Hello Again!

Hey Everybody, I'm back!

Did you miss me? I sure missed you! Thanks for sticking around, lovely people!

I have been back in London since Friday, and have been enjoying a few more days off. I don't need to show up again at work till Wednesday! Yay! A holiday to recover from the holiday. Me like!

Madagascar was amazing, I will tell you more over the next few days (or weeks...), when I have some photos to show you also. I took over 2000 pics, can you believe it?! It will take me a bit of time to sort through all of those and edit them. But I will make haste, I promise!

To name a few highlights: we saw 11 different kinds of lemurs, went on a 10-hour train ride, hiked through rainforests and deserts, and visited a pirate cemetary. The landscape, the wildlife and the Malagasy people were beautiful, everything was just that little bit better than I imagined it to be! I even have the tan I wanted!

But after 3 weeks of sleeping in quite a few different places, it felt very good to be back home! The house looked almost unfamiliar for a little bit, and when I woke up after falling asleep on the sofa the first night, I confusedly asked Marco: " WHERE ARE WE???". He thought that was immensely hilarious! It's great to have a few in-between days to get used to London again!

Here is what made coming back a pleasure:

- Our last pair of house guests/catsitters apparently had nothing better to do than clean. Plus, they left a present and some Easter chocolates. (Ceci, you and your mom may come again!!!)

- The cats are especially cuddly and are following us everywhere. Fear of renewed abandonment, I guess. Poor dears!

- The weather has been gorgeous, so there was a first chance for this:

- Went through the mail pile and found two postcards and one personal letter!

- Asparagus and strawberry season has started, and I have been eating both at least once a day.

- Watching the final episodes of Masterchef we recorded. Team Tim was not disappointed!

-  Having two bank holidays, plus it's my birthday tomorrow! (Husband currently in kitchen, cake-baking! I can smell chocolate!)

- Planting new flowers in the front yard.

- Watching the royal wedding to help us stay awake. What a lovely couple Will & Kate make. I hope they break the Windsor curse and will live happily ever after! Have you seen this video?

- Having a washing machine at my immediate disposal. We did about 6 loads of laundry. It's nice not to have to smell-test a t-shirt before wearing it!

- Getting the low-down on what's been happening on our street from our neighbours. (Factory fire nearby, and apparently Missy-Cat likes to climb trees in search for birds...)

- Cooking and marketing! I kinda missed grocery shopping and preparing food. We did a big trip to Sainsburys, and with our haul I baked bread, made eggs with asparagus soldiers, morrocan burgers, lime and chilli prawns, honey-mustard chicken, rosemary baked potatoes, floating islands, cheese & avocado sandwiches, asparagus risotto and a vanilla blancmange. I'm happy to be back in my kitchen!

And how have you been keeping the last few weeks?  Has spring been treating you nicely? Have you any news? Has anything exciting happened in your lives? What did you think of the royal do? Do you like vanilla?

 © Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)