Claire’s Birthday
February 28, 2007 at 2.22 pmWe 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.
