11 May 2009

Hivemania! click here to learn and play online this fun strategy game


Playing Bringing Down the House for our Thursday game night

Last Sunday we went to Brighton and collected Rod for the bank holiday weekend. We also picked up my bike, and yesterday we got Neil's bike. We are now outfitted with bikes for the whole family, as well as a bike carrier for the car. Soon we will be full of pictures of Brighton on bikes!

We had a roast chicken that Sunday evening. This is one of my favorite things to cook, for some reason I like rubbing all the garlic and pepper, butter and lemon, over the chicken, and then slicing all the vegetables for roasting and watching it all slowly become juicy and tender as the house fills up with that wonderful aroma that lasts all evening long. Then taking the watery juices and thickening them into a nice smooth fatty gravy. MMMMMmm

We played a game called The Crunch, which basic premise is that you are a banker and you have to manage your assets. You can also fiddle around a bit and hide money. Rod won. :)

We dropped Rod off in Brighton on Sunday and stopped to get fish and chips for dinner.

On Tuesday I made a chicken and mushroom pie from the super secret recipe that was shared with me, and afterwards made a nutella cake which we covered with bananas and custard. I liked this recipe so much that I made it again last night, only to be dismayed by the fact that the oven is broken and no longer heating :( (though I am very thankful that it waited until after the roast chicken, chicken pie, and cake that were previously cooked).

My sweater in now in one peice, and I am lengthening the body and completing the collar now. Neil has been doing a lot of work, so even though he is at home, he is too busy to bother with me most of the day, but is always around when Mike gets out of school to spend some time together. Yesterday we took the long way home around the duck pond, and it is little times like that which tend to stick in your memory.

The garden is doing fantastically, the tree in the back yard is down, and we are missing it though. We have green peppers and a standard tomato joining the ranks of our vegetable patch. Unfortunately, these things need to be planted! A gardner's work is never done.

Yesterday we went to London and met Catherine for lunch, after Mike's Saturday breakfast of eggs and soldiers, which he proudly makes for himself. We had lunch at ASK near Tower Bridge, and afterwards we headed to Forbidden Planet, and finally Play'n Games. We purchased Hive and Bohnanza, and have since played both games several times.

We're in front of HMS Belfast









Woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat, hoping that it would go away soon. This morning I was at the Urgent care center because I was barely able to breathe or swallow. After a 2 minute look in my mouth the doctor declared "They are infected", walked over to a locked case, opened it, and handed me a course of amoxicillan. It really hurts, but at least I know I am likely on my way to recovery. Hospital Emergency room visit: 10 minutes and £0. If I had been in the states these past few weeks, where I have had back to back ailments, it would have cost me several thousand dollars even if I had insurance in the land of the free.