August in a page

Now let me give you the low down of what we got up to last month but since I can barely remember I will have to use my photos in no particular order. Since returning to the states in late July, Stuart has been suffering from his broken ribs which he did at the water park in Italy and then not too soon after he did something to his foot - any way the combination of his injuries means he has been off cycling for about two months. Just last week he jumped back on the bike and could feel the break. I have been continuing all my training, although despite this I have developed a larger than satisfactory waistline. So as of last week have submitted myself to the weight watchers regime and so I am now obsessed by everything I eat and poor Stuart is having to cook and eat all my WW menus. Although I have to give WW credit, they are pretty tasty what we have had to date! Enough about that boring stuff, back to life before WW, when we had a good summer of eating out and partying!!

We went to try a famous breakfast place in Houston, called the Breakfast Klub. It is southern style cooking and you get strange combinations such as chicken wings and waffles, or fried fish and pancakes! None of us could convince ourselves to try one of these so we had more normal combinations such as green eggs and ham :) it was a fun place and was pretty efficient getting us through the queue. Even though we had to queue up outside we got given a menu and before we went in we placed our order, then paid, and then as soon as we sat down our food come, and the whole turn around is pretty quick. I would recommend it if you find yourselves near downtown on a Saturday morning and need a monster breakfast.

We got invited to a house party in the Heights for White Linen night in the Heights. We have never been and didn't really know what is was but essentially most people were wearing white, specifically white linen, and then walked along 19th Street. The streets were filled with stalls, mainly arty stuff, and lots of people. All the quirky shops along the street had doors open and you could go and browse and drink. On the street they had some of the cars from the car art parade that happens every year in Houston in about May time. However, wearing white is not a good idea with the amount of red wine that was getting drunk - the boys show off their medals!!

We had a couple of Friday evenings at the Gingerman pub meeting up with friends and a few sneaky kebabs at the Turkish place around the corner. The summer has been hot and sticky and dry ... but that hasn't stopped us doing things outside you just learn to sweat lots!

Following on the drinking theme, we went up to a brewery in Conroe called Southern Star for their open day. Conroe is not a short trip from home, it is some 45 minutes north of Houston. The brewery was in a small modern shed and there were about 100 people all sitting on benches and camping chairs with their glass. Basically because they don't have a liquor licence you have to buy your pint glass for $5 and then you were give 4 tokens (essentially five drinks!) Well I was the driver since I am not a beer fan but Laura, Rory and Stuart had to drink all their tokens in two hours! They stepped up to the challenge! They had some beer snacks in the form of a BBQ out the back where they served bratwursts and burgers. We had to get away quite sharpish as I needed to pick my car up from the garage back near home but Laura convinced us to have a quick shopping stop in Ross Dress for Less and TJ Max! On the trip home I had my foot to the floor and I had them all moaning in the back because they all needed a pee! Rory was especially bad and I was slightly nervous there was going to be an accident. What made it worse for all of us was the amount we were laughing at Rory for his suffering! As soon as I got to the garage he had leaped out of the car and ran towards the back of the garage behind the bins. All the mechanics chased after him wondering what he was doing - we just laughed! Meanwhile Laura and Stuart fought for the single toilet in the garage - I just had to apologise to the garage guy!

The rest of the afternoon was in the pool and Amy, John and the kids came around for swimming fun. It was a long evening although I didn't join them at the Ashford pub, I needed my beauty sleep.

We hosted a curry night for John, Amy, Bill and Marah. Stuart prepared three curries and they were all great. Everyone went away with doggie bags but really there wasn't that much left! John especially enjoyed the vindaloo!

I had a one night trip to Rio towards the end of the month, but that pretty much summarises August.