Weekend and Cooking

This weekend I was pretty ambitious.  Thursday night I went to this awesome Mexican restaurant.  This is a big deal because mexican food here is hard to come by.  Scratch that- GOOD mexican food is hard to come by.  So that was a bit of a late night.  Friday after work I met V, Cam and A at London Bridge were we all hopped on a train to Chislehurst.

Chislehurst is in Kent, so just south of London.  Its SUCH a cute area, kind of reminds me of Old Town Alexandria, or Westfield, NJ, but if they were in England.  There is a high street (aka Main Street), and a lake:

So we went there to help V find her "local".  This is a crucial part of moving to a new area.  You have to find your local pub that you take people to when you have them over, or a place to go to when you want a Sunday Roast, or just a place on a Sunday afternoon that you go to to read a book by yourself.  Mine is called the North Pole.  I love it...big comfy couches and a guy that reminds me of the Monopoly man.  So anyway, V and A said beware the chavs.  Chavs (I may have covered this already) are essential like...imagine if Pam Anderson or Snooki were british.

We walk into the first place that is right off the train station.  We follow an old man who was also on our train, and it looks cool.  Some people our age, some older guys, a group of older women, a nice mix.  We find a table and sit down.  About an hour into our evening, the CHAVs arrive.  Overly tanned, overly preened, possibly coked up 17-21 year olds take over the bar.  A warned not to make eye contact for too long or they could try and fight you.  I had a couple scares.  Cam almost gotten taken out in the bathroom, luckily she didn't hear what the girl said, so she just thought the girl said something nice and walked away.

After three rounds we head out to the next bar, which was total chav central.  We stayed there for one round, I talked to a guy who had, no joke, 5 teeth that I could see, and none of them were straight or clean, and then decided it was time for Dominos.  So we headed back to V's, order food, and then get to bed.

The next morning, we wake up, make breakfast and then head out to the magical Lakeside at about 11.  This is a legit mall, much like Westfield, near where I used to live in SheBu.  We spend about an hour, hour and a half there, pick up a few things there, and then head out to the real reason we went shopping: the "retail parks" aka a strip mall.  As we drive up Cam shouts out "Costco!!  I see Costco!!"
V and A simultaneously: what's costco?

Cam then dives into a massive explanation about how its the best store ever.  We keep driving because V has a mini cooper and with four girls and the amount of shopping we planned on doing, costco was not an option. We had no room for a 3 gallon jug of peanut bitter or a 57 pack of toilet paper.  The next store I spot is Best Buy.  "Best Buy!!  I love Best Buy!"

V and A: Kat, what's Best Buy?
me: umm its like Curry's but 1,000 times better!

But we carry on.  Then I see a TGI Fridays.  This is when I start to think V has a magical mini cooper that transported us to Watchung Square Mall.  So we keep going and hit a store call Home Senses or something.  TK Maxx (their version of TJ Maxx - TJ Maxx was taken when the store decided to move here, so they took the name TK Maxx instead) made a store dedicated entirely to their homegoods section.  It was awesome.  I got new sheets, new pillows, a couple snacks.  After doing some damage in that store, we headed to Ikea.

We probably should NOT have saved this part of our trip to last, but whatever.  We start the visit with a trip to the hot dog stand.  A hot dog, fries, and a bottomless soda for £1.30.  £1.30!!! Are you serious?  I would go to Ikea JUST for the hot dog.  It was awesome.  Then we started our journey throughout the store.  It went really well until (2-3 hours later and) the second to last department.  This is where I started to snap at people.  Especially the people that were walking against the arrows, and then looking each other saying "I wonder if we're going the wrong way?".  Are you serious people?  Come ON!

So at 5:30, we finally hit the road.  In the cab that we called.  We called it warning them that there were 3 of us (V drove home) and several bags and a small plant (Cam wanted to get it for her new flat).  We expected a minivan (aka people carrier) to rock up.  I had to burst out laughing when this van pulled in:

It was kind of the perfect ending I needed to lighten my rage.  We took the van back to Cam's, unloaded her stuff, and the A and I hoped on the bus/tube to get home.  I got home at about 7 and was asleep by 11:30.  Sunday I took as a recovery day after a week or so of too much fun.  

Monday I woke up to an email from Lauren.  She needed place to crash because her flight from Milan to London was fine, but her London to LAX flight was delayed until Tuesday.  So after work I went home and cooked up a baked pasta dish!  Check me out!!  So Lauren arrived, we recapped each other with our weeks, and then dove into the dish.  It wasn't bad!  I mean, a pasta bake isn't exactly the most challenging, but hey, baby steps!  I wish I took a picture of it!  On e more meal needed for March.  I'm going to reserve this for Saturday when Liz comes this weekend to prepare for her flight home for Easter on Monday.  I'll keep you posted!