I heart Manchester

Despite the sickness that had consumed me; a somewhat upsetting incident involving one Gavin Higgins and a certain brass band concert; and a slight (huge) delay caused by snowy weather, my weekend in Manchester was positively fantastic!

When I arrived on Friday morning, I was, let me just say, a little worse for wear. But things picked up soon enough - right after I munched down on a load of paracetamol, drank many cups of tea, and was reunited with my long lost husband - Sir Gavin Higgins. Those of you who are blessed to know this man, will be happy to hear that he is looking as smashing as ever - back in fair England - and has not let the incredible cold pervade his jolly spirit. And so he introduced me to the finest parts of the city - namely, the Northern Quarter and Canal St. - which is where all the 'cool' people are and naturally, therefore, where we spent most of our time. A real little gem was 'Pop' - a second hand shop which doubled as a retro cafe, serving amazing (and cheap) breakfasts that could be enjoyed amongst the awesome 1970s decor. Brilliant!

And now on to the concert...
It was not to do with our incredible hangovers that we missed the entire purpose of our visit to Manchester,
but actually because of a simple printing error. You see, the night before was of course a big one - Gav and I met with the lovely Mark Ward, and their friends Steven, Will and Lucy; and headed to Poptastic - an awfully cheesy and therefore amazing bar on Canal St. Here, we downed many Cheeky Vimtos - an alcoholic version of Vimto, a Manchester specialty - and hence, the hangovers. But again - it was not this that allowed us to miss the concert...granted, we were pushed for time and only just made it, but the program said that Gavin's piece would be played in the second half, and so, we thought, all was fine - we would go in during the interval and applaud our man shortly after. But no, the piece had been moved to the to the first half and we had missed it - we were waiting in the bloody hall outside and had point blank missed it! It was a crying shame I tell you.

The rest of the weekend involved one snow storm, one cancelled flight and one long, long night. But thank God for Mark Ward who put me up in the early hours of Tuesday morning, saving me from the cold, cold airport.
I arrived home, finally, at 2am on Wednesday morning, and let me tell you, sleep at this moment felt better than ever.