DIY Lego Minifigure Display Frame

Like an overgrown child I love Lego Minifigures. I love the surprise of opening up a little packet and not knowing which one I'm going to get, but most of all I love having the cute little characters dotted around to put a smile on my face.

Unfortunately dotting them about on bookshelves and window frames meant that they were getting scattered around the place and eaten by the hoover-monster. I imagine if I hadn't have found a storage solution they'd have been chewed on by the kitten-monster when she arrived too.

I didn't like the chunky Official Lego display units, and I didn't fancy putting them in a box where I couldn't see them. I spent ages looking online at different storage solutions and found a couple of expensive tailor-made box frames.

Although I love my Lego I wasn't willing to spend £80 to house it, so I decided to make my own.

Ikea has some great, cheap box frames which come in all different sizes. I have a lot of Lego Minifigures so I chose the 50 x 50 x 4.5cm Ribba frame, which was a bargaintastic £9. I'm planning to get one of the little ones to put our bride and groom lego in soon.

I covered the back insert of the frame in a pretty wrapping paper. I chose a gold paper with little white stars.

Next I dug out some random bits of colourful Lego and superglued lots of random blocks of flat Lego on the card that forms an inner frame.

I used black 2 x 6 dot lego squares for the figurines to stand on. These were stuck directly on the wrapping paper covered backing to the frame. To place them I followed the line of the inner cardboard frame sticking them with superglue. Luckily exactly 9 Lego blocks fit across.

I then used a piece of Lego to measure how tall the Lego Minifigures are and used this to space out my rows. Starting from the bottom I managed to fit in 5 rows. The headpieces of the top row overlaps the cardboard inner frame slightly, but I think this looks quite good. It also means my Lego Minifigures with tall accessories fit in quite nicely.

Lastly I stood a Lego Minifigure on each black Lego block and put the frame together.

I was so impressed with how good this looked. If I'd have thought the first attempt would have turned out so well I'd have taken some step-by-step pictures.

We have ours in the living room, but I think it would make a great addition to a geeky study or to any Lego-loving child's room.

Twitter Christmas Cake Cook-A-Long Part 2 (#twitcakebake)

I was supposed to get on and bake this cake 2 weeks ago, but with the horrors of night shifts and then the dreaded lurgy I kept putting it off. This means my fruit were well and truly soaked by the time I started baking yesterday. I tested some (quality control is very important in baking) and they were sweet, juicy and burst with fruity sherry. In fact I spent the rest of the afternoon baking in a giggly mood snaffling more and more of the dry fruit. I don't recommend attempting to bake this if you're planning on hopping in the car later. 

I'm so pleased that I chose a decent sherry to soak the fruit in. Sherry is having a massive revival at the moment as is rapidly becoming the drink of the sophisticated as well as the Christmas tipple of choice for most Grandma's. Apparently it's the perfect drink to have with tapas, so next time I'm nibbling on some parma ham for dinner I might try a little glass. 

As is normal for me I decided I was going to bake this cake, and then realised I was missing half the ingredients. No matter. I just made it up a bit. It is now a vastly-modified Delia Christmas cake. I don't think that she'd even recognise it. Now I know that I haven't actually tried it yet, but I think that it smells and feels great. I can't wait to tuck in over Christmas. 

Here is the recipe I used...

What I used...

900g sherry-soaked dried fruit 

225g sugar (Delia says soft brown, I used my homemade vanilla sugar)

225g unsalted butter

4 large eggs

225g plain flour 

1 teaspoon baking power (Delia doesn't but I was given this tip)

Nutmeg, all spice and cinnamon to taste (again different from Delia)

1 dessert spoon of golden syrup (Or black treacle like Delia)

Zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange

(Delia also adds 50g of chopped almonds, I think walnuts would be tasty too!)

How I did it...

1. Get a 20cm cake tin and butter and dust it with flour. 

2. Heat the oven to 140 degrees C

3. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy and pale. I can't find my mixing bowl so resorted to using a big pan to mix everything up in. 

4. Add the 4 eggs one at a time and whisk into the mixture. Some like to beat the eggs first and mix them in little by little to reduce the risk of the mixture curdling. I like to live on the edge. My mixture didn't curdle. 

5. Fold in the flour and spices. Don't over mix at this point. I think I used about 1/4-1/2 a teaspoon of each spice. This is a great excuse to eat the cake mix while telling everyone that you are "tasting to balance the spices". My one massive warning is that if you attempt to spice a Christmas cake while not listening to Christmas music it will definitely go wrong. This is just as much about Christmas magic as baking skill. 

6. Now add the boozy fruit (while having a little nibble to make sure they taste good), lemon zest, orange zest and golden syrup. (Now is also the time to add nuts if you're that way inclined). Don't over mix at this step either. 

7. Pour it all into your baking tin. Yes I know it's not lined and Delia would probably have a fit if she saw us doing this, but life is too short to cut out baking paper when this works just as well. I have NEVER had a cake stick to a tin I have buttered and floured properly. 

8. Make the cake a little foil hat to wear in the oven. This stops the aliens reading it's mind. It also stops the top burning. Poke a little hole in it to let the steam out or it will explode. 

9. Bake for 4 1/4 - 4 3/4 hours in the oven. It's ready when you stab it and the knife comes out clean. 

10. Cool for half an hour or so in the tin and then finish cooling on a baking rack. I don't own a baking rack so I cooled mine on a plate. It survived. 

11. Wrap in foil. 

12. Occasionally unwrap the foil to feed the cake some more sherry. It soaks in better if you poke lots of little holes in the cake. Delia says if you don't like alcohol you can use orange juice. Magali says if you don't like alcohol she might make you a chocolate Yule log nearer Christmas. 

The next step will be decorating the cake...

#twitcakebake

MEATliquor Brighton Review

Those who know me well will know that I love a good burger. For the past couple of years I've been trying to find the time to go to MEATliquor, MEATmission or MEATmarket to try one of their famed burgers. Whenever I finally get up to London to try them there is either an insanely long queue and my rumbling tummy can't wait that long, or I'm swayed by my friends (or my own noodle addiction) to go elsewhere.

When I heard on Twitter that MEATliquor was opening in Brighton, and it was 50% off for the first week, I cancelled all my plans and headed into Brighton. Handily my hubby works in Brighton so we decided, in an effort to beat the queues, we'd go straight after he finished work. Located on a shabby looking street close to the North Laines, it's about a 10 minute stroll from the centre of town.

We turned up at MEATliquor at about 17.20 and just walked straight in, we even got to choose where we sat. This was a great start. Queuing for food is not my idea of fun.

The poor waitresses looked a little harassed, and took quite a while to take our order, but that is to be expected on the second day of opening. Waiting to be served gave me a chance to have a good look around. Densely patterned wallpaper, neon signs, abattoir-esque plastic curtains and metal tables all added to the feeling that we were eating in some kind of industrial butchery meets underground punk club.

As I wasn't driving I had a cocktail, I think it was called Summer of Love. It was nice but didn't blow my socks off taste-wise. I'd love to have tried some others but it was a school night. I had great cocktail envy looking at other tables.

Much to the Waitress' amusement we ordered a lot of food. I imagined most people would do this, but apparently not. We went for a good selection of sides, some hippy fries and a burger each. This all came on a tray lined with paper, not just thrown on but actually done rather neatly. I love digging into food without any cutlery, although hubby seemed a bit perturbed.

The bingo wings were a huge portion of chicken wings, deep fried until crunchy and then thrown into a hot sauce. The sauce was sweet, sour and spicy all at once. I loved it. I was also astounded at how the wings managed to stay crunchy but saucy at the same time. Mind blowing. As hubby is a pescatarian I had all the wings to myself and when I couldn't finish them I was very tempted to just lick the sauce off them all. Equally as nice was the blue cheese dip with actual chunks of blue cheese.

I was most excited about the deep fried pickles. I love pickles. These were big slices of pickle dipped in batter and deep fried. They did exactly what they said on the tin. Very tasty. We also ordered massive onion rings that were almost as big as my head. I only managed one of these because I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by all the deep fried batter I was consuming. Perhaps we should have ordered either these or the pickles.

There was almost an argument when it came to ordering fries. I'd have loved to have tried the chilli cheese fries, but as hubby doesn't eat meat we went for the hippy fries again. I loved the tangy hippy sauce and tonnes of sweet caramelised onions piled on a portion of fries easily big enough for 2-3 people. The main problem was having ordered so much food these went cold quite quickly. Hubby didn't eat much of these as I think the idea of digging in with his fingers didn't appeal, but like a savage I enjoyed picking up piles of fries, with onions and sauce dripping off of them.

Then came the most important bit. The burgers. Exciting for non-meat eaters, MEATliquor Brighton not only has it's mushroom and haloumi burger, but also has a selection of fishy things. Hubby had a Fish Sandwich. A lovely fresh bun with lettuce, tartare sauce and a deep fried, battered piece of white fish. The fish was moist and flakey, maybe the nicest posh fish finger sandwich I've ever stolen a bite of.

I, rather unsurprisingly, had the bacon cheeseburger. Rather than pokey out bits of bacon, the bacon came as a crispy disk on top of the burger, a revelation. I was surprised at how the soft tasty bun managed to support such a chunky, juicy burger right until the last bite. The burger sat on a nest of lettuce and generous chunks of pickle, which caught all the burger juices after each bite. The burger itself was cooked on the rare side of medium (perfect for me, but I know this would be too pink for some of my friends) and just oozed tasty meat juice. About 3 bites from the end I thought that I was going to explode but it was so delicious I just struggled on. This led to a rather embarrassing, slow waddle back to the car.

I really enjoyed this naughty burger meal, although probably due to all the deep fried things I ordered and simply eating too much, I had awful heartburn until the next day. As it was 50% off it was stupidly cheap at £25 for the two of us. Even paying full price would have still felt like a bargain.

We left before 7pm and there was already a queue forming outside. Although it was an awesome burger I'm still not sure how I feel about queueing outside. Okay at this time of year, but there will be some chilly burger-lovers in a couple of months!!

8/10

The Lurgy

I have had a hectic couple of weeks. At work we have been exceptionally busy and the main downside to my job has reared its ugly little head. The lurgy.

The lurgy (otherwise known as "a bad case of sniffles"), is the fear of all those who work with children. It sneaks up on you unexpectedly. One minute you're fine, the next there is that hint of scratchy throat or the first little snuffle and before you know it you feel as if you've swallowed a family of small hedgehogs and your eyes are going to drop out of your nose.

Typically for me I have caught the lurgy just as I'm starting 2 weeks of annual leave. I'm not sure if this is recurrent bad luck, or if my immune system decides to go on annual leave when I do.

I've spent the last couple of days mostly holed up at home, munching my way through strepsils like they're going out of fashion. In all honesty it's been a great excuse to curl up in bed and catch up with the TV shows I've missed and to finish the books that I've been reading. It's also been lovely to have some kitten-cuddle times.

Today I finally feel as if the lurgy is starting to lift. A thick layer of Nivea Creme on my nose has protected it from looking too Rudolf-like, so as soon as this sneezing stops I'll be ready to join normal society again.

Tomorrow I might feel well enough to use my new steam mop. The excitement I feel about this only confirms the fact that I must be taking too strong medications.

A Year Ago...

This day last year, rather like today, I was coming home and getting ready to go to sleep before another night shift. It had been an exhausting week. My first ever set of nights as a doctor and they were in A&E! My head was all over the place. The 13th might be unlucky for some, but it had been a very lucky night for me. 

We'd had a strange night. Exceptionally busy early on, our team had referred a couple of patients to the medical team who promptly came down to see them. Strangely we then had a massive lull, not one new patient who hadn't been seen in the department. Perfect time for a cup of tea and a natter with the team. My Registrar had been to the Harry Potter Studio Tour so he was showing off his amazing pictures and I was moaning about how much I wanted to go but no-one would go with me. "We should go together!" butted in the Med Reg. Being a massive loser I presumed that he was saying that out of pity and laughed it off before nervously blurting out my love of lego and other childish things. He left. My Reg was in hysterics at my panicked and frankly embarrassing reaction to some mild flirting, but honestly who would flirt with me in the middle of the night while I'm in scrubs with no make up. There was also a high chance that I hadn't brushed my hair for days at this point. 

Some more patients turned up so I pretty much just knuckled down and got on with things, but in the back of my mind I was thinking "What if he did mean that he wants to go with me?". There wasn't much I could do about it anyway. It's not like I could bleep the Med Reg and say "Hi! It's that A&E SHO... can I have your number to sort out Harry Potter?". 

About 06.30 the Med Reg came back into A&E. I immediately went tomato red and thought about hiding in a cubicle. Turns out he just wanted to speak to my Reg, so much for thinking that he'd come back for me. I sat down and started to write in my last patient notes. The Med Reg hung about, asking how the night had been and making other small talk. By this point I was so confused. "Does he want to talk to me or not?"I thought. Just as I was about to go and check some patient results he asked "So when are you going to Harry Potter?". I took a deep breath, gathered my courage (helped by the insanity of working a week of nights) and said "Well I thought we were going together so you'll have to tell me when you're free"

He quickly scribbled a message on the back of a scrap of paper "If Harry Potter.... Andrew... 01234567890" I still have it somewhere. 

I went home very confused. Perhaps he wants to go as friends? Maybe he doesn't like girls and I've read the situation wrong? What if he doesn't text back. I'd be so embarrassed at work.

When I got home I hardly slept all day and managed to hold back texting him until I woke up in the evening to go back to work.  He text me back... and exactly 3 months later we got married. 

World Sepsis Day... thanks guys!

Today is World Sepsis Day. To some people this will mean nothing, and this is why it's so important. World Sepsis Day is all about increasing awareness of Sepsis both in the general public and amongst health care professionals.

Sepsis is (a pretty scary) life threatening condition when the body's response to infection damages internal organs. It's incredibly common, anyone who works in a busy A&E or acute medical department will tell you that they see it multiple times a day. The World Sepsis Day website states that one person dies every 3 heartbeats from sepsis. That is a lot.

Until last October sepsis was something I saw and treated at work. I followed the Sepsis Six guidelines to give my patient's the best chance of survival and involved my seniors early. It was scary but just one of those things. Then things changed.

I called my Dad at 11pm after finishing work to catch up before he went to bed and his phone was answered by one of the barmaids at his hotel in tears.

"Your Dad is on the floor. He can't breathe. We're waiting for the ambulance"

I felt like my whole world was crashing around me. My Mum died when I was 12 and since then my Dad has done a fantastic job of caring for me, he means everything to me. I was hours away from home.

I knew that I had to get to him to make sure he was OK. My now husband (who at that point I'd known for a fortnight and wasn't even really dating) happened to call straight afterwards. He decided I was too upset to drive to Kent so he offered to drive me.

We got to the A&E department my Dad was in about 2 hours later. I used to work there. I rushed into A&E majors fully expecting to see my Dad sitting up on a trolley wondering what the fuss was about. Unfortunately that's not what happened. As I walked into majors there were a crowd of nurses and two  doctors around a trolley. My Dad's trolley. He was incredibly confused and groaning in pain, struggling to breathe. I looked at the monitor. His heart was beating too fast, his oxygen levels were too low and his blood pressure was dangerously low. He was covered in sweat from the fever he had.

At first I thought I was just going to sink to the floor and cry. I took a peak at his blood gas results. A lactate of 3.7. Not scarily high, but enough to be worrying. The junior doctor looking after him was giving him fluids but he wasn't looking any better.

He was swiftly moved into resus and another doctor called. Slightly panicking the junior asked my now hubby (who was a Med Reg), if there was anything he'd missed. He hadn't. He'd followed the Sepsis Six guidelines. My dad had oxygen, fluids and antibiotics. They had sent cultures and other samples to the lab and they were measuring his urine output.

As more fluid went in he started to perk up. Suddenly his blood pressure was staying at an acceptable level. Within 6 hours he was visibly more comfortable, in 12 he started to be able to say some words and in 24 hours they were weaning him off oxygen.  A further 3 days later they were switching his antibiotics to tablets, and the day after that he got to come home.

I am so thankful that he was given the right care in a timely enough manner that he got better because for a while I really thought that he was going to die. It's thanks to the Sepsis Six and the doctors and nurses who followed it that he's better and we got to celebrate his 60th birthday this summer.

So thank you everyone who has put so much time and effort into raising awareness of sepsis and educating health care professionals on how best to treat it.

(As I have a lack of Birthday photos... hubby is holding them hostage on his camera... this is one of my favs...)

Spicy Sweet Potato Chips

There is something comforting about a big plate of carbs, especially as the weather starts to get colder. It's even better if that plate of carbs needs minimal preparation. Strangely, I'm not a massive fan of normal chips, or normal potato at all. Conversely I could eat sweet potato until I turned into a starchy orange ball of loveliness.

I can't claim that this idea was mine. I've spent many an evening having food envy when the lovely @trufflepotamous has been showing off her spicy sweet potato chips. I don't know how she makes hers, but this is how I make mine.

I won't bore you with quantities, I'm guessing that most people know how much potato they will eat. If you're a bit afraid of the spices just add them gradually and have a taste of the spicy oil.

Sweet potatoes
Olive oil
Chilli powder
Salt
Paprika
Oregano

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into chunky chips.
3. Put in a bowl and coat generously with olive oil.
4. Season with as much salt, chilli, paprika and oregano as you like.

5. Turn out on to a baking tray and cook for 20-30 mins (or until they are going brown on the outside and are smooshy on the inside) giving them a good shake half way.

Simples.