In Hoose Entertainment

It occurred to me that I’ve now been writing this blog for a full year!

therefore I thought I’d get a list of a few of my favourite events this year, here we go (my very favourite events are in bold!).

* Leeds Festival
* England winning the ashes!
* Went to see the Super Furry Animals
* Handing in my first year report (seems like forever ago)
* Saw Misty’s Big Adventure.
* Started going to Cricket at university.
* Started playing for the Didsbury Hockey Club
* Made my way through “A Feast for Crows”
* Saw “Kiss Me Kate”
* Played risk for a very very long time.
* Got dressed up as a “Mummy”
* Went and watched a fire
* attended two beer fests. one of them twice.
* Organised and went go-karting!
* Rescued Jez from Fallowfield
* Did lots and lots of marking
* Performed in “Rock Trial”
* Started going to Ceilidh
* Was very ill (not drink related!) at a party in Cheltenham
* Saw Hull v Sheff Wed
* Bought an effects box!
* Had a very goonie christmas
* Took the fifth (more than once)
* Started playing poker
* Started going to the Ra!n bar quiz!
* Warmed Pete’s house.
* Become very irritated at trains
* Moved my sister out of London
* Got very drunk in York
* Hosted the HBC poker night
* Watched “Anything Goes”
* Got excited by snow.
* Went sliding on floors
* Watched Utopia (whose aftershow party was much better than the show itself)
* Took in series 5 of “24″ and the introduction of the Sunday tradition.
* Wrote a load of nonsense
* Visited London to play cricket and football!
* Started a-pitching and a-putting
* Started playing badminton
* Played in the Manchester Open
* Helped prepare a stage for “Little Shop of Horrors”
* Played in the Manchester SPO, and won some money.
* Got eaten by a tuba!
* Watched Liverpool win the FA Cup!
* Went to Riga!
* Saw The Cooper Temple Clause
* Got myself a fantastic Girlfriend.
* Saw the World Cup.
* Celebrated three birthdays in three days.
* Played Killer Pool
* Went to watch England lose to Sri Lanka.
* Was served an empty pasty!
* 50 hours!
* Met each others parents on the same day
* Built a wall!
* Sorted out the garden (at long last!)
* Went to Turkey
* Went Fruit Picking
* Went to two parties in one evening, the latter dressed as Timmy Mallett
* Watched Romeo & Juliet in Fletcher Moss Park
* Went to a 70s party
* watched Sheff Wed lose to Luton
* Risked life & limb with fog over snakes pass.
* Went to Salsa!
* Watched rosy run into a tree!
* Played poker in Leeds and won some money.
* Went to Wales

Let’s hope the next year is every bit as fun and exciting

Tuesday

Started building things in my room, and noticed that I was short a few items that I’ll go and pick up in some sort of shopping trip after my boiler’s been sorted out.

Sarah came round in the evening.

Wednesday

Hung around most of the afternoon waiting for the boiler man to show, but he did not. I eventually phoned them up and re-arranged for Thursday. I was not best pleased.

Anyway I went off and played a bit of hockey. We won and I scored lots - but I don’t remember anything else… oh yeah! there were hardly any of us there (8) and it was a really good game! (we played without keepers and that seems to encourage a better quality of play - lots of fun)

Afterwards - Hardy’s

Thursday

Finally sorted out the boiler man - and when he came around he was very competent and it cost less than I thought so I’m sated for now

In the evening I took out my beautiful girlfriend to a new curry house on Burton Road, the idea being that she’s not there for long so we’d better give it a go before she moves!

The food was nice - though we both preferred the Great Kathmandu, I would recommend a visit to anyone.

Friday

Went off into town and did all the shopping I needed to do to finish off my office room - including a new stereo and lots and lots of paper.

Got back and almost immediately Sarah came over and we had a relaxing night in… the ideal prelude for the weekend ahead

Saturday

Bank holiday weekend!

I happened to mention to Sarah sometime back in June or July that I’d never ever been to any of the other british countries, well not including before I was born, She said immediately that she’d rectify that by taking me on a weekend to Wales… before I knew it she’d sorted it all out (as it turns out I’m also going to Northern Ireland and Scotland within the next month, but more on that in a later post) and this was the weekend we went off to Llandudno.

In short, it was ace!

we both had a really good time, and Llandudno is a nice resort too (though rather small). Anyway I’ll tell it (briefly!) in order of events:

We decided that a nice breakfast would set us on our way - so we popped into Somerfields and picked up a few pastries before clambering into the car and driving our way into Wales.

We arrived in the mid-afternoon (we only got lost briefly!) and after settling into our room in the b&b (Holcombe house, very nice, very comfortable bed) we set out to discover the Llandudno Pier.

We walked the full length, & popped into the penny arcadia (where we lost around £1.50 on those electronic horse thingees), picked up some chips (in a cone!) and the end of a punch & judy show.

We chilled out for a bit (including a drink in the fat cat) before heading out for our first bit of food…

Our first dinner there was very fishy… I had sea bass and I can’t remember the fish sarah had, but it came with mussels, which we were later to regret. A bottle of Cankaya (which the waiter pronounced incorrectly!) accompanied our meal (I’ve never seen it anywhere else outside Turkey, so it’s worth mentioning - it’s a nice wine!).

The Mussels later gave Sarah a dodgy stomach that she carried through Sunday… It was a shame as the food was actually very nice, and it put a small dampner on Sunday - though we still had a lot of fun .

We left the resturant at about 10pm… Then we hit upon a slight problem. We wanted to carry on drinking and perhaps have a bit of a dance… but the b&b had a curfew.

It was decided that we’d go back and ask the owners (Karen & Tony) if we could stay out - so in true teenage style we went back and asked if we could break curfew… They said “Yeah” and we were off!

We headed down to the end of the main drag - and felt a little bit lost - we’d only got the most scant of instructions from the waiters at the resturant as to where the clubs where in Llandudno, so were wondering which way to go next when this fella (Chris) came up to us, slightly drunk and asked if we knew where we could get him a cigar.

We asked him where the clubs were and he said to come and join in his engagement party - so we did!

last orders there were at just before midnight, so we headed out again and followed the crowd. After a few discussions about whether we were going the right way, we stumbled upon “Broadways” and started queueing. Before we knew it, we were in!

Highlights include:

* Dancing!
* Drinking!
* The Sleazy DJ!
* The “Cage”!
* People discussing their GCSE results in the toilets!

and a load of stuff I can’t remember, probably. All in all it was a very good night out, and a lot of fun. We got back to the b&b at around 3am, via a taxi - completely naq’d (and a little bit drunk). Bizarrely Sarah bumped into someone she knew at the club!

Sunday

Waking up on Sunday before 9am was hard. We were both a little worse for wear - I had a slight hangover, Sarah had the Stomach upset (from the Mussel’s) but we both made it down for breakfast. I had the full English, and she had some toast to try and settle it.

Upstairs for more sleep - immediately after.

Then through town were I got myself a paper and a cream tea. Sarah had a toastie after forgetting what she wanted to order

We were a bit flummoxed as to what to do in the afternoon - but eventually we decided we’d pop over to Conwy and look at the castle.

Conwy was about an hours journey. 10 minutes to get there and 50 minutes trying to find a car parking space… it was more fun than it sounds though (driving around!) It was definitely a theme of the weekend that Wales just doesn’t have any parking space….

We clambered over walls, sat on the seaside and wondered around the town and generally had a very nice afternoon. we headed back and got a little bit more sleep in back at the b&b.

We left the b&b to go and seek some food… a few places were fully booked (including an Italian that smelled very nice indeed) but we discovered a little place called Candles who let us take a table.

It turned out to be an inspired choice, the food was lovely (I had a peppered steak, sarah had BBQ chicken, both were very tasty). Even the house wine was very nice.

Despite filling up, I managed to finish it all (I felt obliged with it tasting so nice) and we headed back for an early (-ier) night than the Saturday (though we stayed up a bit to watch the GP)

Monday

Monday we both woke up and had the full english (I’m still not sure how I fit all this food in!) before checking out. I found out what the welsh word was for “Thank You” - diolch yn fawr - though I’ve forgotten already how to pronounce it!

After some discussion we headed down to Bets-y-Coed (I’ve no idea if I’ve spelled that correctly) which is a very nice country village on the edge of snowdonia.

We literally walked around the whole town in less than an hour, taking in the multitude of outdoor shops - before stopping at a fish resturant for a pot of tea.

We headed back towards the coast and took in Abergele, Towyn, Rhyl, Prestatyn & Flint before getting stuck in traffic on our way back into England.

We decided it would be a good idea to head into Chester for a bit of food, and eventually settled at the Yates Wine Lodge - where I found the chilli was surprisingly good.

We then arranged for everyone to meet in the Red Lion for their monday night quiz - which apparently doesn’t actually run over the summer (we had a drink and then got a chinese - MORE FOOD!) an early night followed and the weekend was over.

What a great time we both had!

Tuesday

Tuesday, I sorted out more things at home - it constantly seems like there’s always “Something else” to do at the moment, In fact as soon as I finish writing this I’ve a few other jobs I need to do before I can have lunch.

Anyway busy, busy, busy and a last minute decision to watch Snakes on a Plane - after Rosy mistook the date he was supposed to meet up for a focus group meeting (it’s next week!) and found himself stranded in town.

the 945 showing of Snakes on a Plane it was, then, It had a lot to live up to, with the hype.

In the end it turned out to be your typical B-Movie schlock horror flick. Fun, but not as good as some people are making it out to be. Still deserves a 4/5 just for the fun value.

Home and straight to bed…

Wednesday

Today, it’s been a while since I’ve updated more than a week in one post (Turkey doesn’t count) but here we are!

Anyway, as I intimated, lots more things to sort out with regards to working from home! I’ve just finished inking the printer cartridges… now I’ve some installations to finish off. Sounds like fun… it’s not

Later I’ll be at hockey.

tarra. Comment if you’ve made it through that entire post!

Thursday

Went into work and then onto the all new G-Casino on the Bury New Road for a £2 rebuy.

Was a fairly decent event, though it never got going for me - I was out before the crapshoot ended - but Rosy went on to secure 2nd place… which was nice. More on my poker blog (link over there somewhere –>)

Friday

more work, then Sarah came round - a quick trout dinner and we were off to Matt n Phreds for another great date.

Ravi’s band were playing and they were pretty good - We managed eventually to find a table right at the back of the room, and got through a few chasers (Black Sambuca being one of them!).

We eventually left at 2am, and each had a great time.

Saturday

After a full English breakfast (have I mentioned that sarah’s ace?) and Liverpools weak start to the premiership (sheff utd 1-1 Liverpool) Rosy and I headed off to Leeds to play in the second ever boozer poker tourney.

8 of us showed up and we started out with a small cash game just to get things going… then the tourney started around 9pm.

We played until about 1am, and had great fun. Toby won, and I was third (for £40) - after a bad beat - the final results were

1st Toby
2nd Steve
3rd Me
4th Ritchie
5th Rosy
6th Jon
7th Joel
8th Andi

Andi came last after suffering from his partying the night before and QQ v KK, QQ v AA and 2pair v a set.

I played pretty well, and would’ve been in a very commanding position had my set held up against Steve’s overpair - he hit his 2 outer (12 to 1) chance to knock me out, if I’d won I’d have had more than half the chips in play - I’d have been very confident!

Of course, it wasn’t all about the poker, the banter was top drawer too, and plenty of beers were sunk.

Afterwards we watched Jay & Silent Bob, and I fell asleep during dodgeball.

Sunday

Arrived back fairly early, but were way-laid by a broken down bus. Eventually got home around 130? maybe 2pm.

Sorted myself out and went round to Sarah’s - she cooked Rosy, Me, Lorraine and herself a full sunday roast whilst I was amused by what was going on at the test.

The food was great and we meandered through some terrible tv before calling it an early one (we were all naq’d!) and going to bed.

Monday

very tired this morning, but went into work to meet with Jeff.

Going to be sorting out my home office tomorrow, so trying to get everything together from this end today before putting all the furniture together tomorrow morning - which I reckon should be fun.

tarra for now!

So, we’re playing hockey last night in the pouring rain… The match is ok - not great - and we’re 5-6 down (I’ve scored three, but keep missing mahinda’s centres due to ineptitude and random bounces).

The rain and light have deteriorated the situation to a point where we’ve called time on the match, and the next goal settles it - either as a draw or a win to them.

Everyone, as always, perks up when the last goal is announced and the next 10 minutes see some of the best hockey of the night…

Now after some sort of clearance the ball ends up far out to the right hand side of the pitch Rosy, Nick and a couple of others chase after it and battle over the ball. Finally rosy turns away with it and sprints…. HEAD FIRST INTO A TREE!

Immediately laughing, but feeling guilty in case he was properly damaged we headed over to see how he was faring… A slight cut on the ear was patched up by Dr. Kate and then we could all laugh about it without feeling guilty…

Needless to say it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen… it was literally like a cartoon image, and the picture that will stay with me is Rosys inherent shock as he’s falling backwars, arms askew, that whatever it was he’s just bumped into hadn’t got out of the way. Brilliant.

afterwards we went to the Red Lion and saw the end of our 4-0 win over Greece - highly impressive.

I proceeded to get fairly drunk and we ordered a curry on the way home from Coriander - which seemed decent. Very very late to bed. Oooops.

(I also seem to remember singing “Travesty” in the middle of withington - a bastardised version of “Tradgedy” in reference to the remaking of “The Wicker Man” starring Nicolas Cage)

Sarah turned up Monday night, much to my surprise!

I was very impressed… she’d even brought some Pizza with her… top lass!

Stayed in and watched Red Dwarf, and some family guy before calling it a night.

Tuesday I stayed at home until the early afternoon to try and sort out some house matters, I managed to get the security alarm fixed (for £80) and arranged for several plumbers etc… to get back to me with quotes to safety check our boiler. All the exciting stuff of being a home owner.

Finally got into work, but didn’t have much time left!

Went home and played some poker - Omaha Hi\lo which I’m not very good at, but I’m learning a few of the nuances.

I cooked sweet n sour chicken stuff for dinner before settling down to the first 4 episodes of the original 24. Bed was just past midnight.

Now it is Wednesday and I’ve had a fairly unproductive day at work. Hockey will be followed by the England match, Steve McClaren’s first, lets see how it goes.

Wednesday:

Worked late and got home just in time to see liverpool kick off their season unspectacularly, with a 2-1 win over Maccabi Haifa.

Thursday:

Cooked pizza for the lovely lass, a seafood one and a meaty one. They were great! I was let down slightly by the fact that I’d not read the instructions properly, leading to a last minute dash to somerfield’s to pick up some pizza bases… but it all turned out well in the end.

watched pirates of the carribean too.

Friday:

Secret date time! — Sarah and I went off to have a salsa lesson in cocacobanas. I didn’t find it very easy, but I’m learning.

Afterwards; Wagamama’s for food.

Saturday:

played some poker and irritated myself by coming 21st out of 180 in a tournament when I had to come 18th or better to get any money.

Went and sorted out the garden afterwards, ably assisted by rosy.

In the evening I went round to Sarah’s for a quiet one. Very nice.

Sunday:

watched the liverpool 2-1 Chelsea charity shield match - Crouch scoring the winner - before heading off for some bowling action with Sarah, Rosy, Emma, Adrian, Nick and Si.

I did alright, coming 2nd in the first game and 4th in the second (Sarah won the second game with nearly 150 - everyone scored over 100!). My scores were 125 and 113.

Played poker in the evening against rosy, after some “List Game” action.

Monday:

is today!

The rest of monday went off exactly as you might expect, I played a bit of football and then went round to Sarah’s to watch a dvd (derailed (3/5) - a decent film starring Clive Owen & Jennifer Anniston) Sarah’s ace, btw.

on Tuesday I went off into work as usual, and then went to watch Sheff Wed 0-1 Luton. It was quite a good game, but Wednesday’s finishing and crossing was extremely profligate.

On the way back we encountered some heavy heavy fog (over snakes pass) which made the whole trip a whole lot longer, and a bit more exciting!

Home and bed swiftly followed - only delayed by a bit of Dragon’s Den and some poker tourney on tv…

Today is Wednesday, and Liverpools season starts tonight…

Thursday

so Sarah’s surprise date turned out to be watching Romeo & Juliet outside in Fletcher Moss Park. It was brilliant!

We took a picnic and the play was performed by 6 actors in the middle of the audience on a makeshift stage.

Towards the end lots of insects became attracted to the multitude of lights, resulting in several bites… how the actors resisted swatting them away I’ll never know - Overall it was fantastic though. I’ll definitely be looking to do that again.

Friday

Stayed at work really late working on a difficult problem, then went home.

Sarah then came around.

Saturday

“Everything” Day.

Went to Dave & Amanda’s Barbeque dressed in 70s get up… my costume wasn’t quite as vivid as for the 80s party last week - but it was fun.

Highlights of the BBQ included the lad (probably around 9) constantly trying to get the attention of this lass (probably around 11) whilst playing footie.

Much fun had by all and then Lindens\Dans birthday\leaving\birthday do which was ok. Mike n Pam had come down for it.

Sunday

eschewed badminton for a hearty English breakfast with Mike, Pam & Sarah (latterly Linden & Rob) and a much needed afternoon nap.

Deciding, correctly, that relaxation was the name of the game - Sarah and I picked up a chinese and a couple of DVD’s from blockbuster - including “Inside Man” (4/5) which was good.

Monday

Today is Monday!

A post whose title is almost as long as it’s contents.

Tuesday:

Stayed off work as I had a ton of stuff to sort out at home, including Financials, Shopping, Tidying, Gardening etc etc. You get the picture. I did find a spare hour or so somewhere, but I was busy.

Wednesday:

Work, I’m very slowly getting back into the swing of things. I’m looking forward to starting to work from home immensely.

In the evening I went to Hockey, where we won 11-10 (It was rainy and there were only 7 of us, 3 on our team, 4 on theirs) and then 3-2 after Ads turned up to make it 4-a-side. I scored both winners.

Headed round Sarah’s for the requisite fantastic food, I could definitely get used to eating at this standard! a Prawn stir fry followed by a chocolate bomb. The company was pretty good too.

Thursday

I’m at work.
It’s Adrian’s birthday today!
Later I’ll be on a date.

I don’t know if anyones noticed that I’ve started to update this again since my holiday. But I have! Look!

So this is what I’ve been up to since I came back…

Wednesday:
Saw Sarah

Thursday:
Went shopping into Chorlton and ended up making a great ice cream sundae
Went to the Rain bar quiz!

Friday:
Sorted a load of stuff out at home before heading into St. Helens for Sarah’s Brother-in-Laws 40th birthday party at “Le Frog”.
It was a fun event, and my food was nice (though this view did carry through everyone!) It was a cabaret night, and therefore quite a bit more expensive than normal - definitely not worth it I think!
The best part was the lengthy dancing-on-a-chair session undertaken by John (whose birthday it was) when they brought out his cake.
Got back to Manchester after a brief, but enjoyable, train journey.

Saturday:
Busy, busy day!
went off to fruit pick at some farm in Cheshire. It’s the first time I’ve done this since I did it as a part-time job in Weighton. I hated it back then, but it was good this time around!
We ended up picking LOADs of raspberries, a few blackberries and we bought some of their apple juice (the alcoholic variety had run out!)

Then it was on to Mahinda’s BBQ - which was really good!
the most fun part of it was people rapidly erecting a gazebo when it started to rain quite heavily.
We left early, but apparently it went on until 3am or so, which a moderate amount of carnage.

We went back to Sarah’s place and got changed for Jenny’s fancy dress (80s) birthday party. Sarah went as a material girl and I went as Timmy Mallett - It was great fun.

I’d even made (out of 2 badminton racquets, a pillow case, some cardboard and a valance sheet) Mallett’s Mallet, I’ll definitely try and get a picture up on here at some point.

the trips there and back were good fun, with people performing several double takes - especially in the slightly drunken state they’ll have been in on our way back!

the party was decent - some people didn’t bother dressing up though, which was a shame. Concensus was that my costume was the best. We returned home at 1am.

Sunday:
Emma’s birthday BBq all afternoon, followed by a relaxing end to the weekend watching Oceans 12.

Monday:
First day back at work - I sorted out a load of stuff and read all my non-gmail e-mail (lots!) went home and did some work on the garden - which had partly weeded over.

I’ve now got *another* big pile of rocks to disperse somehow. I don’t want to put them into the wall as they’re all a bit naff. I’ll decide after it’s been flattened somehow….

Tuesday:
today…. WHITE RABBITS!!!!! well, it is the first of the month

So the reason it’s been so quiet around here is that I’ve spent most of the last fortnight in Turkey!

Basically my parents own a place over there on the mediterranean coast - this is because they’re not allowed to buy property in Kuwait - and so me and my sister pop across to visit every now and again.

This time we started out in Istanbul.

We stayed in the “Royal Quarter” which is the main touristy bit, a peninsular that reaches into the bosphorus from the European side. we did lots and lots of walking and visited:

* The Grand Bazaar
which is like an indoor market - but very large!

* The Blue Mosque
* The Yeni Mosque
The former was just around the corner from where we were staying. We were caught out on the first night as we went to eat too close to it, where the resturant were duty bound not to sell alcohol!
The latter translates as “New Mosque” which is a bit misleading…

* The Ayasofya
I *think* that’s how it’s spelled. The Ayasofya is an extremely old bulding (1400 years or so) which was originally a christian church, then a mosque (from around 1300 or so) .

When Ataturk dismantled the Ottoman Empire in the 1920’s \ 1930’s he made the state secular - which means that religion and politics are kept separate. The Christians claimed back the Ayasofya as theres, whilst the Muslims fought back pointing out that it’s been a mosque for aaaages. Ataturk took it off both of them and made it into a museum.

* The Galata Bridge
(though we didn’t cross it) - which is covered in people fishing.

* Taksim Square
where all the Liverpool fans celebrated the European victory.

* Huge Galatasaray flags on every street.
and 2 for Fenerbache and 1 for Bestikas - their local rivals.

* Topkapi Palace
(if you think the names familiar that’s because there are a myriad of curry houses called that too!)
This is where the Sultan lived… It’s huge! we took most of a full day to visit it.

* The Cisterns
Basically a huge underground structure where they kept all their water supply for seiges and the like. Quite impressive.

I think that’s it. We also “saw” some sort of column from Roman times - Well kind of, it was hidden behind piles of scaffolding as they went about their rennovations.

Istanbul is a huge city, but it’s quite fun to visit. The part we were in tended to be quite expensive (we once left a resturant before ordering after seeing their prices!).

Overall we were there for three days. Then it was on to Bodrum!

Bodrum was a much more relaxed affair, so I can run off what we did very quickly…

* Went to the beach (lots!)
* played some backgammon (I won!)
* played some boules (I lost!)
* Ate at some nice resturants
* Went on a boat trip around some of the Islands. (A regular excursion!)

And this year I didn’t even get sunburnt.

It was a fun trip, lasting 10 days in all.

The flight back took a long time (we set off at 230am turkish time, and arrived at 1230pm English time) due to the changover at Istanbul, and I had a nice surprise when I arrived back into Manchester airport.

that’s it!