Phil Redmond Capirtal of culture dinner Liverpool Town Hall Echo Arena Cirque Du Soleil

Squirmed uneasily in my seat at a Town Hall dinner on Friday night.

It was ANOTHER farewell-to-08-haven't-we-all-done-well nights. And we have.

There was a lovely meal, interesting people, the magnificent surroundings of Liverpool Town Hall, and four short speeches. So far so good.

One of the speeches was made by Phil Redmond, Culure Deputy Chair. He told us we'd all done well but reminded us that Liverpool was still a work in progress.
He pointed out that the a community outreach play had been curtailed in its programme seven shows short because of lack of funding....and that the cost of that night's dinner would have be enough for it to continue.
I didn't have that last glass of Chardonnay.

At the echo Arena on Saturday night. An Echo reader, Dave Traynor, had bid successfully at auction for use of our private box to see Cirque De Soleil and I went along to host.

Dave is director of a company called 2ergo who are doing really well in the field of mobiile communications. He and his wife Barabara were great fun - and so were his guests.

We had a few drinks and a few laughs, enjoyed the show. Then I waved them goodbye as they set off into town heading for Herbert's new champagne bar, Champu.

Long week and I'd run out of steam.