posted
I've had a great Saturday so far, this morning I headed up to London and went to the Theatre Museum at Covent Garden. There's currently an exhibition of photographs by Simon Annand, all of the pictures are of famous actors and actresses, taken in the dressing room minutes before they go on stage. I can highly recommend it, all of the pictures are are of a very high quality in my uniformed opinion, and many of them show a far more human side to the subject than most shots you'll see of them. Considering it's free entry as well it's well worth a visit, especially as the rest of the museum is full of equally interesting memorabilia and the like.
After that I went to a place called Gaby's Deli on Charing Cross Road, for all I know most of you may know of this place already, but personally I only found out about it when looking on the web for places in central London that do good falafel. Thing is to describe the food this place serves as simply good would be a massive, massive understatement. I had the falafel with hoummus in pitta bread, the falafel was easily the best I've had, crisp on the outside, light crumbly and flavoursome on the inside, and the hoummus was creamy and indescribably delicious. Being a fat chuffer I also had a greek cake thing, it was oblong and a mix of chocolatiness and biscuitiness for want of a better description, and it was also the best thing I've ever tasted, in my life, ever. Period. Overall Gaby's food can only really be described as:
(YUM x MMMM) + [HOMER]uunngghh[/HOMER] = Gaby's food
It really is that fantastic.
I also wandered around the shops quite a bit, discovering on the way that far from being "The Best Sports Shop In The World", Lilywhite's is actually disappointingly shit to be honest, oh and also that there are some very odd characters to be found while wandering through Soho, though that's hardly a revelation is it.
I also had the slowest train in the world take me home, delayed by 10 minutes and then taking twice as long as normal to crawl back to Woking, but I'm not going to dwell on that.
Now I have some beer and some food in the oven, and Match Of The Day is on tv later, a good end to a good day.
So, ignoring the fact that this is blatantly just an excuse for me to extol the virtues of Gaby's, what did you do with your Saturday and was it as good as you hoped?
Pleasant Food I already did....
p.s - if anyone has been to the Caravaggio exhibition at the National Portrait gallery or the Turkish history exhibition at the Royal Academy I'd be interested to hear if they're any good, I intended to go to one of them today but never did, ta.
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posted
Morning reading Ulysses; afternoon getting the 'nursery' sorted out; evening watching that thing about The Spectator, 'Comedy AIDS' then two episodes of The Apprentice. What a programme. Every time the boys do something utterly hateful the girls somehow take that shit and go, like, ten better.
For instance, you wouldn't have believed a group of people could come up with team name more risible than 'Impact', would you? BUT! You'd have been guilty of underestimating the depth of vileness of the people we're talking about: First Forte. Pure Fifichan.
As for personalities, we're really spoiled for choice: sullen Adele, deranged termagant Saira and - my favourite - cognitive dissonance queen Lindsay who last week led her team to certain defeat by overruling them at every stage in favour of her mind-shreddingly inane 'semaphore' 'game' 'for kids'. The only one I like is levantine beauty Miriam and even she went totally flaky during the exquisite 'y'whore fayed' ritual.
Deliciously repellent as the women are, I'm really looking forward to seeing the men stumble. Especially hulking babyman 'Matthew'. I can't wait to see that dude reduced, as he inevitably will be, to a wrecked, blubbering mess.
posted
I had a terrific Saturday - myself and two other friends had gone up to Loughborough to visit an old mate from University days on Friday night, so I begun the Saturday waking up with a crick in my neck from sleeping on the floor with a holdall for a pillow. Still! Things improved substantially from that point on, as headed off for a ride on Britain's only main line Steam Train or something, stopping off on the way back for a pub lunch - sausages and mash piled half a foot high.
From there it was back to the house for an afternoon watching Freddy Vs Jason. It's about as good as you could expect, with a few instances of fit naked chicks being run through with machetes, though the second half of the film suffered a notable lack of nudity. Could have done with another tit shot to round things off.
In the evening we headed out to the bright lights of Loughborough, to a series of packed and increasingly gruesome bars, where the four of us worked our way through the cocktail menus. Such were the astonishing prices (£5 for a three pint pitcher) at one venue, I found myself walking back from the bar with a jug in each had, swigging alternately from each. The evening was rounded off by a trip to Loughboroughs famous nightclub echoes (£2 entry; fancy dress girls get in for free). Literally rammed to the rafters, the highlight of this extraordinary venue was standing in the queue watching a steady stream of loutish men being dragged out of the club and beaten up on the pavement by the enthusiastic bouncers.
Anyway - a terrific day spent with great friends.
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posted
I went flathunting and got a flat with a GARDEN and a SHED! And brand new carpet that will MAKE MY EYES BLEED.
On a related note, if you dont want to buy a bed from Ikea, and Argos take a month to deliver and you need a new bed in two weeks time, where would be cheapish? DFS? - isnt that only sofas? And didnt some big furniture place go bust recently? Help.
On Sunday I was in town and had some of that falafel, and it was indeed good. And they had lots of other good looking stuff as well.
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posted
Allders, but their reductions were pitiful. Do check out second-hand furniture shops or any auctions that might be taking place in your manor; the stuff on offer in either of those is usually cheaper and of far superior quality to what you might obtain 'new'.
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posted
Saturday: woke up to that dawning realisation that I was going to spend the day with one of the worst hangovers for some time. Also dawning realisation that Guy the Estate Agent was coming round in an hour to value the flat. Spent a frantic hour cleaning and tidying, then half an hour listening to his sales spiel and trying not to throw up down his shiny suit. The only other achievement of the day was collecting my dry cleaning and scraping some paint off a doorframe.
Abby - what about eBay? That has lots of furniture on.
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Boiled egg and soldiers for breakfast. A good start.
A derisory clean of the kitchen. Only five more days of my filthy housemates!!!!
Notes on Chapter 5 "Reproductive Patterns" of Evolution: A Biological and Palaentological Approach. Which is the bestest, sexual or asexual reproduction?
Five days of food purchased from Wimbledon Tesco Metro. Forgot marge and sugar though. Looked at pretty clothes. MOVING SOON: MUSTN'T BUY MORE STUFF. Just bought one metal belt. Only a fiver.
Watched horseracing and read Malory in bed in the afternoon.
Met up in The Clap for mate's birthday. Went to a bar that sold Zubrowka, and to a really nice restaurant called Giraffe that made lush food and gave us loads of helium balloons to suck on for comedy voice effect. Stole two tealight holders. One broke in handbag on the way home.
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Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
posted
Saturday was quality.
Woke up with huge port-and-chocolate hangover on friend's sofa, after three hours' sleep. Shuffled to vertical position inside sleeping bag and pink pyjamas, to enable non-sideways viewing of end-to-end Scrapheap Challenge (didn't have control of the remote, but wasn't really feeling up to protesting).
Several hours later, after sufficient tea and croissants had been applied to said hangover (well-known fact that large amounts of fat soak up hangovers), hauled self off sofa for epic bath-event (am bath-less at my flat, so have to take advantage of tubs where I find them).
Strolled into Henley for some desultory shopping (no, can't afford that. No, can't afford that either. Can't buy furniture, don't have place to put it), followed by lunch at mother's house. Armed truce/ceasefire holding, so reasonably civilised. If you can call sardines on toast on top of a hangover civilised.
Extended bus-ride home, absolutely delighted to be in flat on a Saturday, happily pottering around moving things from A to B and occasionally cleaning something.
Watched Spy Game and chortled at Brad getting his pretty face beaten to a bloody mash.
Good Day.
Abby - try Courts. You can buy online, it's decently cheap, and ok quality.
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Neurotic Cat
My fortune cookie's empty... That's also the title of my autobiography.
posted
My Saturday
Get up at 7 o'clock
Gather 2 x indignant cats into travel carrier
Drop off aforementioned cats at my brothers for him to cat sit all weekend. Cue nephews face lighting up at sight of fluffy visitors.
Drive to friends. Leave car as friends drive us all up to portobello road.
Wander round looking at clothes and curios on stalls.
Eat vegetarian fajitas - yummy!
Go to Electric Cinema for the first time ever. Hyyyyy-owge leather seats with my very own foot stool and a bottle chiller next to my seat for my super size Peroni Nastro Azzurro. Bliss!
Watched 'Life Aquatic'. Fell asleep through approximately 30 minutes of said film but wake up and can still follow plot so no worries there then!
Leave to a wet and chilly night, back to friends for exceptional roast chicken dinner and more beers!
Fall asleep on mates sofa
'Fin'
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posted
Abby, is it not worth finding a mate/relative with a van, or hiring one and just buying furniture from Argos direct?
I have invited my parents up on Mother's Day to spend some quality time with their firstborn, and so my dad can drive me to Argos for furniture tranist. It makes them feel useful again.
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Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
posted
John Lewis are monster expensive! I would happily pick up from Argos as we will have a van for moving anyway, but I dont think you can get big furniture directly like that. Their website says you cannot reserve beds to pick up from the store, but I shall email and ask about this possibility....
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posted
woke my ass up around 9.30. A monster headache threatened, but it was only giggling from behind a huge bout of nausea. I counted to a hundred and went searching for the pain, and it came in thick audible waves. Somebody was playing a xylophone in the house across the street.
I'm was a sleeping bag with a duvet piled on top, so my head was freezing but my body was roasting. I heard girls laughing, and remembered where I was. I could safely open my eyes. Trousers, soaked in wine, were crumpled on top of a half finished plate of chilli. Remote control for the TV was stuck to my face. Moaned, turned on TV, looked for futurama. It wasn't on, so I settled for Spongebob, although sometimes that can be a bit too much if the nausea keeps rolling.
I needed a piss, but I din't want to get up. Morning glory raged to prevent uncontrollable urination.
Watch Spongebob in a haze, and rugrats came on, which was my prompt. I was still wearing my shirt, so I raised my titanic of a frame out of the fleecy pocket, and jerked across the bare pine flooring, avoiding cables, a wireless router, and a snowboard. Bare legs like hairy cocktail sticks.
Opened the door and there's somekind of exclamation from the kitchen down the hall. Two girls..Katy and somebody else. The other girl was sitting on the work surface, girlish bare legs swinging, hair caught in thick framed glasses. She was cuter than she looked last night. She didn't have much cheer in her acknowledgement. I stumbled into the kitchen, bent double, and sat my ass on a rickety chair. Had a ten minute conversation about the new floorboards as I failed to roll a fag. Wished I could teleport to my own place.
My host appeared at the door, wearing hat and coat zipped up. No make-up, so I guessed she was making a journey for purposes of utility. Something to do with a bank. In the summer, I'd spent a few nights in the sack with Katy, and it seemed like the conversation about floorboards was really about the sex we had, so I agreed to throw on my wet trousers and join my host in a walk to the tube.
A hug, a look of mutual sympathy. We agreed not to drink litre bottles of lager like they were thimbles full of water again. Fell down some steps and collapsed on the southbound.
Back home, and quick change into civvies. Stuck a DVD into an envelope and posted it on the way to the bus. I got on the wrong bus, so I had to walk from Manor house down to the post office to collect my package. I wasn't sick on the bus, so I chanced a pain au chocolat. Got the package no problem, signed for it, and floated back home on a sea of codeine. Thoughts of bed were my only raft.
I don't remember the next hour, but after that I was in a net caff, downloading things. DVD ripping and authoring software. A new version of Power DVD and the serials. Three types of graphics drivers. Some dr. boom mash up mp3s, and new firmware for my DVD drive. I drank a coke that had arabic writing on the side.
Back home again, and the hangover was fading out, so I installed the software and got Doom3 working, finally. Played that in the dark until gf came over.
Got out of bed around seven, got chinese food, and ate it watching The National Lottery Jetset. I complained that the questions were too easy; she complained that the food was too cold. I sucked back a coupled of litres of San Miguel as we listened to the LCD soundsystem and Thievery Corp albums. We riffed on the subject of clinical pyschology.
Started on the Jack and settled back into bed to watch 'Saw'. Poppers, cough syrup. The film was shit, but we watched it all. Spent half an hour trying to come up with the perfect analogy to describe the main fault with the storytelling technique. Put on 'The Living Dead At the Manchester Morgue'. Fell asleep before it started, and dreamed of laser guns and stopwatches.
posted
Sunday was hilarious. We got into Covent Garden at 10 to try and beat the crowds. Shops didn't open until midday and it was absolutely fucking freezing. Bought: 25 blank DVD-Rs, 50 blank CD-Rs, some shoes, a Wu-Tang album. Had some Sobu noodles at a Japanese restaurant, and drank more than my fair share of Asahi beer. Made pizza in the evening, and watched a program about cartoons over a couple of bottles of crisp white wine.
posted
Abby, do you have a Helibeds near you? They keep having their adverts on the telly down here and they promise to deliver by bed time on the same day as purchase!!!
My weekend was very domestic.
Took Ellie horseriding on Saturday and then picked up one of her friends to come and play for the afternoon whilst I pottered around doing housework and tidying up the garden a bit [ok, picking up all the fag-ends].
On Sunday, I had a lovely long bath in the morning and managed to finish my book, then I drove down to Exeter to the grandparents and had a proper family roast with one of my aunts and her husband and the grandparents and my daughter. It was really nice and then we played cards in the afternoon and drank loads of tea. It made me feel all kind of mollycoddled and safe.
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posted
I totally spazzed out and broke my foot on Saturday by kicking a sofa really, really hard. This kind of spoilt my plan to have a lovely walk and the rest of the weekend was spent moaning about how much it hurts.
posted
I was at Center Parcs this weekend. Friday night was getting pissed while we wait for people to arrive. Then Saturday was swimming and slides in the subtropic paradise followed by some cycling and then some pitch and putt. A nice meal at the french restaurant on Saturday night followed by hang-over in the pool on Sunday morning.
And the best bit was getting it all for nearly nowt from the wallet.
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posted
I should probably add an addendum, that yesterday was largely spent in the pub drinking Guinness like there was no tomorrow and watching Chelsea beat the thieving scouse ankle kickers (that's what you get for hiding behind the ball for 89 minutes), so especially for you Veep:
[Nelson Muntz]Haa haaaa![/Nelson Muntz]
Though you can take solace in the fact that my resulting hangover has lasted most of the day, and since I've drunk an inadvisable amount of wine this evening in honor of a friend's 30th, is set to last well into tomorrow.
Glad everyone had a good weekend anyway (except you Bandrew you clumsy, gangling eejit )
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Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
posted
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: I didn't write very much but what I did write is here.
I bet they asked Branson first, and he wouldn't do it. To pretend that Alan Sugar is the British equivalent of Donald Trump is risible.
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Octavia
I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid commercialised crap
posted
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: They made the pilot with Branson but he couldn't keep his wandering mitts off Amanda's filthy pin-striped behind. Allegedly.
Oh lol. That would have been so much a better programme.
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