The red cups are coming!

Now this post is going to be a little... erm, random, but bear with me.

The family Lacey made an intrepid expedition over to Bradford to show off baby George, and we spent almost two hours in the little Starbucks in Centenary Square (not sure why I'm telling you this, as at least 50% of the readers of this blog were present so know this fact already).

Now it was whilst I was there that I noticed the board outside that said "The red cups are coming!" on it. Now obviously this means that it's nearly Christmas, and 'Bucks will be rolling out their Christmassy cups any time now (if they haven't already). I said to Mrs L that we'd have to make sure we came back nearer Christmas to see everyone again and maybe do a spot of shopping. And then I got thinking of Christmasses we have known and loved... (standby for nostalgia!)...

Some of my best memories of working in Bradford are of Christmas time - and somehow or other Starbucks features quite heavily in these memories. Maybe we just spent more time in there to get out of the cold wet weather or maybe those red cups and Chrimbo decorations really did get to me! I remember many a happy lunchtime sitting in the Waterstones Starbucks, looking down on the punters doing their Christmas book shopping, chatting, and then venturing out to do some Christmas shopping (or probably just browsing) of our own. Strangely, Starbucks played an integral part of the annual Christmas party too - I seem to remember heading to 'Bucks in between the lunch part and the evening part and spending a leisurely couple of hours sobering up from lunchtime excess and preparing to get even more hammered in the evening! Ah, happy times.

I realise that it probably never happened like this, but it did in *my* head. Anyone else?

Needless to say, we'll definitely be heading over in December for Christmas coffee-related shenanigans. And when we do, I want you all to have the afternoon off so we can do it properly. Okay?

Yeah baby!

At last, Baby Lacey has arrived! We've got a beautiful little boy called George William. He was born on Saturday 6th October at 3.14pm, weighing 7lb 8oz. Katey took a photo of me with him just after he was born which I think illustrates how made up I am!

Results are in ...

Well there you have it ...

While we patiently await news from the Laceys, the official results of the StarbucksBlog Poll are in.

The most popular drink is:

AMERICANO!

Closely followed by one of those nasty, frothy cappuccino things.

Wasn't that exciting? Shall we do another one? I await your suggestions :o)

Oli.

Nothing to report

There's nothing going on here. At all. But I'll keep you posted...

Old skool

Today, I went to Boots and bought a meal deal. I had a ham and emmental sandwich, prawn cocktail crisps and a raspberry and cranberry Innocent smoothie. Jolly nice it all was too. The only reason I mention it is because it's the first meal deal I've had since leaving the museum, and it kind of evoked a certain amount of nostalgia. Almost made me want to spend the afternoon in Action Zone Two, surfing the internet, sorting out felt-tip pens and generally avoiding work. This was not to be however, and instead I went to Ikea and bought furniture.

Just like the old days... but with new stuff.

Well, I knew that sooner or later we'd get round to it. I made the lengthy and perilous journey from Harrogate into the dark lands of Bradford in order to see my ex-colleagues for tea and medals (turned out to be just coffee and cheesecake though).

However, I felt that this was of such note that I should commemorate its occurrence with a post to this here interwebblogthingummydoodad.

So erm... yes. Here I am. We had coffee. And it was good.

On a more important and far more satisfying note, I hereby proclaim that I am to be a father. And here's a blurry black and white picture to go some way to proving it:


So there you go. A mini-me. What a terrifying thought.

Dusty shit...

Jesus, look at all the dust and cobwebs in here! What is this place? Looks completely deserted by the look of it. Can't have been anyone here in years.

Hang on... what's this sign here? Just let me rub the dust off it...

"STUCKS LOG"? Eh? That doesn't make any sense... ah, hang on, there's some more letters under here... yep, that's better.

"STARBUCKS BLOG". Nope, still doesn't make any sense.

And what's that over there? Eugh... I think that used to be some kind of fish in a bowl. Bit crispy now though.

Ah well, the batteries in this torch are running out. No way I'm staying here in the dark on my own. It's creepy. Maybe I'll come back with a search party.