Wednesday 24 July 2013

Gin. Again.

Regular readers of these pages will need no introduction to my favourite poison.


I'm not much of a gin expert, though.  To rectify this, one sweltering Sunday Alice and I went on a mission of gin-education.  We attended an event run by The Drinking Classes, called G and Teatime.
 
We weren't quite sure what to expect, but what we got was this:  We were greeted with a glass of an absolutely delicious punch, which had been made, bizarrely but to great effect, with chai tea.  Our host explained to us that proper punch has a specific ratio of sweet and sour. (Alice wrote it down, I was too busy drinking)
 
 
 
What followed was a history lesson about the origins and rise and fall of gin throughout the centuries, which came with some very interesting nuggets of info, such as how the phrase 'Dutch courage' came into being.  We were given samples of three different gins to taste (neat!!)  That was pretty painful (I love gin, but I like my G&Ts nice and tonic-y), but after the first sip has blown your head open, you can actually drink it much more easily and discern the different flavours. 
 
 
 
We drank tiny gin martinis, designed our own G&Ts (I put apple and mint in mine - delicious!) and ate sandwiches and cakes from the afternoon tea cake stands.
 
 
 
Afterwards, we wobbled home, not really drunk but feeling very relaxed, sun-drenched and happy, and neither of us went to our rehearsals that night!
 

 

Sunday 7 July 2013

A Few Days of Summer

Hullo!

Bit quiet on Bette on Toast, innit?  So much so that people have actually been noticing, and enquiring why I haven't been uploading photographs of myself wearing clothes for their enjoyment.  One of the chief complainers, as always, has been my curly-haired, strange-accented Goldilocks, Alexa, so when she travelled up from the capital last weekend to visit, I roped her into service as a Boring Outfit Photographer.

 
Our first stop of the weekend was a picnic in the park, followed by a mini alfresco concert by my school choir.  Alexa took a lovely picture of me conducting the little mites, looking for all the world like somebody who knows about music, but it shan't be appearing on this blog, because I've done a child protection course, and one of the first things they teach you is don't put photos of the children in your care on The Internet. ;-)
 
This red dress is one of those amazingly versatile garments, that also always receives compliments from chums, colleagues and random passers-by.  Here is my younger, chubbier self, pictured with Alexa, wearing it at our Graduation Ball.
 
 
I seem to have started talking about dresses as usual, but I would really prefer for this blog to be more of a diary of my life than a shrine to Boring Outfit Posts.  So I will continue telling you about my splendid weekend.
 
After the park we built a wardrobe, and then got dressed up for the evening, and took some photos on my steps while waiting for the taxi.
 

 
You will note that the girls both look elegant and lovely, while I look like I'm dressed for pub golf.  This is because I was dressed for pub golf, being terribly busy and popular and having to be in two places at once that night.
 
 
 
So while Alice and Alexa sipped cocktails in Pleased To Meet You, my teacher friends and I drank alcopops and got thrown out of Wetherspoons for having too much fun with a plastic golf set.
 
 
On Sunday we went for our lunch at a hipster Ouseburn cafe.  I was a cowgirl that day, and cowgirls like yellow walls.
 
 
After a bit of shopping and some very rushed cake, Alice and I plonked Alexa on a train and went to our respective rehearsals.
 
I am curently having a similarly wonderful weekend this week, so maybe there will be another summery diary post coming up soon!
 
Cheerio x
 
 

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