Beer And Burny Dead Things
It must be something about collecting students together- the first hints of warm, cloudless days and all the cooking goes al fresco. That's right, it's Barbeque Season. :)
Thursday I offered to help Vicki pack in preparation for her house-move at the weekend. We dodn't do a very god job- rather than actually getting anything into boxes or down the stairs (which are like the North face of the Eiger) we ended up looking at various cool things she found and watching Knightmare until Vicki declared that she needed sleep. I could see the writing on the wall already...
Friday ended up as an impromptu pub crawl which saw us ending up back at Park Road, where we consumed random bits of the drinks cabinet. Vicki and I had earlier gone shopping to get stuff to bulk out her cajun chicken into a four-person meal- impressive, as there was probably only enough to feed one originally. However, we also proved the old adage of never going shopping for food when you're hungry- we ended up with a basket full of apple turnovers, toffee crisps and port. We consumed the port between us before going out, possibly half the reason Vicki passed out in short order on return... ;)
Saturday was a bit of a change of scene- over to Leo & Lisa's in Nottingham for the next instalment of Leo's Shadowrun game. We'd decided beforehand to retire my character, Soldat, to give me the chance to gradually bow out of player-charactering in favour of GMing. She got a good Blackhawk-Down-style death, holding up a platoon of mercenaries with accurate sniper-fire so the rest of the team could escape. Unfortunately that only took about an hour and a half, meaning between about half-three and nine I was essentially sitting around and watching the scenery change. Finally got my new character- Union Jackal, one of my favourites as an NPC for quite a while, and it's a breath of fresh air to actually play him for a change- into the game later than I would have liked, especially as he has a huge amount of useful knowledge and a rolodex full of contacts that would have been invaluable to the other PCs at a number of points throughout the afternoon. Leo's a great GM from the point of view of plot-writing and atmosphere, but his time management does leave quite a bit to be desired. My ire at this was compounded when I later found out that Vicki had ended up having to pack her stuff and move it downstairs on her own- I could have been doing something useful with the afternoon rather than sitting around waiting.
In any case, Graeme and I got back into Loughborough around midnight and grabbed dinner from Subway- surprisingly good. I'd intended to grab a pizza on the way through town, but the smell inside Subway reminded me of Shoarma bars back in Holland and I decided I had to try some food from there. The baguette was pretty damned delish. Gah, I have fallen to the Dark Side! ;)
Sunday morning I ended up offering to help Vicki unpack at the other end, and it was probably a good thing I did. Her new place is about ten minutes around the corner from ours, and by the time I got there they were facing the fact that Ben, one of the previous tenants, had left the windows open to get some fresh air into the place, and Vicki's new room's door had slammed shut. It's Yale-locked, and the key was broken off in it. Great start to the morning, but it gets better. Ben decided to try and climb in through the open window via the top of the garden shed- did I mention this was a first floor window?- and went through the shed roof, cutting both his wrists, twisting his ankle and possibly breaking his toe. While his injuries didn't appear too bad, he started going into shock and so Vicki's mother had him rushed to hospital. In the end we ended up borrowing a stepladder from one of the neighbours and I ended up climbing in through the window, via the hole Ben had created. ;) We eventually got everything moved in, including an Ikea wardrobe Vixel had acquired from Bee- though we had to take the doors off it to get it upstairs...
It was just as well, really, that LilAndy was having his leaving do that evening, as I think both of us needed some R&R after that. ;) While Vicki attempted to unpack a little I headed over to Sainsburys to grab booze (more Otima port for Vicki and I, beer for Ed and Graeme) and food (steak and sausages for Ed and Graeme, swordfish/marlin steaks for Vix/I). It was discovered that barbequed marlin steaks are doubleplusgood.
As the night rolled in Graeme headed back to Derby- last time he'll have to do that as he officially moves in this coming weekend- and following a jug of Black Russian Vicki and I ended up crashing back to hers to watch Phantom Of The Opera. Probably just as well that we did, given the photos of the rest of the night which we have since seen. ;)
The swordfish hadn't been eaten, so I decided that should be grilled on the Monday. I'd originally planned to marinade it for an hour or so and feed Ed the remaining steak, however some friends from home Ed was expecting turned up early. As such I threw together a sausage casserole for them, which apparently went down rather well. I'm not sure exactly what I put in the swordfish marinade, but it bloody worked, and in a flash of inspiration I ended up frying it (it was full of chopped onions) and serving it as a side dish, leading to my single activation of the smoke alarm this year (forgot the extractor fan) and a damned fine meal. We then relocated to the pub for the usual Monday night beerage and a final sendoff for LilAndy.
Tuesday was the next barbeque of the season- Chris and Steph's leaving do. Vicki and I had decided to do teriyaki steak skewers, but being short of skewers this was altered to (more simple) teriyaki steaks. I grabbed some necessaries and headed over to her place after work- her new abode is decidedly more convenient, as Park Road was miles from anywhere, I envisage parties on the horizon- where we marinaded steak before heading back towards the party.
Of course, it wasn't that simple. Just before we left Ben warned us there was a storm moving in, which we only really noticed on stepping outside. By the time we got as far as ours, it was just beginning to rain, and we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and dived into ours to fry the steaks instead. Not a moment too soon, the rain was torrential and the lightning both frequent and close- one bolt couldn't have come down more than a few gardens away. Thus we ended up watching movies- Spy Game and Ronin, both great flicks I bought last week- and consuming our barbeque supplies along with Matt and Ed.
Not to break the habit of a lifetime, it seems the rest of the week will be filled with cookery and alcofrol consumption before Graeme moves in at the weekend and all hell breaks loose. ;)
Countdown: 73 days until next NL holiday. :D
Thursday I offered to help Vicki pack in preparation for her house-move at the weekend. We dodn't do a very god job- rather than actually getting anything into boxes or down the stairs (which are like the North face of the Eiger) we ended up looking at various cool things she found and watching Knightmare until Vicki declared that she needed sleep. I could see the writing on the wall already...
Friday ended up as an impromptu pub crawl which saw us ending up back at Park Road, where we consumed random bits of the drinks cabinet. Vicki and I had earlier gone shopping to get stuff to bulk out her cajun chicken into a four-person meal- impressive, as there was probably only enough to feed one originally. However, we also proved the old adage of never going shopping for food when you're hungry- we ended up with a basket full of apple turnovers, toffee crisps and port. We consumed the port between us before going out, possibly half the reason Vicki passed out in short order on return... ;)
Saturday was a bit of a change of scene- over to Leo & Lisa's in Nottingham for the next instalment of Leo's Shadowrun game. We'd decided beforehand to retire my character, Soldat, to give me the chance to gradually bow out of player-charactering in favour of GMing. She got a good Blackhawk-Down-style death, holding up a platoon of mercenaries with accurate sniper-fire so the rest of the team could escape. Unfortunately that only took about an hour and a half, meaning between about half-three and nine I was essentially sitting around and watching the scenery change. Finally got my new character- Union Jackal, one of my favourites as an NPC for quite a while, and it's a breath of fresh air to actually play him for a change- into the game later than I would have liked, especially as he has a huge amount of useful knowledge and a rolodex full of contacts that would have been invaluable to the other PCs at a number of points throughout the afternoon. Leo's a great GM from the point of view of plot-writing and atmosphere, but his time management does leave quite a bit to be desired. My ire at this was compounded when I later found out that Vicki had ended up having to pack her stuff and move it downstairs on her own- I could have been doing something useful with the afternoon rather than sitting around waiting.
In any case, Graeme and I got back into Loughborough around midnight and grabbed dinner from Subway- surprisingly good. I'd intended to grab a pizza on the way through town, but the smell inside Subway reminded me of Shoarma bars back in Holland and I decided I had to try some food from there. The baguette was pretty damned delish. Gah, I have fallen to the Dark Side! ;)
Sunday morning I ended up offering to help Vicki unpack at the other end, and it was probably a good thing I did. Her new place is about ten minutes around the corner from ours, and by the time I got there they were facing the fact that Ben, one of the previous tenants, had left the windows open to get some fresh air into the place, and Vicki's new room's door had slammed shut. It's Yale-locked, and the key was broken off in it. Great start to the morning, but it gets better. Ben decided to try and climb in through the open window via the top of the garden shed- did I mention this was a first floor window?- and went through the shed roof, cutting both his wrists, twisting his ankle and possibly breaking his toe. While his injuries didn't appear too bad, he started going into shock and so Vicki's mother had him rushed to hospital. In the end we ended up borrowing a stepladder from one of the neighbours and I ended up climbing in through the window, via the hole Ben had created. ;) We eventually got everything moved in, including an Ikea wardrobe Vixel had acquired from Bee- though we had to take the doors off it to get it upstairs...
It was just as well, really, that LilAndy was having his leaving do that evening, as I think both of us needed some R&R after that. ;) While Vicki attempted to unpack a little I headed over to Sainsburys to grab booze (more Otima port for Vicki and I, beer for Ed and Graeme) and food (steak and sausages for Ed and Graeme, swordfish/marlin steaks for Vix/I). It was discovered that barbequed marlin steaks are doubleplusgood.
As the night rolled in Graeme headed back to Derby- last time he'll have to do that as he officially moves in this coming weekend- and following a jug of Black Russian Vicki and I ended up crashing back to hers to watch Phantom Of The Opera. Probably just as well that we did, given the photos of the rest of the night which we have since seen. ;)
The swordfish hadn't been eaten, so I decided that should be grilled on the Monday. I'd originally planned to marinade it for an hour or so and feed Ed the remaining steak, however some friends from home Ed was expecting turned up early. As such I threw together a sausage casserole for them, which apparently went down rather well. I'm not sure exactly what I put in the swordfish marinade, but it bloody worked, and in a flash of inspiration I ended up frying it (it was full of chopped onions) and serving it as a side dish, leading to my single activation of the smoke alarm this year (forgot the extractor fan) and a damned fine meal. We then relocated to the pub for the usual Monday night beerage and a final sendoff for LilAndy.
Tuesday was the next barbeque of the season- Chris and Steph's leaving do. Vicki and I had decided to do teriyaki steak skewers, but being short of skewers this was altered to (more simple) teriyaki steaks. I grabbed some necessaries and headed over to her place after work- her new abode is decidedly more convenient, as Park Road was miles from anywhere, I envisage parties on the horizon- where we marinaded steak before heading back towards the party.
Of course, it wasn't that simple. Just before we left Ben warned us there was a storm moving in, which we only really noticed on stepping outside. By the time we got as far as ours, it was just beginning to rain, and we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and dived into ours to fry the steaks instead. Not a moment too soon, the rain was torrential and the lightning both frequent and close- one bolt couldn't have come down more than a few gardens away. Thus we ended up watching movies- Spy Game and Ronin, both great flicks I bought last week- and consuming our barbeque supplies along with Matt and Ed.
Not to break the habit of a lifetime, it seems the rest of the week will be filled with cookery and alcofrol consumption before Graeme moves in at the weekend and all hell breaks loose. ;)
Countdown: 73 days until next NL holiday. :D
posted by Union Jackal at 11:23 am
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