So, on Friday, our friend Richard brought down his girlfriend, Fran, to meet us and they stayed for a couple of nights, along with Long, and it was nice. The main thing I learnt from this weekend is that I really,
really can't drink how I used to, after a heavy one at the great (but much better when late) Snooty Fox, we spent Saturday night in with The Voice, Britain's Got Talent and 21 Jump Street, being 22+ is pretty wild.
I'm a bit sad that today's weather has been so unpredictable, all I've done is go food shopping, although after all the excitement of the rest of the weekend, I think a day hanging out in the flat is just what Moon and I needed.
Things that were good about this weekend:
My culinary skillz.
After seeing 'Home Cooking Made Easy' last week, I thought I'd give ol' Lorraine Pascale a run for her money with my own version of her cheese and bacon straws, they're as incredible as they sound. I also kind of followed (but mainly winged) a Gizzy Erskine recipe for the sausage rolls. I'm super proud of myself, but shamefully, both were nearly all gone before Richard and Fran even arrived(!)
Tasty drinks and fun games.
I tried Chambord for the first time on Friday and it was much, much tastier than I thought it would be, so Long got us two pretty great house-warming gifts.
Getting 'out-out'.
On Saturday, after nursing our sore heads with a Wetherspoons breakfast, we went over to The Living Rainforest, which is just outside of Newbury. It was okay, but felt like a bit of a rip-of considering it's basically just a massive, sweltering greenhouse, but we bonded over it's short comings and there were some fun things to see, even if there weren't any butterflies. You also get return visits for the one entry price so it's not too bad. Maybe I also didn't care for it much because it was really difficult to take photographs, I don't like the idea of a mouldy camera, plus it's much more fun to take photographs than constantly be wiping steam away from your lens.
Oddly-shaped flowers.
The noise this bird made.
Collective disgruntlement.
Newbury Farmer's Market.
My tomato plants have started growing!
And they've grown a lot just this weekend too. I might have to seek some advice from my Gran as to what to do next, but I'm so happy, not bad for The 99p Store. Sadly, Moon's chilli plant has yet to make an appearance.
This little lady.
She was on her very best behaviour, and didn't wake anyone up with yowling once, although Long did get a pretty bum deal having to sleep in our doorless lounge.
The beef Richard bought us.
All the house-warming gifts our friends have bought us so far have been wicked, but this was the most delicious. Richard picked this up for us from the butchers he used to work at and he definitely knows what he's talking about. This is less than half of it too, but it made for a perfect Sunday evening tea.
This sure was a nice way to spend a bank holiday weekend, I sort of immersed myself back in job hunting a bit today but I'm in a good place, and there's a new episode of 'Girls' to catch up with tonight!
I hope you've enjoyed the first of this month's bank holiday offerings as much I have. It's such a shame we can't really have more people than we did over at a time, we're nearly always thinking about ways to get around it, plus I still love our tiny flat
♥.
