In Which There is Music, and a New House

Another busy weekend (In a very good way!) We had tickets for Tori Amos's gig at the Manchester Apollo on Sunday night, so I decided to make a weekend of it.


I travelled up to Birmingham on Friday evening to meet up with my cousin and her husband, to catch up, and to meet their two burmese cats - both beautiful, one cuddly and one shy (and both very lively, expecially at 4 a.m. when they decided that 'let's gallop around the house and bounce on all the humans' would be a good game...

My sister came over for brunch, and to bring us up to date with her moving plans - she had to leave her rented flat and has been between homes until the purchase of her new house is completed...


So, after some more socilaising I headed onwards to Manchester to meet up with my oldest and bestest friend, J, and her partner - wandered around their village a little - it's very pretty, if somewhat bleak in the winter


Cue lots and lots of talking, and some excellent home-made mezze - sometimes the simplest things are the best, and quality time with friends takes a lot of beating!

Then, on Sunday evening, following a quite magnificant meal and some very good beer, was the main event - Tori Amos!!

We booked our tickets early, and were able to get tickets for the stalls, and I was also happy to be meeting another fiend - we had met very briefly last October, when I was giving out cupcakes at Neil Gaiman's reading in Manchester last October, but we didn't know each other then.

We also unexpectedly bumped into several people who work with J and her partner - obviously Tori has a wider range of fans than we'd anticipated, so there was lots of conversation in the bar before the show began.

Tori was supported by a band called One Eskimo - I hadn't heard of them before, and I had a certain amount of sympathy for them - it must be difficult to be a support band - on the plus side, I guess you get to play bigger venues that you might otherwise do, but on the other hand you a playing to a theatre full of people who are there for something else. I have to say that I liked their music, although it was diffcult to hear them as the 3 women behind us decided that during a gig was a good time to have a conversation - after all, you can aways rasie your voice so as to be heard over that pesky music, can't you?


They seemed totally oblivious to widening circle of people they were pissing off, and when I (being bolshy enough that my irritation got the better of my English reserve) asked them to keep their voices down, they seemed genuinely shocked (especially when their indignation was met by several other people sitting around them agreeing, that actually, yes, we were there to listen to the music and not their conversation...) They did then pipe down, at least for a while.

Later, they decided to sing along (for which read: 1/2 beat behind, off-key and very loud. Especially in the quieter songs) *Sigh*

But despite them, the gig was great. And I refrained from committing assault, which is probably good for my karma. I love some of the newer stuff from the current album, but a real highlight was hearing 'Spacedog' and 'Tear in my hand'...

Then on Monday morning, after a fairly leisurely breakfast, I headed hme, stopping off in Birmingham for long enough to call in on my sister, and go with her to pick up the keys to her new (and first ever) house, and to see over the hosue itself! I think having a younger sister who is buying a house feels almost stranger than buying one myself (although I still can't get over the feeling that one day They will find out that I am not really grown up, and will decide that I shouldn't have a house, or mortgage, or a respnsible job, or any of those grown-up things).

E's house is small, but nice - and no doubt when she has put into action her formitable gardening and home decorating skills it will be nicer than ever.

I'm going to be heading North at the stat of October - I wonder whether she will let me stay there overnioght on my way past (she will be in Australia, by then....)

[Edited to add: More Photos on Flickr]