The Random Thread

[JoM]

John's Christmas night out last night....it was at a hotel near Bodymoor Heath, not too far from our Ostrich's old stomping ground. Couldn't find the place at first, it was down a dark lane and the sign was half hidden behind a tree (not that it could be read that easily in the dark anyway). We parked on the unlit, uneven and potholed car park which I then had to walk across in heels.

The meal was in a marquee, a draughty cold marquee. I hadn't ordered a starter as I didn't like the sound of any of them, John had the soup and said he wished he hadn't. The main meal was okay, although the portions were small (one sprout!) and it wasn't because it was that fancy tiny portion/nicely presented stuff, it was just small portions on small plates. The pudding was okay, nothing special. They completely failed to serve the after dinner coffee and mince pies.

Still, the company was excellent on our table and we laughed and chatted all night. There were two empty seats as two of the mens' wives had refused to come, so there was me and John and his colleagues Ken, Nick, Gary and (another) John.

[JanB]

One sprout was probably enough Jo

Did you have a takeaway on the way back?

I really hope you didn't have to pay for it

A chance to speak to the boss man?

Not a lover of mince poies anyway, but living over here, love my proper coffee

[JoM]

Had a load of biscuits when we got home Jan

I love mince pies, and John doesn't so I'd have had two! Didn't realise until after we left and I checked the online menu and yep, they were listed.

No, he wasn't talking to anyone - I've just done a long long post on the private board about him actually.

[JoM]

BTW, thankfully we didn't pay! Some had paid to stay the night there though and were regretting it when they saw their rooms

[JanB]

Who chose the venue? Tom?

[JanB]

And a complete bummer - just seen that a friend of 41 died yesterday.

As we've moved from Fuzeta, we're not in touch with a lot of people we knew quite so much, but another friend put the news on fb.

I put a condolance, as we know the family and another friend has just rung. The funeral is tomorrow and she is going to represent us, which is so kind of her.

[JoM]

Who chose the venue? Tom?

How did you guess? Every year it’s somewhere in the Sutton Coldfield area, because that’s where he lives and it’s cheap for him to get a taxi.

There were two price options - one had wine at the table and free drinks all night for an extra £15 and the other was just food. Guess which one we got?

[JanB]

[JanB]

Our 2 ton of wood is arriving tomorrow morning, before lunch

We normally have had it by now, but Heldar said November So I sent him a message earlier, saying we have no wood

He arrived 15 minutes later with enough for a couple of nights fires.

We now have a lovely warm lounge

[JoM]

I’m so fed up of incorrect weather forecasts!

I’ve left the washing until today as it’s forecast to be dry, and according to the BBC app which updated ‘a moment ago’, and the Met Office one is the same, we have 0% chance of rain at this time.

Wrong!