Where I’m At…

After a terribly long time, nearly a year and a half if you’re counting, I’ve decided to resurrect the old personal blog. I have no idea how frequent the posts will be and I can’t speak for the quality of content. All I can promise is it will be 100% me and nowt else. Who know what old piffle I’ll come up with. Lets start writing and see what happens.

The Reluctant Gardener

Mrs Cheesecake and I are incredibly fortunate, our little Hobbit hole has a pretty reasonable sized garden. For the last few years we have been concentrating on the inside of the house but as that is finally managing to take shape our focus is shifting from indoors to outdoors. There has been some hardcore diy. We built four raised beds from scratch and currently we are growing potatoes, onions, cucumbers, strawberries, courgettes and a selection of herbs.

Phase two of the great gardent expansion is going to be some fencing. At present we have hedges and to be honest they are a huge pain in the ass to maintain. I am in the process of cutting them all back to nothing and later in the year we hope to get them replaced.

There is a problem though. I turns out I am far too tasty. The local insect population find me irresistible. I spent a couple of hours in the garden earlier in the week and now I am covered in bites. The worst thing is that I appear to react quite badly to said bites.

I enjoy gardening, I really do, but it is hard work when you are a walking buffet.

What I’m Watching This Week…

First up, Chernobyl – This mini series was utterly enthralling. I have vague memories of the event at the time and I remember people being scared. I seem to recall we were told to avoid going outside if at all possibe. The dramatisation of the catastrophy was first rate drama. It was horrific, shocking and at times even inspirational.Well played Sky Atlantic and HBO.

Chernobyl

Season one of Castle Rock, henceforth known as StephenKingTown in my head, was pretty well exectued. I had great fun King reference spotting and the plot was just bonkers enough to keep my attention for the entire run of ten episodes. The penultimate episode, where the revelations start coming at you thick and fast, is a particular headfuck.

Castle Rock

Season 3 of Designated Jack Bauer* appeared on Netflix last night. For reasons I am not 100% clear about swearing is suddenly a thing in this show. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t before but even Keifer said “bullshit” at one point. Do presidents swear? I suspect they do. Nice to see the clusterfuck that is Brexit got a mention.

Designated Survivor

Movie-wise Searching starring John Cho and Debra Messing has an interesting premise – an entire movie that plays out using social media. I rather liked it.

Searching

A Political Hiatus

I’ve shied away from all the political too-ing and fro-ing of late. Over the last few years it feels like I have been watching the UK slowly implode. Media commentary has appears to be driven entirely by agenda and it seems clear to me the country is treading a dangerous path. I’ve been given a few weeks off as the Tories disappear up their own arses but I can see the chaos starting to ramp up again in the coming weeks. Fuck knows when this nonsense will end. I am so tired of it all. I just hope we can save the NHS or the most vunerable are going to suffer. I’m sure our drug-addled overlords know exactly how to ensure the best for everyone.

Coming to America

Well, technically it is actually going to America but that title seemd appropriate. Later in the year I will be travelling to the US for the first time. We’ll be visiting the Boston and New England. I’m excited at the prospect. I just need to sort out my fear of flying and my various social anxieties and I’m sure it will all be fine.

Anyway, I think I’m done for now.

Till next I decide to spew my brain thoughts onto the internet be nice to people and perhaps they will be nice back.

*Ok, Designated Survivor.

Pablo Cheesecake Wants You….

…well your ideas anyway.

Let me explain

I’ve been pondering the big four oh for a while now, weird because mentally I think I’ll always be  perpetually about fifteen but hey ho. I suppose I view reaching this age, like a lot of people, as something of a milestone. Now, I’ll admit that I’m not quite there yet (my 40th birthday isn’t actually until 24th July 2014. Feel free to mark it on your calendars NOW people!) but it has given me a bit of an idea. I’ve decided that from my thirty-ninth birthday until the big day I am going to attempt forty tasks that I’ve never done before. You know, sort of a bucket list type thingee.

This audacious plan involves me creating a new website where I’ll blog about my various adventures and maybe even get some amusing photos/videos posted. I’ve purchased the domain name pablodoes40things.co.uk (calm down, don’t go there yet just yet. I’ll let you know when it’s live.)

To begin with though I need a bit of help from you lovely virtual pixes that live in the InterTubes. I need some suggestions of things that I can try/do as part of my mission. There are only three rules to this.

  • Firstly,  I really can’t do heights AT ALL so I wont be throwing myself out of any planes or bungee jumping naked off Big Ben.
  • Secondly,  I’m not independently wealthy so cost is a factor. Please take that into consideration if you have an idea.
  • Finally – I am a delicate flower so contact sports are out. (Sad I know, pesky brain injury. I always imagined I’d be rather good a rugby.)

To give you an idea of that sort of thing I am talking about here is the list as it currently stands.

  1. Knitting
  2. Ice Skating
  3. Read ‘Catcher in The Rye’
  4. Knife and Axe Throwing
  5. Visit Stonehenge
  6. Visit Glastonbury Tor
  7. Falconry
  8. Skype someone in another country
  9. Walk a dog (I’ve been with people who have walked their dogs but I’ve never actually walked a dog myself. I know, crazy).
  10. Got to an observatory
  11. Enter a race. (They tell me that it’s the taking part that counts.)
  12. Watch the number one film from each year from 1974 onwards. For reference I’m using this site http://www.films101.com/y1974r.htm
  13. Get my back waxed (*gulps*)
  14. Climb a mountain
  15. Go to a ballet
  16. Eat a Pontefract cake
  17. Go to an opera
  18. Create a short film
  19. Attend a dance class (not sure what style yet?)
  20. Yoga

Sadly (you may have noticed) I’ve only have twenty things at the moment. You all have to help!!! and remember this is things I have never done before.

Help

If you have an idea feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line at pablocheesecake@me.com

I look forward to your nonsense with anticipation.

Pablo “does 40 things before he’s 40” Cheesecake

Pablo Cheesecake vs That, There London (2012 Edition)

Yesterday Mrs Cheesecake and I had a cheeky little day trip to that there London. Considering we were only there for a few hours I think we managed to fit in quite a lot of stuff.

Borough Market

One of our main reasons for visiting London was to do some shopping at this market. We’ve been there before and I love the fact that there are just so many great things to try and buy. The list of foods we got to try was as follows (those of a sensitive disposition may wish to look away now)

  • A spicy chorizo sausage (on a stick no less, disappointingly it was not sold to me by Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler but we can’t have everything can we?)
  • A duck confit sandwich
  • some artisan black pudding
  • a giant pretzel
  • a giant raspberry meringue
  • wild boar salami
  • garlic salami
  • almond croissant
  • English muffins
  • Wild boar pie

Old Thameside Inn

As chance would have it our internet chum Erik happens to live quite close to Borough Market so we gave him a call and he promptly appeared and took us to a local pub. Sat right next to the Golden Hinde swigging chilled lager is a pretty good way to spend a lunchtime.

Blackwell’s Young Adult Fiction Day

Back onto the tube again and off to our final stop of the day –  the young adult event at Blackwell’s Charing Cross. Arrived slightly late due to my spectacular map reading skills. Also had to leave early in order to catch our train home. That said still did manage to hear readings from Will Hill, Tom Pollock, Tanya Byrne and James Dawson. Shame we didnt manage to catch Kim Curran and Laure Eve but, as I said, this was entirely my fault.

I did spot this when I was in the shop. It will be mine!

Just think of all the unnecessary crap I could carry

Home again, Home again Jiggidy Jig

And then like the ninjas that we are we were off home again.

Till next time

Cheerio

Pablo Cheesecake vs That There London

It’s not very often that Mrs Cheesecake and I get the opportunity to head of to the big city but yesterday we had a perfect excuse. Mrs Cheesecake is a rather huge fan of Michael Sheen (don’t believe me? check out www.michael-sheen.co.uk, all her own work don’t cha know). Anywho, we had scored some tickets to go and see Himself (that’s what he is known as in our house) as Hamlet at The Young Vic.

As the show wasn’t on until 7pm we decided we would check out a bit of the city we hadn’t experienced before. I should state for the record I was also jonesin for a Starbucks Eggnog latte and figured I could cater for coffee habit along the way.

So prior to the show – Borough Market. Awww man this place is food porn of the highest order. Every direction you turn there are loads and loads of specialist vendors hawking their wares. It is a blissful assault on the senses. Within the first 100ft we had walked past someone making grilled garlic king prawns, someone else selling hot mulled wine and another selling pates, relishes and many varieties of salami. Best part, without a doubt, LOADS of free samples. I just didn’t know where to start.

Eventually, after much umming and ahhing,  we ended up joining a queue for a stall called Roast to Go. The queue was pretty long but I took this to be a good sign, turns out it was totally worth it. I got a salt beef, mustard and pickle sandwich while Mrs Cheesecake had turkey and cranberry. It may have been the best sandwich I have ever eaten (and I really do mean EVER!)

More wandering about and I got to try some splendid cheese, an exceptional terrine and a great wild mustard relish. I think that if we had the time, the cash and the inclination we could have spent the entire day at there.

The evening found us at The Young Vic and we had pretty epic fucking seats, 4th row ain’t at all shabby. We’ve seen a good modern take of Hamlet before, starring the Tenth Doctor and Jean-Luc Picard, but this interpretation was a different class. The performances were all mesmerising but Sheen was exceptional. Nothing better than a bit of live theatre.

I reckon that’ll do for now. Much as I enjoyed visting that there London. It is nice to be back in our little house, fussing the cat on the sofa. I have some serious mooching about scheduled so best be off to do it.

Laters Taters

Ohh by the way, before I forget,  after such a hectic day it may not be a massive surprise to discover that I completely forgot about, and didn’t manage to get, the coffee I was hoping for. Perhaps next week.

Hey, Hey Its Saturday

Of Fantasycon and Holidays

Not long to go now till a two week holiday topped of with a visit to Fantasycon 2011 in Brighton. This will be our third FCon but I’ve never been to Brighton before so I’m looking forward to visiting somewhere new. There are a number of book launches that sound exactly great. Roll on our long weekend at the seaside. Hopefully I’ll meet some of you there? I’ll be the one with the bright red hair. More on that nearer the time I think.

The Curse of the Brown Trousers

(Before reading this update it would be well worth your while to check out my last post to understand the ins and outs of my trouser trauma. Hmmm trouser trauma sounds rude. Please note this is not erection related in any way. Just in case you were worried.)

They have finally arrived and I’m wearing them right now as I type. They seem to be very comfortable. Will this change my entire wardrobe? I dont think so. I’m still reticent to move into the realms of corduroy for example. At the very least I have a new choice I suppose. Like I’ve said before I’m not a fashionista so change is always a bit traumatic. Baby steps eh people?

Walking Music

This morning I had some errands to attend to and I decided I would do them on foot. Nice to get a bit of exercise and all that. I also decided it would be a good idea to take along my iPhone so I could listen to some sounds along the way.

My musical tastes are at best described as eclectic but I have a confession to make. Most of the time when I walk along the street this is what is playing in my head anyway.

or this

I fear I may have revealed to much. Oops. Oh well, never mind.

New Blogger

Looks like Blogger has a had a bit of an update. I am liking some of the new features. Certainly this first attempt at using it has been stress free.

Anyway enough of this waffle

Till next our paths cross

Your servant

Pablo Cheesecake Esq.

Live (ok nearly 24hrs late) from the BAFTA Red Carpet

sunday

I’ve never been to a red carpet event before so wasn’t sure what to expect when  Mrs Cheesecake and I headed to the Theatre Royal for 8 am. Mrs Cheesecake had very diligently checked out the BAFTA website and was aware that we had to go an collect wristbands before we would be allowed entry to the event.

When we arrived there was already as sizable queue but everyone was in high spirits even though it was raining. We queued for around 45 minutes and eventually found ourselves at the front where we were given our wristbands by some nice security guards. They explained that we were not going to get access to the red carpet site until at least 1.30pm.

Suddenly we had hours to kill and the weather by this point was fucking terrible. After some looking around we found ourselves having breakfast in Tuttons. I cannot recommend this restaurant highly enough. I’m not sure if it was because they took pity on two drowned rats but their breakfast is sublime. The service was splendid and it turns out there is nothing better than a full English to the strains of Vivaldi for restoring one’s equilibrium.

The rest of the waiting time passed quickly as we wandered around Covent Garden and enjoyed a bit of cafe society. Mrs Cheesecake even spotted Richard E. Grant.

Back to the queue and eventually we managed to make it to the red carpet area. Again more waiting but it was good to watch all the comings and goings.

Enough of preliminaries lets get to the event itself. Between us Mrs Cheesecake and I got some ace shots and we saw a veritable cornucopia of stars.

Deep Breath…..here we go…we saw…..

Sharto Copley, Christoph Waltz, Matt Dillon, Noel Clarke, Oliva Williams, Jeremy Renner, Peter Capaldi, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Jason Issacs, Sam Taylor Wood, Aaron Johnson, Nicholas Hoult, Armando Iannucci, Tahir Rahim, Jane Goldman, Terry Gilliam, David Baddiel, Anil Kapoor, Claudia Winkleman, Colin Firth, Ann Marie Duff, Andy Serkis, David Morrisey, Nick Frost, Jonathan Ross, McKenzie Crook, Mark Kermode, James Corden, Kate Winslet, James Cameron, Prince William (yup royalty), Mickey Rourke, Robert Pattison, Quentin Tarintino, Clare Danes.

There were others as well but I honestly can’t remember them all. We got some top photos as well.

Here is one of Sharto Copley
IMG_0102
and what does he write on an autograph?
101_0638
If you can’t make it out it says YOU FOOKIN PRAWN! Class.

One conclusion I did come to is that Joely Richardson and Kate Winslet may not be human. I don’t mean that in a nasty way. Quite the reverse in fact. They are both absolutely flawless. Pictures do not do them just SERIOUSLY. Mrs Cheesecake felt the same way about Jonathan Rhys Myers. In other interesting news Clive Owen is really surprisingly short. Again don’t mean that in a nasty way just expected him to be taller.

IMG_0133

Disappointment of the night. No Jeff Bridges or Michael Sheen. Well I don’t suppose we can have everything can we.

Ass Monkeys of the evening – All of the professional autograph hunters. They were all rude as fuck and kept making me angry. These are the cock javelins that get autographs just so they can sell then on for profit. Fucking ring pieces the lot of them. I think some of the stars were avoiding our area because of these assholes.

Oddly we ended up with one of the official umbrella like the one you can see in the Joely Richardson pic. Weird but true.

It was most definitely an experience.

No longer on the Red Carpet.
Pablo Cheesecake

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Pablo Cheesecake vs That There London

Saturday

This weekend Mrs Cheesecake and I broke with our cinema-going tradition and took a trip to London. We went for a couple of reasons. Firstly we fancied a break from the grind of work. Secondly the BAFTAs were on and we wanted to go in partake in the red carpet experience.

Though BAFTAs were on the Sunday we decided that we should go down to London the day before. We managed to cram quite a lot in so I will split our weekend over two blogs one for the Saturday and  one for the Sunday.

By happy coincidence on the Saturday afternoon there was a signing at Forbidden Planet with this chap.
Purejoy...that what the wife calls him

After arriving in London and checking in to our hotel off we went. He was in the store to do a signing to promote his new film Solomon Kane. While we waited for the signing to begin I was interviewed for LSQ TV. I shit you not. Little old me was plucked from the crowd and asked some questions. Check it out…. I’m the twat with the red hair and the very high opinion of himself. It’s even in freakin HD….

So after making it onto You Tube in a vox pop (always an ambition of mine) we actually did get to meet the director Michael J Bassett and James Purefoy. Mrs Cheesecake was also extremely pleased that she got a piccie.
Give us Blue Steel James!

After the brief meeting I got to indulge my wanton lust for all the good stuff Forbidden Planet has to offer. Though I could have quite easily spent a large fortune in the store I ended up limiting myself to two new paperbacks. I could have quite easily been more but I was trying to be good.

Saturday turned out to be quite a good day. Sunday however promised more of the same. Next blog Covent Garden and the BAFTAs!

Back from that there London

An exhausted Cheesecake

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On the Road – Day 5, 6 and 7

We moved on to Penzance and after taking a quick wonder round the town we moved on to St Michael’s Mount. The weather was again was great and we spent our afternoon wondering around the castle, gardens and enjoying a Cornish cream tea al-fresco.


By day 6 Mrs Cheesecake and I were starting to feel strain of our constant traveling so decided to stay in Flamouth for the day. We shopped extensively and Mrs Cheesecake picked up some bargain Doc Martens! Lilac patent boots! She even managed to blag a child size as she has tiny feet. We also popped to the local cinema and caught Transformers 2.

Our final day saw us visit the very southern tip of Great Britain. I looked forward to seeing Land’s End and I wasnt disappointed. There was even a Doctor Who exhibition.


This little holiday has proven to me what I already suspected. The UK has some fantastic places to see and it is wholly worthwile seeking them out.

Later peeps

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On the Road – Day 3 & 4

As I mentioned in my last post we had decided that we would check St Ives on the 3rd day in Cornwall. We arrived earlier and wondered about looking in all the shops. There were a number of pasty shops so around lunchtime I sampled the delights of cheese and bacon in a pasty format. I reckon that by the end of the week my waistline will have reached some kind of critical mass.

After pasty nirvana we headed to the beach. I have to say that the beach at St Ives is pretty spectacular. The sand is very fine. The water a lovely blue. So much so that I ended going swimming and burning my feet really badly laying about in the sand.

Day four started with trip on a speedboat which was exceptionally cool.


We were hoping to see some local wildlife but all was quiet. The journey was great though.
After the excitement we moved on to Pendennis Castle. This fantastic location offered fantastic views of Falmouth and the rest of the coast.


Tomorrow Penzance !

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On The Road – Days 1 and 2

As promised to all those back in the office. I told you I would blog. Please sit back and enjoy my insights into Cornwall and all the joys there are to behold.

Falmouth a very large natural harbour and very busy by modern standards. It splits quite nicely between the industrial and the traditional.

When we arrived on Saturday lunchtime Mrs Cheesecake and I had the opportunity to explore the old streets and discovered quickly that almost every potential cuisine is available. My quest for the perfect Cornish Pasty had begun!

Day Two saw our first proper expedition. We hit the road after a hearty full English and headed for surfer’s paradise, Newquay. Again the weather has been good and I fear I may burn. I had the opportunity to have my first pasty for lunch today. Steak and Stilton. A winner! I have heard a rumour that there is a pasty shop in St Ives where you can buy a pasty that can be worn like a hat. Can you guess where I am going tomorrow.

We checked out the beach which has a crazy Bond style house sitting on top of a cliff that can only be accessed via suspension bridge. I even had the chance to for a bit of a paddle. Water as expected feckin freezing.

We also headed to the Blue Reef Aquarium and got the see all the cool fishes and some really fuckin fuggly ones too.

As an aside on our way between Falmouth and Newquay Mrs Cheesecake and I found the following. It was so funny we had to stop the car on the way back so we could take a picture.. Never let it be said that I ain’t highbrow.

Who knows what tomorrows voyage of discovery will bring. Come back soon to find out.

Laters

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