Friday Night Dinner

Last night we had Friday Night Dinner at The Tilbury in Datchworth.  What a fab start to the weekend, I don't think I've laughed so much in weeks.

The night started with us trying to rearrange the tables - disaster!!!  We so should have left it to our lovely waitress as when she came to help it was all done in seconds - we'd got in a right mess!  Danny & Mike warmed us all up - not with hugs I hasten to add - just by putting logs on the fire!  We had a table in the cosy Snug area of the restaurant which is truly perfect for a group.

The food was delicious, a really great choice of loveliness.

The burgers looked amazing - even from a veggies point of view, and the plate of pig looked fabulous.

The laughter was non stop, with the tone getting lowered even further by Mr Bannister and his erection comments!!

Most of the group had never met each other before but you'd have never known, the conversation flowed and a good night was had by all.   We went through some ideas about future events, and I can't wait to get planning our snow weekend, trip to Paris and the P Party.  Mike dressed as a pilchard is going to be hilarious!

Pottery Class

Today we had pottery class.  Sarah, Helen and I braved the fog and the cold and arrived at The Artshed at Westmill Farm, Ware.  We joined the other ladies in the Artshed and settled in.  Everyone was really friendly and it seemed nobody had a clue what they were doing either so that was reassuring - except for the teacher of course!!

We started off rolling out our clay ready to make our vases.  That in itself was tough work, I've always battled with clay and found it hard to use - what on earth was I doing on a pottery class?!  Once the clay was rolled out to the required thickness we then had to choose what indentation or pattern we wanted on our vases.  We chose from designs on various wallpapers and stamps.  I chose a wallpaper with a fairly raised pattern, this had to be placed face down on the clay and then rolled over with the rolling pin.

The clay was left to dry out a bit and we moved onto making pinch pots.  Taking a large ish lump of clay we had to make it round and then stick our thumb into it to make a hole.  Then whilst trying to make the pot stay round - easier said than done - we had to work the clay to make the pot by pinching and stretching out the clay.  Hmmm my excuse was having nails really doesn't help with clay work.

My pots were a bit rubbish to be honest, I wasn't especially proud of them, but hey I gave it a go.

Ok maybe they don't actually look to bad in the photo, not bad for a first attempt.  Sarah and Helen seemed to be doing a much better job.

Once the pots were made we moved onto Christmas Decs, woohoo this was much simpler.  We simply rolled out the clay and using cutters cut out the shapes we wanted to use for your decorations.  We used lace and stamps to make the shapes have patterns on them.  I chose to make a lot of hearts using the lace to make a cute pattern on them. I hope that by choosing hearts, and glazing them white, I can use them all year around and not just at Christmas.

The next tricky part was making the actual vase.  We cut out the bases and then rolled out clay (that we had prepared first thing) around it.  Not as easy as you think people!!   Looking around the room there were a variety of different designs of vases, everyone seemed to be pulling faces, and looking a bit anxious.  BUT all seemed to go well and after a while there were a lot of happy faces.

Now onto the decorating.  We started glazing our pots, vases and decorations.  There was a wide range of colour schemes going on throughout the room.  I hoped for a shabby chic look for my pottery so opted for white.  Fingers crossed it turns out how I envisaged it too once its been fired.

We had a great day at The Artshed.  Becky was telling us all about the other courses they run and I'm keen to get us booked in for some more soon.  It will be good to get Hertfordshire Creative Stuff more creative.

A Win for Saracens!

This afternoon we went to watch Saracens play Treviso in the Heineken Cup.  It was just us girls, none of the Hertfordshire Social Stuff guys came with us, so it was a girly afternoon at the ruggers.

It was the perfect afternoon for rugby, all sunny but chilly ish.  We got good seats in the North Stand and then had a good old moan that there was no screen to see replays etc.  It took until at least half time for us to notice there was indeed a screen, just facing the other stands, and not ours!  Oh well ..... next time!

Sadly within the first five minutes of play Justin Melck was injured and was stretchered off.  Despite Twitter searches and googling during the match we were unable to find out if he was ok,  but we really hope he is.

The match was great, Saracens were whizzing ahead of Treviso, so there was lots of jumping up and cheering going on ' Stand Up For The Saracens, da da da da ........"  There was an incredibly cute little girl in-front of us in a South Africa jersey and she was frantically waving a flag, that was about the same size as her, every time we got a try.  She was super cute.

It was John Smit's debut match for Saracens today, ok ok I hear you say, how on earth does she know all about him?  Well I used to go watch all the Sharks home games when I lived in Durban, so its a name I'm familiar with.  But hey ok not that familiar with, as I was totally clueless that he was coming to Saracens :-)  It was purely a coincidence that we were there today, but a good one, and he got a try on his debut, so it was all good.

Here's a pic I just 'borrowed' from a news site, of todays final try - eeek ok I know thats naughty!

The final score was 42-17, and yes we won.

We're planning on going again on December 4 to see Saracens vs London Irish, who is coming to join us?  Wrap up warm ..... it got pretty chilly in the second half!

Fabulous Fireworks

Hertfordshire Social Stuff celebrated Bonfire Night with a bang at The Plume of Feathers in Tewin.

What a great place to be for fireworks, they have a huge garden with room for a massive bonfire.  The fireworks are set up in their neighbouring fields so are far enough away from the large crowd.  There was a fair few of us Social Stuffer's tonight, and we braved the cold and got a table right at the front in the garden with a perfect view of the show.  One  by one we all gave into the BBQ in one way or another and enjoyed chips, hotdogs and burgers .... and ok I admit I had a toffee apple also!

Toffee apples are just simple delicious, I just love it when they are in the supermarkets and just happen to jump into my trolley!  

Anyway back to the fireworks .... I can dream of toffee apples later.

Nigel, from the Plume does a spectacular job of the fireworks.  The Plume was packed and everyone ooooohed and ahhhhhhed superbly.  The fireworks were stunning, they went on and on for ages.  

A good night was had by all.  We also managed to catch up on all the goss, and plan some girls nights out too.  Watch this space for more events to be revealed.  We have plenty in the pipe line.

I hope you all enjoyed the fireworks over the weekend and your pets and little ones stayed safe.