Mum & Ian (1) – with Flash!	Mum & Ian (2) – without Flash.
Me being sophisticated drinking coffee. Later I spend some time peeing while the warm up artists were on. Luckily they were terrible and worth missing.	Me.
While Jodie’s off powdering her nose, me & Ian fight over her bag. We stop to pose for a quick photo.	Jodie’s back and posing for a photo with mum.
Mum, Jodie & Ian.	Mum, Me & Ian.
I decide to be cheeky and mess up mum’s & Ian’s hair (forgetting that Ian doesn’t have any). Mum retaliates as a photos taken.

We got to the Arena and took our seats. There were two warm up acts, both of which were shockingly bad.

Ian, Mum & Jodie.	The audience go wild as the Steps logo appears on the screens at either side of the stage.
Five tubes that Steps were rise up and into on their first appearance on stage.	A vault with countdown clock on. The graphic was completely on a back screen.
The vault opens.	Steps appear on stage.
The graphics screen at the back of the stage. The screen lit up, in combination with the lights made getting photos really difficult.	Steps appear on stage. We were treated to a few Steps classics with dance moves using the back screen as a Just Dance type game.
Steps – Dancing & Singing in boxes.	Backing Dancers – Playing with Fire, while Steps sing.

To give you a feel of the hyper-active, excited atmosphere of the audience, I took a short video:

Then each member of Steps did a solo song. First Lee, singing a mix of a few songs. His performance was excellent, and there were even screams when he ripped open his shirt:

(Lee performing with his shirt open.)

Next was Faye:

(Faye performing.)

‘H’ sang Don’t Stop Believing and did some clever stuff by making it look like he was interacting with the big graphic screen at the back of the stage:

(H performing. With his use of the graphic screen, I struggled to get a good photo.)

Lisa sang next, singing a mix of different songs including her track ‘Lately‘:

(Lisa performing.)

Claire sang her solo last. Claire had put on weight, but looked better for it. Unsuprisingly she sang an opera type song (having been on Popstar to Operastar):

Then it was time for my favorite Steps song: It’s The Way You Make Me Feel. I couldn’t help feel disappointed, rather than just having H singing the male lines of the song both H and Lee sang them. There voices didn’t feel like they became one. I would have preferred just H to sing to be honest. Still the costumes lived up to expectations, see below:

Lee in his mask and suit.	H in is costume. Claire, Faye and Lisa wore corset type costumes. All keeping in the theme of the orignal music video.
H closer, a photo of the side screen.	Steps then went on to sing Love’s Got A Hold On My Heart

Steps stopped to say Thank you’s – mostly to the audience for supporting them. They even posed for a photo:

Then they slowed things down with a few of their ballot type tracks. What amazed me was that the audience sang along, louder than Steps at some points. The audience singing in mass made me aware of how many people related to the words in Step’s songs.

(Steps sitting on the stage singing some of their slower tracks.)

Steps brought back the hyper-active, excited atmosphere of the audience with Stomp and some other songs. Here’s some photos:

Stage for Stomp.	Stage for another song.
Stage for another song.	Steps on Stage performing Dancing Queen.

Then it was time for Steps to take a bow and leave the stage:

For their encore they performed the only track they hadn’t performed so far: Tragedy :

(Leaving the audience on a high.)

For me it was a bit of nostalgia, re-living my teen years. But Steps stated that they were back – so they may well release some new music. I hope they do, I really enjoyed myself and had forgotten how much I enjoy a bit of cheesy pop.

I would like to apologise for quality and size and of the photos. I should have taken my camera rather than used my iPhone, this would have improved the quality of the photos. I’ve also had to significantly reduce the size of the photos to save on disk space (see More Disk Space). But if you’ve not got tickets to see Steps, don’t worry as the tour DVD is available to pre-order here: Steps – The Ultimate Tour Live [DVD]. Also you can order the live concerts on CD here: Steps Live! 2012 [CD].

Blog soon,

Antony

On Christmas eve Sye came round so that we could exchange gifts. Sye made me one of the nicest gifts I have ever received:

This drawing of me and the cats, drawn and coloured by Sye is brilliant and shows his true talent. Click on any of the pictures above for full size. I thanked Sye and he told me to check my email Christmas Day. Sye left and I went to bed, early, after all it was Christmas eve.

On Christmas Day I checked my email and I had one off Sye. He’d designed me a new logo:

(The New Logo.)

(The Old Logo, for you to compare.)

Not only that, but he intends to help me to redesign the new blog in the Summer of next year. So a project for us to work on together!

Then it was time for the cats Dylan & Russell to receive their gifts:

(Cats getting into their Christmas bag.)

(Cats playing with a spinning penguin toy.)

(Cats chasing the lazer pen beam.)

(The cats got lots of toys for Christmas.)

The day continued with a quick visit to see Kay (my good friend) & her family. After that I went to spend the day at mums. Without any doubt the best aspect about the day was spending Christmas with family and friends. In particular my little nephew Ethan (photos of him coming soon, promise).

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Write soon,

Antony

The last week or so has been a chaotic whirlwind of activity that has led me to be offered and accepting a new job. I wont give too much details as I’ve always maintained this is a personal blog and always had a strict rule about not discussing work. Needless to say this rule will be maintained in my new post.

But it is an exciting opportunity, out of the geographic area I currently work in and will present me with some new challenges. I’ll have read up and update myself on Nursing practices in a hospital setting, as I haven’t worked in a hospital since I completed my Nurse training. I’m looking forward to starting the post in the coming months, embracing the learning opportunities the post brings as well as developing best practice.

Now on to things to look forward too over the next few months:

• Watching John Barrowman live – I didn’t manage to see him last year due to being ill (see The long fantastic weekend, that never happened).
• Dressing up the cats in costumes for Halloween / Samhain.
  (If anyone knows where I can buy cat costumes, please let me know by commenting. I can find plenty of human Halloween costumes online, but none so far for the cats.)
• Undertaking Samhain ritual with Simon & Chrys (see Pagan Festivals).
• Having a private Samhain ritual to commerate the loss of my brother Alex (see My Darling Baby Brother) earlier this year.
• Reading The Fear by Charlie Higson and The Time of My Life by Cecelia Ahern.
• Yule / Christmas – the opportunity to take some time out with my family and friends. Plus it’s the cats first Christmas, so they will be spoilt. No doubt they’ll manage to bring down the Christmas tree. I’m sure it will have sad moments since Alex (see My Darling Baby Brother) wont be here – but I’m hoping that overall it will be positive.
• Completion of my first few chapters of a creative writing story I’m going to set to work on (I promise) and getting all of your feedback.
• One of my brothers fiancée giving birth to a baby. Giving me another Niece or Nephew.

So lots to look forwards too. Signing off for now, feeling really positive,

Antony

But, is that what Christmas is about? Coming together to unwrap glossy, bright paper to reveal the hidden treasure. Please don’t misunderstand me, I appreciate all of the presents I’ve received. It’s just that by the time the presents have been unwrapped; the dinner ate; a doctor who special is watched, it’s all over. Without any real, significant time spent with our loved ones (family, friends and lovers). We haven’t asked them how their year has been, sitting down to listen and truly hear.

So with this in mind, I am starting a new tradition next year. I want an hour round a table or near a warm fire to talk to one another. I want to feel close to my loved ones at this time, not waste a really good opportunity talking superficially about what presents we got. Because, too me, people count more than stuff.

With this said though, I’d still like some things to unwrap. Let’s just not let the topic of conversation all day be about that book/jumper/DVD/computer game/etc. unwrapped.

Oh and just too add a bit of gossip – if you don’t mind? I didn’t think so. My brother announced his girl friend is pregnant, so I’m going to be an Uncle – technically again. I will get round to writing up the post about my long lost brother and his kids. Secretly I always wished to be an uncle, I guess the moral of this story is: be careful what you wish for.

Take care,

Antony

Jo’s use of witty chapter titles and writing as she would talk instantly engages the reader. Your hooked from page one, even though the subject is about motorways ones she loves and ones she doesn’t. The majority of the book focuses on her late teenage years and her early adult years before she became a TV comedian. Each chapter contains a truthful and witty story, including several about her time as a Psychiatric Nurse. It has several glossy photo pages, spaced throughout the book, so you can image what the then Jo would look like along with other important people in her life.

Although funny, cleaver and engaging I did feel that it was kept very superficial. Jo didn’t discuss life goals, or lovers or people and experiences that have helped shape her in the fabulous woman that she is. Indeed she states that there wasn’t one key reason she went in to stand up comedy. This was disappointing because all stand up comedians seem to have a reason, for acceptance from others through humor, because they were always that way – making people laugh, etc.

As I edged closer and closer to the end of the book, I started to realise that Jo wouldn’t be discussing how she got in to stand up and moved on in her TV career and I came to realise there would be another book. Overall I thought Look Back in Hunger by Jo Brand was good light witty reading, that you could dip in and out of. It’s a good introduction to were Jo Brand came from. Her latest book, the second part in this autobiography is available to buy on Amazon as well: Can’t Stand Up For Sitting Down by Jo Brand.

Blog soon,

Antony