I am feeling increasingly open minded and philosophical at the moment; I am being drawn by a compulsion that I cannot identify to read a book called “The Shining Ones” by Philip Gardner, which will perhaps lead me onto another book - “The Serpant Grail”. I have heard a lot of talk recently about mind stretching books and more than once I have been told to read the “Da-Vinci Code” however I am compelled by the former mentioned titles more by the lack of their mention than by their content.

Well…

Since I have a whole two weeks off work, I may as well continue my journey of self discovery and realisation. Whether it be a physical, mental, emotional or spiritual journey I think I will leave that up to the universe.

Besides, if you already know what lies at the end of a path, what fun is there in walking the road?

I guess this is one of the biggest driving forces inside me. This is a journey I have always been on since I can remember, from when I was young and my mind was far less cluttered with reason and logic; which in itself suggests to me that the true nature of wisdom might be something on an emotional or spiritual level.

I am at a point now, that I realise no matter what I do, the only recognition or approval I should seek or ever want is my own. As long as I am happy in myself. I will be content, for the moment though - in all honesty I am not.

All will be revealed in time, and in small moves…

It was my brother’s birthday yesterday, and so - I took on the journey to the land called Litchfield near-to the land called Birmingham (which is incidently where we ended up going). We went to a lovelly eatery which used to be a pub, called “Buffet Island”

Bookings - 0121 382 8382

I must admidt I have not really been to a place quite so popular, there was a constant crowd of people waiting for tables from about 19:30hrs onwards! Add to this the fact my mum was in a wheelchair - some interesting manouvering and jostleing (spelling??) ensued. So I would recommend booking in advance.

Here is an example of just some of the food they have on offer, (from my first attack) - - - >

Looks nice huh! On this particular plate, there is some chicken fried rice, spicy noodles, mushroom “things”, honey roast pork and some other things I can;t remember…All nice - anyways I was soon beaten by the all you can eat and settled for some desert and a starter and two mains (burp!!) - Yes I will admit it I am a pig at times! No matter what I chose it was all very nice food, and the quality of it all is carried by the testiment of the state of my gut the morning after

One of the deserts involved pouring melted chocolate onto some icecream, lychee, grape and melon mmmmmmm, the chocolate came from a chocolate fountain - fun fun fun!!! Just check out the picture below on the right hand side!!!

If you look at the bottom of the picture you might be able to spot the lychee’s, which are a fruit I have never tried before (to my knowledge) and so it had to be done, I must say at this point however - do not let the aroma of them put you off. They taste far nicer than they smell and that’s no understatement!! You can find out more about lychee’s if you follow this link here — – > LYCHEE FAQ

Anyways, a good night was had by all! I took loads of pics not all of which will be posted here to protect the innocent I asked the proprietor of the place if they have a website, but alas they do not, which would seem to be the case for good places to eat these days, and rightly so - for they concentrate on the food and their customers instead of image and publicity (I feel like balance has been restored to a small part of the world somewhere…pauses for a moment and breathes a sigh….)

Next up is a picture of brotherly love!!

As you can see we get along famously, and this picture says it all, in a language I couldn’t better emulate. Ah……family! Hehe - you know I am only having a larf! The other interesting side to last night was the fact that so many other people were in there having birthday meals, the owners of “Buffet Island” (interstingly named because it lies in the middle of spaghetti junction!) kept playing the HAPPY BIRTHDAY tune I counted at least six times! I think Andrew (my brother) got a little fed up of being sung to by the end of the night….I know I would….still it didn’t stop us all from singing loudly and purposefully out of tune…

Of course no birthday is complete without a complementary cake from the eatery establishment (having known in advance it was my brother’s birthday) now is it?

You know, I am not one to criticise without do doing a little homework first right? So, just take a while and have a good long look at this cake now. I won’t spoil it by giving it away….go on! Take your time now. Tell you what - I’ll go and make a cup of tea and you can tell me when I come back ok? Bah!! I’m ONLY KIDDING!! The cake really didn’t appear like this, I just couldn’t resist a “photoshop” moment when I saw it. The cake was very nice, actually

This is what the cake actually looked like if you really wanna know…

And so…. As I run outta puff, I bid you all a good day (Think this is my longest blog to date!!)