Mickey Mooncock, Keanu Reeves and a day out in Cleethorpes!

Monday night was quiz night at The Lumbertubs the local pub near to Gareth and Traceys house. We had a quick bite to eat and walked around the pub for the 8.30pm start.....but when we got there, we thought the quiz had been cancelled as there didn’t seem to be any quiz-master anywhere. We were thinking of going back home early, when we noticed a woman at the other end of the pub giving out sheets of paper and heard the sound of the DJ over a speaker system, so we moved back down to the other end of the pub and got our answer sheets.

The quiz was OK. We didn’t win, but we did do OK in a few of the rounds. However, on the opposite side of the pub from us was a big team with a really annoying bloke, dressed in a suit, who danced to every music related question and was obviously well known to the quiz-master and the pub staff as they always seemed to be surrounding their table and helping them out as well as the quiz-master commenting on them, their answers referring to them by name. I don’t know who won the quiz in the end as we left after the final round. We know we didn’t win anything and it was getting late.

Tuesday was a travel day as I was heading back to Skegness. It was a fun day as I got a bus into town and then the X4 'Stagecoach Gold', bus which claims free wifi and 'hand stitched Italian leather seats', for the journey to Peterborough. It was basically a normal bus with posher seats, but was comfortable enough and from up on the top deck, I had a great view as we drove out through the beautiful British countryside and through lots of small towns and villages, passing by thatched cottages, old churches and quaint country lanes.

British money weighs a ton...Bring back the £1 note!!

Harry Potter house...strange!

English country cottages

The M1 motorway...honest

On arrival in Peterborough, I had an hour to spare before my onward bus – A National Express coach to Skegness. So I had a walk around the city centre and visited the Cathedral, which is free to get into, but costs £3to take a photo – obviously I didn’t take any pictures, Honest. It is a really nice building though and had really cool, heaters inside keeping the interior warm as well as the haunting sounds of the organ being played as I looked around.

Peterborough

More Peterborough

In the cathedral, all the saints...

.....look...

...the same!!

I then got on the bus to Skegness and after the driver stood at the front of the bus taking us through locations of all the security cameras on the bus, all the safety features and a story about some driver who is always late because he talks too much (I suspect this was about himself) I listened into conversation between and old couple in the seat in front of me. They were basically talking absolute bollocks:-

Him: Oooo, look that hedge has been trimmed.

Her: Yes, so it has. Look, there is a lane for slow lorries on this road.

Him: Yes, I think they have one on the next hill too.

Her: Look there’s the fish shop we went to 10 minutes ago and bought that cod.

Him: Oh yeah, I remember.....

It went on and on........

Please kill me if I ever talk endlessly for no other reason than to be heard!!

Nice seats!!

Shut up and drive man!!

Peterborough Cathedral

Anyway, I arrived in Skeg just after 5.30 and was picked up by Mum and Dad, who met me at the bus station. We went to Salts chip shop for pie and chips for dinner before going home and mellowing out. I stayed up for yet another Winnipeg Jets Ice Hockey game, but was disappointed when the Jets lost in Overtime after leading with only 9 seconds left in the game. Their goalie made a brilliant stop before that though and was brilliant throughout the whole game.

On Wednesday I was up to see the Doctor. I was told to get a check up when I left hospital in Thailand and wanted to do so. So after waiting for ages I finally got to see Dr Cotton who booked me in to get a blood test an hour later. After the blood test I had breakfast at home and then visited the Dentist, who amazingly did a check up, took 2 x-rays and filled two un-decayed holes in my teeth -all in under 30 minutes and for £47. I have no idea why people complain about the NHS. I had a Doctors appointment, blood and urine test a dentist check up, X-ray and two fillings all done in under 3 hours, with a break for breakfast and a wander around town while I waited. No worries at all!!

After another mellow evening doing nothing I was up early the next day – well, before 11am and after a bit of breakfast and saying goodbye to mum, me and dad drove up to Cleethorpes where I was due to get the train to Manchester. We arrived there early after an easy drive and so took a walk around the town, stopping in 'The most interesting shop in Cleethorpes, where there was everything from old coins and postcards to signed photos from z-list celebrities and even a Jimmy Hill bobble head doll. Then we tried to find the famous Leaking Boot statue on the sea front, but later we discovered it had been destroyed by vandals – bloody arseholes. There was also a really strange 'illumination', on the seafront, in the shape of a mouse with a moon.... The photo is on here, see what you think!!

Finally after a nice hour wandering around it was time for dad to go home, so we said goodbye and I jumped on the train.

Cleethorpes pier

Cool shop- Interesting!!

Random 'stars'...

Dad enjoying a nice day out

Mickey mouses Cleethorpes cousin - 'Mickey Mooncock'....hehehe!

I arrived in Manchester just after 4pm and was picked up by Chris, before we dropped my stuff off at his house and then walked down to Old Trafford for the football, stopping for a massive chippy dinner and a 4 pint beer jug on the way.

United went 1-0 up early in the game but lost on the night 2-1 after a poor display, but won the tie after winning the 1^st leg 2-0 in Amsterdam last week. It was a poor game though, but any game at Old Trafford, live, is good. The best part was when the Ajax fans set a flare off in the stands and the smoke filled half the stadium and looked really cool!

After walking back home I sat up with James watching him play on the Xbox until 1230am, when the nights hockey coverage started!!

Inside the Theatre of Dreams

Smoke from the flare..

James at 4am watching the Hockey on tv!!

We ended up watching about 4 different games....Toronto, Detroit and Winnipeg (Now also known as The Guinea Peg Jets, thanks to James and his weird mind!) It was a good nights watching – switching between games and watching them all using a HDMI cable, on a big TV. The Guinea pegs won, 4-3 eventually after leading 4-0 and letting in 2 goals in the last 90 seconds. We also noticed that the opposition coach looked just like Keanu Reeves in 'The Matrix', so he got nicknamed 'Neo', for the rest of the evening!