Andrew Cotton

Wednesday 23 March 2011

The blow out

‘What the hell are you doing leaving Ireland a day before St Patrick’s day’ is what most people asked me and it’s also what I continually asked myself but I had my reasons, things had been good so far and I sort of didn’t want to ruin it so late in the trip and try and get home in one piece with no injuries. Although 10 minutes into what should of been a 14 hour drive home I heard an almightily bang and as I glanced into my wing mirror all I could see was sparks and bits of tyre all over the road. As I pulled over to access the damage I couldn’t help but laugh, What a massive ball ache to say the least, it was 10pm and I had given myself plenty of time to drive the 6 hours to the ferry which left at 9am, things should of been mellow but I wasn’t really planning this little scenario which is no biggie unless you haven’t got a spare tyre and bearings which of course I didn’t. So not wanting to leave the ski on the side of the road for fear some little tinkers might come along and help themselves neither being able to drag it home we slept in the front seats of the van just 10 minutes from our beds freezing cold. The next day I had to leave my mate Gentle Ben guarding it for 5 hours while I drove round trying to get a spare which wasn’t as easy as you might think. Felt sorry for poor Gentle he’d been having a bit of a shocking trip so far and Ireland wasn’t dealing him the best of hands so to speak so this was almost like icing on the cake, for me it wasn’t so bad yeah we missed the ferry yeah it took us nearly 36 hours to get home but I’d had a pretty amazing winter so something like this was pretty trivial although at the time it did feel like something was trying to tell me to stay for just a few more days.
Anyway home now which isn’t so bad is it.........

Monday 14 March 2011

The bare chested burger eater at KFC

Look at our little house. It makes me a little bit sad, not only have I got to go home soon and back to work I’ve also got to tidy and clean it and try and leave it in a respectable state so there might be a slim chance I’ll be able to rent it again sometime. This little scenario wouldn’t take too long between 2 of us but my house mate Lyndon left me on me tod at short notice late at night due to a little ankle injury which he didn’t stop going on about, I’m partly responsible for this so to make myself feel better about the whole situation I sat with him in casualty for 3 hours and pushed him around in a wheel chair to get it x-rayed. To be fair he’s rubbish at cleaning anyway but the trouble is so am I.
Well I’m sort of solo, Gentle Ben had turned up for a few days and keep me company but I can’t expect him to do much tidying although he did clean the dishes yesterday and he came with me to the dump to get rid of Lyndon’s boxes that his boards turned up in.
I love Ireland and am truly gutted to be going, there’s so many reasons why it’s better than home, I could do some sort of list ‘for’s’ and ‘against’ or ‘positives’ and ‘negatives’ and I think the only thing that would be in the against or negative column would be that annoying fecking dog from next door which still barks at me constantly 3-4 times a day and shits all over our lawn. I have got one highlight though from the past 2 months which sticks out in my brain over all the waves, animals, good times and laughter. Last Wednesday I saw a fat guy eating a burger in the KFC bare-chested at 11am, it was pretty busy and not a single sole seemed to be looking at him oddly or thinking it was strange, he just stood at the table, top off with his massive fat guts out eating a Zinger meal. Fecking amazing hope I see him again before I go.

Saturday 5 March 2011

The Kitchen

Agh, involuntary groaning noises, look at the state of the kitchen and it’s defiantly Lyndon’s turn to do the washing up. Although he has hurt his foot and can’t surf so I should show him a little compassion but that doesn’t mean I’m going to wash his dirty dishes.
Had a very strange email the other day offering me gift vouchers if I did a product review from a cookware website, defiantly a scam i hear you say. ‘My name is Kate and I’m part of the Promotions Team here at www.CSNStores.co.uk . We have been seeking out high quality websites and blogs, gauging interest in doing a giveaway with one of our sites www.CookwarebyCSN.co.uk or www.allmodern.co.uk/ they sell a huge range of products including Le Creuset cookware apparently. Obviously they haven’t seen the state of my kitchen and the fact I have no interest in cooking, it could be an interesting review.
Jason Feast has been here the last week who coincidently is a dam good cook and we’ve been doing our best not to get any shots, it’s the first time I’ve ever met him and he’s a bloody nice bloke although slightly shorter than I expected. Doesn’t seem to mind the old dick chat either but we’ll see if it tips him over the edge after a few more days.