Awesome weekend

It was down to Kent for the annual BBQ with Jane and Wes and Jake and Laura, but it was the first time I've been. We set off on Friday at about 10am and made it down to Whitstable in good time with little drama other than some congestion on the M1. As before, we went in Rob and Em's car. With the bank holiday traffic we quickly developed a hatred for caravans, which led to much hissing and claw motions, which became entertainment for the journey. I started reading A Clash of Kings on the Kindle. I made it to about 20% by the time we got past the M25, and it seemed an easier read than the first book, probably because the TV series meant I knew mostly what was going on. Food on Friday night was a load of pizza ordered from Domino's, which was really good. Ordering on the website is great as you get a constant update of the status of the order.

Saturday was spent chilling out and reading books to little Xander, who isn't all that little any more, and then heading over to Jake's place in Northfleet for the BBQ. The plan was to leave the cars there and get a minibus back. The BBQ went really well and was really good fun. The first thought that came to mind for a costume was Stephen Hawking but this was quickly dismissed as being inappropriate, so I settled for Arthur Dent from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This basically consisted of pyjamas, dressing gown and a plastic goldfish stuck to my glasses to be the Babel Fish.

There were some amazing costumes there, from someone in a custom made Ninja Turtle outfit, Optimus Prime, Indiana Jones, Hulk Hogan, a definitely too soon Jimmy Saville, to Wes's Captain Planet and Jane's David Bowie. Em's Colombo outfit was scary and Rob was Robin Hood. It was great. Also someone else turned up with the same idea as me so there were two Arthur Dents.

Unfortunately I drank rather a lot of Southern Comfort rather quickly, which led to me falling over a lot and then being cradled by Em and Vicky while being violently sick into a Halloween bucket. I don't know how long this bit went on for but I remember being startled that it was suddenly dark. It was around then that I told Vicky that I had shit myself, just to see her face, which was funny but she was less amused. After a while though, I was able to get up and carry on talking to people, although I did have to carry the bucket around with me as I kept being sick for pretty much the rest of the evening, which led to conversations being a little embarrassing. To my surprise though, this led to me being regarded as somewhat of a hero.

By the time we got the minibus home though, my stomach had settled down, but my stomach muscles and throat were crying out for mercy. Fortunately though I was able to sleep OK.

First on Sunday was off to a good breakfast at a nearby pub, which was good. At first I wasn't sure about eating much, but after a croissant I felt better and was able to tidy it away. We hung out for a bit and then took the minibus back to Jake's place to get the cars and head to Bluewater to see Iron Man 3. We split into two parties, those who wanted to look at shoes and the others who were hungry. We ended up going to a place called Ed's Diner, an American style place where we had huge milkshakes, which were incredible. Mine was a peanut butter one which was stunning. The sheer size of the milkshake meant that I was able to sit through the movie without any sustenance at all.

After that we went to a random place on the food court that was OK. The food was decent enough and it had room for all the people who were there as it was quite a sizable group. I had duck spring rolls and a falafel wrap, which were both good, although I didn't quite do justice to the wrap as the effects from the giant milkshake were still lingering.

Finally it was time to return to Jane and Wes's for a movie and general hanging out. The movie was the recent version of The Three Musketeers. By this time I was really tired so I couldn't keep track of what was going on, and then not long after Rob said it was being pretty true to the book, only for him to be proved massively wrong when a giant airship appeared, I couldn't cope with how shit it was any more and went to bed.

The journey back today was fine, despite it being bank holiday. The traffic was mostly going the other way so we saw plenty of blockages on the M56 and other places, but we were OK. I read some more Clash of Kings and got nearly halfway through the book. Despite knowing what was largely going on, I'm really enjoying the extra detail.

It's been a great weekend, with the only downside being some incriminating photos of my incompetence with alcohol and the mere thought of Southern Comfort making me feel sick. It's a completely different scene down there with a great bunch of people, so it's always good. My stomach muscles are still feeling the effects though, probably the best ab workout I've ever had.

The Accord did it's best to piss me off again on Friday - after I put my suitcase into the boot it wouldn't open again when I got to Rob and Em's, and the ABS light came on again. On the way home today though, the ABS light went off again and copious amounts of WD40 got the boot opening again. I think the locking mechanism is a little finicky, but there is no way to override it. Bah. Oh well.