Weddings and babies

It was my cousin Becky's wedding on Friday, above is a pic of Becky with husband Andy and her parents, my Uncle Adrian and Auntie Linda. We don't get together much as a family and I am ashamed to say that it was 14 years since I had seen Becky and her sister Clare. It was a lovely reception we had a lovely time dancing and knocking back a few gins! Having not seen many of my relatives for so long did give me that unusual feeling of seeing them as if for the first time and I could really see for the first time the family resemblances between us all.

My parents has a great time too and hopefully I'll be able to add some photos of us all in the next few days and in particular a picture of my Dad asleep!

Yesterday feeling a little fragile we went to visit Selina and Tim and their two sons, Lucas who is 2 and a bit and baby Jack who is 5 weeks. Jack was tiny and just like his Dad whilst Lucas was sprinting everywhere and rifling through draws and toy boxes and just full of beans! It was lovely to catch up. University now seems like a long time ago.

Tomorrow I am going to Glasgow for a conference on Tuesday, should be a quiet conference but a good chance to meet NHS people from places like the Shetland isles which doesn't happen very often. Tomorrow night when we get to Gasgow Andrew and I are going to Tony Roma's which is an American chain of rib restaurants. There are only a few in the UK, one of which is in Glasgow. I'm looking forward to it although I'm not going to have ribs!

Not much to say really

It's been a quiet month really - and my posts show that. I haven't been feeling well for a lot of August with my bad knee and a stomach bug. But I haven't completely become Dot Cotton spending my days moaning about various ailments. I've been watching the Olympics, reading a lot. I just finished the Bone Setters Daughter by Amy Tan which I loved. It was so refreshing to read something so funny and moving that wasn't sentimental or simplistic.

That "Olay" (that's Oil of Ulay for anyone over 30) advert that makes me really cross has just been on the TV. Its the one that starts with "Not ready for cosmetic surgery yet?" I hate it because it assumes that at some point we all will be ready to go under the knife and implies that a totally normal part of aging is to have plastic surgery!

So other than getting cross at face cream adverts it has been a quiet summer.

Knee injury, drunks and traffic

The road outside our house finally opened last Sunday after the flood and it has taken about a week for traffic levels to get back to normal. (There are other road works which have been restricting use of the road.) So it is a shame to have the rumble of traffic back. To add to the traffic noise the bar over the road has been very noisy yesterday afternoon we had 40 odd drunk South African rugby supporters drinking, shouting and playing guitar outside our living room window. Now I can see that for some this might be a good thing - and when I was a student I probably would have loved it - but I am getting old and grumpy and so I have had to complain yet again to the council. The glass and vomit on the pavement this morning just confirm that I was right to complain!

I also injured my knee in the week which meant I was unable to run the 10k this Saturday. I was pretty fed up about that. Not just because my knee has been pretty painful but I had trained really hard (too hard I guess) to do the race and I couldn't actually run! I have been consoling myself watching the Olympics and praying that I can get to the gym in a week or so. I will now have to concetrate on swimming and cycling instead of running.

Weekend of theatre

Last weekend my Mum and I went to see West Side Story at Sadlers Wells. It was an excellent production. In the evening we went to Soho Japan and my Mum had her first proper Japanese meal and used chop sticks. We all had catsu don meals which were delicious.

On Sunday we went to see King Lear at the Globe. My Mum and I disagree on how the Globe has faired since Mark Rylance left as Artistic Director. I think it hasn't been the same since Mark Rylanc left whilst Mum thinks it has improved! But King Lear was good better than the reviews made out but not a stunning King Lear either. Edmund was suitably panto villain about it all which was good.

Kylie

Wednesday night was Kylie night. David, Francesco, David's brother Stephen, Jens and I went to the O2 arena to see Kylie in concert as part of her X tour. I had a fantastic night. We started the night off drinking rose in the Ha Ha Bar. We then had a bite to eat - I had posh fish fingers and chips that was delicious and not that posh really.

David and Francesco raise a glass to Kylie

Our seats were all scattered across the arena. David and I had great seats but Francesco was up in the gods and he said that the view was rubbish. David and I had a fabulous time though. I danced for 2 and half hours. The feel, style and music of the concert was totally different than the Show Girl tour that David and I saw last new year in Wembley. X is more stylized but with a less coherent theme through out.
I particularly liked the Japanese section pictured below.

The journey home was fun - a packed jubilee line train but unlike in rush hour everyone was happy including the train driver. My legs ached and my knees were killing me the next day worse than after running. Fabulous!