Went out to Brighton yesterday on some cheapo tickets we got ahead of time. Only £3 each way! Only problem it was freezing all day so my sniffle and sore throat turned into a lovely cough.
We met up with Meg and Colin and had a yummy lunch at Bill’s. Sadly missed out on Choccywoccydoodah. Maybe next time.
My initial excitement for taking photos was thwarted by the cold. Stupid cold.
I learnt something new on the weekend. I showed up to Turnham Green station about an hour earlier than I should (not wanting to be late to paint Chiswick Community School’s corridor) and I wander down the street, then back again, then back up to kill some time… On my way back up I randomly stopped in a window and pretended to window shop. It took me a while to realise what I was looking at. I looked further and it was an Oxfam book shop. I wandered in and went straight to their fiction section: at the rate I’m reading books these days I need to find some new stock! I left with five new books to add to my collection all for less than £10! On my way back from the painting me and Moggy stopped by again and I picked up two more books, granted, one was for Elisha. Moggy also made a good point, second-hand book shopping in fancy neighbourhoods almost guarantees a good selection of books. Sure you pay about four times the price of the average charity shop, but oh the selection!
I should really catch up on what I’ve read lately. I think I left off with Nick Hornby’s How to be Good. I read a book called Diary for a Mad Mother-To-Be which was highly amusing. While we were in Lille I read some random book called Lets meet on Platform 8… I almost feel stupider having read it… Then I read Be Careful What You Wish For, all three came from the bookshelf at home which came from Tim who got them from some lady clearing out her bookshelf. After that I got Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down and now I’m onto Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl and As Nature Made Him simultaneously. By the way, As Nature Made Him is kinda scary. Botched circumcision lead to a boy being raised as a girl sans hormone treatment… scary scary scary.
Here are my mini-reviews:
How to be Good: not as good as High Fidelity.
Diary for a Mad Mother-To-Be: amusing. So much so that I’m going to buy the prequel, Mad Bride.
Lets meet on Platform 8: it wasn’t unreadable but not recommendable. Liked the twist about a random small character being gay.
Be Careful What You Wish For: another easy read from a middle-aged woman’s bookshelf.
A Long Way Down: not as good as High Fidelity.
Lets not mention the Australian girl who was also helping out with the painting. “Yeah me and some friends are going to Berlin… like the one place I haven’t been!” Enough said.
Friday was yummy curry in Henley. I keep forgetting that they put coconut in their curries over here… ick. Okay, not that I could taste it but the texture is weird!
Saturday started early with a trip to Tamworth to go skiing. It was good fun. Me and Eddy went for two hours, me snowboarding and him skiing. Part way through Eddy changed to a snowboard as 200m of slope wasn’t quite challenging enough.
All went well until we went to scrape the boards down at the end of the session when somehow (while wearing gloves) my thumbnail bent right backwards and it was painful! I was too scared to take my glove off then had to to swipe out… BAH! Blood… eeuuww… lets not talk about it…
Sunday we met Ian and Sarah for lunch. Well, a walk then lunch… then a walk. Walk was lovely though. Over hills and through fields… now I sound like Moggy wanting to roll around in the grass and make daisy chains…
Well, Lille was full of food, fun and randomness.
My goodness is the Eurostar quick! That’s all I have to say about that.
We got to Lille and went straight to eat and shop… no surprise there.
With our apartment’s reception closed (nice for some) we went and found lunch at a place called La Pizz. What great pizza and delicious brownies! We’d clearly stayed too long because they kicked us out… must have been their turn for an afternoon nap…
Our apartment turned out to be exactly like the reviews: in the middle of a building site. Awesome! The room was amusing. We couldn’t figure the key out and when we finally got let in by reception we saw a couch. Looking closer I pulled out the trundler bed. An alternative spin on the term “twin share”.
For dinner we headed out and wandered up a street looking at all of the menus outside the restaurants when a woman comes out of one and greets us and reads out the (French) menu to us in English and we think, cool. Dinner was delicious with snails to start, scallops and beef buorgingon for mains and an ice cream dessert for Moggy with crème brulee for me. Now, when I ordered the menu said that there were three flavours: chicory, berry and caramel toffee. I chose caramel toffee but waitress said no, there were three flavours. Okay… When it came out there were THREE WHOLE crème brulees on a plate… all for me!!!