Ups and downs

Once again I've been quiet for a very long time, and I apologise.

The main event since my last posting was that my uncle Keith died a few weeks ago. He'd had cancer for many years, starting with a brain tumour which came back no matter how many times they tried to remove it, and over the last few years it spread throughout his body. By the end he had three brain tumours, one in his neck, and others through his body. He died one Sunday morning at home, my aunty by his side. The funeral was heartbreakingly sad, around seventy people in attendance, and afterwards we went to Flixton Golf Club for the wake. The ironic part was that had he been there himself he would have had the time of his life. Keith was always the life and soul of the party and if he'd been there that gloriously sunny day he'd have been in his element. He is sadly missed by all of us.

Away from this work has been incredibly busy and I'm currently picking up still more courses, focusing on SQL 2005 Business Intelligence at the moment. All of us in the database team are currently rushed off our feet, which is good if tiring. Elsewhere my former colleague Judy Marshall is joining us next month, which is great news.

We've been to a few concerts of late. I went to see Low at Manchester University a few weeks ago and they were astonishingly good, as they were last year. The day after this Lou and I went to see James at the MEN Arena and they were very good, if not quite as good as they were the last time we saw them. Then last week we went to see Lionel Richie at the MEN again, and he was stunning - the best Lionel show we've seen so far! The big concert news though is that we're off to see Prince in London in August, and not once but twice! We're going to see two consecutive nights at the O2 (Millennium Dome) and I'm ridiculously excited. His albums may be dross these days but by God, he's a superb performer.

As for writing the autobiographical thing is still coming along nicely and is currently around 40 pages long, and nowhere near finished. I'm enjoying it, and those who are reading the work in progress say they're enjoying it too. I'll post some here soon.