Mahinda’s Little World

I’ve definitely been behind on the updates, thanks to the sailing holiday backlog.

Anyway, quick update of the last week or so…

Friday

Had Pete, Rosy, Howell, Linden and Kate over for Risk and pizza. Probably best to just see Pete’s blog for a write-up.

Got a very odd look from the checkout girl at Tesco when I rolled up with 6 pizzas, 2 garlic bready things, and very little else. All but one got eaten, though.

Saturday

Woke up far too early, realised that I had a train to catch, and motored out of the house towards Piccadilly (where I caught my train with minutes to spare) and then Sheffield.

Got there just after 1pm, and walked across town to the Sheffield Beer Festival…where I waited almost one and a half hours for the others (Ed, Andrea, Kate and Rick) to turn up. The good thing about Sheffield is that they always have plenty of nice dark ales…which was nice. Bumped into Rob, one of the CAMRA U30 types, and spotted Gus, another young member. Dropped Verity a txt saying I’d spotted them, and she replied asking whether I’d make Nottingham, her home beerfest. Looks like I can’t, unfortunately. Bugger. She even offered me a comfy sofa.

Anyway, said my goodbyes at 5ish, leaving the others on a pub crawl with the “young members” section. Don’t know how they got on, but it was guaranteed to be drunken.

I, on the other hand, journeyed back across the Pennines, met Alsion, Andrew and Mark, and then headed to Altrincham for Leila’s 21st birthday celebrations. This is when I regretted not having time to iron that shirt before leaving the house - in my jeans and T-shirt, I was somewhat underdressed!

Still, ’twas nice to catch up with people I’d not seen all summer. Some of us formed something of an oldies table - we were in limbo between the shockingly young all-but-teenyboppers and the parental sorts.

The DJ was rather rubbish - he managed to play the usual stream of crowd-pleasers, but he couldn’t mix a track to save his life. I’d never heard the version of Timewarp with a rap in the middle…and I never want to hear it again.

Caught last tram to Manc (01:14), and tried unsuccessfully to get into the Salisbury before getting the bus home.

Sunday

A fairly lazy day, for a change. Got up, played a bit of tennis with Natalie, then went home and cooked a monster Bolognese for Lynda and I. I’ve only just found out that Housemate Linda is in fact Housemate Lynda. Well, I suppose it’s better than finding that Housemate Andrew becomes Housemate Andrea at weekends…not that this is the case, I must point out

The original plan was for Rosy and I to go and see Howl’s Moving Castle, but he got waylaid by Taekwon-do. In fact he’s pretty sure of grading up to a red belt (one below a black belt), which is nice. By the time he’d left the pub, we’d missed the showing, so Plan B was put into action.

So, I headed over to Rosy and Pete’s place to watch Spirited Away, the last film by the same director. Pete joined us. It was very good, with superb animation and a typically Japanese plot.

Spirited Away

Also checked my Hattrick and Battrick teams, to find two wins! The Hattrick one was paticularly notable, as I’d thrashed one of my main rivals 4-0. Happy days!

Monday

Work. Badminton, shooting, shopping, home.

Tuesday

Hockey training. Forgot to call home. Really must do that tonight.

Wednesday

The last Platt Fields hockey session of the year, unfortunately - we just haven’t got enough light any more.

Still, the weather was nice (for October), and we managed 5- or 6-a-side. Headed to Hardy’s afterwards, then home for some scran and over to Jabez for the first Manchester Ceilidh of the (academic) year. Picked up Alsion and Dan on the way, as I was driving. Got told off by Housemate Helen (the smaller) for not telling her about it. Oops!

The ceilidh was MASSIVE, with 280-odd people turning up. There really was no elbow room whatsoever. A fair few complete newbies, plus the usual range of novices, regulars and experts. Ish.

As per usual, I had the pleasure of dancing with lots of lovely girls. It’s all very open, in the “just grab a partner” sense, and I think it was pretty evenly-mixed. It gets to the point where you start recognising people from month to month, which is nice.

One of the dances was marred by a young bloke who insisted that he “knew this one”…and then proceeded to talk all the way through the caller’s instructions, before spending most of the dance trying to chat up his (admittedly very pretty) partner. Didn’t help, especially when he started pushing people around mid-dance. Grrrr.

The two bands of the day got together for the last dance (a massive stripping of the willow), and then played out for 10 minutes or so, while people just danced randomly - Cathy and I were meandering around the floor as fast as we could, and it was like the dodgems! I hope she didn’t sustain too many bruises!

So, got home at 12.30am, having given lifts home to Dan, Alsion, Becky and Carolina (friend of a friend, possibly of a friend, from Krakow). Unfortunately, I had an awful night’s sleep, probably due to the adrenalin rush. Ho hum.

And now I’m here.