2001-04-17 - 4:28 p.m.

Tanya, Mark & Barbara's house is now officially the House That Time Forgot (or maybe the Bermuda Triangle House). What a surreal weekend.

England is closed Good Friday and Easter Monday so it's a holiday weekend of great wonderfulness. Thursday I left work around 7pm to go over to the Prince & Princess's house for dinner and to hang out with them, Barbara their housemate and two of the guys from the Basingstoke SCA group (Insula Draconis or ID). I didn't get home til, um, Saturday at noon??

We played Settlers of Catan (a fun if weird board game involving counters representing ore, "mud" (bricks), wheat and (you guessed it) sheep). Very silly. Watched some Buffy episodes that ran last year in the US (the end of Adam and The Initiative).

Ate vastly too many meals including pizza with really hot chili peppers and some really good chicken in cream sauce with mushrooms and courgettes (that's zucchini for y'all 'Mericans) and terrific bacon and mushroom sandwiches (thanks Barbara!). Drank something like two and a half bottles of wine, plus this stuff called Ginger Wine that I'd been dying to try in pubs but hadn't yet - very tasty! Sloe wine on Friday night, also good. Much "granny's tea" as Tanya attempted to cure my cold by sheer force of will.

It was very, well, timeless and strange - meals at odd hours, weird sleep hours, etc. And they have a loverly fat red and white tomcat, so I was able to get a major kitty-fix.

Then Saturday the girls all came over (the Princess aka Tanya, my new apprentice Tina (!!!), and Meesha my fighting buddy) and we hung out drinking and talking about reign-planning (we were supposed to be sewing but it didn't happen), went out to dinner, stayed up late, etc. Tina & Meesh stayed over then Meesh went home and Tina, Tanya, Barbara and I went to the Porchester Spa for the day. Steam, sauna, jacuzzi, turkish hot rooms, cold plunge, the whole nine yards (and girls only so no need to wear swimsuits). Lovely and relaxing. We had Vietnamese on the way home, and Haagen Dasz. Much lounging and laziness.

Now it's a holiday Monday and I'm in the office 'cause I have buckets of work to do, meetings all week and the Board meeting this weekend. Whew!

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