Christmas 2008

We broke up from work on Xmas Eve and then...10 days off! Yay!

We cooked dinner for 10 on Xmas Day...very stressful, particularly for SJ, however we battle through. It was really nice, salmon starter, soup, turkey (obviously), veggies, potatoes, loads of desserts and enough alcohol to sink a battleship!

SJ and I decided to buy each other a Nintendo Wii - its's fantastic! Really good fun. We bought the Wii Fit to go with it as well so let's see if we can get fitter!

Did the usual stuff over Xmas - saw family, walked dogs etc, etc. We came back down to Radlett a couple of days before New Years Eve as we were heading into London for NYE.

"Never before has a boy asked for me..."

We went to watch Oliver on Friday night. This was the opening Friday as it was cancelled the week before. It stars Rowan Atkinson as Fagan and Nancy was decided via a public vote on a talent show. It was pretty good, the sets were amazing, however the real star of the show was The Artful Dodger - fantastic performance!!

We had a meal out at one of the West End restaurants beforehand (can't remember which one) but it was OK...nothing special but OK...

National Express - Scotland

We have a travel restriction on with work at the moment which means we're having to be a little creative in terms of how we get around. I had to travel up to Scotland this week and normally I would fly. This time however, I thought I'd try the train and was really pleasantly surprised! I caught the National Express train from King Cross to Edinburgh which took about 4 hours or so. We then went up to Aberdeen, did our talk and then stayed over in Inverrurie. The following day, we headed north to Elgin. Diageo are building a new distillery at Roseisle in whch some of our equipment was being used. Impressive site I must say very hi-tech.

We headed back down to Edinburgh and I caught the train back down...all very smooth and I would definitely do it again...

In Bruges

So, for SJ's birthday, I booked the Eurostar to Bruges for a couple of nights. This was somewhere we'd both wanted to go since seeing the film - In Bruges. The trip itself was really simple, train to St Pancras, change on to Eurostar, then change at Brussels to a local train to Bruges and that was it!


Bruges is a beautiful city...just like being in a fairytale...we stayed in the Hotel de Tuilerieen and what a hotel! Its rated as one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World and was the place Colin Farrell et al stayed in when they were filming In Bruges!


The first night we ate at the No. 1 rated restaurant in Bruges - Rock Fort...absolutely fantastic...second night was Pieter Pourbus, again a fantastic meal and the second highest rated restaurant in Bruges. We ate Turbot for the first time and it was amazing...

Teeside

We had to do an exhibition this week in Teeside - I won't name the hotel other than to say it was worse than Hi-de-Hi! A terrible place with even a "Sun Lounge"...dreadful, truly dreadful...

Berkhamstead Castle

Partytime

Hungary

Manchester United

This week we had our annual Solutions Forum. Last year it was held at Twickenham, this year it was at Old Trafford. I must admit I was pretty impressed with Old Trafford. Having never been before it's an imposing place. The only thing I regretted was that I forgot my camera. I resorted to taking pics on my phone - normally good, but I'd got the wrong setting on...consequently each pic was about an inch by an inch! The only one that did come out was the one above...not a bad one actually!

Twice St Neots?

This week somehow I managed to spend both Friday and Monday in St. Neots! Not the best of planning on my part!!

Cannock Chase walk with parents

On Sunday we went for a walk over the Chase with my parents. We struggle to fit everything in when we go up to Rugeley so this helps in terms of making sure the dogs get walked and we see both sets of parents!

Going underground...

Last Friday we went into town for some birthday drinks with one of SJ's customers. We headed round the Underground to Putney and then walked over what we thought was Putney Bridge but actually turned out to be the railway bridge! Anyway, we got over the river and headed along the banks past the Star & Garter building to a pub called The Dukes Head. We met the rest of the invitees there, had a few drinks and then went on to the main event of the evening - The Jamm...

Not a spelling error, The Jamm are a tribute band to The Jam. They were playing at The Half Moon pub and we had tickets. It was a sellout and very busy. They started about 21:00 and went on for a good couple of hours. Having never seen The Jam, (or Paul Weller for that matter) I've no real reference but in my (non-fan) opinion, they were very good. The lead singer looked like a cross between Paul Weller and Rhys Ifans but in terms of sounding like The Jam, they were excellent! Adam, who is a bit of a Jam fan, also reckons they are "one of the best".

Roast

We went into town last night, meeting up with a friend of SJ and his girlfriend. He used to live in Oz and moved back to the UK a couple of months ago. They're an interesting couple as they essentially made a pact when they were (much) younger that if they were both unmarried later in life, they would marry each other!

They're renting a flat near to Borough Market and they have some amazing views...

We went for a drink in The Southwark Tavern, before heading to Roast for a meal. I'd not been to Roast before but SJ goes regularly with work as its just down the road from LTSB. I had soup and then pork, everyone else had lamb. It was good but not worth the money I don't think...

We then went for some more drinks in The Southwark Tavern before heading home....