September Catch-up  LFF  Weekend 5th SeptemberNot many of my friends were doing this one, I would have been the only Pints and Straw's host present, so I requested a break.  The two year anniversary is tomorrow at the time of writing this, that one will likely be a good one.Myself and Charlotte still went into Leeds early, but instead we went to a Lego sculpture exhibition I had pre-booked.  It was fab !! , really big and detailed sculptures.        We spent a good hour in there, at the end was an area where you could build your own creation to stick to a wall !   Obviously we decided that a trans flag should be produced, however they were lacking in pink bricks, so we didn't manage a big one.If you look carefully at the pic it's just above Charlotte's hand.Afterwards I took on a bit of a tour of the northern area bars - we don't normally get anywhere near there on an LFF as it's the opposite end of the center.  Soon it was time for food, I had spied a lovely looking gluten free tapas place in an arcade we walked past, we decided to give it a go. https://www.casa-leeds.com/It was fantastic food, we both had a dish that had a bit of everything in, rather than ordering individual items.  We were both really impressed with it, and nothing was left. The venue appears to open the upstairs as a latin nightclub in the evenings as well, but we were too early for that.Afterwards we made our way to the Leonardo to freshed up before LFF.As not many people were there, I had a plan to try and get around some venues that we wouldn't normally do, partly for variety but also to see if was missing any fun anywhere. We did meet up with Alice and Rebecca at the Bridge End Social for a bit first though. Bridge End SocialBridge - Had 80's selection going Blayd's Bar - Small, busy but friendlyViaduct - Had some terrible cocktailsPride Bar (above Queens Court)  -  dead as usual, but nice music !   The End Bar Not a bad night, but by midnight was done, so I suggested we get a Kebab and head to bed 😁Istanbul Kebab near the Kirkgate market has become a firm favorite, it's in the wrong direction to the hotel, but it's worth a bit of a walk.  Usually some funny drunk people in too. I didn't sleep that well, and the next day wasn't feeling very energized.  Charlotte drove us back to Hull, and we ended up going for a nice little walk near the river to blow away the cobwebs. In the evening I rented 'The Black Hole (1979)' a favorite of mine, and we watched that. Don't think Charlotte enjoyed as much as me 😂  On the Sunday we went to a trans social meeting in Hull, and felt rather old - it seems to be mainly youngsters that go  😀. Had some lunch, then went on a walk , headed back home to Barnsley in the late afternoon.  A fab weekend !  Weekend of 11th September   Popped over to see Charlotte on the Thursday night, had a lovely spaghetti she had cooked for us. We watched ' The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)' , which to my shame I had never seen ! It was good !   I headed home on Friday.  Saturday I did a park run in the morning - tried the Barnsley one, seemed very friendly, going to make that my home one I think.  I took the family out for a disappointing meal at a chain pub for lunch.  Steak could have stopped bullets, but the family seemed to appreciate being out. In the afternoon I worked on the Flying 9. On Sunday I went to see my parents, then onward to swimming - not been in ages ! Think I manged 40 lengths though.   Weekend of 18th September  I had requested a Paneer cheese based dish from one of Charlotte's cook books, as we are both a fan of trying new things.  Unfortunately both the cheese and the recipe were a bit bland. But it filled a hole :) Lynn had very kindly posted me a pair of Snag tucking pants to try.I let Charlotte try too -  we were not that impressed really - just seemed like big pants. Not much improvement to the boy shorts we favor. I had to work on the Friday during the day,  in the evening we had a lovely beef Stroganoff, then watched  the John Carpenter film 'Dark Star' - which apparently inspired Red Dwarf. It was mildly amusing, not as funny as Red Dwarf though 😂 Saturday  The plan was a park run at PeterPan park in the morning, I managed a PB of 40:37 !!   Event  Run Date  Overall Position  Time  Peter Pan parkrun20/09/202525440:37Barnsley parkrun13/09/202520941:05Nostell parkrun16/08/202524544:51Peter Pan parkrun09/08/202527643:50  That was very pleasing, I was hopeful I might bet below 40 minutes at some point if I can keep up the improvements. For lunch and the afternoon, we headed to Lincoln, where we decided upon the Botanist to eat. The food was pretty good, I had a Chicken Schnitzel. We both enjoyed our food - but the  Botanist Mule that we had to drink was awful and sort of ruined it a bit.  It was labelled as a nutritional health drink, but was really really sharp, way too much lime juice. We went for a wander, White Stuff, Flying Tiger,  Waterstones, an LGBTQ+ bookshop,  and then on wards up Steep hill.  The aim was to go to place that sold posh coffee beans which is about half way up. It seemed to have a lovely selection, and time was spent sniffing the jars before a selection was made.  It turned out to be quite disappointing when tasted though - possibly been in the shops jar way too long, so it went in the bin 😢 After this we continued, and bought some apples from a farmer on the east coast who had an orchard. They were very nice, but he miscounted and we were one apple short when we got home !  We popped into a local coffee place for a drink before we headed home it was another LGBTQ friendly place - Charlotte spotted a Robert Galbraith book on one of the shelves of books you can borrow, and did talk to friendly staff member about removing it !   I am not keen on possible confrontation so went outside while she did that !  It went fine apparently, and the lady suggested it might get burned 😂 We headed home shortly afterwards, but popped into a farm shop on the way home.  Saturday Evening  We were out on the town in Hull , got an Uber in, the plan was to start at 'The Star' but when we arrived the music was way too loud for us , and we left immediately. Went to Cherry's instead,  there was some Karaoke on, but we sat quite far away so wasn't too bad.  Moved on to Zinnia's where the drag DJ gave us some free shots.  She ran out of the Sourz that she was meant to be using, so we ended up with some much more expensive Sambuca's instead !!  Headed to Monroes after this, where we discovered a pool table upstairs, we were going to do a best of 3, but I think Charlotte fouled making it impossible for her to win, so we only did the 2 games.   During the evening I had lamented that there was not much youth out and about these days - this is important for later !  Spiders !  I was in the mood for more dancing juice, and I had been wanting to try the Spiders goth/rock nightclub for a while, so I used my evil powers of persuasion to get us in another Uber to the nightclub. It was a cash only place, but there was a nice man who would act as a human ATM for a small fee.  I was drunk enough to accept this as a sensible idea - it was only a few quid on top. The place was rammed with all the youth I had previously lamented about !  they were all clad mostly in black - as we were coincidentally.  The drinks selection was a bit strange, seeming to be Hitchhikers Guide themed.   I got us some Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster's , which were actually quite nice.  We spied one of Charlotte's friends from the Hull trans coffee mornings, and ended up with them for a while.   They had put some Megadeth on, so I was very happy !!  unfortunately they didn't play much. I recall ordering some 'Green Monsters' next, which I think had Absinthe in - memory failure slowly occurs after this.  I managed to order us an Uber back to hers, but it took us a while to find it.  We did get home OK, but then there was a bit of a kerfuffle as we couldn't find her keys anywhere. Not sure how long we were outside, but probably a while ! Did eventually get back in, Charlotte went upstairs and collapsed, I decided that making cheese on toast was the best idea, and did that - making a lot of mess in the process.   It was a very fun night, but Absinthe based drinks are a very bad idea, and we have both mutually agreed that we should probably not go to Spiders again 😂 SundayThe morning was spent regretting yesterdays consumption,  but we had a nice walk after lunch. We spied a lovely 03 plate Nissan Cube, do love the older variant.                   25th / 26th September Visited Hull, Charlotte cooked us steak with potato wedges and spring greens, was lovely.The next day we went for a bit of a walk along the riverside, then I headed home.       

 

September Catch-up 

 

LFF  Weekend 5th September

Not many of my friends were doing this one, I would have been the only Pints and Straw's host present, so I requested a break.  The two year anniversary is tomorrow at the time of writing this, that one will likely be a good one.

Myself and Charlotte still went into Leeds early, but instead we went to a Lego sculpture exhibition I had pre-booked.  

It was fab !! , really big and detailed sculptures.  

 

We spent a good hour in there, at the end was an area where you could build your own creation to stick to a wall !   Obviously we decided that a trans flag should be produced, however they were lacking in pink bricks, so we didn't manage a big one.

If you look carefully at the pic it's just above Charlotte's hand.

Afterwards I took on a bit of a tour of the northern area bars - we don't normally get anywhere near there on an LFF as it's the opposite end of the center.  

Soon it was time for food, I had spied a lovely looking gluten free tapas place in an arcade we walked past, we decided to give it a go. https://www.casa-leeds.com/

It was fantastic food, we both had a dish that had a bit of everything in, rather than ordering individual items.  We were both really impressed with it, and nothing was left. 

The venue appears to open the upstairs as a latin nightclub in the evenings as well, but we were too early for that.

Afterwards we made our way to the Leonardo to freshed up before LFF.

As not many people were there, I had a plan to try and get around some venues that we wouldn't normally do, partly for variety but also to see if was missing any fun anywhere. We did meet up with Alice and Rebecca at the Bridge End Social for a bit first though. 

• Bridge End Social
• Bridge - Had 80's selection going 
• Blayd's Bar - Small, busy but friendly
• Viaduct - Had some terrible cocktails
• Pride Bar (above Queens Court)  -  dead as usual, but nice music !   
• The End Bar 

Not a bad night, but by midnight was done, so I suggested we get a Kebab and head to bed 😁

 

  

 

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