2011! It's been a year

Another year over then. Blimey - it flew by.

So what happened?  Well in general things were the same as before.  I continued to see the world in my capacity as a trainer, but instead of the usual Leeds / London destinations I added Newcastle into the mix, plus two rather more exciting trips to Gibraltar and Jersey, the former being hotter but the course wasn't set up when I arrived, the latter being nicer but having fewer monkeys.

Back at home Lou and I finally bought new sofas for the house as the old ones were frankly saggy and badly faded, not to mention ripped.  I also braved the loft and my Frank Spencer-like tendencies and plucked up the courage to fit insulation, mainly because we were fed up of the gas bill being so high all the time.  Has it made a difference?  Not yet, but at least my arms have stopped itching now - insulation is an evil thing.

In June I celebrated my 40th birthday in Greece.  We went to Skiathos for a week in June - a place we'd wanted to visit for a long time - and stayed at the Hotel Alkyon in Skiathos Town.  Tip: Don't stay at the Hotel Alkyon in Skiathos Town.  Skiathos Town is nice if slightly yachty and very expensive but the Alkyon is horrible, smells of grids, and is trapped in the 1970s.  I didn't give it glowing scores on the survey on the flight home.  The island was pretty, the greenest Greek island I've been to, and catching a bus to the beach each day was fun for the first day but grew tiresome, although Lou had a crush on one of the ticket collectors.  August saw our usual annual trip to Lindos which was as fantastic as ever, and we're still smitten with the place as well as having some truly wonderful friends out there such as Alex, Yannis, Manolis, Thomas, Kiki, Rip, George, Dimitris, Tony and Rob to name a few.  We've already booked for 2012.

In terms of concerts it was a very quiet year, so without further ado here's the round-up, in reverse order as usual.


5: Take That - City of Manchester Stadium, 4th June.
A massive disappointment!  We had seen Take That on each of their previous three tours and they had got better & better, culminating with the spectacular "Circus" tour.  This time however it was a huge let-down.  I wrote a blog about it at the time and you can see why it was frankly pants here.

4: Elbow - MEN Arena, 25th March.
We're Elbow fans and have seen them many, many times now.  Sadly we didn't rate their latest album, "Build A Rocket Boys!" when it came out - too samey, too dull - and hoped that in the concert they would offer a good mix of old and new songs as they always do.  Well, they didn't this time, and aside from two songs everything was off "Build..." and, more than anything else, "The Seldom-Seen Kid", so their previous three albums were largely ignored.  As slick as the show was and as good as their performances were, it was the weakest Elbow concert we've seen.

3: The Airborne Toxic Event - Academy 2, 5th April.
A band I discovered last year after buying their stunning live album on a whim.  They were great, and I can only imagine they will get bigger and bigger.  I also love this venue.

2: Low - Club Academy, 19th May.
As usual I went on my own to this as Lou doesn't like them.  A completely mesmerising show from the band I love more than any other at the moment.  However, one concert was just a tiny bit better...

1: Morrissey - York Barbican, 25th June.
Our fifth Morrissey gig and in all honesty the best.  Moz was on blistering form, joking with the crowd, and the venue was tiny and intense.  Great atmosphere in the audience, we didn't stop dancing, and it was completely joyous, despite what you may think.  Amazingly good.

On a sad note, I was sorry to hear the news that R.E.M. split.  I'm just glad I saw them when I did.

I didn't get the time to do much writing this year, which was a disappointment, and I did buy myself a ukulele but once again time was the enemy and I didn't get many opportunities to play it.  I can just about stumble through "Baby One More Time" and "Faith" though, as long as I have the music and chords in front of me.

Other things: My favourite album of the year was possibly "Ceremonials" by Florence & The Machine, or "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, or "C'Mon" by Low - I'm not sure.  "Especially Me" by Low was definitely my favourite song of the year though.  My favourite book was probably "Room" by Emma Donoghue.  "1Q84" by Haruki Murakami was the biggest disappointment.

So here's to 2012 - hopefully less travelling, more concerts, and more ukulele action.