If You Don't Know Where You're Going ... Any Road Will Take You There

This morning is 7 degrees and it's cold it's feels like -4 degrees band you know sorry I'm just having a very very brief walk out I feel less pressure now that I've reduced my daily target from 11000 steps to 6000 steps. I’ve now  dropped the million steps and  I feel like I can turn around and go back at any time which is good because I'm still walking still going out but it's great when you can do something to remove pressure

I have decided that my talking does not leave a generally readable post, so I may use it to capture ideas , but not to actually produce stand alone blog posts.

I wasn't intending to post today but I shared an Instagram meme and and it was Alice in Wonderland with the Druggy Caterpillar on the mushroom and she was asking which road she needed to go down and the Caterpillar said “well where are you going?”

Alice says “I don't know where”

and the Caterpillar says “Well if you don't know where you're going any road will take you there”

On double checking , what I thought was a druggy caterpillar is actually a pink Cheshire Cat glowing in a tree , absolutely the right sort of person to take advice from.

Now I'm not too sure if this is a definite “Alice in Wonderland” /  Lewis Carroll thing but the first time I heard this was in a George Harrison song which is “If you don't know where you're going any road will take you there”. 

It's one of my favourite George Harrison songs I love it so I now need to investigate whether it was Lewis Carroll whether George Harrison actually made it up or where we actually find it found it

With a little web research I have discovered it was the Cheshire Cat , not the druggy caterpillar that was credited with Lewis Carroll’s words , so that is obviously where George Harrison to his inspiration from.

Now the other thing is that Lewis Carroll stayed at , and has a room named after him in my favourite hotel , “La Rosa” in Whitby and I have stayed in the “Lewis” room which looks across the river to the Abbey , where Dracula came ashore in the Bram Stoker novel.

So in this post I have accidentally managed to connect George Harrison , Lewis Carroll , Bram Stoker by way of a Cheshire Cat and Whitby Abbey. I’m sure no one expected that , and I certainly didn't.

Back to the walking and writing though ….

I have actually finished this using Google Docs which seems to be faster than Microsoft Word and is certainly very handy. I use Google Sheets to record my steps so I amd used to the Google Office suite and it is more than efficient.

One of the things I've noticed is that when things on Vocal is that the minimum post is  600 words, and my blog posts tend to be about 300 words . When I was doing it by talking the day before yesterday I did  about 1200 words and yesterday was 800 words so talking actually sort of gives you a lot as you to do a lot more than typing.

The problem is that after you've typed you then have to really edit it so I'm not too sure whether this comes out of the readable but we shall continue on doing this and as I say this was not planned but it means that while I'm actually walking I can actually blog as well.

I don't believe in giving yourself unnecessary pressure so no that's just about it now I'm gonna finish this post here but you and the music is going to be obvious . It’s the George Harrison song. 

I hope you managed to get something from this and everything in it is well worth investigating.

Leaf Mouse

It looks like the feedburner feed has finally fizzled out two thousand visits short of half a million, c'est la vie , I 'm surprised it has gone on as long as it has. The half million will come , just not as quickly as I was expecting.

Tonight I was out walking and heard a noise near my feet and thought it was a mouse or rat. On closer inspection it was actually a leaf! I may have been influenced by the rodent I saw aon West Cliff at Whitby. Who knows what can twist and lead our minds. I also saw and disposed of a huge spider in the kitchen tonight, I've seen bigger, but not that often.

I was thinking of writing a (science) fiction story as a post with the title "The Probability Conundrum" bas on the fact that everyone expects something to happen whether it be good or bad, based on fact or heresay (or heresy ... I wonder if those two words are related) and then do those people cause the expectation to happen abdor does it just happen ... eventually, and also could people make things happen for other people if they knew someone was expecting a particular outcome.

I wasn't sure where I would go with this but there's some bits here that I may pick up on one day.

It seems the tags on posts are working again so I've added a few for this post, which I hadn't really planned to do as it is past eleven on a Friday night and also this year I don't intend to post as much.

I've also stopped posting on Mewe but maybe I will post this on there and see if visits pick up.

So a song to go with this, maybe "Science Friction" by XTC which is a song from my long ago youth, but still worth a listen. This is one of the things about getting older , your back catalogue of experiences and likings increases with everything you do , or it should, and it certainly does with me.

Ok almost time to hit dreamland and see all my friends there.

Summer Rain

We're in the middle of summer and a week of rain is forecast. The good thing is that you don't need sprinklers and water plants and garden, but does mean you need to have some kind of rain protection although it's still very hot so a waterproof jacket or coat is not an option and umbrellas are often cumbersome.

I never thought I would wear a hat, but many years ago in a windy wet Whitby , someone suggested I spend £12 waterproof hat (which you can see here) and that was brilliant , it keeps you mostly dry , leaves both hands free, and stays om your head when it's windy, and generally when it's raining it's my preferred method of keeping dry.

After the mess of the leak in the extension not being addressed by the last lot of disappearing  fixers , the excellent and professional Responsive Roofing  came and looked and put a temporary fix up which kept us dry last night, now I'm just waiting for the estimate which will punch another big hole in my finances, but it has to be done, and they are great guys and happy knowing the will do a good job. The problem is we expect things to last forever and they don't.

So what do we go with this morning, maybe "Wonder Toys That Last Forever" an absolutely brilliant song from Bill Nelson's (one of Yorkshire's finest) Red Noise  (post Be Bop Deluxe) , yes it's very 1980's in it's production but it is a great song.

Enjoy your Saturday.

Forget It ... Lets Burn Kings Landing

Tonight I have watched a lot of TV but then thought it's time for bed, then suddenly remembered I had a delivery from Tesco as they were offering 25% off wine and it meant I could order sparkling water as well, so it means I won't have to cart it back from a local supermarket in my rucksack. That isn't really a problem and it does stop you buying to much , a maximum of four bottles instead of the fifty that came tonight.

It seems that Feedburner is keeping up the hits on the blog, at the moment 1,200 so far today, when I was lucky to get maybe 1,500 a month. I'm not complaining about it, maybe someone might leave a comment if these aren't actual robots.

Lot's of people have been complaining about the end of "Game of Thrones" but I thought it was fine, if a little rushed and now we have "Lord of The Rings" and "His Dark Materials" to look forward to.

It is stunning the amount of television that we have at our disposal, and these days we don't even have to record it it to watch when we want as we can stream it. I actually watched a DVD of "The Golden Compass" tonight and very good it was. Lee Scoresby was inspired by William Scoresby who's house I pass every time I stay in Whitby.

Someone soundtracked the burning of Kings Landing with Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" but it is rather pedestrian metal and didn't do it for me, I was sure I could find a better soundtrack. I didn't have to do anything, someone had shoehorned "Hells Bells" by Ac/DC onto it and that's what I will leave you with, best seen on a big screen and turned up load.

1812

This is post number 1812 and as such need to ibnclude the "1812 Overture (with Cannons)" by Tchaikovsky. Interestingly "Night of Fear" by The Move was based on the main "1812 Overture" riff.

It's almost a week since my last post and one of my #August50 posts came up in my feed where I did mange to post over 50 times in August 2018. I don't expect to do that this year, although I once saw a blog that had thousands on one line link posts each day. I am not too sure of what the point of that was.

I'm just back from another weekend in Whitby managing to scoff lots of fish and chips at the Magpie Cafe and picked up a pristine copy of Can's "Tago Mago" from the MIND charity shop. he album was also inspired by the occultist Aleister Crowley, which is reflected through the dark sound of the album as well as being named after Illa de Tagomago, an island which features in the Crowley legen, which was a surpise to me.

I was once listening to a compilation CD curated by John Lydon and walked in and was listening to something which I though was maybe a remix of The Stone Roses "Fool's Gold" , but it was, in fact "Halleluiah" by Can. I have seen numerous spellings but that's what it is on the vinyl album. I do have it on CD as well (40th Anniversary) but the vinyl copy is something well worth having, and, as I said, was a charity shop bargain.

There are a few places in Whitby to pick up Vinyl such as The Whitby Bookshop, but most places are aware of their worth.

So this is my first post in February, and we shall see how many I do this month. It's really just about noticing things and being bothered to write things down.

I Can Put A Tennis Raquet Up Against My Face And Prentend That I'm Kendo Nagasaki

It's a line from my favourite song on the Half Man Half Biscuit album "McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt" which was the name of three retired footballers called on to save a Football team in the "Golden Gordon" episode of Michael Palin's "Ripping Yarns". The song is "Everything's AOR" and will of course accompany this post.

It's my dad's 84th birthday and the older someone gets it's more difficult to get birthday presents, especially when his main hobby is working, although he has a penchant for post boxes and boxing. I decided to get him a copy of "There Is No Map In Hell" by Steve Birkinshaw which I bought just for the title and found to be an excellent book seeing what some people can force themselves to do against seemingly impossible conditions.

The weather has been incredibly cold and during January absolutely not conducive to walking although I have managed to keep up my target steps so I am still exceeding my million steps every three months and I will start February in Whitby so I am not sure taht will be a good or a bad thing. Whitby is great for walking but if the weather is not good that may discourage me from actually doing my required steps.

Kendo Nagasaki was a wrestler in the sixties and maybe still is but I remember watching wrestling on a Saturday afternon at my grandmas with Kendo, Mick McManus , Jackie Pallo and others too numerous to mention. It was all staged of course as it still is in the numerous wrestling francises going on today. The link to the Kendo Nagasaki (there are/were many) portrays him as a mystic an dhypnotist as well as a wrestler, so not a one trick pony. The tennis raquet gives a similar effect to the samurai mask worn by Kendo in the ring.

So that's my Monday so far ..... now what's yours?

P133A

So had a brilliant weekend in Whitby including two meals at The Magpie Cafe and a walk up to and around Whitby Abbey as well as three brilliant breakfast provided by Matt and Craig at Dillons of Whitby (named after the previous owners dog , theirg current dog is called Florence).

I saw seagulls tap dancing (well that's what it looked like to me) though they were tricking morms into coming to the surface , because worms think tap dancing seagulls sound like rain. Still looked so comical to me. Also a night thousads of seagulls were just parked on the river, but I couldn't get a picture (like I couldn't film the tap dancing ones either).

As we were leaving Whitby the snow started coming down and stayed with us along the A171 but there's been little sign of it in Newcastle, although it's very cold.

The title of the post is because the take away pizza box had a type font that made PIZZA look like P133A adn that's the only reason, things like that do catch my eye.

I've been listening to various albums while surprisingly getting throught a lot of steps (75K in the first five days of February), but unfortuantely missed the "Lux Lives"  Cramps tribute at The Cluny on Sunday featuring my friend Jon Lee as Poison Ivy, so I will leave you with Poison Ivy's rendition of Duane Eddy's "Peter Gunn Theme" (Crampified).

Sleep well and keep warm.

Drive

Last night I went to see Reginald D. Hunter and he told the sad story of Harper Lee. Her first novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" was an instant classic, which but incredible pressure on her to follow it up. How do you top an instant classic? She loast friends especially in the literary world because she was being set up to fail. She tried to write but nothing would pass her own criteria, how could it? Check out this Guardian article and decide for yourself, even better go and look for more information yourself. I personally won't be buying a copy of "Go Set A Watchman". This paragraph is completely based on what Reginal D Hunter told us at The Stand last night.

Today I'm driving to Whitby for a weekend staying at Dillons rather than La Rosa , love both of them though. I'll be stopping at the OK Diner maybe going and coming back due to their excellent service and food.

Yesterday was my first day of February walking, and I need to average over 12K steps a day, which I thought might be a problem but I've started off OK hitting 14K yesterday even though it was very very cold. Today may be different though it's ten past seven and still dark. I've not looked outside to see if cars are frosted up but I will find out soon.

Yesterday I was listening to the second album by Jem "Down To Earth" and was struck by several song and the last one "On Top Of The World" has such a beautiful chorus that I have to share it with you. Have a brilliant day.

Walking Through Pockley

Today I returned from Whitby, where I had hoped to do a lot of walking. I didn't do that much. I decided to take a walk to the end of the south pier, but half the wooden walk way is no longer there, and it was chained off due to the waves (and the fact there are no real safety rails). Still I took some video of the waves.

I got home and decided to walk towards Pockley (in the semi hope of finding a shop). One of the problems with this part of Yorkshire is that it's not heavily blessed with footpaths, so a walk to Helmsley, say, is virtually impossible without severe risk to your personal existence.

Anyway I walked up the hill and came across a large barn conversion that is in mid project, then I came up to the first house in the village. It is a nice one road village, with a church, a house that sells free range eggs, then at the end of the village was a field with two ponies in that you can see here.

One of the oddities are there are lots of signs for public footpaths, but they don't say where they go to. Now I don't know about you, but I think setting off on a walk across some fields to an unknown destination is not the best idea.

Still I managed 14K steps today and that has put my Million Step Challenge back on track, well almost. Tomorrow may be more rain, so there may be another setback , but Friday may be another trip to Whitby.

There has been no TV today, but I think I'm going to go with The Dictators "Sleeping With The TV On" which is something we've all done, or should have done.

Stranger Things When It Rains

Yesterday it just sheeted down with rain. I was surprised I managed to get 2.5K stems in given that the cottage is quite small and the opportunity to go outside was almost non existent. You can check it out here and it is extremely comfortable and quiet with options to walk (weather permitting).

Today will entail a trip to Whitby (as the skies are blue and there's only huge puddles and the odd pummelled plant to remind us of yesterday's awful weather). There was rain on Monday but an umbrella was enough to keep me mostly dry, yesterday and umbrella would have been just irrelevant, today the weather looks fine.

The Whitby trip might enable me to make up some of the steps I missed yesterday, but to fully make them up I'd have to hit 20K, but we shall see. Overall I'm still ahead of the game and I know I can make up the steps.

We are now up to episode six of the excellent "Stranger Things" so I expect to finish that tonight. The series is excellent and Fiona reckons it's a cross between Stephen King and "Outnumbered" which is an accurate analogy. As well as being an excellent series the soundtrack lives up to it, and I am going to include Joy Division's Atmosphere which opened the last episode. I've used this video before but think it fits in with the sometimes nightmarish episodes of "Stranger Things".

Have a great day everybody

Do You Boho?

It's the last day of March, the day before April Fools Day and for one thing or another, well actually reading "Tom Waits on Tom Waits", the word Boho came up again. There was a passage titled "Boho Blues" which I thought sounded like the title of a Tom Waits song. Waits himself cuts a bohemian figure, raggedly stylish with immense talent as an artist and actor, probably one of the people who can make smoking look cool (my opinion is that a fag in the moth usually makes people look like an imbecile, friends excluded of course). It turns out there is no "Boho Blues" by Tom Waits, at least I can't find a copy and I do have most of his output in my collection.

Boho also means to me a certain style almost gypsy , arty, and life affirming and my eldest daughter Juliet is a wonderful example of that , and Kirsty my youngest is certainly into the arty and exploring the unexpected and unexplored , I remember her wanting albums by The Pixies and Rage Against the Machine for her birthday. They are both anything but average and make me so proud.

The term applies the my favourite hotel in the whole world , La Rosa at Whitby, if you want Boho, spend a few nights here or just visit for one of their many events. Amanda and all the staff fit in perfectly, I'm surprised it's not been commandeered for a film or TV series like say "Desperate Romantics".

The other week it was Kirsty's birthday and we wen to the wonderful Bohemian vegetarian restaurant in Newcastle , check out their web address here. It's I Love Boho! Again the food and staff are awesome and they sell second hand vinyl too! The music played is consistently excellent, and the atmosphere is well ... Bohemian.

Then that took me back to Joni Mitchell's "Hissing of The Summer Lawns" and the song "The Boho Dance" and Joni Mitchell certainly artistically was in the Bohemian Groove progressing from folk to jazz and making it sound wonderful.

Anyway , it's Friday night, and the weekend has started, if you like Boho be Boho , but have a wonderful time and enjoy yourself.

Over The Line

Today's sixteen thousand steps finished this step challenge. Overall that's about eighty miles walked in two weeks, that's here to Whitby, so I know I could walk to Whitby if I actually wanted to. It's definitely brought out a bit of my obsessive side, that is the desire to do the job , hit the goal and succeed.

I'm not in a hurry to do another, but I am minded to hit ten thousand daily, but we will see how that goes. The weekend coming up will be an opportunity to rest, or maybe do something else.

I thought I'd just do a short post, it's Monday night, and that's the first day of the week over with. Tomorrow starts with a 7:10 doctors appointment, then sorting the fence and decking repairs before another day at work, lunch with a friend, wishing my daughter happy birthday and eventually landing back home without the target of fifteen thousand steps to hit.

So I'll leave you with Neil Young singing "Walk On". My voice has been likened to Neil Young's and I love everything about the guy so for me that's a compliment, for Neil Young maybe not.

Enjoy your Monday night my friends.

Whitby

Just back from a weekend in Whitby staying in Dillons. I love Whitby because being here seems like you are at sea without having to set sail. There is wood and water, fish and seabirds, the odd pirate ship, whalebones and rope, and it is a wonderful place to be.

There is the odd bit of seaside arcade and a fortune teller, but you can walk everywhere. The walk from West Cliff (where you'll find La Rosa) to the top of the 199 steps (where you'll find the Abbey) does not even seem difficult and I am not exactly what you would call prime physical shape.

Most restaurants are variations on fish but that is hardly a surprise, and no matter what the weather the atmosphere of Whitby always shines through for me.

You can also  go out Whale watching, and that's the ling to the wonderful and violent song by Alex Harvey and The New Band from The Mafia Stole My Guitar, worth playing loud, if you dare.

Goodnight my friends.

The Sound of Guns

I was up at 3 o clock this morning , there were bins in the middle of the road and mine and my neighbour's had blown over, so I got up and moved the bins off the road. The bin lorry still hasn't turned up, but obviously once emptied, they need putting somewhere safe fairly quickly. The wind doesn't seem to be letting up , and there's apparently snow on the way.

Last night I was absolutely shattered so was in bed at 8 O' Clock so I've had a good nights sleep though  I had some weird dreams which like most dreams have completely disappeared from my mind. They were not good dreams though. I noticed on Facebook my eldest daughter had woken from a nightmare so a bit of family synchronicity there.

This week I am having a number of hospital visits prior to a liver biopsy next week,  before a weekend in Whitby at the end of the month. The needle they use for the biopsy s fairly hefty piece of kit but the do anesthetize the spot.

Anyway sorry this is just rambling about nothing interesting, but I will leave you with a brilliant uplifting video from Turbolenza featuring music by the excellent but now defunct The Sound of Guns (Sometimes and Alcatraz).

Have a good day my friends.

Find Something Good To Enjoy and Smile

I was going to write a post on And Annoyingly but decided to write something positive about enjoyable stuff. I am sick of people defending Donald Trump and attacking Jeremy Corbyn, Corbyn has his faults but is still the best option for a Labour leader. That's all I am going to say.

Vinyl Beauty

Maybe I shouldn't go on Facebook, but I do I have interactions with some wonderful friends on there, and then I feel better, and put on some music such as Stomu Yamash'ta's Floating Music. I remember buying it on Island's mid priced label for £1.49 when it came out around 1972, I had seen Man From The East on TV so I bought it and loved it. Just an example of me liking something that no one else in my social circles had even come close to , and when they heard hit they weren't exactly supportive, but that's their loss. It's always good to try new things but I've never been taken by smooth lounge jazz , but this was a complete different universe.  You can hear a bit of it here and here.




While this may not be the most exciting way to spend the last day of the bank holiday, it makes me feel good and therefore it is good. It is very easy to get sidetracked by negatives but have just booked La Rosa for my birthday as well , and it's my favourite hotel in my favourite holiday place, Whitby. On the phone they know who I am even though it's a year since I stayed there.

I also phoned and spoke with my dad, and over the weekend gave my eldest daughter something towards a Big Daisy Kiss Star Wars hand bag that she wants for her birthday. At least this year I won't forget that. That's inspired me to put up Meco's Disco take on Star Wars and that WILL bring a smile to your face.

Anyway as the sun sets on the Bank Holiday , smile , enjoy yourself and set yourself up for a brilliant week. I have done, so you do the same.

Music In The Green - A Bakewell Vinyl Treasure House

Some days something happens that is just a cherry on the cake moment. My life is good at the moment , not perfect , but in the happiness league I'll be in the top 10% if not even higher. But sometimes things happen that brighten your day even further.

As a kid I remember my friends big sister had a copy of Ralph McTell's Spiral Staircase , and I particularly loved the cover of that album , and also the title track stuck with me.

Today I was wandering round Bakewell looking for a snack , I was feeling peckish. I had visited several bookshops and one of two record shops I had visited previously had become a fudge shop (Folk Devils in Whitby became a cake shop), the other one was shut for lunch I think .

I wandered round a corner and noticed a small shop called Music In The Green with a display of album covers including the aforementioned Spiral Staircase and Deep Purple's Concerto For Group And Orchestra with a poser "What Year?" The thing is it looked like a real record shop.

Vinyl Heaven

On walking through the door any doubts were swept away, John Renbourn on the player (Live in Italy which I walked out of the shop with) , a cornucopia of new and classic folk and world vinyl and CDs , with a rock section ate the back,



Steve , the guy behind the counter, was easy to talk with very knowledgeable and dug out a copy of Nice Enough To Eat, an important album from my youth. I could have spent the whole afternoon in there , and if I lived in Bakewell , a shop like this would make it worth coming into town for,

Today the discovery of this treasure has made my day. It's a reason for going back to Bakewell , and should be a reason for you to visit.

You have a great day , I already have had one.

Sunday Service - #57 - 2013 - David Bowie - The Next Day

Was woken up this morning by the sound of seagulls. I'm not in Whitby I am ten miles inland from the coast. I went out and it's grey and raining slightly . It's Sunday morning and I do have a lot to do today , deliveries to take and people to see and thinks to dispose of. It is November and we have had a bit of sun , but days are getting shorter. In fact this morning I got up and was wandering round and half an hour later had to start switching the lights on.

Seen some newspaper headlines this morning, which are absolutely exasperating makes me want to start my Mr Angry blog , but I don't do anger so I will calm down and do something positive, but it amazes me that a government can always find money to pays it's arms dealers but not to look after the people who effectively put it into power. There rant over.

The Next Day

The Odyssey reaches 2013 year 57 and it that year David Bowie released an unannounced album The Next Day , his first in ten years. It had not been particularly done in secret , it's just that no one apparently noticed , and it was an absolutely excellent album, well worth buying and everyone with any sense went out and got their hands on a copy. I've chosen the title track and apologise if you have to log in to see the video as it contains religion , BDSM, blood and lots of other great fun stuff. It's the first time I have seen the video despite buying the album when it came out and like almost everything Bowie does I am very impressed with it.



I also loved the recycled cover art of The Next Day referencing "Heroes" (possibly his finest song).

His next album Blackstar comes out in January but you can download the title track and pre order it now here.

Have a fantastic Sunday everyone.

Laptop Tenned #5 - 1961 - Temptation by The Everly Brothers

Well the laptop has been upgraded to Windows 10 over Hotel Wifi at La Rosa. Started around 9 finished around 12 and nothing much has changed apart from pop up messages about features I didn't ask for , probably don't want and don't think will make my life better. However  I thought that about the snipping tool and stickys and I use them all the time now so what to I know.

Sunrise over Whitby Abbey

This morning I woke to see an amazing sunrise over the abbey, so now time for last breakfast here and the drive back home.

The song from 1961 my fifth year on earth when I turned 4 is Temptation by The Everly Brothers. This is not your usual Everly song , but they were an incredibly talented duo and I do love this

In Whitby - 1959 #3 Charlie Brown

Well day three of my challenge and I am up to 1959 the third year of my life. Actually the charts had lots of great music , but I always loved the Coasters with their atmospheric mostly Lieber / Stoller penned songs which still stand strong today cobined with a wickedly knowing sense of humour delivered with street born panache.

Whitby Abbey - Foggy Morning

Just sitting in Stoker  not yet dressed in La Rosa with a view of the abbey through early morning fog in the armchair by the balcony. Feel free to join me . I do love this place so relaxing , no phones , radio or television, just a laptop free wifi so I can let you know what I am up to . Aren't I so not with the program. But I will soon be going out to get papers before having my breakfast delivered in a wicker basket. This place is CAF. (see Inspiral Carpets if you don't know what that means.

Have a brilliant day everyone

You Can Make Me Sing , Dance or Anything ... #2 - 1958 - Catch A Falling Star

Yesterday had more than 100 people wish me a happy birthday via Facebook which made be feel nice.

It's quite amazing how much dross hits the charts , but I always loved this song , and wile never an avid Perry Como fan I still like this . I will never forget Bryan Ferry's riposte to interviewer who asked him his opinion on Cockney Rebel's Judy Teen , he said he preferred the Perry Como version.

In Stoker

This weekend will be spent in the Stoker Room in La Rosa in Whitby , which is my favourite hotel in the world bar none. I would love to hire it for a long weekend and fill it with my friends. The room does have a view across the river to the Abbey which I will be visiting also.

These posts are going to be by their nature heavy on video and light on the text. Some may even just be the video, but I wiull try and find something interesting to say.

Whitby is one of my total favourite places and no doubt I will be instagramming  .

I took the title of the Faces compilation that my lovely daughters bought me for my birthday because it is such a great feelgood sentiment and we need lots of those.

But my favourite take on it was the wonderful Anthony Moore.