Food Foto Friday #001

May 16th, 2008

I Twittered : Is in weatherspoons, came for a steak, got seduced by the curry club! Dont worry, I took photos :-)

Here it is, Wetherspoons curry club Royal Thali, Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb Kashmiri, Chicken Pasanda, Beef Dhansak, Basmati Rice, Onion Bhaji, Samosa and Naan bread. All this and a pint of beer or lager for £7.09 what a bargain!

Royal Thali

Click on it to see it on Flickr with notes :-)

Belt up.

May 16th, 2008

I dumbfounded myself yesterday, I bought a Jasper Conran belt, it is very nice, but I’ve never paid more than £10 for a belt before, it is nice though, I do deserve nice things, it is so very stylish too, you wont see many belts like this one, have I convinced you (or myself) yet that it was worth the money and besides it sort of makes up for the dissapointment of looking at that belt in thailand and thinking oh, I’ll get that tomorow and then never seeing it again and it was a unique design with a solid buckle that has a sort of red cross button in the centre that released the belt, anyway I cant do it justice but it was luuvvverrly, I always think why didnt I buy it, now I wont ever think that about my wonderfully simple yet stylish Jasper Conran belt.

Control Freak!

May 10th, 2008

I gotta get me one of these….

Dust Mite Controller

… and when I do, I’ll have an army to do my bidding.

Prepare to bow down before your new Overlord!

Book giveaway

May 4th, 2008

So, as promised here is my book giveaway, if you’d like any of the books leave a comment telling me which one(s), then send me your address to andy @ 2 boyz . co .uk (join it all up.)

To quote Lesley ” Don’t be shy, ask for several if you need lots of reading material. Don’t send anything in return but if you like, you could get rid of stuff give something away on your blog too. Hey, a giveaway meme!”

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre

Ludmila’s Broken English by DBC Pierre

Timeline by Michael Crichton

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill

False Memory by Dean Koontz

The Face by Dean Koontz

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellory

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

I feel good already, is it good karma?

Spring clean

May 4th, 2008

I started having a clear out of junk the other day. I began in the spare room, this was just some of stuff from under the bed, bottom of the wardrobe and in a small cupboard.

20 assorted sized jiffy bags, saved for ebay sales.

3 shoe boxes full of bubble wrap, as above.

3 dozen empty DVD cases.

8 assorted sized CD-R cakebox spindle pack thingummys. Yeah, they came in useful.

8 voile curtains that might come in useful, yeah right its been 2 years since we took them down and guess what? No possible use has been found..

Approx 3 years worth of PC Format cover disc CD’s 1999-2001. I have no idea why I thought to save these.

Original, boxed copies of the following games, all on 3.5″ floppy discs

Sim City 2000
Dune
Civilisation
Theme Park
Quick Cad

I dont even have a floppy disk drive anymore!

I also listed 8 items on ebay, a couple of SKY receivers, a wireless router and a few other things that should free up some space.

I’ve only scratched the surface, but I think I’ve turned a corner. I didnt feel bad throwing all this stuff out, usually I put it off, telling myself that its all useful stuff. Now I’m thinking, stuff that, if I throw out something I need later, I’ll just buy another one!

Still loads more to do, in fact its just come to me that I could do a book giveaway, last year Lezzles was kind enough to send me a book during her clear out. I’m totally going to do the same, give me a minute to go gather some books and I’ll post a list.

The only place I draw the line is my Heinlein book collection, I positively refuse to part with them!

The final ankle

May 1st, 2008

My foot is pretty much back to its normal size and I’ve got most of the mobility in my ankle back. I went to the Doctor yesterday, she was pleased with the progress but gave me a sick note to take me through until Monday.

In the 20 years since I left school and began working for a living, this is the first sick note I’ve ever had. I know! Amazing isn’t it?

So no more ankle updates, I promise, I’ll be back at work next Tuesday and raring to go after my extended “holiday.”

Thanks to all that expressed concern :-)

Ankle update

April 28th, 2008

Day 5.

Its not as painful but it is more swollen. To the touch it feels like someone has sewn a pillow under the skin of my ankle and foot.

Is this what silicon breast implants feel like?

Ankle update

Movies and motives, hidden or not.

April 28th, 2008

On last weeks flight to Cyprus we were treated to the movie Enchanted. I didn’t watch it all, I only managed a few minutes and switched off around the bit where the animals are helping clean the apartment. I couldn’t stand to watch any more, even though I have always had an eye for Patrick Dempsey, going way back to seeing him on VHS in Catholic Boys aka Heaven Help Us. This may also have been the first movie I saw Andrew McCarthy in, unless I saw St. Elmos Fire first, whatever, I had the biggest crush on them both!

Come to mention Andrew McCarthy (I did didn’t I) I’m still surprised that The Sight wasn’t picked up for a full series.

Eeerrrmmm, so, where was I?

Oh yes, on the return flight we had the pleasure of watching August Rush which I have to say was very nice little movie.

It took a few minutes to figure out a few things, “is that him grown up?”, “no its still him now”, “is that his Mum?”, “no, at least I dont think so, hang on, maybe it is.”, “Who did he used to be?”, “Oh, urm, give me a minute, oh its the boy from Willy Wonka.” After that it’s all magical moments whenever the boy is playing an instrument, the guitar stuff is particularly good.

So, blah blah blah, it’s a nice movie and amongst the cast it features Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Can I just say his name again?

Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Can I also say thanks for reading the whole of this post? It almost makes it legit that I was really just looking far a reason to post this.

(Warning : Gratuitous boy tit ahead, look away now!)

Yeah I know this is taken from the The Tudors which I haven’t watched yet, but he doesn’t get his tits out during August Rush :-)

Thanks again :-)

Living Will

April 27th, 2008

Look what I spotted in a well known store inside Manchester Airport.

I’m sure they give a lot of comfort to all the nervous flyers that pass through every day.

Cyprus2k8 014

The thing is they were everywhere, not only on this display unit but also repeated at regular intervals around the store. That’s what I call selling to peoples fears!

One or two thoughts spring to mind, if I buy one and fill it out, perhaps in the bar, dont I need some sort of witness? Perhaps a Solicitor to make things official?

How about the fact that if I fill it out, I now have the only copy of my possibly invalid Will with me and in the event my plane goes down it will go down in flames along with me!

What a gyp!

Easy money!

April 24th, 2008

I called my Mortgage provider earlier today and as the call was closing I remembered seeing this recently.

Have you switched mortgage or paid it in full in the last few years? If so, it’s likely you were overcharged by your old lender, possibly by £100s, and now officially can get this money back. This step-by-step guide will show you how to reclaim your cash in minutes.

I said to the Customer Service lady, “It’s on that Martin Lewis website that you might have overcharged me when I payed back my previous mortgage.” She replied, “Oh, he’s the bane of my life that bloke! I’ll have a look and see what I can find.” I wasn’t hopeful, it was about 5 years ago and I didn’t have of my old account details. Her comment about Martin Lewis made me think, while I like his stuff on a personal level, when I’m at work and our customers quote him, I have a similar reaction to this lady.

After a few more questions I was informed that I had been overcharged and was due a refund of £35. It’s not a fortune but it’s not bad for a few minutes talking on the phone.

Could you get some cash back?

A present from Cyprus

April 24th, 2008

I woke up yesterday morning feeling a little stiff. My ankle felt like I’d slept on it funny and was quite difficult to get out of bed. I walked it off around the pool, thinking it would be ok once I got it moving again. By the time we were at the Airport it was feeling a little stiffer and again I shrugged it off, no way I’m going to be refused travel by asking to see a Doctor!

Landing in Manchester, I was in agony, the damn thing had seized up completely and it was a real struggle getting home, I just tried to sleep as much as possible in the taxi. I took some painkillers once we got home and then went straight to bed.

Paul badgered me about seeing someone this morning, the swelling was getting worse and I then remembered the bite on my ankle. He was sure this had something to do with the swelling, I had to agree at this stage, (I’m not good about being poorly) so eventually he won me over and we went to the Hospital walk in centre.

Turns out it’s quite common, the Nurse I saw had worked in Cyprus, and she was quick to diagnose a Spider bite. A prescription for antibiotics and antihistamines was quickly filled and I was in and out in 20 minutes. I was actually pretty impressed by the NHS service.

Here is a lovely illustration of the swelling :-) I can’t put any weight on it at all now and am reduced to hopping around the house in a very undignified manner.

Ankle

As I write, I think its actually swollen by half again over the last few hours. If it starts going funny colours or anything I’ll be sure to get more photos!

Of course, this all means that I’ll be taking a few days off work, my first sick time since September 2002.

Daytime telly is already driving me to despair, thankfully I have a few items in the Sky+ planner to catch up on. Oh, and the Internet, thank god for the Internet, anyone for Scrabulous??

sleeping tramps

April 15th, 2008

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I have a fondness for taking some rather odd photos, be it ladies with Bikini trouble, naked sunbathers or even my dinner, I’ll have ‘em all :-)

I’ve been thinking of an idea for a new gallery type of thing, inspired by a selection of my photos featuring drunken vagrants. A few days ago I finally settled on a name and took the plunge with

sleepingtramps.co.uk

So now I have the name and a little idea about some sort of anyone-can-upload-a-photo type thing.

Any other ideas??

Holiday

April 15th, 2008

You’re not going to believe this but we are going on holiday tomorrow.

See you next week :-)

All wrapped up.

April 10th, 2008

I saw a trailer on TV tonight, a Cutting Edge show called Cotton Wool Kids, something about killing kids with kindness or something.

It got me thinking about how things how things have changed over the years. A colleague recently told me a tale of her daughter having a bit of a strop after a bit of wet water was spilt on her jeans. When I was a kid, somewhere around the 80’s, if it rained in the morning I still had to walk to school. I’d then most likely have wet trousers and blazer and just have to put up with it until I dried out.

A day or two afterwards, I was talking to another colleague and in the course, we landed on the topic of his childhood. He arrived from Africa into the UK aged 4, and over several years his family came back together, each taking their own journey to freedom and (some) normality. The most disturbing thing is that he remembers saying to his mum, “If its a war going on, why are people sleeping in the road?”

I’m sure you can guess why he thought they were sleeping.

In conclusion, watching stupid programmes made by idiots about how difficult things are in the UK, just makes me angry.

The daily grind.

April 4th, 2008

The lovely Min and Lee bought me a wonderful gift this week. My very own Pestle and Mortar.

I’ve wanted one for a while but just not spotted the right one, if I had have, then this would be it!

Pestle & Mortar 005

On Saturday I spotted an ok one in Morrisons, and I even put it in the basket. Paul was quite strong in letting me know that he didnt like it and it wouldnt go in the kitchen and it was the wrong size, colour and everything. Later after shopping we dropped in at his Mums house and I even relayed the story of how he wouldnt let me buy the Pestle & Mortar, he even “got dun” off his Mum. Now I find out that he was only trying to put me off because he knew that Min was looking for a nice one to get me as a gift.

I should have known something was wrong, we never stop each other buying things we really want!

(I did apologise for telling his Mum!)

Hint Hint, if you also feel the need to buy me a gift any time soon, I’ve got my eye on one of these ;-)


My masala dabba Originally uploaded by Laquet.