The Potage Cup 2012

It was SOUP-er.

The Potage Cups for first and second place

Well not for me - I came third. Close, but no trophy.

Baby Bro sent the rules out a few weeks in advance and there was a new category added for this year "Patriotic-ness"... well, that I can do.

Every year the other contestants go all out, testing out recipes, looking for clever ideas, sourcing unusual ingredients. Every year I find a random fruit, add a slug of alcohol, a bit of garnish and give it a clever name.

15 mins of prep time

15 mins of prep time

15 mins of prep time

I have a select number of "fans" who always mark me quite highly... everyone else exclaims in outrage that it's actually not a soup, but in fact a cocktail.

How very dare they!

Last year I did a vodka, orange and chilli gazpacho in shot glasses, the year before I hollowed out a melon, blended it, added some vodka, a spring of mint and served it in the melon skin. Genius!

This year? I blended some fresh raspberries with some rose wine, sieved out the pips, served with blue meringue clouds and some white creme fraice, placed on a patriotic tray and named it Red, white and blues-berry soup, with meringue clouds and Royal furniture.

The Entries

Soup 1: Red, white and blues-berry soup, with meringue clouds and Royal furniture.

It went up against the following:



Soup 2: Rubbish soup

Soup 3: Roast chicken soup with chorizo bits and triple cooked chicken ciabatta blue croutons.

Soup 4: Squishy and squashy butternut squash soup with chestnut and bacon topping and olive Olympic rings

Soup 5: Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Soup 6: Pea, pear, mint and ginger with caviar and fish roe biscuits.

Marking

The marks were allocated as follows:

• Taste (/10)
• Texture (/5)
• Moreishness (/5)
• Presentation (/5)
• Colour (/5)
• Christmas Spirit (/5)
• Britishness (/5) (In honour of the Jubilee and the Olympics!

The winners

In second place came Joanna, with her Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire having received very high points for Christmas Spirit.

 

...and in first place, Mr G with his self-proclaimed Rubbish Soup. He's a very good cook usually, but this soup was cobbled together at the last minute, tasted pretty vile and was rather un-festive or patriotic (until he raided my Jubilee party box and London 2012 souvenirs). Quite how he won, we're not sure. Absolutely nothing to do with the fact that his mother was involved in the voting... hmmmm.

 

 



 

 

Will there be an adjudicator's enquiry?

 

Either way, after years of striving to reclaim his trophy, he's finally got it back and he's finally stopped whinging about the previous years' winners being cheats, so that's good enough for me!

 

So now he's putting up a shelf for his trophy...



Nativity nightmares

I was Mary.

I didn't want to be Mary.

I didn't want to be Mary because everyone kept teasing me about Mary's Husband Joseph: "ha ha ha, you've been making babies with XXX XXX (boy that played Mary's Husband Joseph) behind the Clown Wall*"

Gah!

Children are stoooopid because, had they been accurate with their teasing, it should have been "ha ha ha, you've been making babies with the Lord Creator, God Almighty, behind the Clown Wall" – I still wouldn't have been happy, but it would have been a hell of a lot less yucky. Bleurgh.

Anyway, I digress. I wasn't happy about being Mary because I wanted to be The Angel Gabriel.

Fulfilling a long-standing dream to be the Angel Gabriel

My friend Lucy got to be The Angel Gabriel.

The Angel Gabriel had a whole gaggle (chorus? what is the collective noun for seraphim?) of angels, of which she was the leader, that stood around her (i.e. hiding her from view). She got to stand in the gallery, upstairs at the back of the church, where the bell ringers normally hang out, and only had to stand there, in a white robe (a.k.a. a bed sheet with a hole in the middle) and a tinsel halo, hold her arms aloft and be "radiant".

I wanted to do that.

I didn't want to walk with The Donkey ("Little donkey, little donkey, on the dusty roooooooad"), and the Yucky Boy down the road to Bethlehem (a.k.a. the aisle, the aisle which, incidentally, I walked down on my wedding day) or knock on The Inn Door ("get lost, there's no room"), or cradle the Son of God (Tiny Tears) before placing him (actually a her - I checked) gently (dangling by the ankle) in to The Manger (a cradle from the reception class filled with straw from George the Guinea Pig's bedding stash) and welcoming the Three Kings (one in a taxi, one in a car, one on a scooter, beeping his hooter) with their gifts or the Shepherd (washing his socks by night) and his cuddly sheep toy.

I wanted to Shine Resplendent from the gallery at the opportune moment and then disappear again, away from the eyes of the audience.

So, I thought, I'll show them, they'll never make me Mary, Mother of God, again. When the time came for The Angel Gabriel to Shine Resplendent I marched down the aisle, sorry, Dusty Road, and fully hammed up my "arrrgh, the light blinds me" acting.

The direction I received was "shield your eyes from the aura beaming from God's messenger, be over-awed by the glowing light". Instead I adopted the pose of a person in the unhappy event of seeing a nuclear bomb drop: my torso surged backwards by the blast and my arms flung in front of my face to protect my retinas from being burned by the searing white light, my mouth prised open by the silent cry of "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH".

My mother, seated half way down the aisle, thoroughly unimpressed by my usual over-acting muttered from the side of her mouth: "not that over-awed Victoria"...

At that I stomped back to my stool, mouthed my way through "The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy" and "We Saw Three Ships" and snarled at the recorder players in the front pew. I wish I'd learned to play the recorder.

I never played Mary again.

Or The Angel Gabriel.

Funny that.

Angel with a bag bomb...

*a random concrete monstrosity in the playground against which we played may violent games of dodge ball, around which we played Blind-dah-Date, and upon which we were safe from being Tagged or Caught in games of KCT (Kiss, Cuddle Or Torture for those not in the know)

Out and about: Titanic Belfast

I kind of knew that Titanic was built in Belfast, but it also kind of slipped my mind. It's one of the facts about the most famous ship in history that disappeared behind a wall of fiction in my mind, created by James Cameron. Everything I now "know" about the ship centres around a certain floppy haired actor and a porcelain skinned actress! So, seeing as all the facts I knew had cleverly wiped themselves from my brain, and this year is the 100 year anniversary of the tragedy, it felt right that on our trip to Dublin, we booked some train tickets to head up to Belfast to see the recently opened exhibition.

Of course it's not like normal exhibitions full of artefacts and actual tangible items for you to oooh and aaah over, or in this case, observe in respectful silence and with tears in your eyes. But it's the artefacts that usually pull me in and help me identify with the story the exhibition is trying to tell. I've mentioned before that the way my imagination works, and my interest is piqued, is not with "look at this sculpture in a blank white room at XYZ gallery" but "you are standing on the very same floor boards on which Elizabeth I once stood to look at a map of the encroaching Armada".  Statement one - leaves me cold as day old porridge. Statement two - fires up my interest, imagination and senses... I'm enraptured.

So I was a bit worried that it'd leave me a bit cold with no actual stuff (that's not meant to sound crass), and that I'd find it hard to empathise with the story. I needn't have worried. Titanic's glorious beginnings are told with pictures, videos, on-board simulations, stories read by actors and real life accounts from survivors told in their own words and voices. The set up is clever, taking you through the history of the community that built her, an actual journey into the "shipyard", through a very clever launch simulation looking over the actual dock where she first hit water, and then "inside" as they fitted her out.

Then the mood changes, and the moment she is hit is detailed with a number of displays, narrations and visual effects that left me shivering inside. I sat in the room that told this part of the story in a reflective silence for a long time, listening to the actual voices of survivors and reading the distress message transcripts over and over.

The inquests that followed and the changes in maritime law were then examined and after that you reach a beautiful display of the countless books, films and pieces of music written in tribute to the ship, her crew, her survivors and the poor lost souls, and the years of media coverage her wreckage has generated.

And then there's the best bit, a theatre playing footage and voiceover commentary from the submarine that found Titanic at the bottom of the ocean. It's enchanting, mesmerising, chilling and upsetting all at the same time. Anyone that's seen the James Cameron film will also recognise snippets. At the end of the film you can then explore the sea bed for artefacts using touch screens to access different visual locations from the various mini-submarines and even stand on the (fake) glass floor to look through to the "sea bed" beneath your feet. Even though you know it's all a simulation, it's startlingly real and even made me feel a bit queasy! 

At the very end I was also excited to find the actual costumes worn by Kate and Leo in the James Cameron film along with a few others, and some props, which explains why they weren't at the V&A Hollywood Costume Exhibition, where I expected to see them! 

 

It really was very cleverly done and, considering there's nothing but photos, film and interviews that they can show, it really captured my heart and drew me right in. My highlights would include the virtual deck tour, re-creations of the cabins, the deep water exploration theatre and the interactive "artefact locator" with the "glass" floor. It's most definitely worth a visit if you're in the City.

We booked tickets online and took a cab from Belfast Central station which takes no more than ten minutes.

Christmas decorating

This is our first Christmas in our new home.

This is a GREAT excuse for new Christmas decorations.

Themed ones! With colour schemes! Different colour schemes for each room! And a real tree... at last!

But, erm, nope.

We went in search of a real Christmas tree but they all looked a bit bedraggled and made me feel sad, plus I always get upset about throwing the tree out on Twelfth Night. So for this year we kept our old fake tree and I couldn't make up my mind on colours for the new decorations, so we stuck with what we had (white and feathery) in that department as well.

Boring!

But then one of my lovely Luvvies came round for afternoon tea and brought with her some beautiful pink, hand decorated glass baubles as a house warming present. The same pink as my funky lampshades and silk (faux, but shhhh!) cushions. And there was my 2012 colour scheme. Hurrah!

Hot pink, white and silver in the lounge, which meant that the rustic, wooden, red and white decorations went out in the hall way and the pale blue and lilac that I'd been coveting, but couldn't place, went out in the conservatory. Oh, and the uber-kitsch "Christmas Crap" (as Mr G calls it) plus the decorations I pick up every winter on our annual family festive trip, just goes everywhere! He hates it, I love it, so it's staying! If you can't chuck tacky decor all over your house during December, then when can you?

And who doesn't love a herd of glittery reindeer, neon candy canes, a Mickey Mouse ears disco ball bauble and bouncing reindeer?

Exactly!

I was too pushed for time to do all the decorations in one go, so the last two weeks have been a long process, well documented on Instagram, of a decoration a day, which I've posted here...

I promise I'll have more classy decorations next year (*crosses fingers behind back...*)

Christmas wish list 2012

Dear Santa

 

Last year I wrote you a fantasy list and you did very well in working your way through it. So this year I thought I'd send you another one.

 

As a child I used to rip out pictures from the Argos catalogue, create a Christmas wish list collage and annotate with page references and prices. As I got older I replicated this with pages from the Harvey Nichols and Liberty websites.

 

Where my tastes went up, lottery wins in my household did not. So, Santa, I'm relying on you to come through for me...

The never-in-a-million-years-but-I'm gonna-try-it-anyway list:

• Chanel 2.55 flap bag - Pretty standard, I think I've asked for this every year since I could talk. I live in hope...
• Jimmy Choo "Victoria" shoes - Because, like I said before it's rude not to own a pair as they named them after me...
• Lulu Guinness three-piece matching luggage set in hot pink - I have a lot of travelling to do next year. If I buy these for myself, I won't actually be able to afford to book any flights, so if your elves could make me some of these, I'd be very grateful.
• A white, faux leather bar - as Mr G hates the idea, you Santa, are my only hope!

The pushing-it-a-bit-but-worth-asking-because-stranger-things-have-landed-under-the-tree list:

 



 

• Dreamwhite Rose watch from Swatch - I love a Swatch watch!
• Stripey bags from Lulu Guinness - I adore black and white stripes so much I plastered them all over my bathroom walls (coming soon!)
• Michael Kors double leather strap watch - In fact I just love a watch!
• A hot pink Kitchen Aid - I live in the hope that if I acquire the right kitchen gadgets, I may wake up one day a domestic goddess...

The slightly-more-realistic list:

• Hot pink suede bag from Zara - to brighten up the dull, grey January commute!
• Royal Albert Polka Rose tea trio - I received two of these as part of my 30th birthday present from my Tea Luvvies, and I'd love to add to the collection for all my tea parties!
• Kooky tea cup mugs - no explanation required - these are AWESOME!
• Swarovski earrings - never say "no" to a bit of sparkly bling!
• Monica Vinader gold luna bracelet - seeing as some nasty little b*stards stole all my gold jewellery this summer, this could be the start of a new collection.

The (high-end) Stocking Fillers:

• Malibu Cheesecake by Olivia De Berardinis - I bought some postcards from this collection of American cheesecake illustrations in Santa Barbara and I've been meaning to buy the book ever since!
• Celebrate by Pippa Middleton - of course I need this book! Not just party planning, but party planning by P.Middy! 
• Great Adventures and Great Journeys from the Lonely Planet series - because I love a travel book! 
• A new balloon dog - to keep my current ballon dog company, even though Mr G hates him!
• Alphabet Bags - for early morning mirror motivation and wash bag identification
• Name necklace from Tatty Devine - in case I get lost
• Bathroom goodies - Philosophy, Redken, Soap and Glory and Burts Bees
• Perfumes - Stella McCartney Peony in Two, Viktor and Rolf Flower Bomb, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle, Chanel Coco Noir and Miss Dior Cherie
• Lounge wear - onesies, pyjamas, snuggly socks, slippers and hoodie
• DVDs and music - for all that sofa lounging I'll be doing in January
• and finally, the Olympics and Paralympics DVDs - for the Memories! Who doesn't want to sob at a montage on Christmas day?

 

 

As a reminder, we've moved house and for the first time ever I won't be sleeping at my parents' on Christmas Eve, so don't forget where to find me, this year I actually have a bed!

 

With much love

 

Victoria!

xoxo

 

P.S. I'll still leave out the whiskey and mince pies, and carrots for the reindeer... x

Every home needs...

... a kitsch, white, faux leather, diamante-studded bar.

Don't you think?

Allure drinks bar (currently only available in black) from Dwell

Mr G seems to disagree and has refused to engage with my attempts to even discuss buying this little beauty, so he certainly won't let me fantasise about where we should place it... at what party we'd unveil it... whether I'd stock it with Hendrick's gin or Bombay Sapphire... would I need heels to look slimmer when standing behind it... would I stand behind it, or slightly to the side of it with a nonchalant lean of the elbow when serving drinks.....

I think he knows that in my world, fantasies don't stay fantasies for long. As I outlined in my (lack of a) bucket list post before my 30th birthday. If I set my mind to something and decide I really, really want something, very little stands in my way. Physical restrictions, laws (both the legal-type ones and the science-type ones) and lack of lottery wins being the only barriers I have thus far encountered.

I think he knows, much like my parents, that any sign of weakness in his argument (i.e. a non-commital "maaaaybe" or a half-hearted "no, I don't think so" often becomes an "ok then", or a "flipping heck, fine!" and anything less than a firm, fierce and direct "no, Victoria, cease and desist" is basically just an invitation to negotiate) against the purchasing of this bar would result in him coming home to find it, in pride of place in the lounge, Del Boy style.

But, come on, you agree, right?

This would look awesome in my white-themed conservatory, sorry mini Orangery, and imagine how much fun I'd have knocking up Pink Chelseas for my guests from behind it?

*cue wobbly screen fade to an imagined drinks party and me all Bet Lynch behind the bar....*

Expanding my dog jumper collection

Last year I developed a bit of a thing for dog jumpers, because nothing says class and elegance like a poodle, sausage dog or dalmation on your knitwear, and started a collection.

This year I've slacked a bit and haven't expanded the collection at all, so I'm looking for a new addition.

How cool is this Labradoodle jumper from ASOS? Ok, I use the word cool mistakenly, I think I actually mean kitsch...

Regardless of its fashion factor, I think it's a wardrobe essential...

Festive jewellery

Last year I posted about some festive, erm, "fashion"... but that was a bit later in December and a week or so ago I posted about finally finding my Christmas party dress.

This year I also thought about my lounge wear... and I don't mean that in a poncey I-spend-hundreds-on-cashmere-joggers-and-vests-from-White-Company kind of way (I really, really don't!), I mean it in the way that I literally only wear this stuff in my lounge because it's the ultimate in cheese!

Festive jammies and a kitsch onesie (is there any other kind of onesie?) are getting me firmly in the seasonal mood in the privacy of my home, while glittery dresses hang in my wardrobe.

Not for work....

So I've got my festive outfits covered for my sofa and for parties, but what about work?

also not for work!

I'm not sure it's entirely appropriate to start wearing reindeer jumpers and tinsel deely boppers to work, well, maybe not until next week. So until then, I'm going to keep it subtle with this Tatty Devine holly necklace.

Totes understated and work appropriate, no?

I'm now wondering about this cracker necklace for Christmas Day...

Creating Christmas Traditions

 

It's December - so now I'm allowed to blog about Christmas! YAY!!

Last Christmas I wrote about how we have some long-standing family traditions and ones that have evolved more recently.

Christmas has always been at my parents' home surrounded by the whole extended family, sometimes there have been additional guests and even the odd waif and stray over the years. It started on my first christmas as my mother didn't want to be driving all over the country with a 11 month old child to visit all sides of the family with the first grandchild/niece, and so the tradition of Christmas Chez Nous began.

Everyone comes to stay on Christmas Eve and the celebrations kick off from there... a soup competition, dinner, Secret Santa and some table games, drinking and talking (or in fact debating) and playing more games way in to the night, camping out all over the house (unless you're lucky enough to be allocated a bedroom!), waking up en masse and breaking in to our stockings, delivered by  various "Santas" in the night, followed by bacon sandwiches, tea and toast in the breakfast room in shifts (not enough space for everyone, and the dining room is full of sleeping bodies!) and washbag-queueing for the bathrooms. A midday visit to my in laws' where Mr G and his sister cook up a mean Christmas lunch whilst my family nibble on canapes back home. I'll then head back, help set the table and then we tuck in to our own Christmas dinner. Mr G returns, hoping he's missed out the numerous renditions of a slightly tailored version of the Twelve (or Fourteen, depending on who's there) Days of Christmas and the bells and whistles music games. Everyone devours the petit fours whilst my cousin and I dish out the presents in to piles, always leaving my dad until last, just to niggle him and then wrapping paper carnage ensues.

After that it's all about chilling, chatting drinking, and spending QT with loved ones.

But, this year... well this year, we're throwing it wide open.

Mr G and I sold our flat and we bought a house. With stairs, a garden, a dining area and a conservatory (or Orangery, as we referred to it after attending a wedding at Blenheim Palace this summer). I may have mentioned this purchase once or twice on here...

As we were house hunting, in the back of my mind I was always thinking about buying somewhere with enough room to host not just the hoardes of my family, but also Mr G's family, for some or all of Christmas.

One day, the time will come where Mr G and I will have to stop going our separate ways on Christmas Day and make a choice. But I don't want to, and I don't want to make Mr G choose either.

So, that leaves us with two options:

1. Hire a house for twenty (or more) people, divvy up the catering and hope everyone gets on...
2. Invite everyone to our place and pray that we have counted correctly and have enough chairs!

Well, this year we're broke (due to actually buying the place), so option 2 it is.

Thus a new tradition is (hopefully) born and we have linked another two families with the power of Christmas! 

Christmas Eve this year will be Chez Griffith and both families are invited. We're keeping it informal with cocktails, canapés, a festive buffet and inviting some family members to stay, so there will be no lounge-floor-camping at my parents' house. Which makes me a little bit sad. That and the fact it'll be the first time I've woken up on Christmas morning and not been surrounded by my entire family, and the chaos that follows.

I may be a teensy bit sad, but I'm also a teensy bit scared. Ok, a LOT scared. I have 21 days to turn myself in to a Christmas domestic goddess...

Does anyone have Nigella or Kirstie's numbers?

 

Wow

Just wow.

I'm not sure there are any words, but if you watch this video of Pink dancing/acting/singing/being amazing at this year's American Music Awards and find some, then please do send them over.

Two thoughts:

1. When I grow up, I'd like to be as talented as one of Pink's little toes.
2. What kind of idiot guy would take on this girl and expect to win?

pix from here