Friday 14th August

It's 7:40pm and I'm setting off towards the city to meet Jackson. I'm going to be late unless I drive fast, so I drive fast and smooth along the M56 which has quite a lot of traffic. Playing on the car radio is:
-Kiss
-The Look
-Hot thing
All by Prince

I park the car at 8pm and walk over to where Jackson is waiting. We go to get Pizzas from Pizza Co. opposite the park, near to Manchester Met University. We used to go to Popolinos but the quality has gone down lots. So we're trying a cheese and tomato pizza from Pizza Co.
Me: "This is a really good pizza. It looks homemade and the cheese they've used is good quality."
Jackson: "Yeah. It's nice."

We walk towards the city. We're walking through Chinatown and Jackson says:
Jackson: "You're acting really edgy tonight. What's up?"
Me: "I've probably been indoors too much. And I've been sorting out the 0870 number for my business. The government changes the policy and today I found out I had to choose a new number - an 0845. They've made it so it costs me 2p a minute on the 0870 to receive calls! I had to change the number on my website and so on."
Jackson: "You're acting like Murdoch tonight!"
Me: "Murdoch?"
I do a Murdoch impression.
Jackson laughs for ages. I laugh surprised at what good impression I did.
Jackson: "That was a really good Murdoch impression! Can you do it again!"
Me: "I probably couldn't do it that good again if I tried!"

We're leaving Chinatown now and going towards Market Street.

Jackson: "What's your girlfriend doing tonight?"
Me: "She's out dancing."
Jackson: "A lesson or something?"
Me: "I don't know, maybe a lesson followed by a venue. I invited her out to come clubbing every week but she's not that into it."

We sit outside the Next store on the benches and talk. The night is starting up now and promoters with flyers for the clubs have arrived.

We go inside Hard Rock Café. We stay for a while.

We leave Hard Rock Café and sit outside again in the warm summer air.

We go to the newsagent in the Printworks. We buy some snacks and drinks.

We sit on the bench outside Tiger Tiger and eat our snacks.

We go to the Birdcage nightclub. We have some drinks and dance. The DJ is very good tonight.

A lady goes up to Jackson and dances with him. They have some good moves and dance well together. Then Jackson finishes dancing with her.

A few minutes later the same lady comes to dance with me. We just can't dance together though. Our moves are so different it doesn't work. That sometimes happens.

Me and Jackson sit down.
Me: "We used to be really alpha. But we're not nowadays."
Jackson: "What do you mean?"
Me: "When we used to go clubbing 3 or 6 months ago we were really cool."
Jackson nods as if in possible agreement.
Me: "Maybe it's because we've got girlfriends."
Jackson: "People say guys often change when they get a girlfriend."
Me: "We should make the effort to be more alpha."

I make a conscious effort to be more alpha. We get on the dancefloor and I thinkback to 98 and 99 when Oasis was playing in the clubs in Manchester as wel as House Music.

Another lady approaches me and we dance. We're enjoying it. She has a few moves but isn't into quality dance moves so much, more into dancing all close which is ok for a bit.

It's turning out to be a fun night. Also Jackson is dancing with some good moves.

It's like you can dance away the drag of society in this place. You feel great and dance well.

Me: "Have you noticed how every 10 minutes another guy is thrown out of this place by the door staff?"
Jackson: "Yeah! The guys can't handle themselves when dancing around women."

It's funny how 25% of the guys that were here at the start of the night have been thrown out! Either because of taking drinks on the dancefloor, starting trouble, or harassing ladies.

A third lady dances up to me. She's got lots of great moves. We totally have similar style that goes together so well. We're having an amazing time on the dancefloor. It's so right. After 10 minutes of dancing she says she's too warm so she's going to get a drink.

Me and Jackson go to the seats and get drinks. Jackson was dancing on the side on his own while I was with the lady.
Me: "She was so hot."
Jackson: "She's got to be a 10. She's one of the hottest girls in the club. I was like - you're so lucky - when she danced right up to you."
Me: "I've got a girlfriend but I was considering what to do. She's so hot and we dance so well."
Jackson agrees.
Me: "She has such a good figure and we have similar moves."

Later she comes over again and we dance for 45 minutes. We dance close, we dance fun. A guy makes a point of coming over to shake my hand and say fair play for being with such a hot lady and dancing so well. Then I go back to dancing with her.
Me: "What's your name?"
Her: "Lou." it's probably short for Louise. She has an accent.
Me: "Where are you from?"
Her: "Iran. Where are you from? Manchester?"
Me: "Yes."
Her: "What's your name?"
Me: "Alex."

So here I am dancing opposite the hottest lady in the club. She's wearing a red dress that's tight on the body with kind of frills on the skirt area and red shoes. We're moving our hands over each other. She's facing me with her hands over my shoulders around my neck. I don't kiss her right away because I'm considering my girlfriend. Then she says:
Lou: "I'm hot. Back in 10 minutes."
Me: "Ok."

Now I'm sitting down with Jackson.
Jackson: "What are you going to do?"
Me: "She's so hot. Maybe I should have kissed her. But I was considering what me and my girlfriend have ben through. What I'm going to do is take her number and if we meet again I'll decide. If I kiss her tonight and it's a one off it won't be any good."

I consider maybe I could be friends with her and go out to clubs dancing.

Jackson: "Where's she from?"
Me: "She's Iranian."
Jackson: "I like Iranian girls. I dated one for a year once. Lots of them have dance lessons."

Me and Jackson go to the dancefloor. The lady doesn't come back. The club gets emptier and we can see she's not here. She was with an Iranian friend - a guy looking bored. She could have given up as I didn't snog her and decided to leave.

Me and Jackson go to the foyer and sit there.
Me: "When you meet a lady like that, you dance so well together. I can see what they say about dancing and what people are like in the bedroom. I've just never noticed it much with English ladies because most aren't that good at dancing."
Jackson: "You were dancing really well. I wondered what happened as you were dancing like Murdoch earlier! Then you turned into Face with all the ladies."
Me: "Very funny. I was trying to be alpha. I was thinking how I used to dance in 98 when I went clubbing."

Me: "Guys in clubs nowadays do some comedy moves, but they can't dance the course of a night."

Me: "Tonight so many guys got thrown out."
Jackson: "I know. They probably couldn't cope with all the hot ladies."

As we sit in the foyer and chat, another guy is marched out of the venue by a doorman.

We walk across the city to my car. It's mixed feelings with the lady I met tonight. At Jackson's place we talk for a bit.
Jackson: "You don't even know this girl you met tonight."
Me: "I made the right decision to go for the telephone number. Next time I'll know what to do. I might even see her around again."
Jackson: "I take it you'll be going to the Birdcage next week?"
We laugh.
Jackson: "Or you'll be looking for someone similar to replace her."
Me: "No I won't do that."

Me: "Who knows. Maybe I will see her again. Like the lady I met on the bus and saw in Castlefield"

I drive home. It's nearly 5am now so I might as well have breakfast. I cook some fried eggs, make some toast, have some juice, then go to bed.



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