Tag / Nights Out

by Gareth

Delirious gig in Bradford

Well it’s my birthday today, and I’m at work! Woohoo!

But last night was a little better anyway… went to see Delirious on their World Service tour in Bradford with Sa – and the gig rocked!!

We got there quite early so grabbed some food, then met up in the theatre’s bar with Caroline and a couple of her friends who were also there – but they had tickets for up on the balcony, so we all grabbed a quick drink before we headed down to the main floor for the gig. They were really good – it was quite a different atmosphere from when we saw them back in January… it was certainly a spectacular show! The support act – RRWC – were also pretty good, and impressed me enough for me to buy their CD (which I even got signed by the band, even though I didn’t know who any of them were!!)

There was quite a funny moment when a couple that I know from working at Spring Harvest – Emma and Iain – were called up onto the stage to do a slow dance whilst the band played ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’!

So all things considered, it was a totally brilliant night!

Anyway, back to my birthday… I’m so happy to be officially a year older! Prezzie wise, got a bit of cash from family, and a really cool T-shirt from Miss Wallace, so not too shabby really!

by Gareth

Land of Hope & Glory…

Went to BBC Proms In The Park in Cathedral Square last night, which was the Manchester part of last night of the Proms. I was with Sarah, Emma, their friend from work Katheline, and Becky – and I’d been really looking forward to it, although the weather forecast for the evening wasn’t too good…

Got there about quarter to six and were confronted by a big ‘Wimbledonesqe’ queue! So we joined the back, and eventually managed to get into the Square.

We found a bit of ground to sit on, and the concert got under way – but after a few minutes, it started raining a little bit… then that light shower turned torrential and we got absolutely soaked! I was wearing a waterproof so I wasn’t too bad, but my trousers were drenched. We eventually had to stand up because where we were sitting was quickly becoming quite a river!

A trip to a nearby pub halfway through was called for so that we could try and dry out a bit, then we ventured back for the last section which saw a link up with the Albert Hall for all the ‘classics’… Rule Britannia, God Save The Queen and Auld Lang Syne. I must admit though that I didn’t really like singing them because I don’t think I agree with a lot of the sentiment behind them! It’s kind of very “We are British and we are the best” which is a bit rubbish really, and I’m not overly fussed about the Queen ‘ruling over us’! So it was more of a micky-take sing-a-long rather than a meaningful moment!

Took some photos on my phone and you can see them here.

by Gareth

Matt’s wedding, plus watching Euro 2004!

It’s been a very long weekend! I was at Matt Passey’s wedding to Amy down in East Sussex on Saturday, and I had to get there quite a few hours beforehand because I was looking after the sound for the service. I had to leave the house at 5am (after getting to bed gone midnight!) and then met up with Dave Plumb down in London, and grabbed a lift with him down to Crowborough.

The wedding was really cool – and it was good seeing a load of people from Tamworth who I hadn’t seen for ages. And on the Saturday night, I stayed over at Dave’s in Willesdon Green. There are a load of photos from the day here.

Since I was in London, I headed over to Hammersmith on Sunday morning to catch up with Bin. It was a really hot day, so we grabbed some sandwiches and had lunch in a park right next to the Thames. Then, I met up with Dave because I was giving Hope a lift back to Birmingham on my way up north, and then got back to Manchester at about half six.

Then I got all patriotic because England were playing their first match in Euro 2004, and went with Sa to Exchange Square in town to watch the game on the big screen. There were quite a few thousand people there so it was a really good atmosphere, and it looked like we’d beat the French, but the score totally turned around in the last few minutes. Hopefully England will do a bit better when they play again on Thursday.

by Gareth

Snow Fun!

Yet another mad Monday night…

I got back from work yesterday evening at about nine o’clock, just as it started snowing. I didn’t think it was going to settle, but by eleven o’clock, it had really set in. Now I’m not saying I’m easily led or anything (!) but Jamie got all excited about this sudden bout of wintry weather, and decided that he wanted to go sledging and for some reason I agreed to go as well!! So at about midnight, Jamie was driving me, Dave, Andy and Fran up towards Glossop and the Snake Pass which leads to Sheffield. Now to be honest, the Snake Pass is a bad enough route in regular conditions, but hey, here we were heading up there in blizzard conditions! We started up the windy road up the Pennines (going round a ‘Police Accident’ sign that was blocking the bottom of it!), and I was a tad nervous as we headed towards the top – mainly due to the low visibility from the heavy falling snow, and what was effectively an ice rink below us with a major drop to the side of the road!!

We passed a couple of abandoned cars on our way up there, and when we got to the top, pulled over in some kind of lay-by which looked pretty much like the rest of the landscape – ie, white! We got out of the car, and it was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING!! I’d borrowed a hat from Jamie, and was wearing two t-shirts and a jumper under my big coat, plus some pretty thick gloves, but still my teeth were chattering! It was quite weird actually, because although there was no light up there apart from our torches, and the blizzard was stopping you from seeing too far in front of you anyway, the whiteness of the whole area allowed you to see even with the torches off!

So we started walking down the Snake Pass through the snow, pushing a make-shift sledge down the main road! Andy managed to drop into a ditch off the side of the road which gave us some amusement, and we passed a car that had rolled off the road into a pit of snow, which re-ignited my concerns of us driving back down to go home later! Anyway, we found this field with a really steep bank which went down to a stream that was ideal for sledging and spent quite a bit of time up on there. I only went down the bank once because I was mainly taking photos, and it took ages to get back up because the snow was so deep, and I kept slipping back down the hill! At least I didn’t end up in the stream at the bottom – that honour goes to Jamie!

You can see the photos I took here – some aren’t the best because the conditions and visibility were so poor, but you get the general idea!!

by Gareth

House update, plus trip to the seaside!

And another month’s gone by… I must try and update this news page more often!!

Well, still waiting to hear when I can move into my new house – it’s looking like it won’t be until mid to late August – the only problem is I have to have moved out of my current house by the 29th July, which is a bit of a problem! I’ve got to find somewhere to store a house-full of furniture, let alone find somewhere to live for a few weeks myself! If I can’t move in until the end of August, I may just go off to Soul Survivor for 3 weeks ‘cos it’d be cheaper than staying in a B&B in Manchester! I’ve got the whole time off work, so it may be the best thing to do! It appears that the damp problem isn’t as bad as it sounded, but I’m still waiting to get official confirmation on that. Jeb & Nicky (whose house I’m buying) were getting the house they’re planning to buy surveyed yesterday, so hopefully if there were no problems, things may start moving pretty quickly.

Was down in Birmingham on Saturday night to meet up with a few guys who were on my masters course at uni – Surjit, Don and Mike. Was really weird seeing them all again – we left UCE Christmas 1997 – but was cool catching up with them. We went for a drink in the afternoon at one of the bars on the side of the canal at Broad Street, and in the evening went for a Balti… well, they went for a Balti – I had my usual meal of chicken and chips, not being a major fan of curry myself!!! :o)

Had a really smart day on Sunday – a load of us from Reach went off to the beach for the afternoon again, and the weather was really nice! I took some shorts this time so I was able to go out into the sea – when we finally got to it! You can see some photos of the day here.

Work’s been manic as usual – last Monday I managed to do 23 and a half hour shift! (started at 8am, left the office at 7.30am) I’ve been working on a TV commercial for Manchester United’s pre-season tour, and had to get Sir Alex Ferguson to film some stuff for it, which stressed me out pretty much in the run up to it!! The ad is supposed to start running this weekend on Sky and ITV, just need to get all the tapes out to all the various tv companies now!