Booze, a barbeque and a rant about my lack of success with potted plants...
I've actually had a comparatively busy few days.
On Thursday night I went out with my new work colleagues for a drink. We were celebrating a number of events which took place within the last couple of months - two new people, two birthdays and a wedding. It would be fair to say that I didn't expect to be stumbling home at 11.30pm having consumed four pints of lager, two shots of tequila and more sausage than I've ever seen before in my life. Before anyone starts thinking thoughts inappropriate for this family friendly journal I feel I must clarify that I really do mean that I ate a lot of sausage. We started off in Steins which is beside the river in Richmond. Upon arrival we discovered that they only had a licence to serve alcohol with food so we decided to order the Die Grosse Bratwurst Sause which translates as The Giant Sausage Feast. It said that it fed 6-8 people and they really weren't kidding. It was so long that it took up a whole 8 person picnic bench! Nine of us ate (whilst feeling a bit sorry for the two veggies in our party) and we were stuffed afterwards. The 'feat' consisted of thuringers, nuernberger, polish and viennese sausages, meatloaf and grilled bacon served grilled with sauerkraut, mash and pan-fried potatoes. It would be fair to say that I'd never seen that many different types of sausage in one dish before. It was nice but we decided it was probably a place for a one-off treat rather than a regular haunt. Unless you were a complete sausage obsessive of course! It was pretty good value though at about £6 a head for the food.
After our investigation into German culture we decamped to The White Cross and indulged in some traditional British alcohol consumption. It was a very good evening. I hope there will be many more evenings out with my new workmates in the future. I don't think I made too much of an idiot of myself.
This weekend was spent attending my friend's birthday barbeque down in Petersfield, Hampshire. Unfortunately, the British weather conspired against us slightly. I received a text message whilst on route saying that it was raining and not to take any meat because the barbeque was almost certainly off. At that point is was only drizzling slightly in London, however it gradually worsened as our train progressed towards it's destination. Things were not looking good. Then it suddenly stopped whilst we were walking from the station to our friend's house. In the end we managed to have a really good (and dry) barbeque. Once it had got too chilly to sit outside we decamped inside and played games. First of all we played a game about werewolves murdering people in a village. The instructions sounded a bit complicated after four white wine spritzers but it was fine once we got the hang of it. After that we played Cranium. I know that Cranium is a very popular party game but I'd never played it before. It was really good fun. It obviously depends on having a group who are all up for a laugh but that definitely wasn't a problem last night. I was complemented on my humming and drawing with my eyes shut abilities whilst the boys failed miserably at spotting the two books not written by Judy Blume from a list of five. The girls beat the boys twice and victory was sweet. They very diplomatically didn't make a single comment about there being one more person in our team :) After the conclusion of Cranium the girls gathered around the TV to watch 'Enchanted' whilst the boys played Backgammon - a game which I have no idea how to play. Enchanted is a suprisingly good for a Disney movie. I could detect a sense of irony running through it. Great concept too.
This afternoon we went for a walk to the village of Steep, where my friends got married last October, and had a Ploughmans at The Harrow. The Harrow is a really quaint English pub which looks like it hasn't been changed since it opened in the 1920s. All the beer comes straight from little barrels behind the bar. There are hardly any seats inside but the garden is massive. It must triple the size of the pub in the summer. We had a very enjoyable leisurely lunch (interupted slightly by a comedy - table tipping over - drinks everywhere incident which didn't involve me for once) with lovely home made chutney. We then walked back to Petersfield during which time I discovered that another of my friends really doesn't like heights. She didn't enjoy the bridge over the dual carrigeway very much at all.
It's lovely going down to the country every so often and taking a nice long walk through the woods and down quaint country lanes. We walked though the village of Sheet which is absolutely lovely. There are some really amazing old houses dating from the 1600s in that area along with some enormous modern houses which must cost millions.
The trip was made considerably cheaper by the bargainous £10 day return to anywhere on the South West Trains network at weekends promotion which is currently running. It is normally £18.60 each way to Petersfield so buying the £10 ticket each day (and not using the return) I saved £16.00 which was rather good :) I feel like I should visit my friend in Exeter quickly before the offer ends...
Now I'm back home a feeling depressed about the fact my Standard Marguerite is nearly dead. Exactly the same thing is happening to it that happened to the one I had last year. It started looking a bit dodgy earlier in the week and was clearly on it's way out by the time mum and dad visited on Wednesday evening. Dad reckons I've over watered it but it's really hard not too as if I don't give my plants lots of water in the evening they are dry by midday the next day. I'm sad as it has lots of buds but has gone brown. My friend is coming round for dinner on Wednesday and once again there will be a dead plant on the balcony looking sad and revealing my crapness at caring for living things :(
On Thursday night I went out with my new work colleagues for a drink. We were celebrating a number of events which took place within the last couple of months - two new people, two birthdays and a wedding. It would be fair to say that I didn't expect to be stumbling home at 11.30pm having consumed four pints of lager, two shots of tequila and more sausage than I've ever seen before in my life. Before anyone starts thinking thoughts inappropriate for this family friendly journal I feel I must clarify that I really do mean that I ate a lot of sausage. We started off in Steins which is beside the river in Richmond. Upon arrival we discovered that they only had a licence to serve alcohol with food so we decided to order the Die Grosse Bratwurst Sause which translates as The Giant Sausage Feast. It said that it fed 6-8 people and they really weren't kidding. It was so long that it took up a whole 8 person picnic bench! Nine of us ate (whilst feeling a bit sorry for the two veggies in our party) and we were stuffed afterwards. The 'feat' consisted of thuringers, nuernberger, polish and viennese sausages, meatloaf and grilled bacon served grilled with sauerkraut, mash and pan-fried potatoes. It would be fair to say that I'd never seen that many different types of sausage in one dish before. It was nice but we decided it was probably a place for a one-off treat rather than a regular haunt. Unless you were a complete sausage obsessive of course! It was pretty good value though at about £6 a head for the food.
After our investigation into German culture we decamped to The White Cross and indulged in some traditional British alcohol consumption. It was a very good evening. I hope there will be many more evenings out with my new workmates in the future. I don't think I made too much of an idiot of myself.
This weekend was spent attending my friend's birthday barbeque down in Petersfield, Hampshire. Unfortunately, the British weather conspired against us slightly. I received a text message whilst on route saying that it was raining and not to take any meat because the barbeque was almost certainly off. At that point is was only drizzling slightly in London, however it gradually worsened as our train progressed towards it's destination. Things were not looking good. Then it suddenly stopped whilst we were walking from the station to our friend's house. In the end we managed to have a really good (and dry) barbeque. Once it had got too chilly to sit outside we decamped inside and played games. First of all we played a game about werewolves murdering people in a village. The instructions sounded a bit complicated after four white wine spritzers but it was fine once we got the hang of it. After that we played Cranium. I know that Cranium is a very popular party game but I'd never played it before. It was really good fun. It obviously depends on having a group who are all up for a laugh but that definitely wasn't a problem last night. I was complemented on my humming and drawing with my eyes shut abilities whilst the boys failed miserably at spotting the two books not written by Judy Blume from a list of five. The girls beat the boys twice and victory was sweet. They very diplomatically didn't make a single comment about there being one more person in our team :) After the conclusion of Cranium the girls gathered around the TV to watch 'Enchanted' whilst the boys played Backgammon - a game which I have no idea how to play. Enchanted is a suprisingly good for a Disney movie. I could detect a sense of irony running through it. Great concept too.
This afternoon we went for a walk to the village of Steep, where my friends got married last October, and had a Ploughmans at The Harrow. The Harrow is a really quaint English pub which looks like it hasn't been changed since it opened in the 1920s. All the beer comes straight from little barrels behind the bar. There are hardly any seats inside but the garden is massive. It must triple the size of the pub in the summer. We had a very enjoyable leisurely lunch (interupted slightly by a comedy - table tipping over - drinks everywhere incident which didn't involve me for once) with lovely home made chutney. We then walked back to Petersfield during which time I discovered that another of my friends really doesn't like heights. She didn't enjoy the bridge over the dual carrigeway very much at all.
It's lovely going down to the country every so often and taking a nice long walk through the woods and down quaint country lanes. We walked though the village of Sheet which is absolutely lovely. There are some really amazing old houses dating from the 1600s in that area along with some enormous modern houses which must cost millions.
The trip was made considerably cheaper by the bargainous £10 day return to anywhere on the South West Trains network at weekends promotion which is currently running. It is normally £18.60 each way to Petersfield so buying the £10 ticket each day (and not using the return) I saved £16.00 which was rather good :) I feel like I should visit my friend in Exeter quickly before the offer ends...
Now I'm back home a feeling depressed about the fact my Standard Marguerite is nearly dead. Exactly the same thing is happening to it that happened to the one I had last year. It started looking a bit dodgy earlier in the week and was clearly on it's way out by the time mum and dad visited on Wednesday evening. Dad reckons I've over watered it but it's really hard not too as if I don't give my plants lots of water in the evening they are dry by midday the next day. I'm sad as it has lots of buds but has gone brown. My friend is coming round for dinner on Wednesday and once again there will be a dead plant on the balcony looking sad and revealing my crapness at caring for living things :(