Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Jesus, if I’m going to use this weblog to write down all the things I’ve done, why do I leave it two weeks between mammoth entries?
Because I’m lazy, I’ve been busy and it’s not important.
I can update it today though because I’m ill and off work. Therefore I’m bored, tired and feeling sorry for myself. I need to keep off the interweb as well, as it is dull and I’ll end up reading things that I don’t want to and which are irrelevant.
Okay, I’ll start with the nearest thing first and try to work backwards in my memory.
It’s also my favourite thing first as well…
This Saturday (25th Oct) we hosted a murder mystery party. I’ve never hosted a party before and I’ve also never attended a murder mystery, so it was lots of unknowns in one place. Anyway, it was really really good, mainly down to how much effort everybody put in. The setting was wartime Casablanca, so we had Xian dressed as a Gestapo agent, Liam as a French poet with communist sympathies, Dave as a refined English agent and so on. I was playing the host of the occasion, the deputy mayor of Casablanca. Marie was my wife – the fiery ex-dancer Edith, and Julia our petulant daughter Nicole.
My fear was that everybody would just take the piss and find it all embarrassing, but I think the fact that everybody had made an effort, made it all light-hearted. Special thanks should go to JohnnyH and Julia’s boyfriend Paul, who both dressed as ladies to fill our female quota. Other guests included Marie’s friend Chandelle, Karl playing an Irish reporter, Sian who was a Spanish mime artist, t’other Paul who was an American bar owner, and also third Paul –who I shall refer to as the Trassmeister- who turned up as an extra guest and became Xians imaginary fellow Gestapo officer. Cool, I’ve name checked everybody now. A surprising amount of people really fitted their characters, I’m sure we’ll have pictures of the event soon, if I’m feeling nice I’ll post some here. I looked a Grade A nob though, hee hee, though I guess I was supposed to.
Looking at the recycle-bin on Sunday morning, I gathered we’d drunk rather a lot between the thirteen of us. This maybe explains why I was doing nazi impersonations for Paul and why we watched The Warriors at 3am.
Anyway, everybody seemed to get on really well, the chilli went down okay, food was eaten, booze drunk, and I hope all enjoyed it as much as oneself, and the good lady Marie did.
The night before (24th Oct), we went to watch The Bluetones in The Mill. Having a gig venue round the corner is very handy; it’s quite a nice place as well. When it’s chockablock though, like it was on Friday night, and the clientele are bullet headed townies who just shout and talk really loudly all the way through the gig, it’s not quite as good. It was okay though, The Bluetones are always enjoyable and I guess it was nice for them to get such a turnout.
We ended up in the warehouse after that. We met Dave, Liam and Trassmeister who all seemed to have the head start on us in the drinking stage. Dave was wildly pissed – I had to stop him falling over whilst dancing to Soldier Girl. He also “re-met” the lady he met weeks ago. Hee hee.
It was chockablock in there as well, dancing was really limited, so we ended up going home at about 1am.
Right, further back in my memory comes two more gigs….
On Wednesday (22nd Oct) we went to Manchester to watch The Super Furry Animals. I’ve seen SFA a few times, but only at festivals and when supporting others, so it was nice to see them with their own choice of stage-set, sound and lighting. I’d been looking forward to this one in our autumn tour for weeks, and when the band came on stage to the music from The Warriors, I got a bit giddy. It was a cracking gig, they played virtually all the songs I wanted to hear, a double whammy of Demons and Run Christian Run almost made me spaz-clap with joy.
The night before (21st Oct), we’d made our first trip to The Mill to watch Snow Patrol. They were also really good, and as there were fewer people in than when we went to see The Bluetones, the whole thing sounded better. It was pissing freezing that night though. They’re a band to watch for the future.
I’m tiring now, I feel my achy arms cannot write much longer. The only major event to note is that on the Sunday before that (19th Oct), we again went to Mancland to watch Dave Gorman. His latest show was really really funny, I’d tell you more but he actually made us swear to secrecy. If Dave says I’m not allowed, I’m not tellin’. I will tell you that there was one bit that made me cry for about five minutes, and I recommend you go and see it. Okay?
Hmm, I should update this more often as I’ve skimmed over several things and probably missed stuff out.