Dragons, Superheroes, and Chocolate Cake…

It was Ollie’s 14^th birthday recently (the younger of our Godsons) and we joined his family for the celebrations. He proudly showed us his newly acquired Bearded Dragon that he had named Max (Sue and I were not so keen to get up close and personal with it). We had bought him the Munchkin Marvel game as he is a big fan of the comics, and I tried (badly) to teach him how to play. Sue however impressed everyone with the chocolate cake that she had baked for him, which topped of a lovely meal with them all.

London Culture…

As part of a get together for his birthday we visited the National Portrait Gallery with Terry and Katherine (we understand it is due to close for 3 years soon). We didn’t get to see everything and we needed to take a break for lunch in between, where we went to a pub called the Sherlock Holmes that has a room upstairs made up to look like the famous detective’s, complete with a creepy model of the man himself. After we did finish with our visit to the gallery, we had a drink in one half of the Ship & Shovell, a pub split in two by the Craven Passage.

As Terry and Katherine left for home, Sue and I ventured over the river to the Royal Festival Hall to listen to some free live jazz. While we were there we picked up a couple of tickets for the Calexico + Iron & Wine show that evening (they have worked together before and we have seen Iron & Wine perform, but never Calexico, who I was eager to see). After a quick bite to eat in the nearby Ping Pong we went back to the venue and watched a very good gig (the main act was supported by Irish musician Lisa O’Neill). After the show, we had a reviving cocktail in the Black & Blue opposite the station while we waited for our train home.

A long but entertaining day was had.

Man Cave…

The attic room (controversially called the ‘Man Cave’ by Sue) has mostly been the storage area, computer room and a spare bedroom, and has over time become full of more junk. Recently we have spent some time reorganising it (moving units, buying more shelves and boxes), and getting rid of some of the clutter, so that we can move the various board games from downstairs up and put them out on display. There is still a lot of stuff that has been collected that will need to be reviewed to see if it is worth keeping (much of it is things such as ticket stubs and programmes from old shows, guide books of places we have visited, and other paraphernalia that has little material worth but a great deal of sentimental value). I did find a newspaper from the moon landing and another from the Silver Jubilee amongst others, some of Jamie’s baby teeth in a box, an old Mega Drive console, a box of Lego and branded material from many of the companies I have worked for. Still, that is a project for another day.