The Drinks Display From Hell!!

Short one this. The cash machine wasnt working so went to the Post Office Counter which has the drinks cabinet adjacent. THIS DRINKS CABINET:



Three types of Lambrini , Both White Lightning and White Strike Cider , augmented by Stryke lager and Blue Nun wine, it's a veritable Charver Harrods!!

Needless to say I left after getting the photograph!!

Seven Days (Waiting For) Grass

We now have grass and a water feature (looking like the monolith from 2001) and lots of plants in our back garden. It's almost there!!!


A couple of views , firstly from an inebriates perspective, on virtually on the floor:

Then we have our relocated holly bush:



And the patio corner with monolith!!


And another view of the garden:

And the front looks far nicer now as well!!




And thats it for today, time for a drink methinks!!

April 19th is National Record Shop Day

National Record Shop Day is a celebration of independent record shops , so show your support and buy a record from your local independent shop . If it wasn't for places like these you would probably be only to buy the latest Pop Idol release and Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston compilations.

The ones I can think of in Newcastle are:

• Spin in High Bridge
• RPM / CDXPress in High Bridge
• Reflex in Nunn Street / Grainger Market
• alt.vinyl round the corner from Tilleys
• Oldhitz on Grainger Street
• Beatdown off Ridley Place
• Roots Music on Westgate Road
• Pet Sounds in Old Eldon Square
• Devastasian down the West Road
• Factoria Sonora in Clayton Street

Theres a Rough Trade article here

So on the 19th go out and do it otherwise you'll only be able to buy your music from Woolworths and Tesco!!!

Being Prepared!!!

Whenever you do something , you tend to plan things out and ensure that all things are in place in order to reach you particular goal. If you're going on a car journey you make sure you know where you are going , have enough petrol and a spare tyre.

In our latest installment of home improvements , we've decided on a new bathroom , so part of our preparations was the fact that we have a second bathroom to wash, shower and have a wee!! All was fine .... or so we thought. What we hadn't counted on was the plumber accidentally cutting off the water supply to the second bathroom. Oh sugar we thought , no hot water , no flushing toilet , no shower.

Still it was only one night , but the lesson to be learned is that there is always something else to go wrong even when you think you've thought of everything!!!

On a far more pleasant note an artist friend of mine has just been featured in Artists and Illustrators Magazine with a very impressive spread. His website is here and has a link to the article as well as many examples of his excellent paintings, such as the one below.

Seven Days In The Garden #2

The garden is slowly developing. Ten tons of topsoil delivered and installed (is that the right word , yesterday. The pile on the left is now distributed in the garden and raised beds.






The back is waiting for turf but looking much more garden like.
In the front the cobbles are down so we now have a drive way.
Looking forward to a weekend with a garden!!

Seven Days On Public Transport - Observations

I'm currently spending a lot of time commuting down the east cost line utilising bus and train. Most days the system works remarkably well , door to door 50 mile journey in something around 70 minutes.

However the behaviour of some people never fails to surprise me.

On The Train:

• People scour the whole train looking for a double or quad seat for themselves , refusing to consider sitting next to a "stranger" . What's the problem? Though I'm fine , I'll sit next to anyone , and take a perverse delight in making that git move their case or laptop from the seat.
• When the train sets off , why do people immediately leave their seat and stand in the aisle , blocking every ones way , in order to rummage through their suitcase or laptop case or whatever . Never fails to happen.

On The Bus:

• When it's crowded people sit in the middle of a seat to discourage you from sitting down. Not me . "Can you shift up please , missus"
• Why do students congregate around the front of the bus , whether or not there's free seats further down the bus? The number of times a half empty bus has sped past my stop because this , well I've lost count. And this is the future of this country!!!!

Anyway just a couple of gripes and observations , no doubt there'll be more....

Seven Days In The Garden

I know nothing about gardens though this has involved numerous trips round B & Q immortalised by Half Man Half Biscuit in "Paintball's Coming Home" (Free Download here), but we're having a mass overhaul of the house and garden at the moment. The thing I wasn't prepared for was the amount of dust (from mixing concrete and cutting bricks and blocks) that permeated the house.


The original garden was square-ish and a more than adequate refuge from the world , though some of the wildlife that appeared was most surprising . Like frogs for instance. Yes we have a pond , but we're surrounded by houses , and roads and there's no farmland anywhere near , though a couple of parks within a mile. Still it's a long way for a frog.





After the second day we had a circle marked out and a pile of rubble in the back garden for the gang to move via their wheelbarrow. Rather you than me mate!!!






The garden is now taking shape with raised beds being built and most of the paved area sorted out the back . Just waiting for the grass and plants and the finishing off!!.






We get plagued by cats and this morning we had a guinea fowl. Our garden planner said we'd attract more wild life , but didn't expect it so soon or with such diversity , no doubt we'll have the frogs back in force at some point as well!!