So What's Been Happening Recently? #11

          The past couple of days have been fun. 7th March was my wife's birthday. As It was her day she wanted to go to Southend to play on the grabbing machines. So we did.
      Before that though I had to give her her presents. The night before she bought a giant balloon. Here's a picture:

    So I thought it would be a nice idea to use it as a sort of christmas tree. When she had gone to bed and knew when she was asleep I brought out a giant box and small package and placed them by the balloon.

     Now here's a problem with the wife. She likes to spend money, all the time. I have to rein her in sometimes to make her understand that she can't have everything. Recently, because of her new job. She has more money to herself. I have one rule when it comes to money: As long as you pay your bills and debts first. Whatever is left is yours to do as you please. And because of this extra money she has been able to save a little more. But also able spend more money on her favourite horror icon, Chucky from the Child's Play series. 

    Now she asked for a specific doll for her collection and we had found a website that sold the dolls for a reasonable price. But the things is I bought both of them to complete this particular set. She wasn't expecting this. So I had the problem of not saying anything while she continued looking for the other doll on Ebay and other sites for a cheaper price. Showing me lots of different examples whilst trying to find a way of telling her not to buy anything. It wasn't until she left it open to me by asking what she should and shouldn't buy. Which allowed me to tell her not to buy anything. She hadn't know I had already bought everything a month before and hidden in various places around the home.

      So she was pretty shocked when she found a huge box by her birthday balloon. And these were inside. 

     I had also bought her the Miranda complete DVD box set. Which she was also happy with. But more so about the dolls. Crap. I just looked up the Miranda boxset. It's not the complete boxset, just the three seasons. Oh well. Just told the wife. She's already found them online for a couple of quid. Like I said she likes to spend money. Nope. She's made me buy it.

     We eventually got ready and headed out to Southend. It doesn't take long and we are walking along the seafront. It's really windy so we make our way into the arcades. There are not alot of people about. The wrong season I suppose. No matter the wife finds what she is looking for and goes for the grabbing machines. Myself, I am looking for the ticket machines. I look for a specific one. The one that takes the less effort but produces the most tickets. The first one we were in I couldn't find one. The missus however after spending a few quid manages to get what she wanted:

       I can't find what I am looking for so we move on. The arcade we went to last year was closed. They had a two pence machine that I could abuse. So we tried another place.

      After searching, trying a couple of different machines. I found the one I wanted. Behold the The Break and Run Out machine.

   

     The aim of this game is to, like a pinball game, pull the stick and send as many balls in to the holes in a certain amount of seconds. If you get five jackpot holes you win five hundred tickets. I did this twice. In the end I ended up with over two thousand tickets in very short amount of time. The only complaint I have about the game was the price. It says twenty pence a go. I was putting pound coins in so I should have got five goes but ended up with four. The way it paid out though, I'm not complaining.

     After I had had my fill of playing the game we went to the prize booth. Now, anyone who has been to the ticket shop knows that the prizes are pretty rubbish. Anything semi-decent, you need to get thousands of tickets. So in the end I got a book lamp, an alarm clock and a lolly pop. the missus got a 

Skeleton and Smurfette keyring. The father in law and his friend got a Star Wars mug and a couple of Skeleton and Smurf keyrings. I still have over a thousand worth of tickets left to exchange when we left for maybe the next time we go.

      It was time to leave after the wife bought some doughnuts. We drove off to Lakeside retail park for a meal. The wife had wanted to try Nandos out and I wanted to see what the hype was about. To be honest we wasn't that impressed. It's nice enough. Pleasant atmosphere. The food wasn't bad, it wasn't amazing either. Having to go up and order your food, collecting your own cutlery and condiments. Felt more like a cafe than a restaurant. Charging Pub prices just didn't feel right. Lets just say we won't be going back in a hurry.