At least I'm not ill enough to take time off work so still get to experience and then regale my *hilarious* courtroom tales of men being convicted of wanking on buses and suchlike. I also passed my 120 words a minute test last week (this means I can supposedly type two words per second - but I don't seem to be able to keep this up and so it was a big fat fluke) and as soon as I have 140 I will be chucked into court forever. Ulp.

I don't let little matters like that trouble my tiny brain however and had quite a brilliant weekend, which involved being out in London Friday evening as per the usual and then on Saturday heading up to Manchester with Katie and my brother's friend Paul, who drove, for my brother's bouncy castle party in the house he's just moved into, sharing with several very nice Mancunians.

Now, Manchester is quite a trek from where I live - 180 or so miles according to AA Route Planner, so of course it didn't run smoothly whatsoever. AA Route Planner likes to give conflicting directions of 'Get off the M6 and join the A42 but go to the M6 toll on the M6.'

Eh??

We sadly ended up quite lost indeed but I was too amused by the names of some of the places we were lost near to be too upset by it (Swadlincote and Moira spring to mind). At least we got to take a detour through the Peak District, which is quite stunning, and arrived 15 minutes after the party's official kick off time, at 7.45, having been on the road some six and a half hours.

Finding the house itself was, however, a big part of the delay and we ended up lost in some rough area of Manchester. Katie and Paul wanted me to ask some scary-looking children for directions, only they insisted I must do it in a Manc accent in case they hated us for being southerners. After a few piss-poor attempts of saying 'Ahright ah kid,' and 'Yow what I mean?' I'm pleased to say we abandoned the idea and went back to the map and then finally resorted to ringing my brother. Unfortunately his directions were quite useless and consisted of things like 'Look for the Red Lion pub because that means you've gone too far!' but we made it in the end.

It was an absolutely fantastic party though, full of some hilarious and lovely folk and I also ended up sleeping on the bouncy castle at the end of the night with about eight other people and so yes, I can now tick off 'spend the night sleeping on a bouncy castle' off my to do list. It was like sleeping on a giant airbed and I had the best three hours' sleep of my life!

A very nice time indeed.

previous | next