A full weekend, with some productiveness

Friday as I was coming inside after lunch I suddenly felt very ill. It was a very odd feeling and not nice, so I left work not long after school finished. I just wanted to be at home in my comfortable surroundings and in a hot bath to feel sorry for myself. Roll on a few hours I did feel a bit better, I'm still not 100%. But as I had plans to meet my friend, Matt, in the Palace (three time in one week that I went out locally - this never happens!), I pulled myself together to make myself presentable and schlepped outside in the cold wet weather. We decided to try out a new-ish restaurant that turned out to be quite nice. After dinner we were planning on going downstairs from the restaurant to a cocktail bar that we'd been to before, but it was pretty full so we decided to wonder out in the cold and find somewhere less busy. On a Friday night this is a pretty impossible task so as my flat was near we went back to mine for a "night cap" ... being the very exciting person I am, once I was home I just fancied a warm cuppa tea. How sad.

Saturday morning was a pretty lazy one, but annoying too. I was pretty tired after a late-ish night and a phone call from my sister at 2 in the morning (got to love it when your phone breaks the peace and calm of the night). I refused to get out of bed when I woke up as it was 7:30 on a cold Saturday morning and my bed was so warm and comfortable. I managed to get back to sleep for an hour around 9, but couldn't manage to drag myself out of bed til noon.
Saturday afternoon I managed a bit (small bit) of Christmas shopping before Lindsay, my ex-flatmate, and her boyfriend, Adam, came round. I always have fun with this pair, as the picture below shows they're just full of fun!

They left after a yummy dinner of pizza we had delivered (I've been craving greasy pizza for ages!). I then spent a good hour on the phone with my Nana and Papa (my grandparents) chit chatting about life. I feel like I probably yakked their ears off, but they seemed to be enjoying hearing about the mischief I get myself in. After hanging up it was onto the internet to search for tickets to the States for Christmas. I was planning on staying in England this year as I've been to the States SO much this year and I need to give my finances time to recover from my jet setting activities. The phone call in the wee hours of Saturday morning from my sister was to let me know that my grandmother and aunt would be going to my parents' for Christmas. I can't remember a Christmas where this much family would be getting together, so I couldn't miss it. Searching for affordable tickets to take an international trip this close to Christmas wasn't so easy (my sister helped find the cheapest flight actually - such a good bargain hunter she is!!) Flights booked it was off to bed for this old gal - in bed before 11pm on a Saturday night, I really am getting old!

Sunday was a pretty productive day for me. My bed's been driving me crazy since before moving to London (over 2 years ago) because some of the slats under the bed are broken and the keep coming off the mid-beam. I decided enough was enough after a handful fell off again at the weekend, and I braved Ikea 3 weeks before Christmas. Luckily enough it wasn't as busy as I had dreaded, but I still managed to waste 3 hours there. I did get a few things that were needed (and wanted) including my bed slats, a chair cover, some picture frames, a bin for the kitchen, and storage box for under the bed. On the way home I stopped to get a Christmas tree - it is the weekend after Thanksgiving thus it's mandatory to get the tree. Clare came by not long after I got home to move the rest of her stuff out of the flat (sniff sniff), but it was still good to see her (as brief as it was). Sunday evening was super productive for me though: I organised the stuff under the kitchen sink (so I could put the new bin there), I changed the slats on my bed (now this was a sight that should have been videoed and put on YouTube for the world to laugh at: at one point the super king sized mattress had fallen on top of me and pinned me to the floor, until I regained my balance and lifted it off me Heman style - too funny!), changed the chair cover, fixed the couch which has a wooden base and one of the slats had broken (do you see a common theme with broken slats?) fixing it involved nails and wood and hammering, framed and hung the pictures from Ikea, organised some of the shed in new plastic boxes (in case the new shed decides to leak as well), got out my Christmas decorations and started decorating and got my Christmas tree up (the tree is still naked, this is my task for this evening after grocery shopping). See what I mean - I got a lot done! In the process of "doing" all this stuff, I managed to trash my flat, so my flat looks a tip at the moment, but at least it's a festive tip with all my decorations up :-)