To celebrate Darren’s 36th birthday all the neighbours went for a chinese at the China Brasserie in Fairford Leys. The food and service were exceptional as always. 

We congregated at Darren’s first for a few glasses and the exchange of gifts, then off for the meal and a pub afterwards.  It was a great night but Sam and I are feeling a little worse for wear today – not sure how the rest are feeling. I’m writing this post at work as my concentration level is a little lacking for anything else.

Darren will be eagerly checking for this post as he knows that I would deliberately pick the worst photo possible to upload – you look good pal :-).

Thank you all for a great night

The weekend gone we had a large family gathering in Chipping Warden, Banbury to celebrate the life of my uncle John who sadly passed away last October (RIP).  Since his passing, John is very much missed by us, his family and many friends.  The large crowd present at the party showed how popular he was within his local community.

As his party coincided with  St. Patrick’s weekend, it was sure to be a memorable occasion.  The majority travelled far and wide – Ireland, Northumberland, Manchester, Birmingham and many other small corners of the UK.

It was an Irish evening in all its glory, Irish music, hats, scarfs and Guinness on an never-ending flow. A very big thank you to Kevin and Bridget and especially our Auntie  Maureen for organising and accommodating all of us guests.

On a side note, it was memorable for me having met up with many family members whom I haven’t seen for quite some time, uncles, aunts, cousins and second cousins included. When they all get together, the craic is something else…

Photos of the night – too many names to mention – you know who you are. Sorry if I’ve missed you out, I cannot upload them all.  All the photos have been uploaded here.

Thank you all again for a great family gathering and night out.

We’ve been having problems with our washing machine for a week or so and being away at the weekend I didn’t have a chance to have a look at it.  You don’t realise how reliant you are on a washing machine until the damn thing breaks down. I recently read that in 1900 the ‘lady of the house’ would spend 3-days doing the weekly washing – can you imagine how that would affect our social life!

We’ve had a reoccurring problem with a blocked waste pipe.  Of course manufacturers don’t make it easy to replace such a simple item.  With our Zanussi you literally have to split the unit in half to replace the waste pipe – as you can see in the photo.

2 hours later it turns out it wasn’t the waste pipe, the bloody pump is knackered.  I’d have a go myself but our kitchen is too small to work on it properly.  It’s annoying having to spend money on a machine that we’ll be leaving with the house, but we can’t do without it in the meantime.

I’ve now called an engineer, and with the call out charge, no doubt we’ll be left with a hefty bill.

This weekend we headed over to see Sam’s parents in Henley-on-Thames and to celebrate Scott’s birthday.  Scott suggested we go bowling as a birthday treat and we were more than happy to oblige. It was a really cool bowling alley with neon lights and music – much better than the shit pit in Aylesbury.  Sam’s brother Ben though he had the game wrapped up half way through but buckled under the pressure and ended up coming third.  Cool as a cucumber, Sam’s dad Keith pipped us all to the post with a score of 117, I came second with 105 – damn!

Following bowling we we hung around for a few arcade games and pool and then headed back Henley direction for a meal in the Read Lion (I think) – it was lovely and great to catch up with the guys.  Sam’s mum Debbie cooked us a cracking Sunday roast before we headed home.

Thanks for a great evening and weekend.

Scott pictured below, now a fully fledged teenager – oh no!

We had a great night out on Wednesday.  Our neighbour Helen turned 21 (again) and to celebrate a large group of neighbours and friends went to Pizza Express for a quick bite and then on to a comedy evening in a local bar.  It was an excellent event – not all the acts were stomach churning, but overall, it was brilliant.  I’d go again for sure.

Rumours were widespread on the Thursday morning that I didn’t make it home until 2:30am (on a school night) and that I went wandering the watering holes of Aylesbury until all hours, when in fact, I was tucked up safely in bed by 12:30.  Sam had mentioned to some neighbours that I didn’t make it home until 2:30 and of course they were all confused as I had left the comedy club at 12:20…where was I.  Sam (the ejit) got the time wrong, it was 12:30 when I got into bed and not 2:30 :-)  – nothing like a bit of gossip in the courtyard – although I have been known to call in for last orders in the local and be there all hours, but not on a week night.

Thank you all for a great evening and Happy Birthday again Helen.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, we are having a lot of trouble with our camera lately and it needs replacing – it seems to loose photographs somehow – it must be a memory card issue.  Here is Helen and her two lovely children Nyssa and Simran.