StewBlog

Just bought my ticket for this today! Better still, I can walk home afterwards rather than camping as it's only up the road - Cool!

Matty and I went on a little bike ride today. We took a route round the Rheims Way, along Wincheap and down Tonford Lane, then up the hill to the edge of Bigbury Woods. We biked around the muddy footpaths in there for a while before coming out of the woods near to Vernon Holme school. We made our way up to The Plough in Upper Harbledown for a spot of lunch only to find that it's under new management, as of last Saturday, and the kitchen isn't on-line yet... So, we cycled back over the A28 and into Harbledown to find that the Old Coach and Horses had closed their kitchen at 2pm as well! All-in-all a nice little trip out on a Saturday afternoon, but I was really looking forward to a pub lunch...

The next disc arrived from LoveFilm yesterday so that's pretty much decided what I'm going to be doing this evening, especially as I'm still slightly jaded from last night's endeavours...

I jumped off the bus from work and joined Leon and Brian in the Dolphin. They had already acquired the Risk! board and were waiting for me to arrive to set up a game. It was rather an old version of the game (circa mid 70s) so the board looked a bit different and the pieces were a bit odd as well. There was no clear definition where Alaska joined Asia on the other side of the board, but after some deliberating, we settled on Kamchatka. In addition, there was a lengthy discussion about the order of merit of the military icons on the cards but we eventually established the following hierarchy from lowest to highest:

Infantry -> Cavalry -> Artillery

I went for the brown pieces, Leon went for yellow and Brian chose blue, upon which, battle commenced! Yukari joined us for a little while but it was quite an involved game and it was all talk about that. We all had rather a nice dinner though and carried on with the game afterwards. Fast forward to midnight and the game had not significantly progressed - We each roughly took up around a third of the world so the game was declared a draw (whilst I was in the gents) and we made a fateful decision to head to The Works which was as empty as I have ever seen it...

Firstly, I can't iterate enough what a thoroughly enjoyable hour of television this was. I had prepared for the occasion with a tender beef stroganoff and popped the top off of an ice cold beer at 8:59pm in anticipation...

Having eyed their profiles beforehand, the candidates weren't new to me but I was keen to see how the predictions in my earlier blog post would pan out. Immediately, Nicholas annoyed me, barking on about his qualifications and his disappointment at obtaining only a 'B' grade in one subject - check. Raef, in contrast, rather amused me with his bizarre haircut and his unashamed pomposity - check.

Onto the business end of things. The task this evening was to sell £600 worth of wholesale fish at one of four London Markets. Sir Alan divided the candidates by gender and both groups of eight set about choosing a team name and a project manager. The girls team, led by Claire, took the name Alpha and the boys team, lead by Alex, took the name Renaissance.

Both teams donned white wellington boots and chose, independently, to set up shop in Chapel Market, Islington. However, the girls arrived considerably earlier and bagged a prime spot leaving the tardy boys floundering (no pun intended).

The first task was simple in my view; identify the fish in each of the boxes... They were even given a large laminated booklet with named pictures of all of the fish, so it was something of a primary school exercise really - Raef managed to mess it up though and mis-identified 3 types of fish, although he only recalled mis-identifying one type of fish in the boardroom and was quickly corrected by the ever-vigilant Margaret Mountford.

Nicholas was charged with pricing, which, if I'm totally honest, I would be rather hopeless at as I rarely look at the prices of anything when I go supermarket shopping - I just buy things that look nice (M&S Cheese Knot Rolls) and ignore things that look nasty (Cheese and Onion Pasties). Having said that, surely all he had to do was add 50% to the wholesale price of everything to get into the right ball park? Also, if I saw whole Lobster on sale priced at £4.90... each, as the boys did, I would buy them all and move on somewhere else to sell the things myself!

After hours of chaotic, disorganised fishmongering - the highlight for me being Simon's efforts to bisect an eels head with repeated cleaver blows - the teams returned to the boardroom for the verdict. The profit margins were laughably low from both teams but the girls won by about £100 and were sent back to the (very large) house for a meal cooked by Jean Cristophe Novelli; the boys meanwhile were given a typically thorough dressing-down by Sir Alan before being sent to a local greasy spoon for a meal cooked by Lyndsey from Crystal Ski (See previous Alpe d'Huez posts).

In the end, Alex brought Nicholas and Raef back into the boardroom and after an embarrassingly paltry defence for somebody who is supposed to be a barrister, including some inane babble about enjoying the arts and not football, Nicholas was awarded a big 'F' grade by Sir Alan - Oh, the irony - and sent packing.

Despite several of France's top players being ruled out at the moment, including Henry, Benzema and Viera it'll still be a tough test for England in the Stade de France tomorrow evening, not least because a number of our players were involved in two big Premiership games on Sunday. However, it'll be interesting to see how Mr. Capello organises the side, given that almost everyone is available for selection. Beckham will surely get his 100th cap, but it looks almost certain that Terry will take the captain's armband after losing it to Steven Gerrard. Capello seems keen to try a few players in the role prior to the World Cup qualifiers later in the year.

Prediction: 1-1 with goals from David Trezeguet, who scored for Juventus on Saturday and is currently topping the leading scorers table in the Italian league; and Wayne Rooney, who was unlucky not to get a goal on Sunday.

The movie is almost exclusively shot in a deserted Manhatten where Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the sole survivor of an apocalyptic viral outbreak, trying desperately to maintain his own sanity whilst conducting research into a treatment to save mankind - No pressure then.

It appears that the virus, with an exceptionally short incubation period, causes humans to undergo a genetic mutation turning them into hairless, ultra-aggressive, photophobic cannibals. Therefore, our hero potters around during the day with his alsation, Sam, and locks himself inside his fortified house, 11 Washington Square, from dusk till dawn, to avoid being eaten alive.

The footage of many of New York's famous landmarks overgrown with months of weeds and trees shows that CGI can work very well - It was very believable and I guess this is one of the main things that held my interest.

All-in-all, I'm glad I watched this but I certainly won't be watching it again. I'm not sure hows things are wrapped up in the book, but the ending of the film was rather poor, I thought...

On Wednesday night the first episode in a new series of The Apprentice will begin, following another group of sixteen hopefuls in a bid to secure a one year, £100,000 contract working for Sir Alan Sugar.

I'll be following the action and posting my thoughts each week. To begin with, I'm going to stick my neck out and make a few predictions, based on hunches from reading the candidate's profiles on the BBC One website...

Most annoying: Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, who added the 'de Lacy' Moniker himself because he thought it made him sound more sophisticated - What a loser!

Most likely to get to the final episode: Jenny Celerier, who fought menengitis and has combined a successful sales career with bringing up her son as a single mother - A born fighter.

Most likely to go in the first episode: Simon Smith, who says 'I'm too soft at times - I fall for the little old lady factor.' Not exactly a winning mantra, is it?

Most likely to back-stab/turn bitchy: Lucinda Ledgerwood, who I reckon will do 'anything' to win this. She's just got that Ice Queen look about her and I don't like it one bit.

Most entertaining: Raef Bjayou, who includes acting, lawn tennis, antiquarian book collecting and cognac among his interests.

I'm looking forward to re-appraising my initial thoughts, so roll on Wednesday!

The name for our new Rock Band, on Rock Band, formed today!

1973 saw the launch of R White's most famous advertising campaign, ‘The Secret Lemonade Drinker’, which remained on screen until 1984. The ad featured a man in striped pyjamas creeping downstairs to raid the fridge for R White's Lemonade. Ross McManus - the father of singer Elvis Costello - wrote and sang the original song, with his teenage son, providing backing vocals. The ad won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival.

Met Vijay, Leon and Brian at Canterbury West Station and we boarded the late 18:59 train to Ashford. It seemed to take forever to get there! Anyway, we finally arrived and met up with another of Leon's workmates, Vic, and we made our way into town and to a bar called Three Zero, where Natalie joined us a little later on...

Leon mentioned that he'd bought some Aussie Bums and was keen to show me them... Looks like they've launched a few new things so I'll have to check out the website again.

I asked the girls what they thought about this fashion of wearing really high belts and they decided to have a go themselves, just so we knew what we were all talking about...

They had some kind of happy hour on until 10 o'clock where cocktails were on a two-for-one offer so we stayed in Three Zero for the first part of the evening and finally met up with the girl whose leaving party it was in another bar a bit later.

Leon and I made our way to Liquid and the other guys joined us later.

Early Bird tickets have just being released for Lounge on the Farm, to be held just outside Canterbury at Merton Farm on 11, 12, 13 July. The line-up is quite sparse at the moment but it'll definitely pick up in the next few months...

http://www.loungeonthefarm.co.uk/index.php

I missed it last year but I'm definitely gonna make it in 2008!

Well, it's the last day of work now before the Easter break and I fully intend getting on the 3 o'clock bus out of here. That does mean I have lots to do before I leave so I'll probably have to skip lunch.

If all goes to plan the long weekend should begin with a night out in Ashford this evening. I haven't been out there since I was in my teens so it'll be interesting to see if I recognise anything or anyone. The plan is to end up at Liquid nightclub which used to be called Flatfoot Sams and Cales many years ago. Leon assures me that it's quite fun on Thursday nights.

I have been tasked with cooking some soup for the family so I'll slot that in somewhere on Friday. Gonna go for a Tuscan recipe from the BBC Food website that I've had a go at before - turned out really nice last time.

In addition, there should be some Rock Band action on Saturday. Gav is bringing his guitar down so we should be able to play with a full set of instruments in a classic band arrangement: Lead guitar, Bass guitar, Drums, Lead Vocal. The songs that I'm really into at the moment from Rock Band are:

Orange Crush - REM
The Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch Nails
Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
Say It Ain't So - Weezer
Here it Goes Again - OK Go
Dani California - Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Finally, I can think of no better way to spend a slightly hungover Sunday morning than with a nice cup of tea, marmite on heavily buttered toasted muffins and the next four installments of Lost: Series Two.

And even then, there's a whole Monday to do stuff as well!

...Is in the post and winging its way to me... Can't wait!

This evening, we had a small family get-together at the Old Gate Inn in anticipation of Aaron's 18th birthday tomorrow. Summer and I shared the photographing duties!

Somebody showing how the drums should be played on The Hand That Feeds on Rock Band!

Cool song too!

An 80s Classic!

I'm off to the George & Dragon in Fordwich this evening for Emma's 30th birthday meal. They have a thing on Tuesday nights called Pudding Club where you may order as many puddings as you like! I've pre-ordered thai fishcakes with sweet chilli sauce to start with, followed by barbecue spare ribs (which I haven't had for years!) for my main course. Not having a really sweet tooth, I'm not sure how I'm going to get on with the puddings though...

Aside from all this, the pub is supposedly home to the ghost of the ‘Lady with the Green Hat’, who has haunted the building for as long as anyone can remember. She is said to wander the building and grounds, always wearing her green hat, and whilst the staff have not seen her the unconnected telephone downstairs still rings occasionally... Spooky.

A jolly good effort this evening coming in second place, just behind a team of nine, who should have had points deducted due to an overpopulated team - We were robbed!

A few questions from the quiz...

Who was the youngest of the Beatles?

What landmark price did an ounce of gold reach last week?

To take my mind off the post-holiday blues I decided to get stuck into a bit of Lost: Series Two. LoveFilm are currently sending me each of the discs from the box set in order. The first disc contained 4 episodes, so I'm up to the bit where the Scottish guy, Donovan(?), has done a runner from the hatch and Locke is organising shifts for tapping in the numbers into the computer... Looking forward to getting the next disc in a few days!

Most of the other guys had early flights so they popped their heads in at something o'clock and I think I mumbled a goodbye. Much later on, Gav, Vicki and I got up and after a cup of tea and bit of packing and room tidying we had a walk into town for lunch and to a restaurant called Au P'tit Creux that we'd spied earlier in the week nestled in a quiet corner of the town. The menu looked great and the food didn't disappoint either. Although not very French, I went for the special of the day, lasagne - Just right, it was!

Well, today started when I finally arose from my bed at 13:00. A pretty poor effort for a hot, sunny final day before my ski pass expired... Anyway, I decided that I couldn't be bothered to get booted up and trek up the mountain again and pottered around town with Gav instead, taking the odd snap here and there, including one of the most unusual church in Alpe d'Huez and one illustrating the local swimming baths skin tight trunks rule...

We got in a load of cold meats and cheese from the supermarket and tucked into that back at the chalet whilst the other guys slowly drifted back after a decent day on the slopes. Dave was sporting particularly impressive panda eyes so I had to get a snap of that!

Dinner this evening was rather nice! A simple tomato salad with lamb's lettuce and balsamic vinegar followed by a piece of 'slightly' overcooked breaded salmon. We all went off to Lily Muldoon's for a few quiet drinks and inevitably ended up moving on for more boozing at Underground... Gav, Dave and I went on to Les Caves de l'Alpe for more mischief!

After creeking out of bed, the plan was for the Sarenne run this morning, reported to be the longest black run in Europe at 16km. The start of the run is at the highest reachable peak, without the use of a helicopter, and is known as Pic Blanc. It took ages to get up there as we had to take a double gondola and then another cable car to the top, but the views were amazing!

A superb filet steak in peppercorn sauce with french fries was scoffed for lunch in a nice little place along the Sarenne Gorge. The restaurant had an interesting relief map with accompanying magnifying glass which was quite fun. I just about managed to locate Alpe d'Huez and the range of mountains we were on known as Les Grand Rousses.

After lunch, Gav and I found a great powder field just off the ridge at the end of the chair lift back towards Alpe d'Huez.

Once again, we m