Ramsgate Powerboat Weekend

This is when it pays to live by the sea! Ramsgate Powerboat weekend is finally here!!!! This weekend there will be a number of powerboat races off the coast of Ramsgate accompanied by a firework display on Saturday night @ 10pm and a Diana Ross impersonator (could be male or female). On Sunday the Fat River Band will be cranking up the country/rock 'n' roll grooves. Personally I can take or leave the powerboats - give me Diana Ross any day!

Dean will be joining us for the festivities on Saturday. Photos will be taken.

Last Weekend

After an excess of Old Speckled Hen on Friday night and domestic improvements on Saturday it was appropriate that Sunday should be Jerk Chicken Day.

On Sunday Ramsgate was overcast and cool...

...but the jerky was HOT! Notice a couple juicy porky chops creeping into the shot. Little tinkers eh?! 

Toulouse

Keith, Nicole, Parkes and I visited Toulouse last week for four days. We had a smashing time there and returned feeling not exactly refreshed but certainly like we'd been away.

Toulouse is a student city so there is lots of hustle and bustle and plenty of places to dine and wet your whistles. The city also has historical sites and many of the buildings there were constructed using a pinkish-coloured brick giving the city a pretty if slightly poofy feel. However this didn't stop us power-shopping for clothes and shoes on the first two days. On day four we took a train out of the city to a small town called Gaillac where there are stacks of vineyards and one of them allowed us to sample some of their finest produce. We also came face to face with a baby Goshawk which was being hand-reared by one of vineyard workers for future pest-control purposes. It was a beautiful creature - all beak and fluff.

The real highlight of the trip, apart from the company, was the food. There was not one meal which escaped the praises of at least two or three of us. The cassoulet probably was the finest meal Keith and I tasted. We also had month-watering steaks, sizzling snails, foie-gras, confit of duck, magrêt of duck, Lebanese-style kebabs, Nepalese curries, Thai curries, fantastic pizzas and the occasional croissant thrown in for good measure. The beers were less exceptional but always refreshing in the sticky weather. However we did find a good microbrewery in The Frog & Roast Beef pub where we watched the England game against Trinidad. The wine was very good and always reasonably priced.

Below you will find an assortment of piccies from the trip.

"Can anyone find Keith's other t-shirt?" Exploring the streets of Toulouse. 

Parkes about to blow chunks on the first night. 

Keith and Nicole enjoying the vino on the first night. 

The 3am Girls spotted in a bar in Toulouse. 

Where we did lunch: wonderful lunch in the sunshine. Keith wanted to visit the restaurant as Rick Stein has been there before and spoken favourably of the place. 

Let's do lunch: picture 1. 

Let's do lunch: picture 2. 

Let's do lunch: picture 3. 

Keith's juices are flowing in the Lebanese restaurant. 

"Mr Silk, I cannot bring you five kebabs. We do not have enough meat!" 

Sampling the fine wines at the vineyard. 

Chateau de Keith. Outside the vineyard building. 

Parkes and Nicole in the park. What a delightful bush! 

Alice in Wonderland. 

Weekend Activities

It was HOT! This weekend Liz and my father visited us from Yorkshire. We had a very nice meal in the Tartar Frigate in Broadstairs on Friday night. We then spent the Saturday looking around Ramsgate and the evening at a pub overlooking Westcliff Bay. On Sunday we had a small BBQ with Keith, Nicole and the kids. My jerk chicken was absolutely sensational and I don't use that particular word lightly.

The Dream Team: (from left to right) myself, Bryan and Stefan. We work in a tiny room in an office in Bishopsgate. We beaver away all day and keep the City ticking over with our well-honed IT skills. One day we would all like to get proper jobs and become firemen or doctors. 

The End Of An Era

Alas the Stringers from Basildon are no more. With my mother shortly upping sticks and moving to Buxton in Derbyshire the twenty-three year stay is over - all have flown the nest. Basildon has treated us well and while it isn't glitz and glamour it was home and was were my sister and I grew from children into adults. Now we are happily settled in other parts of the UK but we will always have affection for that town called Baz...

The front of the house. Pictures were taken on my phone and are fairly small but perfectly formed. 

The back garden on a beautiful day.