I was up in Sheffield for a FLYING visit on Sunday, PILLED UP on Antibiotics and painkillers but DETERMINED to get there for LO! it was the 50th Birthday Party of Ms P Blackham and there was NO WAY I was going to miss it!
If you think me BRAVE for battling on through poorliness do not - think me brave INSTEAD for the fact that I went knowing I was going to have to change at Doncaster for a Northern Trains service. There are many dreadful train companies in our nation but OH MY LORD Northern Trains are the UTTER WORST. I cannot speak for their timekeeping but i CAN for how cold, dirty and all round UNPLEASANT their trains are and this one was a prime example. It was also full of teenagers doing that LAUGHING LIKE HYENAS AT NOTHING thing and families SHOUTING at each other and, WORST OF ALL, not ONE person knew the proper etiquette for getting on and off trains. As soon as the train arrived everyone PANICKED and tried to CRAM themselves through the doors while the people inside tried to fight their way out and it took FOREVER. I mean, I thought people in London were meant to be the rude ones, but we WAIT until everyone (or nearly everyone) has got off the train before boarding in at least a VAGUELY orderly fashion. It was MADNESS!!
Luckily that was the only unpleasantness of the day, and I soon found myself in Sheffield and at The Green Room where Penny's do was occurring. It was full to bubbling over with DELIGHTFUL people and a TONNE of old chums, some of whom I hadn't seen for ACTUAL YEARS. It was lovely to have the time to sit and have a proper natter with chums, and in many cases discover that we are now DEAD OLD. Evidence of this was supplied with the HORDES of CHILDREN running around the place, all looking SPOOKILY like many of the aforesaid chums when I first knew them.
The pub itself was dead nice too - the BEER was good and I was MOST impressed by the way that, if your ordered Prosecco (they are right sophisticated, my Sheffield friends) then they rinsed out the FLUTE by dropping an ICE CUBE in and swishing it around. OOH LA LA! They also laid on huge piles of CHIP BUTTIES, which were fantastic!
Music was supplied by various of the previously discussed pals doing DISC JOCKEYING and also by a couple of musical acts hem hem who included ME. I was the first to have a go, and so had to say "EVERYONE BE QUITE NOW IT IS ME!" while standing on some STEPS between two parts of the pub and do THIS:
I had a LOVELY time. I always like playing to audiences containing KIDS as you get to be MISCHIEVOUS with SWEARS, and it was nice to know that for some of them this was probably their first EVER gig - I know of at least one case where it DEFINITELY was, and that is an honour what never goes away! It IS sometimes difficult playing at parties, especially without amplification, as people are expecting to CHAT rather than listen to some idiot BELLOWING at them, but I knew half the people there and guessed that, by virtue of knowing Penny, EVERYBODY would have some experience of this kind of ROCK SHOW and know how it worked. I was also glad not to be plugged in as I was RIGHT in the middle of the pub so had to keep gently rotating to give everyone the benefit of my ROCK (and also to check that everyone was looking at ME!)
It was LOTS of fun, and when it was done I returned to a couple more hours of sitting around and chatting. Soon, all too soon, however, it was time for me to go. I felt a bit sad as we'd just got properly into The Evening Session, when kids had been gently taken home and returning parents were ready for some old time larking about, but then I also knew that I had at least THREE HOURS of travelling ahead of me, so it was probably sensible to head home!
Basically, I had a bloody lovely time, and when I found myself stood waiting to cross the road for the railway station and home I had a MOMENT where I thought "Well done me. If you've lived a life full of such SMASHING friends then, all told, you've done pretty well." It may have been the beer talking, but in this instance the beer was CORRECT!
