Ball Ball Ball
Feb. 17th, 2019 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeThursday was a very weird day. We had arranged to meet up with Patter for a few drinks that evening, but earlier in the week it was announced that there would be a Leeds For Europe march across the city, which was something that we couldn't pass up. I attemped to corrale a number of the Furs For Europe crew but in the end only Cosmo could join Patter, Wolfie and I on the march. Due to work, Wolfie ended up arriving for the speeches only, which were quite rousing in the shadow of Leeds Town Hall. The excellent Natalie Bennett was there, not to mention the chappie who ran the Another Europe Is Possible event I had attended last September, and the atmosphere was convivial and supportive. The march itself was enjoyable, with halves of each road being closed to allow us to parade, and we didn't come across too many dissenters, my favourite being the rotund guy near some traffic lights who shouted 'Great Britain!' at us. As a heckle, it was an odd one and perhaps he was just identifying the flags he could see as we marched. Either way, he was worth ignoring, which is pretty much what we did.
We had congregated for the march at around 5:30pm, ending up at the Town Hall about an hour later for four speeches, which lasted half an hour. This meant that by 7pm we were done. Feeling hungry, we decided to try Almost Famous but as it was Valentine's Day, understandably it was rammed. We had fears that this would be the case wherever we were to go, but heading into Assembly Rooms next door, we noticed that there were a few tables, meaning we could get seated pretty easily. We grabbed a beer at the excellent Vocation Tap Room before going for a succulent burger at the same place I had visited last month. The fries here, topped with unctuous yet slightly powdery cheese, were divine although they did get a little heavy after a while. The conversation was good although I had other things on my mind, as my mother had sent me a cryptic text message about my grandmother, who had just been taken to hospital. It was on our walk from Assembly Rooms to Shuffledog - during which Cosmo left us to go home - that I phoned my mum and asked her to fill me in on the details. Long story short, this was the day that we were expecting for quite some time and while her condition is not life threatening, it is clear that she can no longer live alone with my grandfather in their own home. How this will manifest itself in the coming weeks is a source of great concern considering that both of my grandparents are stubbornly refusing any outside help, nor are they willing to move. However, this is no longer an option so it will be interesting to see how my mother and uncle deal with the situation.
Shuffledog had a Tiny Rebel tap takeover on, which was the reason we headed up there. They had brewed seven collab beers with seven breweries, with Wolfie and I demolishing our way through six of them. The standard was really high and it was great chatting with Patter, who strung me a long a little about his new fursuit. I am sure I had seen him tweet about it earlier in the week, but checking back through Twitter suggested he had not. This made me feel somewhat perplexed and he refused to confirm either way - it wasn't until the Leeds Meet on Saturday when he carted a giant white box into the venue that I was pretty sure he was going to debut his suit. Anyway, Patter headed off back to Manchester at around 10pm while Wolfie and I swung by the little Brewdog for a nightcap before heading home on one of the last buses.
Stray was due to come out with us on Thursday but citing money issues, he bailed. He was, however, due to come around to our house on Friday ahead of going to the Leeds Meet the following day. This is what he eventually did, although he didn't swing by until well after 9:15pm despite us arranging for him to turn up at 7pm. He had been in his favourite local pub in Eccles Hill drinking with his family, and had had nine pints before he arrived, turning an evening where he was going to cook us Hunter's Chicken into one where we just ordered Domino's. He had brought some pork pies for us though, with The Greedy Pig being owned by the butchers in his hometown. These were delicious, more jelly than meat in all honesty, and the sort of pie that I would visit any pub for. We will certainly need to do this when Stray is next back in Yorkshire. Anyway, he toned down the drinking once he had arrived at ours, and we only had a couple of beers that evening as we first watched QI and then the first four episodes of Jack Whitehall's Travels With My Father series. We really enjoyed the SE Asia one and were excited about the European adventure which formed part of series two. To be fair it was incredibly good, although there were far more cringey bits in this series than there were in the other one. Still, it was a very enjoyable evening with a good friend, and prepared us nicely for what would be a hectic Leeds Meet on the Saturday.
We had congregated for the march at around 5:30pm, ending up at the Town Hall about an hour later for four speeches, which lasted half an hour. This meant that by 7pm we were done. Feeling hungry, we decided to try Almost Famous but as it was Valentine's Day, understandably it was rammed. We had fears that this would be the case wherever we were to go, but heading into Assembly Rooms next door, we noticed that there were a few tables, meaning we could get seated pretty easily. We grabbed a beer at the excellent Vocation Tap Room before going for a succulent burger at the same place I had visited last month. The fries here, topped with unctuous yet slightly powdery cheese, were divine although they did get a little heavy after a while. The conversation was good although I had other things on my mind, as my mother had sent me a cryptic text message about my grandmother, who had just been taken to hospital. It was on our walk from Assembly Rooms to Shuffledog - during which Cosmo left us to go home - that I phoned my mum and asked her to fill me in on the details. Long story short, this was the day that we were expecting for quite some time and while her condition is not life threatening, it is clear that she can no longer live alone with my grandfather in their own home. How this will manifest itself in the coming weeks is a source of great concern considering that both of my grandparents are stubbornly refusing any outside help, nor are they willing to move. However, this is no longer an option so it will be interesting to see how my mother and uncle deal with the situation.
Shuffledog had a Tiny Rebel tap takeover on, which was the reason we headed up there. They had brewed seven collab beers with seven breweries, with Wolfie and I demolishing our way through six of them. The standard was really high and it was great chatting with Patter, who strung me a long a little about his new fursuit. I am sure I had seen him tweet about it earlier in the week, but checking back through Twitter suggested he had not. This made me feel somewhat perplexed and he refused to confirm either way - it wasn't until the Leeds Meet on Saturday when he carted a giant white box into the venue that I was pretty sure he was going to debut his suit. Anyway, Patter headed off back to Manchester at around 10pm while Wolfie and I swung by the little Brewdog for a nightcap before heading home on one of the last buses.
Stray was due to come out with us on Thursday but citing money issues, he bailed. He was, however, due to come around to our house on Friday ahead of going to the Leeds Meet the following day. This is what he eventually did, although he didn't swing by until well after 9:15pm despite us arranging for him to turn up at 7pm. He had been in his favourite local pub in Eccles Hill drinking with his family, and had had nine pints before he arrived, turning an evening where he was going to cook us Hunter's Chicken into one where we just ordered Domino's. He had brought some pork pies for us though, with The Greedy Pig being owned by the butchers in his hometown. These were delicious, more jelly than meat in all honesty, and the sort of pie that I would visit any pub for. We will certainly need to do this when Stray is next back in Yorkshire. Anyway, he toned down the drinking once he had arrived at ours, and we only had a couple of beers that evening as we first watched QI and then the first four episodes of Jack Whitehall's Travels With My Father series. We really enjoyed the SE Asia one and were excited about the European adventure which formed part of series two. To be fair it was incredibly good, although there were far more cringey bits in this series than there were in the other one. Still, it was a very enjoyable evening with a good friend, and prepared us nicely for what would be a hectic Leeds Meet on the Saturday.
