Saturday night in Brum

Went for a night out in Birmingham last night, with two of my oldest friends, Liz whom I met when our parents introduced us in our buggies, aged 6mths or so and Jackie, who arrived on our 'block' (our houses were on a 4 street mini block, which aged under 12 seemed like and age away from the rest of our village, where we weren't allowed to go and play as it was too far) aged about 7 I think? I do remember we were in 2nd year junior, Mr Everingtons class, so that guess should be about right? Jackie and I lost touch over the years, for reasons which we can't remember, or at least after discussion last night, we couldn't remember, I guess our lives just took different turns? Liz however has remained in touch with both of us over the years, so at Christmas she got us back in touch properly, so as we all still get on we met up again last night.

I was last to arrive as I had to wait for dh to get back from work. Surprisingly the girls had already nearly polished off a bottle of wine between them (I arrived at 7.15) so they kindly poured me a glass and insisted I catch up, whilst Liz did her hair and checked the train times into town, so save us waiting on a wet and windy platform, all of which failed, as we went with the listed times, but the train didn't.

We headed for the mail box for a meal http://www.mailboxlife.com/ avoiding Malmaison, as way out of our price bracket (wishful thinking). Instead we had cocktails whilst waiting for a table at Red Peppers, followed by Enchiladas for me, Moussaka for Jak and Moules Marinare for Liz (yuk!) another bottle of wine and desert with coffee. Later we pootled off to a bar called Red's, in town close to the Cathedral, where we continued to drink G&T's,(although I gave up at 12:00, and opted for lime and soda, as had to drive home at 7.30 this am. ) and we danced the night away to a bizarre selection of music, from R&B to Guns and Roses, the DJ was well and truly weird.

So a good night for all. Nice to catch up with the girls, although sad to hear that Jackies dh has been diagnosed with Parkinson's and that life will be not much fun from here on in for them, they're making the best of the quality time they have now, I guess everyone should really live for the moment, but how often do you eh? On a more positive note good to hear Liz appears to have kicked Mr America into touch, I'm hoping this time its for good. So on that note, we're shopping for a replacement bloke for her, any offers out there?

Birmingham

Been to Brum this weekend! went to see my oldest friend in the universe! not old age wise, just old as in, we've known each other since 18mths, courtesy of our parents living on the same street :-)

Got there about 4pm, had brief tootle about Warehouse, whilst waiting for her to escape the que in Marks & Spencer, to meet me. Have to say disappointed in Warehouses sizes. Lots of lovely stuff, well 3 x items I may have considered purchasing, were I to have any money (which I don't) but none in size 14 anyway, bah! Friend caught up with me at Krispy Kreme (maybe I would make a 12 if I stopped with the do-nuts?) where we used the last of her student voucher printouts (she's just graduated Med School) to get 2 dozen of their finest. These were brought home and shared between myself, dh and our friends down the road, who share our passion.

We went back to her's via Sainsburys to get tea, chicken with Mediterranean veg, yummy and two nice bottles of red wine. Friend prepared tea, whilst we gossiped, and painted my nails, a luxury I've not had time for, minus interruption, in a while. After Dr Who (girls can't go out without watching the Dr ;-) ) we headed into town and caught up with our other friend and her new girlfriend :-)

The Hotel du Vin was the venue for our evening, will defo be staying there at some point, thought it was lovely. Wine bar had lovely squishy sofas and olives. Doesn't take much to please me mind :-) We merrily talked the night away, although we didn't end up clubbing as the friend we met, sadly had been on the receiving end of laser treatment for a tooth problem and was the sober judge of our drunken wafflings. I think we all enjoyed ourselves though? I certainly did, everyone needs a good girly night out once in a while!

Dh in the meantime was looking after two girls, on his own, overnight for the first time ever.
This meant that dd2, whom we thought was on the mend, chose to be ill again Sunday am, threw up all over poor dh, bless him. He was not impressed when I rang him. Fathers day and all.......seems my telling him at 10am what a wonderful lie in I'd had, was not the done thing :-(
I then made the situation worse, by advising I was off out for breakfast and would be back around 1ish, which I duly was. However dh did say to me previously, in martyr like fashion, take your time, don't rush back. Only to then sulk, when I did just that! men eh, bah!

I got home to find stressed out dh, whingy dd2, and apologetic dd1, who it seems had forgotten to get out the Fathers Day prezzies, another cause of dh's consternation! So we rectified that, whilst dh told tales of having to get up with dd2 at 6am, to which I pointed out I'd let him have a lie in on Saturday, because I'd feared that might be the case. (note he still got up at 8am cause he couldn't sleep) So the rest of Sunday was spent trying to cheer him up, men. I think he needs a good night out too, if only he'd go for one.........