medal test...

I had my medal test today for my adult silver tap medal.

It seemed to go well, no mistakes were made by me though my friend Caroline had a couple of moments when she was on the wrong foot. Hopefully, the examiner was looking down at the time and won't notice.

And now it's the long wait for the results!

L x

feast...

Before we head off to different parts of the country for Christmas, we invited Debbie & Jason round for a Christmas feast.

We got ourselves some practice in for the festive season by completely stuffing our faces and being unable to move.

Dinner was pork with sage and onion stuffing, parsnips, sprouts and chestnuts, mashed potato, roast potatoes, peas and broccoli followed by raspberry and apple crumble for dessert. Debbie & Jason had also brought some cheese and biscuits and mince pies and a large quantity of wine and beer.

We played "Piss Artist" a slightly ruder version of pictionary which was very fun indeed.

And of course, we rounded off the evening by falling asleep in front of the TV.

A taste o f whats to come... :o)

L x

festive weekend...

Friday...

Friday night saw us dressed up in our finest for our office Christmas party held at The Vineyard at Stockcross in Newbury.

We arrived for a champagne reception at 7.00pm and sat down to dinner at 7.45pm. Dinner was very nice, though I think they forgot to bring out the vegetable accompaniments ;o)

We ate:

Risotto of cauliflower, balsamic jelly, basil oil (L)
Smoked-confit belly pork, crab ravioli and avocado (D)
Roasted loin of lamb, sweet potato, garlic soubise (L)
Slow cooked fillet of beef served rare, horseradish mash, thyme jus (D)
Srawberry brulee, pedro ximenez jelly (L)
Tatin of apple, vanilla ice cream (D)

During dinner, there was fun and laughter with the company awards and trying to make a tick out of balloons and we finished off the evening drinking in the adjoining bar until the small hours.

A good and "happy" night was had by all, although our wallets were lighter after I bought Dan a whiskey at at £14 a glass!


All dressed up and ready to go


Dan scrubs up well


Saturday...

Having spent the night at the Chieveley Travelodge, we spent the day in Newbury visiting Gareth & Minnie and baby Isabella. And she finally got Bellagio the bear which we bought for her in Las Vegas, the day after she was born.

In the evening, it was off to another Christmas party, this time courtesy of Johnson and Georgie at Wentworth Towers.

The evening started off quite sombre with pleasant chat, good food and plenty to drink. By 11.00pm, the hard liquer had come out with shots of Woods 100 and Absinthe being drunk like water. Soon after, the music was turned up and roaring renditions of children's favourite tunes were plentiful.

At 2.00am, myself and Jo called it a night and went back to our hotel room to sleep.

At 5.30am, Dan (and Skene) returned some what a little worse for wear. Needless to say, he wasn't too good in the morning.


Sunday...

Despite his illness, Dan managed to find the energy to make it along to The Living Rainforest for little day out. I on the other hand headed back to Reading before my mock medal test.

It didn't turn out too well as I'd managed to come away with no house keys so had to sit in the Rivermead for hours and dance in my jeans and jumper. Luckily, I had my tap shoes in the car and it was only the mock.

All in all, a busy weekend.

L x

happy anniversary...

It was our 4 year anniversary yesterday so we celebrated by going out for a meal and some cocktails.

The night started with Dan coming home armed with flowers and champagne :o) A complete surprise!

We then headed off to The Thai Corner which is somewhere i've been wanting to go for a while. The food was really good, our only complaint was the portions weren't very big. Although this did mean that we ordered desserts. All were very yummy and we'll definately be heading back. The Thai wine was also very nice, and also very strange.

Afterwards, we headed to my favorite bar, the Sahara Bar for some very tasty cocktails, including a very festive tasting one which tasted of cinamon and was set on fire!

Back at home, we had more champagne before I passed out in front of CSI and then Dan dragged me off to bed.

L x

wilson visits reading...

A night out was in order to welcome back Tim to Reading and to meet up with Wilson who is now living in London.

Ron & Becca came too, and for dinner before hand which everyone else declined.

The night of course started at The Monks (you can't beat em for cheapness) and ended in The Turtle with a trip to The Horn in the middle for a bit of excitement!

L x