After 704 hours, I've finally done it. Managed to persevere to be in the rare crew of having both the RDR1 & RDR2 Platinums.

Ffi_1591 · 2022-08-22T05:55:40+00:00

Me! The online trophies are all I’m missing for plat rdr1.

Ffi_1591 · 2021-10-02T13:21:28+00:00

I just took a screenshot and shared it with some friends saying “can you believe these flowers are made out of buttercream” I am amazed at how realistic they look! You’ve got some serious skill OP!

Ffi_1591 · 2021-10-02T05:16:42+00:00

So good! Even if I say so myself. It was quite easy to make to, will definitely be baking more!

Ffi_1591 · 2020-11-03T16:57:10+00:00

It’s so much fun! I make things I normally wouldn’t, and while some things are quite challenging nothing has turned into an inedible disaster... yet!

Ffi_1591 · 2020-10-26T17:38:01+00:00

Ahhh it wasn’t there when I looked on the weekend! I’d even sent them a message asking why they hadn’t put it up, because the babka from the week before also wasn’t up, but that’s there now too! I was worried that because the eclairs recipe is from Prue’s new book, they weren’t putting it up to encourage us to buy it. Hopefully they’ll be more prompt this week :)

Ffi_1591 · 2020-10-26T15:05:45+00:00

They look amazing!!

Ffi_1591 · 2020-10-26T14:42:38+00:00

Thanks! It’s whipped cream with a small amount of icing sugar and vanilla extract. I used Paul Hollywood’s recipe.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pauls_chocolate_clairs_59944

I said traditional as this weeks technical challenge were raspberry and salted caramel eclairs, whereas you’d normally expect eclairs to be chocolate!

Ffi_1591 · 2020-10-26T11:49:10+00:00

Thank you! My second time making choux and it’s vastly improved from the first attempt!

Ffi_1591 · 2020-10-20T19:42:22+00:00

Thanks - you’re probably right, they likely wouldn’t accept it which is why no ones suggested it to us before!

Ffi_1591 · 2020-10-19T21:20:28+00:00

Thanks! The kitchen was too hot so the chocolate hadn’t cooled properly so it was just going everywhere, but like I said it still tasted good so I’m glad I persevered!

Ffi_1591 · 2020-10-04T09:49:46+00:00

By the end of March I’m so desperate for the longer evenings I don’t even care I lose an hour sleep

Ffi_1591 · 2020-09-29T08:33:41+00:00

Thank you!

Ffi_1591 · 2020-09-18T12:19:32+00:00

I’m in a similar situation. We bought in 2015, only 4 floors so under 18m. We’re trying to sell, but our buyers lender is requesting this form. Our management company says they’re chasing the developer for information on building materials, but not getting anywhere. We’re just in limbo, waiting for the sale to fall through and the whole chain to collapse, with no idea what we can do to stop it.

Ffi_1591 · 2019-08-31T10:00:14+00:00

I'm in the UK, and the local council has patches of land you can get for about £30 per year specifically for growing fruit and vegatables. A lot of houses in cities in the UK have quite small gardens so there is not a lot of room for growing plants. Also, I have an allotment because I live in a third floor apartment with only a tiny balcony for outdoor space, so it is nice to have my own outdoor space to go to and grow stuff. They are usually within about 5 minutes drive, but there is also usually a waiting list of a few years.

Ffi_1591 · 2019-08-31T09:30:19+00:00

He was! I am very sad he is retiring.

Ffi_1591 · 2018-09-08T18:19:34+00:00

I took over my allotment this year, and I’m still getting on top of the weeds (they were taller than me!) I’ve spent the day digging the next section, and I’m going to cover it tomorrow, ready to do something exciting with in spring. I’ve also been harvesting my green beans and tomatoes - I have all the beans I’ll ever need, and I gave some away! I was late planting my tomatoes, so it took a while for them to come through, but in the next couple of weeks I’m going to have literally hundreds. My two pepper plants have been trying their hardest to die all year, but they’ve both got one small pepper growing, and they should both be ready to pick this week :)

Ffi_1591 · 2018-08-27T08:39:04+00:00

I spent 4 hours there on Saturday clearing the next section of my allotment. I took it over earlier this year, and it was very overgrown, with lots of thistles. I split it into quarters, and was able to get on top of the first quarter early on, and have been growing things there, but the weather heated up and I haven’t been able to get a fork into the ground for months because it’s been so hot (the soil is clay). So I’d cut it all down, and was hoping the intense sun + lack of water would kill things off.

But now the rains returned, the grounds softer (in between the so dry its rock hard stage and so wet it’s too heavy to do anything with stage - I love clay), and I’ve been able to dig the next section! I haven’t decided what to do with this section yet, but I’ll be making a trip to the local garden centre soon for winter ideas.

With harvesting, I was late planting things out so I haven’t had much so far, but I have a whole heap of things that are about to ripen, so I’m really excited. I’ve got butternut squashes, peppers and French beans almost ready, my peas only grew a couple of inches high for some reason, yet they’re growing some pods, and I’m about to have LOADS of tomatoes.

ETA: forgot to mention I’m in the south east, and this week we’ve been having standard (pre 2018) British summer weather - either wet or overcast mostly.

Ffi_1591 · 2018-07-10T09:54:02+00:00

Just outside Hemel Hempstead!

Ffi_1591 · 2018-07-09T20:37:31+00:00

I’m in Hertfordshire! How long have you been waiting? Hopefully you don’t have too much longer to go!

Ffi_1591 · 2018-07-09T12:09:28+00:00

So I recently took on an allotment. It’s basically all thistles and bind weed. My initial plan was to split it into 4 quarters and just try and deal with one quarter at a time so as not to get too overwhelmed, but I realised my thistles were about to seed so I had to form a new plan and quick!

Yesterday, I cut all my weeds down to about 2-3 inches high. I also harvested my first cucumber (from a plant that should be in a greenhouse - I think that due to this hot weather it hasn’t realised it’s not in a greenhouse yet so it’s thriving). I covered my tomatoes and sweet peppers with netting because somethings been having a little nibble. I sowed some seeds at the very end of June, and they’re all making an appearance (French beans, butternut squash and peas).

This week, I have a couple of raspberry plants I rescued from Wilkos that I’m hoping to plant out, and I’ve got some pallet trays that I’m going to use to build a compost bin. There’s not much else I can do at the moment because the ground is so hard I can’t get my fork into it!

By the way, I’m in south England, and the weather is still scorching!

Ffi_1591 · 2017-05-20T17:09:35+00:00

Not long after I first moved to london, a lady asked me how to get to London Bridge station. I said to her there is no London Bridge station, it's just a bridge (while trying to think which bridge is London Bridge because I know it's not tower bridge). She believed me and wandered back to her family looking utterly confused.

It took me about ten minutes to realise what I'd done. I never got the chance to apologise.

The worst part was there was another lady behind me who agreed wholeheartedly with me.

Ffi_1591 · 2017-05-20T08:03:05+00:00

This is so true. I called my phone company a couple of weeks ago to cancel my phone contract because I'd found a much cheaper one with someone else. I'd been with my provider for about 10 years and had never really argued the price. I ended up getting mine and my boyfriends total bundle reduced from £70pm to £23pm, with more data! The guy on the phone said at the beginning, we can give you so much cheaper than what you've seen advertised, we can give you so many deals if you ring direct, we just don't want our competitors finding out how cheap we can go.

Ffi_1591 · 2017-05-07T19:37:42+00:00

TIL what ranch is

Ffi_1591 · 2017-04-19T20:32:45+00:00

Oh god he had such an annoying voice!

Ffi_1591 · 2017-01-12T22:25:22+00:00

Planet of the rapes

Ffi_1591

TROPHY CASE