General Guff

This will be a bit of a selection of tosh. You've endured the band name competition for long enough now and there are some things you need to know if you follow this blog a bit. If you're dropping in randomly then try earlier posts. Some of the good ones are listed in the sidebar. On though:

1. This tense, nervous feeling will only be gone at final whistle tomorrow afternoon, to be replaced either by elation or depression. If you don't understand why football can do this to a person you need to work on your empathy.

2. Today is Pentecost, the church's birthday. It is also May 27th and so it is my birthday. This conjuction happens every few years. The boys have visited and I now possess a new oak chopping board, the Grinderman album and tickets for Bill Bailey in Birmingham in November. For a short while I possessed a fine New Zealand sauvignon blanc but that is now history. I am typing under its influence, rejoicing in an evening free of clerical responsibilities.

3. I had booked a quiet week ahead to get on with admin and stuff and maybe a little decorating towards the end of the week but now have two funerals, one a bit complicated, to negotiate.

4. Last night we ate at Bordeax Quay in Bristol. I cannot recommend it highly enough and will be taking people there over the next few months quite a lot. Had a lovely smoked eel starter with a beetroot and orange salad, then duck breast with lentils and peas and finally a crème brulée with an aniseed biscoti. Liz's food was good but only the beetroot risotto tempted me to swap. Best decaf coffee I've ever drunk.

We wandered around Bristol waterfront for a bit afterwards, feeling that warm glow of physical heath and well-being you can only get by mixing with a bunch of loud, drunk, overweight call-centre operatives on their night off. Some of this insult is courtesy of the Naked Guide to Bristol, a publication which is entertaining my toilet time very much these days and I suggest you buy since you don't want to touch mine.

5. I went to Fareham on Friday, adding it to a small list of places I only ever intend to visit once in my lifetime.

6. The blue tits have fledged. One might have been taken by the ginger bas***d oops I mean cat from next door but the rest got away. Three baby blackbirds are now entertaining us with their parents. For most birds flying is a fairly speedily acquired and natural skill. Not blackbirds. Blackbirds take a while and they sometimes overshoot the garden or try to land on fences and have to pull out at the last moment. Occasionally they arrive on the lawn by a method I can only describe as crash-landing. They are trying different bits of the garden to see if they are worth eating since they have seen their parents do that. They haven't been observing closely enough since their parents eat berries not leaves and worms not lawn. Funny though.

Off to enjoy my evening now. Another bottle beckons I believe.