Superstar Puppy - Here We Go!

On Friday evening, we had another anime night with Adia and Soma, this time inviting them around to ours so they could try our local Chinese takeaway, Red Box. This is an exceptionally good place and give you loads of freebies if your order is above a certain amount, so we ended up with a sheer mountain of food. I only ate about a third of my rice such was the deliciousness of the snacks and sundries we got, while the sweet and sour chicken was very nicely balanced, with a pineapple tang which was not too vinegary. We also watched our usual anime - Bottom Biting Bugs and Dog Days, the latter to see my first anime crush, on Princess Millifore (Google her, you'll soon see why I'm besotted). We are now only one episode away from finishing the first season of Dog Days, which would actually be the first anime series I have ever completed. Hopefully we can do that next time as I am a big fan of these relaxed evenings in.

The meet on Saturday was a strange one, not bad but different, largely due to circumstance. Due to my recent insane workload and before going away early next week, I had to do some work at home, meaning that I didn't get to Baa Bar until 2:30pm. In addition to this, I had to visit a bank before the meet to conduct a money transfer as we have now signed the forms and going ahead with the attic conversion. All of this meant I was two hours behind everyone else and also meant I had two hours less social time. Added to this was that I wasn't suiting at this meet, largely because I couldn't get everything washed and cleaned ahead of going to CeSFuR on Tuesday morning. The erratic weather didn't help either, nor did my lower back trouble, which has come back with a vengeance, I think because I had to use those back posture chairs at work again last week.

I brought Wolfie a sandwich from Greggs before collecting a personalized beer from Suburban that he didn't want. It's five months past its date but I'm sure it'll be fine. Unfortunately, Wolfie was acting a little drunk already and this pissed me off, so much so that I just had to get away from him and went for a walk (I was in a bit of a funny mood in general in all honesty, I think exasperated by work tiredness). I was gone about 45 minutes but it turned out that my moment of petulance was quite precipitous as it meant I discovered there was an open day ongoing at the University of Leeds. With Millennium Square shuttered off on account of a concert stage being erected, we couldn't do our usual walk so we decided to gate crash proceedings at the university and see what happened. Wolfie was getting a little flustered as I wasn't around to help him with the walk but when I returned, we sprung into action, although we did leave a full hour later than usual due to events and the slow changing of some suiters. Still, it did mean we avoided the rain, and in the end it all turned out rather well. The "Student Ambassadors" in their red shirts conducting the open day were brightened by the fuzzies' presence, as were the streams of motorists on the ring road to whom we waved from a bridge. The furs were a little silly as initially they were waving above the wrong side of the road, with the traffic moving away from them, but I soon put them right and thankfully we didn't cause an accident.

The walk was a nice change and allowed us to explore part of the city that not even I knew fully. We had some frolics down by The Edge sports centre and the main concourse building before heading home via Mandela Park for a bit of familiarity. There was a lot of road walking, perhaps a little too much, but it was a nice different walk. On our way back to the bar, we noticed a new cocktail establishment and they gave us many 2 for 1 cards to commemorate their opening. This bar is alongside our usual walk route and it was good that they were so receptive to us.

By the time we got back - after three suiters were accosted by a hen party in Revolution and Jay bumped into a work colleague in suit - it was around 4:30pm and many people were packing up and heading home. It was unfortunate that I barely spoke to the likes of Avon and Arc but hopefully there'll be other times in the future. Staying until everyone had left the bar does have its drawbacks and one of these is that it's difficult to go for dinner with everyone else and when we do go, the restaurants are often full. This was the case with just six of us yesterday - with Bem Brasil proving too expensive and Pieminister telling us they had space only for us to get there and discover that they had just had a party of 16 and we would have to wait an hour. I was probably a little rude here but I don't like being told one thing and then something different the next moment but upon reflection it wasn't really their fault, they didn't know a huge group was coming. In the end we ended up in Pizza Express, a place we hadn't been to for a while, with Stray, Flannel, his partner and someone else whose name escapes me. We opted for the dough balls, bruschetta and thinner crust Romana pizza, all of which was perfectly adequate as things go. There were even two beers we had not put on Untappd to try.

Continuing the beer theme, we ended up in Crowd of Favours, which was surprisingly quiet. We had tried the Oyster Yacht Club but this was too loud and there was only one three-seater sofa available. We went here as they were near the bus station, with Flannel and his partner heading off there to catch their bus at 9pm. Rushy and Luna soon joined us, making a six once more, and we spent the next few hours sampling some new beers and playing Scrabble, the first round of which I won by a comfortable 43 points (frequent Words with Friends practice clearly helped here). The second game descended into silliness though as foreign words started to be accepted including the Spanish word for bear, an Aboriginal word and the Romanian word for heaven. I didn't play in the second game while Stray and Wolfie went to play old Playstation games from the mid-90s. This left me on my own and feeling a little left out - which is one of the main reasons why I dislike video gaming - but I had beer to try, even if our options of sampling new beers in Leeds is starting to become somewhat limited.

Wolfie struggled with tiredness towards the end so we got the last 14 back, probably having had too much to drink overall, particularly as I needed to be fresh on Sunday for my dad's 60th birthday meal. Still, it was a great day, and I do love the post-meet drinking that we now enjoy after most meets. I do wish however that I didn't feel so guilty after having a few drinks with friends - my weight is an underlying concern which I really should deal with but socializing and beer are both incredibly important to me. Losing a bit of weight will help reduce the guilt though, something to focus on in July I hope (although I have told myself similar things in the past and failed), and these back problems aren't aided by the extra two stone I'm carrying. I think a month or two of abstinence from restaurants and alcohol will fix it, and with the attic extension setting us back £12,000, now may be the time to do it. Something to consider anyway.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Sunday was my father's 60th birthday, so my sister, brother and I took him out for a meal. As it was also Father's Day, this was planned well in advance, indeed all the way back in April when I went to the snooker with my sister. Knowing my father wouldn't do anything for his special day, we did it on the sly, telling him we were coming back to Yarm for the weekend and going no further. My sister and I had returned to the house where I grew up on Friday but due to work commitments and the fur meet, I could only make it back on the Sunday. Fortunately, this was my Dad's actual birthday so it all fit rather well, particularly as it was also a Sunday and thus a day off work. And after all the support he's given me over the years - and for helping get Wolfie and I together - he really deserved a special day.

After my Dad picked me up from the station, I gave him his gifts - a vast array of BrewDog beers and paraphernalia as he has recently made an investment in the company - before I quickly threw on some smart attire and headed out to the restaurant. As my brother is teetotal, he drove (somewhat gingerly) to the Cleveland Tontine, one of the better restaurants in the area and one I had not visited in all my time of living here. My dad hadn't been for around twenty years either, but it was definitely a good choice. My Dad was wished a happy Father's Day by the Italian waiter before we also mentioned it was his birthday while we sat in the beautiful plush holding area as they prepared our table. My sister and I opted to share a bottle of wine, which I did describe as a little acidic, prompting the waiter to offer me a different bottle. I didn't say it pejoratively, it was a good wine, so I declined as we were lead to our table. The food was particularly exquisite - pigeon Wellington, roast lamb with French black pudding and vegetables rounded off by a cheeseboard - all for £25 a head. It was close to Michelin star quality, cooked to perfection with tender cuts of meat, while the range of four cheeses was quite extensive. As we ate, we chatted about a range of things and it was good to get the family back together again, particularly my brother who I rarely get to see. Sadly I had a little bit of work to do in the restaurant as something came up, but the wifi password and a quick email resolved the issue then my phone went off. Indeed it was good having a conversation without the presence of mobile phones, something that's so very rare these days. It certainly made the discussion more engaging, even if we couldn't check certain facts we were citing when we were somewhat unsure. I've never been a fan of communication through a screen anyway, particularly when you are in a social environment as it makes everything less personal. Aside from the work email and one entry into the Vivino app, I didn't use my phone at all.

We spent a good three hours in the restaurant, enjoying the ambience and company, not to mention the impressive light shade made out of inverted champagne bottles. The food was filling but not bloating, and ending it with one of the finest cups of tea I've ever had (even if the teapot was somewhat cheerily downmarket) was a great way to round it off. We had to leave though as sitting still for so long was starting to cause trouble in my back, which I have messed up once again (indeed it's as painful now as it has ever been). Afterwards we headed home, where we shared some orange cake that my brother had made the day before along with continuing the conversation. We also got to sample some marshmallows that my brother had bought from a company which can superimpose any photograph onto the surface of the sweet. From a distance, these looked quite impressive but up close, the ink looked quite splodgy. Still, they were nice with a cup of tea along with the cake.

Sadly, by about 7pm, my brother had to go back to London and my sister needed to return to Sheffield. We dropped my brother off at Eaglescliffe station, a place where I used to watch trains when I was a young boy. Back in the late Eighties it was a very down at heel and forgotten place but a few years ago, they instated a direct service to London. This has revitalized the station, which now has a reinstated ticket office and a new modern waiting room, and judging by the number of people waiting to board the train, the service was incredibly popular. It's one of those rare things on Teesside which has changed with time, as has sadly hit closure of The Layfield Arms pub, an estate watering hole that I frequented occasionally when growing up. They want to demolish it and build an Aldi apparently and even though it was a regular bar selling regular beer, it's sad that something I have known all my life will soon be gone. This is odd for Yarm as it's very much in a microcosm, with little chance at all, which is why it evokes so many memories. Another thing that's changed is the village where I grew up now has a scarecrow festival and many people's gardens, including that of the village hall, now contain effigies of various people. Outside the hall there stands a Britain's Got Talent theme while in our own street there was a builder and a family drinking wine in two gardens. SpongeBob SquarePants and Darth Vader also make an appearance and the whole thing is rather bizarre. Still, if it fosters a community spirit I guess it's no bad thing.

I had about an hour and a half with my dad before I had to get my train home, and we just chatted, as we had done all day, about a variety of things. He's getting into craft beer as well now, which is great as it makes present buying easier, I just wish he would take up golf or develop an interest in classic cars to make Father's Day card buying straightforward. It was a bit sad to leave but I was heartened by the fact that he had had a special day, as we had done too spending it with him.