Apocalyptica

 I went to see Apocalyptica on Saturday, it had been rearranged twice due to Covid 19 but we eventually got to go.

First pint in the World's End, Metal music blaring away

My view of the England vs Scotland rugby game

Obligatory pints of wine before entry

The gig

Still going, although a little worse for wear.

We ended up leaving early as they mostly played their own stuff (understandably), and was not that into it.  They've got a singer and it was more reminiscent of bands I don't like.  Shame.

To do a Leo Sayer

 April starts her belated wine tasting course today (Mondays for 3 weeks) so this morning I taught Florence the term Leo Sayer.  I'm very jealous.

Virtual meetings

The Tonbridge Massive have been great these past couple of weeks.  We've had 4-5 video calls with various sets of them just to say hello and how we're all coping. We've also had a couple of mass video conferences 12+ people.  One for a 40th birthday cheer and another just because it was a Friday.  It was good to see everybody and say hello.

Friday we're booked in for a games night.  Not entirely sure how we're going to do this remotely yet but if the last games night we had has anything to go by we won't play a single game and just drink far too much red wine.

Early start on Saturday

8:30 at the rugby cub for the rugby world cup final.  The club house was absolutely rammed.  The 3rd team staked our claim buy the bar in the corner so we were happy enough despite the result.

 

I walked past the back of the Wetherspoon in Tonbridge last night and there was an impromptu spout of  Morris dancing.  

Poker night

I'm going to try and sort out a Tonbridge poker night in the next few weeks.  Nothing silly, just £20 in with the possibiilty of another £20 buy in if you're a glutton for punishment.

It's been a fair while since my last one.  I think it was back when I was living in Clapham.  Almost much 10 years ago as I left there in May 2008.

I remember one night when I was living in Putney and if I remember correctly Ben went out after about 2 or 3 hands and Kris decided to protect his £2 winnings by not betting for the rest of the evening.  I think April won that one (she's currently not invited to this one) and Steve did well too.

The other infamous one was the big cheese challenge night in my Kennington flat.

For those that haven't seen it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Wp9blNIcA

Thanks to Ben for making this available

What was he thinking?!?  How young do I look?  It was filmed in Summer 2003!

Let's hope nothing like that happens this time.

Found this in the fridge last night

I cannot remember taking it home from the fire station...

Hot tub photos

Trick shot

Shaheen showing me how it's done. Unfortunately for him, I'm a better player than him whilst shit faced. I won 4-1.

The stag

After the house move I was straight off to north Devon for a rugby mate's stag do. The car was fill of petrol and the roads were clear so we eventually got there at 9. Only 4 hours late. This of course meant we were on catch up...

We basically stayed in the pub all night before getting kicked out at 1.

We were up early the next day for breakfast and to watch the England get narrowly beaten by New Zealand at the rugby, then we were straight off to Total Wipeout. Great fun. If you weren't hungover that is! By this time my hangover was in full swing and was very nearly sick. My friend Lamby was less lucky though (pictured).

After this we headed to the beach for sone beach rugby and a quick dip in the sea. Then back to the luxury caravan for drinks and a bbq.

One of the chaos on the stag was a high value wine broker so he brought along loads of very nice wines. Some English sparkling, some German Riesling and a 4 bottle Jeroboam of reoja. Awesome! He's coming to the wedding too so looking forward to that.

After all this we headed over to the next town over to watch the football. Great game, shame about the result. Then on to a night club, then off home.

I felt surprising okay the next day and headed back. Again it only took 4 hours 20.

I now have today off to recover. Phew!

Friday 13th

Things have been quiet so far. Probably down to most of the team being hungover having had our Christmas party last night.

It was good fun considering I don't really know them well.

Merry Christmas

Too much Christmas fun?

Amusing beer periodic table

Just sent round the invite to this year's Great British Beer Festival and was looking online for an amusing beer photo to attach to the e-mail.

Here it is...

All credits go to http://mantisdesign.com/

Strong beer update

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8517607.stm

Only in Scotland, but the fact that each 330ml bottle costs £40, I hardly think anyone is likely to get hammered on it.

Only in Romania

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/romania/7405695/Romanian-street-sign-warns-drivers-of-drunk-pedestrians.html

Urgh, I do not feel well 2

I went out with James last night and do not feel well this morning.

Poor me.

Last weekend

Last weekend was pretty big, I was still tired on Wednesday.

The voodoo Glow Skulls were surprisingly good. I had a good handful of cider that night and consequently felt rough as on Friday morning, Friday afternoon and Friday evening.

It was April's Mum's wedding so it probably wasn't the greatest preparation. I ended up driving to and from the event so at least I could pass that off as my excuse for not drinking. Other than feeling terrible the event was actually not bad.

Despite both of us only really knowing one person (April's Mum, her friends and family are in Oz), we had a good time. During the reception there was impromptu juggling, balloon flower making, saxophone playing and Elvis impersonating. Very odd, but it kind of worked...

After the reception we went to our delightful room in a guest house in a Welsh sea side town just outside of Bridgend. It cost us £40 through Laterooms.com and was terrible. There was damp on the ceiling, the carpet was disgusting (we didn't dare take our shoes off) and ended up sleeping in our clothes.

Luckily we were only there for one night and had booked us in to a special treat at the Hotel Du Vin in Bristol on the Saturday. We met up with John so that I could get fitted for a suit for his wedding. I have to wear a bloody cravat! Nobody told me about this. I just thought I had to stutter through a best mans speech.

Other than that we had a really good Moroccan chicken tureen with cous cous, and wandered round the markets and shops in the Bristol rain. We checked in at 3.

http://www.hotelduvin.com/HotelLanding.aspx?HotelId=5

And after the night befores horrible experience jumped straight into the 'Monsoon' shower, basically. It's a way of drowning whilst standing up on solid ground.

In the evening we went downstairs to the restaurant, and had a lovely meal. I had a steak (with fries that came in an odd cone shaped device), April had wood pigeon. To my surprise, I spotted Bob Hoskins on table a couple of rows away from us. Wow! I can only assume he's filming something down in Bristol, or perhaps staring in a play.

Sunday we had another wedding, Sophie my old flat mate in Deptford. It was over in the Cotswolds, Tetbury. Lovely small town, full of antique shops and Prince Charles' Highgrove shop. The ceremony was lovely, and the reception was great, a big barn in the middle of nowhere. Think Grand Designs and you'll get the picture. There are hundreds of photos of me 'dancing' on facebook if you care to look.

The roads back to Tonbridge were quiet and I beat Tom Tom by nearly 20 mins on a 2.5 hour journey so quite impressed.

All in a all a good weekend. But it was very tiring and very expensive.