Stag Night!!!

Today has definitely been a case of the morning after the night before!!! Last night was my best mate Nick Bartlett's Stag Night and as I am his best man at the wedding on October 6th, it was my job to organise the day.

There wasn't too much organising to do on reflection, as with all things, I was mainly worried about whether everyone would turn up and enjoy themselves. Thankfully, as far as I could see anyway, we managed to tick both boxes.

When Nick asked me to be best man a good while ago. I was barely able to start thinking of devious locations and events for him when he announced that he wanted to go shooting in the day and drinking in Liverpool at the night. Nick even took on the task of trying out various clay pigeon locations around the North West to find the best venue (it must have been hard for him eh!!).

So in the end, we organised a shoot at Manchester Clay Shooting Club, an evening meal and the Concert Square area of Liverpool for some beer.

It was a really enjoyable day, everyone loved the clay pigeon shooting which I think is reflected in the picture above. Steve Foye is the proud man with the trophy and the open gun for hitting the most clays as a non shooter. He hit 18 out of 25. I hit 7....enough said eh and 2 of them were out of sheer anger!!! Personally, I can see why people enjoy it and I would go again but its not a hobby I would invest time and money into. My eyesight really let me down, the clays were coming in and out of focus as they flew through the air so I think my favourite hobby will remain throwing oneself down a big hill in a large wet ball.....see previous entries!!!

We got the main party together in the early evening and went for an Italian meal before moving onto Concert Square and it was great to see so many friends turning out for Nick. It was also great to see some people that I had lost touch with for some many years, namely the Ashworth brothers and Mark Soffe and its good to know we are all able to reflect on the old days and that we are all growing old gracefully!!!

Nick was looking a little worried for most of the early part of the night as I was carrying a large black folder and was not willing to let him take a peep into it. At this point, I have to let you into a sub story.

Initially, it was my desire to handcuff Nick to a lamppost in Concert Square, my brother Andy was going to come into the city centre in his car with 2 x 25 Litre water carriers and 5 buckets. We were then going to invite members of the public to give him a public soaking. It was all going to be good fun and I was going to make sure that he had a change of clothes at the ready to make sure he was OK. Unfortunately, I took the time to run the idea past a local law enforcement officer and he told me that bringing large containers of unknown fluids into the middle of a busy city drinking area actually contravened several current anti terror laws and that there was a good chance I would get arrested!! So, onto plan B....

Plan B worked out just fine. I had already bought the handcuffs to lock Nick up so I put them to good use and handcuffed Nick in the bar that we all met in. The only way that Nick would be set free would be to pass 5 challenges out of the 10 that I had come up with and stored in envelopes in the folder. Nick took it well and these were his challenges -

1 - Obtain a lovely ladies bra and present it to the stag party. (This was actually the easiest of them all, Nick and I were stunned at how willing the lady was to hand her bra over!!).

2 - Assemble 4 none blond women for a group photo.

3 - Stand in the middle of the bar area and sing the national anthem nice and loudly.

4 - Buy a drink for a male stranger and give it to him telling him that he had seen him from across the bar and really liked him.

5 - Challenge 2 other members of the Stag to a "down in 1" pint competition. Nick chose Myles and myself and for the record..I won!!!

So 5 done and before we let him out of the cuffs, he had to phone his wife to be, Cara, and serenade her with "I just called to say I love you" down the phone. Well done son!!! I was worried about where the cuffs ended up but I did notice them at Nicks place this morning so thankfully some poor sod is not stuck to a lamppost waiting for a locksmith!!!

After that, many drinks flowed, we moved onto the fantastic 80's bar, Reflex, for more drinks and general silliness and by 2.00AM, Nick was smashed and the night drew to a close with him taunting a bouncer trying to clear the club out and then turning on a taxi driver for the fare home!!! I have never seen that side of you mate, it was really funny!!!

So we got Nick home and off to bed and hit the hay at around 3.15AM.

To my surprise, I woke up at 6.35AM bright as a button!!! I have to tell you though, because of my well logged history of what alcohol does to me, I took it very easy drink wise. I think I must have had 4 or 5 beers all night and I interleaved them with Diet Coke and J20 drinks.

So there we go, a great night, I got a mail from Nick telling me that there are blanks in his head which is always a good sign for a good night so I am more than happy with my work!!!

The job is now half done, the wedding is just over a month away and that is where I get to meet everyone again, share some more drinks and get the chance to leave Nick red faced again. Its a tough job but very rewarding!!!