Sunday, December 24, 2006
Happy Christmas
Well Christmas Eve draws to a close and the big day looms. I hope you are ready, and are looking forward to a great time. Have a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Iron Maiden
No prizes for guessing where I was on Thursday! Not with this picture to accompany the blog entry anyway! I first saw Maiden in my teens at the then Hammersmith Odeon, this time I got to take my teenage daughter with me too.
Initially the plan had been been for the whole family to go. Richard, a best mate from the age of around ten, had phoned and asked if I wanted tickets while he was buying his? I'd asked for four and started counting the days... Then Lorii's health got really bad, and three weeks before the gig she is on the operating table. I asked Richard to see if he could find a buyer for the fourth ticket, as Lorii was sure she would not be fit enough to go.
Come the day of the gig I come home to find Lorii ready to go and Jacob still in his school uniform. It was a very generous gesture by Jake; especially as this would have been his first ever concert. So we pile in the car and drive down to Richard's place, in Liverpool, where we intend to rendezvous before heading to Manchester and the show. Now Lorii had evidently had a few fortifying vodka drinks before I had picked her and Katie up. Lorii managed to demonstrate the wonders alcohol has on your co-ordination by upending her handbag into the passenger foot-well, forgetting the maps to Richard's place (I had never been before!) and, through miss-use, exhausting all my credit on my mobile phone asking for directions. Luckily the driver was both sober and in possession of a good memory, and remembered Richard's instructions on how to get to his house.
On arriving at Richard's he generously gifted us our tickets as an early Christmas present! (Thanks again Ric!) We then met up with Tim, the taker of the fourth ticket, and made our way to the gig.
We arrived for the end of Trivium's set. I know nothing of this band, Katie did not seem impressed, but a large part of the crowd seemed to enjoy them.
The first part of the Maiden set was their new album, A Matter of Life and Death, cover to cover. Now there were some great songs in there, but as poor me doesn't own the album I did not know where to sing along. I think a large part of the crowd were suffering the same problem because once this part of the show was 'out of the way' the gig really took off. Old hits were pulled out and the whole arena sang along. I felt fourteen again! Eddie, the band's mascot, made two appearances and the band finished on one of my favourite songs; Hallowed Be Thy Name.
Unfortunately Lorii was not up to standing throughout the gig, once the alcohol wore off I think the pain killers were not up to the job of sustaining a frail Lorii through the rigours of a Maiden gig. Worse for her; she is not a life long Iron Maiden fan and did not know the lyrics to the hits they did play. The Number of the Beast, No More Lies and Run to the Hills did not get an outing, which was a shame as Lorii had learnt those!
We came out of the arena into pouring rain and were utterly soaked by the time we reached the car. We picked up a KFC supper and were in bed by two in the morning. Three hours later I was up and off to work. So now I feel a little tired....
Initially the plan had been been for the whole family to go. Richard, a best mate from the age of around ten, had phoned and asked if I wanted tickets while he was buying his? I'd asked for four and started counting the days... Then Lorii's health got really bad, and three weeks before the gig she is on the operating table. I asked Richard to see if he could find a buyer for the fourth ticket, as Lorii was sure she would not be fit enough to go.
Come the day of the gig I come home to find Lorii ready to go and Jacob still in his school uniform. It was a very generous gesture by Jake; especially as this would have been his first ever concert. So we pile in the car and drive down to Richard's place, in Liverpool, where we intend to rendezvous before heading to Manchester and the show. Now Lorii had evidently had a few fortifying vodka drinks before I had picked her and Katie up. Lorii managed to demonstrate the wonders alcohol has on your co-ordination by upending her handbag into the passenger foot-well, forgetting the maps to Richard's place (I had never been before!) and, through miss-use, exhausting all my credit on my mobile phone asking for directions. Luckily the driver was both sober and in possession of a good memory, and remembered Richard's instructions on how to get to his house.
On arriving at Richard's he generously gifted us our tickets as an early Christmas present! (Thanks again Ric!) We then met up with Tim, the taker of the fourth ticket, and made our way to the gig.
We arrived for the end of Trivium's set. I know nothing of this band, Katie did not seem impressed, but a large part of the crowd seemed to enjoy them.
The first part of the Maiden set was their new album, A Matter of Life and Death, cover to cover. Now there were some great songs in there, but as poor me doesn't own the album I did not know where to sing along. I think a large part of the crowd were suffering the same problem because once this part of the show was 'out of the way' the gig really took off. Old hits were pulled out and the whole arena sang along. I felt fourteen again! Eddie, the band's mascot, made two appearances and the band finished on one of my favourite songs; Hallowed Be Thy Name.
Unfortunately Lorii was not up to standing throughout the gig, once the alcohol wore off I think the pain killers were not up to the job of sustaining a frail Lorii through the rigours of a Maiden gig. Worse for her; she is not a life long Iron Maiden fan and did not know the lyrics to the hits they did play. The Number of the Beast, No More Lies and Run to the Hills did not get an outing, which was a shame as Lorii had learnt those!
We came out of the arena into pouring rain and were utterly soaked by the time we reached the car. We picked up a KFC supper and were in bed by two in the morning. Three hours later I was up and off to work. So now I feel a little tired....
Sunday, December 03, 2006
A Bit Windy...
I took the dogs out for a walk on the beach today... only it was too windy to get down to. It was all I could do to stand up on the top of the sea wall!
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