weekend update

Hmm, I've been rather blase about blogging lately, since I've been back from Turkey I guess...although I haven't had patience for much of anything since I got back from Turkey. The last few weeks of this rotation have really been dragging, and I'm just waiting for it to be over!!

Anywho, let's see, what did I do over the weekend? On Friday night, I went out with Nicole, Dave and Leeanne in Wanstead. And I was actually pretty impressed, they have a nice string of bars with DJs along the High St. Dave made a big deal out of the three housemates being out together for the first time, and insisted that we do it at least once a week from now on. By the time we'd been out for two hours or so, and Leeanne was being rude not only to us, but also to complete strangers, I needlessly pointed out to Dave that this is why it so rarely happens (needlessly, because Dave has been out with Leeanne much more often than I, and knows well what happens when she drinks). At the second bar that we went to, it was my turn for a round of drinks, so I leaned over the bar to tell the barmaid I wanted four drinks and proceeded to list them. Unfortunately, she misunderstood me, I guess with the music being so loud, and proceeded to give me four gin and tonics (the first drink I listed, my current drink of choice), plus the other three as well. Doh! I had help with the extra drinks, but had to do my fair share as well. In addition, Nicole and I started chatting to a guy sitting at the bar, who then insisted on buying us shots-- I had to tell him at least four times I wouldn't touch a shot of sambuca before he believed me, and he finally settled on buying us kamikaze shots. This guy told us at least twice after he'd gone off and come back (toilets maybe, who knows) that our friend was out of control, should be cut off and maybe we should go check on her (meaning Leeanne, who was over by the DJ somewhere). Nicole and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and said she's a big girl, she can take care of herself. We'd already defused at least two potential verbal fights, because she curses out anyone she thinks is staring at her, and we got cursed out ourselves for our efforts to keep the peace. The bar was playing some pretty good music, stuff you don't normally hear, such as Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder, and all in all it was a good night. I was pretty hung over on Saturday, and spent some time catching up on sleep.

Yesterday, I finally saw Nicole and Rob for the first time since mid-August, when they returned from their trip to Boston. We went on a pub walk-- a really nice 5 mile walk and it was warm with lots of sunshine. Aside from my first experience with stinging nettles, and the grass and air being filled with daddy long legs (not the spiders, that's what they call these winged things with long legs here), it was a great hike. And we didn't get lost this time, no thanks to the guy who wrote the book, but rather really good sign-posting. I've got a couple of pictures I'll try to get to later on tonight. We had a good pub lunch afterward at a picnic table overlooking the surrounding fields, with the best sticky toffee pudding I've had in a long while.

Oops, gotta go, morning handover meeting now. love, allison