Lamb, Hairspray and Potatoes

After getting home from work last night, Dave and I decided to treat ourselves to a meal out. We went to the Riverside Inn which used to be the Marmalade Pot before it changed hands. I ordered a lamb shank and really enjoyed it since I rarely have lamb. Decided to have dessert at home so sat back watching TV and eating mango sorbet. Carte d'Or does a really nice one with tiny bits of mango in it...yum!

This morning I scoured the internet and finally found semi-affordable tickets for "Hairspray" in the West End. It's playing at the Shaftesbury Theatre so Sharaya and I will be going on the Friday night when we're in London.

There's a ceilidh tonight to raise funds for a hospital in Cameroon so I was down at the church this afternoon peeling potatoes for stovies. Between the 3-4 of us, we peeled 22kg of potatoes. No worse for it, except that I developed a slight pressure blister on my finger where it was resting against the peeler. Got a bright blue bandaid over it until it heals. Tesco recently had a sale on bandaids and the blue food hygiene approved ones are the only ones that are waterproof so I went with those. The water-resistant ones are pretty useless.

Tomorrow's Mothering Sunday here and Dave's all prepared. I still have to get a card for my mom so I'll have something to send her come May. The first year I was here I totally forgot that there would be nothing in the card shops when the North American Mother's Day arrived. Live and learn I guess.

The time doesn't go ahead until next weekend so I've got one more week of having my friends and family 3, 6, and 7 hours behind me. Must remember to change the batteries in my smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detector next weekend.

Bowling

On Thursday, the department wrapped up a big sponsored study so we headed off to the bowling alley to celebrate. This was only the second time I've done "3-hole" bowling as I call it, where the balls are massive and you have to jam your fingers into the slots. I couldn't get past the risk of being dragged down the lane if my fingers got stuck in the holes, so I resorted to bowling with 2 hands. It served me well. In our second game I lost by a mere 6 points with a score of 116.


Pete - our disabled bowler. He'd chopped his finger the night before with a carving knife while making dinner. The cut bled for hours so he ended up having to go to the Emergency Department to get it glued shut and bandaged.


Tricia and Pippa fighting over their preferred bowling ball.


One of my bowling shoes (UK size 4). Since moving to the UK I have been known to buy kids shoes occasionally. They're not taxed so they're super cheap. In Canada, my feet were small but not small enough to fit into kids' sizes.


Pete and Karen facing off.


The electronic score boards. Not entirely accurate if you ask me.


Sri getting ready to demonstrate his cat-like prowess.



Tricia celebrating. I didn't manage to rotate the film so you'll have to do a head tilt.

Dried Apricots**

On Tuesday night, Spanky's Heroes (Dave's band) played at the final for Marrow Dundee's Battle of the Bands. Marrow Dundee is a local charity that works to recruit people for the global bone marrow donor register. Anyway, Spanky's Heroes beat out 16 other bands to win the competition! Needless to say I was really proud of them. Anyone who's interested in hearing their music can check them out at myspace.com/spankysheroes. Their CD "Out of the Depths" is also available on iTunes.

In other news, I'm going to have my first publication credit in the next few weeks! The abstract for the swimmers' study that I mentioned in my last entry is being submitted for publication and I'm listed as one of the authors.

Sharaya and I are planning a trip to London for a long weekend in April and I booked the tickets on Thursday. Managed to get a sweet deal - return flights for £29 ($53). So now we're having fun planning what to do while we're down there. The Wilkies (Dave's family have been friendly with them for ages) are putting us up so that's accommodation sorted out.

We finally replaced our microwave this week. I never realised how much I use it until I didn't have it. It's our 3rd microwave in 2 1/2 years. They always seem to break just after the warranty expires and it's cheaper to replace than repair.

I went to see "The Young Victoria" this afternoon and Dave's grandmother came along with me. I've always enjoyed historical films and thought this one was really good. After the film I went back to Granny Anderson's flat for tea and cakes. While I was there, she showed me a family tree of the royal family that her husband's father had researched. It went back to a few generations before Queen Victoria and showed dates of birth and death and marriage dates. Dave's great-grandfather died in 1951 so the last entries were the births Prince Charles and Princess Anne. It was amazing how much time and effort it would have taken for him to put it all together, and seemed strange that today I take for granted that I can type "British Royal Family Tree" into Google and I have all the information instantly.

No plans so far for the rest of the weekend. Off to have dinner......

**DISCLAIMER: The title has nothing to do with the actual content of today's blog, and instead refers to the food I've been munching on while writing.