The Ultimate Incentive Part 11 (or 10B) It's The Final Countdown

Cinny91

Thanks Flower and Birdie! First thing my Mum said when I sent her a photo was "I think they have my eyes"

It feels very real now! It's weird, to go from "one day, when we have kids,.." to knowing we are having a kid, and it's going to be here in February if we're ready or not?! OH is excited though which is lovely to see Gave me a high five when the scan was done!

Sounds like a lovely weekend! We have no plans after being busy last weekend, just doing the rounds with hybrid photos. I wouldn't know who anyone was either, Birdie. Unless some classics popped up like Sam Dingle or Eric Pollard! Are they even still in it?

shrimpy_80

Congrats Cinny, lovely pic x

Birdie85

Ahh, you've got plenty time to get your heads around it now! TBH, we still wake up not feeling like parents and we'll look at each other in confusion when we hear this little voice singing away in the next room and we're like 'Oh yeah, we're responsible for a whole person!' :eek:

I don't know Sam Dingle and not sure if Eric's still in it! I'll be asking my Dad who's who!

Has anyone seen the 'news' about the plastic backs on earrings that are supposed to be removed? I just took the plastic bits off the back of the earrings I'm wearing today and my mind is officially blown! :rotfl:

shrimpy_80

Did you see any famous Emmerdale faces Birdie? Didn't they kill Eric off? I don't watch it either so i could be wrong!

ETA Just seen your sig Birdie - what did everyone think of the Bake Off? I was pleased with the outcome but felt so sorry for Dorret when her cake collapsed! Paul was in smug overdrive as usual!

Cinny91

That's so funny, Birdie! :rotfl: And ditto to Shrimpy on the Emmerdale faces I caught a bit of it one time at my parents and Eric was still very red faced and alive? I think?!

I was a bit errrrr on the Bake Off. It's my own fault, I'm still very emotionally attached to Norman from last year. I know everyone got up in arms over Ian's incident, but I still get irrationally upset when they sent him home for putting lavender in a meringue.. after they spent weeks telling him to be more adventurous?!

Birdie85

I saw Eric yesterday! He was just going round collecting money and having photos with people (I didn't bother ), didn't recognise anyone else but my Mum's friend, who is a big fan, was excited as she picked some people out. I couldn't even tell which was the civvy team and which was the 'celeb' one! :rotfl: Was a nice day though; I won a coconut on the coconut shy, then DH had to go and win 2 to show me up!

We saw Inside Out on Saturday and it was good, but a little more serious than a normal Pixar movie. Was very clever though and we came away wondering what 'Core Memories' we were creating with Zach! The little short before it was wonderful though, called 'Lava' about 2 volcanoes looking for love. It was fabulous and if I'd been hormonal I'd have been in tears!

I felt very sorry for Dorret, mostly in a personal 'Argh, typical that my chosen person has a disaster!' way! It was my first gasp of the series! I'm not sure who I like yet but I was happy that the hipster left! We're doing a bake-off at work again; got to do chocolate cake, lemon meringue pie, battenberg, 'Halloween Savoury Horrors', Swedish cookies, swiss roll and a 'Christmas Croquembouche Creation' :eek: We do it in teams so I won't be making all of this but I'm already on the lookout for the perfect chocolate cake!

shrimpy_80

Cinny - I hear you! I ADORED Norman, he was treated very shabbily! Paul took a definite dislike to him! I've got Ugne is the MSE pot luck and she seems pretty good, but I haven't really picked a favourite yet.

That is a lot of baking Birdie! I want to come and work with you :rotfl: We did one last year but we were a smaller team then and work has become a lot more serious since. I really want both a lemon meringue and a battenberg now though.

I have just googled Eric and can confirm that he is indeed alive and well - my apologies!

Birdie85

Oooh I loved Norman too - Pesto! :rotfl:

We take the bake off very seriously here, much more seriously than we take work! This year we have a panel of judges as there was too much tactical judging when the teams were scoring each other's bakes and people were getting [STRIKE]irate [/STRIKE] a bit miffed. I missed it last year as I was on maternity leave so I'm excited about getting back into it! I'm a bit nervous about some of the bakes though, I'm an enthusiastic baker, but not a very successful one!

shrimpy_80

How do you get on the judging panel? That sounds like my dream job! Ours got quite serious last year, the winner brought in her Cath Kidston tea set and served us all tea with her cake so that clinched it - probably cheating in hindsight! :rotfl:

Birdie85

I was annoyed when it was bread week and one woman brought in her Emma Bridgewater picnic hamper and served her (just OK) bread with loads of nice chutneys and cheeses etc. So very cheaty, and loads of people fell for it and gave her team 10/10! :mad: If I knew how to get on the judging panel I'd be on it! I think it's just a few people who are known foodies without any obvious tendencies to lean towards certain people.

I know that my presentation has let me down in the past so I'm going to try extra hard to get that right this time. I've been Pinteresting beautiful chocolate cake decorations and trying to figure out what a) looks best and b) is actually do-able!