A hell of a Friday night.. and a wee walk on Saturday afternoon

Oh it's been fun.....

It's been a hell of a time, that's involed drinking games, locked flats, pillow fights, severed breasts, walks on the beach, twins... and cramps.

But of course that's not going to make much sense to any of you so, so I guess I've got some explaining to do. Full photos at DundeeOct09SurpriseVisit

Friday

So.. after I'd survived being Cameron Jacked for most of the day, I left Mum and Dad with Cameron and wandered down the Hilltown to meet up with Murray down the bottom of the Hilltown at 3:30pm. We were going to head to Colin's house, drink some wine, watch and episode of 'Nip and Tuck' before Vickie got home and then head out.

Or so that was the plan, but as with most things that involve me... they never go much to plan. But hold yer horses there, I'm getting away from myself. So lets rewind...  I walked down the Hilltown, and when your walking down the Hilltown you see such 'interesting' landmarks like the;

The famous Dundee 'peh' shop

But it was closed.

Next I wander past the Police Station...

Also closed...

Then I walk past the multi's on Alexander Street... I use to live just below them

In a house just like this... one of those flats. Joy.

As I continue my walk down the Hilltown, I pass one of Tim's favourite landmarks...

The 'Hilltown' Chinese... if you look real closely, there's a tiny serving grill surrounded by wire meshing. Such a lovely place.....

And I continue my walk down the road.... almost there, should finally get down the bottom soon

and then I notice this...

Even the 'Credit Crunch' has struck Dundee!

As I said, an interesting walk down the road. I meet up with Murray, and we head to the Town House for a quick drink ;

before we nip into the Tesco Metro by the Wellgate to pick up supplies. And when I say supplies I mean... Gin, Vodka, Tonic and Coke.

And off we go to Colin's house... although Colin wasn't there... and the closey door was shut. So there's Murray and I standing in the doorway, with the kerryoot waiting on Colin turning up from Work.

And so we stand.....

And wait......

And stand.....

And wait.....

Yay! Finally Colin turns up.

But he forgot his keys.

**??!!"£$£$%£%!!!!££!!!!!****!!!!

We eventually get into the closey and are left waiting by his door for Vickie to turn up. Three phone obsessed people waiting, so of course we all whip our phones out and start fiddling with them.

*coughs*

Who's got the biggest one??!!

Eventually Vickie turns up and lets us all in. She hits the showers while the three of us setting down to a glass of red wine, and watching Nip and Tuck.

Oh gawd.

I've never really watched Nip and Tuck before, but bloody hell... it only happened to be the episode where a wifie severs off her own breast with an electric carving knife. All three of us where curled up on the couch, screaming our heads off at watching the scene, having no idea that it was going to happen.... 3 screaming Queens on the sofa.

Of course, Vickie heard none of the screams and joins us later on the sofa completely oblivious to our obvious shock and trauma.

Colin is shocked by Vickie's online shopping bill from Ann Summers.

And so the night begins.

The 'dice' came out... and the drinking game had begun. Oh gawd, oh gawd, oh gawd this is going to be an evening and a half. Now, I'd never played this game before and I'm relaying it to you now through the drunken haze of yesterday.

You have 2 dice.

You throw 2 dice.

There's a scoring system.

I think it goes something like this;

• 
  
  If you get a 2 = snake eyes, a double.. means you have to take 2 sips of your drink
  
  
  
• 
  
  If you get a 3 = everybody has to take a drink, all exect you
  
  
  
• 
  
  If you get a 4 = the person to the left of you has to take a drink
  
  
  
• 
  
  If you get a 5 = the person to the right of you has to take a drink
  
  
  
• 
  
  If you get a 6 = you have to nominate someone to take a drink
  
  
  
• 
  
  If you get a 7 =  Everyone has to take a drink, and clink their glasses together
  
  
  
• 
  
  If you get an 8 = you become the 'thumb master'. This entails you putting your thumb onto the table... the last person to put their thumb on the table has to take a drink
  
  
  
• 
  
  If you get a 9 = You have to roll again, and whatever number you get, is the number of sips you have to take
  
  
  
• 
  
  If you get a 10 = it's a forefit, and you have to pick a forefit from one of the options on the drinking cards
  
  
  
• 
  
  If you get an 11 = You are the drinks slave and have to serve everyone their drinks
  
  
  
• 
  
  If you throw a double at anytime you have to take 2 sips
  
  
  

As you can imaging... we drank a lot, some more than others ;-) I wasn't actually too bad... I was more suffering with cramps, being it the vile awful time of the month that it was.

There was dancing involved...

Colin shows us how to do the Time Warp

Put your hands on your hips

There was a lot of dancing like that...

And so we continued on with the drinking game.. and the sillyness continued... including one of my forefits which was to start a pillow fight with the host's pillows....

Which of course I excel at...

There were many pillows...

and eventually we came to our senses and settled back down to the drinking game

We carry on the sillyness for a while, then head down to 'Out' for the boys and girls to jump around and pose to the music. I don't.

Never been a fan of clubs.. the whole, noise, cramped, pounding baselines...  I'm a bit tired, sore with the cramps, but it's great being out with the guys and gals.. but eventually I have to admit defeat, say my goodbyes, and jump into a cab home.. it's around 1:30am.

I get home, head straight to bed and sleep.

Or so I thought so... 3am, severe cramps.

4am..cramps... I take some painkillers

5am.. cramps...

6am.. cramps...

7am.. cramps..

8am.. cramps..

9am.. take more painkillers and head downstairs to curl up on the sofa and drink some juice slowly.

Mum and Dad wake Cameron out to the park, William goes to the gym and I stay curled up on the couch, watching some Babylon 5 rocking back and forth wishing that the womb and uterus could be ripped out. Around 11:30 the pain starts subsiding and I get dressed, call a cab to head down to Jollys to meet up with Gillian (an old friend from when I used to work in the School Wear Shop) and her man Steve, and their two twins Holly and Libby (around 2 yrs old)

We do lunch, then head down to the water front for a wee walk.

And off we go!

Heading towards Broughty Ferry Castle

A gorgeous day, looking out to Tayport

The girls loved seeing the boat being towed back into the harbour by the swimmer

Gillian & Steve play with the girls in the wee park whilst I take a wander along the beach

Then head back towards the castle and park to catch back up with Holly, Libby, Gillian and Steve.

I say my goodbyes, the bairns are getting a wee bit girney with all the fresh air and playing on the swings etc in the park....  walk them back to the car, and head off back home.

More painkillers, I'm still suffering... something to eat, something to drink. Mum, Dad, William and Cameron come back after an afternoon in the park, and I'm back out again at 7pm to meet up with Cari and Susan (later on) in Tickety Boos.

Till then :-)

Catch up and a change of location

Aye!

Hullo, Hullo, Hullo from up North! I'm back in the motherland.. the land of;

Deep Fried Haggis

Deep Fried Mars Bars

Deep Fried Pizza

But anyway.. that's now. What have I been up to since I last updated this blog? Lets see if I can rewind my foggy brain and remember what I've been up to.

Tuesday

Nothing much. Worked from home, got my Emergency RFC 99% written for sending off to DfT's Shared Services on Wednesday. I was quite chuffed at breaking the back of that and getting it to the finished state.

Also managed to work on the Mad Scientist's Lair in Second Life on Mayday Island... a new Role Play project I'm starting up a few others. It's nothing like the RP I currently do in NoR .. it's not post apocolyptic, it's set on an Island and will have a basic, simple combat meter set up. Interesting to see how this develops.

And... it was an early night. Gosh, shock, horror I hear you say.. but it was needed. Intense concentration throughout the day, and I have an early start on Wednesday

Wednesday
I'm up early.

I don't do early.

I'm struggling and really hating travelling at this time in the morning .. i.e  8am.  It's not the time that bothers me that much, it's the sheer volume of people.

I don't like crowds, I hate crowds. I'm mildly claustraphobic and travelling on the London Transport system at rush hour stresses me out, and I start feeling sick and panic'y... hard to breathe... the bus is taking forever.. the tube is crowded and I'm hemmed into a corner staring at people's armpits because I am such a short arse. I just need to get out, get off the tube and see sky again.

I eventually get to Victoria, and can breathe. I take a slow walk to DfT Southside on Victoria Street and try and regain my centre of calmness and open space. Time to launch into the 4hour workshop on Treasury's Clear Line of Sight Project. It was a successful workshop, got the testing framework set out and underway, with the build work starting next week.

Back to the office to work on the remainder of the ERFC to send across to Shared Services. I get that out the way, sorted out a couple of things then shut down the laptop, switched my out of office on then left the building to meet up with Jay in the Brass Monkey for a couple.

 We then switch to the Elusive Camel for another.. a god awful bar, and we won't be going back to any time soon.

It really is god awful.. bouncers on the door. Why do people go there?

Hunger pangs kick in and I take Jay to Loco Mexicano for his very 1st Mexican.

And so, of course I make him try a margarita

Oooo... it's got a bit of a kick to it

But I think he likes it.

Yes, it really was his very first Mexican..... after we nosh down on some good scran, it's into the Prince of Wales for a nightcap.

We watch England win 3-0 against Belarus then off home.

Sleep.

Thursday
I'm up obscenely early. The alarm goes off at 5:50am

Why?

Cause I need to leave the house for 6:50am, catch the 76 Bus down to Bank, to then hop onto the DLR to London Airport to catch my 8:55am flight to Dundee!

It's a tiny plane.

There's only 9 of us on the flight....

We make good time, arrive early at Dundee but there's a problem....  Birds on the runway.

Now when I say runway... it's not what you'd call Heathrow, Gatwick or Stanstead... it's more like a strip of tarmac next to a cowshed.

We have to circle around Dundee for 10-15mins while they scare the birds off of the runway.....

Eventually we land, I hop into a taxi and make my way to the parents house.. home in 10mins.

I hadn't told the parents that I was coming so it was a big surprise... texted all my friends to let them know I was back in Dundee, and started making the arrangements to meet up. Spent the day in the house, Farrah and wee Cameron came over... and wee Cameron has grown since the last time I saw him back in June. He's gonna be a big laddie!

Rob came over at 7:20 to pick me up, we drove to Murray's and picked him up then headed down town for a few drinkies.

• 
  
  1st stop was Tonic where  a pint of Coke for Rob, G & T for Murray and a bottle of Stella for me. Or as Murray puts it... a dyke drink.
  
  
  

• 
  
  2nd stop was the DCA for this time a glass of wine for me (less of a dyke drink?), a pint of Lemonade for Rob and another G &  T for Murray
  
  
  
• 
  
  Final stop was the Playwright for a few Whisky Cocktails
  

The boys enjoy another few G & T's and Orange Juice;

While I have a few drinkies as well

Rather nice :-)

And after that little night cap we all head off home.  I watch some Sex in the City then head off bed around midnight.

Today

I have a relatively long lie..Farrah and Graham bring Cameron over to Mum and Dad's where he will be staying until Sunday, whilst Farrah and Graham head off for a wee break child free up to Inverness.

He's a rather big laddie.. gonna be 2yrs old in February

I sort through some work mails whilst the bairn is playing, making noise, having a paddy... and now he's sound asleep with Classic FM playing in the background. Peace and Quiet for an hour or so..

Time to get back to my Friday :-)

Enjoy.

Meh.. Sunday and Monday's

Yesterday was what you'd call a quiet day....  recovering from the strangeness of Saturday night. I'd done some domestics, sorted out e-mails, bills, laundry... a day of domestics indeed. I even scrubbed the Kitchen floor clean.

I so want a cleaner.

So that was that, Sunday a nice boring day. Roll on Monday.

Today
Now this is a better day indeed.

I sort out some mails in the office etc, put a few things in motion and then I'm off for the rest of the day as I've got a luncheon date with Geoff, Anna and Heather in the National Dining Rooms in the National Gallery. Anna unfortunately has too pull out, but Geoff, Heather and I continue on and settle down to a very nice lunch of;

• Slow cooked Grampound duck terrine with Scottish girolle mushrooms and damson chutney for starter
• Meadows Home Farm lamb rack and braised shoulder with caramelised baby turnips for main
• Washed down with a couple of bottles of Macon-Village, Louis Jadot, Burgundy, France 2007 and some sparkling water

 

 It was fantastic meeting up with the both of them, chewing the fat and catching up with all the various bits of gossip in Government and Whitehall....  and then we depart, Geoff has a conference call and Heather as to go speak with some consultant guy.

 

I head off home, to find that I'd missed a parcel delivery... annoying. I've arranged for it to be redelivered as I'm busy at a workshop on Wednesday and out the office the rest of the week, so tomorrow is really the only day. UPS bitched and moaned... but if they don't deliver, well...  it's also a pain in the ass for them. Thus tomorrow, it's working from home and waiting on a parcel delivery. At least I have everything I need here, got all the necessary files, getting the excel files delivered to me tomorrow to help finish off the RFC so I can get that done and out of the with way with hopefully relatively little distraction.

 

 A quiet night for me tonight.

A Strange Saturday Night...

So.....

There I was, having a fairly quiet Saturday until Jay contacts me.

Drinks? Dinner?

How could I refuse? Of course I didn't. I head down to Denmark Street to meet up with him at 7pm, well that was the plan...  there was a fire on the road, the buses weren't moving  so off I got and walked. All was going well, nearly there... just had to cross over at the lights then I noticed a bloke standing beside me.

• Grey suit
• Briefcase
• and.........and... a pyrimad hat.

Yup... that's what he was wearing... I can tell that this is going to be a strange night.

So, off I go and meet up with Jay on Denmark Street. I needed to nip to a cash point, the queue was bloody horrendous but just as I was getting to cashpoint... a whole flock of Hari Krishna's walked past:

This night is just getting stranger....

So, cash in hand we head off for a much needed beer and head off to Peter Parkers Rock n'Roll club for a couple, then I take Jay for a wander around Seven Dials, Covent Garden until we bump into a 53ft inflatable Silver Bunny

Could my night get any weirder?

Obviously is can. Another quick drink is required to soothe the nerves in the Punch & Judy then we head off for another stroll around Covent Garden's, showing Jay the sites etc.... before we settle down for some food at Cafe Rouge.

I had:

Fritôts de Camembert

Bavette 8oz - Medium/Rare with a Peppercorn sauce

Jay had:

Champignons de Paris

Bavette 8oz - Medium/Rare

AND... I introduce Jay to his very first cheeseboard!

Full of smelly cheeses!

Jay tries his very 1st Cheese Board

One day... when he grows up he'll learn to love it.

And to add to the strangeness of the night. As we are eating, a bunch of blokes dressed up in Golf Gear walk past the window;

Yet more weirdness

So, after we polish off dinner we head up to the 12 Bar late night drinks, but I'm tired... and Satan's cock is above my head;

Only manage a couple and then it's off home... Not before I get more weirdness. A bloke in drag just like Madonna....

and then I head off home. Well, I would be home sooner if the damn bus turns up. The no. 73 takes forever to turn up, then 3 turn up at once. What's that they say about London buses?

Home. Bed. Sleep around 2am.

Today, is going to be a quiet day. Domestics, washing etc etc. Watch some True Blood Season 2