No Easter bunnies or Easter Eggs but loads of food, fun and good company

Jazz at South Bank

Fruit Preserves at the market

Freshly baked bread, cake, brownies...

Varieties of Cheese

The four day weekend went by so fast and i had loads of fun. In UK, we have something called Bank Holidays where they club a weekend and give the Monday or Friday off so people can enjoy their Spring/Summer. We have four or five i think every year. So the Easter weekend was also a Bank holiday weekend, where we got Friday and Monday off. Last year we never knew this Bank holiday deal and so stayed at home when the whole of England was on holiday elsewhere. So this year we decided to plan way in advance and make use of the holidays. But as usual getting the whole gang to decide on something and plan turned out to be a mess and i gave up. I had Europe in mind and by the time Ro got his company to approve etc., it was too late to apply for the Schengen Visa. I lost my interest by then. Some of our friends came up with the idea of Dover and Isle of Wight. I did my research online and found out there was nothing awesome about the place other than the scenic beauty. Now, dont get me wrong here, i love the nature and the beauty and all that. But I think, here in UK, if you have seen one you have seen it all. The castles, the coast, the hills...I have been to Wales and Scotland and have seen some of the most beautiful places on Earth. I know, i know, it may not be the same, but seriously an overdose of nature kinda makes me bored. There is a limit to how much ohhh’s and wow’s you can do. Also, it worked out a bit expensive and i didn’t think it was worth spending so much to see the same thing again. Of course we argued about it (we never let anything go without an argument!). Ro wanted to see the White Cliffs of Dover, but he didn’t and now blames me for it!

Anyways, coming back to my Easter lunch, it was a success, atleast i thought it wasJ. Ro helped me out a lot. Seriously, i would have lost it way before if it wasn’t for him. So a friend offered to split the cooking and i had to make pulao and chicken roast and she, prawn curry and dessert. Ro cleaned the chicken and marinated it the previous day itself. So it was a cake walk the next day and it turned out absolutely gorgeous (although i think we could have made a bit more, since it was just about enough for all of us) and was a good combo with the pulao. By the time everyone left it was about 8pm and we watched a movie for the rest of the evening. Revolutionary Road is a nice movie. Women stay away from it, men folk..watch it so you’d get an idea of what women really go through even todayJ

Day 2 was laazzzyy. Had leftovers for lunch and was watching a mallu horrible flick when a friend called asking if we wanted to meet up. So off we went to South Bank- a beautiful riverside stretch. Restaurants, markets, theatres, movie halls dot the river side and there are these free events like jazz concerts, dance workshops, art programmes etc open to the public. We walked around a bit and headed to the Jazz concert. I’m not that into jazz and so didn’t really get it. But it was a pleasant experience..some sipping wine and chilling out, some requesting songs and some soulfully into the music oblivious of their surroundings. Dinner was at Phoenix Palace, a Chinese joint. Ambience was good, a bit noisy though..but extremely child friendly (im not sure if that’s a good thing or not. I personally like it quiet). The tables were an inch apart from each other. You had to make sure you wouldn’t bump into the table behind you when you were taking a breather in between your courses. The pretty stewards running around in short skirts, who didn’t really understand or talk proper English, were obviously the highlight. Beers and wines followed and pork ribs and garlic chicken which were starters were nice. My aversion towards seafood was persistent and so didn’t enjoy the prawn dish (i forgot the name) but the duck in black bean sauce was just out of this world. I am not that adventurous and usually don’t try out meat that is not too familiar, but this was really really good. Ro was darn surprised about the fact that i atleast tried it out. The service is really quick, which is something i really appreciate while eating out. I found it a tad too expensive for a Chinese joint but, what the hell, when the food is good and the company even better you tend to not mind the exorbitant bill sometimes. Well this was one of those days. On our way to PP we passed by a Belgian waffle van and decided to come back and have that for dessert. Unfortunately they had packed up by the time we were done and so missed the chance. Now since the idea of having dessert was already in us, we decided to get some anyway. As usual none of the places were open (they close at 6pm, leave alone 10pm). So we headed to M&S, picked up a chocolate and fudge mousse and headed home. I wanted to catch a movie but Ro and this other friend who was staying with us were too tired and so chucked the idea (This is what happens when you marry really old men!!!).  We however ended up watching Cliffhanger on TV, munching on the fudge.

Day 3 and 4 is way too long for me to write about. So il post that later.