Whatever cold had been working on me, combined with jet lag, was really felt this weekend, I didn’t surface until after 2pm.  Col and Rowan were both already up and climbing the walls cause they were starving, when I appeared in the living room, Rowan said, “She’s not dead!”

After round two of bacon butties (complete with in-date ketchup!) we had a very lazy afternoon, watching some ‘after school’ programmes, Deal or no Deal, Come dine with me and Four in a bed, before deciding to head out in to Larne – around 4.30pm.

What most Americans don’t appreciate, is that in many towns across the UK, most shops close at 5.30pm or 6pm Saturday through Tuesday and Wednesday through Friday they may open ‘late’ til 9pm.

We get a lot less shopping time than y’all do.  I forgot how early things close here, but I also stood wondering how I ever got by when shops closed at 5.30pm on a week day!

In spite of only having an hour, Col and Rowan managed to buy a speaker phone for Col to use in the house for work and bacon and pineapple juice from Lidl while I went for a dander in New Look, M&Co and Peacocks (where I found a new shirt, two tank tops and finally invested in some socks!)

For dinner, we decided to indulge in another Northern Irish ‘delicacy’, the kebab.  I took a picture of it, mostly because, to look at, it looks pretty disgusting.  It’s a complete mangled mess, it’s not in the least lady-like to chow down on, and it’s pretty much, the number one go-to meal when you’re on a night out on the town and you get struck with a case of the ‘midnight munchies’.

It’s essentially shaved kebab meat or, if you’re so inclined (and as is my preference,) chicken chunks marinaded in chicken tikka, either in a pita pocket, folded in a slice of naan bread, or poured over chips/french fries, topped with various veggies (usually onions, tomatoes and shredded lettuce), occasionally cheese and covered in a healthy dose of ‘house sauce’ (or garlic sauce).

It’s delicious, messy and not in the least healthy for you – which is essentially what you want at 2am after a night on the town!

Back at home, we watched the hugely hardcore ‘Come dine with me’ and chilled out for a wee while, before Rowan announced that he had a sore head.  The only painkillers on-hand was a box of horse tranquilizers belonging to my sister, so, snatching any and all opportunities to go shopping, I dragged the men-folk up the road to Carrick, where we went on a merry voyage to Tesco “Just to get painkillers”.

Over an hour later, we came out the other side with a trolley full of stuff (oops!) granted it was ‘only’ a small trolley, but still.  After putting my wares away, mostly in my ‘to go home to TX shelf’ and sorting through some emails, it was a 2.30am bedtime for the McMaster household.

I was up ‘early’, or, early as far as going to bed at 2.30am is, I got up with Col and sat faffing online until an acceptable time for lunch came around.  For lunch, I couldn’t decide if I wanted Birdseye fish fingers or sausage rolls, so I decided to cook some of both and let the boys decide what they want.

I know you’ll all think I’m somewhat insane, however, I have to take a moment to talk a little about fish fingers.  In America, the ‘equivalent’ is something called a ‘fish stick’, it’s exactly that, a stick, not much wider than a french fry, with fish inside it.  It’s normally batter-heavy and has had some fish dangled near it some time, they are greasy and often tasteless.  They are, in case you haven’t gathered by now, sorely disappointing.

They are also something I miss a lot while I’m away, here at home, I eat them a lot at lunch, fish finger sandwiches (not complete without a dose of Heinz beans) were filling and tasty.  However in the states, I run from the fish sticks!

I may have said this before, but, it’s good to be home 😉

After lunch, we all packed up and head back down the A1 to visit my hometown of Newry, after Col finished his meeting at 3.30pm.  We went straight to the parentals house, where we sat and had the craic for a while, Col set up shop for a 7.30pm meeting, my parents went out to their art group meeting, and me? Well, I headed down in to town, for a 7pm meet-up with a friend, that turned in to a 6.20pm meeting with a friend.

Let me explain, Elizabeth aka Liz, and I went to school(s) together, she was the year below me and though we weren’t every hugely friendly in school, we were always pleasant and said ‘hi’.  Now we’re all grown up, I don’t remember how we found each other, but we became Facebook friends (isn’t that how it always starts?!) and she is now one of my good friends who I talk to all the time (via Whatsapp and email) and I tell her, pretty much everything!

We’d agreed to get together at 7pm in Grounded coffee shop, in Newry.  At 6.10pm, I get a message asking me if I was almost there, to which I replied I thought our meet-up was 7pm – she had forgotten, but since she was sitting in the coffee shop like a complete loser (her words, not mine!) I hot-footed it down the road and met her a little earlier.

It was just as well, turned out we had a LOT to talk about.  We stayed in Grounded, all of 30 seconds for Liz to finish her drink, I then talked her in to going to Friar Tucks for us to get something to eat for dinner.

Ahhh! Friar Tucks, it’s an institution where I’m from.  There’s now two in Newry, one in Warrenpoint and one in Banbridge.  A Super FT had my name written all over it.  Let me tell you about a Super FT, firstly there’s the chicken burger – which, most people say is incomplete without the BEST coleslaw the world has ever seen, however, I dislike coleslaw, so I can’t comment, secondly, there’s the Fanta orange – which is, essentially, the ONLY drink to have with a Friar Tucks, there’s something in the fountain mix that makes Fanta even more delicious.

And finally? Well, the piece de resistance, is the super chip, it’s chunky french fries covered in a chicken flavoured gravy – in spite of the fact that it now costs an arm and a leg more than it did when I was growing up to eat here, it’s still one of my favourite fast-food restaurants on the planet.

When I was younger, having your birthday parties in Friar Tucks was a seriously coveted event, I loved it! The food was great, the fun was delicious and everyone wanted to be your friend when you had a party in Friar Tucks, sometimes, even Mickey Mouse made an appearance!

Anyway Liz and I made light work of the Super FT’s and went back to Grounded for a cuppa, a bun and a good ole fashioned chin wag and catch up.  It was great fun and we agreed to do it again real soon!

Lovely Liz gave me a lift home to my parents, we waited for them to come home and headed out the road to Bessbrook to stay at my sisters house.  We got there around 10pm and ended up sitting up talking to her and her soon-to-be-hubby James until almost 1am, we had a lot to catch up on!!