Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category

For Norman’s 30th, we decorated the house, made him a cake (and by made I mean his mum made it but Cara carried it from the kitchen to the dining room) and even sang happy birthday with a guitar accompaniment.

A couple of years ago, Norman charged George and I with planning a suitable celebration of his 30th birthday. So, in February this year, we began planning a trip to the Scottish Highlands. Seven months and a thousand miles of driving later, and our mission was accomplished.

It is a mission to get to. It took 11 hours to get up there and 10 hours to get back. It was worth the drive though (I say now the back pain has faded). We got incredibly lucky in that we had no rain all week and enjoyed sunshine for most of it. The cruise staff were very keen for me to stress to everyone that I had to use sun cream in the Highlands!

Amazing weather, amazing company and an amazing setting – what more could you possibly want from a holiday?

The view across the loch. The town on the right is Ullapool.

Norman swimming in the loch. I only made it to the river that ran down beside our house into the loch and that was absolutely freezing.

Corrieshalloch Gorge. The photos do not do it justice. It is 200 feet deep.

Our beach-side home for the week.

Best of all, spending a week with seven amazing friends.

Earlier this month, Norman was kind enough to host us for the weekend at his new flat in Cardiff. It’s a nice place and just round the corner from Cardiff city centre.

On the Friday evening we ended up having a meal at Chapel 1877, which was very good. On Saturday we went to St Fagans National History Museum which was an outdoor museum with some traditional buildings and a large manor house and gardens.

There was also a bird hide where we saw some mice. I should have brought my telephoto lens!

We had lunch at a pub just round the corner from St Fagans. It was a Vintage Inn, and lived up to expectations. Despite it being Cardiff, we actually had lots of glorious sunshine on the Saturday and it didn’t really rain (much) until we got back. In the evening we drove to Cardiff Bay had had dinner at a Turkish restaurant on the peer that I didn’t think much of.

On Sunday we spent the morning looking round Cardiff Castle in very heavy rain before heading to the fish and chip shop. I was very pleased to get fish and chips because I had tried to get them on Friday lunch time (they had run out), Saturday lunch time (their fryer was broken) and Saturday evening (we went to a Turkish restaurant instead) but you can’t go to the seaside and not have a fish and chips, even if it is a highly industrialised port.

No, this is not a BuzzFeed article. I had to go through a lot of my photos recently while updating my website and I thought it might be nice to post some of the old ones.

The whole thing might take a while to load. It is broken down into ten separate images, but is still five megabytes in size. In fact, if you are reading this on the homepage you will need to click the “read more” link below to see the full thing.

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A few weeks ago I attended the long awaited wedding of my friends Craig and Zoe. They have now been together 7 years, which makes me feel really old as they got together while we were all working at McDonald’s (back in’t day).

It took place at the Woodlands Hotel in Gildersome. I was impressed by how smoothly and professionally the whole thing ran. I didn’t want to take my camera (wouldn’t want to make the official photographer jealous or anything 😛 ), so here are some low quality photos taken on my phone. It doesn’t do them justice.

With Fonze getting another year older earlier this month, we planned a three part celebration.

First, I made him to go flag football training. What more could you ask for on your birthday? Actually, he wanted to come, but it all worked out for everyone 😀 . For lunch, we went to his parents. His mum does a good Sunday lunch.

Finally, we finished up going to Chaophraya for dinner. I had wanted to go to Saengarun but unfortunately it had closed down. The advantage of Chaophraya though is that you can order the birthday cake where they come with the drums and all the staff sing happy birthday. Despite his accusatory and threatening tone, I think that was his favourite part of the day.

Professor Richard Dawkins talks about the anaesthetic of familiarity. We forget the every day wonder, he beauty all around. The same applies to friends. It is great to see someone you have not seen for years. But when they are living in your house in December, and January, and February, they quickly blend into the every day.

Of course, I mostly said that for dramatic effect. It is technically true that Michelle was in my house for those months. But she arrived New Year’s Eve, stayed for two weeks, then went home and then came back for half a week. Not quite the imposition that Alan Partridge would inflict on people.

Turns out that visiting Leeds in January is not a great time to come. Tropical World closed for a month for refurbishment and the Thackray Medical Museum was closed too. Luckily the last visit even fell on a Wendy House, so it was back to old times.

Michelle is now heading off to China to teach English for a few years. Hense the title of this blog post – see you soon!

The good news is that my blog is not blocked in China anymore. What more could you possibly need to read?

Last week we ventured into The Packhorse for a few beverages. I have traditionally given it a birth as it seems unlikely that you would get a seat given it is a lovely traditional pub right in the centre of town. However, it turns out we were able to accommodate our large party (eventually) even on a Friday night.

The food is alright too, as I describe in the Leeds Restaurant Guide.

Before we disappeared down to London, I went for food and drink at Chaophraya to celebrate my birthday. Myself and Elina ordered one of the banquet menus, of which we ate about half and took the rest home in a carrier bag full of food.

My friend Samra recently bought herself an SRL, so we headed down to the river so I could show her how not to take photographs. I’m hardly a tutor, but it was quite nice to be able to share my tips.