Belated weekend roundup

Weekend start sort of badly, and then sort of worse, and then actually got going really very well indeed. Train home hit some kind of delay, caused by some kind of delay on another train. That's as much detail as we've come to expect in the non explanations from south eastern, but HEY, thinking about it I shouldn't complain about them too much, in case I ever end up applying to them for a job. I was quite comfortable on the train, got my paper and my book and my episodes of Dexter, but being late home is never good. We were just over the half hour, so that's a refund on the way, so that's nice. BUT, then every silver lining has another cloud, this one came in the form of a torrential downpour on the walk from the station. We had coats and brolly and that (Clare came to meet me) but still walking into the rain I could have done with my waterproof trousers or waders or something.

We couldn't figure out what to have for tea before going to the pub, so we booked dinner at Escondido and decided to make that our night out, a nice bonus fab meal and bottle of wine. Even sitting with wet trousers on (caused by the rain...) didn't spoil this.

Saturday we got up fairly swiftly and headed to Tunbridge Wells for the day. didn't get that much shopping done, but we did have another smashing meal in Pizza Express, and even the hour's journey each way was OK. Being used to commuting helps here, and also knowing we weren't actually going to work, and then also getting the journey for free adds a bit more.

Saturday night we were out for pa-in-law's birthday, in Hythe, at The Red Lion. In theory this should be a GREAT pub, it has two bars, ale, sofas, big tellies, pool table, darts, food, everything. In practice, it's possibly just me, but there's an unsettling air about the place. It's just a little bit "out of town" which gives it the atmosphere of a roadhouse type place. I wasn't exactly expecting to be killed at any moment by vampires, but there's something about it. We played loads of pool and I lost every game. This (combined with generally feeling on the back foot when I am a cab ride or further from home) is probably where my bad feelings came from.

Sunday, we shopped, and then the Mahon clan gathered again, this time just for drinking tea and playing with the kids and the cat, and plotting christmas dinner. This will be GREAT, so long as I'm not forgotten. There is already talk of smearing everything in goose fat for some reason, so I am preparing my own feast. I've already had a trial run of making a nut roast, but half way through the process of putting it in the tin, piping some cranberry jelly into the middle, so it's like a giant pop tart, spewing out scalding jam when it comes out of the oven. I might mix some chillis in there too. Also I'm having vege sausages wrapped in vege bacon on the side, though these might not taste of too much.

I've made myself hungry now, time to sign off for lunch.

2006 :: Comment / reply

ZZ blows his top

So what was said then? Must surely have been something racial. Man alive it's a dirty game.



Cream-crackered today, don't feel like I rested for a second at the weekend, not only did we stay up far too late on Saturday, but we went OUT on a FRIDAY! This is unheard of... We spontaneously decided to check out The Master Brewer on the Broadmead estate in Broadmead village, what what, and it was alright. Pool table, darts tournament going on, real ale, food, big tellies, garden, a bit local though. It's possibly the nearest real pub to our flat though, we may return.

Saturday was great, I wasted hours messing around with the TV card on the computer, failing to digitise wedding videos and things. Also had a wonder down town, still no sign of Starbucks though. Saturday evening we were adventurous again in our choice of venues. Started off with an overpriced glass of warm white wine in The Hythe Imperial, before heading to The Hope Inn, then some other pub on Hythe High Street that I can't remember the name of, and then back to the Hope again. That's a nice pub, though it shut a bit early, so we headed on to Dom and Jen's and carried on drinking in their garden. I carried out my plan this time to video our evening, and I might just share it with you via the magic of youtube or google video at some point. Once I've cleaned up all the swearing.

Sunday was a write-off, I bumbled through our shopping and watched some TV.

Nice story here about an albino squirrel spotted in Croydon, where is the video footage though? Also

Female greys mate only twice a year, but males may mate at any time. The size of a litter is usually between three and nine, but the male plays no part in the rearing of his young,which are born in March or June.

2006 :: Comment / reply

Didn't get an aerial fitted then...

Guy came, and can't fit an aerial. He was very helpful and has had a good look round, up in the loft and everything, but he says the only place we can get access to put an aerial might not give us a better picture than we're getting now, so it's not worth it. It'd be a gamble putting it int he loft, might give a good pciture and might not, but he wouldn't be able to run a cable down from the loft to us, it's too awkward anyway.

What we can have, and they can do it in the next few days, is Sky Freesat - 150 quid for the dish, 100 quid to fit, access to a few more channels than freeview, and no more to pay. They will fit us up for Sky+ for £360, but I don't think we want an extra subscription amount, we won't have time to watch it all. So Free Sat it is then!

Tellies are COMPLICATED! For example, they have this one in Curry's, the website says at 1500 quid though I think it might be less, Currys website will sell it direct at 1200 and John Lewis also has it at 1500, on it's website. Currys do say it's not wall mountable, but several sites, supply it with a wall bracket... John Lewis is more expensive for most, they will price match, but it's hard finding likely comparisons. They do offer a handy five year guarantee on all tellies, and we could use wedding gift vouchers to buy it, so it's looking like the right place. I think.

There's quite a difference in prices too. Anyway, that's LCD and I think we want a plasma anyway, but just trying to compare like with like... So far I've know we want HDTV Ready, higher resolution numbers are better, and a higher contrast ratio is better, though everyone lies about their contrast ratio anyway. Wikipedia told me that, it's been pretty handy...

Any advice in the next 24 hours gratefully received.

2006 :: Comment / reply