Is summer really here?

Londoners (along with the rest of the country) have been severely deprived of a summer this year (winter boots in May should not be legal!) but last weekend, the sun and heat came out for the whole weekend (that's right: Saturday and Sunday!) and I made the most of it by playing tennis (after all as all the signs on the road outside my flat indicate; Wimbledon is just round the corner).

Following a bit of a mental week at work, I spent Friday evening at home. I made some (rather good, even I do say so myself) Spaghetti Bolognese for myself and Richard -who was down for the weekend- which we enjoyed with some wine before trudging off to bed.

After sleeping slightly too much, Saturday had a very slow start. Most of the morning/early afternoon was spent watching the French Open and having breakfast. It took us a while to decide on a plan for the day. Rather uneventfully, we thought of going to a decent tennis shop so that I could buy a tennis skirt and Richard could look at some tennis shoes (yes, we are that cool) but soon came to realise that living minutes away from the All England Club means that we have one of London's better tennis shops just round the corner. Having bought my lovely tennis skirt, we had to test it out by going to the park to play some tennis which turned out to be so much fun. For the first time in over a year (when Richard and I first started playing tennis together), I actually made Richard run and he admitted to being a bit tired after it all (this is no mean feat, with his long legs) and I thank my skirt and new shock absorber for the achievement). After tennis in the sun, we rushed back to the flat, showered, ate dinner and headed out to Islington with Natz to the o2 Academy where we met Antonio.

The tickets for the academy promised a tribute to The Killers which we didn't quite get. We arrived to hear two live bands, the second of which was really good. After the live bands, the club music came on, consisting of old school indie which was promised and delivered. The DJ also mentioned that The Killers tribute would soon start but having stayed at the club till after 12, I didn't hear any of their songs. The place was surprisingly small and not very busy at all which was quite a relief as it meant it didn't get too hot and stuffy but then lacked a fun, dance-encouraging atmosphere (that, of course didn't stop me and Natz). It was a nice, relaxed night and great to spend some time with all the lovely South Africans in my life!

Having had to get two long night buses home the night before, Sunday was dedicated to a lie in. As a result, I had to rush off to Oxford Street for an early lunch with Rosie (with some window shopping, of course!) We had some lovely wine and pasta at Carluccio's at St Christopher's Place, opting to sit inside since there were absolutely no seats in the shade (I reminisced about Rome with a lovely seafood pasta). Having discovered that me and Rosie were both going to Royal Ascot this year (sadly on different days) we were left with no option but to try on a ridiculous amount of hats in preparation - some great, some crazy and some on the verge of disgusting). We discovered that Rosie looks good in any and every hat - a little envious of that!

Having got home, I quickly changed into my tennis clothes for some more tennis in the park. Having pre-booked a court, we didn't have to wait and Richard got to play on astroturf for the first time ever. The sun was out in full swing and to show off that fact, Richard came back pink and I had some horrible tan lines from my top. Richard having bought some cooking ingredients earlier in the day, we finished the evening making Lithuanian beetroot cold soup (it tastes a lot better than it sounds and Richard tasted his first traditional Lithuanian dish) and some Chinese noodles in Thai red curry sauce, as inspired by our trip to Dim T last week. We ate dinner in front of the telly, watching the England take on the Rest of the World in football.

After a wonderful weekend, I rolled into bed looking forward to Monday evening... (yes, that's right) But more on that in the next post...

Muah,

Roo xx