Losers

Well I suppose it had to happen eventually but we lost at quiz last night. We were away to the Forresters (a dive if I ever saw one.. the only thing missing was the sawdust on the floor). I met Ianto and Myfanwy at the Ferry and they gave me lift to the opposition venue where we met Blodwyn. The question master's this week were the Yacht Club and they set some pretty hard questions. In the end we lost by 6 points which wasn't too bad but we were still disappointed.

Not much else to report at the moment. Tuesday I had another "out and about" day as Joe was in for a whole shift. I went to Pembroke Dock with my supervisor and met some of the ship's agents, looked at a couple of facilities and then came back before lunch. In the afternoon I went out on the Pilot boats and a couple of jobs so all in all it wasn't a bad day. Yesterday was a normal day, quite busy until the afternoon when the weather turned terrible and not much moved.

I have been to Tescos this morning, done some tidying up and am about to go to bed and have my afternoon nap before a night watch tonight.... but I may hunt a few eggs before I go.

I'm Back

I told you normal service would be resumed on Tuesday and here I am. I did actually get back last night but I was really tired and wasn't really in the mood for blogging. I worked Thursday night shift and Noel picked me up from work Friday morning at 6.45am. We went straight down to the train and away we went.

We got to Bath at about 11.30am and got a taxi straight to the Travel Lodge only to find out that they now charge £10 to check in early... early being any time before 3pm. As we didn't fancy lugging our case around town with us we decided to pay the £10 and free from the encumberance we headed straight to ... you've guessed it... the Green Tree!! We had a couple of pints of Pitchfork there and decided to have lunch, a roast beef platter for Noel and a beef sandwich for me.. mind you the sandwiches need to be seen to be believed.

After lunch we decided to go and track down our friend Paul, who dosn't go to the Green Tree now so first we tried the Pig and Fiddle, with no luck, then the Rising Sun. As soon as we walked in the first person we saw was Nick who used to be the bar man at the Green Tree. He is now running the Rising Sun. We got a very warm welcome from him and soon settled down chatting to a few of the locals until Paul showed up about 4pm. Unfortunately the combination of no sleep and too many wines had a very negative effect on me and I don't remember leaving the Rising Sun and going back to the Travel Lodge.

Now comes the really embarassing bit. Apparently after sleeping for an hour or so I got up to go to the loo (minus clothes) and instead of going to the bathroom I let myself out into the corridor where the door closed behind me leaving me naked in the corridor desperately banging on the door until Noel managed to stop laughing long enough to let me back into the room!! I myself have no recollection of any of this and only have Noel's word that it actually happened... a word which he took great delight in spreading to everyone in both the Green Tree and the Rising Sun for the rest of the weekend.

We both then slept the rest of the night and missed going out for a meal on Friday. Saturday morning we were up bright and early and decided to go for walk around the Circus and the Royal Crescent. I took a few pictures, something I don't usually do as we go to Bath so often but I was quite pleased with them, especially the one of the Royal Crescent with the autum leaves in the foreground. We had a lovely walk then a look round the shops before a couple of drinks before going for lunch in the Rising Sun where we met Paul again. We ended up playing skittles and having a really good laugh.

Saturday night we went to a restaurant called Beujolais for dinner and had an excellent meal. I had a goats cheese and roasted vegetable tart to start, then rack of lamb with ratatouille and buttered spinach. For dessert I had a scoop of vanilla icecream with a shot of expresso coffee poured over it, it was really lovely. Then being the terribly boring old farts we are we went back to the hotel and bed.

Sunday morning we were up early again and this time had a walk down towards the river, unfortunately the weather wasn't as good so we just had to go and shelter in the Green Tree and then the Rising Sun. Dinner Sunday night was at the Moon and Sixpence and was even better than Saturday's. I had portabello mushrooms with a herb stuffing and pecorino cheese then roast loin of lamb with parmasen pollenta and aubergine caviar (very posh but absolutely delicious). Again we couldn't manage a big pudding so we had lemon sorbet with a shot of vodka which was very light and refreshing.

Monday we did a bit of shopping before lunch and quite a few drinks in the Green Tree before catching the 2.30pm train home. All in all a very lazy, alcoholic and gastronomic weekend, but most enjoyable (well apart from the naked in the corridor bit!!!)

Normal Service will resume on Tuesday

We are off again \0/..... first thing in the morning as soon as I finish work we shall be catching the 7.05am train to beautiful Bath.

I love going to Bath its like a second home now, we know the city well and all the great places to eat and especially drink (i.e. the Green Tree). Last time we were there in April I was ill so we didn't enjoy it as much as we should have so I am really looking forward to going again.

We had intended to use our Tescos vouchers and go to Chester but the hotel we wanted to book was not accepting the vouchers for the weekend we wanted to go, so instead we have booked the Travel Lodge in Bath and will look at going to Chester in the New Year.

Now all I have to do is get through this very long and windy night in the Ivory Tower and pray my relief shows up at a reasonable time so we don't miss the train.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and I shall be back on Tuesday with a full report on the Holiday Blog.

I Was There!!

You know all this controversy going on at the moment about the Tory party, Russian bilionaires, dodgy donations and super yachts? Well I was an eye witness.... sort of.

While we were on our boat trip in Corfu during the cruise we sailed past the Rothschild Estate and lo and behold what did we take a pics of... only the QUEEN K, the super yacht the dodgy deals allegedly took place on.

QUEEN K

QUEEN K moored below the Rothschild Estate.

See

RIP Begs

Just when I felt I was pulling myself out of my depression of last week I get another blow. I heard at work this morning that Peter Begbie who was Assistant Harbourmaster at work for many years and who I was very fond of had died.

I heard a few weeks ago that he was very ill (secondary brain tumour from a previous lung cancer) but it was still quite a shock when I was told this morning. I have spent the whole day lapsing into tears and trying to hide the fact because I was in work.

To make things worse I will not be able to make the funeral because it is Monday and Noel and I shall still be in Bath. In some ways this is probably a good thing because I don't do funerals well, I tend to go to pieces but I really wanted to pay my last respects to someone who was one of the nicest people I knew and who over the last 26 years has been not only a colleague who I respected immensely but who I also considered a good friend.

RIP Begs, I have lots of great memories of the last 26 years xxx

Back to Work

I hate the sound of my alarm at 5.45am but I've probably told you that before! Today was no exception and now after being off for 2 weeks it is really dark when I am getting up and even when I am driving to work. Add to this wind and rain and it wasn't a nice experience this morning.

Two weeks away and it was back to the grind and nothing changes. It was an awful day weather wise and we had delays left over from the night watch some of which we hadn't managed to bring in by the time I went home.

The day went quickly thought and before I knew it, it was time to come and home and it was nearly dark again.. I hate the winter when you got to work in the dark and come home in the dark.

We had pork chops for tea tonight and we are going to settle down and watch Amazon and Paul Merton in India tonight.... life is back to boring normality.

Family Day Out

Me and him had a very quiet night last night. We watched X Factor then went to bed, really exciting eh? Managed to just about stay awake to watch the X Factor results then we watched 100 greatest scary moments before putting the light out.

I heard the Queen Bee come home sometime during the early hours although she sounded more like a herd of baby elephants than a Queen Bee. This morning I had a nice lie in until about 10am but I had to get up then. Ffion was looking rather the worse for wear, she had a real hangover, poor thing. I had to make a quick foray to St. Tescos to get a birthday card and some flowers for Noel's mum as it was her birthday.

The whole family then went down to the Ferry Inn for Sunday lunch. That was the four of us, Noel's mum and dad and his brother, wife and 2 kids. We had a really lovely meal and its not very often we all get together.

This afternoon has been incredibly lazy. Ffion and I watched the Hollyoaks omnibus while Noel lit the fire in the other living room and put a video on. I also did a bit of cooking and made an apple pie with apples from our little tree in the garden. I finally made some pate and then Ffion and Noel had a chinese for tea.

Back to work tomorrow.. that two weeks has gone really quickly. Four days work then off to Bath for the weekend... I can't wait.