Active Weekend? Are You Quite Mad?

This has been a fantastic weekend. Yesterday in particular was very cool, even if it did get off to a shaky start.

Trying to park down a backstreet in Kenilworth, I ended up the cause of a little aggravation to other drivers (90% my fault, but the others could've used a little common sense), which in turn led to me accelerating quickly away from where I was trying to park in a fit of road rage and going to find a space elsewhere. Alison snapped at me, understandably, but in the mood I was in all it led to was two stoney silences.

But anyway... we returned to the toy shop there that's selling Lego Clone Troopers separately for 50p each, and got 20! 10 for me, and 10 for my brother as part of his birthday present. I now have 20 of the little buggers. It's okay though, I can stop at any time.

From there we headed across to Rushton in Northants, to see the Rushton Triangular Lodge. Fascinating place. Built by Thomas Tresham (sp?) - a staunch Catholic during times when Protestantism was legally enforced. The number 3 features a lot in the design of the building... not only the number of sides, but also the number of windows along each wall, the number of floors, etc. There are also a lot of other 'puzzles' within the design, and an English Heritage guy working at the site gave us his insights into the whys and wherefores of the design.

Next on to Wrest Park Gardens, another English Heritage site, this time between Bedford and Luton. En Route we drove past the end of the road where my Grandad used to live, which was very odd, particularly as we came across it totally by accident and from a completely different direction to what used to be the norm.

The Gardens at Wrest Park were rather impressive... what we saw of them at least. After walking about a quarter of the way around the grounds Alison and I sat on a grassy bank and relaxed in the sun, acting like we were both teenagers dosed up on hormones.

Then went for an absolutely fantastic meal with Stuart and Chris (his fianc�e) in a small restaurant in Welwyn. You know how it's usually the way in restaurants that you have difficulty choosing because there's not enough things you really like on the menu? This time it was difficult because there wasn't enough on the menu that we didn't like. Starters, main courses and desserts, it was all the same. Such choice, such fantastic choice. I realise this is the sort of enthusiasm I usually reserve for sarcasm, but this time it is genuine.

After that, played Jak and Daxter until late on Stuart's PS2, and contemplated which of the current generation of consoles I'll end up investing in before the year is out. It looks like being a PS2 at the moment, but that may well change.

Today was a totally lazy day. Played Jak and Daxter again. Had lunch. Came home. I've started dressing up HBL for the bound hardcopy I'm gonna get done. Not entirely sure how much I'm going to edit it beforehand, but it's certainly going to get the once over.

And just now we watched Legally Blonde. Cool and amusing, but a little on the empty side for my liking... and for a film whose central theme was not judging people on first impressions, the lesbian character in it was a major stereotype. Oh, and you could spot the romantic interest a mile off...