Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Saturday 10 December - Bath Christmas markets!


Current location: Bristol
11.11pm, Drinking red wine in a festive pub in Bristol with Claire, my sister. I'd come to visit for the day and we'd gone to Bath to do some Christmas shopping. The markets were brilliant, all around the cathedral, and we ate wurst, drank glühwein and I reminisced about the Berlin Christmas markets last year. What an awesome year it's been! Bath was beautiful and, as we came home and wrapped presents next to the tree while listening to Christmas songs, I felt very festive indeed!

(Pic taken from Christmasmarkets.com)

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Thursday 8 December - Christmas dinner #3 of 3 (this week!)




Current location: Blackheath
11.11pm, Getting asked to leave a bar. Not because we were raucous and drunken (15 netball girls?!), just because the bar was closing. We were on our netball Christmas night out and had finished a delicious meal in Zero Degrees, before moving onwards and upwards for wine and cocktails. When the next bar closed we headed to a very bizarre Mexican place and carried on the night in..style?! I always have so much (too much?) fun with the netball girls, and the hangover/lack of sleep is pretty much guaranteed.

Tuesday 6 December - Christmas dinner #2 of 3



Current location: Brixton
11.11pm, Being full at Sara and Emily's house. The six of us (Sarah, Catdog, Emma, Sara, Emily and I) had met at their house for a home-cooked Christmas dinner. Each 'pair' was in charge of a course, and Cat and I were on starters, so we made mushroom and stilton vol-au-vents. They're so easy and so tasty so I might start making them more often. Next up was Sara and Emily's mains: chicken, stuffing, roast potatoes, spiced cabbage, carrots, parsnips and I'm pretty sure there was more that I've forgotten. It was absolutely incredible; we all went back for seconds. Emma made her famous 'Granny's cookie cake', which we all somehow found room for (again, some of us may have, er, gone back for seconds...) then we all lazed around like it was Boxing Day, pulling crackers, telling jokes and singing carols. Starting to feel very festive now, and appreciative of my lovely, lovely friends.

Monday 5 December - Christmas dinner #1 of 3


Current location: Lewisham, London
11.11pm, Getting home after a Christmas meet-up with the City girls. Strictly speaking, this one wasn't a proper Christmas dinner, because we went to Pizza Express and all ate pizza (surprisingly) but it still had that festive feel to it! Love these girls, and love the excitement and anticipation that the Christmas season brings!

(Picture of a, erm, pizza Christmas-tree decoration taken from FG Pizza) ?!

Saturday 3 December - Birchwood house party


Current location: Wandsworth
11.11pm, Dancing in our friend's lounge. One of our friends from uni, Hamish, had a house party so four of us went along to see old faces, meet new ones, drink their drinks, dance, count, gossip, laugh, hide and all the other funny things that happen at house parties. I'd forgotten how much I love house parties – how unpredictable and fun they are, and silly you can be and get away with it. Catdog, Emma and I started off drinking pink wine and doing face masks at Emma's at 5pm too, which was the perfect start to a fab night.

(Picture taken four years ago at a house party in uni, when the three of us lived together).

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Tuesday 29 November - Hanson again



Current location: Greenwich, London
11.11pm, At the O2 (the Indigo bar in the O2), MMMBopping like I've never bopped before. Ruth, Nicky, Sarah and I were at a Hanson concert (yes, the second in six months), dancing, shouting, whooping, hollering, shrieking, singing, fist-pumping, jumping and generally acting like superfans. I bloody love Hanson, so very much.

(Images © Tom Clarke)

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Saturday 26 November - Birthday night in Angel, Finsbury Park and Dalston





Current location: On a bus to Dalston
11.11pm, On our way out for Ruth's birthday. We'd been to hers for Cava and homemade vol-au-vents (our new speciality) and then to a really nice Japanese/Korean place in Finsbury Park called Dotori, it was sooooo good. All full up but wanting to dance, we headed to Dalston where we took our shoes off and danced on chairs and tables in three clubs and then went home to eat leftover vol-au-vents. Happy birthday Ruthie!

Thursday 24 November - Puss in Boots premiere!


Current location: Soho
11.11am, At work, emailing my City girls (my friends from City University). We were meant to be meeting up for Book Club tonight but, due to various reasons (and the book being rubbish), we decided to postpone. Then magically my friend Sophie invited me to the premiere of Puss in Boots. We both turned up to Leicester Square a little dishevelled and, thanks to Sophie's press tickets, we then traipsed down the red carpet behind Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, clutching our gym bags and not getting papped by the millions of photographers. We ended up sitting by Jenny Frost and Amanda Holden and I was bloody excited. The film was hilarious; I absolutely can not recommend it enough, and loved that my evening went from a quiet night to an amazing night!

Tuesday 22 November - More quizzing


Current location: Angel, London
11.11pm, In the Winchester pub, talking to Curious George, the Quizmeister. We went to the quiz again and managed to come a respectable 5th. Yes, out of 7, but still impressive I think. Especially because one round involved making a mask...and the above attempt is all we could come up with.