It’s a Blog ! Not a Log !

kennys party 071, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Kenny reached the grand old age of 50 last week along with Andy reaching the 40 mark, so they had a joint party to celebrate and used the oppurtunity to get everyone back togeather again.

It was good to see all the faces from the partys togeather again having a laugh and just generally getting on, party kicked off at of all places Stretford Cricket Club, then moved onto Lisa’s flat, where drinks flowed and people talked bollox (mainly due to what they’d had).

We left fairly early on in the morning 5:00am so maybe not so early, but the party carried on after we left, ending only when John, Ben and a few others decided to place most of Lisa food stuffs in the freezer . . . oh and after Ben had emptied a full bag of flour over the sleeping Lisa’s head (not nice Ben).

Gotta say Kenny was looking good for an old man and no doubt has many years left in him, all the best Kenny and Andy

Not had much chance to post as had Paul from Bristol staying for the week . . . he’s been up here on work sorting out some council offices Exchange Server installation, so been out most nights enjoying meals and beer all on his expense account

So far we’ve had a nice Chinese meal at the Pond Quay in Urmston, where the staff complimented me on my chop-stick skills, then there was Corn on the Cob drenched in Welsh butter and followed up by a 7oz Home made Burger at the Horse & Jockey in Chorlton and tonight was Banger and Mash courtesy of Electrik Bar also in Chorlton, we didn’t have to pay for the this one as we went there on Tuesday night and came 2nd in the Quiz night and won the food as a prize (getinnnn !).

It’s been quite a gastronomical journey this week and I can recommend all of the above as good places to eat, especially the Pond Quay, very good Chinese indeed, shall most definitely be visiting there again.

We’ll be sad to see Paul go, well my stomach will anyways . . seriously though its been good to see Paul, don’t get to see him enough to be honest, but when mates live far apart that happens I suppose, just gotta try and make a better effort next year to get down to Bristol more . .

Also must try and get to the Quiz night at Electriks more as well, as we had a real good night down there and hey we came 2nd, so definatly got to go back and try and come 1st  . .

Getting late now so best be saying good night to you all and for anyone who reads this from my hometown of Market Weighton, I might see you at the weekend as popping across hopefully for a 40th . .

Lenny, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Here Lenny an absolutly stunning lovable mastiff we see sometimes while walking our Cane Corso Blue round Ivy Green, Chorlton.

Gotta be the most lovable looking mastiff in Manchester after Blue.

I’m not a big fan of the Apprentice but after watching this I’m seeing it in a totally new light

Cassette Boy vs The Apprentice

Gotta love this

2 Very Tired Passengers

Well actually got back Sunday night but just not been arsed to post about it . .

What happened then ? Well we arrived at Adam’s early Saturday morning, made ourselves welcome and just chilled for a couple of hours, the afternoon was spent wondering up and down the Thames near Hampton Court waiting for Blue to do her little bit before returning to the Braggs household where we were treated to Adam showing us his fine BBQ skills, these skills were greatly helped by the handy Butchers down the road which sold what I class as some of the finest sausages I’ve ever had, they also did a nice sideline in chive and onion cheese.

It was good to see Adam as not seen him in about 8-12 months I reckon, also got the opportunity to meet the latest edition to the household Francesca, gorgeous child, she’s definitely got Sam’s looks, it also gave Mel the chance to get acquitted with the kiddiwinks, seems Ava there eldest was hooked on Mel, spent most of the weekend latched onto her, which was kind of cute in a non broody way.

Other house guests for the weekend were Jenny, again someone I’d not seen in a long while, probably about 4yrs ago was the last time I saw her, she’s just returned from working in New Zealand and was crashing at there place until she found work/lodgings I’m guessing.

Anyway the evening was spent drinking and watching a movie or 2, then it was off to bed.

Sunday was another early start and we left Adam and co around 9:30am to make our way to Essex for the Cane Corso day, actually thought we’d get there fairly quickly, but due to that horrible road the M25 it took us about 2.5hrs to travel 100 odd miles, arriving about 1:00pm, the event started around about 1:30pm so we headed to the local pub for a few beers and some food, I went for the Plough-mans Bacon sarnie (Don’t ask), Mel decided she wasnt all that hungry.

Anyway after relaxing with a beer for about 1/2hr we headed to the event, it was held in an equestrian centre just outside Wix and when we got there it was fairly bustling with people and their Cane Corso, never have I seen so many dogs of one breed in one place at one time, it was a sight to behold, and the difference’s in sizes, colours and temperaments of all the gathered Corso’s was amazing, before this event we’d only ever met one other Cane Corso and that was a puppy called Koo in Cornwall and now we were faced with about 50+ of them, but even though I do say it myself Blue was indeed the prettiest princess on the block, she gotta few admiring glances I reckon from all the dogs there lol.

We entered Blue in a few of the competitions, but alas she didn’t walk away with any prizes this time, which was a shame as it would have made up for the 700 miles we must have put in over the weekend just to get there and back, but all in all it was a fun day, though Mel was a little put off it all due to another Cane Corso wanting to take a bite out of Blue, but that’s to be expected when you have over 50+ of these magnificent beasts in one place. So after bidding our farewells we set off home around about 3:30pm, eventually arriving home about 8:30pm, I got myself off to bed and Mel did the same a couple of hours later and that was the end of a very hectic driving weekend.

Gotta say our day out dog-walking at Delemere Forest was really good, got there about 11:00am and spent well over 3hrs just walking and walking and walking, all of us including Blue was thoroughly knackered afterwards, definitely intending visiting again, the place is a dog-walkers paradise.

Met lots of nice people while we were walking around who all took a keen interest in Blue, wanting to know what breed she was, did all Cane Corso’s look as adorable and where they all as chilled out as she was, best part of the day was when Blue got set upon by a pack of dogs, well I say set upon, more like slightly irritated by a pack of the dogs, the dogs in question were about 7 miniature poodle’s, they just sort skipped around Blue barking alot and letting her know they were in charge, all Blue did was sort of look at them in a bemused manner and just walk through them, dead funny to watch, as we walked away one the more determined ones chased after Blue for one final bark, where upon Blue just turned round and still looked bemused, only wish I’d caught it all on camera.

We finished off the day at a very nice pub in Little Leigh, called of all things the Leigh Arms, cant recommend this place enough, really good service, absolutely gorgeous food, the Lamb Henry was to die for and best of all its dog friendly, will definitely be popping in there again on our next visit to Delemere

You never seem to have enough time to do all the things you want on a weekend, we had loads of stuff planned, but none of it really happened.

Spent Saturday sorting out a friends PC for them, they’d bought it as an ex-demo, so it did’nt come with a OS, I had one to put on it, but it just would’nt take, spent about 3 hrs trying to get the bloody thing on, eventually did a low level format of the hard-drive and finally got the bloody thing on, though it did’nt install all the correct drivers and now its a case of speaking to HP to try and source all the correct drivers, should be fairly easy once we have those.

Saturday afternoon was spent walking Blue then our usual brekkie in Orlando’s, but even that was computer related, one of the barstaff in there Amanda had a few problems with her Laptop, turned out some guy had supposedly been sorting a virus out on it for her and when he’d given it her back he’d not re-installed the ram, turns out he’d upgraded the ram without asking her then was going to charge her for it, so she said she did’nt want it, so he gave it back, but did’nt put the memory back in (being akward I expect), anyway it was the wrong ram so would’nt fit, so not much I could do really.

While I was in there Sophie and John turned up, so stayed for a while and had a few beers with them, before heading home.

Well how about Sunday Vince “Was that exciting ?”

Nope not very !

Intended heading to the German Market again, but just could’nt be arsed, waited in for Tony to come collect his PC, then headed out to give John a lift to Aria to get some parts for his PC (yes another PC), seems this weekend was destined for fixing PCs’, afterwards went to Orlandos and Mel treated us all to tea.

And now here I am sat at home wondering where it all went . .  gotta do something next weekend or I’m going to go mad with boredom, should be spending the weekend enjoying it, not working so to speak, so roll on next weekend.

Its been a fairly quiet one this weekend, not done much apart from walk Blue and eat

Friday we paid a visit to our 2nd home the Polar Bar and sampled there Rump Steak and Pan Fried Marlin, both of which were to die for, Blue had here usual 2 sausages on the house from the Polar Bar chef (I think he must have a soft spot for her), while we were there met a rather nice lady called Lowri, she was in there drinking with some of her male friends, who seemed to think she shouldn’t go talking to strangers, but where glad you did Lowri, nice to meet someone else who likes to meet randoms on a night out.

John and Sophie met us as we were leaving and they stayed there until 1am, I myself returned around 11:20pm and joined them for a last few drinks in Bar 4eighty, after which we retired to John’s for aperitfes, eventually left his about 5:00am.

Saturday was spent mostly in bed, suffering from Friday night, though around lunch time me, Mel and Blue headed to Ivy Green for a bit of exercise, after which like any discerning dog owner we headed to Orlandos to sample the Sausage Mania menu, this time round I had the Spiced Cumberland and Blue had the Wild Boar, gotta say this bars starting to grow on me, wasn’t to sure at first, but it seems pretty nice, plus again the Chef fed Blue a sausage for free anyway after this headed home watched the season finale of Lost and then headed to bed.

Today much the same as Saturday, except this time the breakfast was provided by the Lounge, where a couple of extra sausages were once more provided for a very grateful, yet slightly wet Blue.

What is it about us dog owners that we get out of our warm beds on s Sunday to walk our dogs in the pouring rain, we must all be very very mad or all love our dogs way to much.

Well that was our weekend so far, not very eventful I must say, but at least we got out of the house, wooooo hold ya horse’s, just remembered we also hit up Dunhelm’s for a new rug for the front room and TK Maxx for some items of footwear, we were also supposed to go to Glenda’s BBQ, but I think the weathers put paid to that, though Glenda has informed us Paul is determined to go ahead with it, to be honest after walking around in the rain for over an hour walking Blue and another 1 or 2 ours walking round the aisles of Dunhelm’s I just wanna go back to bed, anyway that was it, here hoping your weekend was either more eventful or just as relaxing.

Just found this guy on YouTube and I gotta say I’m loving this song . . let me know what you think

“Chocolate Rain” Original Song by Tay Zonday

Well in about 30 minutes heading to Sale Water Park to take Blue for her Saturday walk and and then breakfast at the Lounge, just gotta go pick John up and then were away