Mahinda’s Little World

I really am forever behind with this thing. Maybe it’s because I’m just no good at summarising things? Probably.

Camping in the Rain

Last weekend (well, the one before last) saw me going camping with Sarah M. Yes, as in Sarah-the-Ex.

Some viewed this move as simply mental, and I can see their point. The thing is, I tend not to end up with the average ex-girlfriend relationship. If you see what I mean.

Anyway, we were going to head up to Masham (pronounced "Massam") in Yorkshire. The plan was to visit a brewery and get some walking in…

• Friday
  It rained. And rained. Got there; found the Black Sheep Brewery; had a lovely lunch there; did the tour; found campsite; pitched tent; got soaked; went to Harrogate; saw Children of Men at the Odeon; came back; slept in a rather soggy tent.
• Saturday
  No rain in the morning, but loads of mist. 50-200 yards visibility. Found start of walk; started walking without being able to see much; eventually had a delicious pub lunch; skies cleared; walked back in sunshine; headed back; had a snooze; went to York for a ghost walk; back to Masham; missed last orders; grumped; went to bed; it started raining really hard.
• Sunday
  Awoke to find a drip on the inside of the tent - fortunately, the duvet had soaked up most of the water, and it was close enough to waking-up time. It was absolutely pelting it down. Packed up; went to White Bear for a pint of Old Peculier, only to find that it wasn’t open; drove back to a sunny (!) MancLand; had a curry lunch at This ‘n’ That; Sarah left; I chilled out at home; parents came round to swap cars (long story).

I may or may not write more at a later date.

Monday

Shooting. Did okay. Committee meeting. We need a new fence. Anyone got a spare couple of grand?

Tuesday

Missed hockey practice, which was naughty. Went out for a Turkish meal in town with work, at Café Istanbul in the city centre. It was nice enough, especially when you consider that I paid a whopping £2.50 for the privilege. However, I wasn’t all that impressed with the main meal:

Spit roasted lamb doner kebab
Thin slices of spit roasted lamb, lightly spiced to our own tasty recipe. Served with Istanbul rice & mixed salad.

I was curious to find out what classy don(n)er meat was like. Nice enough, but really not much better than the stuff found at a decent kebab house. The hot sauce was particularly laughable.

In summary, nice enough (some of the non-donner dishes looked better), but I wouldn’t pay full price for it. Some of our table were pretty impressed, but they’re probably not kebab aficionados like wot I am.

Lots of streets were closed off due to the Labour party conference - I cycled in, and got a bit confused by the signs. "Pass holders and buses only" they proclaimed - I didn’t have a pass, and certainly wasn’t a bus! The police weren’t fussed - I guess that they weren’t really expecting the world’s first bicycle bomber

We spotted various suits walking past, notably Jack Straw. Our HR woman gave him a dirty look.

After the meal, Andrew P and I headed over to the Ape and Apple for a few drinks. As a Holt’s pub, it’s very cheap indeed - £3.50 for two bottles of tasty ale! Top marks for nice barmaids, too - I got chatting to one, and it turns out that the Labour types had been in the day before for canapés and the like. A bunch of ponces, apparently.

Cycled home.

Wednesday

The very last Platt Fields Hockey session of the summer. Fittingly, the grass was long and the weather was damp…a Manchester drizzle rather than proper rain, fortunately.

I think it was more-or-less 5-a-side, and my bunch got absolutely slaughtered by Si’s, thanks to some rather profligate finishing from yours truly.

We played until almost 8pm, when it was too dark to actually see the ground - I’d taken my glow-in-the-dark ball, which cunningly uses translucent plastic and a glowstick. It rocks! Pretty much all we could see at the end was a bright yellow thing whizzing around, and the vague silhouettes of the players.

Thursday

Fire!

Met up with Howell, Jo and the MADwalkers in Hardy’s Well, and moseyed on to Platt Fields for the Carabosse Installation de Feu - basically, they’d transformed a section of the park into a fire garden, with loads of flaming pots, illuminated lanterns made from vests (no, really) and so on. See that link for more details and pictures - they’re brilliant!

Amongst the MADwalkers was a chap called Arthur - seeing him gave me quite a shock, as I’d first met him at Roger’s stag do. He’s one of Roger’s mates from back home (Ballymena, NI), and the stag do was the one where we all hired fast cars and drove at reckless speeds to and around the Isle of Skye. Arthur had a Saab 93 Aero (his own, in fact), and a selection of easy listening CDs. Nice.

Howell, Jo, Sarah, Ed and I discussed stuff for Big Chimp - the filming of which was to take place that weekend. More about that one later!

We ended up in the Friendship for a drink or two afterwards, then it was back home for me.