Sunday 28 September 2008 19:57
After using, repairing and building PCs for 20 years (I bought my first
one in 1988), I thought I was beyond doing stupid things. However,
while freeing up space on my little eee's flash drive (it's only 4GB),
i seem to have deleted some stuff that Linux needs. Fortunately, I had
an image on a USB drive. It's from January, so I've lost a couple of
things, but hopefully nothing major. I think I should probably back-up
more often. And learn more about Linux.I've some text messages I'd meant to post here, but hadn't gotten around to it, so here goes. First, one from Phil a week ago: I bumped into a girl from school today. She said she always thought that I'd end up a serial killer. I smiled and said it's never too late to start. She walked away.
A few days ago, Paula went to see the ting tings. I was out that night too, but hadn't much of a signal so text messages from the evening seemed to arrive all at once. Anyway, without further explanation, these were from Paula:
Where is you? Rang loads. You have no signal
Message from O2. Your wife has called you 327 million times. Her concert finished and she wondered if you were still in town and would buy her a drink.
Another message from O2 : ) your wife is on the metro. That's not my name! She said.
Yet another message, O2 apologises profusely, it's not us, it's your wife. You need to take her phone off her! We have enough work to do dealing with calls for cabs and stuff. Do you know how much work that involves? Anyway, you wife is on the bus ... NO PUT THAT PIZZA DOWN! IS HE GOING TO BE SICK? OPEN THE WINDOW! OPEN THE FUCKING WINDOW! That'll cost you another fifty quid mate ... Sorry, interference, your wife said that she's on the bus. Tell her not to bother us again. Can't you see what we're dealing with? Jesus.
Hello you! Most of the utop is on the bus! Charlie and Eileen.
Message from O2. Your missus is home now. NewcastleGateshead can sleep soundly in their beds. Although we heard there's a fair amount of inbreeding going on up there, so that'll be just the one bed then.
What else was I going to write about? Oh yes. The damn cat. Just after moving into this house, we bought one of those Chinese cats with a waving arm. You know, the plastic ones you see in takeaways sometimes. Well, after a few months, it stopped working. Even after taking it to bits, it wouldn't start waving again. So it sat on the windowsill, motionless. After three years or so, I thought it time to replace it with another. So I bought an identical one. It works a treat and has been waving steadily for a few days now. When putting the batteries in though, I put a couple into the old cat. And the bloody thing started working. It's now taken up residence in Phil's flat (two were just too noisy).
I'm feeling tired today; probably why I deleted things I shouldn't (I might believe that if I say it often enough). I didn't go to bed until around 5:30 this morning. I went to Newcastle last night with Phil and Bob; kind of a post festival reunion. We had a really good night, pretty much along the lines of the festival. This time though, Bob got lost rather than me. It was late and he wasn't well. After more than an hour I managed to find him, but lost Phil in the process. On finding Phil, we began the arduous journey back to my house, taking five times longer than necessary as a result of my companions' frequent and random changes in direction. Still, we had a laugh.
Oh, and the nice man in Gotham Town remembered me from last week and played Elbow without my needing to ask.
That's another weekend over. I've the usual feelings of Sunday evening mild depression, but somehow I'm looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Maybe that's down to being so tired too.
Saturday 19 September 2008 01:21
I'm home from a management
night out. Actually, it wasn't so bad. Although we went to some pretty
bad bars in Newcastle (yes, believe me it's possible), we managed to
fit in one or two decent places. For example; Gotham Town. The only gothic-ish bar remaining in the Northeast (well, possibly). After several bars of pretty rubbish music, we ended up in the above venue. At that point bad music was playing, so I asked the very nice man (playing MP3s) whether he had anything from Elbow. He said, 'of course I do, they're the best band in years. What would you like me to play?' I said 'anything!'
And the man played Grounds for Divorce. And then, without asking, he played a song by the Coral. The second Coral song I'd heard during the night.
And then a nightcap in the Tuns. Night world : )
Tuesday 9 September 2008 22:31
Yay! Elbow won the Mercury prize!Tuesday 9 September 2008 20:53
I've been somewhat occupied of late. If I'm being honest, I don't
really know where all my time has gone recently, but the last few weeks
have passed in a blur. Sunday afternoons in Baroque Aspire have resumed following a refurbishment enforced absence. Wallpaper and glass have largely gothic, but I guess I'm getting used to the idea that change is inevitable. Still, if you look closely, some traces of my old favourite remain.
It's now over a week since my return from my third and last festival of the year, Hydro Connect in Inveraray. Although the effects of alcohol mean that my memories of the weekend are somewhat disjointed, I can certainly recommend this new (second year) festival; a combination of Lowlands (atmosphere and scale) and Glastonbury (mud).
The location was stunning, in the grounds of the castle and right next to a loch. Unfortunately, this meant that we were exposed to extremes of weather. In particular, rain. Lots of it. Somehow, the rain and mud didn't spoil the weekend and, after a little while, we didn't even notice it.
The nearest thing to a low point was the epic walk from the car park (and back) to the campsite, along a very muddy and steep path. I could also add getting lost several times when trying to find our tents, but this only applied to me. Oh, and ending up sitting in the mud when my welly came off in the dark. However, I'll not go into further detail.
High points include Guy Garvey shouting Mantraluna* and waving at Phil and me, talking to an ex girlfriend of his at a campsite 'party' hosted by two very nice gentlemen called Brian and Iain (who made me drink wine the previous evening, after I'd passed their tents for the fourth time when lost), watching the sunrise over the mist and mountains and ... um ... Phil dressed as Xena, Warrior Princess.
I've always avoided the silent disco at previous festivals; it'd never particularly interested me. But, after Phil pretty much dragged us in on the first night, it was a regular item on our timetable. I feel the need to mention the (gay) Dutch DJ, who very quickly became the subject of discussion (and impressions). Such lines as you have to start leaving now, ve only haf von hour left and I am a whore, I vill only play cheesy music have featured in many recent text messages.
There was a festival song too. Well, there often is. This one started as a bit of a joke, although it eventually stuck in our heads. It's on Youtube if you'd like to take a look, but I should warn you that it's cheesy.
Some pictures:
Phil, Bob and I with our tents.
Again, but in the silent disco (I do have photographic evidence of Phil and Bob dancing together, but the world simply isn't ready for it.
Some mud. I have many more pictures of mud, but I thought this one looks quite arty.
Kasabian headlined on the first evening; predicably, they were brilliant.
Elbow, as always, were very good too.
Grinderman, Nick Cave's new band were a real surprise; we were really impressed. I need to buy the album.
I'd not seen the Coral for a couple of years; they didn't disappoint either.
I'd seen Franz Ferdinand at Lowlands, and didn't think they were anything special, but they were a very different experience in front of a home crowd. To be honest, while I can't say I particularly like their music, they rocked!
And, finally, a few pictures of some of the very nice people we met:
*It was something from an Elbow Concert several months ago; too lengthy to explain here.