Weekend Debrief......

[Steve Lake]

Bluddy good weekend.....started on friday evening with a party of 12 round ours, (it's a sort of round robin thing we do with friends, where we eat and drink as much as we can of someone elses comestibles)
SWMBO did a wonderful nosh.....I play Johnny to her Fanny (if you'll pardon the expression) on these occasions, and dish up the nibbles, splash round the beer and wine etc and wash up afterwards, a great evening of silliness and in bed by 2 with dear Fanny:-)

saturday soon arrived, and wheeled out trusty #4 (blue SRX, and no, I havn't sold it yet!) for a run into Norwich to pick up some spares for Fanny's car....this is a good excuse to call in to the Fat Cat (possibly the best pub in the world, having won the camra award twice, and with over 30 real ales on tap who can doubt it)
Home for a late lunch then spend the afternoon under beloved's car fixing the rear brakes. Saturday evening saw us at a friends helping him celebrate his 60th and with SWMBO driving in her now wonderfully serviceable car I confess I got a bit pished.

Sunday morning arrived with me feeling less than perfect...I put this down to the drink....but by mid-morning was feeling worse....it's now obvious I have Man Flu....bu55er!.... still....I bravely get off my deathbead and chainsaw up some logs and then split them in readiness for the long cold winter we are supposed to be getting??....followed by a very nice tea of party leftovers, thankfully they left me with several pints of Pale Rider....a most excellent remedy for Man Flu type things....sat in front of the telly with Classic Bike (nice bit about Goodwood, which i went to this year).......and Whoa!! SWMBO is kicking me....it's bedtime.......

[guest7]

Quiet weekend at Castle Carrick. Mostly spent in the company of the family.

On Saturday night RobG and family, and some neighbours of ours came over for a another attempt at letting off fireworks. We had a jolly time and the kids had a good play too.

Yesterday I had to take #3 child to a party, but as usual I ended up talking shop with the other tradesman dads. My brother called over early afternoon to pick up some underlay and carpet for our sidecar project (see posting in 'Projects' forum), about two hours later he called me up to say he'd sent pictures of the stuff fitted!  He's taking it very seriously indeed.

And today, it's back out into the rain for work 
GC

[robG]

What Graham has left out is that my son saw fit to show everyone the contents of his stomach and emptied same onto the living room carpet .

Graham , was as you would expect of him , nothing but courteous and dismissed the whole thing. We obvously had to leave early.
Thanks old boy , hopefully the old man won't do the same on the weekend .
 

[steveD]

I got far too wet and drank far too much beer!
http://www.xt225.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=40541#Post40541

[jules]

I got far too wet and drank far too much beer!
http://www.xt225.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=40541#Post40541

Looks like you had a lot of fun there Steve,respect to the guy on the in line four

[robG]

I got far too wet

Steve , is n't there a pattern emerging here ?

[squirrelciv]

Not the best of weekends for me  I've got exams this week and the weekend was spoilt by having to revise. You'ds have thought at 44 I was past all that, but no Tried to take some of my frustration out with a game of squash on saturday, but got beat which didn't improve my mood. Next part of the 'cheer myself up' plan was a pint and a sit down curry with friends. All was going well until the phone call from the child minder to say No#2 son had thrown up all over the bathroom! (must be a bug about hey RobG) Early home to nurse poor son and relieve a worried looking teenager. Woke up Sunday and low, I'm feeling the beginnings of whatever is troubling No#2 son The rest of the day is spent in self sorrow while me and No#2 cream our ailments for all their worth and hog the telly.
Only good bit arrived Sunday afternoon, when I felt brave enough to finish off the painting of Abigails tank. Not a bad effort if I say so myself. Good enough to be seen out, bad enough to let people know it's all my own work Well I wouldn't want people to think I'd just paid to get my bike done would I.
Photos to follow, but in the mean time think Flash Gordon meets Glam rock! Going to be a head turner, especially with me on board in matching leathers!

Anywho, one exam down, another to go (Wednesday) and still feeling sh1t! Heyho!

[mini-thumper]

Talking of feeling sh*t, the excitement (it's nearly an anagram of it anyway) of my weekend was unblocking a backed-up sewer. As it turned out it wasn't as bad a job(ie) as it could have been, and only took a few hours to rod through. Both my neighbours weren't happy with the special eruptions from their storm drains, but at least they didn't have to pay. Happy days!

After visiting a disappointing painting exhibition (really just an excuse for a coffee and a cake) spent Sunday afternoon sorting my camping kit as it seems to have flung itself all over the garage. Might have got it under control by next Friday.

Boyd

[guest24]

Le Jupiler bier est tres bon! Ma femme et moi visite Bruxelles en Belgium.

And that's enough pidgin French. It didn't work there, and it doesn't work here. Anyway, translation. Me and me bird hit Belgium Friday afternoon and rolled home Sunday evening. Superb. Went by train all the way. We live next to Hackbridge train station, so it seemed a little daft (and a lot more aggro
+ cost to fly) to go any other way. Straight to Victoria, change to the underground to St Pancras and the the Eurostar nonstop to Brussels. 4 hours door to door. Actually 5 hours as their clocks are wrong and I had to adjust my watch. Outrageous.

Very interesting place Brussels with too much to see in a weekend, so we may go visit again. Biggest bugbear is the Gare Midi station is also known as Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid. Bit confusing as they speak French and Flemish and English and seem to name everything at least twice.

Gastronomically its quite exciting - we tested a few cafes and restaurants. Deux cafe et deux croissants s'il vous plait gets what you want including a response in English. Are we English that easy to pick out of a crowd?

Took Monday off to recover from the train lag and got to go play with my bike. Finally attached the disk lock bag to the rack so I don't have to keep it in my rucksack. Oiled the chain and kicked the tyres. Wondered about washing it and then me bird announced it was lunch, so that was it.

[trophydave]

Are we English that easy to pick out of a crowd?

It would seem that we are.We went to Berlin a few years ago.My wife speaks good German.In a cafe she ordered a couple of drinks for us,then she went off to look around for a few minutes leaving me behind.I have not spoken to anyone at this point.The waiter comes up to me with two coffees and asks,in English,if I want a spoon.How did he know?

[Andy M]

Are we English that easy to pick out of a crowd?

It would seem that we are.We went to Berlin a few years ago.My wife speaks good German.In a cafe she ordered a couple of drinks for us,then she went off to look around for a few minutes leaving me behind.I have not spoken to anyone at this point.The waiter comes up to me with two coffees and asks,in English,if I want a spoon.How did he know?

Fashion I am told is the big givaway. In the same way as Londoners can spot an American (it's not quite Hawaian shirts and checked trousers, but you can spot them), Europeans in tourist cities can spot the Brits by our short hair, T-shirts and jeans. The other big givaway is our reaction to bars. If you wait to be asked to sit down or walk straight up to the bar and ask for beer, you might as well wear your football shirt and start a chorus of three-nil.

I guy I half know in Amsterdam showed us as follows:
First guy: walks in, sits down, reads menu, greeted and answers in Dutch.
Group of ten: walk in, sit down, "foreman" imeadiately calls for barman: told to wait a minute in German.
Guy and a Girl; Girl goes straight to toilet, guy hovers and pretends to be looking at choice of beers: told to **** off in French.
Three guys in Football shirts: walk straight to bar and ask for five pints in Sarf London accents; Asked who the other beers are for (mates are off with dodgy women, back in a minute etc.)
Guy in his twenties wearing rain coat and flat cap: asked where in the US he's from, turns out to be Canadian.

So, 4 1/2 out of 5 for the barman.

Andy


Andy

[trophydave]

Ah,that explains it.We had walked straight up to the bar to order our drinks.No football shirts though.