#100HappyDays - Day 1 and 2

I survived my exam and passed my course, overall the dreaded week wasn't too bad.

During busy weeks like that it's often hard to remember the happy things and just to dwell on the stress. For that reason I have decided to tackle the #100HappyDays challenge, taking a picture of something that makes me happy for 100 days in a row.

These are my first 2 days...

Saturday 18th Jan; Happiness is sharing fro-yo with the one I love.

Sunday 19th Jan: Happiness is fancy new knobs on my drawers.

Dreaded Week

Today it's back to work and the week that I have been dreading.

Most of the time I enjoy my job, so it's not that I'm dreading work, I just have such a mental week planned.

Today and tomorrow I'm on call. This means 12+ hour days with lots of running around after sick babies and very little sitting down. Quite often when I'm on call I don't even get a chance for a drink of water, let alone lunch or a sit down. As tiring as this is, I actually quite enjoy being on call as the challenges I get mean that I get to stretch my brain as well as my legs (running from problem to problem). It's also pretty nice to know that I'm hopefully making a positive difference to some little people.

The real downer of the week will be Wednesday. A big exam. We have a number of exams to do after graduation as part of our specialisation. These are tough and not only are they tough, but they're expensive. I've revised, but having never sat this exam before who knows if I've revised the right stuff? Hoping to redeem the day by meeting my Uncle for a drink afterward.

As if that wasn't enough to pack into the week I've decided to spend the last 2 days doing my advanced paediatric life support course. This is 2 days of lots of simulating situations with sick children followed by a written exam and practical exam. Again this could be fun on it's own but considering that I have to get up at 6am and the days finish at 7-8pm, it's going to be hard work. It's also a bit scary because it's something I have to have for work and if I fail means spending hundreds of pounds to have another go. Eek!

Because of all of this stress I've decided I need to make a list of things to look forward to at the end of the week and even some bits in-between...

1. Saturday AND Sunday morning lie-ins next weekend
2. Kitten cuddles
3. Posh coffee in London before my exam
4. Catching up with my Uncle
5. Cuddling adorable little babies at work
6. Curling up with A at the end of each busy day
7. Clementines
8. Wearing my comfy Tesco "school-shoes"

Suddenly the week doesn't seem so bad after all...

Gratuitous cat photo. Excuse the bald patch on her leg. 

Snuggly Sundays

There's something wonderful about getting to have a lie-in on a Sunday. I often feel guilty thinking about all the tidying, revision or other useful things I could do instead of having a lie-in, but I think for my sanity the Sunday lie-ins will have to stay.

I'm never sure if the cat makes snuggling into bed better or worse. There are all the moments she nibbles our toes and makes us jump, but then occasionally she has a lovely cuddly couple of hours and gets into the covers with us.

It's lovely having a little furry member of our family to share these mornings with.

Wooldown Cottages - Cornwall

There was so much that was wonderful about my anniversary weekend away, but (excepting the wonderful company), the best thing by far was the cottage we stayed in.

Wooldown Cottages is a family run business, with a number of beautiful cottages set in a picturesque location near Bude in Cornwall.

We were made to feel welcome from the second we arrived. We were met by the lovely Rowan who showed us to our cottage and helped us get settled in. A lovely surprise touch were the scones and cakes left for us to enjoy with a cup of tea after our long drive.

We opted for Stargazey, a recently built holiday cottage for two. The cottage is open plan with the kitchen, bedroom and living room all in one room. Everything about the cottage beautiful, if I could have moved in there forever I would have.

The bathroom had a huge shower and was decorated with shimmering tiles. There were piles of thick, fluffy towels and the floor was heated, in fact there was underfloor heating EVERYWHERE. As soon as I realised I had to pull off my socks and run around squealing about how warm my toes were.

The kitchen was all shiny and glamorous, with soft closing doors and everything you could need to cook up a storm while away. I was greatly impressed (and yet slightly freaked out), by the organisation of the cutlery drawer.

The living room had a couple of cosy leather sofas and a big flatscreen TV that was perfect for curling up in front of while watching DVDs. If watching a film isn't your thing there are big patio doors with a lovely view across the countryside.

There was a huge, cosy wooden bed. The most exciting thing about the cottage wasn't the huge bed though, it was what sat at the foot of it. A giant cauldron. Well not actually a cauldron but a huge, circular tin spa bath. This was so big that when I got in it I immediately slipped under the water and didn't touch the other side.

Sitting in that giant bath with my husband, listening to Christmas tunes on Classic FM while drinking champagne was probably the most wonderful way I could envisage spending an anniversary. It was perfect.

Cat Pyjamas

I haven't gone completely insane and bought the cat pyjamas... although she would look very cute. I got myself some new pyjamas, with cats on.

I am no fashion blogger, evidenced by the fact my first (and maybe only) fashion post is about pyjamas, but these are too cute not to share.

I first spotted them in Primark, in the town where my Dad lives, when I last went to visit. They were on a manikin, but they didn't have any of the gorgeous pyjama bottoms in stock. Boo!!

Yesterday, as I was off work, I hopped on a train to meet Hubby after he finished at his work. He doesn't work too far from a Primark so I dragged in him over there. They had the amazing pyjamas, I bought them and now they are mine.

PJ bottoms - Primark // Slipper Socks - Santa (who I think got them in M&S)

The fact they have cats on isn't the only great thing about them. I also love the pyjama bottoms. Primark has started to do pyjama leggings and they are so comfortable. They have a thick, cosy elastic waistband (now I sound like a granny), which never ever cuts into your tummy. They are also perfect for tucking into slipper socks for ultimate warmth. Very important if like me you begrudge turning the heating on for more than an hour in the morning.

Eden Project - Cornwall

It's been about 3 weeks since I've got back from this trip but the memories are still making me smile. Hubby has loads took loads of (what were probably) very beautiful pictures of the Eden Project on his fancy camera, but we'll have all died of old age by the time he uploads them and goes through them, so I thought I'd give you a little verbal run down of the awesome day we had.

For those of you who haven't heard of the Eden Project (perhaps because you live under a rock?), I stole a picture from my Dad's Facebook from when he went last year. It is filled with beautiful plants everywhere including things you wouldn't normally see in the UK in the rainforest and temperate biomes. They also do lots of conservational stuff.

I did take a couple of food photos in the wonderful pizza restaurant within the Mediterranean biome. You can always rely on me to make sure I have my own snaps of the food, I like to use them to cheer my tummy up with happy food memories when I'm stuck with flabby work sandwiches.

It was such a surprise to find a little restaurant actually within the biome. I got to sit on the terrace, and it really did feel like I was sitting on a terrace somewhere in Italy. What was even more of a pleasant surprise was how good the food was.

We started with an antipasti platter, which was basically a wooden board heaped with all my favourite things. I adore artichokes, olives and sundried tomatoes all of which were great quality. The great cheese stuff piquant peppers were both sweet and spicy but the highlight for me were the little balsamic pickled onions. Mmmmm pickles!! The bread was awesome too and hubby enjoyed dunking this in the oil from the tomatoes.

As there was a proper pizza oven we had to go for pizza. It was delicious! One of the best pizzas that I have had in the UK. The crust was beautifully thin and crunchy, supporting the generous (but not OTT) and tasty toppings. Hubby had a harissa spiced butternut squash and feta pizza that I enjoyed even more than my very nice hammy one.

The rainforest biome was my favourite bit. I loved the humid heat, the smell of the soil and all of the plants that I remember from trips abroad as well as ones I've never seen before. I got a little case of the leg-wobbles climbing up to the top of the new ariel walkway, but it was worth it for the view of the rainforest below. I recovered with a baobab smoothie - I wasn't sure at first but by the end of the glass I was converted.

I came away with an armful of new colourful jute bags and a massive smile on my face.

The best thing is, once activated, tickets give you entry for a year, so I'm hoping to go back in the summer when there are more flowers outside. I promise to take my camera so there are some more pictures!

One Line A Day

Posts have been a bit sparse over here over the festive season, but after working (a lot) over Christmas week I couldn't pull myself away from friends, family (or food!!) for long enough to write a post. Oops.

I wanted to mention my favourite Christmas present, although I think it was more of a New Year gift. My lovely husband had listened to me, jumping up and down in a bookshop waving this in front of his face, some months earlier.

He got me the One Line A Day 5 year memory book that I wanted so much.

It's a beautiful little baby blue diary with gold edges, in which each day has a page split into 5 years, giving you space to make some notes about that day every year for 5 years. It says "one line a day", but it's actually a couple of lines and with my spider writing I can get a fair bit into there. Kind of a flavour of each day.

I can't wait until a couple of years down the line when I will be filling this out and looking back at what happened in the years before. I anticipate this will be mostly filled with cat stories and food stories, but what could be better?

I am hoping that I will fill the book with lots of happy memories, no doubt a few sad ones too and knowing me some funny almost-disasters to make me giggle in the future.

1st Wedding Anniversary

Getting married after a whirlwind romance, many people thought we wouldn't last through our first year of marriage.

I'm glad to say that on Friday we proved them wrong... We happily celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary!

We were lucky enough to both have a long weekend off so decided to do something really special to celebrate.

Friday morning at 0930 I finished work and blearily-eye hopped into Hubby's car, who was waiting outside work to whisk me away. I headed home, changed out of my scrubs and threw myself under the shower and then threw some bits and bobs in a suitcase. We were going away.

I grabbed my pillow and settled down in the passenger seat of the car for a post-nightshift snooze. We were off to Cornwall, but I needed a few hours of sleep. Next thing I knew I'd woken up with tummy rumblings on the A303... home of about 2 million Little Chefs. Feeling nostalgic we stopped for lunch.

I had a burger and Hubby had a veggie burger. To be honest I expected them to be awful, but they were alright. The patty's were still juicy, buns fresh and they had onions rings inside... yum yum yum! They also came with crispy chips and delicious coleslaw. Maybe it was just the exhaustion speaking or maybe Little Chef is tastier than I remember?!

Just after 5pm we arrived at our beautiful little cottage in Cornwall. We stayed in the magical Stargazey, one of the cottages that makes up Woolsdown Cottages near Bude. The cottage was so beautiful that it really deserves its own post... so that's what I'm going to do later on in the week.

We spent the evening drinking Champagne (that we were given on our wedding day), eating posh Waitrose food and lounging in the enormous tin bath.

The next morning we went to the Eden Project, a place I've wanted to go since it opened (and I'll write another post about that too). Another evening was spent watching DVDs, eating delicious food and trying not to drown in that big big big bath!

It was with a heavy heart that we packed up our bits to leave on Sunday, although we had a big smile put on our faces by the lovely family who own the cottage we stayed in... they gave us a cute little bag of goodies to nibble on in the car. So thoughtful!

The drive home was about 5 hours, so a couple of hours in we stopped to stretch our legs. On our wanderings we found a beautiful little bridge and I insisted on a quick game of Pooh sticks. I lost... but it's the taking part that counts, right?

After a long drive we were back at home, with lots of happy memories (and lots of work to make up for!!). I can't wait until the next weekend we get to spend together!!

Last Minute Wedding Planning

This time a year ago it was just a few days until my Wedding. Rather unconventionally I met my husband exactly 3 months to the day before we got married. People still ask how I knew he was the one, but I simply just knew. A year down the line, if I could go back in time, I still wouldn't change my mind.

As you can imagine we didn't have much time to plan a wedding. 

We decided on the 13th of December for a couple of reasons. Firstly it seemed fitting to pick a day that was exactly 3 months since we met, secondly being a week day made it easier to organise as placed weren't booked and finally it means that every year our wedding anniversary will fall in the middle of a yearly meteor shower. Very romantic. 

We knew that we just wanted something small. Both hubby and I can be quite shy. We have also both lost a parent and I recently lost my godmother too. A big wedding wouldn't have been right for us without them. 

At the time we lived close to Brighton. It seemed the perfect place. Lots of places that we could potentially have dinner, hotels for the few relatives who were coming to stay at and I could spend the night before at my best friend's house in Hove.

We decided on the Town Hall. The little rooms are sumptuously decorated and the town hall itself is very grand looking. They're also so helpful (and a bit of a bargain too!).

After that we could do the boring bit of giving notice. No-one told me that they'd split us up into two appointments and ask us both questions about the other. I spelt hubby's middle name wrong and was a bit worried that they'd not let us get married... thankfully they did! Finally we could start to sort out the details...

We bought our simple wedding bands while visiting the in-laws one weekend and hubby bought a suit for the occasion too. That was pretty much all of the stuff hubby had to sort out... I still had quite a lot to do.

The first (and maybe scariest) thing I bought was my dress. I remember going home to tell my dad that I was getting married in 5 weeks time. He was delighted for me, which was wonderful as I was so worried that he'd tell me not to rush things. The next morning one of the girls who works with him, that I've known for ages dragged me "just to look' at a couple of dresses... reminding me that 5 weeks was not a long time. 

I knew we'd be having a small wedding, so as beautiful as big puffy princess dresses are, it just wouldn't have been right. Initially I thought I'd get a 50s style calf length wedding dress but I went along with trying on some other styles. I loved the big princesses dresses and had such fun putting them on, but then I tried on something special. A full length floaty dress with sheer arms and little jewelled straps. Nothing like I had imagined but it was perfect. Even more perfect was the fact that the sample size fitted. So having just gone out to try on dresses for fun by lunchtime that day I had my beautiful wedding dress packed carefully and was carrying it home. Getting shoes ended up being an equally simple (but much less expensive) trip to Debenhams.

At the time of our wedding our youngest niece had recently been discharged from special care and still needed oxygen with her all the time. We needed to find somewhere to have dinner afterwards that meant we wouldn't be exposing her to lots of germs. A very short stroll from the town hall is the Hotel Du Vin. They have a beautiful little private dining room with an open fire and a good wine list. Two things that were very important to us. We decided to book there. 

(I had to pinch the picture from www.myboutiquehotel.com)

At the same time I found they had some very lovely hotel rooms. The nicest room not only had two roll top baths in the bedroom but also a telescope. Perfect for watching the falling stars out of the window! Thankfully the room was still free with only a month or so to go, so we booked that too.

I often wonder what the people at the hotel thought when I was booking things so last minute. I'm sure that they thought I was insane. 

Our invitations were from vista print, which thankfully arrived within a week of ordering them. I had all these dreams of beautiful handmade invitations but with such little time and so many other things going on at work it was never going to happen. I was so pleased with these invitations, it was important to me to have something special to send to the special few invitees and these were perfect.

I had planned to bake a small wedding cake myself and even went as far as buying two cake tins. Retrospectively this idea was complete madness. Luckily, in Costco of all places, we saw these beautiful glazed fruit cakes bursting with dried fruit and nuts. I decided to buy a couple of those and cut one smaller to make the cake layered. I decorated it with ribbon, shimmery dust and snow flakes. It looked beautiful and tasted delicious, not to mention that it probably saved me hours of tears in the kitchen. 

The final thing I had to do was to organise flowers. I didn't have any bridesmaids so I just wanted something little for myself. Two days before the wedding I had been at a study day in Hove, and took a walk to the pretty florist nearest to my friend's house. I explained that I was getting married in two days and wanted a simple wintery bouquet. After the lovely florist lady had got over the shock of my last minute request she promised to make something nice and I told her I'd pick it up the morning of the wedding. 

The next day, the day before the wedding, I just had a few loose ends to tie up. The friend I was staying with met me at my flat and helped me carry the cake, dress and shoes to her house. We popped out the shops in the afternoon and I spent an hour in the lego store picking the mini figures who looked most like us to be bride and groom on our cake. I think that I did pretty well!

With a whole 24 hours to spare I had everything organised and wasn't feeling stressed out in the least. It was the beginning of a perfect wedding...

A Family Weekend

I spent a lot of time telling people how much I adore my job, but the massive downside is having to work so many weekends and special occasions and missing out on family time. As I'm working over Christmas we decided to spend this weekend going to see friends and relatives as a pre-Christmas treat.

Friday night we drove down to Kent to visit my Dad. We're usually cursed with the traffic but it took us less than 2 hours. Lucky for us my Dad owns a hotel and a bar so we arrived, dropped our stuff in our room and joined him for a few drinks before bedtime.

We woke up in the morning to a lovely view over the channel. After heading out to find some breakfast we spent the rest of the day travelling around visiting all my friends who have had babies. I love baby cuddles so I had a lovely time, while hubby looked completely petrified and wouldn't hold any of them.

Food is something very special when we visit home. My dad will often say that the only 3 things that give you pleasure in life are love, wine and food. Dinner was a collection of delicious nibbly bits both from my Dad and a friend of his. We had iberico ham, beautiful sweet gruyere cheese, smoked anchovies, saussicon and piles of warm, fresh bread.

My Dad also put together a salmon and crab ceviche. It was so delicious. It makes me wish that I lived close enough to come for dinner more. It's no surprise that dinner out is often so disappointing when the food at home is so wonderful.

On Sunday we jumped back in the car and drove to Milton Keynes to swap Christmas pressies with the in-laws. The best part of the day was getting to see how grown up our little niece is. She's walking and starting to speak as well as growing a little mop of hair.

I was thoroughly spoilt and left with a massive pile of presents including a pasta maker (so watch this space to see the final results...) I had so many presents to pile into the car that I completely forgot to take the slow cooker my mother-in-law has given me, so I'll have to remember that next time.

It was another wonderful weekend spent with wonderful people. Hopefully I can make it three brilliant weekends in a row with this one that's up and coming?

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

Finally we found the time to decorate the Christmas tree. It's been tricky this year as our fluffy 4 legged addition to the family has not made things easy for us...

She is obsessed by the tree. She sits under it miaowing for hours at a time, especially if the lights at on. In the interests of trying not to tempt her too much we've left all baubles off the bottom 1/4 of the tree and obviously we've kept the glass baubles packed away.

Most people would be upset at no beautiful glass baubles, but not me. This means I've been able to cover the tree in my favourite (if a little gaudy) glittery baubles. There's something extra festive about glitter.

Last year hubby bought me a little snowman and he has taken pride of place nestling in the tree, hopefully keeping my baubles safe from the kitten.

Last year we had a flashing light up star, but it was a little much even for my fairy light loving tastes. I've replaced it with a glittery star, in keeping with my baubles.

I've seen some gorgeous Christmas bunting and lovely wreaths but I think that this year we'll just stick with the tree and getting out the snow globe. I was hoping to make a yearly snow globe a tradition. Last year we got this light up one from M&S, so I'll have to see if I can find one for this year. Perhaps we'll find one next weekend on our 1st wedding anniversary weekend away...

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Finally December is here! It seems that with each passing year I get more and more excited about Christmas and the month of December. This year I'm working over Christmas (3rd year running...), although that's nothing unusual as I used to spend Christmas at work with my Dad every year. In fact there's something special about the mood at work on Christmas day.

I'm trying to make the most of the run up to Christmas by organising lots of fun things to fill my non-working days with. This means December will be hectic, but hopefully awesome.

We kicked off December by having a thoroughly festive Sunday. We got up early and almost totally finished our Christmas shopping. An organisational first. After that we did the most important thing that has to be done on the first weekend of December... We got the tree!

Different people have different tree rules. I like to get mine the first weekend so that I have it up as long as possible.

Since meeting Hubby last year I've been introduced to real trees. Our tree last year was a little lop sided and bald in patches. It had a certain charm, but in all honesty looked a little sad, because of that we decided to get serious about our tree choosing this year. We needed the perfect tree.

Homebase had 15% off everything on Sunday so we headed there and got to tree choosing. We instantly ran to the drop-resistant needle trees in the biggest size and started comparing. Unlike last year there were many fine specimens so we picked one and took it home.

Little did I realise that I'd then come second to the tree and be relegated to the back seat, but it was worth it to get that baby home!

At home we all swung into the festive spirit including the cat who decided to join us in wearing a Christmas jumper. Now before you start worrying about her not enjoying her jumper she purrs like crazy while it's on. Strange kitty.

I can't wait until later in the week when the tree is settled so that we can decorate it with lots of twinkly lights. Squeeee!

Winter Wonderland and the Magical Ice Kingdom

I know that it's been around for years, but I've never been to Winter Wonderland before. I've heard so many wonderful things about it, so this year Hubby and I decided to spend a precious weekend not at work visiting.

Initially we were just going to have a wander around, but after browsing the website I convinced Hubby that we should go to the Magical Ice Kingdom, there's something awe-inspiring about ice sculptures and I loved the idea of getting to see lots of them.

I'm going to be controversial here and say that I hated Winter Wonderland. Maybe it was exceptionally busy when we went but we could hardly move. We just shuffled around squeezed next to all the other stressed, squashed people being repeatedly bashed into by buggies. I have a bit of an issue with dense crowds so it was probably worse for me than most, but I definitely won't be going back.

Although I was incredibly stressed by all the pushing and shoving, there were some lovely bits to our day. The first thing I do when I'm feeling out of sorts is to eat, so that's what we did. I had a mahoosive spicy bratwurst topped with sauerkraut. It was almost enough to make me forget how grumpy all the people made me. It was also nice and warming to stand near the giant BBQ and warm up my cold fingers.

After eating we decided to browse some stalls and find the Winter Wonderland. Fat chance of being able to get close enough to any of the stalls, so we shuffled along, caught in the current of the crowd until we reached the Magical Kingdom of Ice.

I'd brought nice warm gloves and put on two pairs of socks to keep my toes warm. The Magical Kingdom of Ice is a giant refrigerated tent full of ice sculptures. The first few sculptures were some lovely fairytale-esque wild animals and fairy houses made of snow. They were like something from Enid Blyton's imagination.

After that it all got a little bit dark. Scary trolls and goblins wealding weapons were gathering around, back lit in eerie colours.

Next was an Ice Castle. The ice castle contained an ice dungeon with little ice rats, stocks, a prison cell and a head chopping block! The most exciting way out was to climb the castle and slide down the big ice slide. (I felt like a massive kid doing this, but why should they have all the fun?!)

The way out had some more fairytale sculptures that were better suited to my tastes than scary goblins and a dungeon. There was a frog prince, a majestic lion and beautiful swans swimming across an ice lake.

There was even a mini-ice bar almost at the exit, but unfortunately they didn't have any hot chocolate ready and there was no way that I could manage a cold drink. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of hot chocolate, but the free stollen and gingerbread on the way out more than made up for it.

Needing a bit of warming up we headed to try some mulled cider by Koppaberg. Not being able to choose (an eternal dilemma that Hubby and I have) we picked an apple and a mixed fruit. Both were delicious. In a stroke of luck I preferred the mixed fruit which was headily scented with clove while Hubby was a fan of the apple. It was also a lovely touch being able to have a real mug when so many places had paper cups.

After Winter Wonderland we stopped for some noodles and hopped back on the train home, squished, exhausted, but happy.

Cold Days and Hot Chocolate

The other day I was very lucky to have a day off that matched up with an old friend, so we  both hopped on a train and caught up.

The first couple of hours of our day together was spent at the Pig Idea Feast in my last post, but it seemed far too early to call it a day after that so we went for a wander. We walked across the river to the Southbank, probably my favourite place to be in London. It feels like a second home.

Although it's not even December we thought that it would be rude not to browse around the Christmas Market. I managed to stop myself buying anything except a mug of delicious raspberry hot chocolate. Who knew that a squirt of raspberry flavoured syrup could make hot chocolate taste so good?!

We got peckish again after a wander and went to my favourite place to hide with a drink on the Southbank. Benugo Bar and Kitchen at the BFI. Strangely none of my friends had ever been there before I took them, I think because the entrance is on the side of the building a lot of people just walk past. More fool them. The bar is filled with an eclectic mix of cosy sofas and they do some nice nibbles.

We had salt & pepper squid which was tasty and not a bit chewy, sweetcorn pakoras that I adored and eventually chilli sausage rolls which only suffered from me being too full to enjoy them as I'd eaten all the rest before they arrived.

We caught up on what we've both been up to, how work and studying is and our plans for Christmas, although it doesn't seem fair that I'm working and he's going to see family in Brazil. We also had a lovely long wander down memory lane recounting our stories of big family meals and how wonderful it is that sitting down for food brings everyone together. It made me so nostalgic for those days and so hopeful that in the future I'll spend many more meal times surrounded by friends and family.

The Pig Idea Feast

As luck would have it, I was off work on the 21st of November, the day of the Pig Idea Feast in Trafalgar Square.

For those of you who haven't heard of the Pig Idea, it is basically a lot of common sense. They are campaigning to change the rules about feeding catering waste to pigs. This is not only a cheaper option but also very environmentally friendly as we'll be growing less grain to feed pigs and saving the rain forests from being cut down to grow all of this pig food.

If you want to know more go to their website here. 

A bunch of celebrity chefs and yummy restaurants clubbed together, fed some pigs on catering waste, cooked lots of yummy things and gave them away to the public. On top of that they had lots of cooking demonstrations to fill my head with delicious porky things that I can't cook at home because my husband is a vegetarian. 

It seems the brains behind the idea are Tristan Stewart, a campaigner for reducing reducing food waste and Thomasina Miers, Masterchef winner and founder of the delicious Wahaca.

Bearing that in mind we decided to start at the Wahaca stand where we whizzed through the queue in minutes and were presented with pork pibil tacos. As a massive Wahaca fan I am very familiar with these tasty, juicy treats. In a most unladylike way, with the wind whipping my hair around, I scooped up my taco and tucked in, getting delicious porky taco juice all down my face. If I could have licked my own face afterwards I would. I love the savoury-tangyness added by the pickled red onion on top and the blast of freshness from the big handful of coriander. It was tough not to just get back in that queue for another...

In the interests of trying new things (and having a big appetite), I jumped into another queue. I had 3 queues to choose from and being impatient chose the shortest queue. This was a great idea.

The first thing I was treated to was a Brazillian pulled pork slider from Cabana. Oh my goodness. It was the best slider of my life. The spicy barbecue sauce that they used had so much more depth than the cloying barbecue sauce used by so many people and the little cheesy fluffy bun was perfect. I'll definitely be trying out one of their restaurants in the not too distant future.

Further down the queue was Pizza East, manning their impressive looking wood fired ovens in the background. They treated us to a lovely roast pork belly pizza. It was exactly how I like my pizzas. Thin crusted, slightly charred around the edges, lots of topping but not too much cheese. The crackling on top was mind-blowing too. Thanks to the wind I ended up with it slapping me in the face, but I didn't mind. It was another moment where I wished for a long enough tongue to reach my chin and not waste a bit of the pizza goodness.

Unfortunately after that the food ran out, and I was so looking forward to trying a pork cassoulet and braised pork cheeks with mash. I guess my waistline is grateful that I didn't. 

I think it's important to remember that although it is very easy to be side tracked by thinking that this event was an awesome opportunity for tasty free food, it is also advertising a very sensible campaign which I really think more people should sign up to.