Weekly Rundown: The Barbecue Edition

It’s been three years since we moved into the little cottage we call home and ever since then I’ve been wanting to have a barbecue. I’m not sure why we never did this until Friday.

Part of the influence was probably the people staying in the holiday cottage next door a couple of weeks ago. While walking Tara around the garden one evening I noticed that there was a group of people sat around the picnic table in their garden with a couple of disposable barbecues smoking away on the ground beside them. There is something about the smell of a barbecue.

So last week we stocked up on yummy burgers and sausages, some salad, some rolls and a disposable barbecue. We had a shopping trip to Glasgow planned yesterday and the weather was set to change at the weekend (it did, after only drizzling a little bit during the day by the time we got home in the evening it was absolutely chucking it down!) so we set the date for Friday.

After letting our neighbours know our plans, so they could bring in their washing (just as well because things got very smoky) and offering them a burger if they fancied one, we set to work following the instructions to get it set up. I was half expecting it to fizzle out but it kept going beautifully, well enough, in fact, to cook four burgers and eight sausages in two batches.

We parked ourselves out on the patio on some folding chairs. Lacking a patio table (I’ve since added it to my list of things we need to get for the house) I had the bright idea to get the laundry basket out, turn it over and voila, instant outdoor table! We also had entertainment in the form of two of the neighbours’ children who were making their teddy bears wave at us over the fence and bobbing up from behind it themselves. It was cute.

I ended up completely overeating, but it was really delicious and we’re already planning our next one. I’m hoping that this wet weather doesn’t last for too long because we’re getting a proper barbecue and I’d like to have some people up from work. I’m really looking forward to more cookouts.

I had a proper food hangover yesterday. I'm not so well versed in the world of drink hangovers as I never actually get to drink enough to get to that point the next day but if it's anything like the hangover I suffered after eating so much barbecue food, I'm in no hurry to experience that. I woke up feeling like something had died in my mouth, I wanted to curl up in bed (rather than get the first boat) and sleep, and everything was so LOUD. There was someone playing a game on the boat and it wasn't even that noisy, but it was just grating on my brain.

Totally worth it though.

In other news, I’ve been knitting again this week. Not ducks, though I have started another one, it’s been sidelined in favour of knitting moustaches for something at work. I’m in charge of knitting one for each person. In bright orange. It’s quite fun.

I’ve also finished reading my second Blind Date With A Book book, having passed on the first one to a colleague who liked the sound of it. I knew I was nearing the end of Sealed With A Kiss but I didn’t realise I was going to finish it on the train on the way into Glasgow yesterday. I obviously needed something to read on the train home so I picked up two John Green books and I’m already a good chunk of the way into The Fault in the Stars. Yup, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon!


Check back tomorrow to see some of the other things I picked up yesterday.