Sunday at Birdcage

I like it when people come over to visit, it gives us a chance to tidy up. After the mammoth movie marathon, the place was a like a smackden. It's actually very therapeutic to clean and pretty lovely to have the flat back to it's stunning self. We'd just put away the rubber gloves when Jake and Jodie popped over to visit. It's good to see them, they only live down the road so they drove over after some confusion with the clocks going forward.

After a quick shuftie around, we headed over to the Birdcage for some afternoon pints and a well deserved pub roast. Looking out the window we could see what Jodie described as 'public theatre'... Some driver tried overtaking a bus without looking and pranged his BMW bumper. He wasn't going too quick and neither was the bus. We didn't think much of it there things happen all the time. An hour later there were about 30 firemen cutting the roof off the car and dragging him out. I'm not too sure the guy expected that level of treatment when he greedily lied to the police for the insurance scam.

Jake and Jodie stayed for a while but left May and I to leisurely walk back in the sunshine. Lovely.

Farewells and Film Marathons

Friday after work was a corker. The little milkmaid, Chloe finally picked up her milk buckets and said goodbye to Pentland.  A good turn out at the Dignity saw her off in as much style as the Dignity could muster. Obviously the shady Finchley regulars were shrugged off before we headed off to Camden. Before hitting Proud, May and I had a cheeky drink at The Mixer. There really are some fucking odd characters in that boozer. I've never really been sure that I even like the pub. This time around there was a deaf midget goth with shocking pink hair SHOUTING at some thick shit kid about what school she went to. We drank up and left after one pint. Proud was fun though, we caught up with everyone else and before we knew it we were slammin' and shootin' with the kids. TAXI!

The following day May and I were feeling rather hungover. It was a good night, but it wasn't worth feeling THAT bad. Urgh. We decided though to treat ourselves to an entirely self-indulgent day. It was brilliant actually, we broke out the sofabed and watched film after film after film after film... and ordered pizzas. May and I are into our bleak films and today was no exception. We moved from Bully to Happiness through The Constant Gardener to the much-needed fluff of The Commitments. Okay, lazy!

Dressed up for dinner

There was nothing in the fridge so May and myself decided to get REALLY dressed up and go out to the Three Crowns for a bite to eat. I wore a suit and May looked rather impressive in her LBD. I tell you what, people take you more seriously when you dress right up. I should have used my lofty social status to tell the waitress to back down and shut the fuck up. I hate over-familiar waitresses and she was THE WORST. If you're spending money, you expect a little bit of polite chatter, not some joker trying to make you laugh. However, the food was delicious. I had the steak and May had the Fillet-O-Fish... Naturellement.

Na'er cast a clout

Na'er cast a clout 'til May is out they say... What a load of crap, it was such lovely weather all weekend. It was almost balmy on Saturday, it gives you a real taste of summer. God knows we need it. I've not seen any sun since Colin's Ibizan stag do and pre-credit crunch, that seems a LONG time ago. Hanging out on Islington Green instead of life-drawing, I saw some stupid individuals in their Birkenstocks and Havaianas, cadaverous toes poking through like worms through topsoil. Urgh... In fact it was possibly a good thing we decided against life-drawing because it turned out that Jess was modelling! *chortle*... It would probably be a little awkward when I saw her at work on Monday after drawing her little bee stings!

Anyway, we hung out on the green and drew the people around us until it was time to wander around the antiques market, the shops and the Sainsburys to get ingredients for the Sunday's lasagne...

... Which went down a treat. May's mum, dad and brother came over for Mother's day loaded with various treats and surprises for the house. We now have an antique Turkish rug in the living room, a full herb garden on the balcony and also the inclination to go garden now we know what we're doing! ... Roll on REAL summer!

Dimsum and Chieftown

Friday night was fun, May and I had time after work to go shopping for a Mother's Day present, go out for Dim Sum and see a band!... All that with only having two bottles of beer. The dimsum was excellent, apart from the fact that we were the only people in the upstairs part of the restaurant which meant that the waiters standing around were too attentive and would come over to take away a dish as soon as the last dimsum had been chopsticked into our gaping mouths.

The band was okay. Chieftown. We were walking back through Soho on our way back to catch the tube when from one of the crowds outside one of the pubs, a little smiling face greeted us. It was Patch, a geordie friend of Mays. He did a good job convincing us to do 'the dreaded turn' in the road and back on ourselves to Bar Rhumba, that old bar of yesteryear which now temporarily houses pub/indie bands of questionable calibre. 

After the two bottles of beer we squeezed through the 'crowd' of Chieftown fans and headed home.

Penis Pie...

Wallop!... As promised, here is a picture of the steak and ale puff pastry penis pie. Check the time out: Twenty to ten. That's PM! How rock is that?... It's just how we roll in N16, I'm afraid.

(I think a haircut is beckoning.)

Red Hand Few

So last night after work I went to meet Jamie, Antony, Ben, Jerry and Davros at Marketplace in town. (I hate that place, Jamie loves it though. I think it's because after a certain amount of drinks, the office girls turn into one amorphous blob which he can gawp at.) Anyway, It had been a while though and it was brilliant to see their little faces again. Davros had grown a furry flattop and Jamie had put some weight on his chin just for the occasion. We chuckled at old times over a few pints and caught up with each other before I waddled over to the O-Bar to meet May who'd been out boozin' with Ian. The 'retail kids' had left by the time I arrived and so I found the two of them giggling with a couple of empty wine bottles strewn around them.