Yay!
Normally, or in previous years, I would have had Monday off instead of Friday, as this was the weekend of the Superbowl. But, my love affair with American Football. I did sit down to watch the first game of the season, and just felt I did not spend another seven hours of my Sunday sitting on the sofa. So, I switched the TV off and just didn’t get round to switching it back on.
I did think of tuning in last night, but I lay in bed and read a magazine instead, and by the time the teams ran out, I was asleep. From what my friends have said, many of whom seem to have watched the spectacle for the first time this year, it was painfully slow and does it really take nearly four hours to get through sixty minutes of actual game time? Well, this is what happens when a sport sells its heart and soul to the TV networks; TV gets to decide how long the breaks are, and when the teams can actually carry out a play. It kinda makes sense on TV, but as someone who loves the game, and understands it, that watching it in a stadium is painfully slow, as you get little idea when there is going to be a normal 40 second gap between plays, or that is now a 5 minute ad break.
No, I needed a three day weekend because of beer! First weekend of February is time for the White Cliffs Festival of Winter Ales in Dover, and a friend of mine suggested that maybe we should go on the Friday afternoon rather than the Saturday when there is just the dregs left. I thought about it, but not too long and agreed this is a great idea and something we should go. So, I asked my boss for the day off; he said yes, and so the plans were afoot for an afternoon of beery joy.
After my blog a couple of weeks ago about how wonderfully mild the weather has been this winter, nature, of course, decided to prove me wrong by giving the who county a huge blast of winter with ice, snow and wind. Britain would add chaos, crap driving and empty shelves in supermarkets. So, I decided to use the first part of my day off in shopping at Tesco, and then heading to the butcher to get meat to fill up the freezer. And then get into town, grab a quick haircut. And so passed my morning off. I met my friend off the train and together we walked to the town hall, and decided to queue up even though there was 45 minutes before the doors were to open.
So, there we were, standing in the freezing cold, waiting to have a beer. There are worse reasons to be standing outside getting cold, but there are better one. Oh yes.
Anyway, at one the doors swung open, we paid to get in, paid to get our glass and our beer tokens, walk through to the hall, grab a seat and finally go back and select a beer with which to begin the afternoon’s beery proceedings.
And throughout the afternoon we did this (select beers to sample) over and over again. Some were good, some were not. However most were at least good if not wonderful. I soaked up some of the beer with chips and peanuts (Not at the same time), but by four o’clock I was getting a little tired and my eyelids got a little heavier. My phone rung, and it was Jools asking if I wanted to go home; good idea. I had had eight halves, four pints, which was more than enough for me, so I bid Matt farewell, gathered my stuff together, managed to leave my phone on the table, and walk outside. I realised my phone was missing, so I go back inside to collect it, back outside to wait for Jools and enjoy the cold air mixing with my beer confused ‘brain.’
Jools arrived to steer me back to the car, and so back home. As she is rather wonderful, she went out to get a Chinese meal for dinner, so neither of us would need to cook. Sleep came easy that night.
Saturday, we had a lazy day. A dusting of snow fell during the night, and there was a hard frost all day. Heavy snow was forecast for Saturday night, but for now we could see the green of the plants in our garden. I did the usual stuff; listened to the radio, watched football and listened to the football commentary and Norwich once again getting a win. I cooked steak and potato skins for dinner; a triumph even if I say so myself. Nicely full, we sat down to watch the film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; it was very good, had great production values, but I did prefer the old BBC version, which had double the running time to tell the same story. Still, a good evening.
Sunday: We woke up and pulled the curtain from the window and were greeted with snow. Lots. Of. Snow. It looked cold; what should we do? Get dressed and go out to take photographs of course! We pulled our winter woollies on, grabbed our boots and stepped out. Up to our calves into deep, crisp snow. It was getting light, but the new snow gave the morning a wonderful blue tinge. I snapped away; at the car trying to get up the hill, over the fields to Dover, down the hill towards the village. We walked back along the street, through more fairly deep drifts, took more pictures. And back inside for a nice hot cup of coffee and breakfast.
And that really is it for Sunday. More radio listening, more football. Lots more football. Inbetween I cooked a nice roast beef dinner for lunch. Not an exciting weekend, but good enough for us. Whilst watching the football on TV during the afternoon, my attention was grabbed by the birds using the feeders in our front garden. Heck, I could even photograph them from the warmth and softness of the sofa.
All that was left was to avoid the American Football and be ready for the week of destiny at work.
No comments:
Post a Comment