I'm 1 Today!!!!

Today is my 'Blog birthday' it's exactly one year since I started this blogging lark. Initially it started as a band blog for the, now defunct 'King Frankenstein' a band which lasted about six weeks before our newly recruited bass player disapeared without so much as a goodbye! I was then at a loss as to what I would use this place for, so I started putting up photo's I was taking, then I got addicted to taking photo's just so I could post em here.
It was a work colleague (Mr Johnny Jazz) who introduced me to the world of blogging, since then I have found some very nice people in the blogosphere (you know who you are!) and also, when I started my blog (post band era) I only intended to make it to the one year mark, but I now feel I can go on a bit further, I'm not ready to quit yet!

My favourite 5 posts I have made so far are, in no particular order;

1. Sunday February 12th 2006 - HeavyEngineering, helping to preserve Hulls heritage, It was sheer coincidence that I happened to be walking the dogs when I spotted a heavy duty crane lifting out the old tram bridge which crosses the marina, it's a good job I was carrying my camera.

2. Saturday March 25th 2006 - A Walk along the Humber, managed to capture a few nice shots of the North Sea Ferry's (Hull to Amsterdam) and it was a nice warm day if I recall.

3. Tuesday July 15th 2006 - Canteen, I poem I wrote in the canteen at work after recalling memories of incidents which had occurred in there over the last 8 years.

4. Wednesday August 23th 2006 - Girl Power, the night Mia had her puppies.

5. Sunday August 6th 2006 - Coast To Coast(Lyrics) I posted the lyrics to a song originally written by friend, but then re-written by myself, but it was the photo which had people guessing.

So lets see what I can come up with in my second year!

Spurn Lightship

I took this photo earlier this year, our old dog Vince is just wondering out of shot. Built in 1927, the 'Spurn' served for almost 50 years as a navigational aid in the treacherous River Humber. It is now enjoying a leisurely mooring in Hull's marina.

HEY YOU!!!

Due to that computer virus I picked up last week, I realised that when I wiped my hard drive to re-install windows, I had inadvertantly lost my website folders for the websites/homepage, I had built. I have created another freeweb site in it's replacement. Click Here to veiw it. It sort of links together all my little places on the internet.

I went to the gym on Friday & Saturday and as a result I am now aching and sore pretty much all over. In the two sessions, I burned around 1000 calories, not bad for approx 3 hours work. Now I need to rest my muscles for a few days (recovery time) and will go again on wednesday.

On the banks of the Humber

Joyeux anniversaire Audrey

The river Hull.

Today was my french colleagues birthday, she's only 24 bless her. I sneaked out of work early today, whilst the boss is away and because I have my last 2 remaining holiday days tomorrow and friday, I thought I would get an early start hehehe. Before I left though, I did wish her a happy birthday in french ( 'joyeux anniversaire' ) I only know that because I looked it up on a free translation thingy on the internet just before I said it, but when I did say it, I managed to pronounce it correctly which is amazing because I have tried to say loads of stuff to her in French since she started working there 6 months ago, and have failed every time (much to her amusement)....but at least I try.

what's a zlob?

I was looking through my archives and found this picture of a Clematis in our back garden which I took during the summer, it'll either cheer you up or remind you that summer has well and truly gone!

Still no news from Clem regarding the bizarre video shoot, it could be because we have been having trouble with or phone line.....and that may be down to our young doggy pup and his insatiable appetite for chewing things, who knows!

I seem to have inadvertantly contracted a virus on my laptop, a trojan downloader.zlob or something, this happened even though I had virus/spyware protection hmmmm. I am now using 'f-secure internet security 2007' as a result, and it's really good! It informed me of a thingy which I needed to download which should keep old mr zlob in check, iv'e set my firewall and every thing else to strict levels, just to be safe, good job I will have my new computer in a matter of days......

Tonight I actually got off my lazy arse and went and joined the Gym, my first session will be on Friday teatime, it's one of these big modern affairs with all the bells and whistles, including smimming pool, sauna, tennis courts, you get the picture. The last one I was at (about 5 years ago) was the old "works" gym, an antiquated "old school" gym with about 20 body builders plus me and a mate. Hopefully i'll find a lady at this one...

Come and cup my Christmas balls!

Those guys over at Clem HQ have been in touch again and offered me another acting job. This time they are making a music video and want me to dress as a Christmas pudding and dance along to their new song 'Come and cup my Christmas balls'......I think i'm going to take it, it pays more then ITV and the BBC have not called with any jobs in a while....or ever, as the case may be. For doing it I will get as many cups of tea I can drink in three hours and I am currently trying to negotiate three toilet breaks as part of the deal, which would be sweet! but they are proving to be tough people to bargain with.

I attended the works night out last Friday, the meal was excellent and I managed to drink nearly two bottles of Chatenauf de pape (I think that's how it's spelled) I just added it to the company's tab, I hope they don't look to closely at the receipt as it was quite expensive in restaurant terms.
I didn't feel to great the next day, and then I was hit with a cold which is wearing off now thankfully.

Dissapointing show

One thing I did do a couple of weeks ago is purchase this bird feeder, I thought as winter has started to set in, that I would help the wild birds by giving them a place in our garden to stop and eat. Unfortunately, in the 2 weeks it's been there I have not seen one bird feeding from it! Now there's gratitude for you!

Looking forward to seeing the new 'James Bond' movie, I had become bored of the last few but this one looks like it'll be a breath of fresh air and add some much needed vigour to the series.

A new series of 'Bones' starts tonight, really enjoyed the first series, I have not read any of the Kathy Reichs books, my brother has a few but i'm still reading Stephen Kings 'The Stand' and 'The Pythons' by The Pythons as well as a series of books on popular Philosophers, and trying to flick through a few pages of my 'Learn Spanish' book at regular intervals as well.

Lazy

I have not been up to very much lately, and I have not been in a blogging mood either!
Work is paying for a meal for us this Friday evening after passing a recent audit and for various other things so I'm looking forward to that.
I will be getting a new PC very soon, one with a better sound card so I can get on with some home recording, I have been very lazy and my muse seems to be escaping me at the minute so I have not been taking many photo's, I did manage to find some interesting pictures in my archive, the above picture is one of them, it a manipulated image of the messy workspace I used to share with a former colleage who shall remain nameless!

Beer Festival

My brother and I popped along to Hulls anual beer festival yesterday afternoon. The above photo only shows about half the beers on offer, there was a bar with hand-pulled beer that ran the length of the other wall, and in another room there was also a bar selling 20 differant ciders and perry's plus 10 selected German and Belgian bottled beers, I think there was 70 'real ales' on offer .
It was held inside the city hall. We got there around 14:00 and stayed till 20:00 and managed to try 16 ales and 2 ciders, even had some good fortune on the tombola for the second year running, winning a bottle of whisky, a t-shirt, 4 bottled beers, Jack Daniels playing cards, 4 free half pints of beer at the event, a make-up bag for my sister and 2 free pints of beer at a pub who sponsored the event in Beverley (a town 20 mins drive from Hull) that was with £6 worth of tickets, so not a bad haul. And as an added bonus I didn't wake up with a hangover, which is always a plus.
Downside is that no friends turned up, but we managed to meet a few decent folk! and a couple of oddballs as well, including a guy who was just like 'Otto the school bus driver' in 'The Simpsons' which was bizzare!
I intended to take more photo's but it slipped my mind as I drank more and more beer...sorry!

DIY Guitars

I have just purchased the above "build it yourself" guitar kit. It's based on the Fender Telecaster design, it cost £71, although I will need to buy some proper pickups for it which will cost about £116. Still it will be 'cut price' compared to the real deal which would be around £500.
I have always wanted to give a project like this a go, I can create a truly individual and custom look, I may even consider getting an art student to give it a real custom paint job! Not like any of those grotesque guitars of Steve Vai's though, they would give me headache, my head is awash with ideas, I will post a pic of the finished article when it's done.

8 random things about me.....

I saw Katt do this on her blog and thought I would give it a go, maybe you'll feel you know me a little bit better, who knows....

I grew up on the largest council estate in Europe – also I think referred to as “the projects” in the US, it's called Bransholme, although times were often hard, especially as England was in a recession during this period in my life and the area was rife with crime and trouble of various sorts, this is were I grew up and went to school. Even though it was not the nicest (but not by far the worst) place to live in the UK, I really enjoyed growing up here, I loved school, there wasn’t much to do so we would find an overgrown patch of wasteland and make Dens and tree houses. We used to play on a big roundabout which we called “Island” and made Dens in the bushes, we would have to defend these dens from rival groups of kids who were also looking for a good spot to build a den. I miss those days!

I am scared of going into the sea – ever since I saw Jaws as a kid I will not go into the sea not just from the fear of getting attacked by a large shark but also because I wouldn’t like not knowing what is beneath me! I have been invited by a work colleague to go out into the North Sea on his new speed boat sometime in the future; I really want to go because it’ll frighten the hell out of me!

I hate it when the guy gets the girl at the end of a movie – i.e. Jerry Maguire, American Pie etc. It really gets me annoyed, I just think ‘well that doesn’t happen in real life, or it would have happened to me’ petty really, and I probably won’t think that way when I find a woman, you just get that way when you’ve been single for 4 years. I think I’m a bit of a romantic and miss having that special someone.

My favourite year in my life so far is 1996 - it was a very special year, so many nice things happened, first of all it was that magic summer of Euro 96 when football fever hit England and everyone looked forward to England’s next game in the competition, there was a definite “feel good factor” in the air, after years of growing up with no money, I got my first job which lasted for four months during the summer between years at college, this allowed me to buy things I had always wanted such as my own hi-fi system and CD’s, I also started going out and drinking around town. I was working with another girl from the college course, and this led to a very special, summer romance, this was predicted by others on the course and the romance faded when we arrived back at college mainly due to embarrassment. There were also a couple of other romances that year of which one led to us moving in together a few years later, sadly that didn’t last.

I would love to learn the art of Bush craft and to travel the world – after watching a TV show about Bush craft and survival techniques I have always wanted to learn the art of using nature to survive and in the future I intend to go on a bush craft holiday. I also have a desire to see the world, I have never been abroad, but would love to travel and see the world like Michael Palin writing about my adventures, I have had this desire ever since I read Paulo Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist’ however I have never seen the point in going on vacation abroad for a fortnights holiday in the Costa del sol, or Ibiza for example, it seems like a waste of money!

I want to become a star of a cult TV comedy show – not like Little Britain which is a series of crap character based sketches (same joke, different episode) , but more like Spaced, which was great. I’m really quite shy; I try to combat this by pushing myself into these situations, like acting in my mate’s sketches and playing in bands etc. I nearly fainted when I played my first gig! My friend is writing a sitcom for us, it’s about 3 flatmates one of which has an imaginary friend who is a pineapple.

Body piercing – I have had a pierced tongue, nipple, nose and ear, although only the tongue piercing is still in place, I also have a tattoo of a shark on my arm and an oriental dragon on my chest. It must have been a phase I was going through lol.

I regret not going to University – when I was finishing college I was going to go to Uni and study either Marine Biology or Forensic Science. I had this lecturer who was dealing with our University applications, when I told him what I wanted to do, he simply said “oh no…not another f#cking Jack Cousteau” and promptly tried to discourage me from applying for these courses on the basis that there are hardly any jobs in either of these fields, it true of course, but I listened to him and in the end took a year out to re-think what I wanted to do. This was my first big mistake as I then got a job as a Microbiologist and got used to earning money, later that year I moved in with my childhood sweetheart and took out a loan for furniture and stuff, this was my second big mistake, the relationship ended after nine months and I needed to work, to pay off my bank loan. After working for a number of years now I realize that it doesn’t matter what you do a degree in, as long as you get a degree, so what if I did marine biology, I may not have gotten a job as a marine biologist, but I would have gotten a science based job. I also regret missing out on the University student lifestyle!

Stray cat strut

Todays random photo is another bit of graffiti, I think the simplicity of this one actually makes it an attractive image.

I have sore fingertips, the last few nights I have been playing my guitar again, I think I would like to start another band in the future, possibly with a hint of 'Stray Cats' type rockabilly, but my thoughts on this will probably have changed by tomorrow. The worst thing about starting a band is trying to think of a band name, a lot of bands settle for any old rubbish like 'The Killers 'or 'Jet' or 'Muse', singular words often with 'The' affixed to the front, but I prefer something a little bit more imaginitive like 'The 1910 Fruitgum Company' or 'Led Zeppelin' or 'Queens of the Stone Age' something a little bit more.......something with a bit more thought! Anyway I'm ranting on again about nothing of any real importance.

I had a little spark of thought when watching an episode of classic albums yesterday (it was the one on Nirvana's Nevermind) about how best to tackle my aproach to recording some songs with my limited equipment, to do with double tracking vocals to get a more fuller sound. I think how i'll do it is to record acoustic guitar and vocals, then add an electric or acoustic guitar melody to it, then double track my vocals to fill it out, that will take all four tracks of my 4-track tape recorder. I will then take this round to my mate Rob's house and record the whole thing into his computer after the levels have been set, then get him to record some piano over the top, hopefully it'll work out OK. I just need to get some songs together.

Dreaming of Guitars

The puppies are 9 weeks old tonight! Five of them have been sold, which leaves four, but we are keeping this one, he was the biggest male and weighed in at 10kg when he got weighed at the vets last Saturday!

Since seeing Johnny Jazz's pictures from Nelsonica the other day I have had an envious craving to buy lots of electric guitars (of the expensive veriety) due to looking at the photo of Bills guitar collection. The only problem with that is lies in the fact that I can't afford another guitar. Then the reality hit me that my own guitar, a Fender 'Big Apple' USA Stratocaster is in need of an overhaul as the pickup selector is now faulty.....probably due to me banging the guitar with my fist when I played in a couple of rock/blues bands a few years ago, then another thing hit me.....I have not played my guitar for quite a while now, it's amazing how lazy and de-motivated you can get at practicing an instrument when you don't play in a band. Being in a band really is the best way to learn an instrument!

So if I win the lottery this weekend, the first things on my shopping list will be;

A Gretsch Silver Falcon

A Gretsch Billy-Bo Jupiter Thunderbird

A Duesenberg Starplayer TV

A New Fender Stratocaster (so mine can go into retirement)

and A Fender Telecaster

Anyway back to reality, I watched a Lauryl & Hardy movie the other day 'Way Out West' it was excellent and recommend it to anyone who has not seen it, I love watching old b&w films it's staggering to think of what they acheived, the story telling in modern movies is pretty poor in comparison, a sweeping statement I know but for the most part, true!

I'll have to get back to work on writing some comedy sketches and naratives as....with most things I get involved with, I have gone off the boil, also I will get back on top of my guitar practicing, and painting, and taking photo's and writing my sci-fi crime thriller novel and Salsa dancing lessons and my blogging, the list goes on, so much to do in so little time, you know, working for a living really does stifle creativity!

Foggy morning comedy thoughts!

I took this photo as I was walking through the city centre, I was on the way to work at about 7am the other day, as you can see, it was quite foggy.

I have not been doing anything musically of late, as me and a friend are working on some comedy sketches, with the hope that they will be funny enough to do as live stand up shows. First of all we want to record a comedy radio show though...again with a hope that it will be funny enough to actually be played on the radio. We are both really into Monty Python, The Goons and much other stuff as well. I get nervous just at the thought of acting on stage in front of people and hope the experience from my days of playing in local bands will help with that old chest nut....self confidence! It will also be an opertunity to throw a few funny songs together, to perform as well.

Anyway, it will probably be months before we have anything as we are just getting initial ideas and such things together. You never know, I might end up fullfilling one of my ambitions, to star in a cult comedy TV series.

Right now though, I have the prospect of helping my stand-up comedy partner to lift some very heavy sandstone paving slabs......not! Hi-ho! Hi-ho! It's off to work I go........

More fair pics...

Taken when walking to the fair, through Hull's West Park at night
A scary ride, this picture does not portray the scariness!
That swinging arm has people sat on the end of it...it was maybe 70ft above my head when this photo was taken.

Fairground

Here's a picture of part of Hull Fair (Europe's largest travelling fair) taken whilst on the big wheel, it's not brilliant, but it gets the idea across I suppose. I'll post a few more images, but I'll have to pop back and take some more photo's as some didn't come out too great. Anyway that's all for now.

Bathing pups, Audits & Hull Fair

Todays photo is of a telephone box, just ouside work.

Well it's good old Friday again! Although I have had a reasonably good week at work, I'm glad it's Friday. Looking forward to next week as I will be 'shadowing' people on the chemicals plant and seeing what goes on, ready for my move next January into said plant.

I will have to spend next Wednesday back in the Laboratory as we have a mock FDA (American Food & Drug Administration) audit, to prepare us for the real one in a few weeks, which will spoil things a little but who cares...it's the weekend.

Just spent the last hour or so bathing and drying the puppies as tomorrow they will be advertised and ready to go to their new homes, although, wether we actually sell any is something of a concern as there has been some bad Rottweiler press recently and it may put people off.

Anyway it's Hull Fair week starting tonight, I'll try and pop along tomorrow as it should be a good opertunity for some fun photo's and to go on a few rides....and eat junkfood and sweet treats!

Industrial

A picture of Wincolmlee an industrial part of the city which runs parallel to the river. I love these old industrial streets.

Wilmington Bridge Controller Tower

Came across this picture of the bridge controllers tower, on one of the old bridges which crosses the river Hull, whilst trawling through my photograph archives the other day.

Catching the Sun

As I walked through the city center this morning I stopped off at a cash machine, as I turned I saw the sunlight catching the side of the Town Docks Museum and thought it looked quite nice!

Puppy Pics

They are five weeks old today, they have all turned into little terrors constantly looking for trouble!

Looking Up

I saw this on top of a pub which has stood empty for along time now. The pub is called 'The Mutiny On The Bounty' and is situated funnily enough, right next to the dry dock where the ship 'The Bounty' on which the famed mutiny occured....was built!

Bricks

Go with the flow

I have been bloody ignorant to you guys this last week in my lack of blog input and visit's to your blogs, but the fact is I have been making sweet music, after finding that my laptop will actually record my guitars etc (even though it has a crap [basic] sound card) when I installed my music recording software. But even though this is a short visit, I will be back to check out your blogs....when i'm in the mood for recording I have to go with the flow you know, which has not been often of late!

Through Glass

I got this image by pointing my camera at a glass with the window behind it, I think it looks quite nice.

I was well anoyed today! At work we were meant to be doing a firefighting training course. I arrived at work, the boss drove us to the training place 'Humber Offshore Training Association' and we waited outside whilst the boss sorted things out. He came out about 20 minutes later to tell us that the guy who was training us had injured his back and the training would have to be re-scheduled for another time.
So we then had to go back to work and do some real work, I was looking forward to putting out some fires too! The good news is that he let us stop off for some bacon and mushroom sandwiches on the way back mmmmmm.

Bridge

I walk/cycle over this bridge which crosses the river Hull every morning on the way to work, and thought I would take a photo of it.

Guitar

Smug

Last night I went for a Thai meal in the city centre, the occasion was Pauls (pictured) leaving do, there is only one word which describes Paul, and that is smug! He is leaving the company to go back to university, to get his PhD. Dispite his overwhelming smugness, I will miss working with Paul, we had some good laughs....he is a good egg! I will try to get the movie of us doing office chair curling on here, sadly it never made it to the olympics and neither did any of the other games we played when we should have been working.

The puppies have opened their eyes and have started learning to walk which means when Mia walks across the room for a rest from feeding, they all get up and follow her as they can now see where she is.

An Altered View of My Neighborhood

Graffiti

Sat Waiting

As I was sat on a bench waiting for my brother to exit the shops, I took the above pic, it just seemed to look right with the jetty on the opposite bank showing between the bars.

Top Five Songs For The Week

I'm not the kind of person who pushes their opinion on people, but over the next week I recommend you try to listen to the following songs, they are not in any particular order, chronologically or as personal favourites......They are just songs I like. I consider myself to have a diverse taste in music so I can appreciate people not liking my choices..... tough!

1. Evanescence - Call Me When You're Sober
2. Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1
3. Steve Vie - Whispering A Prayer
4. Explosions In The Sky - First Breath After Coma
5. James Blunt - Where Is My Mind?

Just time for some more puppy pics

Puppy burrito

One pup cuddling another

Mia and pup sleeping

Me with a sleeping pup

Computer Fixed

The above image shows a new office building on Hulls marina, I say new, it's actually been there a year, and is still awaiting occupants.
I have spent a fair few hours reloading programs and various bits of software back on to my laptop, it's actually quite nice, it feels like a new computer. I wont keep ranting, England are playing Andorra, bye for now.

Hard Drive Blues

Woke up this morning.......I was in a good mood.......got a call from the shop......my hard drive's no good.......etc.

Yep, the hard drive in my laptop has gone to silcon heaven, I need a new one fitted and in total it will cost me £135. Then there's the lost documents, photo's etc and the hassle of re-installing all the software and programs, oh well! The Buddhist in me is saying everything is cool and to keep a smile on my face, and you know what, it don't matter and I still feel chilled. It's a good job I bought an external hard drive and transfered most of my stuff onto it, so it's not hit me too bad. And I should have my computer back tomorrow.

I have been in a good mood since the memory card arrived for my phone yesterday, I can't believe how small it is, but it means my phone can now hold music, so it's a phone, my blogging camera, a radio, and an MP3 player, I love it!

Speaking of photo's the above ones are of the Humber bridge, taken last week whilst off work.

My laptop is broken

My laptop has decided to breakdown on me and so I have limited access to the internet until it's fixed, but I have managed to sneak onto my sisters computer to post these photo's.

Wimp Fight - The Final $80 purse

Here's a 'clem' video which features me as the shows opening presenter 'Jammima' which I think shows off my acting skills to the highest degree, I am very proud of this....my acting debut.

More pictures taken in Hull city centre

More puppy pics

Girl Power!

As promised, here are the new arrivals! We are currently standing at 7 girls and 2 boys, but we think there will be more. Mia is proving to be a natural mother, doing all her duties without a single cry of pain/discomfort. It all started at 6:40pm and here she is at am at 11:00pm, possibly still going. We are so proud of her, I think Duke knows what is happening, he is positioned at the baby gate we have borrowed and errected looking very pleased and exited. In the end she opted for bare floor boards then the nice quilted dog bed, but there you go!!!