StewBlog

It was my aunt Lynn's 50th birthday party this evening, held in a large marquee at Canterbury Rugby Club. I arrived just before 8 and I'm not sure why, but I was surprised to see so many of the family there! I did struggle to recognise some of my cousins that I don't see very often though! We sat on a table with my cousin, Zoe and her partner, Robert, Peter, Tracy and my family. It was good to catch up with everyone although there never seems to be enough time to speak to everyone... Anyway, the band were very good - They played a mainly 70s influenced disco set, the highlight of which was surely uncle Peter's self-styled choreography to Hot Stuff... Need I say more...?

Well, I got up today and thought it looked very much like barbecue weather! So, I invited Vicki, Leon and Yukari round at 2 and had a cycle round to my favorite butcher in Wincheap to collect some nice things... They have an excellent range of freshly-made sausages in there so I got a handful of the bratwurst and several of their quarter pounder beefburgers, which after barbecuing remain exactly the same size rather than shrinking like most burgers do! I also picked up some Madagascan prawns from M&S and marinaded them for a few hours in salt, pepper, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil - They were lovely! Leon brought round more of the Westlers sausages (lol!) which are very nice with a bit of Dijonnaise... Unfortunately, that might well be the last barbecue of the season... We'll see...

Had to get the fire going for the first time this season as it was slightly chilly...!

I've just ordered this DVD from play.com. My interest in this movie has been reignited after I heard a story on the radio last week about a mother and a father of three sons, all of whom were posted on active duty to Iraq. Some months ago one of their sons was killed whilst on patrol and then more recently a second son was killed, so the US army have decided to send the remaining son home to resume non-active service rather than run the risk of him being killed also. Overall, I imagine most of us (including me) think that we're living in peace-time, and compared to the World Wars, I guess most of us are. That family who've lost two sons are all too aware that we're not not at peace though, so I need to try and remember this.