AndyBlog

The Poison Garden at Alnwick Gardens

We went there, pictures were taken. Watch this space for a full report soon.

Van on fire

It's not every day you see a van properly on fire on the road, but it happened to me this week. Being a blogger, and therefore part of the media...kinda, I felt it only right that I stop and take a picture of the event.

The cars along the other side of the road had all stopped, probably for fear of being blown to smithereens, or something. I wish I didn't find these things so entertaining and exciting. I am a pretty tragic rubber necker, I know.

No-one was hurt, you'll be glad to know, and the fire service was on the scene very soon after I took this - along with fully (count them) six police cars. Now I know where they are when they can't come and deal with the minutiae in my life.

NASA Picture of the day

That Hubble Space Telescope ain't all bad.

This nebula is actually exploding right now. I say right now, it might be quite a long time ago actually due to light traveling speeds. I really don't know. The lovely thing about it is that it doesn't really matter, it's just a very pretty picture.

I mean, isn't it?

Everything changes...

...but is it for the better?

I know many people hate change, no matter what the change is, but neither does this mean that all change is good. Our gym in NBTS is being improved, or so they say. We lose it for two weeks, and then it returns with all-new equipment.

The only thing is we then have to buy a new key-fob which keeps track of us and the time we spend on each piece of equipment. I somehow suspect that it will attempt to tell me how to live my life, or at the very least react with considerable disdain about my choice of exercise routine.

I wonder if there is a way to tell it that leg exercise will cause more pain than I consider to be reasonable?

The other change is one I really thought I'd like - the smoking ban.

This is a wonderful thing which prevents people from smoking inside pubs and clubs. Fantastic!

The only trouble is that they now come outside and make our pavements and streets rich with the odour of tobacco smoke. For us, living next door to a club and over the road from a pub, it is a real trial. Now people come outside and smoke underneath our window - the smell is never far away.

The cigarette stubs are strewn all over the road in front of our house and we often find beer glasses on our window sills.

Last night, a man opened our letterbox and unleashed a special blessing through it. One of our neighbours saw him do it.

It really does feel like it is time to leave. I just hope and pray it will soon be possible in some way or other.

Steely Dan

Steely Dan, looking pretty tonight.

It was a long drive down to Birmingham to see this legendary band - and an even longer one back up after the gig. I'm tired, exhausted and pretty much knackered - yet still I might utter "Do it again".

It was indeed time out of mind. We were transported to long ago places when life was very different. Music does that in a way that so little else can, certainly for me - and trust me, this isn't just pretzel logic.

The support band did some of their dirty work for them, and they were good, too - although 30 mins was about all I wanted to hear of them. They performed entirely instrumentally and in a trio format. The music was pure jazz and the instrumentation was Hammond, Drums and Guitar. Nice to listen to, but too much would necessitate even a Haitian divorce. The organist was the driving force, and he was very accomplished, although his skill did not extend to passing on his name in any way that I was able to hear.

"The Dan", as they seemed to be internally known, performed very well indeed, despite the slightly muddy acoustic ever-present in the NIA Academy.

The bass was never more than indistinct, despite playing of the highest quality. The set centered on older music, by enlarge, but with a repertoire so huge there's no telling what we might hear.

My personal favourites were FM and Babylon Sisters. All in all, a wonderful experience, and a pleasant car full to share the night with. We only nearly got killed to death once, thankfully.

Today will be black Friday, I predict.

It never rains...

Liz lost her phone - she had no idea where she put it down last.

I offered to ring it for her, so it would reveal itself.

She searched some more, then decided to take me up on my offer.

I called and let it ring till the answerphone cut in.

Then she realised: It was on silent mode for when she is in school.

A further search ensued...

Amazon is generous...it's official

Worth a click to see the full thing if you can't read it here.

I am English (England)

This sort of thing really makes my blood boil. I mean, honestly!

Swedish Pear Cider

Ikea - that lovely Swedish place which we have learned to buy most things from - also sells this delightful pear-based drink. Jason encouraged me to try some of it, telling me it was all but alcohol-free. This I did - a few months back. It was nice. Very nice. That was then.

One day, whilst taking a course of Lyrica (Pregabalin) I decided to try a can when I was driving home from Ikea. To my surprise, after just a few sips, i became very tipsy. I was all over the place. Because of my strange reaction to alcohol whilst taking this drug, I surmised that the pear drink had alcohol in it.

4.5% by volume, as it turned out. It's even written on the front of the can. Such was my trust of Jason, that I failed to notice the massive green writing on the front proclaiming its potency.

Even when I mentioned it to him recently, he still seems convinced that there is all but no alcohol in the drink.

Jason, I hereby claim my five pounds.

Dinner with the DWs

A superb night was enjoyed - so much so that I decided to do a photo album about it.

Click HERE to see the rest.