My stag weekend - REPORT

Well, it seems AGES ago now (it was), but it is about time I told you briefly about my stag weekend (then I can finally get on to posting about the wedding and honeymoon!).

I flew to Southampton after work on Friday 13th October 2006 with Wayne and Phil (my ushers) and Mel, Phil's wife. First we consumed a quick Indian meal near the station before grabbing a train to Portsmouth Harbour. From there, it was a shortish walk through the marvellous Gunwharf Quays centre until we found our hotel, the perfectly-located Holiday Inn Express Gunwharf Quays. I shared a room with Wayne, and we had a good old chat about everything under the sun till 3 am.


After breakfast the next morning (Holiday Inn Express do a good continental buffet), we had a good look around the Gunwharf Quays. Mel and Phil went on a boat tour of Portsmouth Harbour then a trip up the Spinnaker Tower, whilst Wayne and I went for a look around the shops.

In the afternoon, Suzanne (my sister) came down by coach from London. I spent some time with her, firstly going up the Tower (with its really rather scary glass floor) and then walking to the Historic Dockyard to have a look at HMS Victory (although lack of time precluded our going on board - and I'm not sure we would have wanted to stretch to £11 each for the privilege anyway).



In the evening we went out for my stag meal, to a great Oriental Buffet called Water Margin within the Gunwharf Quays centre, followed by our reason for going to Portsmouth in particular - the opportunity to see my favourite band, Level 42, performing live in the city that night. They were SUPERB, FUNKY and TIGHTER than a TIGHT THING TIGHTENED :-)

After the show, we waited in the cold air for over an hour until I finally got my chance to meet my all-time bass hero, Mark King. He had a great sense of humour and, on Suzanne taking a pic of us together, he got up on a barrier to equal my height, asking me:

"Are you the tallest man in the world? Here's me and short arse Steve getting our picture taken!"

I was over the moon and it was SO worth waiting for.


The next morning, we flew back to Guernsey. A FANTASTIC stag weekend, and I didn't even consume a drop of the black gold. :-)

P.S. All photos courtesy of Suzanne - thanks.