Monday, April 11, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Mirrorball
Hello.
Before we start, here's some music. I make no apologies for the "Heavy" nature of the Mogwai track - it's my blog after all. I do, however, urge you to turn the YYY track up to full and feel the hairs on your arms go up.
PJ Harvey - The Glorious Land
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Skeletons
Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan
I have loads to say but can't be arsed saying it. I'll have to do it in pictures - always remember that each one is, in fact, worth a thousand words...
Elbow! Mirrorball! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. That guy (Guy) can surely sing. Good banter too, in fact the whole show was fantastic. I urge you all to go see them at the first opportunity.
Martin (It's that bloke again!) at the end of Paddys night. The evening was a success after an initial awkward period in which we had to move people from their saved seats to make room for musicians, then too many musicians turned up. We arranged our next "Practice evening" for 17 April.
Lyn and Lucy get vocal while Dave strums. Lyn will hate this picture - she NEVER sings in public.
Cheese getting cosy.
One for the Plexal guys. I had to retire my Plexal (Bangkok) rucksack due to the stitching on the straps threatening to give way. Took this before binning it, with a nostalgic tear in the eye.
Tyne tunnel opening - the actual moment when traffic first went through..
..my bit is the grey computer screen, second from left.
Lyn's hand a blur as she wows the crowd. Roger looks on, amazed.
Went for a nice bike ride yesterday on the old road iron. Doesn't look much does it? Ah well, it gets the job done. Note the lugggage rack - I now ride to work once a week.
In other news, I'm spending a lot of time in Newcastle doing bits and bobs on "My" tunnel. Night work, most of it. Ah well, it pays the mortgage. Wifey gets the evenings to herself, and needs them - the end of her degree is looming. Blimey, she won't know what to do with herself after this summer.
I've been busy transposing my vinyl records to mp3. Expect some extra-cheesy music on here soon. It's a long process because I bought the cheapest USB turntable, which came with the most awful software. I have to record manually, telling the system where the gaps in the tracks are, and typing in the artist, album name and track name. However, it's a labour of love, and the obvious short-cut ("Why don't you just download them all from Pirate Bay?") didn't even get a look-in.
More soon (yeah, right.)
Before we start, here's some music. I make no apologies for the "Heavy" nature of the Mogwai track - it's my blog after all. I do, however, urge you to turn the YYY track up to full and feel the hairs on your arms go up.
PJ Harvey - The Glorious Land
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Skeletons
Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan
I have loads to say but can't be arsed saying it. I'll have to do it in pictures - always remember that each one is, in fact, worth a thousand words...
Elbow! Mirrorball! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. That guy (Guy) can surely sing. Good banter too, in fact the whole show was fantastic. I urge you all to go see them at the first opportunity.
Martin (It's that bloke again!) at the end of Paddys night. The evening was a success after an initial awkward period in which we had to move people from their saved seats to make room for musicians, then too many musicians turned up. We arranged our next "Practice evening" for 17 April.
Lyn and Lucy get vocal while Dave strums. Lyn will hate this picture - she NEVER sings in public.
Cheese getting cosy.
One for the Plexal guys. I had to retire my Plexal (Bangkok) rucksack due to the stitching on the straps threatening to give way. Took this before binning it, with a nostalgic tear in the eye.
Tyne tunnel opening - the actual moment when traffic first went through..
..my bit is the grey computer screen, second from left.
Lyn's hand a blur as she wows the crowd. Roger looks on, amazed.
Went for a nice bike ride yesterday on the old road iron. Doesn't look much does it? Ah well, it gets the job done. Note the lugggage rack - I now ride to work once a week.In other news, I'm spending a lot of time in Newcastle doing bits and bobs on "My" tunnel. Night work, most of it. Ah well, it pays the mortgage. Wifey gets the evenings to herself, and needs them - the end of her degree is looming. Blimey, she won't know what to do with herself after this summer.
I've been busy transposing my vinyl records to mp3. Expect some extra-cheesy music on here soon. It's a long process because I bought the cheapest USB turntable, which came with the most awful software. I have to record manually, telling the system where the gaps in the tracks are, and typing in the artist, album name and track name. However, it's a labour of love, and the obvious short-cut ("Why don't you just download them all from Pirate Bay?") didn't even get a look-in.
More soon (yeah, right.)
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Tunnels and stuff
For those who think my life as a reluctant engineer is in some way glamorous, here's where I spend most of my time monday to friday these days:
It's a service tunnel, which is adjacent to the road tunnel, which is 50 metres below the river Tyne. It's cold, miserable and dark. Still want to be me?
In other news, today I was mostly sitting watching squash at the British National Championships in Manchester Sport City. I had a great time and the ladies' and mens' finals were both thrilling matches. My hero Nick Matthew (world number 1) was pipped in a five-set thriller by Daryl Selby (world number 10), and the love of my life Jenny Duncalf lost to Laura Massaro from Preston. Here is the lovely Ms Duncalf, off to one side while the victor speaks, proving herself to be a fairly rotten loser...
Ah well, back to Newcastle in the morning. Better go get some sleep. Night night.
It's a service tunnel, which is adjacent to the road tunnel, which is 50 metres below the river Tyne. It's cold, miserable and dark. Still want to be me?In other news, today I was mostly sitting watching squash at the British National Championships in Manchester Sport City. I had a great time and the ladies' and mens' finals were both thrilling matches. My hero Nick Matthew (world number 1) was pipped in a five-set thriller by Daryl Selby (world number 10), and the love of my life Jenny Duncalf lost to Laura Massaro from Preston. Here is the lovely Ms Duncalf, off to one side while the victor speaks, proving herself to be a fairly rotten loser...
Ah well, back to Newcastle in the morning. Better go get some sleep. Night night.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
An offer I DID refuse.
Proper gangsters up here in Newcastle. I got to my hotel room and saw this in the bed..
Peculiar bit of marketing. A week later I still haven't been to their restaurant.
Ah well. I'm off.
Peculiar bit of marketing. A week later I still haven't been to their restaurant.
Ah well. I'm off.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Rain Rain Rain. And trains.
Just seen a satellite image on telly, of a rain cloud that stretches all the way back to eatern USA. Over the next few days it will slowly move over northern England like a gigantic leaking pipe, meaning we get wet for a week or so. So glad I got the motorbike out of mothballs last week. Mind you, the charm of train travel was wearing thin, no doubt due to the abrasive nature of digging a scruffy tenner out of my pocket every morning.
In other news, I've been working up in Newcastle, or near it, on the Tyne Tunnel refurbishment. My word it's parky oop there. I joined a squash club, of course, and got myself involved in their local league system, only to be told that, due to the fact that the new tunnel is nowhere near ready for a control system, I'm back in the office for a while. Here are two souvenir pics:
Paul gets lunch and enjoys the view from our desk. This is the old tunnel, new one is over the hillside.
New tunnel, ovbiously not near completion, as Paul indicates.
In other news, I went to Buxton yesterday (day off - wooo) and enjoyed two hours of pampering. The floatation tank was, well, interesting and very relaxing, until just as I was nodding off there was a spooky BANG from somewhere behind the tank. Given that I was enclosed in warm heavy plastic and in total darkness it brought on a brief bout of claustrophobia. Now I know what that feels like at least. The deep-tissue massage was also very relaxing, but for me not nearly deep enough. I think to get the kind of massage I want, I'd need a very strong woman, or (shudder) a man. New mate Paul (not Paul above) went for the hot stone massage, which sounded better if not for the masseuse's tic. Not pleasnat I imagine, having a person holding two large pebbles jerking uncontrollably whilst grinding the things into your flesh.
In other news, Art Lounge has now opened its second exhibition, entitled "A Sense Of Place". Wifey and I spent two evenings hanging the new work, and on Thursday the public were allowed to see it. The evening went well, but having popped out at 7.30 to run an errand, I discovered a crying daughter Emma, trudging home with her suitcase after witnessing the train doors close on her, and said train disappearing into the gloom leaving her stood in the dark. I tried to get her to Sheffield for her connection to London but after hassling the poor old car for 45 minutes, we arrived just in time for her to watch another train disappear. More tears, until she was advised by the station staff to just get on the next train and explain, and she'd "probably" not have to pay the £90 ticket. I trundled back to the exhibition and was next day informed that Emma had made it without extra charge, so the story ended well. I had, however, missed most of a good party. Oh well I had a clear head for my spa day. Here's a sample from the exhibition:
Art Lounge - now in 3D!!
Speaking of Art Lounge, we now have our music practice evenings in there, so once a month patrons are treated to splendid Irish music played splendidly by Ursula on the Fiddle, Marco on guitar, us on Bodhran and occasionally Roger on harmonica or ukulele. Next one is Feb 20th, so put that in your diary and smoke it. There's also a special evening on March 17th (St Patricks Day).
Ah well, I'm off to trudge round Manchester in the rain with birthday boy Colin. Enjoy yourselves.
In other news, I've been working up in Newcastle, or near it, on the Tyne Tunnel refurbishment. My word it's parky oop there. I joined a squash club, of course, and got myself involved in their local league system, only to be told that, due to the fact that the new tunnel is nowhere near ready for a control system, I'm back in the office for a while. Here are two souvenir pics:
Paul gets lunch and enjoys the view from our desk. This is the old tunnel, new one is over the hillside.
New tunnel, ovbiously not near completion, as Paul indicates.
In other news, I went to Buxton yesterday (day off - wooo) and enjoyed two hours of pampering. The floatation tank was, well, interesting and very relaxing, until just as I was nodding off there was a spooky BANG from somewhere behind the tank. Given that I was enclosed in warm heavy plastic and in total darkness it brought on a brief bout of claustrophobia. Now I know what that feels like at least. The deep-tissue massage was also very relaxing, but for me not nearly deep enough. I think to get the kind of massage I want, I'd need a very strong woman, or (shudder) a man. New mate Paul (not Paul above) went for the hot stone massage, which sounded better if not for the masseuse's tic. Not pleasnat I imagine, having a person holding two large pebbles jerking uncontrollably whilst grinding the things into your flesh.
In other news, Art Lounge has now opened its second exhibition, entitled "A Sense Of Place". Wifey and I spent two evenings hanging the new work, and on Thursday the public were allowed to see it. The evening went well, but having popped out at 7.30 to run an errand, I discovered a crying daughter Emma, trudging home with her suitcase after witnessing the train doors close on her, and said train disappearing into the gloom leaving her stood in the dark. I tried to get her to Sheffield for her connection to London but after hassling the poor old car for 45 minutes, we arrived just in time for her to watch another train disappear. More tears, until she was advised by the station staff to just get on the next train and explain, and she'd "probably" not have to pay the £90 ticket. I trundled back to the exhibition and was next day informed that Emma had made it without extra charge, so the story ended well. I had, however, missed most of a good party. Oh well I had a clear head for my spa day. Here's a sample from the exhibition:
Art Lounge - now in 3D!!
Speaking of Art Lounge, we now have our music practice evenings in there, so once a month patrons are treated to splendid Irish music played splendidly by Ursula on the Fiddle, Marco on guitar, us on Bodhran and occasionally Roger on harmonica or ukulele. Next one is Feb 20th, so put that in your diary and smoke it. There's also a special evening on March 17th (St Patricks Day).
Ah well, I'm off to trudge round Manchester in the rain with birthday boy Colin. Enjoy yourselves.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
It's Away
..Christmas, that is. To use an almost unforgivable pun, our 2010 festive season was very much "Christmas Lite". It's just taken me all of five minutes to get our house back to its normal state(dustbin chic, you might call it) due to only having six items of decoration deployed
-to wit:
I'm off to wait for spring.
-to wit:
- one cuddly Father Xmas with reindeer
- one set of angels around the shop window
- one set of candle lights
- one set of elf-burglers
- one singing tree
- one deranged turkey.
I'm off to wait for spring.
Friday, December 31, 2010
The rest of 2010
Hello there. Catch-up time. This blog starts and ends with parties at Martin & Lucy's. Important to note at this juncture that we do actually have other mates.
Just getting ready for Martin & Lucy's New Year party, which is a fancy dress affair. I don't own a fancy dress, or a dress of any kind, so I'm going in 80's pantaloons, a red flowery shirt, a mustard waistcoat, purple dickie-bow and grey suede winkle-pickers. Wifey's going in fur coat and no nickers. That should cause a stir.
I see from the previous blog that I've been sulking since just before Halloween. Here are some pics of that:
There, a fair representation of the proceedings. 'twas a good bash. I usually can't remember parties due to alcohol-induced amnesia, but this time I can't remember because it was months ago.
During the blog-free period I did eventually recover from the bad back, and start playing squash and doing other exercise. Now it all just seems like a bad dream, so much so that my good intentions of doing pilates went away after a few weeks. Having said that, the few sessions I did attend were very helpful to my recovery and I'd recommend it to anyone with concerns over the old spine. Just be prepared to have to make small talk with your exclusively female classmates.
Other high-points in the autumn/winter social calendar included the following:
Settling in at work
I noticed a building in the vicinity of my workplace which isn't as it seems. look twice at this:
..strange eh? Must have cost a fortune. I wonder if they are actually working on it inside, and one day it will shed this skin like a chrysalis, and dazzle us all like some gigantic concrete butterfly. The one next to it is identical in every respect, except that it's real. They must have photographed the real one and used it to make this cover. Must have a huge printer - paper size: A-minus-one-million.
Feeding Colin
Actually that happened loads of times, and presumably always will. He et this the other day, much to my amazement considering his recent reduction in bulk:
Scary eh? Would take me a week to get through.
Opening the Art Lounge
This was a big one. Local choice of bars is very limited in New Mills so when our mate Dave (Seen earlier in this blog, dressed as dracula) decided to convert the top floor of the Beehive Pub into a contemporary art space-cum-wine bar, we were delighted. Wifey curated the 25 pieces on display, and since October five of them have actually sold. Here is what it looked like just before the grand opening:
The whole venture has been well-received on the whole and soon another set of paintings will replace the ones seen here. Many a happy evening has been spent there enjoying the non-intrusive atmosphere created by the lack of big tellies, dart-boards, pool-tables and rubbish music. In fact it was yours truly that provided the music, after the original plan to stream from the internet went awry. Support the facebook page - ArtLounge
Finding Gloves
Wifey hatched a hare-brained scheme to collect lost gloves and make some kind of art wrok from it. Friends and family went about their lives as normal, but upon spotting a discarded glove, would photograph it in-situ and collect the item for later use. Our good work was curtailed when the capricious artist changed it to children's gloves only. Who knows if anything will ever come of it, but here are my two offerings:
Visiting Grant & Sarah
Went for a few pints and a catch-up with Grant and Sarah. Had a great time and stayed over at Grant's place in Buxton. He introduced us to the delights of the Wii console - I had no idea. Here they are strutting their stuff to a dancing game:
I threw a few shapes myself, not to mention shearing a few sheep and bowling the odd strike. Lots of fun.
Bloody Awful Weather
Damn, I promised not to go on about it. Here's our car disappearing as I look on helplessly from the living room window:
This picture will make me smile next summer, but now it just makes me want to get on the first plane to the equator.
Kings of Leon
Took wifey to see the boys in Sheffield. After 15 minutes she stopped fretting about the crowd and noticed there was a band on stage. After 30 minutes she started facebooking on her phone. Thereafter she occasionally looked up and asked how long till we could leave. A rock chick she isn't. On the other hand, I had a great time and thought they were a very good live band. Some mumblings about the light show were overheard, but this isn't really a showband, they just do their thing very well without the bangs and flashes. Here's a picture:
Not the greatest light show on earth. Overall wifey was underwhelmed with the whole evening. However, she did mention it might be good so see Elbow, so I got us tickets for their MEN Arena show in March. Here's hoping the phone stays in the bag on that night.
Impending GrandParenthood
Emma announced she's expecting in July, and sincere and heartfelt congratulations to her and Jody. I'm easily old enough to be a grandad, I just don't look it. Here is the little tyke:
Awwww.Just getting ready for Martin & Lucy's New Year party, which is a fancy dress affair. I don't own a fancy dress, or a dress of any kind, so I'm going in 80's pantaloons, a red flowery shirt, a mustard waistcoat, purple dickie-bow and grey suede winkle-pickers. Wifey's going in fur coat and no nickers. That should cause a stir.
I see from the previous blog that I've been sulking since just before Halloween. Here are some pics of that:
There, a fair representation of the proceedings. 'twas a good bash. I usually can't remember parties due to alcohol-induced amnesia, but this time I can't remember because it was months ago.
During the blog-free period I did eventually recover from the bad back, and start playing squash and doing other exercise. Now it all just seems like a bad dream, so much so that my good intentions of doing pilates went away after a few weeks. Having said that, the few sessions I did attend were very helpful to my recovery and I'd recommend it to anyone with concerns over the old spine. Just be prepared to have to make small talk with your exclusively female classmates.
Other high-points in the autumn/winter social calendar included the following:
Settling in at work
I noticed a building in the vicinity of my workplace which isn't as it seems. look twice at this:
..strange eh? Must have cost a fortune. I wonder if they are actually working on it inside, and one day it will shed this skin like a chrysalis, and dazzle us all like some gigantic concrete butterfly. The one next to it is identical in every respect, except that it's real. They must have photographed the real one and used it to make this cover. Must have a huge printer - paper size: A-minus-one-million.
Feeding Colin
Actually that happened loads of times, and presumably always will. He et this the other day, much to my amazement considering his recent reduction in bulk:
Scary eh? Would take me a week to get through.Opening the Art Lounge
This was a big one. Local choice of bars is very limited in New Mills so when our mate Dave (Seen earlier in this blog, dressed as dracula) decided to convert the top floor of the Beehive Pub into a contemporary art space-cum-wine bar, we were delighted. Wifey curated the 25 pieces on display, and since October five of them have actually sold. Here is what it looked like just before the grand opening:
The whole venture has been well-received on the whole and soon another set of paintings will replace the ones seen here. Many a happy evening has been spent there enjoying the non-intrusive atmosphere created by the lack of big tellies, dart-boards, pool-tables and rubbish music. In fact it was yours truly that provided the music, after the original plan to stream from the internet went awry. Support the facebook page - ArtLounge
Finding Gloves
Wifey hatched a hare-brained scheme to collect lost gloves and make some kind of art wrok from it. Friends and family went about their lives as normal, but upon spotting a discarded glove, would photograph it in-situ and collect the item for later use. Our good work was curtailed when the capricious artist changed it to children's gloves only. Who knows if anything will ever come of it, but here are my two offerings:
Visiting Grant & Sarah
Went for a few pints and a catch-up with Grant and Sarah. Had a great time and stayed over at Grant's place in Buxton. He introduced us to the delights of the Wii console - I had no idea. Here they are strutting their stuff to a dancing game:
I threw a few shapes myself, not to mention shearing a few sheep and bowling the odd strike. Lots of fun.
Bloody Awful Weather
Damn, I promised not to go on about it. Here's our car disappearing as I look on helplessly from the living room window:
This picture will make me smile next summer, but now it just makes me want to get on the first plane to the equator.Kings of Leon
Took wifey to see the boys in Sheffield. After 15 minutes she stopped fretting about the crowd and noticed there was a band on stage. After 30 minutes she started facebooking on her phone. Thereafter she occasionally looked up and asked how long till we could leave. A rock chick she isn't. On the other hand, I had a great time and thought they were a very good live band. Some mumblings about the light show were overheard, but this isn't really a showband, they just do their thing very well without the bangs and flashes. Here's a picture:
Not the greatest light show on earth. Overall wifey was underwhelmed with the whole evening. However, she did mention it might be good so see Elbow, so I got us tickets for their MEN Arena show in March. Here's hoping the phone stays in the bag on that night.
Impending GrandParenthood
Emma announced she's expecting in July, and sincere and heartfelt congratulations to her and Jody. I'm easily old enough to be a grandad, I just don't look it. Here is the little tyke:
Christmas
Well it comes but once a year. I have no photos of the detested event. Dinner at Suzy's house was excellent, we had nice visits from Alex and Peter/Merilyn/Family, then it was time for the aforementioned New Year celebration.
New Years Eve
It's now January 5th - yes it's taken me six days to write this.
The party at Martin & Lucy's went well. Lots of wine was drunk, lots of food was et. Here are pics:
My outfit was pulled from several corners of my wardrobe.
There was dancing...
...and bare bums.
Rock-star looks. And Martin's nice too.And that's about it for 2010. More blogging to come this year, especially if my proposed move to Kazakhstan comes off. Exciting things bound to happen over there. Currently I'm negotiating terms, more news soon.
As always, later taters.
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