Another lovely weekend draws to a close.  I really need a 3 day weekend so I can have 2 days of fun and one to recover or do chores in!

It was nearly sunny first thing so we took the dogs over the road in case it rained later.  I haven’t been over since the gale on Monday and was interested to see if there were any trees down.  Oh yes there were!
Not surprising really when you see how shallow the roots are on the Sweet Chesnuts! There were lots down. The recent heavy rain has filled up all the little streams and puddles. There was a Beech across the path we usually take which is rather inconvenient as I assume it will stay that way now. Most of the ferns have turned a stunning dark orange colour.  The occasional fern remains green. They are really beautiful. I enjoyed a relaxing read in a bath with a little bit of a pamper as we had a very special evening to look forward to.

Breakfast time.   I was hungry and really fancied an orange.  I put it in a smoothie with a ground tbsp each of pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds and sesame seeds, Soya milk and Natural yogurt. Lunch was a quick and easy meal.  2 locally produced cold meats; Salt Beef and Ham. With this delicious but incredibly rich Smoked Salmon pate.  You only need a little bit and we had this on wholemeal bread with tomatoes.After dropping Harvey at a friends for the night we headed off to South Kensington, going via Epsom to pick up Sally and Troy.  We were out celebrating Jane’s birthday.  We began the evening with a drink in a bar called Galante.  It was not your average bar, that’s for sure.  Look at how glamorous it was by clicking here.  Sally and I wanted a cocktail.  Unfortunately a glamorous bar seems to involve very low lighting so even with our glasses on we couldn’t read the menu!  D’oh! So I had a white wine Spritzer 🙂

It was a fun place to have a drink and we then walked round the corner to Tom’s Kitchen.  What a wonderful evening!  On arrival we had champagne and delicious canapés; mini pizzas, sausages and mini burgers.  We then took our seats.  Jane had hired the whole room and 30 of us enjoyed a wonderful meal.  Some of the people there I have’t seen for about 25 years !
I didn’t take any photos of the food which I regret.  I had a fillet steak with green salad and chips.  I managed to resist the desserts and enjoyed some cheese after the meal.   Thank you very much Gary and Jane for such a wonderful evening.  Happy Birthday!

Thank you Sally and Troy for our sleepover – so good to catch up with such special friends.

Today we were treated to lunch by my Dad.  We went to a restaurant in Nork that he likes – Galu .  It is a Mediterranean restaurant and we all really enjoyed our meals.  I ordered the crab salad which on the menu said it came with an oil and lemon dressing.  It actually came in mayonnaise which undoubtedly had sugar in it but I thought it would have been rude to send it back so I ate it and enjoyed it.
As a main I had a fillet steak with Peppercorn sauce, spinach and mashed potatoes. The steak was so tender it cut as easily as butter.  Lovely. I rarely eat steak and have had it twice this weekend.  The steak in Tom’s Kitchen was so good I had to have another.

I am finding it so much easier to not have dessert.  I am also beginning to find I am eating less without even thinking about it.  I didn’t finish all the mashed potato because I was full.  I could have had cheese and biscuits instead of dessert but decided I was comfortably full and wanted to stay that way so I just had a latte.  Thank you Daddy for a lovely lunch.

Having had a substantial lunch I didn’t feel like cooking in the evening but I had bought a chicken to roast so that is cooking and we can use it during the week.  I am definitely not cooking any accompaniments so I suspect supper will be a roast chicken sandwich in front of the TV.  I have an episode of the Tunnel to watch and then Downton which is the perfect way to end such a good weekend.  I hope you all enjoyed your weekends as much as I enjoyed mine.  Thank you again to my kind and generous friends and family for spoiling me so much this weekend.