Berwick

 

I have never been to Berwick, but in the Stuart Maconie book "The Pie At Night"  we find out that it was a favourite place of LS Lowry although we tend to associate him with the North West. We also are reminded of the Jewish origins of Fish and Chips, among many other culinary delights which has given me the ideas to write a Vocal post about the eateries in the Grainger Market in Newcastle.

I am also reading "Carol" by Patricia Highsmith, a recommendation from my work LGBT+ book club, so I will have two on the go, and that is not a bad thing.

He is also an excellent writer and DJ and worth checking out in print or on the BBC. 

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "The Night Watch" by King Crimson from the album "Starless and Bible Black" that takes it's title from a line from "Under Milk Wood" by Dylan Thomas, because the only Lowry related song is the appalling Brian and Michael song "Matchstalk Men"

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer and this is her Instagram

Back To Everville

Yesterday I noticed a red light on my mouse that I hadn't noticed before. It's wireless so I assumed it was just something I hadn't noticed before. This morning it was dead, needed new batteries. The light comes on when the batteries are about to expire. I'm not sure what happens when the keyboard battery expires, but if an unexpected light starts flashing, I will have a clue.

Last night in The Fenham Fish Bar they have gone back to walk ins but you have to give your name when you order, though was surprised to find they know my surname , but the guy after me was called Steve Martin , so we got chatting about the comedian's banjo and ukulele talents.

I'm over a third of the way through "Everville" and I am now sure that I have never read the book. This is odd as it is by one of my favourite authors, Clive Barker,  and a follow up to another great book "The Great and Secret Show" so why did I buy it but never read it. Although parts of it are in familiar territory and characters are familiar , having just read the first book , and Harry D'Amour does reappear in "The Scarlet Gospels" , so rather than a rereading this is a first time read by one of my favourite authors , so I am certainly pleased about that.

I always like discovering new things and this is like discovering a long lost album by one of your favourite artists or an unknown (to you)  film by a favourite director.

Today looks gorgeous outside so have a planned trip to the Grainger Market before watching football this afternoon then maybe continuing on with the last three episodes of "Vikings".

Music wise I have been listening to CDs mostly this week, though I have misplaced my copy of "En-Tact" by The Shamen but I am going with "Alive" by Steve Mason. When I heard this I thought the voice and sound was familiar , and Steve Mason was also the voice of The Beta Band another of my favourites. The Steve Mason album is "Meet The Humans" which reminded me of Humans , the first Matt Haig book I read because I gave it out for a World Book Night. I had it for sale on my Discogs store but it has now been pulled , definitely too good to sell.

So enjoy your Saturday and I hope you discover something new and brilliant too.

Conference Pears

I've generally avoided Conference Pears because their skin looked ropey and the pears generally seem hard, and I'm not a fan of teeth breaking hard fruit but I got a mixed fruit and veg box as part of a delivery from the Grainger Market Delivery Service and the huge box contained, among other things Conference Pears.. So I tried them , and , surprising they are excellent and have made a new convert.

Juicy , sweet and firm , and so good that I got more today from a local shop. Very true you can't judge a book (or a record) by it's cover although a good cover can be tempting and in the case fruit looks can be deceiving , although once you have tasted it , you are happy to go back.

I just though I'd mention this, because the Grainger Market Delivery service is supporting local businesses and providing excellent produce, it's worth visiting if you are in the Newcastle area.

So it's late on a school night, what should we go with , I was thinking something relevant and the the song from Alex Garland's "Devs" came to mind which I thought was "Conference" but is actually "Congregation" by Low. Another case of me getting things completely wrong, but the series is good and so is the song and so is the stuff from Grainger Market , so all i sgood in the end.

Back

I'm back in Newcastle and back to work and sort of sad that I'm not still in Settle, but finances don't currently allow me to be on permanent holiday, I am not impressed with the so called "Christmas Village" that has been rammed into Newcastle centre, to me it's just blocking where I can walk and messing up the road system but it does make me more determined to shop locally, especially in The Grainger Market.

Apart from catching up at work I will need to send my Christmas cards this week and must sound curmudgeonly as I see this and Christmas decorations as a chore. I am fine with people celebrating Christmas , went round to my neighbours for impromptu drinks and socialising and love things like that, Christmas can do a lot of good but I do hate the adverts saying that to really celebrate Christmas you need to spend a fortune on Amazon. No you need to socialise , talk to people and have fun.

I am old enough not to need presents and in some ways would like to put a fiver limit of people who want to buy me things.

For some reason the song "Temporary Secretary" by Paul McCartney has been going through my head, love the repeated sequencer motif that runs through it, and this has nothing really to do with this most but maybe it is a Monday Morning record.

Bay Uke Grainger Christmas

Today I was in the Grainger Market and hears a Christmas Ukulele band finishing off "Let It Snow" , and they sounded quite good but I'd missed that and was expecting them to break into another similarly veined song, but no, they went into one of my favourites "I'm The Urban Spaceman" and did an very jolly version which you can see above (sorry it's phone portrait and not landscape but the sound is good.

They started with Dean Martin and were going to continue with "Rockin' Round The Christmas Tree" and asked me to join in their choir but I had to do a few things but totally enjoyed this pleasant interlude.

Bay Uke are on Facebook here where you can join their group, if you have a Ukulele I am sure that they will welcome you.

Incidentally "I'm The Urban Spaceman" was produced for The Bonzo Dog Band by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym Apollo C. Vermouth.

As I said this is a very short post to record a lovely interlude in my Sunday morning.

Turning Lebanese

The Bake in Byker (a lebanese restaurant I have not yest visited but heard great reports about) has a presence in The Grainger Market called Felafel Al Hana, which I visited briefly when it first opened and was treated to complimentary felafel. I had been a couple of times and decided the main courses were too much for lunch, but passed today and checked out the hot starters and these actually looked like more than enough for a meal.

I ordered Batata Harra and Fried Vegetables , which was a more that decent serving of fried spiced potato cubes with sauce , bread , olives , mushrooms and a lot more vegetables , so an aleast vegetarian if not vegan meal , along with a cold jug of water, all for undet four pounds.

Service and the people were very welcoming and I have a few more items on th estarter menu that I am going to try. It is one of the many brilliant places to eat in the Grainger Market and far better thatn most of the chains in The Eldon (Incidentally Giraffe has gone).

You can see what I had here.  It was as good as it looks.
I wasn't sure exactly what music to have on this but as I had just got a new Facebook friend who was a friend of the lead singer with the Coyotemen, Helmut Bruiser,

I think their last single "Can She Cook" should suffice as Felafel Al HAna certainly can cook

Restart

I've decided to start sharing things on Facebook again (ie Instagram photos) but trying to generally keep it to positive items. If Facebook decide to ban me again there is nothing I can do, there is no option to contest a ban, but it's their club.

This weekend has been varied and busy, yesterday was at Sarah's birthday gathering in North Shields and then I got a friend request from a niece who I have not seen since I was hospitalised with my first bout of ITP in the mid eighties, and though my timeline is gonna look very sparse isn't it. One of the problems is that complaints , bad news and rumour spreads like wildfire while good news is seldom shared but it makes people it touched feel better and if I can do that to one person then it's worth doing.

Today I was thinking I needed to do something, but was feeling a little lethargic , but mowed the lawn, then caught an angry bee in the bedroom (well it was angry in the tube) , but I let it out the window and it went off at some speed.

This week I intend to see a lot of friends including Krista at Kota who I've not seen and Claire at Glamorous Owl who I manage to keep missing, and whoever happens to be about at RPM and Snackwallah and if the queues are low I may try Acropolis another addition to the Grainger Market.

Although I have been feeling apathetic and lethargic I'm obviously not as I've done a lot and have plans to do more. Sometimes you just have to do things and then that makes you feel better.

I was originally going to include Monty Python's "Eric The Half A Bee" (which you can listen to on Amazon or here) but the decided that " Flight of The Bumble Bee" from Tsar Sultan by  Rimsky Korsakov would be more appropriate with this animation. Remember Bees are important to the survival of the human race so always ensure you look out for them, they will only sting you if they have no other option , as it kills them and could very well kill you.

Look after the bees, without their pollination work , plants would not grow and we would very soon be starving.

With that thought have a great Sunday

Snackwallahlicious

Over a month ago I wanted something quick for lunch and decided to go for a KFC because it's quick and cheap, then I remembered that there was an Indian Streetfood place in The Grainger Market that I had seen flyers for and walked past and thought I would maybe give it a try.

My first meal was a Mixed Platter  which I can't really describe but for three pounds it was full of textures and flavours that were a definite reason to go back, and it was extremely good value for money.

The following time I tried their daily curry whicgh for four pounds gives you a nutitious and tasty dish of rice , dahl , curry and roti. The food is also vegan which is another plus, although I am not vegan myself.

My problem, or rather not a problem but since that date this has been my lunch three days a wek. I look at other options and think maybe I will spread my custome around but there are these points that always come up when I am looking for something to eat.

• It's quick
• There is a great choice
• It changes on a daily basis
• It's great value for money
• It's good for you
• It's vegan
• The people are really helpful and friendly
• They pay their staff a decent wage
• Everything they use is recyclable so very environmentally friendly
• It tastes great

And that is why Snack Wallah is getting so much of my cuntom. I do go to other places but this ticks so many boxes it is ridiculous.  If you visit the link you can see the gorgeousfood they serve on a daily basis.

You can also eat your food there or take away. I am a great fan of not eating at work so that is another plus for me.

It is situated in the Grainger Market so it's in the centre of Newcastle and very easily accessible.

I don't think this will be my last post about them and there are a lot of posts on my Instagram feed such as today's meal here.

I may be there tomorrow as well but maybe I will resist, but probably not.

Also I tried to think of a relevant song and settled o the really not very relevant "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran.

Snackwallah Diction, Snackwallah Gain

Why would you pay for something to eat. In my opinion the food has to be good and hopefully value for money. About three weeks ago I tried Snackwallah in the Grainger Market for the first time and was absolutely floored by it. When somewhere advertises "street food" very often it's sort of "like in a restaurant but on the cheap but not as good", this is definitely not the case with Snackwallah as I've been back there about ten times in the last three weeks.

As well as the Indian Street Food aspect it's also vegan sp that is a huge plus. Here is a list a things that make this place great:

• Absolutely great food, full of different stimulating tastes and flavours
• Wonderfully engaging staff, great to talk to, who will help with any questions
• Big range of dishes to both eat in and take away
• Great atmosphere to eat in
• Vegan
• Excellent Value For Money
• Perfect Portions for a working lunch

This place is in the Grainger Market and is competing against Meat Stack (best burgers in Newcastle, and I don't normally do burgers) and Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, Lebanese and English eating hubs, so it's not as though it's the only option. Every time I consider what for lunch I keep ticking things off and Sbackwallah keeps winning because after everything else it tastes great and it's vegan therefore healthy,

Today I am serving a ban from Facebook for posting a shot off the Helmut Newton image in No 28 and also Google+ has gone so I have signed up with MeWe to see if that can offer an alternatibe to share my ideas. It may turn out not to be the greatest idea but we shall see,

So after this morning's snow I'm hoping for a quiet night bit may go Indian (Bangla Deshi actually) for my tea and order an Aloo Chole from Rajnagar. Music wise I'm going share possibly one of the greatest records ever to go with some of my favourite eating places, "Reach For Love" by Marcel King.

Snackwallah Coincidence

It's amazing how I was writing about Bhanga music and Indian Restaurants earlier then decided to gofor a walk a lunch , was wondering how to lunch before deciding on a KFC before diverting to check out the Indian Street Food place in The Grainger Market, Snackwallah.

Snackwallah Platter

What an amazing surprise that was, I ordered a £3 Mixed Snack Platter which I hadn't got a clue really what I was getting but the staff were really helpful and delivered to be a small plate which a think was vegan , but definitely vegetarian (you can see it to the right) and it tasted gorgeous , with some kind of kick to it , but it was an amazingly good  and I will be going again, and thing you should do as well.

If you click on the picture you can see a few more images that I took while I was there.



Obviously this is just a short post, but Iwas training to thing of an appropriate pice which is "Husan" by Bhangra Knights or "Bhangra Knights" by Husan which  was used in a Car Advert many years make.

So it's Friday and I've found another great place to eat in Newcastle.

Aitchemvee

It looks like HMV are heading for administraion again. Last time their stores were selling anything, but music is still not their core sale product, although it is the core product you associate with HMV. One of the problems is that a great deal of people think that this is the only offline place you can get music. I Newcastle there are half a dozen record shops (listed and linked here)which a lot of people just ignore. Probably the same people who insist on going to Tesco rather than the Grainger Market for food.

They just sent me an email advertising their sale but the site doesn't work. Yesterday I bought two lots of vinyl from Discogs, which is a goldmine for both buying and selling music.

So I thought I would just mention this, it's not particularly important but they are blaming the high street malaise where everyone is shopping online. The thing is online is cheaper and often more convenient but it doesn't provide the interaction you get from a shop, that's for records or anything else. With that interaction you often get extra information and almost get a relationship with the person in the shop.

I don't know their names but I am friends with all the people in the shops I visit., and that takes me back to the shops. While I drop into HMV every now and then they are seldom my first port of call to buy a record, although I have bought from them. The problem is HMV is just another chainstore, it has no customer loyalty,  like any chainstore, and as such people will not be too botherd if it sinks or swims (apart from the employees), so I will share The Buzzcocks' "Why She's A Girl From The Chainstore" which seems sort of appropriate.

AM

Another beautiful day and I am actually on course to make #August50. There's still a long way to go and it may all crash and burn but I am keeping pace and hopefully can find something interesting to share with you , roughly on average twice a day  during th emonth of August.

So far today I have been to the post office, played a couple of moves on Facebook Scrabble, got off a couple of business related emails (mainly to get myself out of doing work) and the garden is looking OK after last nights mow.

I decided to try a MeatStack (in the Grainger Market) burger for lunch and though I am not  a burger person it was absolutely excellent. While I was in the Grainger Market I got a battery replaced in my watch and one of the problems with having a lot of esoteric watches is that batteries do run out (if they are battery operated). I probably have about ten watches , three of which are running , two may now not be working and the rest need a new battery.

So this has been the first half of my day.

It's Sixty Minutes After Midnight Therefore 1 AM

Maybe the temporal nature needs a temporal song and what better than Clocks by The Buena Vista Social Club with Coldplay from the first "Rhythms Del Mundo" album.

The Chrismas Spirit

It's funny how at Christmas it's always peace and goodwill to all men, but my attitude is that is how should be all the time. We should care for and look out for each other all the time. Unfortunately it seems that money is far more important that working together and helping each other, well that what the government and media pushes.

I despair at the existence of organisations such as "Help For Heroes" and foodbanks but current economic policy is aimed at lining the pockets of the already well off and expecting the rest of the country to clear up the mess. These organisation are laudable and should be supported, but the six richest country in the world should not need thenm to exist, but we are saddled with governments who are unable to manage the economy while claiming £40 for breakfasts.

Yesterday I took the contents of our Reverse Advent Calendar to the Newcastle Food Bank in The Grainger Market, they were grateful and when I pointed out that the Metro free paper was published by The Daily Mail they said "Burn It, we won't have fascist papers in here", they were unaware of it's publishers. They were shutting at four o'clock so I nipped to Poundland to grab some selection boxes. I picked up ten and then thought I'd hadn't got any tampons or related stuff so I added those and so small boxes of chocolates and dropped them back into the foodback , and they were grateful. I just bought some stuff the people at the Foodbank are distributing it where it's needed, there are the real heroes.

Anyway this is an excuse to play Jethro Tull's "Christmas Song" and another for #SuddenlyItsChristmas . Remember .....

"Once in Royal David's City stood a lowly cattle shed,

 where a mother laid her baby.

 You'd do well to remember the things He later said.

 When you're stuffing yourselves at the Christmas parties,

 you'll laugh when I tell you to take a running jump.

 You're missing the point I'm sure does not need making;

 that Christmas spirit is not what you drink. 

 So how can you laugh when your own mother's hungry

 and how can you smile when the reasons for smiling are wrong?

 And if I messed up your thoughtless pleasures, remember,

 if you wish, this is just a Christmas song. "

Have a great time, but if you can help someone who needs it.

Suddenly It's Christmas

Oh I do love Loudon Wainwright III, and this really sums up the commercialisation of Christmas and it's funny too. I mean you have those Coca Cola lorries, what really has that got to do do with Christmas.. but remember that Coca Cola stuck their brand on Christmas so well that Santa dresses in Coca Cola colours.

Christmas is a time for reinforcing good things , looking out for people , connecting with those you haven't seen , and spreading happiness, although personally I would like that to be permanent m, not just at Christmas.

At work they're doing a Secret Santa, but I have opted out of it , not because I'm a curmudgeon or anything , but I don't need anything and so I'm gonna spend a tenner on a bag of goodies and drop it it to the Food Bank in the Grainger Market (and I'd rather not be doing that but while we have this government it's one way of helping those affected by their spiteful bullying)

This morning I went to the post office to pick up a letter that contained a code for me to download Office 2016. It cost me a tenner off Amazon here and I had to contact support to get a link for the 64 bit version , but all seems to be good now.

So if you want the Loudon Wainwright song it's here, have a brilliant Saturday my friends.

Middle Of The Night

That's when I thought I would be writing this but I actually slept all the way through (from 11 til 6). Technology has been slightly annoying with Google Fit seeming to stop recording steps , then starting up after I'd erased all the data and restoring everything including the steps that it supposedly hadn't recorded.

Today's weather really doesn't know what it's going to do , it could rain, it might not but that's the weather for you.

Newcastle is full of Rugby fans for the Dacia Magic Weekend at St. James Park, apparently annoying my friend Rachel , demanding odds on short priced accumulators.

Tonight The Late Shows are on across the region , loads of artistic events including lots of events at The Grainger Market where all the cool shops are open til 9 pm. Here's the blurb (hope the links work)

"The Late Shows – supported by Port of Tyne and Sofa Workshop – is a free late-night culture crawl in NewcastleGateshead on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 May 2017. Download the programme brochure. Find out about the free bus services. During The Late Shows, museums, galleries, studio collectives and landmark historical buildings come together to offer visitors one-off events including hands-on workshops, behind-the-scenes tours, performances and parties. It's all about encouraging people to do something cultural with their evening in celebration of the national event Museums at Night."

Anyway I have things to do, it's now pouring down outside so I leave you with The Darts "It's Raining" .... those Rugby players will be getting wet.

One Thing Leads To Another

My phone has been playing up, but I have a feeling it's the battery, so I ordered one online. It came quickly, I put it in and nothing. I tried leaving it charging a few times , but nothing. My current battery just seems a bit temperamental and can shut the phone down when it gets down to less than 30% charge. So today I will hopefully buy a new battery (hopefully from the Asian guy in the Grainger Market near Pumphreys coffee, reasonably priced and knows his stuff but the battery is not a Samsung - the last one lasted over a year for a tenner so that's good, my current Samsung one has lasted six months BUT it had been sitting in a drawer for over a year so you know).

Anyway to return the faulty battery I need to print off a label and an email, then I find my printer has decided it's not printing three colours including black. The printer is an Epson, and prints CDs and has been fine, but it's way past it's sell bay date (I do have a grammatical problem with when I should use "past" and "passed" so apologies if I get it wrong).

The point is the the failure of by phone then just highlighted the failure of my printer when I needed it. My printer is like a spare tire, I only need it every so often. Anyway I managed to find a Canon printer for under £50 that prints CDs , is also does double sided printing and uses wifi, so I've ordered that here , it's not a scanner but I can use a camera or the local library for that.

So I have a feeling that this Samsung battery may sit around for a year in a drawer too.

The thing is I need my phone to track my steps for my Million Step Challenge that starts today, and I need to maintain 11.5K steps a day. SO far I have done 104 steps, but I still haven't taken drugs or had a shower.

So do I do the #ATuneaDayinMay with May themed music? I did one in 2012 here, but that was just a post a day in May and I did 37 posts that month, and you can see lots of link failures due to the fact that technology changes, companies go to the wall, and things don't work any more, much like the initial reason for this post.

I will start with Queen's "Keep Yourself Alive" which features Dr. Brian May on guitar , no synthesisers and a great phased guitar intro and great lyrics, which was one of the reasons I bought it straight away when I heard it on John Peel. Amazingly this doesn't appear on Queen's Greatest Hits. I loved Queen's singles but the first album I liked was "Sheer Heart Attack" still one of my favourite Queen discs.

It looks beautiful outside so I thing a wander into town to track down a new battery is called for.

Have a great Bank Holiday Monday my friends

2PM

I managed to go back to bed , get some sleep, get up , get the papers, saw the Daily Mail blaming immigrants for the latest pensions crisis, went into town and bought lots of stuff from the Grainger Market , steppend on to a bus home and now I am writing this as the football is due to start in an hour, Asda are delivering a load of bottled water (taking advantage of  a Topcashback offer) after the games have finished then off to see The Handsome Family at the Sage.

So all in all it's been and it's going to be quite a full day, and I'll probably have to wait til Sunday to have a real rest.

Anyway this gives me a chance to share "Gold" with you, and now it's time for a cup of coffee. I really shouldn't get up and do things during the night, but I still act like a ten year old at times. I can stay up , so I will , I'm not tired honest.

Kindle In The Bag of A Rabbit With Wires

That's the end of the first week at work in the new year and Preston North End have been edged out of the FA Cup by the not very mighty Arsenal,. It was similar to the Newcastle match , we should have buried them in the first half but we don't have a reliable striker. Newcastle had Mitrovic , Arsenal had Giroud, but Preston made their opponents look second best on the pitch (unlike the disaster at St James' Park). It's Saturday night and I haven't posted since Monday so thought I had best get something down.

My phone's Bluetooth still causes settings to stop, so I'm forced to use wired headphones. However the ones I have although foldable , and sound OK , are still really too big for my pocket. I really do need to look for something a little smaller, so I will do that after I post this.

I visited RPM and bought Charlemagne: The Omens of Death , a heavy metal album by Christopher Lee on Vinyl. I then visited my friend Krista in KOTA and The Long Play Cafe in The Grainger Market and told them about Christopher Lee's Heavy Metal forays , and example of which is here.

I was surprised that they were unaware of this facet of the great man's art. I've included "The Magic Of The Wizard's Dream" by Rhapsody featuring the great man on vocals.

Good night my friends.

Popular In Russia ... and a smidgen of Finland's Finest

Who Loves Me?

Just looked at my view stats for this week and I have been hit twice as much by Russia than the UK., which is nearly three times the hit rate of the USA. The page is in English so it's not that it's a very Russian oriented page or blog. In fact it's not really anywhere leaning, just that it's in English and I write about anything that takes my fancy and feel that may interest others.

My posts tend to get about fifty views on first post but there are pages with almost two thousand views, though they may have been there for many years.

I've just realised that with the graphic this is in fact a very columnar post. Obviously I would love to be popular but that will never happen, though I know I have my hard core of followers who I value very highly.







I think I was going to write something about Christmas and an observation about Darth Vader and a dustbin but I will save that for a later post. It's always good to have a subject lined up that you can drop into your writing.

So the obvious musical piece is by the wonderful Finnish beat combo , The Leningrad Cowboys , backed by the Red Army Choir singing ZZ Top's "Gimme All Your Lovin'" , seriously what's not to like. My friend Krista is Finnish , she is a wonderful designer and has a place KOTA in the Grainger Market. Go and see her and her beautiful place.


Enjoy your Wednesday Evening my friends.

Wond'ring Aloud

I don't know what made this song come to mind, but today has been sort of a million miles an hour non stop for me. The original version of "Wond'ring Aloud" is on Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" but I found this version by Ian Anderson and some classical mateys. As I write this I'm listening to Rick Wakeman's "Six Wives of Henry VIII" which I still don't think he's topped though I have always liked him. Love the story of him having an Indian Meal delivered while is was doing nothing during other memeber's solos at a Yes gig.

Anyway today I went to the Grainger Market and finally found my friend Krista's gorgeous Kota store, which really does show off her eye for design , it is a typical sized Grainger Market but she makes it light and big, and the stuff she is selling is beautiful. That is one place you have to visit next time you are in there.

Then I found Hoam Grown CIC  a new organic produce store. Absolutely lovely so I bought some potatoes , got home and realised that I didn't need any. Not to worry , The Grainger Market is full of brilliant places all under the same roof, far better than the chain food aberration that they have turned the Eldon into, still some people see that as progress. I don't.

Ok, it's time for a cup of tea now, enjoy your Saturday my friends.