Kwoon - I lived on the Moon

A great song and a wonderful video..... Never heard of the band, but will be keeping an eye on them from now on.

Mask.

Granada

Just enough time for a quick catch up. Back from Spain (pissed about this) where we spent a couple of days in Granada. The highlight being a visit to the Alhambra. It is the most amazing place, as is all of the old section of Granada. The location and architecture take the breath away.







A wonderful place. We also had dinner in a restaurant that had Flamenco performances. Although some of it was good I couldn't help thinking that maybe it was "open mike" night. Other than that, much of the week was spent reading and in the pool.

Ahhhhh it's a tough life.

The IT Crowd..

To celebrate the return of "The IT Crowd" here are a couple of my favourite clips from season one.





Fantastic show.

At last!!

It's been ages, but the lions share of the work is now done in the living room and kitchen.

YAY!

There are still a few bits to finish over the next month or two but for the most part it's done. Moving the furniture out of the way to get the new floor in was a pain, but the end result is fab.

Getting the granite in was a problem...

But worth it..

Old floor up, new floor down....

Am I ever going to get this lot sorted out...

We have the room back again!

All done.

For now.

Wait for it!

I think.....

Wait......

I think there may be a new post coming soon!

I blame Facebook. It's a stupid idea that's fussy to use and I just KNOW it's used to gather information on you so that advertisers can sell you even more crap you don't need.

So why do I keep going back to it?

DAMN THEM!

Peter Gabriel Blickling Hall 21.7.07

What a crazy weekend! Spent most of Friday stuck in traffic due to the colossal rainstorms that hit the UK, but made it to Norwich after about 6 hours or so. We booked into the hotel and fell almost immediately asleep. We arrived at Blickling Hall at midday on Saturday and spent the afternoon walking around the grounds. At this point the sun was out and it looked as though we were going to have great weather for the concert (should have known really). We then joined the queue at about 4.30 and waited until they opened the gates. Once we got into the venue I charged down the field to nab a spot up front, we were rewarded with a fantastic view of the gig. The rain DID come down but it didn't matter. PG was on top form, the whole thing was more raw than the "Growing Up" tour. Gone were the theatrics, it was just him and the band. It was fantastic to hear some of his older stuff like "D.I.Y", "Intruder", "Rhythm Of The Heat", "On The Air" and "Lay Your Hands On Me". Great stuff. Here are just a few of the pics I took...

"On The Air"

"Solsbury Hill"

The man himself..


Tony Levin




David Rhodes




















Sledgehammer!



Thank-you and goodnight!

A wonderful night! Thanks Peter!

Scotney down...

I have removed the "It Came From Outer Scotney" section as all the links seem to be dead. I will see if I can find an alternative and then start posting them again.

Too long...

Sheesh. It's been ages since I posted last. As I said before life can get in the way. Lots to update. The kitchen is ALMOST done. There have been a few irritating little things that have gone wrong along the way but we should have the worktop installed and all most things fixed within the next 2 weeks. It's strange how one job can morph into several if you aren't careful! The next stage is to get the floor in the living room done and then some repair work in the basement. IT NEVER ENDS!

Eeek!

The wall came down that separated the original kitchen from the main room, and for a while we were living in a bombsite.

But gradually things got better. GRADUALLY!



Almost done now. I will post a pic when it is complete.
Now....... a few months ago I posted about these bastards.


They opened up a shop near the local bookshop that I have been working for on and off for the last 4 years. This was a worry. We fought as long as we could but in the end....



Oh well. I guess this is what people want. Even more big business and fewer independents. They say they want the opposite but then they vote with there feet. All because they can get the new Harry Potter book for £8.99 instead of the RRP of £17.99. How do they make money on that? Clue? They don't. It's a loss leader. They deliberately make a loss on it to get you in the door in the hope that you will buy other items. How can you compete against that as a small business?




All in all a very depressing day.





Well done Waterstone's! Mission accomplished!

Away . . .

It's been a while since I posted. Life gets in the way sometimes! Life being getting a new kitchen installed in this case. Will post again when things have calmed down a little. Had to start a new Flickr site as I was unable to update the old one due to a glitch. Not many pics on it yet, but I'm working on it.

Mousehole

Another great place to visit on the Cornish coast is Mousehole (pronounced "Mowzel")
I've been there quite a few times and it's a great place to unwind. There's a Pub on the harbour called "The Ship Inn" as well as a couple of excellent restaurants. You also get wonderful views of the sea, and being near Penzance there are always boats buzzing around. Watch out for the Helicopter to the Scilly Isles too.

Sunset over Bryher

Just back from a fantastic fortnight in Cornwall. The first week was spent on Bryher one of the Isles of Scilly. I never knew just how beautiful the Scilly's were, a magical place. The weather was amazing, I actually got a tan! Woohoo!

Sad to be home. But looking forward to going to a wedding in Poland in 2 weeks time.

My life isn't usually this exciting.

Thanks.

Thank-you all for making it such a wonderful day. Words cannot express how happy we are that you were able to share this moment with us.

Cosmos

The last post got me thinking about "Cosmos", the great series that was first broadcast in the UK in around 1980. Carl Sagan is totally responsible for my interest in science, and over the years I have read many of his books.

Although much has changed in the years since it was made it still stands up incredibly well and is definitely worth viewing. I can't put into words the impact that this program had on me when I was 11, it opened up the Universe for me.

Carl Sagan was a one off. He took science and made it romantic and poetic. His language coupled with his clear love for what he did was infectious.

Enjoy episode 1! It comes with a short introduction from Carl's wife Ann Druyan.

How cool is this!!

New 'super-Earth' found in space

Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, a world which could have water running on its surface.

The planet orbits the faint star Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra.

Scientists made the discovery using the Eso 3.6m Telescope in Chile.

They say the benign temperatures on the planet mean any water there could exist in liquid form, and this raises the chances it could also harbour life.

"We have estimated that the mean temperature of this 'super-Earth' lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid," explained Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory, lead author of the scientific paper reporting the result.

"Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky - like our Earth - or covered with oceans."

Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University, added: "Liquid water is critical to life as we know it."

He believes the planet may now become a very important target for future space missions dedicated to the search for extra-terrestrial life.

These missions will put telescopes in space that can discern the tell-tale light "signatures" that might be associated with biological processes.

The observatories would seek to identify trace atmospheric gases such as methane, and even markers for chlorophyll, the pigment in Earth plants that plays a critical role in photosynthesis.

'Indirect' detection

The exoplanet - as astronomers call planets around a star other than the Sun - is the smallest yet found, and completes a full orbit of its parent star in just 13 days.

Indeed, it is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is to our Sun.

However, given that the host star is smaller and colder than the Sun - and thus less luminous - the planet nevertheless lies in the "habitable zone", the region around a star where water could be liquid.

Gliese 581 was identified at the European Southern Observatory (Eso) facility at La Silla in the Atacama Desert.

To make their discovery, researchers used a very sensitive instrument that can measure tiny changes in the velocity of a star as it experiences the gravitational tug of a nearby planet.

Astronomers are stuck with such indirect methods of detection because current telescope technology struggles to image very distant and faint objects - especially when they orbit close to the glare of a star.

The Gliese 581 system has now yielded three planets: the new super-Earth, a 15 Earth-mass planet orbiting even closer to the parent star, and an eight Earth-mass planet that lies further out.

Future observatories will study exoplanets for signs of biology
The latest discovery has created tremendous excitement among scientists.

Of the more than 200 exoplanets so far discovered, a great many are Jupiter-like gas giants that experience blazing temperatures because they orbit close to hot stars.

The Gliese 581 super-Earth is in what scientists call the "Goldilocks Zone" where temperatures "are just right" for life to have a chance to exist.

Commenting on the discovery, Alison Boyle, the curator of astronomy at London's Science Museum, said: "Of all the planets we've found around other stars, this is the one that looks as though it might have the right ingredients for life.

"It's 20 light-years away and so we won't be going there anytime soon, but with new kinds of propulsion technology that could change in the future. And obviously we'll be training some powerful telescopes on it to see what we can see," she told BBC News.

"'Is there life anywhere else?' is a fundamental question we all ask."

BBC

Tom Waits.

"Martha" is a song from the Tom Waits album "Closing Time". I had been aware of his work for years but never really connected with it. In all honesty I hadn't really tried that hard, being put off by the fact that what I had heard sounded like an unintelligible drawl.

Shame... I had missed out on a rare talent.

A friend of mine had a copy of "Closing Time" and I borrowed it thinking that I would give him "one more try." I've been a huge admirer of his work ever since. He will always polarise people into love/hate groups but all the best music tends to do that. "Closing Time" is probably one of his more accessible albums but none the worse for it. For me, I think of Tom Waits as a storyteller more than anything else, a gin soaked pianist sitting at the piano at two in the morning singing about his life.

Why this song? It made me cry like a baby when I first heard it, that's why.

Venue....

Just a wee message to those of you coming on Saturday. We are both looking forward to having a great day. Above is a pic of the venue taken with my new bit of kit, a Canon Powershot G7. So far it's proving to be a great little camera.

Le Show.

A heads up to all of those of you out there that like to listen to something that's satirical and topical.
Harry Shearer's "Le Show" has been broadcasting on public radio in America for years. Harry is probably best known to those of us in the UK for his voice work on "The Simpsons" and his semi-legendary status as member of the loudest rock group ever "Spinal Tap".

"Le Show" airs once a week (Sundays) from the studios of KCRW in Santa Monica. I've known about it for a while but only had access to it from last year when I FINALLY got broadband and could download the show every week.

It's a real treasure.

For those of you that worry that all of the U.S.A is like George Bush this is the show for you. It's a side of America that we don't hear from that often because our exposure is limited to CNN, Fox News and the like. The format is very straightforward. Harry goes through some of the major stories of the week, as well as the ones that occasionally get buried, and gives us his thoughts on them. Simple, honest, scary sometimes and very funny.

If you want to give it a try it's available on iTunes as a free podcast as well as kcrw.com and harryshearer.com.

Have a listen. Keep up the good work Harry!

Mr Deity.

As a postscript to the last post I thought that I would add this video. You can find all of the Mr Deity films on youtube and I highly recommend them. They are, for the most part, brilliant. You can also check out www.mrdeity.com.

I guess you know what my feelings on religion are now. I wonder when the hate mail will start arriving.

The Big "G" Delusion..

A while back I said that I was going to recount a short tale about my experience reading "The God Delusion" in a public place.

It's not a long story.

Not that long ago I was sitting in a local coffee shop (I won't name the chain here, but think of a Roman Emperor) reading. My book was, as I said, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.

Now.... I'm not going to get drawn into a religious debate, the fact that I'm reading a book by Richard Dawkins and consider Carl Sagan a hero of mine should give you a hint as to which side of the fence I am on. So, I'm reading my book when all of a sudden a hand appears out of nowhere and moves the book out of my field of view. I look up and see a rather annoyed woman of the Penelope Keith mold staring down at me.

"Despicable!" she says. (women of a certain age speak like that in surrey)

"Pardon?" I reply.

"He has NO idea that awful man, who does he think he is!"

"Er.."

"I can't believe you are reading such rubbish. Where would we be if we all thought like that?"

And she promptly walked away.

"Where would we be if we all thought like that?" That was my favourite comment. Where would we be?

Atheists and better off is all I can think of.

The fact that she got so wound up by what I was doing that she was willing to walk over and confront a complete stranger is staggering to me. I don't get wound up when I see someone reading the bible and feel the need to walk over and admonish them in public. I don't even get that annoyed when I'm in Piccadilly Circus and there are those Christians with megaphones telling me that I'm going to hell!

Maybe I'm too passive.

It's a great book by the way.