This weekend I became a seat snob...
Hi there everyone, I really hope you had a fantastic weekend. I had my son Keegan with me so we were out and about. As you know, I went to see Black Panther with Keegan on Saturday afternoon which I'll tell you about a bit further down this blog entry.
Officially the weekend did start for us on Friday evening so we went to get some pictures printed at my local Asda as they have a photo printing kiosk that you can connect your phone to. Its a really great price also charging about 30% of what the local snappy snaps in Kingston does. You can't really complain about an A4 sized photo for £2.50 which is being placed onto the national Beko fridge photo gallery.
Well I have a collection of fridge magnets just there doing nothing in particular so it was time to put them to use. I think it was especially apt that the photo is held on using a fridge magnet from Kaprun.
Friday evening we had a bit of irony, it turned out the snowcentre in Hemel was closed early because of, well, snow. That made me laugh I can tell you. But of course the issue being that Keegan's freestyle lesson was at 8 am Saturday morning and not being exactly local to Hemel Hempstead it did make me wonder about the centre being open for the lesson then. Fair enough they were going to make an announcement on their Facebook page at 7am as to whether or not they were opening their doors but there was a risk of waking up at 6-ish on a weekend to be ready and there be a chance that it would all be for nothing as we needed to be pretty much out the door as soon as the announcement went up. Fortunately Keegan is now adept at getting himself ready including putting on his body armor at that time in the morning while I can concentrate on breakfast and taking Sasha out for her morning "expulsions"
I was quietly confident it would be open as I received a message from one of the instructors that night asking if we were going to be there (to which I replied we would if the centre was open).
So, Saturday morning comes along and I drag myself out of bed to wake Keegan. OK maybe not straight away as its important to check to see various things on my phone beforehand, but then I did get up to wake Keegan. Morning went as expected and I checked the Snowcentre's Facebook page. Yay! It was open! Of course the roads were still a bit precarious by us so we allowed extra time to get there. I'm so glad we did make the effort though as not only were there only two people on the lesson including Keegan, the other kid never turned up so Keegan had a 2 hour one to one (private) session with his instructor for a fraction of the price a 2 hour private lesson would have actually cost.
Of course I was watching from the snow balcony, the first time I'd worn a base layer since coming back from Austria and bundled up good and proper like I was on a quasi arctic expedition. I also took the decision that morning to wear my contact lenses purely because I have loads of them left over and its good to stay in practice for applying and removing them. Its weird to think how quickly the cold affects you when all you're doing is standing around. I was wearing a few layers and managed to hold out a while before retreating indoors for a well deserved americano. In case you're wondering, the coat came from sports direct, the thinsulate hat from Asda and the Dare2B neck gaiter from M and M direct. But this isn't a fashion blog so that's my limit on commenting on what I am wearing in a photo. Although I am intrigued to do a social experiment to see what effect this photo would have on a dating site. All that aside, the lesson was absolutely brilliant. Keegan knows the instructor (David Thompson) as he's had quite a few lessons with him and it definitely helped having that familiarity. I've tried embedding a quick video I took from the snow balcony into this blog entry of one of Keegans runs down the training slope on the drop in features, but it would appear that blogger doesn't want to play nicely so you'll have to do without for now.
We're next at the snowcentre in a couple of weeks, this time I'll also be getting on my board as I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone and hitting the freestyle features there also. Plus I want to see if being on the mountain has changed me with regards to the main slope at Hemel. I'd like to think that I'll absolutely "beast it" down the slope and be completely fearless but we shall see come Good Friday @ 10am. In readiness for it, I am once again waxing mine and Keegans snowboards so they'll be running at optimal speed which may be a tad too fast but I really hope not.
So, as you know we went to watch Black Panther. A great film in its own right and we had seats in what I now call the "nighty night" section. So we got to the cinema, picked up our tickets, remortgaged the flat to buy some popcorn and a gallon of diet coke. Row D, seats 16 & 17, ok, easy enough you'd think.
First row, row A as you'd expect, next row, row B? nope, row C, where the hell did row B go to? Row behind that, well it wasn't D and the seats weren't the huge reclining sorts either.
Hmmm, maybe its been sectioned and "Row D" is a section. Nope, there were no other seats of that variety in Screen 10. So, we sat in Row C despite having reserved seats on a row that actually didn't exist. It felt like platform 9 and three quarters so I took a "best guess" and we plonked ourselves down on these huge chairs and searched for the buttons to play, I mean work out how to recline. It felt like the dentist chair in that the leg extended first and then the back second. As the lights were already out in the cinema because those adverts were on that nobody really pays attention to purely because they're the same adverts we see at home but this time on a 4,000" screen I didn't start a photo shoot on how cool these chair were / are.
I was always expecting someone to come along with tickets for the seats we'd thought we rightfully booked, and for a few seconds I thought it had happened as there was a guy and lady standing there looking at me. As it turns out they couldn't get past to their seats because Keegan and I had already extended ours right out, pulled the tray over which you can see in the picture below. Also if you look closely you can see the buttons to control the seat by Keegans left hand. Well when I say "control the seat" its one to recline and one to errrr not recline / return to normal.
Amazingly enough I didn't fall asleep, however I cannot say the same for Keegan who admitted he did go to the land of nod. Not because he thought the film was boring, he enjoyed it, but because the seats are just so comfortable.
The film itself was really good. Keegan hadn't seen Captain America: Civil War, but we watched that on Sunday so that filled in the gaps for him. There are still two more films in the marvel cinematic universe we've not seen yet, those are Thor: Ragnarok and Spiderman: Homecoming. They're definitely on my "to watch" list and I've no reason to think they'll be crap....
Our Sunday was a quiet one. I started preparing a slow cooker bolognese in the morning. It takes six hours to cook and I got the recipe from a U.S. based site. Had to translate some of the measurements and substitute the meat for a low fat (5% or less) slimming world friendly variety, oh and no oil either. But it was definitely worth the wait. The first time I made it, the recipe called for 1kg of meat and I ran out of space in my slow cooked, so this time I halved the ingredients and it worked out really well:
Well I have a collection of fridge magnets just there doing nothing in particular so it was time to put them to use. I think it was especially apt that the photo is held on using a fridge magnet from Kaprun.
I was quietly confident it would be open as I received a message from one of the instructors that night asking if we were going to be there (to which I replied we would if the centre was open).
So, Saturday morning comes along and I drag myself out of bed to wake Keegan. OK maybe not straight away as its important to check to see various things on my phone beforehand, but then I did get up to wake Keegan. Morning went as expected and I checked the Snowcentre's Facebook page. Yay! It was open! Of course the roads were still a bit precarious by us so we allowed extra time to get there. I'm so glad we did make the effort though as not only were there only two people on the lesson including Keegan, the other kid never turned up so Keegan had a 2 hour one to one (private) session with his instructor for a fraction of the price a 2 hour private lesson would have actually cost.
Of course I was watching from the snow balcony, the first time I'd worn a base layer since coming back from Austria and bundled up good and proper like I was on a quasi arctic expedition. I also took the decision that morning to wear my contact lenses purely because I have loads of them left over and its good to stay in practice for applying and removing them. Its weird to think how quickly the cold affects you when all you're doing is standing around. I was wearing a few layers and managed to hold out a while before retreating indoors for a well deserved americano. In case you're wondering, the coat came from sports direct, the thinsulate hat from Asda and the Dare2B neck gaiter from M and M direct. But this isn't a fashion blog so that's my limit on commenting on what I am wearing in a photo. Although I am intrigued to do a social experiment to see what effect this photo would have on a dating site. All that aside, the lesson was absolutely brilliant. Keegan knows the instructor (David Thompson) as he's had quite a few lessons with him and it definitely helped having that familiarity. I've tried embedding a quick video I took from the snow balcony into this blog entry of one of Keegans runs down the training slope on the drop in features, but it would appear that blogger doesn't want to play nicely so you'll have to do without for now.
We're next at the snowcentre in a couple of weeks, this time I'll also be getting on my board as I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone and hitting the freestyle features there also. Plus I want to see if being on the mountain has changed me with regards to the main slope at Hemel. I'd like to think that I'll absolutely "beast it" down the slope and be completely fearless but we shall see come Good Friday @ 10am. In readiness for it, I am once again waxing mine and Keegans snowboards so they'll be running at optimal speed which may be a tad too fast but I really hope not.
First row, row A as you'd expect, next row, row B? nope, row C, where the hell did row B go to? Row behind that, well it wasn't D and the seats weren't the huge reclining sorts either.
Hmmm, maybe its been sectioned and "Row D" is a section. Nope, there were no other seats of that variety in Screen 10. So, we sat in Row C despite having reserved seats on a row that actually didn't exist. It felt like platform 9 and three quarters so I took a "best guess" and we plonked ourselves down on these huge chairs and searched for the buttons to play, I mean work out how to recline. It felt like the dentist chair in that the leg extended first and then the back second. As the lights were already out in the cinema because those adverts were on that nobody really pays attention to purely because they're the same adverts we see at home but this time on a 4,000" screen I didn't start a photo shoot on how cool these chair were / are.
I was always expecting someone to come along with tickets for the seats we'd thought we rightfully booked, and for a few seconds I thought it had happened as there was a guy and lady standing there looking at me. As it turns out they couldn't get past to their seats because Keegan and I had already extended ours right out, pulled the tray over which you can see in the picture below. Also if you look closely you can see the buttons to control the seat by Keegans left hand. Well when I say "control the seat" its one to recline and one to errrr not recline / return to normal.
Amazingly enough I didn't fall asleep, however I cannot say the same for Keegan who admitted he did go to the land of nod. Not because he thought the film was boring, he enjoyed it, but because the seats are just so comfortable.
The film itself was really good. Keegan hadn't seen Captain America: Civil War, but we watched that on Sunday so that filled in the gaps for him. There are still two more films in the marvel cinematic universe we've not seen yet, those are Thor: Ragnarok and Spiderman: Homecoming. They're definitely on my "to watch" list and I've no reason to think they'll be crap....
Our Sunday was a quiet one. I started preparing a slow cooker bolognese in the morning. It takes six hours to cook and I got the recipe from a U.S. based site. Had to translate some of the measurements and substitute the meat for a low fat (5% or less) slimming world friendly variety, oh and no oil either. But it was definitely worth the wait. The first time I made it, the recipe called for 1kg of meat and I ran out of space in my slow cooked, so this time I halved the ingredients and it worked out really well:
"Fried" onions already in the slow cooker
Next the beef, pardon the mess
whack in everything else and cook on low for 6 hours
Right, I had best get back to things here. But I'll do another blog entry later on this week. Am planning on getting back to the gym this week. That'll be fun for sure... Until then I hope you all have a nice week and I shall write to you soon.
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