Steve Martin weekend.

Afternoon Strumpets,

As a birthday present, Carl from The Charmers arranged for us to visit the City of Manchester to see Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers play at the O2 Apollo. How fantastic was that!!!I thought it might be an idea to stay over on the night so without any help from the wives we "organised" everything ourselves.

The day started well, the hotel was booked, all of my stuff was packed. Louise ran through a check of clothing. "Do you have clothes to travel home in tomorrow?" was the first question, yes, yes I did. "Are they different to the clothes you are travelling there in?" was the next question, mostly they were, so the answer again was positive. all toiletries packed, unfortunately I`d forgotten toothpaste, but there`s a marvellous thing about Manchester. You can buy things there, like stuff you`ve forgot.

It turned out Carl had some anyway. Carl picked me up, and all excitened, to quote young Harry, we set off. Neither of us felt that we would need coats as it was quite sunny. We stopped off at a local shop to pick up food and, ahem, drink for the car. As we went to leave the shop, we weren`t prepared for what we saw. Literally. It was like God was peeing through a sieve. It was bouncing eight inches off the floor, and minor flooding was already occuring. It had been glorious when we went in.

The car was twenty feet away, but it might as well have been a mile. The rain was coming down sideways. We decided to Butch and Sundance it. By the time we got to the car we might as well have just walked. Drenched. Still we had food, we had drink and we had a great evening to look forward to. I asked Carl if he`d printed off the directions to the hotel I`d sent him and he said he had and that they were behind my seat. I picked the sheet up and saw this.

Carl had been helping his son with his homework that morning.

Despite this we found the hotel. It had looked lovely from the website, but I suppose alarm bells should have rang when I realised I`d only paid thirty quid for the two of us to share a twin. Still it did the trick.

We managed to get to the O2 Apollo, which was a twenty minute taxi ride, you can guess the price! Mr Martin came on with the Steep Canyon Rangers, and Wow. I mean Wow. You know when you get the chance to see one of your heroes perform, and I`d been a fan long before I even knew he played banjo, and you`re slightly nervous because you don`t want them to be ordinary, or anything less than magnificent. Well Mr Martin, effortlessly, went past my expectations. I can honestly say I have not been more wholly entertained ever at a live concert. He was at pains to point out that the Steep Canyon Rangers where not his backing band, but that he was their host Celebrity.

Here`s a clip I managed to get on my mobile.



I`ve got a few more to post throughout the week.

So then it was a couple of pints in Manchester, and back to the room with takeaway. I was so looking forward to a good nights sleep. Hal has had a bad cough lately so sleep has been a stranger. There was a 21st birthday party going on directly underneath our room. That stopped at 12:30. Sleep beckoned. Then I heard it! Carl had obviously swallowed a Klaxon. He wasn`t snoring, he was shouting. This continued until 6am when, and I kid you not, he got out his bed, put the light on and started making a cup of tea. No sleep for me.

Back home and to the kids and wife, and an amazing memory stored. Thanks Carl mate, but seriously, have the operation, that snoring is unbelievable.

Till the next one, learn something new,

Mark.