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The problem with half-term is that it means all of the kids that are usually being driven to school end up going on the bus for days out, particularly on days with such glorious weather as today. The buses get rammed and noisy, which is difficult for someone likes me who struggles to concentrate with noise. With the increased demand for the bus, it also means it stops at every single bus stop, thus doubling the journey time despite the roads being less busy. Meanwhile today I have a loud old woman on the below deck to deal with - you can hear her all the way on the top deck. I can't wait for the holidays to be over.
Sunday was our traditional second day of the Northernfurs meet, which as I mentioned before are becoming less popular as few people travel far and stay overnight to come to meets these days. This time we had eight people - three of whom had travelled back from Scunthorpe as they like our company so much - with an additional two coming later, Urban and Stray. I'm not sure we will continue to do these second days going forward - it was fun, largely, but if we can't get decent numbers we may as well do something different with the day. I think other meets have already come to the same conclusion.
We met at the railway station a little late as we had to say goodbye to Nineleaves and Kunzai. They had hoped to wander around the cemetery, which is just over the road, but sadly they had no time for that. They had done so in the dark on Saturday night but wanted to take some pictures in the light as they thought it was atmospheric. Sunday was a nice day to do this too. Meanwhile I was feeling quite tired as a combination of snoring from Taneli and Wolfie woke me up at 5am and I couldn't get back to sleep. With fears over our forthcoming trip to Mexico and said snoring, I stayed awake until past 7am, by which time I thought I might as well get up and start the day. The advantage was that I could go for a nice stroll on a crisp sunny autumn morning and get milk also, which was pleasant. I had to go and get jam later though due to our lactose intolerant guests.
The Sunday meeting started in Wetherspoons where I enjoyed some further ales as part of their International Ale Festival. I also had their new philly steak sandwich which was quite disappointing - the onion was watery, the steak tasteless and the cheese was plastic and lacking in any flavour whatsoever. When I was ordering, there was a ratchety old lady who kept moaning about someone being a pig with no manners - I'm not sure whether this was aimed at me or not - and she did say "oink oink" as she went past a group of people at the bar but considering I was chatting convivily to the barmaid I can only assume it was labelled at the elderly gentleman next to me.
After this, we opted to go to Roxy Lanes Bowling, an adult bowling alley with craft beer that I quite like. It's out of the way, above a Tesco Express in the city centre, but we figured it wouldn't be that busy, which indeed it wasn't. We paid £5 each for an hour of bowling (which between eight of us meant one full game with two minutes to spare) but I started to become competitive which is always the way sadly. I wish I didn't but it's just in my nature and I started to become down as I'm monumentally shit at bowling without the kiddie barriers over the gutters. The problem I have is releasing my thumb from the appropriate hole - I can veil fast and accurately but sometimes my thumb struggles to leave and this forces the ball of course. I started well, getting 14 on my first two rounds, but soon hit disaster, eventually finishing on 31, more than 100 points less than the winner (Entei-rah) and my worst ever performance in my history of poor bowling performances. I usually average around 45, and consider anything more than 50 a success. A couple of bowls I got no pins down at all and this was frustrating, with Wolfie's patronizing "encouragement" only adding to my woes. I tried to make it fun, to teach my mind that it didn't matter, but my competitive nature overrode this and I didn't have fun at all. I was glad to leave.
I was so consumer about my failings though that I forgot I had put my debit card behind the bar as collateral. I didn't notice it was gone until I tried to get money out in Bradford later in the evening, by which time I couldn't go back to Leeds and pick it up. I phoned the alley but it was going straight to voicemail and although I was a little angry with myself, I was reassured that I knew where the card was, that it was in a safe and only I had access to it as I still had the key. I collected it the next day - I tried at lunchtime as their website and offers displayed outside the venue suggested they would be open from 12 noon but they actually opened at 4pm, meaning a wasted lunchtime journey from work. I did pick the card up though and they told me they had there similar instances throughout the weekend and one pair of shoes which had remained unclaimed for nearly a month. They looked brown and smelly.
Starbucks was our next stop on the Sunday "for old times sake" which was pleasant enough although I don't like coffee and refuse to pay nearly £3 for a cup of tea. These places don't really do much for me, which is why I rarely go to them, but I had a strawberry ice thing which admittedly I thought would be hot and we continued conversing about a range of things. The Scunny crew left, Urban and Stray arrived and we soon headed off to ItBar as the two new arrivals hadn't eaten and we were looking for a place that would serve them food but also let us drink. It seemed to work quite well.
After this, we bade goodbye to Ent and Urban and we hopped on a bus to visit Arc, who was hosting another Japanese night with good food and anime. The bus journey took forever and we opted to get a taxi from Bradford to her house, stopping on the way to get beer and money from a Co-Op. It was here where I found out my card was missing and while being initially panicked followed by angry, I soon calmed down upon realising it was safe and that I could collect it the next day. I had hoped to go back that night but it was neither convenient nor necessary, plus there was no point sacrificing a good evening with good company when the card was protected. And it was a great night! Arc did an excellent job with the sushi rolls, full of tasty fillings (and cucumber) while the Katsu curry and miso soup that Draken conjured up was great too. It was a really relaxed way to end the weekend, particularly with the soft multi-coloured Hue lights which I think we will get ourselves for Christmas, as we watched more of Love Hina, which went into a surreal plot meltdown, and an anime about a depressive suicidal teacher whose name ends in Sensei, the Japanese word for teacher, but I can't remember anything else. This was quite a dark show and yet I felt some sort of empathy with the lead character, such is my outlook on life I guess. I did like the cheery happy girl though and wished to be her. We also liked the creator of the show putting his face in random bits of the show, particularly the clocks. I probably preferred Love Hina in all honesty - and am looking forward to seeing more at our forthcoming anime night this Sunday - but I would like to watch a broader range of anime. Draken was asking about Love Hina as he had missed the first five episodes and Arc astonished me with her encyclopedic knowledge of the show - we had seen the first episodes about a month ago and I needed refreshing on occasions too. She just knew it. I was also happy that I understood a few Japanese words and could read some of the characters - I have since learnt all of Hiragana ahead of my fourth Japanese lesson this evening. Due to being exceptionally tired, we got a taxi home reasonably early but we are looking forward to our next anime evening this weekend. I think it's at ours and we'll have to cook something. No way will it be as good as Arc and Draken's food but we will try.
Sunday was our traditional second day of the Northernfurs meet, which as I mentioned before are becoming less popular as few people travel far and stay overnight to come to meets these days. This time we had eight people - three of whom had travelled back from Scunthorpe as they like our company so much - with an additional two coming later, Urban and Stray. I'm not sure we will continue to do these second days going forward - it was fun, largely, but if we can't get decent numbers we may as well do something different with the day. I think other meets have already come to the same conclusion.
We met at the railway station a little late as we had to say goodbye to Nineleaves and Kunzai. They had hoped to wander around the cemetery, which is just over the road, but sadly they had no time for that. They had done so in the dark on Saturday night but wanted to take some pictures in the light as they thought it was atmospheric. Sunday was a nice day to do this too. Meanwhile I was feeling quite tired as a combination of snoring from Taneli and Wolfie woke me up at 5am and I couldn't get back to sleep. With fears over our forthcoming trip to Mexico and said snoring, I stayed awake until past 7am, by which time I thought I might as well get up and start the day. The advantage was that I could go for a nice stroll on a crisp sunny autumn morning and get milk also, which was pleasant. I had to go and get jam later though due to our lactose intolerant guests.
The Sunday meeting started in Wetherspoons where I enjoyed some further ales as part of their International Ale Festival. I also had their new philly steak sandwich which was quite disappointing - the onion was watery, the steak tasteless and the cheese was plastic and lacking in any flavour whatsoever. When I was ordering, there was a ratchety old lady who kept moaning about someone being a pig with no manners - I'm not sure whether this was aimed at me or not - and she did say "oink oink" as she went past a group of people at the bar but considering I was chatting convivily to the barmaid I can only assume it was labelled at the elderly gentleman next to me.
After this, we opted to go to Roxy Lanes Bowling, an adult bowling alley with craft beer that I quite like. It's out of the way, above a Tesco Express in the city centre, but we figured it wouldn't be that busy, which indeed it wasn't. We paid £5 each for an hour of bowling (which between eight of us meant one full game with two minutes to spare) but I started to become competitive which is always the way sadly. I wish I didn't but it's just in my nature and I started to become down as I'm monumentally shit at bowling without the kiddie barriers over the gutters. The problem I have is releasing my thumb from the appropriate hole - I can veil fast and accurately but sometimes my thumb struggles to leave and this forces the ball of course. I started well, getting 14 on my first two rounds, but soon hit disaster, eventually finishing on 31, more than 100 points less than the winner (Entei-rah) and my worst ever performance in my history of poor bowling performances. I usually average around 45, and consider anything more than 50 a success. A couple of bowls I got no pins down at all and this was frustrating, with Wolfie's patronizing "encouragement" only adding to my woes. I tried to make it fun, to teach my mind that it didn't matter, but my competitive nature overrode this and I didn't have fun at all. I was glad to leave.
I was so consumer about my failings though that I forgot I had put my debit card behind the bar as collateral. I didn't notice it was gone until I tried to get money out in Bradford later in the evening, by which time I couldn't go back to Leeds and pick it up. I phoned the alley but it was going straight to voicemail and although I was a little angry with myself, I was reassured that I knew where the card was, that it was in a safe and only I had access to it as I still had the key. I collected it the next day - I tried at lunchtime as their website and offers displayed outside the venue suggested they would be open from 12 noon but they actually opened at 4pm, meaning a wasted lunchtime journey from work. I did pick the card up though and they told me they had there similar instances throughout the weekend and one pair of shoes which had remained unclaimed for nearly a month. They looked brown and smelly.
Starbucks was our next stop on the Sunday "for old times sake" which was pleasant enough although I don't like coffee and refuse to pay nearly £3 for a cup of tea. These places don't really do much for me, which is why I rarely go to them, but I had a strawberry ice thing which admittedly I thought would be hot and we continued conversing about a range of things. The Scunny crew left, Urban and Stray arrived and we soon headed off to ItBar as the two new arrivals hadn't eaten and we were looking for a place that would serve them food but also let us drink. It seemed to work quite well.
After this, we bade goodbye to Ent and Urban and we hopped on a bus to visit Arc, who was hosting another Japanese night with good food and anime. The bus journey took forever and we opted to get a taxi from Bradford to her house, stopping on the way to get beer and money from a Co-Op. It was here where I found out my card was missing and while being initially panicked followed by angry, I soon calmed down upon realising it was safe and that I could collect it the next day. I had hoped to go back that night but it was neither convenient nor necessary, plus there was no point sacrificing a good evening with good company when the card was protected. And it was a great night! Arc did an excellent job with the sushi rolls, full of tasty fillings (and cucumber) while the Katsu curry and miso soup that Draken conjured up was great too. It was a really relaxed way to end the weekend, particularly with the soft multi-coloured Hue lights which I think we will get ourselves for Christmas, as we watched more of Love Hina, which went into a surreal plot meltdown, and an anime about a depressive suicidal teacher whose name ends in Sensei, the Japanese word for teacher, but I can't remember anything else. This was quite a dark show and yet I felt some sort of empathy with the lead character, such is my outlook on life I guess. I did like the cheery happy girl though and wished to be her. We also liked the creator of the show putting his face in random bits of the show, particularly the clocks. I probably preferred Love Hina in all honesty - and am looking forward to seeing more at our forthcoming anime night this Sunday - but I would like to watch a broader range of anime. Draken was asking about Love Hina as he had missed the first five episodes and Arc astonished me with her encyclopedic knowledge of the show - we had seen the first episodes about a month ago and I needed refreshing on occasions too. She just knew it. I was also happy that I understood a few Japanese words and could read some of the characters - I have since learnt all of Hiragana ahead of my fourth Japanese lesson this evening. Due to being exceptionally tired, we got a taxi home reasonably early but we are looking forward to our next anime evening this weekend. I think it's at ours and we'll have to cook something. No way will it be as good as Arc and Draken's food but we will try.
