Mahinda’s Little World

Or “last week described using a laptop with a dodgy keyboard”. Please excuse any typos.

So, the week started badly. Sunday’s sore throat developed into a proper cold, and hence Monday off work feeling sorry for myself.

Skipped shooting as a result - doubt I could shoot straight anyway, after that weekend, and I’m reasonably well-ahead with my competition targets at the moment.

Dragged myself into work on Tuesday, but skipped hockey training as I had to work late. Besides which, I didn’t feel up to braving the cold. Pete, who did go along, reports that it was cancelled anyway due to a frozen pitch.

It’s just not fair when it’s bloody freezing, but we don’t get proper snow. I think it’s been 8 or 9 years since I’ve had a PROPER snowball fight in Manchestie. Which is rubbish.

But I digress.

Ceilidh

Was feeling much better on Wednesday, so moseyed down to the St. Andrew’s Day ceilidh at Jabez. Managed to persuade Pete to come along, and Housemate Helen (the smaller) made her first appearance there in months.

They started late, unfortunately, which meant more pre-dance drinks for us. And then Joe from work walked in.

Joe’s pretty high up in the organisation. A larger-than-life (Northern) Irishman with enough self-confidence to float the Titanic. I say hello…it was one of those When Worlds Collide moments. Then a woman walks up to us who looks very familiar indeed, and says hello to me. I just couldn’t figure out who it was, and I was off-balance enough to say so. The moment I did, I figured it out. Deirdre, Joe’s wife, who used to be our one-woman HR department. She recruited me, all those years ago.

I don’t think I’m going to be allowed to live that one down. In my defence, it had been several years since I’d seen Deirdre, and she’d changed A LOT.

It turns out that their niece, Catherine, goes to Manchester University, and suggested that they go along to the ceilidh with them.

For one scary moment I wondered whether said neice was actually Ceilidh Cat (whom I’d txted earlier, but without a response).

Fortunately, it wasn’t.

As if on cue, Ceilidh Cat appeared and came over for a chat. She was on her own again, having failed in her attempts to get her housemates along. Doesn’t matter - it looks very much as though she’s being adopted by the MUGSS ceilidh regulars, which is nice.

Eventually, the music starts, and Helen and I join forces for the first dance. I skip the second, which is a pity as it was a good one. I don’t think I missed another dance - I grabbed Cat for one, and Deirdre for another, and danced with a couple of randoms too. The randoms in question were two girls, one of whom collared Malcolm and I. It was the often-seen “girl dragging her mate along” scenario. I danced with the mate first - she was fine, but went through the entire dance wearing a look of intense concentration. We swapped over for the next dance (a strip-the-willow of some description).

Then a drinks break. The lovely Zenobia came over to collar me…and we ended up dancing four (or possibly even five) in a row, which was certainly a first - unusual, but pleasant. We do seem very comfortable with each other, especially when you consider the fact that, with one exception*, we’d only ever seen each other at ceilidhs.

* The time she turned up to the last big party at our place. That was the time I first spoke to her although, thinking about things, I would have seen her around at a ceilidh or two beforehand.

There always two bands at these affairs. I’d not seen the second before, and they were a bit different - with Keith (a regular caller) on drums accompanied by an electric fiddler** and a keyboard player, they were very different from the usual four- or fivesome. Very good though - I especially liked the way they managed to get snippets of all sorts of music in there, e.g. the Thomas the Tank Engine theme tune! The dances they did were all good, too - lively and energetic affairs all.

** The fiddle was electric, not the fiddler.

Hark at me - I’m sounding like some sort of ceilidh pro! I’m not - I think I’m just feeling loquacious tonight.

So, fast forward a little to the end of the evening. I danced the last proper dance with Cat - it being a very long (Arcadian?) strip-the-willow, it was nice to have a partner who’s willing to give it some go! Grabbed Housemate Helen for the twiddly bit at the end, where everyone just dances around freestyle, and then it was time to go. Ceilidh Cat got a lift home from Paul and some MUGSS types, and it was the bus for the rest of us.

Joe and Deirdre enjoyed themselves, as did Pete, who’s now expected for the next one as well. Linden and Ed turned up towards the end as well.

Zombies Turn Your Tongue Blue

As do donkeys, in fact. After a Thursday evening (and a couple of hours on Friday night too) spent working, I moseyed on to Fuel late on Friday for my second Slugs Ate My Parents gig. Dan was on top form, it had to be said, and his repertoire really doesn’t get any less strange!

After Slugs, I went to ScuBar (arriving just after midnight) to say hello to Jen on her birthday. Mia, Sarah, Si and Sam were there, as were Linden and Ed, plus a bunch of people I didn’t know. One of them turned out to be the fantastically monikered “Scoff”, who’s one of Jen’s schoolmates, and one of the others was Leila’s boyfriend. Can’t remember his name, but the poor sod had better be careful, what with being on the receiving end of the sharpest tongue in South Manchester!

Was fun, and I staggered home via PizzaCo, just for old time’s sake. £3.50 for a two topping pizza, however, is just scandalous.

When I came to Manchester, a two topping pizza from Babylon or PizzaCo cost just £1.70, with your average donner kebab weighing in at £1.80.

EXACTLY the same pizza now costs £3.50, while the average donner is now about £2.50.

Greasy burgers and chicken have followed the donner trend, making one of those cheapo pizzas a poor shadow of what they once were.

RUBBISH!

Inflation I can understand, but doubling in price over 10 years? Maybe it’s a sign of me getting old!

Anyway, I’ve written far too much, and I haven’t even got to the sofa yet! I feel a Volume II in the offing…