Veggie Chinese in Archway

Cath tucks into her sizzling 'ficken' with ginger and spring onions

Crispy Chilli Feef - oh how I have missed you

Ice Cream....with a parsley garnish...

Lychees.....with a parsley garnish...OK I think the chef might be a bit confused about English presentation...

Jo put us on to a Vegetarian Chinese Restaurant in Archway and once we walked past it for about a mile then found it on the way back it was ace. All the usual chinese food - but vegetarian! Even crispy duck, although we didnt have it. Vegetarian Spare ribs were ace, and I had veggie crispy beef. It was awesome. The veggie prawns were weird though - I don't like hot prawns anyway, but hot fake prawns didnt float my boat. Pity about the parsley with the dessert. Not a clue what was going on there. Oh and I had about 15 cups of Green Tea cos the lady brought me a huge pot full and insisted on refilling my cup - it was excellent tea though!

The Cure - Wembley Arena 20/03/08

You can almost see the band...

Our Hotel room at the Jurys Inn, Islington. Quite why we had a spare bed instead of breakfast I don't know.

Well I have finally seen The Cure, and after a nearly 3 and a half hour long set, I certainly got my money's worth! i think Cath got a bit bored and lost in the gloomy middle section, which I would prefer to describe as atmospheric - although even my REM back started to play up towards the end. They were great though and played almost all of the songs I love - even, strangely enough, Wrong Number. The Boys Don't Cry Encore was probably the highlight for me, when they played almost the entire album including Fire in Cairo and 10:15 on a Saturday Night! Outstanding. Naturally Killing an Arab let Sof in for some stick...

It was just brilliant all the way through - In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, Hot Hot Hot - even slightly odd versions fo Why Can't I be you? and Lovecats. Superb. One moment of realisation as we were stadning watching from the rear - this was a 'concert', not a gig, and I am getting far too old when I describe music events as 'concerts'. Back to ANL on the Isle of Man with a bit of luck!

Oh yeah, they also played that song I really love and can't fucking remember the name of now -will add when I find it!

Sports Relief Staff v Student Match

Be there or be errr....dry and better entertained probably.

Cat Train

Phoebe, Bentley and Chewie seek heat. Several of them were sleeping on my on Saturday night. Daisy and Bruno escaped a decent photo.

Marlborough's top stationery display experts

Well if you really are bored I suppose it beats suicide. Maybe we should issue loads of Pritt sticks to teenagers in Bridgend?

Swindon Cycling - 8+9 March 2008

Ow - the results of a rather foolish 'crash' - scroll down to find out what happened!

Al at Appleby's cafe where we stopped for lunch in Marlborough on Sunday. Two pretty cute waitresses.

Muddy bikes - later badly washed by Al.

Nice helmet.

This was supposed to be a 2-day cycling weekend with a gig in the middle. Here is what happened.

Saturday:
Went out - it started pissing down. Headed up for pre-ride breakfast at Barbury Castle - up a steep, long, wet hill in the driving rain on off road tyres into a major headwind. Nice.

Got to the cafe had some food and tea (Andy had chicken burger and chipe for some reason - probably homosexuality). Set off again. Wind on the ridgeway was so insane it was difficult to ride in a straight line without getting blown off course. So we decided to abort and have a longer ride on Sunday. Got back to Croft car park where someone had set up a small (about 2ft) ramp over a mud bank. Al went over fine. I took my run, hit the ramp - then something went catastrohically wrong and I was sent face first into the ground - fortunately it was rather yielding grass but it knocked me about a bit. Somehow I had gotten mud on the top of the bars, so no idea what happened. Bruising and much entertainment for Al and some passing kids followed. Alas no picture or video.

Home, ice pack, cup of tea, Town, Toys R Us, food, gig, pub. Matt got loaded, Al wasn't far behind.

Sunday:
I was up at 8:30 - took 3 or so hours to pry Al out of bed and longer for Matt. Had breakfast. Matt didn't even pretend he was going to make cycling so Al and I went out together. Up the ridgeway, missed Avebury, got slightly lost, found Marlborough, had some lunch, came back. 32 miles. Not too bad, not brilliant though. Nice weather, if still a little windy.

Got slightly worried that the trains were going to be fucked up by the storm, but everything was fine and I am back in Swansea.

2 Sick Monkeys@The Furnace, Swindon, 8/03/08

Another sweet 2SM gig - albeit slightly tempered by the fact that the first band were awful and the headliners, 4 ft fingers, were even worse than awful - still we left soon after they cam on and went to the pub. Rumours are the ANL may be playing in the Isle of Man in May....