Better late than never...

Last weekend was a very hectic one!
Friday night we left Peterborough at 6:00 and drove down to Burnham to see JC. He was mid-packing for a weekend booze cruise to Cherbourg (not asleep for once!)
Dave and I watched TV (a thoroughly depressing episode of Eastenders - although good news that Pauline has finally been killed off!!) and got a takeaway. Most disappointed with the Chinese - must be due to all the scrummy food I've been cooking recently!

Saturday we were up early. Dave had arranged a site visit to see a patch of land that needed a house putting on it. Oh, and shops he has informed me!
I went shopping....
Bought some lovely boots, you'll like them mum, and a few Christmas presents.

Dave picked me up and we headed off to Twickenham via McDonalds. Dave had been very sensible and pre-booked a parking space for us at a local school so we parked up and walked the short distance to the Guinness tent. I was nominated driver so Dave and his friend Pete made up for what I couldn't drink!

The game started fairly well and I had a 'ref link' which meant I could hear everything the referee was saying. Made the game so much more interesting - well, for me anyway. probably annoyed the hell out of everyone around me as I kept informing Dave of what the ref was saying!
Bit gutted we lost but the atmosphere was great and so good to finally get to Twickenham.

40 seconds before the final whistle we made a sharp exit and trotted back to the car for the next step in our epic adventure.

An hour and a half later we arrived at Emma and Mark's house in Derby. Emma was singing in a group who had formed to do a charity night to raise money for NSPCC.
Her Dad, step mum, Mark's mum and dad and her two brothers all arrived to the village hall where it was being held and had a fantastic night.
I won a prize (bit of a fix!) and then had to sing to 'Mustang Sally' with 3 other Mandys!! I've only ever met 3 other Mandys in my life!

Sunday we had planned to head back to Peterborough quite early but Mark's mum was insistent that we stayed for roast dinner - how could we refuse! It was decided that we would pretend it was Christmas as Em and Mark are also away for Christmas in New Zealand - not sure that Dave and I would normally be at their Christmas dinner but it was lovely! No crackers or christmas tree though... :o(

Another weekend over...

Wednesday saw an exciting turn of events. I got the letter from work that I was hoping for. Not quite as clear cut as I had hoped but still good news none the less - won't go in to too much detail in case someone from work has found this page!!

Off to Maghull this weekend to see mummy and daddy. Dave's looking forward to mum taking him on the tram! :o)

Glad to hear all is well with everyone.

M & D
xxxxxxxxx

The Browns Come To Stay...

Wednesday (15th) was Dave's dads birthday. So we invited him, Rob (Dave's brother) and Wendy (Rob's wife) to stay for the weekend.
We had all paid for a ticket for JC to see Northampton vs Saracens at Northampton.

Friday night Dave cleaned the house whilst I cooked another culinary delight - Lamb burgers in pitta with salad. Yum! A final trip to Tesco at 10:30 to buy cooking chocolate (Dave had cooked the previous batch directly in a pan - ended up being very crunchy and refused to melt!) and Friday was over (life in the fast lane continues...)

Saturday morning the Browns arrived at 10:00 just in time for a cup of tea and some 'Tiffin' (the reason for the cooking chocolate).



We presented JC with his ticket to the rugby (great surprise) and then Dave drove us all to the ground.

Northampton got stuffed but the pre-match Guinness and half time burger more than made up for it. Also the entertainment provided by a young boy who didn't want to watch the poor performance being displayed by Northampton kept us amused! (spot the headless child below!)






Then it was back to watch England vs South Africa which we'd recorded (JC provided plenty of in-car conversation)...



Wendy (being a South African) was disappointed by the result but at least it lifted the mood for the rest of us - hope they repeat the performance next week when we'll be at Twickenham!

X-Factor and lasagne followed with a few glasses of wine / beer. JC is a definite convert to X-Factor and I'm sure he'll be falling asleep in front of it next weekend!!

Post 'Parkinson' we all retired and Sunday started at a reasonable hour of 10:00 for me!! Woo hoo! (Dave allowed me to lie in as he had other people to annoy and talk to!)

A walk to Ferry Meadows (or was that Leicester and back?!) where we were entertained by a slalom canoeing competition.



We then headed off over the fields and far away! We must have walked about 5 miles in total! We called in at the Gordon Arms for a well earned drink then it was time for the Browns to head South.



Dave had a rush of blood to his head after all the walking and decided to trim the shrubbery in the back garden! I decided to take the warm (if a little boring) option of filling in my tax return - we really do know how to have a good time!!

Now it's time for dinner and I think tonight I will finish off the lamb and maybe have burgers again - they were yummy!

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend - look forward to reading about it in the next couple of days.

This time in 3 weeks we'll be in Kuala Lumpur!!!!!!!

xxxx

Scissor Sisters!..

Well, as promised we are going to keep up to date with our Blog to save you reading 4 months of information all at once!

This weekend was planned to be a lazy one. Friday night we treated ourselves to a delicious Chinese takeaway and watched Shrek 2. Not sure if you've seen it but it's so good. Much better than Shrek 1. You'd like 'Puss in Boots' mum!

Saturday we had an exciting game of 'Name That Tune' on my iPod. We really know how to have fun! Then we headed in to town for a spot of shopping. We both realised we were pretty hungry (and I was getting grumpy!) so we popped into O'Neills where they just happened to be showing the England Argentina rugby match!
We watched the first half whilst I ate chilli beef topped chips and Dave tucked into a lamb burger.
After the abysmal performance we headed out into the cold Peterborough day to start on the shopping. A couple of Christmas gifts bought for Dave's friends and a Birthday card for Benny Boo!

I cooked a lovely dinner (chicken in a pot with thyme dumplings!) and we settled in for a night of X-Factor (Dave's a bigger fan than me!) and Parkinson!

Sunday we drove over to Nottingham to do a bit more Christmas shopping. After traipsing round the shops for 4 hours and only buying a couple of warm jumpers for me, we called it a day and headed to a pub to watch the Liverpool / Arsenal game. Another awful sporting display!
Emma and Mark met with us in the pub and we all headed off for a lovely Chinese meal (bit of a trend!)
7:00 finally arrived and it was time to make our way to Nottingham Arena to see the Scissor Sisters concert.
We arrived to be greeted by a man wearing trousers with the gusset missing so you could see his underpants - things didn't get much better from there! Lots of very colourful characters!!
The support act was a lovely lady from America who must have weighed 25 stone and wearing a skin tight, bright yellow, very short dress. Nice! Her music wasn't to our taste but she was very enthusiastic!
Eventually Scissor Sisters took to the stage and gave a fantastic show. We all had a great time - even Dave who didn't know until only a week ago that they were gay!!

The show finished at about 11:00 and after a quick drink to avoid the traffic leaving the carpark, we arrived home at 1:00 this morning! Very tired today but well worth it!

We've got a video of the show but not sure how to link to it - have to have a chat with Ben!

Hope you are all well - glad you have found a new walk to do!

Mandy & Dave
xxx