Today on Twitter I asked people to think good thoughts for me, so thank you to anyone who thought of me at 15:30!
But, alas, I was told that work will not be renewing my year contract. So... yeah. I was on a one year contract, and am so busy and needed in the team, I didn't expect for a second to be let go!
The worst thing is that obviously I brought Sarah to them, we got to go into work and leave together every day, have lunch together and even worked on some projects together.. and now I'm gone! I have two weeks notice to find a new role.
This isn't as big of a deal as I think it is right now, I know people go through so much worse, but I had trouble finding a job last year, and I'm not ready to go through the rejection and depression that comes along with it.
Tomorrow I promise to think positively, pick myself up and start all over again, but just for tonight, I hope you all don't mind if I wallow in it a bit.
To add insult to injury, United cancelled one of our flights home at Christmas. We got it sorted, but seriously, today?
I hope you all are having better days than we are here at Sprezzatura.
I'll leave you with an awesome video I joked I'd put up if I didn't get to go permanent...
Anyone else love Flight of the Conchords? Of course you do :)
Welcome to this week's WWLW - this week we have gone for something that is all over the news currently- President Obama coming out in support of gay Marriage!
Barack Obama has announced in an interview with ABC News
that he thinks gay couples should have the same legal right to marry as
heterosexual couples. In an interview with Robin Roberts, he said that his
views have ‘evolved’ over the past few years, based on conversations with staff
members, gay and lesbian service members, and people in his own family.
According to ABC News, Mr Obama said: ”I have to tell you
that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family
and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly
committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising
kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or
sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even
now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit
themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me
personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex
couples should be able to get married.”
He added that this was a personal opinion, but he would
still leave the decision to individual states. “It’s interesting, some of this
is also generational,” he said. “You know when I go to college campuses,
sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies
on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to
same sex equality or, you know, sexual orientation that they believe in
equality. They are much more comfortable with it. You know, Malia and Sasha,
they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times
where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re
talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t
dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently.
It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts
a change in perspective.”
Mr Obama had faced mounting pressure to state his own
position on the issue, which he had previously described as ‘evolving,’ as both
his vice president, Joe Biden, and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, came
out in support of equal marriage.
This week on ABC's The View Tuesday (15 May), Obama said of DOMA, the
legal prohibition on federal recognition of same-sex marriages: 'Congress is
clearly on notice that I think it's a bad idea.' Obama's appearance on The View
was taped on Monday, the same day he appeared at a $5000-a-head LGBT fundraiser
at the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea. Regardless of gender, race or sexual
orientation, Obama said 'everybody deserves a shot.' 'It's been said this
election is going to be about values. I absolutely agree. It's about the
economic values we have, about the values I believe will make America so
special: everybody gets fair shot, everybody gets their fair share, everybody
plays by the same set of rules,' Obama said, citing the repeal of DOMA as one
example. 'The good news is, I think the American people are on our side. ''We
have never gone wrong when we have expanded rights and to everybody,' he also
said. 'That doesn't weaken families, that strengthens families.' (we love that bit)
But the question is now 'So what?' - as time goes by we're sure this will fill pages in papers and on blogs but this was the latest article we read in Curve magazine HERE.
In the interview with The View, Obama stressed that while obviously gay marriage and equality are big issues, the election will be won based on issues of education and healthcare. In an ideal world, of course that is true, but come on Barack - this is America. We are a great country, but we oversimplify - everything is so black and white to us. Let's not forget that in the Democratic primaries of 2008, for the majority of Americans, Hilary vs. Obama wasn't about their policies - it was 'will you vote for the woman or the black guy?' While obviously there are plenty of politically-minded, well informed Americans out there, there are definitely more of the 'black and white' type, who will vote on two major issues - gay marriage and women's rights. That's the stuff that gets people's blood pumping, more than education and healthcare, which, while important issues, they have always been important issues, and will continue to be through the next howevermany elections. They don't tend to change dramatically like the more social issues.
Invading the private lives and civil rights of those who are different than you, and taking away the women's right to choose what to do with her body? Especially with such a polar opponent such as (likely) Romney (is anyone else even left in the running?) making these issues prominent, we think they will be how the election is decided. So it is a wise move for Obama to come out in support of gay marriage at this time. He has been in the middle for too long, and now that he has finally taken a stand, we applaud him. Sure, he may lose some voters, but he is more likely to inspire people and get them to the polls with a strong stance on an issue mostly everyone has an opinion about. Inspire - its what he did in 2008, and it's time for him to do it again.
Ladies and gentlemen, Laura's soapbox.
Laura wrote a letter to President Obama last year, about his stance on gay marriage and the heartbreak of DOMA - and actually received a really nice reply from him, so we are proud that we have a letter from the first President to support gay marriage openly in office. We'll put the letters up for you guys at some point!
Anyway, good job, President Obama. We are really proud of you.
The scrummiest sandwich - Chicken Burger with Camembert & Cranberry Sauce on toasted baguette!
This isn't really a recipe it's more the tale of how to make a simply scrumptious sandwich!
What you need:
Chicken burger (breaded or naked)
Cranberry Sauce
Camembert Cheese
Baguettes (our choice is the half-baked)
Step 1:
Cook the chicken breast until ready
Step 2:
Warm or cook the baguette
Step 3:
Cut the chicken breast in half and place side by side in the baguette - place slices of Camembert cheese along the burger and grill until the cheese is suitably melted.
Step 4:
After your cheese is suitably melted take out the grill and add as much or as little cranberry sauce as you want.
So normally our Sunday post is a What's Happening, Hot Stuff?? about what's going on in the big wide world but to be honest our world had been somewhat busy lately, so this post is dedicated to 'What's Been Happening' with us!
When we started this blog, sometime at the back end of 2011, the point was to keep our family and friends around the world updated on our goings-on but before long we were adding recipes, things we love and then WHHS on news we'd seen - one thing we definitely didn't think about was doing it to make friends. However, this last week has shown us just how AMAZING the land of social media is.
If you have followed us for awhile, you may have seen that back in February we had our very first BLATE or 'Blogger Date' with the lovely Megan and Whitney from What Wegan Did Next, and since then we have been in fairly constant contact. In this post you'll find out a little bit more about our latest antics!
Our AWESOME week started last Friday with a trip to Birmingham to meet Sarah and Lauren from 2 Brides to 2 Mummies - it was an early start for us to get out of London and make an 11:30 tour at Cadbury's World, and we just about made it (had we not stopped for Maccy D's breakfast we'd have been in perfect time). Thankfully as it was a Friday we could push the tour start time back a bit had time to arrive at the ladies' lovely house and meet them first. Here's the weird thing with blogging - you follow each others' lives, watch their plans unfold, but ultimately you don't 'know' each other, so rocking up to someone's front door, there are a whole heap of thoughts running through your head. Is is creepy to say I''ve read EVERY post you've EVER written?! Or that I recognised this from the photo on your post in January?! Etc. You get the idea. How 'cool' do you play it???
Thankfully within 5 seconds of meeting Sarah & Lauren we were put at ease - they were just as we had hoped and expected from following their blog. We didn't have much time to talk on the 10 minute drive to Cadbury's World and before we knew it we were handing over tickets, getting chocolate thrust at us and being welcomed into the Aztec jungle (welcome to Cadbury's World)! Cadbury's World was brilliant - we were entertained from the second we walked in the door- after a history tour of cacao beans & the history of how cocoa was discovered we had a video film about the history of Cadbury's. For a history buff like Sarah this ticked ALL the boxes. The only downside - we hadn't really gotten a chance to speak to Sarah & Lauren!
From the history part of Cadbury's, we went to the 'production section'. This involved a 4D experience - we won't give away what goes on but let's just say there are signs saying 'If you're a wimp, stand at the back.' (or something like that) - we sat down, and let's just say Laura is OFFICIALLY a wimp. As the 'experience' started, something made Laura jump and exclaim 'SH!T' loud and clear and in front of children! It was a make or break moment - if Lauren & Sarah hadn't found it as funny as we did, the day could have ended very differently. After the 'experience' we had an interactive section and for us this was when we knew for sure we liked these girls. We are all 'young at heart', so faced with games, we couldn't walk by like the other adults - oh, no - we had to get stuck in. Apparently we scared the children away but we were doing such a good job, we didn't notice! :)
The rest of the tour flew by with all of us laughing and joking - who knew Cadbury's made such inappropriate adverts! And Laura couldn't get over the fact that we have ad campaigns such as 'A finger of fudge is just enough' hahahaha where's the American 'bigger is better' attitude? :D
We tested, watched, tried, ate and were throughly entertained all the way around and at the shop ended up succumbing to temptation and stocking up on our favourites. It is an attraction we DEFINITELY recommend! At the end, we were certainly chocolated out and thankfully Lauren had a stock of much needed Diet Coke in her boot! Another moment we knew we'd love these girls.
Next stop was the girls' house to meet Willow properly and catch up without the chocolate distraction. The plan was to have a brief chill-out and then head to dinner - the chill-out turned into laughing, getting on like a house-on-fire, drinking diet coke and generally feeling like we'd known each other forever and before we knew it we'd been there 5 hours and we thought we better have dinner. It was our honour to take the girls for their first Nando's at Birmingham's Bullring. Laura and Lauren did the ordering and before long we were getting feedback that Nando's for vegetarians is 'all good'. (We've since heard that the girls have been back alone - you can't get better feedback than that).
The day came to an end at 9.30 - we'd been there 10 hours and as Sarah is always nervous meeting new people, hanging out for 10 hours breaks all previous records! We are hoping we get to host the girls in London town soon!!
The awesome week continued with Megan's 25th birthday - to read her version of events check out WWDN - we arrived at Megan's parents for a birthday dinner of pizza and wedges, always a good choice, and alcohol! We also got to meet her lovely family. The party continued into Windsor city centre where we had a table reserved at 'Verve' - a bar in Windsor Town Centre with a good acoustic singer and champagne! We had a great time chatting and dancing with Megan, her best friend Karen, two sisters, her cousin and her cousin's friend! They are a great group of girls, and though it was our first time meeting most of them, we quickly felt 'part of the gang'!
From Verve, we went to a club 'under the arches' in Windsor (Sarah used to go to these places 'back in her day' pre-Laura!) and danced with cocktails to music with the girls! Lets just say there are some 'interesting' characters out clubbing in Windsor!!
The rest of the group left a bit early, so us, Megan and Karen stayed on and danced our little hearts out!! On the way home we stopped at a kebab shop, and took a cab who thought he was a racecar driver home. We had a lot of fun, even when we arrived home at 3am, chatting and laughing for another hour before bed!
We slept on an air mattress in the living room of Meg's parents' house, which was funny - halfway through the night, Laura (apparently) rolled over to the edge of the bed, pushing Sarah over - when asked what she was doing, Laura (allegedly) responded 'I'M LIIIVIIN' MY LIFE!!!' Hahaha - so special.
In the morning, we were treated to croissants and juice, courtesy of Megan's lovely parents, and drove home to relax and recover from the night before, in our PJs. We had an awesome time, and are so glad we were able to help celebrate Megan's 25th with her!! Thanks, love!!!
Bank Holiday Monday was spent chilling out before heading back to work on Tuesday, but our fun-packed week hadn't ended. Another friend who we had made over Twitter works on the London production of Shrek and over the last couple of months she has been a great confidante over email, so when she offered us tickets out of the blue to see the show we literally jumped around with excitement! We had walked past the theatre back in January and mentioned that it looked like a fun show and we were RIGHT. We picked up tickets at the box office and (for anyone who isn't British this may mean nothing) Shane Richie walked past us - it was a 'celeb' night to celebrate the show turning 1! We found out we had seats in the 7th row from the front (AMAZING) and had a great view. We got to our seats 20 mins before the start and got to see Sinnatta, various Eastenders & Emmerdale cast members and Jemma later informed us the Saturdays and finalists from the Voice were there!
The show itself was great - very funny, very clever and very entertaining. Lord Farquaad was hilarious and the cast of fairytale characters made it feel like you were watching the film! The first half flew by and the flying dragon was so impressive the break disappeared discussing how it worked. The second half had a few surprises - the dragon descending from the air made Laura jump (wimp) and Kimberley (who played Princess Fiona) had an 'interesting' American accent, but for us, the dancing in the aisles to 'I'm a believer' was the best way to end a show. Check out the trailer here:
At the end of the show, we headed to the stage door and met Jemma for the first time. Thanks to the rain we had to make a dash to a bar, but once we were sat comfortably we were comparing stories, laughing at what wimps both Laura and Jemma are when it comes to loud noises and we immediately liked her (even though Laura was surprised at her Scottish accent - when you meet people from the internet, you don't expect them to have accents!!). When Sarah, Jemma's girlfriend joined, we definitely felt like we had met a couple whom we wanted to get to know more - the 3 hours we had were NOT enough! We only left because the bar staff turned the lights on and were literally standing ready to take our glasses. As it was past midnight we had to get the last tube home and we were grateful that they got the tube in the same direction as us so we could continue talking.
So as you can see it has been a BUSY week and filled with experiences that we were not expecting. To each of the lovely people we met THANK YOU, it was truly a pleasure meeting you/ hanging out with you and in Sarah's words 'This has been the best succession of days since I can't remember when'! ...And also, where did all the Sarah's come from!?
