5th wedding of the year...

This weekend was Pat and Fliss’ wedding. They got married in a tiny village in Wales. We left it far too late to get cheap train tickets or a hotel anywhere within 20 miles of the wedding. We had already decided to go straight after work on Friday my idea was to stay somewhere half way between London and Birmingham but Ollie found a hotel in Walsall so booked that for Friday hoping to find somewhere close to the wedding for the Saturday. Well we still hadn’t got anywhere last Tuesday so thought that we had better just book another night in Walsall as it was only an hours drive away from the wedding.

We set off from Newbury Park where Ollie had parked the car at about 5:15 Friday night. A great time to set off especially on the Friday that most of the kids have broken up for the summer holidays! We arrived at the hotel at 9:30 after doing a Granddad Ted and driving around the roundabout at Junction 10 of the M6 as the multimap directions didn’t give us an exit! It had rained torrentially during all the bits that I drove (last time I drove on the M6 it rained really hard too!)

Saturday was of course Harry Potter release day so I had forewarned Ollie that we would need to find a Sainsbury’s. Not to worry of course because like EVERY SINGLE other time we have ever stayed in a hotel in England we were less than half a mile away from a Sainsbury’s!

We had to be at the wedding at 2pm so left just after 12 with plenty of time to travel the 60 miles or so. Armed with my Multimap directions we headed towards Shrewsbury. After we had passed the town, Multimap advised us to head down a B road. Shortly after we reached a crossroads. ‘Road ahead closed flood’ said the way we wanted to go. Oh we said as I scanned the map for an alternative route, “turn left”. No that was closed too, as was right. We passed a lady who was desperately trying to get home but the whole area was flooded. We decided to chance the original route – it surely couldn’t be that bad? Well we started to get worried as we were followed by an AA van – not a good sign. Then we saw the dip in the road and the cars driving through a huge puddle that was quite a distance across with water coming above their headlights. The AA van was for some teenagers in a Vauxhall Nova which had conked out after coming through. We decided to turn around. Directing Ollie to go back to the other side of Shrewsbury and down the A roads we took a 30 mile detour with only 45 minutes to go before the wedding. All was well, there were only a few deepish puddles to contend with until we hit the last village before the hotel. The river had burst its banks, houses were flooded and all the locals were congregated outside the pub on the bridge. We turned the corner and there’s another river running across the road! We’re so close! Only a mile to go! We’ll have to brave it. It’s only coming up to the top of the number plates. We made it through and got to the hotel to run inside just as they reached the bit that says “if anyone knows of any lawful impediment…” so we sat down very quickly!

The wedding itself was great. The food was fantastic, we had a whole chicken breast with salad to start followed by roast beef with trimmings and sticky toffee pudding. The speeches were great, and Ollie and I even got a special mention and a thank you for all the ideas that they pinched from our wedding! We heard Ollie’s song request – Build me up Buttercup by the Foundations but left before my choice – I am the one and only, Rick Astley! It had been raining all afternoon and we were worried about deep puddles in the dark.

So all in all a very good but tiring weekend. I just wish I had got some flood pictures but I was too busy trying to get us to the wedding on time and without getting too wet!

...And a funeral

Sadly one of our rabbits, Harry, died last week. Ollie dug a hole while I was at work on Saturday and we had a bunny funeral when I got home. We have no idea why he died, he was fine in the evening and then the next morning he was dead.

Fuzz, our remaining bunny, seems very sad and lonely and hasn’t wanted to come out of his hutch to play all weekend.

Yesterday we went to Ollie’s dad’s for a BBQ. His girlfriend, Anna, doesn’t like BBQs so was having one to give it a go. I helped with the cooking, and did the chicken, lamb kebabs and a few of the new potato kebabs (I’d never had potato kebabs before, but they were ok). I left the sausages and burgers to Ollie’s dad. They had cheated by part cooking the chicken legs (by boiling them?!?!) so they only really needed charring. So I’ve cooked it and dished Ollie’s out first so he can try it to test if it’s cooked! They were all fine and the lamb kebabs were really nice. Yet Anna still managed to complain that her chicken was pink (it wasn’t pink it was the colour of a chicken leg) and that her lamb kebab wasn’t cooked properly. Well it was cooked, the lamb wasn’t even pink; apparently her problem was that the courgette and onion were hard. Well it will be I said, because they take longer to cook than the lamb. So I don’t think that we’ve converted her into a BBQ lover. But I had an ok time, drinking sangria and sitting in the sun talking to Gemma.

4th Wedding of the year...

On Saturday Ollie and I went to a wedding in Alton, Hampshire. It was the wedding of a couple friends of his from University. We had originally planned to drive there and back in the day but were persuaded by another friend to stay over at a hotel.

The wedding was great. The bride looked stunning and her dress was gorgeous. The meal was fantastic, we had pate wrapped in bacon with fancy bread, duck and then strawberries and cream (Ollie had sticky toffee pud). Plus there was plenty of wine and champagne.

There was a ceilidh band, so me and Ollie were up wearing ourselves out barn dancing! It’s really hard work. Plus there was a huge firework display.

Sunday

Travelling back into Kent we had to phone mum up to find out which roads would be closed because of the Tour de France. We did see a load of ‘lost’ cyclists about on Sunday – or they could have been idiots inspired by the race to dig out their old Lycra! I want to know when Kent became part of France!

Sunday afternoon after a lot of texts changing the plans we went to mum’s for a BBQ. It was very nice but we were sooo very tired after the day before that we left before desert to go home to bed!

20/20 cricket (well 5/5 anyway)

Everyone at work was feeling a little delicate today. Yesterday was the annual company trip out to the cricket at the Oval. Armed with £50 each of company money we made the trip across town.

I started off on Scrumpy and we had a burger and curly fries which wasn't cooked in the middle (we are all blaming feeling rough on the burger!) And while it was still raining we stood around under umbrellas and had a few more to drink.

We finally got some play and they decided to just have 5 overs per side which was a really good slog, with Sussex only beating Surrey by a narrow margin of about 5 runs.

After the cricket finished we all piled across to the pub for "a quick one for the road" at 9:30 I asked one of the guys to walk me to the station. Ok he said and suggested to the others that they took me to Victoria and then continued their drinking at Liverpool St. Oh no another guy says, you won't make the 10 o'clock train, you can get the next one can't you? We'll make sure you get it. So off we trundle finally at 20 past 10. When we got to the tube station I wasn't paying attention and follwed the guys onto a tube. Unfortunately it was going in the wrong bloomin direction. I hopped off at the next station and noone followed, bye they said, good luck with your train. I missed it by 30 seconds. I was not a happy bunny and sent one scathing text to my boss about how I hated him and I would never forgive him for making me miss my train!!!!!

I finally got home at 1:30 so am feeling very tired today. Needless to say Ollie wasn't too happy with me either as I had omitted to tell him that we were going to the pub after and he was worried when he didn't hear from me.

Facebook

I have now joined the dark side, not only do I have a blog I am now an active member of Facebook!

I never thought it could be so much fun. I have also been in contact with 2 girls that I went to primary school with!

I may get round to uploading some photos on there at some point.

Another busy weekend – Why all the rain?

Another very busy weekend for us. Friday I was so tired, it had been a long old week and I was ready for the weekend to start. I wanted to go to the gym but didn’t have the energy. Then Ollie suggested we go to Bluewater! Of course I have energy for Bluewater and it involves lots of walking so that’s good for me.

I got a new outfit for next weekend, as I can no longer fit into my posh frock. Diet’s going ok this week though as my Jeans are no longer straining at the seams! Then we went home via Sainsbury’ (for microwave popcorn) and to watch Die Hard which we had sky plussed.

Saturday we went swimming and I put yet another coat of paint on the bathroom. We were going to do the rest of the floor tiles but we need to use the tile cutter outside and it hasn’t stopped raining!

Saturday night we were off out to the pub for Ian’s birthday. Expecting it to be packed and smoky the night before the smoking ban we were apprehensive. However, when we got there the pub was pretty much empty. Then Ian turned up with his sister Helen and she told us that the pub had a cockroach infestation which would explain the lack of people! Didn’t put us off though and we enjoyed a nice quiet evening.

Sunday morning was a trip to Sainsbury’s for the weekly shop and yet another coat of paint around the edges of the bathroom. I also finished a paper LO that I started last week of Ollie’s graduation. I’m still not back in the swing of things but it’s ok.

Sunday night we took the Wii around to Helen’s for dinner. Dinner was wonderful (Roast beef and then lemon cheesecake and lemon meringue pie for desert) and playing on the Wii is great fun after a few glasses of wine and with mates! Which reminds me we haven’t had a Singstar night since we moved in and Nigel’s back soon…