Happy Birthday Brian

This weekend I was off to Notts again to celebrate Brian's birthday. It doesn't seem that long since the last one.

This year we were off to the Red Hot world buffet.

I booked the day off work so that I could get a lie-in although I had to get up to get Bret up and I never made it back to bed but I did spend most of the day in my pjs on the sofa.
I got a couple of jobs done including the vacuuming and cleaning of the bathroom but I had to finish off dying my hair so it wasn't long before the bathroom was splattered in red again like a violent murder had been committed in there.

By 6pm I was on the bus on my way to Notts.

I got a bit of a surprise when I got to Brian's place as he also had another friend staying. I had thought it was going to be me Brian and Larry for pre-meal drinks but there was a practical house full when Tim and Gerry arrived. I had so much to chat about but didn't get the chance for any of it. Brian's friend Paul was very nice and it was lovely to meet another of Brian's friends that I hear so much about but I just wish I had known I wasn't going to be the only guest.

After a couple of glasses of wine we left for the restaurant. It seemed like we walked miles so I would never be able to find the place again.
When we got there, Helen and Nigel and Tony were already there as well as a couple of Brian's work colleagues and soon after Brian's 2 bosses arrived.

When everyone was there we were taken to our table. There were 17 of us but the table we were taken to should have only seated about 10 so they squashed us all up together. There wasn't much elbow room so it is a good job I sat in between Helen and Tony who I knew well. It was hard to choose any food that may be messy as I couldn't get close enough to the table to eat.

There was a huge selection of food. What a starter plate of fritters, spring rolls, samosas, bhaji and garlic bread. See for yourself the range of foods HERE.
For Mains there were lots of currys and veggies along with noodles rice and chips. There was also a selection of salads, chillies and Pizza.

For Dessert there was ice cream although no Little bowls, instead they had cones. There was chocolate sauce although not a fountain, instead it was in a big bowl...I steered away from that as I am so clumsy with food I knew I would just spill it and then end up slipping over on it and landing on my bum.
There was lots of choice of fruits and cakes and there was even apple crumble and custard.
Unfortunately I hardly got to try anything as I felt a bit sick. I am not sure why.

Brian's bosses Tracey and Quinn turned out to be the life and soul of the party. I had heard so much about them in the past but they were nothing like I expected. I don't think they thought much of me to be honest. I felt very conscious the whole way through the evening. I don't know why I cared so much about what they thought of me. I was also conscious of the fact that I couldn't hear a lot of what was going on so when a lot of people burst out laughing and you don't know why it does tend to make you feel uneasy.

The restaurant made a whole big cock-up of taking out money. As we all tried to leave they made us sit down again to pay them. It took ages for them to get the money off us and it was such a relief to get out of there as it was so hot.

From the restaurant we moved on to a bar called Broadway - this is apparently a cinema but i didn't see any films LOL Downstairs was a busy and very noisy student bar. Upstairs was a slightly less noisy bar which was all glass-fronted and you can see all that is going on in the streets in Nottingham.

We sat upstairs and there was much chat and laughter.
I think it was about 11pm when Helen and Nigel and Brian's bosses all left. Brian, Paul and myself walked them to their car park and then went back to Bri's place so he could drop off his pressies and change his shirt before we went back out and met Tim, Gerry and Sam at the Forresters pub.
It was a really nice end to the evening as we drank and chatted on the big old sofas that were so low down that is was very hard to actually drag yourself out of again.
It had to be approaching 2am as we were all dozing off and went to walk Sam to her car park and head off home (To Brian's anyway)

I was ready for bed and had a really great night's sleep.

The next morning when we were all up and breakfasted, we headed off into town. As we strolled round looking for a great lunch venue we ended up in another buffet - The Flaming Dragon. A place that Brian was always raving about but Paul and I had never been.

I wasn't too impressed to be honest. There wasn't much choice compared to what I have been used to at other buffet restaurants. It may just have been that it was the busiest part of the lunch hour or that I was fed up of buffet as we had had it the night before too.

I did eat a lot though. 2 starters, 2 mains and ice cream for dessert.

After lunch it was time to gather my things from the nineteenth floor and head home.

It was a nice weekend where I met new people and old ones who I haven't seen for a while. Some of them I just don't see enough of and some of them who couldn't get away quick enough ;)