7th April - Rob and Louise's wedding and Michael Ball concert

I was pleased to see that it was bright and sunny when I woke up this morning. My journey to Macclesfield went pretty much according to plan. I'm so glad I decided to go by train as driving to an unfamiliar place in this heat would have been stressful.
I was the first of our group to arrive at the church, so I was pleased to see a familiar face when Rick arrived not long after. We got chatting to an elderly couple from Arnside (a place I'm quite familiar with as it's not far from where my aunt and uncle live. Other members of 25 plus started to arrive. Julie, Judy, Karen and Sarah joined us on the bride's side of the church. I remarked to the others that Rob was hiding his nerves well.
The ceremony went very smoothly. The vicar did his best to make Louise and Rob feel at ease. His sermon was both thought provoking and amusing. He pointed out that Easter Saturday was a good day to get married because it was a day of trusting - the day when the disciples had to trust that Jesus's promises of resurrection would be fulfilled. At the end of his sermon he gave R & L creme eggs. He told R to put them in his jacket pocket and make sure that he took them out before ironing it or sending it back to the hire shop! Another part of the service that I liked was when prayers were said thanking God for R & Ls talents - I've not seen that done before.
Afterwards we all went outside to pose for photos. The weaather was still glorious and I managed to get several good photos of the rest of the 25+ crowd and the bride and groom. As they climbed into the vintage car that would take them to the reception, Mike pointed out that a red carpet had been placed on the pavement. They were handed glasses of champagne and we took our last few photos before they left.
I walked back to the station with Charlie as he assured me that it wasn't far. We managed to get there in time for the 4pm train. I arrived home about an hour later and just about had time to eat the pizza and salad Mum had cooked for tea and get ready to go to the Apollo.
When we arrived we were greeted by Ray and Fiona who were waiting for us in the foyer. We chatted about last night's meal and the songs we hoped would be sung tonight.Then we left them to make our way upstairs to the circle. Our seats were pretty good - 5th row from the front and fairly central.
We quite enjoyed the support act - Tara Blaze - a pretty blonde with a good voice who sang some of her own songs and some well known classics including "What do you get when you fall in love?"(originally a hit for Dionne Warwick).
After the interval the band took their places and started to play a medley of songs from the musicals before Michael appeared on stage to be greeted by loud applause.
Mum reckoned he looked as if he had put on weight. In his first chat with the audience between songs he said he'd stopped smoking so that was probably why. His voice certainly seemed to have benefitted. Highlights of the concert included a medley from the musicals (Les Mis, Phantom, Passion, West Side Story) and an assortment of pop and rock hits from 60's to the present. (including Queen's Show must go on and Rainbow's Since you've been gone) He told a very funny story about how he'd stayed out very late and got quite drunk at an awards show in the Savoy (impersonating several people who were with him at the time) and then launched into Amy Winehouse's Rehab song. He also sang "I don't feel like dancing" (Scissor sisters). About halfway through the concert he did a duet with Hayley Taverner (Emmerdale star who was runner up in the Soapstar Superstar contest he judged) - it was an operatic number and it sounded as if she had been having singing lessons as she held the notes well. The final song was "Love Changes Everything" (as we expected).
We reckoned this was the best concert of Michael's that we had seen. He is so versatile. In all this was a very enjoyable day.