Quincy, Chickens and Antiques

I had a great weekend.  I love weekends, and they are all, to some extent, good. But this weekend was great.

It started on Friday night with a mad rush from work to the flat to grab Rina and a bag with some clothes.  Then it was a dash on the tube to Marylebone and onto the train to Warwick.  We were off to visit Ads and Sara.

Ads was the first person I met in England when I moved here from Norn Iron. He was a skinny Jim Morrison-a-like in my halls of residence.  Sara was on my course at uni.  She was all stripy tights and metal.  They were clearly made for each other.  I introduced them and the rest is, well, it's ongoing - but they are married and have been for years and they are amongst my closest friends.

Our train to Warwick was delayed.  I didn't really notice because I was watching Indiana Jones (Crystal Skull - the shame).  Friday night was a chilled affair - pizza and chat.  It's really great to catch up with old friends. I love that you feel instantly comfortable in each other's company - and regardless of the time apart, you could have been chatting like this yesterday.  Except, of course, that you haven't been, and that is why you talk for so long.

Saturday made me feel a little middle-aged.  We all bundled into Ads' car and headed to Stow-On-the-Wold, a little town in the Cotswolds.  It's a pretty little place, a town that seems to be from a different age. Slower and rustic.  Like being in an episode of Last of the Summer Wine.  Interestingly, I am pretty sure we were the youngest people in the town.  We had a nice (but bloody expensive) lunch in a pub that claims to be the oldest inn in Britain.  That'll be another of those then.  If you ask me, it didn't look that old.  After lunch Sara and Rina went off to browse the antiques shops and Ads and I went to the pub.  After a couple of drinks Ads and I went into a charity shop where I bough a tambourine for the Disciples.  Let's see how that goes down on Thursday!

Saturday night was dinner in and a DVD.  Sara and Ads cooked a wicked roast chicken and we watched The Girl Who Played With Fire.  Good movie, but very long.  I think it suffered from the film-makers' need to be very faithful to the book.  I reckon you could have comfortably shaved off 30 minutes.

On Sunday the girls went off to an Antiques Fair at the Warwick Exhibition Centre.  Ads and I sat in the lounge pondering what to do. Should we walk the 5 miles to the pub we were planning to meet them for lunch, or do something else.  Well, suffice to say as soon as Quincy started on the telly the decision was made.  I used to watch Quincy LOADS at uni.  Watching this episode I remember why. It is absolutely Awesome!

Lunch was in The Stag in Offchurch.  This is a pub that has built a reputation for its food - which was very good.  I had smoked sea trout. The girls had roast pork.  All the food was ace....but there is something a little soulless about a gastro-pub. Or is that just me?

All that was left was the train home and a Tesco Chicken Pie for dinner.  Rina and I watched Aussie Masterchef and Rizzoli and Isles and then it was to bed - knowing that in a few short hours work beckoned.

Top weekend though!