Posts Tagged ‘norm’

Photos from our trip to Jersey.

Due to the increasing number of people that tell me I need to relax more, which while was initially just friends, now includes doctors and therapists, I have decided to start playing Warhammer once again.

Having played a lot of 40K when I was a child, I’ve decided to go with some Fantasy this time and have begun once again building an army to wage war – photos on their way. In the mean time, if your a fellow player, or intrigued to give it a try, now is the time! Norm has already started building a band of Chaos Warriors and by the tim this is published, I’m fairly sure Fonze will be building something too…

Due to Freshers’ Week, Wendy House was moved to a week earlier – which means Wendy House sooner, but then of course a huge gap between this one and October’s. It also should have landed bang on Norm’s birthday, but ended up seven days earlier – inconsiderate.

Never the less, we took quite a good crowd there – we booked taxis for 19 people and despite still not drinking, I made it to a very respectable 2am before heading home.

When my friend Norman dared to suggest that a skeptical philosophy should include the ability to challenge our own beliefs, he was quickly buried under a landslide of “how dare you” reactionary opinion.

Moral outrage as a substitute for rational argument. Where have we seen that before? So, I’ve taken the liberty of reframing said post into a most fitting surrounding.

You have to wonder, at what point while Ophelia Benson was reading a story about a live kitten someone had encased in concrete up to the front legs, did she stop thinking about what a despicable act it was, and start thinking “I could use this for my own purposes.”

Hey, do you remember SoBe? Probably not as it’s new. Well, forget about it anyway because it’s gone. It’s now called Hirst’s Yard. Confusing, it’s also located in Hirst’s Yard, along with a load of other bars.

Myself, Elina, Norm, George and Kat were recently out for post-Nando’s cocktails when we received a buy one get one free flyer, so decided it was worth a go. Perhaps they decided that the SoBe look was simply a bit too bright and happy for Leeds, but the essentials remained the same – quality, properly mixed cocktails, at reasonable prices (which changes to very reasonable when you have two for one vouchers).

It was reasonably quiet when we went in at around 9pm, though picked up soon after that, so head down early if you want a seat.

We followed that up with a trip to the ever-popular Call Lane Social where we ventured up to the tiki hideaway upstairs. You can question the wisdom of lighting drinks on fire when you have a tiki-style straw roof that is highly flammable, but we survived to tell the tale, so all is well.

At this point, myself and Elina left as we had to be up early the next morning, but I presume the night ended in a strip club.

Huzzah I hear you cry! Yes, I’m please to announce three new episodes of the podcast are on their way – the first one is available today, and the next two will follow on consecutive Fridays. This series features expert insight from Norm “The No Man”, Hugh and James (now possibly known as “Old James” given there is a new A-Soc president also called James).

I didn’t take any photos while we were recording, so here is a stock picture of Hugh.

Having left the cinema from seeing Johnny English Reborn, we decided to find somewhere to grab dinner.

It was Saturday night and a lot of restaurants would be busy – so we decided to hit Thai Edge as they always have a table free :D. Of course, I was hoping they didn’t remember me after the now infamous change incident.

Dinner was good and I almost finished my main – something which I would have considered quite an impressive feat given I had a starter as well and I’m not getting any younger.

Having filled up on steak we decided to wander over to Oracle on the south bank for some drinks. Unfortunately, Oracle was already closed by 11pm, which is a pretty poor effort.

So instead we headed up to Call Lane and ended up in Call Lane Social.

I saw ended up, of the ten people that came out for the meal, only four of us ended up in there – myself, Norm, Jonni and Tom. After the first round, Jonni and Tom disappeared too, meaning that of the ten people left at the end of the night were the only two people in the entire group that actually have 9 to 5 jobs! But the important thing is, we showed those kids how it’s done :D.

Call Lane Social was pretty disappointing, their drinks range was OK, but nothing to shout about and service took absolutely ages and it wasn’t even that busy.

On Norm’s (almost) actual birthday we headed down to River Plate for a good piece of steak.

Having already pre-decided, Norm went for the 1kg steak! It covered an entire dinner plate and to be honest, I think we all had our doubts as to whether it could physically be eaten by one man – never the less, Norm stepped up to the challenge and defeated it.

I decided a smaller steak would be a good call – especially as I was having half a rack of ribs to start with! Plus having only eaten what could be considered two meals in itself, I still had some room for dessert.

Overall, however, I was somewhat disappointed with River Plate. It was excellent, but it didn’t live up to my expectations given previous experiences. The judge’s verdicts are in, and Blackhouse is officially the best steak restaurant in Leeds.

I’m very dubious about this idea that every Wendy has to be adopted as part of people doubling up on their birthday celebrations with something on the actual day and then a Wendy as well – especially as I’m bitter about not being able to do this with Viv’s birthday being on what would have been my birthday Wendy and Halloween the weekend after.

Never the less, September Wendy was a fantastic night with the usual drinks starting at our apartment, followed by a bit of time in the Old Bar before heading in.

I actually felt somewhat guilty in the morning because I woke up feeling fine. Though any chance of that being a problem was quickly solved when we held the post-Wendy fry up the next day, once again cooked primarily by yours truly – and also included Yorkshire Puddings!

Unfortunately, my camera died soon after we got to The Old Bar, so I have a distinct lack of photos, so the ones from inside of Wendy were snapped by Norm.