Curry & Beer in Good Company :)
We'd been trying to organise a get together with Ed & Tash for ages - but Ed seems to be the busiest man in the world. So having originally said after Easter sometime we were a little surprised when Ed rang up on Thursday morning to say they were free that night, how about us. The plan had always been to go to the Maharani which was our favourite Indian restaurant so Ed & Tash picked us up about 6 & drove over there (it's on the other side of town - I'd assumed we'd walk but as Ed was happy to drive ... ).
The food there is still as good as it always was :) I was boring with my order - onion bhaji to start, and chicken tikka korai for main course, but it's just so good I always have trouble choosing something else ;) And it's been years since J & I have been there (there are closer Indian places & generally we get takeaway on the way back from the Dove rather than eat out anyway). The manager (I assume that's what he is) seemed to remember us tho, even despite the long time. Or he's good at faking recognising people (it's not like he knew our names or anything anyway so easy enough to fake I guess). Still, a nice touch :)
Then back to Ed & Tash's place to drop off the car and visit the dog. Not personally being a fan of dogs I mostly sat there telling Albert to go talk to someone else. But J was very pleased to talk to the dog :) And Albert is a nice dog, very friendly and still a puppy despite being adult dog sized now and he's a black labrador which I do have a bit of a soft spot for (as much as you can say I have a soft spot for any dogs).
And from there, on to the Dove for a few pints. J spotted they had bottles of Northumberland's Wor Bobby on offer, which is a commemoration beer for Bobby Robson, so obviously he had to have that (twice) and the Adnam's Irish Dry Stout as his third. I had a rather disappointing beer first called Doombar, it didn't have much flavour. Then followed that up with the same Adnam's Stout as J, and finished off with the Sticklegs' Malt Shovel Mild. Can't remember what Ed had, but at least one of them was the Adnam's Stout - as you can tell all three of us rather liked that :) Tash is not a beer fan, so was on the white wine.
After the pub we took Tash back to their place coz she was flagging a bit, and then the other three of us came back to our house for more booze and some PS3 games. J showed Ed God of War III and a couple of other things while Ed & I drank G&Ts, then Ed headed off sometime after 1 (I think? it's a little hazy) and J & I went and collapsed. Given the quantity of beer I'd had (including the Kingfisher lager I'd had with my curry) I perhaps should've given the gin a miss, but it seemed like a good idea at the time ;)
Yesterday was a bit of a waste of a day - I didn't quite get over the hangover before bedtime, tho I managed to summon up enough energy for some zombie hunting in the evening so I suppose I didn't totally waste the day ;) And it had been nice to catch up with Ed & Tash on Thursday, they're good company & we don't see them enough :)
The food there is still as good as it always was :) I was boring with my order - onion bhaji to start, and chicken tikka korai for main course, but it's just so good I always have trouble choosing something else ;) And it's been years since J & I have been there (there are closer Indian places & generally we get takeaway on the way back from the Dove rather than eat out anyway). The manager (I assume that's what he is) seemed to remember us tho, even despite the long time. Or he's good at faking recognising people (it's not like he knew our names or anything anyway so easy enough to fake I guess). Still, a nice touch :)
Then back to Ed & Tash's place to drop off the car and visit the dog. Not personally being a fan of dogs I mostly sat there telling Albert to go talk to someone else. But J was very pleased to talk to the dog :) And Albert is a nice dog, very friendly and still a puppy despite being adult dog sized now and he's a black labrador which I do have a bit of a soft spot for (as much as you can say I have a soft spot for any dogs).
And from there, on to the Dove for a few pints. J spotted they had bottles of Northumberland's Wor Bobby on offer, which is a commemoration beer for Bobby Robson, so obviously he had to have that (twice) and the Adnam's Irish Dry Stout as his third. I had a rather disappointing beer first called Doombar, it didn't have much flavour. Then followed that up with the same Adnam's Stout as J, and finished off with the Sticklegs' Malt Shovel Mild. Can't remember what Ed had, but at least one of them was the Adnam's Stout - as you can tell all three of us rather liked that :) Tash is not a beer fan, so was on the white wine.
After the pub we took Tash back to their place coz she was flagging a bit, and then the other three of us came back to our house for more booze and some PS3 games. J showed Ed God of War III and a couple of other things while Ed & I drank G&Ts, then Ed headed off sometime after 1 (I think? it's a little hazy) and J & I went and collapsed. Given the quantity of beer I'd had (including the Kingfisher lager I'd had with my curry) I perhaps should've given the gin a miss, but it seemed like a good idea at the time ;)
Yesterday was a bit of a waste of a day - I didn't quite get over the hangover before bedtime, tho I managed to summon up enough energy for some zombie hunting in the evening so I suppose I didn't totally waste the day ;) And it had been nice to catch up with Ed & Tash on Thursday, they're good company & we don't see them enough :)