My mother always loves christmas escpecially the decorations, from when i was a little boy (not much taller now) she used to dress up the house from top to bottom and decorate the windows and since we've moved to the new house and me being 31 years older she still has the same enthusiasm. The house is lit up like Santas grotto and the tree is not one of these ready decorated put up in 2 minute jobs with lights and baubles attached she puts every decoration on individually herself. Well done Mum i say, me myself id buy a twig wrap tinsle around it and job done LOL.
Helen joined us for christmas this year from christmas eve through to boxing day so we had another person to pull crackers with not just the dog, that damn dog always gets the prize end. I was totally exhausted on christmas eve so wasn't much company to anyone, i think the whole year had taken its toll on me what with working 9 months with only 6 days off and the medical tests i had, so i was looking forward to christmas day.
Christmas day came and my i was a lucky boy, lots of clothes which is great, the best DVD ever off Helen "An idiot abroad" is she trying to tell me something? A record player (remember them) that plugs in to your computer so i can put all my vinyl on MP3 and loads of food from M & S and i was lucky enough to get that M & S Christmas bombe cake with orange syrup centre (not that crap Heston Blumenthal one), they had sold out every morning 5 minutes after the store opened so i was determined to get one. I was late for the doors to open so rushed to food section and saw a sea of blue rinses crowding the dessert section, as they were just smaller than me i forced my way through throwing walking sticks and shower hoods behind me as i went and got to the top shelf where only 3 were left. Just as i was reaching for them i saw a little fragile old lady stretching to get one and i needed 2 so without a thought and being a gentleman i grabbed the worst looking pudding pushed it to back of shelf and grabbed the other 2 for myself and left the fragile old lady fight the others for it, well its dog eat dog world these days hehe.
I forget days of when we did things but we had a few drinks out in the daytimes, went to see "Little Fockers" at the cinema, my advice about anyone going to see it, STAY THE FOCK AWAY! its awful haha. I endulged in food after christmas having a Pizza Hut stuffed edge pizza, a delivery mixed keebab, went out for a lunchtime meal in a village pub next to a river (not all in same day of course), lovely little place and basically put on 5lb in weight but it will soon drop off now back to healthy eating again, always does.
New years eve was a bit of dilema, i'm not a christmas/new years person and most new years since i was 16 i've worked as a DJ in a club somewhere, i think ive only had 3 new years off since then as someone usually gives me a call to go a play somewhere but since i moved and changed numbers you lose touch with people, last year went to London as you all know and was great. this year it was either Cardiff, Swansea or Carmarthen, i know culture capitols or what LOL So we decided to stay in instead which ended up being a great idea as it was all warm and cosy and watched the new year in with my "An idiot abroad" DVD. Helen and i were crying with laughter, i haven't laughed so much since Phil (of Janice & Phil fame) drank 7 Amstels in Oceanic. If you haven't seen it (the DVD that is not Phil) then get it its brilliant, funniest thing i've watched in years. I also have the book of the show its Karl Pilkingtons diaries of his travels which a customer of mine called Malc bought for my birthday last year as it was his birthday on same day.
Now carmarten is a lovely place, bit small, everyones related and as i've said numerous times they speak that funny language, WELSH! So in this close knit little town they do things a bit different, Boxing Day is the big christmas night out and instead of New Years Eve being the big one its the night of New Years Day which i find a bit odd but who am i to question the villagers. So we went out New Years Day night for a couple of drinks. Started off in what i class as my local in Carmarthen called "Rose and Crown" it wasn't as good as during the daytime when i go in there, it was a bit loud on all fronts. You had a disco at the back of bar blasting out to the front, all the TV's had sound turned fully up for the rugby at the same time and some of the people were louder still, i actually thought the one woman was talking through a megaphone haha but the bar was getting quite busy so we moved on. On to most probably the best looking bar there but not the best bar "Diablos", a cocktail, guess how much? £5.50 (THUD) sorry i just fainted, how much? £5.50 (THUD) sorry for a moment there i thought you said £5.50 for a cocktail with only a double measure in it. I've paid less for a cocktail in my favourite bars in London. So after one swift drink we left and headed to "The Queens". Now i got in a bit of trouble the last time i wrote about my visit here as i thought it was an Emerdale Woolpack theme pub but i will be honest again about it, it was the best bar of the night and was very happy in there. They still have the old style set up of Lounge and Bar areas, music not to loud in the lounge so people could talk and very friendly staff and customers. They have also had a bit of a refurb since my last visit, they had changed a light bulb that wasn't working the last time and got 2 flat screen TV's in lounge but my favourite bit is still there in the bar, the tv you need to change channel with a stick like before remote controls were around. So after a drink in there we headed home but was a good night in all.
So now bang up to date, yesterday. Went on bit of a day out, roads were dead so took ourselves off to Cardiff where i took Helen for a walk of where i had spent my misplaced childhood. It wasn't exciting for me as i lived it but Helen thought it was great to see where i used to live, where i used to go camping, where i used to get free cakes from the sunblest bakery, where the corner shop was still like Arkwrights Open all Hours, where i went to school, where i set fire under a neighbours car, where i threw a firework through a neighbours letterbox, where i smashed a neighbours window with a catapult (not all the same neighbour), where i was accused of stealing 12 Raleigh bikes from, where my father caught me with a bottle of cider and a cigarette at the age of 6, awwww happy days LOL Also i taught Helen a bit of history that was made just 25 houses away from where i grew up. In 1946 Cardiff was meant to hold the Empire Games (now the commonwealth) but due to the WWII it was cancelled until 12 years later and the stadium they built for the 1946 games is at the top of my street.
From there on to Cardiff shopping centre but only stayed an hour as it was freezing and snow started to come in so we headed off to Swansea to go for food at the highest Bar and Restaurant in a building in Swansea and maybe even in Wales. Its called the "Grape and Olive" the restaurant has an italian feel menu and wine list but there are problems. First of all we were met by a lady on ground floor, didnt look happy but we asked if we could go up to restaurant she said yes but restaurant tables are full but we could wait in bar with a drink, so off we went to lift up 28 floors to restaurant.When we reached the top there was no one there at door reception desk to welcome us or to ask if we were eating, we waited but nothing so we went to bar. There was no knowing of which tables were the restaurants or which were the bars as all tables had Salt & Pepper grinders on them. We sat at an empty table which had used glasses left on it. I bought drinks and sat down. I approached the restaurant manageress about eating and she told me there wasn't any restaurant tables free but would come to see me when one was free. The problem was we couldn't tell what were eating tables and what weren't so we waited, 15 mins later, still no contact and she walked past us 3 times, still used empty glasses on table and noticed 2 other tables still had used empty glasses on them since we arrived. Its says on its website dinning for 220 people but at the most maybe 40 were eating. Absolutely lovely place and amazing views but really poor service and set up. They should have the areas sperated for eating and drinking but it was chaos. Even down to the barman, i asked for a Martini and he didn't even ask the simple qustion "which would you like?" he just poured out a Rosso and which in fact is the least popular of the Martinis so he poured that one is beyond me. By the time we had left which was maybe 30 mins later the manageress still hadn't approached me not even with a sorry. Anyway i will try it again but maybe midweek so its dead in there that way i may get some service. Here is the view anyway from the town side, the other side looks out across the Severn and who wants to see the sight of crappy brown sea LOL.
So this update has taken me 1 3/4 hours to do, thats crazy, i must learn to type faster. So now i need a rest, see you all in 2 weeks, tatty bye everybody, tatty bye.
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