Bettys

A good family run chain of tea rooms in Yorkshire, started by a Swiss orphan, Frederick Belmont in the early 1900's. We went to a rather popular Bettys in Harrogate where we took afternoon tea in the continental Montpellier Cafe Bar area. Delightful.

A Leeds Graduate

My sister has graduated, with a first, with Hons, with European, that's a lot of brackets on her CV. A lovely sunny day in Leeds, the venue where the university holds the ceremony isn't very big so each graduate is limited to two tickets, with the possibility of getting more tickets on the day on a first come, first served basis. 

We arrived just that little too late to get a third ticket for me, so after the first of many photo calls outside the Great Hall and the mini bottle of champagne we brought along for the occasion, I made my way to a lecture theatre to watch on a screen. The lecture theatre was reasonably full, and as we were all just watching on the screen we didn't have to clap continuously throughout, each person just cheered for their respective person they had come to see graduate. 

After the ceremony more photos, then we headed over to Hannah's department for official photos and a light brunch for graduates and families. We wondered around the campus, more photos, before Hannah gave up her robes and we headed to Harrogate for an Italian lunch and a stroll around a local park. Some of the best photos of the day here.

The whole day brought back memories of when I graduated which seems like so long ago. At the time, Richard Attenborough was the Chancellor of Sussex University and he was there at my ceremony to give a speech, shake hand my hand and give out my certificate.

Cluck Cluck!!

Two good friends are getting married next weekend and last weekend was the respective hen and stag evenings. Liam and the stags went to Nottingham, best man Neville dressed him in a Sheriff of Nottingham kind of outfit and the drinking began at nine in the morning which inevitably lead to mayhem, including some kind of accident with a plate of nachos. 

Bride to be

We hens started out way more civilised, with a pamper afternoon at the mother of the bride's house with oodles of sparkling rose, perhaps that's were it all went down hill?? Lovely! On to the Chinese buffet at Zen Gardens, where compulsory pink fluffy hen party accessories were waiting to adorn and the bride to be and her hens. I don't know what the obsession with penis and hen parties are, I'm pretty sure stag do's don't have vagina themed decorations and accessories. We had glow in the dark penis straws that we faithfully carried to every venue we went to. Sue had a t-shirt to wear for the evening and get the hen's and random men to sign a message for her as she embarks on married life. Needles to say, the comments ranged from very nice to blatantly naughty. More photos of the evening here.

Hens in Turtle Bay

June Photos

Collection of photos from June, pretty colours from the roses in the front garden and poppies on the drive to work.

Among the roses in our garden

Pretty Poppies

We went for dinner in Nottingham in a vegetarian place, Squeek, recommended online - disappointing food and over priced for what it was, but the decor was fun. It felt more like they hadn't actually changed it from the 70's rather than decorating their restaurant in the style of the 70's. After dinner in Squeak, went to a much nicer tea house round the corner, Lee Rosy's Tea, with a huge range of different teas on offer.

Retro decor in Squeek, Nottingham

Lee Rosy's Tea house, Nottingham

Wateside Festival 2011

Nearly a year of prep and the weekend was finally here! I was at the festival site at 8am to meet a delivery from Tring Brewery of five barrels of Jack 'O Legs ale, thought I'd be able to go home for a few hours before things kicked off, but no, things just kept appearing with only me to meet them, I wasn't going anywhere. Next was the generators, then the beer tent, the bar stock, bins, skips, bar engineers who build the bar inside the tent. I think everyone could tell I had no idea what goes in to building this outdoor bar. I had all the bits, just need a bit of knowledge to put it all together. Justin and Phil - the bar engineers, were pretty good to me, they explained everything, helped my put the ale beer engine and barrels together. They are like the Mary Poppins of bar bits. The tubes for the ale weren't long enough, they pulled out extra tubing from their tool box, nets for the tubes, again out the tool box. I did try to do a facebook update of what was happening on site as the day went on, embrace the social networks etc, but I just go so busy with festival 'stuff' the record wasn't as through as I would have liked.

Beer with no bar tent, building a bar, a working bar!

The weather did keep people away on the Friday night and the Saturday, think this was the best scenario for me as a beginner bar manager so I could get to grips with the equipment, the bar, the environment. I only had issues with frothy beer, which I couldn't problem solve, neither could my bar buddy, Colin, or Fred who has been doing the bar the last five years. We think it was because we were pulling so many pints by that point, that the beer in the tubes didn't have long enough to cool down.

I walked around the festival for about ten minutes on Sunday morning, apart from that, all I saw was the inside of the beer tent. I did hear the music, the bar tent is right opposite the main stage, but did question the choices of artist - heavy metal on a Sunday afternoon, not sure if that's appropriate. I managed to get a few of my Costa friends involved in working the bar with me over the weekend and also met a few others who were willing to help. Really appreciate the support, I wouldn't have been able to man the bar on my own. I didn't quite enjoy the six hours I spent waiting in the empty site on Monday morning for the generator and drinks guys to come and collect their stuff. Thankfully, it was a sunny day and I have an iPod. It was definitely a learning experience for me. All in all, it was a really fun weekend, and I'm already thinking of ways to improve for next year. 

Some of the bar volunteers over the weekend.