Out of the shit and into my food.

As I sit here waiting for Dyno-Rod to come and clear my outside drain (it is in the same situation as one who talks utter rubbish - yes very full of shit!) They are supposed to be coming between 12pm and 6pm. I am praying the earlier the better. How funny is this? I was half way through typing the word 'praying' and the phone rang. Lathan from Dyno-Rod was approaching. Two minute job. £86. Bargain! My generous landlady paid.

Dyno-Rod arrives!!

So, I have been off work for the last two days and yesterday I went into the city of Nottingham to do a little Christmas shopping and enjoy a coffee and mince pie whilst watching the frazzled shoppers stream by. The first coffee was had at Delilah delicatessen and whilst in there I made the short video seen at the top of this blog.

I had a mooch around Waterstones bookshop and bought a book on German history by Neil MacGregor. Whilst I was out another very cheap book had arrived in the post for me - Meat Around The World. £1.95 plus postage.So diverse are my interests! I also made another video for fun on and around the Nottingham Trams. Whilst in Karlsruhe recently I shot a small amount of tram footage (I intended to do a lot more) and I added this onto the footage I shot yesterday.

The Christmas Market was in full swing in the Old Market Square. I wasn't overly impressed but then I suppose I have been spoilt with a real German Christmas Market in Karlsruhe (more about this in a future blog post). The image below is myself and Emma Brown my actress in Greetings from the Trenches - a play I wrote, directed and acted in early December at the Jakobus Theatre in Karlsruhe.

Later in the day I went to the CAST restaurant at Nottingham Playhouse for another warming coffee and a couple of free mince pies. As the song goes it was "beginning to feel a lot like Christmas". All the scaffolding was gone from the front of the Playhouse building and a simple Christmas tree was sitting basking in the early evening light next to Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror.

As the day wore on I passed by some attractive food shops and their displays and looked forward to my meaty dinner of rump steak, Spanish sausages and black pudding rings from The Bury Black Pudding Company all purchased from my local butcher in Ruddington.

The day before I had treated myself to a kg of rope grown Scottish mussels purchased half price at Tesco. I love mussels and these plump beauties were stunningly good!