Helloooo guys...and Stevie
Right, at last I have a minute to give a blow by blow account (yes Steve...I'm going to tell em EVERYTHING
) of what happened when North met South over the weekend!
Having done a de-brief of Steve (where IS that photo, boxer boy?
) with Sarah today, we now have our story straight and this is the official and obviously TRUTHFUL account of the last few days :innocent0002:
So, back to Friday late AM and Steve arrived safe and sound on my driveway
, looking pretty trim if I may say so! After introductions to Gwyn and Vicki, we had a bit of a chat and then some lunch. It turned out that Steve had come without his reading glasses as his Dad had accidentally trodden on them
so we drove into town to see if we could pick up a cheap pair. I'd also broken mine that week so I also needed another pair. It was absolutely freezing
but we managed to wander round town and get a couple of pairs...photo below!
That evening we went round to see Sarah who was being uncharacteristically NICE and cooking us dinner! And what a dinner it was too! Lovely tasty shepherds pie (made with REAL shepherds apparently!
), served with cauliflower and broccoli in a cheese sauce :drool: And I took a sw strawberry roulade for dessert.
A couple of glasses of vino later we decided to play a party game!
arty0016: It's called Things, and basically one person picks a question from a card to ask the others, who then have to write their answer down. These are then read out and the first person has to try to guess who wrote what.
Now, if I was to say that a typical question and answer was...
Q) Things you shouldn't do with your mouth open...
A) ANYTHING with Steve!
...I'm sure you can gather we had quite a good night :giggle:
So then of course we come to Saturday and the whole purpose of our meet...the Walk! Sarah picked us up and we set off for Pitsford reservoir
http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/_assets/media/pitsford-water-nature-reserve.pdf which is only about a 20 minute drive from here. Sarah had planned a route which would cover approximately 7 miles and most importantly the cafe!
When we got to the car park, Steve didn't have the best of starts when Sarah helpfully pointed out he was standing on his sunglasses...which ended up in 3 pieces...
Undeterred, we began our little trot round, and were spoiled with a beautifully clear, crisp, sunny but windy day
Steve managed to have another slight disaster when he dropped some sort of very technical bit of kit that tells you how far you've walked etc...but we didn't realise it wasn't actually working until the end of the walk when he tried to tell us exactly how many miles we'd done
Now I really can't remember ever having walked very far, and I was a bit worried how I'd cope, but it was totally brilliant and I loved every minute of it! What a buzz! We pretty much chatted all the way round, stopping off half way for a mixture of sausage roll/jam scone/iced bun/coffee/coke (ever so slightly off plan but blooming well deserved!
).
On the way home we took Steve on a tour past the Cobblers football stadium at Sixfields, and then Franklins Gardens, the home ground of Northampton Saints.
Saturday evening was curry night at Sarah's favourite Indian restaurant in town. Both the boys wore their suits (photographic evidence below!) so us girlies decided not to be outdone and wore dresses! The food was great and the atmosphere was really fizzing
arty0019:
Then of course, all too quickly, Sunday came and it was time for Steve to pack his bags and head for home :wave_cry: But I couldn't let him go without giving him something I knew he'd been after ever since he arrived ...
A Herman!!!
So there's a little piece of Herman senior, unfortunately renamed and now known as Howman
, in Geordie land :happy036:
Sarah...I know you don't do nice (even though there WERE a
number of hugs over the weekend despite what you say :hug99
but this weekend was simply brilliant. As I said to you over our 'Let's de-brief Steve' coffee today, it couldn't have come at a better time. I needed the distraction, the fresh air, and the company of wonderful friends and you organised all of that in abundance...so thank you xxx
Steve...you were an absolute tonic, as I knew you would be. It's hard to get a proper idea of what someone is really like just through texts and phone calls...but you're totally 'you', iykwim x A funny, thoughtful, genuine guy...and I hope that meet was the first of many. Twas a pleasure having you...
