Grapefruit

Grainger Market, Newcastle

Yesterday I was in the Grainger Market getting fruit and stuff for the week, and for some reason picked up a couple of grapefruit (or should that be grapefruits?). My mum reckoned that Grapefruit "burned fat" but that was the 1960s , I think that was because they don't taste sweet.

Anyway put 'em in the fridge and had one this morning , had forgotten just how gorgeous and refreshing they are. I will be buying more I think on my future visits. Apparently Michael Eavis (Glastonbury head guy) eats a whole one every day according to Elbow's Guy Garvey, and he certainly looks extremely well on it.

Well I may try and mow the lawn in cage a deluge appears , and need to do it today as I won't be up to it after the liver biopsy (lifting the lawmower up and down steps not a great idea after the op), and hopefully have a relaxing afternoon . Hope all my friends who are moving or have moved have settled in and are having a brilliant weekend , same goes for all my friends.

Jack The Barber

Jacks Frontage

Needed a haircut today, and my favourite barbers is Newcastle is Jack's near Central Station. The last couple of times they've been packed , but I got in today.

Vintage Hairdryer

The decor is great and the crack is good , always great fun whoever is in . Claire sorted me out today, but Lloyd the owner was also dealing with a Canadian guy and everyone was engaged in conversation and laughs including why German soldiers are en masse requiring breast reduction operations. Very amusing and also it's a great laugh.

Blood Letting Dish

They have some great stuff in there and it's a nice place to be while you are waiting for your trim.

Anyway an excellent day, but I told Claire I would blog about how good the shop is so here it is.

Jack's Fan

Jack's Gargoyle

Jack's Library

Maybe the first song that comes to mind is monster riff from Beck that he lifted from the Troggs. Both songs on hear so you can listen to both. Beck did credit the Troggs on his record.

The Weekend Is Here Again ... And The Festivals Are Here

Glastonbury Tor

I watched some of Glastonbury last night and was impressed with Blondie and Elbow, but it really is just a huge corporate splurge. The music is an irrelevance and I bet very few of the goers even thing of visiting the town or know of the Tor. If you go you should visit the Tor a pyramidal hill on a flat plain with amazing views.

Tor Tower

Tor Tower

Glastonbury Revisited by The Cosmic Rough Riders is my favourite song that mentions Glastonbury, a perfect Festival song.

When we went we got to the top then noticed a local running up, when he reached the top he stood on his head for a couple of minutes and the ran away. When we descended we found signs barring people from entering the field due to the Foot and Mouth epidemic at the time.

View from the Tor

  Well two of my festivals will be Mouth of Tyne and Corbridge , but this weekend in Newcastle there's the Tea and Cake Planet event , which could be worth a visit.

View From The Tor

View from the Tor

Yesterday I had some great chats with people about the horrors of giving presentations to unreceptive audiences and the joys of finding and talking about antique furniture. It's amazing that if you talk to the right person to can talk with them for ages and it seems like two minutes have gone and you have learned lots and had your interest stimulated greatly.





Anyway that's it for today, I'm gonna have to get off in to the wide blue yonder , in a great mood ....

The Day After The Longest Day

This is where the pessimists start saying it's all downhill from here , the days are getting shorter , it'll soon be winter and we haven't had a summer. Well in my opinion we have had great weather just like 2013 , I'm enjoying this great weather , we are having a great summer , and there is lot's of good stuff happening.

Big Country

I'm particularly looking forward to the Corbridge Festival which features Big Country , Bessie and the Zinc Buckets and the Ska-Toons among others , that's on the 12th of July, and the same weekend features the Mouth Of Tyne festival, admittedly I'm not too enamoured with the Brand New Heavies and Toploader but we do have the Neville Staple Band. Then we have Summertyne the following week with lot's of Americana going on.

SO we have all this music , and this without even touching on the main music venues in the area which I have eulogised in previous posts.

So really there is loads to do and enjoy and lots of it is free , you just have to make the effore to get there, and luckily Tyneside has a brilliant public transport system.

S0 enjoy the summer , it's going to be totally great!

The Longest Day 2014

Summer Solstice Stonehenge

Well today is the longest day , the summer solstice and we've had a lot of sun, and it's been hot. There have been celebrations throughout the country and it's nice it's been on a weekend so people can make the most of the extra daylight.

Although it's close to 11 pm and the sky is quite dark, so I can't take a photograph. I started the weekend off with a great gig and today I mowed the lawn , so I'm now taking it easy for the rest of the weekend.


Hope you have all had a great day and enjoy a similar day tomorrow.

Sunshirony, Bad Pollyanna and The NHS

Yes it's a made up word , but the sun outside is gorgeous and tonight I'm on a solo flight to see three Goth bands including the wonderful Bad Pollyanna  at Think Tank in Newcastle. I didn't realise they were from this sceptered isle!  I'd originally planned to get there about 9 , but the band posted on Facebook that they were coming on at 7:15 so lucky I checked  and thank you for that Bad Pollyanna.

This week has been absolutely mental and I didn't know whether I would get through today in one piece or without causing major damage, but I think that workwise it has come through fairly successfully working with some really nice people, despite being at home.

My liver biopsy has been postponed because I didn't notice that really important point on page five of the letter that I was sent (I should have stopped taking aspirin at the start of the week) , hopefully I will remember for any other similar things , but thank God I can have a little moan about that , rather than being in the USA and wondering if I can afford it. Michael Moore's Sicko is a very worrying piece but one you should watch. This is what the Tories want in this country, they are trying to destroy the NHS by outsourcing services to their cronies who bleed the NHS and then the government tells us that we cant afford so we have to privatise it. Rant over, have a great night , the weekend starts here

Work Less Play More

This is just from a few things that I've seen and talked about today. The title was on a traveling case and really is a good philosophy for anyone who wants to be happy. And it fell in with a discussion about the past and future and the economy, and how we were going to have cities on Mars by the turn of this century (the year 2000) , and we would be working 20 hour weeks and have so much disposable income life would be incredible and we'd all be happy.

Well that's not quite the way it's turned out but there are certain things that are still rather incredible, like the fact that you can be in touch with someone wherever you both are in the world, and we have so much entertainment now in the form of music , books , radio, film and tv as well has now having the huge information resource that is the world wide web.

Although the worrying bit it the growing gap between the rich and poor , but that's for another post, here I just want to concentrate on the stuff that is good.

I was surprised to here CeeLo Green's "Fuck You" (the normal version) playing in the Eldon on of those really catchy song with an unbroadcastable tag line a bit in the mode of the Rolling Stones StarStar (guess what the Second Star stands for).

Anyway it's time for bed, hope you are all good, and enjoy the rest of your night / day / week , and play more and work less.