Unsighted

Today I woke up with a bloodshot sore left eye. If I wear my twenty year old glasses all day get a bad headache , they are fine for a couple of hours, but I was going out to Northallerton for the day. So decided I would have to go with glasses as there was no way a contact lens was going in that left eye.

On the bus going round a corner I heard a noise, as though something had dropped and hit the floor but couldn't see a thing , but noticed the name of a local chip shop as we drove past, looked ahead and thought it looked a bit blurry. I then realised that my glasses had dropped off , and that was the noise I had heard. I looked again and found them under the seat but thought, I wonder if I can get through the dau =y with no glasses or contact lenses.

It turned out I could , and my sore eye feels great , fully recovered. The only slight issues were having to get closer to signs to read them and being more careful crossing the road, but I know what I can do if this happens again. 

We'll go with Eric Clapton's take on Sonny Boy Williamson's "Eyesight To The Blind" from Ken Russell's film of the Who's "Tommy". Clapton didn't want to finish the take so shaved his beard off. Ken Russell's make up crew restored it in no time.

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. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag

Hardwick Cottage Ampleforth and a Vinyl Record Shop

I may have posted this before , but Ampleforth along with Whitby is one of the few places I could probably live. Obviously I love Newcastle and that's where my life is full of friends and family, and I come from Preston and have lots of friends and family there.

This is about the fourth time we've stayed in Hardwick cottage and it provides the ability to be cut off along with the convenience of local amenities within walking distance, as well as pubs and the option to eat out or have take aways. The cottage is here. In May I thought that would be my final visit, but the situation has changed slightly and we will be back at the beginning of December and maybe again next year which really pleases me.

Slim Whitman 78

Elvis at the door

There are lots of small towns near such as Helmsley, Thirsk and Northallerton which I visited yesterday and shockingly found a vinyl record shop. I'm not a vinyl junkie but it was a pleasant surprise to actually find somewhere selling records just off the main street. The name of the shop is BetterDaze and has lots of vinyl, memorabilia, jukeboxes and record players, mainly rock and rock and roll. They also have a Facebook page here.




You're greeted by an Elvis figure when you enter the shop and there were quite a few people in there when I dropped by yesterday afternoon.

So I'm just having a great holiday here and am really enjoying it, and the Happy Days intro always puts a smile on my face. Have a great day everyone.