Global Gathering!!!

So last Tuesday night I did go round my parents and test my tent out. It went up a treat, it is a veteran of many a Glastonbury festival this tent and so I was quite surprised it was still OK. When I got home I ate some chilli cheese on toast and cleaned the house up.

The next day (Wednesday AKA the day that was formerly roast dinner day in the canteen) I had a vegetarian chilli for lunch in the canteen. There wasn't much of a choice. I did bulk it up, however, with some carrots and sweet corn and even dropped a dollop of sour cream on there too.

Afterwards I noticed that the soup of the day was french onion, so I got myself a bowl with a bread roll.

In the evening I went to the gym with my Dad again. Worked out, but not hard because my hamstring on my left leg went quite painful for some reason. At the end of the session I weighed in at 100.4kg's again.

After I had dropped my Dad off at home, I drove to Asda and did some shopping for Global Gathering. I forgot most sensible things and ended up buying 14 tins of ring pull opening foodstuffs (including various "Hunger Breaks", Del Monte fruits and curries), a crate of Stella and some fruit juices.

I also purchased a vegetable pizza from Asda. I grated some extra cheese onto it too and then I spiced it up with my own personal collection of mixed herbs, crushed chillies and ground peppers to make it inedible to the average man. To me, it was a rather tasty piece of pizza.

I did regret eating it all in one sitting though, I felt quite bloated afterwards.

The next day was Thursday AKA the new Roast Dinner day in the canteen. The meat of the day was ham (one of my favourites) and the portions were very generous. The canteen also had a bowl of ground pepper corns to sprinkle onto it, which I did and was quite impressed with.

After work I packed my stuff for Global Gathering and then went round Welsh Chris' for a pre-GG barbeque. I took round some Stella and some meat leftover from the barbeque we had at the house recently, as well as some cheese and onion bread (like garlic bread, but without the garlic).

Friday morning, we (Carla, Lee, Welsh Chris, Welsh Sarah, Ian, Bud, Gale, Mike, Jot and myself) all went to Global Gathering. The food and drink there was very expensive (35 quid for a 24 pack of Carlsberg in the campsite, 3.50 per 500ml bottle inside the festival part), but luckily I had my Stella and tins of food to keep me going.

The only food that I remember buying in there was a roast pork and stuffing roll, which wasn't too bad and only cost a fiver.

I came back from the festival completely knackered on Sunday and ate a few more of my tins. Later on in the evening, my parents came back from Exmouth and took me out for a meal at that new carvery place at the venue. I wasn't that hungry, but still managed to eat my way through a carvery meal with all the trimmings.

Today I came back to work and am on-call (just what you need after a music festival), but it was someone's birthday so I got to eat a load of cakes and stuff. This meant I wasn't too hungry by the time I went to lunch, but I still snarfed down a mixed bean curry with rice and a tomato and carrot soup.

I will be leaving work now and going round my parents, as I have a birthday card to pick up and a ready meal of some Chinese noodles to eat round there.

My 26th birthday and other stories..

So Wednesday evening I went to the gym with my Dad, I weighed in at 100.6kgs - so quite near my target still.

When I got back to my parents I invited myself in for tea, as I was hungry and had nothing to eat at my gaff. My Mum was cooking fried eggs and chips, but I persuaded her to whip me up a lasagne instead. Microwave job, but quite tasty!!

Thursday, as I mentioned in my previous post, was unusual. Thursday is now the new roast dinner day in the canteen. Fair enough, I thought, so I had a roast beef with yorkshire pudding (rare that they do a yorkshire pudding, but exciting).

I had my roasty and then got myself tested by some Esporta gym representatives who were testing peoples fitness to try and coax them into joining their gym. I was proved to be quite fit (good lung capacity and heart rate), but overweight (28% body fat and a BMI of 28.3). They recommended balancing my high impact gym activity with some low impact gym stuff. I scoffed slightly, as I already combine my cardio work and am seeing a slow reduction in weight and stuff. Unfortunately I gave them my phone number and now I keep getting loads of calls from 0117 numbers and the occassional private number. Silly me.

After work I rushed to the Downs as my mate, Welsh Chris, was arranging a kickabout down there. I was worried that I might not be fit enough for a full 90 mins of 11 v 11 and I certainly doubted my skills as I am way out of practise. The game went quite well and I even scored the opening goal. I had a few chances and even scored a hattrick, one of which was a header. I also had a header hit the post (well, it went over the post.. jumpers for goalposts and all that). I soon got proper knackered, but only about the same amount as everyone else. After the game, I went round Bud, Boz and Poj's house for a glass of water (which soon turned to cans of stella and I finally left there at about 1am).

Friday I had the day booked off from work, so that I could go out drinking all day. Finally got down town at 3pm and I was absolutely starving, so after a quick pint in the Pitcher and Piano on the waterfront - we went next door to Lloyds to eat.

I opted for the 2 meals for 6 quid offer and had a lasagne and sweet and sour chicken. Both meals were very tasty, however a few beers and a full stomach meant that I did feel drowsy for an hour or so.

We drank our way through to the evening and finally ended up going to the Unity rave at Lakota, not before we stopped at the crepe van by the waterfront. I had some kind of spicy chicken crepe and it was beautiful - highly recommended.

I got home about 3am and went straight to bed.

Saturday was my birthday (26 years old now, what an old bastard). It was also the first day of the Ashton Court festival. So after Sarah had got me a McDonald's breakfast (not often will you read about McDonald's meals on here, but it was my birthday and Dominos wasn't open yet).

In the early afternoon, we hooked up with some mates and got a taxi to Ashton Court (stopping on the way to stock up on stella). The festival was great, although again I got completely mullered. I have to say they had some great food there, but unfortunately I don't think I ate anything.. I did partake in some pear cider though - which was great!!

On Sunday, I went round my parents and was given my cards and presents. The new Rovers shirt from my parents, the "Life on Mars" DVD from my brother, some books and a DVD from Sarah and lots of vouchers.

Then we went out for dinner, we went to the Royal in Portishead for a three course meal (and, of course, some wine and some beer).

I had some kind of mozarella and olive salad for starters, which I wolfed down because I was hungry!

Then for my main course I opted for roast chicken, this was also very nice indeed.

I don't usually have desserts, but on this occasion I decided to have a Baileys Crème Brûlée.

According to my Mum I drank 7 pints of stella during the meal and a fair few glasses of wine.

Once we got home, I had some further wine, beer and port and some chocolate cake (which due to my drinking exploits mostly ended up rubbed over the dog's face).

The morning after I wasn't feeling too good and woke up when Sarah left at 6am. I couldn't get back to sleep, so came into work early (which did mean I could leave early though).

Lunch was OK anyway and I really needed it - a peppered steak in a roll with coleslaw and I added some carrots and cabbage to make it look a little bit healthy.

I went to the gym straight after work too and didn't do too badly considering my heavy weekend. Sweated most of my alcohol out.

Weighed myself at the end of it and surprisingly was 100.4kg.

After the gym I went to my parents house and had some quiche and salad with new potatoes and lashings of balsalmic vinegar.

I ended up having a fairly late night last night and therefore have been knackered all day today.

I still made the canteen for lunch and there was some tasty pie. Beef and vegetable pie with carrots, cabbage and cheese cauliflower.

Plan this evening is to dig out my festival tent and stuff and take it round my parents to set up and make sure it's still habitable (as I am off to Global Gathering on Friday!!)

Parties, food and lots of drink...

Friday night was quite busy for me, I ended up going to the pub after work and then down to Fishponds with Mike to see some mates. Then we stopped off at Tony and Terry's for a bit before going home. I had some cheese on toast and went to bed.

Saturday I woke up fairly early because of the heat and had some breakfast of more cheese on toast and used up the last of my bread. In the afternoon I went round Carla and Lee's for some pre-party drinks. I don't remember much of the party, really, as I was quite sauced before it even started kicking off. Needless to say, reports are that I was a gibbering wreck and asleep on my feet for most of the evening.

I kind of woke up on a sofa Sunday morning and went home with Tony (who's moved in to my gaff for a few days while he sorts himself out with somewhere to live!!), I had a good sleep and woke up very hungry.

With nothing to eat in the house, I made an executive decision to order a pizza from Dominos. Admittedly expensive, but they bring the food to you and it tastes goooood - so I was happy. The pizza base of choice was the ever-indulgant "double decadence" (a lovely cheese and herb sauce inside the base - tasty!) and the topping I opted for was "Tandoori HOT" (Tandoori chicken, onions, mushrooms, green peppers, jalapeno peppers and I selected reduced fat cheese.. didn't taste any different, although I am sure is still immensely calorific!). The pizza arrived after 30 minutes and my hunger was quenched.

Eating dominos pizza always makes me feel dirty and used, but it's so damned tasty.

Didn't do much all day really, except watch TV and drink copious amounts of diet lemonade with raspberry (to help rehydrate myself from the previous day's Stella binge, not to mention it has been crazy hot).

Monday I went to work, as usual, and had a canteen lunch, as usual. I had a beef stroganoff with rice and I added some carrots and green beans (to try and reach my 5 portions of fruit and veg per day). This was tasty, but I couldn't help but feel that the option of stir fried vegetables with noodles would have been better (it looked so good).

After work I went to the gym with my Dad and we had a good long work out. I surprised myself by actually weighing in at double figures in kg (99.8kg). I can only put it down to the heat, as I have drank loads over the weekend and eaten a fair bit too. I then went round my parents, where I was treated to a roast dinner with all the trimmings. The meat was beef and it was spot on.

Then I went round Welsh Chris' and watched a film that was shot in his hometown of Swansea, Twin Town and drank my way through a few cans of Stella.

On Tuesday I had an Ocean Pie for lunch (a little bit mash heavy, but some nice fishy things in their too) and then went to the Orchard pub for some soft drinks in the sweltering heat.

After work I picked up Mike and drove to Fishponds to see one of our mates new car (he has bought an almost identical Toyota Celica GT4 ST205 as me) and then I went round my parents house for a barbeque.

The weather was still roasting, but the food was great. I had a really tasty beefburger with all the trimmings as well as a lot of other things like corn-on-the-cob, peppered turkey kebabs and lamb ribs.

There was also plenty of salad and potatoes to go round. I washed this all down with orange juice (the type with bits in - ace).

I also had a nice steak, which I topped with some mustard and various relishes.

Although my Mum was offering ice cream, I was far to full for anything more.

The weather was still so hot, however, that I had a dip in their pool they put up in the summer. Very refreshing.

Then I went home and picked up Tony and went round Mike's, as Rich was there and it was his 26th birthday (old bastard!!)

Today I didn't go to the canteen for lunch, as apparently roast dinner day has moved to Thursdays now!! This will be very weird, a routine broken (how will I cope?) - instead I just ate a crap load of sandwiches that my boss had brought back from a meeting and then I went up the pub to make the most of this heatwave we are having.

After work I am going to the gym again, I wonder if I will still be under 100kgs? I doubt it given the meat feast I had yesterday!! (at the BBQ, obviously)

The journey continues..

Tuesday lunch was a fine lamb lasagne in the canteen. Always loving their work on that one!

Some nice veg and some gravy wrapped it all up nicely.

I couldn't be bothered with the gym in the evening, so I went shopping for some essentials.

Bought myself an "extra tasty" chicken from Asda, some salad, bread and oodles of various fruit juices.

So I had myself a chicken salad for tea and slobbed out for the evening.

I dressed the chicken and salad with some super spicy chilli sauce, added some pep to my creation.

The next day was a Wednesday, which is one of my favourite food day's of the week.. as we have a guaranteed roast dinner in the canteen!

The roast meat of choice this time was lamb. I opted for some red cabbage, carrots and sprouts with some roast potatoes and gravy.

After work, I was covering someone's on-call so I didn't go to the gym.

I had a chicken and salad sandwich and again dressed the chicken and salad with some of my chilli sauce - very tasty and can be added to pretty much anything!

Thursday's canteen food was lamb hotpot.

I had this with cauliflower cheese and carrots.

The mixture of gravy, cheese sauce and hot pot made a rather tasty soup.

Must have given me a taste for it, because then I bought a bowl of tomato and carrot soup and a bread roll. A great way to finish my meal.

After work I had a nice salad sandwich and went to the gym for a while.

This afternoon I wanted to go to the pub for lunch, so I nipped down to the canteen first and had a lamb korma with coconut and chutney. Very tasty.

Right. Pub time. At a house party in Patchway tomorrow - should be a laugh.

World Cup 2006 ends!!

A busy few days, but I'll start with last Wednesday night. Went to the gym after work and then round my parents for tea. Mum had bought a roast chicken from Morrisons, so we had that with some salad and potatoes.

I then went home and watched Portugal lose to France in the World Cup semi finals. I don't know why, but I really enjoyed this game - particularly when Christiano Ronaldo cried like a baby (again).

Thursday I decided to go to the Hungry Horse for lunch, it had been a while since my last visit. My colleague Martin ordered his food first (a 20oz megasaurus steak - brilliant) and then I went up and ordered my Cow Pie (with a jacket potato specified instead of mash).

Martin's meal came (and went), he did buy me a stella though. Then some time later, a waitress came out and said that they had borked the jacket spud and asked if I wanted chips, new potatoes or mash. Trying to be healthy I ordered new potats.

Shortly after, out comes the waitress again.. No new potatoes!! I opted for mash.. best be safe. To be fair, the nice waitress gave me a free pint of stella - so I was happy. Even though the meal was missing cabbage and carrots (but I was late for work, so I just accepted this and ate it - was pretty bloated too!)

Given that I was bloated and had 3 pints of stella, when I got home after work I went straight to bed and slept for a few hours.

I only ate a small bowl of all-bran with a chopped up apple that evening.

On Friday I had a nice early bite to eat so I could go to the pub during my lunchbreak. I had a rather nice (if small and slightly pricey) prawn, poached salmon, crab and baby spinach roll.

I went to the Orchard after work and Sarah met me there, some time later we went home and then met Carla and Lee to go back to the Hungry Horse (they gave me a free stella!! All was forgiven).

We met Mike and Michelle there and had a few more drinks.

I was going to have a steak, but then bottled it in the end and had a salmon kebab salad. It was very nice, but I think the service was quite bad there (I was pissed, so didn't notice to be honest). I think they brought the chips out late and the waitress had an attititude. The manager came out and said she was new and she had put the rude waitress on pots.

As I said, I didn't really notice.. I was still pleased that they had given me a free stella the other day.

We all left at some point, Lee and I ran home beating the girls by ages!!! Then we stayed up drinking and watching telly.

I threw Carla and Lee out at 2.30am (much to their surprise), but I needed some sleep so that I could be ready for Saturday.

Saturday afternoon I got up and cooked Sarah and myself the last of my quorn sausages, some beans and chips. They went down very well.

Not long after that, I drove Sarah round Michelle and Mike's and traded her in for Mike - so she could go drinking with the girls and I could go down town to drink with the lads.

We all hooked up again at some point and then went to the New World restaurant (it was one of Michelle's friends birthdays). The New World restaurant is an all you can eat (which I love) chinese restaurant and kareoke bar.

This time I managed to remember to take a pic of one of the plates of heaped chinese goodness. How I managed to eat all that and still drink copious amounts of booze and not throw up - I have no idea?!

Can't remember much about the evening (as usual), but I did end up walking halfway home from town before succombing to the taxi temptation.

Sunday afternoon, Sarah and I went to the Mall and did some shopping. Feeling a bit peckish we had a spud-u-like jacket potato. Mine was the "special" (tuna with various other odd things in there). Not bad, if hugely over-priced.

After the Mall, we went to the cinema and watched Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Not bad, but a bit long.

In the early evening, we met up with my parents and brother at the new carvery place at the Venue, Cribbs Causeway, Patchway. I had the carvery (well, you gotta really..) and opted for all the meats (gammon, turkey and beef).

I was quite impressed, although they didn't sell stella there - so I think the Orchard might just win that battle (plus the Orchard let you help yourself to vegetables when you get a carvery - and go up for more if necessary).

I had a dessert, which is very rare for me. It was ice cream made with honey with little honey comb chocolate balls. Dressed with honey and chocolate sauce. Very nice.

After this I went round Lee's with some stellas and watched the World Cup Final. It was a great match and Italy eventually won on penalties and then we watched the Montage! Emotional.

Well the World cup is over and there is 4 years until the next one (2010 - I will be turning 30!), still we have the rugby world cup next year and the European Championships the year after. So it's not all bad news.

Well today's canteen offering was pretty good, a chicken and mushroom dish with rice.

I followed it up with some vegetable soup and a bread roll.

After work I went up the gym with my Dad, weighed myself and came in at 102kg. So moving away from my double figure goal.

I went round my parents after work for tea again, it was a chicken breast with bacon and cheese. Nice. Also some green beans, mashed swede and carrot with boiled potatoes and some ciabatta.

Washed down with some Orange juice. I think I got my 5 fruit n veg portions today.

Glückwünsche Italien

My tiredness wasn't helped yesterday as I had to be in work for 9am for a meeting, so I was fairly tired all day (and I have just realised that I still worked until 6pm.. d'oh!). There wasn't much of any interest in the canteen, so I plumped for some nice looking pasta which I had with peas and carrots. It was nice enough and certainly quite cheap. I had to rush my lunch a bit, because I was meeting Chris up the pub (as the weather was very hot indeed).

After work I went home and milled around for a bit before going to the gym. I had another good workout (weighed in at 100.8kg again..) and then went home for tea. As my freezer was still full of vege stuff, I had some quorn sausages (which were really, really nice) and some chips (which I crazied up again with crushed chillies, ground black pepper and mixed herbs) and a bowl of baked beans.

I ended up getting drawn back into football again last night, I didn't want to - but I started watching it and the open, attacking nature of the game got me hooked all over again (football was dead to me after England got robbed, again). Italy eventually out-classed Germany and won their place in the final with 2 goals in extra time. It's France against Portugal tonight.. Come on France!! (never thought I would hear myself say that!!)

Today I have still felt knackered all day (hot weather + noisy local seagulls = a bad nights sleep), but the upside was that it is a Wednesday and therefore roast dinner day in the canteen!! This week's meat was turkey.. and a very moist and tasty turkey it was too! I had some broccholi, cabbage and carrots as my choice of veg accompanying my fat roasties and the turkey. Some ladels of gravy (always beef.. odd?) and some black pepper rounded it off nicely.

Despite this filling me up quite nicely, I opted to have a second course - as ever, the vegetable soup and brown roll was an excellent "dessert".

Off to the gym again after work, let's see if I am any closer to weighing in at double figures (in kg.. obviously)

It was fun while it lasted..

Welcome to July, the month of my birth.

Not a great start to the month though. Got down town early on Saturday afternoon and began drinking heavily. I had eaten some beans on toast with salad and balsalmic vinegar before I left, to try and absorb the alcohol.

We tried the new Sports Bar (formerly the club, Creation), which was alright (4 pint jugs of Kronenburg for £7.50 - bargain).

Obviously we were all very disappointed with the result, although not surprised - we've seen it all before. Luckily I had numbed most of the pain with alcohol.

After the match I stumbled up Park Street and to the end of Whiteladies Road to Sloanes bar where I met up with Boz and Poj. I had a brief knap in the pub while the France v Brazil match was on and then we went to meet the other chaps along the waterfront.

I stopped along the way for a doner kebab, I can't actually remember buying it or eating it - but I did find the photo on my phone later.

I can't really remember much else from the night, only that we had a few drinks of the waterfront and then went to the Arc bar and then Timbuk2 (where the doorman nearly refused me entry as I was wearing my England shirt).

At around 2.15 we left Timbuk2 and grabbed a subway baguette. I opted for a foot long chicken teriaki with all the bits and pieces.

I must admit, I love subway food.

After the subway, we went back to Boz, Poj and Bud's gaff where we watched some TV drank some beer and then I slept round theirs.

Bud gave me a lift home on Sunday morning, but he came and picked me up again later - as it was Gale's birthday so we all went drinking again on the waterfront (nice weather for it).

When I started getting peckish, I ordered a Crayfish tails baguette from the Pitcher and Piano. Extremely tasty!

Happily, Mike gave me a lift home - but it has still been a very expensive weekend.

Today I felt a bit crap in the morning, so I got myself an early doors baguette. Chicken, stuffing and cranberry filling. This sorted me out no end.

In fact, I wasn't hungry around lunchtime - so I went up the pub instead.

I went to the gym after work, not before trying some of Higz's fruit smoothy (various berries blended with ice). I weighed myself at the gym and was another all time low of 100.8kg - could be hitting double figures soon. Crazy..

I went round my parents after the gym. My Mum had done me some roast chicken with stuffing, boiled potatoes, salad and pasta.

This was very filling, especially as I got to have a chicken leg too.. and some extra stuffing.

Mum had also made another of her desserts, strawberries in a kind of custard sauce in a pastry type base. Not sure what it is called, but it is always very tasty.

A bit of icecream on there too, which went down well in the summer's heat.

So I am feeling quite tired now, the weekend is catching up with me it seems.