Mishaps, More Birthdays, and general merriment

Well I left off telling you about going for Dinner last Friday night.

Ross and I joined by Robbie and Helena went for steak at The Cabin in Fulham. Mmmmm, very tasty steak cooked just right (med-rare) and yummy creme brulee for pudding. Twas quite good food. The four of us chatted happily about many things over the course of several hours. I find it so nice to have mates to go out to eat with where we spend about 2hrs over our food, I feel I really get my monies worth and it is a much more enjoyable relaxing way to eat.

Saturday Ross and I just managed to get to Shammi's in Chiswick by noon only to find Suj had slept even later than us and wasn't going to arrive for another hour. Shammi then went about being such a wonderfully kind hostess and got out all sorts of things for us to nibble on. Hummus,cheese sticks, pistachios (brought back from her recent trip to Greece, mmm), fruit salad and a bottle of red wine. The food did tide Ross and I over as we were quite hungry. We chatted in her very sunny living room which was simply and tastefully furnished with a white couch and chair and a coffee table. There may have been a tv in the room but I can't remember. At any rate it was cozy and welcoming.

When Suj arrived we wondered down to a Moroccan restaurant for a leisurely inexpensive lunch. I had some savoury chicken dish that came with saffron rice. mmm.

Where Shammi's demeanour was quieter, calm, and friendly Suj was certainly quite friendly and lovely but louder and a bit brash but in a truly lovely way. I liked both of them quite a lot it was a nice lunch.

I was trying to figure out when I'd have time to bake the cookies before going to this party and in the end I decided not to squish the lunch and have Ross and I go straight to the Whiskey tasting instead of going by his place first. In the end we didn't make it to the tasting because traffic was so incredibly bad the bus we got on moved about 2 blocks in 10min! So we walked the two miles home and managed to call Cadenheads and have them reschedule to the following Saturday.

On our wonder back through Chiswick we stopped by my cousins and had a lovely chat with her husband Chris, she unfortunately had to be at work due to all the strikes (She works in the offices for BA). After that Ross and I kept wondering and attempted to find me some cane syrup so I could make pecan bars but to no avail *head shake*. We did get a bottle of Mcellans for his friend.

Got back to the flat, baked cookies, the snowball cookies tasted yuck so they got tossed but the chocolate chip ones were ok. We got all ready to go and ended up forgetting both cookies and Whiskey *eye roll*.

The party was small, there were about 6-10 of us in Ed's flat. Mostly a bunch of rowdy boys (and by rowdy keep in mind these are all techies so not Frat boy rowdy) with beers or gin martini's. Remind me never ever to drink gin ever again, it is by far the foulest thing ever there is no redeemable quality in it at all!

At some point a large block of ice was plunked on the table and alcohol luge began...I'm amazed my friends from California seem to be very unaware of this drinking past time. Basically you carve a path through this massive block of ice and one person stands at the top of the slope and pours w/e down and the drinker is on the other end open mouthed in anticipation. So bizarre but ok.

All in all it was a fun party and I enjoyed meeting Ross' friends and nattering with them.

Not much went on Sunday, Brixton (Ross' football team) lost 3-1 but they did play a better game then the week before.

Wednesday was Pauls birthday and we all went back to the Royal Oak for dinner and Pauls parents joined us which was nice. I was a bit quieter this time and had the same thing for dinner as the week before but it seems Thursdays cook is better than Wednesdays, ahh cest la vie.

Last thing to note is OMG what is with teenagers being SO incredibly oblivious?! Only interested in putting in minimum effort into things like cleaning etc, and generally being a bit rude? Haha, don't get me wrong Amy is a lovely girl she is just 12 going on 13 come November. Yesterday she wanted some ice cream because she was starving and this is what she did. Took a spoon out of the drawer and a bowl out of the cupboard. By the time she got to the freezer her hands were full so she put the spoon in her mouth and then grabbed the ice cream out of the freezer. She then proceeded to scoop the ice cream out of the container with the spoon that had just been in her mouth!!!!! I am SO guilty of eating out of the carton and I do try and tell my parents if i have coz it grosses my dad out. Normally im not a germ freak, I really could care less most of the time but this is a house with 7 people and I'm not all buddy buddy with everyone yet so I just couldn't believe she did that. Her sis Meg would've been really grossed out. Then she leaves the emptied bowl in her fathers study and decides to go watch tv. Then this morning she decides to brush her hair in the kitchen!! She out of all the kids has the WORST lice problem. So I ask her to go brush her hair in the bathroom..TWICE and she doesn't seem to understand whats the big deal with her brushing her lice filled head in the kitchen where all the food is. EW.

So to my Mother and Father THANK YOU for putting up with my obnoxious teenagedom! Mum and dad you are amazing for doing ALL the laundry, ironing,washing up,cooking, and general cleaning. I seriously have the most amazing parents and feel totally spoiled....sorry the thank you is rather late in coming but yea that is a lot of work you two did and I really should have pitched in! Thanks a million!

That is all for now, teenagers make me exasperated, I've never had to live with one before. Jonnie still can come up with a hundred and one excuses NOT to do homework, sighh. Though and I quote "Once I got started it wasn't so bad"..*eye roll* DUH!...My poor mum only tried to tell me to take things one at a time for YEARS. Being a parent is exasperating when you have a teenager. They never listen, they are always right, and are generally rather self centered...hehe...don't be confused I still love all these kids. They have been very well brought up and are lovely each in their own way its puberty that is a bit of a damper :p.

Right, phew that was long. Welp I'm heading off to London on Friday but for a much quieter weekend. May do a Sunday roast at the pub with Laure, we'll see.

Ta xxB