archive

Friday 2nd December 2005 - oh lordy... look out, as someone's just hit forty!! Scary though this might seem, the reality is that certain people (i.e Andy) are so grumpy and irascible that they've been honorary members of the old codgers brigade for some time anyway. Take this into account and all of a sudden this just becomes a good excuse for a right old knees-up, with the promise of top presents thrown in... woohoo! The former was somewhat jeopardised by a severe bout of man-flu, however, with our plucky hero rising manfully to the challenge, fortieth birthday celebrations went ahead as planned and were damned good fun! On the prezzie front, it was a massive haul - assorted music and DVDs, whacky Suunto wristop computer, rather flashy Sherwood Forest wellies (let's gloss over the fact that the first box actually contained two right feet... tee ho!), a rather groovy DAB radio, Barbour scarf... all great toys - thanks very much chaps! Given that there was a bit of running round filling glasses and sorting out music, coupled with a certain amount of 'can't be bothered 'cos I'm feeling a bit snotty'-ness in evidence, photos of this one are in pretty short supply. However, there are a couple of rather messy snaps [here] which give a flavour of the drunken debauchery that went on. Right - time to return to the Suunto instruction booklet and the thrilling subject of setting an altimeter... all very important stuff!

Thursday 22nd September 2005 - this week is going far too well! Having returned from deepest, darkest Wales, we're off in the opposite direction for the day, to soak up the atmos in sunny Norfolk. In particular, Thornham Beach, in the company of top chums Fiona & Simon. As usual, Charlie-Dog ended up drinking gallons of seawater and exploding at both ends (thanks for sharing that with us right in the middle of our picnic lunch, Charlie). However, intestinally challenged dogs aside, it was a glorious day, spent sploshing around the shoreline and crashing-out in the sand dunes - there are worse things to do with your Thursday afternoon! There are a few snaps of us having a good time when we should have been chained to a desk [here]. Post-beach, it was off to Burnham Market and the rather smashing Hoste Arms, before giving it the full-on 'Cannonball Run' homewards, thus ensuring adequate time for a much-deserved nightcap at The Bell (seven minutes advantage Si... told you the Trooper was faster than it looked!).

Friday 8th July 2005 - just back from yet more Microsoft based shenanigans in Amsterdam. As you might expect there was an element of post-work activity and so, rather predictably, Andy's now in a wheelchair and expecting to be on dialysis for the next week or so. During the week, the chaps managed to find quite a few interesting places to hang out, which included the rather excellent Bar Americain on the Leidseplein, the Cafe Int Aepjen just across the road from the hotel and the supremely noisy Paradiso (pictured left), where everybody was swinging their pants until an insanely late hour. On the accommodation front, the Hotel Prins Hendrik is to be recommended - it's in the cheap and cheerful bracket, so don't expect too much but it's quite a cool place, nice people and a good restaurant-bar. Additionally, (for all you jazz fans out there) it's the place where trumpet supremo / industrial strength pill-popper Chet Baker experienced his last and largest rush - from a second floor window to the rather unforgiving pavement below. If you ask the lunatic night-porter (who, by the way, presents a public access radio show, live from his reception desk), Chet is still very much about the place - which is a nice thought if you happen to end up in the rather ghoulishly labelled 'Chet Baker room' (the door of which bears a ridiculously large brass plaque in celebration of this noteworthy exit). So, all in all, a pretty good week - new places seen and new friends made. Oh - and quite a successful business trip too, which is always a bonus!

Saturday 2nd July 2005 - one of those dates that we'll look back upon and say to each other 'what were you doing on that day?'. Luckily for us, we'll be able to say that we were right there, in the thick of it - cheering as the bands thrashed out music across the park, dancing about the place with total abandon and soaking up the atmos of this historic event. I imagine the people at the Hyde Park Live8 gig almost had as good a time! You guessed - it's July and therefore it must be time for FRIS-stock, the UK's answer to Woodstock but with a cricket pavillion. This year, the crowd was kept entertained by a couple of absolutely cracking bands, Rollo Markee and the Tailshakers and Panic, both of whom did their level best to keep residents of the Wreake valley awake until the early hours of Sunday morning. Right now, Andy is stone deaf and there's a strong chance he's not the only one who'll be suffering from a bit of the old Pete Townshend style 'Marshall amp induced hearing diffculties'. Have a look at the snaps [here], which will explain more... Note to self - no more dancing two feet away from the speaker stacks next year...

Saturday 25th June 2005 - been a while since we all had a drunken evening at the Village Hall, so thank goodness for Mr Penny and his rather significant birthday, which required some industrial-strength celebration. As you'll see from the number of bottles strewn about the place, coupled with the fine selection of vacant, wine soaked expressions on the faces of most of the people in the photos [here] this one lived up to our usual inebriate standards, that we all hold so dear... marvellous!!

PS/ Suddenly realised that there isn't a single shot of the birthday boy in the photos above - [here] is a shot of John that could possibly have been taken a little while ago...

Monday 20th June 2005 - Blimey... how tired? Five of us finally rolled back into Frisby-on-the-Wreake this morning at around 3am, having pootled back from Le Mans by way of Cherbourg and Poole. According to the milometer we've done 1347.7 miles and whilst that doesn't sound an awful lot, we're all pretty much done-in! Nevertheless, it was an absolutely cracking trip - despite horrendous rain on day one in France and the untimely demise of one of the bikes on day three. With the weather ending up in the high thirties, Le Mans was a fantastic experience (if not a little sweaty) and one to be pencilled into the calendar as an annual fixture. To get a true flavour of this adventure would really require integral 5:1 soundtrack and a series of accompanying scratch and sniff cards (enough said). Unfortunately, you'll just have to browse through the photos [here] and try to imagine the rest. Actually, there is a little bit of video footage of some night racing, taken whilst en-route to the bar at Tetre Rouge in the early hours of Sunday morning - it'll probably take a week to download but feel free to have a nosey [here]. Also, if you want to get an idea of what goes on at Le Mans, visit the excellent beermountain.com to pick up handy hints and tips on where to go, what to do and generally how to survive the weekend - required reading! Talking of top Le Mans material, take a look at the shots that Monsieur Newcombe grabbed [here] - brilliant stuff!!

Tuesday - 14th June 2005 - Wahay! To your left, witness the latest modification to the trusty Trooper... a rather splendid tour logo for the spare wheel cover - that's right, we're off on a road trip! Well, to be precise, Andy and his chums are off to France for a couple of days, pootling down through Brittany, Normandy, the Loire Valley, etc. and ending up in Le Mans at the weekend for the 24 Hour Race. So, this afternoon will see the departure of one heavily laden 4X4 (Andy & Johnny-Boy) and three motorbikes (Craig, Mark and Simon) - initial destination, Towcester Services, to meet up with bike four (Pete) and thence to Portsmouth and a night-crossing to St Malo. Somewhere along the way we'll be joined by bike five (Huw). As you'd imagine, the ACScam will be snapping the whole messy affair, so you can look forward to seeing plenty of embarrassing photos popping up here in the very near future. OK - back to the last-minute packing... now where the hell did that passport go?

Monday 30th May 2005 - another bank holiday weekend and yet another liver-cripplingly excessive round of partying and pub visits. Take a look [here] for signs of yesterday's drunken debauchery at The Bell, where a motley assortment of people belatedly celebrated the birthday of mechanical wizard, Johnny-Boy Hatton (pictured left). What a splendid afternoon! Tables groaning under the weight of a veritable wall of barbequed grub, beers sploshing around all over the place, plenty of sunshine, Connect Four championships (wow - we're animals, aren't we?), all finished off with a quick dash inside to grab a table and stomp/clap/dance/wail along to a spot of the old higgidey-jiggidey music, supplied by regular visitors to Frisby-on-the-Wreake, Duff Paddy. A great end to a brilliant few days - now we just need to take the rest of the week off to recover from the relaxing bank-holiday weekend!

Sunday 14th May 2005 - we are clearly bad-luck totems for the Tigers... another howling disaster - this time against Wasps at Twickenham. This was made worse by the fact that it was Leicester's last match with Johnno and Neil Back aboard, against a team they comprehensively battered 45-10 only two weeks ago (when we weren't attending, by the way). This time around? A total massacre - 39-14.... waah!! Still, not all bad news, as we did meet up with a fine selection of fellow Frisbyites who introduced us to the delights of a replica Bosnian field hospital, situated just across from the grounds. Here, a collection of highly dubious characters served beer and hot dogs of indeterminate origin all afternoon long. As Señor Ken pointed out at the time 'what happens on tour stays on tour', thus making a more detailed account a wee bit tricky. However, the are a few snaps posted [here] that give a general flavour - sorry guys but they were too good not to share! Anyway, post-match, it was back to weekend HQ to shower, change and prepare for a rather tippy-top meal at Le Pont de la Tour. Top nosh, fantastic wine and all topped off with a cheeky Calvados or two - brilliant! Right, time to write that blackmail note to Peter Wheeler... 'fifteen large in used notes or we buy the season tickets and inflict the same bad luck upon your team again next year'. You never know, it might work...

Sunday 24th April 2005 - a gloriously pleasant Spring afternoon, spent at the Walkers Stadium watching the Leicester Tigers play at their potential new home. Unfortunately, the final score was far from pleasant - 27-19 to Toulouse... ugh. Clearly, the French types were cheating, as at any one time there seemed to be about forty black shirts swarming around the pitch, laying waste to Tigers, left right and centre. Thankfully, the ACS-cam was not involved on this occasion, so there are very few pictures of this event to display, apart from a few snaps that Diane took with her 'phone. This includes a rather blurred and yet still comical shot of Andy and Mark crying into their beer about five minutes before the final whistle [here]. For now, the photo on the left is of a Mr A. Healey of Gaddesby, Leicestershire, demonstrating the standard playing position assumed by our brave boys today - i.e. upside down and/or under a pile of French bodies... what a nightmare!

Saturday 11th December 2004 - Yay! It's almost Christmas so it must be time for the annual bash at the village hall... woohoo! As expected, this one ended messily - what a great night! Amazing how the guys that organise this one take a very utilitarian setting and create some really lovely surroundings to eat turkey and get drunk in. This year was no exception - the theme of "snow" involving hundreds of decorations, silver sprayed trees, lights and glitter ball to finish the effect - brilliant stuff. There was a clear opportunity here for the ungallant sort to take embarrassing snaps of friends spiralling ever downward into complete inebriation. Only a bounder of the first order would sink so low... and [here] are the results.

Saturday 20th November 2004 - the end of a rather windy week in grotty old Copenhagen for Andy, attending this year's Microsoft IT Forum, where not only did he get to hear the thoughts of Chairman Bill up close but also (and probably more importantly) got to watch the excellent SAS Band. This lot were really rather good but then they should have been, given that the line-up included Midge Ure (guitar and vocals), Graham Gouldman (acoustic guitar, bass and vocals), Madeleine Bell (BIG vocals), Chris Thomson (likewise) and Roger Taylor (vocals and LOUD drums). Midge Ure totally hammered out a few Ultravox and Thin Lizzy numbers, whilst Roger Taylor gave it large with a selection of Queen hits. Graham Gouldman did a slightly odd bundle of stuff that went from songs he wrote for Hollies to "Dreadlock Holiday" and Chris Thompson plumped for some Manfred Mann classics like "Blinded by the light" and "The mighty Quinn" - all good stuff. Post-concert it was off to the centre of Copenhagen and to the rather unpromisingly named "Olde English Pub". Actually, this turned out to be a bit of a find - the beers were flowing and they were accompanied by some absolutely TOP music from a couple of Australian chaps, singing away like good 'uns whilst playing acoustic guitar and cello (looked a bit odd but it worked). All in all, there couldn't have been a better end to the week. Ta-ta to Denmark (which, in all honesty isn't the worst of news - three years was about enough). Next year IT Forum comes from..... Barcelona! YAY!!

Halloween - always a good to time to party-up and so, after some frenzied internet searching that led us to www.joke.co.uk, super-whiz new costumes were purchased and off we went to Simon & Fiona's for an absolutely brilliant fancy-dress bash. This one really was a hell of a lot of fun and one can only imagine that there were more than a few sore heads the following morning... Hopefully, blackmail photos will be available soon and should include Diane looking very Lily Munster in her witch costume. Chances are, there'll also be a couple of snaps featuring Andy, attempting to look frightening but actually ending up looking like the vampire that ate all the pies... ho hum :-(

UPDATE: Yep, the photos are in and it's official - that's one lardy vampire! (see image to the right)

2001