Last night, I headed out for one last catch up with Bel and Dan before they return to Australia and reality. (Andrew is sick with a chest cold. He went to bed at 4pm yesterday and slept for 15 hours straight! Poor boy.)

Bel had organised drinks at The Castle, a lovely gastro pub in Islington. Happily, farewell drinks also coincided with the pub's quiz night. We signed up, thinking that as a team of Australians, with a token Brit or two, we wouldn't do that well.

Surprise, surprise, we came first! We weren't even trying that hard. Just chilling out, chatting away, keeping an ear out for the questions. Obviously we had some trivia experts at the table. It was nice to take part in a trivia evening. I miss our weekly sessions with The Badgers.

Some of the challenging questions were:

1. What is a fox's tail called?
   
   
2. The Bolivar is the currency of what country?
   
   
3. "Beyond the horizon lies the secret to a new beginning" is the tagline. Name the movie.
   
   
4. Acts passed in Parliament in 1729, 1736 and 1750 were designed to limit the consumption of what? (Kat and I knew this one. With all our touristing we've become authorities on English history.)
   
   
5. Cats meow, horses neigh and bulls what?
   
   
6. Which country and western singer recently surpassed Elvis as the best selling solo-artist of all time? (John had the right answer to this but we over-ruled him. Oops!)

Feel free to leave your answers to the questions in the comments. No using Google to cheat though!

Maybe I'm not too far off the mark with the whole "Jess is 12!" declaration. Especially if you look at some of the presents I received this year for my birthday.

Stormtrooper Mighty Mugg



Sakura Momiji Doll



Wolverine Mighty Mugg



To balance out all these toys I gifted myself with a beautiful new handbag. It's an Ollie and Nic Dolci chocolate tote. I love it! It has that beautiful new bag smell and it's huge (it fits 2 books!). It was on sale and I couldn't resist.

Ollie&Nic bag

I marked a few firsts on my birthday this year. It was my first birthday in London and also my first-ever summer birthday. I think it's probably also my first ever low-key birthday.

I'm a big one for parties and usually have something elaborate planned to celebrate. Car Rallies, Trivia Nights, and Fancy Dress Parties have all featured in my birthday past.

This year my birthday fell by the wayside when I suddenly found myself in employment. Not only did I find a contract but it was one where I actually had to work! The first 2 weeks of my contract passed in a blur. I worked hard all day and then often worked late into the evening. Before I knew it, it was the weekend of my birthday and nothing had been planned.

House husband to the rescue! Andrew quickly whipped up a lovely weekend away in Brighton to celebrate my birthday. We caught the train down on Saturday morning, spent a lovely couple of days relaxing by the seaside then trained it back to London on Sunday evening. Natalie also organised dinner and cocktails on Friday (888) for my birthday.

It was nice to have other people organising my birthday events for a change. Certainly different from how it usually happens (mainly because I love organising stuff too much to let other people do it!)

Andrew has been telling me for years that you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday after you turn eleven. Maybe I've finally reached that milestone. Jess is 12!



(Not if Andrew has anything to say about it. On my birthday weekend away, he continually reminded me that this birthday was also my first 30-something birthday. Not sure why he takes such delight in this fun fact. He's celebrated a few more 30-something birthdays than I have.)

After each game of proper ultimate, we usually play a mini silly game. After a very competitive game of ultimate, both teams can be a bit wound up. If we just walked away, it's possible that there could be bad feelings on either side.

We play a mini-game afterwards to relax, to have fun and to have a laugh together. It's a great way to make sure that everyone walks away from the game with a smile on their face. It's also a bit of inter-team bonding.

During Mixed Tour 3, we played some old favourites including Mix'n'Mingle and Guess Who. But our new favourite game is Handicapped Ultimate.

Like the name suggests, it's ultimate but everyone is handicapped in some way. Players have their hands tied together or become three-legged or blind-folded or on piggy back or have their shorts round their ankles. The aim of the game is still to catch the disc in the end zone. It's just a little bit harder than usual.

It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I thought I'd share the hilarity with you guys with this mini tutorial video: How to play Handicapped Ultimate.

Enjoy!

Wimbledon has come and gone and this year I managed to watch it on two occasions. I think that's pretty good for someone who doesn't own a television.

In the first week, Andrew and I headed to Wimbledon in the afternoon to take advantage of the after five deal. This year we were numbers 12759 and 12760 in the queue. The queue was long, but well-organised and very fair. It's almost a pleasure to queue at Wimbledon.

First we watched a men's double match and a women's single match. Then we watched a very thrilling second round men's singles match that went to 5 sets. The match was between Frenchie Marc Gicquel and Serbian Ilia Bozoljac. It had all the trademarks of a great tennis match. There was exciting play of course but also ridiculous, over-the-top grunting when hitting the ball, yelling at the umpire and crankiness at the linesmen. It dished out my recommended dose of tennis for the year.

It kind of reminded me of a soccer match. If the receiver disagreed with the linesman and thought that the server had faulted on the serve, he would stand there and stare at the linesmen in disbelief and then back at the service line and then back at the linesmen and so on. It's like the receiver thought he had to commit to his decision not to play the serve. It reminded me of football players rolling around on the ground clutching at a supposed injury.

Marc Gicquel came back from 2 sets down to win the match. An impressive comeback but we saw great play from both sides. (Marc Gicquel came up against Roger Federer in the next round and lost in straight sets. Tough draw.)


My next encounter with the tennis was at Sets in the City. Hagen Daaz set up an area in the city with turf, cushions, lounge chairs and a big screen television. Of course, Hagen Daaz had a reason for the sponsorship; a new flavour of ice cream. As a promotion they were handing it out free to everyone watching the tennis. The new flavour, Meringue and Raspberry, was very tasty.

Natalie, Larissa and I lounged on cushions, drank Pimms, ate free ice cream, yelled advice at the screen ("hit the ball over the net" and "aim for inside the white lines") and watched Nadal squash the British hope Andy Murray. It was good.


More photos on Flickr...

Without a tele we weren't able to watch the exciting Final. We did follow the webcast though (not quite the same).