Sitting at the Dock...

... of Southampton

OK, so I live in Southampton, so this doesn't really count as me going away, but last weekend someone came to visit me and it was magical.

I picked them up from the airport early last Saturday and we took the bus to my house, quickly catching up on some lost time. We then went for a day out in Southampton City Centre and had a great time shopping and wondering around hand in hand. We spent about half an hour having coffee and lunch in the Starbucks inside Borders and proceeded to wonder around the shop. In the end we spent about two hours wondering around Borders before finally deciding to move on to other stores. We had planned to go to IKEA at some point during the visit, but I refused to go during the weekend as everyone knows IKEA on a weekend is just short of a death-wish. We briefly visited the Apple Store, Curry's Digital and John Lewis. We spent quite a while in Primark and eventually decided to go home to dump the shopping and come back into the city to go out for dinner. On our way home we popped in to Whittard's and spent about forever in there; we found a few teas and hot chocolates we wanted to buy and they were on offer 3 for £12. We spent so long trying various different ones and eventually settled on some Aztec Chilli Hot Chocolate which was awesome, some Turkish Apple Tea, and some Mango and Passion Fruit tea which were both fantastic!

That evening we ate at Frankie & Benny's, we originally went to T.G.I. Friday's but there was a half hour wait for a table. I couldn't help myself and went for the burger which was great! It was quite a romantic dinner and I think we both thoroughly enjoyed it. The next day, Sunday, we didn't get up to much, we got up quite late and had to go shopping for food in order to cook dinner, but as fate would have it we arrived at the Supermarket just as it was shutting and so couldn't buy anything. That night we were meeting my friends at the pub so I decided to just eat at the pub a little before they got there. The night with my friends didn't go exactly to plan, but it went quite well. And my friends all remarked that they thought I had made a great choice, a good catch if you will, despite their shyness/quietness.

Monday was spent mostly at home; I had a couple lectures and a meeting to go to but it was nice to have someone to come home to for a change. I had intended to take them to meet my Jiu Jitsu friends that evening, but we got a bit carried away and started cooking dinner very late, so I decided not to go and just stay in. We had a few nibbles followed by a fantastic salad of my own creation with a dressing from Mexico that tastes of amazing-ness (an actual taste you know!) and then a brilliant Spaghetti Bolognese cooked by yours truly with some creative input from my guest. It was so good and I learnt a few cooking tips and tricks which was good!

Tuesday was our last day together, and I spent the first half of it writing an essay that ended up being several days late anyway. Then the plan was to go into town and have dinner in IKEA, but by the time we'd both showered and gotten dressed, it had gotten a little too late. I had bought tickets to the Laughter Lounge, a fortnightly comedy club at my student's union, and they usually sell food there so we had little choice but to eat there. Sadly when we got there I found out that they no longer did food like they used to, no more hot dogs and burgers, just nachos and chicken wings. We ended up having two combo-platters which were quite good, but the onion rings and garlic mushrooms weren't very good for kissing if you know what I mean. The comedy night was really good, with a nice MC and ever improving acts. We bumped into two of my Jiu Jitsu friends and their house-mates so at least they met SOME of my Jitsu friends. Afterwards we went home, finished packing and enjoyed our last night together.

Then on Wednesday morning at approximately 0530 I drove them to the airport where after check-in we spent our last half hour together having coffee. They remarked just as I was about to leave and they were about to go through security that this was the first time we would part knowing exactly when we would meet next! Needless to say I can't wait for these next 14 days to pass.

I won't relate to you our exploits in the bedroom because one is not supposed to kiss and tell and I don't quite want to go parading it across the internet (even though I practically have on some other websites), just know that they were great!