The Morning After

I felt surprisingly good when I woke today, although it took me a little time to get my bearings as I hadn't made it back home and had stayed over at a nearby friend's (thanks). This was also going to be a busy day, as I had to get a crown fitted accross Manchester (the prep work was done on Monday) before scooting off to Blackpool to meet up with 4 SEMC friends (Dave, Ian, Ray & Stuart) for another mini party. The crown was fitted without too much fuss, although it took about 10 minutes longer than was scheduled, which took ten minutes out of my travel time, and pushed it ever deeper into the Manchester rush hour. As it happens my only mode of transport in Manchester is now a motorbike, so rush hours don't cause quite the problem they do in a car, and, grateful that the weather was very good for this time of year, I still made it to the appointed hotel in Blackpool for 6PM. I even had time for a shower before meeting the others.

We got a taxi into the main drag and ambled around a couple of bars, taking in the first half of the football before getting bored of it. We also passed the Antiques Roadshow caravan on the way to the large amusement arcade near the North Pier. God knows what they think they will find in Blackpool other than those funny little dunking ducks that you attach to the side of a glass. I think we spent about an hour in that arcade too, basically warming ourselves up by shooting, driving, kicking and thumping anything that flashed. Best ask Stuart who won the driving games, as I'm too modest to say.

It's still off season though, and most bars were empty as we reached them, but it did start to pick up towards normal pub closing time, and there was a late night clubby type place that was happy to sell us flaming sambucas and every other spirit they sold for a totally ludicrously cheap price. In Toulouse, one pint of Guinness (actually 0.5 l) is six euros. Here you could buy a barrel for that. We had a bloody good time all in all, especially having reached that bar, and predictably I can't remember much after this picture was taken, and as I haven't had time to catch up with the others yet, that's were it ends!