3 leaving parties, and I've still not actually left!

i'm recovering.

yesterday i had a jolly good try at drinking 'all the drinks'....pimms, rose cava, red wine, lager, sambucca, vodka and red bull.... and i was desperately trying to get someone to order me a tia maria and orange juice. its a very interesting drink- it sounds disgusting but it tastes just like smarties! try it!!- but its probably a good job that it never materialised last night!

we had our london leaving do yesterday, and counting my work leaving drinks and the leaving drinks that lovely kitty organised for us in dorset the weekend that we moved our furniture down, that makes it 3 leaving parties so far. not a bad tally, but if i want to take my liver travelling with me next week i think we should stop celebrating now! we made it a very local affair- we started outside in the sunshine in finsbury park, with drinks and snacks and the odd toss of a rugby ball. it was a bit chilly- it is nearly october so we were always being optimistic by planning on being outside- but when the sun's rays hit us they were lovely and it was really nice to be looking out over the tips of the trees to the city for one last time. when the sun dipped under the tree line we headed to some of our favourite local pubs to warm up and hook up with more friends, and it inevitably ended very drunkenly at kicking out time, with a final kebab from the local kebab shop. oh, and a few very competitive and loud rounds of 'travel hungry hippos'- a thoughtful leaving gift from a very thoughtful friend, that will either make us many friends on our trip, or (given how loud the game mechanism is) perhaps will mean that we lose a few along the way!!

some people came a really long way to see us off- some even ventured out of deepest darkest south london which was very brave!- and it made me realise how lucky the husband and i are to have such good, loyal friends. it hit me last night that we will be quite lost without them on our travels, and just spending an evening in a familiar pub happily talking crap to people we've known for years is a simple pleasure that we will miss hugely whilst we are away.

thanks again to all who came out, might even post the odd picture when i work out how to make that function work!