Maurice the She Mog

Maurice the She Mog, a photo by Idreamofpies on Flickr.

Welcome to the Pie Tribe household, new resident "Maurice". Boy name, Girl cat. Not known as a Pie eater and if she touches mine she may not be a resident for long !!!! 

Arrived a couple of days before Christmas and shows no sign of disappearing soon despite opportunities to do so. She has only moved 4 doors (from the swampies) so should settle well, particularly with her pyschotic mother on the prowl in the neighbourhood to be avoided at all costs, the inappropriately named bubbles.

Fairly self sufficient and unobtrusive the main problem thus far is her persistent habit of attempting to trip us over by sneaking up when you least expect it and scarring the living daylights out of us.

Pie and Bovril

Hollands Meat & Potato Image: ©GeorgioImages

Over the festive period, in the company of some exiled Cestrians (Billy, John Boy, Elrico), we went in search of Pie and Football at the Exacta Stadium. With the mighty Chester playing the giants of the north east Gateshead AFC. A bright cold day had us wrapped up warm and searching for the Pies.

Delighted to find the Pies on sale were Hollands Pies, not so delighted at the £3.00 price tag. But more than delighted when they arrived (Peppered Steak) as they were twice the size we are used to, so the price was actually very acceptable. Also some of us had the added bonus of Bovril mmmmmm. The football itself was interesting and entertaining if not quite on a par with Premiership level !!! A 1-1 result was probably a fair reflection of the game overall.

Revival Times

Trip to Goodwood revival in September was a highlight of the year again and just brilliant in so many ways !! Unlike last year the weather was not as kind but the racing and the event were up to it's very high standards. 

Exceptionally well organised with crowds limited every day, make this event is very special. The effort people go to is exceptional at times (dressing up in period costume) and even if your not too interested in the motor racing there is plenty to occupy you on site. It is ram jam packed with interest and spectacle. One of the most delicious collections of working racing motor vehicles your ever likely to see anywhere on the planet.

At one point I was standing behind a couple of antipodean gentleman who had specifically come over just too see the largest ever single race gathering of Ford GT40s strutting their stuff at full thrutch. They were gobsmacked and raving about it on the phone to friends back home!!. It was brilliant to see and hear!!

Even the car parks are interesting with a lot of visitors arriving in a variety of excellent well preserved working vehicles from many different marques.

The racing as ever was superb with some fantastically close exciting racing drieven by many well known professionals inc Tom Kristiansen, Andy Wallace, Jochen Mass, Derek Bell, Mark Blundell, Jackie Oliver, Win Percy, Derek Daly, John Cleland, Henri Pescarolo, Dario Franchitti, Kenny Brack, Jean Alesi, Mr Bean ......and many others

The image of the huge Ford Galaxie 500 V8 powered monsters drifting and sliding at speed around the track, racing against all sorts (inc minis) will remain with us for a long time !!

Anchored In Worthing

Playing catch up with posts and couldn't forget a trip down to Sussex in September. Whilst roaming  a damp downtown Worthing one evening, looking for fodder we were welcomed by customers and genial host Nigel (Top Man) to our first Micropub, "The Anchored". What an excellent idea !! Micro breweries we know of, but this was new.

What an excellent time we had working our way through the roster of mainly locally sourced liquid refreshments !!! No music, no TV, no Fruit Machines no corporate designer decor just great conversation and excellent interesting beverages to imbibe. We liked it so much we made a special effort to get back a couple of nights later for another great evening of tasting and chatting.......

Crims in the Cathedral

First gig of the year saw the Pieman and Georgio stepping out to Manchester Cathedral, for some groovin with the fantastic Fun Lovin Criminals. An unusual venue for a rock style concert but excellent nonetheless.

The sound on the night was not brilliant, which may have be acoustics or first night of the tour gremlins. At first this was hardly noticed but eventually there was some downtime to sort out Hueys guitar/amp/lead issue before proceeding on without interuption. 

However during this difficulty Huey & the Crims were relaxed and cool about it all. The innate ebullient nature of Mr Morgan seemed to infest the crowd with general good humour and a determination to enjoy themselves which they duly did. With some excellent tunes, raps, playing ...... underpinned by the pistol crack drive of the drums from the big presence of Mr Frank Benbini it was easy to get sucked in to having a good time!!

 

Sweeping through funk, soul, rap, hip hop, jazzy, punk, rock you certainly don't get bored with the Fun Lovin Criminals.

Bear Hug, King of New York, Southside, All for self, Back on the Block, Loco, Up on the Hill, Swashbucklin' in Brooklyn, Scooby Snacks, Where the Bums Go,10th street, I Can't Get With That, Come Find Yourself, Classic Fantastic, Big Night Out, Will I Be Ready Encore: Bombin' the L Love Unlimited,  Live, Have, Love, The Fun Lovin' Criminal

Set aside for the journey home a Phil Salt Butchers, pork pie to eradicate the late night munchies. On this occasion a little heavy on the jelly but excellent meat/pastry combination as ever.