Wednesday 16 May 2012

You Live & Learn

Life is all about experience and learning.
Three things I learnt on my recent holiday:
  1. Wetherspoons are capable of serving decent food 
  2. Chris Evans is not as bad as I thought
  3. Me and drinking at lunchtime are no longer compatible
Wetherspoons
The pub chain has always, in my eyes, been firmly placed under the "Cheap & Cheerful" banner.  Previous experience suggests the banner should read just "Cheap".
The pub closest to where we were staying was big on Carvery, but the Beer and other food available left a bit to be desired.  Having wandered around the town and not really been inspired by any pub/restaurant seen, Wetherspoons was viewed as the last resort.
It was Thursday, so that meant Curry Club - a Curry, Side Dishes and a Pint for less than 8 quid.
And do you know what?  The Beer was great and the Curry even better (so much better than the ropey takeaway we'd has the previous Saturday).
In fact we were so impressed, we went back the day after to check this wasn't some sort of Dorset Mirage. More tasty Beer and well prepared, tasty food.
Now comes the crunch - is this just the Wetherspoons in Dorchester, and will the experience be repeated in the hostelries in Reading?

Chris Evans
'It's Not What You Think' - the first part (up to the takeover of Virgin Radio) of his autobiography was the chosen Holiday Read.
Much like the Wetherspoons experience above, I wasn't expecting that much from this book.  I've never been a big fan of Chris Evans, and always found his seemingly forced zaniness a bit annoying.  Add to that the rampant ego-mania that was apparent throughout the Radio 1/TFI Friday/Virgin Radio/Billie Piper years and the public face of the man became a bit tiresome.
His autobiography deals honestly and openly with all the events leading up to this point, and he comes across as a very sincere and driven man.  The main point that can be drawn from the book is:

If you want something bad enough, and are prepared to put in the hard work to achieve it - you will be rewarded.

Chris Evans has now been added to the list of "People I Would Like To Have A Pint With" (I'm sure everyone has got one of those lists.  No? Maybe it's just me then)

Lunchtime Drinking
I've never been the greatest lunchtime drinker.  The problem I always had was stopping.  Couple of Pints at lunchtime, stop drinking leads to falling asleep in the afternoon and ruining any decent evening.
But now lunchtime drinking has the added affect of completely killing off any semblance of appetite for the rest of the day, hence leaving me bloated, tired and VERY grumpy.
OK I admit it, at the age of 42 I can no longer manage this and will henceforth not be imbibing alcoholic beverages before 7:00pm.


Other abiding thoughts/memories from Holiday.
Our youngest dog is a right pain in the hole and will bark at anything that moves.  Oh well, a bit more training required.


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