Well, it all started with a suggestion from Mat that we meet for a beer after work at The Boat in Berkhamsted. Now that he and Steph are living so close to us we thought that we should be taking more advantage of it by getting out there and socialising. However, Friday night at the pub is always dangerous as everyone is tired and the beers don’t take quite as long as usual to take effect. We had a good time, but…well, I remember taking a video of Mat but I don’t remember it being quite this bizarre. The dangers of alcohol for all to see.
I couldn’t quite belive my eyes when I was making some breakfast on Saturday morning and spotted a deer wandering around in the garden. My wife had seen one when we first moved in but at that time we didn’t have much of a fence. She seemed quite happy to wander about, munching on our crocuses, and wallked away instead of running off when I opened the window to get some photos. With our new fence put up I couldn’t understand how she’d got there but it seems that there’s a route in from our neighbour’s garden. Hopefully we’ll see her again soon!
I’m glad we didn’t need to resort to this when we decided to move here.
Seriously, how would this work? Sounds like a raffle to me – does that mean you completely avoid stamp duty since you’ve not actually bought the house even though you win it?
Had a great night out on the town last night with Mat, Trevor, Stuart and Iain, visiting a few local pubs that we hadn’t been to before. We started off with a couple of beers at my place before wandering down to the High Street and into the Rose & Crown, a small and friendly ‘locals’ pub. Everyone was busy watching the football so we amused ourselves with a few games of ‘killer’ on the pool table – for money – where Stuart and Mat cleaned up and were very happy to take their winnings. After a couple of pints it was time to go – Tevor decided to take a last-minute trip to the loo and we took the opportunity to leg it and hide from him. Very amusing. We then progressed on to The Lamb which was a bit more lively – they had some good beer on tap and a comfy place for us to sit and talk rubbish for a bit. Once again Trevor thought it would be great to take a trip to loo land when we were about to move on and once again we did a runner. I don’t think I could get tired of that.
Next on the agenda was a pit-stop at the Curry Garden – a place that I seem to be visiting all the time these days – for a lovely meal and a couple of Cobras. Unfortunately we didn’t get the opportunity to leave Trevor this time.
On the way to Mat’s place, where we planned to continue our evening, we wandered past The Bull. Mat was paying more attention than the rest of us and shouted “It’s karaoke!” which is a temptation that I just couldn’t miss. We had a fantastic time, singing, dancing and laughing with the regulars and Stuart and Trevor entertained us all with a muderous rendition of You’re Beautiful at which point the organisers donned their ear protectors. Magic. Unfortunately it felt as though it was all over too soon but we consoled ourselves by heading back to Mat’s for some late-night Mighty Boosh (“I’m Old Greg”) and Halo 2.
Iain and I finally made it back to my place at a quarter to five so consequently I’m feeling pretty knackered today. Great night out though – thanks guys!
What wonderful weather we’re having at the moment. The weekend was gorgeous from start to finish – very very cold, but sunny and crisp at the same time. As my wife’s parents were staying with us we decided to take them on a short walk around the Bridgewater Monument at Ashridge. Katie has captured the day with some wonderful shots. I hope it stays like this and doesn’t get too snowy, windy or rainy!
Had a great Friday night when we went out for dinner at the fantastic Curry Garden in Berkhamsted. Do you think the owners knew what they were doing when they installed this aptly-named hand dryer?
Last weekend my wife and I treated ourselves to a couple of new mountain bikes from Evans Cycles in Milton Keynes. Since we moved to Berkhamsted, I’ve been keen to get out and explore the countryside a bit more and these are perfect for us. On the first day we got them we went out for what turned out to be a big ride in the countryside, up through Ashridgeto Ringshall followed by a trip through Little Gaddesden and back to Berkhamsted. In only our first ride we saw deer, squirrels, the Bridgewater Monument and some gorgeous golden fields with big bales of hay scattered all over them.
I went out this morning for a ride with Jules which was a much more off-road affair. Jules had an OS Explorer Map which made it easy for us to see where all the bridle paths were through the wooded areas – thoroughly recommended if you are planning going off-road. The views of the Chilterns and the Ridgeway we saw this morning were just stunning and I’m sorry that I didn’t take my camera!
My next plan is to cycle to Ivinghoe Beacon. Hopefully I’ll take my camera and will be able to put some photos up.
I’ve recently been looking at a variety of blog search engines and have found a couple that provide RSS feeds of your search results – this lets you subscribe to the search using an RSS reader and see extra results as they turn up. For example, this feed is for all blog postings that mention Berkhamsted – as new postings are made that mention Berkhamsted, I’ll pick them up from the feed.
Trawling through the results, I came across this little gem that made me chuckle, all about Hemel Hempstead. Of particular note are the details on the Magic Roundabout, which my wife and I gawked at when we first encountered it during an innocent shopping trip to Homebase. It’s quite an amazing construction – unlike any other roundabout I’ve seen – and quite daunting at first, but once you get used to it and realise that you can be quite aggressive in pushing out onto any of the mini roundabouts, you tend to be able to scoot around it quite quickly.
When my wife and I stepped out of the theatre in London on Tuesday night it was a bit of a shock to see that the world had been drenched while we were enjoying ourselves. Thunder and lightning were still flashing and rumbling in the distance and this was the same all the way back to Berkhamsted, which when we got there looked as though it had experienced a minor flash flood. Walking back along Bridgewater Road I felt and heard to my dismay the hideous sound of a snail’s shell cracking under my boot.
As much as I love living in the country, sometimes the spiders, snails, slugs and bugs can get a bit too much and this was one of those evenings. What the hell is it about rain that makes snails come out and party in such numbers? I couldn’t believe how many there were on the way home – as soon as Katie and I realised that a major snail excursion was in progress we moved to single file mode and tried avoiding them by taking sure-footed steps. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough – the final shell-count was approximately five dead with a number of others sent flying and rattling into the undergrowth, primarily due to big-ass tree shadows where nothing except night-vision goggles could have saved them. I hate killing things in such a horrible way like this, but what can you do?
The day I once stepped on a frog on the way home still haunts me.
Posted by adoran2 
Posted by adoran2 
Posted by adoran2 
Last weekend my wife and I treated ourselves to a couple of 
