August 12, 2004
New Franchises
Either Jules as branched out into the food game or this is a spelling mistake. I must admit I thought it would be Julie's Bistro. Then maybe it's Jules' Bisto, a gravy shop.
March 31, 2004
LingoLatte
The discerning british public, traditionally, enjoy a nice cuppa. Not cappo, cuppa. Tea. Starbucks etc. have done us in though and brought in coffee bars everywhere. For some reason we like to use Italian words to espresso our types of coffee. And we do like Italian food, Italian delicatessans, and Italian restaurants. Apparently the women like Italian men, and I've heard that if you laid all the English girls in Rome end to end, and they probably have been etc. And of course I still lust after an Italian car.
[NB: If you click the Italian car link it takes you to www.ferrari.it. This may not work for you if you have pop-ups suppressed using Google or similar software - You just get a blank screen like I did. I'm amazed by this.]
Anyway, notwithstanding that preamble, you'd think that in South Molton Street, scene of many Campaign for Unobstructed Pedestrianism incidents, which a fairly upmarket street, they could at least spell the word correctly. Or maybe they are appealing to the Sloanes? Ok yah!
March 29, 2004
The Scream
We went to a restuarant the other day for my father-in-law's 70th birthday and there was much gabbling and babbling from the women present about a drawing in the Ladies toilet. Apparently it was showing the private parts of a few men. We were about to leave and one lady said she was going to pay another visit so I turned on my camera and handed it to her to take a picture. Here is the result.
Now, there are some people I wouldn't trust to sit the right way on a toilet, that low-life Cliff Stanford for instance (watch out for his court case at the Old Bailey on May 14th), but I expect even pensioners to be able to point a camera the right way.
Edward Munch is on the right.
March 25, 2004
Wine Tasting
Earlier I mentioned that I went to a wine tatsing event and here is the sommelier, maitre d', general wine font of knowledge for the evening. Aside from his rather suspicious bouffant hair, he was actually extremely knowledgeable.
It's a funny old game this wine tatsing lark. Witness the spittoon for instance:
Very unsavoury. You'll be pleased to know I greedily swallowed all the drink and didn't use this vulgar device.
February 21, 2004
Chocolate Dreams
I like a nice flake and this chocolate drink with a flake on top was delicious. Of course, if you designed a chocolate that fell to bits so easily you would be laughed at. Maybe it was a happy accident?
January 29, 2004
Twenty One Today
Karen uses an online shopping service. It's very good. So far we have had credits totalling about £150 so I'm well pleased. She ordered 1 can of tomato soup but changed her mind and put 2. Ahh, so that'll be 21 cans of soup which duly arrived. I wonder what the person packing the goods thought.
January 15, 2004
Guinness is Good For You
That's an old slogan which you might have trouble using today as the Adevrtising Standards Authority may take exception. Older adverts were so outrageous. For example cigarettes were advertised as helping to sooth a sore throat. The slogan started decades ago, long before the web. Guinness were a fairly early adopter of the web though with a free screensaver to go alongside an advertising campaign. Ac recently as November last year, the BBC did a report on this saying:
"A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as an aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.
Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from Wisconsin University told a conference in the US.
Guinness were told to stop using the slogan decades ago - and the firm still makes no health claims for the drink"
My Nan used to drink it but she stopped when Billy Connolly started advertising Kaliber, a low alchohol drink substitute, also made by Guinness. She said that something was missing from it (Guinness). Batty as a fruit cake probably but adorable all the same.
December 31, 2003
December 27, 2003
Mulled Wine
Red wine with cloves, brandy, lemon, oranges - or just buy one of those sachets. Lovely. Warms the cockles etc.. I only ever have it at Christmas which is a shame because I love it.
December 20, 2003
Redness
It's Christmas and it's also Carole's Birthday - she's on the right. Red is the order of the day apparently.
As are cheesy grins
December 03, 2003
Tongues
This is Jenny and her friends Libby and Shona who I happened to bump into last night. Jenny is a very nice girl with limited piercings and a pleasant nature. Libby is a riot with maximum piercings, a bad taste in drinks (double chartreuse finished me off) and this strange habit that girls have of sticking their tongue out at cameras.
November 26, 2003
November 08, 2003
Fish and Geeks
Or is that Fish and Greeks? This is Mr Christou and he owns a wonderful little fish and chip shop in Marylebone Lane selling, well, wonderful little fish and chips I guess. The food was lovely and the alchohol is BYO (Bring Your Own).
Directions: Go North up Marylebone Lane and pass the Golden Eagle pub onyour left. Don't pass the pub between 9pm and closing on Thursdays and Fridays though as they have a pianist and a sing-song. More of which earlier and later. Go past the pub (except on the above occasions, are you still with me?), and go to the end and turn left (this is still Marylebone Lane) and it's on your left.
Quite what this History blackboard is all about I'm not sure. The Itialians were obviously very successful for many years until the Greeks battered them. Unfortunately they obviously ran out of money and couldn't get the board engraved neatly so Mr Christou apparently did this with a tin of Humbrol paint and a landing net.
Oh and if you quote this blog you get a 15% discount. That's right isn't it?
COTIFALV - Click on the image for a larger version
It's 10:29 now and I said I have this up by 10:33 - service is everything.
September 17, 2003
Nuts
As usual we went for the Tuesday night drink but it was a quieter affair. Unfortunately our usual al freso bar area had been dug up.
I had a couple of extra drinks with the radio star (hello Dave) in the Strawberry Moon and Cheers then headed for McDonalds and home. Passign the local wine bar type place in Whetstone I spotted this creature, J-J-Jim, who was storing nuts in his mouth and lipstick on his collar. This sort of activity is to be avoided. However, he was gloriously drunk and very funny.
August 20, 2003
Foreign Menus
We soent most of our stay in Italy in non-touristy areas which meant we mostly missed the delights of dodgy translations e.g. Roast Dick a l'Orange etc.. However the enclosed looks completely deliberate to me. We only stopped for mid-morning coffee so sadly didn't order one.
July 31, 2003
No glasses required
The miserable hungover bargirl thought I was a little odd, to say the least, when I photographed these bottles. Very perceptive of her. Anyway, if you are going to drink from a bottle it's probably best to remove the tops with those nasty jagged edges. The bargirl said she didn't like to use her hands as it wasn't hygienic. As if drinking out of a bottle can be hygienic in the first place. Still I like it as a form of beer art.
July 27, 2003
The Green Man
I thought the Green Man was a pub but you can't get served here. Maybe it's a cousin of The Hulk?
Cider the Surpriser
I won this on the tombola or whatever its called. Now what to do with 7.5% cider? I don't drink the stuff so I have left it in the fridge to see if it lasts the summer.
July 16, 2003
Spooning
This is the best picture of Nathan I have taken in ages.
July 09, 2003
Food misery
Another grammatically challenged notice. This one is by the rubbish we saw earlier and even earlier. Who put it up? The cafe next door I guess. How do the know that none of the other bags contain food? Do they forensically search them 24 hours a day. I'm going to chuck one of their sandwiches in there. And whay is someone blaming the binman? I have heard say it could be hedgehogs from outer-space and I can't disprove this theory.
I think we should stick our own notices up alongside this.
Click on the image to get a larger image.
July 07, 2003
The bubble's burst
We went to a wedding anniversary party. These guys must have married young. The highlight was turning off the electricity to the castle. Perhaps you should try this? Start with Windsor.
July 04, 2003
Fruit and Veg confusion
Now I am partial to a jacket potato with butter, a bit of pepper and some sort of filling like baked beans, marie-rose sauce, a sausage, Big Mac, and a can of coke. But what do you have with a couch potato? And I like bananas but I couldn't eat a whole republic.
Also, the local newsagents sells cheap beer. Currently he has a special offer "STELLA CANS £5" and I know she is worth more than that.
More photos later as my cable is at home :-( but they are worth waiting for if in you're in tune with this blog (you sad person).
June 30, 2003
Paper bag and bottle
Apaprently this guy is pulling a bottle out of a paper bag. Or maybe he is putting it back in because the dog has finished with it? Anyway, someone should tell him that the dog is facing the other way and definitely ignoring him.
June 27, 2003
The Magician
See how Dave magically pulls this expensive horrible bottle of wine from the upturned big bottle top? Is there no beginning to this man's talents?
June 11, 2003
Send me your body parts
this man needs help. He has run out of arms. Can you spare some today? Must be complete with working grip and elbow please.
June 04, 2003
Capers
They have a horrible taste and you don't do any capering once you have eaten them. Unlike radishes as you can do a lot of radishing following a radish intake. Figging is fun too.
May 29, 2003
Don't eat here
Unfortunately they put this up after they had taken our order. The food was extremely poor.
May 28, 2003
Fish Wife
I haven't got the guts for this job and neither have the mackerel any more. I think they haddocknough of it. They have no sole. They are just perched in the sink. Maybe I am skating on thin ice. I'll ask my Brother - eel know.
Fin.
May 27, 2003
A small catch
Mackerel are stupid fish. I just had a bit of red tubing on top of a hook and they took the bait. Ryan caught six in one go. Going to eat some of them tonight.
Avocados
Life would be simpler if there was a 'd' in avocado i.e. advocado. In a move to a classless society we should simplify spelling.
.jpg){kind=link}