Birthdays in Blighty

Back to the daily grindstone after a highly enjoyable trip across the Channel. Two birthdays celebrated, three towns visited, four days of eating and drinking. It all began Friday: mid-afternoon flight to Stansted, followed by a drive to Gloucester. M25 at rush hour on Friday, a faulty decision to go across country via the M40 and Oxford commuter crawl, and a three hour drive took four and a half. Welcome back to English roads. 

However, we made it to the Judges Lodgings in time for chili con carne and wine in the perfect place for party - lots of interconnecting apartments with sundry kitchens, and dining area and living room large enough for twenty odd forty somethings and a sprinkling of kids. The UKC connection was gathered to celebrate Dr C's 40th, and spent the evening catching up and drinking late into the night. Drinking too much in one or two cases, including mine. Saturday was thus recovery day. Wandered into the not so fair city of Gloucester to see the sights and do some shopping. Sights consisted of the docks and the cathedral. The latter was impressive.

Come the evening, come the party. The headache receded enough to start with G&T and champagne cocktails. Dress-up, sit-down dinner followed, cooked by birthday girl C's able mate & chef Dr N. Delicious lamb tagine washed down with wine, plenty of it, followed by birthday cake. Forty candles a decent bonfire makes, enough to set off the fire alarm anyway. Stuffed to the gills, all that remained was to eat more (cheese), drink more, and then attempt to dance some of it off. Scottish reels followed by eighties disco. One by one, people drifted off to bed, leaving the hard core to dance till six am, fueled by tequila slammers and Pringles. 

Remarkably, less of a hangover the next morning and some of the late night party people were even up by noon. All that remained was to lounge around, wait for a less than cruel Madame de Vil to cook a slap-up full English for brunch and then it was time to leave. We survived another drive around the M25 and arrived chez le petit frère in the early evening, to help la Colombianita finish her 29th birthday celebrations. More good food, good  wine and good company, then a night on the tiles. Or was it a futon?

And in the morning, another drive to the final stage of the weekend. A night in Cambridge chez Prof Margarita, preceded by more food and drink with the Caipirinha Kid, this time a delicious curry and beer in Shelford.

Tuesday, flight home, evening in a chilly apartment, then Wednesday lazing around recovering, la bienheureuse too. Remembrance day is sensibly a bank holiday in France, though the main shops in town were open so we didn't starve last night. In fact I somehow ended up with lunches for the next two working days pre-cooked by ma bien-aimée. Some guys get all the luck...