Family meal and other bits

This weekend has been brilliant.

I have long had a family meal planned at my parents in Birmingham and this weekend this much looked forward to event took place. I went down there on Saturday morning and arrived in time to have a cup of tea, listen to some excellent music on my dads new sound system, and also find out that his pen drive with music on it DOES work in the radio in Thomas (which means he can bring all his music for the drive; this is a good thing).

(L->R) My Dad's sister, her husband, his brother and wife

After this we walked round the corner to the Flame Grill type pub that they had booked us into and as we were walking my Nan was driven past in my Uncle's car and they spotted us walking and stopped for directions. They recognised us because both me and my dad were wearing our hats (it was raining a little bit).

The pub was lovely; quite quiet and when I went up to order drinks it suffered from four beer pumps with zero on (though they kindly attached one and brought my pint over after about fifteen minutes) however this did not detract from the pleasure of catching up with members of my family who I haven't seen for a fair while.

(R->L) My nan, my cousin, her husband

This was my dad's side of the family so there was his sister and her husband, his brother and his wife, and his sister's daughter and HER husband and finally (but most importantly) his mother; my nan.

So we ordered food and I went with the recommendation of my father of a "super size rack of ribs" smothered in BBQ sauce and with onion rings, chips and coleslaw.

My dinner before I started on it....

Wow.

This was really tasty and from what others around the table said in general everyone was happy (apart from my dad who was short changed by one sausage in his order; Gary would NEVER do that, huh).

I was the only alcoholic to double up on his pint however I think this is acceptable as the meal was to celebrate me leaving the country.

After the meal some of us headed back to my parents house and I showed them lots of pictures of the school and the area around it on a huge projector screen; this was such an excellent thing to do as my nan had not seen any pictures at all and the main reason for me wanting this meal was to catch up with her and show her what I was doing. She seemed to really enjoy it and was fascinated by all the plans, and the pictures of the views.

And the remnants post-repast

All in all it was a lovely time and thanks to my aunt for the kind gift of the book to take with me to Bulgaria written by a Bulgarian about Bulgaria. I haven't got the book with me so I can't remember the name of it; I'll look it out for another blog.

The best part was every time my Nan needed to walk anywhere she claimed my left arm and we were able to talk and laugh all the time; it was so lovely :)

Other than this lovely weekend I did a couple of other things. I am pretty sure I understand why the battery kept on going flat; I think it was the fault that was stopping the alternator from charging it. I have worked this out because the battery in Julian was pretty much full still after two weeks of sitting there where before it would have flattened in that time. This is a really good thing.

I've also taken Julian in for his MOT, and asked the garage to source me some more spare wheels for the trailer (thanks to Ken for that advice). My extra 4m long ratchet straps have arrived, as has the heavy duty car jack.

I'm hoping to collect Julian this weekend and stop in Blackpool again to give him a good thorough clean as I have an unexpected free weekend.