Surprise Birthday…

We went along as guests for Jill’s 80^th surprise birthday at the Chipstead, Coulsdon and Walcountians Cricket Club. There were a large number of people there and it was a real surprise to Jill who enjoyed herself catching up with friends and family.

All Play and no Work…

Sometimes you work at a company where your colleagues become great friends and you share memories, laughs and tears. GPE was one of those for Sue and I. It was where we met and fell in love, where I was working with people who I had worked with in NZ, where many couples got together and where the social side of the company was as important as the work. Now many, many years later I have moved companies and am still working with some of the friends I met there. We regularly get together (usually around Christmas) for a walk, a drink and a meal.

Recently we had a meal at ours with Bill and Linda, Rob and Sally, Yendall and Sally with Hannah. There we had good food, good drink and plenty of cheerful banter. We shed a tear for our dear friend Lee who passed away unexpectedly in South Africa and we share many a tale or two.

It was a fine afternoon.

Shaken not Stirred…

One Saturday recently we got talking to our neighbour over the fence and he asked us around for his famous Vesper Martini, so we confessed we had not had one before and agreed to meet at Howard and Tracy’s later on. Well we were converts to the drink favoured by James Bond but with so much alcohol in it we were limited to two glasses lest we note be able to stagger back next door afterwards.

The Stork Cometh…

Congratulations go out to our friends Marc & Heather in Sweden who have announced they are to be parents to a girl. We are over the moon for them and wish them health and happiness to come.

Green Fingers…

Spring brings us back out into the garden and we have been busy on those rare days where the weather was nice working in the vegetable plot. Now we have more land available we have been setting up a fruit cage, burning cut down tree (I abandon Sue to be fire monitor when I went out with the lads down the road on our semi regular visit to the local curry house). We have also been planting seeds in a propagator, planting garlic and broad beans outside, moving the compost bin (when we roped in Sue’s sister Deb to help) and generally preparing the land. We also jet washed the patio and cleared out the shed so all we need now is for the weather to continue to improve.

On the Silver Screen…

We have found the Everyman Reigate is one of our cinemas of choice as they only have two smaller screens but have a lovely bar that sells fancy snacks, good coffee and wine by the bottle to take in with you. Also there is an old fashioned intermission where ice-creams are sold.

We saw the Grand Budapest Hotel here and I loved the quirky hyper-styled setting with fabulous actors hamming it up to a bonkers story, great fun.

We went with friends Chris and Carole and after the show we had a bite to eat in the Jolly Farmer a gastro-pub with a deli-shop full of expensive delights.