Weekends ... They are for YOU!

People who are sober : Part 2

Captain Andy - aka The Wolf

A russian wolf, pictured centre

People who are sober : Part I

A photo of Princess Nomes .... when she was sober (and on-call)

A russian princess, pictured centre

CSI : Codename "Stop Spending"

After the London Town situation and pound night, it was good to be back in the usual place, usual time & usual people. So a little bemused when I rolled it at 10am because of the dodgy bus systems, my desk had been taken over by someone and my power pack for my laptop missing. After a cup of tea, I was feeling like I was on top of the world, until moments later, Captain Headworth decides pops up, looking like death warmed up. We met for some lunch later on to discuss the NY trip and where we were going to stay, and now if you cast your minds back to him taking the piss out of me at the football.

"So ill, cant eat food, tummy sore"

Much amusement. Anyhoo, turned up for football and carved the two teams up myself to make sure it was fair, needless to say, the big baby who moaned about me tackling was on my side - incase I accidently took his legs out again and having claims direct on my back. Managed to score one, hit the post 6 times, setup about 3 goals and we managed to win 5-3. Enjoyable really

I then get back to my gaff to find council tax demands etc etc - which has now been resolved. On top of this, I also have to pay the inland rev £2!!! On the plus side, the insurance people are going to settle with me over the stolen MG princess which was taken away from my arms and I wont have to supply the inland rev with anymore tax returns next year. Bonus!

Rich and Steve - both have beer Bellis

Part of both CSI and watching the mighty toon march on Europe, I invited captain rich down for a couple of beers and ITV2. Turns out that our Crazy Brummie friend, Captain Alan Bellis, was in town for a night out celebrating the hard work* he's done on a certain Scottish bank. It was arranged in the following way

• Steve & Rich drink themselves stupid at my gaff while Newcastle play
• 21:00 Captain Mentalish would get a taxi from Warwick to my gaff and join in the Stella-fest
• 21:45 Princess Nomes and Wolf Andy would pop around to my place and meet us
• We would all go down to the Well for CSI beers and have an early night

Needless to say, at 21:45 we couldnt get hold of Bellis, so we thought, bugger it, we'll all go get boozed up and he can find us. At some random point of the night, I see some Hobo struggle over the bridge then wiped my Stella glazed eyes and worked out it was Bellis. After convicing the bouncers that he wouldnt create any trouble we managed to get him in the pub - to which he necked 3 x Double Vodka & Cokes in 2 nanoseconds.

Anyhoo, Princess Nomes and Wolf Andy probably took the correct option by leaving at that point, we stayed (although I was drinking water) until no one could take anymore. We went via the Kebabital where Rich got his stable diet and Bellis got chips with mayo (not simon), claiming I wanted mayo although I physically hate the stuff. Apparently Bellis fell over into his chips and mayo, drank more, woke up in the morning and drove home, never to be seen by anyone again.

The streets are not paved with gold! Part 2 of 2

I get up in the morning looking like death warmed up to the cabin boy looking even worse than I did - looking for direction for the day, we call Alison to see what she wants us to do. As they were still restoring at this point, the account team didnt want us to leave London incase it went belly up. Right I thought, I'm going for a little wander, I've had my sunday wasted - so with personal cabin boy in company, we stroll along the Thames over Tower Bridge, to find a nice starbucks where we conduct private conf calls and supping tea. With still no direction from the account and my mood dipping already, I decide that I'm going to take the piss and prepare for another night in London village - so go shopping and find another starbucks for more tea. It was then announced that we would stay overnight again, and go to the Southbank office. I ask the cabin boy how long it would take to get to southbank "40 mins by foot, we could get a taxi, or get the tube" - I have a few experiences of the tube and still felt a tad dodgy so decided management stylee, that we would work. Luckily, the cabin boy "knows the way to Southbank so we dont need to worry" - 55 mins later we manage to find IBMs eBiz secret DR location - but no Southbank office after "its around here somewhere, I'm sure of it - maybe we should have turned right"

We get there and my mood is at an all time weekend low, do a couple of hours work, conduct a couple of conf calls and head back to the hotel. Go out for more booze and food and abuse the local cockney sparrows. Luckily I decide to bypass the hotel bar this time and retire to bed - just as well really as I receive a nice call from Alison at 08:30 Tuesday morning telling us we can go home. One conclusion from this shambles is that the cabin boy would suit living in London - mainly due to his shambolic driving and lane swapping every 30 seconds.

My attention span was at an all time low - so it was decided when I got back to Warwick, I was going home to bed early - only for Admiral Headworth to suggest we go for a sly pint as we aint had once since thursday night. Needless to say, we had a couple in the hogs head (with some food) and moved onto pound night, where things continued, the beer continued to flow and the students turned up. It got to such a bad stage where the students were then going home because they had too much. I dont know what time I left the pub, nor do I know what time I got in ... or what happened, although I must have replied to a text message from the lovely Student Jess (puurr)

The streets are not paved with gold! Part 1 of 2

Well, I dont know where to start really... I havent posted anything for a while because I've either done nowt at all (Zip as the americans call it) as part of my CSI project, or being stitched up a right good one. An overview is basically Friday night, did bugger all, but chilled, saturday done bugger all apart from listen to the footy on t'internet radio (mainly due to rain) and got boozed up while getting cozy. I decided that rather than a complete booze session with Admiral Rich, I would chill out, relax and entertain myself. I played GTA for a while as I havent played it for a couple of weeks, watched Old School while tucking into a nice bottle of wine, which turned into belgian beer. Anyhoo - at this point its 03:00 sunday morning, I can barely walk and I'm watching a BBCi doc on little britain.

At approx 07:30 I received a call from my team leader, Alison, asking if I could go down to London to work - of course, I was a little confused that why was I being asked to work on a sunday and why the hell had I only had 4 hours kip. I kind of suggested I had better things to do - like shop, the quiz, shopping and not going to London on my weekend time off. She said she would try getting something else arranged, but called about 20 mins when I was snoozing off again. So ... the story develops that one of our customers has invokes a DR (not a test, not a site being blown up by a bomb) to fix a few problems. So, I end up having to travel down with Cabin Boy Woods where we manage to check into a swanky hotel, park the car and make our way to the building where we are to be working. In parallel, two guys from liverpool are supposed to be coming down to fix their side of the issue - but are no where to be seen - being tired, annoyed and a little bemused - the answer was public house, sunday lunch and decent football. What I got was a room full of cheeky cockney sparrows, a crap "chicken" burger and Birmingham v Blackburn - so with my mood spiralling out of control, we wander back to the building to where the guys have turned up. After 50 mins of faffing around with equipment, we fix our side of the deal, and let the 2 scousers kick off a restore - to which I suggested going back to the hotel. All sounds a little dull, techie and dweebie at this point and it doesnt get much better - until I convinces the cabin boy to get sorted as we were going to paint the town red and risk getting paged out with things going tits up.

Well, the area we were staying in - was the finacial side of London - so Sunday night, not exactly great for talent - so bugger than, lets get my bad mood flooded with stella .... So after drinking nigh on 2 bottles of wine myself, 2 pints of carling, then 2 shots - I decided it was probably best if I retired for the night, but being unable to focus, I had to stay up for 2 hours to sober up enough to stop the room spinning.

10 pound more the richer

Well ... technically £11.50 richer. After the sham of the football, we were involved in the Sunday Night Quiz and having monday off, I wasnt really that fussed about how much I drank - Truth be told, I fancied a little bit of a session as I hadnt had one (apart from Thursday night's post work session of stella - mmm sweet Stella). Our old friends and team mates (General Knowledge Monkey and Sports Monkey) had returned for the weekend from Uni - so it was good to get the well oiled quiz machine working again.

Anyhoo, we started well, winning the first round, it started to get hazy for a while until we managed to win the jackpot - £69 between 6 of us ... fantastic - at least the students can eat this month.

Things got alittle hazy when Rich slid off as he had a 9.30am meeting with a customer - so I continued to drink with the students, who decided to slid off at some early hour - Students these days hey! they dont know the meaning of the word. The usual ended up happening, by staying after hours having a couple of pints. Points from the night that are starting to be recalled;

• Playing balloon football with Chris (getting covered with beer and water in the meantime)
• Waking up with to massive inflatable yellow hands
• Waking up wearing a blue tshirt with "moose" written on it
• Declaring I would be working at the Well on Monday night

Armchair Manager

After the sham of Car Stolen/Unable to get to Newcastle/Unable to hand the tickets over to Mike - I never imaged for one minute that the Newcastle Utd v Man Utd (scum) would be a walk in the park and, well, lets put it this way - aid my stress and mood. I left my lovely flat to wander down to the Well leaving the captain to walk down after fixing his tax fraud problems and sat in a very warm area of the pub, supping a nice pint of diet pepsi. Needless to say, being an avid armchair general I started ripping into the line up (three strikers, bellamy on the left and bowyer - just does not work - Fact!) and my mood diving after 6 minutes when Rooney (past toon target) scored and OK goal (ok, it was better than OK, but you cant say that). Shearer managed to pull us level after 70 odd minutes (by this time I was well on my way to drinking) with a lovely left footed chip. This is where things got a little to much for me - surrounded by man u fans - a pen was given to man u (at which point - the man u fans decide its safe enough for them to take their tops off to reveal their Man U strip). Needless to say, they won 3-1 - I reckon 1-1 was a fare result myself - as that would have given us one point.

After the game ... more Armchair Manager tactics were discussed via SMS with Captain Mike

Grass Roots Football

After a strange, exhausting week in many different ways and missing out on going to see the Might Toon v Scummy Small Club Manchester United - I thought it was probably best to do something with the weekend. I've tended to waste weekends by going into town, meeting up with the captain and getting boozed up and rolling home and falling into a Stella/Carling/Hoegaarden coma - never a good thing really.

Anyhoo, I thought, why dont we go see Leamington Brakes for a day out - Rich was around, sure enough he agreed. Knowing what football is like at a decent stadium such as St James Park I managed to take scarf, fleece and wooly hat to protect myself from mother nature. Met up with the captain for a swift one at the Wind Mill pub where the bus picks people up. Fantastic ... anyhow, by this time, the sun is starting to set and the wind is whipping up, so there is a little bit of a chill. Now, I used to work at ASDA in the Frozen food section (ie Industrial Size Freezers) and they never give you the correct uniform - ie Jumpers and Gloves - so I'm used to the constant cold (and the fact I lived in Newcastle for most of my life). By Half time, the Brakes were 2-0 up and myself and Rich were having to purchase hot drinks, just to keep our hands warm. The captain had to purchase a club scarf to keep warm when we turned up (and to inject a little cash into the club too I suspect)

Coming from a priv'd footballing background - I've always noticed that the ref and linesmen ( I know its not very PC - but its a man's sport) get alot of abuse from players. So it was refreshing to hear after a player got caught offside and was moaning to the linesman, the linesman replying "Shut up and get on with it". Myself and the captain chuckled a couple of times (Warning :- may have been 80 mins). At one point the opposition were moaning about an offside judgement to be incorrect - to which he replied "You played him onside you fool" - again we chuckled. I would have loved to have payed the linesman £3 quid extra for the comedy.

Anyhoo, after 90 mins (plus 10 mins stoppage time and the final score being 2-1 to the mighty Brakes) we managed to get the bus back to civilisation - well, the Well for a couple of swift ones before rugby no necks stole live prem plus and watched the tri-nations.

Upstanding member of the community and not a Hooligan (pictured centre)

If you have spare time - I would suggest going to see them ... good laugh and all to a good cause.

Pro's and Con's of Public Transport

I admit, its been an eye opener this week, not only have i had to work out how to get to work without car, but also ensure I have enough cash in my pockets to do so. I've also had to master the art, of getting a lift when I can, rather than standing at the bus stop in the cold, listening to chavs/pikeys/crazies talk. One of the good things on the bus server is they have a sign saying "Get fit, get off a stop early and walk". Great idea ... however;

• I pay £2.90 return - If I wanted to get off a stop earlier - I would pay less
• Its cold - that extra 3 mins of natural crazy/chav/pikey body heat around you is important
• Sometimes it takes 20 mins to fight for a seat - why give it up to a lazy.

Anyhoo, as I have today off, we decided lastnight to disembark a couple of stops earlier, and have a couple of pints to celebrate the "Rich and Steve cause Random in NY" tour. So, after 7 pints, we visit the kebabital where I'm told that it wasnt the finest Kebab the captain has ever tasted.

To conclude ... Buses can be good and bad (mostly at the same time)

5 portions of fruit and veg a day ? no just the Big Apple please

After a bad week at work and, well basically some twoc'ing bastard stealing my car, I decided to do something good to cheer myself up. I'd just had word from work that I could arrange my travel for the disaster recovery test in Washington DC in Jan. However, things are never really really that simple. The idea is that;

• After the DR test - myself and Mr Chester (and his wife) will travel from DC to NY
• Captain Rich will fly from UK to NY and meet me
• Spend a couple of days faffing around with yanks
• Fly back to UK

All sounds simple ... NO ... you wouldnt believe the shambles I had to deal with to coordinate flights etc. Anyhow ... after the captain was stuttering and pondering around over should he or shouldnt press the "confirm" button for the tickets. Needless to say, its all sorted - ish - with the added complexity of;

• Steve flys back to Heathrow
• Rich flys back to Birmingham via Dublin
• Both flights land within 30 mins of each other at different airports
• Rich still wants to go see the mighty Chesterfield 6 hours after jetting around the world.

Needless to say, Steve & Rich in leamington is just about bareable, Steve and Rich in New York, with loads of americas to take the piss out of .... ooh, so many people, so little time!

Bar Service

we ended up in the boozer on free ebiz food and drink. So after a day of "harmless" banter - all I needed was harsh piss take from car related jokes from friends and co-colleagues. After 6 beers, we decided to call it a day. Unfortunately my dream of someone picking up my car at an early hour, cleaning it, giving it a free MOT, filling the petrol up and cleaning up the mess, never actually happened and reality is about to kick in. I bought tickets to the Newcastle v Man U game at the weekend, and the only chance of meeting up with the lovely Philippa is;

• Hire a car
• get a train

both of which will encur costs to the unknown. I had also started to look forward to seeing my sister (Gillian) my mum and dad, and had actually planned a hell of alot of the time. I had taken 2 days off from work to do the trip coz I've felt bad about not seeing them since April and now its all gone to shit. To conclude;

• What ever happens, Newcastle v Man U will be the wrong result, if I go - we will loose, if I dont - we will host the game of the century
• Car theives are lower than the low - personally, should have as many car keys shoved up their arses until they cry like children
• Winlaton's pubs, will have to wait to be photographed until Xmas
• Although I respect Blair and the improvements he's making to the UK - how can someone have 3 crime numbers to the same car, within a 100metre radius, not have Pikes/Chavs/Twats protected against him
• Leamington is going down in my estimation and feel safer in Winlaton ( one of the hardest/roughest towns in the North East)
• Friends really become friends when the chips are down and you need cheering up
• Someone up there has decided that they will bloke any kind of semi attraction between me and Pippa
• The Kebabital is never your friend, no matter how many Stella's you have
• THE person you want and really really want to be with, always decides its just not cricket and puts a spanner into your perfect engine RE:book

Anyhoo, I have to get up early to grab a bus - to get in for 9am ...

PS :- anyhow seeing VX52 DHL on the streets and me not driving - you know who to call ( Hint : Not ghostbusters)

Bus Service

.... got on the 66. I know it sounds a little snobbish (and I mean snobbish coming from someone from Winlaton, and living in Leamington) but I have never ever had to get the bus into work... hence calling my bus-active friend - Rich. So, after having to pay £2.90 return for a 3 mile journey (baring in mind, in newcastle I paid 1.90 for return from the outskirks of gateshead into newcastle [ 5 mile ] and from Headingly to Horsforth [ 4 mile ] for 1.75) I was a little shocked. Only to be confronted by more shock tactics by the government - Chavs, Pikeys and strangely looking people on public transport. Much to the delight of the captain, I thought it was my duty as a tax payer, and as I'm paying;

• car insurance
• road tax
• random other get the environment healthy tax's

for the privvies of having to ride the bus and not having a say in the service.

Anyhoo, after the local jibs and jibes - we get to work to more jibs and jibes from colleagues basically saying :-

"Have you been to see a car show room", "wheres your car?" and "why get the bus into work when you can drive your car" blah blah blah... to which ....

Car Service

Many people laughed when prefab sprout were around, many people still laugh that I folked out 10 quid for the best of album, but I quote

"At the hands of life - stinkin' car thief, thats my concept of sin"

Needless to say, on an already bad morning trying / struggling to get out of bed, I walked up to the main pavement to find, and I wager - not many people have felt this confusion, my car missing. At first, I thought it was me, at second, I thought it was me then resorted to top quality neighbour Debbie to double check that I hadnt gone mad, and that the car was just not there. After minutes of poking at a spot were a 4x4 was now parked (no, i'm not david blaine and hadnt made a convertable into a 4x4) we decided;

• I'd either parked it else where, or
• it had been TWOC'd
• infact I was david blaine, and I could indeed, make a MG convertable into a 4x4 jeep

after ensuring I hadnt parked it 2 metres away, I decided to phone the police who;

• asked if i had parked it else where
• basically said it had been TWOC'd
• asked if I was david blaine, and I could indeed, make a MG convertable into a 4x4 jeep

After a motivational talk with the police, I decided to call comrad headworth for some support - who decided I was on a piss take and winding him up. After 20 minutes of convincing him other wise we ....

Sunday Service

After a fully deserved all day session on the Saturday, I decided it would be nice to just chill on a Sunday night and refresh myself for the working week. However, things didnt go to plan as Comrad Headworth asked if I fancied a couple of sly beers. I made it perfectly clear, that I would only have a couple as I was due to Team Lead monday with Alison being out (made that mistake on friday and felt like crud). So I agree to meet up with Headders and we walk down to the Jug for a sly pint, then over to the Well to catch the tale end of the Quiz (where we helped out normal quiz team a tad). Rich had some Stella Tokens (collect 4 - get a lovely Stella glass), so after 3 pints of Stella there and watch the ever depressing Newcastle 1 - Fulham 4 match which I'd listened to earlier on the radio and got post match depression. We then visit the infamous Kebabital for more shambolic cheap labour antics where I had chips in pitta bread.

Anyhoo, wandered into work at 9am for a funky management call, to lots of "Newcastle are rubbish", "Haway the lads" and "alreet pet" comments from so called profressional management which set the scene for the rest of the day. Not happy with listening to my beloved team loose to a second rate second division team, I then managed to get Newcastle -v- Man Utd tickets for me and the lovely Philippa, next weekend.

Things on the Canal

Ducks (as per normal) and Traffic Cone

Lounge to Lounge in 12 hours 22 minutes

After thursday nights beer session, and feeling extremely ropey all day friday, it was decided that the weekend would be another chilled out one. John and Debbie were kind enough to ask me to the Lounge for lunch with Laura and her two drunking friends. Its been a while since I've ate in the Lounge - mainly because 2 years ago, it changed hands and the food went down hill. After the refurbish, I thought why not give it another gan. So we did - 13:00 - Pint of Guiness - lush - it felt smooth and like funny tasting ice cream.

I did feel like a little bit of a session, but tried to keep the calm - mainly because John and Debbie together tends to lead me astray - such a shy lad that I am. While we were in the lounge, I noticed one of the lasses who plays football with us on Wednesday - she's lush ... but was eating with a friend, so decided to leave it (and being shy)

After the Lounge and lack of TV for Saturday football, I suggested going to the Hogs Head. We chitchatted, then moved to the Star and Garter, to which we went to Macy's then onto the Sozzled Sausage. Finally onto the bowling green for more beverages. When we get there, there was a fantastic looking lass, someone who is completely out of my league (you know when you wont even get a look in). I've noticed her around ages ago and developed a massive crush. Turns out, the injustice of sexy birds took effect, Nice lass + Meat head = relationship - nevermind hey?!?

Anyhoo, John and Debbie were kind enough to go get Kebab's and Chips for us, and Chang beer. Now, I remember getting a couple of text's from the lovely Jess, but cant remember replying - one of them things, but apparently I did. So we play some dodgy Donkey Kong Konga on my Gamecube, watch the Simpsons that John had recorded from Friday night. To which point, things get a little fuzzy - Ive started to remember (thanks mainly to Debbie reminding me)

• I declared myself as President of the Canal House (declaring John as vice-president and Debbie head of entertainment)
• Loosing my trainers and finding them at the top of a step ladder
• having my crotch hoovered
• and having the use of my legs taken away due to alcohol abuse.

So I wake up on Sunday morning, assuming I'm going to feel like toss, as per Friday - strangely enough, feeling pretty OK - reports are that so do John and Debbie.

BYE THEN Toby!!!!

Our friend Toby decided that he's gonna take 6 months off from IBM and travel around South America. Not content with just leaving us all in misery, he decided he wanted a beer session night named after the event too. Selfish I tell you! Newcastle were playing Tbilisi on ITV2 - so as part of my CSI'ing - I got some cans in and watched that - hooking up with good friends later on in the hogs head. After moving on to the Star and Garter, some of us decided the only way was up with our friends at the Well. After getting in, Toby enters some random drunken state after a pint and can barely stand. Rich (also boozed off his tits) decides that it would be amusing to slap a J20 sticker on Toby's head ( see below )

Toby, pictured centre with J20 sticker - pictured slightly left

Anyhoo ... the night gets a little stranger by the minute, and people decide they are gonna bugger off home (01:05), yet, I, with still half a pint left, decide to stay. I ended up talking to bar staff and regulars while slightly supping my pint. I even had the bollocks to ask a lass out for a drink, but she was to pissed to arrange owt - typical - so let that go. Moment of pure magic, I ask Andy if I can buy a Stella to wash down the Carling - to which gives me a free bottle. Fantastic - pure CSI'ing it, or what. Needless to say, I've had about 3 hours kip, I had to attend a management meeting at 09:00 this morning, then feel like shit all day. Its now 18:30 and still feel dodgy as a kebabital meal.

Good Luck Tobs!

strike it lucky

I've had a bad week - emotionally - dont know why - but monday morning, I should have stayed in bed. Its one of those weeks when you know its gonna be twat on a stick and from the moment I opened my eyes, I knew it was going to be. It was probably stella-fest from the night before, but it was crud - pure crud.

It gets to Wednesday, I'm still feeling a little shitty, low in confidence etc etc - and time for football - one of the highlights of my week. Over the last 6 months, ive taken alot of stress on at work, and its shown in my performance on the pitch and I expected a repeat performance tonight to be truthful.

Anyhoo, turns out I scored three, set up many and played decently well all game and we won. Thats 7 in two weeks, which is good going - esp being labelled "fucking shite at football", by some doncaster student at work. Suprised really, watching doncaster play week in, week out - you would have thought it would be entertaining watching some unfit idiots run around a pitch - oh, we're talking doncaster again.

Summary of the week so far.

Well, nothing much has happened, so thought I would manage to scramble nigh on 3 days into one blog.
Monday.
Worked, struggled to get out of bed after the Stella from the night before. After the post-bolton-v-newcastle-match, I got a text message from one of my dearest and oldest friends Pippa. She lives in Newcastle, I've been mates with her since the 2nd year at comp (no i didnt wear shorts and a cap), she's a lovely lass and my mother has her heart set on me and Pippa getting it together. Although being a very close friend, she is very attractive, albeit, having two cats and smelling of cat wee. Anyhoo - after Newcastle could barely get out of our own half, Pip asked if we could get tickets to Newcastle -v- Man U - so god knows what kind of thrashing we'll get. So I thought I would make a long weekend of it, arrange to meet friends and family etc.

Tuesday.
Struggling to get more than 10,000 steps with my Walker's walk-o-meter - so much so, I spent 10 mins jogging on the spot to get 5,000 steps. Also involves in a dragging day which resulted in me going home, getting ear ache from my mother about not going up over the weekend and watching Teachers (on Channel 4).

Trying to work out what I can do for Xmas and New Year - managed to get some kind of schedule in place
Week before Xmas = Travel to Newcastle
Xmas in Newcastle & Faff around
New Year = In Leam - Next door for fancy dress party - theme yet to be decided, although Kids Film and TV characters seems to be a semi fav. If so, I'm going as Jamie from Jamie and his Magic Torch.
Then 5th Jan = Fly out to Washington (DC - not Tyne and Wear), working out there for 5 days

Wednesday.
Football day, and I'm also struggling to get towards 10,000 steps today - and I class myself as a semi healthy guys (minus the chips, stella and lack of exercise) - I am very tempted to wear my walk-o-meter tonight to see how many steps I do during football. Probably not many as I hand around on the right wing and wait for the ball to be punted at me. Current step level = 1733

A Mess and a Shambles

Rich was kind enough to invite me around to his gaff yesterday for a CSI related football, beer and relaxing sunday afternoon. I didnt really fancy the quiz, nor after spending most of saturday in the well, watching the game down the pub. So in fact it was very lucky the way many events turned out. I thought I would pay my way by getting some cans of Stella in to thank Rich for putting up with my abusive bad language for 2 hours while Newcastle struggled to get out of their own Penalty box. It turns out that Rich had also gone a purchasing Stella and we filled his fridge, getting to the extent where he had to remove all the healthy fruit and veg to get the cans in *****

Anyhoo, to cap off my great mood, Newcastle lost 2-1 to the 2 bob team called Bolton - scrappy game and we deserved at least 1 point out of it. As the Stella flowed, Rich shows me his Xbox and we played Outrun2. I've never played it, boozed up on Stella and in a bad mood - I managed to equal Rich's best performance, and beating his best time on one of the timetrials - which improved his mood. After sinking alot of Stella, I started to get the munchies, so it was decided Pizza is a good option - which it was.

To conclude;

• I achieved 6611 steps
• Newcastle are a fab team, bolton are cheating scum
• 6 stella's is not a quiet night
• 10 quid of Stella and a Pizza isnt CSI
• Rich is very bad at videogames.

***** Warning - no fruit and veg were in there.