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Mighty Easter weekender, with The Cure

Hope you've all had as good an extended weekend as I have. As is usual when I've been off for a few days and not written up just went on immediately, I'm starting to forget it all. We're up now, on the last day of our five day break and I have a few minutes computer time, so I'm making a few notes while I'm processing some video from The Cure and trying to get hold of The Colour Of Magic.

Thursday

We started off for London about midday, nice quick easy train journey with Dom and Jen, nice to be getting the train for pleasure, not like having to commute on it. We had vouchers for free main courses for Wagamama, so into Soho in the rain. Food was better than it has been recently in Canterbury I think. Then to a pub, can't remember the name of it though it's a Nicholson's so I can track it down, that'll be The Crown, Brewer Street. Didn't realise they were part of such a monstrous chain of other brands, though it certainly feels like a pub themed venue inside, but they do have proper beer so I'm not complaining. We contemplated the best time and way to get to Wembley, in the end it was just head down in the rain to Picadilly and we're on our way. Wembley seems a long way out but if you catch the right Metropolitan line tube you're there in no time.

Our hotel was fine, despite the ropey reviews on tripadvisor. I'd not recommend it unless you were going to Wembley, and the decor is maybe a bit dated, but the bed was comfortable and big, the lifts worked, the bar was open, it was fine. Cheeky drink in said bar before the gig (as there are just no pubs around there) and into the gig.

Didn't see any of the support band, just got in in time for the start of the gig. Pretty amazing show all told, I have got a few songs on video and some pics to upload, the sound and the atmosphere were great. You'll see from the media (I have yet to upload) that we were about ten or fifteen rows back from the front, apart from the bit were Dom disappeared to the front, dropping our five pints on the way... At this point Clare objects

That's not what happened and you shouldn't say that as he will read it. He went into the crowd, then came out again, then went to the bar and thought he'd get us all drinks, then couldn't get back to us all with two pints in one hand and three in the other, so he ended up giving them away.

I was adding colour to the story, that's how I'd rather remember it, it's simpler. Don't you really want to picture someone struggling to the front of the moshpit with five pints?
Setlist was approximately as we thought from previous gigs:

plainsong, prayers for rain, a strange day, alt.end, a night like this, the end of the world, lovesong, to wish impossible things, pictures of you, lullaby, from the edge of the deep green sea, hot hot hot!!!, please project, the walk, push, friday i'm in love, inbetween days, just like heaven, primary, a boy i never knew, shake dog shake, never enough, wrong number, one hundred years, disintegration,
E1: at night, m, play for today, a forest,
E2: the lovecats, let's go to bed, freak show, close to me, why can't i be you?
E3: three imaginary boys, fire in cairo, boys don't cry, jumping someone else's train, grinding halt, 10:15 saturday night, killing an arab

We met someone with a setlist during the gig, but "Killing an Arab" was written as "Killing Another", I wonder why? In case the list fell into the wrong hands and looked like a racist murder plot? You could work the last encore into one story certainly, not so sure about "The Lovecats" though.

Here's three songs in a row from the set, the only complete songs I videod on my little camera. First Walking On Sunshine Why Can't I Be You from my spot in the crowd. It looks like the opening credits to "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" but the sound is OK, and gives you a feel for where we were and how they were sounding:

And Three Imaginary Boys:

Also Fire In Cairo:

They played for about 3 and a half hours, it didn't feel like it though. We had one more drink back at the bar (I was on lager all evening, unheard of, this is why I don't go to gigs any more). I have about a gigabyte of video, hope it won't take me too long to edit it into watchable youtube chunks. Don't stay in waiting especially though, the visuals are not impressive, but you can experience where I was in the crowd and hear the tunes.

Friday

Nice lazy start to the Friday, didn't have to check out until midday. We'd already had more action than most weekends and this one hadn't officially started yet. We shopped first, well we went to Selfridges and Clare got pissed off with me not being helpful, so she left me in Starbucks to sit and read while she tried to shop, then we walked round Carnaby Street (which is really nice now), had lunch with Emma in a Thai place near there, did some retro shopping, afternoon coffee in the brilliant Pain Quotidien and then trained back home.

The rain and snow wasn't quite so bad, and we'd arranged to meet pa-in-law for a drink, so we headed to Chambers for their traditional Easter Ales Festival. Not that busy when we got there, and not the traditional festival crowd, but a great range of ales and ciders anyway. Can't remember what I started off with, something nice anyway, but second beer was a "Haba-beer-o" special edition chilli beer. Was sceptical, but it was brilliant, a strong savoury chilli taste to it, and a little bit of heat too. Instead of flitting from ale to ale rating them as I went, I stuck to this one for the rest of the evening. Well, it's a limited edition, you don't know when it's going to run out, or if I'll see it again.
Spoke to the landlord, he recognised me as having the quiz team name Folkestone Gerald and asked if it was me that wrote it. He didn't look like he wanted a fight, and I don't think there's been anything objectionable for ages, so I 'fessed up, and he said he loved it. Probably just for all the favourable mentions of Chambers, well here's another. Chambers is brilliant, you should go there, best pub in Folkestone by a mile.

Saturday

Up early for house hunting. Saw a lovely place in a different area of Canterbury, 3 bedrooms, garage, conservatory, shed, everything. Top of our budget and I don't think we can compete with other buyers really, I'm sure it'll go soon. If it doesn't, we'll think again. Then saw another place over by Canterbury West, not the nicest street and a bit unloved. Nice and cheap for a three bedroom place, but unfortunately no room to put even a single bed down flat in the third bedroom, so a no-no for now. Third property, the agent was late, it was snowing, really really cold, I spoke to the office and told them not to bother. I'm sure the owner was in the property while I was waiting outside, but not responding to my knocking. Didn't have double glazing, and I could really only think about temperature that day, so it's a right off.

Had lunch somewhere between these viewings at Pizza Express, and got our favourite table looking onto the river. Even in the freezing rain and sleet people were still doing the boat tour, and pausing by our window.

After lunch, Clare had a hair appointment so I amused myself with more shopping and a brief stop in The Brewery Tavern where they also had a beer festival on. No festival punters in site, no-one even manning the temporary bar with the dozen guest ales lined up on, not really a festival vibe at all. Probably not advertised well, it's a nice place, not one you'd associate with real ale so I don't suppose they'd have had much walk up trade apart from me.
Bus home, too cold and wet to consider going back to Chambers really, so we got a Chinese takeaway and stayed in.

Sunday

Free lunch! Round to the in-laws for dinner, very nice. Still not sure what's going on with the sale of their house, everyone seems to be lying to them at every turn. They've officially handed their notice in on the business, and so resigned themselves to not selling it, but still other people in the chain seem to think that it ought to go through as normal. I hope it does, we'll find out now within the month.

Another night in. Clare was meant to be going out with her brother, but it was freezing at wet again and a night in mostly watching TV Lost: meh. Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency: meh. Both a bit weak I thought. Not sure what to think of Lost at the moment, they do seem to be drifting more into the realms of the supernatural, though I guess the writers won't decide until the very end whether they want to go this route or not, and they can easily change things that happened in the past, and "back explain" things. Getting fed up with it, wish they'd not string it out so much. It's sure to fizzle out before we get to a conclusion at this rate, maybe that's the plan.

Today

A bit sad that it's over. We still have most of the day ahead of us, no great plans except for regular Sunday chores like shopping and cleaning, making and eating chilli, and watching some TV, hopefully the aforementioned The Colour Of Magic (that was exclusively on Sky One yesterday).

Back to work tomorrow, still, a short week.

That's work done then

There's a very slim chance that I won't be sat in front of the computer again before christmas (though I know the wife will laugh when she sees this), so merry christmas everyone, hope you have a good one.

I wrote that yesterday, but didn't hit send, doh, and hey look, here I am back again, how ironic. I also originally added:

Off to Canterbury today for a change, just to get some lunch really, might top up a couple of people's giftage with small treats too, you never know.

We bought loads of food and drink and schlepped round some bars. We did Zizzi for lunch for the first time, very nice, especially the building it's in. Felt a bit pricey to me, but we did have starters and wine (and main courses) so I suppose 35 quid is OK. If we go back in January we have a voucher now for a free bottle of wine. I sat in The Brewery Tavern for an hour while Clare finished her shopping, then we tried to go to The Cuban for a happy hour cocktail, but it was closed for a private party. We stopped in the Wetherspoons for one to figure out where to go where we might find a cocktail instead, and remembered the Boudoir Bar, where we had an average but expensive champagne cocktail, and then headed home. We had an evening in in anticipation of a few big nights out to come this week, but it wasn't all that quiet as we had a go at making some champagne cocktails of our own.

Today the holiday really starts, Clare's bro Kevin is arriving from the Americas, with his girlfriend Guiselle. They've landed already and we're off to see them within the hour.

Sounds like new people have moved in upstairs, I can hear them stomping about. There have been workmen coming and going, not sure what they've been doing I hope they've not taken the carpets up.
Rated 5.38/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Hell yeah, encouragement, that's what I need!

Well it was a lunch more than an actual party, and there's really not a huge amount to report, and you're not interested anyway, but HELLO TO ME IN THE FUTURE, how's it going five years from now? Do you remember that day, about five years ago, when you were sat at work one afternoon and it was pretty quiet because all the people on your projects had taken holiday? You were doing some API research for work, and fixing that embedded form javascript for www.londonbreaks.com? You were watching the clock a bit and looking forward to your folks arriving for the weekend.

Anyway, the previous Friday to this day you had your work christmas lunch, at the Brewery Tavern in Canterbury. We packed in work nice and early at about 12.30 and drove over there, I got a lift in John's car. We parked at his flat, on the far outskirts of Canterbury near the hospital, nice building his flat is in, and walked in from there. We had a new starter at work that week called Craig, he was meant to be following us, got lost somehow, didn't have anyone's number, we didn't have his number and he missed the whole affair, oops.

Food was OK (at least they remembered my vegan meal. Starter was a sort of tomato salad with balsamic dressing, main was just roast vegetables (but with no potatoes, can you believe it?), and pud was probably fruit. The drink was flowing, had a few pints of 'Storm Warning" which is very nice indeed, very dark, and also some wine with the meal. We dished out our "secret santa" work presents, I got a QI type book of facts for smart arses. There was a departmental award thing going on, voted for by members of the team, and I didn't win anything. The only one I would have been in with a chance of was some kind of "know it all" award, so sort of glad not to have been nominated there. I was hardly in with a chance of the "Mr / Ms Sunshine" prize.

After lunch, people started to bail, though I carried on with a fairly large core of partiers. We went to The Boudoir Bar, which I've not been to before, and then to another bar opposite The Boudoir Bar that I can't remember the name of. I am pretty sure it said "Oddfellows Hall" on the outside, but it was called something different.

At some point in the early evening I tried to be sensible and get the bus home, but I got to the bus stop just at the lull in the timetable, there wasn't another due for about an hour, so I went back to the bar again. They nearly didn't let me in (because I was wearing trainers, not because I was too drunk, of course) but then remembered me from earlier. I must have got one of the last busses home of the evening, pretty impressive stuff, I must have been sat on that bus for an hour with a belly full of beer.

I got chips when I got back to Folkestone, and then sat up with Clare for a bit. The end.
Rated 4.71/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Magic Numbers every bit as good as I predicted

OK my prediction of Morrissey joining them on stage was a complete fabrication, but we did get Bernard Butler appearing with them to perform "Love's a Game", which then medleyed on into "People Get Ready". They did another wacky ending of another of their songs, turning it into Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill". Great gig, really good, having a string section added a dimension I expect (though I've not seen The 'Numbers before, and getting other artists up to join in was cool (The Smoke Fairies, nope me either, apparently they were at Meltdown though). We had to leave during the encore, think they were overrunning. Our seats weren't great, about as far back as you can be, but you get a good view in the Festival Hall anyway. A few pictures up already, I'm just working on a bit of video footage of Bernard on stage, I didn't get a whole song, maybe two minutes though. Still waiting for the full sized memory stick to arrive.

UPDATE: Video up now. It really does focus after 20 seconds or so:

Nice tea in Pizza Express before the show, we did try a few other places on the South Bank but they were all queued out the door. Mitchell and Webb were in there with a big party, all in tuxedos, think they were just on their way to or from the Comedy Awards, where they won.

Got decorators in at the moment, everything's covered in dust but they made good progress on their first day, they've repaired more of the walls and ceiling than were actually caused by the earthquake, and we get a fresh coat on all walls and ceilings.

Work Christmas lunch today, in Canterbury. I'm kind of hoping The Brewery Tavern get my food wrong so I have an excuse to nip out to Wagamama :-)

Fullsome weekender

Fairly action packed weekend for me really, surprise meal for Clare's folks for their ruby wedding on Friday, we went to The Jackdaw. I had exotic mushroom paella, it was a bit dull really but a nice night out anyway. Most other people loved their food I think, though the vege options do tend to be not quite as interesting as they look on the menu, perhaps the menu there is just too big. Lots of Irish people (in our party), singing, we emptied the restaurant I think and probably can't go back there for a while.

Saturday, lunch in Canterbury at Pizza Express, then watched the rugby in the Brewery Tavern, great game and fantastic result. Then back for a wedding reception at Hythe Imperial, where I met Pandora Peroxide, the real one, ex girlfriend of artist Ray Zell and sister of a friend of a friend. No food at the reception, so we went to the kebab shop on the way home, a particular rare occurence that one.

Sunday driving the outlaws to Gatwick, so we stopped in and had another Pizza Express. I quite like Pizza Express.

More rugby last night, bad luck the Scotchland.
Rated 6.88/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Canterbury weekender

Had such a great weekend, it's taken me days to recover, and I've not fully gathered my thoughts. I'm in danger of forgetting everything though, so It's time to blat out a mini review.

Friday started how all our Fridays used to start, with a trip to Chambers. We called in at The Frenchman first, as it's closer, and we were just going to have a quiet drink, but all their beers were off and the place is a bit bright and characterless, so we moved on. Chambers was good and busy and just comfortable and nice, and I can't remember why we don't go there so often these days.

Maybe it's because we prefer to go out in Canterbury at every opportunity these days, that's what we had planned for Saturday. We started with our buy one get one free lunch in Wagamama, which was tasty gorgeous, but service was a bit slow and sloppy again. I don't think they were that busy even.

UPDATE: Now I've left it a bit late, I really can't remember the full details of everything else we did... I expect we shopped for a bit, just perfunctorily though I'm sure, we put off a lot of the things we really meant to buy until next time, as we knew we were going pubbing and didn't really want to be carrying things like a plate rack and bedspreads around. We did get a [froogle]Kenwood Wizard[/froogle] though, a bit like one of these, as we had a bit of a food preparing plan for the next day and the box wasn't too big.

Next stop, possibly The Hobgoblin. Probably not the most promising looking of Canterbury pubs, but the beer's good and the jukebox is magic. From there, on to The Cuban, which again looks a bit small and modern from the front door, but it's worth a look inside. Lots of expensive cocktails, we tried a few, and though they were quite showy, they did have the feel of something more authentic, not your TGI Fridays sugar syrup specials here. I think I had a Very Berry Cuban (sounds like a tacky ice cream flavour, but was great, with red wine and cinamon and things) and something like a "Dark Night", which was good, but I'm not sure it was worth the extra cash or preparation time. It had a special aged rum in it, which is a bit lost when it's mixed in with Maple Syrup and things. Sounds foul, but, check them out for yourself. Not only have we made plans to go back there next Saturday, but we were so pleased with the place we made plans to go back that very same day, and has some Padron peppers from the tapas menu. We went to another pub, which might have been The Hobgoblin again, and now I'm really struggling to remember. The Brewery Tavern, that was it, at the back of the Abode hotel.

Later, there was curry at Apeksha, I know this because I found the receipt, we paid the bill at 21.44 and had Cobra beers, pappadoms, vegetable dansak, chicken tikka jalfrezi, alu gobi, piaj koli alu tamata, keerai poriyal, and rice. I don't remember what all of those are, I remember it was quite nice, but a bit pricey.

On the way home, we stopped in some pub near the station in Canterbury, and then again at a station pub in Dover where we had to change. A good days work I feel.