Hardwick Cottage, Ampleforth

These days I seldom do specific posts about cottages we've stayed in, but this one is exceptional. The owner Rose is very welcoming and the cottage was her father's house. The renovations are documented in one of the welcome books you see as you walk into the large airy dining room and kitchen.

The front room features a book filled tall boy which belonged to Ros's grandmother as well as a modern TV and DVD , player and dedicated wifi , plus an incoming land line. Some cottages are provisioned with cast offs , but in this case whatever is best for the cottage has been provided. Even the selection of films , in my opinion is faultless : Amelie , The Motorcycle Diaries , Withnail & I and Tea With Mussolini and more (including the very disturbing In The Night Garden - CBeebies have a lot to answer for)

There's no need for any photographs as you can look round it here.

I can highly recommend this cottage.

Oh by the way the spiders seem to have vacated the premises!!

Anyway I also need to post an approprate song of the day for June's Tunes, and you think of Our House by Madness or CSNY or Country House by Blur but thinking a bit further on it and decided on the idyllic "Village Green Preservation Society" by the Kinks , then I saw this Kate Rusby version and decided to go with that one which sort of goes with the feeling of the place:

Billy Bragg and Bob Dylan

Was just thinking of the similarities between Bob Dylan and Billy Bragg.

• Both have voices that manage to alienate many potential listeners.
• Both have had their songs covered by others resulting in major success for the coverer - Dylan with The Byrds and Billy Bragg with Kirsty MacColl
• Both have recently released albums that rate with the best of their careers Dylan's Tempest and Bragg's Tooth and Nail , both in my collection

I love the promo for Bragg's new single , directed by Johnny Vegas I belive , who has a degree in Ceramics nicely referenced in the video:




Quarter of an hour of Bob singing "Tempest" about the Titanic's maiden voyage

And an iteresting funny take on Bob's idea by Tim Heidecker

Ampleforth, Spiders and Evolution

Still feeling the after effects of whatever I've had , but well impressed with the cotage which sensibly has it's own wifi , though I feel this will be a growing trend. Ironic that I cant get a phone signal so cant recieve calls or texts but can use my phone to surf the net and listen to online radio stations. You can see the cottage here.

Anyway this was up during the night and noticed a spider in the bath (there are lots of arachnid vistors to this cottage but what can you expect is such a rural area). This morning it was still there and it got me wondering. Spiders are essentially intelligent creatures and ceramic baths have been around for 150 years or so , so why have they not learned to climb out of a bath yet. More pertinently a spider arriving in a bath from the plug hole is like a driver arriving in a cul-de-sac . Eventually you realise that you've made a mistake (unless the place you want to go is in the cul-de-sac) and then you leave the way you came, This is one area where spider show a distinct lack of intelligence.

Lot's of people can't be doing with spiders and it's basically humans cannot deal with creatures with more legs than them that move faster than them. I'm generally ok with spiders as they cull the insect population , but would prefer it if they keep out of my way.

Given the amount of arachnid action today there can only be one one song for the June's Tunes:

It's Four In The Morning .. And I Feel Awful

Well it isn't it's actually 1:48 , but while trying to sleep since 8 pm last night have kept being woken up by coughing fits and an extremely sore throat coughing up some not very nice stuff. It's times like these when I get scared the ITP may come back, but last couple of times I thought it was happening I've recovered sufficiantly. Just found this ITP support site which includes an article on a (nearly) nude St Andrews Calendar , information here.

Just glad this has occurred at the beginning of my holiday at a weekend , which means , as I can't sleep, I can write this post. The fact I can write this means that I must be on the mend , last night I was only fit to drop into bed. Symptoms 'flu like aching , very sore thoat as soon as you lay down tickly cough kicks in , but you are actuallly too tired and weak to get up , but you have to to spit out the horrible phlegm to get it out of your system (swallowing is not an option).

Anyway for some reason the phrase "Four In The Morning" popped into my mind which I've just realised was a syruppy counry and western confection by Faron Young , but the one that I was thinking of was the song by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme from their triple album Consequences that they put out after splitting from 10CC (who have already featured in my June's Tunes). So here is the wonderful song , the kettle is on and I'm going to make myself a cup of tea!!

Now I've found the video , the song is actually called Five O'Clock In The Morning , memory not fully populated , it's still a fantastic song , have a listen. Just checked the albums on Amazon and they will now leave a serious dent in your pocket and there is not much available on download.

Windows 8 Maps and Scottish Pirate Metal

I'm still getting to grips with Windows 8 so this may be an unfair rant. One of the problems in building intuitive interfaces is that the user has to guess what the designer wants the user to do and the designer has to pre empt what the average user will do.

So I was presented with a map roughly centered on Newcastle , with a Bing logo in the bottom left hand corner (and we all know how rubbish Bing searches are) , so that doesnt bode well for the package. Eventually I discovered that a right click on the bottom of the screen brings up a menu with a directions button whicjh I selected , put it my start and destination post codes and it drew a blue line on the map....

...and that was it , no printed directions , no opportunity to put in detours. So went back to Google Maps and got what  I needed.

Anyway it's sunny, and I will we driving down despite having a cough , cold , maybe hayfever and feeling quite rubbish. This day in 1692 an earthquake destroyed Port Royal in Jamaica , a notorious pirate haven . Article here. This gives me the inspiration for todays June's Tunes , the Scottish Pirate Metal (how niche can you get)  band Alestorm

Five Inches of Pleasure ..... 500 Posts .....Spiritual High ..... Becoming More Like God

and this is my 500th post, and it is music related. Every so often something just comes into my head, and one of the things I liked about the CD single heyday (is that the right spelling ?) were the remix singles. Two that stuck in my mind were Spiritual High by Moodswings featurg Chrissie Hynde and Becoming More Like God by Jah Wobble featuring Sinead O'Connor.

These are just the tip of the iceberg and the Moodswings CD dropped through my letterbox featuring six versions of the song clocking in at forty minutes , currently on my CD player. It cost me just under three quid including postage. The Jah Wobble one was on sale at £25 so I think I will leave that for the time being , maybe just invest in the new deluxe version of Take Me To God. Anyway I've include Youtube copies of both tracks for you to enjoy.

Can My Phone Read My Mind?

A friend of mine had posted on Twitter about tge general incompetence if tge contestants.  This called to mind the excellent Mitchell and Webb Apprentice sketch so I thought I would send her the link from Youtube. The recommendations are usually Charlie Brooker and music related. Top of the pile today was a Mitchell and Webb cricket sketch.

It's just coincidence but it would give Derek Acorah a series!!