Monday, 25 April 2011

2011-Dad&Lads Road Trip–Lads Blog 25/4

The final chapter of our story began with a double sausage, egg muffin in one hand and orange juice in the other. After we had eaten at this luxurious restaurant we took the small journey down to the theatre of dreams, old Trafford!

Once we arrived at old Trafford, I was stood beneath what can only be described as something of God’s creation as it was simply stunning, the theatre of dreams really is as good as it looks of television girls and boys! Furthermore, as we waited around for our tour, we made sure that we had enough pictures to show what we did whilst in Manchester, many of them are based around the trophies Man United Football Club have won over the years.

As the tour came to end, we entered the players changing room, which is where I think the road trip, was at its prime. Something I had wanted to see and do for so many years was in front of me, I could touch it and cherish the number 14 shirt of Chicarito being rubbed around my face, beautiful.

As this brilliant tour came to an end, me and poppa-smurf both got given a certificate to say that we had attended the tour in 2011, as we were given this certificate I went in the mega-store and purchased a Manchester United mug with ‘EDWARD’ printed on the front, a perfect start to the day, but then we got in the car and headed home.

In addition to the journey being very long from Manchester to Nottingham, my father suggested that we should go and see some ruins and climb the Robin Hood Hill so that’s exactly what we did, it was quite a nice walk and was a good way to break up the journey , the road trip to me was a success and I advise you to take your kids on one of these, you won’t regret it!

2011-Dad&Lads Road Trip-Dads Blog 25/4 Day 4

Stage 4 Manchester to Home

The final day. I had sore ribs from a slip in the bath the night before and aching legs from the walk down Snowdon.

Old Trafford

Ed loves Man U, so we did the tour. It was quite good. Lots of places behind the scenes to see.

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Nine Stones Close

I am a fan of this band have been for a couple of years and therefore took the opportunity to visit its name sake on the way home.
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We made it home. Total trip 500 miles.

Sunday, 24 April 2011

2011-Dad&Lads Road Trip-Dads Blog 24/4 Day 3

Stage 3 Caernarfon to Manchester

An early start we have a booking on a train to get us up the mountain!

 

Snowdon

I was so pleased when we woke up that it was sunny, so the chances of great views was on the cards

We caught the first train up at 9.

It takes an hour, but its worth it.

The views from the top are spectacular.

 

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We walked down and that is a trek as well not as easy as one may think! Its steep, rocky and quite a way.

This was all we did! lol

Trafford Centre

We are at our b&b and before I have a few beers

Before that we popped into the adventure centre where there is skiing and indoor skydiving. We stepped out onto the observation balcony, it was very cold!

The skydiving was cool!

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Tomorrow two more events!

2011-Dad & Lads Road Trip-Lads Blog 24/4

Waking up at 7am to the sound of their fathers voice beckoning them to wake up, is every child's dream. Once woken up and dressed, we set off to catch the train up to Mountain Snowdon, the journey took close enough to one hour and the views were gorgeous. Furthermore, once me and poppa-smurf arrived at the top of the mountain, i raced off to the peak of the mountain to only then receive what seemed a surprise at the time. It was Easter morning and my father kindly handed over a crafted chocolate duckling. A few moments later after some refreshments at the bar, we set off our trek to the bottom of the mountain. This walk took around 2 and a half hours from the peak to ground level but was well worth the effort as it wasn’t only a test of physical strength but also mentally. I now believe i can accomplish anything if i put my mind to it.

Moreover, as we completed the walk back, father kindly suggested we should go and have a beer in the ‘beer garden’, so that's exactly what one did. After finishing what can only be described as a refreshing little lift, we headed back to the car where the final chapter of ‘Dad & Lad Road-Trip’ restarts tomorrow morn. Stay tuned.

Saturday, 23 April 2011

2011-Dad&Lads Road Trip-Dads Blog 23/4 Day 2

Stage 2 Aberystwyth to Caernarfon

After Breakfast which was more than agreeable we left the b&b at around 9 for the first leg north. It was a shame that the weather was not very nice. It was misty.

Portmeirion

I am a fan of the Prisoner and have wanted to visit here for a long time.
It was dry but not sunny. We took the 20 minute tour which gave use some interesting background detail of the village. We were with another couple and gee she did not shut up. she was a brit but acted like an American tourist!
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Football

We left Portmeirion and were going to go to Portmadoc so we could watch the Man U v Everton game. Well there were some roadwork's so we turned around and went cross country. It was a nice drive, but Ed does not do country!
We arrive in Caernarfon and found a pub with the Sky Sports banners outside, parked up and went in.
Ed was getting wound up that it was going to be 0:0 thankfully it finished with awin for Man U. An easier afternoon would now follow.

Train Stations

After the match we killed some time by going to Anglesey. I have never been here so we crossed the Meani  Straights on Stevenson's bridge and went to the world famous train station.
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Bridges

After the train station we parked up where we could see both bridges, took some photos of them and some lambs and then went to the b&b.SANY0586SANY0587SANY0590SANY0588

Evening

Food & beer in preparation for tomorrows exciting event.

2011–Dad & Lad Road Trip-Lads Blog 23/4

Day two, the Portmeirion and bridge tours and we are well into our road trip by now. The day started off as if a complete replica of yesterdays weather, quite misty and by some means damp. Thankfully by now, we had left the dump which is more commonly known  by ‘Savannah B&B’. As we arrived at Portmeirion, the buildings looked somewhat different to others i had seen previous, as they were stacked up in some fashion and painted the Italian way. Although they were coloured so exotically, i was not stifled by this and was still intrigued by what this historic place had to offer. Moreover, as we had completed the tour of Portmeirion, me and poppa-smurf soon headed off to try and find a pub with sky-sports, you would think this task is a simple one, but this task proved very difficult indeed and it was only a few minutes before kick-off that we found a little pub in the middle of nowhere which offered what we wanted, live footage of Manchester United against Everton Football Club.

In addition to the football match coming to an end and with Manchester United taking all three points from what i would call a ‘thriller’, we set off once more to try and find these two bridges and a rather long named train station. Once we had found these two bridges, we drove over one with only exchanging a few words on what we thought of them, but once we found the second one, we had a lot more to share, but to my fathers displeasure, the topic of this conversation wasn’t based around bridges, nope, this was based around how adorable lambs look when freshly cut.

One hour previous, we arrived at what was to my amazement. We arrived at the worlds longest named train station.  The viewing of this train-station was short yet sweet as we stayed there for roughly around 10-30 minutes.

Finally, after completing everything on todays list, we headed back to our place to stay and to complete our second evenings visit to ‘weather spoons’ for a delicious meal, one could not complain, cracking day, hope it stays this way, success!

2011–Dad & Lad Road Trip–Dads Blog 22/4 Day 1

Stage 1 Home to Aberystwyth

We left about 10:45 and started west. The weather was great, mood was too,

Planned to stop at the end of the motorways, but did not find anywhere sensible, so we stopped at Welshpool.

Welshpool

A very pleasing little town, but not what i expected.

A nice Railway station, if you like these things and a canal. The town was bedecked in bunting, but little else. We walked around for an hour.

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Devils Bridge

I came here as a kid with my parents, we did it on the train.

We parked up and started the short walk to the bridges. A loud clap of thunder, a few big spots of rain.

We looked around and got back to the car just in time, Heavy Rain.

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Aberystwyth

Savannah House

We found the B&B, looked ok. No one in, so rang the owner who said he would be here in 10 minutes.DSC04752

Checked in and was shown our room.

Now the first thing I do is turn the potage stamp sized telly on, I did and got sound only, went and got the guy who let us in, ooops its broken after a quick call to the boss, so we changed rooms and got room 3 instead of room 2.

Now Room 3 is at the front, 2 is at the back. 2 has en-suite, 3 does not, but is a larger better room, and the telly worked!

Ed was relaxing on his single bed and spotted a few issues with the room, however we stayed in it. This is real bonding!

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After an hour chilling and trying to get the internet working, we went for a walk around the sea front.

It is quite nice and picturesque.From the end of the pier

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North/South

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We walked along the front, down the pier walked to Wetherspoons. Now finding that was a challenge, but came across a helpful bobby, who was window shopping (sorry patrolling) the town, who pointed us the right way. The old saying of never finding one when you need one, did not come true today and the other old saying did.

When you don't know what to do ask a friendly man in blue!DSC04750 View of the pub from the “End of the Line”

We ate and went back to the room for sleep, tomorrow is a whole new adventure.

I managed to get my network connection working so I could post this stuff!!!!

Friday, 22 April 2011

2011–Dad & Lad Road Trip–Lads Blog 22/4

 

The day started as a hot and quite lifeless journey down to the land of the the welsh. As we drove, father and son, hand in hand, we stopped off at Welshpool for a bite to eat and to experience the historic past. Later on, to our astonishment, we figured out that there was no more than a train station and a variety of poorly situated shops. Not the best of starts, but it soon picked up.

Furthermore, as we continued our road trip through Wales we stopped off at a so called bridge built by ‘Satan’ which was layered in three ways. This was a fairly impressive and interesting structure as to how and why the bridge was built in this fashion. Throughout the day, the weather was exquisite and i felt my blonde locks of hair being taken control of by the inviting and calming winds, but this did not last for long as it soon started to rain and very heavily at that, so we picked up the bags and headed off to the car, this is where our day came to a near end.

As we arrived at our destination, we were greeted by a man, which can only be described as a foolish Asian. He gave us the wrong wi-fi code, thus meaning me nor poppa-smurf could access the internet, so we hit off to see the sights and get a bight to eat, a lovely end to the first day!

Sunday, 17 April 2011

April Slug & Lettuce Session Audio File

April's Slug & Lettuce session audio file.

http://cid-19d5772deea38111.office.live.com/self.aspx/Slug%20Sessions/2011-04-06%20Slug%20%5E0%20Lettuce.mp3

Tracks
Don't Hurt Yourself - Marillion
50 things to do before I die - Jon Chapman
Pinball Wizard - the Who
Behind Blue Eyes - the Who


Enjoy....

17/4/11–Final Planning; Dad & Lad road trip 2011

Well the final piece of the jigsaw has been placed in our first road trip!

 

Friday

Home to Aberystwyth via Devils Bridge, we may or may not do the train.

Saturday

Aberystwyth – Caernarfon via Portmeirion, Cadair Idris (just on the road there)

Sunday

Caernarfon – Old Trafford via Mount Snowdon

Monday

Old Trafford – Home via Old Trafford football ground and some other places!!!

Will try and fit in a few stone circles and long train station names, a paddle in the sea and a few beers as well!

 

Note:

Because of the wonders of free internet, regular postings to the blog will be made!!!!!

Thursday, 14 April 2011

14/4/11–The cannons, Newport Pagnell

I really like the vibe here.

Played third as Knot Andy, but had had a bit to drink so fell back on standards .Well for me at least

50 things to do before I die – Jon Chapman
Please Read my Letter – Plant/Krause version
Rocking in the free world – Neil Young.

Thanks to the tub thumpers who helped fill the sound out.

Hope to post a pic, once its mailed to me.

Friday, 8 April 2011

07/04/11–The Cannon, Newport Pagnell

Another manic night, I was not on form, so went then left before playing following a single soda and lime!

Oh the rock and roll life.

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

06/4/11–Slug & Lettuce, Milton Keynes

 

It was their birthday today.

Dee won some CD’s which he gracefully gave to me. This was won in the pass the parcel.

Followed the featured artist, a lass who’s name I missed, but she was very good.

I got on a bit later than I prefer, so was a little drunk.

Played
Don’t hurt yourself – Marillion
50things to do before I die – Jon Chapman
Pinball Wizard/I’m free – the Who, Audience choice
Behind Blue Eyes/Won’t get fooled again – the Who

Some pics of the night

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The prize winners in the middle of the parcel

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