Belated weekend roundup

Weekend start sort of badly, and then sort of worse, and then actually got going really very well indeed. Train home hit some kind of delay, caused by some kind of delay on another train. That's as much detail as we've come to expect in the non explanations from south eastern, but HEY, thinking about it I shouldn't complain about them too much, in case I ever end up applying to them for a job. I was quite comfortable on the train, got my paper and my book and my episodes of Dexter, but being late home is never good. We were just over the half hour, so that's a refund on the way, so that's nice. BUT, then every silver lining has another cloud, this one came in the form of a torrential downpour on the walk from the station. We had coats and brolly and that (Clare came to meet me) but still walking into the rain I could have done with my waterproof trousers or waders or something.

We couldn't figure out what to have for tea before going to the pub, so we booked dinner at Escondido and decided to make that our night out, a nice bonus fab meal and bottle of wine. Even sitting with wet trousers on (caused by the rain...) didn't spoil this.

Saturday we got up fairly swiftly and headed to Tunbridge Wells for the day. didn't get that much shopping done, but we did have another smashing meal in Pizza Express, and even the hour's journey each way was OK. Being used to commuting helps here, and also knowing we weren't actually going to work, and then also getting the journey for free adds a bit more.

Saturday night we were out for pa-in-law's birthday, in Hythe, at The Red Lion. In theory this should be a GREAT pub, it has two bars, ale, sofas, big tellies, pool table, darts, food, everything. In practice, it's possibly just me, but there's an unsettling air about the place. It's just a little bit "out of town" which gives it the atmosphere of a roadhouse type place. I wasn't exactly expecting to be killed at any moment by vampires, but there's something about it. We played loads of pool and I lost every game. This (combined with generally feeling on the back foot when I am a cab ride or further from home) is probably where my bad feelings came from.

Sunday, we shopped, and then the Mahon clan gathered again, this time just for drinking tea and playing with the kids and the cat, and plotting christmas dinner. This will be GREAT, so long as I'm not forgotten. There is already talk of smearing everything in goose fat for some reason, so I am preparing my own feast. I've already had a trial run of making a nut roast, but half way through the process of putting it in the tin, piping some cranberry jelly into the middle, so it's like a giant pop tart, spewing out scalding jam when it comes out of the oven. I might mix some chillis in there too. Also I'm having vege sausages wrapped in vege bacon on the side, though these might not taste of too much.

I've made myself hungry now, time to sign off for lunch.

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