Markets and music

It's been another dull few weeks with just lots of work. However I did go out to a house concert Friday night which was fun. Here are a few pictures from the night.

Ginger Lane community hall.

With audience.

And the Monkey house monkey in the background!

Saturday I went with Cait to the markets in Roanoke. But I was so busy buying tasty fun things I forgot to take any photos.  Oops! After she dropped me down South Main and I brought some new running shoes. (I have been putting it off as they are not cheap but it was time!) After that I hung around in coffee shops for a while before meeting a friend at the new Lebanese restaurant which opened a month ago. It was ok but not as good as I am used too. Still by Blacksburg standards, pretty damn good! Though we were both expecting a little more upscale (like with actual plates!). It was a fun day, topped off up a few glasses of wine at my favorite bar. 

Chocolate making class

This weekend I treated myself to a pre-birthday gift and something I have been wanting to do for ages! A chocolate making class! The class was held at my favorite restaurant, the Palisades in Eggleston. The food is amazing and they have their own pastry chief and chocolatier, Devon, who ran the class. We started off with caramels. We didn't make these as they take a while (~6 hours!) but we did benefit from Devon's hard work and got to take these home! (The plan was to dip them in chocolate but we didn't get time in the end.)

Caramels (2 different recipes give the different colors - both super tasty!)

Caramel goodies!

Then we moved onto the best bit: the chocolate. She had a huge tub of it, melted and ready to go. It smelt amazing!

Deliciousness!

There were 8 of us in total in the class, on 2 different tables/workstations. We all got on well and had great fun.

Hard at work

It was all really nerve-wracking! We all wanted to make amazing chocolates. We put glitter at the bottoms and them painted the molds with chocolate. We were all being so careful and exact. (This was actually the easy step.)

Painted molds

After that we had to put in a shell which is where it really started to get messy! The chocolate has to be tempered (between 31.5C and 32C) so was thick. 

First you pour it over, hit the mold to get out the air bubbles, and scrap off the excess.

Pouring onto the molds.

 And then turn it upside and hit it to get the excess out.

Removing the excess form the shells.

This is where is got really messy!!!

After we had all taken turns, we had to wait for them to set so had lunch which was provided by the restaurant, so therefore amazing! The only weird bit was the view from the window. There are  loads of vultures on the trees outside. Apparently they figured out where the dumpsters for the restaurant where a few years ago. Now they have made it their home!

Vultures. 

After lunch, we got to pipe in the ganache. We had pomegranate, passion fruit and a small amount of maple and brown sugar. 

Ganache bags

Piping demo

I really enjoying this bit. It felt so fancy! And we all had to take a taste of the different sorts at the end. Sooooooo good! 

The last step is putting the bottom on. Again, messy!

Adding the shell bottom.

They were flashed in the freezer for a few minutes before being removed from the molds. I was so happy mine came out first time (as they should). And I was amazed how awesome they looked! I love the blue glitter.

My chocolates - pomegranate ganache. 

We spilt up all the chocolates between us so we all got some of each to take home. (Another reason for being so nervous - I didn't want to screw up if someone else was getting them!) I know have a lot of chocolate to eat. :-) Now I want to buy all the stuff to make more!

My chocolates 

After the class I got changed (it was very messy) and headed into Salem and Roanoke with Steve. I found a wine and beer shop called Barrel Chest in Salem which do tasting samples of different wines. I wanted to try different price wines next to each other. Is it really worth spending more money on a really good bottle?

My wines

I had wines between $20 and $60 a bottle. And honestly, the $60 was the best but I wouldn't spend the money (on that one anyway). It was really nice (a Californian) but the others were also good (very drinkable) and much nicer on my bank account! I guess if you have the money, but at least in the case of these, you aren't missing much. (Buy the $20 on half price!)

Champagne tasting

They also did a side-by-side sparkling tasting, a rose champagne and a USA rose. I preferred the Champagne as the USA one was too bubbly. But really shouldn't have anything with bubbles (alcoholic or not). I get bad hiccups.
After the tasting, we found an awesome Brazilian restaurant, one of the top 5 in Roanoke. We spilt a carafe (the bottles were crazy expensive) of white wine. I had lobster and Steve got scrim/prawns. I have never had really good lobster and didn't know what all the fuss was about. But this was really good! I still prefer crab, but I get all the fuss now.

Dinner.

Then we headed into Roanoke town centre to a bar Steve had read about. He wanted to dance. But nothing gets going at that time (~9pm) So we went to a Hookah bar first. Steve had never been to one so as a bit nervous but he got into it. I think.

With my Hookah

Steve started talking to the group next to us. Which was fine. Until we moved and talked to the girl at the end. Leaving me with the guy sitting closest to me. Who started talking about how his dad was in the Hell's Angels and he was in the legacy. (There was no way this guy was even close to Hell's Angels - complete hipster - they would have kicked his ass!) And then how he sold drugs for them, but wasn't into the whole "voom-voom thing". (Again kicked his ass!) He most likely sold drugs. And took more than his share. At that point I paid the bill and indicated (probably not very subtly) to Steve that we were leaving. Now!

We headed to the bar he had read about and got some drinks and he started dancing. Unfortunately this is when the Champagne bubbles really hit! I got serious hiccups! So I people watched. It was a fascinating crowd! 

I got home at about 1.30am. I am so too old for this! I spent today working (and taking naps) and doing a little baking, as I have been reminded that the baking production has been very low recently. So I made cupcakes with homemade chocolate frosting. And felt silly so decorated them. (There were 18 but one didn't make it to this stage. I had to taste test!)

Cupcakes 

Happy weekend!!!

More vineyards

Sunday was more relaxed. The weather was wet so I ended up just visiting more wineries. (Shame I know!) After lunch I headed to Attimo, where I forgot to take any photos - too busy drinking. It was nice and they had an amazing port! 

The second vineyard was up on the mountain near Roanoke. The road up was honestly one of the more challenging I have driven. I have never driven so many 180 degree hair pins bends, one straight after the other, before.  (So glad I don't get motion sick!)  

The view from the top was, well, less than inspiring!

View from Valhalla

And I am not being dramatic when I say Valhalla. Seriously, that is the name of the vineyard. And I have to say I was really impressed, a first for VA vineyards. The people were really friendly and recommended a few other places I might want to visit. I also prefer reds and they had some really good ones, the best VA reds I have tasted so far. After the tasting I sat and enjoyed a glass (and sober up for a time) looking at the "view".

Not the best view

A better view!

Places are also starting to put their Christmas decorations up which makes me feel very festive. I might put mine up soon. A bit early but I have leaving to go home before Christmas and want to enjoy them before I go. And have them up for my wine party in a few weeks.

Christmas fire place.

After sobering up and driving back to Blacksburg, I did some more food shopping (so much easier with a car) before heading home. (And doing more work.) 

Roanoke and cake

After another great Friday night at the Monkey House with some amazing live music, on Saturday, I went with Steve and Eva into Roanoke to visit a few of the museums. We started off with the Taubman art gallery which is frankly just odd. I have been there once before and can't say I enjoyed it any more this time. The exhibits are odd. I decided not to take photos of the main exhibit. They were really creepy (with human heads on animals, blood, etc) and really not suitable for a 4 yr old!

Weird morphed redoes climbing on other teddies

The nicest thing there.

They did have a children's play area which was ok.

Being a butterfly

Making noise

Putting on a show.

 We didn't spend very long in the Taubman. Most of it was really not good for little eyes and pretty boring to be honest. After lunch at a Lebanese restaurant (the best thing about Roanoke is the wider variety of restaurants than in Blacksburg), we went to the Science museum in the square. It was way too expensive for what you got. It seemed aimed at too old an audience inside compared to the advertisements. We were not very impressed.

Checking out minerals

turbulence

 One of the best things was a planetarium globe. It displayed lots of different things, even the WMAP results. But it didn't explain any of them! Fail.

planetarium

There was also a sensory area where you could dig for fossils. Eva spent some time there, mainly throwing the rubber. Then we sat in the reading area going through books while Steve tried (and failed) to take a nap.

Digging for fossils

 After the museums and an ice-cream we headed back to Blacksburg. They dropped me off home where I took a well deserved nap! Children are lots of fun but exhausting. They came over to mine later that evening for dinner and Eva and I baked a blue Frozen cake. Eva was great mixing everything together. And we decorated it with sparkly icing! It was very pretty and blue and tasty.

Our frozen cake!

She was happy with the cake. Honest!

We were going to watch Frozen to go with our Frozen cake. But Eva changed her mind and we watched Despicable Me 2 instead. A fun evening to end a great day!
Today I spent the day working, so not nearly as much fun but necessary. :-(

Worst flight home.

On Saturday I started the trip back to Blacksburg which meant a very early morning to drive down to Heathrow. I ended up taking an additional suitcase back as I had brought so many clothes and gifts. So after checking and paying for the suitcase (and arguing that the website said it was cheaper than they charged me - and losing), we went to Weatherspoons for breakfast and watched the groups of people drinking pints at 9am and running off to the loos holding hands over their mouths. Before coming back to drink more beer. So entertaining at least.
There were lots of tears as I left but that was expected. I have had such a good time at home, meeting up with friends and spending time with family.
The first part of the trip, Heathrow to Chicago, was ok. Though the snack for GF was nasty. I was looking forward to getting something real to eat before my next flight. It took over 1.5 hrs to get though immigration. I have never been at a worse airport then Chicago when it comes to immigration queues. They had taken my suitcases off the conveyer belt as they needed to for the next flight before I was half way through the queue! (But meant I didn't have to brag them off the belt so saved me some bruises.)
Then I got to handing in my baggage for the next flight, only to be told my flight was cancelled due to bad weather. At the desk they then spent an hour trying to find me another flight. He offered a flight to Detroit on Sunday and a possible flight 8 hours after that to Roanoke. But the weather there was even worse. His expression suggested that was not a good option and I would rather be stuck in Chicago than Detroit. So I was put on standby for Sunday and booked on a flight for Monday. And then given a piece of paper with a number to call for a hotel. The airline won't help if the cancellation or delay is due to weather. :-(
So after some wrong numbers, I got a hotel and found someone else going to the same place.
The hotel was actually very nice and had a restaurant and bar. Which was very needed.

Nicer than the airport floor!

 I had dinner with the guy I meet at the airport staying in the same hotel. Which was fine. But he insisted on paying. Which was nice. Except he obviously thought that entitled him to more, even though I had told him I was seeing someone and that someone was a Marine Sniper. (It's always good to have a large dangerous boyfriend "around", even a fictitious one.) So this guy was either very stupid, didn't believe me, or had a death wish.
So between the fact that this guy who grabbed and tried to kiss me and unfortunately knew where my room was (as his was 2 doors down) and the fact that the hotel had double booked my room (luckily I was fully clothed in the room when both parties realized this mistake), I didn't really sleep very well.
Thankfully we did not get the 18 inches of snow in Chicago that was predicted over night.

View from my window the next morning.

I spent Sunday morning chilling around the hotel and then headed to the airport to sit and wait and pray for someone else to miss their flight so I can steal their seat. I got there early to make sure I was on the standby list and first. I ended up at a sushi place for some average sushi and a nice glass of plum wine. I have never tried it before but it was very nice. Sweet and lovely as a desert. So the wait in the airport was quite nice.

View from the sushi place

I got lucky and someone missed their flight. When my name was called out to go to the desk to get a real boarding pass, I practically sprinted to it, jumping over bags, suitcases and in one case, a sleeping passenger, just in case in the minute it would take me to get there, they changed their minds. I was so happy. (Though I did panic when they scanned my boarding pass as I get onto the plane and it made a nasty screaming sound. But the lady who scanned it had given it to me previously so she just waved me though.)

The flight was very boring, in permanent cloud and it was raining in Roanoke, though very warm which is nice. (It's snowing now!) And due to the short notice of my flight, I couldn't get a lift from the airport. But I found 2 others going to Blacksburg, and we shared a taxi so it was a lot cheaper than it could have been. And they were very nice people so the trip was entertaining as well.

It's nice to be home. (I even got my suitcases carried up the stairs for me by the sweet lad next door - who says students are nice?) However the moral of the story is do not fly via Chicago in winter!

VT Ice Hockey

Friday night I went, with a couple of friends, to see the VT Ice Hockey team at the Roanoke Civic Centre. The tickets were only $5 each and with a VT staff card you get in free. (I didn't know this and didn't have mine with me but I will make sure next time.)   :-)

It wasn't very full (certainly not compared to the football) but I have a great time. They were playing Maryland and as usual the VT fans showed brilliant sportsmanship (not!).

Zamboni!!!

Some members of the VT team.

Maryland Terrapins

 In the first break period, they threw rubber ducks from the top balcony to the crowd. I have no idea why but next time, I want one! (I was too busy being puzzled to take photos.) In the second break, they gave out rubber pucks and people had to try to get them as close to the centre of the rink as possible.

Goalie warming up 

puck throw

Dancing the YMCA in the break

 The game was fun (though I was starting to get a little cold towards the end). There were the expected scuffles in the rink.

Starting

Start of the fight

falling 

"Oh oh" moment

Celebrating

But it was really fun. And VT won. :-)

End of game hand shake.