And so begins Kate's desperate attempts to inject some joie de vivre into this blog... so long neglected and ignored. Ahem, i shall now present the first of (hopefully) many updates which are in fact quite out of date - but nevertheless mildly entertaining (again one hopes this is the case).

So Ladies and Gentlemen... with no further ado I present... da da da daaaaaaaaaa!

The strange events which occured on the 13 and 14th of July... in which much uno is played, dancing is danced and Brendan sneaks down some rather mysterious alley ways.

One dark and gloomy Friday night me, Daniel, Vicki, Brendan, Ben and Renee braved the rain to check out the famous Cherry Bar. What may have been simply a mundane train trip was transformed by vicki's packet of new 'improved' uno cards into 45 minutes of revelry. What with rules being made and broken (as everyone has their own version of uno) the minutes flew past. Upon arriving at Cherry Bar we debated as to whether uno would be in fact be more fun - and decided to blend them both. Thus it was we ended up playing uno for at least an hour in the very cool surrounds of the Cherry Bar. Hunger drew us to investigate Shanghai Dumpling House which was unfortunately closed :( The next, obvious option was, of course, Hungry Jacks. Ahh the joys of fine dining...

But all this is simply a prelude to the main event - Heidi's bday! (I wanted to get here quickly as this actually has photographic accompaniment - ooooooo ahhhhh). Daniel, Vicki and I first had dinner at Shanghai Dumpling house (no longer closed!) to the dulcet tones of My Heart Will Go on and Onnn before meeting the others in front of Cookie - as previously oraginised. Heidi was handed her many presents and it was decided upon democratic vote to move henceforth to another drinking/dancing place (as Cookies is traditionally packed on Sat nights).

DeBiers was chosen and the company set forth (again on a rather cold and blustery night). Upon entering it was discovered with great delight that one could purchase two drinks for the price of one for a short period. Much merriment ensued (as I'll sure you will imagine). This happy coincidence left our table literally covered with a variety of alcoholic beverages, all to be consumed in the following hours. There followed many hours of delightful dancing for most - and delightful sitting for the rest... until it was deemed the right hour to depart - and depart we did - not without a short stop to allow Brendan to fulfilll his urge down a dark alleyway (oh dear - that sounds rather dreadful doesn't it? ahh well).

Thus ended two jolly evenings - we hope to see their likes again!