It’s a Blog ! Not a Log !

Decided to take Blue round the Millennium Nature Reserve by the Manchester Ship Canal today and it seems like everyone else and their dog did to, the place was overflowing with every sort of dog breed you could think of (cue people commenting on breed of dog that weren’t there).

After spending about an hour there we headed to PetAtHome to do Blue’s weekly food shop, 12 Cans of dog food and 1 big bag of dry mix, oh and a bag of gravy bones (her favourite snack), also tried on a few of the dog coats to see if they’ve finally got some in that will fit her, but alas again the only one that does is the Del Boy sheep skin coat, which to be honest doesn’t do her justice, so again we left disappointed.

Now just sat at home wondering how to spend the rest of Sunday, thinking maybe catchup on a few episodes of Supernatural or White Collar then listen to a few tunes with a beer . . . , would’nt have minded going out for the day somewhere in the car instead, but money’s a bit tight at the moment so can’t really be wasting money, maybe next weekend, just have to wait and see.

Oh nearly forgot it’s Valentines Day today so suppose I’d best show you the home made card I made for Mel

Its amazing what you can do with post it notes a biro and a mirror

Thats what we were after visiting the Valentines Market in Piccadilly Gardens today, it was really just the Farmers Market with a few extra stall’s, nothing you’d want to write home about, though the Farmers Market in itself is fine, why try and dress it up as something else.

Anyway after spending about 1/2 looking at stalls we’ve previously seen we went for a bit of a wander round Manchester doing window shopping, no spending money this month, to skint for any of that malarky, we headed to Chorlton and Electriks for a Latte and a beer, as usual Blue got lots of compliments from the clientele old and new, it’s nice how Blue gets people talking to each other and it’s pretty cool have everyone say shes such a beautiful dog (I sound like a proud father, maybe I am in a dogchild sort of way).

Spent about 2hrs there surfing the net and just generally people watching, Mel saw a friend from work so had a bit of a natter with her then headed home so I could catch up on last nights LOST, which by the way gets more and more confusing every Season and with this being the penultimate season its getting even weirder . .  whats with the crossed reality’s bit . . just gonna have to wait and see how it pans out I suppose.

So not to much of an exciting day today I’m afriad, but at least we got out of the house thats the main thing, can’t be staying in on one of your days not at work can you . .

Time for bed now so sweet dreams and all that other bollox people say before going to bed and farting the night away . .

Just got back from Chorlton and a visit to B&Q, got a load of paint for redocarating the front room and hallway, some colour called Toffee Truffle or something, Mel choose the colour as it will stay a bit cleaner with Blue walking past it all the time, did’nt see many people about in Chorlton, had a try of electriks platter, pretty tasty indeed and well worth the money.

Now vegging at home and considering watching Room 1408

(Movie Adaption of a Stephen King book), looks pretty good and has one of my favourite actors John Cusack in it, will let you know what I thought of it . .

without being recognised now adays . .

So was out in Chorlton last night with Mel and Blue, we popped into the Nook for a beer and low and behold a gent from my old stomping ground Beverley recognised me, even without the Flat top, so a big hello to Alex/Zander from Beverley.

Seems that Chorltons becoming the place to meet former faces, so far seen Dean from Spiders and now Alex from Beverley, wonder if next up will be Johnny Windows, now that’d be fun

View outside the Horse and Jockey

Spent an enjoyable couple of hours sat outside the refurbished Horse and Jockey Pub in Chorlton last night with Mel and Blue, Mel had been there for a bit of a celebratory meal with a couple of friends from work and as is usually the case I came along to be the designated driver.

Got to say very impressed with what Peter and Simon (the new owners) have done with the place, and looking at the amount of business they’ve got so is every one else, the food looks very tasty as well, must say I’ve only had the Twice Fried Chips so far, but Mel had the Smoked haddock with potatoes (Baked in double cream, fish stock and saffron with layers of sliced potato), which was apparently very very tasty, no doubt in the coming weeks I’ll eventually sit down and eat something there myself, at the moment I’m eyeing up the Slow roasted boned breast of lamb (Rolled Breast of lamb stuffed with rosemary, garlic, thyme and golden sultanas, slow roasted and served with a thick onion, fennel and red wine gravy), mmm now if that does’nt get the old taste buds moist I don’t know what else will.

The two gents now running the Pub Simon and Peter seem quite taken with our little Princess Blue and may have ideas about getting a Cane Corso themselves, seems they’ve fallen for Blue and her Chilled out Bar/pub vibes, be nice if someone else where to get a Cane Corso in Manchester and after speaking to the pair of them they seem nice enough guys to be owned by a Corso.

The best thing about the Horse and Jockey though is that its dog friendly, something which alot of pubs are’nt anymore, so me, Mel and Blue give it a thumbs up and check it out yourselfs and see if we’re wrong

Time to put away the bunting, yes the curtain has fallen on this years Giant Bradley Day…..

I arrived home early Saturday afternoon with Mel, Liam and Gemma, after we’d got Liam and Gemma settled in there little log cabin decided to take them for a quick scoot around York to do the touristy thing, though to be honest we did’nt have long there as it was at least 3pm when we got there, had a quick beer in the Roman Baths pub and then took them around the Shambles and such like.

Liam looking all Redneck

Arrived back in Weighton about 6:00pm and then met up with them both for a few drinks round Weighton, actually expected it to be a fairly busy day, but seems that most people were saving themselves for Sunday nights as the pubs were real empty, Bradley day itself was the usual stalls and street performers, was especially impressed by the guy doing the Falconary display, really entertaining and very enjoyable, did’nt see much of the Giant though.

Entered Blue in the Dog Show again this year though she was pipped at the post by a rescue Akita, in all she won 3 Rossetes:

1st Place for Most Looks Like Owner

2nd Place for Best Legs

2nd Place for Best in Show

But hey she cant be expected to win every year, got to give all the other dogs a chance, anyway after that we hung around for a few hours and then decided to head back to Manchester with Liam and Gemma and another Bradley Day was been and gone

I was born, it was a Sunday, apparently I was a large child, but my mother with the help no doubt of a Midwife managed to push me out and now here I am 15706 days later celebrating my 43rd birthday, there were times I never thought I’d even reach my 30th birthday, this was down to spending way to many weekends of my life clubbing and imbibing copious amounts of Class A drugs, but alas my attempts to live fast and die young never succeeded and I’m now destined to end up being one of those people who spend there retirement years complaining about kids hanging on street corners . .  wait a minute I do that already, fuck what am I going to have to complain about now ?

Anyway as is usual on this momentous day I shall be bringing cakes into work, which you shall hopefully see via the magic of twitter, I’ll snap a few shots off on the iphone and post them to twitter, so be sure to have a look on there some time after 3:00pm, regarding what I’m doing for my birthday . .  well I’m heading home to Yorkshire to Giant Bradley day 2009 with Mel and our friends Liam and Gemma, this will be there first experience of Giant Bradley Day, so should be an interesting weekend I hope, taking Blue our Cane Corso with us of course, she’ll be entering the Dog Show and hopefully winning a few prizes along the way, she came first last year and won some Burn’s dog-food.

As for presents for my birthday not had any as yet, will get mine from Mel’s tonight I’m guessing and any from my sisters when I get to Market Weighton, will no doubt post about them then.

Seems I’m spending more time on Twitter then I have been on my Blog of late, so here I am back to update you all on whats been happening in the world of Vince.

Bank Holiday Weekend:

Spent most of the holiday weekend in the company of Mel, Blue our dog, John and Sophie, introduced them both to Pi-chorlton and the delectable PIE they sell, me and John went for the Mooo PIE while Mel and Sophie went all cheesy on us and had the Heidi PIE, think they both will be visiting that fine establishment again from the comments they made about the tasty PIE.

Also popped into Electriks for a few beers where Blue got plenty of admiring glances and pets on the head.

Saturday we met up with Bernie, Lisa, Andrew, Paul, Rik, Kev and Riks missus Clare I think, introduced them to Electriks fine beers and free Jukebox, though we couldn’t stay to long as we’d been out most of the day drinking and were fairly pissed fairly early so headed home around 9:30pm, Sunday and Monday was spent relaxing watching movies at home.

As for today, well I’ve just dropped my car off at BMTec for its annual MOT and hopefully after a few fixes to a leaking front shock absorber, a faulty parking brake and a few knackered lights it should pass, though might be a tad more expensive then I’d hoped, will now how much around about 3:00pm today.

On about Twitter . . . I now have 76 followers, so slowly but surely I’m getting a nice set of people following me and I in turn follow them, seems quite a few are dog owners like myself and its nice to know our Cane Corso Blues getting more fans, seems where ever I out something about her on the Internet she attracts attention, but hey shes a pretty princess so its to be expected lol

Anyway gonna shoot now and catch up on some TV i’ve missed, got about 4 episodes of The Fringe to watch and the whole of Series 3 of The Wire, looking forward to The Wire especially as this series there on the trail of the Avon Barksdale gang again.

Nearly forgot I’m also using AudioBoo now so check out the AudioBoos in the menu at the top right to here my lovely voice lol

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.

We’re heading to Thames Ditton this weekend to go see Adam, Sam and the brood, should arrive there around abouts 9:00am after a 4.5hr drive, just in time for breakfast.

Be nice to see Adam, not seen him for quite a few months and I’ve not seen Sam and the kids for about a year at least, no idea what the plans are for the day, but hoping some of them will involve lots of walking as we intend to get Blue fairly knackered so we can have a rest to.

As for Sunday we’re heading across country to Essex to a Cane Corso even being held in a place called Wittering I think, see the poster below for details and if your a Cane Corso owner/lover or just interested in the breed come check it out and say hello to Blue our Cane Corso

Come say hello to all the Cane Corso's this Sunday

The event starts at 1:30pm and finsihs around 6:00pm, so we’re going to be having a very late drive home afterwards, probably finally getting in and setting down around about midnight, I’ve booked the next day off work and Mel’s arranged to go in 2hrs late, she’ll make the time up later.