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Birthday Bumps And Puppy Trumps
Oct. 24th, 2016 11:53 pmThe weekend before last was the huge birthday weekend, which meant copious amounts of drinking and fine dining, explaining the belly which I have cultivated over the last fortnight. Three of our close friends had birthdays on successive days, meaning that there was a lot of celebration afoot.
Friday 14 - Festivities started on the Friday before the Leeds Meet with Soma's 30th birthday. We congregated at Black House Steak House for 7pm, with a few of us going to The White Rabbit beforehand. Alas, work kept me somewhat late, meaning that I couldn't get out until well past 6pm, meaning there was little point going for pre-event drinks. Consequently, I walked around Leeds for a bit listening to the excellent 'My Dad Wrote A Porno' podcast, a stream into which Arc had gotten me when she came over for our weekend of fun at the start of the month. I'm now deep into series two and I am absolutely loving it, with listening to something definitely making my journeys on the bus far more comfortable as it blots out all of the rude people. Anyway, I digress. I ordered a rather nice bottle of red wine with my steak, feeling this is a better accompaniment than beer, while Wolfie and I shared the chateubriand. It was rather tasty, but probably overpriced for what it was, with us both preferring Stockdale's, where we had gone for my birthday. The starter of parfait on toast was particularly exquisite though and it was great getting the old gang back together, sans Stray and Luna who were attending the fox's mother's 50th birthday party. For shame! After the meal, everyone went their separate ways while we decided to walk back to Draken's place of work, where he had parked the car. Arc and Taneli fancied Krispy Kreme but we weren't too fussed, so they headed off to Birstall to pick up some donuts while we decided to walk all the way to Kirkstall (as we were already halfway there) and go to the Kirkstall Bridge, one of our favourite pubs in the suburbs. The walk took us about forty minutes but it wasn't a cold night and it was good to get a bit of exercise, while the beer at the end was a just reward. It turned out we had about fifty minutes before our last bus home, and fortunately we could find a table in the rather packed pub, meaning it was a nice way to round the evening.
Saturday 15 - Ent was going to stay over at ours because the Leeds Meet was the next day, but he had a cold and he wanted to return home. Consequently, it was a usual start to proceedings as we toddled down to Leeds city centre for our usual 12 noon start. I darted into Paperchase to buy some cards for everybody, meaning I was around twenty minutes late to the meet. We were in the White Rabbit for the first time in three months, but with the issues preventing our attendance in August and September resolved, the meet went quite smoothly. As we are not doing a 'main' meet this month, sadly breaking a fifteen year tradition in the process, the attendance was quite high and I cannot help but feel we have somewhat outgrown the venue. It's a shame we will not be doing a traditional Hallowe'en meet but they seem somewhat anachronistic these days, particularly with Sheffield clashing on the same day. Furthermore, we don't really have the time to plan an extravaganza, meaning the meet would just be the same as our regular ones. This doesn't stop the other meets I suppose, but the reward to work ratio isn't overly favourable. The fursuit walk went quite well although it was largely uneventful, while people started filtering away by early afternoon. We stayed until the end and realised that it was just us. We tried to go to The Central for some scran but alas it was closed again, for what must be the fiftieth time. It was then that we spied Buca da Pizza, a basement pizza restaurant that we had seen so many times on our way into the city but one we had never actually tried. Now was a good opportunity and although they had no tables in the restaurant free, they were happy to serve us at the bar. They have their own house lager and the pizza was fantastic, with exotic combinations and toppings done in a satisfying manner. The pizza was also of good value and I would definitely recommend going here again. Lingering throughout the day was the possibility of Rushy and Strike staying over. They had travelled up from London, with the latter visiting the former from the Netherlands. Both are long-time friends and gaming partners of Wolfie and it was evident that without a hotel booked, they were angling for a place to stay. In the end, we cracked and let them stay at ours, meaning after our pizza we all met up for some final drinks. Fantastically, we managed to get into Tapped Brew Co, a venue that is always typically busy, although the bouncer did forensically examine my birthday cards thinking they were contraband. After this, we got our last bus home before calling in at the Manor Inn for a cheeky nightcap.
Sunday 16 - Deciding what we wanted for breakfast was something of a protracted affair, and seemed to take far longer than it needed. We walked around to Cafe Barthez but none of the lads fancied anything, so we just walked straight back again, before taking the duo back into Leeds city centre for them to become reacquainted with their car, which they had left overnight in a multi-story car park. This freed us up for the rest of the day, and fancying some exercise and seeing the weather was to improve as the day progressed, we decided to go on another one of our Sunday afternoon trips. We have done a fair few of these over the summer, visiting sights in the local area that we have always taken for granted but have never actually seen. In my case, largely never and in Wolfie's, not since he was a child. It is great getting in touch with local history and there is some remarkable stuff going on here. Sunday's stop was the Five Rise Locks in Bingley, an attraction around thirty minutes' drive from our house. As we approached, we noticed it was far busier than we thought it would be, with Wolfie struggling to progress down the narrow country lanes due to cars blocking it and people walking in front of the car. Wolfie actually got quite angry, more so than I have ever seen it, and it took us quite a while to get back onto the main residential roads due to us being hemmed in (a large coach coming the other way certainly did not help). We eventually found a place to deposit the car and we decided to take a look at what was going on. There was a little fayre organised by some members of the National Waterways Association. This gave us a great opportunity to see the locks in action, and it was a fantastic triumph of engineering just watching the pleasureboats being raised and lowered. Many of the people in the boats were wearing traditional costume from 200 years ago, with the white (Sunday Best) or brown (everyday wear) bonnets worn by some of the women being particularly striking. A small number of the narrowboats were selling bric-a-brac while alongside the walkway next to the locks there were an number of tents advertising things like the Wildilfe Trust. With the sun shining after what had been a rather damp morning, we decided to walk into Bingley, following the canal past the Five Rise Locks and towards the Three Rise Locks, with a huge brick warehouse and chimney complex ominously looming over it in the background. There was so much industrial heritage here, and it was great being fully immersed in it. We had a walk around Bingley Town Centre, where there was a little fete going on in the main square. Here we picked up a hotdog (I got a burger) while we listened to the dulcet sounds of Irish folk music, before exploring the town for half an hour. The little church right next to where the old high street used to be is probably the only part of historical Bingley remaining, so we had a look at this, before heading back up the canal to the Five Rise Locks again, grabbing a Fentiman's lemonade before heading for home.
Monday 17 - This was Soma's actual birthday but for some reason we were out celebrating Taneli's, with Almost Famous being the venue of choice. A number of the crew met up in Brown's beforehand but Wolfie was delayed this time and I didn't particularly fancy it, meaning we met up and grabbed a cheeky third of a house wheat beer at The Turk's Head, one of our favourite non-BrewDog bars in the city as it's kitted out like a Victorian apothecary. The meal was planned for 7pm and everyone else was there by the time we turned up. The table was a little small for our number as I think there was around twelve of us, but we coped nonetheless and soon we were tucking into delicious burgers and fries. Almost Famous is very much a place of calories for calories' sake - there is no healthy option - meaning I hadn't been here in a while. The menu had changed slightly in the interim and it was great getting re-acquainted with the distinct flavours of this Manchester-based burger chain. The Bacon Bacon Fries, which I shared with Wolfie, were particularly divine while I also quite liked the Mac and Cheese balls. The beer was good, as was the conversation, and the evening afforded me the opportunity to give out the three birthday cards for the three friends who were celebrating that week. The cards themselves took me around two and a half hours to write in total the previous night - some with stories, others with just general craziness - and I think they were appreciated. Draken certainly expressed his gratiutude on Wednesday when we met up for his birthday celebration (which was also on his actual birthday). After our meal, some of our crew headed off while others headed over to The Verity for one final drink, before calling it a night at around 10pm. I suppose that is the reality of going out on a school night.
Wednesday 19 - The Wednesday was Draken's birthday and we were invited around to his house for KFC and Bake Off. I'm not a huge fan of either if I was being honest, but I always enjoy going around there, so we thought we would pop by and wish the dragon all the best. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay too long as Wolfie's work overran and he had to be up at 5:30am for a day trip to London the following day. This meant that we could only spend a couple of hours with Arc, Draken and Taneli, but it was very enjoyable as we did have a laugh. We chatted for a bit before playing Timelines, a fantastic card game where you have to place certain events (music being released, books being published etc) on a timeline based on the years they happened. I'm not a huge fan of card games, but ever since going to Xantin's back in August, my eyes have been opened to fun little ones like this. I really enjoyed it, so much so that I told my rather impressed boss about it the next day, and I may even invest in some of these card games going forward. While we were there, we also had some tea, shared some chocolate brownies and then settled down to watch Bake Off, which was more interesting than I thought it would be. Alas, with Wolfie needing to shower and head to bed early, we had to head off by 8:30pm but at least we got the opportunity to see Draken on his birthday, doing something special for all three of our friends during this rather busy period.
Friday 14 - Festivities started on the Friday before the Leeds Meet with Soma's 30th birthday. We congregated at Black House Steak House for 7pm, with a few of us going to The White Rabbit beforehand. Alas, work kept me somewhat late, meaning that I couldn't get out until well past 6pm, meaning there was little point going for pre-event drinks. Consequently, I walked around Leeds for a bit listening to the excellent 'My Dad Wrote A Porno' podcast, a stream into which Arc had gotten me when she came over for our weekend of fun at the start of the month. I'm now deep into series two and I am absolutely loving it, with listening to something definitely making my journeys on the bus far more comfortable as it blots out all of the rude people. Anyway, I digress. I ordered a rather nice bottle of red wine with my steak, feeling this is a better accompaniment than beer, while Wolfie and I shared the chateubriand. It was rather tasty, but probably overpriced for what it was, with us both preferring Stockdale's, where we had gone for my birthday. The starter of parfait on toast was particularly exquisite though and it was great getting the old gang back together, sans Stray and Luna who were attending the fox's mother's 50th birthday party. For shame! After the meal, everyone went their separate ways while we decided to walk back to Draken's place of work, where he had parked the car. Arc and Taneli fancied Krispy Kreme but we weren't too fussed, so they headed off to Birstall to pick up some donuts while we decided to walk all the way to Kirkstall (as we were already halfway there) and go to the Kirkstall Bridge, one of our favourite pubs in the suburbs. The walk took us about forty minutes but it wasn't a cold night and it was good to get a bit of exercise, while the beer at the end was a just reward. It turned out we had about fifty minutes before our last bus home, and fortunately we could find a table in the rather packed pub, meaning it was a nice way to round the evening.
Saturday 15 - Ent was going to stay over at ours because the Leeds Meet was the next day, but he had a cold and he wanted to return home. Consequently, it was a usual start to proceedings as we toddled down to Leeds city centre for our usual 12 noon start. I darted into Paperchase to buy some cards for everybody, meaning I was around twenty minutes late to the meet. We were in the White Rabbit for the first time in three months, but with the issues preventing our attendance in August and September resolved, the meet went quite smoothly. As we are not doing a 'main' meet this month, sadly breaking a fifteen year tradition in the process, the attendance was quite high and I cannot help but feel we have somewhat outgrown the venue. It's a shame we will not be doing a traditional Hallowe'en meet but they seem somewhat anachronistic these days, particularly with Sheffield clashing on the same day. Furthermore, we don't really have the time to plan an extravaganza, meaning the meet would just be the same as our regular ones. This doesn't stop the other meets I suppose, but the reward to work ratio isn't overly favourable. The fursuit walk went quite well although it was largely uneventful, while people started filtering away by early afternoon. We stayed until the end and realised that it was just us. We tried to go to The Central for some scran but alas it was closed again, for what must be the fiftieth time. It was then that we spied Buca da Pizza, a basement pizza restaurant that we had seen so many times on our way into the city but one we had never actually tried. Now was a good opportunity and although they had no tables in the restaurant free, they were happy to serve us at the bar. They have their own house lager and the pizza was fantastic, with exotic combinations and toppings done in a satisfying manner. The pizza was also of good value and I would definitely recommend going here again. Lingering throughout the day was the possibility of Rushy and Strike staying over. They had travelled up from London, with the latter visiting the former from the Netherlands. Both are long-time friends and gaming partners of Wolfie and it was evident that without a hotel booked, they were angling for a place to stay. In the end, we cracked and let them stay at ours, meaning after our pizza we all met up for some final drinks. Fantastically, we managed to get into Tapped Brew Co, a venue that is always typically busy, although the bouncer did forensically examine my birthday cards thinking they were contraband. After this, we got our last bus home before calling in at the Manor Inn for a cheeky nightcap.
Sunday 16 - Deciding what we wanted for breakfast was something of a protracted affair, and seemed to take far longer than it needed. We walked around to Cafe Barthez but none of the lads fancied anything, so we just walked straight back again, before taking the duo back into Leeds city centre for them to become reacquainted with their car, which they had left overnight in a multi-story car park. This freed us up for the rest of the day, and fancying some exercise and seeing the weather was to improve as the day progressed, we decided to go on another one of our Sunday afternoon trips. We have done a fair few of these over the summer, visiting sights in the local area that we have always taken for granted but have never actually seen. In my case, largely never and in Wolfie's, not since he was a child. It is great getting in touch with local history and there is some remarkable stuff going on here. Sunday's stop was the Five Rise Locks in Bingley, an attraction around thirty minutes' drive from our house. As we approached, we noticed it was far busier than we thought it would be, with Wolfie struggling to progress down the narrow country lanes due to cars blocking it and people walking in front of the car. Wolfie actually got quite angry, more so than I have ever seen it, and it took us quite a while to get back onto the main residential roads due to us being hemmed in (a large coach coming the other way certainly did not help). We eventually found a place to deposit the car and we decided to take a look at what was going on. There was a little fayre organised by some members of the National Waterways Association. This gave us a great opportunity to see the locks in action, and it was a fantastic triumph of engineering just watching the pleasureboats being raised and lowered. Many of the people in the boats were wearing traditional costume from 200 years ago, with the white (Sunday Best) or brown (everyday wear) bonnets worn by some of the women being particularly striking. A small number of the narrowboats were selling bric-a-brac while alongside the walkway next to the locks there were an number of tents advertising things like the Wildilfe Trust. With the sun shining after what had been a rather damp morning, we decided to walk into Bingley, following the canal past the Five Rise Locks and towards the Three Rise Locks, with a huge brick warehouse and chimney complex ominously looming over it in the background. There was so much industrial heritage here, and it was great being fully immersed in it. We had a walk around Bingley Town Centre, where there was a little fete going on in the main square. Here we picked up a hotdog (I got a burger) while we listened to the dulcet sounds of Irish folk music, before exploring the town for half an hour. The little church right next to where the old high street used to be is probably the only part of historical Bingley remaining, so we had a look at this, before heading back up the canal to the Five Rise Locks again, grabbing a Fentiman's lemonade before heading for home.
Monday 17 - This was Soma's actual birthday but for some reason we were out celebrating Taneli's, with Almost Famous being the venue of choice. A number of the crew met up in Brown's beforehand but Wolfie was delayed this time and I didn't particularly fancy it, meaning we met up and grabbed a cheeky third of a house wheat beer at The Turk's Head, one of our favourite non-BrewDog bars in the city as it's kitted out like a Victorian apothecary. The meal was planned for 7pm and everyone else was there by the time we turned up. The table was a little small for our number as I think there was around twelve of us, but we coped nonetheless and soon we were tucking into delicious burgers and fries. Almost Famous is very much a place of calories for calories' sake - there is no healthy option - meaning I hadn't been here in a while. The menu had changed slightly in the interim and it was great getting re-acquainted with the distinct flavours of this Manchester-based burger chain. The Bacon Bacon Fries, which I shared with Wolfie, were particularly divine while I also quite liked the Mac and Cheese balls. The beer was good, as was the conversation, and the evening afforded me the opportunity to give out the three birthday cards for the three friends who were celebrating that week. The cards themselves took me around two and a half hours to write in total the previous night - some with stories, others with just general craziness - and I think they were appreciated. Draken certainly expressed his gratiutude on Wednesday when we met up for his birthday celebration (which was also on his actual birthday). After our meal, some of our crew headed off while others headed over to The Verity for one final drink, before calling it a night at around 10pm. I suppose that is the reality of going out on a school night.
Wednesday 19 - The Wednesday was Draken's birthday and we were invited around to his house for KFC and Bake Off. I'm not a huge fan of either if I was being honest, but I always enjoy going around there, so we thought we would pop by and wish the dragon all the best. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay too long as Wolfie's work overran and he had to be up at 5:30am for a day trip to London the following day. This meant that we could only spend a couple of hours with Arc, Draken and Taneli, but it was very enjoyable as we did have a laugh. We chatted for a bit before playing Timelines, a fantastic card game where you have to place certain events (music being released, books being published etc) on a timeline based on the years they happened. I'm not a huge fan of card games, but ever since going to Xantin's back in August, my eyes have been opened to fun little ones like this. I really enjoyed it, so much so that I told my rather impressed boss about it the next day, and I may even invest in some of these card games going forward. While we were there, we also had some tea, shared some chocolate brownies and then settled down to watch Bake Off, which was more interesting than I thought it would be. Alas, with Wolfie needing to shower and head to bed early, we had to head off by 8:30pm but at least we got the opportunity to see Draken on his birthday, doing something special for all three of our friends during this rather busy period.
