This Is A Steak Out!

Last night, after a long and boring day in the shop, I went out with a couple of lasses to a hotel in Stromness (Orkney's 2nd town), where one of the hotels was having a "Steak Night" - where you could have anything off the menu, so long as it was dead cow.

Anyway, drove through there and arrived just after 8pm (table booked for 8o'clock). Were shown to our table in the bar - thinking it was a good job we had booked, because the carnivores were out in force and the place was heaving!

We had a drink and waited 15 minutes or so for them to come and take our order... and then waited, and waited, and waited... and then waited some more... before finally (at about 9:20pm), our food arrived.

Now, it was good... steak was a little chewier than I expected a really good cooked steak to be... but it had a good sauce, chips were good, the haggis topping was delicious...

But we discovered (by being told by another customer) what the delay had been - Believe it or not, the hotel had run out of steak! Presumably an emergency call was made to the butcher (either that, or they went hunting for any feral cats in the area)... but you would have thought they'd make sure there were enough to cover bookings and, if steaks were getting short, they'd start telling people who'd just turned up that, sorry, they were fully booked? Wouldn't you?

Came back through to Kirkwall after that, and had a few drinks before the pubs shut.

Feeling better this Sunday than last weekend.

Buggering off now to watch "Dancing On Ice", and hoping Greg Rusedski will be skating out of it this week...

Aggie, Aggie, Aggie... Out, Out, Out!

I was just about settled down for the night when I got a phone call from the boss, who headed down south for a few days today, asking if I was online because he needed me to look up the postcode for the hotel he was booked into, because he couldn't find it!

So I thought I might as well do my "Born To Rock" posts for today and tomorrow, and I can also celebrate the fact that the Scottish Harpie, Aggie MacKenzie, has finally gone out of "Dancing On Ice"!

About bloody time too... I can't believe she lasted this long!

I can't describe to you just how much I hate this woman, and her TV partner in crime, Kim... I could get really vitriolic, believe me, but I'm auto-censoring myself as I'm typing this... I just hate with a passion "How Clean Is Your House?", and its "let's belittle some poor person for entertainment and so that you can tut about them over a cup of tea in the office tomorrow" style of programming, presented by a couple of over-paid char ladies (ladies in the loosest sense of the word) in fur-trimmed rubber gloves who can't even call a shit a shit - instead, a floater in the toilet is greeted with horror as a "poopy-doop" or whatever the fuck Kim called it!

My only disappointment tonight was that when Aggie fell, it wasn't on her smug, self-righteous arse!

Okay, breathe, Ally... and relax...

The Rest Of Saturday And Sunday...

Don't worry, Nev... once again, your computer's not borked - I'm playing catch-up again.

Well, Saturday night after I left here, I decided against watching "Hairspray", instead opting for the DVD of "xXx", starring Vin Diesel (I've not watched it for ages, and I fancied an ogle at his muscles) - just as well I didn't opt for "Hairspray", because I was asleep about halfway through "xXx".

And then was Sunday - my friend and I went ahead with our balloon release.... which wasn't the best success, unfortunately - but I can imagine our friend having a good laugh at our efforts! It was raining when we went out to the beach, and there was a little bit of wind... so we wrote our messages on parcel tags, tied them to the balloon, and let it go...

... and it blew up over the wall of the beach, and scudded across the car park.

So, we retrieved the balloon, removed the labels (in case they were weighing the balloon down) and let it go again...

... and this time it didn't even make it over the wall - it just scudded along the beach a bit!

Third time lucky, we thought - So we let it go...

... and it set off (slowly) along the beach a few feet... before the ribbon snagged on a pile of seaweed and stayed there!

At this point, we gave up and went home again - noting as we left that a family had just arrived with a dog - so probably one of two things happened after we left...

1. The kids decided to either rescue the balloon and take it home, or burst it.
2. The dog decided to play with it, burst it, and ended up with a high-pitched, squeaky bark!

Made dinner after I came home, and then watched telly. Did anyone see Orkney on "Songs Of Praise"? Isn't my home island beautiful?

Watched "Dancing On Ice" after - Now, own up... who voted for that bloody Aggie woman? You know, the harridan who comes and tells you how dirty your house is? Come on... she was TERRIBLE! Poor Sarah Greene was better than her! Comedy value is no reason to keep someone in - nor is the crinklies sympathy vote... GET RID OF HER NEXT WEEK!

Well, that's it for my weekend...