December 2011

December was staying pretty warm but I still had my cold on and off. On the first Saturday of the month Jen and I had yet another voucher deal to take up - this time a make up class. It was OK, but my smokey eyes malfunctioned slightly....

The next weekend we had Secret Cinema booked in. Jen and her friend, also Jen, Rob and I went along. On the Saturday we went to Camden Market with Claire and Andrew and we looked for outfits for Secret Cinema. The theme that we had been given was soldiers, so we found some great khaki pencil skirts and little female soldier hats. I bought a leather trench coat for a tenner as well. When we got to the secret location, we were led in by some guys with dodgy Austrian accents. We had to pass a "checkpoint" manned by scary-looking "Russian" soldiers, then we were led into the location through some dark passageways.

The place was amazing - four levels, with areas divided into a Russian restaurant, military offices, and a drug laboratory...










We got caught up in various conspiratories, with some "police" trying to recruit us to be communists, others making people get into formation and march, and various incidents going on around us. Finally two men started arguing on a balcony, a shot rang out, and a funeral was held. We were led into a big hall where the movie started - it turned out to be The Third Man, which Rob ended up guessing but I'd never heard of it. It was a good movie, although it was utterly freezing in the hall.

After the movie, Rob and I had to rush away because we had tickets to see Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw at the Southbank centre talking about Quantum Physics. They do really well at talking science to the masses.
I had some terrible news that week when I found out my workmate Yusef was killed on his way to work.  We had already organised dinner with Claire and Andrew in Beckenham on Friday night at a little Mexican place. Rob and I and my workmates went to Yusef's funeral on Saturday night. It was held in the mosque, so the genders were segregated. It was a very intense experience.
The next week was the last week of work before Christmas. We had our work Christmas dinner and Secret Santa at Giraffe at Southbank. I was sick again, only a couple of weeks since I got over the mammoth cold, so it was a very quiet one.
On Christmas Eve Eve we finished work early, and I came home and slept all afternoon.

Saturday, Christmas Eve, we left for Yorkshire. We took the train to Thirsk, then picked up our rental car and drove to the B&B. It was too early to check in, so we drove into York and looked around the shops. It is a really nice city! I can see why so many people are in love with it. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant then did a great, cheesy Ghost tour. The guide pointed out interesting features like the black cats on the walls and roofs, and had lots of stories about where people had died and where ghosts had been spotted. 

We drove back to the B&B. The one we were staying in was a substitute for the one I had actually booked, but it turned out to be wonderful. It is called The Old Rectory, and was built in the 1700s. Our bedroom was massive, with a huge four poster bed. We had hired a rental car in Thirsk, so we decided to go for a drive into Thirsk and have a look around. My main aim for the trip, as well as relaxing, was to see the James Herriot Museum. It was closed, so I was hoping it would be open on the Tuesday before we left.

Christmas day we had a yummy breakfast and watched the kiddies that were staying at the B&B tear around being excited about Christmas. We opened our presents (amongst which there was a watch and tickets to Matilda for me from Rob, and Simon Amstell tickets and the Mad Men box set for Rob from me). After a nap, we went to have our Christmas dinner at the Golden Fleece in Thirsk. It was a four course roast with Christmas crackers and little wrapped presents. I had a melon bowl with fruit and sorbet as an entree, then Yorkshire Pudding as intermediate, then Roast Pheasant with stuffing wrapped in bacon with veges as main. I got lemon and blackcurrant posset for dessert, and Rob got Tiramasu. Then we spent a lazy afternoon watching telly, as we found it difficult to move after that.

On Boxing day we went for a drive. It started out as a beautiful day, but it was very windy and it got cold and started raining later. We went for a walk up by the White Horse of Kilburn. and drove around the dales stopping at various little villages. We stopped at an old Abbey that provided a beautiful photo opportunity. Then adter working up a healthy appetite we had a lovely dinner at an Indian restaurant in Thirsk.

On Tuesday we went back to York after checking out of the B&B (reluctantly). It was a beautiful day. We drunk in the history, walking along the City Walls, being awed by Yorkminster, and wandering the cobbled streets. The buildings overhang the streets so much they almost touch - very charming. I got sucked into the post-Christmas sales and bought some boots.

We drove back to Thirsk to do the James Herriot museum before dropping the car off and catching the train back. It was as good as I thought it was going to be - a pilgrimage that every vet should take.
It was a good short week at work, and I finally felt well and rested for the first time in ages.





Saturday was New Years Eve. Jen came home from Canada for the Secret Agents Ball. Our expectations were too high though, and it was much more fun getting ready than the actual party. They actually took our toy guns away at the door! It was going to be a hard call beating Iceland though, to be fair.

November 2011

There's a bit of a theme with me and vouchers. The latest one was a Living Social deal for dinner for Rob and I at The Star and Garter in Putney by the river. I had delicious venison.

The first weekend of November was Saturday 5th Nov - Guy Fawkes!! Georgia and a bunch of others were going to Lewes, a small town near Brighton that is famous for its bonfires. There are several (hundreds?) Bonfire Societies, and they all have their own street parades and bonfires. The parades went on for a few hours, punctuated by massive bangs when the characters threw bangers into the road. It was something amazing to see. The Societies work on their parades all year, and you can see this in the finished result.

We had bought tickets to one of the bonfires, and they had a massive bonfire set up ready to light, with a Viking dragon boat on top. There were 3 Guys set up as well - the Pope, Gadalfi and a Guy. Eventually the members of the society arrived and started throwing flaming torches up onto the bonfire. Before long it was blazing, and the Viking boat sat silhouetted against the flames until it caught fire and slowly was consumed. After this the Guys started spouting fireworks, one by one, and the Pope's head exploded!

Unfortunately I still had my cold, but I was still looking forward to the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Monday. It was a really good show, but we had some really high up seats! The highlight of the show for me was Under the Bridge, but they played most of the old classics.

The next weekend we used up another voucher - this time afternoon tea at One Aldwych. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

 I was really looking forward to the next Friday - we had tickets to Laugh or the Polar Bear Gets It - a charity gig put on by Tim Minchen. There was a really good line-up, including Josie Long, Francesca Martinez, Badly Drawn Boy, and the star of the show - Tim Minchen! It was the first time we'd seen him live, and he well deserves all the accolades he gets. He did The Pope Song, Cont, Gingers, and just to mix it up a bit, Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah for a spine-tingling finale. We decided to head to my workmate Julia's birthday party afterwards, just to say hello. The"quick hello" turned into getting home at 3.30am after we stayed talking to some guys we got on really well with....
That weekend I skyped Anne, and she had some exciting news! She was 6 weeks pregnant.

The next weekend I went to the London Vet Show on Thursday and Friday. Nick and Raewyn were in London, so we had a vet school reunion at a pub in Victoria. I had to be very restrained in not telling everyone about Anne (she wanted to wait until after 12 weeks until she told everyone), especially as Raewyn had good news of her own!

On Saturday Rob's friend was having her birthday ice-skating at Somerset House. Rob had not skated before but he did really well and didn't fall over once, although he did nearly pull me down a couple of times...

I was meeting up with the vet crew that night while Rob stayed and had dinner with the birthday crew. I met them at a Turkish place where we had a substantial dinner, then we headed over to the O2 Shepherds Bush and watched Dave Dobbyn rock the place.

October 2011

Summer lingered in the first weekend of October and our friend Mon was having her Going Away party - she was going to be going back to New Zealand in a few weeks. She had managed to hire Z/Yen's boat - The Lady Daphne. It is a beautiful old timber sail boat. The weather was perfect - hot but not too hot, and no wind. We left from London Bridge Dock and sailed up towards Tower Bridge.






 Excitingly, it had been organised for Tower Bridge to open for us! Tourists lining the banks of the Thames and standing on Tower Bridge thought it was a fine spectacle. For one we were the tourist attraction rather than the tourists.We sailed Canary Wharf, Greenwich, and the O2, and then the boat turned and we headed back towards St Katherine Docks.

We docked at St Katherine's Dock then went to the Dickens Inn and had fun singing along to all the cheesy anthems.
Next weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving! Jen had organised for her Canadian buddies to come round to our flat for a proper slap-up Thanksgiving. Amazingly we managed to get hold of a turkey: Bob, although Jen and I did have to traipse across the city to get it. We cooked Bob, and had roast vege, mashed sweet potato and all the trimmings.



On Thursday it was Rob's birthday. We all went to B@1 for a few cocktails, then had Chinese.





Koda and Bec's were leaving in a few weeks, so Jen and I had organised a surprise leaving party for the Saturday. Storm was recruited to take them out for the day, then Jen had managed to get hold of their friends from school and so they and the rest of the crew waited for Storm to bring them home. We went to the Railway afterwards where Brett coerced Becs into doing shots. The next day was the Semi-Finals in World Cup rugby. We went to the Yahoo to watch it with Brett, Bryce and Matt, all of whom were on varying scales of still drunk to hungover. New Zealand thrashed Australia, then we were off to the Rocket to celebrate Storm's birthday brunch. She had made an enormous Red Velvet cake which was divine.

Next weekend was the rugby World Cup final!! We watched it in The George on the Strand with Georgia and the gang, and Debs and Mike came up from Wokingham. After that we went to a little place "round the corner" (not really just round the corner...), that had a variety of different ales and flavoured beers. Unfortunately I was starting my massive cold of the year so wasn't feeling great, but we still decided to go to Covent Garden and have a look around with Mark, Marcella and Georgia. We had a yummy pie and mash at Square Pie and then went to Kopapa in Seven Dials. Rob and I had tea while Georgia and Mark had cocktails...

I had to take the next day off work because by then my cold was in full force, and Rob was sick too so we couldn't go to Mon's final leaving dinner. We had tickets for Ash on Tuesday night which I had been looking forward to for ages but we ended up leaving early because we both felt unwell.
There was also a big weekend coming up. I had work drinks Friday night at Sketch, and we spent a fair amount of our social club money on cocktails.

Halloween was the next night. We went to the Grand in Clapham with Alicia, Maryanne and Jen. We were supposed to go to a house party at Adam's afterwards but I was still sick, so we went home instead... And that was the end of October.