I have spent no money whatsoever since Christmas as I've been so frigging skint... it's been tough man, I love shopping.  But I think I should pat myself on the back for being able to be so frugal.  *pat pat*

So today I thought I'd treat myself... I bought these shoes from Aldo:-

 

I have a couple of birthday parties coming up (along with MY THIRTIETH!!! Fuck I can't believe I'm gonna be 30!!  I'm not gonna be in my twenties anymore how depressing) so these shoes will get a lot of wear out of them.

I also bought this dress for one of the parties.

Ingredients
500g Frozen Peas
1 Potato
1 Carrot
2 Sticks Celery
1 onion
Garlic
Bunch of fresh mint
1.5 Litres of Chicken Stock
Salt & Pepper

Recipe
Finely chop garlic, onions and celery and fry until soft.
Boil up the potato and carrot until cooked.
Chuck everything into big saucepan along with the stock and cook for about 30-45 minutes until everything is thoroughly cooked through.
Blitz in batches until smooth and creamy.
You can add a touch of cream or knob of butter for some extra flavour.

Yesterday was our NINE YEAR anniversary!!!

I can't believe we've been together for nearly a decade, that is crazy man.   I was only a wee nipper when we started seeing each other - 20!!  We've done so much together and been through so much, yet these 9 years have literally flown by. 

When I woke up J had left a lovely bunch of flowers with pink lilies (my fave) and some other flowers which I don't know the names of, on my desk with a card.  I usually forget our anniversary as we didn't really have an official anniversary until a few years into our relationship as we didn't relly know when we started seeing each other as it was all a bit complicated in the beginning.  So we just picked this date as it was one of the first memorable times we went out - it wasn't exactly a romantic date though because we went with a load of other friends to the opening of The Slug & Lettuce and for a curry afterwards!   I remembered this year though and got him a card and some choccies and sweeties - what else do you get a guy for an anniversary gift - you can't exactly get flowers can you?  And I didn't want to get anything major what with Christmas coming up...

Then last night J took me to the new Jamie Oliver restaurant - Jamie's Italian.  They make people queue outside for a space at the waiting bar inside.  This was rather annoying, but they made up for it by bringing us all a hot chocolate to warm us up.  They said the wait would be 45 minutes but we only waited about 15 in the end.  I had prawn linguine - I wasn't that impressed.  One of the pasta dishes in my repetoire is a prawn & cherry tomato pasta and both J and I agreed that mine was much better tasting!   J had a mushroom filled ravioli which was much tastier, but a tiny portion!   Oh, for starters I had fried squid with a nice tarragan dip, and Jem had a mixed meat platter.  All washed down with a bottle of Pinot Grigio.   It was fairly reasonable - the bill came to £50. 

And J has another surprise for me - we are going away somewhere for the weekend, but I don't know where - how exciting!  Somewhere in the UK I think...