Monthly Archives: October 2016

Battle

I recieved a random text from Karl today, saying that he and Steve would be playing in the Tuns this evening. Apparently, it was a battle of the bands thing. 

Karl was a bit bewhildered, since they shouldn’t do that sort of thing at their age. So, they were two middle aged men against (young)  punk and death metal bands. 

They came across pretty well, original music played well. And they won, much to their surprise. Winning the final (next Stage) may not be within their reach, but at an average age of 48.5 they’re doing damn well. 

Eggs

Bands I’m going to see in the next few weeks:

The Divine Comedy

The Lovely Eggs

Augustines (x 3)

The Fratellis

Jalapeno

My second in command and I are now in the Herb Garden for food. I’d not noticed the lighting before, despite having been here several times previously. 

The extra Jalapeno wasn’t my best ever decision though. But the pizza was nice. In a lethal hot kind of way. 

Glastonbury II

After Thursday’s failed attempt to secure Glastonbury tickets, I wasn’t at all hopeful for this morning’s, larger, sale. As usual, I waited 15 minutes to connect to the booking page, then there was the, again usual, countless refreshes. 

All to no avail though. While the booking service unexpectedly didn’t crash, the festival site itself wouldn’t refresh, or show the usual Twitter feed. So I couldn’t see that it’d sold out until the booking page was updated. 

We’ll probably try again in April, for the ticket resale, but with only small numbers I have to be realistic about the chance of success. There’s probably more chance with Oxfam stewarding, so we’re on their waiting list. 

And, at the end of the day, there’s always 2019.

We did regret not booking an alternative festival this year, but at least that won’t happen next year. We’ve already bought tickets for Kendal Calling; Karl and Michelle are thinking of doing the same. And this might give us the nudge we need to try Sziget. We need to explore the logistics I think. 

Edinburgh

Had a great day in the company of old gentlemen, in Edinburgh. I have no pictures, because beer needed our concentration, but I’ve been in some astounding bars. And I mean astounding. 

In one of which, I had a pretty great Ynot a dog, a tofu hot dog. And It was really nice. 

While in Brewdog, one of the last bars we visited, I bought a present for my second in command. 

She’s a big soft southerner, so wears hats in every month before/after the summer. 

But this is a good hat. 

  

Glastonbury

Well, 18:00 today didn’t go very well today. The plan to go for Glastonbury with a coach package rather than wait for Sunday’s carnage just didn’t work. 

I wouldn’t have been too bothered if 2018 wasn’t planned as a break year. But 2017 now seems unlikely. 

This must now be the only UK festival to sell out. We do have Kendal Calling as a reserve, but (while it’s a great festival) it’s not quite the same.

We’ll try again on Sunday, but we’ll seriously need to find a decent alternative if we have no luck. 

Corpse consumption

I suspect that this will not happen in my lifetime, but it’s strange (or not so) how studies carried out years ago are only in recent years being replicated on a scale which makes them reportable in the mass media. 

It’s nice, in a not so nice way, to see the findings of those early studies being vindicated. 

For example, the acceptance that consuming processed animal bits can massively increase the risk of cancer, not to mention heart attack. Then there are the other, now accepted, related ailments. Type II diabetes for instance. 

There’s one certain fact though. It’s only a matter of time before we (vegetarians and vegans) will rule the ‘civilised’ world. 

Like I say, maybe not in my lifetime. But it’s moving in the right direction. 

Gardening

I’ve just finished what will probably be my last Sunday gardening of the year. The garden looks pretty empty now, well apart from the trees. 

I’ve removed all of the purple flowering plants (I’ve no idea what they’re called) that I was so fond of. I was given some when I moved here and they’ve thrived in what is a pretty shady area. 

The problem was that they grew too well, spreading beyond their allotted area. The flowers, around May, are great, but for most of the year I have to admit that they look like dock leaves. 

So I’ve reluctantly removed them. Along with the pile of rotting, weed and wood lice infested pile of wood. I know it’s supposed to be a good thing for birds, but it was a bit of an eyesore. 

Now the garden’s all sorted, I can begin to plan my winter project. A man needs a project, you know. 

The Schooner

The Schooner is a very nice pub. Currently playing a bit of Ska. 

Although I’m only here because of a breakdown in communications between myself and my second in command. 

I planned to meet her from work, and communicated my intentions, but for some unknown reason, she left me waiting in the Split Chimp while she went home. 

So I left to go home too, only to find that my second in command had set off (an hour late) to meet me. 

Anyway, I’ve had a nice walk; a walk I’d not done in ages. Through a cool, but newly defaced (I took no pictures of such things) cemetary. 

There would be other pictures, but I have a rubbish signal and can’t be bothered to look for the wifi code. 

I’m assuming that the railings were removed and melted down during WWII, but I bet the place looked great a hundred years ago.