The #August50 is out the window and the monthly steps is easily doable but it I hadn't spent two hours walking after returning from a very pleasurable weekend in Dalgety Bay I would have had some major extra walking to do this week, then it starts again on Friday. It is good if you can buid up reserves to fall back on, but often the way you can do that varies like hell and it is far better to have reserves than actually playing catch up, because if you are continuously playing catch up eventually it becomes just impossible (like the #August50).
All the people (Scott, Maureen and Fiona) I spent the weekend are extremely fit and I seriously expeceted a similar weekend to last weekend walking wise. It wasn't, but I enjoyed some great company , saw some great views (the Forth Bridges) went on a non drinking (for me) pub crawl in South Queensferry and played choose a music video on YouTube on a big telly which was great fun and a great way of sharing music.
Anyway I really need to do some walking today so I will leave you with a couple of pictures and a piece of appropriate music "The Crossing" by Big Country.
This weekend I thought that I might complete my Million Step Challenge a week early, I had 35K steps to do that's about 15 miles over two days. Yesterday I hit over 17K, so today was just about redoing the steps, although I don't like doing the same thing over, but by mid day I had done 7K so thought I would just finish it tomorrow. Then I thought maybe I could walk a bit further this afternoon, and it started raining. So I picked up an umbrella , and although the rain was coming down there was little wind so I generally kept dry.
I thought I'd include Doctor Evil's "One Million Dollar" ranson demand as I still find it funny and the numbers are related.
While walking I did listen to stuff I had loaded on the phone and still love After The Fire an eighties Christian Rock band who didn't include religion in their songs that was followed by Age of Chance then back to some XTC and Tom Waits.
Although I have another week to complete the millions steps the fact that I could possibly do it today was a major temptation, and of course I gave in. The million steps translates to between 400 and 500 miles but I won't include the Procaimers song but I'll set my sights lower with Big Country's"Fields of Fire (400 Miles)".
If you want to find out about the official 1 Million Step Challenge , check here
I feel the urge to write about something but I've really nothing to write about that is interesting or has caught my imagination.
Last weekend I managed to completely miss the Mouth of Tyne and Corbridge Festivals which I attended last year, that almost shocked me. One of the problems may be that there is just so much going on that it did manage to pass me by.
Next weekend I'm going to see Big Country in Scotland and then just after that Ash play Chase Park in Whickham , not forgetting Summertyne that is going on this weekend.
I've written about all these in previous years mainly on the Spoongig site so will probably update if I get time after those festival.
Oh and tomorrow we have a Pride March in Newcastle. I like diversity and love to acknowledge and be part of it. Sometime people forget what GAY means (acronym for Good As You) , which we should all feel we are.
Also now I'm going off on a language tangent about the word "Homosexual".
"Homo" can mean man as in "Homo Sapiens" , or the same as in say "Homogenous"
I'm doing all the reasoning without referring to anything so my reasoning can probably be blown out of the water.
But "Homosexual" uses the meaning of the same , but I suppose in male / male relationships could be misconstrued as man.
Anyway , although I'm "straight" all my friends delight me , whatever their orientation , and they are part of a rich and diverse tapestry that I am so lucky to be enmeshed in.
So I'm gonna choose Tom Robinson's "Glad To Be Gay" , a great singalong song which me and my mates had great fun with putting on the jukeboxes in severely homophobic pubs in the late seventies. It was fun because we were well able to take care of ourselves . Also reminds of the time me and three mates went to see a Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" lecture in Newcastle's Centre For Life . We are not the smallest of frames and we were sat at a table in the what I believe is a gay pub called "Barons" , when a girl came up to us and asked "Are You Gay?" in hushed tones , to which my mate Chris replied "But Of Course We Are!" somewhat louder.
Anyway , It's time for bed and I have managed to ramble on for quite a bit about nothing. Sleep well my friends
I'm writing this post partially with a prod from Paul Campbell who wanted to be on Seven Days In (as opposed to Seven Day Sin). I've actually mentioned him once before and so this is the second time his name has appeared in these pages, but you can find that and this and all future posts here. Paul also has his own blog Scriptuality where you can find out about his adventures in scriptwriting and find out when his name is going to be appearing on screen. Paul and Lesley also chivvied everyone for this get together in St Andrews , so he can get people to do things that is actually good for them, ie and meeting up with old friends and people you haven''t met , forgetting real life for a bit and actually enjoying yourself. I don't expect any events from this weekend to appear in Eastenders and there were lots of people talking , enjoying themselves, with lots of smiles and sunshine.
The South Street Kids ....25 Years On
St Andrews is a University town as well has being awash with Americans as there's some golf game coming up. One of the odd things about St Andrews , or something I noticed is the number of places we visited for food which required and Marco Polo scale trek from the street to the venue. Forgans and The Vineleaf were two such examples , however they were worth the walk , and Forgans finished the njght with a Ceilidh which is basically a formalised mosh pit which ended up with several people falling over , although alcohol may have had something to do with that.
Tonight Matthew I Will Be Val Doonican
While everyone else stayed in luxury caravans we had to make to with the MacDonald Rusacks Hotel which got me £30 back on TopCashBack and was very pleasant but did have a an Arnold Palmer montage painting in reception which looked suspiciously like Val Doonican.
But I would definitely stay there again as had great service , nice staff , good breakfast and a good nights sleep
It was a great weekend and great to meet and talk people and it's always good to take yourself out of your normal routine and do something to connect with people who matter to you , because then you feel much better in yourself.
Oh I have to mention the numerous children who came along to this one and although there was a probable ten to fifteen year age spread they were all totally excellent in behavior and engagement.
So it's now Easter Monday and the music I'm gonna put for this is Big Country's One Great Thing , for obvious reasons and because me and Scott were talking a lot about them amongst other things. No go and get them Easter Eggs.
This is where the pessimists start saying it's all downhill from here , the days are getting shorter , it'll soon be winter and we haven't had a summer. Well in my opinion we have had great weather just like 2013 , I'm enjoying this great weather , we are having a great summer , and there is lot's of good stuff happening.
Big Country
I'm particularly looking forward to the Corbridge Festival which features Big Country , Bessie and the Zinc Buckets and the Ska-Toons among others , that's on the 12th of July, and the same weekend features the Mouth Of Tyne festival, admittedly I'm not too enamoured with the Brand New Heavies and Toploader but we do have the Neville Staple Band. Then we have Summertyne the following week with lot's of Americana going on.
SO we have all this music , and this without even touching on the main music venues in the area which I have eulogised in previous posts.
So really there is loads to do and enjoy and lots of it is free , you just have to make the effore to get there, and luckily Tyneside has a brilliant public transport system.
S0 enjoy the summer , it's going to be totally great!
I'm writing this somewhere between London and York using my USB Tethered Samsung Note. I'm not sure how long the connection will last, but it is actually fairly robust, but it's the first time I've done it like this. Having said that the train has just come to a halt, not always a good sign. I'm on my way back to Newcastle and given the storms and bad weather we have had recently, just a little apprehensive, is is the 13th after all and one of my friends was delayed by four hours on this line yesterday getting home at one am. Teres a lot of related stories on the BBC here.
The weather today has actually been very good and it makes you feel much better when you are going home. Some lovely skies but I can't photograph them as the windows are so dirty.
The seats I'm in are supposedly reserved to York so I may have to move when I get there, but I'm sure I can fine another seat. Two Japanese girls who gave me a bar of Kinder Surprise thought they had reserved seats but they were half an hour early on their train, the conductor let them off though which was nice. I've seen one of their seats is from London to Berwick so I'll nab that one.
So appropriately I'll include The Storm by Big Country from the first album, which should be in your collection and if it isn't , why isn't it?