Some quality eats!!

My Sunday evening meal was a tub of macaroni cheese, not actually that bad - although nowhere near as good as a proper meal. Certainly, as Sundays go, a bit of a lame effort.

Monday lunchtime I hit the canteen and had beef stew and a dumpling (stingy canteen), I chucked loads of veg on to fill myself up nice. The soup was leek and potato, so I didn't bother with that.

As my parents were away on holiday, I didn't need to pick my Dad up - so I went straight from work to the gym. After a nice long work out I drove home and helped Tony move to Lawrence Weston (from my house, obviously). His new gaff is pretty nice, actually.

On the way back home again, I stopped off at Asda and bought a few bits and pieces for the next couple of days worth of food.

When I got home I immediately prepared a nice salad for myself, tandoori chicken on a bed of salad (I even chopped up my last avocado and an onion to mix into it). The salad was dressed with lots of balsalmic vinegar based dressing. I was quite pleased with the outcome.

This brings me to yesterday, where I ate a rather nice chilli with rice in the canteen. I was forced to suppliment the meal with carrots and peas, due to the space left on the plate.

After that I had a bowl of mushroom soup with a roll. One of my favourite soups.

After work I got home and heated some sliced veg (bought from Asda the previous day). Consisted of sliced courghette, cabbage, potato, carrot, broccholi and possibly more besides. Then I heated some mexican chicken which I plonked on the top and ate - very nice.

Once I had eaten, I went round Welsh Chris' to watch Man Utd beat Benfica in the Champions League.. of course here I drank lots of stella.

This morning I was quite hungry, but resisted the temptation to have a breakfast and instead waited until lunchtime to eat.

I had the lamb hotpot for lunch and, for once, bought my (vegetable) soup and roll at the same time. The whole job cost £2.60. Bargain.

Marge Simpson look-a-like..

After work on Tuesday I went to the gym with my Dad and when I got home I had another leftover food item from the Gower trip, a pot of pasta - just add boiling water (and loads of spices.. obviously).

It was OK, but not something I would buy myself (this was actually Sarah's). I think there's another one in the cupboard actually.

Despite there being a week of rubbish food in the canteen, Wednesday surprised everyone with lamb lasagne on the menu. We were considering going to the Hungry Horse until we found out about the lasagne option!!

It was tasty too and I had a dessert of carrot and coriander soup with a bread roll. Quality.

After work I went to the gym again. When I got home I cut up an avocado and tried mashing it up with some mayo.. it didn't really work, but I had a few slices of Tony's pizza and I wasn't hungry after that.

Thursday was roast dinner day in the canteen, which is always a treat. The meat was pork and the portions were generous. It was good pig.

The soup for afters was vegetable.

After work I went football training and felt quite fit (after a week's worth of gym activity), although my footy skills were quite poor.

On the way home I stopped off at the Subway in Filton and had a foot-long sub with everything.

I opted for the Italian herb and cheese bread.

Whilst I had been training, Tony had been to look at a flat in Lawrence Weston. He liked it so much he plonked a deposit down and will be moving in on Monday!! So sounds like I will be living on my own (until Saturday when Higz gets back from Florida, that is!)

Friday I had a quick canteen snack at around 11.30, it was vegetable moussaka. I ate that with some brocchili and carrots.

I didn't go to the pub for lunch anyway in the end, it was raining...

After work I got a lift down town and met up with the boys for some drinks.

Saturday morning I woke up round Bud, Boz and Poj's house with an hour or so to get to Patchway for the game. Luckily Boz gave me some Hunger Breaks beans (spicy) and also I rang Gale and he came and picked me up (he was heading to Patchway anyway).

I came on as a sub for Greyfriars after being linesman for the first hour of the game. The score was 3-0 to the other team when I came on and the final score was 4-0. I thought I played OK and created a few chances, also my fitness levels were good (despite being leathered the night before).

After the game I met up with the other team members including Gale for some drinks. Then I went home and fell asleep on the sofa.

This morning I woke up and cooked up some egg and bacon sandwiches for Tony and I. I grilled the bacon and poached the eggs, very tasty!

Afterwards Tony talked me into dying my hair blue, as he had some dye left.

Sarah says I am easily led... don't think she's too happy about it :)

I can always shave it off at some point anyway.

There won't be any Sunday roast for me this week, as my parents are away in Woolacombe.

Ahoy, landlubbers!

Welcome to September 19th - AKA - International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

It is also exactly a year ago that I went to Ibiza with Gale, Matt and Lee. It is also nearly a year ago since I joined the gym! In fact I got my renewal notice through yesterday morning (gonna work out £150 for a year's gym peak time membership, I get a corporate discount through work).

I did go to the gym last night, but I was feeling hungry so I ate one of Tony's corned beef pasties first. This was probably a mistake as I got quite a bad stitch and couldn't run very well. I made up for this on the cycling machine and stuff and when I weighed myself afterwards I was 95.8kgs.

Anyway, I had a craving for some prawn and avocado for some reason (possibly that my mate Trew is always eating avocados).. So after the gym I went home via Asda and bought some avocadoes, some salad (containing lettuce, onion, baby tomatoes, celery, carrot and cucumber), some prawns, some Marie Rose sauce, some crayfish (already seasoned in chilli and pepper) and made myself a nice salad.

First I peeled the avocado, then I sliced it up and layed it out on the plate. Then I covered it in the Marie Rose sauce. Then I placed the prawns and crayfish on the sauce. Then I filled the rest of the plate with salad. Then I poured a generous helping of chilli vinegar over everything.

I have to say, I was very proud of the dish and couldn't wait to tuck in and eat it all up. It was very tasty indeed.

I was thinking the other day how I used to make crazy triple decker sandwiches (pre-blog), I should get some bread and crazy ingredients and revive that old tradition.

So back to today.. the canteen was looking disappointing today - but the steak and mushroom pie was actually quite nice in the end... especially as they had lots of nice veg on offer to accompany it. I had the pie with cauliflower cheese, carrots, cabbage and peas. Filling.

Again I didn't have any soup for dessert, it was leek and potato. Not my style.

Probably going to the gym again after work with my Dad.

Messy Weekend (and on-call)

Thursday night I was stuck on a call until 10 mins into the training k/o, I still turned up and had a kick about though and wasn't paged out. The training was at Golden Hill (where Bristol Rovers train, apparently).

After the training I went home and slobbed out. I didn't fancy beans on toast again, so I just ate a few rounds of toast and a bit of marmite. Nothing photo worthy.

Friday I went to work, as normal. What wasn't normal was that I decided not to go to the pub for lunch, I had decided instead to eat in the canteen and save any beer drinking for the evening. As I was on-call I thought I would drive to Yate in the evening and meet Mike and Matt for a bevvy and, obviously, as I would be driving, any beer I had in the day would mean I couldn't drink anything in the evening.

The canteen didn't have a great deal on offer, but they did have a kind of filo pastry type basket - which they filled with chilli and accompanied with rice and salad. Quite tasty.

After work I drove Tony to Yate and met Mike and Matt at the Farmhouse pub. After a beer or two, I decided I wanted more and drove my car round Mike's parents house and left it there. Then I walked back to the pub and continued drinking.

I quite liked the pub and even ordered myself a pizza there (ham and mushroom, I think). When the pub shut, we continued drinking round Mike's.

Unfortunately, I got paged about 9am and had to go home to Patchway and fix the fault. When I had resolved the problem, I went to bed for a few hours before meeting up with the Greyfriars team (I had ruled myself out of playing due to on-call, but wanted to go and support them anyway).

They were playing Wessex Wanderers (so far the league's whipping boys) away. Even though I was on-call and feeling rough from the night before, I really wanted to be out with the team. Especially when the game kicked off and it became apparent that the front line were going to get lots of chances. The game finished 8-0 to the visitors (us), so we now have 3 points in the league.

After the game I drove round my mate Chris Head's for a cup of tea, as he only lives round the corner.

Then I joined up with Gale (his side, the A's, had also won.. again) and the rest of the team again at the Bradley Stoke pub. I was getting very hungry by this point, so I went home after a few beers.

Back at home, I made myself a tuna salad (salad with thanks to Higz who left me some food, as he is currently on holiday in Florida - with Nath, Emma, Carla and Lee). I went to bed at around 11pm, after watching a movie (Mission: Impossible, I think.. I first saw that film at the cinema in the Isle of Wight for my 16th birthday - 10 years ago, whoa!)

I woke up on Sunday morning at 11am, I was pretty pleased that I slept for 12 solid hours. Around 2pm I went round my parents and had a Sunday roast, the meat was lamb - tasty.

After the meal, my parents got a film out - but I had made arrangements to go up the Soc with Welsh Chris. I managed to convince WC to drop the soc and just come over mine to watch the Man U v Arsenal game. So we watched the game and had a few beers.

When he left, I chopped myself up a pineapple (one that Higz had left) and ate the whole thing.

This morning, Monday, I got persuaded (damn Martin) to go down to the canteen for breakfast. I had myself a toasted bacon, sausage and egg sandwich - with brown sauce. Very tasty and meant I was nice and full (even at lunch).

This was fortunate, as the lunchtime canteen menu was piss-poor. There was nothing to choose from, so I had a spicy veg wrap for my lunch. I wasn't even tempted by the soup (celery - pfft).

I intend to work quite hard in the gym this week, then hopefully I will be able to make more of an impression at footy training on Thursday!!

More beans and other culinary delights!

Well despite my rant about baked beans on toast, I got home on Monday night and made myself...... beans on toast! The beans in question were Heinz Mean Beanz (tikka flavour), which we left over from the Gower (I definitely stocked up too much..)

As I was on-call I didn't go to the gym or anything fancy.

On Tuesday, the canteen offerings were very poor. I ended up opting for a peppered steak burger in a bap, with salad and I added some carrots and sweetcorn to try and help bulk the meal up.

It didn't do any good and I didn't fancy the soup on offer either (leek and potato). But when a colleague joined the table with a chocolate crunch covered in chocolate custard, I decided to have a rare dessert.

The chocolate crunch type thing was quite tasty and I properly covered it in chocolate custard too. The whole shaboodle cost me 38p. Bargain.

After work I went round my parents' for tea and was cooked a chicken breast, sausage, stuffing and vegetables. After I had scoffed that, I went home to watch Liverpool in their first European Champions League game (a 0-0 draw against PSV).

Wednesday's canteen offering was not great either, the best option was the lamb and veg pie - which I had with a vegetable chilli side. It was OK, but not amazing - I followed it up with a bowl of leek and mushroom soup.

After work, Lee and Welsh Chris came round my gaff and we watched Man Utd beat Celtic 3-2 in the Champions League and had a few drinks and a dominos pizza along the way.

I selected a double decadence with a mighty meaty topping. I think WC and Lee just shared a large mighty meaty and some chicken strippers. The pizza was, as ever, a tasty treat.

I got paged out in the night, so slept through today until around 11am (when Tony brought me up a cuppa).

As today was roast dinner Thursday, I had a roast in the canteen. It consisted of roast beef, yorkshire pudding, green beans and cauliflower cheese. Tasty.

After work I plan to train with Greyfriars (at Golden Hill in Horfield), I am on-call - so it could be a short run out!! It's only booked for an hour and I've only been called out once all week so far - so what are the odds?

This week.. I 'ave bin mostly eatin' :- Beans on Toast

After work on Friday I got home and had broke into a tin of "Hunger Breaks" (leftover from my Gower trip), this tin contained beans and chicken nuggets. I ate them hot and on toast (unlike at the Gower). Then I recruited Lee and Tony into coming down town.

We met up with Bud, Boz and Poj at Sloanes. Having been unsuccessful in my quest to blag a lift down, I went with a contraversial bus plot to get us from Cribbs Causeway to Blackboy Hill. The trip took around 20 mins and cost £2.50. This system worked quite well, so I may be applying it again.

Of course, Friday we drank ourselves silly and I then the three of us Patchwegians got a taxi home at the cost of a fiver each.

I had to be at Patchway High for 1pm to meet the other Greyfriars players on the Saturday, so I got up at midday and had another tin of leftover Gower beans - this time the "kebab attack" version of the Hunger Breaks line.

I again played for the Greys 4th team (the 'B' team) and again we lost. This time 8-2 at home to Mendip United reserves. I only played the final 45 mins, but the weather was hot and I got tired very quickly - will need to work more on sprinting in the gym, I think.

After the game, Lee and I met Gale (whose team, the 'A' team, won.. again) and the other Greys players at the Bradley Stoke pub. Lee and I ended up staying there until closing time and I don't think I got round to eating anything.

The next morning I woke up (on my sofa.. bizarrely) and the weather was so nice, I agreed to walk the dogs with my parents. We walked the dogs round Snuff Mills / Vassels park for a bit and then went to the White Lion pub in Frenchay. I didn't drink any alcohol, as I feeling slightly rough, but I did eat a rather tasty mushroom dish (at the White Lion). I forgot to take a picture (I was so hungry!) - it was a starter anyway as we were to have a big Sunday dinner later in the day.

The roast dinner that my Mum made was beef and it was very tasty and filling, exactly what I needed.

Then Higz picked me up and took me 10 pin bowling at Cribbs Causeway with Lee, Nathan, Lewis and Checketts. I was pretty poor, but managed to scrape a 3 digit score in my last game - which was quite exciting.

So to today, Monday, and back to work. I have been very tired all day, as I couldn't sleep a wink last night (I'm sure I did - but you know how it is). I had dinner today in the canteen, it was fairly unexciting - a vegetable rogan josh with rice.

Afterwards I had a vegetable soup with a roll, but even though it was very tasty, it only partially rescued what was a fairly drab lunch. Could have been much worse tho..

Things what has gone in my belly...

Well I visited my Gramps in hospital on Monday night, he seemed to be in quite a good mood. Then me and my Dad went back to his gaff, where my Mum had cooked us all a nice roast dinner. The meat was beef and it was very juicy and tender.

Before I left my Mum gave me some cartons of soup to take home, as they were soon to be out of date.

The next day I couldn't see much of interest in the canteen at work, so I had a jacket potato (quite small, but only 33p) and covered it in beef and vegetable vindaloo. To bulk it up (and make it look slightly healthier) I threw on some cabbage and some carrots. It seemed to fill me up.

After work I went straight to North Bristol rugby club for football training, as both the first team and the fourth team had games the next day the training was light.

I was going to go to my mate Phil's 29th birthday after work, but it was too late by the time I had got home and made some tea.

The tea I had was a carton of soup that my Mum had given me, brocchili and stilton. I threw loads of ground black pepper in there too, everything's better with pepper!

I wanted to get an early night, as I wanted to be up early the next morning. I don't think I managed it as I stayed up quite late reading "Donnie Brasco", the book that the film was based on.

I did get up early the next morning, though, and made it into work before almost everyone. The reason I wanted to be in work early was so I could leave work early to get to a Greyfriars Athletic 'B' team game away at Hanham.

I worked through most of my lunch to aid my leaving early, but still had time to eat in the canteen. I had a very tasty chicken and vegetable pie with carrots, spouts and sweetcorn.

After the meal, as I knew I would probably be eating my tea late, I had a bowl of courghette and mushroom soup with a roll. My workmates roundly teased me for my pronounciation of the word "courghette" - but I am from Bristol and now and again my accent will allow the odd slip of Bristolian into conversation. This I cannot help.

Nobody takes the piss out of Gibson and he is a Geordie! Some words he says make my ears spin round. Ask him to say the work "book" when you next see him. Mad.

Anyway, I managed to navigate my way to Hanham in very quick time - so I was there by 5.30. There were plenty of players turn up for the Greys, so I was on the "bench" for the first half. Well, actually I was linesman for the first 45 mins - which kept me warm. We were 2-1 down at half time (just like on Saturday) and the second half almost went as badly as Saturday, we were 4-1 down by the time they brought me on the pitch.

Unfortunately the light failed dramatically, so the game was brought to a slightly premature close at 4-1. A dog chasing the ball for 5 mins didn't help matters. Hopefully there won't be too many midweek games on, as firstly they are a pain to get to and secondly it will be getting darker earlier and earlier!

After the game I pelted it home as soon as I could, so I could quickly eat (another bowl of soup procured from my parents', tomato this time - nice) and then I ran (literally ran) up the Social club so I could watch the rest of the England game with Lee, Welsh Chris and Holder.

England won 1-0 away to Macedonia, a Crouch overhead kick the difference between the sides! The highlight of the night, though, was the Northern Ireland defeat of Spain (the landlord is N.Irish - so was quite a good atmosphere at the Soc).

Thursday morning I woke up feeling knackered and slightly hungover (our insistance on drinking whiskey to toast the Irish may have been part of this reason). I decided to have some breakfast when I got to work.

I had beans on toast with a couple of plum tomatoes (don't know why) for breakfast and this really seemed to sort me out.

A few hours later was lunchtime. Of course Thursday is now roast dinner day in the canteen and the meat was turkey. The turkey was very, very tasty - although the canteen woman was laughing at my portion..

I had turkey, stuffing, roasters, red cabbage, carrots, cauliflower cheese and gravy (all made a lovely pattern on the plate when I had finished).

After work I went to the gym and worked out for a bit, weighed myself at the end and was 99.0kgs.. I think that's my lightest yet? Then I went round my other Gramps' for his birthday.

When I got home, Terry was visiting Tony and they had Chinese. There was a fair bit leftover when I got home, so I ate it. No shame. I would do it again if I had the chance.

Today, Friday, I had a sweet and sour veg with rice for lunch and went up the pub for a few pints with Chris. Might go down town later (not a great idea considering I may have my home debut for Greyfriars tomorrow, but since when have I ever had great ideas).

My footy debut in a drink-fuelled weekend!

Friday I went home via Ashley Down school as Lee was working there and needed a lift home. I dropped him off at his house and went home.

I quickly rustled up some tea, some spicy beans (Heinz Mean Beanz) on toast. Very filling, exactly what I needed to start my drinking binge.

We all got a taxi from Patchway to the Berkeley Wetherspoons pub in Clifton. We had a few drinks there and then went to a pub on Park Street for a few drinks (including some kind of drink Welsh Chris called the "helicopter"..)

I don't remember eating anything that night and there were no foody pics on my phone, so I guess not.

Sarah picked some of us up from town, although Lee and I opted for a taxi instead for some reason (picking up a wandering Welsh Chris and a random along the way).

The next morning I woke up around midday and got up and my breakfast was more mean beanz on toast (perhaps not wise before a game of footy, but then nor is going on a drinking binge!) then I got my stuff together to go meet up for football.

The Greyfriars squad is split into 4 teams all in different leagues. Naturally, being the newbie (and not very good), I was put in the 4th team. I was pleased to see my name on the team sheet as a centre forward (so I wouldn't have to do too much running or worry about defending etc).

The game was away at Severn Beach - I won't bore you with the details but needless to say, we lost 7-1..

When I got home it was a mad rush to eat some food and head to the Patchway Sports and Social to watch England v Andorra. Sarah had some leftover Dominos pizza, so I ate that cold and she dropped me and Lee at the soc.

We met up with Gale (who had helped the 3rd team to a 2-0 victory) and Chris and drank some beer and watched England trounce Andorra 5-0.

Some time after the match, Sarah picked Chris, Lee and I up and took us round Mike's for some drinks.

I ate some wedges round Mike's before Lee and I got a taxi home.

Sunday morning, I tidied the kitchen and then Sarah made some pasta in bolognaise sauce. She also cooked up some garlic bread.

It was pretty damn tasty and set me up for the day, which was useful because the day included going to the Vue cinema to watch "John Tucker Must Die". I recommend you to have a quick look in your pants and if you see a cock there *avoid this movie at all costs* - I found it to draw serious ass. Sarah liked it though..

After the movie, we went over to Bella Italia (formerly Bella Pasta) and had yet more pasta.

I decided on the spicy king prawn linguine and had a side order of roasted vegetables. Proper.

Sarah and I then watched Medium series 1 on DVD for a bit (until my downstairs DVD player died).

Today I was back in work, therefore back in the canteen for lunch. Not much to choose from, so I had the chicken burrito type thing - with rice and salsa.

Then I had veg and lentil soup with a bread roll for dessert (more out of habit than anything).

I was planning on going to the gym tonight, but my Dad just called to ask me to come with him and visit Gramps in hospital - so I'm gonna do that and then go back round my parents' for a roast dinner!! Excellent!!

Last words of sobriety - I'm off to get pissed!

After work on Tuesday I drove to North Bristol rugby club and trained with Greyfriars Athletic. I was impressed with my fitness, but my footie skills weren't what they were. I put it down to the fact I was wearing studs for the first time in years.

When I got home, I wasn't terribly hungry - so I zapped a bowl of Hunger Breaks (Full Monty) in the microwave. Afterwards I ate another tin of fruit. These Gower leftovers are going to be my staple diet for the next few weeks, I can tell.

For some reason on Wednesday, a few of us (Chris, Tony, Matt and Adam) decided to go up the Bradley Stoke pub for our lunch hour. I stuck to soft drinks, but did order myself a half roast chicken.

After work I went straight out to the gym, it seemed like a while since I last went - although I have been quite active. My Dad dropped out at the last minute due to being called to work, so I was able to stay for as long as I wanted. I only managed an hour before getting bored. I weighed myself at the end and I was 100.6kgs, so I have managed to drift back up into triple figures. I blame the toast sandwich I made from everyone's leftovers at the Gower (video of me destroying the evidence here).

From the gym I went round my parents' house for tea. My Mum was cooking porkchops, sugar snap peas, cauliflower cheese, new potatoes and stuffing balls. Very tasty indeed!

Yesterday was, of course, roast dinner day in the canteen - but it was also the last day for lots of people from here - so I went up the pub for a few beers for the first 45 mins of my lunch. Of course, I still managed to grab a roasty for my final 15 mins.. the meat was lamb and it was quite fatty, but tasty nonetheless. There wasn't a great deal of veg out, due to my lateness - so I made do with peas and carrots.

After work I decided against going to the gym, as I had some things to sort out. So I did that and then went home and had a microwave paella that my Mum had gave me. It was alright, but nowhere near as nice as a real authentic paella!! Can you imagine a paella-lasagne hybrid meal? Wouldn't that just be the best thing ever?!?

Today is Friday. Normally I just grab a sandwich and then go to the pub, today I grabbed a jacket potato from the canteen and had a spicy sausage filling. I also chucked some sweetcorn on there as well. It was OK, but I went down the pub afterwards and had a few Stellas in the sun. Then I came back to the office and got on with my day.

I'm off down town later tonight for some belated drinks for Lee's birthday. Then tomorrow I may well be playing footy for Greyfriars, then watching England v Andorra (European Championship qualifier) and meeting up with some more people for drinks! Could be a busy weekend!