Let me just get this out the way first, uugggghhhh.........I AM SO FED UP WITH CHRSTMAS ADS! This is the honest truth, i saw the first Christmas item, it was a box of festive biscuits, 5th September, SEPTEMBER! The excitement of Christmas is lost by the time it gets to Christmas day due to it being rammed down your throat like stuffing up a turkeys arse. If i hear one person say "Have you seen the new John Lewis ad? It made me cry" I will slap them so hard that their face will spin around on their head like Daffy Ducks bill when he got hit, GET A GRIP, IT'S JUST AN ADVERT NOT THE LAST DAY ON EARTH!
Anyway, how we all doing folks? Can i just thank all the readers of this crap pile of nonsense, it amazes me, the readership increases every month and to think at one point i had decided to stop updating it but now i get more readers than when i had Oceanic, so i thank you very much.
Hello London. Sian and i were working out how many times we've been to London since we met in Nov 2016 and this trip was our 14th with a 15th to come after this one. This trip was a non stop full on 2 days with lots to fit in so off we go.
At the moment due to never knowing when there will be a snap rail strike we are being safe and taking coaches all the time, not what we really want to but because we pay up front for hotels, events and restaurants now take money from your card if you don't honour your booking we can't take the chance with trains so Flixbus it is. We arrive in London at 1.30pm and our table is booked at Gordon Ramsays Lucky Cat Restaurant in Mayfair for 2.30pm so it's a dash off the coach to the tube and over to the restaurant. We actually got there 30 mins early.
They were more than happy for us to be seated early at the table i had requested, window table for 2 by the sushi bar.
Sian just casually sat enjoying life and chilling.
Me just sat there trying to put on a James Bond cool style look but looking more like i'm trying to force one out.
We very rarely eat out at a restaurant as we have this problem, its either eat or drink, we can never do both as we just can't get drink down us after food as we like to eat well, so for this occasion it's all about the food. Now you can tell it's a real grown ups restaurant as there is no salt or pepper or tomato ketchup on the table.
We order starters and because we can't decide on just one lets get six, well they're not going to be large starters, not in Gordons restaurant. To start we ordered baby tempura batter squid, selection of sushi rolls (not in pic, they came a bit later), pork gyoza, tempura mixed veg, rock salt edamame beans and soft shell crab boa buns. All were prepared to perfection and full of flavour.
The soft shell crab boa buns were the best out of the lot.
Phew, that was amazing and on to the mains. Sian had teriyaki salmon and i had flat iron steak topped with micro fries which came with sticky rice and soy seasoned salad.
Good god, those mains tasted so so good, we're close to bursting and still have desert to come, this will be a struggle, eyes bigger than belly.
Sian had mochi of which flavours i could not tell you but Sian said they were immense.
I had chocolate tofu ice cream with caramel and rock salt tweel. What were we thinking, we still have a night at the palladium with drinkies. Every single item we had was most probably the best tasting food we've ever had apart from just one other meal, Poutine at Bookers BBQ and Grill in Calgary, nothing will beat that.
All the time we were sat at our table Ramsays right hand man was there, Chef Jocky, he was walking around the restaurant and because of where we were seated he was just 2 feet away from us every time he passed. Sian told me to get a picture taken with him but i hate to bother people as they must get approached all the time and i would find it annoying if i was in their shoes but it was great to see him in person......until........"Hey yoo, ya short ass balding Welsh freak, who yoo think yoo rrrrrr dissing my pal Gordy on yooor blog? Wot yoo got? Gordy gooot all these businesses ya wee sassenach and yee goo and call im oooot on ya wee shite blog". "Excuse me?" didn't understand a word he said. Sian translated. I drew in a large breath of air through my nose and began "Gordon is now just a brand, he hasn't put a pinny on in years, i'd be surprised if he knows how to make toast, have you seen the size of him lately it's due to eating in all of his branded restaurants as he definitely doesn't sweat it out cooking in them, so stick it.......and by the way, the food and restaurant is superb and thank you" Jocky walked away with his sporran clanking as he went. But honestly Jock was there all the time we were there.
Time for the bill, now i don't need to to post the whole bill and the cost but i did ask would they accept a kidney, they declined BUT at the beginning we were asked do we want some water to which i replied "yes please". Then i saw the price........£6.50 now with the 15% service charge that bottle cost £7.48. I have checked the price of that bottle, TAU water glass 0.75 and he would be getting it for £1.50 or less, later on in this update you will have another shock about TAU water. Come on Gordon, you make plenty on the food and 15% service charge, don't rob your customers on water.
Talk about ripped off, how much profit? BOOOOOOOOOOO!
So just to protest at the cost of the water i S**T in Gordons restaurant, always wanted to do that 😂
We had spent 2 hours in Lucky Cat and it was all perfect, the table, the food and of course the company, my Sian, nothing could have made it any better.
Time to waddle off to our hotel to check in, quickly freshen up, change and back out to the London Palladium to see Holly Johnson.
The concert is a sell out. As we stood outside looking at the Palladium all you can think of is all of the huge stars that have graced it's stage and it's history, The Beatles, Sammy Davies Jr, Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, Bob Hope and The Krankies.
As we made our way to the bar you can obviously tell the theatre was of its time, grandeur and magnificence that royals, noble people and the elite would visit for their enjoyment. What comes with this is times have changed and the building is what it is and now in modern times it's public areas such as the bar are not big enough for the modern drinking culture. Inside as we sat there it is allot smaller in real life than what it looks on the TV.
Lights go down, an amazing intro starts off the show....it's Holly Time! As you know we're not ones for using our mobile phones when we go to gigs as we prefer to enjoy the concert we've paid quite a bit of money for by watching it with our own eyes NOT through a tiny wobbly held phone screen. Holly was an amazing host and his voice has not changed one single bit, he can hit the full on high notes and hold them, his voice still has all the power it had in the 80's and his backing band were very very good indeed. He sang all his solo hits and of course all of Frankie Goes to Hollywoods singles. Songs can take you back to times in your life and listening to Holly sing perfectly all those hits from our growing up years made me just a tiny bit emotional as those years were amazing and of better care free times where people seemed happier than present day. He also sang a song from Jamie: The musical which was amazing, it's called "This was me" check it out, the lyrics are quite moving, especially the lines regarding Freddie.
Of course i had to film this for you but only the intro but it's enough, sorry for quality but i have an old phone and i'm happy with it. Enjoy.
Absolutely amazing gig. We've now seen all of the best 80's bands, Frankie (well Holly), Duran Duran, Depeche Mode and Human League. There are more but for me these 4 were the best of that new wave/new romantic era. We're very happy indeed.
Off to The Argyll Arms, another one of our regular stop offs on our walks around London. We have our favs we always try to get to and this is one of them and luckily its directly across the road from the Palladium. SHOT, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS!
A good nights sleep, a nice dry sunny day and it's time for another one of our marathon walks and afternoon tea booked at the Ambassador Hotel in Bloomsbury at their restaurant called 12. Now we've had some good afternoon teas in our time with the best being in the Ting restaurant at The Shard at a window table with sofa so nothing will beat that but this was very good and a lovely restaurant.
Something so simple as a sandwich tastes so good especially when they are cut in to fingers with no crust, i know it's just weird that they taste so good, egg/cress, fresh salmon, salted beef and the classic cucumber, the cakes weren't to shabby either and 2 different scones, plain and dark choc chip topped off with fresh raspberry jam and clotty cream. MMMmmmmmmmm!
After we had eaten and sipped down our tea we continued on our walk and over to The Maple Leaf to watch the Rugby World Cup final.
So at this point i was really looking forward to a night of beers and rugby with Sian but i have a condition called Hyperacusis which in my case is a weird one so i'll explain it. It's sensitivity to sound, now in me it's specifics, if it's a collective sound like fans in a arena or a stadium i'm fine, if there is a over riding sound in a pub above everything else like music or commentary that focuses me i'm fine but if there isn't a focus sound i'm a mess. If i'm on a quiet bus or train and someone is on a phone i stress, if i'm in a room or at a restaurant table with more than say 6-8 people or a busy bar and there are multiple sounds like lots of loud chatter but nothing over riding that sound i stress, if i'm in a group of maybe 8 or more and multiple conversations going on i stress. It's quite a difficult condition for me to overcome but i do try but very rarely successful. So this night when we went to Maple Leaf it was very busy and all the people were very loud above the commentary, i was stressed, stressed so much i couldn't finish my drink and asked Sian if it was ok if we leave. I did feel sorry for Sian as i wanted us to have a good night out but instead we went back to our hotel room and watched it there, Sian is very understanding and that's why i love her as much as i do.
And so to bed as that day we had walked over 12 miles. There isn't much left for us to do in London after 14 visits, done the sites multiple times, been to all the attractions we've wanted to see so there's not much more for me to tell you about London that i haven't already written about BUT we did spot a new exhibit by Paddington Station it's an animals tea party.
It's a great looking exhibit but having the dog and rabbit dressed in humans clothes spoilt it, don't know why they did that.
And that's it for London until the 18th Nov as i've booked us in to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland which is the one thing we have left to do and we like to go up to see the Christmas lights.
What next, what next........ah yes.........FEEDING RED PANDAS, EEEEEEKKKKK! So excited, can you tell?
Off to Tenby for this one. I had bought Sian for valentines day 2023 a Red Panda feeding experience at Manor Wildlife Park which you have 12 months to use the experience which i left Sian to book the date but due to the high demand we couldn't get in until November, not a problem, it's all about the experience.
Sian had booked us in to a great guest house called The Sleepy Puffin, it was absolutely brilliant, great room and an amazing breakfast which i forgot to take a picture of as i was so hungry and it tasted so good.
Our Room.
Bags in and out we go for a couple of drinkies. We started off at the Lifeboat Tavern, it's a small little pub with 6 tables on street level and 6 tables down some steps but always very busy.
Oh dear it's only 7pm and shots are out already, this could get messy.
I noticed a sign about live music and Britpop chartsters Electrasy (never heard of them) are playing at 8.30pm, i said to Sian there is no way we'll still be out at 8.30 as we'd started drinking at 5.30pm and we're not the biggest of drinkers and we hadn't eaten. 8.30pm we were still there, oops!
Around 9 we decided to head back but.......oh...hang on....there's a band playing in here, The Cove. Just the one then.
The band were quite good and Sian got speaking to the girlfriend of the lead singer and the band played "Time like These" for Sian, we're staying. Before we knew it the band were packing up and it was 11.30pm, so much for not staying out and not being big drinkers, we were starving but a great night was had.
More SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS! Hick!
Good morning world. Sian was up and fine and raring to go, i was slightly worse for ware but a nice shower and i was fine and why wouldn't i be, we're off to feed the red pandas, YAY! The weather was pretty poor but nothing could stop our excitement.
We've been to Manor Park before and the first enclosure is the Wallibies which your allowed in to walk around and feed the Wallibies, they are so gentle.
After feeding the Wallibies as we were the first people in the park we had our feeding experience booked for 11am, this is unreal, we love red pandas.
Me excited outside the red panda enclosure, so can't wait, HURRY UP ZOO KEEPER!
As we were let in to their enclosure we looked all around for them in the trees as their really hard to spot, there a re 2 red pandas at Manor Park Cherry, a boy and Betty of course a girl. Then the keeper called for Cherry, he just casually came out from a tree, walked down a walk way and sat by us waiting to be fed.
This is Cherry.
He was so cute and was so gentle, no fear and so friendly. He loved the carrot sticks and also enjoyed the panda, cakes we were with cherry for about 10 mins and both fed him, once you've gained their trust you can stroke them too. Once he was fully fed he went off in to the trees to sleep. Now then, will we get to see Betty?
Cherry fed, now we're on the hunt for Betty who we found in her house but as soon as the food tray was shown she came out to be fed.
Betty was slightly smaller and had a lighter coloured face but just as cute as Cherry. We both got to feed Betty.
Half an hour in the enclosure both Sian and i fed both Cherry and Betty which the keeper said doesn't happen to often as you can't force animals to eat so you get what you get, you may get one of them, you may get both of them and if your really unlucky you may get neither, that's just nature. I always have the same feeling when i'm so excited to be somewhere, i'm there but it feels like i'm not, it doesn't feel like it's real and to be so close to a wild endangered animal who were so gentle and close to you was an amazing experience maybe one of the best experiences we've.
Red panda facts, they don't have thumbs but their wrist doubles back so they can hold food and branches also they are not bears they are more related to the Racoon family who we also like.
Even with the weather being pretty miserable that time in the enclosure was awesome and forgot all about the rain.
We'd had a late night out Friday and an early morning Saturday so we just had a night in with chip shop chips from "Oh My Cod" chip shop, they were so good, we were starving.
Now remember that super expensive water we had at the Lucky Cat, well guess what was on our tea tray at the guest house.........
And another great weekend gone to soon, ah well, on to London, second visit within 4 weeks, we'll need a holiday after this month 😆
One weekend at home so on the Saturday i decided to make a Greek feast which was lovely, we don't do it enough but it's great when we do.
Are we off to London again, LETS GO!
Just an overnight visit this time to go to Hyde Park Winter wonderland but our entrance time is between 4-6pm so we have a few hours to kill, PUB, PUB, PUB, PUB! with a walk past the Ritz to see it's Christmas lights.
This is a crazy rollercoaster with 5 loops, enough to bring up your bratwurst.
A bit like Peter Griffins, this makes me laugh every time.
Not going to name every location but it's time to see this years lights.
Our hotel this time was in Canary Wharf and we were quite surprised how busy it was on a weekend, we've been over during the week in previous visit but on weekend it's like a mini city with lots going on. Yes that is a giant rubber ducky.
A great nights sleep in a comfortable quiet room and it's time to head back to the bar for breakfast as we have a morning planned to visit a famous TV location.
For those of you that watch the crazy E4 show MAFS (Married at first sight) this is where they have their couch sessions and dinner parties. Another one of our serious, pouting, moody selfies for people to be gushing over of how wonderful we are, how gorgeous we are, how beautiful we look, oh no, sorry, that's fakebook isn't it 😂
There's nothing actually in the building itself, it's bare, they must just set it up when a function is on in there.
We both enjoy watching MAFS for one reason, to see the misery and fall outs, we don't care about the good stuff, that's boring. I take great pleasure from seeing reality wannabe fame hunters being miserable and angry. Also there are 3 experts, remember that word EXPERTS, who match up people to get married at first sight. There has been 8 series, 88 couples, only 3 have stayed as a couple and 85 failed.....not very good experts are they? They match someone from Shetland island with someone from Penzance because they both have in common breathing and talking and one of them would have to give up their life and move for someone they've just met. Jesus, i could do their job, absolutely ridiculous.
And that was our short weekend away, so within 4 weeks London twice, Tenby and Home. It's been a while in between updates but it was pointless me posting them individually as they do take me ages to set up so thought it best just to post one long update instead.
So thats its for this year.....well almost, we're away for New Year with Squidly so i think the next update will be in the new year with Christmas update and New Year trip.
So i shall now wish you all a very messy Crimble and a sloppy drunken New Year, here's to an even better 2024.
Until 2024.........
Serve All, Love All, Peace All, Kevlar Out......!
