Did Somebody Mention Christmas?

Last we left things (see Lazy Saturday), I was bracing myself for a rather chilly foray into Kingston to run a couple of errands before heading over to A's for red wine (yes more), a home-cooked dinner and some girly telly. 

So I set out just after 4pm (you know, just after our 'sun' has gone down and it's, well...dark), crunching down the sporadically-gritted path to the bus stop, resolutely telling myself that a) it was not as cold as my nose was telling me it was, b) it was ok not to walk all they way into Kingston today because it was cold/it was dark/time didn't permit and c) that I would feel much better with these errands off the to-do list. 

And then I got into Kingston to find...

...the lights are up...

...the tree is out...

...and there's a gorgeous new old-fashioned sweet shop in Castle Street (where I spent about 20 minutes wondering around in child-like amazement).

Buoyed by all this festive cheer (and a reunion with my phone which seemed to go quite smoothly), I crunched on to A's who had promised an evening of home-cooked lasagne and mooching on the couch, curled up under blankets and just feeling all warm and toasty. 

I didn't think it could get any better, but it did... 

She was making lamingtons when I got there!

Eeeeeeeeeee (aka squeal of excitement)!

Delicious little chocolate-dipped, coconut-covered bundles of sponge-cake yumminess!

And not wanting to be rude, I had three...

I think Christmas may have come a little early (27 days actually) this year!

Lazy Saturday...

It's a been quiet Saturday so far, gratefully received after a 'big one' last weekend and a mid-week, impromptu 'red, red wine(s)' session which took me a good sleep on Thursday night to recover from but was hugely enlightening from a getting-to-know-my-workmates-more point of view.

My first on-line grocery shop arrived promptly and without any horrendous substitution errors. (Someone at work told me they ordered wine and got baguettes???  Now THAT would be disappointing!)  Sainsbury's Online may just become my new BFF.

So I'm tapping away here with some Kylie tunes in the background before I head out into the chilliness (yes, people, the snow coat is out!) to be reunited with my phone (it's been a looooong 3 weeks) and buy the Saturday edition of The Times. 

I love a lazy Saturday...

ps...only 28 days to go peeps...that's 4 weeks 'til we all talk turkey and dis' the fat man...the widget thingy never lies!

Fros 'n' Flares...

So Friday night saw me trekking cross-London to Borehamwood for a birthday-filled weekend.  Ostensibly it was all about my friend A's do on Saturday night but it all started a little earlier than I had thought it would with the news on Friday night that we would be popping in to a 1st birthday party on Saturday morning (said friend has a 10 month old boy and has been venturing into fields somewhat alien to a resolutely childless 41 year old). 

Many balloons, small people, and toys later, I emerged flushed with success at managing to have conversed amicably (with the adults) whilst riding complacently along the wave of ceaseless attention grabbing unique to the under-5s...and having quite enjoyed myself!

But really this weekend foray into the 'wilds' of North London was for my friend's 40th birthday bash on Saturday night, a 70s themed 'fros and flares' do at Ziloufs in Islington.  Now I'm not a huge fan of the whole fancy dress thing and funds being what they are (or aren't as the case may be!), I was forced to indulge in a great deal of frugal googling (70s fashion) and frantic imagining (what's in my wardrobe) to come up with 'the look':

Me 'n' the birthday girl...btw, I'm the one on the right...and that's actually someone's sequinned shirt in the background...

An hour in the mini-bus later, we found ourselves boogie-ing away to the funky sounds of Soulscape, enjoying some great cocktails and impressing the dining crowd with our general party spirit...needless to say it was a big night and a long mini-bus ride home with the remains of this on my lap...

So all that was left to do was remove the eyelashes and pour myself into my floor-level airbed (no falling out for this little black duck!).  And after a reasonably gentle recovery on Sunday morning, fuelled by flat diet Coke and a small bad-for-me snackette at the tube station (a chicken and mushroom pastry if you must know), I toddled my way back to South West London...

...wrapped myself in a blanket and finished the weekend off with cheese and tomato on toast!

Aaaah...perfect!

ps...the widget thingy says there's 33 sleeps til Santa comes...that's less than 5 weeks now people so chop, chop!  On with the preparations I say!

Adding Up The Small Things...

In my weekly peruse of Dr Alan Zimmerman's Tuesday Tip, I found another little pearl of wisdom I had to share...

"Bigness comes from doing many small things well. Individually, they are not very dramatic transactions. Together though, they add up."  Edward S. Finkelstein

Sounds like my life at the moment!

And with the widget thingy telling me that there's only 41 sleeps to Christmas, I am suspecting that unless I get cracking on a few small things, I may be faced with a rather large 'transaction' (aka meltdown) in a few weeks time...

Methinks it's time to get some skates on!