Birthdays + family + yummy food = happy Sarah

I've just had a really lovely weekend. On Thursday night I lugged my stuff to Coventry station after work and got the train(s) home through the gorgeous Worcestershire countryside in the evening light. Mum made lasagne and we shared a bottle of wine (of which I managed to throw a glass all over the patio - major spillage error) and chatted. Simon and his rowing friends came back from the river and filled up the house - they were lovely boys if far too tall, and they ate like horses.

Friday was mum's birthday, and after eating breakfast outside on the patio she went to town to pick up some things for the evening and I took the opportunity to play the piano. I was quite encouraged to find that although I haven't played for months I can still play the pieces I was most familiar with reasonably well, so it shouldn't take too long to get back into it properly when I get my piano. My sightreading might need some work to get it back to its former glory though! Anyway, we then drove out to Martley for lunch in a pub. Following that, the evening was just fantastic and was definitely the highlight of the weekend. Dad came back from Swansea, and I cooked dinner which I have to say tasted lovely, especially the raspberry cheesecake which may well have been a work of genius. We ate on the patio (again) and all 6 of us (including the rowing lads) squashed round the picnic table and laughed and chatted for hours. We had Pimm's before dinner and fizz during, and mum opened her presents afterwards. We stayed outside until 10 when it was dark but still warm, and it was just fab.

Saturday was Bewdley Regatta, and we walked down the hill to watch the boys. As one of them hadn't rowed for 2 years and the whole crew hadn't rowed together at all, it wasn't surprising that they lost. This didn't spoil the day for us however, as we had sponsors badges which meant free cake midmorning, followed by free wine and lunch: cold meat, salmon, new potatoes, pasta salad, bread etc and then strawberry pavlova. Unfortunately I then had quite a bad reaction to the general sun and heat and lack of water, felt really dizzy and sick, had big blotches in front of my eyes and couldn't see, and apparently turned ash grey. This meant that while Simon was winning a pot in the 8s race he subbed in for, I was at home sitting very still and drinking lots of water. However, I was better by the evening when we went out for dinner to a gorgeous pub, The Talbot at Knightwick. It has gardens where all the fruit and veg they use are grown, and all their meat etc is sourced locally. My main course was rabbit, which I'd never had before but which I'll definitely order again. It was so tasty, and it came with cider risotto which was just sublime. We had such a lovely evening out, and I didn't have to pay which is always good!

Today we went to church, had lunch and then I battled the rail replacement services. All in all a great weekend, marred only by the brief illness, my phone battery totally dying so that I couldn't even switch the phone on to get people's numbers (sorry to everyone I was supposed to meet up with and didn't due to having no method of communication!) and the aforementioned rail replacement which meant that it took 3.5 hours to get home. This week I have a visit to UCAS tomorrow, complete with buffet (UCAS buffets are excellent and involve curly fries) and a work night out to Dogma on Thursday, before my Welsh adventure starts on Saturday. Ooh, Top Gear.