Staycation Breakfast Blog 02 - Rendezvous Café

The Sixth of August Two Thousand and Twelve. Monday.

Hello. Just popping in to show you a picture of my breakfast. Here it is:

This was at the Rendezvous Café here in Scarborough on the corner of Westborough and Northway.

You get exactly what you pay for at the Rendezvous. It's not the best food in the world, but it's unfussy. In my veggie fried breakfast I want sausages, hash browns and egg and that's exactly what I got here.

I had the good fortune to live with a bus driver for some years and back when she worked full time if she ordered jam and toast while she was in uniform she (and any hangers-on) would get a discount.

They also do a very good nut roast dinner (three scoops of mash!) and I'll probably have a go at that sometime in the hols, probably after the exertions of next week.

So yesterday was comics day and it went something like this:

Started off with the reprint of Incredible Hercules 138 and 139 from Mighty World of Marvel.

More Hercules in Chaos War 5 (the end of Greg Pak and Frank Van Lente's superb run of Hercules stories - funny, clever and with a very dry line in sound effects...

Along with Heroes for Hire 1 and Avengers Academy 5 all reprinted in the latest Mighty World of Marvel.

Paul Cornell's Saucer Country 1

More UK reprints: Batman and Robin 3 and 4, plus Batman 8 from issue 2 of Titan's new Batman anthology.

Parts 1 to 6 of Avengers: The Children's Crusade from the UK Collectors Edition Avengers Assemble - Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung's follow up to their excellent Young Avengers run.

The conclusion of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's latest volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century: 2009

Mark Millar reprints in CLINT nos. 2.1 and 2.2 featuring Super Crooks, The Secret Service and Hit-Girl.

Issues 2 to 5 of IDW's Doctor Who comic featuring the 11th Doctor, Amy and Rory.

And then I finished the day with a marathon of Ultimate Spider-Man, reading issues 113 to 128 digitally, 129 to 133 - and Annual 3 - in a premiere hardback, before going digital again for the two Ultimatum Requiem issues. Phew! This is still my favourite Brian Michael Bendis comic and these particular issues feature some outstanding art from Stuart Immonen, a favourite of mine. Loving Bendis' work on the character of Miles Morales, the new Ultimate Spider-Man - it's boss.

Right, films today. Let's see what's on.

More soonliest.

Staycation Breakfast Blog 01 - Francis Tea Rooms

The Fifth of August Two Thousand and Twelve. Sunday.

Hooray! Hooray! It's a holi-holiday!

Next Sunday I'll be taking my sons and heirs on a whirlwind tour of capital cities and theme parks, but in the meantime I'm enjoying a 'staycation' here in my beautiful home of Scarborough. A lovely quiet few days decompressing before it all goes crazy next week. Weather's looking good - warm but not too hot and a minimum of rain. So it's a perfect opportunity to digest my favourite things in the world: food and culture!

Why do people insist in blogging/tweeting/tumblring pictures of stuff they're eating? It's tedious and typical of the lack of imagination behind most people that when presented with the instant communication opportunities of social media that this is what they fall back on. In an attempt to get to the bottom of this I'm going to post pictures of my breakfast for the next five days!

It's usually toast or bagels for me - occasionally a Weetabix or two. In the past, when I've gone on holiday I've opted for the cooked breakfast as a treat, only to be too bloated by day three to persist with this 'luxury'. Nevertheless, even though I have perfect access to my own toaster this week I have resolved to have breakfast in a different location each day. Today it was the quaint Francis Tea Rooms on South Street just round the corner from my flat.

We've gone for the scrambled egg on toast here, with a lovely extra slice of toast. Always big chunky toast at Francis, fab if a bit expensive.

But that's not all. Not only will there be a different(ish) breakfast each day. I will also be spending each day dedicating myself to consuming tasty morsels from a different cultural medium each day. Today, I will be immersing myself exclusively in the world of comic books (plus ça change...). Tomorrow, it will be movies; Tuesday, it's audio and radio stuff; Wednesday will be books; and Thursday will be your friend and mine, telly stuff. It's my intention to let you know what I've been into in the following day's breakfast blog. I can tell you now that there will be a Doctor Who element to each day...

Yes, I know I always come up with these grand schemes and don't always complete (where's that novel you were writing, Vin? (it's still coming, I promise!)), but this is only five days so even I can't make a hash of it.

Can I?

More soonliest.