Mojito!

Fantastic Friday
Last weekend flew by as a bit of a blur. Friday night's trip to the flicks to see 'The Fantastic Four' was a laid back affair. The film wasn't too bad either, though the long day caught up with me at one point during the film as I felt myself nodding off. No reflection on the film itself mind, as it gets about a 7/10 from me. Some of the later action-y bits felt a bit 'standard-fare' but the main characters come across well considering that this is the first of probably a franchise series for Marvel. I've seen first films spent so much time developing the characters that it takes subsequent viewings after having seen the next films in the series to truly appreciate what was going on. This film, for me, got the mix just right. I look forward to the next one...

I walked down to Hyde Park after the film as the weather was nice and I wanted to work off that large packet of M&Ms that I'd scoffed. (Fat chance, eh!)

Saturday was a long session...

I met up with a bunch of people who were strangers until we all went on a trip to Cuba earlier this year. It was just an 8 day holiday but we all had such a blast that we just had to meet up when we got back. A small group of us had already met up a month or two ago but this was a much larger group. All-in-all 9 out of 16 of us who'd gone to Cuba planned to meet up at Kenwood House for a gig by Ibrahim Ferrer. (One of the Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club members.)

I even bought 'The Buena Vista Social Club' on DVD on the way home on Friday, as I spotted it in the HMV sale for £4.99 to get in the mood. It's directed by Wim Wenders and I've liked everything that he'd done before, so figured that I shouldn't have a problem with the film... It was quite cool too. And the live bits were especially great in surround sound. The Havana bits in the film really do make me nostalgic for those 8 days back in March.

Anyhow....Myself and a friend headed up from my local North London line Silverlink train up to Hampstead Heath. In 20 minutes! I didn't realise how such a great area of natural beauty and space was just 20 minutes away from where I live. Wow! So, so far so good.

Then we discovered that Kenwood House (A beautiful English Heritage building with grounds going down to a lake) was on the other side of the Heath and the going was up-hill. Phew! It was a hot and humid day so it was sweaty going. But we got there in the end but not before asking a police officer for directions. We could tell that he was an officer because he had a T-shirt with a police badge on! Oh...and a walkie talking and a warrant badge. Haha. Didn't realise T-shirts were part of the uniform though! Ironically we were right next to the path that we needed to take when we asked for directions so he probably thought that we were stupid.

The gig was interesting. The stage at Kenwood House is behind the lake (almost as if it has its own moat), so if you had wanted to do any stage diving you would literally be diving into water!

As it turns out, us all meeting up, talking, eating and drinking took more attention than the music that was happening in the background. We had a great time! Some of the girls brough hampers full of food and eating utensils. We made Mojitos with generous servings of rum, topped up from a large jug whenever we ran low! An excellent time was had by all. I even smoked a cuban cigar that someone had brought. (And I don't smoke!)

Even the weather couldn't dampen our spirits. A few short showers weren't so bad but it really did put down near the end. Unfortunately some cad half-inched my umbrella when I put it down halfway through the evening so I had to share with others.

The gig ended up with a fireworks display at which point someone piped up "Let's go back to my place to carry on drinking".

The rest, as they say, is history. We ended back in Twickenham, drinking and singing the night away. We had an IPod and speaker setup with us at the gig so we gave everyone excellent renditions of 'Build Me Up Buttercup' on the train on the way there too.

I got home in the early hours of the morning getting to see a sunrise for the first time in a long time!

Sunday, of course went quickly as most of it was spent sleeping!

Song of the weekend - Guantanamera
Picture of the day - Lucky people on the London eye on a clear day (def. not last weekend!)