Busy whizzy – on the Common walking a highly delighted beast by 8.30am yesterday, before meeting a Moonie for a cuppa at the Windmill. I need to get shares in that cafe, it's becoming a second home. And was rather wishing I'd passed on the morning bit of toast and peanut butter when the smell of bacon sarnies started wafting out of there.
Amazing social dynamic when you compare the outdoor cafe there to our local cafe by home – that one full of yummy mummies and their howling offspring, this one full of women in their forties, with an array of beloved dogs that Crufts would be proud of. Definitely prefer dog barking and a damp bum from the outside seating at the Windmill to the high pitched toddler shrieking of Cafe Lupo….
Post-walk, nipped to big Sainsbury's to get a particular BBQ hot wing sauce that Nurse has recommended, for H's birthday 'stocking'. What a reminder of how ridiculously pricy Waitrose is, with a far smaller selection of stuff, and yet, like a middle class mug, I go there every time…
And then Mr H reappeared from work and off we toddled to the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea. 'Affordable' now being bits of art under £6,000, so take that one with a pinch of salt. We still visit twice a year and have, for the last 4-5 events, returned very empty handed. Not this time…. two large abstracts paintings were miraculously purchased and are now sitting in their wrapping in the dining area, awaiting some wall brackets and a bit of 'which one goes on which side?' decision-making. Very exciting. Just what a girl who's had no income for 18 months should be splashing out on, tee hee.
Then took myself sternly to bed for an hour's kip as Clare G's birthday night out was looming and I needed to be on good form. Record-breaking form in fact – Jane was very keen that I beat my 4 drinks from date night last weekend with H, and, not wanting to disappoint her, I managed 5 very nice cocktails, 12 garlic escargots and a poulet frites. With green beans for good measure. Fab evening starting with cocktails at El Patron, then dinner at La Gazette in Putney and so pleased we 'extended' Clare's birthday a bit to allow me time to get back to 'being me'. Couldn't have done all this even a week ago, so am slowly slowly catchee-ing that elusive monkey.
Got home to find H and Nurse watching rugby. There was a call for whisky, to wash down the lakes of red wine they'd already drained. Weirdly, despite having 20+ bottles of vodka, we seemed to be out of scotch, that must be a first. Apart from one bottle in a wooden box, that's been at the back of the drinks cabinet for some time. Well, about 23 years actually, since I snarfed it from United Distillers when I left there in my mid twenties.
Have been vaguely saving it, as it was a numbered bottle and highly revered at the time. But then again, what's the point of keeping something forever? So, I let the boys crack into my Royal Lochnagar. The cork immediately crumbled, so there they were, filtering it at 1am, debating the merits of ice vs water (water won) and proclaiming it 'very smooth', as you do with all whisky, but especially one that's as old as my middle niece. I had a quick look on Google and it seemed to range in price from £35 to about £500, depending on the specific bottle, so I steeled myself to think 'I'm sure its only worth under £50, as the prospect of £500 on EBay and putting the proceeds towards a weekend away, disappeared in a haze of giggling men and glasses being refilled.
As I wake up this morning and write this, its hard to tell who is snoring more loudly next to me – Mr H or Scrumpy – but it seems the whisky is still working it's wonders on the hubby, and, from the side kicking I am getting, the dog is dreaming of rabbits.
Anyone around next week for dog walk/tea/ anything else? I seem to have 3 Parkside appointments in the diary but cock all else in the daytimes – let me know if you want to play x