Blog - Scary's Belated Birthday (2008-01-12)

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Scary's Belated Birthday (2008-01-12)

Category: Diary. Posted: 2008-01-15 23:34:18 GMT.

Considering I'd been tired all week, had had a late night last night because I got carried away with the BBC IPlayer, and would be having a late, boozy, night tonight, waking up at 06:30 wasn't the best start to the weekend. The problem was, my new dishwasher was going to be delivered between 07:00 and 12:00, and I didn't want to be in bed when it arrived. The first thing I did was go into the kitchen to take the bread out of the breadmaker. Unfortunately, the cheap flour that I'd bought on Monday makes terrible bread, and it had only risen to about half of the height it should have risen to. Oh well, I'll remember for next time. I turned on my PC's monitor, and found that the BBC IPlayer was still downloading the six programmes that I'd left it downloading, and was hogging all the system resources. I rebooted the PC, and the IPlayer started up automatically, and continued hogging all the system, resources. The delivery driver called me at 08:29 to tell me he'd be there in 10 minutes. If I'd known he was going to do that, I could have stayed in bed until he called. Anyway, they took it upstairs, and left it in my kitchen.

A roofing bloke was going to be coming some time before midday, so I couldn't go out until he arrived. This was OK, because I had to make sure that all the beds were made for when Dindin, Sam, Tom, Gordy, and Emma arrived (Queenie couldn't make it because he got confused, and thought that Scary was 12 on the 30th, not 30 on the 12th!). It took me ages to find a second lot of single sheets, but I found them amongst Bird's stuff that she still hasn't taken away yet. I sent Tom a text message, asking whether he wanted to share a room with Gordy and Emma, or with Dindin and Sam. He asked whether sharing with Emma and Sam was an option, but I had to tell him that if anybody was having a 3-some, it would be me! Anyway, he chose Gordy and Emma, since they are used to his snoring.

As far as the BBC IPlayer is concerned, I tried cancelling each of the downloads, but it just didn't respond. I eventually opened up the task manager (which took a few minutes to open), and ended the BBC IPlayer task. This sped things up considerably, but things would slow down again whenever I rebooted the PC, or started the BBC IPlayer again. I therefore used the Add/Remove programs to get rid of the BBC IPlayer. This took about 10 minutes to do , but it got there eventually. I'll probably reinstall it again at some point, but I want to leave my PC unchanged for a week before adding any new software. Unable to use my bedroom PC to do anything useful until I'd completely got rid of the IPlayer, I used my multi-media Centre to change Monday's organic order, so that I had decent bread flour, not cheap flour. It's a good job I have more than one PC at home.

Apart from these jobs, I spent some of the morning having a quick kip on the sofa while waiting for my guests to arrive. Tom called to say they were about 10 minutes away, so I popped out quickly to buy some bread, to save having to nip out first thing tomorrow morning. The woman running the shop today was standing in the doorway, smoking. When she realised that she had a customer, she just threw the cigarette onto the floor, and walked back into the shop. I really should have said something, but I didn't have time to take my business elsewhere, so just bought the loaf, and went back home. Back at home, I made tea, so that it was ready for when everyone arrived (they were all travelling down together in Emma and Gordy's car). I'm really going to have to buy a new teapot. The gaffa tape is OK for making one, or two, cups, but is pretty useless when I try to make a full pot of tea.

I'd bought the train tickets earlier on in the week, so all we had to do was walk to the train station, and get on the train. We caught the 13:30 train (so much for Gimmer telling me that they left at xx:15 and xx:45), which arrived on time at about 2 o'clock. Gordy was asking me lots of questions about web-design (I'm going to have to start charging consultancy fees), and we mocked Tom for wearing a watch that has a flat battery. We were all feeling quite hungry, but decided against having some sneaky food, because we were supposed to be eating at 3 o'clock. We caught the Tube to Piccadilly Circus, and then walked to Covent Garden to meet Scary. I called Scary, and he told me that they were in the Porterhouse, and gave me directions. I didn't remember a word of the directions, feeling confident that I'd figure it out when we got there. Gordy really didn't like my idea of wandering around until we found it, so I called Scary again, and handed the phone to Gordon. Gordy, then listened to what Scary said, handed my phone back to me, and then walked off, saying, "OK, let's inject some competence into proceedings!". He was going to get so much gip if he got us lost.

He didn't get us lost, and, when we arrived at the Porterhouse, I remembered that I'd been there before! What an old fool! We found Scary, met some of Suzanne's family and friends, met up with Rach, Jon Hayhurst (who's only just got back from Oz), and Rob (who had been to Vietnam with Nic). We had a quick pint, before going off to Chez Gerard, where we met Rodney and Rach's new girlfriend. It looked like a fairly poncy expensive place - ideal for Scary! We got a round of drinks in (I wasn't going to drink too much because it was early in the afternoon, and it was bottled lager). Soon afterwards, we were shown to our table. Being a steak restaurant, it wasn't an ideal place for vegetarians, so it was a good job that Scary had been crap, and not invited Sarah. It was fairly dark inside the restaurant, but, fortunately, I had my bike light in my pocket, so could light up my food to see what I was actually eating. I don't know much about the different steaks, so thanks to Rach's new girlfriend for saying that rump was a good idea. We were by a window that overlooked Covent Garden, and there was some entertainment on. I couldn't actually see the entertainment, but I was very impressed that somebody had managed to get an apple stuck on the anti-pigeon things on the balcony. That's quite an impressive throw!

Before going to the Comedy Club, we went for a couple of pints at the Sun Tavern. We went there, because the Geordie wanted to watch Newcastle play. I'm sure they were expecting Newcastle to lose, but I don't think they quite expected a 6:0 defeat. Despite saying earlier he didn't want to drink too much, Gordy seemed keen to have shots as well as pints. It was then time to go to the Comedy Club. On the way there, Gordy, Emma, and I suddenly realised that we couldn't see the others. This didn't really matter, because I knew where the Leicester Square Comedy Club is. Unfortunately, it turned out that Scary had booked us into the Covent Garden Comedy Club! After getting lost (technically we weren't lost, because I always knew exactly where we were, I just didn't know where the comedy club is), we eventually found out that it was on the road between Charing Cross and Embankment. If only Scary had told me that, we'd have walked straight there! We were slightly worried to find out that it was in a gay club, and Gordy spent a worrying amount of time looking at the gay magazines. I was pleased to see a choice of three draught beers. The Carlsberg Export wasn't the best pint in the world, but it did the job.

The compere (Matt Reed) was very funny, the first act (Danny BhoyMicky Flanagan) was a bit pants, the second act (Rob Deering) was much better, and the third act (Micky FlanaganDanny Bhoy) was excellent. As with the panto on New Year's Eve, splitting the performance into three parts meant three beer breaks (although there was no draught beer left for the third break). After that, we were kicked out, so that it could turn back into a gay club. As when we walked out of every other place, the Geordies all lit up, so I stood a fair distance away. Everybody was discussing what pub to go to, so I just said, "There's a good pub just up the road from here", and walked towards it. It didn't take the others long to realise that I was making sense. We had a quick drink, but the others were getting worried about missing our last train back, so we left after that. After forgetting that the outside Tube entrances at Charing Cross are shut at night, we caught a Tube to Paddington. We had a while to wait before the Langley train left (it was the first Reading train as well, so Rodney joined us), which gave me time to go for a wee, and the others time to get tea and snacks. There was an attendant at the toilets, so I couldn't sneak through the turnstile. Refusing to pay to have a wee, I walked back to find the others. Dindin had kindly bought me tea and a croissant. Top man!

We then got on the train, and managed to find somewhere where we could all sit together. Sam has sensibly bought her tea from a shop that served something other than Earl Grey. She very kindly swapped with me, because I'm not a big fan of Earl Grey. She's a top lass! By the time we got to the station, Gordy was dying for a poo, so walked home quite quickly. I then realised that I'd forgotten to have a wee on the train, and was also dying to use the loo. Knowing that Gordy would sulk if I wouldn't let him go first, I opened the door (thanks to Tom for holding the torch), and let Gordy use the loo first. I then made tea and toast for everybody (with the teapot leaking everywhere again), before we called it a night (after Gordy had retrieved his contact lens from behind his eye).

[1] Sam (Bath) 2008-01-17 14:29:00 GMT
Billy,
You got the acts at the comedy club mixed up. Danny Bhoy was the Scottish guy who went last(i.e The funny one!)

[2] Billy (Slough) 2008-01-27 18:56:42 GMT
I've thrown the flyer away now, so can't check. I do remember thinking it didn't really make sense when I wrote it, but just went with the order they were on the flyer.

I've just added Scary's pictures, I hope you like them.

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