Party!

Tonight I went out!!! Sarah and Adrian both turn 40 within 10 days of each other, so they threw a party to celebrate. I had a few G&T's, some buffet, some cake, a natter and a bit of a boogie! Fab!

Night Out!

A few of the Mums I've got to know from Tully's friends at nursery decided we deserved an evening out. I had wondered about suggesting one for a while but assumed it was just me with no life and was a bit embarrassed about it!

However, when I finally got round to asking it made me feel much better to discover that none of us have lives, or at least the others put in a good show of pretending not to! We went to Oca for pizza and wine this evening, and I'm hoping it might become something of a regular event.

Visitors!

Just in case everyone isn't already bored of reading about Lindsey's visit up north on Tully's and Harry's blogs I thought I'd add a quick post here on it too! This post is mostly to sate Mum's curiosity as there wasn't a good photo of either George or Lindsey on either of their posts! We did have a really nice time and it was lovely to see everyone, and although I know I always say this I am determined that we don't go so long without seeing each other again...

Problem is I haven't got a wonderful one of Lindsey beyond the one of us making biscuits - this is probably next best at the park.


But here's a rather cute one of George.

Linsey and Beth

Harry and I drove over to Glossop to see Linsey and Bethany. Beth is only 6 weeks old and very very cute. I thougth she'd look tiny next to Harry but whilst Harry was obviously bigger than her she wasn't as diddy next to him as you'd expect. It was lovely to see them both - hopefully they'll manage to come for a return visit soon.

Surprise Visit

Chrissy popped in today to feed Izzy on route to the Wirral to visit her parents. It was a flying visit but lovely to see them both.

Vics and Fraser's Wedding

We left Brighton this morning and drove to the hotel where the wedding was being held - the Newick Park Hotel.

Wow - I always knew Vics would ensure her wedding day was spectacular but it was absolutely amazing. Newick Park Hotel is a small country house hotel and they'd hired the entire place for the day. The back drop was stunning, and it was all helped by having clear blue skies!


Vics (when she finally arrived!) looked beautiful - apparently there were hair traumas which meant she was almost 30 minutes late...


Other than that the day passed without a hitch, although I felt a little bad for them when they sent for a rather long trek to take photographs by the lake! In fact they seemed to have a lot of photos taken of them full stop poor things. Luckily Tully and I managed to catch Vic on one of her very short breaks!


They had arranged for childminders for the evening as the dinig room was quite small so the few children that had the honour of being invited, Tully included, went off to their own party as we went through for dinner. I was a little worried about how she'd feel but we'd talked about it several times in advance and she was so brave! In fact she had a whale of a time: we couldn't get her to leave later and whenever we popped in to check on her she shooed us away as she was having too much fun...

Vics had given me the honour of speaking on her behalf 'best woman' style, and luckily they had the speeches before dinner which meant I was over my nerves and could properly enjoy the food which was delicious.


All in all I had a fabulous weekend!

Off to Vics Wedding

Finally the big weekend has arrived - it's Vics wedding and I have to say I'm very excited. We drove to Brighton today and stayed at the Metropole on the front, which meant we got to go on the beach, as well as have a little wander around Brighton.

I fell in love with the place when I came here (a lot!) whilst working with Southern Water, and I still think it's one of my favourite places in the UK now so it was lovely to wander past some of the places I used to go and have a reminisce!

Vics' Hen weekend

I was lucky enough to have another night away this weekend - it was Vics' hen weekend! So on Friday afternoon I caaught a train and headed to Oxford. Helen, Vics cousin, had done a sterling job with the organisation and had found these lovely apartments right in the centre of the city for us to stay in. She had also somehow arranged for Sainsbury's to deliver groceries to us just as the first of us arrived.

Friday entailed an evening in whilst everyone turned up from wherever they were coming from. We were meant to be going punting during the day on Saturday but unfortunately the only thing that Helen couldn't pre-arrange - the weather - let us down. Instead we went for an organised boat trip along the river, and then got taxis to the rather aptly named pub we should have punted to for lunch instead.

After lunch it was back to the apartment for a cup of tea and for everyone to get ready for the afternoon's activities. The rest of the day for the fit and able was a burlesque dance class, then party drinking games back at the apartment assisted by a semi-clad butler, a dinner in a private room at the Malmaison and finally going on to a club.

Even without being disabled by my stupid pelvis thing I'd realised that most of this would be much better enjoyed whilst partaking of several alcoholic beverages, so I had decided to leave them all to it and get out of the way, and had booked my return train for same time the burlesque class started. So after laughing at them all in their outfits I said my farewells and headed back to Manchester in time to put Tulster to bed.

I'd wondered if I'd regret my decision once I got there, but I felt like such a burden most of the time as I can't walk about much it was definitely the right thing to do. I'm really looking forward to the wedding now! Hope you had a fab time Vic! X

Dirty Dancing!

About 2 years ago Lindsey phoned me up to say that she'd heard that there was a West End production of Dirty Dancing, and that she couldn't contemplate going to see if with anyone else if I was up for it! Needless to say I was! But somehow through a mixture of high ticket demand (when we first started looking you had to book about 9 months to a year in advance) and disorganisation on our part we have only just managed to organise ourselves to go - and that was really only brought about by my realisation in February that if we didn't go before around August time it was going to be another 2 years before we'd manage it!

So, the men were called in to look after our respective kids and Lindsey and I had a day off and went to London. Actually I took 2 days off as I travelled to Kenilworth during the day on Friday to spend some time with her and her kids as I hadn't seen Ewan since he was 4 months old in April 2005, and I'd not met George (now 16 months) at all!

On Saturday morning we left Saul in charge and headed to the station to catch an incredibly overcrowded train to Marylebone station. On arrival we went to Covent Garden for lunch and a general meander around soaking up the atmosphere before wandering down the Strand to the theatre for the show.

Well, what can I say. It was FAB!!!! Somewhat cheesy in places, but completely wonderful nonetheless... Lindsey and I had spent much time the evening before boring Saul with wondering how they would have adapted the script, and how they might do various scenes on stage, but I'm pleased to say thanks to a very clever stage design it had been only very slightly changed from the film. It has to be said the audience was approximately 90% female and of a certain age, and the few men that were there looked rather bored throughout (they must have earned themselves serious brownie points for going along!), but all the girls were loving it!

A few words of advice for anyone thinking of going. If you are female get on with it - you won't regret it. If you are male and thinking of taking your other half then don't: pay for her to take a mate as she'll enjoy it loads more without you sat next to her tutting all the way through ;) And finally, not that I'm obsessed, but girls if you have an even vaguely weak bladder go to the loo somewhere before you get to the theatre - the audience ratio means the queues when you get there are huge!

Day out at Crosby

After wussing out of going camping this weekend with Jon and Mand, we decided to go to for a day out at Crosby beach instead as none of us had been to see Antony Gormley's Another Place before.

I have to admit I've seen more picturesque beaches, but I'm not sure it was any the worse for that, and Tully certainly had no complaints. My only criticism is that as I'm somewhat lumbered with a weak bladder at the moment and, at the end we went to anyway, there wasn't a public loo! Eeep!

Night out

A couple of weeks ago when collecting Tully from nursery I was given a note to say one of the other Mums was organising a Mums night out. I decided to sign up as I'm always moaning that I don't get out enough, and that I don't have enough friends! I was a little nervous as I knew that none of the Mum's I've got to know a little were going. Despite being poorly all week Mark convinced me I should still go along tonight and I'm glad I did.

There were 7 of us in the end, and it was nice to put names and children to faces. We just went into Sale, meeting in the Slug and Lettuce and then heading next door to Da Vinci's for a meal. Very enjoyable!

Eurovision

Bah! Russia did not deserve to win!!!! And whilst we certainly didn't deserve to win we really didn't deserve to come last. hope they can find a way to make the voting a bit fairer. Even Malta defected this year and failed to give us any points!

Anyway, this year not only Jonny and Mandy came round, but also Steve and Karen as they had already arranged to come and visit the Hills before any of us realised it was Eurovision weekend. It was lovely to see them as we were out of town the last time they came to visit and we'd not seen them since their wedding in 2005! Whilst I don't begrudge them having a weekend off parenthood it was a shame we didn't get to meet Poppy... It did make me think that it was about time Mark and I had a weekend break though as we've not had any time away together since we went to Philadelphia last July! Mum and Dad beware! :)

As last year we played this drinking game - or rather everyone else did... Mand came up with the idea that I should eat a cocktail sausage every time they had to drink but I politely declined!:) Not as many key changes this year which let us down, but lots of costume changes, fireworks and even females in false beards! Fab!

The general standard was really quite high, and I do think other countries take their entries more seriously than us. As a collective once we collated our collective scores we put in votes for Azerbaijan and Bosnia and Herzegovina, although my top score went to Ukraine, with Iceland and Bosnia in joint second place.

As per usual I provided far too much party food, as well as loads of lasagne, salad and garlic bread (perfect Eurovision fodder as it can be pre-prepared and then just shoved in the oven so you don't miss any of the action!). Overall a very good evening - just a bit of disappointment about the results...

Mandy's Birthday Weekend

Jonny and Mand hosted the usual bank holiday festivities to celebrate Mandy's birthday. First off out for a curry on Friday evening. Mark was still in the US (at very short notice) but as we'd already arranged for Alicia to come and look after Tully I thought it seemed silly for me to stay in on my own. I had my usual at the Spice Garden - Chicken Sangrila - which is rather unusual but I love it and I can get it at so few places I figure why not! I only eat here once a year after all.

Then on Saturday a BBQ party in their back garden. Tully and I went round mid afternoon - but Mark decided to stay at home as his flight was late getting him home and he was feeling a bit rough. We had lots of fun once Tully got over her initial shyness. The Goodridges were there when we first arrived so she had 3 playmates, then with perfect timing just as they were leaving the Braithwaites arrived so the play mates were instantly replaced!

Seeing Vics!

This weekend we met up with Vics. Sadly Fraser had plans to meet his best man to get measured for their suits for the wedding so couldn't make it. Still - it meant all the more chance for us to gossip about him! In fact I'm surprised he still has ears left they must have been burning so much!

We'd booked a cottage just the far side of Stratford as it was roughly halfway between us, and it was really quite nice. We had Sands View, which is 1 of 6 cottages in a large barn conversion.


I had a really lovely weekend - other than the huge traffic jam on the journey down that is. It was lovely to see Vics, and whilst I know it's impractical I wish I got to see her more frequently. Still, it's not toooo long now until the wedding of the century, and for some unknown reason Vics has asked if I will give a speech on her behalf - the fool! :)

Magic Sheep!

Jon and Mand brought us this magic sheep back from their holiday in Scotland. Now I know that was a very long time ago, but because it said not suitable for children under 10 we thought it must include some really nasty chemical. The chances of Tully listening to us and not touching were it slim, so we took it into work where it consequently got hidden under all the random piles of stuff on my incredibly untidy desk...

Anyway, yesterday we found it and thought we'd have a go. Here he is at lunchtime when first assembled...


Here is his progress about 2 hours later...


And here he is the next morning! All wooly...


Lots of fun, and it's kept the majority of the office entertained too! Thank you!

Well, that told me!

During our visit to Drusillas on Saturday...

Me: "Ooo Tully, look at those pretty birds."

Tully (with a look of complete disdain on her face): "No Mummy - don't be so silly. They aren't birds. They are flamingos..."

Amy's 30th Masquerade Party

A slightly belated post this.. On Saturday Jonny, Mandy and I went to Amy's birthday party. It has to be said I was slightly apprehensive beforehand as a) I hate anything even vaguely verging on fancy dress and b) we weren't going to know anyone else there!!! Well, other than Stu and May themselves that is...

However in the end it was really good fun. We drank lots, ate lots, danced lots, and I realised I knew more people than I thought as I also knew Dawn and James as we'd camped with them at the V festival a couple of years back.

I didn't take my camera, but Jonny has posted some rather fuzzy photos he took on his phone here...