the journey back

Just got back from another St Audries weekend, this time for the wedding of Karen and Dan.The plans kept spiralling ever upward so I went down last Thursday and I'm glad I did, it was full on (as weddings always are) but everyone seemed very happy and it had a great atmosphere.

Karen worked for me for a season and for Matt before me and her grandmother Barb was the legendary head of housekeeping among other things for 45 years. We so wanted her day to be a wonderful one.

I'm hoping I'll be able to get my hands on a video made of the reception, then you'll be able to see for yourselves, so until I do...

Anyway today I was in the hands of Arriva trains and Virgin trains and Great western and I don't quite know who all. I love travelling by train in spite of all the aforementioned can do to make me change my mind (while emptying my bank account).

I was of course stuck for ages at Bristol Parkway station as there were signalling faults and broken down trains and probably rains of frogs too.

It used to be quite a nice station with a wooden cafe/ticket hall, very domestic and cosy and friendly of the sort we (used to be) so good at. But sometime in the reign of terror (Tony Blair) it had to be 'modernized', because we were such a go getting thrusting modern country and cosiness has no place here!

I'm sure on the plans it was all very futuristic and slick, but after the health and safety experts (enough to strike dread into any ones soul) and the accountants and all the rest had had their way it's now hard to imagine a bleaker more soulless place with its all weather rubber flooring and perforated steel seating which are only not in torture chambers because they are cheap and shoddy and the whole place looking tatty and run down and badly in need of repair after only a few years use.

Whoever thinks thin steel sheet corrugated and painted to look like stainless steel is a good idea is fooling themselves - badly.

But absolute worst of all, the endless announcements preceded by damn three note chimes (undoubtedly chosen by some absolute b***ard to cause maximum irritation) '*I* (pause) am very sorry (pause) for (pause) the delay on (pause) the thirteen (pause) oh seven (pause) train to (pause) Swansea (pause).. on and on, you get the idea...

How can *you* be so sorry? you're a damn collection of badly sequenced digital files and they can't even be bothered to make sure it's the same anouncertron's voice used through the whole thing - ARGH! I tell you it's no wonder people flip and cut loose with an Uzi..

Maybe I'm just tired, 18 hour days tend to do that.. no I'm right it's tat...

May you live in interesting times

It has been an interesting week, in fact I hardly know where to begin. I have bought one of those tiny new netbooks, not the pretend ones running some weird species of Linux but a proper full fledged (very small) Lenovo running full proper windows XP (and been as I am one of the Vista haters, that suits me just fine).

Second, and much bigger, I've got a full on iPod, a 120gb classic in black (though it looks more charcoal to me, others I see are 'proper' black) OK all the horrible things I have said about them all these years are (possibly!) incorrect and the fact I now have 3/4 of my CD's on this tiny machine and still have 100gb free is quite incredible. My vinyl is of course utterly sacrosanct..

And of course the reason for this sea change and bout of retail therapy? I am back at St Audries Bay as the bar manager and this was the minimum needed to get me through the summer..

For those of you that do not know it have a look at http://www.staudriesbay.co.uk/
I have known the place since I was a kid, in fact the first holiday there with my mum and dad was in 1966 when it was a full on British Holiday camp. I think I fell in love with it then and unfortunately things have never changed.

And one day I found myself running the bars and as maybe you know last year I left (when John and I moved from Bridgwater back to Wales) and in all honesty I thought that was the end of it. In fact friends asked me and I swore that was the finish.

My downfall was trannie week (I am sure that's been said before) The new guy was nice enough, but in all honesty he was making a mess of MY bar and I was surprised to find I couldn't stand it.

I know I can't explain how deep this goes, and by no means am I the only person that has discovered it, St Audries has a visceral attraction that seems impossible to break, but when I was asked to come back, I found I could not refuse.

I really hope John and I can have fun with this, I have a really nice caravan (one we spent a winter in a few years ago) I love my home in Wales, but I love this place too...

I SO should have done this

Been a busy few days, and will fill you all in.. when I think of it :-) Probably the most important though, trusting to the Gods and taking my life into my hands I reformatted my C drive (named my 'H' drive I've never been able to work out why, or indeed change it, and reinstalled XP.

OK maybe not quite as scary as it could have been as I keep all my files on a second drive, but when you're reformatting are you REALLY sure you're doing the right one?!

Anyway I was, and when I wasn't swapping doors on the new fridge/freezer (more again no doubt) I was doing the tedious job of rebuilding the system.

I tell you though I wish I had done this ages ago, I have no idea how much garbage must have accumulated on my system but now it simply flies. Perhaps trying out new stuff really isn't the way to go, and while I *thought* I was keeping it clean, it obviously really wasn't..

It's a years old Frankenstein of a system, made up of all sorts of old bits and frankly so tatty it really should be in a skip, but Moores law seems to have broken down of late and it's 2.8ghz Pentium 2gb of ram should still be plenty and I have an aversion to handing out cash to the likes of Dell...

Now it feels like a new computer, and I must remember this feeling next time I want to kick it..

Just heard

Just heard, on NME online MUSE will be releasing their new album 'The Resistance' in September.

Apparently they have been working on it for the past year near lake Como in Italy, it has a full orchestra and Matt Bellamy describes it as 'symphonic'.

Probably (no definitely) the most exciting band in the world, I am nearly dead with anticipation. Now all I want is tour dates :-)

Some bits

I found this video on youtube, the product is from a company amusingly called brick sheet house. Shame we don't seem to have anything like this here, the effect was certainly nice and I love the brick/coffee coloured walls. The one question is though are all 'designer makeover' programs the world over the same?

I've finally had it with Vodafone. The contract finally finished Saturday, BUT relenting slightly as I still want a phone for occasional use, I thought would take their offer and swap it to pay as you go. I REALLY wish I hadn't bothered.

Basically they have just cut it off and no amount of e mails seems to be able to make them understand what the problem is. What is it with these call centre cyborgs in they they answer the question they first think of rather then reading the damn mail to find out what the problem is?

I'm going to try Orange. At least with them I'm a new customer so it's quite possible I might get some straightforward service without stressing myself out and fantasizing about Uzi's. Apparently I could port my number across from Vodafone, I really think I'll give that one a miss.

Having run out of cool stuff to watch on DVD have started again on Buffy, series 1 episode 1. I would try Battlestar Galactica, but those terrible '80's cut and re cut movies/mini series starring Lorne Green have really put me off it.

I've just finished Daemon by Daniel Suarez for the SECOND time. This is a cyber technothriller par excellence and with the added twist that at the end you still don't really know where it is going. I am mightily relieved to find that there is another on the way called Freedom(tm) I had thought that maybe Mr S was doing an Italian Job on us and was going to leave the reader hanging..

I guess it says something in that this is only the third book I have ever re-read straight away. The other two were The Lord Of The Rings when I was about 13 and Neuromancer by William Gibson so you get some idea. In fact on the Sunday before the trannies arrived at St Audries when I really should have been doing stuff, or at least walking on the beach I was lying on my bed unable to put it down.

While there were a couple of sequences that were a touch of a stretch I wondered if they were included merely to make the believable, indeed inevitable seem slightly less imminent.

Vodafone and your ilk... be very afraid :-)

Hysteria

Right I'm bored with crooked politicians and nothing on TV, here is Muse, probably the best live ban in the world, at Glastonbury in 2004. My dear friend Rachel McKinley was there leaning against an ice cream van's engine for warmth while she watched them.. (unfortunately she's on the editing room floor, but I know, and now so do you :-)

There's a million things..

I should be doing, you know when you just don't know where to start?

Anyway I've been plodding through painting. On the walls I had put up a finish blown vinyl, a hessian pattern, basically to disguise whoever did the plastering wasn't *quite* the best (I figure two guys did it as some rooms are great, some a little 'wavy') and of course it looks suitably retro.

I hadn't quite planned though on the fact it's a pain in the neck to paint (a brush full does about 4 sq inches) and it uses a LOT of paint. In the end I have given in and used a roller, something I never do (actually it's a little 4" foam one for doing behind radiators). Hate to say it, but it's doing a perfect job...

Think I am going to have to get out in the garden next, assuming it stops raining as it's turned into a jungle out the back. Machete time..

I've also been looking at fake bricks... How exciting I hear you say from here :-) I want white stick on bricks, they'll look good when I've finished I promise, for an exciting project in the living room (OK a big fake fireplace) after days of searching I found flexibrick, exactly what I want. I got on to the American dealer, I had a reply within the hour giving me the contact details of the Dutch manufacturer. So I enquire of them and --- nothing. So much for Euro efficiency.

Sorry I've not got much to say, I would comment on our political situation but after all these years of cynical comments I find that actually I've not been cynical *enough* 'shoot 'em all let God sort it out' is about all that's left.