Truly a week of unparalleled gluttony!

I will try and break this down into categories to make it easier on the eye bulb.

Surrey (Pre-Course) Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th
I caught the train up to Surrey (OK, technically across to Surrey - as it's East of Bristol) on Friday after work. On Saturday Sarah's grandparents took us our for a 3 course Christmas meal at a local restaurant for a 3 course Christmas meal

The meal was great, very filling though, but I didn't take any snaps - as it would have been rude to get my phone out during a meal in this instance.

On Sunday, Sarah and I went to the local Hungry Horse and this time I opted for Spinach + Ricotta Ravioli. Considering Hungry Horse normally caters for people like me, with big appetites and small budgets - this option was a mistake. A very small portion, but I thought I would try something different - and now I have. I will know not to make this mistake next time.

Surrey (Red Hat Course) Monday 5th - Thursday 8th

I love training courses, staying in a hotel for several days enjoying a large budget for meals picked up by the company. The hotel in Guildford I stayed at was also a Brewers Fayre, the menu was pretty good. I also managed to make it up for breakfast every morning, a self service style deal - where you can help yourself to as much as you care to eat (an example of what I was eating for breakfast is displayed above).

Monday night I actually didn't have an evening meal, I went to Bracknell instead to meet a mate called Mark. Mark is something of a legend when it comes to drinking. He insisted that he was only going to have a quiet night and that suited me (as I had to be up early the next morning for training), but after a few Stellas we started on the cocktails - some of which were very potent (pic below).

Mark, Mark's South African mate Nico and myself managed to get though about 50 large cocktails in the night. Apparently the pub had never sold so many drinks in one night and, in fact, ran out of a couple of bottles of spirits as a result. We asked the barman (Mr Brown?) to leave the empties out for us, so that we could keep count of the wreckage (pic below of Barman Brown, Mark and Nico).

As for the training course, it was pretty good itself - and the food wasn't bad either! I usually opted for the homemade burger covered in chilli beef and grated cheese in a sesame bun with chips and salad. Unfortunately, I have no photographic evidence of this (I didn't want to have to explain to the other students what I was up to!)

I do, however, have some photos of the steaks I ate. The first one was an 8oz steak in a stilton and peppercorn sauce, I wasn't too impressed with the way they made the "sauce".. it was a steak with slices of stilton over it with peppercorn sauce over the top. It wasn't too bad once the cheese melted though.
On one particularly hungry night, I had a combo meal for starters and a 10oz steak in a diane sauce for mains (obviously Stella for dessert!!)

Christmas Meals Friday 9th - Sunday 11th
I came back to Bristol on Thursday night and Friday was the team meal in Clifton. A 3 course meal with a few drinks, my only problem was the dessert - ice cream in a brandy snap basket. Having had a few drinks I decided to eat it in one mouthful - I succeeded, but the cold ice cream did do me a bit of a mischief!

Yesterday was the traditional Christmas meal at the Holmes/Higgins residence. We had a few people over for a 3 course Christmas meal. Many thanks to Higz for doing most of the cooking, although the best bit was probably my contribution of sausagemeat stuffing (which was better than my effort last year, which was slightly over done). Tomato soup was the starter, mains were turkey, 3 types of stuffing (including the now famous, sausagemeat stuffing), pigs in blankets, cauliflower, peas, roasters, roast parsnips, turkey gravy, carrots and, of course, sprouts. For dessert was Christmas pud or Trifle. The event was mainly funded by our recent pub quiz winnings.
I was quite full after that and Christmas hasn't even started properly yet!!!