Mancunian for a weekend

Woke up at 3am on Saturday to spend the weekend in Manchester in the company of individuals introduced to moi by Kudo (pics can be seen at this blog too) and Ninie. I must say that it's been a while since I last bothered to socialise with strangers, but I ended up having a very good time as the food was remarkable, and the company was exquisite. Managed to catch up with old friends as well as make new ones, some of whom I do believe will end up being on my 'contacts list' for years to come.

The drive down was an event in itself, with the driver occasionally forgetting that she was driving a manual and us getting lost at the Manchester ring road. Which is never a smart thing to do as it takes bloody ages to get back to the original spot. Got to the house in good time though, and starting acquainting myself with the folks who were around.

Towards the evening, the house was pretty packed and there was a nice variety of people - very muhibbah - which was what convinced me to stay the weekend. Of course, the non-medics would've gotten a lil bored at times, but you'd expect a certain amount of medical talk when everyone but a couple of individuals were of a medical background.

Was meant to spent night exploring the rather dodgy Canal Street (I swear I felt like I was in the middle of a circus), but thankfully we retired to Fadh's place instead and spent the next few hours indulging ourselves in one of those kinda nights where you look back and realise that you could've shamed the UN security council with the amount of stuff that spouted out of your mouth. It was a fun bonding session, accompanied by good music and the occasional sound emanating from the sleeping Kudo.

Went back, planned to catch a bit of sleep, but was woken up 15mins after I closed my eyes by the excitable Hidayah, the hosts' rather scarily intelligent daughter. Can't remember the last time I debated with a 6-year-old (and almost lost) as well as receive instructions on the appropriate method of building an alien hovercraft with the lego set. I do enjoy playing with kids though, a lot more than our friend (yes, I'm talking about you!) who looked like he wanted to grab a fly swatter and chase them away.

Would've loved to have stayed longer, but duty called. Nevertheless, I'm glad Ninie dragged me down south as I had almost a good a time as Sweetie (who was in Bali) must've had.

I've been exposed to an unfortunate amount of Paris Hilton's new video...is there someplace we can write to in order to get it banned? I'm sure the population's average IQ is steadily decreasing with exposure to such ill-conceived images. Sigh... Having said that, I'll probably end up watching Tokyo Drift later this evening, which is apparently a pretty decent movie. Then again, a movie with fast cars and Japanese chicks in short skirts is bound to excite some people!