StewBlog

Yes, I buried my useless Egg card underneath my patio today. The story behind this is long and I have already bored several people with it... I may get round to posting it on here at some point, but not just now, eh?
Some bugger is going to dig that card up in 10 years time and wonder what the hell it's doing there... Imagine going into your garden and digging up an Access card - you need to be of a certain age to remember those things as well...

Went to the Red Cow in Sandwich for a CSDM social. It started off very quiet but a few people turned up later on and i spoke to Jon for most of lunch.

Later on Leon called me to say that Harry was coming into Canterbury with his fiance. I met up with Leon, Yukari and Vicki in the Dolphin beer garden and Harry finally arrived with Carolyn; it was great to meet her finally. We discussed stool samples - apparently, Harry's mate went for a job where he needed to provide three stool samples over a period of time, so he sent one after a night on the beers, or something, one from a dog poo and one from his mate!

We all went on to Wagamama for dinner - I had yaki soba washed down with a Kirin Ichiban. We then went to the City Arms for a few beers as none of us had been in for ages. I was glad we went in there because I bumped into an old school friend of mine, PJ, Paul Jameson. He was out with his two brothers on the anniversary of their fathers death - they all seemed in good spirits though.

I made Jenny a CD for her birthday in the morning and then got on the train to London. Anne and I met in Paddington at around 2pm and bought some lunch for the journey. I wasn't really up to eating so I just had crisps. The journey to Worcester was long and when we got there I felt like a fish out of water - not used to leaving the comfort of Canterbury unless I'm off to a foreign land; I mentioned this to Annie. Anyway, we came out of the train station and I insisted on not looking at the map to find out which direction we were going in. We ended up getting a bit of an idea as we knew we needed to be near the cathedral. We passed Gregg and Helen in the street who appeared not to see/recognise us and walked straight past. We found the rather grimey Travelodge that we'd all booked into and happened across Gary checking in at reception. Anne, Gary and I went up to our rooms (next door to each other) and dumped the bags before heading out to find a nice pub to have a few quiet drinks in - not an easy task, it appears, in the centre of Worcester. We found somewhere half decent in the end and the others met up with us shortly afterwards. We all went on to Caffe Bolero at around 8:30ish. The place is great! Jenny and Ilir have done a very good job. We all tucked into a very nice buffet and supped wine and beer. There was a good band playing also although I wasn't in the mood for dancing. Things continued into the early hours - around 3ish, I think - I was pretty drunk by then and needed my bed.

I met Jonny, Andy and Nuala in the Blind Dog. Andy R was doing his usual MOV set in there. We moved onto the Cricketers Arms pretty soon (Jonny likes it in there for some reason). Anyway, some guys from the Monday night pub quiz were in there and Mirage, Marc, Emma and Ian came to join us after they'd been out for a meal in the Dolphin. The barmaid managed to do something unusual with the glass washer and it sprayed water all over the pub for about 5 seconds until they managed to sort it out. We ended up going to the Works; I was on the Vodka Red Bulls... again...

Jon and I were meant to go in the sea for a surf today, but neither of us were up for it. He and Georgina and I went down to the Godrevy Beach Cafe for a nice lunch. The fishcakes in there are excellent, but they'd run out by the time we got there, so I had cajun chicken with big fat wedges instead - Still good though. I flew back mid-evening to Stansted.

We got up late and lounged around with the Guardian before heading to Fowey and a great little cafe called Pinky Murphy's for lunch. We then drove back to Truro via a pub called the Britannia to watch the Grand National and see if any of our bets had come in that we had placed earlier on. Georgina won on an each-way bet! We went back home and prepared for the party. Jon and Helen's friends came round and we had drinks and snacks before going to a modern bar in town. A few of us then headed to Pippa's for more drinks and dancing. Rich was particularly drunk at the start of the evening and well and truely sozzled by the end - excellent stuff!

I took the Friday off work and made Jon a CD for his birthday in the morning before taking the train up to Stansted to catch my flight to Newquay. I bought Jon a Penguin 'make your own cover' book and stuck various pictures/articles from the days newspaper on it during the 45 minute flight. Jon came to meet me from Newquay airport in the new motor. We all kinda helped out in the kitchen to make pizzas and used Jon's new Pizza stone to bake it in the oven. Jon, Helen, Georgina and I then went to the One Eyed Cat for a few beers, then to another pub, I think, before the girls went home and Jon and I proceeded to the Loft (L2) for more drinks. We resisted the urge to drink rust nails - I wonder how...?

Annie and i got up quite late but had a really nice breakfast out on the 1 metre of decking that I'd managed to lay in the garden. The sun was shining and we scoffed toasted muffins with scrambled egg, rocket and parmesan cheese with sweet tomatoes. I had a double espresso and we tried some Italian almond biscottis that Annie had bought me for easter; they're great dipped in espresso! Later we went for a walk around town but there wasn't much open. We took a few photographs and also tried and failed to get hold of a smoothie and ended up in HaHa's for a bite to eat and a beer with the newspaper. We went home later and looked at and printed some photographs and ordered a takeaway from Lanna Thai before settling down to watch Napolean Dynamite.

Annie came down to Canterbury after work on the Saturday night. I went to meet her at Station Road West but was a little late as I was preparing one of my pizzas. I eventually caught up with her on the High Street and we went back home for dinner. We went out later on to the Cherry Tree, I think, or maybe the Blind Dog?

First visit to Carmen's Tapas restaurant. I was a bit early and had a beer at the bar whilst having a chat with Carmen. Anna, Vicki, Paul, Leon and Yukari all followed shortly and we sat down at a table in the window. Various discussions ensued on how we should order our food and in the end we got a mixture of dishes to share, including patatas bravas, tortilla, anchovies (the salty ones) and paella.