Mahinda’s Little World

We all had a jolly time down in Newbury.

I ended up getting there rather late on Friday night, to find several old chums drinking away merrily and eating pizza. Claire’s now living with Nick, who picked up the nickname "Shifty" during his student days. In fact, I still think of him as such, and get all confused whenever someone uses his real name.

He’s a muchly reformed character now, of course, and they make a nice couple, but my brain still hasn’t gotten used to the fact that Claire is, in fact, going out with Shifty. Jez, with whom I shared a room for the weekend, recommends that I try to think of him more as "Nick". I’m trying!

Bacon…and The Lack Of

So, beer was consumed on the Friday night, before we all slunk off to our various homes and hotels. I was, as mentioned, sharing with Jez in the Bacon Arms, a rather quaint old pub. In face, it even gets a mention in Lenny Henry’s blog — KATANGA!

Josephine looks wary

Revved up and ready to go!

Cruising along nicely

The pylon remained undamaged

The empty craft

Anyway, it was a bit more characterful than yer average Travelodge…which, naturally, meant "quirky" plumbing. Oh well, never mind.

So, Saturday came and we awoke refreshed…only to find that breakfast closed at 9.30am rather than the 10am suggested in the room guide. Ho hum. Large pasty down the high street it was, then.

Trophy Tat

Claire then sent us a mission — to find a suitable trophy for the afternoon’s hovercraft racing. We went down the high street, then back up it, and down it again, looking into all the charity shops for tat. Front runners were a platey thing, tankard, and bits of glassware — the winners were an old cut glass rosebowl, and vase. Well, we only had a fiver! We also got a wooden spoon and spatulas for the various losers.

Hovercrafts

Over to Claire’s, and thence to Wildcat Hovercraft, in deepest darkest Berkshire. We couldn’t have had a better day for it, given that it was February — the sun shone, and it was pretty dry. A bit of rain in the days beforehand meant that we even got a bit of water on the track — definitely an eerie sensation, drifting over land and water with no discernable difference in ride.

It was the same place that I’d organised for Ian’s Stag Weekend, and very good it was, too. Having been before wasn’t that much of an advantage, given the fact that the damn things seem quite sensitive to the weight of the rider.

Claire turned out to be an absolute demon on the things — she, Nick, me and Josephine all made it to the finals, along with two others…can’t quite remember who, though. I only just scraped in, but finally managed to get a tricky corner right and came through with the third best effort of the day. Hurrah!

Winner: Claire
2nd: Nick
3rd: Mahinda

Wooden Spoon: Josephine (slowest lap, despite making it to the finals)
Best Comedy Incident: Andrea (a bit thin on the ground, this one)
Bully’s "Special" Prize: James (for comedy "dancing on ice" at the water feature)

A grand day out!

Pub with Music

Back "home" to change, etc. and thence to a pub for food. Much food. While they did have real ale, it wasn’t exactly well kept. People started sloping back to Claire’s shortly after eating, leaving Shifty, May, James and I (I think) to see some of the live band who were the evening’s entertainment.

The band…in the dark

They were VERY good — just a three-piece, doing covers of things like Hendrix, but doing them bloody well. I’m not sure how the three middle-aged blokes managed to squeeze that depth of sound out of a lead guitar, 12-string bass and drums…but they did. I don’t remember much of what they played, but Smoke on the Water and All Along the Watchtower were ace, as was everything else they did.

Claire and her chocolate fountain

3 seconds later and it all falls down

We left after the first set, to avoid getting into much trouble, and it was back to Claire’s for drinking, a chocolate fountain, and "wooden tumbling block game". NOT Jenga, of course.

My friends are getting old — many people moved to the soft drinks around 1am or so, somewhat distressingly. Maybe it’s actually more that I’m not growing old gracefully? Well, I am almost 30 now

Sunday

Anyway, it was back to the hotel, and Jez and I actually made it down to breakfast on Sunday morning. Which was nice. After that, there was a walk along a canal, then a rather tasty pub lunch (at the "something Lion", I think) before we all dispersed.

Thanks to a conversation at the dinner table, I went back via Colin and May’s place, in Bracknell, to pick up their old TV. May had mentioned that they were trying to get rid of it, and I’d countered that I was looking to get hold of one. Superb!

Then, just to make my day even longer, I headed home to see the folks for a few hours, before knackeredly heading back to MancLand. I think I finally got home not long after midnight.

It’s almost March now, and I’ve posted precious little during February. Sorry, folks.

I’ve been extra-busy with work, and February’s always an incredibly busy month for me socially, as has been intimated previously.

So, I’m going to blog some highlights from the month…

Just a quickie.

It’s my birthday on Friday — I will officially be old, although not quite as ancient as all my 30-something friends

I’ve not organised anything major — I’m going to save that for my 30th, next year. Also, see below for details of general lackadaisicality.

Anyway, I am, however, out for drinks on Friday night:

Friday 23rd February, 7pm onwards
Sand Bar
120-122 Grosvenor Street
M1 7HL

More-the-merrier, as per usual. I’ll be the sozzled one in the corner.

I feel strangely lackadaisical these days. It’s the MUGSS show this week, and my birthday at the end of next week — going by tradition, that should mean a fortnight spent either sozzled or hung over, and generally having much fun.

This time around, I can’t seem to summon up any excitement at all. This distresses me. I was going to plan a meal out with some friends for the birthday itself…but have decided I’ll just keep it as simple as possible.

Drinks. In a pub. On a Friday night. And I’ll take it from there, I s’pose.

I still feel pretty Eeyore-ish about it all, though.

Maybe…

…work’s taken it out of me — I’ve had a really tough time of things these last two months, and I know from experience what mental fatigue can be like.

…it’s the distinct lack of sunshine — today’s gloriously clear, and I really enjoyed having a short walk this lunchtime with the sun on my back.

…it’s because I’m missing out on things — I’m really not involved with MUGSS at all this year*, and I’m also missing out on a big joint 30th birthday celebration** in New York.

…it’s the lack of sporting activity — having said that, I’ve not really been enjoying hockey of late, possibly because we’ve just been on such a rubbish losing run.

…it’s the eternal singledom — but even if I wasn’t, I just don’t think I have time for dating right now. Or the woman (women?) for it, but that’s quite another matter

* As documented already, I’m sure, this is the first time I’ve been so little involved for bloody ages. Thinking about it, the last time I felt so out of it all was when MUGSS did Iolanthe, way back in 1997.

** Michael and Josephine are turning 30, and Claire’s sort of in on the act as well. I should have gone there to celebrate my 29th with some of my nearest and dearest friends. Well, maybe not "nearest".

Whatever it is, I don’t like it. Work is letting up, slowly, and the days are getting longer. Perhaps, if I ignore them, my problems will just go away…maybe…

You know, these days, when someone mentions February 14th, my first reaction is "Oh, that’s Kate’s birthday".

Okay, so here’s a quick(ish) summary of what I got up to while under "blog blackout"…

• (Snow) White Christmas
  Had Emily and her friend Martin over for Christmas dinner. It was almost like a family Christmas, and absolutely lovely.
• Welsh New Year
  Went to Haverfordwest to see in 2007 with "Chem Eng" mates — Will, Cath, Dave, Roger, Mandy and Noëlle. A fun few days with old friends, most of whom I only see about once a year.
• Japanese day at Howell’s
  Another "film night", where we managed just the one film — Funky Forest: The First Contact, quite possibly the single strangest film I’ve ever seen. As the comments on IMDB will tell you, it’s a strange one. As the movie website’s in Japanese, here’s a slightly more accessible page…and another. The day included an hour-long no-English-spoken Japanese lesson, fun and games, Japanese/Korean takeaway and much general merriment.
• Many many desserts
  Pudding night at Julie’s place, in deepest darkest Stockport — I contributed my first real attempt at crème brulée, complete with Madagascan vanilla (from Sarah) and Sri Lankan cinnamon (picked up the last time I was there). Much dessert with the MADwalkers bunch, complete with board games and Banzai! Between that and Tenby Towers Christmas, I managed something like 12 desserts in one weekend!
• Tenby Towers Christmas
  We ended up having this on Jan 13th, thanks to highly mismatched schedules. It was fun, of course, but nothing like the Tenby Towers Christmas Dinners of old — those really were something special, whereas the last two have been more like normal dinners, albeit tasty ones. Much as I enjoy living with Paul, Andy, Gillian and Tara, I really miss the days of Al, Dave and Stubie.
• Winter Ales Fest
  Tasty tasty beers! As I’ve been so busy with work, I couldn’t really immerse myself into it like I did last year, and didn’t quite enjoy it as much as a result. Still, it was nice seeing the old faces, especially Verity, Rob, Andrew and the Manc U30 crowd. Friday night’s session was pretty amazing, as it seemed at one point that all my friends in the whole world were there!
• More Howell-related events
  Howell’s leaving on a jet plane any time now, to head off to Japan to teach English for a year. As such, he’s had many many leaving events to say goodbye to Blighty, and Manchester in particular. The ones I’ve been able to attend (at least in part) have included a pub crawl around Fallowfield, a 16-pub crawl in the city centre (I could only make the last 5 or 6, plus an attempt at playing hide-and-seek at 2am in Castlefield!) and a Rusholme curry. Goodbye, Howell!
• Hockey
  I’ve been playing hockey, as per usual. We’re currently in a bit of a losing run — defeat after defeat, including a 5-0, 7-0 and 5-0. As a defender, it hurts — the thing is, I’m actually playing quite well.
• Claire’s 30th
  Last weekend saw Claire’s *cough*tieth birthday celebrations, down in Newbury. We went hovercraft racing, and much ale was consumed. I also managed to get a new TV and squeeze in a brief visit to the folks. I’ll try and give this one a proper post of its own at some point.

When not doing all that lot, I spent most evenings (and a few Sundays) tapping away on my work laptop. Not ideal, but sometimes I suppose you just have to do it. And no, I don’t get paid overtime.

Over a month without any significant posting — I’m really sorry about that, dear readers.

While my general busy-ness at work has dropped a bit, I’m still not quite clear of the storm. Also, lunchtimes have been full of stuff that needs doing, rather than blogging — I’m currently acting as official scorer for my wing of the rifle club, so have to score lots of cards every week for the individual competition, as well as collating the efforts of our seven teams and posting them out to the right people. It’s much less straightforward than it may sound.

Anyway, the upshot of it all is that February won’t see much blogging either — it’s traditionally my busiest month, and it’s going to be extra-busy this year

Not only have I allowed Mahinda’s Little World to fall into disrepair, but I’ve banned myself from checking out my friends’ blogs. I will be back eventually.

So, I’ll try and compile a rough list of what I’ve been up to since Christmas. That’ll involve remembering it all first, though!

Just bear with me for a while…

Referrerrers

Having browsed the referrals listings, a few searches stand out:

• "spit roasted girlies" on Google
• "what lucky numbers are related to dreaming about cats" on Ask
• "Mahinda pick-up" on Yahoo (why?!)
• "squash Dave badminton CAMRA" on Yahoo

…as well as the now-standard requests centred around Dreadlock Holiday, Reyka vodka, various Greek islands, drinking holes in Tallinn/Riga, etc.