Invitations all over

On Thursday evening, I was invited to Marijke's place, well at least the place where she (and Cecilia, by the way) lives. They stay with a woman and her two sons who own quite a big house and rent out the spare rooms. Apart from those two, there also lives a German student, a girl from Taiwan, the housemaid and her twin sister, a security bloke, two disabled people and five cats. I might have forgotten someone here, but I suppose you get the idea. We had pizza for supper (quite an early one, at 6 p.m., but then, the youngest son is only 10), and after a short fight between Marijke and Samson (or Sampson?) over some chocolate, we went to the TV room to watch Finding Nemo. It was nice to see a film on a big telly for a change:

It was one of those old flatscreens, though, without any HD certificates, so the quality wasn't overwhelming, and as you can see the 5.1 isn't set up the way it should be, and still it was so much better than what I've come to get used to (laptop + headphones).
Samson (you can see his back on the pic) completely made my day. He's 13, goes to Pate's and has an incredibly British sense of humour. Just the way he delivers his comments cracked me up every time. Hope to see more of him!
I think, Marijke has a good time in the house. It's good to have natives around that you can talk English to. Samson also has a very gentle way of correcting Marijke which is quite amazing, considering his age. Marijke's father and brother have come over for the weekend to celebrate her 16th birthday.

Yesterday evening, I was invited to the Smiths who live right next to Christchurch. They also are elderly people, but I really enjoyed being among natives again and having a nice chat. They reminded me a lot of Judith and Mike, especially when Frank asked me if I wanted a sherry as an aperitif. They also say words like 'golly' and 'gosh' which seems to a generational thing ;). We had the wine I had brought as a thank you present with the incredibly tasty risotto (with prawns...hmmm....). They offered to take me to Oxford when they visit one of their daughters and I'd really like to go. I had to break up the evening at half eight...

We're interrupting the programme for a short quiz: Who wants to be a millionaire?
Q: What does half eight mean in English?
a. 7.30
b. 8.30
c. Both
d. Neither

...because I was meeting Sandra and Ben in town for yet another drink. I stuck to my self-set rules and had only caffeine-free drinks: beer (first time this year I ordered a pint) and a Vodka Martini (the look on the bartender's face made me think that he was expecting us to make that silly old James Bond joke, but we didn't. We only asked for another shot of vodka into our martini...). Our conversation mostly centred on food, so I had to have a sandwich when I got home. Learned some French again: J'ai la dalle. Good thing to say when you're starving.
Plans for tonight: Going to the cinema to watch Tropic Thunder.

Edit:
I never thought I'd be kinda smiling upon hearing of the death of a fellow human being, but what I read on SpiegelOnline this morning did the trick. That's also a way to solve problems. I am a bad person!