The Grand National Clippediclopp

After a making-our-own-pizza-(and-even-the-dow)-playing-cards-and-stay-up-late thing with Nat's lovely niece and nephew (Molly and Adam) on Friday night (the two are spending their school holidays in Chelmsford at the moment), the day of the Grand National started with lovely sunshine and simpsonesque skies.



Hold on, the day of the Grand National WHAT?
"Oh, you don't know...? How can you not know what the Grand National is?"
Hmmm, well, maybe because I'm not British...?

Anyway, I got taught all about it: The Grand National is a horse race. The course is 7 miles long, 30 obstacles need to be jumped over. It is a big event in Britain, not least because it is THE biggest betting race in the world. Many people who don't bet on horses normally, put a bet on one or more horses in the Grand National.
Just for the fun, I put down a pound on three horses (mainly because I liked their names) as well: L'ami, Mon Mome and Snowy Morning (hmmmm, I admit, there is a little affinity for French names going on here).

And hooray, Snowy Morning came in 3rd... I won 5.50 pounds with this bet, making a total earning of 3.50 pounds. A big success, I would say :)
By the way, the winner's name is "Comply or Die". What a stupid name for a horse. So stupid that I had almost put money on him, just because of the name... I finally didn't :( I would have been 5 or 6 pounds richer now. There is always next year.

We spent most of the afternoon in the pub, watching football, the Grand National (obviously) and chatting with friends of Nat's. I met Simon for the first time, the singer of The Lunar Pilots. The Lunar Pilots are a band I am designing a logo and a website for at the moment. We've been in contact only by mail and it was nice to meet him in person and have chat.
They are going to be in a recording studio in Brixton all of next week and Paul (the keyboarder and a good friend of Nat's) invited me to come over and visit them one evening after work. I am really looking forward to that. 1st, because it's always cool to hang out with rock stars (tongue in cheek :) and 2nd because I never saw a real recording studio from the inside. Yeah. Seeing new things is priceless!

Now it's snowing outside (hmmm, weird.... we really had a "Snowy Morning" today)... and I have to go back to London soon to do a little bit more work on the Lunars' website. I hope the trains won't be a shambles due to the weather... in England, you never know.