Another holiday blog...

As is now my usual practice, I will write up our holiday as a separate blog...details will be posted at http://edinburghholiday2012.blogspot.co.uk

Now we are 50...

Decided to start a blog for the year of being 50...

If you're interested: http://halftontales.blogspot.co.uk/

Big Society! at the Music Hall

We were listening to the Mike Harding folk show on BBC Radio 2 last night and he mentioned that Chumbawamba were doing a "Big Society" show at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall (where they used to film the "Good Old Days" for TV).

Once the show was over, we went on-line and now have two tickets and a hotel booked for a weekend away in Leeds in February. Hurrah!

Should be fun as they have got Phil Jupitus involved. I'm looking forward to our first weekend trip of the year!

Happy New Year

It's nearly 7.30 on NYE 2011 and I'm typing in the study instead of getting ready to party.

Not going to make it out tonight as I have been given some sort of cold/flu bug by someone over the Xmas holidays. If I find out who it was I shall thank them by shaking them gently by the throat until theirs is as sore as mine!


So, apologies to Martin & Nic who are hosting the party we are supposed to be at, and apologies to Sonia who is staying in to look after me.

I'm off to have a quiet coughing fit and to empty industrial quantities of mucus out of my sinuses.

Happy New Year!

Updated map of countries I have visited

I have been going through some of my old blog posts and spotted the map that showed how many countries I had visited, so I thought I would bring it up to date...
visited 11 states (4.88%)
Create your own visited map of The World or website vertaling duits?

50 questions

As I am going to be 50 years old on 5th May 2012, I've been asking myself a few questions...

Assuming I want to celebrate it, and I think I do, the conventional approach is to have some sort of social event. Will this be a party? If so, what sort? If not, what instead? Who would turn up? Where would it be held?

My initial thoughts are that, as my birthday will be on the Saturday of May Day weekend, any event can take place on the day itself and it will allow recovery time before anyone has to get back to work on the Tuesday.

Anyone who knows me would not be surprised to hear that any event will need to include "proper" beer..

But do I hold an event in a pub, a club, or at home?

My preference is for a pub or club rather than at home to avoid the clearing up afterwards. But would I want music or just beer, food and conversation?

If I didn't go for the pub/club route, what other options would be acceptable?

Perhaps a personal movie show at The Broadway with use of the mezzanine bar for a buffet?

But what film to choose?

Almost definitely The Blues Brothers for comedy and music.

Any event would be with family and friends so I will need to make some decisions in the near future to make sure people have got the date in their diaries (assuming they want to come along).


And there are other questions to be answered...Do I want any presents? Would it be better to hold a collection at the social event for a good cause? And what about our summer holiday? What do I want from my holiday at 50? Where can we go? When do we go?

I have also been thinking about setting up a blog for the year and trying to do a post a day (or at least on a more regular basis than I do with this blog).

Better make a few decisions, so I'm setting up "Operation Half Ton"...

First go at loading old vinyl tracks

Well, here goes... Click on this link and turn on your speakers...

Ah, that didn't work as I expected, it just sends you to the page so you can download the song yourself...not what I wanted to do at all! So i've removed the link and will start again later.

Not a virus after all

Turns out that the hard drive waited for 1 year and 3 weeks after purchase to fail. So had to buy a new hard drive to go in the PC and reload all the software. Luckily had made a back up on the 1TB storage drive but it was still damned inconvenient!

Seems to be just about back to normal now but still some wrinkles to iron out.

Damned virus makers

Having to type this on the mobile phone as the PC was infected with a virus that crashes the PC and then, once you reboot from your start up disc, it tells you the hard drive is going to crash and you must click on a pop up box to make a back up. I decided to make a back up myself via the Control Panel, yet the pop up box kept reappearing! Took the PC to the shop who took one look and said it wad a virus, leave the box with them, pay £40, and they'll ring once it has been removed...
That was Saturday lunchtime and I'm waiting for the call...

First post from the "smart" phone

The other recent change is the purchase of a San Francisco Orange Android phone. It lets me post things like this via an app.

Long time without posting

It's been some time since I've posted on here. I've been busy with Flickr and Facebook, Sonia got me a turntable at Xmas so I can convert my vinyl collection to digital, and it's been a bit hectic at work what with the team I manage being cut from 10 to 5.

Hopefully I'll keep this a bit more up to date.

And there should be a new holiday blog for our forthcoming trip to Sardinia...we'll be staying in an interesting hotel in the old town area of Alghero.

Rye Holiday blog

Well, I've written up our adventures in the South East of England as a Rye Holiday 2010 blog

And I've posted the photos on Flickr

Election announced, a nation yawns

Well,it's official. The General Election will take place on 6th May 2010 (the day after my birthday) and after the "phoney war" of the past few weeks, the main parties start their campaigns by trying to prove who can swing the biggest axe on public services. I'm not inspired by the prospect.

Someone needs to explain to me why I should vote for any party that is in favour of threatening my job. I will vote, after all people fought and died for my right to do so, but I want it to be a positive act rather than as a means of stopping something worse happening.

Let's see how the campaign develops in Nottingham East...

EDIT: I've copied this as the first posting in my Election 2010 blog

Eliza Carthy says bollocks to Nick Griffin

Eliza Carthy had an article in today's Guardian in response to an article listing the musical tastes of "the world's most evil men" that suggested Nick Griffin was a fan of English folk music. You can read her article here. It includes links to the original article. Her final paragraph is a pithy response to the article...

"At the moment I'm touring with the Imagined Village, an English folk band that includes British Asians alongside guests such as Billy Bragg and Benjamin Zephaniah. You mentioned Folk Against Fascism: we support their attempts to distance folk music from the far right. Bollocks to Nick Griffin. And because talk is not cheap when it comes to this, bollocks to Christian Koch. It's just not funny."

For more about Folk Against Fascism, click on the logo

Nottingham Contemporary Opening day

Today saw the opening of the new art gallery. It officially opened to the public at 10 am. The local press warned of major queues and roads being closed. We went along at 10.30 and walked straight in. The gallery was crowded but not so much that you couldn't see the art works on the wall.

I enjoyed the David Hockney stuff and will probably go back for a longer view. Frances Stark's combination of words and scribbles didn't do much for me but others seemed to enjoy them. I was amused by her kimonos as giant telephones sculptural pieces.

We participated in a piece of interactive art work by writing on pieces of card that were put on plinths in the downstairs performance space and got a couple of free t-shirts by completing a questionnaire but didn't get a chance to try out the cafe bar. We will be back in there at some point as they had a couple of Castle Rock brewery beers on hand pumps.

I'll be back to take photos when the weather is a bit calmer...

Mitch Benn at The Lakeside

We've had tickets for ages to see Mitch Benn do his comedy/music thing at the Lakeside, so it was shame that Sonia came down with a headache that afternoon. Luckily, it was my nephew Edward's birthday and he had no plans, other than getting to a new level in some on-line game that the young people distract themselves with these days.

I dragged him along (he didn't take much persuading) and we settled down to enjoy a great gig. the Nottingham Evening Post review was positive. The highlights for me were the prog rock version of the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" and his heavy rock anthem "IKEA". Edward seemed to really enjoy the rap version of Macbeth, though not sure that it would be a good idea to consider it as a form for his dissertation...The "Break up song" at the end of the second half had wonderful (but very rude) word play, and his encore of "A Minute's Noise for John" (a tribute to John Peel) brought the house down.

He was available after the show to sell and sign CDs and chat to us. His web site is: www.mitchbenn.com

For more of his work, here's his "Break Up song" (with rude words) on You Tube..

A short break in Ironbridge

We had our usual autumn break in the little Shropshire village of Ironbridge, yet another World Heritage Site. We stayed at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast called The Library House for 3 nights to give us two full days to visit most the museums in the area.



Wednesday

We arrived late on Wednesday morning to be greeted by Lizzie who helped us unload and gave me a residents' parking pass for the local pay & display car parks. After parking the car and walking back, I found Sonia and Lizzie sat in the lounge with a pot of tea and slices of sponge cake waiting for me. Also waiting for me was Fizz the dog (who has her own page on the Library House website). Lizzie was very helpful, suggesting places to eat and drink, as well as "local's tips" about what to see and where to go.

Once we had unpacked, we headed out for a stroll to get our bearings. Sonia popped in to a local hairdressers (The Picasso's) for a trim while I wandered around near the bridge taking a few photos (for a change). Once Sonia was suitably shawn, we did a bit more wandering before sitting down to enjoy a pastie and can of pop at Eley's Pie Shop, overlooking the bridge. We bought ourselves a couple of Ironbridge Gorge Museum Passports. These gave us an entry into all 10 museums in the group at any point in the next year (so any we didn't get to this time round could be revisited later).

After lunch, we tried to follow the local guide map we had picked up from the helpful tourist information people in the Bridge's Toll House. We eventually ended up high on Lincoln Hill, looking down on the bridge and the gorge.



From here we had to climb down a lot of steps to find our way to Paradise...



Paradise of a sort was found at the Ironbridge Brewery, where we stopped off a refreshing pint straight from the brewer's own pump. After a walk back to The Library House, we rested before heading out to a local pub, The Golden Ball Inn for the evening. The directions we were given meant we headed up the hill via a park. This meant a lot of steps under frameworks that should have been supporting flowers but they were gone for the autumn. All those visits to the gym paid off as we reached the pub without collapsing in a heap. The beer was very good, Ludlow Gold, and the food tasted great. My only complaint was that there were too many chips for me. After the food we settled down in the main bar for a few games of dominoes (who says we don't know how to have fun) over another couple of drinks. After the landlady broke the handle off the beer pump serving me (to much laughter all round), we eventually decided that we would head back to the B&B but decided we would follow the road and street lights rather than try the path through the park in the dark. We made it back in one piece and settled into the large and comfortable bed.

Thursday

Thursday morning started with an attempt at a healthy breakfast (my eggs were poached rather than fried) but overcast skies. We headed out for the day in the car, leaving the gorge to visit Madeley to pick up some cash from an ATM and a copy of the Fortean Times for me. We then tried to visit the ruined Buildwas abbey but it closed on 30th Sept...so we headed down the gorge back through Ironbridge, over the Jackfield Bridge, and headed up the narrow winding road to the Maws Craft Centre. Most untis were closed as it was before 10 am, so we gave up and headed back down the track to the Jackfield Tile Museum. We used our Passports to get in and spent the rest of the morning wandering amongst some beautiful tiles.



On the way out we stopped off in Fusion, a new building in the grounds of the museum that houses Designers and Makers. We came away from Kinki Glass with a couple of samples of works from Nikki Williams.

From Fusion, we headed back over the Jackfield Bridge and headed up to Blists Hill Victorian Town. Again, we used our passports to get in and headed straight to the pub for lunch. As the skies were still overcast, I decided to make of the photos of the Victorian Town in black and white. We did a lot of walking, stopping off at the various shops and workshops. We stopped off for a cup of tea in the Forest Glen Refreshment Pavilion before heading into the woods to find the Hay Inclined Plane (a two track railway that linked a canal at the top of the hill with the River Severn in the valley below. We eventually made it back to the entrance after a ride on a clay mine train into the hill side.



We made it back to middle of Ironbridge late in the afternoon and booked a table at Restaurant Severn, based on Lizzie's previous recommendation. As we headed out for the evening, we met up with two other sets of guests who were staying overnight. Lizzie had poured them each a large glass of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and invited us to join them. After a bit of polite chat about their experiences of the UK, we left the Aussie visitors to plan their evenings. The maitre d' at the restaurant was surprised to see us arrive on time as "guests from the Library House usually have a drink before they get to us" and arrive a little later than planned. The aperitifs were gorgeous little sausages served with mash dip. We carried on with wine for our meal and I can heartily recommend the restaurant if you are visiting Ironbridge. I had the pork followed by raspberry parfait while Sonia had the beef wellington followed by the belgian chocolate and coffee torte. We eventually headed back to the Library House raving about how wonderful the food had been.

Friday

Friday was a sunny day so we filled up with the cooked breakfasts and headed out in the car to Coalport. Parking at the China Museum, we put on our walking boots and set out for stroll along the banks of the Severn. We crossed over the Memorial Footbridge and found our way onto the Severn Valley Way. A slight detour down to the river bank meant we came across some beautiful flowers on our way to the Coalport Bridge.




From there we walked back along Coalport High Street to the China Museum. Yet again the passports allowed us entry and we wandered around looking at how china was made.



Walking back to the car we stopped off to visit the tar tunnel, a brick-lined tunnel where the bitumen still oozes through the walls.



We finished the morning with a visit to the Museum of Steel Sculpture at the top of Coalbrookdale. This wasn't covered by the passport. From here we headed down the dale to the Museum of Iron where we had a late lunch. I found the museum interesting but didn't take many pictures. We heade across the road to visit Enginuity, an interactive Design & Technology Centre. The good thing about visiting a "hands on" museum like this after 3.30 on a Friday afternoon in October is that there were no kids to get in the way of the adults playing with the water and levers etc. Again, no photos because I was too busy "learning"...

After all that excitement, we headed back into Ironbridge and stopped off at the Brewery to pick up some bottles to take home. When we got back to the centre of the village we ended up driving down to the Jackfield bridge and then back up to the car park on the other side of the Ironbridge itself. This gave us great views of the village lit in the early evening sun as we headed back to the Library House.



Before heading out for the evening, I waited for the sun to go down to take some night shots of the bridge using my gorillapod, the wide angle lens and the cable release.



We took Lizzie's advice about which was the better of the two Indian restaurants in Ironbridge and tried our luck at Pondicherry in the old Police Station. We were shown upstairs to the former courtroom. The food was not your standard meat in a sauce served on a bed of rice. The menu emphasised locally sourced ingredients, and the rice came in a small pyramid on the side of the plate. Sonia really enjoyed her mutton curry and my lamb was cooked to perfection, with a well flavoured sauce to complement it. All this was washed down with a bottle of wine. We were too full for a dessert, although we were tempted. As we staggered back to the Library house, we stopped briefly to look up at the stars in the clear sky.

Saturday

It was difficult to leave on Saturday morning as our stay had been so enjoyable and we still had some museums to visit. A quick stop off in the local newsagents to pick up some biscuits for the folks back in the office, and I walked over the bridge to collect the car. I then had to drive away from Ironbridge to get to the Jackfield Bridge before I could drive back to pick Sonia up outside the Library House. All in all, I really enjoyed our short break. The museums, pubs and restaurants make for a great stay...and we still have some places left to visit on our passports so we might just make it back within the next 12 months.

The finished photos are available on Flickr.com in my Ironbridge break October 09 set

Nottingham Beer Festival 2009

Well it's been a few days now and I think I can remember what a good time I had, based on feedback from others...

Friday night was wet on the outside so I met up at 7.30 with Bill and Chris to get very wet on the inside, thanks to the nice people at Nottingham CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) and the City Council. We paid our £10 which got us into the festival at Nottingham Castle, a souvenir half pint glass, and two beer tokens. To speed up serving and to remove the need for the servers to handle cash, you buy a token for £1.25 from the CAMRA sales table which then gets you a half pint of your chosen brew from the people by the barrels. We decided that we needed another £5 worth of tokens on top of the two we got at the gate.

We weaved our way through the crowds, sampling beers as we went, and bumping into old friends (including a lager drinker!) and acquaintances. I was pleased to see so many young people at the festival - as I explained to Chris, we need the next generation of real ale drinkers to make sure the breweries are there to supply us with decent beer once we retire...

Once we had finished our 6 samples, we had to make a tactical decision. In the words of the old Clash hit - should we stay or should we go? As it was after 10 we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and headed out of the marquees into the fresh air. After a brief stop to unload some of the fluids we had taken on board, we got into a waiting cab and headed up the the Lincolnshire Poacher. We met up with a few friends who had not made it down to the castle that evening and I had a couple more pints. Apparently we were well behaved but found most things funny (so it sounds like we were giggling drunk). Knowing my limits, I finished off my second pint and wandered out to hail a cab home.

I must have enjoyed the evening because Sonia said that I told her about it three times before I fell asleep.

The morning after wasn't too bad. I found two souvenir glasses on the side in the kitchen and then remembered that Bill hadn't wanted his so I had bought him a pint in exchange (that explained the second pint in the Poacher!). After a visit to the barber and the shopping run, the hangover had gone and I was ready to face day properly...getting ready for our niece Lauren to come for an overnight stay while her mum and dad went to a gig in Birmingham.

Give me another year and I might just be ready for the next Nottingham Beer Festival.

Bad Shepherds

It has been busy few days for going out. After the comedy of Marcus Brigstocke, we returned to the Nottingham Playhouse to see The Bad Shepherds play their brand of punk songs in a folk style.

Lots of fun was had by some of us playing "spot the intro", trying to work out what the song was going to be. Those of us of a certain age recognised the songs before others in the audience. The intro of The Jam classic "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" was a revelation, as was the mixing of parts of "Whiskey in the Jar" into "Teenage Kicks".

Examples of what we enjoyed is available on You Tube...
A cover of The Sex Pistols' God save the Queen...

Here they are singing The Steeleye Span song "All around my hat" with a punk twist to the lyrics...


They are back in the area at Lowdham in the Spring...might just go along

Marcus Brigstocke's God Collar

A Sunday seemed an appropriate night to go to see a debate about religion disguised as a stand up comedy routine. I really enjoyed Marcus Brigstocke's "God Collar" as did the reviewer from the Nottingham Evening Post. His ability to insult so many groups with humour would probably upset those of a nervous or overly religious viewpoint, but the audience was ready to put aside their prejudices and follow the debate.

Marcus Brigstocke's website is www.marcusbrigstocke.com. He has quite a few items on You Tube, most famously his rant about the three abrahamic religions on the Now Show on Radio 4...