Must try harder!

I keep doing things and then forgetting to post them.

There have been a handful of DC/79 gigs, I dyed my hair pink (it washed out after a bit), cooked a lot, went out for meals, the usual stuff. There are photos about the place which I will try and post when I can remember! I suspect old age is catching up with me, and I am now well into the "wandering into a room and forgetting why I am there" stage. Having said that, I have always been like that!

I currently have a cough, for which I am taking Allen's Pine and Honey Balsam, as its the least unnatural thing I can find, and honey and lemon on their own just weren't doing it. It is very effective but it tastes VILE. Really vile.

On the subject of all things natural, I treated myself to a book off Amazon with a gift voucher they sent me (for having an Amazon credit card). It was for £10.74, so I got a book about making natural beauty products. And last night I made the following:

Yoghurt, Honey and Oatmeal face mask.

1tbsp ground oatmeal (I bought Mornflake Oats, cos of their groovy new packaging, and then ground them up in a pestle and mortar)
1tbsp organic yoghurt
1tsp organic honey

Stir the lot up together and splodge all over your face for 15 mins (whilst in the bath) and then wash off with cool water.

I then ate what was left. :-)

Bank Holiday laziness

On Saturday I made vegetable gratin, which was potatoes, parsnips, carrots and spring onions and chillies covered with Stilton and baked in the oven.
We watched THE DEVIL'S CHAIR after that.

Sunday was slob day. But very, very sunny, and I managed the first barbecue of the year. Highlight was halloumi cheese marinaded in herbs and olive oil (thankyou Delia)...Managed to spend nearly all of the day outside reading and stuff, which was very nice. Got some serious knitting in as well. :-)

Today was a visit to the garden center where I got a Japonica, a duck with a life belt round its neck (don't ask) and some lawn seed. We repaired to The Dog and Partridge in Woodhouses



for lunch. I had Goat's cheese salad with balsamic reduction (!) and he had chicken and ham pie. Sat outside in the sunshine and had a lovely time doing absolutely nothing. When we got home, I attacked the garden, cutting down a laurel bush and revealing a snail hotel of biblical proportions in the sycamore tree behind it. Hundreds of the things. Even though they eat my plants, I can't bring myself to do anything bad to them, and I even helped many of them back onto the tree (after they fell off in all the wood cutting)..

Now contemplating a take away curry before I get stuck into another Charles De Lint book...

Funny, life is not so rock and roll these days :-)

Car woes

Well, Jezebel2 (my ancient car) has been in dry dock for two days, forcing me to work from home, and I just found out she is being released later on. To the tune of £391.02!!! Ouch!
We are already feeling the pinch money wise (seems to me its nothing but bills these days, although we are both lucky to still have work, so I am thankful for that at least)...but £391..

Ouch!

Manchester Spring Markets

We went along on Sunday, and very pretty it all was.

I liked the "carpet of flowers"...

and we ate Turkish style for lunch. I had something called Sac Borek, which is like a flatbread with spinach, feta cheese, onions and a coriander and mint salad on it.

In fact, here it is!

The markets were smaller and nowhere near as busy as the Christmas ones, but as it is a new thing, I suppose it will take time to get going. A lot of the Christmas people were there, and we got some weird cheese from the Dutch Cheeseman, and I had a Pimm's punch, which is Pimm's, gin, orange and a shed load of fruit chucked in. It was very nice, and strong too! In fact, I think that is the first time I have ever had Pimm's.

Even better was a trip to Border's on the way home......:-)

Happy Beltane! )0(

Things and that

Well, yesterday was my birthday! We went into Manchester in the morning, and then I bought a shed load of cheap dvds and books from HMV and Fopp. Best of all, I got the film Paperhouse, Stardust (not the David Essex one, good though that is) , Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Dracula AD 1972...the list goes on. Also got A delia Smith summer cooking collection, The Great Gatsby and Fast Food Nation.

Mum and Dad got me a smashing book called The Fantasy Art of Josephine Wall, which is absolutely beautiful.

I had a halloumi pitta in the Arnadale Market food bit, and we had a drink in the Hard Rock Cafe, which has all changed around and they have some new stuff in at last.

Then it was onto another pub near our house, and then him indoors cooked "yellow fish" for tea, which is smoked fish in a sort of milky spicy sauce thing. With crusty bread and some fizzy plonk.

And that was it really. Very nice and lazy and chilled out. :-)

So, happy day after birthday to me!

Monday Monday

I am in work early today, and I now have living proof that I am rubbish at mornings. Or, at any rate, weekday mornings. I can get up early at the weekend, even if I have been up late. But it is a titanic struggle to actually do it in the week. I HAVE to sometimes, and in the current economic climate it is in my best interests not to mess work about, but I am sooo tired! :-)Or maybe it is my advancing age. I now find myself making lists of things to do in case I forget. Which is increasingly likely....

Whitby!

This weekend we went to Whitby, and it was smashing.

Up early on Saturday morning, having packed the night before, and we hit the road by 8am. We were going to stop en route for breakfast, but the decision was taken to get there as soon as possible, so we bought a sandwich in Pickering (beef and onion if you are interested!) and ate it as we travelled. By 10.15am we were in Whitby.

The first thing to do was to find some lodgings. The first place we tried refused to answer their door. The second place DID come to the door. A very old Scottish lady told us she needed to ask "Robin" if they had any rooms. Robin failed to materialise, so we moved on to place number three. Which turned out to be a very nice place indeed. The Grantley House, in case you want to check it out.

The next bit of the day was spent trolling around the shops and sights on the West side of the harbour. We had a nice piece of haddock (after all, it is Whitby and fish should be taken!) and then a drink in The Elsinore, then back for a wash and brush up at the B and B.Then back out for some slightly more serious shoping and sightseeing. And a drink in The Board Inn. And then one in The Shambles. After which I bought this lot :

Apart from the smoked kipper pate, which was bought today, but demanded to get in on the photo action!

A couple of games of Bowlingo, which is like ten pin bowling only on a smaller scale (I lost, although in the past I have actually won prizes playing it) and I do believe I had a small hotdog, and we had more fish. And chips. Then back to the B and B (via a pub called The Angel - a theme has developed here I think...) to get changed and head out into the Whitby night.

We had yet another drink whilst watching some fireworks (no idea what they were about, but they were pretty), then a futile trip to the Magpie Cafe.The queues were half way down the road, and we really didn't want to stand about for an hour waiting to get in, so we decided on an Indian. Not one of our better decisions, as it was quite a bland and tasteless meal, although the paratha was nice. I think we are spoiled, what with living in Manchester and having Rusholme on our doorstep, not to mention our wonderful local place, The Desi Lounge. I won't say where we went, as there are a few Indians in Whitby, but although we were keen to steer temporarily away from the lovely fish, in hindsight it was a mistake.

After a shared bottle of wine in someplace with a live piano player as entertainment, we popped back into the Elsinore for a nightcap and then back to the B and B, where a combination of constant walking, sea air, a surfeit of food and a wine too many resulted in deep and blissful sleep.

This morning started off with a full English breakfast, and then a hearty and lengthy walk on the beach ...

And a last mooch about Whitby...

And then we made our way back home. A lovely weekend. :-)

Spring is sprung....

And I suppose I should think about sorting out the garden.
Although I have bought meself some nice gardening clogs to get me in the mood. :-)

Happy holidays

Ooo! I really want to go here. Cannot decide which room I would like to stay in, but its looking like a tie between Krazy Dazy and Merry. Or the Sky Room. I can't imagine I will ever get there, but it is fun to choose the room, what I will be having for dinner...that kind of thing.

Or quite possibly I would go for this. :-)

Hedge (not funds)

In the back garden we have a privet hedge. Next door's side is about 6 feet high and orderly. Our side is about 20 feet high and a blinking jungle.So, I am in the midst of cutting the high bits down. Blimey, it is hard going. The hedge is very old and gnarly and fights back with a vengeance. I am covered in scratches and bruises and the job is still only two thirds done. Tomorrow we have to take the debris of this culling to the tip, as well as the mountain of rubbish that I cleared out of the shed. I predict two people, two cars and six trips should do the job. And I am not looking forward to it one bit. My arms hurt. I hurt. So I am having a medicinal glass of red wine and thinking about watching "1408" and trying to get the socks I am knitting back on track. (they went a bit wonky last night, as I was watching QI and not concentrating on what I was doing - its a very lacey pattern that cannot be left unattended.)

Pork chops and new potatoes for tea, with my contribution of butter fried leeks with Blacksticks Blue cheese and fresh chillies.

AND I have just scored the whole series of the Hammer House of Horror tv series on dvd from HMV for £11.99 including delivery! Reeesult!

Hello again!

Well, I've been busy. Very busy, it would seem! But now I am back to bore you all again. :-)

Today was spent cutting down a Leylandii tree in the back garden. Two saws, an axe, a chisel and two knackered people, but its down now, and we even took it to the tip. Next up is the sky high privet "hedge", which can get cut back next weekend. I am way too bashed about and tired to do anything else out there. Oh, and I also emptied out the shed, so there is a small mountain of general debris to take to the tip, but for now I will pretend I can't see it.

And, the bluebells are showing the first signs of life, so I suppose it must be Spring rolling around! I love Winter. Autumn is probably my favourite season. The only thing I can say for spring is that the gas bills get lower. Yeah, I am a misery. I think I have that SAD syndrome, only the other way around. :-)

Hungary - Part 1

Well, it was pure Spinal Tap but everyone came back alive - just. Poor old Mr me got blood poisoning (due to sliding across a stage and cutting his leg open) and had to be brought back on the plane in a wheel chair! He is now an invalid for a short time as he cant walk and is feverish and I am his nurse. Hmmmm.

I think its best told in pictures.

27 and a half hours to get there (5 men, 1 woman - me!) in a Mercedes Sprinter..This is waiting for the ferry at Dover.

Where we stayed was fab. And £150 for 11 days! Between 5 of us! Some of the entourage (which got to be a very BIG entourage by the end of it. That's me in the red pants!).

Just to prove they did actually DO some gigs...

There are more but I need to find where I have hidden them on the other computer. More anon.....

Cake

:-)

Happy Halloween!

Random stuff

I have been a bit busy lately, although its difficult to say doing what exactly! The boss has been away so I have been pretending to be him (bit hard when I havent got a beard!), and working some late hours. Although it was from home, with red wine and music so it didnt FEEL like work :-)
Only 5 days to go before I leave for Hungary in the back of a van with 5 men. I cant believe we are driving there, although there is no other way, what with equipment and things. I am not packed or anything, but thats not the issue. The issue is my camera. Obviously I will be taking shed loads of photos, and I do not want to take the digital one because then I will have to take the laptop and I dont want to trawl that round Europe for 10 days because I KNOW something will happen to it. I cant not take the latop if the camera goes because I dont have enough memory cards and I will have to empty out the camera every day onto the laptop. So, tomorrow I am going out to buy an old skool real camera so I can do the film thing. It will be quite strange, actually having to think about the structure and lighting of a photo rather than just taking loads and deleting the ones I dont like, but I was quite good with a real camera so hopefully I wont have forgotten any of it. I also have to get the cats their provisions for their stay at the in-laws (I havent told them they are going yet). You would think after all these years I would be a bit less "last minute" about it all but obviously I am not.

Currently getting into Depech Mode for some reason. I have never disliked them but I have never really listened to anything from around the 1990s and now I have I love it.

Must dash - am knitting a friend an Eeyore for Christmas :-)

Last/Lost Weekend

Blimey, it was a good 'un! Friday was a DC/79 gig, and in the afternoon two friends came over from Bristol, although they are Hungarian, not Bristolian, and we met them at the gig, the Moses Gate in Bolton. Great gig. Much beer was taken, and I was on sound duties again. Apres gig, said Hungarians were dispatched to the drummers house, and the following afternoon they repaired chez Rock Towers, where the festivities commenced in the local pub. Dinner was lovingly prepared by Czilla, and we had paprika and dumpling sausage stew and Tokai wine, and then got down to the more English pursuits of drinking Fosters and watching Match of the Day.....
Sunday lunch was spent in yet another hostelry, where fish pie, shicken caeser salad, steak and a tuna melt was taken. This time only I was still drinking.....
There was a gig on the Sunday evening in Holywell, North Wales, but it was cancelled because the PA provided by the venue was virtually non-existant. More drink was taken, and I moved onto red wine this time. The journey back to England was spent attempting to speak in disjointed Hungarian (me) and very good English (by the Hungarians). And it rained and rained as well.
Monday morning was a little bleugh as I had to be up for work, but all in all an excellent weekend. For once, the cats deigned to speak to our vistors, and roamed around various ankles, getting in the way and demanding food and being spoken to in Hungarian, which they responded to MUCH better than they have to anything I have said in English EVER.
I could have done with a nice early night on Monday, but Leeds was underwater (or at least part of my route home was, as Armley gyratory flooded yet again) so I didnt get back till 8pm and missed the Archers and everything.
Tonight me and him indoors went out to the pub for our tea. They dont serve food after 8pm, whihc we didnt know, so we went to another and this one didnt either. So it was chips for him, and the end of a sausage for me. Having said that, due to lack of food, I can now go in the bath and eat cheese without feeling guilty! :-)
My life seems to revolve around music,reading, food and drinking. Maybe not such a bad thing in these gloomy days of knife culture, anti social behaviour and impending cultural meltdown. When I go to Hungary, I may not come back (assuming I can get the cats passports)....

Only joking , mum!

Supergrass - Mary

Not a big fan really but I love this video. I REALLY love it.:-)

Mercury Rev - The Dark is Rising

I LOVE this! Enjoy.

The Hungarian trip...

...Is on! The last 10 days of my October will be spent in Hungary.Somewhere.

And my passport hasnt come back from the passport place yet. Fingers crossed that it does.

The cats are having a little holiday of their own - they are going to my mother in laws for the duration, as they are too old for a cattery and I dont fancy the idea of getting someone in each day to feed them, as they might not LIKE the person, and they like my mother in law.

I made fish pie last night. What a faff about that was! Boil this, whisk that, combine the other. And it called for nutmeg. I didnt put any in as I cannot abide nutmeg. Its got this kind of burnt stagnant wood thing going on with it that really puts me off. I am told its nice on an Irish coffee, but I wont be trying that any time soon.

Off to Doncaster shortly for a DC/79 gig. Its hot and muggy and stuffy so I may need a medicinal cold cider or two :-)

Harry Potter and more

Yes, I like Harry Potter. Well, I like the books, and the films, and I have just finished reading the new one, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I dont actually like Harry himself. I dont detest him or anything, but I cant warm to his character somehow, and the older he got the more I didnt like him. I liked Hermione and Ron from the word go. I saw the first film before I read any of the books, so I can't NOT like Professor Snape, as he is played by Alan Rickman, the world's finest actor. But Harry just leaves me cold. Which is a shame as there would be no books without him!
Anyway, I loved the book and I await the new film.
In other business, there is a very good chance I am off to Hungary at the end of October, which is very exciting except I dont know what to do with the cats! They are too old to go in a cattery and I can't get anyone to take a week out of their lives and stay with them. What to do???

Newton Music Festival

I was there. In the rain and the cold last night, taking photos, drinking brandy out of a plastic glass and pinching other people's chips. DC/79 have a new singer at last, and it was his unveiling last night.

It was GREAT. I even managed to finally REALLY sell my old bass amp, so now I am on the look out for a new cab, as I have exploded mine somehow :-)

A kind friend gave me a case for my bass head, so the fins on the back can no longer attack me and hack lumps of flesh out of anything that goes within two feet of it.

In other news, I have discovered I really REALLY like jalapeno poppers, which are jalapeno chillies filled with cream cheese and covered in breadcrumbs. I think you are supposed to deep fry them but I just stick 'em in the oven.

In fact, that's made me hungry so I will go and have some.

Here is a picture of the fair from the festival last night, from the wrong side of the tracks as it were.

Food

My dad is under the impression that I go out to eat a lot. So to prove him right,
: Yesterday we went to Ashton and I had lasagne and a pint and him indoors had fish and chips and a pint (in a Wetherspoons pub)for our lunch , and I must admit I did appreciate the non-smoking atmos.
Today we trolled off to the Trafford Centre and we ate here http://www.iguanas.co.uk/ and it was very lovely indeed. Chilaquile as a starter for me, crayfish for him, and then a chicken wrap for me and peri-peri chicken for him, San Miguels all round. We sat at the window and there was a massive thunder storm, complete with torrential rain and lightening and stuff - quite fantastic.
I got myself Saw on dvd for £3, a Goonies tshirt, and he got everything by the Pythons on film ever, in one big box set.
Back to my Dad. Yes, we do eat out quite a bit, but they tend to be budget outfits and we choose wisely and try not to repeat our outings. We aren't McDonalds freaks, and we very rarely get chip shop chips. Most of our culinary adventures are in back street cafes or out of the way places that cater to the non-English pallette. I dont get around to posting about a lot of them, like the melt in the mouth shami kebab we had one time that came with yoghurt on a paper plate and cost 50p and was sublime, or the chicken tikka on naan bread that could have powered a trip to the moon, such was its fieryness, but we like our food and we like to eat out (cheaply!) and we will try new things as often as we can.
So yes Dad, we eat out a lot. And its not just sausage egg and chips :-)
Some of my best memories of childhood centre around food. Sausage and chips featured large in my life, it being my dad's favourite meal of choice when we were out and about. We used to go to a cafe in Llanwrst (sp?) and they used to make their own shortbread biscuits and without exception every time we went there on our annual jaunt its what I used to have. I can actually taste it now as I think about it.
And my mum used to do us what we called "bits and pieces" teas. This was a small chocolate bar, crisps, cheese, some bread, a glass of milk, all served on a tray and it could be eaten on your knee listening to music (we didnt really DO eating in front of the telly) or at the table, reading something. Reading and eating are intrinsically linked in my mind.
Its funny, I seem to remember what I ate and what I read in relation to what happened in my life more than any other reminder of things past.

Campbell's Pork And Beans

I want to live like this. I really do.

Cookery

Last night I made paneer pakora and yoghurt chicken, and I would like to say I have had its equal in an Indian resteraunt. I can officially cook Indian food. Well, 2 recipes at least :-)
Paneer pakora is Indian cheese deep fried in batter. Whilst this all sounds horrifically artery clogging, it isnt. Paneer is basically cottage cheese squashed together. The batter was made from chickpea flour and water and a little sunflower oil. Ok, the deep frying part isnt good but its not like I eat it all the time!
We have no chip pan, and havent had since we lived in Whalley Range in 1992, so I had to improvise with the wok and a slotted spoon.
It worked nicely, if a little on the heavy side. Not enough water I think. Tonight him indoors is going to have a crack at cauliflower pakora.
The yoghurt chicken thing is basically chicken cooked in yoghurt with a ginger, chillies and onion paste (which I made in the food processor which I found when I cleared the bottom kitchen cupboard out last week.Its one of those cupboards where you throw things in and they sort of back up against a far wall and hide behind the pans and you forget about them for years....). So that redresses the healthy balance. Except for the large amount of cider I followed it with :-)
I turned the kitchen table round today, as it was a bit of an ordeal eating at it - both of us facing the wall and nowhere to put the paper...and underneath the back bit was a lovely pile of cat furballs, cleverly positioned so they couldnt be seen by the human eye unless the table was moved....
Its been raining all day and the cats have been like fractious children, unable to go out but a little bored. Unlike children they chose to go to sleep. In really impractical places like the top of the stairs, across a doorway, up against the fridge (well you never know when the door will open and that beef thats in there will magically leap out and into your open cat mouth...)

Back soon ^.^

Voodoo, a birthday and some stuff

We, BornIdle, played at Voodoo in Manchester last Friday. Last time we played it was packed. This time it was not very busy at all. Hey ho. Dont think it was anything to do with us - I hope not anyway! As ever we were brilliant and I wore my Peter Grimm cowboy hat. There are photos on people's phones and cameras and if I ever get my hands on them I will shove them up here.
What else? Oh yes, had a steak fajita in Henry J Beans (the last time I was in one of them was in South Kensington in 1989 and I got thrown out. Actually, I got refused entry in the first place . I can't remember why but it was in my lost year living in London and I was a little wild shall we say...). I made paneer tikka and it was GORGEOUS. I watched Wolf Creek and loved it - excellent serial killer and apparently based on true events. I dont really believe that for one moment but it makes for a scarier film.
Him indoors was 21 again on Friday so I made chicken fajitas (ooo a theme is developing) and we drank fizzy wine and watched rubbish on the telly while he played computer games.
Today we went to Warrington (where I was born and lived till I was 21, and for which I have a 50/50 loathe it/love it feeling), and had a drink in the pub we went to for our first date. It hadnt changed a lot (although the bear in a cage had gone - not a real bear!), and here we are 18 years later.
Shared a chicken and bacon and mozzerella pannini, then went to see the ma in law to collect birthday pressies and show off my new car as she hadnt seen it yet.
And thats about it really. Tomorrow DC79 audition a new singer. I am going along, but I am taking myself off into the fields at the back of the studio to take photos and mess about with my camera. I suppose a beer or two will happen :-)

Random phone pictures

My phone is full of rubbish so I am clearing it out. Its not a great camera (I use my phone to SPEAK to people mostly!) but here are some random images.

This is a view from Mr Thomas's Chop House in Manchester. On my birthday.

This was me in Frankie and Benny's a little later on :-)This is a record/cd/dvd stall in Manchester that's been there for EVER and everything is so tightly packed together its a nightmare to browse through it all. Quality sign :-)

And finally, my laptop as of, well, right now. Listening to the Archers and doing the shaping for the yellow thing. Front and back done. Just the arms to go!

Middle age

I am getting distinctly middle aged. I am not quite there yet but not far off. Its more of an attitude. I get it off my dad I think. I get so CROSS about things these days. Little things. Not the huge things, like why Tony Blair is an idiot, why George Bush is a BAD thing - you know the kind of thing I mean. I am cross because Morrisons card machines keep breaking and you have to sign for things and have another method of ID to prove who you are. Ok, I wear jeans and a leather jacket and I am a bit... scruffy... but I dont shoplift or have a stolen debit card so why make things hard for me?? I am cross that the man in the petrol station does NOT turn the pump on for about 5 minutes when you stand there with the thing in your hand trying to put petrol in your car and he is on his mobile phone - and I am sure you aren't supposed to use mobiles in petrol stations anyway. I am cross because PowerGen are incapable of taking my meter reading that I submit on line and just bill me random, mad amounts. I am cross because every other call I get at home is stupid sales people trying to flog me mobiles and conservatories and I am supposedly registered with that thing thats supposed to STOP those calls. I am cross because of flies that come in when you have the back door open so your old cats can wander in and out and then just die on the windowsill and fall behind things and you find little decayed corpses three weeks later. I am cross because I HATE housework and I have to clean my kitchen now when I would rather be knitting and drinking wine and watching a horror film. GAH.

You can never leave....

Yesterday was a DC/79 gig at the Hotel California in Birkenhead. They should have been on at 2am (!!!!!) but re-negotiated to 10.15pm due to singer having to be in Wales by 2am.
Its a smashing place. Its here:
http://www.thehotelcalifornia.co.uk/home.php?page=latest.
Well, I watched a band or two in the outside bit and I ate a sirloin steak burger with onions in the outside barbecue and I chatted with mates and I drank Castlemaine XXXX and I drank Jaegermeister (or how ever you spell it) shots delivered by women dressed up as german frauleins and i danced about a bit to DC/79 and took some dodgy photos and I had a laugh and went to bed in the hotel room reserved for the band upstairs at about 3am...
It was fun :-)
This morning I was a little tired. To revive myself I had to buy a ham and cheeses sandwich from the garage and get reminded by a policeman that there was no News of The World today because its Monday - it doesnt FEEL like a Monday!!!!!
ANyway, had the now traditional 2 pints the day after a gig, and here I am. I should be knitting. But I bet I fall asleep soon.
Oooo, watched Pan's Labyrinth on Saturday night. Fantastic film. Can't recommend it highly enough. Go and see it if you can.

And the band played on

I have a new car. I dont really want to go on about it as look what happened last time I did! Anyway, she is called Sheena and she is a red Hyundai Accent 3.1SI. She isnt new but she is new to me so thats the important thing.
The claim rolls on although it looks like I am not going to get an argument from the other side because they admitted liability yesterday so that's good. I am feeling a bit hypocritical about the whole thing. Sort of. Then I remember what happened and I get cross again. It genuinely WASNT my fault so think I am due back the money I have lost because of it.
My birthday day/night out was a good one. We went into town and had a few pints and bought some video...er...dvd nasties and some second hand horror novels and had some more drinks and went to Frankie and Bennys and had a "shared platter" (I HATE that word platter) and then met some friends and drank a bit more and then went back to our house and watched old videos of my band at various gigs and the next day I felt fine, which is surprising for a woman of my now advanced age!

Happy birthday to ME :-)

Insurance companies

Well, I have sacked Direct Line's insurance people re my crash and gone with my mate's company for the whole of the claim. An assessor will come and view the damage this week. Meanwhile I am in week 2 of the hire car, who I have named Claire.
Hopefully I will be purchasing a semi-aged car at the weekend and then the long wait for the money to come in starts. I hope I get enough to cover everything - its been a right hassle and my neck is killing me today...whinge whinge whinge etc.
I am thinking a blue or a black car would be nice.

Feeling better

Yes I do. I am not relishing the insurance company nightmare ahead but in myself I feel a lot better. Physically I am not too bad at all and mentally - well I have stopped being avenging angel style angry with the other party in the accident. Sooo, last weekend I got taken out for Sunday lunch (and oh dear I couldnt drive could I, so may as well have a drink) and today we went out for dinner (ok it was KFC but still...) and a leisurely pint on the way home.

Its been so damn WARM this weekend I will be forced to mow the lawn shortly and I have washed EVERYTHING we own so the pile of stuff to put away is immense. I dont mind washing clothes or drying them or even ironing them! but I hate putting them away. Its second only to changing the duvet cover in the evilness of housework stakes.

The cats have a love/hate relationship with nice weather. They love it because they are old and like to lie in the sun and keep warm, but they HATE it because they get TOO hot and are too lazy to move/get a drink and just lie then and shout at you until one of us picks them up and moves them/shovels food and drink into them/makes a fuss. Then they go and lie somewhere cooler until they feel like annoying us again and shift back into a hot spot and start the shouting again.....

Think before you post

The last post was NOT the last post about cars. My car, Jezebel, is dead, and I wasnt far from being that myself on Monday evening.
Coming out of work I was driving along a road, 40 limit but I always do 20 because sometimes lorries come out of a side road and they cant stop in time at the give way - its a really quiet road. So there I am doing 20 and out of the side road where the give way is shoots this IDIOT WOMAN doing about 50 and I cant stop in time so I just smash straight into her.
Thats the end of my car. Wrecked. Totalled. A write-off - however you describe it. I am a bit retentive about wearing a seatbelt so I didnt go through the windscreen or anything, but I didnt half hurt my shoulder and my neck and my collar bone.
The IDIOT WOMAN stopped her car and ran back to see if I was ok (she carried on up the road - I was in a steaming, smoking wreck in the middle of the road still) and I wrenched my door open and started running up the road to do dreadfull things to her - only my legs gave way and I had to sit in the road. The IDIOT WOMAN obviously thought I was dead and she got out of her car to come back and check on me, and her car started rolling backwards, her open driver's door getting torn off by a lampost and her friend in the back jumping out and running for cover.....
Anyway, the police came, I got breathalysed (negative naturally!), a garage came and towed my car away and my boss took me home.
Then the fun started. I am only 3rd party f and t on my car, so I had to pay for the car to be towed back to a garage, then towed back OUT again the next day and taken to storage - which I have to also pay for. I had 3 days off work and I had to walk to the doctors to get diagnosed as having a duff shoulder and whiplash. And I have to go to work ON THE COACH on Tuesday and then hire a car while I wait to get the money for mine. Which will be a fifth of the amount of finance I owe on it, so I will be paying for a car for 2 years that I dont HAVE anymore.
The IDIOT WOMAN was in a work's car so they will just have given her another one and she can go about her business as if nothing had happened, whilst I am injured, shaken up and out of pocket - and it wasnt my fault!
Yes I am still alive and not badly damaged, but I am as mad as hell about the whole thing.....
I am obviously physically tougher than I thought as I am not so bad now, but mentally I was a mess this week. I used to think people who got flashbacks and couldnt sleep and stuff like that were a little bit feeble - but those things and more have been happening to ME this week so I have had a rethink on that one. Lessons learned? Dont buy a car on finance. Dont have third party insurance. Things to be glad about? I am a good, careful driver and I can survive things.
Hey ho. Back to the "knitting as therapy" cure. And cider :-)
Be careful out there folks.

Hopefully the last post about cars for a bit

Jezebel got a service and passed her MOT so thats that for now. Just got the new hub caps to put on and I may treat her to a steering wheel cover to go with the fluffy dice.
I have STARTED PAINTING THE HALL PROPERLY. Actually I am doing the landing and its bloody hard work. Its a really tall landing and I cant for the life of me think how I painted the bits at the top last time, because I just cant reach, and I dont think I have shrunk....
Also spent a lot of time with a scrubbing brush removing cat hair from the bathroom carpet.
Now that we have definately decided to move I want to get the place in a semi non-squalid state or only mental cases will want to buy it.
Last night was another DC/79 gig. The hard drinking Hungarian was standing in again, which was good fun. I didnt fall off anything, break anything or do anything embarrasing and it wasnt even silly o clock when we got in for once.
Went to the local yesterday to find it had been taken over by new landlords! Again!! Thats about 7 in the last 7 years.
It looks pretty much the same as it always has - may amble down there later and investigate properly. Purely for research purposes you understand!
I am knitting a shrug, which is a cardi with no back, or something like that. Its looking really weird at the moment - I cant imagine how its going to go together. Still, it will fit the cat if I dont like it.

How I learned to stop worrying about *insert your favourite stressy thing here" and shouted a lot instead

Right. I fixed the electric prob in my car. I got SO annoyed and stressed out about it, especially as how the garage said it would need an autoelectrician to fix it, at about £8million a second, that I hit the internet. In my job, I am a professional geek. First thing to do when something goes wrong is reboot it. So I (well, him indoors but I helped, wearing pyjamas and big socks in the middle of the night in the middle of our street) disconnected the battery and reconnected it. And its fixed.


Sold some stuff on Ebay. UNsold my old bass amp. Must try harder.

Jezebel (that's my car's official name) got a valet and is clean for the first time in a year. New tyres and brakes as well. Now I can STOP.


Watched 5 minutes of a film called Ultraviolet. Ultraboring is my verdict. Switched it off and watched an Aerosmith bootleg instead.


Finished the stripey jumper. Here is him indoors modelling it VERY WEIRDLY.

Taught myself to knit on a circular needle. Thanks for the help mum - I am now knitting left handed again :-)

A week on Friday Jezebel goes for her MOT at the same place she got her electrics condemned as unfixable by mere mortals. I am going to enjoy telling them all about it........

The hall remains unpainted. Who wants to paint when there is red wine in the world?

The shouting? I shouted at just about anyone in earshot this last week. I do feel better!

Rock on girls and boys )0(

More bills

Well, car number 1 has been in for its MOT and it failed. Dodgy suspension something or other and a couple of iffy tyres. £239 put that right. Ace.
Car number 2 (mine) has no speedo and no rev counter and no fuel guage, due to an electrical fault, and the garage at the bottom of the road can't fix it so its got to go to an auto electrician or something similar. In the mean time, I don't know how fast I am going, how much fuel is in my car- and the damn trip is still working so its not even free miles! I have discovered its NOT an MOT fail (my MOT is due at the end of the month), so I will have to live with it for a short time. I did buy new wheel trims, new wiper blades and some "things" which you attach trims to the side of your car with. Mine fell off over a year ago and its only now I am getting round to putting it back ON. I say putting it back on, I mean all the new stuff is in my boot WAITING to be attached to the car. I have lost the will to live where cars are concerned.
The drummer in my band sent me a text today. On Thursday night after rehearsal, he was going home and his car set on fire. Just like that! He is ok. I dont think his car is. Will find out more tomorrow.
Due to all the expenditure and hassle, we went to the KFC for dinner and had a couple of pints on the way back, where we sat in the pub and did the Daily Mail cryptic crossword. I can't believe the Daily Mail is in my house. Its a wonder it didn't spontaneously combust as it went over the threshold. Good free DVD though - Alice in Wonderland. That one with Miranda Richardson in it. And Whoopi Goldberg is the Cheshire Cat.
I have finally started painting the hall. It will take 2 coats I have discovered, so thats twice the depression about it. My DIY tip - never paint your hall dark pink because its a bugger to paint over unless you are going darker, and I am not. I am going "desert". Thats like a creamy magnolia. I dont know, it was cheap in Focus so I bought it.
The great Ebay selling frenzy starts now as well. I have got a new bass head (in my defence I sold my old one first!), but we are potless, so if its not moved for a month, its on Ebay. That'll be the cats then. I don't think they have moved in a year.
Him indoors is parting with one of his beloved Marshall speakers. Ok, he has a LOT of them, and this one hasnt moved out of the upstairs "studio" for over a year, but its still very brave of him to sell anything music related. I suspect he may be considering buying something. Something EXPENSIVE.
Till next time chitlings... x

Why I hate my STREET part 1

Well, I don't actually hate it - I like it at night when no one is about. I like it on weekdays (not that I am there that much at that time) when there is no-one about. I like the neighbours. I do NOT like the neighbour's children. This is going to sound SOOO old lady, but I cannot stand kids playing out in the street. I realise thats a very unpopular view these days, what with a pervert in every bush and all that, but screeching hoards (well, three or four of them) running around all over the show, especially at silly o clock on a Sunday morning, really cheeses me off.
And the bloody house itself - duff chimney, no fire, Victorian boiler, rattling windows, dog eared carpets (cat eared actually), the toilet flush with the temperament of Lily Allen, the ghost ; I am fed up of it all.
And then FINALLY him indoors decides we can move! Three cheers etc.
Then I find out how much the bank will lend us, how much it will all cost, what I can GET for that pittance, how worthless my house actually IS, and it looks like moving wont be that much of an option after all.
I have now turned into one of those people who pin their hopes on winning the lottery. Except I wont.
And its all bills this month as well. The AA cards are due, phone bill, credit card, 2 cars needing work prior to MOTs, car tax, electric bill - you name it and I have a bill for it this month.
Bleughhhhh. That's how I feel.

Out of the habit

There has been no gig this weekend, which is WEIRD. Last Saturday it was the Floral Halls in Southport at a biker do, and it was awesome. Its a lovely building on the inside, all art deco doors and an beautiful glass ceiling thing in the main room. Not that the sound guy was very keen on it :-)
After this little sojourn, it was 6.30am before we got in. There was no dancing on tables from me but I did enjoy myself.
So, this weekend and we stayed in on Friday and we stayed in on Saturday as well. Well, during Saturday DAY we went to Oldham and had a burger and a couple of pints in some Wetherspoons dive. Then I got IT and Salem's Lot on dvd and him indoors got a book about Charlie Chaplin, but only because it had pictures of Stan Laurel in it.
Last night we watched Hostel, which I was deeply disappointed in. Silly story, awful acting and as for the gore- where was it?? Ok, there were a couple of good bits of proper horror ,but only a couple, which I wouldnt mind so much if it hadnt been billed as the goriest thing ever. It wasn't.
Dont get me wrong- Night of the Demon is my favourite horror film ever, and I am on the edge of me seat watching the old Dennis Wheatley Hammer films - there is far more to the horror genre than blood and guts. But if it SAYS its full of blood and guts then I expect it to be just that, and Hostel wasnt.
On another note, I am finishing off the stripey jumper, so that should be wearable just about when the weather gets warmer.

Manchester City Council are mad

Not content with celebrating getting the uber-casino job next to City's ground, the increasingly mad council have given us new street lights. Before, we had kindly glowing orange ones, encased in pebbledashed posts, thrusting their 1960's heads up through the pot holed pavements of yore.
NOW we have steel monstrosities that appeared Invasion of the Body Snatchers stylee overnight. Ominously they appeared NEXT to the old ones and operated in tandem for a few days. Now the old ones have mysteriously gone, and their gentle orange glow has been replaced by what I can only describe as a parody of the lights on the grandstands in the opening titles of Match of the Day. Down my way, we are in a minority, being just the two of us surrounded by the very old (who are very nice and I approve of them all) and those that are trying to break the land speed record for breeding hoardes of children as quickly as possible. So, at 6am on a Sunday morning when we are returning post-gig, there aren't many people about. Previously , the orange glow was a comforting reminder of the soft bed that awaited us (in which we are rudely woken up when the first of the junior cast of The Lord of the Flies emerges onto the street at about 10.30am and starts SCREECHING). NOW we turn the corner in the van and are greeted by Blackpool bloody illuminations. I cannot believe how BRIGHT these stupid new lights are. I dont have a light right outside the window but the people across the road do and I bet they dont need to put their lights on at all in their house.
We still havent had the alley way done up yet either. The council put gates up at each end and then said they would tarmac over it to make it all nice. That was a year ago. We got a "memo" from them saying they couldn't do this because people would insist on leaving their wheelie bins out there. On a Tuesday. Which is BIN DAY. Where are we supposed to PUT the bins? The bin men wont come within 50 miles of your front gate so you HAVE to leave them at the end of the alleyway or your bin stays full forever.
Not to mention the diversion signs they put up last week, sending drivers down a cul-de-sac you cant get out of.

I am a grown up

I am getting a pension. That's weird. I can't get my head round the fact that I can drive a car and don't have to ask my dad to drive me somewhere, and I refuse to accept I have a mortgage. Now I have a pension.
I have no idea how any of this grown up stuff happened.
Still, I like the fact I am old enough to go in pubs and nightclubs without having to have false ID. Which I never had. Ever. Honest. Parents - look away now.
It'll be anti-wrinkle cream next. And one of those big slippers that you get two feet in at once.
Still, this Saturday will see me back on a stool, dancing.
Last Saturday I didn't get in till 5.30am, having spent the evening drinking whiskey with a Hungarian. So its not all bad!

Another late night

Saturday saw me dancing on a tall bar stool in 4 inch heels at a DC/79 gig. Yes, I fell off. Fortunatley there were lots of people to break my fall :-)
Got in a 5am. Had to drive a mate home the next afternoon. Yuk yuk yuk.

The wavy gloves are nearly finished so pictures soon.

Oooo and I have bought the paint to paint the hall. The hall that extends into the landing and has some VERY high ceilings. I am SO looking forward to that.

Everything I own is now plastered in Hello Kitty stickers, that I bought off Ebay.

I got some shoelaces with skulls on them.

... reading the above I must admit I seem a bit odd sometimes....

Why I dont like my house. Reason number 1.

Yesterday it snowed. It is January and its to be expected, even in these days of "global warming". And what did my boiler do last night? Pack up and DIE. We have gas central heating and a gas fire. Ok, so we have the fire. Oh no we dont - the chimney isnt safe and awaits the new fire and some structural repairs that we cant afford. So we are cold. VERY cold.
Never mind, there is an immersion switch on the water tank in the airing cupboard so at least we will have hot water. Nope - its gone native and joined the Boiler Party and wont work either.
Cue cold evening spent boiling kettles for hot water.
This morning I got the immersion thing working by changing the fuse and shouting at it.
Now all we need is a spanner and a universal thermocoupler ( Scotty off Star Trek should have one) and a lot of shouting. This evening should be interesting.

Lucky Day

Today was a lucky day. I went shopping and went to give someone a pound for their trolley, and the woman said "Don't worry about it", smiled and walked off! Coming out of the shop I bought a scratchcard with that pound and won a £1!
THEN, and this is the spooky bit, when I went back to my car, there was a metal wine rack abandoned right next to my driver's door. Now, last week we had been talking about getting a wine rack (right - like wine hangs around long enough in our house to actually LIVE in a wine rack) but they were a bit dear, and here is one, brand new almost, just sitting there next to my car!
There is one bottle of wine in it now :-)
AND I am knitting a pair of fingerless gloves in some weird wavy rib pattern thats all "yon/unravel to last row/stand on your head whilst singing the national anthem" and the pattern is working!
Got to go - making crab cakes.

DC79

Another gig, this time the Thatched House in Stockport. There is a photo of me in my band on the wall in there, so its officially a GOOD place. Last night it was the other band's turn to do a gig. Did all the usual silly stuff and had a blast. I took my Christmas Jack Daniels hip flask with me and didn't drink any! Well, hardly.
Tired now. Really really tired. I have sewed up a bit more of the skirt, and the last bit of the last sleeve of the jumper is glaring at me , saying FINISH ME DAMN YOU. I am ignoring it.
And I have joined Punk Rock Knitters! Be nice and go and have a look :-)

Bak 2 Skool

As I have said before, I like my job, so I didn't mind going back after the break. I do feel slightly cheated though because much as I like having a break, I dont get that real WOOOOO I AM OUT OF THAT HORRIBLE PLACE FOR X DAYS I HOPE IT BURNS TO THE GROUND WHILE I AM NOT THERE feeling. I like not being there but I dont mind being there if you see what I mean.
Anyway, we went to Nawab on Wednesday and ate the world's most delicious curries. Again. In a pathetic attempt at healthiness, I had a curry based on yoghurt rather than cream and oil. Then I had two pints and a poppadom :-)
And today I made half a skirt! An A line skirt out of an old pair of curtains that I THINK were given to me by mum but I can't remember. They are pink and flowery anyway and I think they are late 50s/60s judging by material and style. They are now a knee length A line skirt. With a ZIP in it. That I did myself! I have never put a zip in anything apart from makeup bags and various "something that goes in a straight line and no one will care if it doesnt fit in right" types of thing. AND I pressed the hems before sewing it up, so I am obviously destined to give up the job I like and go and be Stella Mcartney or someone like that....
Actually I dont think I will. Its taken me three hours to make the pattern, cut the material out, sew in the zip, iron it, realise its two sizes too big because I was working in centimeters and I dont understand them, resize it, sew up the sides, re-hem it because its also too damn LONG, shout at the sewing machine because it ate the thing that the underneath cotton lives in (NO idea what its called but if you have a sewing machine you will know the bit I mean) , re-iron it, re-hem the bottom, realise I am sewing a pink skirt with black cotton, ignore that last realisation, forget about skirt for today and go and have a drink....
I sneaked back in and tried it on and it fits and once I have sewed in all the loose bits and tidied up the zip, I do believe it will be wearable. I will look like I am wearing one of Nora Batty's aprons (sorry to anyone who doesnt watch Last of The Summer Wine) but I dont care. It will clash with the HAT but sew what :-)

Happy New.. Hat

The hat is done.

Currently on the needles, a stripey jumper. Only one sleeve to go!

Oh yeah, happy new year everyone!

WIP

A hat. Made from scraps. Its going to have little kitty ears and tassles. It was an adaptation of a kid's hat pattern. It may turn out woman sized. It may not.

Eatin' and Drinkin'

On Christmas Eve we went to a Harvester restaraunt. There has been a 15 year gap between this visit and our last, which was in High Wycombe. In those days they were Worzel Gummidge themed, and had models of Aunt Sally and Worzel and they greeted you at the door with a "Have you ever BEEN to a Harvester restaraunt before?" before launching into an hour's worth of Harvester spiel.
Him indoors had "surf and turf" and was violently ill on the way home. I couldn't drive at the time and he suddenly let go of the steering wheel and shouted "steer!" and was horribly sick.
I didnt even think you got Harvesters any more but there is one at Ashton Moss near us so we went in by accident (we had gone for an A and W burger but noticed the Harvester instead.)
Aunt Sally has long gone but the spiel is the same ("Have you BEEN to a Harvester restaraunt before?") as is the free salad bar.
We shared a Deep South platter for 2. I do not like the word "platter". It reminds me of polyester dresses and men in rollneck sweaters for some reason. However it was very nice indeed ; plenty of and not too much of the mass-produced about it (although I am sure it was).

Wednesday saw us in The Crown in Lymm stuffing our faces for the annual Boxing Day family nosh. Except it was the day after Boxing Day and we were missing the ma in law as she wasn't well, so it wasn't quite the same. For the record I had GIANT Lasagne . They have a GIANT menu. It wasn't that giant to be honest but the garlic ciabatta was gorgeous.

Today was spend money on books and things day. I got a Phillip Pullman I didnt know existed - The Tin Princess. I loved The Ruby in the Smoke dramatisation that was on the other night and I ADORE His Dark Materials so I am looking forward to this one. Got a Nick Cave cd, The Corpse Bride on dvd, him indoors got a Ramones DVD he hasn't got - well he has got it on some ancient old video but thats not the same apparently.
Back to the food theme - lunch was in the Cafe Yagdhar in Manchester city centre. Its Turkish. Its grotty and run down. And the food is LOVELY. We had Aloo tikka and a shami kebab to start and shared a chicken tikka kebab on nan. I don't know what they do with their food in there but its gorgeous, and dirt cheap. The floor is all wonky and slippy, the decor is 80s tacky plastic flowers and the radio plays some imcomprehensible foreign news station but I would go as far as to say its our favourite place to eat in town. Go if you can.

I am knitting a hat tonight. With tassles. Watch this space for photographic evidence.

Christmas housewife

We didnt go out on Boxing day for the first time in our 17 years together, as the ma in law isnt well.
So I spent my Amazon gift voucher :-)

Here is me yesterday in the throws of cooking Christmas lunch! I am not really that shape - its the apron - the apron I tell you!

Happy Christmas Everyone !

Christmas non-traditions

I was reading something on a blog that I have now lost the link to but will try and find again and put on here. Basically, the lady was talking about "unusual" Christmas Days that didn't follow traditionally what your family normally does on Christmas Day, wether by design or accident or whatever.

When I was little, right up to leaving home in fact, we almost always went to my Nana and Grandad's house for Christmas Day and had a proper Christmas dinner, followed by telly etc. No presents were opened there - that was strictly first thing in the morning/get stuck into the presents under the tree/thunder upstairs and show sleepy parents what you had got. At least it was till I was about 10 :-)

Not so long ago my mum reminded me that one year we went to a pub for lunch. I think I was about 9. I have NO memory of this whatsoever. It was obviously so not what we DID at Christmas that I refuse to remember it. More details if you have them mother please.

Anyway, the first Christmas me and him indoors spent together, we were living in one room at his sister's house, and she was going to be elsewhere for Christmas Day so we decided to make a proper dinner like a proper, grown up couple (we were NOT grown up:-) )

Off we went to the supermarket on Christmas Eve, and got to the checkout with our carfeully chosen, lovely food and drink and little bits and pieces of luxury stuff you never eat at any other time of the year. I handed the checkout girl my cheque and my bank card (this was in the days of no debit cards and you had to guarantee your cheque with your bank card)...and I had brought my NEW cheque book but my OLD bank card, so they didn't match.

By the time we got home, found the right card and got back to the shops, everywhere was shut. Christmas was looking like it was cancelled, but then we spied a lonely Spar. A Spar (if you dont know) is a convenience store kind of place that sells pretty much everything from magazines to sprouts. Except this was Christmas Eve and even THEIR shelves were looking a bit bare. We did what we could.

Christmas dinner was frozen mini chicken kievs, chicken in breadcrumbs, oven chips and peas.....:-)

It was rather lovely and we did have a nice day. Since then we have made an effort each year to get things together on time. We have a theme each year as well - cuisine of a different country. Not what that country has for Christmas dinner but just some traditional food of that country. We veered off into history one year and had English Anglo Saxon. Russian was an interesting year, especially after all that toasting everything with vodka . That year it actually snowed and we cooled the vodka in the snow in the garden! The 70s Bernie Inn year was pretty groovy too.

So an accidental Christmas cock-up has turned into a tradition all of its own.

Happy Yule All :-)

The tree has gone up

Woooo. Look at the sad cricketer on the telly. More importantly, those presents under the tree are for ME! ME I tell you!!!!!

....

Sorry about that. Ahem. Went into Manchester today and had some more something-wein and got most of the Christmas shopping. Still got a few things to get but him indoors is off till the 3rd of Jan now so he can get it.

Me, I have to go back to work next week. Hey ho. Still, the poor lad works very hard so I spose he deserves a break. He can have one without the pc though because it has to go to pc hospital. Fortunatley I have my laptop :-)

Who sings Blue Christmas? ... Elfish Presley..... :-)

Cooking

Wooo I am a cook! Jamie Oliver I laugh in your face. Heston Blumenthal I laugh knowingly at your "locally sourced" recipes. I COOK.
Oh yes people, I made a pie. A chicken and leek pie. From scratch. Pastry and everything. And it was lovley. In all my life I have never made a pie and tonight I did and it worked. Mmmmm.
AND I made chocolate truffles earlier! From scratch! In little cases with piped white chocolate and little Chrismtassy things on the top!
Nigella Lawson - go home love, I am in town.

First taste of Christmas

We went to the Christmas markets in Manchester today. We don't normally DO town on a Saturday but we did for today for some reason. It was busy!
We had a hot mulled something-wein and him indoors had a german hamburger. Then we bought a lot of dutch cheese (goats cheese with nettles, spicy gouda and three year old gouda!) , then another something-wein, then we shared a german steak baguette, then we had ANOTHER something-wein and then we went home for a lie down :-)
On the way in, I saw a cafe (the Abergeldie cafe in case you are interested) and I took a picture of the sign. Apparently its famous for this and everyone in the world knows about it apart from ME.I very much want to post the picture directly but Blogger wont let me for some reason . Dont get excited - its nothing that good!
www.faerywings.co.uk/photos/terry.jpg

Photos

I found a folder on the laptop where I have been dumping all the photos I take on the new super duper camera, and I found this one. Its just outside Ulveston.

Born Idle gig

Yes, we were magnificent. The sound was RUBBISH, mostly down to the "sound engineer" actually claiming to be one and obviously wasn't. As this is something I do have a stab at on the odd occaision, I like to think I know where I am with a basic mixing desk. This guy didn't.
Despite that, we went down well, made a few quid and sold a couple of cds.
I was EXTREMELY glad that him indoors was driving. The plan was that we would stay at the drummer's house but there was a hitch on the car front, and it was too difficult to arrange alternatives, so we had to drive home. Damn glad we did. It was still going on when we left, and when we were feet up, drinking vodka and bitter lemon and watching the top 40 best moments of Only Fools And Horses at home, we could have been standing around outside a venue where we didnt want to be anymore and where we had stopped enjoying ourselves about the same time as we came off stage. Aha- old woman !! I hear you cry. Nope. I have been like this all my life. I can't do camping. I can't do sleeping on other people's floors. I can just about tolerate sleeping on other people's sofas IF I can go to sleep when I want and not at 4am surrounded by LOUD people.
I like my comforts I am afraid, so this grumpy old woman stuff is not new - I have ALWAYS been like that!
Went off to town today for some dinner. We shared a shami kebab (a small one) and a chicken tikka kebab and read the Sunday People (which would appear to contain NO news whatsoever), then we went for a pint in a little bar called the Bay Horse. Then we went home and on the way we stopped at our local - The Bay Horse - for another. Synchronicity. Bought a book about the New York Dolls (him indoors' current obsession) and one that concerns Rat Scabies but I am not sure how yet as I haven't read it.
Stuck some more stuff on ebay to sell, had a bath, carried on with the red and black stripey jumper I am knitting, watched Corrie and Heartbeat and then Planet Earth and that, children, was my weekend.

Its nearly December

Where has the time gone?
Tonight we have a gig. We, the proper band, not the pretend one :-) Its in Atherton.
Our office is on the move AGAIN at work. We are moving backwards and losing the front door. Currently we are next to a cafe. There is a building college up the road and at break times all the little 16 and 17 year olds stand outside our door eating and drinking and spitting and its the most annoying thing in the world. I have kicked the odd one off the step (quite literally) but there are hoardes of them and there is only so much you can do. When we lose our door, we get the door next door but one to the cafe so that will be the end of them as far as we are concerned. However, the accounts people next door on the otherside of us are moving into the bit of the office we are losing, and their main office will be slap bang in front of our old door -complete with the crowds of hoodie wearing, tracksuited idiots.They alledge they are looking forward to moving. I bet they will regret it!
We are also getting a little kitchen and at last our own toilet (its always been shared between businesses before) which I am stupidly excited about.
Got to go - rock and roll beckons!

A little of things

I like this time of year. I approve very much of dark nights and rain and cold, so I am having whatever the opposite of that seasonally affected disorder is called. I HATE summer.
On the subject of cold, the cats have been camped out on a cushion covered with a throw (that we found at the end of a drunken night out in Manchester in a skip in 1993) under the kitchen radiator. Well today I disassembled the camp and moved it into the front room where its less drafty. Will they sit on it now? Nope. I am NOT moving it back. Its a small kitchen and I have just removed a bin bag's worth of rubbish from it so its looking good, and I don't want them to live in a room that we are not in all the time - do they not need company??
There was a little fight earlier between them, which just goes to show that they may be ancient but they can still have a pointless scrap.
I have a new assistant at work. She (at last! A "she" !!!! ) is very young and learns quickly and I hope she doesn't get fed up and go and work somewhere else. I am making herculean efforts to be nice and patient and understanding (none of which are me) but I have a horrible feeling that in 6 months time I will be saying... "I have a new assistant.....".
Our street has its first Christmas tree up. No, its not in my house. Unfortunatley.
There has been a DC79 gig and some BornIdle pre gig preparations and a curry or two since my last post. Aside from that, life rolls on as it will.

Singin' In the Rain

Yes I remember it well. Me and my mum were the STARS...the STARS I tell you... at a show at the Methodist Church Hall in Stockton Heath. We tap danced in leotards to Singin' In The Rain. We had umbrellas and everything. We used to rehearse in the garden on the paving stones. Bet next door loved that! Ah, the 70s. Surprisingly there is no pictorial evidence of this, given a camera mad father. Maybe he was too scared.
Speaking of the 70s, how come I have got so many damn remote controls for things these days! In the 70s we had NONE. Now I have 1 for the telly, 1 for the video, 1 for the dvd,1 for Sky telly (thats a bit broken and held together with gaffa tape and doesn't like doing the number 3), 1 for the hi fi, 1 for the radio in the kitchen (which is lost admittedly) , 1 for the upstairs video, 1 for the upstairs telly, and one for the damn sound card on the pc! And 2 others that I have no idea what they are FOR.
I can't even set the clock on the microwave - what chance do I have with all these THINGS??
I work in IT. I had a "stupid" day today so I therefore hate technology. No idea what I am doing posting on here either :-%

Ooooo and Heston Blumenthal has just been on the telly. He is a celebrity chef. I had no idea what he looked like, but I have heard him on the radio. I thought of him as tall and dark haired. He is a small, bald, bespectacled man.

Double 000000. 15000th episode of the Archers tonight. HOW disapointing! I was expecting drama, death, affairs...erm....slinks away quietly after outing self as an Archer's fan.....

Telling yourself jokes

Do you do that? When you are on your own? Ok, a leetle background. I am on housewife duty this evening, so I am a washing clothing and dishes and I came by here to play a quick game on the internet for a break. The telly is on in the background because I am finding out what on earth is on that video tape that I found in the cupboard that dates from the early 90s entitled "music videos", (La Guns/Faster Pussycat/The Black Crowes if anyone is interested), and I turned the video off and some guy on the telly was going "What's his name? What's his name?". And I said outloud "Harry May" and made myself laugh. Ok, you won't get it. Harry May is the title of a song by The Business, and the chorus goes "What's his name? Harry May!". The Business are an old school punk band I don't expect you to know about them, but the point is, do you come out with funny things to yourself OUT LOUD when you are on your own?
I hope its not just me! :-)
Ciao chickens

Blog Land

I decided to change the whole look of this thing. My dad complained he couldn't read it and it was getting on my nerves a bit as well to be honest, and I like rain, so we are now rain themed.
I must tell you about the cats and their fleas. They got them quite badly and on previous experience, anything you buy form a shop is rubbish. I got some tablets called "capstar" off a vet on Ebay (yes, a real vet and not someone pretending to BE one), and I checked the tablets out and they are also sold in vets so I got some. Within 15 minutes of them taking a tablet, loads of dead fleas fell off the cats! It was awesome. Amazingly, neither of them pretended to take the tablet, only for it to fall out of their mouth an hour later - they actually swallowed it.
Anyway, the fleas have left the building. I can't recommend this stuff enough. No, they aren't paying me :-)
On Halloween night, we got no trick or treaters whatsoever. So we ate the sweeties I bought from the shop. Dolly mixtures! I haven't had those in years. Dolly mixtures are unique in that they don't contain any that I don't like. For example, Liquorice Allsorts have those horrid jelly ones with little bobbly bits on that are VILE, Revels have the yukky peanut ones and so on and so on. ALL Dolly Mixtures are nice! And they remind me of my mum, which make them nicer.
Watched half of Peter Jackson's King Kong last week before falling asleep. There ends my critical review of it.
Tonight its "Nightmare in a damaged brain" (yes Dad, I can hear your remarks right now), which is a previously banned video nasty. Oh yes. This I shall enjoy :-)

Happy Halloween!

Cats and weird Japanese song

I dont normally do this, but this is funny :-)

Ross Noble and other matters

We went to see him on Wednesday night at the Opera House in Manchester and he was very very very funny. We were right on the front row and he spoke to us and everything!
Had a drink in the Sports Cafe beforehand - shan't be going back because it was stupidly expensive. Its not that I don't have the money - its the principle. Why can I go down the road and have a pint for £2.30 and then get charged £3.30 for the same drink somewhere else, just because its a bit of a flash place?
On a better note, I got a phone call whilst in flash, over priced place. It was from a man who had found a toolkit in the middle of the road and it had my number on a piece of paper inside it. Turns out the toolkit belongs to the guy that mends our printers at work (he had his car broken into and his toolkit nicked) - he had some numbers written down on a bit of paper, mine included, and the guy that found it rang all the numbers till someone answered! There are some nice people in the world after all.
On Thursday night we went to one of those all you can eat Chinese buffet places. I didn't really do justice to it, having mostly seaweed and prawn toast and beef curry (and ice cream and jelly! Blue ice cream! Orange jelly!), but him indoors managed 5 trips. Good boy!
Last night we watched The Tool Box Murders, followed by Threads. WHY did I watch Threads again? For those of you who dont know, it was made in the 80s and its set in Sheffield and basically the UK is devastated by nuclear bombs. Its all done documentary style, and its just HORRIBLE. When I was a teenager, Thatcher was in her prime and my dad worked for the then CEGB (central electricity generating board), and did a couple of stints at nuclear outfits. I was convinced a nuclear war was imminent and had even worked out how far I would get towards my house if I was at school and a nuclear bomb went off. Thankyou Threads for bringing all that back :-) I will insist on watching it every so often and then wishing I hadnt.....
Made pizza last night and tonight its full on Sunday dinner time, so I will be off to watch a new episode of the Simpsons and stuff my face.
Hope you all had a good weekend!

This weekend

I have mostly been pottering about. Friday night was watch the telly/drink wine, Saturday day was tidy the house/go to the pub, Saturday night was watch Troy and drink cider and eat fried chicken, Sunday day was rehearse with my band (and scary guest Polish singer!) and go for a pub tea afterwards - I had lasagne.
Now a hot bath awaits.
Hope you all had a good one.

Us at the Ireland wedding. It was late. Very late. We were "in a good mood".... And the boat on the way home.

Ireland Trip

Day 1
We got on the ferry at 2am. Got into Dublin at 6am. TIRED. Walked for miles until 8.30am when we find and get the hire car. Feeling very miserable and cold and tired and wet because it was chucking it down.
Get hire car and drive to Waterford. Find hotel. Cant find anyone in hotel to check us in so wait around until someone turns up. Check in. Its now 3.30pm. No sleep since Wednesday night.
Go to sleep for 2 hours. Get up and drive into Waterford centre. Go round shops. Have pint and hot dog. Drive back to hotel. Get taxi back into Waterford to meet groom and his relations. Drink for a bit. Groom goes home to do pre wedding things. Get saddled with idiotic, drunken friend who insists in talking in an Irish accent and going on about the IRA. Bear in mind we are in SOUTHERN Ireland. Groom returns. Drink some more. Ditch drunken annoying friend. Go back to hotel at 2am.
Day2
Get up at 11am. Go into Waterford and have lunch and a pint and buy wedding present and card. Meet groom buying underpants :-)
Go back to hotel. Get changed. Get taxi to church. Watch wedding. Very, very lovely and enjoyable, apart from idiot friend who is still acting up and trying to be centre of attention. Catholic do - lots of kneeling and getting up and down. Bride looks beautiful. Everyone is happy and its a wonderful service.
Get lift to reception. Ditch stupid, increasingly annoying "friend". Eat food, (Poached salmon for me, beef stroganoff for him indoors but we share) drink, meet people we havent seen for years, chat, have generally lovely time. "Friend" gets increasingly annoying and several people are now threatening to kill him.
12am and we get taxi to hotel. Dog tired, full of food and drink and happiness. Crash out.
4am. Stupid ex friend attempts to gain access to our hotel room having been abandoned by the people he was staying with ,and virtually everyone else at the wedding as well. I manually throw him out, because I am now SEVERELY annoyed and its a wonder I don't kill him myself, thus earning myself eternal respect from everyone else who has been exposed to him over the last 48 hours. Go back to bed.
Day 3
Get up at 8am , pack and drive back to Dublin. Get on ferry and sail home. Pick keys up from ma in law, thank junior sister in law for looking after cats and getting bitten by new influx of cat fleas. Drive home.
8pm. Sit on settee drinking white wine and falling asleep. Superb time!
....Get text this morning from groom saying ex friend was put on a plane home three days early for "his own safety". Its a wonder he isnt at the bottom of the Irish sea.
Maybe photos to follow....

Ferry annoying

We are off to Waterford. In Ireland. For friend's wedding. And we are going. NOW. Because the ferry we were due to be on got cancelled due to bad weather (it was tomorrow at 9.30am) and we have been moved to one tonight at 2am!!!!!
Arrrgh! Just had mad rush around getting stuff together and we are going no to drive to Holyhead to get on the boat. We get to Dublin at 6am!!!! And we can't check into the hotel till 3pm!!!!!!
See you hopefully on Sunday night!

Sunday Lunch

Last night was DC79 at the Thatched House in Stockport. Met a mate who had got secretly enagaged! Good for her I say. Less palava that way - although less presents as well :-)
Although terribly tired today, we delivered the singer to the train station and then went to Warrington to try and get some keys cut to give to junior sister in law, who is looking after the cats this weekend, as we are away for two nights. More of that later.
Anyway, key search proved fruitless but we had a mooch about Warrington for a while, visiting old haunts and so on. Just so you know, I lived there till I was 21, before I did one daaarrrnn sarrfff with him indoors. It hasn't half changed, and yet not changed.
Here is a picture of the Carlton Club (now defunct) where me and him indoors first met in February 1989.

This is what it looks like from the back these days, and it looked exactly the same in those days as well. It was a rock club, and in the heady late 80s/early 90s it was about the best (in fact only) rock venue to hang about in in Warrington on a Friday night.

I can even remember what I was wearing that night : long red skirt, flowery blouse and a hat with 777 written on it in gold letters.... dont ask.

Then we went out for lunch with the ma in law (I had to remind her son what she looks like...). We went to the Little Manor in Thelwall and I had the world's biggest Aberdeen Angus 28 day matured beefburger with stilton and mushrooms and chips and salad. Him indoors had the gammon and the ma in law had asparagus tagliatele. There was sooo much of it. And it was lovely. Shared a cheese board. Ma in law tried to eat the butter, thinking it was cheese. It did look incredibly like cheese and she soon realised her mistake :-)

On Friday morning we are off to Waterford for a wedding and back on the Sunday so junior sister in law and the niece are coming to cat sit. Assuming I manage to get some spare keys to them in time!

My Mum

...is very talented. I am stressed out, I dont have enough TIME, everything is difficult....and then this arrived. She doesn't know I am posting this but she won't mind. A pome about family by my mum. Posted by me because I love her.

FAMILY TREE.
Sometimes, in the small hours, when sleep’s eluding me
I lie awake and ponder upon my family tree,
It’s roots are lost in history – can’t tell where it began-
But it’s strange to think the whole darn mob started with just one man,
(Well – one man and one woman – it usually takes two
But men take all the credit for the hard work women do!).

I’m not sure of my origins – maybe in some dark cave
An ape man dressed in deerskin began to yearn and crave
For some gentle female company, so he went and searched around
‘Til his hard work repaid him when he eventually found
A grunting hairy woman with a bone stuck through her nose
And a necklace made of tiger’s teeth – her idea of clothes.

He knew she was the one for him, he went weak at the knees
As he watched her scratching furiously at her myriad lice and fleas,
But how could he express his love - he’d not invented words
And nobody had told him about the bees and birds?
So he took his club of seasoned oak and bopped her on the head
And she fell for him immediately – and they say romance is dead!

Whoever kicked the whole thing off we flourished and we grew,
Our tree put out new branches and a good few suckers too!
It stood through good and bad times, through thunderstorm and drought –
Today it’s old and creaky but still sturdy no doubt,
Just have a good close look at it – I’m sure you will agree
We’re the biggest bunch of oddballs you could ever hope to see.

No family is perfect, there’s a black sheep in each flock –
Like the uncle with long eyelashes who likes to wear a frock,
Or the crafty wheeler-dealer always out to make a quid,
And the teenager who runs amok and won’t do what he’s bid.
The daughter who’s gone to the bad and now sports a fur coat –
All the usual scandals that let the neighbours gloat.

Eccentric Great Aunt Ada who keeps moggies by the score –
Filling every nook and cranny ‘til the house can hold no more,
Or nephew Bert – a cheery soul – drinks everything in sight,
That skinflint Great Niece Freda – another kind of tight!
Our second cousin (twice removed) – quite the Lothario,
Bothering the ladies even when they tell him “NO!”

There’s dozens more – my relatives – and what a motley crew!
But I can’t help feeling fond of them no matter what they do,
I might find them barmy and think some of them stark mad –
But, seen from their perspective, I’m probably just as bad,
And wouldn’t life be boring – oh what a crying shame –
Without a single loony with whom to share a name?

I feared that I would miss them when I wed and changed my name,
But it soon became apparent that the new lot were the same!
They made me very welcome and I soon felt quite at home
Among this new found family as oddball as my own,
Thank goodness for eccentrics – it really seems to me
That everyone should have a few stuck up their family tree!


(The author apologises for any similarity between the fictional characters in this poem and any living person – it was completely unintentional (well, except for in a few obvious cases!).

Enjoy!

26 hour day

Can someone invent one? I dont have enough time in the day to do all the stuff that the day demands I do. Its get up, drive to work, work, drive home, make vague attempt at housework, do evening type activities demanded by various bands etc, go to bed, get up, drive to work.... etc etc ad infinitum.
Then there is the weekend.
I have no idea where my time GOES but it goes somewhere. Maybe someone else is using it.

I want to eat here

Mmmmmm
I got it off this web site, which is fantastic!

Movie Night(s)

On Friday night I watched Final Destination 3. I didnt enjoy it as much as the other 2 because there were a lot less deaths by gory methods but it was still fun and had the odd "ooooo look what happened to him" moment.What WAS scary though was the fact that it began on a roller coaster. I cannot stand roller coasters. I went on one once and its that feeling you get when you go up and then almost stop and you know there is nothing you can do about the actual going down part- you can't get off, you just have to go. And I hate that "leaving your stomach behind" feeling as well. I am not anti fairground at all. I love a good fair, and I adore things that go round and round like Walzters and Cyclones and stuff like that. I just dont like steep drops from big heights. This seems like a reasonable attitude to me but other people can't believe I dont like roller coasters. They say things like "oh you are just scared of them, you baby". Yes I AM bloody scared of them - that's why I don't like them! :-)
Last night we watched Saw2. Again, not as good as the first one but good fun all the same. It was a bit too cleaned up and less psychological than the first one, but then when was a sequel ever better than the original film? I can't think of one that was. I can think of plenty that are much WORSE, but not better. And by the time you get to the third one, well, its alll gone south by that point.
Had KFC for dinner today, and a pint in the Bay Horse on the way back. Hopefully the people that have it at the moment manage to make a go of it because its a lovely pub (albeit at the bottom of a bloody great hill that you have to walk back up afterwards), the food is nice, its not dear, its not full of idiots (unless WE are in :-) ) and its convenient. Its been through a few changes of landlord over the years we have been going in it, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for the current lot.

Dead TV

No, not a horror film. Our telly died the other day (it was doing that thing where it flicked off and on and you "fix" it by hitting it with heavy objects in what you think are strategic, technical places) and so today we went to get a new one. After fruitless ventures in Comet and the like (look - I want a NORMAL telly. Not a ten feet wide plasma surround home cinema plex one.) we eventually roll up in Europe's biggest Asda (that's Wallmart to you American people. Its called Asda over here. God knows why). Anyway, we find a 29" NORMAL telly for £149! Wooooo. But they have none left in stock, according to slack jawed, six fingered assistant. Oh well, back on the telly buying road, thinks us. And on the way out we walk past a pile of the damn things just by the entrance! Back to the counter and we tell the assistant "You DO have them in stock. There is a mile high pile of them over there. Look!". Blank stares and twitching indecisevness abounds. Him Indoors gets cross and we go off to complain to the manager.
5 minutes later we are given a youth with a pallet truck (we can't keep him sadly) and we buy the damn thing.
Once its home, all joy is gone as we realise we have to actually find it room to live in as its WAY bigger than the old one, and more importantly - take everything out of the corner where the old one lived. AKA Cable central.
Surprisingly, it all just worked. Although the sound system is now homeless in a pile in the hall. At least we can have music through the pc until we find it a new home. I cannot be without music for very long.
And then I did some violent things in the garden, washed dishes, had a bath, read Darkside magazine and made a beef casserole. I haven't actually watched the damn thing yet. Will dig out goriest film I can find later and watch that!