For Ben's 30th birthday, he decided we should all go out in Nottingham. The plan was to meet up on saturday at an ex-student-rental house owned by a friends parents and then head into town.

Emma brought her laptop pc for watching videos or listening to music but it turned out that the neighbours had an unsecured wireless network so we had internet as well. This was handy on a couple of occasions, the first of which was when Jack arrived. The taxi dropped her off in the wrong place so we got onto a couple of mapping websites and managed to direct her to the house.

The second time we needed the internet was to find the Midori to make the squashed frog cocktails. After phoning around most of the off-licences in the city we found one with some in stock. I drove off to collect it, assisted by one of Ben's friends with a GPS navigation thingy.

We took the tram into town and then walked to TGI Fridays to sample the cocktails. Then to the Pit and Pendulum for some overloud shite music and more cocktails.

The main part of the evening was supposed to be the meal at the Red Hot Buffet Shack but the only booking we could get was half past 9. When we got there the place was very busy and we were waiting ages before our table was ready. I think it was worth the wait though. All the food I tried was good. The range was impressive, covering Indian, Chinese, Thai and Italian. You could even order your own pizza with a selection of toppings.

After leaving the restaurant we took the tram back to the house for more silliness and drinking games and stealing neighbours internet connection.