Manchester

The long weekend has taken it's toll and I'm now ill... But it was a lot of fun.

Took the train to London on Friday and picked up the rental car from the station. It was a rather nice little Clio, very pleasant to drive. Made it out of London and to Bracknell to pick up Ross and then we headed up to Manchester. Met Lee at the hotel and went out for "a couple of drinks". We went to several rather nice pubs and finished up at the Pure Magic Bar which was fantastic. We sat at the bar and the guys do magic tricks right in front of you, keeping you very much involved. I know it is all sleight of hand but they were really impressive. Among the most memorable tricks were the one where a card that had been signed by the three of us and shuffled back into the pack was produced folded up in the magician's mouth and one where a foam ball was placed in my hand and when my hand was opened again, there were two balls in it. An excellent place, we stayed there for a couple of hours and had lots to drink while chatting to Mark and Andy, two of the magicians. We then staggered off at about 2 am. I went back to my hotel and collapsed into bed. Apparently at about 5 am Ross wandered into Lee's bedroom and peed in his girlfriends wardrobe. Needless to say he was not very popular.

The next day I wandered around the city centre which is surprisingly nice and modern. I'd forgotten that a lot had been destroyed by the IRA bomb ten years ago. They have done a lovely job of doing it up though.




Saturday night we met up for beer and a lot was consumed. There was one very annoying woman who we shall call Jocasta due to her extreme poshness. The second thing out of her mouth was to insult everybody there and she just got worse, thinking that she knew better than everybody else there. She even started to argue about the merits and social implications of moving jobs to India, something think I may know a little about... She annoyed every single person who was there, so we tried to just ignore her as much as possible We ended up at a comedy club where we saw three very funny stand-up comedians.

Ross, Lewis and Lee:


Ross had mentioned that Manc did not have any attractive women living there, he was proven wrong on many an occasion. It may just be the English thing of the minute the weather is slightly nice, women wear the tiniest skirts and tops possible. In any case it was very pleasant.

On Sunday I drove Ross back to Bracknell and then went to Waterloo to get the train. I was starting to feel a bit feverish and ill by this point and just drifted in and out of sleep on the train. I stayed at home yesterday and feel slightly less achey today but still not perfect. Apart from that, it was a truly excellent weekend.