OK – I know – crap photo so let’s get that out of the way straight away.

I’ve been working like a dog all day today from early this morning (6.30am start) until 5.30pm doing hard, physical work. At about 5pm our friends Iain and Becs popped their heads around our door and said they were going to see some friends for drinks for Becs’ birthday. I didn’t know it was her birthday yesterday but I do now and I won’t forget because I now know her birthday is the day before my other bezzie Clazuk’s birthday (today) and as I sit typing this I am cursing the fact that I’ve not yet sent Claz a card. Sorry Claz – will remedy later.

They persuaded me to join the girls for their early Friday evening traditional drink in the front garden a couple of doors down from our old house in the next village. I had to drop everything and go as I was, in workman's clothes, including steel toe-cap boots and with dust in my hair and on my clothes. Despite looking like a tramp, everyone seemed really pleased to see me and happy to sit around with a grubby herbert like me. It was LOVELY. All of our loved and sorely missed neighbours were there chilling, literally and metaphorically as it had been a lovely sunny day but as the sun disappeared behind the terrace of houses it got very cold. There is a wonderful feel to the village community there, where all of the neighbours are out and about in the summer and the front gardens of the houses become focal points for gatherings of people just sitting around and chatting. It reminds me of the old traditions of sitting around in the village square in France or Italy. It’s extremely sociable. There was a lot of love flowing around the table.

At 7pm Becs and I got picked up by DM then we went to get Iain from where the boys were doing the same thing about half a mile away and the four of us went back to our house where we had our traditional Friday night pizzas. (Pizza plates photo.) En-route we took a new friend and her dog home to another village close by so she didn’t have to walk home. We discovered she is a Spurs fan so why on earth would we make her and her dog, Coco walk?

I introduced Iain and Becs to pizzas with egg on them…neither of them had ever had a pizza with an egg before but I think the two things go together like cheese and bread or tomatoes and basil. I don’t know how traditional it is but I got the idea from Pizza Express’s fiorentina pizza, which is yummy. We had no idea that we'd end up spending the evening with friends so it really was an unexpected pleasure.

So, by the time I remembered I’d not taken a photo, it was 10pm and I’d been on the go since 6.30am hence the crappy dirty plate photo! Will try harder tomorrow.