The Beginnings Of A Story

Boo

Layla

As I sit here listening to 'The Last Shadow Puppets' I can't think of anything to say! I have just finished listening to 'Rodrigo Y Gabriela' and I feel quite tranquil! I also just took these photo's of our dogs Boo and Layla, I thought they looked nice so I wanted to share them with you!

I also found a story on my computer that I started working on a couple of years ago, it was only a few paragraphs but rather then leaving it to rot on my hard drive, I thought I would share it with you!.......

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The rain had been lashing down hard for maybe two hours when John Fallon turned onto the slip road to leave the Highway for the quieter country road. This would lead him to the Inn where he would rest for the night, before heading for his meeting with Mr Silva at ten o’clock the following morning. He couldn’t help but think of the strange dream he had the previous evening. Why had the vision of a man burning to death appeared in his consciousness?

The rain seemed as though it was not going to let up, at least not for the time being, of this he was sure. The road he now travelled seemed very quite, on the highway there had been few other vehicles, and since joining the single carriageway he had not passed another vehicle. Perhaps people had seen sense to avoid any journeys this evening due to the earlier forecast of heavy rain, and it did not surprise him there were no vehicles travelling this road, the pitch blackness of the country made the road ahead very hard to view, this was compounded by the rain hitting the windscreen, and now the road was becoming more and more serpentine as he journeyed forward, slippery and twisting.

His mind turned once again to the dream, he did not recognise the man in the dream, nor the street in which the scene had unfolded, but he was sure the strange images he had conceived were important some how, but overcast by childhood memories, the mental picture was hiding something, in the shadows maybe?

His thought turned to the road. John could see another vehicle now in the distance, its headlights twinkling, almost rippling with the added effect of the raindrops running down the windshield. He looked at his watch as the headlights of the other vehicle travelled closer, it was now nine thirty. Another person stupid enough to brave this shit storm he thought to himself. The car passed, it looked to John like a middle aged man and woman in the front seats, empty in the back.

As he looked ahead he could see a shadow in the road, moving, it was too dark up ahead to make anything out but, no he could see a car and next to it a person standing in the road, the dark figure started waving it’s hands then a light! A flashlight, it appeared the person was trying to wave him down. He started to slow the car and then indicated to pull over, ‘fuck’, he said to himself, ‘so close to a warm bed, a hot meal and a fucking shower’ and now this idiot, delaying me from my R n’ R.

He pulled to a stop about six feet behind the other car, a battered, rusting, red Ford. John started to wind down his window as the person, a woman, walked briskly up to the driver side of his car, ‘Hey thanks for stopping, could you by any chance give a girl a lift to the next garage? This shit heaps gone and died on me’ said the woman, pointing to her car.

She was around five feet eight inches, although it was hard to tell whilst she was bent down into his window. She was slim with an athletic build, olive skin, shoulder length black hair, lovely well formed breasts, and looked to be around twenty five. She was wearing blue jeans and a tight, light, short sleeved t shirt which showed her stomach and her arms, she was not wearing a coat and was soaking wet. ‘Sure, get in’ he said. She wasted no time, as he rolled up the window she ran around to the passenger side and opened the door. As she got in she laughed, a sort of bemused laugh which…….

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Yet another of the many projects I have started and then just laid to waste! It was going to be a sort of sci-fi thriller, I may actually do some more work on it one day!

Lathargy

Had a very quite weekend, I did absolutely nothing, I only left the house a couple of times to walk the dogs, as a result, I managed to catch up on a few TV series, namely Skins and My Name Is Earl, via Channel 4 On Demand (Streamed over the internet). The weather was rubbish and I was left feeling disappointed after Saturdays football match, although with Hull City (The Tigers) losing away at Sheffield, I was glad that I didn't manage to get a ticket for the game! But the lacklustre weekend has left me feeling lathergic, although I'm in a good mood, I just can't be bothered to do anything!
It should be a decent week though! I'm going to 'The Sesh' live music night tomorrow, to see a friends band, and I'm going to 'Sidekicks Lounge' on Wednesday night (another live music night) with my sister, to see her friends band!

The image is just another photo taken in Whitby of some Whitby Pirates! Whilst I was traveling the high seas!

Hole of Hocum

This is a photo of my dad and I, taken with my camera, by my brother (I like the jaunty angle) as we stopped at the 'Hole of Hocum' (not sure if it's Hocum or Horcum) on the north Yorkshire moors, on the way home from Whitby last weekend!
The 'Hole of Hocum' is about quarter of a mile wide a mile long and about six hundred feet deep, it was scooped out of the ground in rage by a giant called Wade, he threw it at his wife Bel who had infuriated him, but it missed her and landed two miles away to the east and formed a conical hill known as Blakey Topping.
What actually happened was streams that run down through the valley eroded the surface away and water from underground springs gradually undermined the area. But I like the story with the giants better, and it's an actual local legend, I didn't just make it up!

I don't really have much to say today, except IT'S FRIDAY!!! and it's been a long week! I was looking through a college prospectus today at work for an evening class that I would want to do out of personal interest, I think I want to do the class on writing sitcom's, it's a 10 week course. I have always wanted to star in a sitcom, what better way to get started then to write my own!!! Well it would be a bit of fun anyway, and how good would the homework be.......right everyone, I want you to go home and watch at least 2 sitcoms before next week!
I also want to do some Spanish evening classes and perhaps a creative writing class as well! I'll give these some thought before the next intake in September!

Gulls And Music

Here are some photo's of Seagulls that I took in Whitby, there were certainly plenty of them about!

One thing that I have failed to mention in recent posts is that during my absence from blogging, I have quit the band, the reason, I was not happy with the level of progress we had achieved as a band, and I was not happy that one member of the band thought the best way for us to get better and tighter as a band was not in fact to practice with each other but instead to just learn songs and practice on our own at our own places! This of course does not make sense and I felt it was a poor effort at disguising a bit of apprehension with regards to playing live in front of actual people in an actual live music venue!
Nevertheless, there are plans afoot! My musical/comedy side project 'Legend of Sid' which has gained in popularity, is going to be turned into a live performing act!!! Where I will be singing and playing acoustic guitar (the need to actually be able to sing for 'Legend of Sid' is not important, in fact the worse, the better!) whilst my old buddy Dean, singer of 'The Strands' is going to play drums (he has bought an electronic drum kit and has long harboured a desire to play the drums) and we hope that our friend Rob will join in and play keyboard. It will be a much more laid back affair, with occasional gigs and practices.
Dean reckons he will be ready for a first practice at the end of May. Although many of the existing songs will not make the transition to a live experience, we will have to rely on coming up with some new songs that will be more accessible to the general public with not so many "in jokes" although with three albums to my name, there should be some salvageable material!!!

A Disappointing and Sad Evening

Firstly, here's some Black and white shots taken in Whitby on Sunday!

Now, lets skip back to a conversation I had on Monday evening;

Father: Danny and I are going to get a ticket for tomorrows away match at Barnsley, would you like me to get you one when I go to the ticket office?

Me: No, I don't like away games on week nights as the traffic is usually bad, and it can be a bit of a risk making it to the stadium in time for the start of the match! Besides they are showing it on Sky Sports!

Then we skip to 16:00 yesterday;

Father: Are you ready?

Me: What for?

Father: The football game, it'll take about an hour and 20 minutes to get there!

Me: I said I didn't want to go, it's on sky, and the weather is pretty poor!

Father: Oh, I thought you said you wanted to go!

So, as he had already paid out £20 for me, I took the ticket, got ready and left the house, and we started the 70 mile drive to Barnsley. Everything was going great, except the weather, it was pouring down with rain! We were making excellent time and it looked like we would arrive one and a half hours before the game, and get a decent parking spot.
We were 50 miles down the M62, just 1 mile from the turn off we needed, when all of a sudden the traffic came to a standstill! We waited a while then one by one, emergency vehicles started passing us by on the "hard shoulder" in total 5 fire engines, an emergency support vehicle, 5 ambulances, an air ambulance and 8 police cars! Oh no we thought, this is serious!!! It turns out there had been a multi vehicle pile up involving six cars, started by the driver of a crane swerving, and resulting in a 10 year old boy (also a Hull City supporter on the way to the football match) being killed and 10 others seriously injured (the fire brigade had to cut people out of wreckage) all this happened about 1/4 a mile (30 seconds drive time?) in front of us, we could see the emergency vehicle lights flashing up ahead as we exited the car to look along the line of traffic!
So we sat there as the time to "kick off" approached, deciding it was very likely we would miss the start of the game............after 4 hours of sitting in our car, listening to the match on the radio, the game was almost over when we started to move and were directed to turn around up ahead and join a long line of cars waiting to follow a police car back up the "hard shoulder" in the wrong direction, to the previous turn off, where we journeyed back home listening to the Hull City fans phoning in the radio station, saying what a great game it had been, and the atmosphere in the stadium had been fantastic "like one huge party"...............................

Things to be thankful for...........1) We were not involved in the accident 2) Hull City won the game and are in an automatic promotion spot 3) We recorded the game on Sky+ 4) We weren't one of the articulated lorry drivers who couldn't turn around and probably had to wait until the early hours for the accident to be investigated and the road to be cleared!

Also, you cant help but feel for that poor boy, the other injured people, and their families!

The Busker

When we were walking through the narrow streets of Whitby, in the direction of the 199 steps which we would ascend to the old Abbey ruins, I heard a lovely female voice carrying through the lunch time air! when we turned the corner of the street which leads up to the steps, I saw this girl in the distance, sat on the bottom few steps, busking! I pointed my camera at her and zoomed in to take this shot!
Her voice was sweet and in perfect harmony with her acoustic guitar, but also powerful enough to carry through the streets, along with the delicious smell of proper fish n' chips! I was held captivated and stood for a few minutes just listening to her songs, then I tossed £2 onto her guitar bag and climbed the steps with the sound of her singing and strumming following me upwards!

You should click on the picture and view it full size to truly appreciate the warmth and beauty of this girl in mid song!

Whitby

The Grand Turk

Yesterday, I went to Whitby in North Yorkshire, as we left Hull, we were not optimistic regarding the weather, it was dark gray skies and rain, it continued all the way up to Whitby were upon, after an 80 mile car ride, the skies cleared for a warm-ish sunny afternoon.
The first thing we saw after parking the car was the Grand Turk, don't know the history behind the ship, but it was a nice thing to see, as we didn't know it would be there. We then spent the following 3 hours walking about the town including a trip up to the Abbey ruins of which I posted pictures yesterday.
We also took a ride on a boat out into the North Sea, the 25 minute round trip was extended to about 40 minutes as we spotted some Porpoise's and the captain hung around for a while, unfortunately my camera was never pointing at the right part of the sea when they surfaced....so no pics!

Saturday wasn't so great, I was working in the morning and went to the football in the afternoon, only to stand through a poor game.

Whitby Abbey

A Good Evening With The Strands!!!

Had a good evening last night watching the Strands and a couple of other bands, it was a shame that the crowd wasn't very large and a load of people cleared off after the first band had finished which is a bit disrespectful to the other bands I think!
It was a bit weird at first because there was some awkwardness between Joanne and me, but that was maybe to be expected after we took our friendship a bit too far the other week in our drunken states. I guess things are a bit strange when you have known someone as a friend for a while then you hop on the good foot and do the bad thing when you really did not mean too, and things were really good before, and your both left thinking why and how did that happen! Luckily after a few drinks we relaxed and are back to normal again, I was the envy of the bar last night because Joanne brought two attractive friends with her and there wasn't many females in the place, and I was sat with three of them all to myself chatting away!
Jo was pleased because the Strands dedicated a song to her for her birthday and she then made me laugh by replying "thankyou" in the sweetest possible voice.
They finished their set and then Dean the singer gave me a lift home, I went to bed and I had the best sleep in over 2 weeks before being rudely awoken by the alarm for work, had a horrible morning at work because I was tired and lacking energy and motivation......but it was, I suppose, my own fault!

When I got home (I left work early at 12:00, but I can make the hours up because I am working Saturday morning) I messaged Jo to see if she enjoyed last night, chatting for a while and then I carried on with reading the bible, I am not actually a religious person, but wanted to read the bible and find out whats actually in it, especially as it is deeply rooted within popular culture, with references in music and film and TV etc. I just think it's good to gain a better understanding! If anything I would be Buddhist, i do try to follow the 8-fold path of right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration and try to adhere to the 10 Theravada perfections of generosity, moral discipline, patience, effort, medatative concentration, wisdom, renunciation, loving kindness and equanimity, I may not be perfect in my practices by a long way, but even if you take on a little, then your a little bit better a person for it I think!

The above image is of my two aftershaves, the Davidoff Adventure being my favorite fragrance, it really is wonderful smelling stuff and the girls ain't complaining about it so thats a good sign! Whereas I am happy having the two, my sister seems to collect perfumes and has maybe 20 different ones! I thought the nice colours would make a good image contrasting against the white background!

So, it's a full weekend coming up! I will be working Saturday morning then I'll be going to football in the afternoon as Hull City continue their push for promotion to the premiership where they could be playing the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. On Sunday, if it's good weather we will be taking a drive to Whitby, a beautiful scenic coastal town, which will be a good opportunity for taking photographs!!!! And have a nice walk about.

I have also been listening to Estelle, Paramore and MGMT......oh yeah and lots of Miles Davis, I do love a bit of Jazz!

Dilemma

OK, I have reached a fork in the road! Do I (A) save up my pennies and then move out of my parents house and get a place of my own, leaving me with a lot less monies to spend on stuff, or (B) do my bike test and then buy a new Triumph Bonneville (pictured) and live the dream of owning and riding this beauty, but with the spirit crushing reality of still living with the annoying old folks plus my sis and bro (who are also annoying), this is the dilemma I have reached! If I carry on living in this house much longer I think I may go mad, and if I get the bike I may be killed to death by a crazy car driver, those are the bad points!

End of June I will be attending a bike rally near Scarborough, even though I do not own a bike, it should be a fun weekend camping in a field next to a pub with live bands, booze and of course...bikes!

Tonight I am going to watch the Strands play, I will not take my camera as I have earache and feel very tired and so I do not feel like moving about and taking pictures, probably because I spent 2 hours in the freezing cold this morning unloading and loading a lorry with the forklift truck at work, in fact I will rest right now and then I may feel better for tonight!

I am also a bit annoyed, I have been called in to the Lab tomorrow morning to do some testing because the lab people are not going to be in, I wouldn't have minded but the lab and plant managers have neglected to keep me up to speed in the lab by not having me do this testing on a more regular basis (9 months since I last did some testing in the lab) so I'm a bit rusty, not that I want to spend too much time in there, that's why I applied for my current job as a pharmaceutical manufacturing process technician, so I could escape the lab.....and it's manager! Besides, in my current role I get 10 times as many tea breaks, it's easy, I get to make drugs that help with peoples pain and I drive a forklift truck which is fun........when the weather is good!

Karaoke, Darts & Trilby's

I have just wished my little friend Joanne a happy birthday, she's 20 today bless her!

Last night I went to Beverley a town just north of Hull and attended a karaoke night run by some friends of a friend, thankfully for the world, I did not attempt to sing a song though, I would have done but there was nothing that took my fancy! Instead I played a friendly darts tournament and won, which was nice because I don't play darts....saying that i think only one or two of the other lads did, but I retired as champion and left the pub to go into Hull city center and attend a few more pubs, I was not in the mood for a nightclub though and left to go home at around 12pm.

I have only ever sang on a karaoke once before, about 6 years ago at a works night out, I was set up to sing American Pie by Don Maclean, this was quite evil actually as there are like a million verses so I struggled. I deserved it though because I was putting everyone elses name in to sing songs, including my boss at the time, I got her up to sing I'm A Bitch by Meredith Brooks, luckily she saw the funny side and I think it was her that set me up!

Next Wednesday night there is another 'Strands' gig at Springhead pub, I will take my camera and see if I can get some decent pictures I think!

In other news, I bought myself a straw Trilby yesterday, I love hats and Trilby's in particular, but I have now realised I don't own any clothing which would particularly suit a trilby, so I need to buy some new clothes as well! But I did want a hat for summer as 2 years ago I badly sunburnt my head which resulted in a bit of sunstroke and from that day I vowed to buy a hat. I wouldn't want to wear a baseball cap as they are part of a burglar/chav's attire!

During my blogging absence, we rescued a young cat from the streets, who has since become best friends with one of our dogs Layla and they are always playing together, she's a funny little thing, my mother named her Millie! It's like we have a ready made eco-system now....the cat can eat my rats and the dogs can eat the cat!

Only me!

Sooooo long since I last posted! So long in fact, that i forgot my password, and there have literally been loads of things I could have blogged about. Let's see if I can remember anything!
There have been a few nights out, in particular, when my friend Alex drove us the 180 miles down to London after work one Friday to watch my friend Dean's band 'The Strands' play a gig at the world famous 'Cafe De Paris' at Leicester square. We parked on the edge of London and then I had my first experience of using the underground as we rode it to leicester square and made it to the gig just as the band were starting their second song (they were only playing for half an hour) we stayed for another hour so Alex could catch up with some old friends from Uni which gave me time to have a few drinks! We then had to leave at 23:45 to catch the last tube train back to the car and drove home, arriving back in Hull during the early morning hours.

I have been to quit a few Hull City AFC away matches in recent months!

I have not had much time to use my new camera and take pictures, so you'll have to wait a bit longer for new photo's.

The above image is from a week last Monday when 'The Strands' played a charity gig at a bar in town. From that gig up until this last weekend was a great week!!! At that gig my friend Joanne (who I mentioned in previous posts) and myself both got VERY drunk (it was a bank holiday) and for a week, we took our friendship to a whole other level (Ah hum!) and I was about 3 hours late for work the next morning! Then last Thursday it was the '2008 Hull Real Ale & Cider Festival' which Joanne and my brother and friends Alex and Rob and myself all attended and had a very good time, Jo and me continued our new level of relationship, but luckily I had booked the next day off work as a holiday. Then at the weekend we calmed down and are back to normal! Which is good because I sensed a bit of awkwardness developing between Jo and me and would not want to lose her as a friend. It all served to get me out of my rut though and can move on with my search for a soulmate, crazy thing is that I get on really well with Jo, we have been friends for 5 or 6 months and if she was 5 years older and wiser she would be a soulmate consideration, but she isn't and still has a very young attitude and outlook on life, although we share a common interest in many things and many of our views are the same...sometimes we are very different!

Maybe I am just getting too old too soon, even though I fool myself into thinking I'm still 18, I celebrated my 30th birthday in early March! Jo celebrates her 20th next week! She has gotten me into this funny buisiness of text messaging each other every 5 minutes, before last week I perhaps only used my phone once a week!

I have a passport application form right here and I will fill it in soon, I really must go abroad this year as I have never left the British isles!

Oh yeah, when at the beer festival I had a go on the tombola raffle, 4 tickets for a £1. Opened the first one and won a bottle of wine, opened the second one and won a bottle of beer, opened the third one and won a pen, opened the fourth one and won a 2 course meal for 2 at a country pub with a good reputation for it's food! I'm going to give the meal ticket to Pete at work who lives near this pub and in return he is going to take me and Alex out on his new speedboat para-gliding and shark fishing in summer......how cool will that be!!!!