Good times!

I’ve had a couple of lovely days! Friday was my day off and I had planned to go to lunch with Nicola. Normally our socialising is limited to slaving over a steaming sewing machine but I had a voucher from Groupon for a local restaurant so off we went. Now, if you read Nicola’s blog, Stitch Magic, you will know that she spent a few days at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham so of course she had lots to tell me about her adventures. I was green with envy and next year I am going to make every effort to go myself. She wisely tells me that one day just isn’t enough – even three days meant that she didn’t get to see everything – I’m just imagining the enormity of it all! Being the good friend that she is, she bought me a present to make up for me not being able to go! A beautiful bag kit – no spoilers, you’ll have to wait until it’s finished!!

We had a lovely meal but forgot about taking any pics until the dessert came – here’s mine!

Doesn’t it look huge!! Don’t worry that’s an illusion, it just looks like a huge trifle bowl, in fact it was a small bowl – meringue island, with lovely vanilla custard and strawberries – delicious!

After lunch, I inducted Nicola into the joys of Poundland – can you believe she’d never set foot in such a place before? I think she was a little overwhelmed, poor thing! I love Poundland (on a quiet day!) it’s great for all sorts of things but this time I needed bits for the grand barbecue we’re having next weekend.

And the fun continued yesterday. John has a special birthday coming up at the end of the week and he is notoriously difficult to buy for at the best of times. Son1 decided to organise a photo session as a local photographer’s studio. After agonising about what we should wear all five of us trooped along, FDIL and I both wore dresses, the boys wore more casual clothes and John wore smart trousers and shirt. The photographer took one look and said ‘you’re dressed quite formally – my style is more fun!’ We had an hours session booked and 10 minutes in I was exhausted!! We had this pose and that pose, John & I, the boys together, the boys apart, Son1 and FDIL, John & the boys, me and the boys – it seemed endless! I’m really looking forward to the results!

And of course all good things must come to an end and they did – with a bang. Ipswich Town’s match was televised yesterday and, having being thumped 5-2 at home during the week, we were hoping for a good result. We sat down to watch and were ecstatic when Town scored the first goal. Sadly the ecstasy did not last as Peterborough sent SEVEN (yes SEVEN) goals into the back of our net. There are 11 players in a team, we lost 2 to red cards and the remaining 9 seemed to think they should just stand back and watch the show. It’s hard being a Town fan, but we thought this season was going to be different – sadly that does not appear to be the case . Never mind, the next game that I will go to won’t be until October (Son2 will take my ticket next weekend) perhaps things will be sorted out by then!

So what’s next? Busy week coming up, going to view the photo’s on Wednesday, John’s birthday Friday – going out for lunch with FDIL’s Mum & brother ‘cos he’s 18 on the same day – and then on Sunday we have the barbecue as part of Son2’s ‘Going to Oz’ celebrations, this one’s for family friends (he has a compartmentalised life!).

I’ll need today to prepare myself!!

Ta Dah...

...and welcome to post number 200! I couldn’t believe when I scrolled down the posts the posts this morning that I’d reached 199, when I looked further I found that I’d posted 50 of those in the first month which was only May of this year.

As the boys were both off doing their own thing today I thought I’d treat John to Sunday lunch. Wanting to go somewhere different I decided to ask my friends on Twitter for their suggestions and @farctum came up with The Brewery Tap which, as it is a mere 10 minutes from home in the car, seemed like a good idea.

A small-ish pub, with several nooks and crannies and not very busy when we first arrived, the menu was slightly different to that advertised on the website and we both ordered the roast lamb dinner – it was absolutely delicious. Plenty of meat served on a bed of mashed swede and cauliflower cheese. The other vegetables served were carrots, kale, broccoli, roast parsnips and roast potatoes along with freshly made gravy and a small pot of mint sauce. John followed his with hot chocolate pudding with clotted cream and I went for the poached pear with homemade ginger ice cream.

All of this in a very pleasant atmosphere, subtle music playing in the background, (almost) roaring open fires and, sadly, a fairly grotty view across the river with all the building work helped to brighten up a horrible day weather-wise here in the East. The two young ladies behind the bar were lovely very efficient and gave us first class service – as we left they told us to come back soon, we certainly will!

It was as delicious as it looks - yummmmm!

Not only a lazy blogger...

...but also a lazy cook! Found these in that famous HIgh Street store yesterday - not just any casserole ingredients...
... it seemed such a good idea - smells delicious too!

Weary Wednesday

I was just struggling to come up with a W to describe Wednesday when I realised just how tired I am! Damn hormones are wreaking havoc again, HRT pretty good but only for three weeks out of four, never mind I'm allowing myself a bit of a lie-in tomorrow and not going to work until after I've been to the dentist - I know how radical am I becoming, eh?

Work OK again today, had a lovely lunch break with Lisa (again, how radical to actually have a lunch break and not work through with a sandwich!)

Wednesday has become a tradition now for number 2 son & girlfriend to have dinner with us, poor L has spent the day at her new job today, she's just got her first hairdressing job after college, she came in about 6.30 and looked sooo tired - almost made me feel good! After a simple but delicious (is that one worn out yet??) dinner of Kievs, jacket potatoes and salad they trundled off to their other home - with L's parents, wouldn't surprise me if she slept all evening.

I can feel the beginnings of withdrawal because BGT is not on TV - however I am quite happy at the moment because Manchester United are currently losing 1-0 (that'll teach 'em for thrashing Arsenal!!!)

I stumbled across a great blog this evening http://insideaileighsheart.blogspot.com/ really made me (and Julie) chuckle - take a look, I'm sure it will brighten your day too!! I'm trying to get to grips with the clever ways of adding links, meanwhile please make do with good old copy & paste!