New Years staycation and 2022 review of the year. Hello 2023!

Well hello one and all and a Happy New Year. OK so enough of all that as got so much to show and write and very little time, busy, busy, busy.

So we'll start at Christmas Day with a quick summary, Great Christmas and Sian, my mum and I went out to a local establishment for Christmas Day lunch and what a great idea, it was so much easier and stress free apart from what to pre-choose from the menu.

I had slight chilli salmon on beetroot mmmmmmmm.

Sian and mum had Cheese Souffle with caramelised onion centre.

For main meal we all had a Turkey dinner but it was so good and the turkey was very moist.

My dessert was a cherry bomb with raspberry coulis. 

Sian and mum had a chocolate Christmas pudding with vanilla custard.

That then was finished off with coffee and mince pies. Would we do it again.....Hell Yeah! Why stress with cooking.

Our Christmas tree with a little Christmas bunny underneath.

And that's Christmas done. YAY! Roll on New Year.

WE always go away for New Year be it abroad or in the UK but we never stay at home.

This year I had booked us in to a train stations porter lodge on the steam train Llangollen line.

It was quite a nice drive up, around 3 hours but no problems whatsoever there and back also I saw a Transformer, Robot in disguise.

Arrived just in time for check in at 4pm and this is our lodge on the opposite side of the public platform, unfortunately for us the steam train doesn't run between 26th Dec and 5th Jan, BOOOOOOOOOO!

The View from our living room which was nice to look out on.

The views from our bedroom.

Our Garden.

And here is our home for the weekend over New Years. We love a log fire/burner. As soon as we walked it it felt like home, very comfortable, very cosy and had everything you would need from a holiday home, what a great find.

And little Squidly came with us on her first holiday, she was so good on both road trips and during our stay, in fact she was more at home here than at her actual home. She didn't become a hot cross bunny your ok.

The Berwyn Arms is only 5 mins walk away full of locals with a lovely restaurant but we just used the bar which was such a small area and held about 20 people but it did have other rooms you could go and drink in but we stayed in the small bar area.

While we were there on our second visit we chatted with a local who had lived in the village for 70 years since child, his name was Keith who's nickname was Spike, we didn't ask where he got his nickname from just in case it was something violent....well....we're in lands where "We don't like strangers round these parts no we don't" but I think Spike was fine, he said he had worked with pigs, cows and sheep, he never said he had worked with humans though, hmmmm! Spikes brother came in about 30 mins after us and boy was he weird, 6ft plus, eyes like Marty Feldman (google him) with a voice like he had a helium canister stuck up his behind, very strange.

Sian was a very lucky girl, Spike put his hand in his coat pocket and pulled out a handful of wrapped mint humbugs and handed them to her, I'm sure they were magic beans but Sian accepted them and then proceeded to throw them away when we got home just like Jack's mother did, I bet there's a giant beanstalk there now for someone else to get the golden goose.

The Berwyn Arms a great little pub.

                                       

Sian can never pass up the opportunity for a lit Christmas tree pic.

                                       

On return to our lovely porters lodge the public platform was all lit up.

                                       

First day over with as it was a late check in and straight to pub and tomorrow is New Years Eve so we better get some sleep in just in case of a late night. Nigh Nigh now SSSsssssshhhhhhhhhh!

New Years Eve, the plan was we'll go out for walk through the hills and along the valley floor then go back for a chill out before heading to Berwyn Arms. Change of plans, it's chucking it down. No matter we'll watch a movie and just chill out until later. 9pm comes around and we were so settled and cosy with the log fire on we decided to stay in with a bottle of wine and see the new year in with Squidly, also the rain was still coming down and there was no way we were getting soaked when it was so cold.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Staying in was just as good as going out so no loss there.

New Years day no real plans apart from a huge buffet we had prepared for when we got in from our day out, there was way to much.

Went in to Llangollen for the day as we needed more wood for the log fire. The River Dee was so fierce and full it was amazing to see and Llangollen train station is right on the bank of the river. Lets hope it never gets flooded.

Llangollen Station.

We really liked Llangollen, it was only a small town but lots of family run businesses, lots of dog walkers, ducks and more than enough pubs and eateries to stay for a week with beautiful surroundings for long walks.

As i said earlier Squidly was so relaxed in the porters lodge she slept on her side for so long the one time, longer than at home. When rabbits sleep on their side they are vulnerable so they only do this when they feel happy, safe and content.

At one point she was so relaxed she looked like she had been run over by a car 😆 and no, Squidly is not a fat bunny, we are very careful with her diet but I think given the chance Squidly would be quite happy being a plumper pet.

After a short 3 night stay it was now time to go home. As you know every single break or vacation we've been on we've always had great weather, better than we should have had but this time.......No, rained every day apart from when we were leaving BUT that did not spoil our break one single bit, we still loved it as we did actually relax for once just chilling in front of the log fire as our vacations are always full on no matter where we go.

And lastly on the way home we stopped off in Llangollen to pick up a homemade Giant Welsh Oggie. Dear god why do we always find great food while away that we can't get in Cardiff?

So folks that's another year over and a new one to look forward to with again so much going on for us.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2022 

And here we go my review of the year gone by.

To start with i think it's safe to say this was the best year of my life so far, who knows there may be better ahead. Are there other years that may have been the best? No, not even close. I've had great years like 2001 when i went to Zakynthtos for one year and stayed 19. 2006 when i took on Oceanic. 2011 when I got to go on my favourite game show Total Wipeout in Argentina, 2016 when I was free to re-open Oceanic with the bar being busier than ever and bumped in to Sian that Winter, 2020 when I decided  to give up Oceanic to stay home with Sian along with a trip to Calgary, Canada BUT 2022 was through the roof.

January 1st 2022 started off in the Hard Rock Cafe, London with cocktails and finishing up quite merry (That seems like a lifetime away now)

February we were in Paris for the start of the 6 nations with France the eventual champions against Italy and that was such a fun vacation with great sunny weather all the time we were there, apart from game day.

March, absolute tragedy, Taylor Hawkins dies. Still hard to believe even 10 months on.

April, Cardiff Devils become Play Off Champions

May, another trip to Monmouth, one of our fav places.

June, planned for Foo Fighters in Milan but got to see Imagine Dragons instead still in Milan, Italy. Another place we've decided to return to.

July, the month that made my life complete when Sian said yes to marrying me in Calgary, Canada. Calgary in Canada we believe is our home from home (Montreux in Switzerland is our spiritual home) as we feel more at home there than anywhere else in the world and it helps going there return in Business Class 😁 Roll on 2024.

August, time to recharge and do bugger all.

September. High emotions and lots of love in London at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert, we can say "WE WERE THERE" and showed our appreciation of Taylor and what joy he gave to us. Also we both got to see some of our rock heroes that I doubt we'll ever see again live.

October, a month of food, food, food. Restaurants, Pillars Cafe, Cake baking and the Operatic Society.

November, Birmingham Christmas Market and UK Foo Fighters. Always a good time is had in Birmingham and many more to come starting this year.

And here we come back to the very start of this blog update, December and Christmas.

I think you can see why this is without doubt the best year of my life and I feel so blessed to have spent it with Sian, I can't think of anyone who would appreciate where we go, what we do and things we see more than Sian. Sian doesn't just go along with things begrudgingly, if  Sian does things it's because she wants to, she enjoys them and wants to experience them with an open mind, she's not judgemental, Sian is my balance that keeps me stable and I'm happy for every minute we spend together.

2022, your gonna be hard to beat!

I will leave you with that for now and tell you of our year ahead in the next update.

So until the next update you lovely people.......

Serve All, Love All, Peace All......Kevlar Out!

Christmas........who cares?

Oh, don't be fooled by the heading for this update my wonderful people, everything is good in my world BUT......Christmas is now 3 months long and if i see that Elf advert (not going to mention the supermarket) one more time I'm going to go Elfing crazy. Does it really need to be advertised from October? Christmas is the same date every year, no one is going to forget it but now by the time Christmas comes around we're all fed up with it. I'm not a Christmas person anyway but I was starting to like it and now with the songs in shops and adverts starting so early in the year I'm getting bored with it.

I know , I know, an update so soon I hear you whisper, well it's because it's a very special anniversary, Sian and I have been together 6 years and counting. 26 years in the making but it was worth the wait and of course we're still celebrating Sian's 50th as I promised Sian she would have a years celebration. I have had more fun, more laughs, visited more places, been to more gigs and just had the best times ever in the 6 years with Sian than my previous 48 years on this planet, so to Sian i say thank you, i love you so much and SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS! To celebrate our time together i thought i would give you a musical treat as we both like our music and these songs remind me of Sian and our 6 years together

Firstly we have Limp Bizkit - Behind Blue Eyes, we chose this as our song as we were both in to the band the second time we met in 1999 as we had met 3 years earlier but then i only knew Sian a short while. We chose this as our song as we couldn't really choose "Break Stuff" or "Rollin", not very romantic so we decided on this some how.

This next song reminds me of our first ever visit to Switzerland. We were slightly merry and starving. It was quite late and the only place open for food was MacDonalds (God, if your reading, this is a terrible sin eating that rubbish, i was vulnerable and hungry, never again, please forgive me). Sian has this amazing talent of remembering the lyrics to songs, word for word, i can just about remember a chorus.

As we walked along the bank of lake Geneva in Montreux Sian started to blast out Queens - "A Winter Tale" which in fact is about Montreux, she was just singing and singing with arms in the air as we walked along freezing my butt off starving and dreading having to eat a MacDonalds but it was also very funny to see.

This next moment you would have only read about a few months ago, The Proposal. A very special moment in time for both of us. So here is the song that captured that moment. Coldplay - "Sky full of stars". Thought i'd use the live version for the light show as we had a light show when i proposed.

We have been to many gigs and concerts over the 6 years and i could have chosen any number of songs but i think this song is the one that Sian and i go bat shit crazy to the most. It starts off with a guitar being strummed, a spoken intro that Sian sings at me in my face then......all hell breaks lose, Foo Fighters - "All My Life", i pity the poor fool who gets in our way at a UK Foo Fighters gig. At Taylor Hawkins tribute concert we almost fell over the seats in front of us when this come, very difficult to mosh in a row of seats in a stadium.

Now then, this next song reminds of a warm summer night in Milan with the sun setting and just a beautiful night, it felt like the first real bit of freedom after Covid, it had also been a long time coming as we were due to be in Milan in 2020 to watch the Foo Fighters, then covid struck, then Taylors passing and an alternative of seeing Imagine Dragons came up who we had seen once before quite a few years ago and enjoyed them but to be outdoors on a lovely warm night withmwe stood behind Sian holding her close and just enjoying life was a special moment for me. This song "Birds" came on at just the right moment as the sun was setting down behind the stage, couldn't of been timed better.

So we've had 3 mushy songs and only one good rocking song, how does that happen when i'm supposedly this bad ass, short, balding Welsh rock monster i hear you say. Well, it's all about the songs, it's about the moments those songs bring back to you and 3 of those just happen to be nice slower songs. So, in saying that to finish off lets have a good old rock song. This is from when i was DJ'ing for the Millennium. Dec 31st 1999 going in to 2000, a once in a lifetime moment for everyone out partying that night. It was a sell out and it was a fancy dress event. Sian had re-invented her wedding dress into a princess dress topped off with a tiara and then that mild, meek, princess turned into a whirling twirling rocking bad ass when Guns N Roses came on "Paradise City". Out of a full dancefloor from my DJ booth i could see just one person standing out going crazy, SIAN! Sian had had a few drinkies but then again everyone had that night. At that point i knew one day Sian would be mine.

We've had many, many fun times and special moments during our first 6 years together that i could have chosen another 100 but these are the times that come to mind first so they must stand out the most.

A very quick update on my cyclist rant. We went to one of our local pubs on Friday afternoon about 3.30pm (We have 5 locals we alternate) and there walked in exactly as i had described "The road side pub cyclist" and i have picture to prove it that i had to take covertly. 

Did he really need to walk in with his helmet on? His 3 cyclist mates didn't, KNOB!

Then as i also pointed out in my rant he sat at the table with his helmet on, in is stinky sweaty lycra eating chips and downing a pint, i rest my case.

#

A little trip away to Birmingham to see the UK Foo Fighters and the Christmas market was our next adventure, not as exotic as Paris, Milan or Calgary but we really like Birmingham and you know what a trip away means......BARKERS BREAKFAST!

No trip away now would be the same without coming here,it's a full on tradition for us.

This piccie of my bacon and egg sandqich doesn't do it justice, i was still full at 6pm that night.

Another vacation and another apartment in the centre of Birmingham which was really nice and quite big and all for the same price as a hotel room, lovely, not that we needed a apartment just for 2 nights but it just gives you a nice homely feeling instead of a room with a toilet attached but maybe anything less than 5 nights doesn't really need a apartment but we like it anyway.

Bags dropped off and straight out in to town, no time to waste, there are bars that need visiting. A little walk around the Bullring and the Christmas fair first.

I have to say Birmingham do a great job with their Christmas fair and how it's managed and policed. Everyone seems to be there just to eat and drink and be merry, the craft stalls are a bit naff though but then again have you ever seen a good craft fair?

After ooooing and ahhhhhhing at all the pretty lights lets go find The Lost and Found. We found this bar the first time we visited November 2017 for Depeche Mode and really liked it but didn't go there on our second visit in 2019 as i was on a medical study and dribbling with a vacant look on my face but we found it again. Had a couple of pints in there and finished it off with a cheeky little snifter. We like this bar.

We'd been in here for while and now it was dark so back out for the Christmas lights.

Now then, i'm all for Christmas markets and fairs but when is it right to set up a bar and food tent right next to a headstone in a graveyard? If you look at the centre of the pic you can see 3 large headstones. this part of the fair was set up in a church graveyard, i kid you not. It seems to me a bit disrespectful to have all this set up on top of graves. Oh yeah, Merry Christmas one and all, your sat on a dead person.

On to the Sly Old Fox, again when we visited this the last time i was in a spaced out state on my medical study so couldn't drink but we made up for it this time, barman (i can say that as it was a man and he worked behind the bar) pints and shots all round. It's always busy in here so i didn't want to get my phone out and take pics so i had to find stock pics. The little peoples table by the pillar with stools was our table and yes the pub is that tidy and clean which is a first for us, usually their a bit worn smell of stale beer and feet stick to the carpet.

Starting to feel hungry so off we go back to the apartment for pizzas with garlic bread and then sleepy time as long day Saturday, sweet dreams ya'll.

GOOOOOOOD MORNING BIRMINGHAAAAAAAM! 8am and we're already out for a walk along the canal to the Costas at the Utilita arena for a latte and then over to sea life centre for 9.30am before all the little darlings start to get there with their families. 

We have visited here before but we enjoyed it and visit sea life centres wherever we travel if we can Birmingham, London, Chester, Penzance, Paris and Calgary.

It's so much better being the first in as you can take your time without others around you. They had made one change since our last visit, the river otters had gone and sea otters had replaced them, they are huge in comparison. Sian auditioning for Life of Earth.

From here off for a little retail shopping and a wander around the rest of the city and back to apartment to chill before our UK Foo Fighters gig. 

Someone had broken an antler off but still looks funny.

At the entrance to Selfridges in the Bullring, even the bulls festive.

It was pretty chilly this night and couldn't wait to get in but then when the band was about to come on it was boiling as it was a sell out and packed, not much room to jump around but we made sure we made space, who could stops us once were bouncing about, NO ONE! We couldn't be bothered to go back and forth the bar all night so when we did go to the bar it was 2 pint glass, they are huge, we looked like Borrowers.

After singing and dancing all the way through it's time to head back to the Sly Old Fox, really like this pub, felt very homely and comfy. Midnight came and it was time for a take away and home as out of apartment at 10am, BOOOOooooooooooo!

Up and out and guess what we found .........MR PRETZELS! OH MY GOD, AGGGGGHHHHHHHH! Bloody hell, doesn't open until 11am. i don't care, we're waiting and we did and it was so good. To carry on our Canada themed morning it was then over to Tim Hortons to finish off our weekend away.

Cardiff, get your ass in gear and get a Mr. Pretzels.

MMMMmmmmmm, taste so good!

So another trip over, and only one month left before the end of Sians year long birthday but we still have London and our usual New Years holiday which i think is quite special and will be really cosy and our little Squid is coming with us, YAY!

So until our London trip.........

Serve All. Love All, Peace All...... Kevlar Out!

TO RANT OR NOT TO RANT THAT IS THE QUESTION!

 Well my fine blog followers how are we all this wet, grey, miserable day? You all good? I hope so as its all doom, gloom, crap, the end is nigh, four horsemen (Am i allowed to say horsemen anymore) of the  apocalypse style headlines these days.

Now as you know i like a good rant every now and again just to vent my spleen and then go about my day happily but am i allowed to anymore? Am i allowed to say what has wound me up? Am i allowed an opinion anymore and let you, my public know what's got my goat......someone hasn't literally got my goat........well thinking about ....yes they have....someone has our goat Biscuit. OK...so i'll change got my goat to what gets on my wick.....can i say that? Wick is another word for a private part in this saying and what with having to be gender neutral ....hmmmmmm. OK so i shall come up with a new gender neutral PC saying for when something irritates you...i got it......are you ready.....do you know what has "SQUISHED MY KUMQUAT"....YES, someone contact Susie Dent on Countdown and let her know there is a new saying in town. I just thought.....that may offend vegans as i'm killing a kumquat.....they don't matter so it's fine, i can live with that.

It's very difficult these days isn't it folks, anything can be twisted to make someone look like the bad guy (can i say guy, maybe i should use person)........so in saying that.........

CYCLISTS.....What a bunch of dimwits (That's being polite). I've started cycling to work now from The Mumbles to Swansea centre, it's about 4 miles and cycle path all the way. I have my water proof suit, a helmet, a hi vis vest, 2 front lights, a back light and i'm good to go and everyone can see me as i make my way as i now live in perpetual darkness, its darks when i leave the house in the night and it's dark when i leave town in the morning. As i cycle along the path feeling like Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with "Raindrops keep falling on my head" not playing but actually raindrops falling on my head  i just go at a pleasant pace after all i'm not in the Tour de Cymru i'm cycling just to get from A to B. I encounter many other cyclist along the way, some for work purposes who all seem to have the correct gear and obey the highway code, some for pleasure and again all set up like me and obey the highway code BUT the absolute KNOBHEADS in their lycra gear with their skinny bikes that weigh as much as one of my mountain bike tyres and pot bellies, without any lights or reflective clothing as they think it creates wind resistance, never ever make a hand signal cause they're the only person on this planet which means we have to be mind readers and think they're Bradley Wiggins.......YOUR NOT, your a middle aged man thinking that acting like a DICK on a bike makes you better than everyone else. You see a red light you go up on the pavement, you see a zebra crossing (not the animal) you cycle straight through as you can't be arsed to clip your feet out of your pedal clasps, your coming towards a fellow cyclist (me) and you can't figure out you ride to your left like on the road and just stay in the centre making me swerve on to the pedestrian path when there's room on cycle path for both of us, you tut loudly as you pass a pedestrian or shout back at them cause you almost run them over at your fault, you cycle head down puffing and panting like your in a sprint finish when really your heading home to an empty house with a cat you've called Mr. Mistoffelees just in case you bring a lady home and married gents just use cycling as an excuse to get away from their wives for long periods of time. SORT YOUR LIFE OUT, just cause you've cycled 10 miles doesn't mean your fit and healthy as that pie and chips your eating washed down with a pint sat in your sweaty lycra gear in a road side pub after your ride as you say "You need to replenish" doesn't fade away cause you've exerted yourself a little. GET A GRIP AND GROW UP.........

Bob & Tom were excited for the off......here we come Tour De McDonalds, 2000 McDonalds in 23 days.

Geoff's exertion caused him to throw up in public. Pulling on all that lycra took a great effort, tomorrow he'll try to get on the saddle.

SNOWFLAKES.....(Not the frozen rain, i like that) Back in the dark ages we used to have a thing called a pen and a piece of paper and we were taught how to write. To make a complaint we would have to take said pen and paper, sit down put the pen to paper and write if we wanted to complain. This took time, effort and thought, something that people today haven't got. These snowflakes take to their mobile devices, tap tap tap and send without a filter, without any knowledge and without any sense. On my news feed out of maybe 30 headlines there are maybe 4 proper headlines all the others are about snowflakes complaining, furious, disbelief, outraged at something so ridiculously futile they wouldn't complain about if they had to sit and write a letter. "It's outrageous that i have to use my hands to eat", "How can someone be so heartless as to breath air next to me", "People are using their eyes to see where they're going as they walk past me, i feel violated", "I was talking loudly on facetime in the middle of 50 people and someone tutted and gave me a stern look, i may call the police", "Who the hell does that shop assistant think she is, asking can she help, does she think i'm stupid and need help", "I called the fire brigade to light my fire pit and they said they put fires out not light them, what's the point in the fire brigade, sack the lot"........This sort of brain numbing complaint is what real people like us folks have to put up with these days but then again these snowflakes are the same people that look at their toes and wonder what's making them wiggle, absolute idiots. This is a true complaint i saw just the other day, this is so pathetic........"A woman complained to a Sainsbury Store in Hornchurch that she was FORCED to by a bottle of Baileys to drink at home as the store she visited was freezing cold".......Now call me mister thicky if i'm missing something. She says forced, to me that evokes images of being grabbed by the neck or lead by gunpoint to a till and  made to pay for a bottle of Baileys. Also she went home and drank it, she was cold in the store, why didn't she open it there to warm herself up, she doesn't need it in her warm cosy home does she, UNBELIEVABLE!

THANK THE LORD!

FOOD.....Sian and i love our food, we cook allot at home as we prefer freshly prepared food than ping food but we want our food to be tasty which means unhealthy which is fine by us as we're healthy living people apart from that, we walk for miles whenever we can, we don't smoke, we don't drink much alcohol, we don't fry anything but we want to enjoy our food which means salt, fat and meat. Everything now has reduced fat, reduced salt, shelves and shelves of meat free products and plant based products......STOP IT! I don't force on to you the fact you should be licking the under hanging belly of a pig (Pork belly) as it tastes so good when cooked covered in fat, loads of salt and crisped up. Why is vegan food renamed to things like "No chicken nuggets", "No beef Burgers" , "No pork bangers" why don't they call it what it is "Non descript artificial matter that tastes of nothing BUT shaped like a burger", do you know why it's not labelled like that......cause if it was even vegans wouldn't eat it and go back to meat, say what it is, stop saying the meat that it used to be made with. If i want a plant based product i will go out to my garden, thrust my head in to the flower bed, open my mouth, shake my head about and chow down on a lovely selection of  geraniums. Have you seen plant based rashers? They look like the plastic bacon you get in children food playsets. Do you know what Sian and i thought we would do, we thought of opening a unhealthy food shop and restaurant called "Fat unhealthy bastards" where people like myself and Sian can go and buy and eat food that will kill you but tastes so good. Everything comes with extra salt, sugar and fat. You want the fat dripping from your bacon so it soaks in to your unhealthy brioche bun, YOU GOT IT! What's that you say, you want me to put even more salt on your salted fatted beef, NO PROBLEM! You want to go back to the 40's and have a beef dripping sandwich with spam and thick white bread spread with salted butter, WHY NOT! Don't take peoples choices away from them, make unhealthy and healthy products and let the public decide. They say it's to take the strain off the health service, i've read more about deaths in headlines of "fit, healthy, young person" dying while playing a sport or jogging than headlines about "unhealthy, obese, old person" being found dead after being stuck in a door frame for days.

MMMmmmmm plastic bacon, don't you just love plant based food.

PARENTS/GRAND PARENTS.....Now there is something to add to this heading Parents/Grandparents with children out in public. Where do i start with this, good grief Charlie Brown. This is not a rant about children lets make that clear. Lets start with the basics. There are places called PLAY areas, PLAY grounds, PLAY groups, PLAY centres, parks and fields. In these wonderful places the children you are dragging along with you crying and screaming or just yelling for no reason can make as much noise as they want, knock yourself out kids (wish they would). These places are for you to do as you wish with the little ankle biters where as these places pubs, coffee shops, restaurants, supermarkets are NOT where the children can do as they wish and lets be honest here it's not the children's fault, oh no, it's the parents/grand parents fault. Children are just being children, some more bratish and more misbehaved than others but children all the same BUT the parents/grand parents aren't stopping them or even just telling them "NO". We the general public who don't have kids or people who's kids have grown up don't love or adore your little cherubs as much as you and we don't want them around our table or anywhere near us, can't you see by my Paddington stare and the words that i'm mouthing "P**s off you little shit" that they are not welcome around us. Why don't these so called good guardians stop their children? "Oops, careful little one my pint may pour over your head if you run in to me as i'm walking from the bar" , "oh no, please be careful that my caramel cappuccino doesn't scald you as its knocked off the table because you've tripped in to it". If something happens to a child that's left to run wild like a feral cat in an area that is NOT for playing in, it's not the other customers fault or the child's fault, it's the parents/grand parents fault, so to keep your little bundles of joy safe and away from others keep them trained, restrained and by you, IT'S NOT DIFFICULT, the worlds not your babysitter. If i had wanted noise, stress and the life sapped out of me i would have had kids myself, THAT'S WHY I DIDN'T.

Little Jenny refused to walk causing a commotion in the shop, unfortunately Mum's bottles of wine were in the child's trolley seat.

AND RELAX...........

You all should try having the odd rant from time to time, it does me the world of good. These days your not even allowed a opinion. Opinions doesn't make someone a nasty person, it's just the view they have on a subject which you agree or disagree with.

So until my next update you lovely people......

Serve All, Love All, Peace All......Kevlar Out!

Food, food, glorious food and other stuff!

 Friends, followers, blog readers, lend me your eyes! Hmmmm.......not sure if that works. I don't need your eyes, i mean use your eyes to read this update. I don't want to be inundated with you sending me your eyes and you need them to read my updates. OK scrap that opening.

HI!

We'll what do i have for you today? By our standards it's been a bit quiet but by others standards we've been as busy as a the tory parties business card maker, Oh, political satire there. Who was Liz Truss anyway? She's as known to me as the Z listers on these brain numbing reality shows, never mind.

Well my 54th birthday has come and gone, just how i like it. On my 50th Sian surprised me in the bar with a cake and getting everyone to sing happy birthday at me. Now then, it's not the fact that i was the centre of attention which makes me feel slightly uncomfortable, its the singing, good grief, no timing, wrong pitch, don't know my name, lacklustre effort. If i've got to stand there for 30 seconds going bright red the least you could do is get it right and at least try to sound like you want me to enjoy myself 😆

Well, this birthday was just Sian and myself in a little Italian restaurant called Villagio. The best Italian restaurant i've been to in the UK.

We have been here before but this was a surprise set up by Sian which i was very happy about. I didn't want to spoil my main meal so i just had ciabatta with olive oil and balsamic vinegar while Sian had white bait.

On to mains. Now the menu is in Italian and i haven't a clue what my dish was called but i know it had Italian sausage in a white wine, garlic and cream sauce with pasta that looked like little turtle shells, tasted amazing.

Sian had some great looking beef which i think was in a red wine and tomato sauce with pasta strips, looked better than mine and smelt so good. All washed down with a Moretti. No room for dessert, its starter or dessert for us, no way both.

A trip down memory lane for breakfast the one weekend. When i was 15-16 myself and my mates used to go in to Cardiff city centre on Saturday and go to Pillars with a couple of quid and buy a pot of tea which was the cheapest item on their menu and sit in there all day. Used to love it. I asked Sian if she fancied going out for breakfast and took her to Pillars. Sian also used to go there when she was a teenager. Our bond is now complete, we like the same music, movies, comedies, travel and now we both used to visit the spiritual home of unruly teenagers, Pillars. 

You enter Pillars from Queen Street and go down a flight of stairs to a basement.

It's a time capsule, absolutely nothing has changed apart from a fresh lick of paint, this is so weird.

The long tray run where you would scrape your tray around until the serving area at the very end and order your pot of tea.

Order your food and drink, pay at the till and head to your table.

You may think to yourself "It must have changed", i kid you not, 38 years on and nothing has changed apart from now no salt and pepper pots or bottles of sauce on the tables, it's all sachets.

And here it is, the jewel in the Pillars crown, the 12 item breakfast for £6.60 and it was all worth it.

Also another love we share is buffet food. If you offered us a night at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant (Which he's never cooking in so why pay the stupid money, IDIOTS) or a buffet at someone's party we'd choose the buffet every time. We love buffets so much we have buffet making weekends every now and again.

This weekend it was homemade vol au vents and sausage rolls. Why can't you buy vol au vent cases outside of December? That's fine, we'll just make our own.

Tuna for one flavour, egg and bacon the other, lovely.

Then we did a bake off with the sausage rolls. Sian made Pork, boiled egg and chorizo, i made a breakfast roll with pork, black pudding, beans and a omelette base, both sets of ingredients then wrapped in puff pastry.

Talk about feeding the 5000, we over estimated the size of the sausage rolls and they actually lasted 4 days but they were so good, I preferred Sian's to mine and Sian preferred mine. I think it's always the way, being as you cooked yours you prefer the other persons. I could eat buffet food every day if i could and with our sausage rolls we almost did, way to big.

Also along with that i had seen a recipe for a peach upside down cake so gave it a go. We have a brand new cooker and still getting to grips with the oven. The cake was very moist and tasty but the bottom was slightly burnt, Boooooooooo!

We have taken to pub crawls every weekend trying different pubs and routes to fit in the most in the shortest distance. Well, winter is coming and nothing worse than trudging from pub to pub in the cold.

We've done a few around our area in Heath, Whitchurch, Rhiwbina so for a change we went in to Cardiff city centre. Not our fav place, Friday and Saturday nights in town is just full of morons no matter what the age BUT to avoid these numb nuts we stay on the very edge of town and drink in the better standard of bars that charge a little more but keep the louts at bay.

Don't get me wrong, i understand people need to let their hair down but when they start letting their pants down you know it's not a good bar.

Cheers everyone, i can't tell you the name of this bar with our fireplace all cosy as you'll stalk us and nick our seats by the fire. It's all ours!

So just a short update today as we're both pretty busy at the moment but with me having Thurs-Sun off every week we can do so much more together and we do, if ever we get to that point where we're sat in most nights both on phones not talking i think we'd prefer to smash our heads against the wall.

Talking of smashing our heads against a wall......we went to an operatic society soiree on the weekend in the Angel Hotel, Cardiff for a 3 course meal and entertainment. The meal was really good, ham hock starter, pork belly main and chocolate tart for dessert (All small portions) and they had given the women a engraved champagne flute and the men a engraved whiskey tumbler which was a nice touch. Couple of bottles complimentary rose wine and the night was on it's way. Had some nice conversation and then the entertainment was to begin with DJ Slipped Disc. Now i'm not saying he was making easy money but when you put on the soundtrack to dirty dancing and let it play then lead on with ABBA's greatest hits you can tell its a lazy DJ, some of the songs i hadn't heard since i started as a DJ which was back in 1985. No way was this guy taking requests and we sure as hell wasn't going to get any Foo Fighters or Metallica, nice food, nice company, free booze shame about the music......TAXI!

Sian looking as beautiful as ever, as for me.........I hate having my pic taken, hate my smile, i look like someone who's on the run, wanted and been caught in a photograph and thinking, "SHIT!" 😅

What have we got coming up? Well quite a bit surprisingly as i thought that was it for our travels this year but no, we have a few things. Cardiff Devils in European ice hockey competition, UK Foo Fighters in Birmingham, London for the Christmas lights weekend and then New Years eve at our steam train porters lodge in mid Wales, it was Barcelona but i'm all flown out for this year what with Paris, Milan and Canada.

Looking to 2023 we've already booked Rome, Zakynthos, Munich and Paris for Depeche Mode and Hydra for our main holiday so another busy year of traveling, one year we may stay in UK and go camping...............NAH, just joking. Sian will read that and go, "NO FREAKING WAY", i think it's the sharing bathroom facilities that's not for her which i can understand.

So then folks, shall we say meet back here in OOOOOOooooooooo 4-5 weeks?

Until then.........

Serve All, Love All, Peace All......Kevlar Out!

God save the Foo Fighters, Long live the UK Foo Fighters!

 Well friends, blog followers and blog readers, how are we all? Hope your all well and safe out there.

Before i start this blog update i would like welcome the new readers in Japan, Luxembourg and Colombia. Yokoso, Wellkomm and Bienvenidos.

5 weeks ago today we were making our way to London to attend the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert in Wembley. Even 5 weeks on Sian mentioned to me that even though we have read all the articles about Taylors death and were at the tribute concert it seems like we're still in denial, it just doesn't seem real or right that someone so in love with life and loved their job is no longer with us, such a waste of a beautiful person.

I watched the LA tribute concert via a Facebook live stream on youtube and it was nowhere near as good as the Wembley concert. The Wembley concert was a true tribute to Taylor with huge emotional pull, where as the LA concert was a celebration concert with more of a party vibe so i'm glad we had the tribute concert and not the celebration concert.

2 weeks after our Wembley concert we had tickets for the UK Foo Fighters in Cardiff.

We've seen them in Birmingham and in Cardiff last year.

We've seen many tribute acts over the years, Guns 2 Roses, Oasish, The Smyths to name but a few.

Now when i talk about the UK Foo Fighters these guys are in a league of their own.

I have never seen a tribute band so tight, musically note perfect, dedicated to honoring the Foo Fighters and giving the Foo Fighters fans an almost mirror image of the true band, even down to Dave's Shoulder head bobbing combo by Jay.

When you walk in to a venue they are going to be playing in the atmosphere is one of enjoyment and anticipation. I've been to see other tribute bands and sometimes the atmosphere has been that of it could kick off any minute but not with the UK Foo Fighters, it feels like hundreds of friends meeting up to let their hair down.

The lights go down in the venue, the lights come up on the stage, the hairs stand up on your arms and then........instant euphoria from the first note, the first two times we saw them it was "I'll stick around" this time it was "Bridge Burning" that set the room bouncing from the off.

As they make their way through the set it is flawless, it just builds and builds making you feel higher and higher. The venue is a sea of rock moshers, pogoing punks and head banging everyday men and women. Strangers grab strangers to sing out loud arm in arm as the band preach to the masses from the alter of a lit stage carrying the congregation along on the wave of high decibel perfection.

Our personal experience of the gig this time was of high emotion. We wanted to treat this gig as a fun celebration to Taylor but as soon as Jay started to sing "My Hero" a tear was shed, we got ourselves together. "These Days" with one of the opening lines being "One of these days your heart will stop and play it's final beat" chocked us up even more. Then "Times like these" it was like being taken back to Wembley as Jay sang it perfectly and with feeling, it broke us.

Apart from those 3 songs the rest we just let ourselves go and moshed, pogo'd and head banged until our bodies were broken but it was all worth it. 

If your a Foo Fighters fan you wont find a better Foo Fighters tribute band anywhere, in fact the UK Foo Fighters are without a doubt the best Tribute band of all tribute bands out there at the moment and i'm saying that from a live music lover point of view NOT just as a Foo Fighters fan.

We have even said when we get married we want the UK Foo Fighters to play at our party and we would set our wedding party date around them when they would have a free date to spare for us.

The UK Foo Fighters are not just for Foo Fighter fans, you'll love the energy, atmosphere and true musicianship of the band, you all need to see these guys as they are pure class and perfection personified.

To check out if the band are near you anytime soon please visit:-

https://ukfoofighters.co.uk

GOD SAVE THE FOO FIGHTERS, LONG LIVE THE UK FOO FIGHTERS!

Until the next update.........

Serve All, Love All, Peace All.....Kevlar Out!