Pressure Drop

The first full day of the holiday in Ampleforth , staying at the same place sadly for the last time. This is it here.

That's the only slight cloud, but got here , had a meal at The White Horse, then put the radio on and the first song on was Toots and The Maytals - Pressure Drop, sort of an appropriate sentiment for a holiday.

One of the things about going holiday is you take various things to entertain you , and to save space and for convenience I packed my Sumvision Cyclone media player to watch Breaking Bad and The Wire which I stuck onto a memory stick. Got here and found I'd forgor the remote control. Hoped ther would be a smartphone app, but can't find one , but I can play them on the laptop and connect it to the TV via HDMI cable so all is good. It's amazing that no matter how well you plan a momntary lapse can stick a spanner in the works, although a little thought can then provide a solution.

As I got out of the car I saw this sign on a lamp post over the road. It's good

Found Cat

to see people looking out for other's pets. It restores your faith in people if only a little bit.

One thing about Ampleforth is that everyone is friiendly, and you have everything you need to hand, even if you don't have a car.

There's great places within a couple of miles walk and the countryside is lovely. Whether I'd think the same if the weather was bad , or I lived here permanently is a different matter, because you start to take things for granted and the familiar becomes mundane, but I am hoping to get back here one more time before October.

Anyway it's the last day of May 2014, and will soon be time for bed. Have a wonderful weekend.

Monday Morning , Tony , Walt , Journey and Badfinger

Most Monday mornings are a pain. Today's, for me , is different. First of all its sunny after a grey and drab weekend weather wise (although that was the only downer so to speak) , Then I should be on the radio this afternoon in about nine and a half hours on the Steve Lamacq Show ( BBC Radio 6 at 4 PM GMT) and because it's a Bank Holiday I have the day to myself, and at the end of the week I'm off on holiday to Ampleforth for a week.

So for a change it's not a Stormy Monday or Blue Monday , but for me it's a good Monday. I have sympathy for everyone who has had to work today and am thinking about some friends who are having to deal with not good situations which I know they will come through so really, I am feeling positive today and everything is pointing towards a good day and a good week.

Tony

Walt

Yesterday I got some albums including a Badfinger compilation that contains the final song from the Breaking Bad TV series. I'm not sure whether it can match up to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing"  in the closing scene of the Sopranos but  I shall see, the album is full of great song , and I shall be working through Breaking Bad when on holiday next week, I'm half way through series two at the moment , so a way to go before I get to hear "Baby Blue". I am tempted to put it on here as I know, for me it will be out of context to hardly a spoiler for me.








OK I just watched , and it is good and I will now purge it from mind...... Have a great Bank Holiday Monday Everyone

Here Comes The Weekend

Well the skies are grey but it's a three day weekend with lots of things happening , including me doing Good Day / Bad Day on Steve Lamacq's show on Radio 6 on Monday.

Also I've finally got my guitar , iPad and Alesis dock working so hope to be able to put some more music down assuming Garageband wants to play.

The rain is well and truly here with a vengeance but that just means that the garden is getting watered.

I've got my ticket to see the Eagulls in October at the Cluny with my friend Gillian. But even better, last night saw my mate Tom Tierney for the first time in ages who was effusing about the new Wolfenstein game and on absolutely top form. He told me about the version of The House Of The rising Sun in the game which I've included here, what if the Nazis had won?

Anyway enjoy the rest of the weekend fmy friends

Sunny With A Forecast Of Rain

The great weather is continuing but they're forecasting heavy showers. The thing is we need rain to keep things growing. Last year a lot of the rain fell at night in my area, followed by clear days. This year we have had some torrential downpours but mainly during the working week, while weekends , especially holiday weekend have been sunny, so it's a case of so far so good.

So essentially I'm going to enjoy this weather and not going to consider it breaking. I carry an umbrella sometimes if I'm going somewhere wearing a suit whatever the weather, it's a bit like a spare tire, you hope to don't need it , but it's great to have if you do need it.

This morning the sky is looking grey so we may get rain today but I'm fine with that.

We have another Bank Holiday Weekend coming up and I could easily get used to a four day week. I thought the TED talk above was appropriate , and think we need to action this sort of thing to make our living areas a much better place.

Anyway I hope you all have a brilliant day, I certainly will do.

Sun Daze, Madchester and The Heed

A Corner Of The Garden

Well it's Sunday, eight ante meridian or thereabouts and its another gorgeous day. The garden has been done so today can be fairly relaxed , just to enjoy the weather. It's May and it looks like summer is here. Who knows it may even be party time.

Madchester

I always find that sunny weather does uplift you , although if it was like that all the time would I really appreciate it? May thats why my friends in New Zealand and Australia are always so upbeat generally, while people form Manchester (where always rains) tend to be miserable (only joking , though Oasis, Happy Mondays and Joy Division while producing some great music are not the sort of people you would want to spend any time with, although John Cooper Clarke is great fun but he's from Salford). Though it's funny how a simple thought on what a nice day it is can digress into thoughts on the Madchester phenomenon.

Oh the other good news is that Gateshead are in the Conference Play Off Final against Cambridge, so that's one team that the whole of the North East will be behind today, hopefully they will be back in the league after an absence of 50 years. Theres a big do on at The Black Bull and the scenes will be incredible when Gateshead do the business. OK so I now got sidetracked into football, as you may realise I can get easily led astray! But here's a song for The Heed from the magnificent Rezillos.



   

Anyway I hope everyone is having a great weekend and taking advantage of this lovely weather. Enjoy the rest of your weekend

What A Perfect Waste Of Time

I know I've not been exactly proliferate and profligate with my posts recently , mainly because I've been very busy with things, but I needed a reason to post this beauty from Elbow's latest album , and took the refrain from it as the title of the post.

Yes it is a perfect waste of time , four minutes or so  orf a lovely song that everyone should love.

It is Friday again, and the weather here is beautiful, so I will hopefully have a totally relaxing weekend.

Telstar

This week has been spent working , traveling , including London yesterday and doing some catch up TV including the excellent Telstar: The Joe Meek story , which was funny and tragic.

Anyway I feel I'm outstaying my welcome here , as I really don't have much to say today, not because there's anything amiss , but it's just been one of those weeks. I suppose May is going to be the first month this year in which the number of posts I do drops from last year, although it should be about quality not quantity.

It's easy to let the words just flow at times , but other times there's a bit of a brick wall. But anyway I'll include the trailer for Telstar, as it is and excellent film. So have a great weekend everybody, I certainly will.

Happy Mothers Day

Well I hope all the mums out there have had a brilliant day and been treated and pampered by their children. Lots of my friends are mums and it seems a lot have been spending the day doing housework and like.

It's quite amusing that the image was uploading was in jfif format so it said , and the blogger wouldn't upload it, so I just renamed it and it happily uploaded the file, so it seems like it's just the naming convention that stops it from being uploaded.






Weatherwise we have had grey skies , blue skies , sunshine , hailstorms and monsoon like rain , all in the same day. I was out without an umbrella but managed to dodge the showers by just waiting for the next five minute spell of sunshine  So anyway this is just a very short post and I'm sure you have all got your Mother's Day Presents, so have a fantastic rest of the day every one. There's only one song I can think of for this post originally by Crowded House , but this version performed by Neil Finn and Paul Kelly.

Some Days

Some days you just can't seem to get out of first gear. Today has been one of those days. There's things I tend to do on a weekend but have just not been able to get motivated to actually do anything. Though having said that I have gone into town and was disturbed by a huge Nazi rally in the centre of Newcatstle.

I then went down into the Monument Metro and there was an old guy sort of busking. He sank Perry Como's "Catch A Falling Star", Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and Dean Martin's "Little Old Wine Drinker Me" in a very pleasant melodic Geordie burr to recorded accompaniment.. The only problem was the timing of his songs and the timing of his accompaniment were completely out of sync. If he had been unaccompanied it would have been technically better, but ....

... on the station platform everyone was talking about with a smile on their faces, this guy was raising money for charity and putting a smile on everyone's face including mine. He was cheering everyone up and bringing lots of happiness to a grey day in Newcastle, especiall considering the idiocy that was happening above.

Anyway I went over to Gateshead to The Doll At The Black Bull to see if I could sort out why their website was juts showing advertisements. I couldn't find a real reason for it but it was working when I left . It's here , and I hope it works for you.

Anthony Moore

Anyway despite this potentially being a waste of a day, it turns out lots of good came out of it, and at the end of the day I'm quietly satisfied with my small contribution to the world. Hope you all sleep well. The music I was going to choose was Anthony Moore's take on Perry Como's "Catch A Falling Star" but it;s not on Youtube yet, so I chose "Judy Get Down" which is another song I love.


 I remember years ago when Bryan Ferry was asked his opinion on Cockney Rebel's "Judy Teen" he said he preferred the Perry Como version. How cruel ... and funny.

Virgin On The Ridiculous.

Two years ago I did a post a day in May, this May I've posted virtually nothing.  Things are still happening but today my time has just been eaten up with work and a getting a new TV device and router installed by Virgin, followed by a quick trip into town, which became not so quick , and it was raining , but c'est la vie.

We are all resistant to change, though I like to think I'm open to it, whether it's a new job , new bus route , new phone or whatever, but with the installation of the TIVO I was thinking I'm going to have to learn how to use it, and like a typical man haven't bothered with the manual, the writings to small anyway. I looked at the online and discovered it has an Ethernet cable which means I can connect it to my network but I'm not sure what that will let me do.

Anyway this gets me into the thing where once you take the plunge to do something new, there's usually no going back and sometimes it's only taking that first step that gets to into another world of possiblilities.

That sounds grandiose , but it isnt . I got a TIVO box because it will save me £15 a month on my TV outgoings, as well as increasing my storage capacity by 200% as well as yet undreamt of extras.

Anyway it's good if you can do new things, and I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity, so I've done a post about something not too interesting but , I thought I'd let you know. Have a great night everyone.

Included the Noah and The Whale song cos I've always loved it and it has lovely sentiments.

Never Mind We Still We Have The Buzzcocks

Yesterday the weather was bight and sunny , today it's grey and wet. For some reason I decided to mow the lawn yesterday (which is looking a bit worse for wear but hopefully it will pick up with the lawn repair I've applied) , and to touch up the decking. It's amazing how many spots I'd apparently missed. The main thing is that it is all done.

The Line Up

It's amazing how good weather and sunshine raises the spirit , but grey skies and rain can literally dampen the spirits as well as your epidermis! But on the upside it is the middle of the bank holiday and there are lots of musical options on offer this weekend including the big punk all dayer at the Newcastle O2 Academy headlined by the Buzzcocks which will be my choice. On the bill are a local ska band Too Spicy who I first saw at the Green Festival, so definitely looking forward to getting along to that.

May Day, Sting, Wallsend and The Buzzcocks

Well the next bank holiday is fast approaching and hopefully I'll be going to see the Buzzcocks and various other bands this weekend. This gives me an excuse to attach (again) my favourite Buzzcocks song which is probably not what you would expect, well actually I have two favourite Buzzcocks songs , one very short and one very long, Love You More under two minutes and Why Can't I Touch It over six minutes both on the Singles Going Steady album.

Sting on Spoons - and looks like Jess McD behind him but it's actually Jo Lawry

This week I watched When The Last Ship Sails by Sting , based on where he grew up (Wallsend), and was very impressed by many bits of it, especially the songs "Underground River (Language of Birds)" and "Shipyard", and Sting also displayed a sense of humour and played spoons on a number of songs!






I'm certainly looking forward to the play when it comes out, but Underground River gets better every time I hear it.




As it's May Day , Labour Day and the like , we should keep the Red Flag flying, and hopefully this current government will be kicked out on their arses, but anyway have a great day , enjoy yourself , put a smile on your face and keep on being happy.

Mount Zion

In amazes me when there's certain music streaming services advertising the fact that they have 25 million songs you can listen to. I don't subscribe to any because I prefer radio which means generally the artists gets a reasonable amount per play rather than the 0.00007p or whatever they pay for each play on Spotify. I don't know what the answer is because a pay per play means that the model has to be financially sustainable. Anyway, as usual , I'm straying from the point.

Jah Wobble's Umbra Sumnus

I buy albums, usually in CD format with the odd download so the artist has been paid for every song I have of theirs in my collection. I then put a selection on my player (in this case a Samsung Note) which I select at random (I select it, not the player). Yesterday I saw Mount Zion by Jah Wobble a single from the album Umbra Sumnus. This is one of the most wonderful things I've heard in years despite having it in my collection for years. I was hoping to find a copy on YouTube but there isn't so I will put one up. If you click through on the song title you can listen to a sample. The song reminds vaguely of the euphoria generated by The Shamen's Destination Eschaton which I will include as a video here.





Have a great day everyone, it looks foggy but I'm sure it will improve

Orphan Black and Gilbert and Sullivan and Todd Rundgren

After the excitement of last week, this weekend has been fairly quiet, which is nice for a change, though I've still had plenty to do, but most of it has been very mundane.

I'm reading The Humans by Matt Haig and thoroughly enjoying it. I hope everyone I've given it to enjoys it as much, and I am listening to lots of music as usual but haven't done much composing recently, reminds of a quip by WS Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) when a lady asked him a question:

                           Lady: Is Bach still composing?
                           Gilbert: No Madam, He's Decomposing!



Always makes me chuckle.

Orphan Black ... so many

There's a lot of local festivals coming up so I will publish a list on the Spoongig site. Also TV seems to be rammed with brilliant TV series such as The Blacklist, Orphan Black is returning so how Tatiana Maslany remembers who she is or is playing I haven't a clue, but I am so looking forward to that.

Next week is another Bank Holiday, I could easily get used to a four day week.

Sports wise today Liverpool play Chelsea in what could be the Premier League Title decider, If Liverpool win then need another point to guarantee the title , and given their final game of the season is against Newcastle I think that wold be nailed on.

So anyway I hope everyone enjoys their Sunday, but I've included a live recording of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song" from Iolanthe, which I first heard on his album Todd in the seventies. Rundgren is one of the most amazing musicians ever managing to include in his canon almost every strand of worthy popular music.I could do a blog post on him , maybe I will this week.

World Book Night 2014

The Humans - Matt Haig

My World Book Night was fairly low key. I did;t connect until this year that it falls on Shakespeare's birthday. Although some friends reserved copies of The Humans by Matt Haig, I gave away copies to people I sat next to on trains and buses and station platforms. Evey one was extremely pleasant and engaging, as well as being thankful and interested in the book and World Book Night. No one had heard of World Book Night but a few were aware of World Book Day.

Anyway I've started reading the book and it's a vaguely misanthropic view of the human race, and shows Douglas Adams influences, so to me it's very enjoyable.




Anyway this is just a short post, as I'm off to work soon, so hope you all have a great day, and I would suggest you grab your own copy of The Humans, you may enjoy it more than a little.

White Heat

When I was having my second lot of blood taken at the hospital a nurse told me she's been looking for a CD copies of a Newcastle Band called White Heat, I'd never heard of them but said that most things could be found. Anyway there's a few things on youtube (see them performing their debut single above) and this is what you get on Amazon. Discogs is also a good place to look here.

There's info about Bob Smeaton their lead singer here.  There's more stuff here. Their stuff was released on the Valium label , not Virgin as she thought. You can get the album on CD here though from Retro Records who do classic vinyl on CD.

Unfortunately I think there are also some poodle rockers who get in the search mix, but this post is for that nurse who took a lot of blood without causing too much discomfort.

This has been a public service announcement.

Decking Painting Virtually Complete

Decking Left

Yesterday I started painting the decking, I'd cleaned it off with a combination jetwash and decking treatment, and was looking at my fence I painted ten years back and which still looks in fine fettle and thought maybe I'll use fence stain / paint rather than decking  stain / paint. Decking stuff is about five times as expensive. My reasoning is that if using the fence stuff doesn't work and can redo with the proper stuff. So I got some stuff from Wilkinsons.....

Decking Right

.... £7.50 for five litres or ten pound for two tubs.  So got two tubs. I was putting off doing it yesterday as I only had a two inch brush , but it turns out that I ended up doing the lot and using up the five litres of stuff. There's a few patched that need touching up which I can do today but it looks like it's all done for Easter Monday. I was a bit worried as Wilkinson's Country Brown looked more like Dayglo Orange, but remember that these things sink in, and looks to have taken very well.

The Monolith Reappears

So today will be a little touching up but mostly enjoying myself and relaxing, and hopefully the sun will return.

A bit of cutting back, means we can see our monolith water feature once more.

I hope you all have a fantastic day, I know that I intend to. Enjoy your Eggs

Good National Record Store Day

Buy More Records

Well although I didn't see anyone I knew apart from the guys at Reflex and RPM,yesterday was an excellent day. I'm writing this at 3 am just because I was awake and it's the middle of the Easter break which means I can actually lie in today.

Although later on I may be painting decking, depending on the weather. I hope it last a bit longer than in previous years when I finally do it , though I will publish photographs (of the said decking!)

I remember selling my EMI version of Anarchy in the UK by The Sex Pistols for £30 then buying the album on Virgin for £3 , the import single for £1.50 and still having £20 to spend! which brings me on to ....

Stranglers

....I got a copy of Peaches by  The Stranglers from Reflex which was doing some extremely brisk trade, and just wish that certain shops to adapt the speed and courtesy of the guys there, they also had free sweets and chocolate which I forgot to partake of, but they had lots of excellent stuff. I see a lot of copies of the disc were on ebay going for a fortune but you can get their first six albums plus a disc of rarities for under fifteen pounds here. While it's nice to have limited editions, for me it's always been about the music.

Cake at RPM

RPM was rammed as they had cake, DJs and and bands in the courtyard next door, and at certain points the shop was in a one in one out situation. I browsed their second hand vinyl, and saw a second hand copy of the second Roxy Music album "For Your Pleasure". I have the CD, but was thinking about it while I looked round the delights in the  and listening to the rockabilly from the in shop DJ, I went back and it had gone , c'est la vie.

Still it was a great atmosphere and I could have spent a lot of money, which I will do when it's a little quieter.

Good Turnout

Anyway had a nice meal at the Stand , just missed my friend Jon and his daughter Aoife, though he sent me a lovely picture of her, face painted as a lion enjoying orange juice,

Came home and cleaned the decking again so it should be ready for painting today or tomorrow. So after this I am going back to my bed, and going to have a bit more sleep.

I Saw A Magpie

A Magpie

... on the way to pick my books up for World Book Night. When I got there they were nowhere to be found. One for sorrow! Although it's a superstitions and whether you get one for sorrow or two for joy you can always find something to fit in with the interpretation. On the plus side the giving day

Anyway it's National Record Store Day , and I need to go and get a record for a neighbour and maybe buy one myself. The weather is wonderful,  so it's likely to be an excellent day for everyone.





It's also an excuse to post the "Magpie" theme tune from the 1970's performed by the Spencer Davis Group (who used to feature Stevie Winwood) under the pseudonym of The Murgatroyd Band. The cool kids watched Magpie and the boring kinds preferred Blue Peter. It's ironic that the latter program is still with us.

Good Good Friday

Great North Passion

Well Good Friday is here, the weather is wonderful, and there is a lot of things on and to do. I was intending to to clean and stain my decking this weekend but there are a hundred and one distractions.

The BBC are staging the Great North Passion at Bents Park in South Shields, I was unaware of it til I caught a preview on TV last night then some friends posted on Facebook, but it is being broadcast on TV and you can see the details here.

A-Z of Us

Tomorrow, hopefully I pick up my books (The Humans by Matt Haig) for World Book Night and it's also National Record Shop Day and I've been tasked with obtaining a copy of Peaches by The Stranglers which has a limited run of 1,000 in the original picture sleeve. Incidentally I downloaded a copy of the A-Z of Humans which is very entertaining, and very worth getting for you Kindle or other eReader. It's only about 50p and very entertaining.




Well that's it for this morning, I'm off out to see what I can see or do. Have a brilliant Easter everybody, enjoy yourself and make the most of everything.

Running Up To Easter

Well Easter is almost here again, although Easter Eggs have been in the shops since just after Christmas. I just wanted to do an Easter post so I could add the Marillion song to my post which, I think I've done before, but the tags don't always work correctly.

Easter is probably stolen from a previous pagan festival, but it's an excuse to play the song. The weather looks beautiful but it's icy this morning and I need to get off to work now.

So have a great day everybody.

Numbers and Neighbours

I've posted over seven hundred times in this blog and had over sixty four thousand page views. It started seven years ago (apparently seven is the worlds favourite number) so that's roughly nine thousand page views per year 750 views per month on average, although last month I had two and a half thousand page views. The highest numbers come from the USA although maybe some are robots followed by the UK and then Australia.

I'm not bragging (the numbers are quite small), and lot's of bloggers have many more subscribers that I do, although I am sometimes surprised by the people who actually visit my blog. Still sometimes it's quite amazing how the numbers stack up, and if I can entertain someone or make them think or improve someones life in some way then it makes it all worthwhile.

I also use it to record things that interest me, so that I can go back on it , just like a diary, and it means that I can back track and find things whereas before I had the blog I would probably have lost the item in question. I do try to encourage others to start and maintain blogs and it's great to see what people are up to and how they interact with others and they often point me in good directions and set me off on interesting trails.

I've included "Whistlestar" from Cat Stevens'  "Numbers" album that I remember being a fairly expensive package when it came out with lots of extras , and not a little fine music. After he converted to Islam he became Yusuf Islam and is still producing excellent music.

So not my normal blog post, but just something I thought of. This adds to my online history and gives you a little more into your insight about me. I hope your day has been good and tomorrow will be even better,  and I'm already thinking about my next post, which I'm counting on you reading and enjoying. Did you see what I did there? Have a great day.

Oh by they way I've not got my World Book Night Books yet, as the deliveries have been delayed. I'm awaiting an email for them but may get one of my neighbours to pick them up for me. It's brilliant that I know and have excellent neighbours from three houses in each direction. I'm not sure many people can say that these days.

Will It Go Round In Cirlcles?

Number One

I have just been into Newcastle to dispose of an awful Alcatel Tribe phone, donated it via CEX to a Muscular Dystrophy charity, then on the way to Waitrose I dropped in a Windows Record Shop in the Central Arcade.

They're all ready for National Record Store Day, but something I've noticed with them and other record shops in the town is that the amount and range of vinyl on sale is increasing in a big way. In another year or so vinyl may actually be elbowing out CD. Thanks to them I found this Charts page. I can't say I've looked at a music chart for a long time, but at the time of posting it's nice to see the Wilko Johnson and Roger Daltrey at number one.


 
I suppose this is one of those situation that demonstrates that sometimes things can be very cyclical, although I suppose the sale of music started with busking , the paper, then vinyl then tape, then CD , then they tried DAT and Minidisc, then you had digital, and now we have the return of vinyl. Live music will always be with us as well. I was thinking of this when I left Windows and saw their husge vinyl window display which made me think of Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round In Circles" so that's going to be the music for today.

So if you have any weekend left enjoy it , we have Easter coming so for a lot of us it's only a four day week. Which is good

Seven Days

It's the end of another week, and it's been mostly work, sleep, eat and travel. I have World Book Night and National Record Store day coming up and tomorrow I will be picking up my books. Also we have The Mouth Of Tyne Festival (though with the first two headliners being the Brand New Heavies and Toploader I may be leaving early , but Neville Staple will be there and his band were brilliant supporting the Buzzcocks a few years back.

The weather is getting better though I heard there was a Cyclone in the antipodes so I hope all my friends there are safe. Weather can be sometimes great, and sometimes frightening, but it's just pa part of the earth's ecosystem , and the earth is a pretty big and complex thing although it's surpising how many people seem to think that weather should be controlled and predictable.

Anyway the song that comes to mind is 10,000 Maniacs "LIke The Weather", so I'm going to love you and leave you and get off to work.

Amazon 90

Over the weekend I bought a Google Chromecast. While the concept is clever it doesn't really give me anything extra to my viewing experience, and took an age to set up, was invisible to my iPad and then on day 2 I had to reset it up again, so against my better judgement I decided to return it. I packaged it up and when through Amazon's return process and first they offer an instant refund, and an option called Collect+ where they offer "alternative" collection points where you can drop the item off.

This turned out to be my local Nisa store which opens at 6 am so I went round and dropped it off. I'm sorry to bypass the Post Office in this way but because of working hours I couldn't drop the package off at my local Post Office til Saturday.

On my may back I got talking to to a 90 year old ex railwayman (original from Byker) , who was eulogising about being out enjoying early mornings and gushing with positivity , and really great old guy, and he's the reason I chose the Kinks song for this post.

So this morning I've had a lift from the old and the new, so that is a fantastic way to start the week, which bodes well for a brilliant week ahead. I hope yours is going to be as good as mine.

Always Look For The Positives

Today I need to find a chemist. It's not an emergency but I need to go to a chemist. I know there is a chemist on Ponteland Road maybe about three quarters of a mile away next to our local NHS Walk In Centre which is next to Aldi.

However Google searches show nothing. If you go to Streetview (a brilliant useful tool) it shows it's still a bike shop (look here) although I know the chemist has been there about 12 months, because I have used it several times, but I don't what it's called or anything.

So I will have to walk there, becase I'm sure that like the NHS Walk in Centre it will be open seven days a week. This means I will get a walk, get some exercise and have a pleasant walk as it's a nice day today. I know people who would be smashing their computer screens if this were the situation, but in every situation there are always so many positives if you are willing to look for them.

The James Brown classic came to mind, but don't you think Ed Sullivan looks and sounds like Richard Nixon?

Have a positive day and keep on smiling.

Time To Yourself, Folk Coincidence and Three Ways to Spell Angie

This weekend I am thoroughly relaxing, not pressured to do a thing. This means no shopping , no planning , just doing what I want when I want, and it's certainly done me good today. I am lucky I can actually do that, because it gives you the change to recharge, think good thoughts and just feel good about life an everything.

Two great friends got married today, I wished them well, but didn't go because I know they would have a lot of friends there adn I know they had a fantastic day.

I had my own fantastic day, just being able to relax, and decide how I'm going to spend this week.

Ralph McTell - Spiral Staircase

Fore some reason the song "Spiral Staircase" had being going through my head. It#s my favourite Ralph McTell song, though I was always struck by the album's beautiful cover. Yesterday I decided to try out a Google Chromecast so ordered one using Amazon Prime and it turned up today. It seemed a bit temperamental setting up , and my iPad refuses to acknowledge it's existence but my Samsung Note is fine with it, but I tried a Youtube video which was fine, then a BBC iPlayer program about Bert Jansch and the first performer was Ralph McTell playing Davy Graham's Angie (or Anji or Angi as it's sometimes listed), which once you can play that you can play guitar. I can't play it by the way.




Anyway that's another coincidence, but it has been a great relaxing day, and I hope your day has been good too.

Strange Dream #69

We all have them. I can remember the tail end of this. I was playing in some kind of football competition , on a full size pitch. I don't know what it was for, I think there had been games involving teams before but "things" had happenend.

This game was one against one against a guy who looked like an eastern European terrorist , moustache and close cropped hair. He took a long shot which I easily saved, but the ball was an odd shape half way between a football and a rugby ball, The guy comes and starts kicking me (a la Daryl's treatment in the last episode of the Walking Dead). I open my eyes surrounded by industrial electric cables, on a wet pitch and the villain is about tho switch on.

I get up and run towards the opposing goal dribbling the ball, but this time he tries to put me off with a flash camera. I'm distracted and vision is affected but still score, end of dream.

Weird or what?

Radiohead's "Nice Dream" came to mind and it's from The Bends which is a wonderful album.

Anyway we are still very foggy here but thanks to British Summer Time it's nice to come home in the light. It's also Thursday which is a day closer to the weekend. So wherever you are in the world, have a brilliant day, be positive, and get ready for a great weekend.

Oh and this is my 69th post this year , just saying ... smiles.

All Fool's Day and Pixies

Foggy Morning In Fenham

The title is another quote from Vivian Stanshall / Sir Henry Rawlinson at the start of the new Tax year. In the North East we're on our fourth day of thick fog. Yesterday we had a little sunshine , and thanks to British Summer Time we now have light at the end of the day, but a lot of people were feeling the loss of that hours sleep. I was just wondering do they do the same in Australia and New Zealand and the USA?

Anyway I am going to wrap up and have another good day today, with some ideas for music I want to buy and books to read, I still need to read my book for World Book Night , The Humans.

Oh and the Pixies have a new album out, and that can't be anything but good news can it?

I Don't Know What I Want But I Want It Now

The title is a quote from Sir Henry Rawlinson the creation of the wonderful Vivian Stanshall, and is particularly relevant to the sense of blind entitlement certain people seem to have for no other reason than they just expect to be given everything on a plate.

The TED Talk above by Paul Piff goes some way to explaining why , the more people get, the more they feel entitled to. Manchester United fans this weekend got a a plane to fly over Old Trafford demanding that David Moyes be relieved of his duties. This is because the team are not steam rollering everything in front of them, like they did under Alex Ferguson, forgetting that pre Ferguson the team had a long time in the trophy wilderness. Real fines appreciate there is a rebuilding job, but there are those who expect success to be presented to them on a plate.

Some of My Collection

It's similar with bankers and governments , who preach austerity, while expecting huge rewards for themselves for very little effort. The banks nearly destroyed the world through greed and were bailed out by governments, and are still paying themselves huge bonuses  with the blessings of right wing politicians, because they are somehow entitled to those rewards. I've yet to see anyone who deserves the obscene amounts they take.









Anyway rant over and there are good things up and coming. April 12th is National Learn To Play Day in which music shops and artists offer free taster lessons to encourage people to take up playing music. Full details are here with messages from Jools Holland and others.

That weekend I shall be picking up my books for World Book Night which takes place on the 23rd April.


And we also have National Record Shop Day on the 19th of April , which will be a great day again. I don't do the queueing but I do enjoy visiting the many shops we have in Newcastle.

Anyway it's time for bed now so I hope you all have had a great night and sleep well.

Monday Already

Carlisle Castle

..and it's still foggy. I've not seen the sun since Saturday on the West Coast. Still I've heard about a lot of things coming up this month that have got my interest or I'm involved in, but I need to get out the door and off to work, but I shall add these when I return home tonight.

Anyway everybody have a wonderful day, and I've included a sunny reminder of Saturday with the picture of Carlisle Castle.

Foggy Day and a Full Wilko Johnson Gig

It's seems the east is foggy and the west full of sunshine today. I got a more powerful LED bulb for my office and have discovered that LED bulbs to still generate heat although not as much as ordinary incandescent and energy saving light bulbs. You can stll change the bulb even if it's been on for a long time.

Today I nipped into town to purchase, an other things a copy of the Wilko Johnson and Roger Daltrey collaboration but the record shop had sold out. No matter I can wait a few more days, to get my own copy.

Wilko in Game of Thrones

Fourteen months ago Wilko was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer and he'd maybe have six months with chemotherapy. He declined the treatment. He's still going and quotes "If I ain't dead by the end of the year, it's gonna start getting embarrassing" . Well I certainly wont complain if he's ear at the end of the year, and at the end of many more years.. The article is here. He is an example to us all of how to live life to the fullest. Amazingly positive and I am amazed how good he's looking. All power to him. He also played the executioner in Game of Thrones so a many talented guy.

Oh and he's the guy who I based my electric guitar playing style on!

Anyway I found a ninety minute concert of them on YouTube, so you enjoy it, I certainly did.

Saturday And Shattered

Another hundred miles of train journey today, although in the west the sunshine was great while in the east it's very misty and foggy still. The trains were comfortable, not to packed , but had no room for major luggage, no catering and no power sockets. I suppose that's the problem living up north. The journey I did there and back was Newcastle to Carlisle, seeing my dad and girlfriend , taking a trip to Gretna and having a light lunch just out of Carlisle.

I must admit, I hate city centre driving , lane switching all over the place, not my cup of tea, but overall an excellent day and saw some great scenery as well. Anyway today I will be haveing an early night probably, and have nothing major to report although I hope to to have something in the next couple of week.

Tomorrow is more weekend work, but I will make time to relax, and watch some fun TV like the excellent Blacklist.

I've included the JAMMS (KLF) - It's Grim Up North , we know it isn't but it's fine to let the southerners think that.

Have a lovely night everyone.

Friday Is Here

Yesterday's post was an interesting exercise and probably makes no sense to anybody, and I need to go back and read in myself. But given this was the first time I'd used voice recognition on the phone I thought it did pretty well. I will try it again, with a bit of preparation next time.

Anyway today is Friday , end of the week and I have a journey across the route of Hadrian's Wall tomorrow by train to Carlisle to see my Dad and his girlfriend which will be nice. Although the journey takes a while by train there are some great views and it's getting towards summer.

Anyway this is just a short post to let people know I've have not lost my marbles and I can actually write reasonably coherent sentences that people are able to read and make sense of.

For some reason the Squeeze song Electric Trains (which mention's The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia in the brilliant chorus) came into my head!

Everybody have a brilliant day and an even better weekend.

Virginal - A Speech To Text Exercise

Computer

This is the block the i was gonna do daily by just talking so i'm not gonna make any changes whatsoever this is just what it hears from what i say which is quite an impressive really low draw something oddities that you recycle come out of this recycle i never said that is what i did i did now anyway i just interested in what you catch we say and i am at watson this can actually capture and what it actually end up with and yes i am just like this is just stream of consciousness stuff now so i don't know where how are you put a. In when you just actually speaking. Are so actually put in a4 no a full stop. That's quite impressive anyway so there's not going uni links in there's not gonna be any um pictures not gonna be any video this is just um my first attempt at a complete leave um spoken blog post and this is on my samsung phone um ball my note any does lots of arms ball i'm not gonna make any corrections to this i'm not gonna make any changes and this is just as i actually spoke it today 11 you realise all day anyway this this is gonna be it right that's enough amber post office

The post above was done using text to speech on my phone, just to see what it would do. Sorry if I'm talking rubbish, but it was an experiment I've been thinking about for ages. Now I've done it. The title was meant to say something else!

THe title virginal should have been translated as "I Hear An Owl"!

Forgetfulness and Elton John

A friend told me that Elton John has a film showing at the moment, with only two showings only at selected cinemas. An interesting strategy, but I do think that the showing of concerts and other live (even though they may actually be recorded)  events at cinemas enables people who couldn't get to or afford the actual event to experience it. In Britain a lot of plays and operas are done with cinema simulcasts.

Incidentally Elton John appears in one of my favourite Orange adverts which I have to include below at the dawn of  3G.



Always makes me smile, then , as everyone knows I can be very forgetful. The benefit of this is that you can re read and enjoy books and rewatch films, and I was wondering what I should read next and then remembered I bought a pile of books while I was on my last holiday, so I think one of those will be accompanying me to work today.

It's frosty outside, but the sun is out and it looks another gorgeous day. So have a great day everybody.

More Blue Skies

It's the start of the week and there are clear blue skies and frost on the cars and rooves or is it roofs? Grammar is such a weird thing , especially English which is probably the most complex idiosyncratic language in the world. How do you pronounce the word "wind" . You need to see or hear it in context.

I was just on Amazon's Kindle store and noticed that Ebooks are subject to VAT. I'm not sure if paper books are, but I assume not if Ebooks carry that notice.

Still that's a minor thing , so I'll include The Strypes Taxman as a video (check out the drummer he looks about 8 in this clip.

Have a great day, it looks lovely out.