Bangers and Mash, Parties, Parakeets and Beachcombing.

It's been a fun but busy few days.
Wednesday I went out with some girlfriends to The Big Bang Restaurant in Oxford. Sadly it has been forced to close by Tesco who seem to be intent on buying out and taking over every beautiful or unique building in Oxford and turning them into a fleet of hideous overpriced 'Metro' stores!
Hopefully The Big Bang will live to fight another day it is such a simple but brilliant concept.12 different types of sausage, 5 different types of mash and 4 different types of gravy, you mix and match. I had Mushroom and Garlic sausages, rose mash and red wine gravy. The mash was simply heaven on a plate and I practically licked mine clean, I was Stupidly full but just couldn't leave it. Bliss.

Friday I had a day off work as we were heading down to Margate to visit Himself's parents and go to his best friend Paul's birthday party. I had to go into town so I did I quick trawl of the charity shops and then had to come home and pack. Himself arrived home at 1, wreaked havoc on the house before we rushed to the station and jumped on a train at 2pm!
I finally bought a cup of tea and bag of mini cheddars on the Margate train after it occured to me I hadn't actually eaten all day or had a drink since 9am!?!
We finally arrived in Margate at about 5.30pm and dived into a chip shop for a little further sustinance before . we got to Himslef's parents house where we had a couple of hours before headed out.

*Rant begins*
Seriously W.T.F. is wrong with the goddamn buses in Thanet??
The last time I was there I had to wait over an hour for a bus that is meant to arrive every 15 minutes and sure enough we did this time too FFS!
After an hour and 10 minutes Himself called a cab that came15 minutes later, followed by not one, not two but three freaking buses all in a row. Even the taxi driver said 'what's with all the buses?' as we got in.
We were meant to be at the party at 7.30ish we finally got there at 9pm.

*Rant over*

Other than that it was a great night. I have been trying to be good and not drink too much lately, so I had 4 small glasses of wine all night..... which is very good for me, especially at a party and on a friday night! Whilst all around me got more and more drunk I stayed happily chilled and pretty well sober, oh yes.
So I was NOT a happy bunny to wake up the next morning with a humdinging skull splitting headache. 'The hangover you don't deserve' to quote my favourite band!
I couldn't figure out why until I remembered I hadn't drunk much fluid all day Friday and was clearly dehydrated. Aspirin, water, diet coke and much tea later and I was good to go. (unlike Himself who needed a fry-up and hair of the dog apparently!)  

I met my sister and we headed into Ramsgate the plan being to browse the charity shops, eat lunch and beach walk.
We browsed shops, ate a leisurely lunch, browsed shops, ate ice cream, strolled along the promanade and sat in a lovely new terraced cafe looking out to sea. We kind of ran out out of time to beach walk....Ooopps.

                                                          I found this unusual blouse for £1

and this cute piece of china which I shall use on a sunday morning to eat my boiled egg and soldiers :-)
It was also £1

I finally headed to Paul's for a barbeque which was kind of interesting/entertaining as everyone there had been busy drinking since lunchtime and by the time I arrived at 7pm you can imagine the scene! Much fun was had with helium balloons and when people started to fall asleep infront of Die Hard I poured Himself into a taxi and we headed back to his parents house. I did take the camera with me but the only picture I took was of 2 of the parakeets that have taken up residence in the empty house next door!

Sunday we decided a fried breakfast was in order. It was a beautiful day and a bloody gorgeous breakfast. If you ever find yourself at Margate railway station I urge you to go to the cafe there. It has only been open a few months but the food is just fab.
We walked back along the beach and I immediatly started looking for shells. Strangely there were none to be had, so I picked up bits of glass instead. I love those pieces of glass and pottery you get that have been worn smooth and dull by the sea.

We walked back through the old town and found there was a buzzing craft and vintage market. They have been very busy rejuvenating the old market place and it shows. It's full of quirky little shops, galleries, cafes and vintage stores now. Most of them were open and it was packed with people.
I had a blissful half hour browsing and had to force myself to walk away from a gorgeous 1950's red & white gingham bag (£9) and a 1960's navy shift dress (£22) because I am completely skint and didn't have the cash. *sob*
There was some gorgeous jewellery at the craft market too *double sob*

All I could afford was this headscarf for £2. Boo, maybe next time now I know what is there......