Life of Jana

I am finally back a fter being away from blogging for 5 months! I have not been writing for several reasons. Last year in November, I was made redundant from my administrative job in a textile company. The news that I ha d to start looking for a new job crushed me totally. I had no time and was not in the mood to take pictures or write about anything other than how miserable I felt. Tristan was so supportive and so were my parents too of course , they all did everything to cheer me up and kept me positive while I was job hunting . After 3 months of countless interviews, I was offered an administrative position at a finance company. Over the first few days, I felt like I could handle it but I realised shortly that it just wasn't really for me. I stayed there for three weeks and those were the longest three weeks of my life. I didn't hate going to work but at the same time I wasn't happy either. I have no idea how my luck suddenly turned around - I got a ca...

Summer has gone so quickly and I can't believe it is already September. I am actually quite excited for autumn. I can't wait to take out my woolly coat and wear boots again. It has been a very windy and rainy summer here in England (no surprise!), so it feels like it has been autumn for a while. I've also been looking forward to September as, at the end of the month, Tristan and I are going on a 3 week holiday to Australia. I am a huge planner when it comes to long trips like this, so I will probably post a lot of  'Getting ready for Australia' kind of posts. Anyway. On the 1st of September it was my birthday and we (Tristan, Marianne, Katrin and I) celebrated it at Jamie Oliver's restaurant in Manchester. Yes, I love Jamie's Italian! It is a beautiful place with a great atmosphere and good food. I think we've already been there far too many times but I can definitely say it is one of my all time favourite places to eat! Marianne, Katrin...

On Sunday and Monday we celebrated Tristan's 25th birthday, so I prepared some snacks. I tried to make a large variation of plates but at the same time be within budget, as I was using the same ingredients and tried to make as many different recipes out of them as I could. Deviled eggs made from duck eggs   I used mustard, mayonnaise and butter to get this creamy texture and stronger taste. My favourite ham rolls It is so easy to make them and I prepare them with 5 ingerdients: ham, Philadelphia cream cheese, Mozzarella grated cheese and garlic. Lamb kebab wrapped in bacon (raw, picture taken before putting them in the oven) I bought lamb meatballs, rolled them to get the longer shape and wrapped them in bacon. Lamb minced meat also cooks really fast, so they only need to be in the oven about 30 minutes. Mini burgers I used lamb for burgers. I cooked the meat before in the oven, about 30 minutes maximum and then put them between the bread with little bit of c...