Always

I got to Settle on Friday and thought I would start up the laptop (which I am writing or should that be typing ) this on and  the web browser wasn't saying it was insecure. Basically I hadn't used it for six months and battery needed charging but there was an avalanche of Windows 10 and ASUS Laptop updates that required installing , and as usual I said yes...... Ten hours later I think it finished , well it didn't because last night it required another restart and update.... and to quote Eddie Izzard ... Nothing has changed (Apparently).

This always happens and really I should start this up when I'm at home, but I don't, so it's my fault , at least partially,

Yesterday I walked to Scalebar Force (also signed as Scaleber Foss) and it was only a mile and a quarter but hadn't factored in the one in five (20%) gradient, and was amazed that on the way back down that there were two guys of my age or older biking up the gradient , that showed amazing determination and stamina. There are some photos and video on my Instagram feed here.

It's Sunday Morning and I have plans to visit The Hoffman Kiln again, and it's always great to share things with people. It's not good to always keep yourself to yourself , although solitude is good and necessary at times to recharge your batteries and do what YOU want. Remember the most important person in your life is YOU , if you are not there and 100% you cannot be there for those who matter to you.

And a record has been playing through my head for some reason, ans I think I first heard it on John Peel and I want to share it with you because it;s a great record and you are important to me. I'm almost shocked that I've never shared this before, there's over 2K posts on this blog, but it's the excellent "Him or Me" by Paul Revere and the Raiders. Enjoy.

All Saints

Today is All Saints Day according to the Catholic Church Calendar. Maybe it's marl that pagan Samhain is sort of over but it means little to me and more pertinently for me it is Friday.

I do find it amusing that people look forward to Friday, you should look forward to every day, it's another day to enjoy life and you should not wish that away. Yes you should hope and wish for good things but make sure you also do and experience good things however tiny.

It might be a call to a friend or even just a text, knowing it will put a smile on their face.

Nowadays people often work over all days of the week , so the weekend is not a break , also if you keep wishing for a day to come it will do , but you might lose the days wishing for that day to come.

Friday night  for me is relaxing but I do find books to read, films and TV to watch , music to play , friends to talk with, and lets face it we are now (or can be) more closely connected these days.

It's Friday morning , it's light , I have work to do , and people to see , so what record is more perfectly pertinent that "Friday I'm In Love" my The Cure.

Go on be happy.

Samhain - #Oktoberfest #37 - Gong Flying Teapot

Today is Samhain the Gaelic festival (wiki here) that takes us into the "darker half" of the year. Traditionally, it is celebrated from 31 October to 1 November, as the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. It's also the time for a number of much lesser and more commercialised evens such as Halloween , and I always think how these lot would would run and scream if a real vampire ,zombie , with real blood and dismemberment turned up. I'll probably get a tub of sweets to keep the children away.

So the drink list for #Oktoberfest as this will probably be the last one in the sequence (unless I do one later tonight). Scotch , Bourbon come under Whiskey so that's why I may seem to have missed things.

• Whiskey - 7
• Beer -4
• Wine - 4
• Tequila - 1
• Gin - 1
• Champagne - 1
• Brandy - 1
• Coffee - 3
• Milk - 2
• Tea - 2
• Cocktails - 2
• Fruit Juice - 2
• Water - 1
• General Alcohol - 8
• General Juice - 2
• Soda - 3

There's thirty nine there but some sontion mention more than one drink so it's about right.

So this #Oktoberfest ends (or it may not) with "Flying Teapot" by Gong and about four minutes in there is the the refrain:

"Have a cuppa tea

  Have another one

 Have a Cuppa Tea"

And that's a good way to start the day.

Chart Plan - #Oktoberfest #36 - Janelle Monáe - I Got The Juice

I think tonight I will put together a chart of all the drinks mentioned in my #Oktoberfest sequence. Normally when I do things like this I plan them to ensure I know what's coming next and ensure I don't repeat myself.

Early last year I heard what has been my favourite and most played album over the last two years , "Dirty Computer" by Janelle Monáe , and I often listen to it when walking to work. I thought about buying it on vinyl (which I could do) but it is naturally digital and here is my original post about it. This features the Dirty Computer Emotion Picture and fifty minute science fiction story / music video based on the album well worth watching on your big screen.

So #Oktoberfest continues with "I Got The Juice" by Janelle Monáe and again I am stretching the nature of drink, but you can drink any form of juice , even from Janelle Monáe so it does fit into my definition for #Oktoberfest and I am way over the 31 I expected for October (on 36 now) and will probably do two more.

Janelle Monáe also appeared in the Channel 4 Electric Dreams episode "Autofac" based on a short story by Philip K Dick.


The last couple of days the number of visits have increased from 1200 to 1800 a day , an increase of 50%.  October has had over 40K visits which is the highest ever (39K last month) so I don't know if 400K visits before the end of 2019 is a possibility as it stands at 334K now.

Difficult - #Oktoberfest #35 - Orange Juice - Rip It Up

This morning I had to replenish my diabetes and blood pressure tablets from my stash, but every cardboard pack seemed absolutely super sealed, requiring the total destruction of the pack to get into it. It's almost as bad as digestive or Weetabix biscuits , you should be able to unwrap them but often have to resort to a knife to break into them. Often you will have a box is in shrink wrapped cellophane that is difficult to remove , then the box itself is designed for you not to get into it followed by the stuff you actually want which is in another from of close wrapped plastic packaging.

I got what I needed and incidentally Gemma Cairney is playing the excellent "Pills" by St Vincent on 6Music so there's a bit of synchronicity for you.

But we are still on #Oktoberfest  (I must make a chart of which drinks have been featured)  so for a change the band name gets it in and we will go for "Rip It Up" by Orange Juice to continue the sequence which is now well over the edge of October hitting #35 which I seriously didn't expect. There's still two days left to go and I can think of two more drink related songs.

I think because of the synchronicity and the subject I am going to include the St Vincent song as well as the Orange Juice one, so you get a double treat.

Plan - #Oktoberfest #34 - Little Ole Wine Drinker Me - Dean Martin

Life is much easier if you have a plan and everything falls into place. It is seldom that that happens especially for me, although today I decided what I wanted to eat at lunchtime and waled into the Strawberry and, for a change there were lots of free tables, then I had some leftovers that were perfect for tea , meaning I came home took drugs and then my tea was ready and I ate that. There was no preparation and I didn't have to go out and buy anything, everything just fell into place perfectly.

Because all this worked it means that I can watch TV tonight and am totally relaxed, not that cooking is a problem, but it is nice that everything just slots into place.

So my intention was to do a post a day for #Oktoberfest but this is #34  in October so I've gone off the end a bit, but the latest is Dean Martin's "Little Ole Wine Drinker Me" , and while Dean Martin is hardly your average rocker fare , he came up with some absolutely class performances and this is one of them. A good song is a good song and you have to admire that.

Milk - #Oktoberfest #33 - Milk and Alcohol - Dr Feelgood

Over the weekend I was speaking to someone about living in the wilds with no neighbours for miles and said that's great in some ways but a major problem if you need something for either convenience or something more serious. Last week I saw an ambulance drive away from my neighbours fairly rapidly. They are great friends but I only have email contact. When there was no sign of their car or lights in the house after two days I was worried so emailed , but got a reply fairly quickly saying it wasn't them and they'd seen as well.

The first thing about living in suburbia, if you are lucky like me you get some great neighbours who you look out for and they look out for you.

The other thing was last night I had some cereal and used the last of the milk. I knew I was running low and had been out a few times and not replenished it but it was nine o' clock at night. Now I have three local shops open from six am to 11 pm (I would not have a problem if they had shorter hours) but it meant I had the option of getting milk when I got up or nipping out immediately. I chose the latter.

They are a couple of reasons why I prefer to live in this type of suburbia, I also don't need a car either which is another plus.

For #Oktoberfest we have "Milk and Alcohol" by Dr Feelgood in their post Wilko Johnson phase but still good. Wilko Johnson is is my guitar hero and an absolutely heroic cancer survivor still playing live today. He lost his wife to cancer, then was hit by pancreatic cancer and given three months to live but decided to not have chemotherapy and perform until he died. Six months later he was still with us and apologised it an interview saying that people probably felt cheated that he was still here (jokingly). Then a surgeon offered some groundbreaking surgery (see here) and Wilko is still with use and you can still see him performing and he's still making records. Oh he was also in "Game of Thrones" (Ser Ilyn Payne) as an executioner and the cast were devasted on his initial diagnosis and elated on his cure.