Plug in Baby

Last weekend we went to two gigs in two days. On Friday, Jay won a pair of tickets to go and see someone called Ed Harcourt in Wolverhampton. We got there to find the door times had been pushed back by half an hour, so we went elsewhere for a drink first. When we finally got into the venue, it turned out that Ed’s piano hadn’t turned up. Luckily, the venue had a ‘house piano’ which seems unusual to me. But it was in the foyer, so the gig was moved from the main room into a corridor type area. We all got a free drink for the inconvenience.

After we got tired of standing up, being squished in a crowd in a corridor, we decided to go and sit in the bar and listen from there. Here is Jay, sitting next to said bar, in a double wing-backed chair. I didn’t know there was such a thing.

Saturday was Muse day! I drove up to Manchester, we checked into the hotel and walked into town. Past the science museum and the now closed down Granada studios where Coronation Street was filmed until recently.
Here is a rather scary fairground ride we spotted.

We had food in Wetherspoons and got on a rather crowded tram to the Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City Football Club.

Someone decided that it was a good idea to have Dizzee Rascal supporting Muse. Where the hell did that idea come from? Weird.
We were sitting in the nosebleeder seats, here is our view.

They put on an amazing show, with giant robots, shiny lights and pyrotechnics. Even Jay enjoyed it and he’s always maintained he doesn’t like them.

Here is a photo of a giant lightbulb, that white blob underneath it is a woman dangling from ropes and doing acrobatics.

I loved it, I’ve wanted to see them live for years. Another one to tick off my list; Blur, Mark Lanegan and Muse. Next on my list is Radiohead!
Buzzing from the show, we got the tram back into town and set about exploring. We were recommended a little pub called the Thirsty Scholar which Jay loved. The DJ was playing really old funk and soul on actual records. Jay was disappointed he didn’t recognise more of the music as he thinks he knows all the music in the world, lol.

Really good weekend, but I’ve been really tired all last week, trying to recover. This weekend we had no plans so I’ve been catching up on housework and sleep.
I’ve lost 6lb in three weeks on the 5:2 diet, I no longer look five months pregnant, hurray! Now I need to tone up my abs in time for our holiday to Florida in October.

Speaking of which, Jay’s found a place where we can go swimming with manatees in the sea. I mentioned it to mam and dad and they like the idea of that, I can’t wait now! Only thing is, mam’s scared of water and won’t go in any deeper than her waist. It’s a shame, she loves manatees so I hope she still gets to meet them.

Jay also found out that there’s a Simpsons section in Universal Studios. They’ve built a mini Springfield and you can drink in Moe’s Tavern, eat at Krusty Burger and go shopping in the Kwik-e-mart! I also want to go to Islands of Adventure, which is the other Universal park. That’s the one with all the cool rides, including my favourite roller coaster ever, Duelling Dragons. Which has now apparently been renamed to Dragon Challenge since it’s become part of the Harry Potter world, but it’s still the same thing. Add those to the Kennedy Space Center (which I’ve been to three times already but Jay’s never been so he’s keen) we’re going to have to save up lots of pennies!

Five days until Download Festival EEeeeeeee!