The World of Siân

Well if you haven’t guessed I do enjoy an afternoon tea even though I don’t have a sweet tooth.   For my last birthday my lovely friend Fordy got me two vouchers for afternoon tea at Weston Hall , Stafford.   Having a browse on line beforehand this looked like a marvellous setting. We arrived at this lovely building which was very picturesque the only down side was that it was quite close to a main road and this spoiled the view a bit but the noise levels weren’t too bad.   We headed into the Cellar restaurant where our afternoon tea was booked and showed into the lounge area where we would be having it.   Mr Bus and I chose some lovely sofas to sit on next to the fire, although it was the end of May we went the weather was still cold and wet so this was welcome. For our afternoon tea we could choose from a range of teas or coffee and we opted for Assam, being one of our favourites.   We were expecting to wait a little while and started to have a nose at...

I was always interested like most in the history of the Tudors and Henry VIII but this got lost by the whey side when following my education and career in Archaeology and Museums.   I am watching for the second time round the BBC series on the Tudors, and I have to say it’s just as gripping as the first time I watched it.   I really like how they have portrayed all of the characters even if Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a bit too hot and doesn’t really get fat and aged. I also enjoy how they convey the different political stances within this period and also the change in religion, making it easy to understand for the lay man.   You also see how different members of this period behaved in order for personal and family gain, and how they manipulated their circumstances and people they were in contact with.   It shows a bit more to Henry and the people he surrounded himself with rather than concentrating on him having so many wives. I feel both times I ...

Just by chance the other day I came across an advert for a free sample of Chanel mascara (first come first served – limited stock) – Le Volume de Chanel.   I never thought that I would be sent one.   Well one arrived in the post for me last week and I was looking forward to trying out.   I have to say it’s great, a bit heavy to put on but gives a wonderful look to your eyelashes, a girl friend of mine even asked if I was wearing false eyelashes!!   I was very pleased with outcome and would be tempted to buy some as the price is fairly reasonable as well for such a brand.

It’s that time of year again the fantastic Mr Bus’ birthday.   Now last year I decided to design and make him a digger cake, this year of course I had to equal that effort or go one better.   I had a few ideas in the pipeline and decided to ask the Birthday boy what he would prefer.   We went with a VW Bus cake. Now I started with baking a lemon drizzle loaf cake, whilst this was cooling had the daunting thought this was not going to be high enough, so baked another lemon loaf cake, this time without the drizzle, so that I could square off the top to sit the other one on top of it.   After these had cooled down, it was time to build, placing the loaf cakes one on top of the other with a layer of vanilla butter cream in the middle, I covered the cakes all over in butter cream.   I then set about with the icing.   I thought it best to start with the white top and draped it over the cakes, just leaving enough for a slight overlap at the bottom. ...