Friday 3 April 2009

Play off fever!

Toni and Sam picked me up from work today and we started a 3.5 hour drive to Nottingham to go to the EIHL ice hockey Play Off weekend at the National Ice Centre. Strangely Sam opted out at stopping at Cotgrave to go and see his biological necessity (I wonder why LMFAO).

As we whizzed round the windy roads between melting Melton Mowbrey (food capital of the UK apparently)and Nottingham we saw lots of "THINK BIKE" signs. I started chanting "Bike, bike, bike, bike, bike....etc" and then suddenly one appeared. How about that for magic. At the next sign Sam and I started the chant up again and my "bike bike bike" was starting to sound more like a chicken "puck puck puck" and then a car appeared at which point I went "puck puck puck puck CAR" moving completely into chicken mode at which point Toni and Sam were in hysterics.

We checked in at The Jurys Inn and then went for a wander around town. It brought back quite a few memories for Sam and I (yes some of them were good).

As we were hungry we drifted off to what is usually old faithful, Pizza Hut, having decided against a Chinese. BIG mistake!

Service was dire! We had to wait at the door for about 5 minutes while they decided which table to clear before we could be seated. The fact that half the restaurant was empty was, apparently, irrelevant. Then it took a good 15 minutes before any waiter appeared to take our order. We were all hungry after our journey and none of us were impressed. Sam was talking about getting up and going to the Chinese.

We ordered food, including side salads. Toni was delighted - they have changed the menu to include loads more things she can eat - including Greek salad. Sam, of course, was disgusted as his favourites appeared to have been struck off.

Food took an hour to arrive in the end and to cap it off it was only half the order and some of it not properly cooked, so back to the kitchen it was sent with much grumbling and growling. Eventually though, the manager appeared and they replaced the entire order, including the pizza which Sam had already eaten. Nice gesture but as Sam was stuffed already he ended up putting a slice in his trouser pocket to make it look like he'd made an effort to eat it before asking for a box to take the rest away in. The food wasn't that great and the only plus side was that they knocked £10 off the bill so the three of us had almost 2 meals for £15.

Had a quick browse around town after eating (and I wish it hadn't been so open as the whole place was teeming with fashion faux pas but there was no way I could have taken any pics without being spotted).

Back to the hotel and I logged on to read what was happening in the run up to the games tomorrow. I am wondering if Sam and I will actually get into the arena tomorrow as Scott Neil, Edinburgh Capitals GM, had promised to sort us out tickets but he has been incommunicado since 16:30 when he decided to release a statement that was basically a pot shot across the bows of the league directors revealing they are all a bunch of lies and cheats! Fingers crossed!

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