Bank Holiday weekend

I'm looking forward to the end of my placement so much that I'm planning the contents of almost every day of freedom that will take place for the two weeks between the placement and the start of lectures in my final year. And thinking about the next phase of home maintenance - it will consist of a few odd jobs around the house, and then possibly exterior renovation: woodwork, brickwork and paintwork. And the car needs a major service, and I will need a haircut and a new bag for school, and I want to see ex-colleagues in Birmingham and Lola II and the rest of the family and some friends in London.

But before all that, we have had a three-day weekend, in which we were particularly looking forward to the Red Lion beer and film festival, including camping. Of course I let some people know that it sounded like a good prospect for socialising, and most unusually, three friends actually turned up! Unfortunately, one arrived earlier than us and left before we got there, but we did see two lovely people! And tried some different beers, although I think I still like the Slaughterhouse Brewery's Saddleback beer best, and that is served next door all the time.

[Note: Best beer of all time is still Timothy Taylor's Landlord, but only when it is served in tiptop condition, which is rare. It used to happen in The Metropolitan pub, round the corner from where I used to live in Manchester, and we once found it completely at random in a pub off the M1 somewhere, but even Smurf couldn't quite get it right at the Cricketers.]

Then there was the film, which was Léon, shown on the most enormous inflatable outdoor screen you could imagine, and projected from the back of a Landrover. But before the film, they played a brilliant introduction featuring the pub itself, which mimicked those old scratchy advertisements with still photos and a voiceover, for a women's clothing shop or Indian restaurant 'just 100 metres from this cinema'. I have looked for it on YouTube and on the pub's website without finding it, so you'll just have to believe me when I say it was utterly brilliant.

The wind dropped so the screen didn't move around much, and the sound was great, but it was quite cold. Then off to our tent, even though we hadn't really had much to drink, and Mr A could probably have driven home legally. Never mind, it gave us the chance to try out his second newest tent (don't ask), which is relatively easy to put up even when you've already had some beer, although smaller than the palatial tent we have previously enjoyed. We slept well, and came home next morning for breakfast and a shower.

We enjoyed the screening so much that we headed over again for Sunday night's film, which was Point Break. We wore more clothes that time, so were generally more comfortable, but we drove home again afterwards rather than camping. On Monday we attempted a hat-trick of films, but King Lear starring Ian Holm rather defeated us, so we have half of that still to watch.