An Evening Of Surprises

Marion and I went to see UB40 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool last night.And what an evening of surprises there was in store for us.It started when we arrived at the station and found that Merseyrail were doing a Christmas offer of £1 return to Liverpool. Brilliant. Though aimed at shoppers it was an all day and all night offer and we were delighted to participate.



Then we took our seats in the arena and found to our surprise that we were sitting on the front row in the centre seats. I had not looked at the seat numbers when the tickets arrived as the concert was originally going to be standing only so when the usher kept going closer and closer to the stage we were totally gobsmacked.Mind you, being a huge UB40 fan I was probably the first person to book so the seats were well deserved.



But the surprise didn't end there as we found that our favourite Eddie Grant was the supporting act. And what a support act he turned out to be! His performance was electric and had the audience rocking in the aisles. And, as we were almost close enough to touch him, we felt like he was giving us our own personal performance in our front room - fantastic.





And we were surprised when Ali Campbell looked so much different and then realised that he had been replaced by his brother Duncan. However, well done Duncan, if we hadn't been on the front row we would never have spotted the difference.

But it's been back to earth with a bump today when, to everyone at Instanta's surprise, I've been too busy to write the blog. Normal service to be resumed tomorrow (I hope).

There'll Be Bue Skies Over

It's a sure sign that the holiday ended yesterday when we get the first completely cloudless sky for two weeks today. Yep, for the first time since, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, we left Instanta on Friday 10th July, I have been able to sit in the garden and write the blog using that wonderful BT Broadband that the lad who used to be in "My Family" is always advertising. And yes it does work right a the end of the garden Can't get a signal in the garage though. As I write there is no sign of that worrying bee shortage. The lavender is absolutely full of them so maybe the planet will survive a little longer. They had better make honey while the sun shines as the forecast is lousy again for tomorrow.




If, like me, you've seen these teaser ads in all the papers recently, you'll be pleased to know that all has finally been revealed and it seems that John and Helen Taylor managed to drive 3700 miles around Britain at an average fuel consumption of 126.82 mpg. It seems that the couple (who set a new Guinness world record) are specialists in the field of fuel economy training. The rules for the record stipulated that the car must be completely unmodified from a standard production vehicle, and that it must complete the journey in no more than 180 hours with all speed limits adhered to. The record was achieved in 175 hours with the Taylors sharing the driving duties with stints lasting as long as 21 hours per day!I wonder what car they did it in? Perhaps I should add it to the list when looking for our new car.



I emailed Jenny yesterday to see if any nasty surprises might be in store for us when we get back but she tells me that we sold a few hundred boilers whilst we were off and the bank balance is over £110,000 inside the overdraft limit so we'll enjoy a glass of wine in the sunshine before returning to the grindstone.



But they will be the last glasses of wine for a month. Marion and I are both struggling with our weight. The groin strain has kept me away from the gym for three months and Marion has been keeping me company so, as we have read that a few glasses of wine can add 4kilos per week, we are cutting out in the hope that we will therefore lose 4kilos per week. I'll let you know if it works. Expect shares in Tesco to collapse.Maybe we'll be launching the simplest diet ever in a month's time.

At least I can still listen to my favourite group singing about it.