Forgotten Fortune Cookies ….. Refound …. With Hilarious…. Erm Consequences!!

When we unpacked our suitcase after our London visit …. we found, in one of the side compartments,  the Fortune Cookies we’d been given as we left the restaurant we had so happily nomed at  in China Town. At the time we thought we’d keep them for when we were in need of a whimsical and/or poignant moment …. , but to be honest we’d forgotten all about them …… until we re-found them ….

Darrell “smashed” his first …. and the wise words inside declared that you should “Always read the small print” …. but that’s all well and good unless,  like me, you don’t have your reading glasses with you at the time, in this case the small print was so small that Darrell with his perfect A3 and A4 vision had to read it out to me!

Nigel’s wise words were a little more confusing as they were simply “Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook” which we thought was an mid-afternoon cookery programme for TV personalities whose fame had faded a bit.

…. However, it was the German translation of “Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook” that made Darrell laugh so hard he couldn’t breath ….. or see, as tears were running down his face…..

….. To be honest I am not entirely convinced that Darrell’s  pronunciation of the word was entirely correct, as to my knowledge Darrell is a stranger to the German language …. but let’s just say in his interpretation he changed the “ch” sound into a “ck” sound …… and I fear that  a new word/phase has entered our kitchen vocabulary until the novelty wears off…………….. !!

Lasting Olympic Legacy?

Although not immediately connected to the London 2012 Games, Nigel felt that staying at UCL Astor College while we were in London made his brain get a bit biggerer and cleverer …..

I Should Have Known …..

I thought that things had gone VERY quiet in the house since our return from London

I also noticed the growing number of grooming products of a hirsute type nature amassing in the bathroom ….

So the next time I heard surreptitious hummings coming from the bathroom I decided to pretend that I hadn’t realised anyone was in there,

OMG!

I knew it ….. I just knew it …..

All that interest that Darrell had shown in Hugh’s hair last week ……

….. And them both disappearing upstairs for ages under the pretext of looking for Darrell’s lost Olympic badge …..

This is going take take some getting used to ….

And I also fear Darrell’s influence on Nigel’s robust susceptibility in always wanting what everyone else has got !!

Vinnie …. Games Maker To The London 2102–Update

As we said a couple of days ago we are a bit behind with our posts due to our mahoooosively exciting life at present … but to update you, Vinnie has moved on to being a Games Maker at The Aquatic Centre for the Paralympic Games ….. but before he did …… he had his proudest moment …… yet …..

…. as he had an article written about him in the Games Maker newsletter complete with photograph …… he said that this was undoubtedly the pinnacle of his volunteering career so far ….. we are so mahooooosively proud!

He was also able to touch a “real” Olympic Silver medal and bouquet won by Hayley Anderson (US) for the 10km Open Water Swim.He said that it was both mahoooosive and impressively weighty……….. and that Hayley was a very, very, very, lovely lady …. and though he tries to remain professional and unstarstruck at all times,  in this case he let his guard down and was robustly smitten!

He met Hayley when he was on duty working in the athletes lounge for the Women’s Marathon Swim.

He said that for a team getting a prime position in the facility was paramount and that Team GB marked their territory well leaving no doubt whose towels were left on the bench!….

And finally, Vinnie has been entrusted with his very own walkie talkie …. another very proud moment ….. he can now whiskey, roger, alpha, tango, delta, dinner plate to Boris, Lord Sir Coe and and anyone else of an important nature to maintain maximum communication and security!

Can it … will it …. does it …. get any better than this for Vinnie….??

Perhaps a golden letter box in his name in Stafford when he gets back home?

Time To Return To Wolverhampton

We have loved the view of London from our room at Astor College, robustly, both in the day and at night ….. it is sooooooooooooooo romantic!

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.

We will never, ever be tired of London!

Monkeys About London Town ……

Our robust schedule in London’s fair city left us with very little spare time …. however we still managed to cram in a few extra excursions in the time we had and thought we would share a few of those moments with you ……

Beigel Bake in Brick Lane ….    Hugh told us this was a must on our itinerary, the best bagels in London.  We also sampled their cheesecake, doughnuts and apple strudel ….. nom , nom, nom and we couldn’t believe their prices, they were even cheaper than Greggs in Wolverhampton!

…… And still in Brick Lane ….. we thought it would be rude not to try out one of Boris’s for size …… beep beep!

Darrell spotted Spearmint Rhino (below) and mused about belonging to an exclusive  “Gentlemen’s Club” himself ….. as he quite fancied himself sitting in a large leather chair, dressed in a smoking jacket, puffing on a large Havana cigar and being served his drink on a silver tray by a butler ……. I kept my mouth shut ….. and let him dream his dream, not wishing to burst his bubble with the unsavoury truth!

In Oxford Street we spotted  the most mahooosive poster of Jessica Ennis and I began to fear suspect that Darrell was on the cusp of developing  another one of his celebrity crushes!

Selfridge’s was next … to dab a few samples of manly aftershave behind our ears in the perfumery department …… swittttt swooooooo and then ….. we wondered why we were given a wide berth on the underground !!

Even though it was packed!!

This was followed by a  morsel to eat in China Town …..  we decided to throw financial and dietary caution to the wind and indulge robustly, just this once, because we were on holiday after all!!! So we duly ordered a starter, main with sides AND a pudding ….. plus a vimto or two…. nom, nom, nom ….. nom, nom, nom!!!

A little culture then ensued ….. with a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum (below) ….. but we found we needed an awful lot more time to fully take in all the exhibits so we intend to return, perhaps on our next visit.

And no trip to London would be complete without a visit to Harrods

Especially the confectionary department …….. Mon Dieu et Mon Droit … there so much choice, unfortunately none of which we could afford ……

We thought we might treat ourselves to something familiar like a Snickers, or a Twix  or some Tootie Fruities …. but they don’t seem to be the confectionary of choice for posh people.

Each to his own …..  but they don’t know what they are missing!

And then finally from the sublime to the ridiculous ……Primark ….A shop where we usually purchase all of our shoes, Darrell wanted to check just in case they had anything of an on trend, Gok type nature that they haven’t had in Wolverhampton …. but it was very busy and hot … so we beat a rather hasty retreat

…… We had the most glorious time …. and on the tube heading back to our room at Astor College for the final time we could not help but hum this very apt tune …..

So how can you tell me you're lonely,
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind

Our Day at The London 2012 Olympic Games–A Day To Remember

Where do we start?Just being in The Olympic Park fair took our breath away.  We just couldn’t comprehend that at that moment we were in the middle of the whole world’s focus, or to big it up even more …..we were at the centre of our Universe …..

Seeing, smelling, hearing, breathing, feeling …….  almost tasting history as it was being made all around us.

We were all covered in mahooooosive goosebumps, but realised that if we didn’t calm down and quickly, we wouldn’t be able to absorb all that was going on and as the Korea v Russia women’s handball semi finals we had tickets for didn’t start until 5 o’clock we had almost a whole day to explore and embrace robustly The London 2012 Experience.So ….. we lingered for quite a while outside the NBC studio (just as Vinnie had done) bobbing up and down and waving profusely just in case Dianne, Doug and Christopher in sunny Florida were watching and might see us!

We in turn spotted Jamie Oliver getting ready for a cookery demonstration and Ryan Seacrest from American Idol …… and someone called Alistair Campbell, who we didn’t really know but who seemed to be enjoying his Magnum until this nutty overexcited woman in the crowd molested accosted him …….

We would have liked to have had our picture taken right in front of  the Olympic Rings but the queue was mahoooosive, so we posed as best as we could from a romantic distance.We also waved up at the BBC TV Studio (below) which seemed to be perched on what looked like storage containers and someone waved back, but we’re not really sure who it was, but we like to think that it was Gary Linekar having a crisp break between takes!Then we went to see Gloriana ……

The barge of our beloved Queen and kindly lent by her to David Beckham to transport the Olympic Flame to the Opening Ceremony because there would have been so many health and safety implications if he had tried to bring it in via the underground or in a taxi or on the bus!

…… And we cannot begin to tell you how beautiful all the planting around the park was, it was just stunning, like an English country garden.

So beautiful in fact that we are thinking that we should use some of these pictures in the 2013 calendar that we are thinking of putting together.

Team GB’s success in the Velodrome (or Pringle) has made us think that perhaps we should consider taking up cycling as a legacy of the 2012 Games ….. it also seems a most excellent way of getting a pair of shapely turned calves!

But  …… the most exciting moment of all was when we were actually able to take our seats in the Copper Box for the ladies handball.

….. To be honest we don’t have a clue about handball, but it just didn’t matter ….

We were at an Olympic event and it was toooooooo wonderful to describe….. from the warm ups, the Mexican waves, the lights, the music, the roar of the crowd ………… watching all the television cameras, sitting in the middle of Norwegians ….. and cheering at the top of our voices until we were hoarse as the teams come out, watching them play, seeing the joy of the Korean girls when they won……

….. and the abject sorrow and tears of the Russian girls when they realised that their Olympic dream had came to an end.  It was an emotional rollercoaster ride none of us will every forget and doubt if we will ever experience again.

After, overwrought with emotional exaltation  we decided to sit a while in the Park Live arena, it seemed so peaceful but still of a very excited type nature.

Now and again we could hear a mahoooooosive roar coming from the hockey arena ….. it was a sound none of us will every forget ……. it sent chills that were constantly multiplying down our spines.

“A man who is tired of the Olympics is tired of life” ……. and if we were Oliver Twist we would be saying “Please sir ….. we want some more!”

….. My most favourite memory/picture of the day? Was one of Darrell just sitting in silence ….. just watching as thousands of people walked by …. lost in his own Olympic World …..

Quelle Journee ….. !!!!!