A social whirl...

We uploaded the photos to the online photo printing site on Friday. It started off saying it would take an hour, then quickly changed to two hours, then three. Then after a couple of hours we had a setback when Mum touched it and managed to stop the transfer! Stephen set it off going again just before we went out for dinner and it was still going when we got back!! In fact it was still going when we got up the next morning!! It took 14 hours.... We get the photos sent back in a couple of days and I'm looking forward to seeing them all in the flesh so to speak. We got some of the smaller ones printed on Saturday and they look fantastic so I'm excited to see everything together.

We had something of a social whirl of a weekend. We had dinner on Friday at the Anupam with Steve and his (new to us) partner. Exceedingly yummy food, champagne and excellent company - we had a blast! Then after a day of running around Worcester we had dinner on Saturday with Philip and Sarah. I decided to drive...which was a real mistake as Philip had made margaritas from scratch which were exceedingly potent. I had to give mine to Stephen after 2 sips and move onto the Elderflower cordial. D'oh! It was a lovely evening. Philip had made a feast of Mexican food and we all stuffed ourselves silly.

On Sunday we went to the "Highlight of Hereford's Social Season" - Ladies Day at Hereford Racecourse. I retrieved my Fascinator from the back seat of the car where it had been rolling around since Eve & Chad's wedding, dug out a suitable outfit, picked a teeny bag and towering heels and laughed hysterically when Stephen appeared in a green jacket and red tie (yes, really! this is why he's not allowed to dress himself!). After that little false start we drove through to Hereford and parked up ready to throw ourselves into the social whirl. There were loads of Fillies in Fascinators milling around. As this was Hereford, not Ascot ("we're a little bit country, they're a little bit rock and roll") there was no champagne to be found so I had to have the local tipple - Cider! Sooo...lots of Fillies in Fascinators clutching pints!!

It was a really fun day! We picked (and backed) winners in 4 races out of 7. In the other three races we'd narrow it down to a couple of likely contenders...and inevitably dropped the winner. D'OH! Its quite exciting when your horse is thundering towards the finish neck and neck with another and you've got money riding on it. We only lost a tenner and left with shirts still on our backs.

Stephen was off placing our bet for the last race when a bloke sidled up to me.

"Who do ya think is going to win?"

"Number 1 or Number 14. Probably number 1, but my luck ran out in race 4 so maybe I'm not the person to ask"

"Ahh, it doesn't matter. Its been a good day" (waving a huge wodge of cash) "Number 1 you say...?"

And off he went...

I hope he took my advice as Number 1 came in first!! It was neck an neck at the last with Number 14.... God, I'm good! But perhaps not quite ready to give up my day job to become the new Clare Balding!!

Studying form!
Picking the winners with the help of the Racing Post.