A little respect please......

nuff said..

Oh.... my...... word.....

I have no idea what to think....

Matter....

Just out .....

Very exciting.

The Culture novels are some of the best (if not THE best) hard Sci-Fi books out there. Now all I have to do is wait for the paperback to come out. The hardback is £18.99!!! Also it's WAY too big to be portable.

If you haven't read any of the Culture novels start with "Consider Phlebas". It's a rollicking good yarn.

Christmas, New Year n' stuff.

Well, the festive season came and went as did the new year. Very pleasant it was too. Christmas always seems to bring out the best and worst in people, but on the plus side presents are involved. Not that I'm only thinking of material goods at that time of year.

Oh all right.... I AM only thinking of material goods over Christmas. Sue me.



We stayed in Bath and while we were there went to the Christmas market outside the Cathedral. It looks brilliant, until you realise that most of the huts are selling the same stuff. Once you know this it doesn't take very long to walk around. The mold wine was very good though.

The cold weather at the end of last year gave us some wonderful views from the back of our house. There were some lovely frosty mornings....


Some beautiful sunrises....


...and one morning we were treated to a rainbow. It wasn't raining but it was freezing cold. I can only assume it was light bouncing off ice crystals in the atmosphere.




I have decided to walk more this year (new years resolution... god I hate them!) but it gives me a chance to see a little bit more of the countryside around me. The walk to Guildford along the canal is especially tranquil. I'll try to remember to take my camera with me as there is always something to pause and look at.





The walk is about 4-5 miles. Much better than going to a gym!



The rain over the last few weeks has given us a surprise or two. We woke up one morning to find the river encroaching on our garden..


No where near our house, but you still get a nervous tingle in the stomach. Mind you, if it did get to our house it would mean that most of Guildford would be underwater.

Finally, I went for a walk today and ended up in my favourite spot. It's where I just like to sit and stare for a while. As I did this today I put my camera down beside me and let it run. It's my getaway spot. When life gets a bit hard to cope with I sit here and it all melts away. The quality isn't that great (thanks blogger for making my mpeg clip look as though the lens was covered in vaseline).

Scotney....

"It Came From Outer Scotney" is up and running again. There's an embedded player on the right that seems to be more reliable than the original links. Please remember we were a bunch of teenagers who had overdosed on coffee. If you want to know more about it check out the older post.

And may God have mercy on my soul.

Seasick Steve

It was one of those moments when you end up just staring at the screen in amazement. We were over at a friends house for new years eve and the TV was on in the background. It was Jools Holland's Hootenanny 07-08. I wasn't really paying any attention to it until this guy came on. It wasn't to the taste of the others in the room but my jaw hit the floor! How could I have never heard of him! He is, in a word, awesome!

So...

Ladies and Gentlemen....

I give you...

SEASICK STEVE!!!

New Post!!

I will post again! Really I will. I'll get all the pictures n' stuff together and do a proper post. It all came to a bit of a halt in October when my PC finally gave up the ghost. It was a long, drawn out, painful business.

But all is well now and my shiny new PC (nicknamed "The Beast")is humming away to itself and draining power from the national grid as I speak.

Happy New Year one and all.

-a-

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!