What to do when your self-indulgent thread loses all its readers and generates no replies? The answer is of course to team it up with a previous thread that was equally unpopular and create a hybrid that allows people not to read two threads at once! This ‘Exciting news for all readers’ event will be a one off as the diet bus has pulled up outside and delivered some rice cakes and taken away all the booze and chocolates. At least we still have letters and holiday snaps. Yay.
First out of the blocks is this deceptive salad number :
We didn’t get into out hotel in Tenerife, the GF Isabel, until after dinner had finished but they had left us some grub in the canteen. This was unexpected and certainly derailed my plans to explore the town’s kebab options. This was enjoyable however, with nice ham and chorizo and a soft roll.
The letters from
Prog 2266 are found in a strange mid Prog location with the coveted back page taken up with some history thing. We do get 7 letters, none of which are too long, and only one Beast Leaderboard contender for our troubles.
Someone who may not be hungry, but is in
Hungary is Charlie Robinson in the Letter of the Week berth. Charlie, with his debut offering, scores the 4th Magyar letter to see print with Sas / Stuart Durrant nabbing the first two in Progs 866 and 982 followed by David Jakoi in 2002’s Prog 1315.
Charlie does the always favoured ‘lost but now found’ routine and tells a happy tale of finding the latest Prog in an Airport shop and then signing up for the long haul. It’s a happy tale well told and Tharg ,as always, laps this stuff up.
Our hotel was all inclusive so we didn’t each out too much. It may be a bit bland but it’s free! The hotel food was fine but sometimes you want something a bit special and cooked as a meal rather than some nuggets and a bit of pizza. Here’s me with an excellent chicken biryani at the Ganges restaurant in Costa Adeje.
Iain Benson popadom downs the next letter from his
Manchester lair. Iain , who was possibly a butler in the 80’s, enjoys his second outing here having debuted in Prog 2140 in 2019. He is now one behind ‘Best Benson’ Freiya who had her third offering published in a Letter of the Week appearance in Prog 2202.
Iain basically rehashes the first letter, five years on, and feels a kinship with Tharg as they are both in their 45th year. Means nothing Iain, We’re the same age as Starbucks and it doesn’t mean free coffee! (you can fill up on sugar packets if no one is looking though).
The best part of buffet dining is the breakfasts - you can pick out all the crispy bits of bacon and fill up on Sugar Puffs and pastries. You do need to work at it though. Here’s me with my shop bought HP sauce and butter infused bacon sandwich. It was so good my photographer grabbed a bite before agreeing to take the photo!
Not needing any additional sauce is
Craig Grannell of Fleet who scores his 28th Beast entry with this outing, which cements his 9th place spot on the Beast scoreboard, only one behind Alan Holloway. This early score means Craig has had at least one letter published in each of the last 6 years. He first appeared as the enigmatic ‘CN Grannell’ in 1998’s Prog 1089 which means his letters Silver Anniversary is approaching fast.
Craig goes all controversial and says ‘The Out’ is better than ‘Halo Jones’. not sure about that, but both are better than ‘Dead meat’ that’s for sure. Tharg likes a bit of debate and will probably reissue ‘Halo Jones’ once again, in a new edition, just to cash in on the controversy.
More dining out now as we headed for The Ibrox Bar for the Rangers v Stirling Albion clash. They didn’t do food but they allowed the restaurant next door to deliver. This Mexican pizza was nice but a bit unusual as it had no cheese topping and was like hot vegetables and grey beef on a pizza base. Still scoffed the lot.
Someone who needs no toppings but some more ‘Brass Sun’ is
Luke Murthwaite of Peterborough who makes his debut this Prog. This is the 30th letter from The Posh with Graham George (didn’t he used to manage Arsenal?) the long time leader on 4.His last outing was in 1994’s Prog 896 so he may have stopped reading or gone to manage a team in Vietnam or somewhere.
Luke’s bugbear is when “a decent narrative never reaches a conclusion”. We know what you mean Luke - this man of restricted intelligence went to a stables to ask for a job and the blacksmith asked if he had ever shoed a horse and…right we’ll leave that there.
Here’s an early buffet lunch selection that shows how not to create a well balanced meal - pizza, burger, chips, nuggets - it’s like a 5 year old’s birthday party. All very nice but an unsatisfying repast.
Time to calm down now and take your time in the company of
Tony Green from Bullseye, er,
Wooton. Tony enjoyed ‘Dredd : Trinity’ and thought it was super , smashing , great. Wait, that’s the other guy. This is Tony’s first ever letter - let’s see if he manages to get two in a bed. He has a few to match the Jolly Green Giant Kelvin who has 4 letters to his name, the last of which we saw in Prog 1550 in 2007.
Next up is our second dine out where I had this mammoth T-Bone steak in a place called ’Hawai’. It was OK but not well cooked and certainly beyond my requested ‘medium’ in places. The chips were of the oven variety and the veg was non-descript. Not great for the 90 odd Euros spent.
Better value is
Paul Newrick of Bridport who has his second appearance served up in this Prog, following his opening bow in a Letter of the Week showing in Prog 2225, last year. Paul was a big fan of ‘Trinity’ and would like to see more of the Sly Stallone Dredd. Stop or every fan will shoot! He makes a funny point of the present day being even crappier than the dystopian worlds Tharg dishes out and basically tells the Alien that he needs to up his game.
A better hotel dinner selection this time with meatballs accompanied by a fried chicken fillet, some green chillies and some caviar. As you do. First time having caviar and I wasn’t impressed. Fishy and a strange texture.
We finish with a Last Tango in
Halifax in the company of
Paul Broadhead who, like Paul Newrick above, is also on his second letter with his first also appearing in the same Prog of 2225! What a coincidence!, It’s almost like only 30 folk ever write in! Paul finished the page with his musings as lapsed then returned reader. He’s off to buy 20 years of back Progs and we’re off to the buffet!
