| Rich's profileThe Soft BulletinPhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
October 31 The foulest stench is in the air, the funk of 40,000 years...My brother Al and me just went to watch Nottingham Forest play Brentford in the second round of the most prestigious of cup competitions - yes, the Johnstone's Paint Trophy!
Happily the Reds won 2-1. It wasn't the greatest of matches - but hey, us Forest fans have to make our own fun these days... and Al and me did just that by going to the match dressed up for Halloween!
See below for photographic evidence! I'm the one on the left - amusingly, my mask is eerily reminiscent of both one of my mate's dads, and also Forest's former assistant manager Frank 'Leather Face' Barlow!
October 29 Tomorrow... tomorrow... I love you... tomorrow... you're only a day away...So, another weekend over and done with - and it's been another busy one in the World of Rich!
Saturday in particular saw me manage to pack in more shenanigans than is probably healthy really for one day! Still, as they say - whoever 'they' are! - you're a long time dead...
First up was an utterly ridiculous caper on Saturday morning that I managed to get myself embroiled in - which I won't say anything about for now, as I may be writing a feature about it for the BBC website!
Watch this space though - and just to give you a bit of a clue as to what it was I got up to, watch also the pages of the next Freeman's catalogue!!!
Saturday afternoon meanwhile saw my brother Al and me head up to Sutton in Ashfield - which, for the benefit of anyone reading who isn't not overy familiar with Nottinghamshire, is a small town in the north of the county.
Now the first thing that always springs to mind for me whenever I hear of Sutton is a story a girl once told me about a time when she went out drinking in the town. Finding herself approached by a gentleman who presumably fancied himself as the premier local lothario, she was regaled with the immortal chat-up line - "Eh up, love... fancy some Sutton in yer mutton?"
It is, for sure, a classy sort of place! What's more, to get to Sutton from Nottingham, you have to drive through a village called Huthwaite. This was immensely exciting to me - as the place in question has long enjoyed cult status among me and my friends from college. This is entirely due to a lad on our course, Stevie, having been from there.
He was a brilliant character, Stevie. Every lunchtime when we all went to the pub, he used to refuse to join us, on account of the fact that we tended to sit down when we got there - and apparently, sitting down in pubs was "for poofs"! And as for Huthwaite - well, Stevie used to entertain us every Monday with his war stories...
"Good weekend, Stevie?" we'd enquire.
"Aye, went out round the local pubs on Saturday," he invariably say. "Was good night. Bloke got killed though, like...!"
But anyway - what was I actually doing up in the badlands of north Notts, you are probably wondering? Well, with Forest being away at Cheltenham, Al and me decided to go and watch the NCEL Premier Division match between Sutton Town and Garforth Town. This possibly sounds like a bit of a random game for us to have gone to - however, I recently got to know Simon Clifford, the chap who owns Garforth Town... as he's been helping with the mission that I'm heavily involved in to raise £60,000 for a statue of the legendary Brian Clough.
He's a really interesting guy, Simon, and his life story to date is a fascinating one. For the full skinny, click here. Suffice to say, with his team playing just up the road from Nottingham, it seemed rude not to go along and lend them a bit of support - and the travelling Garforth contingent jwere only too happy to welcome us into the fold for the day.
So what of the game?
Well after paying a mere four quid to get in at the turnstiles, we arrived in the ground to find the ominous sound of 'In the Air Tonight' by Phil bloody Collins blaring over the tannoy - and this proved fairly prophetic, because the opening minutes of the match saw the ball being hoofed skywards with great regularity!
The match soon settled down though and both teams played some decent football. That said, by far the most entertaining thing about the first half, which ended with Garforth 1-0 down, was the assistant referee running the line in front of where we were stood - specifically, his resemblence to one of the Chuckle Brothers!
The second half saw Garforth get off to a great start, and they quickly levelled with a penalty. Managed to capture this on video, and have uploaded the footage onto YouTube - you can view it by clicking here.
Sadly though, Garforth didn't manage to build on this equaliser, and ended up losing 3-1. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the game - not least because the Garforth fans who were stood with for the game were a cracking bunch and instigated some great banter.
Particularly funny was when Sutton's number nine made an absolute meal of a challenge from one of Garforth's defenders, even unleashing a girly scream as he writhed on the ground in mock agony. This, naturally, was greeted with much mirth and derision amongst the Garforth fans, who proceeded to mimic the scream en masse every time Number Nine touched the ball throughout the remainder of the game! Then, brilliantly, when Number Nine was substituted, he was given a fitting send-off with a chorus of "You're not screaming anymore!"
So that was Saturday afternoon! Saturday night meanwhile involved a trip over to the Notts-Derbyshire border town of Long Eaton -or 'downtown L.E.', as the natives affectionately call it! - to see my friend Jason star in a production of the musical 'Annie'!
Now Jase and his wife Siobhan are both heavily involved in Long Eaton Operatic Society, and over the last few years I've been to see numerous shows now that the two of them have starred in. I must say, I'm not generally a massive fan of musicals - but neverthless, I always enjoy the LEOS shows... and 'Annie' was fantastic!
What's more, I also went backstage afterwards, where I enjoyed a drink with Jase and Siobhan, and also Jase's dad - the legendary Johnny P! And I must say, the decadence I've witnessed at all the festivals and gigs I've been to where I've ended up going backstage paled in significance compared with the wild revellry among the LEOS cast and their guests!
So, a busy but hugely enjoyable day - and it was by no means over... because on the way home I also dropped on a Halloween fancy dress party at the home of Pad, one of the guys I play football with.
Needless to say, much of Sunday has been spent sleeping..! October 27 Jim'll fix it for you... and you and you and you!If you're a person of a certain age - and I'm definitely such a person! - then there's been an item in the news today that will undoubtedly bring immense joy to your heart!
You can get the full skinny by clicking here - though for those of you who want to cut straight to the chase,the story basically reveals that Jim'll Fix It is to be return to the nation's TV screens with a brand new series!
What amused me most of all though about this though is the fact that, as part of this new series, they're going to be featuring people who wrote in when Jim'll Fix It was originally on air, but never managed to get onto the show. I say this because I know someone who for some time has been the subject of regular ridicule among his friends, after he decided (somewhat foolishly in hindsight!) to divulge what he'd asked for when, 'back in the day', he decided to put pen to paper and write to Jim.
I'll refer to the person in question as Daniel Nugent, seeing as that's his name!
"Dear Jim," he wrote. "Please can you fix it for me to..."
Now at this point, you - the people sufficiently bored to still be reading this waffle! - are probably thinking "Hmm, what would young Danny have asked for? To ride gunshot in a fighter jet? To meet Mr T? To play a game for his beloved Everton?"
But oh no. It was nothing like that. No, Danny's request was actually - and I shite ye not - TO GO BEHIND THE SCENES AND SEE THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE MERSEY TUNNEL!!!
To this day, this story remains one of the funniest things I've ever heard! And naturally, I'm now desperately hoping the return of Jim'll Fix It will enable Danny to finally fulfil his childhood dream. Hell, it'd certainly be a cheap 'dream' for UKTV Gold to pull off - I mean, it'd only cost them the £1.20 tunnel fare!!!
On a different note - seeing as I've just spent several hundred words ripping the piss out of Danny, it's probably only fair to point out that he's currently preparing to run next year's London Marathon to raise money for the charity 'Kids Get Going'. You can sponsor him online with a credit or debit card by clicking here!
Let's go back to Church. Let's go back to Church. Any time any place anyhow, let's go back to Church...Last time I went over to visit my friends in Ireland, I got talking to a bloke in a pub... as you do! And with the particular part of Ireland that I was in being a fairly hardcore Catholic part, I perhaps inevitably ended up getting grilled about my own religious tendancies.
Not being one to beat about the bush, I duly told my new friend that I'm not really religious at all - and was quite surprised by how difficult he found this to comprehend.
It's true though - whilst I have nothing whatsoever against any form of religion, it's just something that's never been part of my life.
To be fair to my parents though, they did give me the opportunity to make up my own mind. When my brother Al and me were young, my mum took us both to Church a few times, as a sort of 'is this something you two would be interested in doing on a regular basis?' experiment.
Now of course, everyone has a story from their childhood that their parents love to tell as a means of bringing maximum embarrassment - usually when you're trying to act all cool in front of a new girlfriend or whatever. I'm no exception - and the scenario that my mum has been known to take great glee in recounting actually took place during one of the aforementioned visits to Church.
I can only assume I was no more than two years old at the time, as apparently I had to stand up on the pew in order to see. And presumably, I must have quickly become pretty bored with the service and decided to create an alternative means of stimulation for myself - because midway through proceedings, my mum turned to me and realised, to her horror, that I was stood merrily playing with 'Little Richey'!!!
What's more, having got her attention, legend has it that I proudly proclaimed "Look mummy - I can make it move on its own!"*
So in view of this considerable faux pas, I think it's probably fair to say that my relationship with the Lord was probably doomed from the start!
Yet in spite of this, I actually went to Church this evening!
Specifically, I spent a couple of hours at St Mary's in Nottingham city centre. There was a particular reason though for my visit - the fact that aforesaid place of worship was hosting a gig by J Spaceman, AKA Spiritualized mainman Jason Pierce.
The gig saw Pierce performwith just an acoustic guitar, but backed by a gospel choir and a string section. It was amazing! He did quite a few Spiritualized songs, and the brilliant acoustics of the Church made for an aural feast.
It was certainly a very different experience to the usual sorts of gigs I go to, where you're invariably crammed into a sweaty fleapit like sardines, and end up getting stuck to the floor!
I've just uploaded a brief video clip from the gig to YouTube, which you can view by clicking here. I've also stuck a few photos in the gallery section of this very site. Enjoy..!
* Mikey B / Mick - if either of you are reading this, I'd argue that my spot of brazen monkey-spanking in the House of God actually makes me more of a badass antiChrist than any number of crypt desecrations that you guys can lay claim to!!! October 21 There's too many broken hearts in the world, there's too many dreams can be broken in two...As most of you who know me will know, my 'day job' involves me working for the part of the NHS that provides mental heath services across Nottinghamshire.
And the last few weeks have been pretty busy at work - because every year during October, all manner of events are held across the local mental health community as part of Nottingham Mental Heath Awareness Weeks.
This year, I actually co-organised one of the aforementioned events myself - an exhibition of patients' paintings. Pleasingly this seems to have gone down a storm. You can find out more details by clicking here.
I've also managed to get to a couple of the other events that have taken place as part of the awareness weeks - and it's probably no coincidence if I'm honest that both the events I chose to attend happened to involve one of my favourite things... namely Indian food!
The first event was a curry night to raise money for the charity Friends of Nottingham Mental Health. Randomly, this also doubled up as an exhibition of paintings by three artists - one of them the legendary Rolf Harris!
The second event meanwhile was a conference focusing on mental health services for black and minority ethnic communities. Brilliantly, this finished with a rowdy live performance by some dudes playing bongos. It was ace - I could just close my eyes and it was like being monged off my tits at 4am in the stone circle at Glastonbury!
Overall, I only hope that Nottingham Mental Health Awareness Weeks as a whole has helped to change a few people's attitudes. Though I think perceptions are slowly shifting among the public at large when it comes to mental heath, there's still an incredible amount of stigma associated with it. And yet stats show that one in four people are likely to suffer with some sort of mental health problem at some point in their life.
But anyway. This is all getting a bit serious! On a less heavy note, something that really made me laugh this week was when I popped into the box office of Nottingham's legendary music venue Rock City, to buy a ticket for a gig next month by a band called The Aliens.
Now for those of you who don't know it, Rock City is a venue with an amazing history and has staged gigs over the years by pretty much anyone who's anyone - we're talking the likes of Radiohead, REM, Oasis, U2, Guns N Roses...
So imagine my surprise when I picked up a flyer to discover that THIS (see below) washed-up has-been was due to tread the hallowed boards!
Honestly, some people don't know when to give up, do they?!
October 18 I'm the dandy highwayman that you're too scared to mention. I spend my cash on looking flash and grabbing your attention...I've just read on a news website that Adam Ant is a hot favourite to appear in the next 'Celebrity Big Brother'. This would rock! October 17 If there's something inside that you wanna say, say it out loud, it'll be okay...As part of my 'day job', I just paid a visit to an organisation that provides a variefy of services to young people with drug problems.
Couldn't help but be amused by the fact that the organisation in question is located in a building called 'The Joint'! Oh, the irony..! October 15 If you're so special then why aren't you dead?This week saw me celebrate my 27th birthday. Hurrah for me!
Now 27 obviously isn't a milestone in quite the same way as 18, 21 or 40 or whatever. However, it is often referred to as 'the Year of Rock Star Death', due to the fact that it's an age when many famous rock stars have popped theirf clogs - including Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison.
This being so, I thought it was only appropriate to mark this latest birthday by throwing a fancy dress party - the theme being 'dead rock stars'!
The party took place last night and I'm pleased to say that it was a riotous success, with friends coming from all over the country and throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the theme!
The pictures I've just uploaded to my gallery hopefully speak for themselves! You can even see reconstructions of the tragic deaths of both Mama Cass, who famously choked on a ham sandwich, and Michael Hutchence - the latter who turned up on the night with a belt tied ready round his neck... and with Paula Yates in tow as well!
Other dead rock stars who put in an appearance included Roy Orbison - who 'drove all night' (groan) from Leeds to attend - George Harrison, Julian Clary*, Janis Joplin, Nico from the Velvet Underground and Sid Vicious.
Needless to say, the sight of Sid Vicious enthusiastically tucking into the pineapple and cheese on sticks - the essential nibble for any party! - provided unquestionable evidence that punk is officially dead!
Myself, I decided to be Johnny Cash! This was mainly for the amusement value of being able to go up to people all night and go "Hi, I'm Johnny Cash"!
Top prizes however for best outfit though undoubtedly goes to Mr Andrew Best, who decided to build upon his namename ('The Lothario') by dressing up as the Walrus of Love himself, Barry White! He actually ended up looking more like Papa Lazarou from the League of Gentleman... or 'Leo Sayer - the coalmining years' as somebody put it!
Nevertheless, Andy's endeavours in getting fully 'blacked up' were a superb effort!
A special mention must also go to SuperKev - or Bill Haley, as he was on the night - who provided hours of fun by bringing along his Plsystation and 'Singstar'!
'Singstar', for the benefit of anyone who hasn't heard of it, is a game where you basically do karaoke, and the Playstation gives you a score based on how in tune you are! There are various different versions of the game, with 'Singstar Legends' featuring mainly singers who are dead - meaning that most of us got the chance to perform as our actual dead rock star alteregos! It was a LOT of fun!
Have uploaded some videos from our mammoth 'Singstar' session onto YouTube - as follows...
- To view JHH and SuperKev singing 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen, click here
- To view me singing 'Ace of Spades' by Motorhead, click here
- To view Becky singing 'Son of a Preacherman' by Dusty Springfield, click here
- To view me singing 'Ring of Fire' by Johnny Cash, click here
- To view SuperKev singing 'Wind of Change' by the Scorpions, click here
- To view Andy singing 'My First, My Last, My Everything' by Barry White, click here
* Julian Clary, of course, is neither dead, or a rock star. Nevertheless, John pulled off his choice of alterego with immense grace and style! October 14 I've... been pissin' in the wind. I chanced a foolish grin. And dribbled on my chin...I like to think that I'm a pretty loyal sort of person. Today however, I have a slightly dirty confession of infidelity to report!
I'll start from the beginning...
My mate Gaz is a massive Bristol Rovers fan - and he occasionally plays for the Bristol Rovers fans' team. And with Bristol Rovers in Nottingham today to play against the ginger stepchild of midlands football - AKA Notts County - arrangements were duly made for the aforesaid fans' team to play a match this morning against a Nottingham Forest fans' team.
Not quite sure why they were playing a Forest fans' team as opposed to a Notts fans' team - I can only assume that Notts don't actually have enough fans to make up a team of eleven. Boom boom!
But anyway - as you are probably aware, Forest happen to be my team of choice. Yet this morning, I ended up donning the colours of Bristol Rovers and playing against Forest!
This all came about due to the Rovers boys having been short on numbers, which led to Gaz asking me if I could step in as a 'ringer'. It all felt slightly wrong - but ultimately, a proper game of 11-a-side isn't something I get the opportunity to partake in very often... so I put my reservations to the back of my mind as I headed down to some random sports ground in the rather shady Nottingham suburb of Clifton.
As it was, I needn't have worried too much about taking the forty pieces of silver - as the Forest fans' team were vastly superior and ran out comfortable 8-1 winners. You can view one of the Forest goals - a penalty - on YouTube by clicking here. I actually started as a sub - but I ended up playing for most of the game, as I was called upon to replace a member of the Rovers team who had to go off injured during the first half. By this time, the Rovers boys were already 4-0 down!
I played at centre forward throughout my time on the pitch - although needless to say, with us ending up being on the receiving end of an 8-1 spanking, I didn't really see a great deal of the ball! I dutifully chased every hoofed clearance from defence though, and almost scored with a rasping shot from a narrow angle... so I think I was able to walk off the pitch with head held high.
So, an enjoyable experience overall, in spite of the drubbing. I've always felt that there's something quite magical about the world of 'grass roots' football. The smell of 'Deep Heat' and sweat, the industrial language, the dodgy offside decisions that you invariably get due to the fact that the 'linesmen' are actually subs from the competing teams... you gotta love it, really! October 13 I don't like cricket, yeah... oh no... I love it, yeah...Had the honour today of meeting a man who I really admire - the former cricketer Ian 'Beefy' Botham!
Must say, I'm not really much of a fan of cricket generally - however, I've always had a lot of time for for Beefy. I like the fact that he's a bit of a rogue - someone who's outspoken and doesn't take any crap off anyone.
And I also really admire the fact that, as well as making it to the very top in cricket, he also actually played professional football for a period as well, for Scunthorpe United!
What a guy!
But the coolest thing about Botham, I think, is his tireless efforts in undertaking sponsored walks to raise money for Leukaemia Reserach - a charity which I have supported myself on various occasions, by giving up a few hours to help out when they've organised collections in local supermarkets.
It was Beefy's latest fundraising exploits that led to my encounter with him. He's currently doing a whistlestop tour of UK towns, walking a 12 mile route around each - and today he arrived in Nottingham. Thus, I decided to pop down and join the throng of people who assembled to watch him embark on his circuit of the city.
I got took a few photos, which you can see in my gallery. I also got quite a cool video of Beefy setting off, which you can view on YouTube by clicking here.
I also got Beefy to autograph a cricket bat for me, which will be getting auctioned off at some point to raise money for the Brian Clough Statue Fund!
Incidentally, if anyone particularly enjoys reading autobiographies, I'd heartily recommend Beefy's. Hilariously, it's called 'Don't Tell Kath!' - Kath being the long-suffering Mrs Botham! October 11 Hold me in your arms, I wanna be your only possession...Well, a busy couple of days, both in the name of work and play.
In terms of play - just three days after my rather fruitless trip in search of England goals, I once again found myself heading up to Manchester last night, in order to see a solo gig by Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield.
With leaving straight from work it was all a bit of a rush - happily though, my endeavours were rewarded with a very entertaining evening. After arriving at my friend Mark's house in the suburb of Didsbury, we quickly got one of Manchester's legendary Magic Buses down to Oxford Road... where we had a very shady rendezvoux in a bar with a guy who we'd bought a pair of tickets from for the gig via eBay! I felt like I was doing a dodgy drug deal or something!
Then, we headed down to the famous 'curry mile', where we hooked up with Aron and Phil for pre-gig food and booze... before hotfooting it to the venue just in time to see JDB hit the stage.
Predictably, JDB's set was focused mainly on his recent solo album - however, he did chuck in a good half a dozen Manics numbers as well, including 'Kevin Carter' and 'From Despair to Where'. A really good gig, the only letdown being the fact that one of JDB's backing band whipped out a sax on a couple of occasions. I like to think I'm generally a tolerant soul - however, I firmly believe that saxophone solos are a crime that should be punishable by death...
A very good night then all in all, although I was nevertheless cursing at 5am when the alarm went off on my phone, awakening me from a deep sleep on Mark's sofa and signifying that it was time to get up and drive back to Nottingham in order to be at work for 9am..!
That said, work has been pretty cool this week. As most of you who know me will know, I work for the part of the NHS that provides mental health services across Nottinghamshire - and over the last few months, I've spent quite a bit of time helping organise an exhibition of paintings by patients. This has been an enjoyable task - not least because it has involved me getting to drive around in a white van as a means of transporting pieces of artwork from A to B! And it's impossible to drive a van without feeling like you're starring in an episode of the A-Team!
We decided to put on the exhibition as part of the annual Nottingham Mental Health Awareness Weeks. Today was the launch - and pleasingly, we had a really good turn-out.
If anyone's interested in finding out more, simply click here and you'll be redirected to an article about the exhibition that I managed to blag onto the BBC website as part of my drive to pimp the exhibition via the media!
Also at work, there was great amusement in our office today when we had a CD delivered containing hundreds of photos we had taken at an event we held where patients and carers were basically invited to come along and say what they think about NHS services.
I was a 'facilitator' at this event - which basically meant I had to chair a discussion and write down key points that people made on a flipchart. And amusingly, the photos we got back this afternoon included one of me in front of my flipchart, looking absolutely bored shitless!
Of course, I couldn't possibly confirm or deny whether this was actually the case...!
Amusingly, there was also an arty close-up of my right hand scribbling on the flipchart! You can see both the snaps in question below...
October 08 Oh Manchester, so much to answer for...This weekend saw me win my first England cap!
"What?", I hear you cry. "Rich donning the three lions, and turning out alongside Steven Gerrard, John Terry and co?"
Well, not quite!
What I mean is that I gained my first cap as a member of 'Englandfans', which is the official members' club for the England footy team. I became a member a few months ago - basically, I'd heard so many great stories from people who went to watch England in Germany this summer that I decided I'd start thinking ahead as to how I could give myself the best possible chance of getting tickets for the next World Cup, which will be taking place in South Africa in 2010*.
And, having spoken to those 'in the know', it quickly became apparent that the best bet would be for me to join Englandfans.
It's basically a loyalty scheme. As a member, every time you attend an England home game, you get awarded one cap... while every time you go to an away game, you get two.
Then, when tickets for big games go on sale - World Cup matches, etc - the members with the most caps are given priority.
So... now I'm an Englandfans member, I've decided I'm going to try and get to as many England games as I can between now and 2010 in order to build up my caps - and I decided to set the ball rolling by heading up to Manchester yesterday for the Euro 2008 qualifier against Macedonia.
The game it question was actually my second 'live' footy game of the day, as by the time I took my seat at Old Trafford I'd already sat through a painful 90 minutes at the City Ground, in which a feckless Forest got spanked 4-0 by Scunthorpe. Less said about that, the better!
The Forest game had been an early kick-off - 12.15pm - due to the fact that it was televised by Sky. This being so, it had finished just after 2pm, which meant I had less than three hours to fight my way through the post-match congestion ,and then get up to Manchester in time for England's 5pm start. It was tight, but I made it just in time - indeed, I emerged into the light at Old Trafford literally as Peter Crouch and Wayne Rooney were kicking off!
As you'll probably be aware, the match finished 0-0, with the general consensus having been that it was dire. I must say though, I enjoyed it - it was a buzz being part of such a big crowd (72,000), and I actually thought the match was pretty entertaining as well. A bit scary really - probably shows how much your standards slip when you've become accustomed to the sort of dross that Forest serve up as football these days!
Post-match, I met up with my mate JHH and three of his friends, who'd also all been at the game. Our plan had been to head to Rusholme in Manchester and partake in fine Indian cuisine on the famous 'curry mile' - alas though, a farcical chain of events started off by Manchester's tram system grinding to a standstill resulted in us ending up instead at what turned out to be a woeful balti house in Altrincham!
So, all that rushing about to fit in two games in one day, and what had I got to show for it as I embarked upon the long drive back to Nottingham shortly before midnight? Yes, neither of my teams managing to bloody score, and a really crap vegetable biryani!
Still, at least I got my first cap..!
* There is of course the small matter of England having to actually qualify for this next World Cup - but hey, under the masterful leadership of Steve McClaren, this is surely a formality! October 06 You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you...Someone's just emailed me a weblink to the video for the new single by David Hasselhoff - Aka 'the Hoff'! It is, perhaps unsurprisingly, pure cheese! You can see it for yourself by clicking here. Amusingly, there's actually an internet campaign to get the song to number one in the charts! For full details, click here! October 01 Roquefort and gruyere, slippery brie... all of these cheeses have happened to me...In life, I find there are few things more enjoyable than getting up to something completely random. And this week has been a great week for such shenanigans!
First of all, Monday night saw me attend a monthly meeting of the Notts Parrot Club!
The meeting in question was held in a village hall in Shirebrook - an obscure backwater in deepest darkest north Nottinghamshire. I went with my brother Al and his girlfriend Cat. Basically, I'd heard the meeting was taking place through readng about it in one of the local papers - and with the three of us all being bird-owners, we decided it'd be amusing to go along.
Pleasingly, we weren't disappointed! There were quite a few people there who'd actually brought their parrots along, which was pretty cool! The whole vibe was slightly 'weirdy beardy', but it was nevertheless well worth the trip to Shirebrook. The main attraction was a talk from a guy about owls, which was really interesting.
Meanwhile, today saw more random-ness for Al, Cat and me - because along with Cat's friend Kate, we spent the day at a farm in Lincolnshire, partaking in a cheese-making course!
As someone who loves cheese more than most things in the world, I found the day a fascinating experience! I discovered that the process of making cheese is quite a precise science - for instance, milk has to be heated to very specific temperatures. And there's also lots of elbow work involved, in terms of stirring, and separating curds and whey.
Needless to say, I inevitably ended up getting songs stuck in my head throughout the day featuring prominent use of the word 'way' - only in my head, it was 'whey' rather than 'way'!
There's no other whey...
This is the modern whey...
You get the picture!
Sadly, we didn't get the chance to sample our own cheese - the only way this would have been possible would have been by stayed at the farm for the next week, to see the whole cheese-making process through! I would have been more than happy to do this, as the farm was amazing and had loads of cool animals - including a gang of goats with ZZ Top-style beards, who provided the milk with which we made our cheese! However, though no-one could deny that cheese-making is a noble pursuit, I'm not sure my employers would have been too amused if I'd decided to go AWOL for a week in order to follow the cheese mission through to its very conclusion!
We did however get to try 'one they'd made earlier' - or rather 'two they'd made earlier', because we actually made two different types of cheese... a soft goat's cheese, and a hard goat's cheese. Both were amazing!
The farm where we did the course supplies various farm shops with cheese - so amusingly, the fruits of our labour will eventually be going on sale to the public!
You can see all the drama from our day of cheese-making in my photo gallery, including a snap of my ma enjoying some of the cheese that we brought home with us! |
|
|
