I decided last year that I would wake up on my birthday in a hotel somewhere away from London. I originally planned San Francisco but in the end went off to the much closer Manchester where I had the good fortune to catch up with Fritz & Gillian on Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday I had wandered into town to find a pub where I could watch Manchester United play Arsenal. I had predicted Arsenal would lose 3-2, oh if only the scoreline had been as kind; instead we had an 8-2 massacre. I did feel my wallet was somewhat massacred in Manchester by the very average food served up at Sam’s Chop House. On a previous visit I had gone to see the bronze statue of Lowry propping up the bar, at that time I noticed they seemed to do a roaring trade in customers dining so I decided to eat there.

Summer is now well under way, I can say this with confidence as for every two days with sunshine there is a day of rain; one of the tell tale signs of a British summer. Of course together with rain there is the smell of barbecues to remind us that Summer has come around, together with the inevitable 3 or 4 hour delay while the food finally cooks. How many barbecues have you ever been to where the food was served on time? I’m struggling to think of one!

Barbecues are synonymous with beer, it’s what we all think of isn’t it? Standing in a garden under a baking ball of sun, clutching an ice cold bottle of beer in one hand, the condensation running over the label and a barbecued chicken leg in the other. Well, it’s what I think of anyway!

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed one of the in-store promotions for Stella Artois. If you buy a promotional pack of Stella you will receive a 10-digit code that will allow you to select one of forty DVDs, ideal for when we have one of those days of rain!

People who know me know I like tea. Sure I like coffee but given that my preference for coffee is a doppio espresso it’s a bit of a pain in the ass making it at home and pointless when going out to somewhere like Star*ucks as I’ve usually finished by the time the person I’m with has had their half fat skinny soya mocha choca  latte  easy on the sprinkles injected with a shot of faux almond flavouring. I jest of course, I’d never be friends with someone who preferred soya over bovine based milk

Whereas coffee is considered the energy boosting drink on account of its high caffeine content, tea is it’s slower paced cousin. Tea is relatively simple to prepare, no grinding beans here. Just warm the pot, add tea and water and let it brew. Brewing time is the perfect time to eat a biscuit or two while you wait, I used to do that until my waistline crept up on me, tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to stop…killjoy!

Sometimes, just sometimes, you hear a phrase that brings back memories and if you’re of a certain age the title of this entry probably brought back a flood of memories for you.  Yes, I’m talking about Soda Stream!

From the conversations I’ve had over the past few weeks you possibly fall into one of two camps.  You either had a Soda Stream or you were friends with someone who had one.

Interestingly, so far, I’ve yet to find someone who had one but everyone seems to have had a friend who did.  Far be it for me to suggest that people were only befriended for their Soda Streams but as a kid I think the only reason I  stayed friends with a classmate was because his mum would always say those magical words when I used to visit his house, Would you boys like a Soda Stream? and off we would rush into the kitchen to make our own individual little bottles of fizzy pop.

As regular readers will know.  In 2009 I decided to make a New Year Resolution that was different from the one I usually make.  Well, I figured that after 5 years of the same resolution and it not working it was time to move on.  So, for 2009 I decided I would not drink alcohol and, with the exception of a bottle of Becks that someone bought me instead of Becks Blue I managed it.

Now, while I’ve gone through periods of not drinking before, I’ve never gone over 6 months. Usually because I’ve gotten sick and tired of paying pub/club prices for cola, lemonade and fruit juices and there’s only so much of each you can drink in a night.  Nowadays it’s much easier to find alcohol free beers, ciders and wines both in supermarkets, online and even in bars, pubs and clubs.

So, what about after the year was up?  I decided I would not stop drinking alcohol mainly due to the fact that I enjoyed wine and couldn’t imagine never drinking it again.  What I have found is that I very often don’t drink alcohol when I am out and when I do, I drink less than before.  At home I drink fruit juice, cordials or alcohol free beer with Bavaria 0.0% my favourite by a mile.  If I could find it in bars I’d be super happy as it’s so very tasty.  I’ve recently tried their wheat beer and it’s also very refreshing, especially in the recent warm weather we’ve been enjoying.

But back to the wine. My heart sank when I perused Tesco and discovered they still sold Eisberg alcohol free wine, my memories of it from 20 years ago left a lot to be desired but at £2.99 a bottle I thought why not!  that was until I tasted it… there are not enough words in the English language for me to describe how awful it is and even my limited Arabic, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese can’t assist.  All I can say, politely, about it is the Chardonnay tasted like still cider that had been left in a glass overnight!