Punchbowl
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Punchbowl, including punchbowl in my blog, any mentions of punchbowl in my family tree and punchbowl in Folkestone.
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Nov20
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Rain seemed to play quite a part... Friday, raced out of work not quite in time to go to the Andrew Davies talk, part of the literary festival, but in good time to get some chips, and eat them in the rain on my way to The Grand Hotel where the talk was. The wife and the father-in-law and bro-in-law were there and I met them in the bar after. Very busy for a change, mostly because of a monthly quiz going on (sounded a bit easy). It's quite a nice bar to hang out in anyway.
Got talked into borrowing the car for my trip to Fareham the next day, which was very handy, the journey flies by listening to Jonathan Ross on Radio 2, even the really slow bits, like the single lane stuff through Hindhead... WEIRD, was just preparing a link to The Devil's Punchbowl, the bit of the A3 where the road slows down and thought trick of the light looks a bit like a plane, but zoom in, it is a plane.
Great to do a bit of family visiting while I was down that way, then off out for the night in Fareham, taking in The Vanguard, The Naz, and Lord Arthur Lee, and sensibly bailing out before getting talked into going to a nightclub.
Great lunch the next day, and then the rain started hoofing it down just as it was time for me to start the long drive back. Conditions were a little bit hairy going back up the A3, but no delays at least, and then the rain died off... until it was time for me to get out of the car again.
Watched some House and an episode of Asylum (I have all six at last, rah!) and ate chilli.
This morning, what a shocker of a day, the weather was dreadful down in Folkestone. Southeastern used the rain as an excuse for our trains being delayed, which is about as believable as Tom Cruise's wedding. Why should a bit of rain affect what time a train can leave? It's not like anyone had to wait for the water to be shovelled from the tracks. Most likely it's staff being a bit slower to get moving in the train, so why not tell the truth? Go on, just once.
Free lunch here was good, vege burger and potato wedges. Making good progress on the game I'm writing here, and enjoying playing with Drupal and Jquery.
2006 :: Comment / reply
May8
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Great weekend visiting, eating, and drinking, very nice indeed, cheers. Not such a bad journey down to Fareham as it might have been, considering it was the bank holiday and traffic was supposed to be monstrous. Normal holdups around Hindhead and the Devil's Punchbowl, but that bad.
Good weekend all round, the weather held out for a barbecue at my sister's house on Sunday, and we went to Cafe Tusk Indian buffet Saturday night which was splendid. These buffet places can seem a bit grubby or greasy sometimes, but this one was really nice. Then we went to the Chav Monkey for about 10 seconds (which was not splendid), then The Crown which was potentially splendid, but actually a bit rough, then The Vanguard for the rest of the evening which was great.
We had some travel fun on the way back, as a result of that monstrous accident on the M25. We avoided the motorway and did the scenic coastal route. I thought we might go through Brighton, though we skirted right round it. We did stop for a loo break in Hastings, which was really pretty horrible, hard to believe the recent news puff pieces bigging it up. We must have missed something and only stopped in a particularly grim bit. We stopped for lunch then until we had a splendid Italian lunch in Rye on the way. We watched Stand By Me as planned when we got it. Seen it many times, but I always forget that it's the film that breaks one of my rules - it's good film, even though it's based on a story by Stephen King. It must be the only one.
Home too late to do our groceries so not sure about lunch today, should I risk a ready meal that's six days out of date? It's only vegetable casserole.
2007 :: Comment / reply
Oct3
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Took a road trip to Fareham to visit the family this weekend, borrowing Clare's dad's car. No problems getting there, though it's not a drive I've done myself before, up the M20, round the M25 and then down the A3. The A3 near the Devil's Punchbowl was a bit of a pain, going down into one lane, but we got there...
GREAT to see everyone, nice that mum and dad had visitors while we were there so got to see a few more of the family. Went to my sister and brother in law's place, and since our last visit they've converted their garage into a games room, with dartboard and pool table and bar and things... very nice too, all done properly. They've understandably much improved at these pub sports, but on balance were not quite a match for Clare and myself. On holiday we were getting worried that Americans were getting good at darts and thought they might start troubling the world championships, but now we're worried about Dez!
Went for a good curry at the Indian Palace, Port Solent, it's great there which means it's always busy. Bit of a wait, but we got a drink in the Lloyds Number One (one of the fancier Wetherspoons) also in Port Solent. Didn't stay drinking as long as we might, but a top evening anyway. When we got back to Mum and Dad's we looked at old photos and hilarious home videos. Not the TV show, actual videos of family parties and things.
Sunday, caught up with a few friends, two of whom have just had a baby, and two of whom are about to have one in a few weeks. Super flying visits though, as we were slightly held up by someone reversing into us in a car park in town. Then a great roast dinner with the family, it really was such a nice weekend.
On the way BACK to Folkestone, the same section of road that delayed us the day before was a nightmare, we were queued up for nearly an hour. Then when we hit the M25 there had been an accident, so we were at a standstill there for ages too. Got home too late, not a fun journey.
Nearly missed our train this morning, forgot the timetable changed this weekend and the train goes two minutes earlier from Folkestone... wonder if it caught many people out? I need to check what's happened to my train home too... Journey home is NOT GOOD! Looks like Clare's train from Charing Cross no longer waits for my train from Cannon Street at Ashford, so it'll take me more like three hours to get home! I'd have to sprint from here to get the Charing Cross train...
Got to figure that out somehow or I'm never going to get home! UPDATE from Clare: "if you look at Cannon street 17.44 to Ashford it says it takes 1hr and 8 mins and arrives 18.52 and if you look at the trains between Ashford and Folkestone it says that ours doesn't leave until 18.55 so in theory you should be fine - I dunno why they are suggesting you change at Headcorn on your one"
Ooh Google blog search, is that new?
2005 :: Comment / reply
Also there's an xml feed of punchbowl, a JSON feed, and a KML feed of punchbowl , search my punchbowl venue info, punchbowl on Your Folkestone.
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