Stag, more enjoyable than expected

 My rugby mate is getting married later this year so I was invited to his stag.  I went to his first stag the day we bought out house.  One divorce later I went on his second. 

We played mini golf at a place called Swingers (there's another in the city near me) and it was good fun.  I think I finished mid table.  

We ended up in a downstairs cavern bar on Frith Street, Soho.  One of the stags old school friends is a wine buyer so managed to get us into a fancy bar.  7 or 8 bottles of wine later (£80-120 each), he paid thankfully, I escaped and staggered of to China Town for a lovely meal.

My other rugby friends that were invited couldn't make it for various reasons so I was there with his old school friends (private) and one of his fellow police officers.  I've met them all before as I went to his previous stag and reception but was a bit apprehensive as they'd all know each other and thought I might be left on my own.  But it was good fun and they all made me feel welcome

Wine list

Yum, yum!

His reception is in September, but in London so trying to get my Dad and his wife over so that we can stay out.  We'll see.

1000 cds!

 We finally added our 1,000th cd to the jukebox. 999 was Ramstein, 1,000th was Alice in Chains.

Did a lovely Sunday roast the weekend before

 A massive lamb leg, I enjoy a good roast.  But am never hungry afterwards once it's ready for some reason.

What to do with a big box?

 Make it into a house of course.  Pestered by the kids I cut some holes in the bbq box.  

Retirement

 

One of my city friends has retired.  He was only 55.  Lucky git.  His wife is 10 years his senior and has had health problems so makes sense.  He's got some pretty decent final salary pensions so why not?  He's still a git!  

I think he'll be back in the market soon enough though as he's a real people person.  Loves telling jokes and more importantly loves his lunch time o'booze!  His wife won't allow that at home!

Sleepy Arthur

It's the third week Arthur and Flo have been off this Summer holiday.  Who knew Prep schools get more holiday??? FFS!!!.  They've put on 3 weeks of Summer play groups which is great, but their hours are reduced.  Normally they'd be in 7:30 for breakfast club, then picked up at 5:45 / 6.  They're now 9-4 so much reduced hours at school, but whatever they're doing it's tiring poor Arthur out.  I had to carry him home for most of it on Friday, and then he fell asleep on my shoulders.

Here's the garden after the guys left

 Then there was a lot of wind and leaf fall and stupid dog damage and cat eating some of the grass.

You can tell we're near Tunbridge Wells

Or Royal Tunbridge Wells to give it it's official name.  Half of the paint in the tip was Farrow and Ball.

 

New garden: New BBQ

 The old one still worked but one of the gas diffusers had rusted away so off I went to the tip.

Garden party / BBQ

 Our garden has been updated, lawn's gone and lots of planting so we decided to have a bbq on Sunday.  There's a still a little left to do, big trees at the back are getting trimmed to our boundary (1st Aug) and the lights installed (tomorrow)

Arthur got attacked with face paint by the girls

So did Glenn

Happy birthday Arwen

Arwen is 3 today.  We had some left over trimmings from the bbq steak so fried it up for her this morning.

 

Steak for Sunday's BBQ

We bought a whole fillet for the bbq.  It's a bit gross so got April to do it.

 

Argh! Swans!

 Spotted these guys this morning on the walk with Arwen.  Who knew Arwen wasn't a fan of swans...?

Interesting

 Not the greatest picture but this is a War of the Worlds exhibition on the street I work on.  Looks like there's a bar too!

https://thewaroftheworldsimmersive.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw5MOlBhBTEiwAAJ8e1vqziTaZmReP87-9PxkP10y0vLk2zYVr4CDu4_WmHy7ECvWppHOa1BoCG6EQAvD_BwE

House snooping

 I was bored earlier in the week and had a look at all of my old houses on Google Street View

Interesting, what's he getting out of the boot?

On closer inspection!  I own both of these games!

More photos from the Kent show

 

Cockrell hurding

The Lamb national, April, the kids and Jono ran the course too!

Pub in the park

 We went to Pub in the park on Saturday with one of Florence's school buddies.  A couple of weeks earlier her parents took her to Glastonbury!  This was a slightly different affair.  A very middle class and white food and drink festival in Tunbridge Wells

https://www.pubintheparkuk.com/

Afterwards in the pub

A hairy biker

There was a downpour but when it stopped the sun came out

Pre rain, pre spending over £1100 on wine...

Happy face

 We went to the Kent show on Sunday with the kids and friends.  As a little bonus one of the people I follow on you tube was there so I popped over to say hello.

Another fan was chatting to him when I first arrived and was a bit of a hog, but on our way back to the car park Andy was free and I said a hello.  What a nice chap.

He has a lovely demeanor and lives a life part of me would like to partake in.  

https://www.kentsurvival.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@KentSurvival

Numb nuts

In the Audi garage waiting for the car to get it's Mot and spotted this. Your one job was to hang this leather sample wall hanging. But it overlaps one of the plug fittings. So. All I was told was to hang it.