Party time!

Despite my crazy hormones and the cold weather, me and Phil have enjoyed a rather indulgent long weekend. Nothing strenuous, no stress and lots of eating and drinking.  Suffice to say that the diet went out the window.  I had a good workout at the gym on Friday morning and then afterwards Phil treated me to lunch at The Three Trees in Bletchley www.threetreesbletchley.co.uk.  Phil had been there a couple of times for a pint with his friend Dave.  Although he’d never eaten there, Phil was impressed with the menu and also he liked the looks of the carvery. 

I was impressed with the menu, a good selection of dishes which were reasonably priced.  Phil opted for the carvery but I had the steak and ale pie which was delicious.  Phil gets cross with me when I order pie because I never eat the topping, he does though so it’s not like it’s wasted.  Phil had the roast beef and it said it was the best meat he’d tasted, even more superior to the carvery at Shenley which is pretty good.  No doubt we will be going back to The Three Trees, it was good and I enjoyed it.

On Friday afternoon I spent 2 hours trooping around the city centre trying to find a frock.  I hate clothes shopping at the best of times but it’s particularly hard at the moment trying to find clothes when I am 8Ib’s overweight and look like I am 6 months pregnant. Factor in that I absolutely hate all of the stuff in the shops at the moment and it doesn’t bode well.  In the end I bought at dress from New Look, a white dress with black spots with a flare which I hoped would hide my bloated stomach.  Unfortunately I couldn’t be arsed to try it on.  Big mistake but more of that later!!!

I was back at the gym on Saturday for a 2 hour work out and after a quick snack with Phil back at home, I picked up Sue and we went to the cinema.  I was slightly dubious about going to the movies on a Saturday especially as it was half term, but actually, we got pre-booked tickets and it was fine.  The film that we saw was ‘A song for Marian’.  Both Sue and I had seen the trailers and both fancied it.  We knew that Marion would die (and she did) but I don’t think either of us realised that it would be a real weepy.  We cried from start to finish, and actually, I don’t know whether it’s the hormones but on a couple of times, I had to stop myself from full on sobbing.  It was a lovely film but we both felt totally depressed when we came out of the screen.  Does this make a film good?  I dunno, I was glad that I saw it but personally, I think it was a bit too close to home for our Sue.  As always, we wiped our red eyes when we came out and laughed.  I joked to Sue and said that if you want to have a real good time then just come to the cinema with Clairabella! 

Again, boring boring but I was back at the gym on Sunday morning and afterwards I went to shop in Asda.  Mads had invited me and Phil to join the family at a lunch at Robinsons to celebrate Steve’s 60^th birthday.  I had left myself an hour to get ready after DW and Asda which you would have thought would have been plenty of time.  Wrong!  I had a big wardrobe malfunction.  The new polka dot dress made me look hideous; I kinda was ready to settle and give it a go but when Phil came into the bedroom and said “are you really wearing that, really?” well he put me right off. I tried tights and shorts, black of course, but it looked too casual. I tried on my very old but classic black dress that I had made in Thailand, but guess what?  The zipper had broken.  I was all for not going to the birthday lunch but my last resort was my Asda black slip on dress that I’ve had for donkey’s years. I flung on leopard cardigan to hide the bulge and that was me good to go.  It wasn’t the best but it had to do.

It was bitterly cold on Sunday and my original thought was that we would walk into Newport but time was of the essence due to the wardrobe malfunction so in the end we got a taxi.  The birthday lunch was meant to be a surprise for Stevie so I was a little surprised to see Mads & Steve plus the entire family already in Robbies when we arrived, dead on the dot at midday. 

Heyho, we had a glass of Pimms then were sat down at our 2 tables for 12.30pm.  I hadn’t seen Mads since August so it was good to have a face-2-face.  It was good to see that my friend Mads is still as mad as ever.  Everything she does is totally OTT and Sunday was no exception but in a good way.  Mads & Ed treated us and the entire family to lunch and drinks.  I did feel a little uncomfortable with this and tried to buy wine but Mads wasn’t having any of it.  

Steve, who doesn’t really like being in the limelight, seemed to enjoy his surprise lunch which was main thing.  The family had gone to town with his pressies; he got an iPod, tickets to see Eric Clapton, an iTunes card and we’d brought him a Tom-tom.  Mads had previously asked if Phil would go with Steve to see Eric and of course, he jumped at the opportunity.  So I’d also booked a table for lunch at Simpsons in the Strand and I’d also got them tickets to the car museum. So that’s the boys sorted for May the 24^th; lunch followed by the vintage car museum and then EC at The Royal Albert Hall.  Sorted!

As always lunch at Robinsons was lovely and Phil & I had a great time.  After the toast, pressies, cards and the starter I was a little startled to find our taxi driver by the side of me at the table. Turns out that I had left my keys in his taxi.  Of course, I blamed Phil because after all he was the last out of the door and had locked up.  But I was wrong; Phil had locked up but with his own keys so it was my stupidity leaving my keys on the back seat of the taxi.  On my key ring I had the master key for all of our flats, the only key to my car, Sue’s house key, and ALL the keys to caravans including the alarm keys.  It would have been a total nightmare if the taxi driver hadn’t of returned them. I can be so ditsy sometimes.

It was all going so well, lovely lunch with friends and then at the end of the meal we got invited for celebration cake back at the cottage in Olney. I was almost there at saying “thanks but no thanks” but then Phil said yes and then we were in Kevin’s car with Debs & mum Iris en route to the turkey farm.  Just for the record the turkey farm is where Steve and Mads live.

Coffee and cake turned into an evening of more wine and song.  Throw in Dominic on the guitar, a bit of karaoke and some dancing and you will get an idea of how the evening went.  Oh dear.  The family all left before midnight and somehow Phil & I ended up staying in Steve’s king size bed. I’m really not to sure why we just didn’t get a taxi home probably because it was half one by the time we hit the sack.  Mads gave me a spare tooth brush and found me a home for my false tooth; she dressed me in identical pyjamas to hers, she cleansed my face, gave me eye cream and plastered me with a £400 face cream. So not quite sure really why I looked so rough the following morning?

Steve dropped us off at home about quarter to ten yesterday and not long after, I drove to Sue’s as we had arranged to do a bit of party planning.   We made some lists but a hungover Claire who was also suffering from sleep deprivation didn’t bode well in the creativity department.  Still it gave us a chance to catch up over several mugs of tea. 

I got home and Phil grabbed my car keys and went to The Manor to pick up the post whilst I did the lunch.  We had pork chops with mash, carrots and green beans.  Comfort food which is just what I needed.  

Whilst I was round Sue’s, Phil had taken delivery of my new bedding.  I only like hotel quality 400 thread white Egyptian cotton percale which doesn’t come cheap.  However I found a website www.kingofcotton.co.uk which sells the bed linen that I like at half the price that I would normally pay.  Our sheets were due to be changed anyway so I stripped my bed, ironed the new linen and put that on. Aside from a pile of ironing that’s about all I achieved yesterday. It goes like that sometimes but there is always a price to pay and I think am going to be playing catch-up all week.