World Cup 2006 begins!!

Didn't manage to get to the gym at all last week. Was either without car (MOT) or out and about.

Happily my car passed it's MOT first time with no problems, so now it has 12 months MOT and tax.

I may have mentioned last week that I bought a few tins of fish (tuna, pilchards, mackeral) for some reason, so the first meal featured is tinned mackeral in tomato sauce on toast with a salad garnish which I had last Tuesday night. It was alright to begin with, but got a bit heavy going half way through.

On Wednesday I was taken on a bit of a jolly by one of our vendor's at work. They took us to shoot some arrows at an archery event in Coalpit Heath. I did alright in the end and my team won both events, with me shooting a bullseye to win the final event.

The jolly didn't finish there, because afterwards we were taken to the Riverside restaurant at The Grove in the town centre. The vendor picked up the tab and encouraged us to order whatever we wanted to eat or drink.

I started with a delicious chargrilled squid on a bed of guacomole, it was very tasty and I washed this down with some Hoegarden (white beer).

The main course I ordered was duck. This came out with some green stuff and berries. I do know that they also brought out some carrots and potatoes as well (not pictured).

The duck was very tender and moist and was complimented by the sweet, fruity sauce. Not to mention I washed this down with a bottle of white wine (shared with my mate, Gibson).

I had some kind of apricot sponge for dessert, I have a pic but it was quite blurred (by this point I had moved on to drinking Nastro Azzurro).

The meal ended with an Irish coffee and a mini bus ride back to Aztec, where I walked home (to compensate for all I had eaten and drunk?)

Thursday lunch I had beef and ale pie and veg, look how thick the gravy is in the canteen nowadays.. crazy!

In the evening, I had a quick sandwich and went to a mate's leaving do. I was only intending to have a few quiet beers and go, but after a few quiet beers I fancied a few louder ones. Didn't stay out too late though.

On Friday, the directorate I work for (technical) were taken to the Bawa Club in Southmead to watch England v Germany in a mock 1966 world cup replay. The players were people from technical. I had a few beers in a bar before watching the game (with a few cans, naturally) in the scorching sunlight (several of my team got quite burnt, in fact). The final score was 4-3 to "England".

After work I watched the last few minutes of the opening World Cup match (Germany beating Costa Rica 4-2) and then had some mates over for a few beers and watched Ecuador beat Poland 2-0.

Saturday was England's first game in the World Cup. I went to Roobar with Scofield to watch the game. I was there at midday and the match didn't even kick off until 2pm!

England beat Paraguay 1-0 and after the match I went round Mike and Michelle's new gaff in Bradley Stoke, as it was Michelle's birthday. I had a fair few more drinks and ate some barbeque food and everything seems a bit vague after that..

On Sunday, my parents took Sarah and I too the Fox Denn in Filton where we met up with my Auntie and Uncle and had a Sunday dinner.

I had mussels to start, which had chorizo and stuff in a sauce. Spicy and nice. I love mussels.

For my main course I opted for roast turkey.

This was a very filling meal and in the end I didn't even require any tea after that.

On Monday, I was very happy because they served a really nice lasagne in the canteen!

I wish, like roast dinner day, they had a lasagne day every week at work. That would be an idea I will have to put forward!!

I went to the gym after work and then back to my parents' house for tea.

My Mum made a nice healthy salad with ham, eggs and balsalmic vinegar dressing and some honey and mustard relish.

For dessert, she had made a fresh strawberry and custard type flan type thing. It was very tasty indeed!! I might have to make one myself.

Tuesday's canteen offering didn't look any good at first, but was actually quite tasty in the end.

It was a spinach and cream cheese pancake wrap. The veg was nice too, but I selected some potato wedges - but they were quite hard and crispy.. so wasn't all that impressed.