Home Sweet Home

Back in April '09 Andy applied online at Applausestore.com for free tickets to Britain's Got Talent auditions in Manchester.

We found out about a month ago that he was successful... and today was the day! The doors were set to open at 1:15 but we decided to go plenty early. We got to the Manchester Opera House at 10:30am. We were not too far back in line which meant we knew were were guaranteed to get in. What they do in these cases is give away more seats than they have so you are not sure you will get in but we were in a good spot.

However they were not very smart in deciding to give everybody in line a stamp on the hand when taking their tickets. It was raining and the stamp was not waterproof. The above picture is Andy's after the first one was smeared off when he tried to put his gloves back on. They gave him another stamp but it meant he had to hold his hand under my umbrella for a good hour while it got dry enough to put his gloves back on. Not a smart idea by the crew.


The long wait seemed even longer in the rain but we knew it was going to be worth the trouble.


We had really good seats! We were even able to see the judges table. It was also good to be on this side because the hosts Ant & Dec stand right behind that first curtain so we were able to see them dancing to the acts, etc.. during the auditions.


Speaking of Ant & Dec they were the first to come onto the stage. They are very funny!


Then the judges made there way from the back of the auditorium. Piers came out first and then Amanda. Then Simon strolled in. Piers and Amanda had to wait a long time up on the stage by themselves... We all know Simon loves to make a big entrance.


They made us turn off all of the cameras and phones as soon as the judges took their places at the table so I was unable to take any photos of the acts. But I can say I was surprised at how many of them were so good! There were of course some crazy ones and there was a bit of 'off, off, off' yelled but honestly there was more good than bad. And I would have to say at least two very potential winners.

There was a young girl from Wales that blew my socks off when she started to sing! The most shocking part though was that Simon voted no... I did not understand that.

There was also a father and son that sang together and they got a standing ovation at about the same moment they started to sing. Yes they had a sad story to tell before they sang but liking them had nothing to do with that story, they were just good together.

I was shocked at one point when the crew brought on a stripper pole for the next audition. But was even more shocked when she introduced herself as Jess from Westhoughton! We noticed about a month ago that there was a new place opened up and that it taught pole dancing. Well she is only 16 and is the owner of JLN Pole Fitness Studio. Her act was very tasteful and quite beautiful. She easily made it through to the next round so hopefully she makes it past the next stages so that we have some local talent to cheer for!

All in all it was a great day out and I am happy Andy took it upon himself to sort these tickets out. Now lets just keep our fingers crossed that we also get tickets for X Factor auditions later this year.

Tonight was the night! After work Andy and I hurried home so that I could eat and get ready for Laura H to arrive so we could take the train into Manchester to see The Rocky Horror Show.

I did not go all out getting dressed up but I borrowed a pink feather boa from Rachel at work, I had on bright red lipstick and even had gold glitter on my eyes. This was going all out for me and I was quite proud that I took public transportation with all of this on.
Of course others did go all out.

Christian, Nicola and Helen

I would say Christian wins the award for dressing up out of our group. I believe his only complaint was that he didn't have any suspenders and his stockings kept falling down.

The show was excellent! I would challenge anybody to go see this and not have a good time, it would have to be impossible. We were in the Circle which was the first balcony and when everybody got up to do The Time Warp the floor was bouncing up and down. I was glad that they made these old buildings to last! Our Narrator was Dave Spikey (from Phoenix Nights) and he was very funny. As you can imagine there is a lot of banter between the cast and the audience at this show and he gave very quick and witty comebacks to the things that were being yelled at him.

I will leave you with one last picture... This is the gentleman that was sitting next Laura H and I. As you can see... his (uhmmmm) crotch area was lit up all night. I doubt it was Laura and I that he was trying to attract with the light however. At one point he sprayed this really horrible smelling perfume and he somehow managed to get it all over Laura's arm so she also got to smell as cheap as him. : )

The Rocky Horror Show will be playing at this very theatre in four weeks time... and guess who will be there? That's right... me and some friends from work! YAY!

Everybody gave me their money for their tickets yesterday and the plan was to go to the bank early this morning and then book via Ticketmaster online or over the phone. Well I called Ticketmaster this morning before I went to the bank and they said they were sold out for the Friday and Saturday night show. We didn't mind going on the Monday night but Christian (who we also work with) had tickets to go with a bunch of his friends on Friday night so we thought it would be cool to all be there for the same show. When I mentioned we really wanted Friday the guy on the phone said that if I went to the box office at the theatre itself they would probably have more seats available because Ticketmaster only gets a percentage of them.

So off I went... alone... I know I have been in England for 1 year and 44 days but today was the first time I have taken the train alone. Andy was much more interested in playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare than going into Manchester with me to get tickets for a show he hates. In fact when we were at Beauty and the Beast and I grabbed the leaflet and pointed out it was on his birthday week he asked that his birthday present be me not dragging him to go see this... So cool that is his birthday done and dusted this year.

Anyway... I got there and after having to explain to two different groups of people that there was in fact a line behind me that they needed to stand in I finally made my way up to the window. I explained that I was looking for 4 tickets for Friday December 11th and to my surprise he not only had 4 tickets available but they were in the second row of the circle and looked like excellent seats! I bought them right there and then and walked out very happy.

We are going to have a blast!!

High: 49°
Low: 44°
Forecast: Cloudy
Sunrise: 7:34 AM
Sunset: 4:14 PM

Back to Manchester tonight but this time to see Ricky Gervais. The name of this tour is 'Science' which is why the set looks like a laboratory. He was so very funny! The only thing that would have made it better is if Karl Pilkington would have been there... he is from Manchester after all.

Ricky however is a comedy genius and it was great to be able to see him live.

High: 48°
Low: 38°
Forecast: Cloudy
Sunrise: 7:29 AM
Sunset: 4:19 PM

Tonight we went into Manchester to see Beauty and the Beast. The show was so cute and fun! Andy is not that into theatre but he really enjoyed it also, he hasn't even seen the Disney movie version.

The only downer on the night was that on the train from Westhoughton to Manchester I left my beautiful umbrella that is black on the outside and underneath there are constellations. I have already called Northern Rail to report my loss but I'm not expecting to get it back.

So very sad.

High: 42°
Low: 38°
Forecast: A Couple of Showers
Sunrise: 7:27 AM
Sunset: 4:21 PM

So today is my Birthday! I had the day off from work and enjoyed a relaxing day and then we made our way to Manchester so that we could eat at the TGI Friday's that is in The Trafford Center. It was yummy!!

In the above picture you can see Manchester just off in the distance, The Trafford Center domes and Chill Factor. One day I am going to have to try out the Chill Factor place! Indoor snow sking, sledging, snowboarding, Tubing and The Luge. Yes I will have to go there one day!

I also got a package from my mom and it was filled with yummy American things that I have been missing.


Now I am going to have to make some Chilli so that I can fully appreciate the Fritos. It's amazing how much I have missed these little salted corn chips! I am also very excited to have some Lipton Iced Tea.

All in all it was a great Birthday!

High: 65°
Low: 48°
Forecast: Partly Cloudy
Sunrise: 6:37 AM
Sunset: 7:36 PM

So... where do I start?

Tracey and James came to pick us up at around 1:15pm. We made our way to Bury because we figured it would be easier to park there and take the metro into Manchester. Since Bury was north at the end of the gig it would be easier to get out as everybody would be going south and into Manchester. We found a place to eat and then made our way to Heaton Park.

The forecast was calling for rain but so far it had held out. I decided to leave my umbrella at home which was a good thing cause as we made our way in they made Tracey throw out the little one she had with her. I would have refused to thrown mine out so luckily I escaped that fight.. too bad that wouldn't have been the only fight of the night!

So the first support band came out... have no idea who they were and the only thing I can remember is that on the two large screens that were beside the stage you could see the lead singer had a giant booger hanging out of his nose which made for a great view on the big screen.

So there is no good way to say what started being thrown once the music got going. There was beer being thrown, food being thrown and yes... brace yourself. Urine being thrown! Yeah I know, how gross is that? I had a plastic poncho on but right before Oasis I had to take it off because some drunk guy grabbed the back of it and it ripped so it was no longer doing any good. I just pulled my hoodie up over my head and tied it tight around my face hoping I did not get anything really gross in the face. At one point a man was walking by with some new beers, he was holding them up over his head, got bumped and when I was looking up he poured them right on my face and in my eyes.

After the unknown band there were three other support bands that played before Oasis came out. Twisted Wheel, The Enemy and Kasabian.

I have to say that I have never listed to any of them before but I thought that The Enemy and Kasabian did a really good job! I think I will have to find some of their music to listen to a bit more of it. Needless to say I would have enjoyed it a bit more if I was not being whacked in the head by some drunken idiot behind me or being pushed around while everybody around be jumped around like idiots. And of course I was still looking out for things being thrown so that I could duck out of the way. Unfortunately there was no ducking for more than half of it. Yuck.

To be honest half way thru Kasabian I was convinced that I wanted to just get out and that no way were Oasis worth all of this crap. But we forced thru it and stayed in our place.

I almost got in a few fights because I kept elbowing the idiots behind me that kept pushing me. Andy came even closer to getting into a fight because people kept trying to push past us and he wouldn't let them by because there was no place to go. He got into a heated argument with one guy and I thought a punch would be thrown but it wasn't. We did witness two fights around us and one was right in front and we watched a guy get punched and go down. When he got up we thought he would fight back but he pretty much ran off crying. There was even one point when a guy threatened to hit a girl, that would have been interesting as I think the guy would have been beaten to a pulp by the others around him.

So finally after already being on my feet for over six hours Oasis come out. To be honest I thought they were ho hum. You have to remember that there were about 70,000 people just at this one concert and we were in Manchester. This is where Oasis are from, this is their home! But there was just no interaction with the audience. No 'It's good to be home' or anything. They came on, sang their songs and left. Outside of singing the songs there was maybe 10 words spoken.

And to be honest after everything we had to go thru I just did not feel like it was worth it. Glad to say that I have seen Oasis live as I have wanted to do that for some time but I won't be rushing to do it again. It is also confirmed that I will never ever go to another outdoor concert. In total I was on my feet standing/walking for a little more than 8.5 hours straight, I was covered in God knows what and felt miserable. It did start to lightly rain about 30 minutes into Oasis but at that point I was welcoming it as I wanted to wash off whatever was on me.

While we were leaving I made the comment that I could have been home playing Sims 3 and Andy said he could have been playing Fifa... hhhmmmm...

The people that went at work seemed to have enjoyed themselves and said it was great. I have seemed to find a running theme though... they were all drunk. Maybe that is the key, you don't mind all of the above crap if you are drunk. Still not my idea of fun.

I would like to start off by saying I am sorry to my Mom because she told me the other day that she has sent a couple of care packages my way and I believe these items may have been in them. But you can imagine my happiness when we were at The Trafford Centre yesterday and I realized there was a Selfridges in there. I had been told by a few people that this store had some American food stocked so even though we were pushing time in getting to the the Russell Brand show I had to run in. How great is this?

They also had Mrs. Butterworths maple syrup, Lucky Charms, Fluff, Pancake mix and a few other things. I ended up getting two of the Grape Jellys and this one A1 Sauce. I will probably be back at some point to get a few other things. Selfridges is an expensive store to start with but when they tack on the price of getting the food from the US... you can only imagine!

I am still amazed at how large The Trafford Centre is, the food court alone is crazy big and they have made it to look like a cruise ship. There are also glass domes that are beautiful, I was able to take a few pictures so I have posted a link below. The main reason we went was because I wanted to eat at TGI Fridays and I am happy to report that it is just as good as it is in the States.

The best concert I have ever been to. Period.

Coldplay is one of my all time favourite bands and I am so very glad that we got tickets to go see this gig! We ended up having to buy tickets on eBay but we only spent around £10 more per ticket so it was a great deal. And as you can see from the photo we had awesome seats.

I love their new album Viva la Vida so that was great that they played quite a few songs from that but it was especially wonderful because they also played some of the older hits. Songs like The Scientist, Clocks, Yellow, In My Place, etc... It was all GREAT!

During Yellow they had dozens of confetti filled yellow large balloons that were being hit all over the arena. In the above photo they dropped millions of these confetti butterflies during Lovers in Japan. I was able to grab a handful of them to take home with me. There was even one point when they left the stage and went up into the stands behind us and played two songs from up in the seats.

I am not kidding when I saw it is the best concert I have ever been to, and I have been to quite a few good concerts. I was smiling from start to finish.

Perfect night.

Went to go see a great concert tonight! We had a lot fun and would 100% go see them again, it was wonderful.

I am glad I ended up feeling better because I felt like death last night. In one hour I would have such cold chills that my teeth would start to chatter and then in the next hour I was so hot that I was kicking off covers. On our way into work Andy stopped by the Co-Op and I ran in and bought the only medicine that said flu on it. Thankfully by the end of the day at least my headache was gone. By the time Tracey and James came to pick us up I was actually feeling pretty good. I still have a cough but nothing like how I felt last night.

I know.. I know.. it's Bonfire night, it's my first year in England, and I don't go to one.

Instead we had tickets to see Steve Coogan at the Manchester Apollo Theatre. To be honest when I bought the tickets I did not even think about it being November 5th. Since I'm not used to there being something to go do on this date it was just another day and I picked it. Then last week I realized what day I had picked when I was searching online for a big firework display to go to. Oh well, there is always next year to see my first big bonfire! As far as the fireworks are concerned my Mother-in-Law's pub is having a Fun Fair with Fireworks tomorrow night so I get to watch those.

Steve Coogan was very funny! He did several of his characters but of course the only one I was personally familiar with was Alan Partridge as Andy had me watching those shows years ago when they were being shown on BBC America. Aha!

Now for those of you who have never seen Alan Partridge here are a few clips that I found on You Tube for your viewing pleasure.

We went into Manchester today, on the train it takes about 30 minutes from Westhoughton. We did not stay very long... just enough time for us to walk around the Arndale Shopping Centre and down some of the streets around it. The O2 store that is inside the mall was being refurbished so we had to go to one that was down the street. It is truly amazing how many mobile phone providers there are here in the UK!

Just walking down the street it seems there is an O2, Orange, T Mobile, Carephone Warehouse, Phones 4 U, Vondaphone or Virgin store on every block. I am not exaggerating either.. it ended up being a bit of a game. We would walk a way down the street and Andy would be like there is another Carphone Warehouse, there is another Phones 4 U.

Needless to say we still could not find a store that had our two phones in stock so we will be off into Bolton again tomorrow. I had asked the lady at the O2 store to keep our details down and which two phones we wanted. That way when they come in hopefully they will put them to the side for us. She said they get their shipment in around 1:30 - 2:30pm so I guess it will be an afternoon trip.

The picture above was taken while standing on the steps to go into the Arndale, it is called The Wheel of Manchester. I guess they couldn't get away with calling it 'The Manchester Eye'. Andy of course refused to ride it with me. He does not care for heights and I didn't push him on it because he has agreed that when we eventually make it down to London that he will ride The London Eye with me and if I forced this now... I doubt I would be able to get him on the 'real' one in London. He said it wouldn't be worth riding this one anyway.. it is not nearly as big and at least the one in London has a scenery to look at while you are up there! : )

My jetlag has taken an odd turn. I still don't feel tired until around 1:00 - 2:00am. However today while we were in Manchester I got really tired! In fact on the train ride back I fell asleep! So when we got back home I was exhausted but did not want to take a nap as I knew I would sleep for a few hours, eat and then not be able to go to sleep tonight. However it is now 11:07pm and I am yet again wide awake.. and am not tired at all. I read online today that jetlag usually lasts 1 day for each hour that you have changed. Well I was in Texas and we went 6 hours East. We landed October 1st so this should have been over on Monday or Tuesday! I'm starting to think my body will never adjust. *ugh*