Although my birthday was some time ago, this weekend basically worked as a belated birthday weekend.

First, persons unknown (probably my sister) sent me a Mogfather T shirt on Friday. I therefore wore it to the pub that night, and had to explain what it meant to someone dim. 'What's the T shirt?' 'I have two kittens' 'Still not getting it' *sigh*.

Saturday, I encountered ( the uselessness that is Horwich's Cobblers )

They do seem to have done a good job, but I'd rather use somewhere with better opening hours. Sadly, there appears to be nowhere else that doesn't require a large detour :(.

Anyway, that night was a 'birthday' meal at the Green House - a splendid vegan/veggie restaurant. The food was lovely; I had curried patra leaves, followed by butternut and nut roast and chocolate fudge cake with ice cream (everything was vegan). It's well worth going, however it should be noted a) the website is crap b) it is a good idea to book in advance as space can be limited at weekends and c) it looks *horrid* from the outside - broken and dilapidated. Fear not, because inside it is rather nice :).

In this culinary adventure I was joined by T, S, C, lownote and H. We had some jolly good chat, then departed for a couple more beers before going home. I plan to have a catch up lunch with a few people that were unable to make the meal. Obviously we all missed Dr. Who, but that's what video recorders and downloads are for ;).

Sunday I planned to have a bike ride.. However, after getting up a bit late, pottering around and having lunch, I had a bit more bread than usual. Feeling dozy I went for a quick lie down and woke up - four hours later! Oops. I therefore sorted the study a bit more (this shall probably be the week of furniture rearranging) and played with Plan9 in a qemu VM. I may have to assess my carbohydrate intake if it's having this effect on me, although Sunday generally does seem to be worse for some reason.

There was a Sunday night beer at the Bowling Green. For once, it appeared deserted, as did the rest of Horwich - where had everyone gone?!. Still I had good chat with S[1] and we even got Free Beer! The Bowling Green is definitely the best pub in Horwich at the moment; the landlady is trying very hard to keep to a high standard and it deserves to succeed. We were a bit shocked to learn on Friday that The Bridge is currently selling Stella at £3.20; I tend to prefer real ale, but lager at more than it costs in central Manchester? *boggle*.

[1] You should realise that that's S - not S or S; all three are clearly different!