Bristol Weekend

A long weekend in Bristol with Fabs and Sam starts on Thursday as we head over to Paddington to grab the train out west. Just after lunch we text Fabia to check the plan for later and she reassures us that the weather there is great. It’s raining in London and we’re debating which jackets to take (light to carry, or prepare for rain). We go for the pessimistic option and take our rain jackets. This turns out to be a good move as when we get on the train in Paddington we get a text from Fabia saying that the rain has just hit them.

We spend the train journey playing with our new gadget gadget – a Kindle that we have bought that afternoon from JL. We love our books and that’s not going to change, but we decided to get one because it might mean an end to lugging 12kg of books in our hand-luggage every trip between the UK and Cairo and it’ll save weight travelling around Europe this summer. We’ve opted for the “3G" and wifi” one which although is a bit more expensive means we can access the internet for free (as long as Amazon keep it free). We open the box and generally agree it is awesome. We are sat in seats with a power socket, so we plug it in to give it a bit of a charge and then we are online and soon downloading all the free books we can find. Being able to access the internet too is amazing – it’s a bit clunky (like using the internet from a phone) but very usable when you’re out and about.

With all that we’re soon in Bristol and Fabs meets us off the train and we change platform to find the local train that will take us to her new house. Two stops and then we get off and start our little walk to their place. On the way we talk about what to make for dinner and as we are musing about this a building of yellow and blue comes into view; Ikea. Fabs and Sam haven’t visited Ikea since they moved into their first home – very different from us who visited Croydon Ikea something like once a month! Fabs and I get the food we need (and some other interesting Swedish delights) while Scott goes in search of a toilet seat (about a year ago we decided to try and make our place a little nicer in Cairo and one thing was that the toilet seat in the main/blue bathroom has a crack in it. The shape of this toilet is to unique though – long and thin – that even the manufacturers don’t stock seats anymore….but the size guide on the Ikea website suggests they do – in reality though Ikea’s seat is just normal size but with a larger back section for attaching to the toilet so it won’t do for our loo – oh well, we tried)

We don’t get far from Ikea when the rain hits us. It is proper ‘cats and dogs’ so despite our jackets we shelter in Pizza Hut Takeaway for 15 mins. Calls to Sam to rescue us don’t work but the rain lightens up a bit an we finish the walk to their place.  Their house is just brilliant – 3 bedrooms upstairs all well finished but the best is the extras of a large garden, double garage, large cellar, kitchen (and second living room) facing onto the garden via some decking. The cellar is just perfect for brewing and Sam is gradually getting it set up (having installed better lighting, electricity and some plumbed water in). The garden too is just great. Even though they’ve had the place for less than six months they’ve already managed to dig up half of the old lawn and turn it into a veg patch. Fab picks some peas for dinner and we pod them and have them fresh in a bowl on the table to pick from as we eat up our Swedish meatballs and gravy.

 

After dinner we head on a short walk to their local which is having a pub quiz tonight. They’ve landed a good one because the local isn’t only within walking distance and has a good quiz, but also is a great pub for ales and even has a ‘brewing circle’ meeting once a month that Sam goes to.

We aren’t as successful as we’d hoped on the quiz and come second from last (having scored as well on “soap operas” as we did on “rivers”!). Home and to bed as although we’re on holiday they have to work in the morning.

 

 

On Friday we head over to Bath to meet M&D and visit MJ and Mike for lunch. Fabs has said that the walk from theirs to the centre of town takes 30 minutes, but it takes us a fair bit longer so we opt for the train instead of the less regular and longer journey time of the bus. A bracing hike up the hill in Bath and we get inside just before the rain hits. The shower yesterday was strong, but the heaviest bit probably only lasted 20 minutes – today though the heavy showed lasts at least an hour without any real let up. Finally a break in the rain lets us get out for a walk. Well fed and refreshed we all get in the car to Bristol.

We have a quiet evening before race day and cook up a large pasta and bolognase to fuel Fabs on her 10km. Unable to have a day without a mental challenge we manage a round of Boggle  before bed.

 

 

The rain wakes us up early on Saturday as it is hammering down again. Not great at all to run in as the race is round a park and so will be on soggy ground. Sam takes Fabs off ready for the start and us four slowly get ourselves together and have breakfast before heading off to find a vantage point. All we know is that the race is in a certain park but we know nothing about the route. We get to the edge of the park and see some markers, but no runners. Mum jumps out to check and apparently this is the main turn in the race just after half way. we see a lone runner coming up and so our timing is perfect as none of the runners have been by yet which means we’ll catch Fab. It’s not long till she comes past and she’s doing really well in the top section of runners. The rain stopped about 30 mins before the race and so the temp isn’t too bad and being in the first half means the ground isn’t too bad. Fabs finishes in 51 mins which is a great time. We let Sam take her back to the house for a shower and to warm up (and warm down!) while we pop over to Gloucester Road to get something for lunch and visit the homebrew shop!

 

We have lunch outside as weather finally clears up and then we go and grab to head into the centre for the afternoon. Fabs came up with this idea about a month ago for an afternoon activity for us all; a pub crawl / pub quiz. We would visit six pubs and in each of the six pubs we’d have a round of a quiz. The group would be split into two teams and everyone would write one round of 8 questions (the person setting the round would sit that round out for some level of fairness!) What a great idea!

Pub 1 Seven Stars (CAMRA Bristol and District Pub of the Year). Round 1 Alice’s Local Places for Local People.

Nice pub on a dead end street in the business part of Bristol means that its very quiet outside. Inside is not so quiet because there is a guitarist playing folk tunes for the afternoon. We all grab a pint from the good range of ales they have on tap – Fabs has chosen wisely for our first pub as this place is a CAMRA classic. We buy in pairs as we’ve not quite worked out a round system. Dad orders a dark and mild which is a mix of two beers (well he ask me to order it and I refuse as it sounds weird, but he claims it’s perfectly normal).

This round includes two maps to label, one of the areas of Cairo and one of the areas of Bristol, then a question on the zones and stations on the Pic and Victoria lines in London. Fabs, Scott and Jim score highest only getting a few wrong, but this is only ascertained after Fabs gets her iPhone out to look at a map of the tube as I didn’t actually write down the answers for that question – I had hoped we’d be able to come to a general consensus about which stations were in which zones!

Pub 2 The Ostrich. Round 2 Fabia’s Things beginning with F

The sun has managed to push the rain firmly away and we’re glad that there is a choice of tables outside in the sun here. We all have a beer called the Mary Jane as it seems wrong not to!

Pub 3 The Orchard Inn (CAMRA’s Cider Pub of the Year). Round 3 Sam’s Pot Luck Round and Round 4 Jim’s General Knowledge Round

A bit of walk to get to this next pub, but well worth it. The walk takes us along the water-front past M Shed which is the home of the new Bristol museum. We are about to get a ride on the steam train which runs up and down the front but then realise that the end of the line will actually take us further from our destination! It’s nicely busy along the front but as we skip round the back of the SS Great Britain the crowds most definitely thin and soon we are alone walking down residential streets towards an unassuming pub that apparently is the CAMRA Cider pub of the year. Fabs hasn’t visited this place before and to be honest it looks a little dodgy, but she assures us that everyone she knows who has visited it has given it the thumbs up. Inside and we find that there is a crammed blackboard listing a dozen ciders and perrys that they have in barrel. If this wasn’t enough of a decision to make they also have half a dozen real ales!

Drinks in hand we are bamboozeled by Sam’s pot luck round which includes questions such as ‘what is the length of a brick?’ and ‘what is the total age of the six of us?’ This second question is one that both teams get the same answer which not only is incorrect, but we arrive at from two different sums! (Mum and I guess Sam is 28 and he’s only 27, but although Fab's’ team  get that figure correct Dad feels a year older than he actually is!) The best question though is ‘What is in my jumper?’ A low scoring round, but one that is a lot of fun.

We’re enjoying ourselves in the Orchard and so decide to stay here for the next round of the quiz and so grab a few more drinks and some nibbles. It turns out that the pub has homemade scotch eggs for a pound and it’s one-fifty for a pork pie. Yum!

Dad’s General Knowledge round is again low scoring due to it’s random nature and the fact that it seems to actually be an observation round based on things around Fabs and Sams house! ‘What’s on a McVities biscuit?’ ‘What are the ingredients in the toothpaste in the bathroom?’ ‘What do cabbage white butterflies actually eat?’ (we’d seen a cabbage white during lunch outside).

Pub 4 The Nova Scotia. Round 5 Net’s Quick Round. Round 6 Scott’s Bath and Bristol.

We drag ourselves out and on to the next port of call. The next pub was due to be the Cottage Inn which is a beautiful cottage on the water front which used to be the habour masters house. Sun (and beer) lovers have spilled out onto the steps that lead down to the water and we decide to skip this and keep walking to the next. The Nova Scotia was part of the initial plan, but Fabs had heard that it was closed and so it was taken off the route. As we’re leaving the Orchard though we pass a few of her colleagues who seem to be doing our route in reverse and have in fact just come from there!

Net’s quick round is one question with 9 answers for the 8 points; naming the countries that boarder Germany. A good question that both teams put their minds to. We finish the penultimate round neck and neck.

Scott is quizmaster on the final round with his Bath and Bristol questions that all have a twist. ‘What is the main liqueur in Bristol cream?’ and what is a ‘bathometer?’ Both teams score on different questions, but the result remains even. All square!

Pub 5 The Grain Barge (Home of the Bristol Beer Factory). Round 7 Net’s Fill in the Gaps.

While we’re at the Nova Scotia Fabs calls ahead to the Grain Barge to get us booked in for dinner. This is where the Bristol Beer factory brew and so we have a few pints of that while we eat some good and filling food. Before the food gets to us though we have a final ‘table round’ where we have to find something for each heading of; band, artist, composer, music genre for the letters B, R, I, S, T, O and L.

As we leave the Grain Barge not only have we just had a lovely dinner, but a great afternoon of quizzing, beer-ing, walking and fun.

 

 

On Sunday we get up after a little lie-in and have pancakes for breakfast while we wait for M&D to come back from a car boot sale in Bath. The weather has stayed fine and so we eat out on the decking in the sun. We decide to make the most of the nice weather and get some more fresh air before we drive back to London so head for a walk out from the house and onto a nearby path that leads to fields and a hill that overlooks the NE of Bristol.

We set off for London at about 2pm so Fabs and Sam have some times themselves this weekend to do things and to give us time too to get ready for Monday (we need to pack and mum has work). We discover that although the new car is great on fuel it is subtly smaller – meaning  we had to cram everything in or the journey toe MVR!

 

UPDATE Back in London and unpacking when I discover that we still have Fabia’s keys! Better post them back back to her tomorrow!

Richard Cheese

We’d “umm-ed” and “ah-ed” about getting tickets to this gig, but are very pleased now that we did  - what a great night!

We’ve been listening to Richard Cheese and his “Lounge Against the Machine” band for a good few years and often play their tracks on the radio and to friends to show how clever his stuff is – he is the original lounge / swing artist to do covers of pop and rock songs, and he is just brilliant at it. He manages to transpose the tune perfectly from a fast metal beat into a slow swing and then when he sings and you can actually hear the original lyrics it is just hilarious.

We’d heard about the gig after reading that Richard Cheese was playing at the royal wedding. We thought this was brilliant news and showed that the couple were a bit more down to earth than we’d thought. Dick was also advertising that they were recording a live CD there – which promised swearing and all! We were very excited about this prospect, but seeing the cost of tickets to their only UK gig (well, only UK gig that we were going to be able to go to!) we weren’t too sure. It was over 50 quid to be downstairs, but these tickets were soon sold out. Upstairs at the Kentish Town Forum and it was still 30 quid for unreserved seating and standing. That’s more than we pay for downstairs at most gigs and with this we’d be pretty far away. Obviously we decided to go for it in the end and the deciding factor was that as we weren’t going to Vegas in the near future this would be our only chance to see him.

 

He was as outrageous and rude as we’d hoped and he kept the songs coming – sometimes he’d only play the first verse and chorus of a song before going onto the next one. He had some great lines for the crowd though; when one guy started calling out songs and basically heckling, Dick Cheese replied “Sir, it’s OK. I have created what we call a ‘set list’ so we know what songs we’re going to play to save you the trouble of calling them out!” There were times when he took the mic and got down from the stage to wander around the audience. We’d managed to get pretty good seats for what we paid as they were in the first section of the balcony, but although we could have gone for second row here we went for sixth which was he only row with a backrest! Dick Cheese never made it up to the balcony but we managed to see most of what he was up to down below.

The evening progressed with top songs, Dick Cheese getting ever more drunk and rude words getting ever more prevalent (in the songs and his chatter). A note has to go out to the band though who were also just brilliant. It was so simple – a keyboard player, drummer and guy on bass. The bass player seemed the pro and he was pretty cool about the whole thing. The keyboard player though was having the time of his life and really getting into the tracks and the buzz of a London date after 7 years. He played the prefect lounge notes and just ‘looked’ like a lounge player should do – but was playing along to an incredibly drunk (not uncommon) and rude singer! The drummer seemed to be the rookie and was chastised a few times for missing Dicks punch lines with a “boom, boom” which caused Dick to say “Are you even working tonight?”

It turned out that actually a second gig was being played in the UK as they were playing “late Friday night” at Sonarsphere festival that weekend. They’d requested this slot so that they could have dinner, go to a bar, go to a whore house, go to a bar, go to a casino, go to a bar for breakfast and then sound check and play….at 11.30am on Saturday morning! Metal!

Don’t leave it so long next time, Dick! (and you could charge a little less for your tickets if you want )

OK so the photo to kind of the guy in front of us’ head – but you can see Dick!

Take That!

Two holidays ago were were up in dad’s study on the computer and spent the first part of a morning trying to log onto the Ticketmaster website. We gave up in the end as it kept timing out, but went back half an hour later to see that we had somehow managed to get through and did have standing tickets to Take That.

There was a huge hype around this tour because Robbie had re-joined the four-piece but we just wanted to go because we enjoy Take That! We booked four tickets and invited the Nogs to join us. Charlotte couldn’t get the time off work to come down from Stockport and so Eggnog and Stu joined us. We all met at Finsbury Park and then went back to MVR for a cup of tea before heading out. We needed to grab some food before getting to the gig and so we sought out the new Wetherspoons in Crouch End (where All Bar One used to be). We just wanted cheap and decent food quickly and the possibility of some good beer. We knew we could get all of these things, but  we weren’t sure though what the pub itself was going to be like. Somehow they have managed to totally turn around the clientele of All Bar One and now there is a focal point for the riff raff of Crouch End!

After a sweaty tube ride we got to Wembley and started to scope out where we wanted to stand. We managed to get near-ish the front on stage left and so stuck here (amazingly both Eggnog and I managed to find the group again after going off to the loo!).

Pet Shop Boys were on first – and it’s crazy in a way that they are a “support act”. We are dead excited as Scotty hasn’t seen them before. They come on and just get going straight away. It’s a 45 minute set and they get loads in; hits, videos, dancers and costume changes.

 

The Take That show is phenomenal. They just put on a show. A real show.

The concept of the concert is amazing and when you see the robot thing on stage sitting down you think “OK it can move its arms, but there’s no way it can stand up” the hydraulics must be awesome! It’s Take That as four-piece first and then Robbie comes on and he is just a showman – being bungeed onto stage twice and then flying over the crowd to touch hands! There are some brilliant theatrics; an Alice in Wonderland inspired scene early on, but then a chess match later which is just brilliant (can’t wait to get the DVD to re-watch it).

Just a really really great show and really really great night. There’s no question that we’ll be after tickets when they do their next tour!

4th July party

We can’t believe that it was a year ago that we were in the States – going to the rodeo and then setting off our own fireworks from the drive! The P’s were invited to a Fourth of July party at the house of our cousins and they managed to wangle an invite for us too (and then an invite for Fab when she realised she would be in London).

It’s not often though that you walk down the street and think “Which house is it again?” and this question is answered with “Oh, the one with the mariachi band playing on the roof”

As well as a mariachi band there was a Japanese duo – one singing and one playing a massive accordion that we were surprised wasn’t pulling her down more visibly. The food too was brilliant; it was canapés of course as every Chelsea garden party should have, but they were canapés version of American classics. Clever! First off there was shredded pastrami on a square inch of rye bread with a small bit of dill pickle and mustard balanced on top. This was very good. Then there was the peanut butter and spiced jam and we also had a fleeting glance at some steak on rye too. The best though was jackets potatoes and chilli. Somehow they had found tonnes of potatoes that were the size of a large gobstopper, baked these and then made a small cross in the top to add a teaspoon of chilli. They were very more-ish! Drinks kept flowing and for desert there was merangue with summer fruits and then chocolate brownie, again that were all enough for one mouthful.

It was lovely to see family there and we had a great time. We met a few people (including a guy who was fascinating to talk to about museums and history) but it was more fun just chatting ourselves.

 

Cambridge

We didn’t manage to get to Cambridge last summer, so we wanted to make sure we did this year. As we’re going to already be on our Europe trip when it is our anniversary we booked for a random night early in the holiday, but again at the Doubletree where we spent our wedding night.

We’d not booked the train, so arrived at Kings Cross and got our returns there – 30 quid each makes me think it has gone up a bit since we last did this, but we’re too old for student railcards now!  We eventually make it onto the train, and an hour later arrive Cambridge. It sounds silly but we love just walking around town and seeing what has changed (Richer Sounds is now on the opposite side of the street; they’ve knocked down the old BBC building near the station; Clinton Cards has shut) and what is still the same (all of those summer schools have started; over-priced tourist t-shirts; Heffers).

We visit both Emma and Christ’s. The colleges are officially closed for the summer, but I pop into the p’lodge at Christ’s and say I’m a graduate of the college so is it okay to have a look around. “You’re a graduate?” the porter replies “so who was the Master of the college?” Oh – a good question, they’ve obviously realised that a quick question like this will sort the members from the non-members. My mind goes blank for just a moment, but then it comes to me; Dr Alan Munroe (and I throw in a reference to his wife Mary for good measure). We wander about, but things are pretty much as they always were. New Court was refurbished a few years ago now and they added a small garden in front of it. The change this year though is that second court is finally habitable again after they refurbished these old rooms. The stone looks so good after the clean!  In Third Court we also saw the new tree that we read about in Christ’s Pieces magazine – the old one was diseased so needed to be removed.

Next we go to Emmanuel and here we go to the Chapel first as we can see the door is open. Entering the chapel we both get a buzz and excited feeling. My heart is in my throat and it all rushes back to me – remembering what it was like to take that first step up (over the grate where I could have easily lost a heel!) and onto the tiled floor to meet Scott waiting at the altar. We enjoy and reminisce and then the other man viewing the chapel starts to talk to us. It turns out that he too is an Emmanuel graduate (from the 1970’s) and we talk about the chapel and the good times of being a student here. He talks a bit about the am-dram stuff he used to do when here and we then find ourselves talking about old Emmanuellites. He confides an odd link that he will be playing one of them in a drama production about the King James Bible, and that he also wrote the screenplay! We’ll keep an eye out for him on the telly then! Walking around the college it is the hive of activity that it becomes every summer with the summer schools in residence (and, we realise, the recent graduates only just moving out as last week was graduation week), the ducks patrolling the waterside and the odd tourist getting their camera out at the main gate to take a photo of the iconic Wren chapel.

Back at the hotel and we collapse a little from all our walking. When I made the booking I slipped a note into the “any requests” box saying it was our anniversary, so we have two small complimentary bottles of wine waiting for us. We take these and the glasses down to the lawn bar outside the hotel next to the river, and sup these before we head to The Chop House for dinner.

It must have been in some magazine of the Grauniad where I’d read about this new restaurant in town and how it served good kegged beer and very decent grub. We ask for a table in the window rather than downstairs to take advantage of the light evening. Nothing grabs us at first from the starters, but then we see a cheese board is a possible starter so we decide to share that. We muse about having one of the steaks or chops for a main (we are in the chop house after all!) but Scott goes for the special which is a beef wellington and I go for ale braised beef.

We munch on the nice bread and cheese which has come with some apple and then little pickled onions (for boys) and gherkins (for girls). The blue cheese is good without the taste being overpowering. When the main comes we are ready for it and they look like good sized portions. It is only after we are about 15 minutes into eating that I realise there is half a side of beef hidden under the bone and so my portion suddenly becomes massive, and Scott has managed to get through the pastry on his beef and sees the size he too has to tackle to finish. The sauce is lovely and rich and both of us are also enjoying the beers we’ve chosen too, but we only just make it through our mains. They are lovely and we are gutted that there is no way we can have a dessert as we’re sure they would have been very tasty too.

On Monday morning the weather is still glorious so we go for a bit of a walk around town again (even though are feet are aching as for some reason we both decided to wear new shoes for this trip!). We get onto Jesus Green, to Christ’s Boathouse (no one there), Jesus Lane and Christ’s Pieces. When we get to Parker’s Piece we rest on the grass and relax for a while. It is so lovely being back.
As we get the train back to London we agree that if there were any jobs going around Cambridge when we looking to move, we would most definitely go for them. We also indulge in our little dream of if we can afford to put a deposit down on a new house maybe we would try and find a small one in Cam (we could rent it out to student tenants for 10 months of the year and could use it ourselves in the summers). You never know!

Cecil Sharp House

This evening mum had a concert at Cecil Sharp House – this is where she does her weekly choir and this was the end of year concert for all the groups who rehearse there.

Mum and I had spent the morning shopping and browsing around in Covent Garden and then Scotty and I spent the afternoon down near Guildford for Prebs’ leaving drinks. A nice pub with some decent beer and lovely weather to be outdoors next to a body of water. Scotty stayed Guildford-way to see Shreeve in the evening as I headed back in to London and to Camden.

A text I receive as I walk up Camden Road tells me that dad is in the Dublin Castle. It’s odd to see this place again after last coming here properly when I was in Sixth Form. There are loads of bands on the bill and some of them will make it I’m sure, but some of them will be the quality of Skip Tracer and The Just…. Dad and I grab something to eat in Pizza Express together and then head to CSH.

The concert is a great mix of all the groups that are associated with CSH and varies from Beginners Accordion and Beginners Fiddle to the Intermediate group, then a Folk Group of student musicians and some visiting groups (the group that goes down very well with the audience are the step dancers). It’s amazing to think that a lot of the performers have only been playing their instruments for the last year, or maybe two years – good on them for deciding to learn a new instrument as an adult and not only sticking with it, but also performing. Mum’s choir is on last and they sing some great some a capella and with one of the Fiddle groups. One song is a right tongue twister but it sounds brilliant.

The random (or maybe not so random) connection of the night is that the accordion tutor is one half of Balshazar’s Feast alongside Paul Sartin from Bellowhead! I text Scott his classic joke (“We’re now going to play a piece that was written in 1752…..which is a right bugger of a time signature!”) and then he introduces the Intermediate Accordion players first piece with another “We’re going to play ‘Down in Yonder Bushes’…..but first we’ll play one here!”

Just last week mum’s CSH choir played another concert here, but that one was actually with Jon Boden and most of Bellowhead (in various guises, rather than as a single group)!!! It was to celebrate completing his Folk Song A Day project. When we found out about the concert we were so jealous that we wouldn’t be back in time to see it. Mum and dad tell us thought that it was brilliant and now they are very up for seeing Bellowhead play again

Fish and Chips

One discussion we had on the way to the airport was “what meal is it that we really want to have because we can’t get it in Cairo?” Previously winners of this title have been roast dinner, cheese, biscuits and port, steak and ale pie and then of course sausages. This time though the meal of choice was fish and chips.

We settled on this because food at the BCA is actually meeting a lot of our ex-pat needs as they have a really good range of sausages now and they do good pies. Also, with it being summer we aren’t as much in need of a roast dinner compared to how we feel in colder times.

So it’s Friday night and we head down to the chippy in Tollington Road with an order of two haddock, four cod and five chips (R&J fancy haddock and apparently the chip portions are huge so we don’t need six servings). Scott gets into the queue (it’s Friday night so I guess we expected a queue for fish and chips!) and I head over to Tesco to pick up some peas that we’ll cook up when we’re home. When I get back to him he’s at the front of the queue, but not looking too happy about it. It seems that they were running low on haddock and so put some more onto cook. Whilst this was cooking they got on with filling other orders where they could. Haddock now ready and they have run out of cod though! So on goes the cod and we wait another 15 minutes. Just as the cod is nearly ready it looks like chip supplies are in the danger zone and we’re ready to start ranting. Luckily though there are just enough and we get our order. Phew!

So, fish, chips, mushy peas and some beer make a nice dinner eventually. (We still can’t get used to it being so light until well past 9pm!) Conversation turns to mushy peas and the discovery is that even though when you make mushy peas from scratch you need to rehydrate dried marrowfat peas – you can’t make them directly from fresh marrowfats.