All of this

The last week has gone in a blur. A week ago I was worried about Kath going into hospital, I felt powerless and so far away. Fortunately everything went well and she was sent home on Monday, just in time to receive the flowers I sent.

Week was then mostly work than doing some bits and bobs for my old company, in between getting the computers ready for the lan party.

Friday night I got to go on a work jolly. We managed to get a release out of the door on time so the business treated Development, Testing and Business Analysts to a meal out. We went to the Sapporo Teppanyaki. I got the train Piccadilly, then metro to Castlefield. The Sapporo is a large modern place near to the Science Museum. We were seated around a hot plate and the food was cooked in front of us. The chiefs put on several tricks flaring with their cutlery, throwing potatoes to be caught by the diners and flambéing meat. We had a set meal, incorporating Namasu Salad, Miso Wakame Soup, Smoked Chicken Rolls, Barbecue Spare Ribs, Duck Roll, Chicken Fillet With Asparagus, Half Lobster, Scallops With Ginger And Sesame, Jumbo Prawns, Grilled Vegetables, Fried Rice, Sapporo Potatoes, finishing with Fruit Salad.
Though its was a lot of food the portions  were not over the top and it was all very tastey. Especially the Lobster which was increadible. We drank sake and Japanese lager and by the end of the meal I was feeling a little light headed. Next stop was dukes bar which was a short stop for me as I decided to race back to for the last train home at 23:30. Usually I would have stayed out but I didn't want to be too hung over for the lan party.

Unfortunately I reckoned without remembering how much of a hangover that Saki leads to. I felt rather jaded heading to the the lan party yesterday morning, and was more irritable than normal during the day. It was a smaller event than normal thanks to the Manchester United play in the Champions league final and Martin, Adam and Endo being away kite-flying. I really enjoyed it in spite of the fact that my computer decided that it didn't want to play Unreal or Call of Duty. I will have to see it I can save up for a new one for the future lan's.

On Saturday Kath arrived in the UK early at 6.30am. So getting up early I headed to Liverpool airport to pick her up. We came back to my house stopping nearby for a spoiling Peter Herd Breakfast. They were impressed that we arrived directly from the airport.

We went round to see my parents, and storm doggy. Their house is covered in scaffolding at the moment while Paul a colleague of Nick's fixes some holes in the roof and re-points the chimney.

I made dinner for us both, tuna steak with home made lemon garlic chilli  and soy sauce, baked potato, and salad. With a couple of bottles of wine and a rented film. We watched Another Year, a British film following the lives of several characters through four seasons. I found it very well acted but slightly depressing.

It is always nice to sit cuddled up to Kath.

25+ Examples of keeping Web Design Simple and Minimalistic - tripwire magazine

25+ Examples of keeping Web Design Simple and Minimalistic - tripwire magazine

Super Meat Boy

Surprisingly after the drinking games I was feeling not too bad on Sunday Morning. I even managed to fit in a bit of cleaning before Paul and Woller popped round.

We had a coffee and a chat about stuff.

I had received the King of Limbs set in the week and hadn't had a chance to open it yet. So I decided to film us opening it. The package was nice, the newspaper a slightly different version. I loved the artwork, finding it actually better than that which came with In Rainbows. I actually feel its a shame that the artwork is printed on newspaper rather than glossy paper.  At some point I will mix the video and upload it to you tube.

Woller headed off so Paul and I played games. I had downloaded the potatoes sack last week from Steam. So got a chance to try out some of the games. Of all of the ones we played one stood out a country mile. Super Meat Boy, a simple platform game which you play meat boy. The object is to navigate round a small level to get to the girl. There are various pitfalls and traps and every surface you touch gets covered with blood. The levels are fiendishly difficult, but addictive. There are loads of nice touches, such as once you complete a level you see all the failed attempt too.

In the evening Jo Berger came over and we went out for a curry at the Kathmandu in Stockport. Before popping out we listened to some songs from Paul's new album. There is some songs from his LA / Sydney days including a couple I am really happy to hear again. I am looking forward to hearing the mastered version.

Its actually a Nepalese, and doesn't look like much from the outside. Fortunately the food is excellent, I had a lamb tikka sizzler with a spicy sauce. Paul had a prawn Madrass and Jo had a lamb meal. The food was really nice and tasty.

After the meal we headed back to my house and I made Paul watch walking dead with me. Before heading to bed we played and completed the first boss, on Super Meat boy.

cigarettes and alcohol

It was Danny's 30th birthday party yesterday evening. Held at Danny's local the Foresters Arms in Romiley (aka the piggy).
It all started at 2.30, however it involved watching Football which didn't interest me too much, so I headed down arriving about 6pm.
Using to the GMPTE journey planner to plan I took at train to Stockport then a bus to the centre of Romiley, then walked up the hill to the Piggy.

Holly, Jo, Woller and Paul were already there when I arrived, sat outside in the beer garden. Danny looked happy surrounded by friends, dressed in a dark side of the moon t shirt and a leather jacket.
Paul, started telling me about his trip to Australia, and proposal to Saskia.

Danny had arranged a Pub Golf tournament. I had heard of pub golf before but never played it before. It basically involves drinking a series of drinks, each drink has a par. The par indicates how many swigs it should take to drink. A pint was par 4 meaning it should be drunk in 4 swigs, consuming in 3 would score a birdie, two an eagle. There is a time limit on how long it takes to drink and some other rules which I forgot. I took Paul's place after he backed out I was teamed up ith Berger and two of Dans friends Abby and I think Becky. After the first hole and given most of the participants had been drinking most of the day already the competition descended into Chaos. Dan lost and won a shirt signed by his friends. There was a buffet following the golf, and a live band.

I sat and eat with the follow competitors, Paul and Holly. The band were good but it was very stuffy inside, so we headed back out to the beer garden. We tried to mingle, and I was chatting to Woller, Paul and Joe for a while though by now the effects of the golf had started to scramble my brain.

I took some not photos with my phone there are on facebook.

Holly was kind enough to offer me a lift home which was great, head feels a little sore this morning though.

Bridge Burning

My flight arrived at Liverpool airport at 6.25am about 20 minutes early. Unfortunately my dad was slightly late so I was stood bleary eyed outside the airport freezing in the early morning chill.

Was very glad to see him when he did arrive, getting back home I had breakfast tried to sleep a little wasnt able to so instead started watching some TV and relaxing. Cocoa seemed happy to see me, I gave her a long tickle. Mum must have done a good job of looking after her as her coat was very fluffy.

Bruce called me around 5 as he was going to the John Millington, so I quickly had a shower got changed and headed there on the train. Embarrassingly my debit card decided to stop working not sure why, I'll have to call them on Monday. I had no cash so had to rely on my credit card. I didnt find this out until I attempted to buy a ticked on the train, as its only one stop I didn't think I would make it when the card declined.

Phil and Caroline were also at the pub, well I say that they were there, they were pretty hung over from a night out the previous evening. Bruce and Nina were n a good mood. We all had a chat and a drink before Phil and Caroline took off. Nina Bruce and I went for a curry at the Silsila. It is a sort of modern Indian, with fish tanks on the walls and nice cutlery, I enjoyed the food very much though. I had a sort of spicy chicken dish, with pepper chilli and garlic.

Riding the train back I noticed how much work they are doing on Cheadle Hulme station. There have built towers on each of the platforms they look to me like lift shafts I think that they will run gantries between the platforms with lifts and stairs. They have been working on that station for ages I remember part of the car park being taken over for construction works while I was at college.