CAR BOOT: Saddington (Leicester)

Our second car boot, and it was a bit of a pain because the night before there was a massive thunderstorm... which meant we weren't entirely sure if we were going to go or not. We decided to go for it, and when we turned up there were very few cars in the field. Thankfully the weather improved and the punters started to show up, and all in all it was pretty successful (and at least it wasn't as miserably hot as the first time we did it).

GIG: La Villa Strangiato (Rush Tribute) - Leicester

The Musician, a place we haven't been for a VERY long time, and nothing like we remembered it. A pretty decent venue actually although the sound levels were way too high, leaving us with buzzy ears. But still, it was a good gig, and very amusing watching all the old guys taking a trip down memory lane.

This was no 'Greatest Hits' set, songs featured included: The Pass / Leave That Thing Alone / Xanadu / Jacob's Ladder / Chemistry / Subdivisions / The Trees / Circumstances / Tom Sawyer / YYZ / Marathon / Overture / Temples of Syrinx / Presentation / Soliloquy / Grand Finale / Prelude / Apollo / Dionysus / Armaggeddon / Cygnus / The Sphere / Limbo... and presumably La Villa Strangiato after we'd left.

The band were very good, the singing was the weak link if anything - but Geddy's not exactly the easiest singer in the world to copy while playing bass and keyboards and pedals... so fair play to him.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS: Further Improvements to the Cat Run

I started work on Friday night, cutting wood and staining... because I wanted to get a head start and these things always take longer than you think. I didn't honestly expect to still be doing it on Sunday afternoon to be honest but there you go...

We added a new 'runway' running from the top shelf of the climbing frame to the wall.

A shelf to replace the window box which was moved to the front of the house.

And built a turf box so they can have some real grass to sit on.

We've toyed with the idea of extending the cage out over the grass before, but it's expensive and not that easy. So we thought an easy idea would be to put some sort of grass in the run. One thing led to another and we decided to build a box to put it in rather than having it on the floor. Hopefully they will use it...

The window box had to go because once the flowers in it died and we pulled them out Ming thought it was a wonderful alternative to the litter tray, hence we moved it around to the front of the house. But they like going in and out of the windows so we built them a shelf which should also be perfect for lying on as well.

MEAL OUT: The Langton Arms (Church Langton)

Our first visit to the Langton Arms in a very long time (or the LA as it now seems to be known...) and it's very recently been done up! What an improvement, this, finally is a local worth having... with a much more varied menu than the Grey Goose.

This was also our first time seeing Lee and Su since January, mainly due to cancellations for the terrible weather, and it was great to see them again. Su was very tired because her work has gone bat shit crazy again, and I wished we'd taken our car so she could have had a drink... but still we had a good laugh and the food was excellent.

I had the chicken and pork pie, which wasn't quite what I was expecting to be honest. I thought it was going to be a pie with chicken and pork in it, which technically I suppose it was, but more accurately it was a 'pork pie' with chicken in it - heated up. The pie was lovely, but the jelly was disgusting when it was warm so I scraped that off. The pastry was pork pie pastry as well, as distinct from 'pie' pastry, and the chips were very good.

Rose had the steak which she said was perfect, and we shared a warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream, which was confusing. I read the menu that it was warm chocolate chip cookie, brownie and cream ice ream. But it was chocolate chip cookie and brownies and cream ice cream. At first I didn't like it, it tasted too much like warm cake mixture, but after a few spoonfuls it tasted alright actually.

After dinner we all drove back to Lee and Su's and stayed up until stupid O'clock and consequently felt like shit on Saturday. Ah well... no change there then!

Saddington Car Boot Sale

Rich and I finally got around to doing the car boot for work (+ a few other bits) and while getting up at 6AM wasn't much fun, in all the experience was quite fun actually. I wasn't expecting people to swarm around us quite so much and I certainly wasn't expecting them to want to buy everything as a job lot!

But we sold quite a lot of work stuff, and I got rid of my telescope and our little chest of drawers - but I ended up bringing the Humax recorder home as no one seemed to understand what it was. Price didn't seem to be the issue, even at £8 nobody would take the bloody thing!

We were there about 5 hours, but it went really quickly actually. It was a very warm day and by 11:30am we'd had quite enough. I wouldn't rush to do it again, but it was a lot more fun than I expected it to be to be honest. Looking around though, most of what was being sold was utter shit. I can't believe people pay to get in and buy other peoples' crap, but there you are!