how to spend a weekend

i'm having so many nice weekends at the moment. well the one before last wasn't, that was purely functional (not to dig) but before that was newcastle and the next one is birmingham! the point is, i went to nottingham last weekend. didn't go on friday night for reasons already detailed. i got up especially early - about half 8 (the usual time, but this is a saturday so lets take that into account. changed at stoke-on-trent and derby (missed conecction at derby due to hunger, but there was another twenty minutes later). i met sarah at the station and we went to a nice big old old pub for lunch (the bell) (just a soup (a plain soup, it must be said) for me) and then to page 45 for hellboy and the record shop for the eels dvd. has anyone noticed those hanson pubs that are popping up everywhere recently? real ale and whatnot but still chains, as evidenced by the thouroughly-2star food (and that's by my standards, not AA). they seem to at least be maintaining guest ales and unchanging atmosphere. so then we went back to listen to music and so forth. the day passed quickly and pleasantly. sarah has the same guitar as me but it plays much better, so i need to have the action sorted out on mine, or something. so then we made a quick bit of pasta and headed out to tim's play, 'the retirement of tom stevens'

it was excellent, and tim's character was a work of perfect tragedy. the ending was unsatisfying, probably deliberately so, but i think the only problem with the play was when this horribly dysfunctional family deciding to play a drunken game of 'truth dare kiss command or promise', a toe-curling plot device, although it didn't go nearly as bad as it could have done. anyway, it was a deeply uncomfortable play, so very succesful then. afterwards we hung out with the cast, which sarah and i enjoyed lovingly. hung out in town, but avoided any clubs, it being gone midnight &c. shame we didn't go to the legendary rock city.. i don't know if we could have faced it. i've become so conservative in my extreme tastes.. no, i would have enjoyed it if we'd have gone at the right time or been an excitible crowd, and the indie night looked rubbish. so we went back home and watched spaced (but couldn't get the hoamge-o-meter to work).

sunday, we had a light fry up (sausages, egg and waffle) and watched the never-ending story! i refrained from pointing out what they'd changed all the way through, but with the knowledge of the book, the film doesn't work as well because it's about a different medium. but i had to make clear the ending of the first half of the book, that comprises the film - for which, you too will have to read the book 89). then we went for sunday lunch with everyone's favourite jolly biochemist, emma! and her boyfriend matt. we went to 'sausage', which i suggested, i think because in the back of my mind was jess's assertion that 'three jolly butchers' does the best veggie sausage sandwich in brighton. big roasts, and fine, aged belgian ale all round, it was a perfect lunch. except for the music. it started off fine. but then the james blunt acoustic session album came on. and we had to open our big mouths. we complained, and they turned it up and put it on repeat. the fuckers. i wasn't kidding, i don't just not like the blunt-ster, it very nearly spoiled my meal. but the killer was when they made a concerted effort to get rid of us, by taking the album OFF random and allowing the fullly heinous shite of his cover of 'where is my mind' to be played. as soon as we'd left, sarah got a text from her friend who was still inside; they'd just taken the blunt off. it maddened me that we'd left a tip and been treated like that.

then i went home.