A visitor and a trip to see the Counting Crows

So... update time eh? Well last weekend Luke graced us with a visit - if only the good weather had been as courteous to the same. Tried to do a bit of climbing at Birkrigg, but despite a good start the weather then came in and turned the once nice limestone into slippy unclimbable rock - so a trip to Booths for supplies and a few beers later naturally the sun comes out when we are no longer able to drive! Ah well you can't win them all.

It was great to catch up with Luke, although we do tend to talk most days on MSN there is no comparison for an in person visit. Anna, Luke's better half, was sadly unable to visit due to "new mum to be" commitments. We will no doubt see the very merry three of them after day zero finally arrives (pictures may be posted subject to approval)

All in all a great weekend, plenty of laughs, drinks and xboxing - and Luke taught Emily to "bo" like a rapper due to her insisting on keeping the "2 pk" sticker on her new top (for those older generation readers 2pac was a rapper).

Monday should have been a work day, but not this week, a nice train journey to Chester (after the mess of buying the wrong train ticket!) then to Manchester for an afternoon in the pub and then a rather fantastic evening's entertainment courtesy of Blind Pilot, The Hold Steady and of course one of my favourite bands the Counting Crows.

Blind Pilot, an indie band from Portland US, were brilliant and are well worth a listen and purchase, their last song involved 2 people playing one drum kit which resulted in some outstanding beats.

The Hold Steady (notice the lack of link!) were really just not my cup of tea, or cup of anything for that matter. Saw them support the Crows at the Echo Arena in Liverpool last year, and they haven't grown on me.

The Counting Crows though, were as soul brightening great as ever. Adam provided some more insight into the origins of some of the songs, and gave a really different acoustic version of one of my favourite songs Miami. Really hoping that this concert will be released on Live Counting Crows but we shall have to wait and see.

Due to perhaps the worst road crew I have seen, their set was a lot shorter than I was hoping for, they should have been onstage at 9pm but sadly didn't appear till almost 9:45! Watching overweight men standing on a stage not actually doing anything, or then walking back on to touch something that hasn't moved since they put it there was excruciatingly difficult to both comprehend and endure. To put it bluntly, if you are a stage hand and don't have a job to do, you should not be on the stage. And if you have to go back to something THREE TIMES then you made far too many mistakes when you set it up initially.

Perhaps I am getting a bit less tolerant in my age (my birthday next week so its all about me moaning I'm too old at the moment - and yes I know most people who read this are older than I am).

Well, having just returned from Wednesday football (yup that's still going on, and I'm still enjoying it - keeping me fit and a lot trimmer than I was) I need to go now and have some food and then a bath.

Till whenever...

Visitors, Birthday and Counting Crows

May is turning out to be a really busy Month. Had hightower Amran visit last weekend for some cooking goodness, zoo and beach visitations and naturally a healthy amount of xboxing madness. The weather (for a bank holiday weekend) was actually quite bearable, though Amran and Ruth still complained that it was cold!

On the cooking front this time I decided to not plan and just play it by ear, which resulted in the creation of a Cottagy Shepardsy Pie with Reggae Reggae sauce. It turned out quite well but I always seem to have a problem with putting too little potato on the top - ah well.

Sunday, being a "roast" day allowed us to create a sort of sweet and sour pot roast chicken - which sadly was a bit to hot (chili) for Emily to eat, and Ruth would have preferred about half the meat, but was really fantastic and sooo easy to do (will get round to putting these on the recipes page in due course). Served on a bed of free range egg noodles it wasn't exactly your traditional roast, but since when did that matter!

Monday we got some extra visitors in the form of the inlaws, apparently their decision to turn up for lunch was solidified when informed I would be frying my own chicken "roots" style (that's Levi for those not in the know). This required an overnight marination in a combination of various spices that were mixed "me" style (just shoved in, no measurements) which completely stunk the fridge out. Due to the larger numbers, which is not normally a problem, and the small fryer I have, the cooking process involved half frying 3 loads of chips, then 3 loads of chicken and then re frying the chips once more (with an oil change between chicken and chips). The result was delicious but sadly I shall not be doing this again for numbers greater than 3 or 4 unless I either have a bigger fryer (nothing worse than smelling nice food for an hour and a half and not being able to eat it yet!)

So all in all a great bank holiday weekend, more visitors and visits are planned this month in the form of Luke, and then Auntie Emma and Uncle Nick, with a trip to see Grandma Choc Choc in between, my Birthday and ermm... oh yeah, me and Emu are off to see the magnificent Crows for either the 4th or 5th time (but definitely not the last) more on that no doubt after the great event.