Katie And Becca Misbehave Dreadfully

 - So, Two Things: 1) As Per Usual and 2) A Good Night Out
This report on Friday night's activities is rather late, for which I apologise, but not much.  Whose blog is it?
     Right.  Having established my Alpha Male credentials, allow me to fill in some background.  Katie and Becca have left their native team and are now working in Payroll, not forgetting Janice who came out to celebrate getting a permanent post -
     - this information may have your brain glazing in addition to your eyes, however bear with me -
 - and the venue chosen was "Bluu", which is in the Northern Quarter*and hence thinks it's de rigeur to have a pretentious name.  For reasons of space, let me tell you.

The exterior.  More grey than blue, but that's down to Manc weather

     We hustled to the rear and found tables, which we were warned were "primary dining" and made us liable to ejection if diners turned up.

Our tables.
Minus us

     To pre-empt this - we ordered food.  Ha! Take that Bluu management and seating policy!
     Now, a BOOJUM! blog post is not a BOOJUM! blog post without Coincidence crashing the party.  Guess what this is:

No!  Not just "A beer"

     It is in fact:

Do you get it?  "Bluu" Oyster Cult.  Frightfully clever, eh?

     Which is one of Conrad's favourite bands?  Blue Oyster Cult, of course.  This was, after Dom's "Eton Mess" cocktail, the second drink-based coincidence of the night.

Vindicated!  Validated! Venemous!

     The shocking thing is that Katie had never heard of them.  Really.  Young people nowadays, eh?
     As more and more folks arrived, we gradually took up more and more room, until one of the staff directed us to a seating area supposedly reserved for a party who hadn't turned up.     Since this was in a big "U" shape, nobody wanted to sit down, as to get up you'd have to get everyone else to move.  End result:

Everyone stood up.
Far more inconvenient than sitting at tables

     More people continued to arrive, including ones unexpected:

Mrs Carter, Ian "Music Machine" Breen, Dan Carter (Firestarter!) and  Sophie "Grappa" Zappa

     I think Mrs. Carter's name is Lisa but I don't want to guess and get it wrong.  Oh, to their left is Brendan, an engaging rascal (don't lend him money).  Ian made me verrrry nervous as he'd bought and brought a vinyl LP record**, and these are notoriously delicate.  Amongst an army of shuffling unsteady feet and overloaded handbags, Conrad feared some drastic plastic*** results.  Fortunately our visitors from the paper-shuffling department departed before any such trauma occurred.
     

Okay, some people sat down.  Anna and Manisha in foreground, Mark, someone and Janice at back

     I don't recognise the lady next to Mark.  Perhaps he'd pulled.  It's Cathryn!  Oh, dear, my eyes.  Sorry, love.
     Okay, as a venue Bluu was quite reasonable - bright, not too noisy and reassuringly expensive.  This is why we had to go to "Terrace", as it is dark, incredibly noisy and also reassuringly expensive.

Lauren and Roxy, one being sweet, the other being foxy^

     Sad old men like Conrad cordially detest places like this, as we cannot hear a thing being said, and when I got up to shake my arthritic carcass, Bang! went my right kneecap.  That put me out of commission for the evening.  I can count on Anna for a bit of sympathy, right?

Anna: pointing and laughing

     Apparently not.

Mike and Mark get photobombed by some drunken old - no, hang on a minute -

About time I showed you the two Chief Rascals -

Becca and Katie explaining how they can count up to six.  I think.

     Let's not forget Janice, mightily pregnant but still with greater stamina than Conrad:

Janice, being nobly supported by Tom.

     The fun ended for Conrad at 9:30, which sounds like an early departure - well, it is, I suppose, but any later than that and I'd be writing an epic about getting home on First Bus at 4:35 a.m.

Well, there you have Conrad's Friday night, picture-heavy but also over 700 words long.^^


* Of Manchester.  Just so we're clear.
** Go and Google these terms, it'd take too long to explain.
*** I nicked this from Be Bop Deluxe
^ I leave it to you to decide which is which.
^^ I put these details in for you to go "Aaaah!" at.