rich_jacko

2021 managed to clear the very low bar set by 2020 (Hey, the only new scar I have this year is a physical one...). We may not quite be back to normal yet - cancelled parties this week have sadly proven that - but we've collectively come a long way and this was the year life began to resume.

I've enjoyed regular meet-ups with friends again, trips to the seaside, a birthday picnic and meal out, the return of parkrun, two big family events/celebrations, my sister/nieces' visit to Sheffield, a trio of major running events, my first holiday away in two years, and a much freer Christmas than last year.

All the best to you all, however you're seeing in the New Year, and may you have a fantastic 2022!

Last Friday, I saw Queen + Adam Lambert at Sheffield Arena (Sorry, "the FlyDSA Arena"). I'd been to see them before, in 2015 and absolutely loved the show. So I wasn't going to pass this one up, even if it did mean faffing around on ticket resale sites.

Joining me were Ju, Neil, Jacquie and Andy (the latter two having got their tickets separately), and my mum - who always regretted never seeing Queen live in the '80s, so I thought I'd treat her and help tick off an item on her bucket list.

I left work at 3pm to pick Mum up from the station, whereupon we had a lot of "fun" with trams - a breakdown meant we walked home from Shalesmoor, ate quickly, then had the faff of waiting 20 minutes for a tram which was due every 10, and got unexpectedly kicked off in town and had to squeeze on another with three trams' worth of other passengers. Fortunately we had allowed plenty of time. We managed to meet up with everyone else at the Arena stop and went in together. It was cold in the queue!

The set had changed since the previous tour, and this time was centred around the 40th anniversary of the News of the World album. The beat of We Will Rock You kicked off a concert that focussed mainly on Queen's '70s hits, with nothing beyond the Magic album this time around. That was fine - It was good to have them play something a bit different to last time. The stage was a giant guitar, and we had a great view - much closer than last time.

After Hammer To Fall and the epilepsy-inducing light show of Sheer Heart Attack, Adam Lambert did his contrite, "I know I'm no Freddie Mercury, but let's make tonight a tribute to him". He may not have as strong a voice, but he can hit all the notes and he certainly has Freddie's flamboyance. Perched atop a giant robot head for Killer Queen, he may have been better behaved than his cavorting on a chaise longue last time, but he still raised a few eyebrows. His self-described "gayest suit known to man" and matching tricycle during Bicycle Race were also eye-catching.

Brian May was once again the star for me. He brought the audience to tears by filling the arena with individual lights during his acoustic rendition of Love of My Life, dueting with an on-screen Freddie for the last verse. He brought us into a huge shared moment of geekery with his 3D selfie stick video - possibly the only human being on the planet to have made selfies cool. Then later on, he played a spectacular set piece in which he was lifted up by a giant robot against a space backdrop while playing an epic guitar solo ("We may be here some time!" I remarked, and we were...).

Roger Taylor also had his share of the limelight, drum battling Tyler Warren (and flipping him the bird!), as well as doing strong lead vocals (and tambourine!) for A Kind of Magic. He is turning more and more into Anthony Hopkins though!

By the time the show rounded off with Radio Ga-Ga and Bohemian Rhapsody, most of the audience were on our feet, and everyone was clapping along (with mixed ability at keeping time!). On-screen Freddie returned to whip up the crowd with his "Eh-Oh!"s before the band came back for the encore - We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions and God Save The Queen.

The show was every bit as great as last time; I've heard Queen albums, watched videos of concerts and been to tribute acts, but nothing compares to being there when they play live. The lights, sound and showmanship are spectacular, and the atmosphere is second to none. My Mum has been to an awful lot of concerts, and was still blown away, declaring it to be absolutely brilliant.

We hit the merchandise stall on the way out, and got a bit split up from the others, but we made it home a lot less eventfully than the journey there. After parkrun the next morning, I escorted Mum back to the station for her train home, before a busy rest of the day, packed with shopping, D&D and Edy's mince pies evening. Then (a bit of) snow, swimming, cinema and more roleplaying the next day. A grand weekend! :o)

It's been a fun couple of weeks socially. ( Photos and details under cut )

After the success of the last one, I figured I really ought to get some more of these in the diary, before the evenings start getting too light. Also, I figure a bit more advance notice would be helpful, so here's the next three - all cunningly planned to avoid Sheffield Wednesday home fixtures (and hopefully, most people's holidays)! As usual, timings are somewhat provisional:

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Sat 6th Feb - Perils in the Panopticon

Time for another Doctor Who evening, with a triple bill of all things Gallifreyan as Doctors Four and Five run into trouble with the Time Lords. Witness the Master as an emaciated walking corpse, trouble in the Matrix, the most infamous cliffhanger ever to upset Mary Whitehouse, the Doctor accidentally becoming President of the Time Lords, the first ever glimpse of the legendary TARDIS swimming pool, invasion, anti-matter, Amsterdam, and Colin Baker enduring hideous costume design even before he was cast in the title role...

- 4:00pm - The Deadly Assassin
- 6:00pm - The Invasion of Time
- 9:00pm - Arc of Infinity

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Sat 20th Feb - Let's Kill Hitler

No, not another Doctor Who evening, but a quadruple bill of over-the-top Nazi-killing mayhem, starting off with Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds before moving on to Nazis from space with Iron Sky and rounding off the night with the zombie-killing insanity that is the Dead Snow double bill. Needless to say, this isn't going to be child-friendly. It's also an ambitious schedule, with no time to stop while everyone gets takeaway. I'll get pizzas in, and feel free to bring food (and beer!) with you. It says something when the Tarantino film is the sedate, sensible one of the evening...

- 4:00pm - Inglourious Basterds
- 7:00pm - Iron Sky
- 9:00pm - Dead Snow
- 10:30pm - Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead

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Sat 12th Mar Sat 27th Feb - Studio Ghibli

I promised a Studio Ghibli evening ages ago, and several of you have reminded me, so I'm guessing there's a call for one! And why not? - Weird and magical adventures, memorable characters and creatures, and some of the most gorgeous traditional animation you'll ever see. If folks are interested, I'll do more than one, because narrowing their films down to just one evening's worth is an impossible task. For now, I'm going to go with the first three I saw. (All PG-rated BTW, so small-person-friendly)

- 4:00pm - Castle in the Sky
- 6:30pm - Spirited Away
- 9:00pm - Princess Mononoke

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I'll post reminders of the later two evenings nearer the time. As always, a vague idea of numbers is useful, so let me know if you're thinking of coming along to any or all of the above.

EDIT: Ghibli evening moved forward as apparently the Bug is having a birthday party on 12th March. I've moved it to the one remaining Saturday before Easter with no home match. Yes, that means big screen evenings two weekends running - crazy times! ;o)

The first Friday in January is New Year's Day. However, it seems a bit unlikely that everyone will be up for our regularly-scheduled pub social when they may still be nursing hangovers from the night (year?) before. (Just what am I implying here?)

Ju and I therefore made an executive decision at the Nightingales' party yesterday - Just for this month, we'll make it a Second Friday Social. Hope to see you at the Walkley Cottage on the 8th! :o)

And to my team of junior master builders - I have Doctor Who Lego which will need building...

I didn't do much over the Easter weekend, so I was determined to make more of this bank holiday weekend. And I did!

The weekend started at Thursday lunchtime with an epic work pub crawl along Sheffield's "golden mile". Starting off in The Blake Hotel, we then had lunch at the Hillsborough Hotel before moving on to The Gardener's Rest, The Wellington, Shakespeare's, The Kelham Island Tavern, The Fat Cat and The Riverside, before eventually finishing off at The Harlequin. That's almost all of my favourite pubs :o)

Sensibly I'd booked Friday off, mostly as a day to recover. But there was also another extremely well attended FFS at the Walkley Cottage in the evening.

On Saturday, as the weather was decent(ish) and I was feeling adventurous, I decided to take a trip to Castle Howard. This has been on my "places to visit" list for years. A train to York and a bus ride from there meant I got a fair amount of Dresden read. Once there I ambled around the grounds in the morning then the house, shops and tea rooms in the afternoon. Mostly the weather stayed fine, and I saved various indoor bits for when it wasn't. I wasn't aware that a third of the house was seriously damaged by fire in 1940, and still shows the scars. It's an amazing place, full of sculptures and other art, and the grounds (including Ray Wood) took several hours to explore fully.


On Sunday I met up with Ju and Jamie for lunch at Istanbul (not Constantinople) on West Street, before we all headed to the Lego Shop to check out the Star Wars Day offers. I wasn't actually all that taken with most of the Star Wars sets, although I did still manage to spend over 80 quid. *Ahem*... Then it was roleplaying as usual in the evening.

Monday was quite busy to begin with. I went swimming in the morning, then did food shopping and headed to the Botanical Gardens for the goth picnic. Star Wars Day itself was commemorated by several lightsaber duels :o)

This weekend just gone was a good one. I wasn't especially busy or doing anything spectacularly exciting; it was just a really enjoyable time. There was the Third Friday Social at the Blake, which was relaxing and a good laugh even without all the gin! Then on Saturday I got stuff done in the morning before an invasion of Nightingirls in the afternoon. We started and made good progress on the Epic Lego Winter Village Build 2014 (TM). On Sunday I went swimming in the morning, and watched Lewis Hamilton win a well-deserved second F1 world championship in style in the afternoon. Then I ate pie, drank cherry wine and killed zombies at roleplaying in the evening. As I said, good times :o)

This coming weekend is the Kelham Island Christmas market. Who's going, and when?

It's been a busy old time of late.

The week before last, I combined a work trip to London with ( a bit of sightseeing. )
Last weekend I went over to Andy and Jacquie's to help with their re-decorating (and to admire their Lego). Then this week just gone has been remarkably busy. Another trip to London on the Tuesday, though without any sightseeing this time.

I was out every evening - to Henry's for a work do on the Monday, board gaming on Tuesday, child-wrangling on Wednesday, then the Rotherham beer festival on Thursday, again with work. This festival is so much better than the Steel City one. Magna is a great location, the range of beer was amazing, and the live music - including a Madness tribute band - were fab.

Finally, Friday was the FFS, complete with Bryony's amazing bee cake!:



P.S. - No, I don't have a new computer yet. The old one seems to have made at least a temporary recovery. I have, needless to say, copied everything of importance off it and onto a memory stick... I still plan to get a new computer soon though, so thanks are still due for your advice on my previous post!

Just a reminder, because the calendar's likely to catch you unawares - This Friday is the First Friday. Walkley Cottage as usual?

Oh, and we have all remembered to put our clocks back today, right? ;o)

I've spent large parts of this week in pubs with friends, which is a good thing. Actually, I've spent more time sat outside pubs in the sunshine with friends, which is an even better thing :o)

Admittedly it got off to a slightly shaky start. On Monday evening I went to Beg, Borrow & Steal for the Every Black Day gig. I've heard of finding the venue and the band not turning up, but this was the first time I'd found the band and the venue didn't turn up. Still, we went and had a pleasant drink in the Hillsborough Hotel instead.

On Tuesday evening, we pretty much filled the Gardener's Rest for the grand launch of Erica's art exhibition. The drawings were fantastic (I bought one!), and I was only slightly less impressed by the pub's very nice beer garden (which I don't think I'd been in before).

Wednesday was a pub-free day, but Thursday evening was spent outside the Rising Sun with friends from work. It was the first day of the Sunfest beer festival, which is on a pretty large scale for a pub-based festival. The many marquees and roast pork on offer reminded me of certain summer hog roasts ;o)

And yesterday I met up with an ex-colleague at lunchtime who was up from London for a drink in the Sheffield Tap. Then it was back to the Hillsborough Hotel and sitting outside in the evening for the Friday social.