mock medal test...

Today was the mock test for my Adult Bronze Medal Test next weekend.

I was a little nervous beforehand, due mainly to the fact that every time I practiced my warm up routine I started on the wrong foot and ended up going completely the wrong way. But, I needn't have worried.

The mock test was done in front of our teacher, Sue and she gave us all a comment slip to let us know how we'd done and what we needed to work on ready for next week.

I was quite pleased with my dancing and was very pleased to be given the following comments;

Warm up routine - Lovely clear tapping
Arm and leg amalgamation - Good armlines, well done
Dance - Great tapping
Comments - Relax & smile

Hopefully I'll get something like that next week! :o)

L x

festival place...

Me and Stacey decided to have a Christmas shopping day yesterday.

Our first choice was to venture to Bluewater but due to Stacey starting work at 6.00pm we thought we'd end up rushing about so we decided to try Festival Place in Basingstoke for a change. It was at least bigger than The Oracle.

I have to say, how disappointing! Yes it was bigger than The Oracle but it only took us just over an hour to look round the place, buy some things and have a sandwich!

Think I'll stick to The Oracle, much better! :o)

L x

friday night drinking...

Went out on Friday night in town.

We decided to meet up in The Monks Retreat due to cheapness and I have to say it wasn't too bad. It was however, completely full of kids who couldn't have been older than 16 and who were dressed very badly! Started to feel very old!

There was much debating when they chucked us out at closing time, some were off to The After Dark Club while others (myself included) preferred to go to O'Neills where it was free to get in and we could see Stacey at work (and get served nice and quick!)

Eventually, they chucked us out too and it was time to go home to bed feeling quite drunk (though don't tell Dan I admitted it!)

L x

quiz...

Last night we went to the quiz with Debbie and Jason.

The format of the quiz can be quite frustrating. It's similar to bingo where they call a number out and if that number's on your card, then you can answer it. So, in order to win, not only do you have to get the answers right, you have to get either "top 2, bottom 2" or a "block of 6" right.

Last night I came very close to winning a block of 6. I knew I had 5 of them right, the 6th one was a complete guess. What made it worse was that it was a 2 part answer and I got one of then right. It was even more frustrating when I found out the correct answer was the first answer I thought of but decided not to put down :o(

Maybe I'll be more lucky next time...

L x

quiet weekend...

Lack of funds has kept us indoors this weekend.

Last night, I forced myself to be sensible and stay in though I really wanted to go out. The highlight of the evening came when we were cooking dinner and realised we'd ran out of oil for the deep fat fryer (Dan has his I want greasy food head on so we were having good old steak and chips) so we ventured along to the Londis store in seach of oil and to purchase some bottles of beer.

Today's highlight came from our trip to Tesco to purchase ingredients for our curry feast this evening. Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible and Foolproof Indian Cookery books provided a delicious moghali lamb with spinach curry which we ate with stir-fried cauliflower with green chillies, potatoes with cumin, onion bhajis and yoghurt raita with cucumber & mint. Sounds very yummy!

L x

wagamama opening...

We went to the opening of the new Wagamama restaurant in Reading last night.

We were very lucky and got an invitation to the preview opening which involved 2 free meals! :o)

We arrived at the restaurant at 8.00pm exactly as requested and were me by 2 "greeters" checking off names from their lists. They seemed friendly and went into explaining the whole wagamama concept. And friendly they were until they mentioned that "leaving a small tip" would be appreciated as it was a training night. As it was, we had no cash (what with wagamama being almost at the end of our street and the cash machine much further into town) and even if we got some cash out then we'd have to leave £10.00 minimum, which to us was not what you might call a "small" tip. On mentioning this fact to one of the friendly greeters we were informed that "you will find most people don't leave anything less than £10.00 especially as you are getting a main meal, a side dish and drinks for free". So off we went for a cash machine.

The food was delicious. I had Chicken Katsu Curry (chicken fillet deep fried in crispy breadcrumbs served with a light curry sauce) and Negima Yakitori (three skewers of grilled chicken and spring onion coated in yakitori sauce) Dan opted for Yaki Soba (terppan-fried ramen noodles with egg, chicken, shrimps, onions, green and red peppers, beansprouts and spring onions garnished with seaseme seeds, fried shallots and red ginger) and Duck Gyoza (five deep fried duck and leek dumplings served with a sweet hoi sin sauce - which Dan thought looked like Japanese pasties!).

Along with our meal, we could both have 2 drinks. Dan chose beer and I ordered a glass of red wine. When the drinks arrived, I was given a glass of white wine. Too afraid to complain, I decided to drink it but Dan mentioned it to the waitress and she offered to change it. But just as Dan was about to pour his beer, he realised that it wasn't what he'd ordered either. We must have been given the wrong order. No sooner had we thought this, than our actual order was delivered to us, closely followed by my replacement red wine. Oops! Luckily for me, they let me have the second glass of wine anyway :o)

Half way through the meal, another waitress arrived with a glass of red wine which I hadn't ordered. It was my lucky night though, she let me have it anyway!

After dinner (which would have cost about £15 each) we headed off for a drink. Santa Fe had a live jazz band so we walked straight in and ordered some cocktails ( a mojito for Dan and a Sangria for me) Eventually it was time to go home.

L x

peaceful morning...

Yeah! Nothing went wrong this morning :o)

L x

no electricity...

What is wrong with this week!

Yesterday we were treated to no water. This morning, no electricity!

I woke early to have a shower and wash my hair after not being able to do so. I got out of the shower and started to make my tea and toast when there was flicker and then all the lights went out. I woke Dan so he could investigate but it seemed it was the whole street, not just our house.

Dan went off to bed and I sat alone in the dark with my hair soaking wet in a towel. Luckily, we like to have candles on so I was able to have some light in the house. But, what about my hair!

There was nothing to it, I quickly put my colthes on, packed a bag and went to work early.

Hurrah, they had electricty so I sat in the office, in front of the mirror and dried and straightened my hair.

I look forward to more excitement tomorrow morning!

L x

no water...

Today we woke up to find there was no water!

Dan's first thought was that it was due to frozen pipes at it had been cold during the night however, I wasn't too convinced. What was annoying was that I was due to wash my hair! It would have to be pinned it up. Surely it could last one more day ;o)

Still living in hope of not having to stink all day I patiently kept trying the taps in the hope that just one time, water would flood out, but no. By 8.00am I had given up, drowned myself in deodrant and got dressed. Just as I came to work, the water returned. Yeah! Quick phonecall to work to say I'd be late and I was in the shower :o)

What a Monday morning! :oP

L x

working on a sunday...

How depressing, I had to go to work today! :o(

I suppose it wan't too bad, 10.00 til 1.00pm and on the plus side, today was double time so I got paid for 6 hours and worked only 3. But still, a Sunday! :oP

L x

all night poker...

Last night, Debbie, Jason and Stacey came over for the evening to play some poker.

They arrived at 8.00pm and the poker started soon after. With most of us having never played poker, we were in for an interesting night.

I have to say, I did quite well playing some good tactical moves and I got not one, but TWO Straight Flushes! Dan told me I'd done really well getting my first one and not to expect to get many more in my lifetime but, I did, and in the same night! :o)

At 11.00pm, George & Richard arrived and we decided to spice things up a bit by playing for money. We started off with £1.00 a player, winner takes all. It's funny what money can do to a game. Debbie, who has spent all evening not fully understanding what she was doing and losing constantly to thrashing everyone and taking the money!

Feeling confident, the stakes went up. This time it was £5.00 a player and the pressure really was on. I opted out of this round along with Debbie (who decided to take her money and run) and became dealer.

It was tense and eventually came down to Dan and Jason battling it out. It was a tough battle and there could be only one winner. Luckily for us, the winner was Dan! :o)

The poker eventually finished at 4.30am after a mammoth 8 1/2 hours.

It was a fun night and will definitely not be the last.

L x

poker...

Tonight the House of Henry are hosting a "Poker Night".

Since playing Poker at lunchtime for the past couple of weeks, Dan has become obsessed with it and tonight we're having a few friends over for a friendly game of Poker and some booze.

The fact that there are a few "Poker Virgins" (myself included) should make it an interesting night.

We purchased a Poker Set from Debenhams which comes complete with chips and a felt playing surface (though not a particularity fantastic one) so we're all set.

It's making excited for our trip to Vegas!

L x

fireworks...

Last night we went to Newbury Racecourse to see the firework display.

It was a really good display with lost of very pretty glittery fireworks. Just what Lorna's like! :o)

Afterwards we went to The Plough on The Green for a few beverages and a chat.

A very sociable night! ;o)

L x

drinking...

Went out for a few drinks after work last night and ended up getting home at 12.50pm!

We went to The Monks Retreat which is a Whetherspoons pub due to cheapness (Double spirit and mixer only £1.98) and ended up spending the whole night there!

We did enjoy a very nice meal (very nice especially for Whetherspoons!) We had the Tex Mex Platter and the Western Platter all full of meaty goodness! :o)

We eventually got bored and moved across to O'Neills but by then we were almost ready to call it a night.

L x

our 2005 holiday...

Has been booked! Yeah! :o)

After years of talk and months of research, we finally committed ourselves to our "American Adventure" yesterday by booking the flights.

Our adventure will take us 4 weeks and 1 day to travel around the East & West coast of America from 2nd to 30th September 2005.

You can find out more about our trip on the USA2005 page.

Very exciting!

L x