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Fox Food Nutritional Paste
Aug. 31st, 2016 12:00 amIt's been a rather fun Bank Holiday weekend in Lincoln, where we met up with Xantin and a posse of ten for a late summer BBQ. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't particularly clement on Saturday, leaving Tungro and Wolfie to battle the heavy rain, but they did a valiant job, even if it did result in them getting soaked for hours on end. The food itself was rather scrumptuous as we had sourced most of it from the Doddington Farm Shop, one of those white middle class places that do a range of quality meats and numerous sauces, oils and condiments. The pork pies in particular - of four differing flavours - were rather tasty and the wrapper was delightfully resistant to the cream that someone spilled in Xantin's fridge, soaking the entire shelf in creamy goodness.
The weekend was a rather relaxed affair and it did enable us to catch up with old friends, including Ruffles who was the first fur I ever met, and who I had not seen for something like eight years. Tungro and Washu were there too, while we were also introduced to a number of furs we had not met before, makingit a nice gathering of familiar faces and new friends. Saturday we went to a local park to catch Pokemon, which was rather pleasant as the cultured gardens were surrounding a picturesque lake, which we walked around. As we did, Tungro and Corey tried to capture a gym for Team Secret, even though the rain started to fall quite heavily. Wolfie and I just watched them, sat on a bench under a tree, claiming victory for Team Valour at the poing where they had kicked out the previous Pokemon and before they had had chance to install their own. Cue loud protestations and much merriment.
Xantin is a big fan of table top games and as Saturday evening wound on, there was a group which splintered off to play. These aren't really my thing so I stayed in the front room and talked to Gargath, a German fur who has moved to the UK, doing the exact opposite of what I hope to do in a few months' time. His advice was very helpful and although his feelings on his home country mirror that of my own, it's always useful to get the opinions of someone who is more grounded in these things. Towards the end of the evening, he needed to leave with Corey as they were staying in a hotel, meaning there was one place left at the table top gaming table, which Wolfie insisted I joined. I ended up playing a rather fun word association game called Codeword in which I won two out of our three bouts before we decided to go to bed shortly after 1am, with us squeezing into a tiny room which was just big enough to fit our inflatable mattress with the door closed. I don't know what it is about inflatable mattresses but I ended up having really weird dreams and needing the toilet for a lot of the night, which was quite difficult as I had to lift the whole mattress up to open the door to get out of the room, which was quite inconvenient as I didn't want to wake up Wolfie.
We had intended to leave quite early on the Sunday to try and catch the final day of Infest, an industrial metal festival in Bradford, but we were soon absorbed in stoking the BBQ for a second time in an attempt to finish the mountain of meat we had still left from the night before. Taneli had fun with the accelerant gel which looked like jizz and we eventually got the thing lit, spending the next four hours cooking the remainder of the food before tucking in to Xantin's sumptuous key lime pie with Italian marangue. With time approaching 5pm, we decided to head back, making good time and being back in Leeds for 7pm. Taneli wanted to be back home for 11pm to sort out his NFL fantasy team but this did leave us with a few hours, so we thought we would go into the city to check out the first day of Leeds Beer Week, which for some reason lasts 11 days. There are a large number of beer-based events on, but one of the most interesting was at Bundobust, where they had an American IPA tap takeover involving some brews and breweries I had never before heard of in the UK. One of them, Belching Beaver, sounded particularly interesting and their pineapple IPA was exquisite. They had four unique IPAs on tap so we sampled these before having a few other special ones brewed closer to home, highlighting why we should come to this bar far more often than we do. After a good few hours, we headed back, only to discover that the bus we wanted to catch had been cancelled. Cue us getting on the longer bus route, only for Taneli to need a wee one third of the way through, forcing us to disembark and pick up an Uber instead. This was only the second time that I had ever gone with the firm and I must say I was impressed, both in terms of quickness and price, and this is something I must do next time I need a taxi when I am out.
One of the reasons why we head to back early was because I needed to work on Monday. With Taneli having had some wine during the Sunday BBQ and then joining us in Leeds for the beer, he stayed overnight, so he was around most of the day while I was working in the spare room. I had hoped to get up early, but two nights on the air bed had not been the most comfortable and I needed the rest. I did manage to fit five hours of work in though before I decided that the gorgeous late summer day was too good not to experience, and the craving to go outside was overwhelming. Needing to boost my steps for my Fitbit, I suggested we go for a walk, and so by 4pm we were out and about, opting to walk to Tong as we could call in at The Greyhound pub for some dinner. Tong is about three miles from Pudsey on the other side of a valley, so to get to it involves a pleasant countryside walk through Black Carr Wood. I had never done this before, but it was quite a pleasant stroll of around 45 minutes, with some steep inclines to get the heartrate going. I was surprised how little time it took but then in the sunshine, any walk is enjoyable. Once we got to Tong, we thought we would try the bar next to the Holiday Inn first before heading to The Greyhound, but upon arrival we couldn't find where the actual bar was. There is an old inn sign along the side of the hotel and we assumed the entrance was there, but alas it wasn't and we didn't really fancy negotiating the reception area for what was likely to be a standard hotel bar affair. There were quite a few Pokemon about though and we caught those before heading back to The Greyhound, only then discovering that food service had just finished and they weren't doing evening meals, even though they advertised as such on the big red sign with gold lettering next to the pub name. We had ordered our beer by this point so we sat outside and enjoyed it, before I phoned another local bar, The Fox and Grapes, asking whether they did food. On confirmation that they did, once we finished our drinks, we headed back towards Pudsey, taking a detour in the valley to follow the river's path as the Fox and Grapes' location allowed us to do this. Dodging the nettles and boggy ground was a bit of a chore but it was worth it for the full countryside experience, with the sun struggling to penetrate the dense woodland, with it glistening on pastures and the golf course running adjacent to our path. Along the way, we spotted the path of the old railway line, with the tunnels and bridges still standing, now overgrown, before, some 45 minutes later, the path evacuated us right in front of the pub. The time was 6:30pm and they had told us they served food until 8pm but alas the chef wanted to go home so they were no longer serving. Frustrated, we headed back into Pudsey and to The Wetherby Whaler, a delightful fish and chip shop and a place we knew would be open. Fortunately it was, and we had some delicious food here, before we headed back home, with Taneli heading off soon after and me finishing off the weekend by finishing off some work.
The weekend was a rather relaxed affair and it did enable us to catch up with old friends, including Ruffles who was the first fur I ever met, and who I had not seen for something like eight years. Tungro and Washu were there too, while we were also introduced to a number of furs we had not met before, makingit a nice gathering of familiar faces and new friends. Saturday we went to a local park to catch Pokemon, which was rather pleasant as the cultured gardens were surrounding a picturesque lake, which we walked around. As we did, Tungro and Corey tried to capture a gym for Team Secret, even though the rain started to fall quite heavily. Wolfie and I just watched them, sat on a bench under a tree, claiming victory for Team Valour at the poing where they had kicked out the previous Pokemon and before they had had chance to install their own. Cue loud protestations and much merriment.
Xantin is a big fan of table top games and as Saturday evening wound on, there was a group which splintered off to play. These aren't really my thing so I stayed in the front room and talked to Gargath, a German fur who has moved to the UK, doing the exact opposite of what I hope to do in a few months' time. His advice was very helpful and although his feelings on his home country mirror that of my own, it's always useful to get the opinions of someone who is more grounded in these things. Towards the end of the evening, he needed to leave with Corey as they were staying in a hotel, meaning there was one place left at the table top gaming table, which Wolfie insisted I joined. I ended up playing a rather fun word association game called Codeword in which I won two out of our three bouts before we decided to go to bed shortly after 1am, with us squeezing into a tiny room which was just big enough to fit our inflatable mattress with the door closed. I don't know what it is about inflatable mattresses but I ended up having really weird dreams and needing the toilet for a lot of the night, which was quite difficult as I had to lift the whole mattress up to open the door to get out of the room, which was quite inconvenient as I didn't want to wake up Wolfie.
We had intended to leave quite early on the Sunday to try and catch the final day of Infest, an industrial metal festival in Bradford, but we were soon absorbed in stoking the BBQ for a second time in an attempt to finish the mountain of meat we had still left from the night before. Taneli had fun with the accelerant gel which looked like jizz and we eventually got the thing lit, spending the next four hours cooking the remainder of the food before tucking in to Xantin's sumptuous key lime pie with Italian marangue. With time approaching 5pm, we decided to head back, making good time and being back in Leeds for 7pm. Taneli wanted to be back home for 11pm to sort out his NFL fantasy team but this did leave us with a few hours, so we thought we would go into the city to check out the first day of Leeds Beer Week, which for some reason lasts 11 days. There are a large number of beer-based events on, but one of the most interesting was at Bundobust, where they had an American IPA tap takeover involving some brews and breweries I had never before heard of in the UK. One of them, Belching Beaver, sounded particularly interesting and their pineapple IPA was exquisite. They had four unique IPAs on tap so we sampled these before having a few other special ones brewed closer to home, highlighting why we should come to this bar far more often than we do. After a good few hours, we headed back, only to discover that the bus we wanted to catch had been cancelled. Cue us getting on the longer bus route, only for Taneli to need a wee one third of the way through, forcing us to disembark and pick up an Uber instead. This was only the second time that I had ever gone with the firm and I must say I was impressed, both in terms of quickness and price, and this is something I must do next time I need a taxi when I am out.
One of the reasons why we head to back early was because I needed to work on Monday. With Taneli having had some wine during the Sunday BBQ and then joining us in Leeds for the beer, he stayed overnight, so he was around most of the day while I was working in the spare room. I had hoped to get up early, but two nights on the air bed had not been the most comfortable and I needed the rest. I did manage to fit five hours of work in though before I decided that the gorgeous late summer day was too good not to experience, and the craving to go outside was overwhelming. Needing to boost my steps for my Fitbit, I suggested we go for a walk, and so by 4pm we were out and about, opting to walk to Tong as we could call in at The Greyhound pub for some dinner. Tong is about three miles from Pudsey on the other side of a valley, so to get to it involves a pleasant countryside walk through Black Carr Wood. I had never done this before, but it was quite a pleasant stroll of around 45 minutes, with some steep inclines to get the heartrate going. I was surprised how little time it took but then in the sunshine, any walk is enjoyable. Once we got to Tong, we thought we would try the bar next to the Holiday Inn first before heading to The Greyhound, but upon arrival we couldn't find where the actual bar was. There is an old inn sign along the side of the hotel and we assumed the entrance was there, but alas it wasn't and we didn't really fancy negotiating the reception area for what was likely to be a standard hotel bar affair. There were quite a few Pokemon about though and we caught those before heading back to The Greyhound, only then discovering that food service had just finished and they weren't doing evening meals, even though they advertised as such on the big red sign with gold lettering next to the pub name. We had ordered our beer by this point so we sat outside and enjoyed it, before I phoned another local bar, The Fox and Grapes, asking whether they did food. On confirmation that they did, once we finished our drinks, we headed back towards Pudsey, taking a detour in the valley to follow the river's path as the Fox and Grapes' location allowed us to do this. Dodging the nettles and boggy ground was a bit of a chore but it was worth it for the full countryside experience, with the sun struggling to penetrate the dense woodland, with it glistening on pastures and the golf course running adjacent to our path. Along the way, we spotted the path of the old railway line, with the tunnels and bridges still standing, now overgrown, before, some 45 minutes later, the path evacuated us right in front of the pub. The time was 6:30pm and they had told us they served food until 8pm but alas the chef wanted to go home so they were no longer serving. Frustrated, we headed back into Pudsey and to The Wetherby Whaler, a delightful fish and chip shop and a place we knew would be open. Fortunately it was, and we had some delicious food here, before we headed back home, with Taneli heading off soon after and me finishing off the weekend by finishing off some work.
