Latte Liking

Whether it's because I'm old and softm my preference is for cafe latte or milky coffee, and this has now caused me to relearn to use a microwave (well th eone at work). Although work provide coffee and milk for coffee I have now taken to getting a litre of skimmed milk to make a very palatable cup of milky coffee,

I do remember when it was tea or coffee and either black or white, with or without sugar, now the "choice" is ludicrous. When I was at EE at the Costa Bar in the basement in Paddington there was someone in from of me how asked for a double shot espresso decaffeinated skinny soya latte. I did think a pummelling was in order,

So this is the last day of November 2018, and am hopefully going to be chatting with Mike Harding on Monday, but think a good song to share with you would be Rick Danko's "Java Blues" (he was the bassist with The Band, but of course sang and played other instruments).

It's Friday so enjoy your weekend.

A Grey Day Brightened By A Wildflower Visit

We wake up to rain spattered window panes, and walking out you need an umbrella and have to face a cold biting wind, hardly signs of Spring springing. Today I may finally catch up on my steps for March.

I started writing this this morning then had to go out. So basically I have ended up soing another 15K steps so have made up the steps I needed to for this month., so 11K a day for the rest of the month will suffice for me.

The weather has continued to be rainy and drab but has not stopped me walking and I got some shots of a foggy River Tyne here.

I decided to visit Wildflower at Kommunity and this is a lovely evironment to enjoy and have some brilliant vegan food, and was glad to hear at the Night Market last night they sold out of everything (they are that good) . I was chatteing to Asher about music before Jess came in with cake. I had already brunched at The Tyneside so just treated myself to some lovely vegan cake.

Too many times people say "Oh I must visit there sometime" and the still go and pay a fiver for a latte and a cellophane packed sandwich from Starbucks or Costa because "you know what your getting". You're getting homogenised packaged uniformity when you should be seeing what your local community is offering. Starbucks and Costa have their place but they are always seconday to local businesses in my universe.

Newcastle has a plethory of local food and drink providers though the new Eldon food court is a massive own goal in my opinion, I'm just waiting for the chains to start pulling out.

I mean what sort of moron goes to Jamie's Italian when you have Pani's five minutes away.?  There are hundreds of examples where the name chain has the highest profile locations and most people don't bother looking for something with some soul and heart.

Anyway I think we can go with a true Geordie anthem , Lindifarne's "Fog on the Tyne" (and not the aberation with added Gazza), the original.

Sleep well.

Coffee In Pints

I'm no Mug - Oh sorry I Am!!

I know I'm not the the most gentile or sophisticated person you might have encountered, but last night I decided for tea to have some packet onion soup (how sophisticated is that?), which required a pint of water to make it up. I was going to have it in a bowl but thought maybe I'll just try a cup full.

When I emptied the pan, there was room to spare in my mug!! We got the mugs over fifteen years back on  a holiday in Budapest, memorable for many things including nearly getting arrested for fare dodging on the metro.


What happened is that three stations had automatic ticket machines that were not working, so at the main interchange I approached a couple of ticket staff about where I could get a ticket. The older one said we would be arrested if we didn't hand over our passports. The younger one looked embarrassed, her boss was obviously someone used to the old communist methods and the assumption that everyone is out to cheat the system. We got away with on the spot fines, and were directed to a ticket office three levels up, where we served by a very affable old lady who spoke not a word of English (me not knowing a word of Hungarian, the presumptive ignoramus that I am), but we still managed to sort out tickets for the rest of the week, by sign language and smiles.

The thing is for fifteen years on a Saturday and Sunday and non work day morning I have been drinking my coffee in PINTS. You go in to Starbucks and Costa and they have all sorts of not specific names for their cups, so I may have been having pints there as well. It's just that you never think of going into a coffee shop and asking for a pint of coffee do you? Well I don't. If you go into a pub you will order a pint of beer or lager (or if in The Turk's Head in Darlington wine), but not a coffee shop.

The song I decided to go for is the angry "Perfect Coffee" by the wonderful Kate Tempest. There were lots of other options but I think this is something good to make us aware of the times we live in.

Anyway it's a lovely day and it's time to set off for work, have a great one my friends.

The Wildflower Hour

It sort of makes me sad when I am in and outside work, and almost everyone is carrying a branded cup or foodbag, be it Costa, Starbucks, Greggs, Pret A Manger (they seem to have lost their accents)  or any number of the brands you see on every high street and railway station. People justify it because "they know what they are getting". If you try to dissuade people from buying this homogenised sameness they will always excuse it with a variation on the above excuse.

In Newcastle, you have no excuse because there are so many independent places where you can eat, get coffee, tea or whatever and today I'm going to gush over Wildflower cafe and art space on Westgate Road.

Firstly it's ten minutes walk from St James' Park , a place awash with student accomodation and therefore students. When I was at sixth form college I would have loved a place like Wildflower, but todays students seem to need a label on everything they buy.

The food is vegan. I'm not vegan, but I like good food, and I like to have something different. Today I was in two minds, the Lentil Dahl or Spanish Tomato Soup . I went for the soup (which also had a fair amount of lentils) , with a brown spread roll and a very green mango and papaya smoothie. Until I walked in I hadn't a clue what I was going to have, but it was gorgeous.

As I sat down Wire's "Outdoor Miner" came on the sound system and Asher told me about the joint smoking proprietor of a cafe up the road having a mini rave as he waited for customers.

I was soon joined by a big party of people to come and sample the delights of the cafe in the wonderfully art decorated welcoming surroundings, so I'd just got my order in in time.


Wildflower also host lots of events and themed meals and gatherings, and I love seeing how well attended these are and love the fact that it's popularity is growing thanks to the hard work of Jessica and Asher. They even have their vegan cookery slots on Tyne and Wear TV (and the vegan custard creams are lush).

If you live in Newcastle and haven't visited this place , shame on you, because it really is wonderful. It's the sort of place the media will airbrush over because it's not a big money brands, but for me it's the perfect sort of brand because it surprises me consistently with food and events and I try to eat there once a week, and I have to be honest the exercise walking the hill probably does me good and walking back down you get great views of the Tyne Bridge and The Sage.

It's very close to the town centre and if you message them on Facebook they will tell you what's on (the menu) and are open to suggestions for food ideas. Jess and Asher are both at least ten years younger than my girls so I'm old enough to be their grandad, but home I don't act that way.

So I will leave you with Wire's "Outdoor Miner" and I have the anticipation of what new delights will be served up next week.  The weekend is her.. Enjoy

Life's A Long Song.... With Tattoos

Tonight I had the chance to do some catch up TV, but I didn't catch up on any TV at all. I've been meaning for ages to test the soundbar out with a 5.1 album and decided to do that. The first album was Jethro Tull's "Thick as as Brick" and I was impressed, and realised I would be doing a lot more listening to albums like this (I  hope my neighbours understand). I followed this with "Aqualung" which I got for Christmas and also contains "Life's A Long Song" which is absolutely beautiful. I remember buying the original five track single which I think Jethro Tull charged 48p for because the price of singles was seen as exorbitant for what may be as little as four minutes of music Ithis was way pre punk). Any the final couplet in that song seems so appropriate for what's been happening recently:

"Life's A Long Song,

But The Tune

Ends Too Soon

For Us All"

That has been sadly true.

On a brighter note there seem to be a lot of Tattoo Parlours springing up.  There are some great names too. I love tattoos but I will never have one, because I couldn't decide which one to have. Two Tattoo Parlours I have friends in are Arthur T Sharpes (Newcastle) and Dirk Parker Tattoos (Shrewsbury) . It's far better having another Tattoo Parlour than another Mobile Phone Shop or Betting Shop or Greggs / Subway / Costa / Starbucks .

Anyway that's my lot, I'm going to bed now, if you want to come remember to switch the light off... I have an early start.

Black Sabbath Saved Me From Being A Kiss Fan

Not me personally , but Chris Cornell of Soundgarden who was just being intervied on BBC Radio 6 , the best radio station in the world, on The First Time show. The irony of this post post is that it's not going to be about Black Sabbath or Soundgarden or even Radio 6 but the afformentioned objects of my disdain Kiss.

When I first heard about Kiss as a teenager , it was this amazing American band with outrageous full face make up , flame throwing guitars and stage show that just had to be ssen. I assumed the music would live up to the hype....

...It didn't . Typical American AOR dross backed up by a husge amount of record company hype. Faceless formula rock such as "Detroit Rock City" or "Crazy Crazy Nights" or turgid ballads like Beth. Kiss became consumate bandwagon jumpers with their own comic featuring ink laced with their blood.. Then actually cam a halfway decent song when they jumped on the euro disco bandwagon ably helmed by Giorgio Moroder with "I Was Made For Lovin You" recently relvived for a decidedly disturbing Costa advertisment.

Gene Simmons does actually make a great screen villain as Luther in 1984's Runaway with Tom Selleck , but don't think he followed that up to its full potential.

So I had great hopes for Kiss but was so disappointed with the final product. Black Sabbath and Soundgarden are far far better.

Homogenisation Hell

A couple of years ago I was reading a book by Bill Bryson in which he noted that every high street in every town or city was beginning to look the same. There was a Boots , a WH Smith , a Woolworths , a BHS , a Next  and a few others . I noted the Glastonbury was missing a couple of these and in a recent visit to Totnes their only concession was I think a WH Smiths or maybe a Superdrug.

Anyway , I was in Newcastle today in various parts of the centre and I seemed to be always in sight of a Starbucks , a Costa , a Pret A Manger , a Boots , a Subway etc . It reminds of the Sylvester Stallone film Demolition Man where the only brand left is Taco Bell . I dont know if they paid for that or just enjoyed the irony of the product positioning , but it does get scary when your choice is being whittled away like that.

Even on Newcastle Railway Station we have Starbucks , Costas and WH Smiths , oh not forgetting Greggs !!