The write stuff

Okay so went home Wednesday night totally psyched to 'attack' my violin lesson (after two weeks of almost crawling there filled with flu to sneeze over Robin) and the return to the homestead to finish the what seems to be millions of reviews and articles that I seem to have promised to write sometime now-ish. Violin lesson went okay but Robin gave his usual lecture about practicing (cause I'm now alright at playing I still tend to try & wing it, this apprently is bad), Promised to try harder & then he told me the good news which is that we (I don't remeber being consulted about this) have been booked for two more gigs. One is at the same local boozer the Cherry Tree, the other is playing with Peter Waters (of 'I restore violin in Wallingford and have very sparkly eyes' fame) so that's good. Still can't afford one of his fiddles though, but here is the address should you wish to drool.... http://www.watersviolins.co.uk/

The review writing alas didn't go that well and I ended up getting frustrted that it wasn't just writing itself (this is possibly why it wouldn't be that great writing for a living at the moment. When I can't do something I get really annoyed at myself, which isn't that helpful). Stepped away from the reviews and wrote a piece on rounders (you remeber the horrid sport you played at school (only topped by hockey) when Lisa Higgs hit the ball really hard at you, or being dumped in the outer ring of fielders as you couldn't be truested to catch the ball?). Well work have decided to gather a team so I had to write an article basically hallowing it's greatness for the mag. The end result wasn't that bad & I got a thank you note from our ed. I wrote back asking if she had any inspired knowledge about writing gig reviews, the advice was remove all adjectives. When I complainedabout writers block she commented (somewhat cruelly) "you see you'll never get a 'proper' publishing job and you will have to stay here and write for us forever" (followed by evil laugh, not helpful and really not what I wanted to hear at this point). Last night however at some extreme hour I finally finished them all and one of my nice teammates has agreed to give it a glance to make sure it is as alright as I think it is (and I wasn't just having tea hallucinations).

I'm not sure whether my eds 'words of wisdom' were the cause of this break through but I've decided to set up a parallel blog to this one to act as a bit of an archieve of my music reviews. The address is here http://parkanation.blogspot.com/ but fear not if you don't want to drift over there these will probably be posted on here as well (but other content may not, so keeping half an eye might be wise). I'm calling the new blog Parka Nation as this was the name of the radio show I had at Uni. The phrase comes from when I was growing up in Manchester and you used to see all these like minded kids in parka's (whatever the weather) hanging round the racks in Picailly records, nodding at each other. I though if we all joined up we could take over the world with indie music and hence make it a Nation of Parka wearers. You've gotta admit its a nice idea. The second blog is realy a bit more for my records of what I've written and to act as a handy portfolio should aforementioned awesome job in 'proper' publishing indeed come up.... This weekend its off to the Smoke to see my long term friend (and quite frankly brilliant genius) Zoe. Zoe has just moved in with her boyfriend Steve (congrats to them both) and I'm taking the obigatory squid whisk and going to check out their new pad. Zoe it seems has already got several cultural but cheap options pencilled in, so with the perfect weather that's been predicted it should be a cracker!

All the fun of the fair

Hope everyone in blogland enjoyed the long weekend. I certianly did although rather more of it than I though was spent in bed as the horrible cold I have had for (count them) three weeks seemed to come back, but worse than ever (is it possible to have a cold relapse?). Despite this and some extended lie in's (which reduced my gardening time substancially) I had a lovely weekend. Saturday was mainly spent catching up with Fi (who finally got my spinning wheel working perfectly (I love it, leaving it to come to work this morning was quite a strain)). Sunday I cleaned out the chickens (Trish & Malc are away for 3 whole weeks so in the meantime I'm birdwatching) and went round to Robin the violin tutor's for an evening BBQ. What I wasn't prepared for was that the chickens would decide to roost somewhere other than they are supposed to, meaning there was a slight stand off between me and Philip the cockrel (, he though I was messing with his birds but I stood firm and eventually he backed off, some photos of him & the lovely ladies will be appearing later on in the week, have no fear).

The BBQ itself was really nice, Robin cooked enough to feed the 5000 and I suspect had an ulterior motive for inviting me as he has confirmed a few more gigs he want me to do sound for (one alas that clashes with Towersey festival, and there is no way I'm missing that). Also in Steveton was this amazingly old fashioned fun fair, which it being some odd time on a Sunday night was deserted but I think these pictures give something of the feel of it. Yesterday it was supposed to rain so Louise and I pencilled in some Twilight action, in the end it was a lovely day so I used the morning to have a serious hack at the vegetable patch (the pumpkins and bolloti beans really do need to go in) but then gave in and headed round to hers laden with Pizza and crisps. I thought I'd finish the digging off tonight but my nose is running like a dripping tap and the lemsips seem to be having no effect whatsoever, I think it might be Gok & then bed. Foiled once again!

AWWWWWWWOOOOOooooooooo

Yesterday was very exciting for the following reasons. 1. The network at work went down and try and they might IT couldn't fix it so they sent us home (albeit with work to do). 2. I got to see Patrick Wolf at the Zodiac (yes I know technically its the O2 but to me it has and always will be the Zodiac). What can I say? The man is awesome. I've been a fan of his stuff for quite a long time, but live it works even better. Plus (and I have to say this) the guy is a superfox.

I arrived really early as I had an e ticket to pick up, but the weather in Oxfordshire is still being really schizophrenic so I narrowly escaped a good soaking. The support band were called yacht, they were I think a husband and wife combo who sang/shouted over electronic backing whilst throwing shapes. The part of their set I enjoyed most was where they showed us where they lived on a projector before giving out their phone no & address & insisting we all went to stay. I'm sure some people would really like them but alas I'm not in their number, although if I'm ever in their neighbourhood I might take them biscuits and pop in for a cup of tea...

The soundcheck before the main band took hours, I guess just because there were so may instruments to line check. I positioned myself behind a young girl (who I think was about 12, that being said most of the audience looked about 15) and her dad (my parents never came to any gigs with me, so I think this guy deserves major recognition). When the band took to the stage they dived straight in with a bass heavy number from the new album and there was pretty much no let up. The set comprised of a good mix of stuff from the Magic position, Lycanthropy and Wind in the Wires, as well as showcasing some new tracks off his new album The Bachelor. Patrick switched between keyboard/piano, violin, mandolin, dulcimer and guitar (ohh to be THAT talented) and looked amazing with glitter over one eye and an asylum type jacket with acres of black underneath. Pretty early on he confessed to the audience that he had split his eyewateringly tight black trousers. For the encore he appeared in a skin coloured playsuit, I'm pretty sure with nothing underneath (steady girls, steady). He then came & crowdsurfed right in front of me. Yes the very hand that is writing this now has touched Patrick Wolf (there are no photos of this bit, I was way too excited to get anywhere near a camera, I might try and find some on another blog that I can link to). I could swear never to wash again but alas in the interest of keeping my job I thought it best to jump in the shower last night. The band ended with a stomping rendition of the magic position and all the mini Patrick's and strange elfin princesses processed off into the night. It was awesome, I'm so glad I went and I now have this awesome drinking vessel to remind me of it.

Unfortunately today they've fixed the network...

Weather with you

The weather here in Oxfordshire is being really strange of late, when I go out I don't know what to wear as I have absolutely no idea what weather is coming. This was perfectly illustrated this morning, before I got up it was a torrential downpour but this afternoon when I was doing some very necessary digging putting in the redcurrant which I just didn't have the strength to dig a hole for the other day, see rain isn't all bad) it was gorgeous. We have also had quite strong winds to contend with, I'm still fighting off my cold s I'm not enjoying these very much but the countryfile has predicted that these will drop before the end of next week. Hurrah.

Yesterday despite the weather refusing to make up its mind we hit the charity shops of Abingdon. There are many charity shops around here and most are an absolute goldmine as its quite an affluent are and some really awesome stuff ends up being donated. Amongst my haul was a vintage book on beekeeping, its leather bound with marbled edging, as well as being (no pun intended) beautiful, I'm also very interested to hear what old advice it will give me and see if apiary has moved on that much). I also found a green man face/mask , although he has a little chip taken out of him his eyes are so expressive, he will join my cast of other masks/green men on the stairs. I also got a fantastic book which contains poems/tunes and recipes for the various events throughout the year. A very good haul indeed. Adam was with me and he picked up Suzanna Clark's excellent Jonathan strange & Mr Norrell (which I think he will enjoy muchly as its brilliant).

I was awake pretty early on Saturday morning despite being awake till 1am the previous night at a friends leaving work party. It was however well worth the effort as I had an appointment to meet Claire from the Wallingford players. We were meeting to discuss the possibility in me lending a hand with the costumes for their next production, Peter Pan. Claire had mentioned to me some time ago that she was thinking of letting have a go at the costume for Captain Hook, and sure enough that was what was decided. I'd done some idea drawings, some research and a mood board and we compared these with the director original sketches. We managed to find a pattern in the fabulous Mason's fabric store (sadly though we've had to order it so I can't start work on it just yet) and we bought the material for the jacket (we guesstimated the amount as alas we had no pattern, I hope its enough). The pattern should be arriving sometime this week & I'll get to work on it as soon as I can (things are going to get hectic round here, I'm looking after some neighbours cats as well as Trish's chickens AND I'm out of the office for 2 days so that will make work deadline's even tighter. This morning Trish & I hit the garden centre's, I swear I was only going for some catus compost as I'm trying to breed from some of my current crop, but I ended up bring several new types home with me (they were really just too bargainous! Right should probably get an earlish night so I can tackle work with full force tomorrow. Will write again as soon as I can, have just looked at my diary and its looking like a film tomorrow night and I'm going to see Patrick Wolf on Tuesday (I'm so excited!).

Introducing the fabulous Dave

So my May day long weekend was quite hectic, I took Friday off and got up at 5am to try and make it into Oxford for the May Day celibrations. Unfortunately due to the pesky buses (I could have cycled but I wasn't sure of the way) I missed the singing at ther top of Magdalen college, but got there in time to see an array of Morris dancers with a traditional Jack of the green (and in fact most of the folky people I know in Oxford, including a very pregants becs and her lovely husband Dan) and soak up the amazing atmopshere. It was also a good oppertuntity to catch up with Mat over breakfast at some very early hour in the Chequers (it took a while but it was definitely worth the wait). After breakfast we hit the bookshops of Oxford, I was admittedly quite restained having hit the bookshops properly the week before with Adam (it's beans on toast for the rest of the month I tell you) but I did manage to lay my hands on a orange penguin copy of Virginia Woolf's The Waves which I was proofing a creative writing paper on last week (its supposed to be her most creative novel, I really enjoyed Mrs Dalloway but I wasn't quite as taken with to the lighthouse...). I'll def report back when I've read it.

Friday night my parents and Kip turned up about 11pm, which I was really feeling as I'd been up since 5am. We pretty much went straight to bed after they arrived as we had an early get up on the Saturday. Sat was spent catching up on all the news and buying various wall fillers and boring stuff like dish racks for the house (the two very exciting purchases came from Millets garden centre which I managed to drag them to, were a redcurrant and blueberry for the garden, which I will be digging holes for shortly). On Sunday we got up early, Kip cut the front lawn and found a grass box for the flymo (love you little bro, that is going to save so much raking) and then him & my dad went to Abingdon Air Show (my friend Lindsay's brother was flying down one of the hawks for the display team, exciting stuff) while mum and I stayed at home and made various Jams/chutneys. Sunday night was the long awaited gig of Robin's at the Cherry Tree at Steveton, I seemed to manage the sound okay but Robin's set list was way to long and he ended up getting bad cramp in one of his fingers (I'm not sure there is anything you can do about that). I made a big fry up on Monday morning for everyone and my parents left about 2pm. Adam came round after that and we watched a film and generally caught up. The pinnacle of the nights viewing however had to be Ashes to Ashes, I really enjoyed Life on Mars but have to confess to missing most of the current season of Ashes to Ashes. The clothes were brilliant, Jean Hunt as cool as ever and the storylines were definitely up to par. It was awesome.

And finally the thing that the title of this post refers to my new housemate Dave. Dave moved in while all this crazyness with my parents was going on. He took it all in his stride (brave guy) and joined us for a roast dinner in Sat lunchtime. So far he has been an absolute legend. One of the first things I noticed when he moved it what that he has in his posession a rather fetching cuddly octopus, I have a rather fetching fish who looks a bit like Mick Jagger (its the lips) and it was as though the two were meant to meet... And its with that not very profound thought that I will leave you :-)