Music For Nothing

A short post this , just about downloading. There's some folk still think that they shouldn't pay for music they download , then complain if it ain't pristine or contains a virus when they get the

stuff off limewire or wherever. WE7 pays for downloads by advertising , so you can get free downloads , with no DRM , no virusses and the artist gets paid. This is a widget thing that should allow you to listen to People Get Ready by Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart:

However this has to rate as one of the worst albums of all time: It even has Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle's "Diamond Lights", I think you'd be better getting a Retro England Shirt from TOFFS!!



But they have a lot of good stuff should be supported in their efforts.

The "Last Supper" At The Free Trade

The Free Trade Pub has one of the greatest views in Newcastle , about to be destroyed by Taylor Wimpey by raising a block of flats in front of it, details here. The Government deemed that the view had no merit , especially where cash was involved. This is the same lot that put 75% on fuel , tell us to tighten our belts when energy bills increase by up to 60% , expect a 2% pay rise to be observed by the country while awarding themselves 9.4% . Gits. It's also one of the few pubs in the area that get's a thumbs up from The Burglar's Dog !!

Anyway this is the sort of thing we're going to lose to the builders:

And heres a short video with pictures , soundtracked by Lindisfarne's "All Fall Down":

On August 14th an impromptu pub trail was instigated , which was rather well attended . Not naming names as some folk value their privacy , but the pictures are here , and thought this was reminiscent of a certain famous painting:

And here's the rest soundtract by Terraplane's Beer and Cigarettes only available as far as I know on the vinyl 1978 compilation The Akron Complication on Stiff Records!!

A Short Rant - Mainly against the old and the young

There's a couple of sure signs that you're getting old:

• You tell people age doesn't matter (it shouldn't)
• You go into HMV or wherever and you already have evreything you want
• And lot's of others...

But one thing I never understood is that you can never get past the tiniest old man or lady on a footpath no matter how big the footpath. I finally worked this out. Normal people squeeze to make room to let let you past, while certain members of the older geneation just refuse to give an inch... The other day an old guy gets on the bus and gripped the handrails at the front of the bus and refused to let anyone pass as "he was only going one stop" !!!

Worse than the students who congregate ant the front of busses despte the rest of the bus being empty , for fear they may miss their stop.

And then the people on trains who insist on blocking doorways and aisles while they adjust , pack and unpack their luggage and laptops, totally mental.

..and the people who block doorways while they have a conversion or tab regardless of who wants to get in or out.

I suppose you can include the drivers who hog the middle lane of the motorway driving at forty miles an hour when the road is virtually empty. There's a reason for the inside lane.

Oh and then there's the charvers with puchchairs who seem to think that it's OK to block the suprmarket aisles while they decide on whether to go for the Lambrini or the Concorde , or block the footbath while trying to juggle their Gregg's pastie and light a tab at the same time spilling ash all over the unfortunate kid being pushed around!!!

Grrr.

New Bath and Carpet!!

We finally had the carpet delivered after much trauma , and people have asked to see the bathroom , so thought the easiest thing would be a short video , which is here:

It's the first day of August and the weather is mad as a fish going from monsoon to tropical sunshine in a matter of hours , still it could be much worse.

Most of the stuff in the bathroom was supplied by Newcastle Bath & Plumbing Centre in Fenham who are both reasonably priced and provide great service.

After the first video , people want to see the garden and front room, so that's here now. Apologies for shakiness , but still bgetting used to video camera thing , and should give you an idea of how things are going!!

Spiders , Bees and a dog called Keegan!!

The garden is coming on well , though we're getting a bit of wildlife in the form of frogs, bees and spiders. Fiona insists that the spider webs should be cleared though I point out that the kill the real nasties such as bluebottles and the like. This guy seemed to be quite happy sitting on the water feature!!
We've also had lots of bees visiting but they are very reluctant to be photographed or filmed. We may get a picture at some point.





While drinking Cava during the afternoon , we noticed the family at the back had aquired a new yappy , black and white puppy ......they called it Keegan!!!

Mouth of Tyne Festival 2008

No rain this year but not much sun either. That didnt stop the bands or people enjoying themseleves . We started the day in South Shields watching the Excellent Bessie and the Zinc Buckets run through a great rockin' set including Stray Cat Strut , Ubangi Stomp and Jolene, much to the delight of numerous small schildren running around the circular paved area th the front of the stage .Took some video with the new camera but the sound was distorted so I added a Gene Vincent soundtrack!!

Also here's a link to them on youtube.

Then we went into Tynemouth to the Priory to see various Salsa bands who were perfect for the occasion , not only that but the bar was incredibly efficient despite running out of various ciders towards the end.


The Priory looked great bedecked with weird looking flags and stuff.

Here's the main stage:

On leaving the Priory we went past the jazz stage and encountered this rather excellent sounding band:

I'll leave this post with a phone photo of a double rainbow over Tynemouth last night:

Worrying Times At The Local Record Shop

A short one this but verry worrying . Went in to the local Zavvi shop in Newcastle this Saturday just gone and the main floor has been cleared of CDs , bar a couple of cardboard boxes in their so called sale.

In the basement , half the floor is taken up by books and magazines , and staff seem to get less knowledgeable by the visit.

HMV , while not as bad , seem to be pursuing a similar route with DVDs, games and books encroaching on the music bits.

While downloading and the internet can be partially blamed for this with likes of Amazon and itunes , it still is worrying to think that in the foreseeable future you wont be able to buy music in your main shopping street unless the Baghdaddies are busking and hawking copies of their latest release.

Even worse the models that HMV and Zavvi are pursuing may lead towards WH Smiths and Woolworths which are looking more like pound shops every time you go in with their DVD For A Pound and Buy One Get One Free sales.

Don't know what the answer is but you have been warned!!!

Addendum: 24th December , Woolworths have gone bust , Zavvi , who are supplied Woolworths are running low on stock , and WH Smiths are looking unsteady.

Good Technology

Named after a track by the rather excellent Red Guitars.

Not posted for a month and the house is still short of a carpet but there have been a few developments.

Firstly my old PC started acting very dodgily so I replaced it with a new Vista based PC . That has been a nightmare. Vista is atrocious , but can be made slightly more palatable by applying a few changes as detailed here. This was at the same time as adding a Wi-Fi router this now functions fairly well. I was amazed ot the number of insecured routers in the area which prompted me to buy another piece of technology...

The rather excellent ASUS Eee. It's small enough to go in a handbag , comes in a variety of colours (we went for the pink one) , and WORKS!!! It's great for internet surfing and basic office functions , runs on Linux but you can install XP , contains a web cam and is generally brilliant. Well worth the £220 I paid for it. I got mine onlne from Currys within 3 days.



Then came the replacement of the Home Cinema amp , back to Richer Sounds, so we now have decent sound in the front room and are now considering a new television, folling the new TV Unit and stuff that were eventually delivered by the Cotswold Company!!

Newcastle Observation - Clayton Street Redevelopment

Was surprised the other morning to be on the way to work through Newcastle centre's very own skid row to see this new Delicatessen. Well they've shout down one pub that wasn't conducive to the image of the incoming tenants across the road (Debenham's et al) and it looks like the classier establishments are trying to gain a foothold:

"Fine artisan cheeses and charcuterie"
Charcuterie? That's cooked meats to me and thee.
Makes a change from the Cheap Tab Shops, Pound A Pint Pubs, Out of Date food places and Two For One Shoe Emporia!!!


Anyway a couple of doors down the Black Garter looks like it's trying to stave off the inevitable with this quickly knocked together sign , after all if the powers that be have the slightest excuse to get them out , they undoubtedly will.

They'll just have to hope that the regulars and are able to read and understand the sign, though I reckon in a couple of years this and the other less salubrious watering holes in the area will have been moved on and replaced by Starbucks
, Wine Bars , Tesco Metro's and the like.

You have to wonder whether that's necessarily a good thing

Wild Life - Nature Will Find A Way?

The garden is looking better , but last weekend we had Bill , Nick , Lesley and Matt down for a great weekend ....and found we had a frog in outr new water feature!!! Given that we are in an enclosed block of houses surrounded by roads and more houses and the nearest parkland is half a mile a away and god knows where the nearest open water is!!!

Anyway some pictures of our visitor:




















The following day we were in Alnwick , again with lots of wildlife in the Castle , including a falconry and owlery display , which was most entertaining , some more pictures here:











The Knights Quest and Dragon's Quest are well worth a visit , especially if you are a child. Some of the displays are here , but there are some great surprises.

Can Manchester Really Be That Bad Part 2?

Well , again no. On finding the car park we caught a bus into Picadilly and from there went to the shopping centre, featuring the done up Arndale , Marks and Spencers , Selfridges , Harvey Nichols a big wheel , The Triangle , The Printworks (equivalent of Newcastle's Gate Complex , wonder what THEY destroyed) which does have a Cafe Rouge , but to it's detriment contains a Hard Rock Cafe (Very Expensive Burger Joint).

These are some views from the Wheel:

This is a view of an odd Wigwam , the other side of the Triangle. and the old square and big church thing. and theres a picture of the Wheel itself!!

Can Manchester Really Be That Bad Part 1?

On the Wednesday we were off to see
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at the Manchester Apollo. In these modern times , and being used to the civilised venues in Newcastle such as The Sage , City Hall , Tyne Theatre and even The Metro Arena we expected a pleasant area with onsite or nearby parking.

Wrong!!!

The Apollo is a great old Auditorium that has definitely seen better days , and is in an inner city wasteland, with no car parks obvious . Luckily the local chemist directed us to Grafton Street NHS car park , which is multi story , manned 24 hours and 15 minutes walk from the Apollo, and at the time of writing not marked on multimap.

There's a few pubs on Grafton street , the Bowling Green was most pleasant and served some of the most exotic burgers I've seen on sale anywhere including Reindeer!!!

Practically Peaking

Just returned from a week in the Peaks so to speak, and a rather nice part of the country it is. On the Sunday it was pouring down and we listened as Leicester , Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry City and Southampton tried to avoid the drop from the Championship, and Stoke and West Brom easily went the other way.

The week's only blackspot was getting caught returning from the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss gig at the Manchester Apollo by speed cameras in some suburban backwater, however if a letter comes through I'll be challenging it as apparently you have to have well lit warnings. More information on how to challenge courtesy of the Sunday Mirror here

Buxton , Bakewell , Manchester and the scenery are all excellent and this is an area well worth visiting , plus some funny tourist moments such as in the Monsal Head pub when the guy asked if the Cod on the menu was "local" ...... Hmmmmm

An excellent part of the country to visit and here's a list of cottages in the area just in case you fancy it.

The one that we stayed in was Barn End Cottage in Blackwell in the Peak and you can check it out here

It's The Tyne Wear Derby

..and absolutely nothing hangs on on it!! . At the start of the season hopes were , in Toon, that this would be the match where Newcastle put Sunderland down. The Mackems dont look like they're going anywhere , and until three weeks back there talk of relegation in Toon.

Anyway, there's nowt riding on this bar pride (which is very important, as Ruud Gullit found out to his cost. Hopefully we'll see a lot of goals and given so I'll just have a punt of four or more goals in the match or maybe both teams to score.

Have a bet here if you fancy it:



As an addendum to this I had to tke a trip down Clayton Street, and had to weave my way through the overspill from Thr Black Garter and The Clock , very scary indeed. On Derby Days it's a good idea to avoid areas like Clayton Street , in fact it's a good idea to avoid any day!!

See the Toon won 2-0, keeping another clean sheet and ruining my bets (though I also had Owen to score so not all was lost).

As It Was

I've posted lots of photos of the house as the garden gas been developed though there isnt any of what it was like. So here's the front:

And then we have a couple images of the "wild" back garden , which was not too bad really!! We didn't really know what to do with it but the planning guy came up with some great ideas for front and back and applied the transformations that you see documented in the rest of the blog. Apparently we can put video up here as well but I've not got that far but we'll see what we can do!!







Another thing today , PG Tips have a great promotion featuring a PG Tips "Munky" T-Towel and DVD , so get yerself down to you local supermarket and get yourself one!!! Watch it here

Back To Front

The house is coming on slowly (or it seems slowly) however the front , driveway and garden is now complete . The back just needs tidying , but the front now looks quite presentable , and a lot more manageable than it was before. Also the wall between us and next door will stop the postie from skipping over what was there before. It's brilliant not to have to take a run up to get the car over the 3 inch concrete lip that was there before, and feel your car exhaust is not going to be taken off every time you leave.



One of the selling points on this was the lifetime guarantee , and annual maintenance which will save us doing it. A house further up the street had theirs done , and is now the possessor of two rather obvious grooves where their car goes!!!. Anyway here's a couple of pictures of what the drive is like now.

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!!

Seven Days In Dublin Again #2

Just reading the rather excellent Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie and the man from Wigan points out that Dublin's name is extrapolated from the gaelic "dubh" meaning black and 'linh" meaning pool. So Dublin is Ireland's very own Blackpool!! I think generally the name is about the only thing the two places have in common.

As this was our second time we managed to track down decent places to go and hit the target every time.

The Ha'penny Bridge pub , next to the Ha'penny Bridge (no surprise there) , serves an excellent pint of Guinness (to everyone in the pub when I was there) , and managed to screen the Manchester United and Celtic matches simultaneously , and still provide a warm welcome and superb service.

Across the Halfpenny Bridge is The Winding Stair and book shop cum restaurant (Michelin Guide Listed) that scores highly in both departments. Some excellent and unusual books are on sale and the food was absolutely gorgeous, though I get the impression that you do have to book , so make sure you phone if you fancy a meal there.

Also this there seem to be fewer beggars , being split between sad cases who sit holding out a McDonald's cup and the cheery ones selling The Big Issue or plaing some musical instruments. The latter ones actually brighten up the streets and walkways so got some donations from me.

Also checked out Tower records which among the normal stuff had many unusual psychedelic gems and is recommended. They were playing Beefheart and Amon Duul over the PA , not something you hear everyday anywhere!!!

As well as that we visited some museum in Dublin Castle which had a Japanese art display and a green area decorated with snakes in the form of a Celtic design . Well worth a look.
Another thing about Dublin , is the preposterous number of pharmacies everywhere. The Irish don't strike me as being a particularly ill race, far from it. Maybe it's because of the number of pharmacies that they manage to stave off all the possible ailments. Theres one particularly pleasant example in Dalkey (out of the four that I noticed , which is the one below.

Seven Days On A Train

My current work situation means that I travel on a daily basis between Newcastle and Darlington using a combination of bus and train . Amazingly a 40 odd mile journey generally takes around 70 minutes door to door . I doubt I could do that by car.

The first time I made the journey it was by car , and in the first 45 minutes I'd managed to progress aropund three miles . Once I'd passed the Metro Centre bottle neck it was plain sailing down the A1 until the Darlington turn off whereupon I became hindered by an RAC tow truck for about 5 miles . Not really a great recommendation for travel by car.

However despite the general excellence of the public transport in this part of the country there are strill those who contrive to make the journey as awkward as possible. For instance:

• As you run for the bus at the stop, the driver who shuts the doors and refuses to acknowledge you as you hammer on the side of his bus as he pulls away, despite the fact that he's two or three minutes early. And you know the next bus will be cancelled or at the least very late.
• When you run into the train station , the train is standing there (doors shut) and you're told by the smarmy uniformed rail employee that "You've missed it"!! Five minutes later the train pulls out . It makes you want to visit physical violence on these people.
• On the Arriva busses in Darlington the ticket printers havent been re inked for years resulting in very faint weekly tickets being printed. Certain myopic drivers cant read these and take ages before grudgingly letting you on the bus. In Newcastle the tickets are generally very legible.
• Why is it on trains , when your trying to find a seat , certain people insist on standing in the gangway to rummage through their luggage , ensuring that no one can get past them!!
• Similarly is the drinks / sarnie trolley that pins you in your seat just as you need to leave the train.

Despite the number on annoyances on the trains and busses , they're still far preferable to and hour in a traffic jam , followed by an age trying to park your motor!!

Seven Days In Dublin Again #1

Back in Dublin this January , with the knowledge to avoid awful pubs like Goggerty's in Temple bar.

We decided to try either end of the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transport) line , well Howth at one end and Bray ate the other.

HOWTH

Howth is a small village with a marina that makes no attempts to pander to tourists. It's obviously just "take us as we are" , none of your normal seaside rubbish. Unfortunately this was the day I forgot my camera so had to rely on my mobile phone . However one place that caught my eye was a photographic studios. The pictures in the window were obviously someones pride and joy , but I thought it was more like the children of the damned!! Well maybe that's a bit harsh , but they were scary none the less.



The town centre is pleasant and there's one fish 'n' chip shop , but we lunched in the Abbey Tavern , where the Guinness was excellent , the fish and chips likewise , and the T-Shirts reasonable!!

BRAY

Bray was a different kettle of fish entirely , or so it seemed. Got off the train and were accosted by some drunk outside a Chinese takeaway . Didnt get much better and although the coastal scenery is breathtaking we couldnt find the town centre and when we did it looked like two steps down from Gateshead high street (that's not good), We took our chances in the first pub we came across , expecting the worst , but onece through the door the place was very pleasant , service and Guinness again absolutely excellent. We didnt have much time in Bray but will check it out properly next year.

Newcastle Observation #2

My current method employment requires me to leave home very early and traverse the streets of Newcastle , pre 7 am! this means you see many odd and inexplicable sights such as:

• A sign in the window of the Clayton Street Ladbrokes stating "Money Back On All Non Runners" as though it were something new and extraordinary. As far as I'm aware that's been the state of affairs for as long as I know. Most Odd! If you want a free £10 bet click Here
• Then theres the legions of window cleaners with their long extendable pipes , who manage to flood the pavements between the Eldon and Central Station. Make sure you wear waterproof footwear.
• And the odd pastry delivery van outside Clayton Street Gregg's / Eldon Milligan's that can never ever get started. Obviously it must do at some point otherwise it would still be there now!
• Outside The Black Garter pub (prior to 7 am remember) a bunch of pensioners were pushing each other around prior to a full blown fight I assume. Who the hell waits outside a Newcastle Centre pub (of such dubious repute) at that time in a morning??

And theres probably much more , but can't think at the moment