25th May 2011

Today we spent the day in Plymouth with our good friend Alice and her two lovely children, the only downside was that her husband had to work and so we didn't get to see him too. We had a great day - fish and chips for lunch, followed by a trip on the Wheel of Plymouth and an ice cream.

21st May 2011

Today we drove down to Cornwall for the start of a week's holiday. We stopped to see some friends on the way down so we didn't get to our cottage until late afternoon, but rather nicely we were greeted with a cream tea to tuck in to.

17th May 2011

We've received lots of flowers from kind friends and family in the last couple of weeks but today I found an even more exciting parcel outside our front door - an edible gift in the form of a box of giant muffins! I was very restrained and managed to resist the temptation to tuck in until Mr W got home from work but don't expect they will last very long!

10th May 2011

We've received lots of flowers in the last few days but this rose plant 'Special Son' that arrived from some friends this morning seems very appropriate and should hopefully last a lot longer.

7th May 2011

Life has been rather cruel to us lately but we have lots of kind friends and family - these were the first of four flower deliveries that arrived today.

20th April 2011

This evening we went out for a curry with some friends from the running club. The restaurant do a "banquet" deal including starters, main course, side dish and rice or naan bread consequently our plates were all well loaded with food!

2nd April 2011

Most people take wine, chocolates or flowers when they visit friends for lunch, today however we took a mango when we went to visit one of Stephen's work colleagues and her family. We did also take the usual flowers and chocolates but the mango was for their two-year old son as apparently mangoes are his favourite fruit!

3rd March 2011

Nice surprise today when a parcel arrived from Amazon containing a couple of cookbooks - our friends had ordered them for us after we were eyeing up their copies when we visited them at the weekend.

27th February 2011

Today we went to visit our friends and their three children. The weather for once was reasonable and so after lunch we hit the local park. Dad kept the elder two boys entertained with football whilst we entertained the younger one on the swings and see-saw, the latter of which was possibly a challenge for Mr W's half-marathon weary legs!

15th February 2011

The Folly bar and restaurant opened near my work just before Christmas and I walk past it most evenings on my way to the station, but tonight was the first night I've actually been in when we met up with an old uni friend of Mr W's after work. It's a rather quirky place with lots of mismatched furniture and tealights in vintage style teacups on the tables, but for a Tuesday evening it was heaving with people so it's clearly found a gap in the market!

29th January 2011

Rather handily for Mr W's tube-running purposes we have some friends who live in North London between the ends of the two branches of the Northern line. So today he ran to Edgware whilst I drove round the M25 in order to pick him up and take him to our friends' house where we are staying the night together with their old chocolate labrador (Mr) Fudge and their two new kittens. Sadly Mr Fudge is not as nimble now as when we first met him but he's still as lovable!

20th January 2011

It's always nice to catch up with friends and this evening we went out for dinner with Juliet and Lindsey, who we met whilst on holiday in Turkey last summer. Sadly the weather wasn't quite as warm and sunny in London this evening as it was when we were in Turkey, but the company was still good!

11th January 2011

Today we received a Christmas present, re-branded as a New Year present, from some friends. Rather amusingly it was a set of magnets cunningly packaged to look like a giant iPhone!

1st January 2011

Welcome to 2011!
We started the year with a run/walk with friends from the running club followed by tea and cakes at someone's house - very nice!

11th December 2010

Tonight we're off to a wild-west themed party - I've got my outfit sorted, now just need to get showered and ready to go!

5th December 2010

Today we met up for a Christmas meal with the group of friends that Mr W did his accountancy training with several years ago. This is Oscar the latest recruit to the group!

28th November 2010

We had some friends round for lunch today and whilst I was flicking through my recipe books looking for something different to make for pudding I was reminded that I had a copy of my gran's cheesecake recipe that I'd never got round to trying. So try it I did and I reckon it turned out pretty well - there certainly wasn't much left on the plate afterwards!

14th November 2010

Today we went for lunch with friends and afterwards their three-year old son was introducing Mr W to all the fun apps on his Dad's iPad. He was also demonstrating what happens to your eyes if you watch too much TV or spend too much time on a computer!

23rd October 2010

We went to a house-warming party this afternoon and this rather freaky piece of art was on prominent display at the top of the stairs. I felt rather bad about that opinion when I heard it was created by our friend's brother, but then on speaking to him he confessed it was part of his GCSE work and even he was now wondering what on earth he was thinking about at the time!

22nd October 2010

I bought this card for a friend's fortieth today and to be honest it sounds like turning forty won't be so bad - I like the idea of floral aprons. Plus by the time I'm forty I might have progressed enough with my knitting to make a tank top or two!