Duuuuudddddee- Road Trip!

In honour of surviving the first half term in my new job, I decided to go on a bit of a roadtrip with my younger brother Adam. When you hear the words 'road trip' you have in your mind a certain image bequeathed to us by Hollywood. Alcohol, exotic and exciting locales, naked women....

So where did we go for our road trip? Edinburgh? London? the English Riveria?

Nope - Worcestershire & Northants....

There was a reason for the choice of location; we would see some family, drink a reasonable amount and do some random things. These we accomplished in spadefuls.

Day 1:

We arrived at our base in Droitwich having visited my cousin Dan, his wife Natalie and their ever increasing brood. Adam wasted no time in starting to flirt with the blonde receptionist (the fact that she was probably more than 25 years older than him didn't phase him at all). We then scooted across to have dinner with my aunt & uncle. On returning to the hotel we made the welcome discovery that not only was there a brand new pool table to enjoy, but that the bar was essentially open all night for residents.

We ended up playing a pool game called Killer with two random blokes who worked for Bosch, who were having a sort of conference thingy at the hotel. One of them was a Scot called John and the other was a guy from the North East whose name I forget but who we christened Jellyfingers (not sure why....perhaps the many Grolsch had something to do with it).

Day 2:

The day dawned brightly and in my case, somewhat painfully, as I stumbled in a zombie fashion (un-cordinated, vacant expression, groaning slightly) towards breakfast. Once our raging headaches had subsided sufficiently to consider driving safely we set off to see our Grandad in Evesham. Although first we diverted to Bromsgrove so Adam could find stodgy food to placate his hangover. I have never seen a place as odd as the centre of Bromsgrove that day. There seemed to be the most half-hearted attempt at a fair going on with one trampoline and this risible Magic Kingdom thing that no children went near and that old men watched intently.

It seems that randomness was catching as when we rolled up in Evesham and took our Grandad to do his weekly shop we saw this sitting outside Morrisons.

Not sure why it was there - although, it would be a cool way to do your grocery shopping....

On the way back to the hotel we sailed majestically through Pershore, stopping only to take pictures with the giant duplo/lego/playmobil man.

In the evening we saw the frankly dreadful Resident Evil:Extinction in Worcester. A privilege which cost £7.20 a ticket. I believe I may have sqawked slightly on being told the price, I also narrowly avoided saying the words 'Are you sh**ing me?' out load.

Day 3:

On our way home we decided to go to a safari park as neither of us had been to one for as long as we could remember. So we detoured to the West Midlands Safari Park, where I was keenly hoping that there would be monkeys and penguins. Sadly, I was to be disappointed on both counts. But I did see wolves, tigers, elephants and stroked a zebra which made me rather happy.

I did want to give you a couple of pictures, but sadly Blogger is being recalcitrant in that area right now. I may add them later. However, you can look at all my Safari Park pictures on photobucket here.

Movies

Stardust *** (A missed opportunity, fun though)

Resident Evil: Extinction *

Master and Commander ****

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Extended) *****

The Station Agent ****

Still & Moving Pictures

The first wednesday of this very month saw my emergence from pub quiz hibernation.

In a new venue in South Manchester; myself and Eyan's pub quiz returned in autumnal glory (See previous quiz shenanigans by clicking here). By clicking on this link right here, you can see his sports round. Below for your edu-tainment is my picture round which will fiendishly test your knowledge of Manchester people. Click on the image for a bigger picture.

Answers in about a week....

No googling allowed...... I will know.

*Answers in the comments*

Movies
Nightwatch *****
Daywatch ****
The Bourne Ultimatum *****
Children of Men *****
Blades of Glory ***
Alien vs Predator *
Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron ****
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai *****

Shock as politician indulges himself in....politics.

In the news today.....When the Tories criticised Gordon Brown over his 'convenient' trip to Iraq on the day he announced 1000 British troops would be coming home, No. 10 Downing Street leapt manfully to his defence.

"[the Tories] suggested the PM used the armed forces as a "political football". Sir John Major also questioned the timing of the announcement and Mr Brown's visit.

But No 10 said it was "preposterous" to suggest the PM was playing politics"

Allow me to translate No. 10's response into non-spokesperson speak:
"Ah. duuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... (accompanied by Friends-style head wobbling)

Must be a slow news day on the BBC.... Anyhoo, it gives me a chance to post this marvellous cartoon by Steve Bell.
While we're talking about political cartoons. Here's one by the Guardian's Martin Rowson about David Cameron's intriguing approach to concrete policies.
I love political cartoons.

*sigh* I'm so middle class......