Today I've mostly bin...

[Bunnylump]

Have a lovely holiday, Gill, and have a wonderful birthday, too.

[Wulfruna]

Have a lovely trip Gill - hope all goes smoothly
Enjoy both birthdays, but especially your own and make sure you get spoilt for it

[chazzie]

Hope you have a lovely trip to Spain and fantastic birthday....and fingers crossed for the sun coming out again soon!!!

[Wulfruna]

Let's hope the weather in Spain is better that in icy Britain! Brrrrr........

[Bunnylump]

It was beautifully sunny at 4pm when I finished work today, so I rang my friend and asked her if she wanted to go for a walk in Ashridge forest. Well, that was a bit of a plan...we were wandering around (a bit lost, as ever) the woods, and it started to get dark. And then it started to SNOW, really heavily... Still, we fortunately managed to find our way back to the car just in the nick of time. It was quite spooky in the woods in the gloaming, with the snow coming down, and herds of deer running in front of us! It certainly blew the cobwebs away after a day at work!!

[Bunnylump]

I went to my niece's 30th birthday party last night, and it made me feel OLD. She'd booked the upstairs of Rodell's in Watford, which is a "bijou" (read "small") restaurant in the middle of the town. First off, parking...AKA "driving round the middle of Watford in the rain, trying to avoid driving the wrong way down poorly marked one way streets, failing to find anywhere to park within a half mile radius." Then, going upstairs and into the room, which was:
tiny
hot
crammed full of people
had "Mad Max" being screened onto one of the walls so that the projector light got in your eyes
had loud music so I couldn't hear what anyone was saying.
The drinks came from the bar downstairs, I bought three drinks which came to £17, in addition to this, they had completely run out of beer and only had very expensive lager, they had cider but it was either "organic" (costing a fortune) or "pear" (yuk).

One of her friends had made her a massive cake, in the shape of a Gameboy as a surprise. The owners of the place totally flipped out when they saw it, saying that "only food made on the premises may be consumed", which, considering the fact she had paid for the room, AND for a buffet, and we'd spent a small fortune in the bar, I thought was really mean.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I went, because I saw lots of nice people, and I love my niece. But I certainly didn't particularly enjoy the experience!!

And yes, I am a grumpy old woman....

[giraffe]

I went out for dinner with a virtual friend on Friday night. We had never met before as she lives in Japan, but we converse regularly online, and she has family connections round here, so whilst in England visiting her son who is on an exchange year with University, we met up. We had a lovely dinner at a little wine bar / restaurant in Shrewsbury. We got soaked walking from her hotel as it poured just as we set out, but were given the choice of eating in the wine bar or restaurant. We were told the wine bar would be noisier as it was friday night, so we ate in the resaurant, which was only big enough for about 8 tables, but lovely. We were the only people in there! The food was good and the company was excellent. Afterwards we walked round the town, showing her and her sons some of the places that had family connections for her. (They used to run a newspaper in the town 150 year ago) As we walked (it was about 8.30pm) we hardly saw another soul. The place was like a ghost town, no Friday night revellers in sight. Really lovely!

[LAT]

Sounds good Giraffe. Lovely to get on so well with her on first meeting, even if you felt you knew her already.

And Bunny - I have to say it doesn't sound like my type of evening, but I am definitely a grumpy old woman.

[Bunnylump]

Sounds like a great evening, Giraffe. Glad it was such a success! It's always really alarming meeting someone you have met "online" for the first time in real life. It's funny how you build up a picture of people and then you're totally floored when you actually meet them, isn't it? But I must say that everyone I've met on here has lived up to expectations!!

[MBH]

But I must say that everyone I've met on here has lived up to expectations!!

That's a wonderfully non-comittal phrase

[Bunnylump]

Oh, MBH, you are such a cynic!! I dread to think what people think when they first meet me. Probably "OMG the woman's completely manic" probably is the initial impression!! (It's all right, I'm NOT inviting comments, here!!)

It's just an observation. In "normal life" your first impressions of a person are what they look like, THEN you either take the time to get to know what the real person is like or don't. If you meet people online then it's either their ACTUAL personalities that you meet first (or possibly their carefully crafted "on-screen persona") and then it's up to you whether to meet up with those people so you can see them in real life or just accept who they are (or who they are portraying themselves as) online. It's just it is SO much easier to tell what a person is really like when you can physically see them. You have all those wonderful body language clues and facial expressions which give away so much. Then you can REALLY understand how they tick.

[giraffe]

Yes, she was exactly as expected, but we are quite a small group who chat daily. I was dreading it as I was shattered after seeing the french girl off in the morning, and it had been a busy couple of weeks. I really didn't feel like going out, so it was nice to get on so well and I was glad I had made the effort.

[MBH]

After failing to make arrangements for a meal out for 3 (a shared birthday between 2 friends), we randomly found a new Italian place opposite the Cathedral that had it's opening night yesterday.

La Maschera was well furnished, with good staff (obviously attentive, since we had the place to ourselves ), and although we were only going in for a coffee and to check the place out we ended up having an excellent meal.

The most important part was that they dealt with a regular diet, a gluten free diet, and my fussy 'plain food' preferences with total ease and lack of drama.

Has anyone else noticed that things that are over-planned tend to be 'ok' at best, but things that happen naturally can be very good? Certainly a place I'd be happy to revisit, and the prices were very reasonable too.

Oh - the ice cream was spot-on.... but you'd expect that at an Italian's

[giraffe]

Oh dear! I'm about to put Kingsley on a train for Durham, and the weather forecast looks rather snowy. At least she'll get a proper taste of life "up north" !

[MBH]

She'll be fine. A bit damp and miserable, but nothing dramatic. I was going to get soaked walking Maisie this morning, but had a coffee before going and hit a break in the weather without a drop coming down All in the timing.

Sounds like the whiter stuff is off to the West - Durham to Cumbria links getting snow - I'm sure the city itself will be OK.

Tell her to add to this thread when she's had a look around Love to hear what she thinks.

[giraffe]

I think I was more worried about her train ticket being with trans pennine rail (or some name like that) sounded like it might get stuck in a snow drift!. She loved it when we went up last July, but this is her first chance to look at the college, and her A level module results last week were good, so she already has two of the three grades she needs to get in. Just an A in music left for the summer. (Well she needs to get at least 3% on one of the other subjects , but even on a bad day that should be possible!)

[clvrlad]

looking at Durham via web cam shows its just wet

http://www.camsecure.co.uk/DurhamTownWebcam.html

[giraffe]

She has arrived and says it's snowing. I wish you hadn't shown me that camera! I'll be watching it to see if she wanders past. (She will have walked through there on her way from the station to the college earlier)

[clvrlad]

does that mean i shouldn't post the other three?

[giraffe]

Ooh where are the other three? Is one pointing at the front of the cathedral? She'll be going past there in the morning.