Life is like a box of chocolates!

I am notoriously difficult to buy presents for. Any CD, DVD, or guitar someone might have thought to buy me will undoubtedly have already crossed my mind and been immediately purchased. This makes Christmas a stressful time for my loved ones!

My top wannabe career (after lead rock guitarist!) has for a long time been "Master Chocolatier". This choice was inspired by the Lindt chocolate advert. I love Lindt chocolate and have long desired to be the fat man with the white hat who scoops up melted chocolate on the end of a giant whisk!

This led Clare to an inspired choice for my Christmas present. A 6 month subscription to the Hotel Chocolat tasting club!! The proof of the pudding is shown below!


Every month I get delivered a box of 36 chocolates that have been hand-made and selected for people in this exclusive club. The box comes complete with its own menu, so you know exactly what each chocolate is and... this is the best bit... you rate each of the chocolates out of 10 and send your answers back. The first step to developing a chocolate palette and becoming a master chocolatier!

A few select people make suggestions for new chocolates that the tasting club could produce and, if these are good enough, they not only make them but also put your name next to the master chocolatier in the chocolate menu.

So this is my next aim...to come up with a chocolate good enough to get selected and produced. Recent examples include Whisky and Sour Cherry and Eton Mess so my choice will have to be pretty special. At the minute, I'm thinking something involving peanuts!

So if you have any inspired thoughts, let me know and I will suggest them too! (Taking all the credit naturally!)

Tonya's Moved!

For everyone who follows Tonya's blog, it can now be found here. Please update your links!

Remembering Friends!

At some point every year in December/January, we have the "calendar saga". This is not as long and drawn out as the "diary saga" (a story for another day!), but is nevertheless quite arduous. The problem arises because Clare is looking for the "calendar of her dreams" and unsurprisingly 99.9% of shops do not stock this.

Unfortunately, her criteria for a calendar are quite specific in terms of size, layout, content, pictures and so on. This coupled with the fact that she will automatically ignore the first 758 calendars she sees (or the calendars in the first 98 shops she goes into...which ever comes first) tests my normally patient attitude to its full.

Luckily this year, having casually rejected a number of perfectly decent candidates, Clare stumbled upon a brilliant idea....we would make our own! Andy had an initial stab at producing something mediocre in Publisher before deferring to Photobox for a more professional finish.

All we needed now were some photos and it turns out our little America trip produced more than enough suitable ones.

So February is devoted to some of our good friends who we got to know even better whilst in Monroe. Here's the finished article!

(working left to right we have: Tonya and Knoah greeting us upon our arrival; Clare and I with Jennifer, Cat and Owen; and the best of all...Knoah demonstrating "monster baby!")

An excellent way to remember all our good friends and the amazing time we had with them!

Clare's a star!

...well, in the making...

But first, apologies for taking so long to return to the blog world. It's because of excuse* and also because I've been very busy with excuse* and excuse*.

Anyway, last night Clare auditioned for an amateur production of a show called "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and has got the leading role of Millie! The show started life as a frankly horrendous film (in my opinion) starring Julie Andrews but has been recently converted to a much more professional stage version. She will be performing at the New Wolsey Theatre during the first week of July. I'm not sure that they have satellite link-up facilities at the Wolsey but if friends want to come and stay with us so that they can see the show, you are most welcome.

People further afield may not realise Clare's rich stage heritage but this picture is of her playing Sally in "Me and my girl" in 2006.



She got quite a good write up which you can read here. Also you can check out more pictures of her on Appeal Theatre Group's website.

Anyway I'm very proud of her and looking forward to becoming a theatre widower again! It sounds harsh but it means I get to play loads more loud guitar when she's out!

Ok, that's our news done but I promise that I will try and come back more regularly from now on!

* Insert your favourite explanations for why you've not done something when the reality is you're just lazy!

Happy Christmas!

Clare and Andy wish everyone who reads our blog a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year!

I Left My Heart In San Francisco.....

Well it's (finally!) time for the last episode of our America journey, only about 4 months after we got back! Our final destination was San Francisco. We only had a few days before we had to return home but, as ever, we endeavoured to pack as much in as we could!

We started off at Pier 39 were there was lots of exciting shops and restaurants, not to mention the odd one or two hundred seals. You can hear them long before you see them and they just spend their day lounging round the place, making a racket! Quite a sight to behold!

From the next pier along, we got the ferry for our night tour of Alcatraz Prison. This was amazing and really quite scary once it had got dark! We were supplied with a very informative audio tour which told us all about Al Capone, the Birdman and the only three people ever to escape from the Rock. Slightly disturbing was the fact that we were on the last boat off the Island at about 10pm, but nobody seemed to be counting people on and off! I thought it might be fun to rough it overnight but Clare had other ideas!

We couldn't leave San Francisco without checking out some of the famous hills. We'd heard they were steep but we hadn't realised the half of it! But there was 3 weeks of American food to burn off and we felt we needed the exercise so we gave it everything we had!

When we reached the top of the mountain...sorry! hill... by a complete stroke of luck we managed to bump into the old tram service that took us all the way back down again and into town. When they told us they had two spaces left, we thought we were in luck... We didn't realise that those two spaces were hanging on for dear life on the outside of the train.

I think a fitting end to the holiday is to leave you with two video clips of the experience!

All the pictures, and some more crazy videos, can be found here.

Well, thanks for sticking through this rather protracted account of our holiday! I guess I'll have to think of something else exciting for next time.

California Dreaming.....

After quite a few weeks off, I thought it was about time to continue the epic saga of our America holiday. After Las Vegas, we flew to L.A and were met at the airport by Clare's friend, Elise. About a year before we were married, Clare spent 6 months in India with the organisation Oasis helping in the slums of Mumbai and at a centre for women and children with HIV. Elise was on the team with Clare (along with Hazel) and is from L.A. She very kindly took the day out to show us around and had planned a lovely itinerary that took in Manhattan Beach, Venice Beach and Santa Monica. We had a lovely day with her and it was great to catch up.


L.A. is unlike all of the other places we visited. Everywhere else, we were able to catch a bus or subway and could navigate without being reliant on taxis or cars. In L.A., everything is so much more spread out so we decided to do one of the many Hollywood tours that run. This took in the Hollywood sign, Beverly Hills, the Star Walk of Fame and my favourite, the Rock Walk where I almost touched hands with Jimmy Page!


We also had a two day pass for Universal Studios. Here we had a guided tour of many of the movie lots and went on some amazing rides, including the Mummy Returns, Jurassic Park and The Simpsons Ride.


If you want to see more photos of our time in L.A. see here.

Well, we're almost at the end of our holiday. One last stop... San Francisco!

Mumbai Terrorist Attacks

Please remember and uphold in prayer all those affected by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Clare still knows a lot of people there from when she worked for Oasis in Mumbai a few years ago. So far, no-one we know has been hurt but many people are still being held hostage in the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels. Please pray for a peaceful and swift resolution to that situation and for all those who have lost loved ones or been injured by this attack.

Jen's Beautiful Little Girl

Jen emailed Clare a picture of Elisabeth. She is so very cute that we thought it would be a lovely idea to post it on the blog. Jen calls Elisabeth "her peanut" and I think you'll agree that she is beautiful!

They've put together a wonderful slide show of pictures set to music and you can find it here.

Please continue to remember Jen and her husband in your prayers as they work through this difficult time.

Elisabeth Ann Matteson

Please pray for Jen and her husband who lost their daughter, Elisabeth Ann over the last weekend.

Jen contacted Clare a few months ago after the doctors picked up a skeletal displaysia at her 21-week scan. Later scans showed that that the condition was most likely lethal (Campomelic Dysplasia) and she experienced increased fluid levels at 28 weeks. A week later, she went into labour and tragically Elisabeth was only with them for 6 minutes. She was small - 2lbs 9 oz - but very precious to them and in Jennifer's words was "adorable".

Jen seems very strong in her emails but both Clare and I know how hard such times can be. They need love, support and prayer so please uphold them in your thoughts during this difficult time.

I don't think she has a blog but I know that she reads ours so please feel free to post any messages here.

Please also remember Tonya and Knoah as he undergoes MRI and CT scans and pray that the doctors would be wise and reassuring.