It arrived!

I was so delighted to read that my, probably not very well packed, parcel has managed to wing its way to sunny Sydney and to the grateful hands of Kate of veggie friendly fame. I’d had a real challenge with the parcel and not because Kate is vegetarian but the Australian department of agriculture are very thorough and so many of the things I’d originally earmarked for my first attempt at blogging by mail were on the prohibited list. I ended up with a spare Christmas pudding, Christmas cake and a special blend of Christmas tea which contained the dreaded fruit peel much despised the border guards. And I'd intended to include a few home-made foodie treats, but I could see that causing extra delay if they suspected any banned substances trying to sneak through.
I swiftly substituted the contains a tiny bit of peel tea for Earl Grey but the Christmas pudding plate was left bereft of pudding as I couldn’t get a guarantee that my choice of replacement - "House of Chocolat’s chocolate pudding" wasn’t going to distress a vegetarian. I decided that it may be safer to concentrate less on food and more on the table so there were scatter snowflakes, a snowflaked table runner and some festive shapes with which to adorn napkins. I also got a few extra goodies from Harvey Nicholls, my favourite ‘Baci di Dama’ embellished hot pot stand, a charming little Miss Christmas ornament and a little silver snowflake necklace. When I decide upon a theme, I like to run with it! I hadn't intended to include anything bedecked with pine cones but if I did, this would allow have been dangerous goods smuggling, so my parcel remained pine cone and seed free.
I’ve been checking veggie friendly very regularly as I had fears that the goodies had been confiscated by vigilant “Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry” inspectors and quarantined... perhaps for ever.
But phew, it has arrived… and I’m very happy! I hope you enjoyed it, Kate?