Days 158-165. The shortest recap ever (hopefully).

Days 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, and 165.  The shortest recap (hopefully) ever.  

Time is truly flying too fast.  And based on the number count above i have 15 days and this adventure is over.  FIFTEEN and that is not enough.  In ways I am ready to go, and in other ways I want to stay longer.....just not forever.....just yet..... its late I am getting too deep.  On with the longest shortest recap (hopefully) ever.  

Day 158 Monday.  I don't remember much of what happened on this day.  I do remember walking to Putney to top up on my cell phone.  I saw a cute shop with a sign that read "Work Hard, Play Hard & Be Kind." I thought the store was worth a go, I even saw a dress I thought was cute, but it was too big.  Dang.  I then went on my usual walk down through Bishops Park and back home again.... probably spent the day doing school work.  No more photos to jog my memory.  I do believe I spent a lot of time looking for flights....and getting no where to somewhere in five hours.....thanks to family help.  Why are there so many options out there???

Day 159. Tuesday.  We had morning class to watch the completion of the croquembouche tower that Chef Arizona started 10 days previous, this time it was completed by Chef France.  [I had no idea that six days in the future this dang croquembouche would be six points of my final written exam....more on that later.] Do you know was a croquembouche is?  It's mini cream puffs, dipped in caramel and stacked up into a cone shaped tower, which is typically served at french weddings.  This is a dessert I would like making.... rustic imperfections...but then he has to go and blow our minds with sugar ribbons and royal icing decorations.  

I had lunch with John from Hong Kong, Hong Kong 2, and Indonesia back at Dishoom, this time for lunch and it was amazing indian food!  I am seriously getting my fill of it here.  Love it.  I was rather time crunched as I was meeting Michelle to go to the pancake races at Borough Market.  

The event started at 1230, so I thought if I got there at 1245 there would be plenty more races to see...like rounds in a track meet.....nope.  I was having a hard time pin pointing where exactly in the market the races were happening.  I heard cheering, and followed the noise.  I caught the last run as they were running cross the finish line with the pan of pancakes in hand.  Michelle said that they were funny to watch.  We then waited in a line for an hour to buy a pancake (crepe) to celebrate pancake day.  As we were chatting in line, I looked down and noticed a twenty pound note on the ground.  I pointed it out to Michelle, and as she was picking it up, the man in front of us said, "Oh that's mine! See I always fold my bills like that." -- but he had no bills in his wallet to prove it that I could see :)  Michelle handed him the 20, and we went back to chatting, and then the man told Michelle that he would buy her pancake for giving him his money back....that started small chit chat with the older man for the rest of the way of the ten foot (minute per foot movement) of the line.  By the time we got to order, he bought mine too.  He then asked us if he could buy us a drink across the square.  We declined.  We wondered if twenty was really his, shrugged it off, and were glad for free pancakes.  We decided to take a walk down the river for a bit.  It was a beautiful day, super blue sunny skies, no wind chill, but crisp nice air to be breathing.  We walked across the London Bridge, to the Tower of London tube station.  Michelle is an artist and we stopped along the way as she sketched, I deleted pics off my phone, and chatted.  After that we parted ways.  I had to get some school work done and prep for the conclusion of the Chocolate module.  I made good ol american style pancakes for dinner.  It was a deliciously carby day.  

Day 160.  Wednesday.  I knew this was my twenty days to go day, but didnt want to think about it too much.  I took a walk along the river again.  I like having afternoon classes to allow my mornings to walk and think and prepare mentally for my classes.  I took a quick shower, and met up with Melanie from church for lunch at a place on the corner near my house.  It was nice getting to know her.  Wishing we had done this months ago instead of now.  Seriously I have met some fantastically fabulous people.  I had a great big trio of salads....seriously took me an hour to eat it all.  After that I headed off to class to make a chocolate egg showpiece.  We were in teams of two to temper the chocolates, white and dark.  Chef would show us how to make the egg, then we would go back and make it.  She would show us how to make a bar of chocolate, and we'd go to our stations and make it..... you get the idea, piece by piece until the whole thing was complete.  It wasn't exactly how I planned it in my mind, but it turned out pretty darn good.  I didnt know what to do with it, and I did not want to throw it away, so I wrapped it up tight in cling wrap, put it in a bag and hoped for the best.  It made it all the way home in one piece.  It was really late by the time I got home.  I made fried eggs and toast for dinner at 1030pm.  

Day 161.  Thursday.  Happy Birthday to the lady that gave birth to me.....aka my mom.  Started the day off with a walk, some studying, and some laundry.  Last day for the chocolate module was to make a chocolate box, using the techniques and skills that we've learned.  I had sketched it all out, and I knew my plan for how I wanted it to be.  I tempered my white chocolate spot on in good time.  Then I doubted myself on tempering the dark chocolate, and retempered it three times.  Tempering?  Melting chocolate to 45 degrees celsius, then cooling it to 28, then warming it to 32.  Sounds simple, but its done without a thermometer, so its all about touch and sight.  Usually I am good at it, but today not my day.  Others were already working on their pieces for their chocolate boxes and I am stirring away at my chocolate.  It took me an hour to get it right.  By that time, my confidence was shot, and I just persevered at that point.  I am so glad I had my time plan and drawing so I knew what/how to do everything on the list.  About midway through the assembly, my white chocolate cooled too much, loosing its temper.  I thought I fixed it, but after trying to peel back the acetate from my petals it was clear that my fabulous 30 petaled flower would be lucky to be a bud of eight.  Whoops...  oh well.... keep moving.  I got done before some of my classmates, and that was amazing considering I was the last one tempering at the start.  It could have been way better.  One day I will make this box again and it will be fab.u.lous.  During grading chef said that she saw the start of my flower looking so good, I was confused and said 'the start?' "Yes, your petals on the tray in the fridge looked amazing."  ----um yah in the fridge when they were still attached to acetate holding them together :)  not when they were melting in my hand.  hahahahahhahahhaa. sigh.  It was another late night, and fried eggs did not sound good, so I headed to the only food place open past ten for a take away falafel in a pita.  I swear that it good middle eastern comfort food at its finest.  Funny story, man behind me in line orders a cheeseburger. "Um, we dont sell cheeseburgers sir."  I snort.  "Oh I guess I should have read the menu."  --- yep Kebab King screams burgers to me.  :)  Called my mom to wish her happy day and tried as always to stay up way too late.

Day 162.  Friday.  After staying up way too late the night before, I discovered a list of places Essex had recommended for me long ago.  I discovered one was 1.2 miles from the house, so I decided that would be a good walk in the opposite direction of my normal riverwalk.  Baker Boy.  The place was a cute shop in the bottom of a newer build apartment tower along the river.  It was a nice place.  If I wanted hip and modern, I would open a shop like that.  I ordered a blueberry muffin and a chocolate chip cookie.  Nice breakfast I know.  I decided to walk back on the south side of the river, to get a different perspective, only got a bit lost after averting a building or two, and what should have taken me 20 minutes, took forty five.  Whoops.  I found my way back to the river to a cute park I'd always seen from across the way and stopped to eat the muffin there.  Boy oh boy was it a surprise inside.....it was blueberry pie filling inside the muffin.  How did they do that? They dont teach that at a french school.  It was good.  I decided to save the cookie for my afternoon class, the last wine lecture.  It was done by someone different than the last two (luckily), this guy actually paid attention to our [board] reactions, kept us engaged and had us participate.  A nice way to remember the last wine class.  After that I headed home, made some dinner, spanish rice & beans & fried tortillas, and started to study.  Studying was a bit tiring because I kept falling asleep even with the TV on as background noise.  Its true.  I pulled out the chocolate easter egg and smashed chocolate box for my landlady to eat and had a nice chat with her on one of my breaks.  

Day 163.  Saturday.  If I went for a walk, it was not that memorable.  I studied for most of the day.  I got out in the afternoon for a "see the sky" kind of moment, bought some laundry stain remover my landlady had told me about to hopefully remove the yellow colored cocoa butter that was staining a shirt & apron of mine.  I had washed it once previous with no luck.  NappySan to the rescue.  All is back to white on the clothes.  I picked up some soup from the place on the corner.  It was about closing time, and they didnt have any more bread to go with the soup, so she gave me extra soup, and a discount.  Score!  Really good cauliflower cilantro lentil soup.  I will miss having places on the corner to go to eat within two minutes walk of my front door.  Back to more studying, dawdling, procrastinating, sleeping, and studying.

Day 164.  Sunday.  Church.  One of my church friends, Becca, asked me to conduct music in primary as she was going to be out of town.  Say what?  I haven't been in primary since I was in primary (with the exception of cheering on some nieces and nephews with talks along the way).  She had it all planned out for me, so really I just had to pick names out of a jar, they picked 'conversation hearts' off the wall with songs on the back.  Those kids can seriously sing.  There were 12 of them and the room was filled with music.  They sang their hearts out.  :)  I heard Kami, Michelle, and other young marrieds talking in the lobby after church about going to Chinatown for Chinese New Year parade.  I told them I would invite myself along if I didnt have to study.  They said think about it, come for a break, and join if I wanted.  I went to my favorite study place out-of-home the V&A, read through my flashcards, decided I knew them pretty darn well, went home, changed my clothes, still studying on the tube rides, and went to chinatown.  By the time I got home from the V&A it was raining, windy, and cold.  I needed a break from the world of remembering numbers, so it was nice to get out.  I messaged Michelle, she had not left yet, but would come later if it stopped raining.  I messaged the others to no response.  I decided to make the most of it and follow the loud drums, and found a dragon and his drum crew going dancing from restaurant to restaurant getting lettuce from the owners for 'good luck.'  I followed it a bit around trying to get a good picture with the 100 others trying to do the same thing.  I had been to chinatown before, I just did not realize how many streets it actually was.  After an hour in the rain, enjoying the sights, sounds and people watching, I went home.  Still studing on the tube ride, still falling asleep.  Talked to the parents.  Studied some more.  Talked to Mel, and went to bed.

Day 165.  Monday.  My final written exam for this school was at 1130am.  I got up, did some laundry, reviewed my notes one last time, and was content that I could not learn any more.  As I was walking up to the school John from Hong Kong caught up with me and told me he only studied for an hour.  Say what genious?  Yep, apparently that was the response from a few other classmates as well.  One girl was out in the hall asking questions to everyone, apparently soaking it all in like a sponge.  Test time came.  I knew a lot of it.  I was greatful.  I spent the entire hour writing as fast as I could, to get as much info down on the paper as possible, the more info the less chance of missing something I suppose.  I went to lunch with California and Vermont to a smancy Indian place.  California said that she had not had indian the entire time in London.  Um, I've had it five times in three weeks.  It was a good conversation, all sitting around talking about how we have no idea what kind of job we will hopefully be having in the very near future.  Really sad to think about not seeing these kids all the time.  Tear rolls down my cheek.  They are amazing, unique, quirky, weird, strange, funny, silly, caring, quiet, loud, loving people.  

Back at home I worked on my portfolio.  I thought it would be around 30 pages, but right now it is at 50, and i have three more segments to add to it.  Dear Landlady please don't be mad at me for how many pages you get to print for me.  Sincerely the one that will make you cookie dough.  

So much for not the shortest recap ever.

PS  The couple downstairs has impeccable timing for when I need the bathroom, they are always headed there at the exact time four days running.  

Days 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157. Dang Weekly Recap.

Days 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157. Dang. Weekly Recap.

Day 150. Sunday. At church I was asked by a lady, "Are you alone?" I thought it was pretty creapy question. "I mean did you come here to London with friends or family." I thought that was weird to. "Um I live with [landlady] so I am not living alone if that's what you mean." "No I was just wondering if you had a place to go for dinner." "Oh, well why didn't you just ask that in the first place?" She had invited her third cousin over for dinner as well and his friend, so she thought that a fourth at the dinner would be good. I agreed even after the strange intro to an invitation. I headed over to the V&A after church to work on my chocolate paper. If I am not in my home surroundings I seem to get things done better. I left the required word count at home, but got two full pages done on the history, manufacturing, and developers of chocolate. I got that done in enough time to go to dinner. She had given me her address 853 Blah Blah Road. When I got to the road, there was no 853. I called my landlady to get the address as I never got the ladies phone number or name before. "Oh her house is quite posh." was the response my landlady gave when I told her my predicament. Turns out it was flat 8 number 53. I would have never found it. Landlady was right, it was quite posh, very minimalist and modern apartment (the building is very old victorian). There was a statue in the living room, placed in a position I didnt know if I was to start a conversation about it or ignore it. I chose the latter. Dinner itself was lovely. Great conversation and a good time. Her job is something to do with family history for the government, she had her computer on, so I asked her if she had any ideas about my Tarwater line, as there are some discrepancies on information about his parents. She looked at familysearch.org with me and said that it was a brick wall, and until we get info on his posterity we would not be able to get info on him. Dang.

Day 151. Monday. Woke up not feeling the best, so tried to stay in bed as long as possible. I did manage to get out of bed and go to the US Embassy, but I did not even make it past the gate of the ugliest building in London. Seriously late 60's architecture was not flattering on the building or the surrounding area. I went with the intention of asking someone about the possibility to stay in the country for work. I dont know what i was thinking going there as the US cannot decide if I can stay here, but shoot I got to see the ugliest building ever. The security man gave me a card and told me where I needed to go, according to citymapper, it was an hour from home and I was not feeling up for an adventure like that. I did some grocery shopping on the way home, did some school work, and then met up with my Charlie friends Tamara & Vanessa (sans Mindy :() and we saw Billy Elliot. It was really good. I didnt do any research/plot spoilers before seeing it....those kids can dance. And no children were stalked this time around. Dang. 

Day 152. Tuesday. Woke up still not feeling the best, so again stayed in bed as long as possible. I met up with some friends from school, Indonesia, Brunei, Jerusalem to go to a market in Brixton. I had never heard of Brixton, but was up for a new market. It was indoor/outdoor flea market type. Stalls, selling mostly food, and mini restaurants from all ethnic backgrounds. We got pizza....much like bianco's back home. We talked for awhile before wandering back to the tube station. I am pretty sure I did school work, and ironed the rest of the day. Dang Exciting.

 Day 153. Wednesday. Back to school. Day one of Chocolate. We were divided into teams of three, except me and my partner, Canada. There are 14 in the class, so we were down one person to make six confections that the other groups had 3 people to do them. I thought we did pretty good for being down one person. We split up the chocolates, and each did two on the first day. We did molded chocolate prailines with ganache, and orange chocolate truffles in the morning, and got ginger slab ganache and spiced logs half done by the end of day one. Oh I did not mention that we also had to temper our own chocolate and keep it in temper for the day during different uses. Yep, its busy and time consuming thing to do. And annoying to get chocolate on the uniform that you only just ironed yesterday and cannot wear a dirty uniform tomorrow. Dang. After class I was going to go get a scraper with Indonesia, but Dehli offered to get us some at the hardware store near her house. Indonesia was going to run some wedding errands, so I tagged along with her as I wasn't in the mood to do laundry right away. We grabbed some lunch at a vegetarian place that was so good.... I got roasted veggies that they had tossed in a dijon like mustard. Yummy. Never thought of doing that, but will give it a go sometime. After that I headed home to find flights home [gulp] more school work, and more laundry. Dang.

 Day 154. Thursday. Day two of chocolate. We finished the chocolates we had worked on the day before, this time, Canada and I switched off on finishing each others chocolates, more or a team effort that way. I redeemed myself with raspberry marshmallows, and Canada made sour cherry fudge....sounded gross but ended up being a favorite of the day. And yes dad, its your worlds combined into one. We will have to make it. It was a lot of work, I didn't feel rushed or overworked, but we were able to get things done. They tasted great. The beauty of the day was that we all got to take each others home at the end of the day....thirty treats....oh yeh. I went around collecting all the non alcoholic ones, and was surprised to end up with 26/30 treats. Yippy. Hong Kong2 invited me to go for Vietnamese food after class, and who is to pass up a food find with Indonesia, Hong Kong2, and John from Hong Kong? It was in Shoreditch. Another place I had never heard of, but apparently is not to be missed and quite the party place on the weekends. We arrived at the place at 310, and the sign on the door said closed at 3pm, and would reopen at 5pm for dinner. A lady outside the place heard our sad plight and said "Go on in and tell them I told you that you can eat." She then followed us in the place, talked to the workers in Vietnamese, and as soon as we were seated, she left. We felt a bit bad, but relieved we did not have to find another place to eat. "Since the kitchen in closed, the only thing we can give you is Pho." the waitress said. Looking at the menu, it had meat choices of beef, chicken, pork, or tofu "all served in a beef broth." I questioned the waitress if the tofu version was still in beef broth as I did not eat meat. "Oh yes, they all come in the beef broth, but tofo is vegetarian." Um what? Not in a Pho with beef broth its not. We told her I dont eat any meat product, and she said she would check with the kitchen to see what I could eat. "Um we can make you a bowl with noodles, pickled cucumber, and vegetable spring rolls kind of like a salad, would that be alright?" Sure. When it came out, it was so pretty, bright green veggies on a bed of noodles and crispy spring rolls. It was really good, and my lunchmates were impressed with it and wished that they had gotten it too. :) Hong Kong2 mentioned a doughnut place near by called Dum Dums that did cronuts, so we decided to go there on the way to the tube. Got cronuts to go, only after I gave one of every kind of our chocolates to the cashier, kind of hoping for a "trade" but no such luck. Once home, laundry was started, talked to mom, and school work was attempted. Dang attempts.

 Day 155. Friday. Every term we have a meeting with our mentor chef, only its really usually just a ten minute sit down to talk about whatever we want. This time around, it was with head chef, the one that we have spent the last four class segments (plated desserts, entremet, tea party, and chocolates) with. For some reason, we are really chummy with each other, she likes me, and for that I am grateful. I was the last one to go in my group, and I had lots of questions. A lot were resolved, and it was nice to talk to her outside of a kitchen. I told her I was not doing my best, I wish I could do better, but in the kitchen I clam up/get nervous when I see others plates and think that mine could never be that good. She told me I need to stop being so hard on myself, and that I am actually doing really well in the class. I was shocked. I thought I was one of the worst, and she was telling me I was doing good? I thought her critiques are very detailed, and showed me my flaws, but she said critiques only help us be better in the future. We talked about my entremet, and how it needed major improving. I showed her my ideas, and together sketched out something I am excited to try pulling off. Our conversation went good, she gave me some tips and I was happy by the end of the chat. I texted Indonesia to see if she had lunch plans #apparentlyieatoutalot and she said she was at Dishoom with HongKong2 and were just sitting down. Dishoom is one of the top rated Indian food places that for dinner has wait lists of two hours that I have wanted to try. She texted me the menu, I gave her my order, and when I got there, the plate was in front of me ready to eat. It was the breakfast menu, and I got herbed cheese toast with fried eggs. I didnt know what I had ordered, as I read the first few things running through the streets to get there. In front of me I thought that the toast was a tempeh like substance, as it was thick and dense. but it was oh so good. I headed to the kitchen supply store to see if they had some ring cutters for my new and improved entremet. I decided I needed to solidify widths of circles before making any purchases. I went home and sketched out my ideas. I had made dinner plans with Michelle from church, so I met up with her at her tube station, and hit her street looking for food....and ended up at an Indian place. Lunch at Dishoom was modern fusion indian, and this place was classic indian, with the dishes all coming out in little silver trays. So amazingly good. We went back to her place and talked for a bit. Her husband was at a youth activity with the ward, so we had ample time to sit and chat.

 Day 156. Saturday morning, Landlady had warned me the night before that the furnace man was coming at 8am, so I needed to be up/out by 930/10am. That was fine by me, I was ready to shop for my ring cutters and was meeting school peeps at 1130 at a market. Got my shopping done, the cake decoration store sales clerks remembered me and I did not need to show my student ID to get the discount. The street market was amazing. A bit off the beaten path as it took a tube ride, and a bus ride to get there. It was more locals than tourists, more foodie and frills, and lots to choose from. I was headed for a halloumi burger when a hungarian/turkish/something tortilla like bread was filled with spinach and cheese caught my attention, and it was eaten, and I was stuffed. It was then discovered an adjacent school yard had more food stalls, including an old delivery truck fitted with a pizza oven, that I could have eaten, but was too full to eat anymore. There was a crosstown doughnut stall, and we all pitched in and split one. So good. I went home, talked to HGA on facetime. She said she missed me, I asked why she doesn't call more often. and she said that she is "so busy." Ok ten year old Hannah Grace. Never too busy for me. :) I had to cut the conversation short, as I was meeting up with Tamara, and seven others to go to an activity in Cambridge. We met at a car rental agency. I was 15 minutes late, and thought that was bad. I was 4/9 to get there. The guy renting the car forgot his license at work, and was on his way to get it and the others were yet to arrive. We left an hour after our original start time, and got stuck in London Valentine traffic. What takes an hour by train took us two hours by car. It was a good car ride. Eight countries were represented, France, Italy, Brazil, Columbia, England, Argentina, and somewhere else I can't remember maybe Portugal. When we got to the activity, there were about 30 people there. Tamara said that the one the month before had over 100 people at it. Our nine passenger van increased the party by 25%. They turned on music, the nine of us and five others danced, people that were there before us moved into the hall to talk, and we would go inbetween dancing, standing, and trying not to move one step to the left, and one step to the right. The beat on all of the songs was the same, so not much variety. There was one slow song (seriously mr. dj, you can clearly see only 6 people dancing, and only two are guys). I turned it into a group hug/hold hands red rosies kind of dance.....it was a good laugh. We were almost back to London, when we in the back seat discovered that the front seat navigators were not so great. There is a huge beltway around London, if the beltway were a clock, getting to/from Cambridge is a one o'clock direction. On the way back we had somehow made it to the 10 o'clock segment of the beltway before heading into London. The tubes were closed by the time we got back to drop off the car. Brazil told me the bus number I needed to take, and where to catch the bus with Italy. When we got to the bus stop, the bus was a day bus, and only the night buses were running. I had no idea which one to take, and my phone needed to be topped up for me to have 3G. Italy found on the bus map what bus he needed and jumped on. If I were smart enough, I should have jumped on it, as we were headed in the same direction. But nope. I waited for the next bus to come and ask which bus to take. It was the one Italy took, and the next one would be there in 22 minutes. I wasnt too worried as this was a very popular bus stop and lots of people were waiting at 1250am for a bus. It was not the usual bus routes near my place, so I had to walk a bit in the end, but I knew where I was and did not worry. Its taken me 156 days to get comfortable with navigation. Dang.

 Day 157. The family history lady emailed me during the week and asked me to drag myself our of bed to play the piano for RS. I thought it would be no problem earlier in the week, but that was before I knew I would be walking home at 2am the night before. Miraculously, I made it, for reverse church time and played. After church, I met Tamara in the hall. The night before we had made plans to go to the flower market (again before I knew about the 2am walking) as it is only open on Sundays. I was tired, but I went. It was amazing to see how many flowers were out for sale, and the shoulder to shoulder people walking the streets. There were lillies of all kinds, daffodils, tulips, peonies, pink pineapples, cherry blossom twigs, potted plants, herbs, everything. I got the most unusually beautiful bunch of "Everlastings" bouquet. Tamara got cherry blossom branches and tulips. We got a treat from Lilli Vanilli (had to laugh at the name as it remined me of my second cassette tape purchase of all times, Milli Vanili) From the flower market, another street lead to Brick Lane Market, which lead to another, and another, and another. I had to call it quits at this point as I was borderline too tired. Came home, made duner, did some school work, talked to mom, and now living off of limited sleep managed to add to the saga of all novels. Dang. Goodnight.

Days 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149. What a week.

Days 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149. What a week. I keep telling myself i need to write more often, but alas another week has passed and here I am. Sunday. Day 143. The usual. Honestly, when it comes to current events happening back in the states, I am not up on much of them. I didnt even know about the Super Bowl without the exception of facebook and instagram pictures. I thought it was funny that they were actually broadcasting it live over here....it said at 1030, but that was pregame. I heard the songs, Adele Nazime did great. :) At commercial breaks, it would cut back to the UK 'team of experts' (one Brit, two former NFL never-heard-of-them) for analysis of the plays. I like the commercials. That is the only reason to watch the game. Anyhow, I did not make it to half time as I had fallen asleep. Luckily, there is youtube to show me the half time show and the best commercials...come wake up time Monday....

 Monday. Day 144. Happy Birthday Lucy!! I had a list of things to do, places to go. I accomplished most of them, in a round about way. I was going to go get day tickets for a play, but by the time I got out of the house, it would be too late to get day tickets. So I went to the local library. I didnt even know it was a library all these months, as it is covered in scaffolding. I found the cookbook section, and there was a lot to choose from. I couldn't find the history section, but doubted they had a book on the history of chocolate. As I was reading, I noticed a lot of moms with prams (strollers) coming in and parking their things near where I was 'researching.' Turns out it was a toddler sing along class, where they all sang loud happy universal songs (the wheels on the bus, itsy bitsy, etc). I looked up some info on chocolate, took some pictures of interesting recipes, and headed out to school. On the way there I decided to stop for a treat at a place that got pretty good reviews on yelp for a snack. The place was so tiny, I grabbed a muffin and carried on, checking in to to theaters for day tickets, of which they were out. I went to school to look at the books in the library, only to find out that the library book cupboards were only open from 230-330pm, and it was 130. I looked at the bookstore across the square for info, and got some good history of chocolate there. The books in our library come to find out, were either recipies or in french. So much for that help. I ventured by North End Road for some fruit on the way home to make cobbler. Which I turned into my dinner.

 Tuesday. 145. Woke up, got dressed and headed out to school at 650 am only to discover snow on the ground!! I did not have time to turn around and put the snow shoes on for good use, so I made due in my trainers. The snow was gone by 10am.) Tuesday was Day one of prep for the Afternoon Tea event at school. I was a mini team leader (for myself and two others) and had the time plan down to a tee. By the end of the seven hours, we were ahead in some areas, and behind in others. Each team of three had to make 3-4 dishes. Our team made Financiers (Almond Cake with Sour Cherry Cream on top), Modern Lemon Tarts (the lemon is piped like a log onto a crust, which then has marshmallow piped on top), Tangy Yoghurt Mousse with Apricot Jelly, and Raspberry Jam. They were all tedious to do. As much as I was tired, I was up all night worried that we would not be able to complete everything the next day.

 Wednesday. 146. When I finally did wake up, it was barely enough time to get ready & be there on time, let alone early. We finished the items. I was so tired I laid low threw the actual afternoon tea event. My main role was to pass out the takeaway boxed to people as they left the building. That was a nice gig to have. After the last customer left, and clean up was all done, we were able to take as much of the leftovers home with us. And there were leftovers alright. As there were four teams in three groups, making twelve teams each making 3-4 items there was roughly somewhere between 1080-1350 pieces were made. The forty nine customers (aka friends/family of us) could eat as much as they could consume during the afternoon tea event. We still had a trolley full of things not taken home. My friend Tamara (from Charlie and the Chocolate fame) was my guest at the tea. It was institute that night, and so in my tired state, I met up with her and 2/3 boxes (one was still in my bag) to share the treats that I had yet to taste myself. Pretty good. Favorite was a praline tart.

 Thursday. 147. It was a much needed day of rest. They probably do that on purpose, and only scheduled us a 630pm cheese class. Oh man. Tom the Cheese Man. Loves. I. Mean. Loves. Cheese. He has passion like no one else....and it is for cheese. He knows the history, and origin of every cheese, and his storytelling & humor are most captivating. We ate cheeses that go for 40 pounds a kilo. So some fancy cheese. So good. Go artisan cheese! Not grocery store cheese. Its worth it in so many ways. I also went to the american supermarket for a "Chocolate Tasting Day" on the way to class. So many good treats, cookies, chocolate fountain, almond chocolate milk, candies, ice cream, and a goodie bag! My favorite was a "chewie" it looked like a flat chocolate macaroon, but had a gooey peanut butter center. I need to find out how to make them.

 Friday. Day 148. Started off with an 8am class with Chef Arizona showing us the start of a Croquembouche tower, making/piping cream puff balls, and making nougat. Not Big Hunk nougat, more like brittle. Chef kept me entertained with his stories of the recent Coupe de Monde Patisserie competition. Its the Olympics of the pastry world. Look it up. They did amazing things. His team came in sixth. The first place team (Italy), trained for three months straight, and had no other job/income to support them as they prepared for the event. Chef said that for their ice cream cake, they piped out stripes of ice cream & parfait and then put it into a machine that turned it into a log wrapping itself around the cake center. 'Chef you have a life, those guys obviously dont.' Was one student's reaction to his info on the winning team. UK team all worked regular jobs, and still upped their place by three since the last competition. After class, a few of us headed to lunch at Scandinavian Kitchen. Essex sure knows great places to eat. It was yummy and healthy. Winner. I headed home after that. I was so tired, I fell asleep at 5, got up at 7, got take out soup & sticky toffee pudding from Barossa, watched TV, and talked to mom before calling it a night.

 Saturday. 149. Got up and got a ticket to see War Horse. I was hoping for the evening show, so I could get some school work done, but they only had day tickets left for the matinee. Oh well, I walked around Covent Garden for a bit, seeing what I thought was trucks setting up for a movie/film [only to later discover they are setting up for the UK equivalent of the Oscars], and people watched before heading home for a bit. I tidied up a bit before heading out again for the play. I barely made it on time. Lame metro delays. The play was amazing. How the puppeteers do their work on being a horse is fantastic. I've yet to see the movie that came about after this play, but it was great. I decided I would get a salted caramel hot chocolate from Shake Shack on the way home. That turned into me getting a mushroom burger and fries as well. Burger was great (a panko crusted portobello mushroom, dripping with cheese and the usual fixings. Fries were good....it was so cold outside they cooled off pretty quick. And the hot chocolate. Dang. Talked to Mel for a bit as I walked more around Covent Garden before heading home. I actually got one of the 456 things I have left for my portfolio to complete. And now this entry is complete too. Good afternoon. Good evening.....and Goodnight.