President Solo!

PAUL:

Well its been action packed..kinda.

Sof and I had one night alone following my return from Florida before our first house guests arrived. That's right Chez Brycock is open for business. Saturday morning brought the delights of the Munro clan fresh from a 12 hour drive from Toronto. They drove through the night sharing the load and were therefore able to maintain some sort of awakitude during the whole of Saturday.

We spent the day catching up..me on my sleep from my week away and Sof chatting incessantly with the Munrods. We had always planned to go out for a meal that night and the Munros had spent some time in the area and knew of a microbrewery nearby. We loaded up and headed over to experience the wonders of the Dogfish head inn in West Falls Church.

The place served up some pretty potent fare. Beers ranging from a modest 4% up to a mind splattering 18%+ (so high they served it in a brandy glass). Some were good and some pretty minging to be honest. The good ones were purchased in bulk by the Munros at the end of the night and the food was great too! A selection of burgers sandwiches and other gorgeous offerings filled us up (inevitably).

Sunday we chose to nurse our swollen heads at home but then stepped up to go out shopping at our local Wegmans (a high class Sainsburys) and then head off to Georgetown in the centre of DC. Georgetown is the location of the only known Hello Kitty supplier in the area so Sof was homing in from the moment we parked the car. Completely by surprise we found ourselves enjoying coffee and Hot chocolate 10 yards from the shop. Sof heroically caved in to peer pressure and visited the shop only to not buy anything??? What a hero. The trip home exposed the wonders of the Sat Nav. It tells you to take a left and immediately next "at the next opportunity do a U-turn" bloody marvellous. The trip home sparked our hunger safe in the knowledge Ribs and steak awaited us at home. Dave and I popped out to a more local microbrewery to pick up a couple of Growlers (Vast roman vases filled with 2 litres of locally brewed beer which you can refill for about 1/4 of the price of 1/5 litre at the same pub (sweet).

We had managed to eat enough at the Wegmans that the ribs were not ritually burned that night and we settled on just a steak. The bloody things are so thick I just couldn't get the kids ones to cook all the way through. I did however manage to provide Rare steaks for all who wanted them.

Monday brought a different challenge. We had always planned to attend the Presidents day (George Washingtons Birthday - a Bank holiday) parade in Alexandria. Couple of options to get there...Metro - likely to be packed...drive to Alexandria and park - gonna be heaving, or, and this is genius, combine the two. We drove to a metro two stops away and caught the metro in one stop and then planned to catch a connecting bus to the parade (are you still following this).

To be fair it all went quite smoothly until the connecting bus didn't show. So we rolled up our trousers and hiked it a whole 2 miles through snow to where the parade was gloriously waiting for us.

Or maybe not....

Because the snow was melting on the roof of the tall buildings it had been cancelled for safety reasons...pooh!

We took the opportunity to visit a couple of museums (a really old tavern where George Washington ate and an old apothecary which was outstanding).

Waited for another bus that was also never going to come...pooh and walked back the the metro. Knackered we then prepared the ribs in a quite gorgeous honey garlic glaze and I said my farewells to them all. I was back to work on Tuesday and Sof was off to sunny! Canada for a week with the Munros. she got there safe and has since celebrated her birthday by buying a new dress (spendthrift). I'll let you know how my first solo week in office goes when I have managed to complete it (don't want to jinx it but is going good so far)

speak soon peeps!