A Few Ramblings…
Forty-six year old Christian happily negotiating the world with a wife and three daughters
Christmas Party photos – 20th December 2011
A few photos from the Reach Christmas Party held at Holiday Inn, Woking – not all taken by me!
38th Birthday – 16 December 2011
Today I celebrated my 38th birthday with a day off work.
I was woken at 7.15am by the girls arriving laden with various gifts and cards and received a number of books, as well as other presents of money.
After breakfast and second birthday school-run in the snow in a row, we decided to go for a breakfast at the excellent Palmieri’s coffee shop and restaurant. The food was up to its usual high standard and was as tasty as ever!
After leaving Palmieri’s, we set off for Sainsbury’s before going to Mum’s for coffee.
It was a busy day, but good to spend some time with the family – and I even managed a birthday cake – of sorts – when Heather, Hugh and Katy came round after school.
Holly with my ‘birthday cake’
Holly’s Christmas Concert – 15th December 2011
Holly had a role as a present at her school Christmas concert.
This involved her group singing two songs 5 Little Elves and When Santa got stuck up the chimney.
Unfortunately her position for singing was a little too close for my 200mm lens to get decent pictures!
Below are a few shots from the concert:
Emily getting excited before the concert
Holly leading her class in
A face in the crowd
Preparing to sing
Spotted!
Exciting times!
Birthday Chinese – 14th December 2011
I invited a number of close friends to join me for another birthday Chinese meal at the Jasmine Peking in Maidenhead.
With various people crying off for differing reasons, it was left with just five stalwarts left to head off to celebrate.
Mr Hill kindly offered the use of his car for the 5 minute drive into town and we duly piled in with Alan taking the front seat and Steve, Sarah and myself cramming into the back. Steve, in particular, had somewhat limited manouvrability due to the almost horizontal position of Martin’s drivers seat!
Heading to the Jasmine in Martin’s car
Fortunately we all arrived at the restaurant unscathed and some 20 minutes ahead of our scheduled booking!
The Jasmine were fine with our early arrival and we were speedily shown to our table.
It being the festive season, we had crackers laid out on the table. Once these had been pulled, three of the five contained the same joke!
Festive cracker
Steve perusing the menu
We opted for the standard 3 course meal while Martin selected the vegetarian version as usual.
Arrival of the starter
Alan
Martin
Sarah
Steve
The ‘starters’ consists of a variety of dishes served on a communal platter. This is followed by a ‘main course’ of duck pancakes. Finally, rice accompanied by various dishes topped off the meal.
The arrival of the duck!
Third course
One highlight occurred when one of the waiters was attempting to carry too many dishes from the table to the kitchen. This resulted in a loud crash as a number of them fell to the floor. We managed to salvage a shard of porcelain as a memento of the occasion.
Shard shocker!
The meal was completed with the arrival of warm ‘face cloths’ and a dish of orange segments.
Arrival of orange segments
Steve with two segments of orange
Alan being Alan
All the gang!
Following the meal, the majority of us walked home leaving Martin to drive back alone.
Despite the low attendance, it was an enjoyable evening and already plans were being talked about how to celebrate my upcoming 40th birthday in two years time. Whether the occasion would be on the same scale as my 30th birthday celebrations remains to be seen.
A Few Ramblings... 