Curry For Beginners

L gets her first Christmas present of the year when a friend gives her snowman socks. Which, if she wears them today, is a way of (sort of) getting in the spirit of Christmas Jumper Day without actually participating.

Today is also my work’s night out which this year is a curry at Anoki in Derby which in my opinion is a serious upgrade on our normal Christmas Party night at the Roundhouse. The best bit of the evening is usually the pre-meal pub trip but this year everyone has decided to scrap that and stay in the office for drinks instead, with the company supplying plenty of bottles. It’s fun but its not the same.

During this the Secret Santa takes place and I get a miniature bottle of Baileys despite not actually contributing. 

Then it’s Anoki which many of us are really looking forward to as they have a very exciting menu. Only to be told when we get there that it’s a set menu. Oh. Which they only tell us about after they’ve sold everyone at least two drinks. Worst than that it’s a 'curry for beginners' set menu, so there's nothing remotely spicy. They do say we can add a few dishes, so I add a Jalfrezi. When this comes it is quite simply the hottest variation I’ve ever seen presumably to shut me up for being awkward.

So not a perfect night but still much better than the Roundhouse. We roll out of the restaurant quite late and for some reason end up in a bar called Seymours. Which, as it happens, is the bar in which I once seduced a young girl called L. Ah, sweet memories.

I believe the rest of our crowd then went clubbing but I get 12:15 bus home. L did offer to pick me up but I didn’t want to come between her and a glass of wine. She also threatened to turn up in her new fleecy PJs, although that sort of thing, e.g. driving around in PJs, is very in vogue at the moment.

They’re all in bed when I get home apart from Doggo who is waiting downstairs for me or perhaps he's just waiting for someone to give him a hand getting up the stairs.

(Friday 15^th December)

Black Friday

Tonight is Black Friday and after the near hysteria last year nobody seems to give a fig this year. I’ve been studying Macbook prices for the last fortnight and if anything they are slightly higher on Black Friday than they were last week which is a cunning marketing ploy. I think I’ll hang on for the post-Black Friday sales.

Of course the real reason today is known as Black Friday is because it’s a Thai-Free Friday as I’m attending my company’s Autumn Do tonight. It was supposed to be our Christmas Do but because it’s only November we have renamed it.

It’s also ‘Wear Your Old Band T-Shirt To Work Day’ which I’ve missed again. If they could please advertise this better ahead of the day next year. Please. I look jealously at all the photos sent into the website while I sit here with a Notts 5 Miler t-shirt under my civvies. Not really the same thing.

When a group of us leave work looking for a pre-Autumn Do tipple an immediate downpour forces us into the Beefeater rather than a real ale pub. Not a good start to the evening. We are marooned there (and soaked) but at least not far from the Roundhouse where the ‘party’ is. The meal is ok, at least it's hot this year, but it is outclassed by the pre-meal munchies of mini-beef burgers etc which are really quite good. The event itself is not all Christmassy, thankfully. In fact the only nod to Christmas seems to be the crackers on the table. Not even Slade gets an airing, at least not while I’m there.

L turns down a work’s sponsored night at the Casino to pick me up. I offer to get the bus home so that she can spin the wheel of chance but she opts to collect me instead.

I get a text with the rendezvous point, go to the pull in by the back of the station. It’s all so very cold war. I look forward to the honey trap. She did mention turning up in a raincoat, boots and nothing else but she doesn't have a raincoat...

(Friday 27^th November)

Moving On Up

L has the day off today to receive our various furniture deliveries and for the plumber to come fix our kitchen sink.

Naturally I’m sceptical that everyone will turn up and that they’ll deliver the right things if they do. I warn L that if a sofa turns up it’s not ours. It is Friday the 13^th after all.

I get the bus to work. As I get off the Red Arrow at Derby Bus Station, it pulls away and I watch it back into the Spondon Flyer. There are so many accidents in that bus station.

L reports that not only has the plumber turned up but that she’s agreed a price with him and he’s down on his knees as we speak. While she’s got him on his knees in the kitchen, she has another man upstairs plumping up the bed. Still no sofa though.

With the deliveries complete, L heads to her Mum’s and then meets me later at the Beer Festival.

Derby is hosting the National Winter Ales Festival at the Roundhouse. I’ve never been before, despite the fact it was also in Derby last year and a few years before that it had a stint in Burton.

L’s not a big fan of beer festivals and even I’m beginning to grow weary of them. I actually feel they are a bit redundant now because we have got such a good range of pubs locally with so many varied beers. In fact there’s not a lot on their beer list that I can’t get elsewhere.

So I’ve basically singled out Lees Moonraker, as you don’t see it very often. So I may just drink that all night or I would have done if it hadn’t already sold out.

R (halves)

1. Fullers London Porter 5.4%

2. Dent T’owd Tup 6.0%

3. Grainstore Rutland Beast 5.3%

4. Beast of Zeals 6.6%

5. Castle Rock Midnight Owl 5.5%

6. Bath Festivity 5.0%

7. Raw Anubis 5.2%

8. Raw Anubis 5.2%

L (thirds)

1. Dark Star Original 5.0%

2. Bath Festivity 5.0%

3. Bath Festivity 5.0%

4. Wentwell Amjeel IPA 5.8%

5. Dent T’owd Tup 6.0%

6. Dent T’owd Tup 6.0%

7. Dent T’owd Tup 6.0%

We get home and move upstairs. Although we’re not sure how Doggo will take to it.

He doesn’t.

(Friday 13^th February)

Christmas Meals

It’s a bit icy this morning and it’s good to get a bit of winter but I don’t think it will last.

The online queue last night is nothing compared with the real queue at the stadium formerly known as Pride Park this morning. People are reporting waiting for over two hours to get tickets.

L has her Christmas Meal at lunch time at Chino Latino, where the accent seems to be pretty much on the food. My Christmas Meal is tonight via a Christmas Party company at Derby’s Roundhouse where the accent is very much on the drink and the entertainment. The food seems to be a bit of an inconvenience. All well and good if that's what you like but personally, I think she got the better deal.

I have a few decent pints with a colleague beforehand and then dip out of the Roundhouse event after the food in order to get a not too late bus home.

(Friday 20^th December)

A Confusing Version Of The Alphabet

British Gas have talked us into fitting a filter to our hot water system, if we don’t, they have threatened (gently) to revoke the service contact for our boiler. Isn’t that called blackmail?

Therefore L works from home today, so that someone can come and fit said filter. The guy turns up but without the filter... which is really useful, as this is the only reason for him coming. He promises to be back in an hour, once he’s acquired it.

Only he isn’t. He telephones me to say he’s not coming back because he can't get the part. The part that was the reason for the appointment... So, that’s the second day of ours that British Gas has wasted this year and we’re only just into February. I ring to complain but get absolutely nowhere with their call centre, where the right hand clearly doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, let alone what the hands of it’s engineers aren't doing.

I daren't ask L to be in the next time they come, she'll do serious harm to the engineer with one of her knitting needles.

We both need a drink after that. So it’s a good job it’s the Derby Winter Beer Festival tonight. L comes over on the bus and I meet her there, at the Roundhouse, which is just a short crawl from where I work.

There is a good selection of beers, decent chilli con carne and some good cheeses as well. So a top night apart from a confusing use of the alphabet. The beers are supposed to be in alphabetical order but I think the organiser had had a few when he set them out.

Some beers seemed to be randomly inserted e.g. a Gloucester beer among the ‘B’s. We also found a lot of beers that were listing were missing but then found them on a ‘dark ales’ stall in another room or on the separate ‘Derbyshire’ stall and all the Marstons beers were amongst the T’s for some reason... We were confused, others were confused, even the staff seemed confused. Can we have a map next time please or else I might have to not drink so that I can unravel the system.

My favourite brew, Snecklifter (not that I had any but L had two pints!), was also listed as Marston’s from Staffordshire, that’s just plain wrong. It’s either Marston’s Jennings Brewery from Cumbria or Jennings Brewery (owned by Marston’s) from Cumbria.

Marstons to my knowledge, do not brew a drop of Snecklifter in Burton. Same goes for Ringwood’s Old Thumper, also listed as Staffordshire. It’s hard to criticise breweries for deceptive labelling when beer festivals are at it as well.

This is what we drank, although L cunningly mixed halves and thirds to stay more sober than me.

Me

1. Copthorne Black Beauty 4.6%
2. Elland 1872 Porter 6.5%
3. Raw Dark Peak Reserve 6.0%
4. Great Oakley Delapre Dark 4.6%
5. Nutbrook More 4.8%
6. Townes Pynot Porter 4.5%
7. Grainstore Nip 7.3%
8. Fulstow Sledgehammer Stout 7.4%
9. Steel City Dark Funeral 5.3%

L

1. Jennings Snecklifter 5.1%
2. Griffin Bmw 5.0%
3. Five Towns Winter Warmer 5.7%
4. Jennings Snecklifter 5.1%
5. Thornbridge St Petersberg Stout 7.4%
6. Jennings Snecklifter 5.1%
7. Nobbys T-owd Navigation 6.1%
8. Jennings Snecklifter 5.1%
9. Parish Bazs Bonce Blower 12%

(Thursday 16th February)

Stretching Out

Work have already booked our Christmas Party for this year. Yes, I know it’s only July. They’ve book us a table at Derby Sixth Form College... interesting choice. It’s better known as the Roundhouse, the renovated old railway building. It’s a rather impressive building but not terribly big as we found out at the beer festival. I hope they’ve upped the menu a bit, as the best we got there last time was a hot dog in the student canteen.

Training with MD tonight and our trainer promises a session to stretch the dogs out, which it probably does but it also stretches me out. I hadn’t been troubled by my ribs today, until now.

(Monday 18th July)