Fab week

Lordy, I'm tired. Been a busy week, you see.

Saturday night (22nd) we had a mini-Remarc night out to the Comedy Store in Manchester. Had a great time, got drunk, spent the best part of £100 on Smirnoff Ice. It was nice to have a night out with my pals, and we all took our partners too, so Lou came along. We're currently planning another night out now that the weather is improving (gorgeous day outside today.)

Sunday night (23rd) we saw Dara O'Briain at the Lowry. As with last year he was hysterically funny, but this time we had front row seats and amazingly he didn't pick on us! Well, not until his second encore anyway, where he used us in a joke. At least we didn't have to do a Harry Hill and get onto the stage to dance with a pantomime horse and a man dressed as a badger though.

Monday night I was out with Bondy at the Roebuck (local pub). The Roebuck was its usual self in that even though neither of us smoke I had to Febreeze everything I was wearing as soon as I got in.

Tuesday night we went to The Ritz in Manchester to watch one of my favourite bands, The Cardigans. Absolutely fantastic show, they played all my favourites (loads from my favourite album of all time by anybody, "Long Gone Before Daylight") and Nina Persson is gorgeous. I didn't get to catch any of the roses she threw into the crowd though :-(

Wednesday and Thursday we both stayed in and fell asleep on the sofa with our mouths open. Such a good look.

And then last night we went to Manchester University to watch another of my favourite bands, Low. One word review: astonishing. They were fantastic, utterly amazing. A brilliant concert, they sounded just like they do on record, and I really didn't want it to end. Lou liked it too (she's not heard much of their stuff) but she did say "I didn't think they'd be that slow." Bless.

Our next concert is this coming Thursday... Take That, at the MEN Arena. After a week of concerts for me it is only fair that Lou has her turn :-)

Work-wise I was running 2073 (SQL 2000 Programming) in Manchester this week. My voice held out and although it felt bad at the start of the week it was more or less back to normal by the end, which is good. I had a fantastic group of people, a really nice bunch, and the course seemed to go really well. Next week I'm off to Leeds on Wednesday through Friday to run a 2733 (SQL 2005 Admin Update thingy). I've also got some exams to take next week, a SQL 2005 and a Windows 2003 one (don't ask about that one) so busy times ahead.

Off for a bowl of crunchy nut corn flakes now. I'm a hungry boy.