That Was The Birthday That Was..!
So, it's been an ace birthday week or so, despite the actual day falling on the Wednesday. By pure good fortune, it avoided being stupidly close to my operation (as I got the letter on Monday 2nd.) By choosing the weekend before, it allowed Stevo to be involved before his jaunt to Australia for the Cricket World Cup plus a plethora of rugby league matches and for my sister Natalie to come, as George (her husband)'s birthday is tomorrow and he is celebrating with him this weekend.
On Friday 28th, we went to http://www.splendidkitchen.co.uk/ - for fancy burgers and similar goodness. They also had battered gherkins too, which were strangely delicious. We booked a table for 9 of me, Toni, Vausey, Stevo, Sam, Merv, Rochelle, Ben and Christian. And then promptly chatted loads of probable insanity (if others were looking in), including about Rochelle's planned Meatloaf party! Sam also got to experience meeting Christian, who is renowned for saying to anyone the most inappropriate first questions especially to girls (e.g. "What do you do? Are you a stripper - to our mate who is working on a PhD in Medicine!)
The restaurant kindly donated a shot of Pear Schnapps at the end and we headed to a nearby pub till closing, a fine night and I didn't get too wasted, which is good, as I was up quite early to do shopping and head to meet Stevo at United for the ticket I got for my birthday. The game was terrible but United scrapped to a 2-0 win over Sunderland.
This allowed time to walk back before heading to Town for a night in The Salisbury pub and then on to Poptastic (which is technically a gay night but plays the best mix of non 'MADCHESTER' indie/pop/rock/punk/metal in the city.) There was a great number of people, I can't believe how lucky I am to have that many people come out and tolerate me hammered!
I can't remember too much of the end of the night (thanks to shots from among others, Amy, Suze and Lisa!) and plenty of bought pints too but it was great fun! Neil had apparently gone AWOL too, so Katie was texting us to check that he was still with us.
I felt pretty rough the next day but after 7 or so hours sleep, Toni persuaded me to drive to KFC (borderline sober enough) and I felt better as we watched Gordon Ramsey bellow at more people on Sunday morning TV!
I had to attend Swinton in the afternoon and also tell my Mum and Dad about the operation. They didn't seem too arsed and Swinton cantered to a 34-0 win over Hemel in the League Cup. Thankfully, I'd passed all my media commitments on to Riggy that weekend, so for once I paid in instead of using my media pass.
After nipping back to the flat, Toni still felt too tired from the night before, so with her blessing, I headed out to catch Tim Barry at Star and Garter. It doesn't look like much from the only video on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiBn0-mwSWA
But it was tremendous! Jim and Wong bailed after the gig, so we stopped off for one more pint before bidding farewell for five weeks to Stevo.
Got on the bus for once and slept so well from around 1AM! Having tactically booked Monday off, I got a nice lie in too!
As this all happened before my birthday, you'd think it would feel like an anti-climax, but it definitely didn't! Toni tried making this white chocolate cake with ganache but got a bit impatient putting it on the hot cake, so it ran everywhere. As it's ganache, it was still REALLY delicious! Which reminds me, the last bits are still in the fridge, nom!
This was being cooked while we watched Channel 4's odd show "Cannabis:Live" which was half a discussion show and half video clips of famous people getting high then being given mental tests!
As we were going to the Fab Café Quiz in the evening, the best option for opening presents was just after midnight, so after the cake put us both on a huge sugar rush, we began.
I got a sensible coat, a penguin design backpack, Wolf of Wall Street, Why We Fight and American Hustle on DVD, a rare B.Dolan CD and t-shirt, a box of Dairy Milk Strawberry and Cream (nom!) a book on Crap Taxidermy, loosely based on a documentary we saw and Friday Night Lights DVD Box Set, all tremendous things!
We checked the latter out last night, the first two episodes were fantastic (don't worry, I'm not going to start doing fandoms!) along with this film, almost certainly the final birthday treat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpcCJ8ozirU
It's possibly the least classy black and white movie of all time and utterly dreadful!
As I unashamedly dragged out the celebrations out over the week, we had a meal at Frankie and Benny's on Friday 6th with my Mum and Dad, it was a good meal and the waiter kindly helped my Mum out, as she's on a low salt diet, to have the salt removed from her Calamari. We left a big tip for him.
My Dad sent me a text last night apologising for leaving early, due to his bowel issues! We invited them over to our flat afterwards as Terri swiped a Birthday cake from work for me and it was too huge for just me and Toni! We all had a piece and they left, so he must be getting better at disguising it!
The Pub Quiz on Wednesday was grand but because of a big turn out, we had to split into two teams. Predictably, the team with Ben (and his tremendous brain full of music knowledge) won. My sister for some reason complained that she wasn't on the same team as me but with Ben, Toni, Vausey, Paul C, Andy S and Danneh plus she got a couple of film questions wrong (despite being in a Film Society!)
Meanwhile me, Hobson, Terri, Beeb, Clare and Katie Royle came in 10th, that might have something to do with the three shots of Jager Katie gave us both in a couple of hours! All good fun on a Wednesday night.
My sister stayed at ours and saw the flat for the first time, she liked it but had no idea I bought it 7 months ago! My Mum, Toni and me can all remember telling her this.
Anyway, I'm not going to list all the gifts, as that's not the important thing, I just like getting together with people I love and having a few beers and a chat. For that and many other reasons, it's been a tremendous birthday!
Thanks to everyone and also all you LJ-ers for all your good wishes on the post on 4th March too!
On Friday 28th, we went to http://www.splendidkitchen.co.uk/ - for fancy burgers and similar goodness. They also had battered gherkins too, which were strangely delicious. We booked a table for 9 of me, Toni, Vausey, Stevo, Sam, Merv, Rochelle, Ben and Christian. And then promptly chatted loads of probable insanity (if others were looking in), including about Rochelle's planned Meatloaf party! Sam also got to experience meeting Christian, who is renowned for saying to anyone the most inappropriate first questions especially to girls (e.g. "What do you do? Are you a stripper - to our mate who is working on a PhD in Medicine!)
The restaurant kindly donated a shot of Pear Schnapps at the end and we headed to a nearby pub till closing, a fine night and I didn't get too wasted, which is good, as I was up quite early to do shopping and head to meet Stevo at United for the ticket I got for my birthday. The game was terrible but United scrapped to a 2-0 win over Sunderland.
This allowed time to walk back before heading to Town for a night in The Salisbury pub and then on to Poptastic (which is technically a gay night but plays the best mix of non 'MADCHESTER' indie/pop/rock/punk/metal in the city.) There was a great number of people, I can't believe how lucky I am to have that many people come out and tolerate me hammered!
I can't remember too much of the end of the night (thanks to shots from among others, Amy, Suze and Lisa!) and plenty of bought pints too but it was great fun! Neil had apparently gone AWOL too, so Katie was texting us to check that he was still with us.
I felt pretty rough the next day but after 7 or so hours sleep, Toni persuaded me to drive to KFC (borderline sober enough) and I felt better as we watched Gordon Ramsey bellow at more people on Sunday morning TV!
I had to attend Swinton in the afternoon and also tell my Mum and Dad about the operation. They didn't seem too arsed and Swinton cantered to a 34-0 win over Hemel in the League Cup. Thankfully, I'd passed all my media commitments on to Riggy that weekend, so for once I paid in instead of using my media pass.
After nipping back to the flat, Toni still felt too tired from the night before, so with her blessing, I headed out to catch Tim Barry at Star and Garter. It doesn't look like much from the only video on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiBn0-mwSWA
But it was tremendous! Jim and Wong bailed after the gig, so we stopped off for one more pint before bidding farewell for five weeks to Stevo.
Got on the bus for once and slept so well from around 1AM! Having tactically booked Monday off, I got a nice lie in too!
As this all happened before my birthday, you'd think it would feel like an anti-climax, but it definitely didn't! Toni tried making this white chocolate cake with ganache but got a bit impatient putting it on the hot cake, so it ran everywhere. As it's ganache, it was still REALLY delicious! Which reminds me, the last bits are still in the fridge, nom!
This was being cooked while we watched Channel 4's odd show "Cannabis:Live" which was half a discussion show and half video clips of famous people getting high then being given mental tests!
As we were going to the Fab Café Quiz in the evening, the best option for opening presents was just after midnight, so after the cake put us both on a huge sugar rush, we began.
I got a sensible coat, a penguin design backpack, Wolf of Wall Street, Why We Fight and American Hustle on DVD, a rare B.Dolan CD and t-shirt, a box of Dairy Milk Strawberry and Cream (nom!) a book on Crap Taxidermy, loosely based on a documentary we saw and Friday Night Lights DVD Box Set, all tremendous things!
We checked the latter out last night, the first two episodes were fantastic (don't worry, I'm not going to start doing fandoms!) along with this film, almost certainly the final birthday treat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpcCJ8ozirU
It's possibly the least classy black and white movie of all time and utterly dreadful!
As I unashamedly dragged out the celebrations out over the week, we had a meal at Frankie and Benny's on Friday 6th with my Mum and Dad, it was a good meal and the waiter kindly helped my Mum out, as she's on a low salt diet, to have the salt removed from her Calamari. We left a big tip for him.
My Dad sent me a text last night apologising for leaving early, due to his bowel issues! We invited them over to our flat afterwards as Terri swiped a Birthday cake from work for me and it was too huge for just me and Toni! We all had a piece and they left, so he must be getting better at disguising it!
The Pub Quiz on Wednesday was grand but because of a big turn out, we had to split into two teams. Predictably, the team with Ben (and his tremendous brain full of music knowledge) won. My sister for some reason complained that she wasn't on the same team as me but with Ben, Toni, Vausey, Paul C, Andy S and Danneh plus she got a couple of film questions wrong (despite being in a Film Society!)
Meanwhile me, Hobson, Terri, Beeb, Clare and Katie Royle came in 10th, that might have something to do with the three shots of Jager Katie gave us both in a couple of hours! All good fun on a Wednesday night.
My sister stayed at ours and saw the flat for the first time, she liked it but had no idea I bought it 7 months ago! My Mum, Toni and me can all remember telling her this.
Anyway, I'm not going to list all the gifts, as that's not the important thing, I just like getting together with people I love and having a few beers and a chat. For that and many other reasons, it's been a tremendous birthday!
Thanks to everyone and also all you LJ-ers for all your good wishes on the post on 4th March too!