Back in October, I gathered a few friends and we had the pleasure of meeting the wonderful and ever talented Helen Fielding, author of the Bridget Jones series. The event, An Evening With Helen Fielding was sponsored by Elle Canada, Random House, Girls Night Out Wines, Purdy's chocolate and Rimmel London to promote the release of Helen's latest book "Mad About the Boy". The wine was flowing, the chocolates were melting (in our mouths) and the atmosphere was intoxicating!!! The venue was a loft above a furniture store on Queen St and very posh! It was during the interview with Helen that I was saddened to hear of Mark's passing. (Later, on October 31st, a couple of days after my dads' quadruple bypass surgery, I read of Mark's death and texted the following to Carla:
Just read about Mark's death. Am in deep sorrow over the loss of such a great man! It was a very noble death however, but I shall don black today as I grieve the loss of one of Britain's best people)It was so invigorating having the chance to meet the author behind my favourite all time romantic scene! Helen is witty, down to earth and genuine fun! Afterwards, we had the chance to meet her and she signed our copies of the book! By the end of the night we vowed to get together and watch the Bridget Jones movies together!
Well, eventually we were able to agree on a date that suited us all and headed off to Sara's for a Bridget marathon. Each of us contributed towards our version of the turkey-curry buffet. I of course took things to a whole new level and brought the blue soup! I also tried out the orange pudding (without the sugar cages) Mark mentions as he rescues Bridget from her kitchen debacle and chaos. Amanda being British herself, brought some chocolate and a cheese and pineapple hedgehog!
..and just as with Love Actually when we pause the movie as Keira Knightley enters with her proffered, "Banoffee pie?" to partake in the indulgence of my homemade banoffee pie, we paused Bridget Jones's Diary when Mark Darcy peers into the pot and remarks on Bridget's blue soup! To add to the authenticity of the soup, I saved a portion of leek which I duly tied with ribbon - not the kind Bridget used causing the blueish hue, but regular white string. (This scene reminds me of a family Christmas dinner when we were all asked to bring something for the meal. My step sister Candy was asked to bring the squash - well, she did bring the squash, the whole unpeeled, uncooked squash! In fact the sticker may have still been on it!) The blue of my soup was attributed to mere food colouring, and although due to the lighting, the soup appears more greenish than blue in the above photo, it really was blue.
The dessert Bridget concocted was meant to be an orange pudding. I googled recipes for this and chose to make the one from http://pluckycravings.com/21013/11/04-orangepudding and it was rather tasty! Time consuming but quite worth the effort in my estimation! I halved the recipe as it normally serves 10 and there were only 5 of us (and I didn't have enough ramekins either!).
While still on a Bridget high, I found a Bridget Jones's Diary mug on eBay and it arrived last week! Now I can sip my coffee every morning while starring at Colin Firth - it just doesn't get any better than that! Well, it could if he were to perhaps join me for said coffee sometime! All I ask is that when Mad About The Boy is made into a movie - please, please, please have Colin Firth in it, you know in flashback scenes and whatnot - the next generation needs the ideal of Mark Darcy to aspire to when searching for a mate!
