London squad visit

Pics (plus some more on Roly's site)

On the weekend we were joined by some lads from London (in three entourages) - First Tom, followed a tardy 12 hours later by Tarek, Roland and Louis. Then, Plugger, enroute from Calais to Prague.

Tom, wisely, opted for the Eurostar and arrived with ease around midday on the Friday. Jamie knocked off work early and joined us for lunch at L'Art Gourmand in La Hulpe. We then went on a mission to a beer warehouse to obtain some weekend stocks. Jamie was like a kid in a lolly store.

Tarek, Louis and Rols were due to land at 1030pm. Unfortunately the flight was delayed till around midnight. When Jamie returned with the guests, we proceeded with the late supper we had planned. An impromptu game of charades was carried out by Roland and Tarek (answer 'Brokeback Mountain')

Had a pretty lazy start to the Saturday, meandering over breakfast while waiting on Plugger's arrival. We then planned to take the dogs for a walk in the forest. Roland, in a whif of spontaniety threw on his joggers, got some directions to the forest, and jogged on out the door - planning to meet us there. Unfortunately, Plugger had all manner of difficulties getting to our house, so departure was delayed. Roland was a hundred metres down the road, in the final stages of a round trip when we finally got moving.

In keeping with our general tendency for navigational screw ups, we got off at the wrong station (after getting the wrong train) on the way into Bruxelles, and didn't get to enjoy the scenic walk into the centre that we'd hoped for. Once we did get in, we checked out the usual sites of interest (cultural and beerical), and enjoyed some traditional chow, baguettes and frites.

Come evening, we headed to Le Bazaar, which turned out to be a funky little restaurant with good food and lovely Argentinian wine (Tom did a succesful sniff and send back on one of our other original choices). We just made the last train. Well, we would have 'just made it', after running from the restaurant, if it hadn't been delayed for about half an hour.

The final morning was spent pfaffing around and dropping Tom at the station. Roland, Tarek and Louis were then delivered to the airport in good time (fortunate as Roland "does NOT miss flights").

On the way back, Jamie and I stopped at a 2nd hand baby stuff sale, hoping to find some bargains. We just found crowds and prams and lots of items that neither of us could identify - so left empty-handed.

Jamie and Plugger cooked up a great Jamaican curry, complete with plaintains, which we hoed into before taking our final guest, plugger, to the station to get the red eye to Berlin.

All in all a great weekend. I'd been a little worried that my forced sobriety might leave me a little bored and left out, but fortunately there was plenty of playful frolics and t/witty repartée from our guests - so never a dull moment!