Gin by the pool - an afternoon in Chiswick

My procrastination has reached whole new levels…

On Wednesday instead of rewriting/finishing my CV I answered the call of Tiva, who had the day off work and headed to sunny Chiswick to visit our friend Alex, who also happens to have a pool at her block of flats.

It was an easy choice, I’ve got to make the most of the beautiful weather before it changes and I loose my hard earned tan! Oh the weather will be changing – Glastonbury and Wimbledon – need I say more?

So we headed to Chiswick on the overground from Camden Road – mainly because of Tiva’s hatred for the tube (which probably wouldn’t have been too bad at 2pm!) – however despite issues on the track we got there fairly easily and now I’m reminded to check out the overground part of the network more often….

Alex welcomed us with food and drink, most importantly including a pitcher of gin and elderflower cocktail – yum!

This was made from Bombay Sapphire Gin, Elderflower Cordial, Sparkling Water and ice.

We took the pitcher down to the pool where we had a swim and then sunned ourselves to dry off (but not out!).

The pool in all it’s glory

Yes that pitcher is nearly empty!

Pouty selfie with the girlies 🙂

My new profile photo – thanks Alex!

I’m loving these long days – around 6.30pm we realised the gin had run out and the kiddies had taken over the pool – so we retreated to the local pub for dinner.

Quintessential English countryside look in London! And yes there were men playing cricket on the green 🙂

The Old Packhorse – Alex’s local, which very conveniently also has a Thai restaurant inside

We grabbed some prawn crackers and spring rolls whilst we warmed up with a Tanqueray & tonic. I chose the steamed salmon in red curry sauce, whilst the girlies had a very lively Thai steak salad, with cucumber and plenty of chilli in the sauce!

To go with the food we ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir

My main reason for this was to have something light to drink on a summers evening, but robust enough to go with the spice. Given the very high spice level of the salad we could have had something heavier – a Malbec was the personal recommendation of the bar girl at £21 – you need to ask them for it though as it’s not on the wine list 😉

We were eating outside in the garden, however as the evening went on it got a little cooler so we moved indoors to the snug to finish off the bottle.