I’ve been off work on annual leave all week, so decided to go to town on Thursday night – a rarity for me, as my watering holes normally consist of the local down the road, football clubhouses and countryside pubs.
It was a case of visiting some places old and some new. I met Jon who I hadn’t seen in ages and went to an old favourite of mine, The Bell. It was a nice spring day and not too cold so we were able to enjoy a pint outside.
We then went to one of the best curry houses in Bath – Jaflong. It’s been a long time since I have been to this restaurant (too long), and I had forgotten how good it was. While they do offer take away meals, they don’t deliver – a pity; as if they did offer such as service, it would probably be my primary diet (until I died of a curry induced heart attack)
After curry, we made our way back to my flat, stopping at a new pub for me – The Royal Oak on the Lower Bristol Road. The Royal Oak is a real ales pub. The only ale I have really tried is Courage Best and Gem, as they sell it in the Bath City club house (locally branded as “The City Ale”). This pub was so non-commercial that they didn’t even stock Gem! I was given something very similar (which I can’t remember the name of), but did enjoy.
It was then time to go home. At the time of leaving my flat, it was a warm evening, so I only wore my light denim jacket. When I left the pub, it was a freezing cold night, so I ended up walking home very slowly, shivering all the way back.
This evening has been a quite night in. I’m off to Essex tomorrow to watch Bath City play Braintree. This is one of the longest trips of the season, and involves me leaving my flat shortly after 9am – I don’t expect to be home much before 10pm that night. Time for bed…
It was my friend Mr. White’s 24th birthday yesterday. Instead of the traditional, midweek pub crawl which normally takes place on birthdays, he decided that he wanted to go for a curry in one of Bath’s finest restaurants, The Eastern Eye. A change very much welcomed by myself who prefers a plate of curry to a table of pints.
The meal, as always, was delicious, the atmosphere and service, excellent. I did feel a little embarrassed towards the end of the meal when certain members of the party (note: Not myself, Watkins or Mr. White) let themselves down badly. Maybe the behaviour was fuelled by excess consumption of Indian beer, but the subject matter degenerated and a loud conversation involving unsanitary topics arose. The term “lager louts” came to mind, fine in a pub, not in a stylish restaurant.
The evening was crowned off when I received a text informing me that Chelsea had lost to a little known team called Middlesbrough. Cue the spamming of derogatory text messages to Dan’s mobile. If you are a Boro fan, or indeed a supporter of any team which isn’t Chelsea, why not send him a message on his blog site?
If you are in this picture, I apologise. I hope that your meal was not too disrupted by a conversation which included the line “Surprise Sex”.
This evening I went with Simon and Steve to play football in the park. I was a little more enthusiastic this evening (as opposed to Sunday). Probably because Leeds won the other day and I believe the sacking of Public Enemy No.1 (Kevin Blackwell) is imminent.
Another good evening. Not so good was he state of the park toilets. They were very dirty, the liquid soap was basically water and the air from the hand dryer smelt like farts.
Judging by what was written on the toilet walls, I don’t think these toilets had been used by many gentlemen.
One would hope that the white table is not used for that purpose.
Phew! It’s been hot today. Mind you, I haven’t helped myself to keep cool this evening…
I decided that one way to survive the heat would be to buy some ice lollies. My tea was in the oven so I couldn’t spend too much time out of the house. I ran to the local shops, grabbed a couple of boxes of those Mars Ice Cream Bars, paid and ran home.
Running in this weather is not advisable. Had I been a fatso I don’t think I would have made it back. I would have died on Newbridge Hill, lying in a pool of sweat and melted Mars Bar.
My choice of tea wasn’t wise either – Chicken Madras. I love curry but on a hot day it is not really a good idea. After I finished it I was slumped on my sofa panting like a dog on heat. It took 30 minutes of sitting in front of a fan, drinking ice cold Coke and consuming my iced Mars Bars to come round.
Still, I love the summer, it’s great. I wasn’t complaining then I hope! :o)
Back from my holiday now, the journey down was far more pleasant than the one going up. For the Birmingham to Bristol train we decided to upgrade to First Class to guarantee seats, avoid screaming kids and generally have a more pleasant trip. We were told to board the train as normal and pay the ticket inspector the £15 upgrade fee when asked.
The train was so packed and busy that he simply didn’t have time to bother with billing us so we travelled First Class for the same price as Cattle Class. All in all a good holiday, I have uploaded a collection of holiday snaps here that you can view.
When I got home I was extremely annoyed to find out that all the TV Shows I had set to record on Sky+ had failed – the Leeds-Millwall match, Football League Review and five episodes of Dream Team. The error was solved after ringing the Sky Helpline but sadly all my beloved recordings had been lost! :o(
They say that holidays are supposed to relieve tiredness and help people recharge their batteries, I don’t know about that, I was very tired last night, also deprived of curry which I had not had all week. A delicious takeaway curry from the local Jaflong Indian Restaurant soon sorted that problem out!
Lastly onto football, bit of a disappointing game for Leeds yesterday, they only managed a 0-0 draw against Luton Town. Some fans are saying this is a good result, which in a way is true, Luton’s previous two games were both victories against Southampton and Crystal Palace. I would still have liked to of seen a bit more fight from the players who still seem to struggle to score.
The Leeds strikers couldn’t hit this with a banjo
Some blame can be put onto manager Kevin Blackwell, many are calling for him to be sacked although I am prepared to give him a chance for now. The key to Leeds United’s season is stability, sacking the manager will make the team unstable, there is also no suitable replacement manager I can think of who is currently available.
Watched the football this afternoon as well, the Arsenal-Newcastle clash was interesting enough, it finished 2-0 to Arsenal, good result which will keep Chelsea and Manchester United on their toes. I also watched Chelsea take on newly promoted Wigan. Wigan were by far the better team which I think surprised everybody. They had many chances to win the game but failed to convert any of them. The game ended very disappointingly, (unless you’re a Chelsea fan) Chelsea scored in literally the dying seconds to earn a fully undeserved win.
About Me
So you stumbled across my blog. No doubt after searching for something bizarre on Google. Before you hit that 'Back Button', why not stay and have a read for a few minutes?
If you are after a website which gives advice on how to hack an iPhone X, download the latest Steven Seagal movie, or view nudy ladies, you've come to the wrong place and may now press 'Back'.
However, if you would like a lifestyle blog, written by a 30-something chap, living in Bath (England), feast your eyes on this.
You won't discover how to copy PlayStation 4 games. What you will find is a blog, covering life in the West Country, the highs and lows of supporting two unsuccessful football teams, while sharing a house with a wife and rabbit.
All written by a man, somewhere on the sanity-scale between normal and eccentric.
