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!