In Hoose Entertainment

Oh Man, there’s loads to catch up on… that’s what you get for not properly updating for a whole week. I must’ve forgotten loads and I meant to type up some of the important (!) philosophical points we discussed at one of the several pub outtings during the week, but I can no longer remember any of it!

I’ll try to remain brief because I know, only too well, the horror of reading a huge blog post.

Tuesday I went out and played footie again, we won I think and I scored a few. It was a pretty good game, though only 8 of us turned up so very open.

Wednesday was hockey, I’ve no idea what happened during the game, except for the following:

1) Lots and lots of flies buzzing around, and biting. Rubbish!
2) a very very wet patch of grass, which lead to several comedy slippings.
3) Flies!
4) Comedy!!
5) Flies!!!
6) yeah, that’s all I remember.

Afterwards we went to the pub and discussed several important* philosophical points over beer.

I think we won lots of money on the quizzer before losing it all on the quizzer. Great Fun!

A bunch of us headed then headed off to tall Mark’s birthday bash @ The Salisbury. There I talked to lots of people, though I didn’t drink too much as I was very hungry by this point.

The situation was rectified by a kebab.

Does anyone remember what happened on Thursday?

Got It!

Ra!n Bar Qu!zzage! we did pants, but had great fun winding rosy up about luminosity and magnitude.

You see, Rosy was sure an answer to a question was Magnitude.

and Adrian was sure the answer was Luminosity.

I was the writer, so I had to choose between the two. I plumped for Adrian and, of course, Rosy was then correct.

Choosing the incorrect answer then turned out to be the best course of action, as Rosy became incredibly wind-up’able about our failure to put the correct answer, we took full advantage.

I also seem to remember balls of paper, being thrown around the room.

And Liz; I’ll take that cashpot eventually….!

On Friday, after lunch in the Phoenix and a day of work, I arrived at the Sandbar to celebrat Ad’s birthday. I choose against going on to the club, but I did visit the Kro bar, which is still rubbish.

Lots of people were there including Ed, Mahinda, Rich, Ads (of course), Kate, Rosy, Mahinda … etc etc…. suffice to say “Lots”.

Home, Noodles and Bed!

Saturday I entered a big Poker tourney - The “Manchester Open”. It was the first ever one, and therefore the organisation was less than impressive. Once it got going it was pretty good, though.

I played decently and lost half my chips whilst making a correct decision, eventually out after 80 or 90 hands in 42nd (out of 61). Truely was great fun.

By some means of fate I managed to go out of the tourney seconds before the kick off of Liverpool v Chelsea, in the FA Cup semi-final.

Originally, in fact, I had tried to get tickets through a mate with connections. As it turned out he could only get us into the Chelski end, and I was having none of that, so ended up playing the poker then watching it on TV in “The Pub”

we won 2-1. Get In.

The game finished at 710pm. I’m exact on this because Rosy had been trying to get me to go and see Silent Hill at the AMC, which started at 720pm.

Obviously, with only 10 mins and no particular desire to actually watch said film, I chose not to go. Instead I tidied up a few things at the office (which is very close to “The Pub”) before heading home.

I then relaxed all evening by making myself the best sandwich in the world ever** watching MOTD and then listening to music.

Eventually Rosy & Mia arrived back at our place and set about watching my favourite film in the world: BASEketball; but I was far too tired to partake.

Sunday then became a full on day of rest.

In hindsight we should’ve gone down the park and done some sort of sport, but the weather in the morning wasn’t overly promising - it was only around 12 that it became absolutely glorious.

We went round to Adrian & Emma’s place for a fine sunday lunch - followed by games-a-plenty (Uno (which I won), Scrabble (which I lost), Hearts (Which I didn’t win)) - before finally heading off home for the traditional weekend climax of ‘24′.

That is all, you may now return to your work***.

* = this may not be true
** = this may not be true, but it probably is.
*** = term used loosely.

1. Rockafeller Skank - Fat Boy Slim

2. I Can’t Get With That - Fun Lovin’ Criminals

3. Burning Brooklyn - Head Automatica
(I didn’t even know this was on my iPod)

4. Let’s Stick Together - Bryan Ferry
(cover of a George Harrison song)

5. How Lucky You Are - Skin
(not the singer from skunk anansie, but a great song from a random unknown band!)

6. Burden in Your Hand - Soundgarden
(First CD I ever owned)

7. The Importance of Being Idle - Oasis

8. Don’t Make a Saint of Me - Peter Waterhouse
(Hence why you didn’t have a chance)

9. Somethin’ Else - Led Zeppelin
(cover of an Eddie Cochrane song!)

10. I’m Happy to be Here Tonight - Idlewild

11. Hashpipe - Polarised
(Polarised are my old band - this is a cover of a weezer song)

12. Territorial Pissings - Nirvana
(surprised no-one got this!)

13. Grace - Jeff Buckley
(and this!)

14. When the Faction’s Fractioned - Biffy Clyro
(not so surprised here)

15. Enola\Alone - Manic Street Preachers

16. The Hollow - A Perfect Circle

17. Gangsta’s Paradise - Coolio

18. Psycho - System of a Down

19. Cursed Diamond - The Black Crowes

20. This is for Real - David Devant & His Spirit Wife

OK, I got this idea off Si’s blog (link –>)

You take the first 20 tracks off a random search on your iPod, list some lyrics from them and then see if anyone can guess what songs they’re from.

You’re not supposed to replace any of them, but two came up as instrumental (Charlie Parker & Stevie Ray Vaughan), and one as a near instrumental (Anyone who has heard Fantomas before will know what I mean) so I replaced those ones.

I reckon this is quite hard, so I’ve marked the easy\difficult ones for easy reference.

Guess Away!

1. (easy)
“Right about now, The funk soul brother”

2. (tough)
“I see the hoes and the hustlers
be piled up in clusters
since they upped the ante, and hooked up Giuliani”

3. (very tough)
“brooklyn is burning down the discotheque, lets shake it
I feel the fire tonight, I hear I hear the people cry ”

4. (70s - cover!)
“And now the marriage vow is very sacred,
The man has put us together now
You ought to make it … ”

5. (very tough)
“It could happen to you,
It could happen to me,
It’s so easy, so easy,
you don’t know ….”

6. (Tough)
“Follow me into the desert as thirsty as you are,
Crack a smile and cut your mouth and drown in alcohol.”

7. (Recent! Easy!)
“My best friend called me the other night
He said “Man - are you crazy”
My girlfriend told me to get a life
She said “Boy - are you lazy”

8. (you have no chance of getting this one)
“Not today,
Not tomorrow,
Not ever,
I’ll never be what you want me to be,
Don’t try to make a saint out of me”

9. (50s! - though I was listening to a Led Zepp cover version of it)
” a look a-there, here she comes
there comes that girl again
wanted to date her since i don’t know when
but she don’t notice me when i pass
she goes with all the guys from outa my class
but that can’t stop me from a-thinkin’ to myself
she’s sure fine lookin’ man … ”

10. (British Indie at it’s finest!)
“The world is in my chaos dream,
But I am not invited”

11. (Cover, but you’ll know the original better)
“I can’t help my feelings, I’ll go out of my mind
These players come to get me ’cause they’d like my behind
I can’t love my business if I can’t get a trick
Down on santa monica where tricks are for kids”

12. (early 90s - classic)
“Gotta find a way, a better way, when I’m there
Gotta find a way - a better way - better way ”

13. (Gracefully Easy)
“There’s the moon asking to stay
Long enough for the clouds to fly me away
Well it’s my time coming, I’m not afraid, afraid to die”

14. (very tough)
“The time is running out, the time is running, the water’s running out, the water’s running
The girl is running out, the girl is running, the girl is running out again”

15. (Mahinda, you should get this)
“The statue of liberty looks so solemn on the tv
100% risk of stepping outside
Every second too precious to try ”

16. (perfectly hard)
“Screaming feed me here
Fill me up again
Temporarily pacify this hungering”

17. (Hip to the Hop)
“Tell me why are we — so blind to see
That the ones we hurt — are you and me ”

18. (Very Tough)
“Makes you high makes you hide
Makes you really want to go, stop
Psycho, groupie, cocaine, crazy
Psycho groupie coke”

19. (Blues Rock)
“I want to shine for you
I want to sparkle too
Just like a diamond cursed”

20. (If you’ve heard this, it’s very easy)
“Alan’s mum & dad,
They brought him up quite well,
They taught him how to read & write,
And how to speak and spell”

So I played Hockey and did not much else.

Watched lots of sport over Easter weekend, mostly because everyone had left to go visit people so Manchester was a quiet town. It’s not great living here when no one else is around.

Worked Good Friday, but took Easter Monday off, so it felt very much like a Sunday, especially when we went for a swift closing time pint at the Well.

That’s really about it, like I say - quite a dull weekend.

Looking forward to the weekends coming up though, all of which have interest attributed to them.

I just had to write a new article since every time I come here to check up on it I see “Fish n’ Chips” written (it’s near the top of the last entry) and it makes me hungry.

what? … oh.

Anyway, it’s now Wednesday, and I’m looking forward to my fifth straight day of sport, Monday and Tuesday were both footballing days.

Mondays footie was with the university group - too many people turned up (15, after 12 had put their names down) so we played three teams of 5-a-side. I think my team came bottom, but it was all very tight - there were 2 goals in all our games (see tomorrow’s footie for a more regular 5-a-side score!). We scored neither of them.

Played decently, mostly in defence.

Tuesdays footie was with the Ticketline bunch. We won 22-7, I scored - ummm - lots, but the games not as fun as the Monday one, imo. The teams were switched at the end, and my new team won 1-0 before we got carted off the court.

Not a lot else happened - I worked, I ate, I played a little poker, normal stuff.

No ones here at the moment because of the easter break, so it’s all a bit dull. Still it’s the first “Summer Hockey” session tonight, and the weather seems to be holding up (touch wood), so really looking forward to that.

Tarra.

oh, and leave comments you lazy bunch. I can see you’re still visiting from my “referrers list”, so get on it.

so let’s get this thing up to date.

Friday

Had lunch in the varsity, since it was a Friday and Alsion was down there with her workmates. Adrian came down too.

I had Fish n Chips, which was nice.

Afterwards I went out to meet people in the Sand Bar for a few beers, people who were there include Emma, Adrian, Dan, Charlotte, Liz, Rosy, a random man at the end of the table, and a man no one could understand.

This was followed by Font, Rosy, Linden, Kate, Adam, Mahinda, Natalie & Johnny.

Chip naan with gravy on the way home. nice.

Saturday

Got up sorted some stuff out, then played Badminton - which was fun - in Altrincham. Adam, Linden & Rosy.

Went home considered leaving the house, but didn’t and relaxed instead.

Sunday

Adrian, Emma, Rosy & I all went to the Pitch n Putt in Heaton Park.

It was great fun! though for the first half hour we were getting pelted by hail.

The ground was fairly waterlogged so there was plenty of slipping and sliding as we made our way around the course. I didn’t do very well, but it is the first time I’ve played golf of any sort (excepting a half hour stint on a driving range in Dubai) since I was 14.

Rosy hadn’t played ever, and Adrian & Emma play once or twice a year, the result was therefore very predictable (see post below!).

Highlights, though, included:

* Me hitting par on a hole. (Rosy was the only other person to manage this)

* Rosy’s hit into the middle of a tree on the 13th hole. We’d all finished by the time he found his ball (I found it), it was 2 feet off the ground in a tangled set of branches. He played on and almost beat the maximum (but didn’t!)

* being rubbish at putting.

* slipping down the hill they place the tees on. Twice.

* Rosy playing out of a rather large puddle, in a bunker, and getting wet.

And basically, just having a pretty decent time!

Will definitely be going again.

Anyway - retired home to sunday lunch and Man Utd 2-0 Arsenal before catching the latest in ‘24′ action and calling it a night.

that is all.

All holes par 3.

1st Emma 99
2nd Adrian 100
3rd Pete 112
4th Rosy 121

(emma-adrian-pete-rosy)
1 — 5-6-8-9
2 — 8-4-8-5
3 — 4-5-4-7
4 — 5-6-6-6
5 — 4-6-5-4
6 — 8-7-3-9
7 — 4-4-6-4
8 — 6-4-9-3
9 — 4-9-6-8
10 — 4-6-5-9
11 — 5-8-5-5
12 — 6-4-9-9
13 — 6-6-6-9
14 — 4-4-7-6
15 — 6-4-6-7
16 — 6-8-8-7
17 — 6-4-5-9
18 — 8-5-6-5

I’ve done Nothing this week. No-Thing.

And now I’m off to lunch.

It seems I have to go all the way back to Wednesday.

Briefly then

Wednesday

I decided not to do the Celidh due to having to work late, and then being completely naq’d.

Thursday

More working late followed by the weekly student poker game. I was out around half-way through due to a bad beat when I had KK… but it was quite an enjoyable game this time.

Had a pint after and then home.

Friday

Did a mornings work before trapsing down to Picadilly and boarding a train to London.

I arrived in the big smoke around 7ish and called Brian to find that he’d already established himself in the bar with Tim, so I moseyed on down to Edgware Road \ Marylebone and had my first pint of IPA (£3.00) in some bar or other.

Before long we moved on to another bar where one of Brian’s workmates was having a leaving do. We decided to stay there for one whilst deciding where else to go after we’d gone back to the Balham \ Tooting area to drop off our stuff.

Of course after we’d had one we decided we’d stay where we were, unfortunately by then I’d already sent Jez back to Tooting, where previously he’d been in South Kensington!

Brian’s workmates were an eclectic mix of Accountants, which sounds dull, but it wasn’t this time. They were all around my sort of age, which makes a difference.

Highlight of the night was undoubtedly Brian breaking a table by sliding off it. Another punter finished the job by snapping the top clean off so we all stood around and laughed at him instead.

Out into the pouring rain (It was streaming sunshine when I left Manchester) and back to the train station, only to find it was closed due to a fire, so we got a cab back south of the river.

Arrived at jez’s, and watched a bit of tele before slumping into bed.

Saturday

Up early, a little hungover, I created some sort of egg toasted sandwich effort.

Quickly out of the door and on my way I arrived in Canary Wharf and quickly found all the other lads except Allan & Martin (who were coming in by car).

We headed on down to the indoor sports place and played the “Boozer Ashes!”

I should explain what this is all about;

Well it’s a hattrick thing (predictably). One of the guys, an Aussie living in London, suggested that a bunch of his mates take on a bunch of us English guys in an indoor cricket match.

Of course we accepted.

On the day, of course, we discovered that our bunch of journeymen (with only Allan & Brian regularly playing cricket for teams) were completely outclassed by the Aussie team full of people who regularly played not just cricket, but specifically indoor cricket!

I bowled decently, except for a bit of inconsistency (and bowled someone out) and batted poorly (though I had the mysterious swing bowler to contend with, how on earth he managed it given the state of the ball\pitch I’ll never know!).

Great fun though.

we followed it up by a quick bash at indoor footie, which we also lost though to be fair we were naq’d and they had the luxery of using substitutes. It may have helped if I wasn’t drinking a beer during the game….

Anyway it was all over by 5pm or so and Brian, Tim & I rushed back to the Clapham area to each get showers and a change of clothes before meeting in the Rook & something-or-other in Balham, where we watched the second half of WBA 0-2 Liverpool.

Straight after the game we headed on down to China Town for a decent nosh up in a place called “The Friendly Inn” with a fair proportion of the Aussies out, with 4 or 5 of us brits.

Sally and Jez then joined us and we went down to the sports café (ridiculously £5 entry!) to watch the Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona game.

I was naq’d by around 12 so went home.

Sunday

Woke up feeling like I’d been shot, and aching all over from the sport on Saturday, so the natural thing to do was to go down to Barnes with Jez and play for my old sunday league team - Real Madras - in their last but one game of the season.

I got 90 minutes out on the left wing, and played decently enough - though I should’ve scored a chance I had towards the end of the first half. We won 2-1.

Was great to get playing 11-a-side again - Now I know that there’s a league run down the end of my road I will check it out for next season.

Of course I picked up a few extra knocks, so what with the new bruises on my ankles and down the back of my leg I wasn’t feeling the cricket pain anymore.

Went off to the clubhouse afterwards and chilled out over a few pints with Jez, Khalid, Phil the Fish et all before heading back to Tooting (Jez and Sally were pretty good host’s, btw) for a shower and another change of clothes.

The boat race was then about to start and only being interested in beating the rush to the train I left. I arrived at the train station in time to get a seat on the 5.05 and journeyed north to be met by Mahinda at Picadilly and some Pie and ‘24′ back home.

Naq’d, I called it a weekend and slept.

Monday

Went into work and had the regular meeting with Jeff.

Went home and sorted loads of stuff out.

Listened to the Blackburn 1-1 Wigan game on the radio. It’s coming up to the end of the season now - and the table looks like this:

1 Chelsea 32 41 79
2 Man Utd 32 34 72
3 Liverpool 33 25 67
4 Tottenham 32 14 55
5 Arsenal 31 30 53
6 Blackburn 32 6 53
7 Bolton 30 9 48
8 Wigan 32 -2 47

Tuesday

Tuesday is today.