adrienne's Tour Diary

I woke up I looked outside and saw a silver fox hanging up her laundry to dry. I have yet to encounter a clothes dryer in the UK.

We didn't have to be in Manchester until 5:30 or so so we had a leisurely morning at Matt's, though he had to leave for work before we woke up. Deal or No Deal was on TV and we watched with horror as "Noddy" (Alex) ended up taking only 5 pounds home with him. The game is different in the US - everyone seems to win at least $10K, and the prize boxes are showcased by leggy women, not other contestants. The presenter on the UK version is really creepy, more so than Howie Mendel.

Since we were passing historic Roman walled city Chester on our way to Manchester, we parked the van in an Iceland lot (the van's height is to tall for us to get into most garages) and were greeted by the parking lot attendant with "Hello boys and girls!" We had to spend 5 pounds at Iceland to park there so we bought bananas, gum, bottles of water, and a megapack of travel kleenex before finding a cafe to eat lunch at and check email. I had the butternut squash/cream cheese panini because I'd never heard of that combination before.

In the bathroom at the Night & Day someone had written in black pen on the side of the first stall: "Life is a puzzle that we drive ourselves to tatters trying to figure out."

Yes.

During the second band, Shawn Biggs walked into the club. He's a friend of Dan and mine from the Tip Top era, and he put out a Secadora 7" on his Little Echoes label. He'd been sound engineering for Bonfire Madigan and had a night off before flying home to SF so he took the train to Manchester from London. Of the second band, Shawn said, "I haven't seen that much finger-tapping in a long time."

Matt drove up from Wrexham with Anngie and Nick, and Mike's friends Tara and Darren were there, as well as Matt Hepworth who put the show together (thank you Matt!).