Showing posts with label the refreshment rooms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the refreshment rooms. Show all posts

Tuesday, 3 April 2018

OAP

Wow, March has just flown by. It started with an almost significant birthday as I reached the ripe old age of 65. I only celebrate when the year ends in zero, but I was coerced into a family do, as much because the grandkids like to blow out the candles.

So, we all sat down in The Refreshment Rooms for a Sunday lunch as luckily my birthday fell on a Sunday. We all had a good time, everybody enjoyed themselves and I am a year older. Tim came up for a few days from London sans children so we were able to have a few drinks as well which was good.

I applied for my pension to the DWP as you are asked to, but nothing has arrived, so I had to call them. They told me some applications had gone missing at about the time I applied. Lucky I rang really as they clearly have no check and balance for these sort of eventualities. The pension is paid in arrears, so I should get it as expected in a day or two.

March has also provided a couple of Six Nations rugby games. We travelled to Paris to see England fail to beat France, and we were at Twickenham for the anti-climatic end game against Ireland. In both cases the matches were the low point of the weekend . We stayed at The Farmers Club in Covent Garden as way of a change for the Ireland game and it was good to escape Twickenham after the match and enjoy a few drinks elsewhere.

Unfortunately we had two Chinese meals, which, coupled with the birthday celebration and a trip to Paris has stalled my weight loss campaign...couple of pounds added on this month!!

The beginning of the golf season has also stalled due to the bad weather, so my scramble to get six qualifying cards into the Virgin Atlantic golf competition and win a goodie bad, has been delayed somewhat.
Hopefully I can get it all done by Monday. There is a trip to Vegas as the prize for the best golfers this season so I must use the golf lesson presents I got wisely!!

Easter has now come and gone. It was a quiet one this year, with a bit of gardening and jovial evenings out to crown a pretty good month.

I have embraced Twitter now so you can follow me here if you want to, although at the moment its not too interesting!!
Just click on the Twitter follow button top right and after that I don't know what happens!!




Monday, 5 March 2018

100000

After a very alcoholic two days, Maxine and I have booked into The Priory. It's not all it sounds though. Our eldest, Tim, came up from London to help me celebrate my 65th birthday yesterday, so we had a few on Saturday night and carried on through yesterday afternoon and evening. We embraced the Refreshment Rooms for a spot of lunch to break it all up. It was a very enjoyable day, Becky made a fab cake modelled like a golf course which got finished off this morning at the golf club.
Number 2 son, Kieran, joined us later in the pub having been to London to run the BigHalf with Mo Farah and co. He did a commendable time of 1hour 44 minutes and had a very aesthetic medal to show for his efforts. Tim went back this morning so next challenge was a wedding in Inverness in late December!!

That's where the Priory came in. The wedding is on 27th December in Achnegairn Castle for which the wedding party has exclusive use for a couple of nights. We would like to stay a bit longer hence the need to find an alternative hotel. That's sorted now so on to next challenge which is to find somewhere near Perth to stay Boxing Day night. Don't you love weddings.

With all this inclement weather around if it hits Inverness in December there may not be a wedding.

We had drama this week as one of our overflow pipes froze and we had a second swimming pool appear on the kitchen floor. Luckily we are blessed with an excellent plumber so the damage was contained in the end to a bit of water staining to the ceiling. Still some repairs to make to the water tank but they should be fairly routine. What was not funny was trying to de-ice the pipes at 11o'clock at night!!

This entry signals the end of another month of diet change. I managed to weigh in at under 100kg this time which in old money is 15st 9lbs, a weight which I have not been for a long time. SWMBO informs me that I was 14st 8lbs when I met her in 2001. I know I was 12st 8lbs when I left school. Getting under 15st will suit me, although I am already starting to look a bit scrawny so just need to do things gradually.

Another significant milestone was achieved this morning as the car ticked over to 100000 miles. It is probably the first car I have had that has reached that milestone from new. It was born in 2009 so its only 12000 miles a year which is below average. Hopefully it's got a few more years left in it. It needs a service soon so lets see what the garage think about it all.

So on we go now to March, a month of rugby matches, golf dinners and the odd bit of exercise. I will be please to see no weight gain when next I venture onto the scales!

Thursday, 11 December 2014

A Prial of Teas

Blimey what a few days we have had. The weekend saw us celebrating SWMBO's fathers 75th birthday, her parents house warming party and the christening of Nell and Ava. Actually it was billed as a blessing  but there was water and cake involved  and with some imagination we managed to combine all three celebrations into one afternoon.

The London branch came up for the do's. Tim and Maya came on Friday and Mike and Val on Saturday, so I was finally able to have a team photo with my five grandchildren.

The previous week Pete and Maria had come up for a few nights as sadly her brother died, but they are now over in Australia for Christmas. Graham then turned up for the Liverpool European Cup tie, meaning we had nine visitors in less than a week.

I did check the guest book for comments, but sadly the pages were empty, but that did not stop SWMBO and I going out for our works Christmas party at the Refreshment Rooms in Rock Ferry last night, and a good time was had by all.

Its a bit off the beaten track on the Mersey in a part of Rock Park which in its day was home to seafaring men, merchants and company bigwigs. Indeed the Royal Liverpool Yacht Club is right next door in the shadow of Cammell Laird ship builders, both sit as a reminder of how Birkenhead used to be the senior partner in the Merseyside relationship.

So now on to Christmas. The tree arrived yesterday and I have already managed to break the top bit off, so not sure where the fairy is going to go, no doubt number one daughter will sort it out.

Christmas bash in Manchester next Friday should be chaos, and I have the annual opportunity to win festive meat at the Wallasey golf club turkey trot on Sunday, and the Seniors equivalent on Monday.
Things are hotting up.