Month: March 2026

The wedding weekend finally arrived and Emma and I zipped down to Bath for the event. We decided to splurge a little bit this time and book a suite in the Royal Crescent Hotel and Spa. I cannot stress enough what a pleasant experience this was. From the moment we pulled up outside it was an outstanding experience. The Concierge came running over to carry our bags and drive the car away. Some people arrived just before us so we checked in a bit later, but in the meantime the staff had taken our stuff up to our room. The suite itself was absolutely top notch and as a bonus we could look out of our bedroom window over to St James’ Square where I used to live [ actually just off it on Park Rd I think ]. We went out for an explore of Bath and had a couple of afternoon drinks before meeting up for dinner with Michal and Maria.

Breakfast next morning was superb. Then we made use of the spa and I’ve never felt so much like James Bond in my life. The spa swimming pool really was like something out of a Bond movie. After the spa we got ready for the wedding and ended up with a bit of time to kill so we stopped off in the hotel cocktail bar. I’m running out of words to describe how fantastic the hotel stay was but the cocktail bar was absolutely out of this world. Beautiful beautiful place. We didn’t want to leave and go to the wedding! Anyway, after my morning of feeling like Bond I was perusing the cocktail menu and they had a Vesper. After chatting to the bar tender it seems the recipe for the Vesper was from the book rather than the movie. It had to be done!

The wedding itself was perfect. Such a great time. We had some photos outside and you could look across the valley to see the place we were staying. Met some excellent people, drank some fine wines, ate some great food, then fell asleep and all the stag lads gathered around and took a rather excellent photo.

An absolutely marvellous weekend from start to finish.

As part of my Parish Council work I organised a litter pick. Because I’m mean I roped in Oli and Violet to come help. We split into two teams to cover the surrounding area and between us all picked up 19 bags of rubbish. My local area is now much tidier.

This tractor has been a proper pain in the arse. Every god damned year I’m having to repair something on it. This year on the first outing there was a horrific clattering noise from the blades when I started mowing. It seems I managed to shear some pins off the blade mounting and the blades got out of sync and started bashing into each other. Not cool.

In the past I’ve always jacked up the tractor and got busy underneath it but it seems my jack is broken and leaking fluid so it didn’t feel very safe being underneath quite a heavy mower doing repairs. To minimise the risk of me being decapitated by a collapsing jack I bought a new bit of kit.

It’s glorious. Truly fantastic. Repairs were made with two new blade mounts costing £8 each and the mower is back in business.

Just a quickie, I took my tofu in batter cooking skills and upgrade it to chicken. Was equally fantastic.

Josh, who has featured in this blog many times, is getting married. He decided to have his stag-do in Munich….in February! We thought it was going to be wooly underpants and a big jacket type weather. Turns out climate change had other plans and it was a glorious weekend, especially on Saturday, but I get ahead of myself.

I initially booked my flight with EasyJet but that flight was getting in quite late and all the London boys were arriving in the afternoon, so I booked another flight with Lufthansa and then upgraded it to Business Class so that I could go to the lounge rather than hang out with the unwashed masses in Manchester Airport.

On the first night we went to the Bier Halle in Munich and had a fantastic time.

The next day was absolutely glorious. It was going to be the best day of the weekend weatherwise so a plan was formed to got to the Biergarten am Chinesischen Turm. First though Dragan and I went for breakfast and then Michal got himself together and we headed into Munich Old Town.

After some beers in the square watching the clock do its thing with the glockenspiel and the dancing statue things we walked over to the beer garden in the sunshine

Then a quick pedal bike tuktuk thing for me and Josh and off to the restaurant we all went.

The next day, Sunday, was a bit rainy but we ventured into town and had some early beers. Josh disappeared off to get the dressing on his wound changed. The last two trips I’ve been on with Josh has resulted in him being hospitalised. The boy is a menace. Whilst Josh was away I tucked into some Currywurst, with my beer.

Following the beers we went to a Karaoke bar where I absolutely murdered Dream On by Aerosmith which inspired me to set myself a 2026 challenge. More on that in August. I don’t think the lyrics had even begun before I ripped off my top and flung it across the room. German beer really is that good! Thai food followed and then Michal and I went on another mission. Then to bed and a frighteningly early start flying back to Blighty. Upon landing in Manchester I decided I hadn’t drank quite enough for the weekend and met Charlie and Ellie along with her cousin in Manchester for more wine and then home to sleep. Took me a good few days to recover from the trip.