Tell the world I'm coming home

On the Saturday we were rather wiped out as following our day in London we'd had Youth Encounter, which was mental as per and also quite late. So we decided to stick around Surrey. We went for a walk by the Thames and ended up at Hampton Court Palace gardens (I couldn't afford entry :()

 The English Garden is full of roses which were beautiful.

 Oh look; there's the Palace in the background. I told Karli some of the stories of it, from memory, as when I was much younger we had a season ticket and went at least 30 times.

 The pergola is usually prettier, I blamed the poor weather up to this point for the lack of blooms.

 We then headed to Bushy Park for a walk. It started to rain so we took shelter under a large tree, it was actually really enjoyable.

 The next day was Sunday so I spent the whole day in church, Karli came for the 6pm service, and spent the rest of the day inside Hampton Court Palace. 
I managed to fall at church quite badly though, and was later to discover that I'd burst the liquid capsule under my patella..so the next day we couldn't do as much as I'd wanted to. We headed to China Town as Karli had missed having legit Asian food (it's pretty terrible in Edinburgh in general, which is surprising as there's so many international students). We also checked out Covent Garden where we picked up these gorgeous macaroons from Laduree. I personally prefer the ones I bought in Brighton last year though. Definitely heading back there.

I had to leave Karli to get the train to Victoria for her coach as I was in so much pain I thought I'd be sick, so hobbled (literally) off to the hospital.
Not the best end.

a day *or two* of life

 My day in pictures, well kind of 2 days in pictures. Breakfast yesterday was this American beauty of pancakes (well crepes, which are more French, but whatever) with maple syrup and crispy bacon! Delicious! I'd always though this was a bit weird, but we had bacon, pancake mix left from the weekend and maple syrup in so it had to be done and it was incredible (get it, edible ;])

So as not to be completely unhealthy, my mid morning revision break snack was grapes. I always count them out into mugs when I'm at uni, but at home we have glasses so I thought I'd be slightly classier (definitely wasn't to do with the fact that all the mugs were in the dishwasher). Pretty, hey?

 My Mum and I went shopping in the mid-late afternoon for some new shoes to go with the outfit I am wearing in the picture further down. We always walk past Paul, but never buy anything, but I've been ill so I think my Mum felt bad for me and bought me the most fabulous macaroon. I hope  heaven has macaroons.

Just look at that! It was a vanilla one, with vanilla cream. You can see my management science notes in the background *such fun.* I couldn't eat the whole thing yesterday as they're massive (which they really should be considering the expense) so this was my revision break snack today. 

This is the outfit I am searching for shoes for. I did buy a pair of shoes yesterday, but they don't go with this, they're more jean shoes. SO if you have any suggestions, link them to me in comments, I'd really appreciate it.

In the evening I went round to one of my friend's house for dinner, she has this AMAZING toaster oven, something which I've never seen before. We were making coffee and walnut cake (with a few sneaky pecans) so we popped them in the toaster. She's only ever seen them in Malaysia, so I guess I need to make a trip there. Have you seen them anywhere else?

 Here is our finished product! It is delicious! I have a lot left, so my connect group will hopefully enjoy this tonight (bar the one guy who's allergic to nuts...woops)

Outfit: T-shirt, H&M; Skirt, Next

And I was like baby, baby, baby, ohhh

 I'm finally back in Surrey. I flew back in the early evening so had these fantastic views above the clouds. Seeing the sunset when you're in the sky is just marvelous.

I had a baby shower the next day and so I made a cake, this was supposed to be an apple upside down cake..it didn't look as pretty as the recipe photo did, but it tasted AMAZING! I made a caramel sauce with it too, which just added that extra somethin' somethin'. 

Here's the recipe

 The table was lovely. I love baby showers, they're just so joyful.

Here's a nappy cake, a bit of a tradition in my church family. Its made entirely of nappies (diapers, if you're American) and inside there's all bits & bobs, such as bottles, dummies etc. Pretty cute, hey? We're yet to find out if the baby is a girl or boy, hence the very neutral colours.

 These cupcakes were INCREDIBLE. 

More of my weekend to come later. I now have to eat my dinner and head off into London for a leadership meeting. If your lucky I might get a few photos as its in Westminster & Parliament at night is always a nice view.