we met half-way up, put me to shame!</p> <p>after a short gym sesh on tuesday (legs still sore, couldn't move very much) i trammed it, or at least tried to as i got on the wrong one, to meet my family. after rapid pizza express munching, we watched stomp at the theatre, which was wonderfully funny and entertaining. don't think i found it as wildly funny as one woman sitting near me however, who let out high-pitched squeals and giggles at quiet sections of the show. my amusement slowly degenerated to annoyance and finally to amazement about how anyone could repeatedly and knowingly make such weird embarrassing noises in public.</p> <p>got home tonight and immediately got changed into my comfy trousers to settle on the sofa for a lovely night in, after yet another gym workout yesterday. my tired, achy body is craving comfy trousers as much as i craved chocolate after work. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/31/snowden_and_squealing_audiences~3660642/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/31/snowden_and_squealing_audiences~3660642/Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:30:56 +0100 <p>a week since my last post has seen much of the usual; more training, more restaurants and more lovely drinks. kept to my promise and climbed up a small hill with the father and dog, keeping snug in my cute grey baker boy hat i got for christmas and one of my sister's "band hoodies". decided i defo needed new walking boots as staying warm round the fire whilst camping last year has caused the rubber to melt and fall apart... hence wet feet. so monday saw me on a cheap walking boot hunt around manchester. cheap walking boots however, not a cheap hunt as i had to stop for yummy cappaccinos while i finished my book and hid from the windy horrendous rain which succeeded in breaking my umbrella before i reached my last spanish lesson of my course. tuesday... massive gym workout, did all the usual cardio, then decided i had time to kill and went to an 'urban funk' dance class. on my way to a celebratory meal with my spanish classmates at a brazilian restaurant, had a spare half hour so thought i would grab a lil glass of wine. easier said than done as i battled against the weather, certain that my black eye makeup was currently running down my face, and that my curls which i had carefully created, were now a windswept mess of tangles. arrived in a bar to get my wine, red in the face, and asked the nearest person if my face was covered in black. obviously didn't decide on my person of choice carefully enough, as this was answered with "of course not..you have the face of an angel" by some drunken, sleazy old man...dear lord..why me?! with a fleeting grimace, whilst the bar staff were glancing at me pityingly, i slunk off to my sad little corner with my sad little glass of white wine, in the knowledge that i was never going to find a hot young guy and that only sleazy old men are interested in me!!</p> <p>wednesday night, well and wednesday day, and i literally could not move, stupid lovely gym guys who convinced me that dance class after full workout would be a good idea. was lay on the sofa watching sex and the city with my head, and collar bone and arm and back and every other inconceivable place making me wince with pain whenever i moved. so after all this gyming and my best friend coming home from university for the weekend, on thursday we headed out, with my sister, to a traditional little greek restaurant to gorge ourselves on a mountainous banquet of meze. i being nominated as the designated driver (well i nominated myself after too much alcohol at the brazilian affair on tuesday) sat back with a tiny, winy, miniscule glass of red, whilst my sister and my best friend managed to polish off two bottles of house red between them?! no more said...</p> <p>friday and well it was friday = five o clock, two for one bellinis at my favourite after work bar, followed by a bit of naughty shopping. got home to gorgeous three course meal with the rents with a bottle of white italian wine we brought back from venice in october. finished my week in the best possible way.. best friend, bottle of red and dvd box set of sex and the city. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/26/the_weather_vs_my_boots_and_umbrella~3635952/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/26/the_weather_vs_my_boots_and_umbrella~3635952/Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:51:22 +0100 <p>went shopping with mum today, supposedly for the ingredients for my lemon pud im cooking tonight. however... as we neared our favourite boutique (actually the only single place that offers nice clothes in a twenty mile radius of our home) we slowed down, our eyes lingering, hypnotized on the huge 50% (AND MORE!!) sale sign in the window. now i have never ever known anywhere as nice as this shop that does as amazing sales as here... today (yes we eventually surrendered to our cravings) i bought a pair of wonderfully stretchy black skinny jeans (size 9?! hurrah) that were armani reduced from £175 to £40!!!!!!!!!!! i mean come on......</p> <p>so on leaving with new ted baker shorts and the skinny jeans i realised my recent problems caused by my chocolate gorging addiction and resulting tight trousers has been due to my will power in another department...SHOPPING! for the past 6 months i have battled one of my worst addictions and feel good pick me ups, in order to save money for my travels. although my bank liked this, my waistline has not and instead of that pair of heels after work (or what used to be college) to cheer me up has turned into a few choccies from thortons. so walking the streets swinging my sale bag of lovely new clothes (hee hee i know how cheesy) i felt soooo happy and now need to not binge even one tiny bit if i want to still fit in my new skinnies.</p> <p>decided to take the father and the dog for a very very long walk up some kind of hill tomorrow as i have the entire weekend off work (woop!) whether this foul weather is present or not, in "training" for future mountains on my travels. problems in my upped training however is my thighs + skinny jeans. yesterday got on the treadmill after work and managed to pound my way through 40 minutes and 6 1/2 km again... feeling really good afterwards and healthy and fit. however, as my thighs are gaining muscle and consequently struggling to fit into what used to be lovely snug trousers (so it's not just the chocolate). i wish there was some way to have strong muscles but small; quality not quantity lol. my thoughts are however, that at least they are firm and don't wibble like fat flabby thighs and plus, nothing will beat the view from the top of a huge Andes mountain will it? </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/19/new_skinny_jeans_vs_chocolate~3601551/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/19/new_skinny_jeans_vs_chocolate~3601551/Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:30:45 +0100 <p>I am at the height of laziness this morning, guiltily watching christina aguilarila (what the hell?!) in bed with my computer perched on my lap... verrrry cosy. this however is exactly where i have wanted to be all week, as I braved the cold weather and early mornings, greatly helped along with my new, extremely warm sheepskin mittens, which totally cause me to be able to do absolutely nothing. very good workout yesterday after work, defo getting fitter, vitally important for those mountains i'm going attempt when i go traveling. its true to know when they say it releases those hormones like chocolate, i really did feel very happy and content afterwards. content enough to head out for many a cosmopolitan and scrummy sweet shooters, which always cause no end of hilariousity whilst trying to avoid spilling baileys on my favourite pink pashmina.</p> <p>arrived at my fridge door around midnight after luckily not falling asleep on the last train home again (see rather unlucky events in previous blogs). was greeted with yummy salad my mum had thoughtfully saved for me, which i quickly devoured having not eaten anything all day but happily put away a days calorie intake of cocktails. then i found that lemon cake from the other day mmmmmmm............... </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/12/workouts_and_sheepskin_mittens~3565517/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/12/workouts_and_sheepskin_mittens~3565517/Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:51:34 +0100 <p>very happy twenty four hours, possibly due to early finishes at work, which enabled me to chill for hours with my book in a quirky hippy cafe, munching cheap vegan food. so yesterday, with a full (but healthy...) stomach, i made my way to spanish where Hurrah! hot guy was back. hid from the rain under my new fluffy grey hat as i trudged through the manchester shops, finally spending my christmas voucher on a new bag, kinda beachy and summery but i like it and who knows it may attempt to cheer up the weather as well as me. </p> <p>continued the healthy theme today with two meals consisting of soup?! and vegetarian soup! i know?! actually come to think of it, the majority of my nutrition intake today consisted of liquidised substances, not just soup but yummy yummy blueberry smoothies at work. the latter was mainly to calm my nerves against crazy ladies in strange hats. so after all my healthiness, i indulged in the most gorgeous lemon cake my mum made, so fresh it was still warm and gooey. so after my luscious lemoniness and my jab against nasty diseases at the doctors, im snuggled in front of the sofa with good old hollyoaks. xx </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/10/vegan_grub_and_luscious_lemoniness~3558196/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/10/vegan_grub_and_luscious_lemoniness~3558196/Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:24:26 +0100 <p>i brought back from venice and finally cooked the most magical, fantastical, multicoloured pasta I've ever seen in my life yesterday evening for best mate and parents (all of whom provide much loved relaxed entertainment around the dinnertable) back to the pasta.... which was described with no stretch of the imagination - picture thick, stripy, zig-zaggy edged, orange, yellow, green and orange and black pasta... i no.. WOW!! never mind the taste, i managed to stun the folks as they sat gazing at this mound of unbelievably, weirdly stylish food lying on their plate. and yeah... the taste was ok.. i pride myself in finding outrageously coloured food rather than the cooking of it though hee hee.</p> <p>I've not written in ages, particularly over christmas.. really missed it actually.. and you've all missed out on my wonderful christmas festivities. not really felt up to writing actually.. probably due to a total overindulgence in vodka/cranberries (my winter concoction) On the same theme, many a cosmopolitan followed, as well as the usual; red wine, mulled wine etc etc. to attempt to restore my brain to any kind of functioning form, i gorged myself on chocolate in the days in between the nights out, which seemed to be every other day. so as you can see.. got into a kind of pattern; terribly drunken but wonderful nights out involving lots of cranberry juice and (cough cough) more vodka, school girl costumes and gay bars with gay friends (not so much moi being in this camp), followed by lazy day recovering the following 24 hours, with the sofa, my new sex and the city box set and the mountainous boxes of christmas chocolates that have seemed to taken up residence in our house. </p> <p>no idea how i attempted to go to work in any days over christmas, although i did seem to occupy the building at certain times.. quite sure my brain was definitely elsewhere. what else... very funny incident involving a family boxing day dinner with lots of the family, including a cousin who I last (embarrassingly) saw in a club in London (see woo hoo cocktail induced blog). more embarrassing family moments included turning up to a gorgeous sushi restaurant, where my sister is holding her 18th party, (very hehe) slightly tipsy from drinking straight after work on an empty stomach, wearing my good old trilbry, blue shoe boots and flirting with an extremely tall, cute waiter. decided post work vodka, plus wine to wash down the sushi wasn't enough and proceeded into town to dance to old tunes with my friend and very very cute guy.</p> <p>decided not to partake in new year's resolutions this year.. in the full knowledge that i definitely definitely should! thought about what I should give up; alcohol, coffee, chocolate, late nights etc. decided that i quite like (well more than quite) all the latter and that in no way did i want to deprive myself of these necessities... so im not doing Happy New Year! xx </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/06/fantastical_stripy_pasta~3538455/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2008/01/06/fantastical_stripy_pasta~3538455/Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:40:04 +0100 <p>Britain's train system is slowly and surely trying to emotionally kill me!! actually i'll probably die sooner from pneumonia due to the ridiculous amount of time they leave me standing in the cold. Yesterday after a long and lovely day of shopping (in killer high-heeled boots may i add) my mum and I attempted to get home... but no the train demons were against us. After missing one train we decided a necessary glass of wine was in order, the next train didn't stop at our station as it usually does, so we finally (an hour later) boarded our train. But no... after fifteen minutes our journey, happiness and warmth ended with one of those terrible announcements telling you the next stop is your last!!.... and so we disembarked onto a cold, empty platform, miles and miles from our house at 9 in the evening, when we would be much rather sat at home contemplating our day's purchases over pizza and wine. after waiting in the cold for what seemed like forever, i found myself going a little crazy from the artic temperatures and started mumbling about making my own mulled wine, if we ever made it to the sanctuary of our kitchen, as i was hopping around rubbing my legs together for warmth, which im sure looked like i needed the toilet. after an hour long bus journey with screaming teens playing hard core trance music on their mobiles, we FINALLY got home and i grabbed the bottle of red to start attempting my mulled wine hee hee hee...</p> <p>so as you can guess, i was not best pleased with trains. but oh no.... nothing could prepare me for the onset slaughter of what the trains were going to do to me this morning! woke up to the online news (i know im extremely sad and check my trains) that there was no first train for me to get to work. then attempted to drive to another station.. got lost.. drove around then ran around like a lunatic trying to find it.. got some strange looks.. missed the train.. got another train.. it stopped randomly 5 minutes from work and wouldn't proceed for half an hour.. considerate (cough) train people left the doors of the train open for the 30 minutes so i fretted and freezed and tried to call work telling them i'd be late and wouldn't know if i'd actually arrived anytime in the next 24 hours unless i could get off the stupid train. arrived at work finnnallllyyy very very late, resembled a frozen snowmen with a bright red nose, out of breath from hurrying from the train station. i stood around with a cup of tea and my back against the oven for the majority of the day, attempting to get some circulation back into my poor body. </p> <p>i think, contemplating my last three days of serious low body temperatures and horrendous, traumatising train journeys (or lack of journeying) i think i have reached the conclusion that alcohol is the answer! On friday i braved the chill outside with sangria and cava at my spanish party and after finding out my train wasn't for half hour, chose a cosmopolitan in a packed out bar rather than waiting in the cold. as i said, last night saw glasses of white as i propped up my high-heeled, weary legs at the bar and dreamt of homemade mulled wine. so now that im home from my horrible horrible day, im warming myself up with red wine, my lovely friend, a christmas tree to decorate and a roast dinner on its way..... </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/12/16/antedote_for_the_cold_and_trains~3452022/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/12/16/antedote_for_the_cold_and_trains~3452022/Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:37:06 +0100 <p>owwwww... 40 minutes continuous running on the treadmill... my calves are so tight i think they may implode! ...and this was after a 7 hour shift on my feet. ran almost 6 1/2 km and burned like almost 400 calories!! i know.. this is like practically a meal! if you hadn't already guessed from my subtle hints, i am rather proud of myself, which i kept telling myself as i struggled to drag my calves to the train station, only to stand on a train packed to the brim of fellow commuters. felt very very guilty about how bad i must smell and tried to inch further and further into the side wall of the train. meanwhile i was trying to balance coffee in one hand and my book in the other whilst holding on tightly so as I wouldn't fall on top of the poor woman sat next to me, who I'm sure had no desire to have coffee and me on top of her.</p> <p>as i battled my way up the hill home from the station, walked unbelievably fast despite the treadmilling so I could escape the cold weather in favour for the homemade apple cake that was waiting at home for me. wobbly legs from all this excercise reminded me of yesterday, this time red wine being the culprit. arrived at my spanish class cold, hungry and sleepy. managed to warm up by the radiator for the first hour, however this didn't in any way help the sleepyness. neither did it seem the red wine... our ten minute break, mid-spanish sesh, usually consists of coffee and a stretch of the legs. however, as we descended the stairs yesterday we were greeted by a buffet for a concert being held!! hurrah! especially as we were invited to tuck in. and tuck in i did... particularly the red wine and choccies. 10 minutes turned into 30 and as we went back for our last half hour of spanish we were all decidedly more giggly, yet more enthuastic with our spanish. got home only to decide now i'd started drinking why stop, and headed straight for my dad's yummy half finished bottle of red on the side. red wine clutched tightly i proceeded to my favourite late night resting spot under the blanket on the sofa in front of trashy tv.. hurray for ugly betty!! </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/12/13/running_for_red_wine~3439872/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/12/13/running_for_red_wine~3439872/Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:10:32 +0100 <p>two alcohol fueled, party hard nights in the capitial = a sleepy me munching chocolate brownies on the sofa as i return to my blog after a short absence. experienced my future life as a nocturnal, carefree student, as I visited my friend at my university I will be at post gap year and enjoyed stupidly cheap, student friendly drink prices. Such resulted in a rather overly uninhibited moi, particularly when it came to the tunes and crazy dance moves of the 80's themed night. After sipping my 'Woo Woo' (I know?!) the mass of raving students suddenly seemed less daunting and after a few more vodka oranges, we got stuck right in. More friends joined around midnight, and after a few more weird cocktails and crazy dance moves later we wound up munching Mc Donalds on a london night bus back to the halls. </p> <p>Tried to start my christmas shopping with a very strange hangover mid-afternoon the next day, after finally managing to prise myself out of bed, but had strange swaying sensations in my legs and couldn't seemed to fully focus on train times on the screen. After humongous falafel burgers and chips with my friend, we were off again (me in my bright blue puffball dress that i loooveeee...) 80's tunes were replaced by 'cheese night' the songs not a free buffet, so we jumped around to the backstreet boys and by 3am my knees had locked into some weird unmovable position, only allowing my arms to randomly punch the air in some boozy trance. Had coffee with a work friend the next day, who was in London before flying home, although coffee and a small yogurt was pretty much all a could manage, the thought of the amount of vodka i had consumed the night before having not quite yet left my mind.</p> <p>Arrived back in Manchester one minute after my train home left.. grrrrrrrrrrr... this meant an hour waiting in the station, fully and utterly sober with the majority of Manchester in the midst of drunken antics, enjoying their Saturday night. Sipping coffee and trying to hide behind my new trashy book, I didn't succeed in managing to repel random strangers plonking themselves next to me and slurring in my ear whilst trying to start up conversation with me. Slept for the majority of yesterday due to my late return home and only rose out of bed when the temptation of Jamie Oliver's 'fantastic fish pie' was called by my mother upstairs and I plodded down to rest my sleepy head next to a huge mound of mashed potato, creamy fish and baked beans mmmm...... </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/12/10/vodka_and_fish_pie~3425061/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/12/10/vodka_and_fish_pie~3425061/Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:54:07 +0100 <p>two long train journeys with annoyingly ignorant people who talk would rather talk loudly on their moblies than allow me to read my book, a 9 hour shift in a cafe, gym session which abruptly ceased due to weird horrible pain in legs and a trek across manchester to obtain train ticket = a VERY KNACKERED me! had to have small edible landmarks throughout the day, such as a yummy espresso and thortons choc to aid my long, cold, blustery walk... (I know..diet...) i chose chocolate over dinner though...</p> <p>have had a twenty four hours of nice men. firstly was the return of 'hot guy' to my spanish class yesterday, which like usual, provided much eye-wandering distraction. today, hot well-spoken med student came into the deli, actually he came in twice, i amused myself by thinking this may have been due to me.. hee hee (i doubt it, probably more to do with thirst). third hot guy of the day was a cute, young irish guy who only came for an orange but ended up staying to chat about university and south america with me, meanwhile smiling one of those soooo sweet irishy smiles awwwww. and then i rounded off the day in the gym, which so conveniently positioned the weights room on the way to the treadmills so i have to walk through and of course oggle at a whole sea of men, wearing very little whilst they attempt to increase their already bulging muscles.</p> <p>going to london on thursday night HURRAH my boss let me have friday and saturday off so im train-ing it down south to stay with my friend who's at my future university and do my christmas shopping in the capital. think i might have an early night, but watch old re-runs of sex and the city on my laptop as i drift off... ahh i want to be carrie bradshaw!! </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/12/04/hot_guys_and_chocolate_treats~3396379/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/12/04/hot_guys_and_chocolate_treats~3396379/Tue, 04 Dec 2007 22:48:21 +0100 <p>whoop weekend off whoop!! very unexpected, only found yesterday on leaving work, and i think it's very well deserved, have worked stupidly hard this week (cough...) with VERY early mornings. had lots of sleep after a cheese mega feast last night with my dad - mum made a mistake buying an entire platter of delish cheeses which we had no problem chomping through. only had a mini lie in this morning, (tomorrow too hurrah!!) as we were going skiing! no unfortunately we weren't jet-setting off to the alps, only the trafford centre. so i spent the morning in my cute all in one black ski suit in the new "real snow" slope in manchester. as I changed from my trilby into my knitted bobble hat with ear flaps (i no ski-chic hee hee) i decided i needed to diet... i no what u must be thinking with my food obsessed mind that seems to assume life revolves around my stomach. this was due to my jeans feeling a little bit too tight round the old thighs... i tried to blame this on my increased number of gym workouts on the treadmill and my new 'oh so toned' muscles.</p> <p>skiing was very very fun... we were also joined by my uncle who AMAZINGLY skis on one leg! so all was going well until something went wrong... i blame an icy patch... and i went soaring through the air, did a somersault (perhaps?) and landed heavily on the snow, skis all tangled up over my head, my head then hitting the ground very very hard... it felt like the hangover from hell (yesterday) had returned. recovered from my near brain damaged experience in a mexican restaurant with the folks, with a fatija... don't worry it was vegetable one and i ate primarily vegetables and less of those lovely soft floury wraps mmm... however then we stumbled across an absolutley unresistable ice cream parlour and had some honeycomb ice cream (minus cone, minus fudgy stick).</p> <p>meetin up with a very old friend tonight (length of friendship not age) to do some serious catching up. however need to de-pinkify my nose first from the all the ski action of the morning and do some definite hair repair as my horrendous skiing accident caused my cute hat to fly off, getting covered in snow but more importantly exposing my hair to the snow also, resulting in many weird kinks and frizzy bits. think i might cook some sort of greek tapas for a few of us at home... going to pop out now to do some tapas shopping in my trilby.. tara xx </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/12/01/trilburys_and_skiing_accidents~3379769/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/12/01/trilburys_and_skiing_accidents~3379769/Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:26:37 +0100 <p>unwelcomed deep sleeps aboard the last train home and hangovers from hell whilst working = a pretty shit 24 hours. well to be honest last night was absolutley lovely until the train sleeping incident. had a quick gym sesh, feeling very energised after munching chocolate fudge cake with my friend at work. afterwards I put on my electric blue, spindly heeled shoe/boots and met my two friends from work for a meal out. it took us two garlic breads and a bowl of olives, plus a definite glass of wine or two before we'd even begin to decide upon what we wanted to eat from the massivly extensive menu...to be honest we were probably too busy giggling over the cute teddy we'd bought my friend as a 'leaving work' present. had to wait ages for more food, but it didn't hinder our fun, the drinks were flowing and we were too busy chatting away to notice our grumbling tummys.</p> <p>got a little tipsier (to put it mildly) than planned... i blame it on waiting for food heehee. hurried wobbily to the train station to just catch the last train home.. plenty of embarrasing moments as i attempted to run up and down the station stairs in my shoes. finally boarded the train and rang my very kind daddy who said he'd retrieve me from the station. however i then proceeded to prompty fall fast asleep.. head probably unflatteringly lolling into the aisle.. god i hope i didn't snore! awoke suddenly thinking i was back.. but no, when i peered worriedly out of the window the train announcement confirmed my stupidity... yup i had slept through my stop on the last train home. then made second big stupid mistake of the night (maybe 3rd actually if the first was the volume of wine consumed) as i rang home instead of my dad's mobile. this then caused massive angry correspondance with mother and caused hugmonous arguments. </p> <p>so this morning i awoke with terrible, sleep deprived hangover which combined with more arguments left me trudging to work feeling just like one huge, self-induced headache. worked the till most of the day.. best job for me really.. i could use it as a leaning post for my poor alcohol abused body (ok maybe a little over dramatic...) extremely mooching day, generally feeling sorry for myself followed by feeling bad that i was being so moany and useless to everyone else. got very ill mid afternoon... started to ponder on those unrealistic thoughts; "i vow never to drink again... lord just stop making me feel soooo bad!" Left work early and cheered myself up with maltesers and a trip to the flower shop (don't know why but i LOVE shopping for flowers) to find a peace offering for my mum. struggled home up the hill from station (didn't want to start asking for a lift...) with a umbrella, two bags (all my clothes from yesterday) and my bunch of flowers. flowers worked! hurrah and all is now peaceful at home with delicious homemade thai smells emanating from the kitchen mmmmm.............. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/30/sleepy_train_nightmares~3376915/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/30/sleepy_train_nightmares~3376915/Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:15:01 +0100 <p>red wine, the sofa and my laptop perched on my knee as I watch trashy tv; the perfect anedote to an absolutely rubbishy crap day. ok so i started off extremely irratable... but the rest of the day did not in any way attempt to rise me out of my self deprivating bad mood. shuffled down the hill (scarf clad) to the train station, only to be greeted by those ominous orange men on the tracks. as i rounded the corner hoping and praying and even promising those above that i would be good (until lunchtime...) if those orange men didn't mean my train would be late, i peered up at the station screen... HURRAH! orange men weren't the all terrible omen... by the way I hate trains... officially... although they have actually behaved themselves quite well today.</p> <p>ok so maybe you're thinking my train joy may have brightened my mood.. nah.. my book dissapointed me on the journey, heroine got all mopey about men, and im VERY anti-men for a few weeks due to post break up with the ex. talking of which (men by the way, not the ex), my funniest and most embarassing moment of the day concerned the latter and caused a great amount of laughter between my friend and I at work. For the past half an hour, I'd had that sensation (without wanting to feel vainly big-headed) that a guy was watching me from afar. After realising that I knew him, i changed my opinion of him; from weird stalker guy to nice friendly waiter from next door, i forgot... Thirty minutes later whilst serving one of those slightly cocky table of regulars but who are charmingly quite nice, I heard my name being called and a voice calling out if he could please have my number. Glancing strickenly at the table of witty businessmen i had just been speaking to, i threw a glance at what I thought was a 'friendly waiter guy' and squealed "Not NOW!" and ran off in the saftey of serving another table. God knows what the business men thought...</p> <p>what followed for the remained of the afternoon, with my foul mood still intact, was a cafe absolutley full to the brim of annoyingly fussy customers, including a table of five americains intent of pestering me with the individual ingredients of every single dish we serve. my reward to myself for dealing with such 'lactose-gluten-meat-free/intolerent' people, was to treat myself to a nice cup of soup of the way to my spanish class and allow my gaze to once again rest on hot guys... ahhh what they must think of me.. oh well at least i have my red wine and the sofa and my lovely place to rant and rave. xx</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/26/orange_men_and_foul_moods~3356729/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/26/orange_men_and_foul_moods~3356729/Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:09:03 +0100 <p>two delicious culture-fed gorge-fests in 48 hours! not bad going... not written for a few days so after the beginning of my week, working hard in the gym and my spanish class (well giggling and attempting spanish conversation with hot guys isn't that hard work) i thought i definitly deserved a few drinks out with my favourite girls. therefore thursday night saw an evening of munching thai with my little sis (not so little, she's only a few years younger than me) hence we shopped, sipped mulled wine in the manchester markets and finally found ourseleves in a cheap little studenty thai restaurant. here we nibbled prawn crackers (yum) dunked veggie spring rolls in sweet chilli sauce (mmmmm) and worked our way through humongous plates of tofu pad thai (double yum) As you can guess we trudged our way back to the train station feeling very very pogged. it didn't stop me buying a tiny weeny (honestly!) thortons chocolate while we waited for the train hee hee...</p> <p>i DEFINITLY woke up with the 'friday feeling' yesterday, really couldn't prise myself out from under my covers and spent the entire day feeling lazy, unmotivated to do absoulutly anything. i did however feel extremely overjoyed all day too as it was friday which entailed night out and mega lie-in the next morning. my friend and i managed to leave work early and after getting changed in the toliets we set off for tapas and wine in the centre of manchester. getting changed at work isn't exactly like the 3am girls changing into their sparkly tops and stilletos for the celebrity party they're about the blag their way into.. no our toliets (well 'toliet' singular) are very un-chic and on leaving we get stared at, due to morphing from apron-clad deli girl to high heels and lipstick. at least they don't have to spray any lovely 'pine scented' fragnaces due to the remains of our Dior perfume. we spent the next 5 hours perched at a little table in an authentic greek/spanish (not sure) tavena bar with a bottle of house red and a few plates of yummy tapas. </p> <p>the absolutely scrummy warm pitta bread piled with roast veggies, humous and falafel reminds me of a rant i've been meaning to discuss for a while.... BREAD??!! i work in a sandwich shop and 'viola' we have a lot of bread (no kidding!) and i'm the only english girl who works there during the week, the rest of my friends are excitingly from all different easten european countries, which provides them (and me) with much entertainment as they teach me various words in their language which i promptly forget. so anyway, i can't believe how many hundreds and thousands of different names there are for various shapes and sizes of bread... and if it's hard for me imagine the problems they find! take for example the small round bread used for bacon, sausages etc...:</p> <p>barm cake (or barm): the name i call it, plus everyone born and bred in the north west and the name we teach to every poor newcomer who works at the deli. completely and utterly impossible for any southerner to commredhend ever using this name.</p> <p>bap: southern equivilant. i would only ever hear this word used by men (and definitly not of my generation) talking about women's boobs.</p> <p>muffin: muffin??!! excuse me? a muffin is one of two varieties and defintly never the latter form. should instead be used for either a deliciously morish, bad but sweet cake full of fruit or chocolate that prompts the name of 'muffin-top' for fat girls who's extra weight falls over the top of their jeans. either this or a little small bread toasted with butter, usually termed an 'english muffin'.. very yum.</p> <p>roll: hate this name.. very confusing, very unspecific and always feel like raising an eyebrow (if i actually could) at any customer using this word. without the cocky eyebrow raise i always proceed to question them as to whether they are referring to barmcake or baguette, both quite 'roll shaped' in their individual ways.</p> <p>bun: fair enough a bun is a bun, this is deemed acceptable to use.</p> <p>... i think they are more but my brain has failed me on my saturday morning lie in due to my single day off in the week. i will update when i think or hear more... (maybe i should keep a list in my apron pocket) so anyhow.. this is only for one type of bread!!!!! imagine the poor confusion of my deli-girls surronding the same number of various names for a bagette!!...</p> <p>that's enough of my bread rambling and renditions of my evenings out over the past few days... i'm off to enjoy a very very lazy saturday in a new cafe with my mum and tonight having an evening in with my sister, her boyfriend and best friend (back from uni for the weekend) having our very own mini-dinner party. yep.. it's italien tonight.. third country in three days.. english food - poof boring!! </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/24/barm_cakes_vs_tapas~3345078/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/24/barm_cakes_vs_tapas~3345078/Sat, 24 Nov 2007 12:44:55 +0100 <p>woke up with that monday morning; "i just can't move out of my unbelivably warm foetal position into an igloo of a house!" feeling. near suicide incident as the wind (which had already completely destroyed any attempt of my looking nice today) nearly threw me onto the train tracks. so head down, scarf nearly up to my eyes to salvage my poor winter-torn skin, i shuffled to work, only to find it wasn't even much warmer as the door seemed to want to stay open of its own accord for the interity of the morning. hands wrapped around foiled jacket potatoes discussing a winter uniform of cute jackets, my 'deli girls' and I spent our morning thinking up ways to swap places with the chefs for the privilage of standing anywhere in close proximity of an oven. only then did i hear on the radio that the rest of the UK aparently had snow... so unfair that we had to endure the same conditions without watching pretty little snowflakes falling down outside.... ahhhh....</p> <p>so while i spent my morning concerned about my poor nose growing pinker and colder by the second, i spent my evening in my very first spanish class! buones noches (havn't done much spelling yet) everyone. throughly enjoyed myself with 9 other complete spanish novices as we attempted to understand any single word our wonderfully enthusastic teacher spoke in her bubbly and mindblowingly speedy spanish. so as i ascended the steps back into the cold, i felt much warmer with the languge of the sun (well random phrases) preoccupying my mind... perhaps it will go with my salsa hee hee... </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/19/hola_to_the_snow~3322429/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/19/hola_to_the_snow~3322429/Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:33:25 +0100 <p>alcohol fueled midnight munchies last night = missing half a pomegranete and pineapple meringue this morning. went out last night with friends and drank to my recent arrival into singledom. lots of salsa involved, not just in the huge pile of nachos we (well mainly moi) devoured in wetherspoons but later on the dance floor with my gay best friend to ricky martin... i know??!! so after gazing at hot men (through chardonnay tinted glasses) and pretending i have an ounce on talent in the art of salsa dancing i arrived home.... hungry. </p> <p>work was uneventful today... usual sunday hangover (although distinctly improved on last week's) but a second monthful of jalopenos in twenty four hours (nachos being the first) suddenly brought my brain back to life. trying to get home however was extrememly eventful, particularly the entertaining stand-off between a crowd of boozy loudmouths and a poor, terribly well spoken geeky type trying to quieten them. so not only was I and my fellow train audience stuck on a train being quietly amused but we were actually stuck... yep the driver hadn't even bothered to show up. when i finally managed to board a train that had some means of making it leave the station, I endured thirty minutes of a little boy pulling funny faces at me in the window whilst trying gain a bit of the sleep i lost last night... ah well sleep can wait, little boy seemed to be having much fun. </p> <p>decided to forfit gym for yet more sleep, or as is more my style; falling asleep on the sofa whilst watching rubbish television, claming that i am actually awake and do not need to ascend the stairs and actually go to bed. so that meringue is not going to be worked off on the treadmill just yet... maybe i should attempt the salsa again, would be more more fun. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/18/pomegranete_miringue_and_salsa~3316066/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/18/pomegranete_miringue_and_salsa~3316066/Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:18:20 +0100 <p>lost a guy, gained a blog! I've never written one before, it's kinda exciting, wonder if anyone will actually read this. well i woke up this morning feeling slightly sick, firstly from losing a boyfriend of 8 months but secondly and probably more truthfully from the amount of chocolate ice cream i gorged afterwards. Why do lovely things go with terrible situations? i.e breaking up with my guy in public = chocolate bananas in the manchester christmas markets. The latter were actually completely and utterly delish but didn't quite manage to compensate and cheer me up, resulting in poor random (and quite hot) strange men asking me if im ok in the middle of the street. I spose this was called for as I might have been slightly swaying (red wine), puffy eyed (yes unfortunately i am a weak person and shed tears over a man grrrrrrrr) and sniffing whilst facing a wall taking deep breaths. God the man must have thought i was a lunatic??!! </p> <p>so back to today... well it's my only day off from my current job, deli girl come waitress in the centre of manchester. i know what you're thinking.. wow! (sacastic intotion here) but don't worry, the art of making the perfect sandwich is not my lifelong ambition. I am in fact only raising money in my gap year before jet setting off across the world..................! not actually being sarcastic here.</p> <p>so it's back to work tomorrow.. guyless, more sandwiches to make and probably with a horrendous hangover if i consume too much anti break up tequila tonight whilst staring at hot guys. ah well....... his hair needed cutting anyway. xx </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/17/no_sandwiches_today_and_no_guy~3311125/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://highheelsandsandwiches.blog.co.uk/2007/11/17/no_sandwiches_today_and_no_guy~3311125/Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:02:32 +0100