George's birthday

Last Saturday we went to the three crowns to celebrate George's birthday. Apologies to Kate who was celebrating hers elsewhere the same night.

Suz and Brig were down from Bristol for the weekend-which is always nice.

FYI- that isn't George being drawn on.

Painting, Tintin, fudge and beer

Day two in Bruges.

Started off today with a great breakfast of fruit, juice, coffee, croissant, bread rolls, regular bread, egg, butter and six slices of cheese (and one already cheese).

The Groeninge museum contains a lovely collection of Flemish art. I say lovely. The first half is saints, torture, crucifixion and rich people. The second half is modernist work, which is a little weaker. Bizarrely there is a painting of a corrupt judge being flayed alive, which was commissioned for the courthouse for judges to see.

Brilliant lunch. Massive veggie pile.

Then snow. Lots of snow. A bit more snow... And then the Tintin shop. Actually it also has a massive collection of other comic books... Including the complete 'walking dead' in Flemish.

More wandering in the snow followed by coffee, fudge, truffles and a potter back in what, by now, felt like a blizzard.

Dinner and a selection of Belgian beers then home.

City break in Bruges

This morning Sophie and I set off for a short break in Bruges. If I'm honest the only real information I had about the city came from watching 'In Bruges' and an interview with Colin Farrell where he said it was boring. So the decision was made in our usual slightly haphazard way.

Travelling by train to mainland Europe is much more civilised than by plane. It took a few minutes to check in and despite the train being faulty we set off only a few minutes late. Worryingly much of the Belgian landscape seems to look like Lincolnshire (where my parents live). I say worryingly, it's only worrying for the Belgians really.

We checked into the hotel (walwyck) and set out on foot for a potter about town. One of the first things we noticed was that it was a lot smaller than it looked on the map. In a few minutes we had covered most of the area we had planned to take a look at. Slowing down a little we decided to look for the tintin shop. We didn't find it, but we did find the cinema, town hall and the tourist information.

Back to hotel to warm up.

All the restaurants seemed to have exactly the same menu. This seemed odd until we realised that not only did the restaurants on one street go through to the ones on the next street, three venues next to each other were joined together inside and appeared to share staff and a kitchen.

Tomorrow we are going to try some old paintings and some pottering.

Hawaii by the high llamas

Sean O'Hagan is now an interviewer for the Observer newspaper. Back in 1993 I went ot see the high llamas on tour in a tiny pub in Leicester. They were just about to release "Hawaii", a home recorded epic double album influenced by the beach boys, vandyke parks, scott walker and stereolablab.

My first, and only attempt to talk to a band I admired ended in humiliation, as mr. O'Hagan couldn't work out what I was trying to say. My friend Gary had introduced me and instead of saying something cool, I babbled inarticulately about how much I loved the gig. Given that the pub was so small the brass section had to play in the dressing room, and I imagine they came out of it significantly out of pocket I don't think he was impressed.

When I meet musicians I like now I tend to just stick to "Hello" and maybe some idle chat, after all... they've just finished work and probably want to relax.

Sony Nex-5N and my shiny new iMac

Over the Christmas period that is to be forever known as Christmukkah... (O.C. fans only I guess) I was lucky enough to purchase a new iMac. I had barely got to know it when I bought a Sony NEX-5N. This has been a family tradition for some time now, as apple don't make cameras, and i love iMacs. I guess nothing is perfect but it'd be great if these two companies products worked better together!

A new one on me

Tonight, carrying the remnants of a frankly dreadful cold, I went to see a friend of mine perform at the place.

I've been many times before, but only ever accidentally seen one person I knew there. I had a great night and got the opportunity to see a friend in a different light. I'd seen them perform in war horse, but that's a big production and it's not quite the same.

When Matt did his piece about a close relative of mine I was moved by the way the story was told and by the emotional closeness to the material. With this I had a little trouble seperating my knowledge of the performer and the performance as a whole...

More on that another time...

Anger

There is a time and a place for everything, and I am learning the hard way that those who have no natural authority enforce it most irrationally.

I think that deep down we each know that the only way to be happy is to fend for ourselves. It's in our nature to provide for family or friends, but that we would rarely extend that courtesy, under normal circumstances.

When one is employed we complain about our bosses. If we sell then it is our customers or suppliers that are the bane of our lives. When we have enough food and clothing it is our partners or spouse that enjoys the the brunt of our dislike.

Never ourselves.

 

New year's eve.

Well here we go for 2012.

Bob gig and weekend stuff

It's been a long time since I last wrote. Life has been busy, full and mostly happy.

This Thursday the Buskers on Bikes will play the Albany on Great Portland street in London. It's nearly four months since we all got back from our LEJOG trip and so we have had a busy two weeks of practice and planning. Here's hoping it all goes well.

On Thursday I'll be playing the banjo ukulele, mandolin and guitar. I've only been playing the mandolin for the period since we got back from the trip so it'll be a first in public for me.

Eek!

At the weekend we had miss s's friends down for the weekend for much drinking and chatting. We also popped along to the Tate modern to see the Tacita Dean installation.

Photobooth app