The hen-do I went to last weekend was one of the funniest nights I’ve had in a long time. It took me almost all morning to get from Portsmouth to London due to unforeseen train delays/cancellations but thankfully, I arrived around the same time as Gemma. We had arranged to catch the train together from London to Gillingham, but thought it would be a good idea to take 5, eat some sushi (Wasabi is my London guilty pleasure) and relax in sunny Grosvenor Gardens.
Caz met us from Gillingham station and we journeyed back to her house to get ready for the night’s activities! Rather than buy extra alcohol, I’d packed one litre of Tanqueray Rangpur gin in my weekend bag along with a dribble of Midori melon liqueur that I found at the back of our booze cupboard. Surprisingly, I didn’t drink too much, just enough to make things fuzzy and to numb the shock of seeing my first ever stripper, Ron!
In true hen fashion, the night involved lots of pink, party games, cupcakes….and lots of willies! I’m more than excited about Caz’s wedding which is a week tomorrow! The weekend was rounded up with a visit to Caz’s marital home which is currently being done up by husband-to-be Graeme, a necessary McDonalds Quarter Pounder meal with banana thickshake, and another long journey home.
Dave’s graduation took place yesterday, so we have been celebrating a fair bit this week! Luke also graduated and so on Tuesday, the four of us plus baby Francis went to Agora, a Turkish restaurant in Southsea to celebrate. It was a quiet evening, so we could spend time catching up and we didn’t have to worry if Francis started crying. We hadn’t all been out for food in such a long time, I’m pleased that as Francis is getting bigger, his routine is much easier for Hannah and Luke to manage. He’s becoming more adorable every day! We had fried halloumi, hummus, lamb/chicken kebabs, vegetable moussaka and a bottle of wine between us.
On Wednesday night, Dave’s family came down to stay as the Graduation meant we all had to be up at 7am… He graduated with First Class Honours in Business Administration, and I’m proud that I have a boffin boyfriend. It was a beautifully sunny day, we took an incredible amount of photos outside the iconic Portsmouth Guildhall, and also took photos with Hannah and Luke. The job situation is unclear at the moment, but that’s something we will tackle together, whatever Dave does I will be proud of him.
After the ceremony we went to the Slug and Lettuce for drinks and snacks, wasting some time before our lunch reservation at Loch Fyne. I was happily munching through some chips with ketchup, when disaster struck! I grabbed a double chip that had been glued together with sauce, looking forward to eating it, but the sauce became slippery and the chips fell from my fingers…..right into the silk cowl neck of my new dress. NIGHTMARE. I dabbed it with a paper towel, and luckily, the cowl neck could be rearranged to cover the ketchup which actually sort of matched my dress pattern!
Our lunch at Loch Fyne was beautiful – I’m a big fan, I visited the same restaurant on my graduation day (a whole two years ago, sigh). To start, I had two oysters on ice with a splash of Tabasco, dressed Devonshire crab salad for my main with new potatoes, and a naughty lemon and raspberry posset with raspberry macaroon. Delicious food, accompanied by several glasses of cold white wine.
In running news, I am coming to the end of Week 3 half-marathon training and I’ve switched it up a bit to focus on how long I am running rather than how far. The new plan includes 1 x tempo run, 1 x speedwork run, 1 x easy run and 1 x long run. I enjoy the freedom of running for a certain time (between 30-45 mins, 60 mins for long run) and not worrying about the miles, just enjoying the time on my feet. My Obsessive Compulsive side doesn’t enjoy looking at the Garmin stats when time’s up, does anyone else find it slightly frustrating to run an awkward distance? 3.16 is all sorts of wrong.
This plan is working much better for me because it alleviates any pressure if I feel I can’t quite make the mileage, although I have been hitting the targets and ramping it up nicely. If any of you are thinking “WHY have you been running in this heatwave?!” (the UK is currently experiencing an unusually long period of sunshine and humidity) then I answer you with this “because I want to reach my goal of finishing my first Half Marathon, I’m taking it seriously and I want to eat ice cream at work!”…
- How have you been finding this extreme weather?
- What did you do on your graduation day?
Cats Don't Like Cake 