Manchester Birthday Celebrations
	On 21st September I had a late celebration of my birthday (plus that of some friends of mine) in Manchester. There were about 20 of us altogether I suppose. Sarah, Nicki and I travelled up together and we stayed in the International Hotel, a very T-friendly hotel just on the edge of the gay village, within easy walk of the clubs.
	Six of us got ready early as we planned to go for a meal, though Simone and I actually detoured to see Kim Angel first as she had kindly laid on some Cava and nibbles in her room. Then it was off to join the others at Spirit, a very nice modern club/restaurant on Canal Street. We had an excellent meal and, of course, a chat and took a few pictures. Then we headed off to meet up with the main party !
	The venue chosen was that favourite gathering place - the the Hollywood Showbar's Piano Bar. The bar had been redecorated and re-arranged since my last visit there, making the area much larger than before though I'm not convinced about the changes that allow a direct view into the loos from one end of the bar!
	After lot's of chat and a few photos (sadly not taken with my camera - what was I thinking about !) a smaller group of us headed off to Via Fosse. This was a very crowded wine bar on many levels. Much to my surprise Kim told me there was a dancefloor there so her, me and Simone went down to see. It was packed - literally elbow to elbow but we managed to find ourselves a space and had a bit of a boogie. A few of the girls headed off to Velvet and shortly afterwards Nicki and I followed them there.Velvet is a much quieter cocktail bar which was ideal for chilling out in. We didn't have to shout so loud to hear each other either !
	Our next stop was Napoleon's, the traditional end of the evening venue, where met up again with most of the other girls. Nicki and I liked it much better there - the music was much better than usual and the dancefloor had enough room for us to actually dance. Sarah set off for the hotel early (alone!) as she doesn't dance much and wanted to have a little chill out time in the bar there. Nicki and I followed on about half an hour later and joined her for a while before heading up to bed.
	We had barely got into our room before Kim came by to invite us to her room for wine and nibbles, so that's where we went. We finally said our goodnights about 3am when I was unable to stifle my yawns any longer - well it had been a long day!
	Next morning I got up early as I'd decided to go home enfemme. Sarah had planned to do the same but as it happened had changed her mind. But anyway I did get changed and went down to breakfast with the others. Then it was a frantic packing session and off to the car for the trip home.
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