Category Archives: Bits and Pieces

Ten Pin Bowling – US Style

Back in the nineties; I loved to go bowling in Kansas.

There would be a resident DJ, belting out tunes until the early hours whilst I ate burgers and watched with fascination as the rednecks strutted their stuff!

It was great to go bowling on my recent trip with my extended family; we had two lanes between us all (about 10 of us went) and I quickly settled back into my hick mindset.  I hasten to add here that my extended family are not hicks, just me.

The dynamic of the bowling alley changed suddenly about 20 minutes into the game; all of a sudden, the lights dimmed, on came the rock music accompanied by strobe and neon lights that lit up the place; the pins glowed waiting to be smashed down!

If only UK Bowling alleys were as fun!

VID 1

VID 2

GALLERY

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

Nickel Arcade

Tron 2 was an awesome film; but it also brought about something of a mini mid-life crisis in the corner of my mind.  Well, for about 10 seconds.

The film is a stark reminder that old-style amusement arcades with video games have all but vanished from the UK; Angelo and I have looked EVERYWHERE and the sad reality is that I’m a dinosaur who is still yearning for the good old days, days where I could escape for an hour or so, avoiding an obscene amount of enemy bullets whilst trying to beat a Boss in a shoot-em up!

The modern ‘amusement arcade’ is just full of fruit machines with different stickers and always seem to be full of nutty Russian gangsters or groups of Pakistani’s who seem to live in the seedy parlours at airports and plough endless pound coins into them.

Luckily for me, there’s a small corner in Utah called the ‘Nickel Arcade’ that has a wealth of video games that stretch back to the 80’s and 90’s; and even some obscure bits from the 2000’s!  And all for the bargain of 15c (10p) per play!

So without further ado, I will share my findings with thee………oh yes, and most of the games are available for purchase via e bay or their website!

My favourites?  The Tron cabinet!  The Golden Axe ‘Revenge of Death Adder’ game and last but not least, the unexpected Streetfighter 3rd Strike machine!  I still got the moves Mr. Takis!

Nickel Arcade 1

Nickel Arcade 2

Nickel Arcade 3

Nickel Arcade 4

Golden Axe – Revenge of Death Adder

Tron

Dr Mario – Super Mario (dual cabinet)

Sniperscope

Sonic and Tails Spinner

Street Fighter 3 – 3rd Strike

Utah

It’s been almost 3 weeks since I got back from my most recent visit to the States; those dang locals would probably say that I’ve taken my “sweet time”‘ in writing this particular entry; and they’d probably be right!

My visit to Utah took place between the 14th-21st of June 2011; I already miss the beautiful sight of waking up to the mountains, long grassy hills and watching the crystaline lakes go by as we travelled up and down the highways from place to place.

It’s a very odd thing, hearing the sound of singing birds as you walk out of an airport terminal; but that was my first impression of Utah, and in reflection I think it is a very appropriate one too given the amount of wildlife that I saw during my time in the Salt Lake City area and surrounding cities like Provo and Saratoga Springs. Deer, Skunk, a multitude of different birds and the occasional mink farm which stank like an old people’s retirement home.

Provo – Utah

Saratoga Springs – Utah

Saratoga Springs – Utah

Out of all the States I’ve visited, it’s definitely the most chilled out and relaxed, and it has the scenic Walmart I’ve ever seen!

Dine Tandoori – Indian buffet in Wallington

As I write this entry, the skies have opened and we’re having a ‘traditional’ English summer. What better way to spend a Sunday then partaking in an over-indulgent session down ones local Indian buffet?

I’ve been dieting for the last 4 weeks, cereal for breakfast, soup for lunch and fish finger or chicken filled English muffins for dinner along with various salad and fruit bits. So today represented the first ‘proper’ meal that I’ve had in over a month. Time for a treat! It was great because I’d won £50 on the Premium Bonds again this month, and decided to take my Mum and Joanie (my godmother) out for lunch.

Dine Tandoori is very local to me, and was previously known as Mehfil before it came under new management recently. I noticed that there was a buffet on offer when walking Chico up the park, and thought that I should give it a whirl! The restaurant was actually a bank when I was a kid, and they’ve really used the space nicely inside which gives a very simple but sumptuous ‘feel’ to the place.

HAND PAINTED MURAL
My favourite feature inside is a hand painted mural of a waterfall on the wall behind the buffet dishes; I had to take a picture as thought was particularly striking. Apparently a local Indian artist had done it; I thought it made a lovely change to the usual generic pictures of the Taj Mahal?

THE BUFFET
The buffet costs £7.95 per person, and you can choose from 21 different dishes which I thought was great value. Highlights for me would have to be the Lamb Jalfrezi and the Chana (chick peas) dish which was exceptionally tasty.

SERVICE
Was very friendly, simple and welcoming.

VERDICT
I thought the food was exceptionally nice, fresh, tasty and fantastic value for the price.

9 out 10 for me, would have been 10 out 10 but they hadn’t acquired their alcohol license yet; so sadly no Kingfisher for me!

Pukka.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

When Chico met Blue

Our walk up the park was pretty eventuful today in terms of puppy socialising; Chico has an over-eager screaming fit every time he is approached by an aggressive dog that’s off of it’s lead.

He often ends up in my arms because I have to hoist him up using his harness and away from the protagonist so that he doesn’t do anything too aggressive; I find it quite amusing when these huge dogs come bounding over all brave and then run away when Cheeks gets medieval on their hineys.  Y’dig?  This all contrasts to how he is with bitches however, he’s all sweet and friendly.

So, I was quite intrigued to know how Chico would react when I arranged to meet my sister Lorraine who was walking her dog ‘Blue’.  Blue is a pitbull cross and a mountain of dog; people who take him at face value are clearly very wary of him, although he’s a gentle giant.

Having my Flip camcorder handy I decided to film the moment that they both met (awwwwww!) and you can see that Blue is an absolute angel in how he tolerates the impetuous nature of Mr. Cheeks.

Rock on Tommy!

 

Cheeks goes for his first swim

I took Chico up to Beddington Park today for a nice long walk; I love going up there because it’s huge, green and luscious with lots of intricate streams and ponds to mooch around.

Cheeks didn’t hesitate when he came up to the first stretch of water; I managed to catch it on video! OK….so it’s more of a paddle, but he has absolutely no fear of the water at all.

Chico loses his marbles

Chico turned 8 months old this week, the last 4 weeks or so saw quite an adult change in his behaviour.

Cheeks had been showing increasing signs of sexual dominance and was slightly more  aggressive than he had been; he’s normally has a very playful and affectionate temperament contrary to what you’d expect of a Parsons Terrier (Jack Russell Cross).

I called up the RSPCA centre that he was registered to and asked if they could re-assess their ‘unique’ personal policy of not castrating him until he was a year old; they stuck firm to this which lead me to seek out a new vets.  I am lucky to have a friend who is a vetinary nurse and her opinion was that this was 6 months too late, the internet also offered me a good deal of advice.

Ray recommend his local vets, and we booked him in for Thursday this week.  I felt tremendously guilty making such a prolific decision in his life, however I mused that I would rather do that and ‘calm’ him down than see him bite someone.  There is also the huge factor that castration prevents testicular cancer.

The vets carried out the operation and also removed two baby canine teeth that were also giving him a little trouble  which went some way to explain the slight increase in aggression and Chico’s need to gnaw almost constantly on his chewy toys.

I arrived home from the darts around Midnight to find mums door closed, felt it best not to disturb him because she had text me throughout the evening giving an account of how distressed he was with the lampshade contraption around his head.

Around 4:30am – 5am I was woken up by him, Mum said he had been crying and scratching at my door; so in he came, got up on my bed and practically pleaded with me to remove the lampshade.  So I did.  It turned out to be a good decision because he hasn’t licked or bitten any of the area that he shouldn’t.

I won’t ever forget how he squashed himself into me after I’d taken the lampshade off; shaking with relief and utterly happy.  The last few days have shown an almost immediate return to his normal character, a little more sleepy and sluggish perhaps but definitely on the mend. 🙂

So he now has a new vets, I also got a Tesco ‘Pet Plan’ for him to make sure he always gets the care he deserves.

Mr. Cheeks goes to the vets.

Chico had a visit to the vets yesterday because of a sore eye; we’d tried bathing his eye over the last few days but felt it was best he went for a check because it wasn’t clearing up.

It’s awful seeing an animal behaving differently due to an ailment or discomfort; over the past few days Chico would rub his eye using a paw and rest his face against me, pretty much asking me to bathe his eye.

Mum gave me a run down of his time at the vets; apparently he caused utter mayhem.

Those who have met Cheeks will know how he gets exceptionally excited to meet people and other dogs; wimpering and scampering to say hello.

Its a good thing Mum took him. Turns out he had conjunctivitis in his sore eye; the yellow dye put in by the vet showed no damage and the problem was probably caused by dust from DIY or dirt outside.

Poor little guy has eye drops for that, ear drops for a mild ear infection, worming tablets and flea treatment.

Given all the medication he’s taking; I might have to rename him Charlie Sheen?!?

As you can see from the picture below, he was very comfy laying on my legs as is often his custom; no comments about my funky candy cane PJ bottoms!!!

As of this morning, his eye is already clearing up nicely, he was running around the front room with his tennis ball like a loon and tried to bite my bike gloves on the way out!

Definitely back to his normal self 🙂