Showing posts with label Birthdays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birthdays. Show all posts

Tuesday 1 October 2019

Birthday - #Oktoberfest #1 - A Beer and A Cigarette - Terraplane


Last night I got my first Facebook birthday greeting from my friend Keith who moved to the Antipodes nearly twenty five years back although I got my first card on Saturday from my daughter Juliet, plus a phone call from my dad last night. I've not yet gone on to Facebook yet so no doubt there will be the odd greeting. In case you are wondering this is my 62nd birthday.

During the night it's been pouring down and about five am there was a very loud big vehicle that woke me up but didn't manage to see what it was.

I've slightly changed my walking targets , which are a rolling million steps every three months which works out at 340,000 steps a month or 11K a day. My new target is just something to aim for but to try and hit 400K steps a month but I will only hold myself to the 340K. The weather this morning is not conducive to walking.

I was thinking of for October having my own #Oktoberfest with the criteria being something to drink, but not necessarily alcoholic. I have my first two lined up, the first one being "A Beer and A Cigarette" by Terraplane from the Stiff collection "The Akron Compilation" (with it's scratch and sniff cover) which for years I thought was called "The Akron Complication" which to my knowledge has still never been issued digitally. I was introduced to it with The Bok went for a meeting with Rabid Records to sort out our first single (which never happened as they folded but the demos are here on Soundcloud) and the guy said it was the most outrageous song he had ever heard.

It's great and I used it to soundtrack what I thought would be the final night at The Free Trade in 2010 but the financial crash of 2008 meant that the flats never got built and the Free Trade is still going with it;s amazing views down the Tyne.

ALso I am going for another record number of posts in a year and if I do 40 this month (my record is 54 last August ) then I only need 17 before the end of the year, but we shall see how this goes because I may not want to post every day, but we shall see. At least this is a start.

Enjoy your wet Tuesday.

Monday 1 October 2018

61


That's me sixty one years on this planet, and I still find it amusing the number of people who deem themselves old or middle aged at thirty, forty or fifty. Really you can do nothing about time and a birthday should be an excuse have fun not be despondent. Though the fact is some people are only happy when they're miserable, the usually read the Mail and don't listen to music.

I have not done much today barring visiting Ambleside, eating at The Priest's Hole and researching whether to visit Skipton Castle and Woods, due to the amazing cane sculptures that I want to see.

I was in Kendal yesterday and was sad to see that the only record shop I know has gone, so it may be that I don't pick up any music this holiday, but I do have more than enough to listen to, and one of those is the new James album as well as the new Arctic Monkeys album. So I willleave you with "Better Than That" by James, which is just absolutely wonderful.

Going to catch upon "Better Call Saul" and "Constantine" tonight.


Monday 2 October 2017

Birthday Thoughts and Thanks


I was 60 yesterday, but on Friday I was incredibly touched when I had a presentation at work. I walked in at 8 to find my desk desecrated (in the nicest way) with "60" banners and paraphenalia, but in the after noon came the presentation and a bag with a cup , som bottles of coke , a bet for Preston and Liverpool to win (they bothe drew :) ) and a very substantian INTU voucher whuch I am fairly certain will be going towards a new handset as I found that Carphone Warehouse are doing the Google Pixel unlocked, which good.

On Satruday Kirsty and Molly came over with more presents including a great personlaised print from her Juliet and Mark, as well as a DVD of the Grateful Dead's final concert and a Blu Ray of Dave Gilmour at Pompeii..

The weekend was then spent at La Rosa and I got more presents from Fiona, plus a bottle of Bucks Fizz courtesy of the lovely staff at La Rosa. Amazingly there was no TV, Video or Music over the weekend , just quiet, not that I'm getting old but it's nice to have the option. I got a phone call from my Dad too and that was nice , and you can see various presents and stuff on my Instagram Channel here.

So all in all everything goes on as before, I still have lots I want to do, and lots I've not done, but this is a big thank your to everyone who's wished me a happy birthday and I hope I can do the same in 2077. Sleep well everybody.

I'll leave with The Grateful Dead's final take on "Terrapin Station" one of my favourite Grateful Dead songs.

Thursday 28 January 2016

I Love Polly Jean


This is a great reason for me to smile. One of my favourite artists PJ Harvey is to release a new album in the spring The Hope Six Demolition Project. a wonderful taster here

My Dad
Today is my dad's 81st birthday , I've sent him a card and present and a text and will phone him at a reasonable time. That's a pic of him as a boxer.

Really he can be a curmudgeon , but has always been there for me and always encouraged me to do what I want , I totally love him. He doesn't pressure me but does exasperate me at times. but can't all good parents be like that

Anyway we are nearly at the end of January , and nearly at the end of the week , and looking forward to lots of amazing stuff at the weekend and next week





Next week I have 3 nights out already penned in , so I cannot complain my life is boring, feel free to come with me , the ride is going to be immense and intense. As it's my Dad's birthday I am including two of my favourite boxing songs , "No Mercy" by Nils Lofgren and "Boom Boom Mancini by Warren Zevon.

Have a great Thursday everyone.

Saturday 5 September 2015

Its 5AM , Getting It Wrong With The Archers of Loaf


On a Saturday morning and it's amazing how useful and sometimes rubbish the digital world can be. How often do we get the excuse "It's a computer error" ? I always reply , no , it's a human who told it what to do and provided it with the data (somewhere don the line anyway if you want to get pedantic.

Wrong
Sometime in the past I programmed my friend's birthday into Moonpig to be the 7th of September. I've been sending her cards on the 7th of September for years ,. Yesterday I caught her at Bar Loco , and said I'd forgotten her card , but it would be OK as her birthday was on the 7th . In unison everyone told me it was the 5th , and she's going on holiday on Monday.




So computer error ? I think not , this is a case of Mikey error. So this morning I need to make an early morning delivery of a birthday , so it's good that I got up at 5am

One good thing this is an excuse to play "Wrong " by The Archers of Loaf on of my favourite songs ever

Anyway have a most excellent weekend

Wednesday 1 October 2014

This is Tomorrow ... Wishing You Were Here



This post is part challenge but part something I want to do. It's my birthday and usually you do something special on your birthday. I'm starting this at 6.10 am and will finish it tonight. The challenge as I said before is to write my best blog post ever, but how do you do that? Should it be short and punchy , should it be epic and informative? I know it will be somewhere in between as I have had some thoughts about it and now is the time where the words have got to flow from my fingers to produce this post. The thing is, it wont be edited, these are the words that are coming out, and this is actually part of what may be my best post ever, although you can always say that because if you check out my first posts, they were quite brief, and the observations of single points usually.

Today I tend to ramble a bit more, like today was my birthday and had a lovely surprise at work when my friends bought me a very nice cake which I managed to divide up using plastic knives (we really need to get real knives) , also I have had lots of messages from lovely friends around the world, and close to home, which gives a wonderful feeling that there is so much love and good will among the people I know. I always try to be positive and look for the good in things and today, and the past couple of weeks have made that extremely easy for me.

So what makes a good blog post, I've not written fiction, and reporting on something (like the awesome GOAT gig on Monday with my friends Jon and Julie is not a thing for something memorable, the gig itself was memorable but my scribblings could never really do it justice.

So what is left , well it's good to keep positive and throughout like there are often things that aren't people  that have an effect of you and are things that you want to share with others, and one of the best things in life is sharing things with people, because that get's you talking and helps with the initial lasting hooks and threads of friendships and relationships. It may be a place , an event, a book , a Tv program or a film. ALl of these thing we can all share in.

The sentiment at the top is from a Bryan Ferry song, not one of my favourites but a wonderful line, and sometimes you would just love people to be here with you but that cannot be because of where they are or what they are doing. It's not a bad thing and it is good to have that desire because it will get you out and get you socialising. So if you don't know these are a few of my favourite things:

BOOK:


Magical Imajica
Imajica by Clive Barker. It's fantasy, it's big, it's full of love, sex, magic , adventure and a huge circular multiverse and I never tire of it and love going back to revisit.

It has similarities with other books such as Lord of The Rings and His Dark Materials, both of which I love but this is my personal favourite and will hopefully be reading it again soon.




 

FILM:


My Favourite Film
True Romance by Tony Scott, with a Tarantino script and an A list cast of thousands, or it seems like that. You get romance, a mexican stand off, the ghost of Elvis , Dennis Hopper as a good guy, Gary Oldman as a white negro rasta drug dealer , a comic shop , Brad Pitt stoned on a couch and Patricia Arquette taking out James Gandolfini with a cistern top. And that's not the half of it , add a lovely theme from Hans Zimmer and a top soundtrack and you have a perfect film.








 

 

ALBUM:


Spirit of Adventure
Future Games by Spirit. Basically this is an aural film with vague Star Trek  and Muppets connections, going into trippy pschedelia but always lovely and perfect listening. The film snippets were later picked up by bands like Big Audio Dynamite , and I love them too , but the Spirit album is always with me and will always be my favourite.











So that's a few things that I like to give you a small insight into  me. I hope you found this interesting, but be positive and look forwrd to tomorrow because the always great things waiting round the corner, it's just sometimes you have to go and find them , and when you do it feels absolutely brilliant.

Sunday 1 December 2013

Here Comes December


The last month in 2013 has started, and the sad thing is that the commercialisation just gets worse as we're with bombarded with excuses to pour money into the pockets of faceless corporate entities. I am slightly claustrophobic ad yesterday went into Newcastle and made the mistake of going through the Eldon to get to Northumberland Street. I could hardly move and people seem to think it's ok to just stop in front of you, push you out of the way or whatever. The reason I was there was to go to the excellent Clas Ohlson for some energy saving light bulbs to replace my last two incandescent ones (in my cooker hood). It turns out they do LEDs for every type of fitting, an excellent shop. I then escaped via the Grainger Market which was far more civilized before returning home.

I'm am going to be thinking of , and talking with friends, being happy and having good times. Be happy yourself and try and make others happy. Make time for friends, don't worry about buying things and have a good time.. And it shouldn't just be now, we should be like this all year round, and it's fairly easy to be nice, so do it.

Maybe I will use December's posts to post a decent Christmas song a day,, so the fist is Light Of The Stable by Emmylou Harris.

I've just thought the letters SO look like 50 which is very good SO for all the birthdays around now I SO want you to have a a SO good time.  There always seem to be a lot of reasons to celebrate at any time of year, sometimes you just need to make yourself aware of them and take the opportunity to celebrate. So do it !!

Tuesday 1 October 2013

A Birthday Is Just An Excuse To Have A Good Time

Well today is my birthday and the biggest surprise was more than a third of my Facebook friends wishing me a happy birthday in one way or another either directly on the site (75 and counting) via email (5) and card (10) , and I am really touched. It really has been a pleasant shock. On the one hand it's easy to post a happy birthday greeting , but it's much easier not to,

So it's a thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. I got some nice presents , had a nice tea and watched a wonderful program about the brilliant Nic Jones and his amazing comeback from tragedy.

This is the first post of this month , but I'm just in a very happy mood before I go to be bed. I was considering posting a Rebecca Cother picture, but she may think I'm becoming obsessed with her. Her pictures have really made an impression on me and follow the link and you will see what I mean.

Anyway, again thank you to everyone and sleep soundly. A little bit of Nic for you you all

Monday 1 October 2012

You Load Sixteen Tons ...

".. and what do you get ? 
Another Day Older and Deeper in Debt
So Luther Don't Call Me
I Can't Go 
I Owe My Soul To The Company Store"

So sang Tennessee Ernie Ford when I was quite small , in what is a depressingly brilliant song. Today I turned 55 nad remember thinking how old my uncle was when he turned 16.

Basically there's nowt you can do about getting older as long as there's time. But I ready that people who have more birthdays tend to live longer! Also people who enjoy life and do things tend to live longer.

You never know what's round the corner and life still springs surprises on me good , bad and points in between.

You can't do everything you want to , but if you get a chance you should always take it . Always look for the positives and never turn down something good.

Today I feel the same as I did yesterday , and will probably feel the same tomorrow . I do feel different to 40 years ago , but 40 years ago I was a different person. Life does that to you.

But life is good and I'm looking forward to the next 55 years firmly beliveing that they will solve the problem of bodies wearing out  and I expect Keith Richards and Mick Jagger still to be touring !!

Saturday 18 February 2012

Getting Older With Hall & Oates

I do find it amazing the number of people who refuse to acknowledge birthdays , or the fact they are getting older . Surely a birthday is an excuse for a celebration . And its funny when I was young people wee old after thirty , had grey hair , smoked pipes , wored cardigans , slippers and cords, and sat in a chair to await their inevitable demise.

These days if you take reasonable care of yourself you can go on for a very , very long time and have great fun doing it. Itook delivery of the first Hall & Oates CD this week and compared the pics of these two with the latest of their CDs that I have "Do It For Love" , on the first CD Daryl Hall looks like an androgenous afghan hound hybrid , with John Oates looking similarly bestial , but this was the seventies and that got the girls and helped sell the records . I wish that I looked like that in the seventies , I might have even got a girl!! . On the more recent CD the guys look very good and this is 35 years or so after the first photographs were taken  , so while we'd all like to be younger I think we'd rather go for the current look.

This then led me to the discovery of the excellent Live From Daryl Hall's House site , so the guys are obviously enjoying life , and having a good time. A definite lesson for us all , always look for the good things , and be positive , and generally life will be better and make it easier to deal with the dross and crap that comes our way!!