Watching the London Marathon

We love watching the marathon and this time chose to watch at the end by Westminster underground station. We first saw the elite women, then the elite men. Then had a brief interlude and had a delicious lunch at Westminster Grill, while we waited for the masses. We saw lots of St George (it was St Georges Day). Lots of wonder women and Mr Men characters. We saw world record attempts for carrying a tumble dryer on the back, and for the groups as an aeroplane and camel. We saw the couple that got married at the Cutty Sark on route and the Mind over Marathon team, which was featured on the TV recently on an inspiring programme. We love cheering on the runners and love it when they say thank you. We've never stood so close to the end so saw a few being helped by people either side of them.

A very British luncheon

What do you cook for Ali's French family when they visit? An extremely British lunch of course, including Roast chicken with Yorkshire puddings and pudding of spotted dick, treacle sponge and jam roly poly with lashings of custard.

Christmas archery

My Christmas present last year was to re-live a passion of childhood - archery. We arrived at Shooting Targets in Bedfordshire and felt slightly out of place to begin with in the all male café, but then our instructor John collected us and took us to the Archery field. After the training and health and safety discussion, we were free to shoot as many as we like. I loved it and can't wait to do it again.