Boys night out in Berko

Trevor and Stuart murder James Blunt's You're BeautifulHad a great night out on the town last night with Mat, Trevor, Stuart and Iain, visiting a few local pubs that we hadn’t been to before. We started off with a couple of beers at my place before wandering down to the High Street and into the Rose & Crown, a small and friendly ‘locals’ pub. Everyone was busy watching the football so we amused ourselves with a few games of ‘killer’ on the pool table – for money – where Stuart and Mat cleaned up and were very happy to take their winnings. After a couple of pints it was time to go – Trevor decided to take a last-minute trip to the loo and we took the opportunity to leg it and hide from him. Very amusing. We then progressed on to The Lamb which was a bit more lively – they had some good beer on tap and a comfy place for us to sit and talk rubbish for a bit. Once again Trevor thought it would be great to take a trip to loo land when we were about to move on and once again we did a runner. I don’t think I could get tired of that.

Next on the agenda was a pit-stop at the Curry Garden – a place that I seem to be visiting all the time these days – for a lovely meal and a couple of Cobras. Unfortunately we didn’t get the opportunity to leave Trevor this time.

On the way to Mat’s place, where we planned to continue our evening, we wandered past The Bull. Mat was paying more attention than the rest of us and shouted “It’s karaoke!” which is a temptation that I just couldn’t miss. We had a fantastic time, singing, dancing and laughing with the regulars and Stuart and Trevor entertained us all with a murderous rendition of You’re Beautiful at which point the organisers donned their ear protectors. Magic. Unfortunately it felt as though it was all over too soon but we consoled ourselves by heading back to Mat’s for some late-night Mighty Boosh (“I’m Old Greg”) and Halo 2.

Iain and I finally made it back to my place at a quarter to five so consequently I’m feeling pretty knackered today. Great night out though – thanks guys!

Christmas over again for another year!

We’re now back at home after a few days away visiting lots of our relatives all over the southern reaches of England over Christmas. We had a lovely time – the first few days were spent in picturesque Ross-on-Wye with my wife’s family; I over-indulged on the local Wye valley ales on Christmas Eve and spent most of Christmas Day with a slight headache, which I made up for by staying in bed until midday (!!) on Boxing Day. After a lightning quick trip to Bournemouth to see my lovely nan and other relatives we then had a couple of days in Ascot with my folks – more drinking, eating and good times. Still, it’s great to be back home. We’re planning a bike ride or two over the next couple of days and will be spending New Year’s Eve in the company of our great Berkhamsted friends, which is a fab way to end the year. I’m looking forward to a great 2006.

Will’s and Alice’s wedding

Will and AliceBeen meaning to blog this for a bit! A couple of weekends ago we attended the marriage of Will and Alice at the lovely Buckland Hall in Bwlch, Wales. Had a fabulous time – in the words of the registrar, I don’t know why so many people get married in the summer when a winter wedding, with candlelight, log fires and mulled wine, is just as romantic!

It was great to catch up with so many friends from university that I don’t see as much as I would like to and drink the wonderful organic ale that was on offer all night. Top-notch wedding!

Bonfire night in Lewes

Lewes, 2005We spent a great night last night in Lewes, East Sussex, at the house of an uncle and aunt of mine. Lewes is famous for its ‘bonfire societies‘ which celebrate both Guy Fawkes Night and, according to Wikipedia, “the burning of 17 Protestant martyrs in Lewes High Street from 1555 to 1557, during the reign of Mary Tudor”. I’m not sure if the latter is something to really celebrate but we had a great time all the same!

Each bonfire society follows a route through the town and most of them passed right in front of my aunt and uncle’s house, so we had a great view. The display is amazing – hundreds of people carrying flaming torches, brass bands and drumming groups marching by, massive effigies of Guy Fawkes and other characters being dragged through the town, all with lots of noise from bangers and fireworks going off. I managed to capture a few photos – most of them aren’t great, but they give you a sense of it. There’s also a video that I took on my phone which really can’t convey the sense of shock when one of the hundreds of bangers went off in front of us.

It was great to see my uncle, aunt and cousins as well as the rest of the family and friends that were there. Thanks for a lovely evening!

Alcohol-free beer

Alcohol-free Beck's.jpgI spent most of the afternoon and evening at Carl’s new pad in Windsor as he and his housemate Daniel had invited a few people over for a housewarming barbecue. As I don’t eat meat and didn’t want Carl to pick anything up just for me I popped to Sainsbury’s beforehand to pick up a few veggie burgers and sausages for myself. As I wandered around the beers and wine section I came across Beck’s alcohol-free lager. I remember vaguely seeing some adverts recently about it and thought to myself – why not?

The last time I tried a non-alcohol lager was a very long time ago, possibly with something like Kaliber. I remember it being pretty grim stuff, so I was a little reluctant, but thought that the Beck’s would be a good alternative to a ton of orange juice, diet coke, lemonade, water or whatever was available.

I’m glad to say I made the right choice – it was a very pleasant surprise! The beer tastes unbelievably like Beck’s – so much so, that I felt myself waiting to feel the side-effects, which is very strange when you know you have to drive home later. Apparently they brew the beer like normal Beck’s and then remove the alcohol afterwards, leaving just 0.05%! Fantastic stuff. I think I may need to stock up!

Carpet twin

Katie's twinSpotted in Carpetright – a photo on one of the carpets showing a young lady that looks remarkably like Katie! How could we resist when they were giving us visions of carpet bliss like that?

Merry New Year!

Neil, Jai and Alison sing Angels by Robbie WiliamsA very happy new year to all of you – I hope 2005 is great for you all. Our New Year’s Eve started with a trip to The Ottomans restaurant in Finchley where we had a lovely Turkish meal. This was swiftly followed by a short trek back to our flat just before midnight and a six-and-a-half-hour karaoke session!

Karaoke seems to have been a big theme of 2004, helped along by the increasing number of my relatives that posess karaoke machines. We had a session on my Dad’s birthday back in August when he was given a karaoke machine, a session at Sheila and George’s in Sheffield when we popped up there for their wedding anniversary, one on Boxing Day at my parents’ place (from which you can download view a copy of The Jackal singing a lovely duet here) and a session at ours on New Year’s Eve. I’m sure it won’t be the last!

We managed to get our flat back in order yesterday – the level of drink spillage was probably a blessing in disguise as it forced us to give the place the super deep clean it has been asking for. Cleaning up and blogging a lot more are just two of my resolutions for 2005.

Hangovers and mushy peas

sausage_and_mash.jpgAfter waking up with a hangover induced by too much red wine while watching Sense and Sensibility (no, really), we decided to spend our Sunday getting some photos and shopping in Spitalfields Market.

I had never driven into the city before and I assumed that parking wouldn’t be too much of a problem on a Sunday. However, circling St Paul’s Cathedral a couple of times and not finding anywhere to stop we eventually found ourselves at an NCP car park in Limeburner Lane. Unfortunately, the only time that we got to see the tariff was when we were at the entrance barrier – I couldn’t believe it was ÂŖ1.10 per 15 minutes! We didn’t stay long; I elected to stay in the car while Katie got her photos.

Spitalfields was a more relaxed affair – we both managed to get some new clothes and we had a fantastic slap-up lunch at the wonderful Sausage and Mash Cafe. I had a couple of gorgeous gourmet vegetable sausages with cheesy mash, Katie went for the organic and classic sausages with chive mash and we had some mushy peas and ginger beer to share. Just the thing for a hangover and highly recommended.

The day was finished off by getting some photos of the gorgeous winter sunset over London from Alexandra Palace. I’ll see if I can get one or two on here once they’ve been developed.

All in all a great day. We haven’t managed to make much of a start on our Christmas shopping yet but we’ve still got a few weeks…

Videorama

A few weekends ago it was our pleasure to hold the first of what we hope to be many ‘Videoramas’ at our flat. A few of our London-based friends were emailed and asked to pick two films on the theme of ‘Films of our Youth’. Along with the names of the films, they also had to send in a paragraph about why the film should be picked by the rest of us. Sixteen films were gathered together by Katie and sent out for voting on à la the Eurovision Song Contest (well, almost), with each person giving 14 points to the film they would most like to see, 13 to the next etc. The top four made the cut and would be shown for our viewing pleasure.

Scores are inside…
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Trivial Pursuit

Had a lovely Saturday night over at Jai and Alison’s place yesterday – salmon with cous cous, salad and a lovely sauce accompanied by beers and wine followed by board games. For the second night in a row we ended up playing a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Did you know that ‘underground’ is the only word in the english language to start and end in ‘und’?

More fascinating (and somewhat annoying) to me was the discovery that our relatively new version of the game has a new kind of board. There are now six spaces between ‘big wedge’ squares (instead of seven in the original version), so you can jump between two of them with just one roll. Also, the grey ‘roll again’ squares have been changed so that if you land on one you are immediately transported to a ‘big wedge’ square! It looks to me as though the manufacturers have tried to speed the game up but I reckon its more likely to be a cost-saving measure – instead of the two big cases of question cards you now get a couple of small packets. If you have less questions, you’re less likely to repeat them if the game’s smaller. Bring back the original!

Out with Mat

MatHad a rare night out in London after work yesterday with Mat. After he managed to navigate the various exits at Waterloo we made our way over to the Gourmet Pizza restaurant at Gabriel’s Wharf. We had a great time – I munched on a gorgeous Cajun pizza (with prawns and tabasco sauce) while Mat had a more traditional Italian and we both managed to neck a few Morettis as well. After that we hopped over the river to finish our evening in The Princess of Wales with a couple of pints. We hadn’t got together in such a long time and it was great to catch up. Looking forward to doing it again soon!

Birmingham stag do

Pictures from my second stag do, in Birmingham, are now up on NotMyFace.com. Cheers Mat (and cheers Trevor for organising everything)!

We had a great day out, with karting at Birmingham Wheels followed by comedy, drinks and dancing at Jongleurs.

Birmingham is a great place for a stag weekend as there are so many bars and clubs – it also helps that the Travelodge and Novotel are located directly opposite each other – there is no shortage of accommodation at the heart of it all.

Hopefully some of the hen weekend will appear on NotMyFace.com soon…