It’s been an absolute blast this last four weeks or so. I’ve not had a weekend at home for ages. I’ve been to Edinburgh, Leicester, Blackpool and Somerset so far this month (end of April) and am off again to Belgium for a few days in a week or so. I’ve been trying to get a few brief walks in too but it’s not been as far as I was going.  

In the last four weeks, thanks to my travels and various bank holidays, I’ve only had four day weeks. I can certainly cope with those! I’m getting a bit fed up with work at the moment. I went in to the office last Tuesday and none of my team came in so that pissed me off a bit. However I did go to the Cinema after work to see Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3 which I absolutely loved and can highly recommend. 

I also discovered “Colin from Accounts”. One of the funniest sitcom’s if not rom-com’s that have ever come out of Australia. I cannot recommend this highly enough and encourage you to binge watch it over the weekend or whenever you have 

The Travels

Edinburgh.

Edinburgh was amazing. It all stemmed from a drunken conversation with my friend Lindsey. She suggested that we go away for the weekend and it was decided that Edinburgh would be nice. So Linds, Julian, Dan and I found ourselves on a plane, on route to the Scottish Capital one Friday afternoon.

We walked for miles and had some lovely food up there. What a beautiful city too. The castle in the middle of it and the museum’s and bars. Really good fun. It was also nice to see my friend Alex who came and joined us for a few beers in the afternoon. She was a good guide to the city too. 

A knackering few days but magnificent. I do think that we’ll go back again at some point and have another weekend there but will fly from Bristol next time just to bring the costs down a little bit.

Leicester

The following weekend was another gig weekend. This time at the Uprising Festival at the O2 Academy in Leicester, headlined by the quite superb Paradise Lost. 

A fairly short trip up to the city where my good friend Huw lived for many years. Our B&B wasn’t too far from where he lived just before he got married and I remembered visiting a pub there on his stag do. That was a short walk down memory lane for me and it was nice to see it again. 

The festival was awesome but the venue was a bit shocking. The toilets were utterly humming and the beer was awful although Motley Brew were in attendance so I was able to get a nice cup of tea! I’m soo middle aged!

I was a bit disappointed that we couldn’t find a curry house that was open after the gig finished (about 11pm) but there were plenty of dessert and cake shops open and full of people. That was so very odd. 

Birchy had sent an image of a Film and Sci-Fi museum in Milton Keynes a few days previously.  I suggested that as MK was only about an hour from Leicester that we should visit and have a look. 

So pleased that we did. What an amazing little museum. A huge collection of movie props. From Indiana Jones to Red Dwarf and everything in between.  A must see for any fan of TV and Film from the 80’s and 90’s. 

Blackpool

Trip number three was a punishing 4.5hr drive to the entertainment capital of Lancashire! Blackpool, home of the Tower, Strictly Come Dancing and the un-timely death of Alan Bradley ( Look that one up if you don’t remember that!)

All that way to go to a rock club and watch a couple of Motorhead tribute bands. Sooo bloody worth it. What an amazing venue and a fantastic set of acts that really kept Lemmy’s sound and their image very much alive. 

A stroll along the prom and a visit to Madame Tussaud’s waxworks to shake off the hangover and then a long drive back to the Diff. My poor car doesn’t know what hit it this month and I’ve got a drive over to Belgium to come!

Wellington.

So the last weekend was a trip down to Wellington to see my good friend Fiona. At least this one isn’t too far from home. 90 minutes down the M4 and M5. 

She’s not had much luck recently. Fi was involved in a nasty car accident and has been in severe pain ever since. It’s so bad that she can’t sit still for long and has to get up and walk about. She was doing miles walking every day but can only manage really short walks at the moment. She lost loads of weight recently. I can only imagine how bad her back would be if she still had the weight but she’s recovering now. Her fella has had to go to Australia for a few weeks so she’s missing him but it was lovely to spend time with her and chat. Old mates just gabbing on and on! 

Had a good number of walks in Wellington and Hemyock. Then breakfast in the morning with the Wellington Friends Facebook group! More miles on the car but again another weekend that was so worth the time to get out and about. 

Food and walkies.

It’s been a poor month for food really. Lots of meals out and that’s not great. I’m trying to do what I can to eat better at home though. Not as many takeaways and not much in the way of junk or crap food deliveries.

I have been trying to go out and do some walking too. The Thornhill Mile has been done a few times and Jim dragged me out for a bit of a longer walk. 

I’ll get out again tomorrow after work and will try a different route and a longer walk. If I can try and build it up over the next few weeks then who know where I’ll get to. 

Anyway. Thanks for reading my crap again. See you soon.