Brighton

On the 14th of this month me and the gf drove to Brighton to see the Mighty Boosh at the Brighton Centre, the tickets for the show had been booked by her mum and she also paid for one night at the hotel and I thought it would be nice to spend an extra night there so I booked and sorted the arrangements on the sly, until I opened my mouth about a week before and told the gf about it.



The plan was to have nothing to stick to, so plans etc were out of the window and it was just for us to relax and see what takes our fancy, which I thought was a great idea that the gf had come up with, the only snag is that we first had to leave home and I wanted to do this around 12pm. I am all packed and the gf is faffing around so I clean the kitchen up and make it tidy for when we get back, she then is almost ready and I moan saying that I would like to leave now, her answer, we aren't on a schedule, ok so I let it lie. We leave the house about 12:30/12:45 and go to her mums to drop off our sons clothes and car seat and all the rest of the stuff he needs, we are offered a tea to which I politely say no to, but the gf goes ahead anyway, so we have a brew and the gf and mum chat away whilst I am still looking at my watch, I finish my tea and say its now time to go, the gf looks at me with the look but decides that maybe it would be a good idea, so we leave her mums about 1:30pm. From where I live the drive is about 2 hours and I want to be there before rush hour as i know that Brighton can get snarled up and I am not exactly sure where abouts in Brighton we are gong apart from its on the seafront. the gf did a great job of being navigator even of the instructions we had were crappy but we had fun finding our way. We had a pit stop about a 3rd of the way in the journey as we both needed a pee and I needed a smoke, once we were back on form off we went. The journey itself wasn't bad and traffic was that heavy and we made it in good time, we got to the hotel about half 3 where I parked outside so I could run in and find out about parking, at reception they said we could park on the road where it costs about £1 an hour from 9-6 or we could park in the multi storey car park and they would arrange for a taxi to pick us up, this sounded like a good plan and as the taxi would be free I thought I would save a couple of quid, so we head of to the marina where I go straight past it and see it disappearing behind us, luckily we can to a round about and we headed back, as we get closer though I see a taxi on the top floor, realising this was probably ours, I put my foot down and get to the car park but the taxi has gone. We park up and sit there for about 5 mins just in case another taxi comes, but it doesn't, so I phone the hotel again and they arrange another taxi for us with no hassle, we get to the hotel and check in and go to our room.

The room wasn't bad and had all the mod cons, I made us a cup of tea and we sat an unwound for a bit then I went for a shower, I have only been in one wet room before which wasn't to bad, but this one, the shower head was massive and the water lovely and hot, the idea of not being enclosed with freedom to move was great and I spent about 20mins in there just enjoying the moment. The gf just sat down and watch some TV and when i got out we got ready to go out, even though me coming out of the shower was hoping to put her in the mood, but i think food was more on her mind as we hadn't had lunch and she hadn't bothered with breakfast, so off we went looking for food, we only went a few yards down the road and found a sit in chippy, the other half doesn't like restaurants that much, so we eat in there headed back to the hotel and got ready for going out to see the Mighty Boosh. The show was very good even though is wasn't along the lins of the first one we had seen live, this one concentrated more on them as a band with musical scenes, all very well done and funny, but I was so of left waiting for the main show to begin. There were a couple of unplanned laughs though, on was when Noel Fielding was Tony Harrison and to do it he has to sit inside a sofa, after about five minutes his legs must have started hurting as the next thing you see, is him almost falling out of the chair, but he kept it going even though he was laughing alot. after the show we headed back to the hotel and sat and chatted for a while and the gf watched Children in need, so I went to sleep.


Saturday morning i woke and the gf was still sleeping so I caught up on some reading and listened to my ipod, when she did finally stir I made us a cup of tea and we got ready to go out and find somewhere for breakfast, I had a shower before leaving but there had been a problem with the water so i had a lukewarm one and the gf also had one where I helped to wash her down, once again thinking this may lead to something, without trying it on, but no again, so i was a little disheartened but carried on as normal. we headed in to The Lanes about 11ish and wandered round seeing what cafes or restaurants were open, we saw quite a few bars and pubs opened but they were serving lunch food and we really wanted to a fry up, eventually we found a little cafe/restaurant that was very nice and not that expensive and a slap up meal all round was served. Afterwards we went for a stroll through town and found somewhere we were going to eat in the evening, we found loads of shops but I wasn't really in the shopping mood, but when i did decide to look at something we had to leave as she couldn't find anything she liked. after looking around for a while the gf wanted to go back to the hotel which we did and we vegged out for a while and chatted and snoozed.

When we had both woken, we went out for dinner at Old Orleans, I had eaten at one before and remember the food being quite good, so we skipped the starter and went straight for the main, which was a good thing as the portions were massive, I went for the Rib eye and the gf had roasted chicken. We had a couple of drinks whilst we ate and had a nice time, on the way back we had a look in a shop window of somewhere we thought we might visit the next day when I noticed that there was an ally, which led us to where we wanted to be to cross the road back to the hotel, we just laughed as both times we had come in to town we had spent about 15 mins wandering around looking lost, trying to find where we had been. On the way back we took a walk along the Pier, even though it was a bit chilly, we thought why not, so that took about 20 mins also the gf got wolf whistled by a couple of lads, but we just chuckled and carried on. Once back in the hotel, we sat in the bar and had a drink and borrowed a couple of DVDs, I watched the first one with her and then tried to watch the second but fell asleep.

Sunday morning was leaving time, so we showered and got all of our stuff ready, checked out and got another free taxi to pick out car up, where we had parked on the Marina, they have built an outlet village as well as an ASDA, Casino, Nightclub and bars. we loaded the car up and drove down a few levels of the multi storey and parked up and went to find breakfast again, we had a look at the places that were open but they were empty, I spotted Cafe Rouge and it seemed busy in there, so guessed that they did ok breakfast and in we went. We had a nice breakfast, me for the fry up and the gf had scrambled egg and salmon. We had to see what shops were on offer and there wasn't anything that exciting, they were either closing down or already closed down, so we headed back to the car and started our journey home, which was a quite a bit longer that it was getting there. There was one accident just as we wanted to leave Brighton so we had to detour around that, then there was an accident in Hastings and as it was on the only road in and out there was nothing we could but wait, this tried my patients a bit as all I wanted as a cuppa and a cig, but about two half/three hours later we were back at her mums and my wish was granted.

Coming or Going

I've had quite a busy week.

Week ago Saturday we had fireworks at the inlaws and we had a large gathering and loads of fireworks. We had to cut the display short though as some bright spark (sorry) decided that it would be a good idea to take a lot of the fireworks outside so that it would be easy to set them up and replace the used ones, this would have been ok if it wasn't a drizzly evening. After we had done about half the fireworks we went inside to get some food but as I was just going inside I felt the rain starting a bit so I covered the rest of the fireworks as best I could. Once we had eaten we went out for the rest of the display but it was very disappointing though as a lot of the fireworks were just to wet to light and we cut it short but just using what was left in the house, luckily I had the left the really large one that I had got from the Wednesday fireworks in doors and we used that for the big final and I have to say I wasn't disappointed by it.

Monday saw me rushing home to see the family and spending some time with my son before I headed out of the door to go and see the zutons, they played a blinder of a set and I have to say I was blown away by it, I managed to get some pics as I was right at the front, it being a small venue it wasn't hard to do.

If you haven't heard them I suggest you check out some of their tracks.

I played football Wednesday night with the usual bunch and as the gf has now stopped working Wednesday nights I stayed on and watch Liverpool take a pounding from Tottenham Hotspur (gits) but instead of me going home about half 8 - 9 I got home about 10pm which resulted in a row as the gf was expecting me home for then and instead of texting or ringing I just sat watching the footie. When she had finished shouting I went up to my room and fell asleep, I woke the next morning knowing that I needed to keep my head down as she was on the warpath and had told me to move out the night before (yup been there done that), so I got washed etc and sort my son out when she calls down to me, so I go and see her and she wants me to get in to bed with her, as I'm dressed I do, we have a cuddle and we say sorry for the things said and done the night before and get on with it, me thinking that maybe some make up sex was going to happen, but no wrong. So I get my son ready for school and take him and also drop her timesheets off and head off to work.

The weekend to follow

The Witches are burning

Well not quite but thought I woudl write up about halloween and bonfire night.

So Friday night i took my son and his friend out trick or treating, him dressed as a Vampire and his friend dressed as a witch (not cross dressing it was a girl). We pounded the streets of our neighbour hood for about an hour and the amount of sweets they got was amazing. There are a few houses in our street that really like to go all out, two in particular had an open door invite and the kids were allowed to just wonder in and see what was going on, the outside of the houses were also decorated really well, some other houses tried to make an efffort and were very friendly when we knocked on the doors. A few of the houses did have signs saying no trick or treaters please, which I though was fair enough and we left them alone, there was also another house we went to, where they just said no thanks, we thanked them and left with no problems.

Last night I had to get some fireworks as my son must have been talking at school about guy fawkes and bonfire night. It really shocked me when I foudn out he wanted to do them tonight was all the past fireworks night he has been so scared, either just watching them in a garden, an event or just hearing them when he is in his bed. He used to come out screaming if he was in his bed and he would get in to bed with us, but this year he seems to have got used to them or they just aren't bothering him as much. My orders were to just buy a few and we would see how he was with them, but asking a man to just buy a few fireworks is not going to happen, but i didn't go OTT, I went to Sainsbury and had a lok at their selection, the little boxes had gone, there was a £20 box and then a £40 box, I was tempted to get the later but thought better of it and also funds, so I got the £20 set which contained 25 fireworks but also as it was buy one get one free but instead of getting another box I got this massive roman candle thing, it is not something that you stick in the ground as you would have to dig a massive hole, this thing looks like it should only be given for professional firework nights. I had a quick read of it and it says you have to be 25 metres away when it is going off, now my garden isn't that big but i thought what the heck anyway. So I get home and the gf just looks at me then the fireworks then back at me, so I tell here that this was the only size set left or there was a bigger selection and that the roman candle came free, she just laughed and said fine. My son was looking at me and I could tell that he wanted to do the fireworks straight awaybut we had told him i would do them after football with him, but he looked so sad as I had time I told him we can do them before I go to football, he just had a massive smile of his face with that news.
Out I go in to the garden to set up some of our fireworks and my son is looking out and sees fireworks coming from his friends house and just watches them which was great as before he would have ran crying in to the house, I set some of ours off and he is loving it, the gf then gets some sparklers out and my son was very nervous of these but he got used to them and started writing his name. I lite most of the fireworks and he seemed to enjoy all of them, I then had to leave for football. I left the big firework as the gf's mum is having some fireworks saturday and i will take it there, hopefully my son will be fine there to.