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Sunday 20 August 2017

Day 10 - Blogger Post 243 - Pre-Work Blues and plans.

Well I almost managed it.  I've broken promises runs of posts so many times so I didn't mention the plan.  I planned to post every day of my holiday at home and only failed to post yesterday.   Close but no cigar!

My good friend Richard G and real blogger spotted there was life here and mentioned it on FB.  Daily views are now up to the dizzy heights of 6 - Cheers Rich.

I've quite enjoyed doing being at the keyboard again and it's been less onerous than I remember. Then again I've been off work.  It's hardly been thrilling stuff but it is what it is circa 2017.  You can't expect the knock about stuff that was going on 10 years ago.

A quick check has just confirmed that I started "writing stuff up" as I always call it 2 January 2006.  Lots has changed since then both in my life and the outside world.  I've just had a flick through both LiveJournal and Blogger, it's all there if you too are inclined.  I used to go on about my family, music, exercising, politics, cricket, the Boro and the pub. Not much knock about stuff to be honest and pretty much the same sort of stuff I've been up to the last week. Maybe not that much has changed?

Needless to say I've got plans.  Ha ha, again .....






Friday 18 August 2017

Day 8 - Is there no end to this fun?

Wolf Alice were actually quite good.  As I mentioned, I had seen them before but couldn't really remember much apart from having a female vocalist.  Long standing followers know I always remember the girls.  A good rock/pop band playing some good songs with some decent hooklines. None particularly memorable but I'm not complaining.

It was really nice to be back upstairs at The Westgarth.  The sound was excellent, I could even hear the vocals, they are so often (maybe intentionally) lost in the live mix.  As I mentioned last night Wolf Alice had tagged a few smaller venue shows dates at the front end of their tour and it was very nice of them to include Boro in the "warm up" dates.

I'm sure there was method behind the madness.  From my (fairly vast) experience bands at the very least get a fair crack of the whip in the Boro and especially at The Westgarth.  The bands always appreciate the respectful and usually enthusiastic audience and the care taken by their local promoters and Steve, the laid back venue host. It was always going to be a love in.  I wasn't their the first time WA played there but I'll bet it was a love in and so it was again last night.

Good luck to Wolf Alice when they move onto play the bigger venues.  We are the Boro!

The Kids Are Solid Gold nights continue to be special from the personal greeting from Andy, Phil, Siobhan and Steve when you walk in to meeting up with old friends to talk about what's coming up, what you're listening to at the moment to reminiscing about the great shows of the past.  And last night was no different.

Even better, nowadays it's not just TKASG promoting shows on at The Westgarth. Other promoters such as Steve Harland, Martin Mathers and Dave Griffiths put shows on of varying genres ensuring the old Working mens club continues to thrive. Long may it continue.

And big NB to the fair people of Middlesbrough.  We need to keep turning up.

Note to self............










Thursday 17 August 2017

Day 7 - Not much going on in my world today

Just as well as I'm not feeling great. Things were going too good, I've been well for ages but my IBS has flared up which causes me other issues health wise. It's the sort of thing that would have sent me running to see my GP 5 years ago but I just get on with it nowadays. As long as there is a decent toilet I can run too I just get on with thing.   I know, what a martyr.

I'm off to see Wolf Alice at The Westgarth tonight with Ste. They played there 4 years ago but have moved upwards and onwards since then. I didn't go but I'm pretty sure I saw the at EOTR 2013.

So WA are playing a few warm up dates at smaller venues before they move on to their main tour.  Quite a coup for The Kids Are Solid Gold and the Westgarth itself.

Will report back tomorrow.

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Day 6 - Bramble Picking and back over to Carlton via The Transporter

We've had another busy day.  I don't know about Shamila but I'm starting to flag a bit.

We planned to pick some brambles from my secret stash over the border (found Monday).  Travelling from north of the river it seemed a good idea to drive to Port Clarence and take an as the crow flies short cut over the Transporter.  

What's not to love about The Transporter  (Wikipedia hyperlink for non locals)?  Still a working bridge and all that blah, blah blah.  I hadn't been travelled on the gondola for over 20 years and Shamila hadn't been over since she was a kid.  I didn't tell her my plan until the last minute and it earned loads of brownie points for such a simple trip.  Yes!!!!!


We picked our brambles (more of that on Facebook) from our secret supply before heading over to Lord Stones  to right the wrong of yesterday.  Here's a photo of me giving Shamila a pre-walk pep talk.


and it seemed to do the trick.  We worked back over and cracked it.  We're going to have another go at doing the complete walk next week.

Going to have a rest tomorrow.  Well, I might go to the gym.  Hope you don't lose any sleep with the excitement.

Here's another sixties number.  


Tuesday 15 August 2017

Day 5 - Walking, Eating and The Boro

I had a bit of a play about with the design of my Blog.  I really wish I could get it to line up the photos a bit better, collage like or something. It looks crap. I took all the stuff from the sidebars (tech term which means down the sides).  It was all old stuff and I can't be bother to maintain it.  I know it's far from great.  I might have another go later.

So what have I been up to today?  Once again, I am able to report, plenty.

Me and Sham decided to do a walk I'd pulled out of the Gazette a few moths ago by long standing correspondent Bob Woodhouse.  It was described as "Raisdale Circular, a 6 1/2 miles from Lordstones out and around Cringle and West Bilsdale moors".  I can only describe it as an enjoyable slog.  The instructions were vague to say the least but we were still on track  4/5 of the way round until we finally had to admit to defeat after failing to find a supposed gap in a wall either at the top or bottom of Wath Hill and just trudged back along Raisdale Road just over a mile back to Lordstones.  Can't speak for Shamila but I was knackered and a bit dispirited to be honest.

Here are a couple of photos.




I guess you win some you lose some and under normal circumstances that would have been it.  It's a bit of a trek to get over to Carlton from Billingham but what the hell, over a beauty lunch at the Blacksmith's Arms at Carlton we decided to go over again tomorrow to try and work it out.

And the Boro tonight?  An uninspiring 2-0 against sure to end up bottom of the table,  Burton Albion.  Not great but 3 points and up to 4th in the table.  It's very early in the season but better to be 4th in the table than 24th.


More adventures in Carlton tomorrow.







Monday 14 August 2017

Day 4 - Fantastic Day

Today went just as I'd played out in my mind and unusually I managed to do everything planned.  I  had a good session at the gym, did my tour of Middlesbrough and met up with Shamila mid-afternoon. We headed off to Whitby for a game of crazy (to the unenlightened) or mini (to those in the know) golf and fish and chips for our tea.

I'm pretty knackered so I'm just going to let the photos tell my story of today if that's ok?  Might do an early post tomorrow.  I've got the Boro match tomorrow night.

Adious.













Sunday 13 August 2017

Day 3 - In The Boro part 1 and chores

Inspired by a flick at a book Shamila got her Dad for his 86th birthday (3 cheers) about the history of central Middlesbrough I thought I'd have a mooch around my home town, "The Boro".  I'm a bit ashamed I've never done it before.

There's not an awful left of "the olden days" in Middlesbrough to be honest.  Here's an article from the Gazette a couple of years ago about some of the buildings we've lost.  Read it and weep.  For example in fairly recent years we've lost the old St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Sussex Street that was demolished after an arson attack in 2000


and the Cleveland Scientific Institution which was demolished in 2006 to make way for a car park.


 You couldn't make it up. I won't say it was a criminal act because I might get into trouble. In any case Mandale Properties and Middlesbrough Council had no case to answer because all the correct procedures were followed in relation to its demolition. Well that's the main thing.

And after that rather splendid intro (if I say so myself)  I'm sad to report due to circumstances out of my control we (me and Sham) had to abandon today's tour after about 40 minutes.

We got as far as Exchange Square, buildings including Exchange House, now known as the House of Blah Blah, behind it including the Impasse Centre (vague memories of local concerts here in the late seventies/early eighties).



and the Railway Station.  It was looking good but hey ho I'm off tomorrow so I'll give it another go and report back again.

I'll say manyana then.





Saturday 12 August 2017

Day 2 - No Mo!

Gutted Mo couldn't double up.  What a superstar.  The best British sportsman bar none in my lifetime.  As I'm watching he's posing for lots of selfies with VIP's in the front row around the stadium,  agh.....?  Wasn't not so keen on that bit to be honest.

Bit of sport going on today.  It was also Boro's first home game of the season and and we won. Though it was far from thrilling.  Almost tempted to say "are you Karanka in disguise" to Gary Monk.  We played really well for about 20 minutes in the first half when we scored but we a bit lucky in the end. Bamford and Christie were great but Assombalonga didn't look as good as Kike did on his home debut 2 seasons ago for me.  It's early days and I'll be back there on Tuesday.  It's still unconditional love for the team but I don't feel any obligation to give Boro any early season benefit of doubt after Gibson bizarre intervention in the general election campaign.  

Me and Sham went for an exhilarating "sprint" this morning up and down the Tees from Stockton to Dinosaur Park and back.



Shamila swears she can't jog but lots of people run slower than we march.  We didn't have any formal stops but there's an endless supply of brambles this year it would have been rude not to indulge.



Lots not quite ready but enough are ripe and gorgeous and the great thing about being an old man is you know exactly when they're ready.


We're going back again tomorrow to pick some to stock up for some bramble crumbles.

In celebration of my return I'm going to share a few old tunes so ....



More tomorrow.


Friday 11 August 2017

Day 1

So the first day of my home holiday is over.  Well just my normal day off from work but it's ok to count it as the first day as it makes it up to a nice round 10 days isn't it?  Actually one of the benefits of being part-time is that I get more holidays (at least in my mind) .  I haven't worked Friday's now for over 7 years and it still sometimes feels like I'm nicking off on a Friday.  The pay I lose for cutting a day is negligible, a benefit of being so poorly paid I like to think.  Shh.., don't tell anybody, they'll all want to do it.

You might have noticed I haven't been posting much for .... well a long time now.  Enough to be able to tell people "I write a blog" mind, not that I ever do. I haven't even got an excuse.  I've still got plenty to say but I've been doing other stuff.  Y'know, the gym, walking, reading the news, reading a few books, listening to music, watching TV box sets, currently Ozark (it's pretty good but I've just found out how the series ends from some unknown person on Facebook - bummer) blah blah blah.  All pretty mundane stuff but it keeps me occupied.  I'm not moaning (well I am a bit) but I'm still searching (nod to Kevin Rowland).  Do you know what I mean?  And I wouldn't have it any other way unless I actually find "it".

Anyway, regular readers (ha ha, sure everybody's given up by now) will recognise the pattern. Me babbling on hoping some inspiration will appear out of thin air. It might but if it doesn't I'm content rambling on autobiographical stylee for me to read back to myself when I'm too old to do anything else.  It will remind me what a fun loving guy I used to be.

Anyway, so what have I done today?  Well actually plenty.  As well as watch an episode of Ozark,  I read all the newspapers on and off all day, I went to the gym, cut my lawns, fixed my hedge trimmers (I cut through the cable last time I used them), cut my privet and listened to over 3 hours of random play music on my ipod (who said I couldn't multi-task?) all before picking Shamila up from work at 4.30 pm.  Phew!

So, time to say goodnight.


Just for a bit of filler







Wednesday 9 August 2017

Words on a Whim.

Could be a song title?

Actually just testing the water.  

Always looking for options and this blog remains an option.  

Eeez a little number...





Night