Fat Mancunian

Every good work do starts with a meal and mine's no different. Steak and Ale pie at a surprisingly busy Stag. Ordered a Carlsberg to go with it because the Guinness is always crap in here and the only bitter they have is Yorkshire rubbish. Pie was piping hot and gorgeous. Beer palatable, atmosphere good and the scary locals got less and less scary the more they harmonised with the Human League tunes on the jukebox. Got a call from housemate and colleague Moss who's up for tagging along. She and another possible recruit, Louisa, are waiting at stop 2, The Mount. Location: The Stag, Orrell Road

Afternoon campers. So the office Christmas Do is something I always look forward to, and this year's was a belter in Warrington. Unfortunately I was on my best behaviour for whatever reason. I went out with a girl from Ramsbottom way back when and her dad was a self employed plumber and every year would have his own Christmas Do. He'd do a job in the morning then park the van back at their house an walk down to the pub and do what self employed plumbers do best. Drink until he was fluent in Polish. Now I'm currently trying to convince the Revenue that I'm no longer self-employed but for today I'm going to pander to them and have myself a "self employed Christmas Do". I'm going to start with some lunch at one end of Orrell Road in Wigan and make my way into town to meet with my friend Shaun for a curry. The perfect Christmas Do and, like the actual official Christmas do, I'm paying for it myself! I've got my mp3 player for the walk, my phone so