Blog2009 ≫ Weekend treats

Second attempt to post how smashing my weekend was...

Trying again, after my browser crash fiasco, will undoubtedly miss detail this time as I'm bored of writing the same thing. Yes even more bored than you are of reading it!

Had a great weekend, here are the highlights. Took some time to stop and think "this is really cool" and appreciate the things I was doing, isn't it nice to do that, even the fairly ordinary things? Just wanted to express how many highlights there were to this weekend just gone. This is roughly in order the highlights happened, not in order of how highlit they were.

Weekend started early, really early! Thursday lunchtime Clare and The boy came to meet me at work, so I got to leave early and show The boy off around the office. So that's two highlights for the price of one already.

Pleasant drive to Portchester, no major traffic issues. One hugely stinking nappy on the way (The boy's), but Clare dealt with that, so that's another thing to sit back and be thankful for.

Dinner made for us by Kerry, and it's our favourite (chilli) too!

Obviously just seeing everyone is a treat, it's been five weeks since we were last down. It's great to see them, and it's great for The boy to see them, but mostly it's great for me to see them seeing The boy.

OUT, for the night, we never go out! Were driven to Portsmouth, a rare enough treat in itself, we don't often go to Portsmouth when we come down. Portsmouth feels like a different place to me these days. I know I must have visited lots since The Tricorn was demolished, but I still hilariously say "where'd the tricorn go???", and act as if I've not been back since the war. It actually is still a surprise to me to see the huge open space where the tricorn used to be, part of that is just bad memory on my part though.

COMEDY, in to see Ricky Gervais live show, and brilliant seats, good work sis. Fourth row, right in the middle, could not really get much better, even front row would probably be craning your neck up a bit too much. Warm up from Stuart Francis, not him from Crackerjack (Crackerjack!) but a Canadian one-liner merchant who we have seen on the TV and everything. Quite a few actual groans from his material actually, and one confusingly off colour line that I didn't get about someone being so Chinese that it looked like it hurt. Apart from that good, and we were not expecting a warm up at all, so bonus really. Drinks in the bar surprisingly not overpriced either, and they had a good bottled beer too that I can't remember Fuller's ESB maybe? From Fullers anyway, who bought out Gale's, a local Portsmouth brewery.

Ricky Gervais, always a treat, even if his new film has had a fairly lukewarm response. Have been a fan since his first day on XFM, though this was our first time seeing a "big" show of his. Went to a warmup for Animals, and a little one off charity show before, but had not been on either of his tours in a big venue. Theme of the show is Science (well kind of) and I think this is the first show to have a fully decorated stage, Doctor Frankenstein's laboratory with a brain in a jar and so on. Science is "kind of" the theme, as Ricky himself made excuses at the end of the show that there was not any actual science in it. Still not sure if he went off on too wild a tangent, or if he really planned it that way. I like the Noah stuff especially, though it was a little familiar from old radio shows or podcasts. A great show, I enjoyed it and would recommend it. Nephew Jack is disappointed that we did not get Ricky's autograph for him - by his rules we have paid, so we should be allowed to march on stage and get it. If you see the show though you will get Ricky's view of autograph hunters.

Another treat, a drink after the show! Went to the Mucky Duck on [gmap=guildhall walk, portsmouth]Guildhall Walk[/gmap], don't think I'd ever been in there before. I seem to remember it having a bit of a hen do wine bar reputation in the past, but now it is a Wetherspoons1. It's probably one of the less popular bars along that very popular strip, we picked it as it looked a bit quieter and we only had time to stop in for one. Had a shall we say "fresh faced" crowd in there really, a whole lot of people signing each others shirts, like kids do on the last day of term. These cannot have been kids though, as this is a pub, for adults.

Friday, went to Gunwharf, also a lovely day, despite the weather. Went for lunch in Pizza Express there (we are so unimaginative), and from there straight to Caffe Nero so we could feed and change The boy. Very comfortable so we stayed for two drinks, and as a result filled up two of their loyalty cards, so one coffee free and I have one in the wood too. Win! Saturday evening we had a lovely dinner with mum and dad and then sat in watching TV and drinking vino collapso.

Saturday morning, called in to collect nephew George from his music class, in time to see him and the class do two songs together Blitzkrieg Bop and Crash.

Pub lunch! Had lunch with all the family in the Lloyds bar in Port Solent before we headed home. I like it there, there's choice for everyone, even the vegans... OK,vegan, just me.

Dream drive home, didn't even slow down going through the blackspots that can easily add 90 minutes to the journey2. If we'd not stopped to get something for tea on the way we'd have done it in two hours, amazing.

Home in time for The boy's bath and we're still only really half way through the weekend (at the time of originally writing this). Had a great weekend and it's still only Saturday night, so an evening in front of the TV with another of vino collapso beckons (beckoned).

💬 Ricky Gervais in Portsmouth

⬅️ :: ➡️

Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in A small town, Kent. Married + father to two, I'm a full-stack web developr, + I do js / nodejs, some ruby, other languages ect ect. I like pubs, parkrun, eating, home-automation + other diy stuff, history, tree stuff, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.