More beer and birthdays

Thanks to everyone who's sent us wedding cards. We've only just taken them down and have enjoyed looking through them and reading your messages.

Info for those what 'ave asked... Straffe Hendrick was sold to Riva and is now brewed by Liefmans who took over Riva a couple of years ago.

This month's caption competition is of Mr H on one of my Dad's sit-on mowers - no prize offered, just the smuggness of winning. Obviously he was emulating his hero...

Barely had we got back from Bruges but we were off up to Wigan for my Nanna's 100th birthday. Believe it or not, until about 3 months ago she was looking after herself in her own home - cooking meals, etc (albeit with carers popping in to help her out of bed in the morning and put her back in last thing at night). But problems with her legs meant she was having difficulty standing up at the cooker and, after a couple of falls, she finally decided to go into residential care. She's in the same home as my other Gran, just 5 minutes walk from my parents' house, with her own single en-suite room over-looking Worthington Lakes and is fully enjoying the three square meals a day!

The Home made a great fuss of her, putting pictures of her and banners around the place and the owner even popped in with a bouquet. She had loads of visitors and thoroughly enjoyed being the centre of attention. And in the picture 'yes' it is her own hair and 'no' it hasn't gone completely grey yet!

When they were looking a bit tired we took our leave and walked over to the Crown in Bradley. The Lotus owners club meet there the first Saturday each month so we sat on the 'sun terrace' (decking) overlooking some fabbie cars in the car park. The bar had some fantastic cask ales on draught but sadly they don't list them on the website as they change so quickly - the majority of them we'd never heard of. Their selection of foreign beers was pretty impressive too. We decided to stay for dinner (the steak and kidney pudding was to die for) and and the wine waiter was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their beers. Mum and Dad came up for a couple of drinks and to collect us on their way back from a wedding at about 8.30. All in all a very nice day.


Oh, and if anyone wants to buy my Dad's 'classic' Z1300 Kawasaki - see attached photo - just leave us your contact details as a comment

NOTE: if you're new to the blog and are looking for the diary of our India trip please scroll down to the November Archive on the right.

Bruges

So, after all the rellies had decamped on my birthday we went for a quiet Chinese and several more beers (which I realised at 2am may have been a tactical error on my part...) with Davvie, Bones and Keith. After they prevented me from singing several verses of the Hedgehog Song - Terry Pratchett shares my birthday (and Nanny Ogg is a serious role model) - we ended up back at the Angel Hotel 12 hours after our first visit.

On Sunday lunchtime we met up with almost everyone from the day before, but in Bath this time, for lunch at the Salamander. Howard was able to join us too - his Dad's 70th birthday was also on the 28th so, understandably, he had other priorities yesterday. Lots of time was spent in the Old Green Tree later in the afternoon - beer seems to have become rather a theme of this birthday - quelle surprise...


On Monday we went to Bruges on the Eurostar via Brussels. Jon had sneakily booked my leave with my boss without me knowing - so several people at work knew I was going away over a month before I did! There was so much secret-keeping about this whole weekend I'm amazed that no-one ever got confused and let one of the several cats out of the various bags - shows how cunning we are, doesn't it? We stayed at the Hotel Navarra, which was wonderful and just a stone's throw from the Markt. We'd definitely stay there again.


The first evening we sauntered around and ended up at 't Brugs Beertje - OK, yes, as it's one of the most hallowed pubs in Bruges, we were actually looking for it. We were lucky to get a table as it was beginning to fill up and I bet it's packed during high season. Great place with brilliant beer, it was with reluctance that we left after a couple of drinks to stagger a few yards down the road to the Bistro Tolkien to get some food.

The following day we did the tour of the Half Moon Brewery - the last working brewery in Bruges centre. They used to brew Straffe Hendrik but have now sold it and brew Brugse Zot blond (6%) and dark (7.5%). The tour was worth every penny and we got free beer at the end too - I love the Belgians...


We then did a boat tour of the canal, which was great for getting a different view of the city, before tottering round the Memling exhibition. The hotel has a lovely little garden at the back so went back there and ordered a couple of Brugse Zots and settled down to read: see Mr H's composition 'Still Life with Cheese' - that's what an afternoon in the art galleries does for you... or was it the morning in the brewery?

Jon had booked a restaurant when he booked the trip - in early March - Den Dyver (also spelled Dijver) which co-ordinates its food with beer. It was only when we walked in that we realised it we'd seen it on the 'Hairy Bikers Ride Again' a couple of weeks before. We went for the 4 course set menu with its beers to accompany each dish. It was fantastic, the food was wonderful and we had a great evening. Personally, I could have done without facing a photo of the maitre d' sitting naked on one of the restaurant chairs, but it didn't put me off my dinner (but then very little does!). I just hope they use a good disinfectant...

Then back home the following day. The only train that was late during the whole trip was the one bringing us back to Chippenham...


When I got back to work the next day, my colleagues had decorated my desk (and they got my car too before I went home). They'd also bought us a box of beer as a wedding present - can't imagine where they'd got the idea that we like beer...

More photos are on the album here.


Oh, as everyone seems to be asking... 'No', I won't be changing my name, but we're quite happy to get post addressed to 'Mr & Mrs Hazell' (or 'Mr & Mrs Mason' if you'd prefer!).

The photos the Gazette and Herald took are now available to buy - click here, then click 'search' and look through the 'hits' to find the one of us as a couple and the one of the boys toasting Jon. Then just click to order. A 7x5 print costs £8.00.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Beer Festival... Bev's 40th birthday, Saturday 28th April.

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday dear me-he. Happy birthday to me!

I decided to celebrate at the 16th Chippenham Beer Festival since they were kind enough to hold it on my birthday – very thoughtful of them , I think you'll agree. It also meant that I didn't have to organise a party and it saved wear and tear on the new carpet.

Attendees were carefully selected from those of our acquaintance who appreciate murky beer and rough cider and can talk bollocks about them even before the first pint of Old Tom (8.5%) has taken effect. And when that didn't narrow the guest list down much we just picked those who could make it on the day. (To any friends who feel that they meet the initial criteria but weren't invited, our apologies. Get in touch and we'll put you on next year's guest list). So, this year's motley assortment were: Bev and Jon, Bev's Dad, Jon's Dad and his mate Dave, Jon's brother and sister, Messrs Davvie, Bones and Keith. With Bev and Jon's Mums and Helen (with Archie) doing the driving and having a potter round town for the afternoon.

Anyway, a funny thing happened on the way to the Beer Festival... We got married...

Yes, your eyes didn't deceive you. After almost 20 years of unwedded bliss we're now legal. We decided about 3 weeks before my birthday and didn't tell anyone, well except the Registar of course (oh, and George and Caroline, but more of that later). We arranged a strategy where Jon would tell all the above (and Roz) that they had to be at the Angel Hotel at 11.30am for Jon to give me a birthday surprise. They thought that he was going to tell me that we were going away to Bruges – which actually was a surprise but he had to tell me a couple of days before because he was fed up with me making appointments for Monday 30th and him having to keep ringing people 5 mins later and cancelling them! So, everyone turns up, Jon proposes a toast and tells them that I already know what my present is, and I say “You thought you all knew what the surprise was, but the real surprise is just round the corner, please follow us”.

So, we led them into Timber Street and round behind the Museum and then heard the chorus of screams as the Mothers spotted the 'Registry Office' sign. There was general hysteria from the rellies and much giggling from Jon and me – it really was worth keeping it secret just to see everyone's faces as they realised what was happening. So that explains why Jon and I are more formally dressed and everyone else looks like they're going to a beer festival. They were all shown upstairs into the ceremony room (which is lovely – Georgian with chandeliers and beautiful flower arrangements) and had just about calmed down by the time we were shown in.

We kept the ceremony very simple and didn't exchange rings, but it still felt like a proper official ceremony – more than we'd expected it to. Jon's sister Claire and our friend from university, Keith, were the witnesses. As with most weddings, the photos took longer than the ceremony, but by 12.30 we were downing our first halves at the Beer Festival. Apparently, Helen had to take the Mums for a cup of tea and feed them to calm them down 'cos they were so jittery and didn't know if they were coming or going!

Then members of our group spotted the photographer from the Gazette and Herald... Knowing that this would be just the sort of story he would like he was waylaid and we ended up having a couple of photos taken - this and this. When the piece about the Beer Festival appeared in the paper on Thursday the headline read "Lovebirds live merrily ever after. Couple share a pint just after tying the knot on the day of town's popular beer and cider bonanza"!

I got £5.00 of free tokens for saying we'd just got married and when Jon went up to the bar with his “I do” badge on from George he was given his tokens back and was given a free drink! Our friends George and Caroline couldn't make it to Chippenham as their third child had just put in an appearance, which is why they were the only people to know in advance what we were planning. So George had t-shirts made up saying “Just Married” with the CAMRA logo on, so we changed into those quite soon and Jon got more free beer when he went to to the bar!

Anyway, we had a lovely afternoon on the grass in the park, drinking beer and talking rubbish in the sunshine. At 3.30pm they called last orders and we wandered back to the house to have tea and cake with Helen, Archie and the Mums. But it was our turn to be surprised – whilst we'd been at the Beer Fest they'd managed to find a wedding cake in Chippenham, complete with plastic couple and everything! Lots of champagne was added to the beer, but luckily there was lots of cake to soak it up! All in all it was a very good 40th birthday.

So, why did we do it? Well, as you all know, there's no such thing as 'common law marriage' and unmarried couples have no rights to inherit, etc. Although we'd got Wills and Enduring Powers of Attorneys set up there were still one or two areas that we couldn't legally sort out without being married - pensions and Inheritance Tax amongst them - so we gave in!