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 :-)