Marzipan penguins / snowmen and a Merry Christmas!

These are our Christmas sweets, made by my oldest two and me.
Penguins and snowmen are from marzipan and leftover food colouring. Easy to do, will do a separate post on how later.
Kulkuls madewhen my Mum was here with the children.
Chocolate truffles in coconut.
Fruitcake with no icing or marzipan - icing not liked loads in our house and marzipan used for the penguins.
Bolinas from Mapusa!

Next time I blog will be from India :)
Merry Christmas and lots of happiness and good wishes!

Westfield Merry Hill review

Though we are 10-12 minutes drive from Birmingham city centre, with hundreds of shops etc and the beautiful buildings near the Library, Bullring etc etc, I have chosen for a few years now, to do most of our non food shopping at Westfield Merry Hill in Dudley. Its 30 minutes away. A few of my reasons.

1) Most important - plenty of parking and free. Underground, multistorey, outdoor, all around the centre, so you can choose where you need to be closest to. On a day like today, 2 days before Christmas, dragged the children to Merry Hill and found ample parking in the basement of the multistorey within a few minutes. A few years ago, we spent Sat and Sundays waiting in the long line of cars for hours to get into the Bullring. Last Sunday, ventured to city centre looking for a gilet, to come back an hour later, fed up of the long lines to park and traffic jams. City Centre has a fabulous atmosphere and is great to get to on public transport, just not to drive to in the festive season.

2) Huge selection of shops - miles ahead of the other shopping centres in North and South Brum.  There's Eat Central, with around 15 eateries, plus the ubiquitous chains dotted around. The only shops I miss which are in city centre are Zara and House of Fraser. No Selfridges or Harvey Nichols for that kind of shopping.

3) Largely free children's activities in the holidays - my children have seen Mr Tumble, Ben and Holly, Peppa Pig, Charley Bear and around 5 more CBeebies characters, got given goodie bags for all kinds of shows and things and have been sent freebie vouchers in the post - with their Kids Club. Lots of the restaurants have children's meals for around £2-3, which are not the standard chicken nuggets/fish fingers. There is a lovely indoor children's play area free to use where the children have enjoyed many play sessions and 2 outdoor play areas. Lots of toilets, always clean and a separate baby change toilet with play facilities, baby change, toddler toilets etc.

Can go on but this is a long enough post and the shopping needs to be sorted out/wrapped up etc!

Easy Cornflake chivda / chura

Clearing cupboards before holiday/Christmas
Found huge pack of plain cornflakes
Remembered Gujarati cook who came to us for a few weeks and her recipes
Looked it up online
Made in 10 minutes in the morning

Its easy to make, not deep fried and tastes gorgeous.
2 tbsps of oil, put in some haldi, chilli powder, amchoor and rai. Mixed cornflakes in and added some dry roasted peanuts and cashewnuts. It tasted fine without the nuts, added later when I found them.
Have had people over most of the evening so the picture of the big bowl was never taken. This tiny bit is all thats left.

Handmade paper hearts - free decorations...

Handmade paper hearts by my almost 8 year old - seen on SuperScrimpers and then online. Very very easy and quick to make, and, free! Need a stapler, some paper (plain or printed or even newspaper) and some string.
Made in 10 minutes by her, the joys of not having to worry about scissors, stapling and measuring as the children get older. The youngest happily cut all the leftover paper with his plastic scissors.
Bit of a break in our house from the bright colours and lights of Christmas decorations.
Now to sort out and wrap the pile of gifts for everyone except the children, their stuff is all from Amazon, will hopefully arrive this week.

Frozen bananas et al

Having discovered the pleasure of a guilt free frozen treat in the form of a frozen banana on a stick, I've managed to get the children into it as well. A must try for anyone, just remember to poke a skewer or lolly stick through - might need to cut the banana in half. Even in this cold weather, children like it as an after school snack and I try and have it to control my junk food cravings. It takes ages to eat and tastes similar to a mini milk?

This link made for great reading, at 5am, up with a sick child sleeping on me, and includes the frozen banana whizzed up as icecream! I like the first link and want to try out stuff. The second is interesting reading, if you have the time :)

Two Ingredient Recipes
Christmas Food Hacks

Tiger cake and Number 7 cake

Have been tending to make two cakes for each birthday, one for the children's friends party and one for our friends and their children who come home.
This 7 one was put together very quickly with leftover icing flowers and Wafer Daisies from Sainsbury's.
The tiger cake was done for my son's party at the zoo - seemed the simplest.

Meandering thoughts on going back to work....

So many conversations with other mums about going back to work, finding the right job and of course, earning enough to pay for three children's childcare.
I am trying to find work in what I have been trained to do and had a career in, without success. Haven't searched wholeheartedly because my youngest has a few months before preschool but there are much less jobs around than when my first went to the childminder's 6 years ago.
I would like to work part time but that in itself is a rarity in my field, where there are tons of applicants for each job.
At this age and with this experience, I need to build my career, not start doing administrative work or something unrelated.
Have been told often to start a business, its the right time etc etc, but cannot get my head around it.
Also have been told to enjoy my children at this age and that it won't last long, I have all my life to build a career etc.
Fortunately, I'm not the only seemingly wishful thinker around, most mums I speak to, who have given up work when their kids were born, feel the same and cannot find appropriate work.

On the other side, a few more weeks before we go to Bombay/Goa!

Broad Street view from the Birmingham Big Wheel

Took the children for their treat to the Birmingham Eye / Wheel on Friday night.
Thought it would be a different treat from the usual, plus, in the dark would be a different perspective for them. Reality was freezing cold.
The cabins were heated when we went last 6 years ao, this time there was nothing, probably why the price was £4 each instead of £8 last time. Too cold to hang around for long, so bought them some hot dogs from the German market next door and hot mulled cider for my mum which was gorgeous. I had a big glug which was super warming and then realised I was driving so one glug was all it was.
Lots of people at the Market and a few kids at the rides......end result was our kids overjoyed with the ride which was the whole point, fortunately!

1st Dec - Start of the Christmas season - Kulkuls

Its the 1st now and time to get started with some sort of planning for Christmas - first step - making kulkuls.....hopefully they will last until the 25th.

This is all that's left after making, double this has been scoffed by all already....

Beef steak with Karma's sorpotel masala...

As the title says, Saturday lunch of beef steak with leftover Karma's sorpotel masala which tasted nothing like sorpotel/red masala. Chips with Kitchen King masala, also leftover. Also leftover horrid  plates dug from right inside the cupboard - all else in dishwasher.
Trying to finish stuff before we go to India next month :)

Fosters Highlight Comedy Club Birmingham review

Fosters Highlight Comedy Club Birmingham- Last weekend before my mum leaves, and this is where I choose to go - husband a bit surprised but, for the price of a kgb deals voucher decided to give it a try. My first to one of these things, he warned me it was mainly stag/hen groups and very smutty and tripadvisor reviews weren't great... Nevertheless, off we went to Broad Street, its easy to find, few minutes from the Solomon Cutler (?), walked in, our voucher bit of a mess, had to prebook etc, but very helpful manager Steven sorted it out in a few mins and gave us a table on our own at the side. Could see the stage reasonably well.
We weren't the only people on our own, though it was mainly groups. Very attentive staff, we were asked 3 times about our order, then again thrice how did we like it, everything ok.
Had a snack and some drinks, very good and reasonably priced. Food starts at £3 for a big bucket of onion rings and max is £7 for a burger/salad/pizza. Drinks £2-4 a glass/bottle.
The show is from 8:30-10:30 with an interval. There are 4 comedians with around 20 mins each. We found the first act much funnier than the headliner, maybe his take on parenting and the simplicity of his act? Yes, all of the acts were smutty and lots of bad language etc but I found myself in splits quite a few times.
This is not Jack Dee or Omid Djalili by a long shot, but, for this price, I think is worth the money and would highly recommend it for a couple of hours of cheap comedy. Nothing lifts the mood better than laughter.

Birmingham city centre ..my thoughts

Following on from my reasons to like living in Birmingham, here's my take on the city centre, having been there this morning.
Though Merry Hill, Kingfisher and Fort are less than 30 mins away and 2 have free parking, nothing beats Birmingham city centre. Number one is the Bullring, with its many shops, parking, ability to keep you warm and dry etc. Almost all of our children's clothes when they were under 5 were bought at Debenhams there, mostly in the sales.
Come out of the Bullring and there's Zara, which is a must for children's clothes, in the sale. On the other side of the Bullring are the lovely markets. It feels good to buy from the sellers directly, and to find 10 nectarines for a pound etc. Then the fresh fish and meat markets which have clams, crabs, and all sorts of fish.
Back to the shops, and there are Primark, BHS and Marks within a minute or two, and then shops for ages all around. Walk up New Street towards Body Shop and there's the beautiful 'Lady in the Water' as my oldest used to call her, or as she's known - Floozie in the Jacuzzi. Town Hall is lovely and so is the Museum - for a wander, and its free. I have had several trips to the Central Library with the kids in a double buggy, just for their children's activities and the range of books they have. Further on is The Rep and my former workplace....
Back again to New Street and there are hundreds of shops leading on. Slaters is lovely for menswear at reasonable prices, Next Clearance has some gems amid the chaos, at least 3 99p baguette shops and tons of places to eat.
Last of all, my pet grudge - the parking charges....two places I now park at are the car park opposite Marks- next to Moor Street and the multistorey after the markets without a lift!
Can go on and on but its already too much info....maybe in another post I'll do the quirky secrets of City Centre I've found....

10 reasons I like living in Birmingham....

Too many people berating Birmingham and the accent and feeling sorry for me living here. I like being here very much because:
1) It is England's second largest city and has tons of stuff to do and diverse places to go to, for children or adults or both.
2) Fantastic Indian food shopping half an hour away in Soho Road, Handsworth.
 (Also where I get my eyebrows threaded for £2 and big hot fresh samosas for 25p each.)
3) Choice of good schools - we have 3 primary school in our catchment area and grammar/private secondary schools are a 10 min drive away. Love being able to walk my children to school.
4) Lovely friendly people, at least on our street and the streets around us who bring our children things, stop for a small chat or help out.
5) Costco half an hour away.
6) Enough activities for children in the holidays to keep them busy, most of them free or very low cost.
7) Very cosmopolitan.
8) The Women's Hospital where my children were born and the Children's Hospital
 (where we haven't been for a while thankfully) - such fantastic, hardworking staff.
9) Merry Hill
(geographically in Dudley, but close to us). Hate paying for parking and queues at the Bullring and walking out into the cold to Marks/BHS/Primark etc.
10) Chennai Dosa.

Space NK visit review

As mentioned, went to Space NK in Solihull for a shopping evening thing. Touchwood shopping centre and the shops around shut at 5:30-6 so it was mostly deserted.
Space NK is a nice shop, the staff are lovely and friendly, the products are extremely good quality and variety but not cheap! Glad I didn't take my mum along or she'd have freaked at the prices. Had some mince pies, watched a couple of demonstrations, one of them make up and one skincare. Liked the skincare one, now to find £64 for a pot of Eve Lom's lovely moisturiser.
As the picture shows, I got a Space NK gift set - Life NK for a friend, some Stila lip stuff for another friend in Bombay and some complimentary bath soak. Will go back to get the solid perfume at some stage, which I loved and a tiny smudge lasted a day and more - can't remember the name. Need to try some other solid perfumes....

Little more than a month and we are going to Bombay and Goa!

Need a non-expensive non-combi microwave

 Update on the long saga of our broken Panasonic microwave - the very nice repair centre man called to say he has given up, it is beyond repair and we need to buy another one. Almost £200 vanished into thin air less than two years later. The only good thing about this whole issue is that the Panasonic call centre staff have been helpful and polite and final decision is that they will pay part of the cost of a new microwave, which has to be Panasonic. Unfortunately, all the Panasonic reviews I have been reading have not many good things to say about their microwaves so will wait and do some more research.
Not sure about everyone but I think the combi ones dont last, microwaves arent meant to be used as ovens. If anyone recommends a Panasonic, please let me know the model.

Going to Space NK tonight for a Christmas shopping evening today, will post on what it was like, haven't been shopping late night for ages.

No Tv, no toys for the children....

Other than using the television as a much welcomed break, I relied on a selection of toys to keep my children occupied when I couldn't play with them. For the past few weeks, I have been noticing how things have changed with the older two. What they amuse themselves with these days;
1) Seven Hands or Donkey - being taught the former by their dad and the latter by my mum, keeps the four of them busy and they love it and look forward to their daily games. I am not a fan at all..
2) Housie / Bingo - Three sets brought by my inlaws, being used in rotation, with so much joy when the Jaldi 5 happens. Keeps my youngest busy as well, with the numbers board anad scratching out random numbers.
3) Duvet House - Taking all the duvets from the beds and creating their cave/house/whatever.
4) Teddy Shop - Again, taking down their 100 odd soft toys from the shelves and putting them into a shop on their beds, complete with credit cards, shopping bags etc. Fantastic just for the time it takes them to put the toys out, never mind the time it takes me to put them back.
5) Writing poems/stories etc on each side of the blackboard easel. The eldest starts and then the middle one follows to copy his sister and their mum feels very pleased they are getting some writing practice etc!

Baath at last...

Finally made the baath yesterday, after much searching among the stash of paper recipes somewhere in the kitchen. Couldn't find Auntie's recipe, but this was a combination of my MIL's and this recipe here, with an extra egg etc. Should have put more butter, as the picture shows, its a bit more crumbly than it should be. But, as always, eaten by the whole household, husband had a slice for breakfast and my middle child decided to put white fondant icing on it, to 'make a noughts and crosses board, Mummy'.
The icing will be binned judiciously, can't have them eating so much sugar, and we will finish the crumbly baath.
Biggest issue of all, it tastes best when slightly warmed, and for 5 weeks now, we have no microwave, thanks to Panasonic's confusion over parts....never mind.
Weekend ahead with lots planned.....hope everyone's is good.

Two favourites of mine - doughballs from the breadmaker and lilies.Taken on my good old mobile, after asking my husband for days to photograph the lilies with his fancy SLR. I love love love lilies, whether its the £3 something ones from Aldi or the same price ones from Morrisons or these from Sainsbury's brought by a friend. They currently fill the room with a delicate smell and look so beautiful. 14 days old and going strong. This flower is bigger than both my hands put together!
There is currently a surfeit of flowers in the house, people over in the past week have all brought some. White chrysanthemums in the porch (god, took me 2 minutes to type that spelling, I'm getting old), pink roses in one of the bedrooms, red chrysan...in another and two vases of lilies downstairs.
When I'm stuck for a last minute present, Waitrose in Harborne have lovely plants for around £6-8 and some of their port/wine/liqueur - always does the job.

Haven't done the baath this week, just been lazy. I am making pizza though today, first bit of cooking this week! The joys of having my mum over. Love the Panasonic breadmaker, bought by the husband and used exclusively by him until recently when I discovered its the same time to do the pizza dough, prove and bake as one of my other meals. Haven't quite mastered the ingredient list thing but it tastes great and is all eaten in a few seconds. I will have to do two lots for all of us to eat, in a few months. The tomato and olive bread is lovely, as is the raisin and cinnamon bread. Both are staples in our house, along with the doughballs. All for much cheaper than readymade. Have had no problems with the Panasonic and many of our guests have to have the bread as a must do when they are over. Making children's initials with the bread dough and then baking is good fun, and, 'healthy', according to one of my friends who said that it was better than cake/biscuits for the children!

Musings

Two children back to school and the rounds of friends's houses, afterschool activities and, for the little one, the playgroups etc begin. November seems crammed with weekend parties of all sorts. Very different from when I had just come to Birmingham years ago and didn't know anyone, was at home with a baby most of the time, other than walks, didn't drive etc. My must do for anyone with a baby under 6 months is to get out of the house at least once a day and socialise as much as possible.

In other things, there is this glut of eggs and a big pack of butter from Costco, and some semolina to be used. Have been baking cakes regularly, so for an alternative, am going to try baath / baarth/ baathk, whatever the spelling, this week. I use a mix of my MIL's and an aunt's recipe and it turns out lovely. Might freeze one for Christmas. Its wolfed down by everyone. Our non Goan friends wonder at the no flour thingie and a couple of Goan friends don't believe me when I say how easy it is. Will post the recipe and pic after baking.

Shopping and Moneysavingexpert.com

Nights out two days in a row without our kids, some sort of record in this household! Today the sleep deprived me spent the day shopping, mainly for shoes for our rapidly expanding children's feet and others.
Cannot find a neutral shade of girls shoes in size 1!!!! Either they have glittery things or bright orange and pink flowers on them, went to around 15 different shops without exaggerating. Now I will look online - mission of the week (sad as it sounds). We have found gorgeous dull pink, red, tan, dark brown shoes in the past for our daughter, but size 1 onwards seems this influx of heeled patterned strange coloured boots in this weather.
One good thing about the shopping expedition was finding these lovely ballet pumps for £2.99 at New Look, seen on www.moneysavingexpert.com. Highly recommend both the shoes and the website. Shoes are simply made, probably wont last long, but for the prices and colours, are fabulous. I got the navy and the tan.
The website is great, love the discount and offers posted in the forum and have benefited/saved loads from there. I have a browse of the Grabbit forum almost daily.

Skyfall review (?)

Sounds exciting to say review, dont think I will do a complete one but have so many thoughts on Skyfall. First time in years we went out without the children, leaving them in the safe hands of my Mum. Sold out for 7pm, got tickets for 7:30.
In a nutshell, the movie for me doesn't compare to the old James Bond ones, with Roger Moore and Sean Connery, but is great entertainment for almost 2.5 hours. Daniel Craig is good, Berenice Marlohe is beautiful and I wish she had more scenes, but Javier Bardem as the villain is fabulous. Scarily comic, that insane smile on his face, excellent CGI scene of his teeth and his portrayal of a cyber terrorist is very good.
The action scenes are classic, loved the digger-train scene and a few bits of the Scotland house scenes. Lots of explanations of Bond's background, M's 'betrayals' and quotes from English poets.
Judi Dench overshadows the other women and her scenes with Daniel Craig have so much chemistry.
Good entertainment without too much of thinking and a worthy second to 'those' good old Bond movies of my Dad's days. 

Wet, grey and grim in halfterm..

Third day of holidays and its been non stop wet and dark, we have been doing and going to all indoor stuff. The promised playground trip and cycling will have to wait until the weekend, which is probably going to be freezing. Have been looking at pictures of our warm holidays...this is at Loro Parque earlier this year. Have tried amateurishly to block out people's faces.

Football or no football......

This is a picture of the cake I made for my son's birthday last month. He loved football, loved his weekly classes, insisted on an expensive kit, started following bits of matches on TV, was looking forward to a Chelsea ground visit and so on. Delighted with the cake and the table football for his present.
Forward to a month later, booked him on a holiday FA course and he is in pieces this morning,s aying he doesnt want to go....managed to calm him down, reached the venue, met by lovely trainer, signed in and then in tears again once we were inside.....I have never seen him like this - wish I knew what had happened, anyway, apologised to the staff and left. Took him for a treat and then lunch and icecream as a second treat.
The mystery of his outburst, with no other reasons, had a perfectly normal evening and morning today - although he says he will continue his weekly lessons....
His dad is so much into cricket (as I tell people, it is rare for someone from India not to be hooked on cricket) and has numerous practice sessions and 'matches' with him in the garden. Wish there were training sessions for under 8's in Birmingham. Hopefully soon.
All is well in our house now, waiting for daughter to get back from day with her friend.

Music for me or the children......

Question bugging me - what do you do when your children want to listen to grownup music with some grownup lyrics.......
My youngest has taken a fancy to Bruno Mars' Marry You, after I heard it on the radio in the car and kept playing it.....all very well for a 2 year old but then the older ones started liking it and then I bought the CD. Yesterday they chose to listen to it and thought the Lazy Song sounded good. If you know the lyrics, you will know what I mean when I say they sang each and every bit of it around 10 times before I realised what they were saying! Trying to get them back to their rhymes isnt working either, dancing like they are at a rave to Bruno Mars is their new thing since last evening......and this morning before school.....and hopefully not this evening....

Grand Designs.....and Ikea

The convenience of living in a big city with relatively efficient public transport, from home to the NEC by train in less than 45 minutes....and no £10 parking charges either. Apparently most of the city had descended on the Grand Designs show at the NEC on Saturday morning when we went. Fortunately left the children at home with my mum, luckily she is here for a couple of months (thats another post). It was a productive visit for us, with the kitchen and bathroom section, hopefully all will go well in the next few months.
Surprise of the day - seeing a Goan food stall!!!! Run by Savio from London who travels to exhibitions across the country. Tasted the Prawn Balchao - very good. Wanted to place an order for sausages but told he does them only in the summer :(. Restaurant called Olde Goa in Croydon.

Ikea have money off vouchers for this month! Another surprise. £5 off £20 etc. Looking forward to carting sacra famile along for a morning of sofas, kitchens, plants, odds and ends, meatballs and the play area. Not to forget the 35p ice cream cone at the end which isn't great but my children think is heaven on earth......

Cornwall for us first timers....

After many years of thinking about it, worrying about taking babies/toddlers on a long car journey, we bit the bullet and went for a week to Cornwall in August.
It was like Goa! But but but much colder and cleaner.
Our first thought was why travel to Spain/Canary Islands etc when this is in the same country and then realised how cold it was in August in the water.....
But so beautiful and have recommended a trip to all our friends who have never been. The beaches are lovely - we were at Fistral beach in Newquay and 3 of the St Ives beaches. Our hotel was on the beachfront and had this lovely view from the restaurant, very child friendly, lots of children's activities etc.
Blissful to watch children playing in the sand/rock pools while chilling on the sand, knowing the hotel and warm showers were a few minutes walk away.
All worth the 4.5 hours drive from Birmingham, most of it traffic jams after the motorway.

This is one of the beaches at St Ives.

Easy like Sunday......

Yesterday was a long relaxed Sunday spent at our friends house in Solihull, catching up with a big bunch of families, children busy playing together so temporarily forgot their parents, lots of nice biryani and fish pakoras/seekh kababs from Ladypool Road etc, then came home to find a box of little cakes left by a friend....Our friends who live in Solihull have only good things to say about the area. For us, the children's school, our neigbourhood friends and the accessibility of South Birmingham are enough reasons to stay put.
Bad news, very expensive branded microwave my husband insisted on buying has irreparably broken - 1.3 years after buying it so just out of warranty. Repairs are the price of a good microwave! What complete rubbish.....meanwhile we are heating food on the hob, warming milk takes ages, never mind....
Reminders to self:
Drayton Manor deal for tickets for £14/£10, need to book as a treat for children for good reports, spelling prizes, etc.
Need to start posting pictures.

Slowly comes the realisation after months of confusion, that our weekends are now going to be largely consisting of our children's social lives. Thankfully, there is also a new social network of their friends parents who share drop offs and pick ups.
Therefore decided to make the most of it and do a Costco trip. Have to mention the divine Margarita we bought, £13 something for 1.75 litres, gorgeous over ice. They have new red velvet cupcakes out for sampling which were nice but sold out to buy! Got lots of meat which unfortunately needs to be cooked to be edible - more planning and chopping onions etc sigh.......
Costco is very good value for money but doesn't have Aldi kind of prices. The quality of things is high and if planned, can work out reasonable. Would recommend a visit.

My first post, after many months, almost years of thinking about it, planning it, waking up for the 3am children's crying and resolving to do it, and now finally.....
Almost nine years of living in Birmingham, three children, lovely but busy husband, a few jobs, some exciting and some boring and meeting hundreds of new people, here I am.
Lived all my life in India, mostly in Delhi and Mumbai, worked since I was 19, lived on my own, had a good job with prospects of something even better, a wide social circle and then my now husband proposed......Accepting entailed moving to a new country, which I put at the back of my mind, deliriously happy with the idea of being married to this man. Little did I know how much upheaval it involved.....more later...