Fried egg cake anyone?

My lovely bro made me a birthday cake but because it had to travel he didn't decorate it. I think his plan was to sprinkle it with icing sugar but i couldn't resist decorating it with Logan! We were aiming for spots, but I inadvertently discovered how to create icing fried eggs. Oops...

Year of pleasures #4: Birthday treats

I turned 33 this week, a bit of a non-birthday numbers wise but it has a nice ring to it so I'm excited to see what the year of 33 brings. The last four or five years have been pretty significant, what with babies and weddings and the like, so maybe this will be a bit calmer and more settled!

I've had lots of treats this week. We had a Sunday pub lunch at the Maid of Muswell with some good friends (delicious, and the veggie option still includes gravy and Yorkshire pud, result).

Mark took my birthday off and we had a fun morning at home with Logan then dropped him off at nursery and watched The Fighter at the baby club at Screen on the Green (more boxing than I expected, which sounds daft I know, but some brilliant performances and the whole cast were marvellous), followed by a yummy burger at Byron and Ottolenghi cupcakes with Anna and Lucy.

Then I hotfooted it to the SLA Winter Warmers pub quiz with Team Gav. Lots of fun, it's so long since I had a proper night down the pub! The last few rounds were tense but we triumphed in the end, hurrah! I managed to carry the bottle of cava (and the library textbook!) home on the tube without dropping it, too.

Mum and Dad are staying with us so Mark and I had a rare night out last night. We pushed the boat out and had a proper posh dinner at Oxo Tower on the South Bank. What an experience! I think I managed to hide my excitement quite well, but I'm not sure I was quite nonchalant enough to look like I was a regular! I love the atmosphere there, the service and the view of St Paul's. The food was delicious - pumpkin gnocchi with goats cheese, truffle potato blinis with wild mushrooms and watercress and orange salad, and the chocolate plate (four different desserts, all yummy but not sure about the odd caviar-like balls).

Of course we had to have cocktails to start (dark and stormys), a bottle of wine with dinner (Dog Point sauvignon blanc from New Zealand) and port to finish... It would be fair to say I felt a little rough in the taxi on the way home but luckily Ella didn't wake up until 6.30am so I had a chance to recover. It was a really special night and it's a good job because for that price we won't be going out again this year!

We did go for lunch with mum and dad, Aunty Celia and Uncle Nick today though. We don't see Ciss and Nick nearly enough, so it was lovely to catch up with all the family gossip over a long lunch at Souk, in Seven Dials. It's one of my favourite restaurants - the food is really good (couscous, tagines, baklava and sweet mint tea), but it's the atmosphere that I really love, it's so theatrical, just like being in a Moroccan souk (I'd imagine!). And it doesn't cost half a month's salary either (I hate being on maternity pay).

Now I am 2 (months)

Happy 2-month birthday Ella Betsy! My beautiful, cheeky little pixie x

Now I am one

My niece turned one on Saturday so we headed over to Tim and Sarah's for a lovely family gathering in the sun. Happy birthday Sadie-May!

Logan's first social engagement

Mum bought Logan this natty jumper in Soup Dragon in Crouch End, to wear to Lauren's first birthday party - Logan's first ever party invitation! It was fab - cake, jelly and ice cream, balloons, party bags, bubbly for the grown ups, what more could you want?



Birthday girl!



Lauren and Logan face off in a balloon showdown!



Cutey pie!

Dave's birthday bash @ Junction Tavern

I know, I know, this could be a photo of absolutely anyone, but you'll just have to trust me that Dave M (who my husband insists on calling Filmstar Dave) is on there somewhere. I don't like the flash dammit!

Birthday tea at Liberty's

Spent a lovely birthday with the hubby at Liberty's near Oxford Circus. It's the quintessential independent British department store, much cosier than Selfridges or John Lewis and much more old-fashioned too (there's a whole floor given over to quirky vintage furniture and a huge haberdashery department).



Sadly we forgot to take our gift vouchers (they wouldn't have made much of a dent in the price of these gorgeous set of drawers we spotted, anyway, though we could almost have afforded a cool Rob Ryan tile) but we did enjoy a delicious high tea in the tearooms.

I think they must be feeling the credit crunch (four finger sandwiches between two?) but the scones were warm, there was almost enough clotted cream (I nabbed some extra from the table next to us) and the sponge cake was divine (I also nabbed a spare slice that the couple next to us had left - it was my birthday, I'm allowed to thieve things!).

If you look closely you can see me in the reflection in the teapot furthest away, crouching tiger-like behind the other pot of tea.

Five go mad in York

Spent my birthday weekend with some schoolfriends in York, had such a good time! I've not explored York properly before (Jo's hen night and our two-hour visit on honeymoon don't count) so it was good to see the sights.

We spent ages (maybe a bit too long, sorry!) in the Minster, which is stunning but not as good as Durham of course. Those of us not hampered by pregnancy/dodgy hips made it up the 275 steps of the minster tower. It was a bit parky at the top but we could see the snow on the distant dales and moors. Christine also spotted a 32 carat diamond embedded in a chalice in the undercroft, but we couldn't create enough of a distraction to filch it sadly. My birthday cherry necklace made up for it though!

It was a freezing night for a ghost walk but we're northerners so we battled the elements, along with at least a hundred other hardy souls. Our guide, an incredibly hammy Victorian gent (well they are Equity qualified..), took us on a whistlestop tour of York's many gruesome sites (my favourite was the greedy orphan owner who slit the throats of his (weirdly Cockney) young charges in a drunken moment of madness; maybe favourite isn't the right word but never mind). Definitely worth doing but maybe wait for spring!

We warmed up in several of York's more reputable (for which read: cask ale serving) pubs, including the Yorkshire Terrier and The Last Drop Inn (both owned by York Brewery) and the Tap and Spile, which hosts a regular folk jam session on a Friday. The Yorkshire Terrier definitely gets my vote - good beers, tasty food and a lovely old pub decor.

I rather spoiled my birthday treat of afternoon tea by having two over the weekend, but neither of them came with clotted cream so Liberty's still had something to offer! And we managed to fit in a tasty curry too (not a neon waterfall in sight).

If you're thinking of visiting, I'd definitely recommend the Monkgate Guest House, just outside the city walls at Monk Bar. It was only about £40 a night based on two sharing, we all got our own beds and as long as you don't have a teddy bear phobia it's lovely.

Mark's birthday jaunt

Breakfast at Chorak



The jukebox at Big Red rocks, but I suck at pool, boo



Big Red toilet graffiti



Sake bomb! Dinner at Charuwan, just what we needed after an epic movie and a snow storm



Mark's folks AKA The Babysitters