Number 19: spin a roulette wheel

Not the best picture, but we were trying not to be caught playing with someone else's casino!

This is the morning after a wedding (the one with the cake), as we had a first look at the disco lights that we needed to disassemble and pack up. While slightly worse for wear.

The fake money casino people had left all their kit behind and it already bore the signs of the hotel staff having a few rounds of betting the night before (unless one of the guests had a chewing gum habit and was gambling with wrappers).

I found the ball, spun the wheel, and discovered two things:
- firstly that you can spin the wheel too fast and bounce the ball out of it
- secondly that it is loud when you are trying to be quiet

As one of the very few gambling games I understand I have played roulette once or twice, indeed we had a similar set up at our own wedding. Tim has left small amounts of money in casinos around the world having been unable to resist having a go (most memorably going out with a 'top budget' to a casino in Austria only to return 5 minutes later with a slice of pizza which he bought with the one euro he had left).

So I couldn't resist having a go. It's fun!

Film 2010: Monsters

The voyage through the Empire top 20 films of 2010 continues, with one I would certainly never have watched otherwise.
All things considered, I am very glad that I did.

Number 18: make a wedding cake

I am tempted to put this as number 18 to 39, as there were so many firsts involved here...

Not the least of them include
- bake a cake the size of a whole oven
- use a spirit level (a lot) while baking
- hire a cake tin
- marzipan (neatly)
- white icing (very neatly)
- go cross eyed putting 100s of spots on

The list could go on!

It was made for my sister-in-law's wedding last weekend, which was a magical event in lots of ways.

I love weddings, a lot. There is something wonderful about being part of en event where everyone is happy for the same reason and genuinely wishing the couple the best. The cake is just one small part of the day and while it was a big challenge for me to learn everything I needed to, it was a pleasure to be involved.

In fact, the only real stress was in getting the three levels all the way to Eastbourne with no damage... There are lots of roundabouts and potholes between here and there!

Number 17: cheerleading

Not expecting this one, eh?

It was always on the long list although even I would admit it is highly improbable that I would don the amount of lycra and legwarmers needed for bouncing about as a cheerleader. But that is without taking the 'hen do' into account.

There are many things I have done on a hen do that I would never do in any other walk of life. Wear toilet roll, record a record and have my nails painted salmon pink are among them.

So, cheerleading it was. Sadly (or not sadly at all) I don't have any photographic evidence of me dancing about as I made the fastest run for the camera while we were in the 'dance' studio. Pictures of me would only have shown up the many occasions when I went left rather than right or punched someone near me in the head.

However I do have the pom-pom heart, which has the bride in the middle. I am on the far left looking like I am about to lean too far and fall over into the mirror. I probably was.
It was the start to a great hen night :-)

Number 16: a wheat free week

Should I put a picture of an Oatibix here? Maybe a corn flake? Maybe a wheat field...
If I am completely honest, this wasn't a huge challenge for me, as I only have one wheaty meal a day as a rule. I had cause to visit a nutritionist a couple of years ago who made the astute observation that three wheat based meals a day was probably a bit limited. It's amazing how easy it is to achieve too: Weetabix for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and pasta for tea and that's it, a mono-food group diet.

He pointed out that this was a bit artificial and if nothing else, variety would do me good. So I switched to Oatibix for brekkie and now only rarely have a sandwich for lunch. It's much less boring too, and one day I will learn how to make sushi and save myself a fortune in M&S veggie lunches.

We decided to try a full week mainly to see how wheat affects us and the result, if we are honest, is not much. There is definitely less bloatiness in the morning and I don't think you get that overfull at Christmas' feeling after meals. But we didn't really cook anything new and exciting or cook a miracle meal that we loved and made us feel zen and energised.

But we both said that we would try to have more variety and rely on wheat less. So that's probably a good thing.

Scavenging: the April list

Another good list - thanks to Postcards from the PP!
I'll admit that rather too many of these were last minute, but at least this month I can honestly say that all of the photos were taken in the month of April. A high standard I'm sure I'll fail to keep to in the coming months.

And now for the best bit, to see what everyone else has been taking pictures of. Hope everyone has enjoyed it!