some things I did in the last few days
I did some things. On Friday I climbed up Darwen moor, which, as the name suggests, is near Darwen, which is between Bolton and Blackburn, not far from where I live. It was a good walk and on the top there is a Victorian space rocket tower, which was open so I climbed up it. I like moors. I am very Northern.
Friday and Saturday nights I stayed in, although I did have a cinema invite the latter of the two, but passed on that due to other option falling through at a late time.
Sunday I went to the wedding of Elise and Ian, which was quite lovely. First was the ceremony in Manchester town hall, which is truly one of the finest buildings in the land. The ceremony was quite short and then there was a gap before the evening do, so a few of us went for a pub lunch at the nearby Wetherspoon's (good ale, very low prices, not very good food). Then I went home with Chris and Nicki and we all had to have a nap, but I was late starting mine, so only had about fifteen minutes before Chris came to wake me up. Then we drank champagne with raspberries in it and watched a silly James Bond film. Later we joined Alex in a taxi and went to the evening do at Apotheca in the Northern Quarter. It was quite a fun evening, although I didn't know many people there. Was pleasantly surprised to see Neal from Leeds and Adam from Sheffield though. Pizza and veg kebabs buffet was nice, but there was no DJ or dancefloor so no dancing and music room was ignored in favour of food room. The bride and groom were very entertaining.
Then I had a nice night out last night, which is rare for a Tuesday. I went to the Academy to watch Isis, and having originally thought I'd be alone had found out Alex was going. Good to see him for a bit and was amused to meet his friend Nathan (30 years of no Nathans and then I meet two in my 31st year!), who was quite a Nathan. He got off to a bad start by slagging off Morrissey (with the forthright views of a true Yorkshireman that he was), but I was polite and patient and changed the subject, and then he was fine. Support band was called Mothlite, who I only caught the end of, and it was like emo meets "world music"! Apparently the rest was more like decent post-rock, but the singer's voice was ever so whiny and the music a bit cheesily uplifting. Then Isis came on and were pretty great; powerful post-metal (I believe it's called) with a lot of powerful build-ups and some clever musician skills. Only complaint is maybe the singing is a bit weak, but the tunes are ace.
Then I drove quickly over to Salford to catch the end of Eli Keszler at the Islington Mill. Was late enough to get in free and enjoyed fifteen to twenty minutes of him abusing a drum kit and some small metal discs, first with a violin bow and then very quickly with sticks. Some interesting sounds and his facial expressions were amazing! I was mainly there to meet support act Usurper, being two old Edinburgh friends, Ali and Malcy, who do quiet things with broken instruments. So after the gig a few of us went back to Rhian's (being ex-Edinburgh) house via the Spa and had drinks and fun chat. Eli was pretty interesting, being some kind of musical genius who makes a living off giving lessons in various instruments, although, being American, he did seem to get left out of some of the Scottish to Northwestern English exchanges we had going on.
Oh yes, and at the gig Gareth Barbarians invited me to do a Now Wash Your Hands set at his Halloween party this coming Saturday, so that should be exciting fun!