Ooyah

(wrote this last week, forgot to post it...)

My back is killing me. I have an appointment at the quacks on monday. Meanwhile no heroics. There are people in the new office who are aware of my near-legendary squash prowess, and they are queueing up for a drubbing, but I'm having to make sissy excuses because of my back. I hate being sick in any way, it's a personal insult from god. (..who?)

Work fairly slow, I begin to wonder if there really was any hurry for me to get here. Oh well, I'm sure it will get busy eventually.

Wifey and I have done two successive evening shifts at the installation site in Bolton this week. We've built a wooden frame around the staircase with a door (my poor back), so no light can leak into the installation from the stairwell. It'll be worth a visit when it opens if you're remotely interested in contemporary art. Details nearer the time. For a relatively unimportant (apart from the hectic rush for a first-class degree) third-year show, an awful lot has gone into this, and the other things she's done this year. I can't wait to see how busy we get when the final year rolls around. I may have to retire and become a full-time chippy/electrician/ladder-carrier/general handyman.

(..and now this week..)

Doctor prescribed the stronger anti-inflammtory drug Diclofenac, which has made me feel like I'm 25 again. Nothing hurts. You know you only notice things when they suddenly disappear? Well it turns out I've had aches and pains everywhere and just been ignoring them. Shoulders, back, knees, wrists, all feeling fine now thanks very much. I'm going to hate it when I have to stop taking these pills. I even feel like I could manage a game of squash, but best not until I'm off the sicklist. Doc reckons the back will be fixed after a week or so.

Work stayed boring for a week, got interesting for a few days, and is now boring again. Damn.

In other news, I found out yesterday that Leftfield have reformed with most of the lineup from 1991 (Leftism album) and are playing Manchester on 5th June and Sheffield on 6th. Must drag the missus along to one of those. I think they clash with some arty stuff - serious discussion ahead (gulp).

Speaking of arty stuff, Lyn filled the kitchen with white plaster fingers. I took some photos and made an animation, but the effect was much more spooky, even gruesome, in real life.



In other news, it seems we are going to have house-mates, in the form of Odette, and later Emma and Jody. One question - where will I put my drums when they arrive from Thailand? It's all temporary while they sort out jobs and places to stay, hopefully in New Mills. It will be nice for our social sphere to expand a little.

While we're on drums, I had my first drum lesson since my return yesterday and loved it. Loads of new stuff to practice as soon as I get some kit. That boat can't arrive fast enough.

Have to go, time for my medication. Be good.

Art Project

With special thanks to Peter F for pointing me in the right direction electronically, here's something I threw together for Lyn's latest installation. She wanted something which would make the lights appear to "Breathe"..


Yes, that is tupperware. It's a quality job.

Oh well, back to the 200 plaster fingers we have to make for the other piece she's doing. I feel like I've entered the twilight zone. At least I'm not getting shot at.

Laters

All Sorts of Stuff

No Piccadilly buskers I'm afraid, but there's news of my new job, motorcycling revisited, Joan Armour-Plating and other quality items.

Firstly, the rather good Armatrading concert. We went to Buxton Opera House to see the singer/guitarist. We took in a nice meal en route with my erstwhile Bangkok drinking companions Peter and Tracy, which was nice. St Moritz in Buxton, £7.50 for two courses - you heard it here first. The concert was great, and I hadn't realised that Ms Armatrading is a very good blues guitarist, which was a bonus. She played for two hours, a mix of her hits and some album tracks. Tears were jerked during "All the way from America", I have to admit. Beautiful voice. And yes, she played Drop the Pilot.

Oi, what d'you think this is?
Wronnnnnnnnng! It's a fives court. A bit smaller than a squash court, and squash players would hate the black walls ("Where's the bloody ball gone?"). I haven't seen a fives court since school days. There were two courts in the playground at the Liverpool Institute, and I have to tell you I was unbeatable on them, even if we did make the rules up as we went along. Anyway, there are two of these at the sports club close to where I now work. I think I'll ignore them and stick to swimming.

Speaking of work, it's going well, thanks for asking. The journey in is a bit busy no matter what unearthly time I get up, but on the bike that just means I get to overtake more disgruntled car drivers.

It's a fantastic feeling to be riding again. The bike is a bit rattly and I have to decide whether to replace the camchain, or part-ex the bike and let someone else experience the sickening crunch as it gives way. Any suggestions?

Right, I better do some work. Be good.

Hyosung

Picked up the bike from the shop yesterday - hurrah!
Rode it home and felt 17 again - hurrah!
Remembered that the brake light switches are both useless and the brake lights stay on - booo!
Got up this morning to find the good-natured rowdies of New Mills had pushed it over in the night - booo!

Some pics from before they scratched it:Glad I changed the bars - mean 'n moody

Note new chain and sprockets


More soon - the sun is shining this morning but I have no time for recreational m/cycling. There's art to be done..

More later.

Anonymous Commenting

Ok, after numerous complaints (one), I've allowed anonymous commenting, which I hate.

If you're too tired to get a proper login, please put your name at the bottom of your comment.

Be good

Suvarnabhumi Airport

On my way home for the last time, and feeling pretty chipper about it all. I've been upgraded to Business Class for the whole trip, including being driven home from Manchester, thanks to wifey's carefully hoarded airmiles (I owe you a posh dinner missus).

I'm in the Emirates lounge, la di da, just had my posh breakfast in the little resh-tront here. Has anyone else observed the curious lethargy that overcomes people in Hotel/Lounge self-serve restaurants, by the way? Most intriguing. It's asif they think if they move r e a l l y s l o w l y... nobody will notice they don't know where the butter is. Since noticing this, and not wanting to run (or amble) with the crowd, I move very quickly and with apparent confidence, even though I'm probably the world's worst butter-finder. Of course this means I end up with some strange meals but I manage to cram it all in somehow.

I'm aware that this isn't exactly Manchester-based news, and that means I was slightly too eager to get the new blog going, but my excuse is that I've had a few days of sitting around waiting for stuff to happen and I needed something un-stressful to think about.

While we're on the new blog, the colour has been called into question. Let me be clear: I'll have no dissent here. The choice was driven by extremely expensive professional psychological profiling of the texts of all the contributions so far, and is calculated to induce a feeling of calm and serenity in the prospective contributor. So what d'you mean, you don't like it?

While we're on psychological profiling, has the election finished yet? I hope you all voted, or at least those of you who live in the UK. I would have, but someone binned the forms...I emailed all the local candidates and suggested that if they signed up to the "Save 6Music" lobby, I might vote for them. I got an immediate reply from the UKIP candidate which was full of vim and vigour, but basically said no. I had the impression they aren't really inrterested in music, more focussed on keeping the pound. Doesn't get my vote. I had a few other replies, the last of which, and the most supportive, was from the green party. There is no Labour candidate for the area, so some tactical voting is required methinks...

Here's the last meal I had in Bangkok:
Green Chicken Curry. Boy was it hot - that's a proper Thai curry, tastes basically like coconut flavoured battery acid.

Ah well, that's enough. Might scribble something from the Emirates lounge in Dubai.

Bye all.

Salford beckons

Here we go then. Let's put a line under the whole thing...

******************************************************************************
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Actually that's two lines.

Back with buskers soon.

Montage

From Wikipedia:
Montage (filmmaking), a filmmaking technique which uses rapid editing, special effects and music to present compressed narrative information.

I'm reliably informed that you "Gotta Have" one, so here, accompanied by the glorious 2 mins 8 secs of the aptly named "Intro" by The XX, is my Bangkok experience...


Some nice moments in there. Filling up now....

Thanks to everyone, big or small, who supported the blog. Sometimes it kept me sane, sometimes it drove me mad. It will continue under the new name, but obviously the content will be a bit less exotic. Pictures of buskers and big-issue-sellers in Piccadilly for instance....

I'll post the address of the new blog here when I know it.

As always,

Be good.

Philanthropy, photography and finality.

Just had a call from a very excited Thai student. He's on his way to my apartment as we speak, to pick up all the free gear I advertised, or rather wifey advertised. We're talking worktop cooker, cushions, top mattresses, kettle and toaster. I had no intention of carting them home, and no time to advertise them for sale, so she quickly lobbed an ad onto the Anglo Info forum. Now I feel very philanthropic.

In other news, the apartment now looks like nobody lives here. All my stuff is piled into one corner ready for the movers on Monday, except the drums which I'm leaving to the last minute in case I feel musical in the next 36 hours.

I've moved my flight forward to Wednesday morning, or rather wifey has (Seeing a pattern here?). I have to say, having witnessed via skype video link the two-hour muzak-athon which was required in order to change the flight, including (I counted) four instances of being on hold and the line going dead and having to start again, that she showed patience above and beyond the call of duty. Hats off to the ginger one. Anyway, that gets me home by Wednesday evening, with sufficient time to get stupidly excited about picking up the bike, which won't be ready till the weekend.

The bike is in friend John's shop (Bridge Road Motorcycles www.brmc.co.uk in Crosby, Liverpool - there you go John, a free plug) being fixed up after two years of neglect. Apparently it's running already and an MOT is imminent. I've probably mentioned this before, but I'm stupidly excited about getting back on the noisy yellow monster. On top of the excitiement of coming home for good, and starting a new job, I'm just about jumping up and down with it.

While we're on workshops, isn't Martin's place in New Mills called BB Auto's? Well, I spotted another branch of the franchise the other day here in Bangkok...
Kept that quiet didn't he?

While we're on new jobs, I've done my last full day in the Plexal office and had a nice meal with a select few of my colleagues here. It was good, we all said how great we were and some beer was involved. Also the cheapest steamed sea-bass I'll see for a few years to come.

This wil be my last blog before I come home and the whole thing gets moved onto another address. When I'm home I will sort all that out, so for now watch this space for details of "Squirrel Times".

Be good, and be there when I get home.