StewBlog

Met up with Jonny, Nuala, Vicki and Matt in Bramley's for a few quiet drinks... There was some discussion of snowboarding and Budapest next year so we'll see what happens there... We bumped into the remnants of the International dinner and drinks evening and all moved on to the Cuban for, mostly, mohitos!

I met Leon in the Cherry Tree and we sat in there all night putting songs on the juke box and drinking Murphy's until we were unceremoniously kicked out...

Some of my staple Cherry Tree tunes:

David Bowie - Rebel Rebel
David Bowie - Oh, You Pretty Things
The Beatles - Come Together
Happy Mondays - Step On
Stone Roses - Love Spreads
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
KC & the Sunshine Band - That's The Way I Like It
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Suck My Kiss
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Funky Monks

Rather late going out tonight after a very lazy day, but I caught up with Jonny, Andy, Mark, Emma and a few other guys from work in the Old Buttermarket Inn - not my favorite pub in Canterbury... After quite a stint in there we moved round the corner to Casey's. It was Susie's last night in Canterbury before heading off to Australia for 6 weeks so she was having a few leaving drinks. Bumped into James and Laura in Casey's and various other folk. Later on, we went to the Old Brewery Tavern, which, for once, was packed on a Friday!

I pre-booked 5 tickets to see 6:15pm showing of The Darjeeling Limited at the Screen on Baker Street. John, Chie, Gav and Kyle had already arrived at the cinema by the time I got there and were having a beer in the little bar downstairs.

I enjoyed different aspects of this latest offering from Wes Anderson because I'm already familiar with his camera style, dialogue and cast from Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. The movie is set in India mostly, abord the Darjeeling Express train bound for the foothills of the Himalayas, I think? Anyway, the scenery is fantastic - it really makes me want to head out to India! My favorite scene of the movie is towards the end when the camera pans through the train peering into all of the compartments, each of which depicts a scene referencing earlier threads in the movie... The attention to detail is incredible.

We moved on to a Korean restaurant, Asadal, next door to Holborn tube station for food and met a rather sozzled Leon in there. We had various incarnations of Kimchi to start with and the kimchi pancakes which came out later were brilliant! The bibimbap and Korean barbecue were a little disappointing, although half saved by some nice marinated ribs. We had a few Hites but started on the Jinro soon after which was to become a theme for the night... OOOhhh...

After dinner we managed to sniff out a vacant karaoke box in Assa, just opposite Tottenham Court Road Tube Station, so we spent an hour and a half in there, drinking OB and more Jinro!

John kindly caught Leon and Gav's rendition of 'True' on video, which he promptly posted onto YouTube:

Met Leon by Costa Coffee and we went down into the dimly lit basement of Mauresque for North African style tapas... Tabbouleh Salad, Merguez Sausages, Chorizo in red Wine, Hoummus and Flat Bread, Olives and Feta Cheese, Lamb Meat Balls and a few other bits all washed down with a few bottles of Casablanca, a light Moroccan beer.

We wandered around the corner afterwards to a newly opened bar in Canterbury, Bramley's, which used to be the Oddfellows Social Club. The decor inside is pretty unique - Retro 1950s, I suppose you'd call it with floral wall paper, functional floor standing lamps, a piano and velour three piece suites in green and floral.
Leon and Vicki seemed pretty impressed with the cheese menu, so I think we're all gonna head in there one Sunday for cheese, cold meats and wine.

MJ and I dragged ourselves out of our beds at about ten to nine and went out to get breakfast in the B&B. The dining room was really nice and the spread was excellent. I had cereals, toast, tea, juice, cooked breakfast and some homemade preserved apricots which were lovely!

We checked out and had a bit of time before the tour of the physics department so we walked around the town for a while. It's compact, set inside a horseshoe bend in the River Tyne; the people are really pleasant too and the city itself is quite picturesque... It was misty though so I didn't feel like taking many photos.

I enjoyed our tour of the department but it wasn't as involved as the tour at Oxford because it wasn't specifically an open day. We had lunch in the Union bar with another prospective student we'd met on the tour.

In the afternoon, a load of people gathered inside an ancient lecture theatre in the administration building to listen to a short talk about the university and colleges followed by an animated, tale-fuelled tour of the university, which dominates the city. If I remember rightly, a fifth of the population of Durham are students at the university!

I caught the train to Durham with MJ in order to attend their university open day on Wednesday. The journey was pretty smooth - Just changed at London and got on the fast(ish) GNER service to Durham which only stopped at about 5 places on the way. Took near enough 3 hours. I was hoping to use their WiFi service but I didn't realise that you had to pay for it (£2.95 for 30 minutes - too much, huh?)
When we arrived, it was raining horribly so we jumped in a taxi to the Cathedral View Bed & Breakfast and went straight to bed...

Drove over to Whitstable with Karen for a walk along the beach. I managed to collect a few bits of driftwood which I'm hoping I will be able to turn into a photo frame, possibly to go in the bathroom... We walked through the harbour to the Hotel Continental for hot drinks and lunch. I had their oysters Rockefeller (grilled with creamed spinach, ham and cheese) which were excellent! Definitely going back for more of those soon!

http://www.hotelcontinental.co.uk/hotel/view

Got the following text from Hoppo at about 8:30pm

'We're in the Cherry Tree. Fact.'

So I went down there at 9 to meet Big Stew, Scott and Hoppo. Predictably, we went on to Casey's, the Old Brewery Tavern and eventually The Works (which was terrible again)! Really must stop going to that place...

I went round to Leon and Yukari's for dinner - A nice chilli with coriander and rice etc. Had a look at the photos from Egypt and tried on Leon's Egyptian-wear that he bought out there!

Played a game called Portal for about half an hour after dinner which was fun. You use a gun to generate entry and exit portals into which you walk/run/leap in order move from one area of the game to another - Gets more challenging as you complete each section.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(video_game)

Later on, Leon and I went to the Cherry Tree for beers (still no juke-box!) then onto Alberrys (which was lame) and finally to The Works, who, thankfully, wouldn't let us in! Went back to mine for a few more beers instead.

Further team building in Strada. We had a load of mixed starters, including some nice olives and pesto bread. I had the Linguine alla Pesce as my main, which was good, but not as nice as Little Italy's Zuppa di Pesce! I had an unusual Sicilian Spirit from the digestif menu, but I can't remember what the thing was called now... Slightly herbal anyway...

We had a team-building afternoon at the bowling alley in Margate as three of the guys were over from the US. There were twelve of us split into two teams and competing to see which team could achieve the highest combined score. I was on the losing side both times, which is no surprise as I'm appalling at bowling. I scored 98 in the first game and 75 in the second game.
Elke surprised us all with 4 strikes and a spare in a row in her first game with a rather unusual technique which involved flipping the ball slightly forwards out of the back of the hand so that it rolled very slowly but also very accurately down the middle of the lane...

Oooohhh, struggled to get up this morning and only packed at the last minute before James arrived at 9am to pick me up. We drove round to collect Paul and made pretty good time to Gatwick South Terminal. We met up with all the boys (and Suzie), checked in and parked down in a restaurant - I don't like Gatwick South Terminal at all... Anyway, beer drinking ensued - as well as a spot of breakfast. Somebody commented that this was about as good as we were going to feel all holiday - I wondered if this would be true... I laid off the beers on the flight but almost everyone else laid into them! Double brandies, wine, beer etc... On arrival at Barcelona airport, we decided to hang around for the guys flying in from Dublin and then all got in taxis to 14-15 Nou de la Ramblas, which would be our home for the next 4 days.
After a quick freshen up, we headed out and just down the road to an English pub called The Red Lion, which was terrible - full of Rangers supporters from the game the night before eating plates of chips... We swiftly moved out onto Las Ramblas and sat down in a restaurant on the pedestrian terrace with very large beers and ordered dinner... To be continued...

It's Dazza's 30th birthday on Friday so he's organised a trip to Barcelona for a group of 16 of us! We're flying out tomorrow from Gatwick in the early afternoon. The forecast is looking great with the temperature topping 19 degrees all weekend, so I'd better pack some T-shirts! We're staying in two apartments next door to each other just off Las Ramblas, so pretty central. I've been to Barcelona once before a few year ago now, but I'd like another look at Gaudi's Park Guell and the amazing Sagrada Familia... Apart from that, it'll probably be rather a boozy weekend, although we're hoping to get in a spot of beach football as well...

We won the pub quiz in the Dolphin last night by a slender one point. Our team name usually has some reference to something that one of us has got up to during the week, so last night, in homage to my firework party on Friday, we were called Stew Let One Off. As usual, the winning prize was one of those Oxfam goats, which Mirage and Marc have now, by the power of magnetism, attached to their fridge ...

It was MJ's 18th birthday today so my brothers and I along with two of MJ's mates, Joe and Carl, went to Go Ape! in Bedgebury Forest just past Tenterden if you're coming from East Kent. It involves climbing trees, sliding across high wires, crawling through tunnels, crossing various types of rope bridges, walking planks and taking zip lines down to the ground, Krypton factor style, for anyone who remembers the classic 80s TV show. Lots of fun and pretty tiring after a night on the beers, I can tell you...

People slowly drifted over to mine and everyone had arrived by around 7:30 so I got the barbecues lit and we (Gav, mostly) cooked aberdeen angus beef burgers, chorizo sausages and some chicken sausages, which were all fantastic! Mirage also brought some parkin and bonfire toffees and I sliced some chestnuts and popped them on the barbecue to cook slowly on the red-hot embers...

With some trepidation, I placed the first rocket in the smallest of three launch tubes which Gav and I had set up earlier and which Jonny wisely pointed out should be angled away from the house... Without further ado, the fireworks began and after several sparkler breaks (we had many, many sparklers to use up and I still have some left!) we were still going with them... A minor incident involving fireworks falling over and spraying sparks across the patio brought an additional air of drama to proceedings before the final, frighteningly proportioned rocket, Polaris, was paraded through the garden and placed in the largest launch tube to the song Live and Let Die (The Wings version). I love the noise rockets make when they take off and this one certainly 'Whooshed' as it climbed and arced in the sky over towards The Old City Bar before doubly exploding - Fantastic!

We went on the Loft for cocktails and then into Alberrys to round off a very entertaining evening...

Myself, Paul, Anil and Penny shared a Khurzi lamb