If We Were Having Coffee #11

Posted on by

30

imageCoffee conversational posts are normally saved for the weekend, but the last few days have been a roller coaster. For those who read this little blog regularly, would you expect anything else?

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I celebrated my birthday and The Bloke and I’s anniversary. I knew that he had bought tickets to the Good Food Show for Sunday, which has become an annual event for us, so I organised a birthday drinky-poos with some friends on Friday night at Bohemian. There were two reasons for this – I know that Saturday nights after payday are always too busy for me to cope with, and I wanted to ensure that I had at least 24 hours to recover from the inevitable hangover.

It turned out to be a wise decision. It was two-for-one cocktails, and after several hours, six or seven raspberry mojitos and a number of passion fruit yummy concoctions that were called Porn Stars, I couldn’t feel my face and had seemingly lost the ability to do anything other than talk nonsense and giggle at nothing. I remember having red lipstick put onto my lips, which left me looking like some sort of drunken hooker, eating tapas with a sauce that was so garlicky that The Bloke said it oozed from my pores the next day and generally laughing a lot… It was fun and I had a great time, although waking up feeling like my surroundings were moving at a slower pace than I was put a little bit of a dampener on it. I found it quite amusing that both The Bloke (who didn’t come out with us as he wasn’t feeling well) and my mother both made the same comment the following morning:

‘You’d think you’d have learnt by now.’

Yeah, maybe not.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I took advantage of the whole Black Friday nonsense to buy the last of my Christmas presents. I got The Bloke something awesome that wasn’t in my budget (but still with a massive discount) but after everything he’s done for me this year he deserves it, and now I have about four weeks to get squeaky and annoy him about it.

The Good Food Show
Porn Stars
My caterpillar birthday cake from The Bloke
James Martin
It’s all a bit much for Daisy

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I recovered enough by Sunday to elbow my way to all the free samples at the Good Food Show. After six years, I’ve developed it into a fine art – I go and get the cheese, crackers and chutney that my mother likes, raid the Crimbles store who always have a ‘five products for £5’ offer on, grab some jazz apple slices and try toffee vodka and Chocolate Bailey’s shots, all with a large breakfast sandwich in my hand and several samples of cheese on cocktail sticks while The Bloke stands in the background and pretends that he doesn’t know me. Before we go to the demonstration show, (which is always done by the lovely James Martin – he’s an attractive northerner who can cook, can’t get better than that) we eat Nutella and banana crepes, and then by the time we have finished it’s getting busy, so we leave after trying and buying several more samples of chocolatey-based goodies. This year was no different – I used my best elbow techniques and had a great time.

And then, there is always something that reminds you of just how short life can be…

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that after a weekend of merriment, good food, drinks and laughter with some of my favourite people, I learned of the death of a respected former colleague and mentor. After suffering with mental health issues for a number of years, he disappeared after walking out of a hospital on Tuesday, and we had all been hoping and praying that he would be found safe as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he was found on Saturday, and it was the worst possible outcome. He was just 41 years old.

Suffice to say, we’re all absolutely gutted. He was a fantastic teacher who absolutely doted on his beloved son, and he will be sorely missed by all who worked with him.

Please, if you’re feeling low, talk to someone. It does get better.

RIP Graeme.

You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr @suzie81blog, and don’t forget to check out my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/suzie81speaks, my Pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/suzie81speaks and my Instagram page http://www.instagram.com/suzie81speaks.

Weekend Coffee posts were created by Part Time Monster. You can share your coffee posts on Twitter using the hashtag #WeekendCoffeeShare

30 thoughts on “If We Were Having Coffee #11”

  1. Sorry about your colleague, really sad. All the yummy food you are eating makes me jealous! All I have on hand are old marshmallows… Happy birthday and anniversary to you!

  2. A belated Happy Birthday to you, it sounds like you had a wonderful time, That cake looks scrummy too! I laughed when you mentioned elbowing your way about the Good Food show, but it seemed to have done the trick, and you got what you wanted!!
    So sorry to hear about your friend and colleague, how very sad for all that knew him, especially his family.They must all be devastated.
    I hope he has found his peace.

    • Thanks my lovely – it’s a chocolate cake and I think The Bloke enjoyed it as much as I did, although he said that the cashier annoyed him by throwing it around in the bag and he thought it was broken…

      I think the idea of peace is something that is proving to be comforting. I feel so much for his family…

  6. This post, Suzie, is why you have so many and such devoted followers. You’ve brought us into your world, where we’ve giggled ourselves sick about your adventures (all calories and hangovers on you,) and then brought us to tears thinking about your young colleague. Thanks for the coffee break.
    Shari *: )

  7. I’m so sorry for your loss. How sobering and sad!

    I’m glad you were able to have fun for your birthday! The drinks with friends and the food show both sounded like lots of fun! 🙂 I’m sorry it all ended on a sad note.

  8. Oh Suzie, first off, Happy Belated Birthday, and Happy Anniversary to you and the Bloke! But I am so sorry to hear about your former colleague. Incredibly sad and I’m really so sorry to hear about this. Cher xo

  9. I’m sosorry about your friend. When the black dog is on us it’s hard to know what’s happening or what will happen. Sometimes there’s just no-one to talk to.
    xxx Huge Hugs xxx

  10. Am so sorry about your collegue… Thanks for a great post. it’s such a fun idea. Will definitely try it on my blog – am I allowed to steal your idea because I have no idea how to hash tag and link stuff so I’ll just mention that I saw it on your blog. Is that Ok? Happy belated birthday by the way 🙂

  14. Happy Birthday! It does sound as if you had a good time (just a tiny bit too much alcohol…).
    I am sorry to hear about your colleague.
    Hugs, Solveig

  15. A belated Happy Birthday wish to you! That caterpillar cake is adorable! I am sorry to read of the passing of your colleague. It is not news we are ever quite prepared to hear…

  16. Suzie, my apologies for not reading this sooner. Happy belated birthday and anniversary! I hope you and yours are well. I’m so glad you all had a very merry weekend! As an avid coffee consumer, I enjoyed this post very much, and look forward to similar posts in the future.

    I am saddened by the untimely passing of your mentor and friend.

    “Talk to someone,” indeed. “It DOES get better.”

Comments are closed.