Magnificent Friday!

It's another one of these days - and it's another one I end up spending with Kevin!

I was honoured to be invited to the traditional Friday night gathering (this has previously been sacrosant to just 'the boys') where I enjoyed a civilised, cultured evening before retiring home for an early night.................honest!

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Travel by Train OR Have a Picnic Day!

This was originally scheduled to be Travel by Train Day (an extra for this month) but instead I had an opportunity to do the much moved Have a Picnic Day!  As I'm likely to be travelling to Wales by train in a couple of weeks I thought I'd shuffle an August extra in to September (what's a month between friends?).

So, Have a Picnic Day?

As I'd been lucky enough to be invited by Kevin to a personal guided tour (by Kevin) of Nostell Priory off I went for a day out with the boys (Kevin, Ray and Ken) in the hope that the weather would hold so we could have a picnic in the grounds!  The weather forecast prompted us to cancel the picnic plans but, typically, it turned out lovely at lunchtime!  We did manage a cream tea in the grounds during the last of the sunshine before the heavens opened which I'm including as a picnic of sorts!

Here're some pics :-)

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Smashingest Thursday!

It's another one with Kevin and Ray! 

I think it's probably important to clarify at this point that it was 'Smashingest' not 'Smashed' Thursday - although, given the previous form that Kevin and I seem to have, perhaps this should have been clarified on Wednesday!

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Glorious Thursday!

You know what?  It actually kind of was - in an unexpected but welcome way!

Also............good news for Kevin, the long awaited release of a piece of work and an extra sauna all contributed!

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Spend 87% of the Time Outside!

I think this was actually supposed to cover the entire month of June - unfortunately a lot of it has been wet (not that I'd have a problem with that) and also I've spent a lot of it being ill and not setting foot outside at all!

However, in recognition of this day (yeak, ok, I used this as an excuse to write something for this day) I did get some sunbathing done on the way to my rescheduled physio appointment (what a good day to have booked off work as my privilage day!) and then Kevin, Ray, Ken and were planning on taking ourselves off to Mount Grace Priory with a picnic for an outdoor production of Sense and Sensibility (this may not have amounted to 87% but it certainly felt like a fair shot!)

Unfortunately the weather interferred with these plans so we opted instead for a meal at The Boar's Head at Ripley Castle.  The food was amazing.........here's a picture of my chocolate fondant with caramilised hazlenut and orange cream dessert :-)

We did have a walk around the castle afterwards which does at least count towards the 87%, yes?  And here's a load of photos - sorry, I went a bit snap-happy, I just couldn't get the camera to reproduce what my eyes were seeing!

Part of the one of the entrances to the hotel

Some bizarre feather thing going on at the gates to the cemetary........

The lone duck.................all its pals were swimming around at the bottom but it didn't seem to be able to figure out how to get down there!

A few shots of the castle (and Ray)

 And finally, the Hotel De Ville (instead of a town hall apparently!)

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Enthusiasm Day!

It was difficult to muster any enthusiasm for anything today - it's been soooo hot!  The first thing I did when I got up was drag out the big fan to put at the bottom of the bed in the hope of having a cooler night tonight, I think even the cats might overcome their natural terror of the fan judging by the amount of aimless collapsing that's been going on throughout the day!

I did drum up some enthusiasm to get myself outside at lunchtime today to top up the tan I started yesterday and then started to feel a bit more enthusiasm as it got closer to Kevin and Ray arriving for another evening of putting the world to rights!

And I'm sure if Boss had been at work today I'd have been made to shout YAY down the phone until one of us at least felt reasonably enthused!

Hahahaha - I really was getting entusiastic, thanks to Boss for pointing it out................I was a day early, it was supposed to be on Tuesday!

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Wear a Dress Day (boys optional)

I'm guessing that boys wearing dresses is optional....... rather than the wearing of boys (in addition to a dress)!

As it was the farewell meal at the Phoenix tonight (Saturday) I decided to make an effort and wear a dress (I do like this dress - a large part of liking this dress (apart from it being all sparkly!) is that it's the perfect opportunity to wear my boots too!). 

There will be a photo in due course but due to my laptop totally breaking down (am having to beg, steal and borrow the use of others just to post on here!) I can't load any photos. Hopefully will be resolved once I can find someone to fix it without it costing a disproportionate amount to the value of the laptop!

It was a good (although sad) night and I ended up coming home with a fancy hanging dragon (from the ceiling), a funky pair of red sunglasses (from lost property), a soy sauce pourer (for Kevin), a Mr Men candle (don't ask), 2 Crazy Zoo toys (one free), a portion of noodles and prawns and a black bin bag FULL of prawn crackers!

Here's a photo of the dragon being removed from the restaurant and also of the new home in my front room :-)

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Phenomenal Friday!

Today was a good day - despite waking up with a sore head (it's that Mr Matthews again, he's a bad influence ;-)

The 45 minute walk to the hospital in the sunshine soon sorted my head out though and then there was the Neil Simone exhibition preview evening to look forward to at the Sucliffe Galleries (with champers!) in the evening, I do find some of his paintings phenomenal so it fits the bill perfectly today!

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Eating Biscuits Day!

Ok, it was never going to live up to the success of Eating Biscuits Day last year, largely because it escaped my notice that it had rolled around again until it was too late to do anything about it!

Luckily I keep a stash of Auntie Betty's ginger biscuits and marshmallow teacakes (is this a biscuit or a cake?) in the office so it wasn't a total washout!

I contemplated raiding the Jaffa Cakes in the kitchen cupboard at home but I I'd hate to see a grown man cry next time he visited and found the cupboard bare ;-) 

 Dylan performing the amazng jaffa cake trick.............

Kevin and Ray came over for tea and I was a little tempted to make one of my favourite desserts as a kid (actually, as I'm not really a sweet/dessert person it's possible this was the only dessert I liked - although my dad did (and does still) make a fabulous Pavlova and also an amazing Raspberry Charlotte Russe!) - digestive biscuits (and there's the link!) with a pineapple ring on top and finished off with squirty cream, I wasn't sure how this would go down in civillised company though so I refrained myself!

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Simple Pleasures Day!

A lazy Saturday morning, a trip to Asda, my first ever Starbucks frappachino and also ..................Eurovision night!

What more could you possibly ask for, Kevin and Ray's annual Eurovision bash, the company of good friends, music, singing, dancing, good food and drink all coinciding with a visit from the amazing DBB!!

Pleasure pure and simple!

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