Chihuahuas, cheesiness and chilling prophecies...

so, today the Beard was faced with the prospect of bar snacks... including the oddly named chihuahua nuts... one can only hope that these are indeed some sort of seed or legume, and not at all what they seem.... but regardless, food has been a bit of a preoccupation for the Beard over the weekend... indeed over most of his life... but already I digress....





saturday saw the future Mrs Beard, Beard Junior and myself on a cinematic expedition to peruse a film described as "a bunch of weird religious fanatics being proved right...." and ended up with a very entertaining, highly flawed and cheesey three hour b movie called 2012..... and entertaining it was, with at least one surprise.. no two... without wanting to spoil anything, Noah didn't end up being who I thought, and the tsunami wasn't ridden.... and the bad science was mentioned a couple of times, but thankfully mainly ignored, which actualy makes three... but nevertheless....



but while the film was an unenlightening but entertaining interlude, the pre-film meal was possibly less so.... dining at what I believe to be a mexican chain restaurant, we were all unpleasantly surprised when the red snapper, far from hailing from the sunny climes of the gulf, appeared to have holidayed in the arctic... it was, in fact, so solid that even a fork failed to penetrate... a fairly long wait for chilli later, the FMB was finally eating, my chilli and Bj's ribs finished off long since... to be fair, the chilli was passable, and the sauce on the ribs quite nice, but the whole experience was decidedly unedifying.... and the bill was wrong.... for some reason the manager thought that letting us have the chilli free while still cjarging for the unedible more expensive fish was a good deal... in the chain's favour, the young lady waiting our table was very apologetic, and helpful... but to be honest, the meal did not come onto my do-again list....

Sunday, however, gave us two very nice eatings... firstly, a stop at the Society Cafe, part of the ever loving Co-op movement, gave us a lovely breakfast (eight items for £2.75... bargain..) and, after a rainy, windy walk in Bradgate Park, a short ride to Cropston took us to The Badgers Sett, which fortunately was not surrounded by smelly piles of old bedding.... a nice fire, a sit in the warm, and a lovely game casserole, which was everything it should be, and a mixed grill for BJ, which was demolished with relish... and prices not too bad either.... on a par with the mexican place, but far more worth it....

anyway, after that brief foray into the world of michelin, it is time for bed.... so until we all are game for casserole, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just a quickie....

So... yet another weekend of days, nights and other things.... so farthe Beard has driven riven and liven... but not necessarily in that order... but still he types away, wondering exactly waht he can put to make people interested in this blog, then deciding that he's as bothered about the interest of te general public as the banks are... and on te subject of banks... the Beard has always had a rather ambivalent relationship with banks.... I'm a great fan of Martin Lewis's lovely saying... "The Bank is not your friend..." now, having been charged badly by one bank (they wrote me a letter warning me that i may become overdrawn, and the charge for the letter overdrew me, etc...) and messed about awfully by others, i was surprised when my bank offered me the unbelievable offer of a new accoount with many benefits that i didn't need for the low sum of 30 quid a month.... now, adding up my home insurance and rac cover comes to a lot less than that, and with more cover, but the icing on the cake was the mention of insurance against identity theft.... as I said to the assistant manager who was attempting to sell me this, i have no worries about my identity being stolen... after all, if anyone pretending to be me can get a mortgage, credit card, or even the loan of fifty p till next wednesday, my first question will be how they manged it, seeing as the banks have been resisting my attempts to get said items for many years..... in fact, if any identity thieves out there want my details, I'll split any proceeds fifty fifty.... as i said to the banker, if they want my identity, they're welcome to it.... but I digress....

Other than that, things are going well, and i'm not just saying that because of the future mrs Beard reading this over my shoulder.... despite feeling a little under the weather, and having a complete lack of internet access except at the weekend.... that will soon be solved however, sooner or later.... by fair means or fairer.... but it gets late, and the beard gets tired as do all lesser mortals.... so until all our laps are topped, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

News, views, and possibly a snooze....

and it becomes more and more obvious that rhyming is back again, mores the pity.. and with the Beard writing more regularly (albeit not on here....) with competitions agogo, a western in the offing, the prospective children's novel going very well, and numerous other projects on the go it would be hard to believe that the Beard has time for anything else in his life.... but lo... what is that on the horizon....???? well, to keep everyone up to date, a certain young lady has agreed in principle and actuality to become Mrs Beard.... and a shopping trip to the astounding jewellery quarter of Hockley, including several nice shops and one that resembled the worst kind of model railway shop (the sort staffed by a long bearded weirdo who really loves trains....) turned up not only a lovely ruby and diamond ring that quite pleases the future Mrs Beard, but also a pub serving mild on tap... which was quite a bonus....

but I digress.... also on the news front comes news.. which is surprising, but not particularly so..... but holiday time has now passed, and a trip to Anglesey resulted in a good time for both myself and beard junior, with an excursion to a nuclear power station, a closed model village, an encounter with sharks and a half built castle, and the revelation that although the word "albeit" is not in the dictionary on my phone, for some reason both "imaginarium" and "Parnassus" are... which begs the question whether Terry Gilliam is in fact T9....

terry is, of course, as none of you know, one of my favourite writer directors, especially in that I find all of his work flawed... which may sound strange, but i at least know what I mean... and that's the main thing.... but the Imaginarium I found to be a great story... being a great fan of deals with devils, it had to be really.. and Lily Cole was fantastic in more ways than one.... and as for Heath Ledger... despite his being mainly a supporting role, he was fantastic as Johnny Depp... or was that the other way round...???? But whichever, and flawed as it was, definitely one to watch... but my main news must remain the great honour my young lady has done me by agreeing to marry me.... and also by treating me to beans on toast.... but that's a story for another time...

it remains to say that i am, as requested, attempting to write in paragraphs, despite the stylistic problems this causes... but as the stylistics have not bothered the charts for some time, I think we can discount them... and all that remains is to say that the Beard is very much in love, and that until all of us can be as happy as the proverbial Mr Grayson, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11