In Hoose Entertainment

I’m busy with work, so I won’t be updating this site very often, if at all, over the next couple of months. I’m keeping the “Stuff on the side” page up to date though.

Lots of birthdays, Alsion, Rosy & Sarah.

on the latter, I organised a great friday night for the lass, including dinner cooked by me.

I made piri piri tiger prawns for starter, and cod with a chorizo crust for the main. Dessert was obviously birthday cake.

Saturday saw me pop across to st. Helens for a birthday meal with Sarah’s folks, and sunday saw me go to Stafford to see my parents (who arrived on Friday) and my grandma.

Been working so far this week - hockey last night (and I’m boycotting Hardy’s Well currently). there’s been lots of rain and flooding around the country including in market weighton. Apparently when my parents were on their way to Hull and stuck in traffic, the water was deep enough that when a lorry went past, all 4 wheels were lifted off the ground! blimey.

Anyway. Bye!

I’ve considered stopping my blog as my heart’s not in it any more, but then I discovered a very good reason to keep it going, which I’m not going to tell you.

Anyway, as Led Zeppelin might have said

“It’s been a long time, been a long time, etc… ” and it has, over a week this time since my last entry, and if you expect me to remember what I’ve done since then, then you’re sadly mistaken.

Things I do remember :

Hockey (twice, once wet), Curry (twice, once for Rosy’s birthday)
24, 24, 24, pizza, pizza, pizza, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, chicken. (This Tuesday)
Work! though I obviously only have a passing memory of this.
Cleaning, and a sunday roast (overcooked, unfortunately).

It was Alsion’s birthday yesterday, Rosy’s today and it will be Sarah’s tomorrow.

Oh, and my parents are flying in soon.

And Scarborough went bust, which is very bad news indeed. I’m joining the supporters trust.

Bye!

OK, so I’ve not updated this very often - and no-one reads long posts so I’ll briefly summarise.

After coming back from bratislava I had a fairly standard week in the office, I also played hockey.

Two weekends ago, Sarah, Rosy, Mahinda, Adrian, Emma and I went on the Saddleworth beer walk. We went dressed as the YMCA people - I was the construction worker (photo’s on facebook, video on youtube (search under mahindak)).

The day started with us performing in front of the assembled masses through a large PA system - we ended up performing around 5 or 6 times, usually for sponsor money - and once even at the end when we were all naq’d.

The beer walk was good - too many hills! Many costumes came out of the woodwork, including a herd of sheep and some ravers. Very tired afterwards, we retired to Sarah’s place for relaxation and kebab.

Sunday was our 1 year anniversary - we went for a fun photo shoot at Venture in town - free via a voucher, though if we want any photo’s they’ll be quite expensive. Afterwards we went for food and had a lazy afternoon.

The next week work happened as per the norm - I watched the England game (against Estonia - a 3-0 win on Beckham’s return) and not much else happened, at least that I can remember.

Last weekend was cricket and beer.

Saturday we played cricket on platt fields, I did pretty badly, but it was a lot of fun and we were there until 8pm before heading off to Hardy’s Well and then home to meet Mike T. who was staying over for the test match on Sunday.

… which around 31 of us went to! it was great fun (though we didn’t perform too well, only 4 wickets in the day! - still we won the match on Monday) .

Afterwards a curry at a very expensive place with big portions. My wallet hurt afterwards but I think this is the only big (big as in expensive) day out this month, so that’s ok!

Today is Tuesday. I’ve work to do, so tarra for now!

So I went to bratislava this weekend, it was fun!

We started out on Wednesday when Andi and Wayne turned up at my place around 3, and headed along to the airport.

We arrived sometime after 10pm, co-inciding with the end of the champions league final (though the less said about that the better) and headed to the hostel via an expensive cab… and then out to a random cocktail bar and food depository. We ended up drinking at the hostel until the wee small hours. Well, Dan certainly did, conversing with the rather sombre chap on the desk.

At this point I should mention who had made the trip… Me, Brian, Andi, Wayne, Theo, Dan, Tim and Mahinda.

Thursday started with our first trip into the old town (we’d missed it by a street the day before) and our only expensive meal of the trip - we basically just stopped at the first place that sold food and ate there. Most of us had the meat and cheese, coated with more meat and then deep fried. Tasty.

Then we headed to the river, where we found a strange little bar for our first proper beers of the trip… spying the resturant-suspended-upon-a-bridge (this is the best picture I could find, I will be uploading a better one to facebook at somepoint) and wondering how you actually got to it, we decided to check it out.

It turned out that you could stand on top of it, and hence we got our first proper look at the small city - again photos will follow. Mojito’s were drink, though they were a little strange in the very art deco bar (and toilets!).

We headed back into town and had drinks at “Cheap Bar” (we later discovered that this bar wasn’t cheap, only it was in comparison to where we had been before). A few of us pretty much stayed there all afternoon, others went wandering.

Back to the hostel and a little pool at STEPS, before we headed out for dinner - we tried out a studenty place called “1 Slovak Pub” - the food was nice, despite the fact that they had no goulash, and it was dirt cheap. It was rather humid and by the end of the meal we were all basically reduced to slushes of water.

I will at this point mention the weather. It was stunning, the only day that didn’t get above 30 was Monday (the day we left) and Vienna was slightly cooler (but still hot!) - we certainly picked the right days to go!

After the slovak pub we briefly checked out the KGB bar. Not recommended. After a trawl through town we probably found somewhere else to drink, but I cannot remember.

Friday we headed back to the slovak pub for a decent breakfast and decided that we’d check out the castle. Getting close to it (after traversing several steps) we found our path barred by a police line - we spied an alternative route and followed it up a hill, round a corner, up another hill, and along the curtain wall ending up exactly where we had begun.

Quite hot and bothered by this stage we enquired as to the closed nature of the place, and were told that the EU were having some sort of conference there and that it would be closed until Saturday at midnight.

Purturbed, Mahinda came up with the bonza suggestion that we should go to Devin castle, a short 20 minute bus ride away. Ticketed up within minutes we made our way out to the countryside.

Devin castle is a ruin situated on a large hill on the Austria-Slovak border, undaunted we started our ascent. The castle experience was pretty good, and included stunning views of the Danube and whatever the other river is called, and a very deep well - amongst other things. Having “done” the castle by 3 or 4pm we settled down to some beers at the local hostelry’s - Brian doing the playground challenge at one, where we also picked up some barbequed sausages - before leaving around 6.

Back in the city, we headed out to a slightly posher resturant for dinner - the food was excellent. Shortly after eating, however, the table containing Theo, Brian, Dan & Tim got the Absinthes out. Everyone imbibed, some more than others, and we headed out.

We eventually rounded upon “SubClub” - recommended by someone or other - unfortunately the only bad experience of the weekend occurred here as we walked into some Slovak hooligans itching for a fight. They started tapping us up for one, but fortunately Andi and I were sober enough to know exactly what was going on, and between us (with some able assistance from Tim) we got everyone out before any trouble flared up.

Back in the old town, we returned to the more docile surroundings of Club 80’s, a recommendation from the guy who ran “Cheap Bar”, and had a very good time. We were joined by an American bloke and Canadian? girl who Dan and a few others spent some time talking to. I danced for a bit, and left around 4 leaving just a couple of others behind, and went to bed.

Saturday was Vienna day, and we made a pretty slow start with everyone feeling the effects of the night before. So much so that we took the drastic measure of a McDonalds breakfast (i.e. we took advantage of the two cheeseburgers for a pound option). Suitaby carbonated, like so much of the water around town, we headed to the train station via a meandering route.

We eventually caught the 2pm train, which took an hour, and then checked out Vienna. We were singularily unimpressed, though it later transpired that we had not gone to the right areas, so I’d be willing to give it another chance at some point. It was more expensive though, and we did spend an hour watching cricket and football.

It was also very quiet, apparently everyone had scarpered for the weekend (which was also a bank-holiday there) we noticed several of them turning up in Bratislava as it turns out.

We got a very slow train back, and arrived in the city at around half 8. Quickly, we showered, changed and headed out. This time we ate in town at a place called Verne’s. It was very good, but closed at 10 so we were pretty lucky to get our food in time…. Goulash, lovely.

I was pretty ill, however, genuinely not related to the previous nights drinking, and went home early (around 1) whilst the others stayed out.

Sunday we went back to verne’s for breakfast - and then headed down to the castle, now fully aware of it’s open-ness, and discovered that it was an unexciting art gallery.

Mahinda went further sight seeing whilst the rest of us did some souveneir shopping - followed by an afternoon in STEPS pool bar.

Following that we headed back to the place we ate at on Friday, and Brian, Dan & Tim again got the absinthe out… the town was noticably quieter on Sunday than the other days so we had trouble finding bars to wind down in, eventually trying out the 80s bar to discover that we were the only people in there apart from the owners who were decidedly drunk. We headed back to the hostel and played some poker - passing one of the fellas from Shameless on the way (i.e. the actor).

Early the next morning Dan, Tim, Theo and Brian left.

Mahinda, Wayne, Andi and I headed to Verne’s for another goulash breakfast and then looked for some cheap booze to take back - we chilled out at the hostel for another couple of hours and then caught the flight home. At which point it started raining - for the first time during the weekend.

Overall I had a great time. Bratislava is quite a small city, in fact a very small city, but it’s certainly worth a weekend trip.

My updates are getting more sporadic, this is definitely due to the amount of work I’m doing which has increased exponentially since I last wrote. Still, now I get a week or so off to relax, before my final push begins… don’t expect regular updates!

Before I begin, don’t forget my “Stuff on the side” page (which doesn’t get imported to facebook!) where I’ve put up my minor review of 1984, which I’ve just finished reading.

some things that have happened since the last update then :

* Post Conference meal - a HUGE meal at a thai resturant in town - we were there for 3 and a half hours! walked home afterwards.

* Hockey - I played for the first time this year. We won, it rained - Si & Richard came along for the first time.

* I went to watch Spiderman 3, it’s alright but very schmaltzy. Look out for the unnecessary american flag scene towards the end.

* the FA cup final - Chelsea 1-0 Man United. Very VERY dull.

* The first test - washout.

* did I mention - lots and lots of work!!!

that’s all the update I can muster for now, but I’m about to fly to Bratislava, and I’m sure some minor update may occur when I get back!

The conference went well. It was a very early start and a fairly late finish, but it ran very smoothly, my talk was ok, the food was nice, the wine reception went well etc etc….

Afterwards we went to moso moso for food and then the big hands for drink.

Thursday I woke up a little hungover, so I eventually meandered into work after tony blair’s resignation speech, to cut the left over cake for the waiting masses. I then proceeded to type up the feedback forms - on which we’d rated very highly.

the evening encompassed 24 and then going round Sarah’s at about 11pm.

Friday was more work based as I’m starting to finally try and put a particularly irritating niggly proof to rest. In the evening we stayed in.

On Saturday I went home, played poker, watched footie, and eventually went to Warrington for Sarah’s brothers birthday meal.

It took place in a chinese resturant whose portions, whilst not being of the greatest quality, were immense! I managed about half of mine - I’m sure only rosy would’ve done better.

Sunday was fairly relaxing, but also the last day of the premiership. I watched that and then had dinner at the pub across the road from Sarah’s place (the woodstock) fairly impressed.

Today is Monday. I’ve literally loads of work to do this week so expect the next blog entry to be along the lines of Monday : Work, Tuesday : Work, Wednesday : Work… well you get the idea.

Bye!

Can’t remember Thursday, much, I probably stayed in.

on Friday, Sarah cooked some fine fine food, and I returned the favour on Saturday with some stuffed chicken breasts followed by a strawberry sorbet (made from scratch). I also made some oaty raspberry and strawberry cake which was delicious and largely consumed for Sunday’s breakfast.

Sunday was mostly occupied by sport, with man utd winning the title by virtue of chelsea drawing with arsenal.

Monday I did loads of jobs around the house, including wallpapering, curtain fixing and hole filling. We planned to go to the cinema in the evening, but it was too busy so we ended up in the Woodstock for a quick drink.

Today is tuesday, my conference is tomorrow.

Ok, so I thought I’d do a brief “Latest” post….

* I’m running out of money! - basically I need to save as much as I can before September, as that’ll be the last time the university gives me any money and my PhD is going to take longer than that. Therefore I’m officially skint, as every extra penny will be going into my savings.

* I’m going to Bratislava! - I have already budgeted for this, however, my last holiday before I finish the thesis!

* My PhD is going ok… I’ve got to look into an area I really hate now… It will probably be the biggest chapter of the whole thesis, so let’s see how it goes.

* I’ve been seeing Sarah almost a year! - yup, and it’s still going well.

* Liverpool are in the champions league final - Hurrah!

* I’m not playing poker anymore - It’s simply too much thought and too much computer to put into one day (on top of my work).

* I’m not playing enough sport! - My schedule somehow persistently prevents me from taking part.

* The conference I’m organising goes on next week - Complete with a talk by me, and a big cake.

That’ll do.

Not natural bed-fellows, unless you’re talking about my last five days.

Saturday

umm, I probably did something.

Sunday

Went to Sarah’s parents place for a barbeque… I made burgers and they were grand.

Monday

In to work, and then back home again - I got ill so spent the day recovering, Sarah helped alot.

Tuesday

Back into work and staying there. Then I watched Liverpool beat Chelsea on Penalties… woooooooo! Unfortunately I’ll be on a plane when the final is held… booooooooo!

Wednesday

Went to see Tony Bennett. He was pretty good, had a beer at the local wetherspoons afterwards, and then home for about midnight.

So we lost to Chelsea, 1-0, I’m not overly confident of making the final. If we do I’ve recently discovered I will be airbourne for all but the last 15 minutes - during which time I will presumably be collecting my bags in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava.

Actually that’ll happen whether we’re in the final or not.

Anyway, I watched the game in Harry’s after a giant subsidised (via voucher) subway thingy. I thought about meeting up with the hockey patrol, but didn’t get a reply to my text in time, so went to bed instead.

Thursday I ended up down the pub with Sarah, Caz & Jess. Initially the plan was to go to the quiz at the old house, but most people were doing other stuff (many were going to pinafore in Sale, which held no interest for me) so we just went and chatted over a few beers & wine in the Met.

Sarah also collected her new Audi on Thursday, how exciting.

Today is Friday. I do not know what I will be doing tonight, but currently I’m getting irritated by a proof I want to finish before I can go home. It’s looking unlikely currently.

Tarra!

Until yesterday comments here hadn’t been working. This was ably pointed out to me by Alsion and fixed pretty sharpish. Comments are now working again - so feel free to do so.

I’m going to try and update this more regularly as I keep forgetting what I’ve done when I do it once a week.

So… so far this week I’ve been dancing and watched football.

The dancing on Monday was Tango & Jive. I quite like the Jive as it’s fun and (so-far) pretty easy. The Tango was a bit of a disaster last time, so I approached it with a bit of trepidation, but it went well and I enjoyed it.

Tuesday then followed, and it included my second last lesson of Mt10000 (probably) ever. It was a fairly easy topic this week (Graph Theory) and the questions involved solving a maze (which I reckon is a bit of fun) Having finished early, I went home and watched the Sri Lanka v New Zealand cricket world cup semi-final - Sri Lanka winning comfortably.

During the cricket match, I took a couple of hours out to watch the Man Utd v AC Milan match - which was a corker.

After all that Mahinda came round and we watched 24.

Today is Wednesday, I’m a bit nervous about Chelsea v Liverpool later.

So this week saw the third installment of the HB.C Poker Tournament, with 6 players (down from 8 when Brian forgot which week it was and Allan was waylaid by the start of the cricket season). But first, the rest of the week.

Monday

Sarah and I went off dancing again, this week was the Rumba and the Foxtrot. We only stayed for the one lesson. A Polish couple took the lessons this week.

Tuesday

Stayed in and watched 24 with Mahinda + Rosy.

Wednesday

Stayed in and watched a multitude of things.

Thursday

Sarah came over. I was told that Peep Show series four has started, fortunately just in time to save a repeat of last weeks episode on the sky box.

Friday

Took Sarah out to Bistro West on Burton Road. We started in the One Lounge for a cocktail (2 for 1), I had a mojito made with navy rum - nice!

We then headed to the bistro where I had a lovely lamb shank, and Sarah had a chicken kiev wih butter bean / chilli mash. Also very tasty. Much wine was consumed before we moved on for another cocktail and then home.

Nice night out.

Saturday

Started by accompanying Sarah to the car showrooms of Warrington - eventually settling on an Audi, which she’ll test drive on the Sunday with her dad (who’d initially recommended a BMW 3-series).

We raced back to Manchester and met up with, my workmates, Simon and Andrew to catch the denouement to Spurs v Arsenal (Jenas’ 94th minute equaliser rendering it a 2-2 draw) - and left shortly afterwards.

Buzzed around the house sorting out the poker table and such like before everyone turned up (Graham, Andi, Toby and Ben to go along with me and Rosy) and we had a quick cash game. (I did pretty well in the cash game, ending up £22 up - the highlight being calling an all in from Toby after a long time thinking - I had him out kickered.).

The first tournament didn’t go according to plan. The structure was such that it should last a fairly long time - but half of us (including me, First) were out before the freezeout begun!

I lost my first buyin on KK v AA, and my second with top-pair/up&down straight draw v a Set. Don’t feel bad about the plays, they were pretty inescapable.

Graham took down the first prize of £95.

Having finished so soon and with Pizza’s on the way (the Pizzas took 90 minutes to arrive, and were terrible. Needless to say, that menu has hit the bin) - we started a £10 freezeout which turned into a much better game.

I ended up third - that’s the bubble - with Andi taking down Toby for first. Again I thought I played well - I was the short stack since about 20 hands in when I lost a 50/50 hand to drop to 4k- but I worked my way back into 2nd place (out of 3, with 12k) before Andi twice double up Toby (who initially was on about 7k) and put me in trouble.

We watched some dumb film and then went to bed.

Sunday

Woke up and made a full English. Everyone left shortly afterwards and Rosy and I set about tidying everything up (it took a while!). Got the call that Sarah had got the Audi - it’s being delivered on Thursday (it’s a very nice car).

Eventually done, I relaxed for a couple of hours and went over to Sarah’s place for dinner (Telapia). Very nice.

If you’ve never had Talapia (and I’m not even sure of the spelling) - then I heartily recommend it. It’s a very fine fish available from the tesco (and probably other) fish counters.

Anyway…

Monday

Dentist for two fillings / doctor to follow / SSLC meeting - so now I’m tired and I’ve not done any PhD work yet. It’s half three so I’m going to concentrate on my conference talk (which I’m giving on the 9th of May) for a bit.

Tarra!

Last week I did lots of work (ok, some work) and got ill midweek. Liverpool secured progress to the semi’s - as did man utd (by beating rome 7-1) and our next opponents, Chelski.

The cricket world cup rumbled on and I went out for a meal in Didsbury. I also saw “Wild Hogs” at the cinema. Vacuous but fun (3/5).

Which brings me to the weekend, which was ace!

Friday was results day for Sarah (she scored a decent pass) and as such the evenings entertainment was her choice entirely. We decamped to the Railway and later, The Woodstock.

Saturday I did some gardening before heading off to Adrian’s housewarming party. Lots of people were there, but everyone seemed to leave at the same time (around midnight), we left about half an hour later (which was just before Mahinda got there!)

Sunday was as sunny as the past two days so Sarah, Rosy, Adrian, Emma, Nick, Ann & I went off to play pitch n putt. Adrian, Sarah and Ann’s round were truncated by shopping, but we all had fun. Adrian won, I was third or so. Rosy lost 3 balls and came last by over 20 shots.

The weather was great, and that was a definite major advantage. Even those not keen on the golfing had a good time…

Ah, the shopping, that was for the Barbeque which followed. We all went round mine, with the later addition of mahinda, and fired up a couple of BBQ’s. Ann made a remarkable salad and many sausages, burgers etc… were eaten. By the time we finished up it was decidedly dark - we went back inside and had a few more drinks (including my poor mans mojito) whilst watching Frasier and music videos. Bed followed.

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