Gimme Stitches

Where did the weekend go? I blinked and its already Monday evening. I am slightly stressed to start with having made a rather big decision last week I made an offer on a house in Handforth, which I am still waiting to hear about. I had to make an offer, I am hoping in the current climate they might go for it, if not there are plenty more places out there.

Unfortunately it wasn't fun exciting things that took up the majority of my time. Saturday was spent busily building a new server upgrading equipment and generally getting bits of Server Room ship shape. Its taken over six months to move off the original server to the new box. To give its due that little IBM has managed to work for over 3 years.

Saturday evening was spent at Jo Bergers, in celebration of his upcoming birthday. It was nice evening with some drinks friends, football then boxing on the TV, and a chess battle between two of the guests.

Sunday I continued setting up bits on the new server its soon going to be ready to take over the bulk of the hosting, which is great as its a much better server than the current box. In the afternoon went to the gym then met Martina and her friend Ceri for a curry at the spicy hut. We had a fun time chatting about life museums and music. Ceri had to get a train back just after 8 so Martina and I went back to my house to watch some nip tuck and listen to music.

Let it be

Sunday night was the Liverpool Sound concert. Once Phil finally made an appearance we set off to Liverpool. I was feeling incredibly hungover but Paul McCartney was playing so I had a soak in the bath and some tea and pulled myself together.
Paul had this notion that there would be some sort of early birds area so wanted to arrive well ahead of time. It struck me a decent idea get there early, get a nice parking space, have something to eat together and queue up. Unfortunately I hit a problem. I bought Phil a ticket to the concert for his birthday present only he wasn't at home and his phone was switched off. I got stressed, but finally I booted my computer up to find that at 3.26 am he made friends with Andrea, I assumed this meant he was at her place. At about 12.30 he came online on messenger to tell me he would meet me at his house at 2. I arrived and waited getting more and more stressed chatting to several people on the phone. Finally at 3 Phil arrived and we left for Liverpool, as it turned out our timing was great. I managed to park right next to the stadium and get near the front of the queue. We even somehow beat Paul in though he had been in the queue an hour longer.
Our early arrival gifted us a forward position to watch the bands. The Zutons started around 6.30 they were really good. The sound was great. Kaiser Chiefs were next, I am not really a fan but they put on a really good performance, Ruby and I predict a riot were stand out. Unfortunately by this point I needed to visit the bathroom and Phil having been up all night needed to grab some caffeine.
Thanks to the toilet being right at the back we were unable to get back to Paul and Pippa, we found a place that had a reasonable view, which was good as Paul was superb, well not just superb, superlative.
He put on a great show mixing in his own, the Beatles and Wings numbers. I couldn't remember the full list but fortunately another blogger has it.

Hippy Hippy Shake
Jet
Drive My Car
Flaming Pie
Got to Get You Into My Life
Let Me Roll It with the Foxy Lady
My Love “This one’s for Linda”
C Moon
The Long and Winding Road
Dance Tonight
Blackbird
Calico Skies
In Liverpool
I'll Follow the Sun (with 4 endings)
Eleanor Rigby
Something (tribute to george) played first on ukelelee and electric for other half
Penny Lane (forgot the words off the bat and had a false start)
Band on the Run with David Grohl on guitar
Back in the U.S.S.R. with David Grohl joining Abe on drums
Live and Let Die with stage pyros and fireworks
Let It Be
Hey Jude

ENCORE
Yesterday
A Day In The Life then Give Peace A Chance ending
Lady Madonna
I Saw Her Standing There (with David Grohl joined Abe on the 2nd drum kit)
Dave Grohl came out and joined Paul to play Band on the Run, Back in the U.S.S.R. and I Saw Her Standing There. Then moved to the drums to a couple of songs, he also joined in the encore on Day in the life. I cant really adequately describe in words how good the atmosphere and the music was, hearing an entire stadium singing along to Hey Jude or being overwhelmed by the pyrotechnics on Live and Let die was all just awesome.
We caught up with Paul and Pippa as the crowd dispersed at the end, to the bangs of the fireworks over our heads. We were all buzzing, I boughta program and we said our goodbyes as Paul and Pippa headed for London and Phil and I to Manchester. We were both really awake so as to extend the evening I took a detour into Rusholme for a curry and a chat about the gig.

Hey Jude

Its been a pretty hectic weekend, and a long one for me as I had Today off as well.

Friday night I went round to Phil's house for a Chinese and a few beers. I dragged round the Philips DVD/Hard disk recorder I bought in error as Jim needed something exactly like this for a job he was doing. He was delighted to be able to play around and make sure it was capable of doing everything his job required (recording an event from a Camera and being able to burn DVDs of it at the event) so offered me the original price.

Saturday night was Nicks birthday so we headed out for a meal at Pizza express. Phil, Ian, Gilly and Nicks builder Neil all came out. Nick was running late (Quelle surprise) due to him having to finish a roof in time for a building inspector on Monday. The food was really tasty though the drinks were expensive and the service was a little overbearing.
After the meal we headed to the Slug and lettuce, stays for a couple of cocktails, which weren't very good so we headed to the Bollin Fee. Just as we were about to leave a group of drunk girls arrived the door man turned them away. They weren't turned away from the Bollin fee though, at least nit until later on when the manager realised how drunk they were. I basically got rather drunk, I stupidly had whine with the meal then beer then gin and tonic then back to beer it really wasn't a good combination.
Phil pulled a blinder, Neil was chatting up some girl and he went off for a drink, like a shot Phil was in there and ultimately ended up accompanying her home. Apparently she liked the way he resembled Gary Barlow. Neil spent the rest of the evening repeating "I cant believe it, I just turned my back and he was in there, Gary fucking Barlow!".
We randomly bumped into Ian and Nicks sister Ali in the queue, she was out with a couple of girlfriends. At some point around 1.30 Phil and Andrea vanished and the rest of us moved onto Suede. I don't remember much at this point, the bar had no tonic so I moved back to beer, and my head began to swim.
There was a big police presence in Wilmslow, they had a van parked outside Suede, so no real trouble. In fact it felt pretty safe, I did however feel old in there. In its previous incarnation Zest, it was one of the first places I used to go drinking in back when I was at college, a long long time ago now. Eventually we left I got a taxi home only to be invited back to Ali's, so sometime around 4.30 I cycled round to Alis for another few drinks before going home, not a great idea though it seemed like it at the time.

Ever decreasing circles

I had to work today, it was pretty frustrating not least because the work I was doing didnt go very well. After all the travelling and feeling Ill I felt very unhappy. Fortunately I had a very good evening to look forward to. It was her birthday, though in her words her ages is decreasing each year now ;)
She had arranged a table at the Alderley Edge bar and grill for 9.30, but we arrived around 8.30 to grab a few drinks beforehand. The place was absolutely packed, we had a fight on to get to the bar. Including one really rude guy who simply refused to move. Fortunately and despite pulling his neck during his grading Phil found a way to circumvent him. Unfortunately his behaviour foreshadowed the night ahead.
Joining us were Bruce, Nina, Michelle, and several girls from the stables. The stable girls arrived, in a big group with a few extra boyfriends and random people tagging a long, giving how busy the bar and grill was this meant no chance of us all getting a seat. There was some stressing and they they all disappeared. I though it was a pretty poor thing to do turn up on mass then all go leaving in the end 4 spare seats. They said they were going to eat at Est Est Est across the road where they would meet us later. By the time we got there they had left.
We stood in the doorway of the bar and grill waiting as people arrived feeling squashed but enjoying a drink and a chat. Some acquaintance of Becky's called Joe arrived, he just popped in for a drink, and I think to meet Christian. He was interesting to chat to.
When we finally got out table, with the 4 empty seats on the end we ordered. The menu was a mix of dishes I had Thai fish cake to start and Malayan Style Chicken for a main. The service was truly appalling, we had to almost beg to get drinks the time between courses was shockingly long, they forgot part of Becky's meal and the waiters ignored us when I was trying to attract their attention, even ignoring me shouting at them when they were stood only a few feet away.. They added 10% service charge to the bill but we decided there was no way we would pay it. It was a shame really as the actual food was really good.
After the meal Bruce and Nina left but we headed to Est Est Est for a few more drinks and to mingle with the others. Things worked out slightly differently though, the girls from the stables had already left us to it and Becky's boyfriend the infamous Christians similarly failed to make an appearance. Having already decided to skip the meal and go out with his friends by the time we finished out meal he had disappeared to Stoke. Apparently he invited Becky but she didn't seem in the mood to travel there. Personally I thought it was pretty harsh for him to avoid her birthday.
I had a really good evening and she seemed to very much enjoy herself so that was the main thing. She got a few nice presents ate some good food and drank with friend, that is about as much as you can hope for really. There are some pictures available online here.
I have decided against making Alderley Edge a regular spot though. This might sound like sour grapes but I met an awful lot of people I disliked intently. I guess the affluence makes people used to getting their own way, both the bar and grill and Est Est Est were full of arrogant people. I realise making and having money is nice but do you really have to act like so arrogantly?

Mmm Birthday curry

It is my mothers birthday on Sunday so we went out for a meal this evening. My grandma comes round on Sundays so it would be difficult to go out. My mothers friend Kath also came along to wish her a happy birthday.
True to form we headed to our favourite curry house the La Quila in Handforth. I had a chicken tika sizzler, with Jalfresi sauce and it was simply delicious. Mum seemed to enjoy herself a lot and had a good chat with Kath. She is going to buy herself some hiking boots and start going walking with Kath more often, which I think will be great for the pair of them.

Phil's Birthday do + one week

Bit late this post I've started to compose it on no les than three occasions but due to problems with internet, sleep, and work it never got written, until now!
Last Friday night I, Bruce + Nina, Nick & Bec's and Joe + Holly went to Casa Tapas to celebrate primarily Phil's 26th birthday (though we were also celebrating for Nick on the 31st and Bruce's coming up on the 4th).
Tapas is great especially with beer, lots of beer :) The mood was good we all eat drank and chatted whilst course after course of tapas (and jugs of beer) were delivered to our table.
After the meal we decamped to the Slug and Lettuce for more drinks (I went to Scotch Phil Bourbon) on closing time Phil and I went off into Manchester on the number 42 bus leaving the rest to get an early night. In a kind of blast from he past was drunkenly headed to Deansgate locks for further alcohol consumption we moved onto double vodka and oranges oh dear. The rest was a blur loud music downstairs and too crowded upstairs more and more drinks.
I felt terrible Saturday spent the entire day nursing my hangover, still felt pretty tired Sunday too, but it had been a good time, pity I forgot my camera would have been some ace photos.
Not much happened in the week, saw Nick and Bec's Tuesday had a few drinks watched Nick squirm while Becky talked about children's names (she really knows how to wind him up). Went to the Gym last night it was 29C according to the exercise bikes very hot felt like a sauna in the main room I think I should have complained, spoke to Martin (who has buggered off to the download festival) and he has suspended his membership until the autumn to work on his house and Charlotte ;)

Mums Birthday

It is my Mums bithday today, got her a card and took her and my dad out to te La Quila 2 in Handforth for a curry, it was as usual up to a high standard and we all had a good time. It was nice after such a horrific week of computer problems and general working too much. Friday was the Trade Union Congress national work you real hours day so I did, I think it was well deserved after doing 14 hours sunday, and an extra two hours Monday.
I feel so tired and full now at least I am warm sat with map laptop by the fire with the cat laid on the arm of the chair, on tv is the rather dreadful movie Island, it started off well but unfortunatly it descended into hollywood trash fairly quickly.

I started reading the rather excellent Intellegent Investor by Ben Graham its amazing reading about the markets of the 50s, 60s and 70s and realising nothing really changes. Ben Graham was a profetic figure, rather than predicting hot shares he gives excellent advice on how not to lose money, a strange conept maybe but a lot of hs advice seems to be more about how not to lose money rather and how to make money. So far the chapters I have read cover nitial ideas inflaion and the different types of investor, I think its proved some of my "investments" thus far are mere speculation rather than investing. I think that cash in isas and dollar cost averaging of the trakers funds would count as intellgent defensive stratergies though.

Phil and I went to the gm and played squash today, I think it must be a year since we last went togther, I really enjoyed it was very relaxing. Except for seeing Clare running round the track, perhaps she is the universe laughing at me for what I have done to others. I dont really believe that though, I think what upsets me the most is that she is still single an yet somehow I wasn' good enough. In her eyes anyway, in mine I am alway good enough I just wish more people could see it.

Becky's Birthday

To celebrate Becky's 24th birthday (pictures here) we went to the Merlin bar / restaurant in Alderley Edge. It was a great evening, eating too much, drinking too much chatting and generally having fun. The food was excellent; I had a Salmon Wasabi dish, and a Chicken and Spice ham pasta dish with were excellent and I feel well stuffed now. It's a good job I managed to get to the gym for a run today. Hopefully the intake / output evens out somewhere…

Becky Nick's girlfriend has been talking about how she loves the Caribbean for a while. So I bought her a Lonely Planet Caribbean guide and highlighted the Antigua section, she was amused and liked it I think. Nick on the other hand thinks it's going to cause him to spend money. Personally I don't think Nick needs anymore reason to hoard money, he needs to learn to enjoy life a little more.

happy birthday~~~

morning my dear Cookie,

its 8:40 am Nov.25th by my time, i'm sure that lulu will be the first one to wish you a happy birthday n__n

how was Hungary? should be enjoying some beers or having fun at the fantastic city :-)

lulu'll be on my trip very soon, 6 days starting from this Sunday, haha, we might have a pic fighting after me back, exchanging as many as wonderful memories...

seeya friend,

lulu