Hi guys! If you live in Britain, I hope you’ve been enjoying the lovely weather (if you’ve been as fortunate as us in the South to have so much sunshine) and the Bank holiday weekend. I hope the weather is just as nice where you are!
Beautiful blossom tree on my walk with Alfie
This weekend has been a mixture of being busy and doing nothing. Perfect combination I’m sure you’ll agree!
Friday night Ben and me went over to my parents’ house to enjoy a sneaky Indian take-away. I much prefer the Indian take-away near their house than ours. They know us well which is rather embarrassing but makes it feel homey.
Since moving out (actually, since going to university) whenever I came home I’d always raid my parents’ cupboards for anything nice. I know it’s wrong. I don’t do it without them knowing (most of the time ). They just tend to buy stuff I’d never buy as it’s either too expensive or I don’t know if I’ll like it or not so won’t want to waste my money. So I steal borrow it from my loving parents. It’s a very similar situation with my mum’s nail varnish/handbag/shoe collection. She doesn’t mind…sort of.
Anyway, this time my mum seemed to have gone crazy with buying loads of different herbal and normal tea bags.
Sooo I did a bit of sampling to take home with me…as you do.
Only problem is when I got home I don’t know what is what. So it’s a bit of a tea adventure. Ben helped me sniff out the Chai ones as apparently he has a talent in identifying cinnamon. He’s a keeper!
I think I enjoyed a Sunshine Grey Saturday morning, but who knows!!
Anyway so Saturday morning I got up and ran my usual long run (9 miles) which was a) tough in the warmer weather and b) tough after a spicy Indian take-away the night before. Pre-run food it is not.
Then I got back and did the housework. Not much different to most Saturdays! I went on a little adventure to Waitrose to have a mosey around. Does anyone else do that? Just go for a little trip to the supermarket just to have a look? It’s a fun activity for me. I can’t believe I’ve just admitted that.
I literally walked up and down every aisle just browsing around. I don’t get to go to Waitrose that often as it’s quite far away and expensive. I managed to spend a fair bit of money on nothing that we needed. You know how it is…you see stuff you don’t necessarily need but want… In the end I came away with several tins of tinned pumpkin, Ambrosia rice pudding and tapioca, a jelly with sweets in it for Ben as a pressie and a new porridge bowl for me. It could have been a lot worse. I was quite refrained. It’s a good job it’s not closer!
Saturday night we went out with our couple friend (you know, friends who are a couple – is there a better way to say that?). We went to a Brazil all-you-can eat (‘rodizio’) restaurant. Oh. My. God. It was good.
You sit down, order drinks, fill your plate high with salad from the salad buffet (though actually more than just salad really – they had meatballs, fries, fried banana things – which Ben adored; he had six of them).
Check out that bad boy of a selection platter. We’ve got refried beans, fried mushrooms, Greek salad, battered mackerel, black eyed peas and tuna salad mix, meatballs, green beans, broccoli and salad. And no, that is not the only plateful I got.
Then you turn over your magic card to the green side and the waiters bring round meat to your table to carve for you to add to your plate.
Sirloin steak, rump steak, venison, pork, gammon, chicken drumsticks, roast turkey, king prawns, ribs, sausages, chicken wrapped in bacon, and chicken hearts. Yes chicken hearts.
I pretty much had everything but the steaks, sausages and drumsticks. I even tried a heart. Small and chewy. We literally all tried one at the same time. It was the culinary equivalent of a shot. Tasted like chicken.
And I even had myself a strawberry capirinha cocktail.
And maybe a few jugs of Sangria were shared…
Honestly, I was STUFFED. Like uncomfortably full stuffed. We all were. It was just really hard to not keep going. They kept coming round with more meat that we hadn’t tried and well…we just kept eating. But it was good fun.
Needless to say I was looking after a hefty food baby when I got home and had to ‘sit and chill’ for a bit before going to bed.
Sunday morning I was surprised that I was actually hungry in the morning. My body is a strange thing. Ben’s mum came over and helped with some gardening. Now gardening is neither my forté nor my favourite thing to do. So I did some cupboard organising while they worked away like troopers and then I helped a bit at the end…I know where my talents lie
This is what it looked like before.
But without the flowers. Basically we just had two main plants and then a barren wasteland of cracked soil because Ben and me are rubbish with anything that requires more than watering. One of those plants is a blueberry plant and honestly I have no idea how it survived. It’s a fighter.
And this is what it looks like now.
So much tidier and easier to deal with now. It looks rather posh, if I do say so myself!
My little blueberry plant is standing strong
And the cupboards are all nice and clean and organised as well
Monday I got up and ran an even warmer 6 miles. Really, really tough. My legs felt like lead.
Not fun. Enough said.
Then I enjoyed a bit of solo shopping. Don’t get me wrong, I love going with my mum or friends or Ben (if I fancy enduring his sighs and not-so-subtle moaning), but sometimes it’s nice to whizz round on a mission by yourself. I stopped for a take-away coffee with hazelnut syrup and then speeded on.
The only tough thing is trying to decide if something looks nice. Which involves a lot of photo taking and sending the pictures to Ben to harass ask him for his opinion.
Lots of dresses were purchased (even though I told myself to buy something other than dresses). And a pair of wedges, yay!
And a few tops. A very good haul!
Now I’m just relaxing. All in all an entirely fabulous Bank holiday weekend.
What have you gotten up to this weekend? Have you had the Monday off?
Have you been to an all-you-can eat restaurant before? They are my nemesis…I just can’t stop myself.
Do you enjoy gardening?