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The Brass Monkey pub bar booze realale pool jukebox :: [comment] :: [delete]
Sep23
Just setting up a place holder here where I will post the next part of my holiday honeymoon writeup... on leaving San Francisco we went to Monterey, before heading to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
First we had to get out of San Francisco, which meant going and picking the car up - we'd decided to leave it at the airport, so as not to have to pay for parking for our four days in San Fran. Some reports have it that our hotel has free parking for guests, but this is not how it seemed while we were there. We thought we'd grab a shuttle back to the airport, but a porter at the hotel told us they only take people one way, don't fret, he'd get us a car and it'd cost about the same. Bastard, it was double what the shuttle would have been, and the driver had NO IDEA how to get into the airport. Dealing with these two guys lowered my expectations of service in America - people are keen to try and help you, but only because they're expecting a tip, and if you're not prompt with your tipping some people get a bit funny. Not keen on that way of doing things at all. When we FINALLY got our car, it was alright, the smallest car the rental company did, but still an 1800 Nissan something or other, with air con and cruise control and things, not too shabby at all. I think the drive from the airport was alright, despite my lack of recent driving experience (hadn't really driven in the previous ten years), and my lack of ANY foreign driving experience. Some of the signs on the freeway were confusing, it takes a little while to get used to exits being on both sides of the road, but we just about got to where we wanted.
Monterey is a bit rubbish. I know I thought this at the time, it was a bit of a sleepy town, too many things seemed to be shut / shut down, so I'd not recommend going there. However, we were only there for 3 days, and now I come to look back on it there were highlights. First off though, our hotel was the Embassy Suites, actually in Seaside, a few miles outside of Monterey. So we weren't even in the middle of the sleepy town, we were a cab ride away from it, not a promising start. The hotel is very nice though, as the name suggests you get a suite, with kitchenette, lounge etc. The place is twelve stories high and the centre of the building is open all the way up. The ground floor has a restaurant and bar and breakfast room and things, and we were delighted to find that "happy hour" started just as we got there, which meant entirely free booze for the next two hours. Also the parking was free for the length of our stay. Good work!
Heading into town was a disappointment. As I mentioned most things seemed to be close, it felt disctinctly out of season. There weren't too many places I could have much choice of what to eat, even if they were open. We ended up in a grubby English style pub again and ate chips.
We went back to Cannery Row, the main stretch of Monterey the next day, and it wasn't much more exciting. Bit tacky, not so much as Fisherman's Wharf, but still not thrilling - seems to be aimed more at retired folk. We went to a bar called Blue Fin because it had pool tables and a dartboard, but then didn't play darts or pool in there at all, we mostly sat at the bar playing interactive quiz games against other pubs. I remember this from the Chav Monkey in Fareham, when it was called The Bugle - seems to have caught on the US of States now, about 15 years later. It's distributed by www.ntn.com have a look out for it, it was fun.
We also went to the ]world famous aquarium, not really my cup of tea but I found the jellyfish quite fascinating and took quite a lot of pics. We also went through 17 Mile Drive - it's a toll road much bigged up by guide books, but really you're just paying to subsidise a swanky gated community. We did see some very cute squirrels, but apart from that it's not really worth going through.
The best thing about Monterey was our day out in Carmel, that's a nice town. It's hard to believe that it's a real town where real people live, as it only seems to consist of galleries, antique shops, and restaurants. We had a lunch at a great place called Forge in the Forest, that's where I had my first meal that was how I expected all the food to be, a plate piled high with all sorts of extras, very nice indeed.
We came back into Carmel on our way between Monterey and Santa Barbara, to stock up on lunch provisions, as we had a five hour drive ahead of us...
2005 :: Comment / reply
May8
Pictures
Great weekend visiting, eating, and drinking, very nice indeed, cheers. Not such a bad journey down to Fareham as it might have been, considering it was the bank holiday and traffic was supposed to be monstrous. Normal holdups around Hindhead and the Devil's Punchbowl, but that bad.
Good weekend all round, the weather held out for a barbecue at my sister's house on Sunday, and we went to Cafe Tusk Indian buffet Saturday night which was splendid. These buffet places can seem a bit grubby or greasy sometimes, but this one was really nice. Then we went to the Chav Monkey for about 10 seconds (which was not splendid), then The Crown which was potentially splendid, but actually a bit rough, then The Vanguard for the rest of the evening which was great.
We had some travel fun on the way back, as a result of that monstrous accident on the M25. We avoided the motorway and did the scenic coastal route. I thought we might go through Brighton, though we skirted right round it. We did stop for a loo break in Hastings, which was really pretty horrible, hard to believe the recent news puff pieces bigging it up. We must have missed something and only stopped in a particularly grim bit. We stopped for lunch then until we had a splendid Italian lunch in Rye on the way. We watched Stand By Me as planned when we got it. Seen it many times, but I always forget that it's the film that breaks one of my rules - it's good film, even though it's based on a story by Stephen King. It must be the only one.
Home too late to do our groceries so not sure about lunch today, should I risk a ready meal that's six days out of date? It's only vegetable casserole.
2007 :: Comment / reply
Jan31
Watched football, a rarity for me, but Portsmouth vs Southampton was on BBC1... So I sat watching in the flat in Folkestone on my own, with constant updates via text and phone from the mates who were gathered in the Chav Monkey in Fareham, drunk before I even got up. They ended up at the Frog and Frigate in Southampton, and I'm gutted I didn't arrange my weekend better. So heading that way in a few weeks hopefully.
Apart from the the main activity of the weekend was sitting in waiting for the carpet man to measure up the flat, so I had no choice but to sit on my arse all day really. Headed out to the shops, but basically a very pleasantly unproductive weekend.
Back in London in time for 24, wouldn't you know it Jack's got himself into a pickle again! He's been sacked for being an ex heroin addict (are you listening Mr Doherty?), and got a new girlfriend, who's the daughter of the secretary of defence. He (James Heller, played by William Devane, it's Knots Landing we must have recognised him from) seems to be the strong political character so far, who on earth is the new president? He looks a bit disposable to me.
Other tasks in the flat included having a bit of a look at the new blinds and the new fireplace, both fitted while I wasn't there... bit of a hitch with the fire, it looks good and all works well but it looks like the inside is blistering a bit, that's not right surely. Tried to take pictures of the fire lit and looking good, but I keep getting too much glare off the window, will have to try and take one at an angle like this one I just swiped:
Riva 67 gas fire
Our fire looks just like that, but our walls are not red.
OOH, and we've booked our honeymoon now I think... California! California here we come, right back where we started from... well not quite where we started from, but if it was then the title music to The OC would be like our theme tune. I watched that this weekend as part of my lazy time, it's not as bad as I thought.
2140 mails this morning, blee.
