teensy weensy itty bitty hangover

Blurg, feeling ever so slightly rough this morning. But well worth it, I had a great time last night! As an old married lady, who lives far away from all of her lady friends, I just tend not to go out as much. So it was fun getting ready last night, putting on cute dresses and doing my makeup, having a few drinks. R and I met Laura from work on the way down to the Great Eastern pub near the station, where we met up with some more co-workers, Natasha and Tom (Tash n' Tom, so cute!). Super cool pub, by the way, with all sorts of American whiskeys and bourbons available, and different rockibilly and bluegrass music nights on. I'll definitely go back!

Then we were off to Born Bad which is billed as:

A wild and sexy night of delinquent rhythms.
Red hot rockabilly, 50s rock'n'roll, 6Ts garage and girl groups,
surf, sleaze, bop and exotica for discerning hep cats and kittens.

Very fun! Ran into a few more peeps from work, Lottie, Chris and Ruth, and danced the night away. My feet are very sore indeed! And with £2.50 pints, my head's feeling slightly tender. The robe is on, the crochet is out, and the tea has been poured. Ready to nothing at all today!

Trip the 'burgh

Last weekend, R and I headed up to Edinburgh for my friend Zonko's birthday. It worked out really well, we took the first flight up (7am) and the last flight back on Monday 8th (9.30pm). So we had three full days to enjoy Scotland! I've been to Edinburgh a couple times since the wedding last year, but R hadn't been back since, so it was nice to go together again.

We were really lucky, the weather in Edinburgh was nicer than down south in Brighton (never ever happens). After we arrived on Saturday morning we had breakfast with Leashie at Two Thin Laddies and then went our old haunt, The Cameo, for a few sunny drinks. That evening, we went to North Berwick for Zonko's birthday BBQ. So so yum! We had burgers and chicken and sausages and cupcakes and potato salad and much much more!

birthday cupcakes!

Leashie and Zonko

Zonko and me

Then on Sunday, we enjoyed the sunshine and went to Hailes Castle by a little river. We went for a little double date meal at the Curry buffet (classy!). So delish! I haven't had Indian in forever!

Leashie, Zonko and me, in the 'window'
enjoying the view of the river

Then on Monday, we had a lovely posh breakfast for Zonko's birthday with AMAZING sausages, eggs, toast and champagne! Yum yum. Afterwards, we left North Berkwick and headed back to Edinburgh to do a picnic on the Meadows with Claire and other Cameo folk. It was so great being back. Even though we left Edinburgh 2 years ago, it still really feels like home. We haven't seen a lot of Cameo folk since the wedding last year, but it's just so great to to slip back into it. I really miss all those folk, and I really miss Edinburgh!

Training's going well

I had a good gym sesh today. I'm 8 weeks into my 20 week plan (culminating, of course, with the Olympic distance triathlon on 2nd August - you can sponsor me here), so I thought I'd try a mini triathlon this fine Friday evening.

I did 40 minutes on the bike, which came to 17.5km and burned 360 cals (you gotta take those with a pinch of salt!)
I then ran 20 minutes on the treadmill at 10min/mile pace, which came to 3.3km (or 2 miles) and burned 275 calories.
Then I hopped in the pool and did 900metres straight, in about 15 minutes. I took it nice and slow, trying to stretch out my arms. I like doing 50 or 100 laps without stopping, just cruising, but I also know I need to work on my speed. Anyway, that came to just under half the distance of the tri, and I was fine for that, so I know August will be no problem! I did this in 1.5 hours, so I should be course for my 2.45 tri time *fingers crossed*

I also managed to put together a photo montage of our wedding - only took me 51 weeks! Well, just in time for our one year anniversary. We hadn't used our vouchers for Habitat yet, but I finally decided to get the 55cmx55cm black frame with a multi-photo mount. I got some photos printed today at the local print shop and they look great! I'm inspired to prance around in my wedding dress on the 18th!

Hopefully we'll get some sunny weather this weekend, as Ronan and I are planning on doing a pub walking tour in Sussex. Walking and pubs, two of my favourite things! All in all, I'm getting super excited about summer and can't wait for it to be here so we can do more outdoors activities. A year ago exactly, Lauren was here in Brighton and it was absolutely sweltering! Here's to hoping for a bit more of that kind of weather soon!

It's not everyday you get to watch your dad get shot on TV...

But that's what happened yesterday! While we were in LA, my dad was filming a small (ie, opening scenc) role for The Unit (what looks to be a really crap show).

Click here to see the Prosperous Fellow get shot!

Looking a bit further back, I had a fantastic time on Friday night watching the opera Die Tote Stadt. Crazy bald dancing lady was really cool, and I sat next to a purple hair lady!

We stayed over with the Monks and had a lovely 3 hour train journery from Gatwick to Brighton, via the entire friggin English coast (due to rail replacements, so they say).

I'm not really one for valentine's day, but me and the Po-ster went for a lovely meal at one of my fave restaurants, Planet India, which does amazing vegetarian and vegan curries. Our entire meal, drinks included, was £22. Ridonkulous. We left 30 squid and went to the pub. Best V-day EVER.

Sunday was a lazy day, and we watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. A-mah-zing.


really really enjoyed both Robert Downey, Jr (wtf, nominated for an Academy Award for Tropic Thunder?!?!) and Val Kilmer. I spent the first 20 minutes of the film trying to remember the last thing he was in. Whatever it was, this was better. Go see it!

Finally, we finished season one of the Wire. Intense. I have to admit, I'm not really into coppers/bad guys tv shows, and at first I wasn't convinced. Boy, about 6 episodes in, I was friggin hooked. Bring on season two!

Love you McNulty!

take THAT pifco

What is this, you may be asking yourself. Well, that is exactly what Ronan and I were thinking Wednesday night for the pub quiz. Luckily, it was this little bad boy that won us the quiz.

After an okay Science & Nature round (10/16 points), and a great music round (32/32 using our joker) we get to the picture round. Now we know everything else, but we can't for the life of us figure out what this film is. That definitely looks like a picture of a naked man at the bottom. And in B&W we couldn't figure out if it was the beach (looks like sand) or snow (they all seem dressed in big coats). A bit more squinting lead us to realise perhaps they were asian (hey, she looks like Lauren!). More thinking, more thinking. The only asian british stuff I could think of was Bend it Like Beckham (which this most certainly is not). Then Ronan said, well isn't there an asian film called Bhaji on the Beach? Ehhhhh, what? 'Is it by the chick who did Bend it Like Beckham?' 'I dunno'. 'Is it on a beach?' 'I dunno'. 'Should we just go for it?' 'I guess so...'

Lo and behold, we got it right. How on earth?

After a shaky sports round (10/16), we were up by 6 points, feeling pretty good. I wanted to win, but as long as we beat PIFco (they are the fugly team that drink lots of wine and laugh horrible obnoxious fingernails on a chalkboard laughs, with 6 people on their team compared to just little ole me and Ronan), I was happy. Felt pretty good at the end, looking forward to seeing our score.

Quiz master hands back our sheets, and I'm so bummed to see we only got 27/36, for a final score of 95 - and we're told PIFco got a perfect score. I HATE PIFCO! I HATE THEM WITH THE FURY OF A THOUSAND SUNS, YOU BASTARDS! So as he reads the scores in reverse order, I sit there sulking the biggest sulk possible, muttering madly about my hatred for PIFco. 'Tied for third, with 93 points...blah blah, and in second...' 'i hate you PIFco, i hope you get attacked by rabied monkeys' 'with 94 points....' 'whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?' 'PIFco! and the winner tonight....with 95 points....the Pea Funks!'

So, as you can see, we owe our win (and the pot of £25) to little ole Bhaji on the Beach, worth 2 beautiful points, that allowed us to finally kick PIFco's ass. Long live Gurinder Chadha.

I'll save my harrasment by the lisping frenchman later on that night for another day...