Don't break any bones if you live in Hull because....

What started out as a potentially excellent and enjoyable weekend is quickly becoming a bit of a disappointment, I had my football team 'Hull City AFC' playing on the Saturday afternoon, England in the Rugby world cup final on the evening and Lewis Hamilton potentially picking up his first world Formula 1 title in his rookie season on the Sunday teatime, as it stands both Hull City and England have lost so I hope the same fate does not befall Lewis today or that would be a total washout of a weekend!

Onto some good news....my sister has passed all her Nursing exams at university and is now a qualified Nurse, so she will be able to start her job in the Fracture clinic at Hull Royal Infirmary once she gets her "pin number" making the last 3 years at university worthwhile. It seems like only yesterday that she was working alongside me in a Laboratory at the pharmaceuticals company were I work, unfortunately she did not have the best of times there due to some unsavory characters and so she decided a career change was in order and subsequently pursued nursing.
She doesn't know it yet but I got her a little present, as she seems to collect perfumes, I have got her the new Christina Aguilera fragrance and a card and CD, my brother has got her something as did my parents, so she should be pleased!

Had another practice yesterday, not a great one, as our drummer Garry is on holiday in Spain with his family, we decided to have a relaxed jam session in my friends garage.....unfortunately is was very cold outside and my fingers were a bit numb causing problems whilst trying to play the bass, my fingers just wouldn't work!

I took the above picture last night whilst watching the Rugby, I turned around to see our dog Layla sitting on my computer chair staring at me as shown, she seems to really enjoy it when I shine a torch beam onto the floor for her to chase and this is her way of asking me to do it!

And the 2nd worst place to live is.....

I watched 'Location Location Location' last night on channel 4 which is essentially a property show, showing the 2007 poll for the 20 best and 20 worst places to live in the UK, surprisingly, Hull came second in the worst category.....I say surprisingly, because it's usually voted the worst place to live in the UK and for a couple of years it was dubbed "Crappist Town" after a certain book called 'Crap Towns' was published. Naturally the local paper kicked up a fuss and also claimed that unlike the other places in the poll, our surrounding villages were not included in the survey....something to do with the way Hull's boundaries are marked out.
The thing is, these polls only go on national statistics like crime figures and education results, pollution and so on. They don't come and spend any time in our city sampling it's culture, lifestyle, vibrancy etc., to make an informed judgement. I have said it before and I'll say it again, I would rather live in Hull then most other cities in the UK. Middlesborough was voted the worst place to live, so the question is....what have they not got that we have?
Sure, crime levels are a bit high, we have too many (of the no good type) immigrants, we are bottom of the pile for educational results, but there is a lot going for Hull and in general it's a nice place to live, and getting better!

Finished late from work today, due to a faulty steam valve causing a 2 hour delay in starting my process.

The picture is of my watch, I cant help using that particular photo effect, it makes things look so cool and pop arty!

Bass Guitar Photo Art

Just messing with photo's of the bass guitar I am buying of a friend.

At court

Another day off work, no super extended lie in time for me today though, up at 7:30am, get a shower, iron my shirt and get dressed ready to accompany my dad to court as a witness for 10:00am.

What have you witnessed this time? You may ask, well…..a few months ago, on a rainy day, me and my dad decided to walk the dogs (each holding 2 on a lead) as we were walking them, a big white Alsatian came bounding around a corner and seeing our dogs, decided to attack (not a smart thing to do (1 Alsatian Vs 4 Rottweilers) anyway, the dog after having a bit of a go and sending our dogs crazy runs back to it’s owner. During the little dog scuffle my dad and I are now on the wet grass being pulled this way and that by the dogs on their leads and 2 of them slip their collars and chase after the dog (at this point I would just like to say our dogs are not vicious, but as any dog owner knows, a dog is most excitable during the first minute of a walk, which is when this incident occurred) We run after them and whilst trying to get their collars back on their heads, the owner of the other dogs is ranting and raving and swearing and shouting etc. After we regain control of our dogs, during which this other guy still has not even attempted to put his dog on a lead (he also had 2 more dogs with him on leads) and the dog is still having a (albeit, more nervous) go at our dogs. Anyway, as we are walking away this guy is still shouting and swearing, one of his Neighbours walks up, he then puts his hand to his cheek and tells her my dad just punched him???????? We just walk away. Low and behold a few days later we have a police officer at our door investigating a claim of assault, with this woman suddenly saying she witnessed my dad punch this guy. Statements are taken and then my dad is suddenly at court hmmm.

So we go to the court and wait for an hour before being called in, it turns out that it’s just a preliminary hearing and I don’t need to stand as a witness, my dad pleads “not guilty” and it now goes to trial on 17^th December, where I will have to stand. It was the first time I have been in a court room, it was a bit weird, very formal. Let’s see what happens! We were reading through the statements by this guy and his neighbour friend and could not believe the lies, they are completely twisted and almost fully fabricated to the point were I was actually laughing with disbelief. Things that are not in our favour….my dad does not qualify for legal aid because he works for a living and will have to defend himself as he cannot afford a solicitor (he has a mortgage to pay) and he also has been to jail (about 11 years ago) for assault (on a paedophile who said some disgusting things to my sister) On the plus side, he should be able to rip their defence to shreds due to their nonsense statements which contradict their own versions of events!

I get back home and chill out for the rest of the day, keeping it real!

Stupid dog and the rip off practice room

So, as I am on holiday from work, I finally get up at 10:00am after a spot of snoozing, I get a shower so that I am fully awake and as the dogs are looking at me with great loving in their eyes, I decide I should take them for a walk and throw the ball for them.

(Speaking of walking the dogs that reminds me of a worrying little incident yesterday afternoon whilst I was walking the dogs. My brother and I were both walking a dog each, when we stopped at a crossing for a main road. We have recently purchased some of those ‘head leads’ for the dogs….you know the ones that fasten around the head and nose in order to stop them pulling, by simply pulling their head to one side! Anyway, whilst I am putting a hand across to press the button at the crossing, my dog Boo suddenly spins around and pulls his head out of the lead and then runs across the busy road, I shouted after him in panic, and then with a quick glance to make sure there is space, I ran after him and caught him on the central reservation, just before he ran across the second carriageway. It was amazing he did not get hit by a car!!! That is how I found out that ‘head leads’ are a good design if your dog is in front of you and walking forward, but they don’t work as good if your dog is behind you or facing you, because it’ll pull straight of their stupid heads)

Anyway, I get back from walking the dogs and head out to the supermarket in order to get 8 cans of beer for my father that I had previously borrowed over the weekend., and also a ready meal so I don’t have to cook before heading out for a band practice.

I get home and read a few chapters of ‘The Amber Spyglass’ by Phillip Pullman (I am re-reading ‘His Dark Materials’ in readiness for the upcoming movie ‘The Golden Compass’) I then worked on a new song called ‘Four Foot Fez’ for my not so serious musical side project ‘Legend of Sid’ the title of which, came about because of the following;

Clem (the worlds best bedroom band) rang me a few months ago, to say they are making a hat which is going to be exactly four feet tall into which they are going to install a discreet camera, the reason…..they want me to wear this four foot tall hat, and walk down a pedestrian street in the city centre during rush hour and using a combination of 2 camcorders held by Clem and the footage from the small camera in the hat, capture the surprised and confused expressions on peoples faces as they head off to work, naturally I said yes, I have always wanted to wear a four foot tall hat with built in CCTV and will now be able to cross it off my list of thing to do before I die. Anyway, they ring me again last week to say the hat is close to completion (imagine my excitement) and that it will be a Fez. They also suggest that they (Clem) and me (Legend of Sid) each write and record a song called ‘Four Foot Fez’ and use the footage from the above, to make a music video, and compare them both and see if they are similar, or completely different! A collaboration/dual project of sorts.

I had my ready meal and then I was picked up by our singer Dave and went to the band practice 7-11pm. The practice room was a different one from what we normally use, we were not very impressed, Dave’s head and my head were actually touching the ceiling, the room was tiny and we had to set up the PA system ourselves. Not only that but we had to pay £25 for this room compared to £20 for a room almost 3 times the size with a better PA which is all ready to go! Nevertheless, we did not let it spoil our fun and had a good practice anyway, including a bit of a funky jam!

Hull Fair

Walking through the crowds

Daddy Rob playing 'Hook-a-duck' with daughter Caitlyn

Caitlyn on the merry-go-round

Mother and daughter on the carousel

My brother and I went to the fair with our friends Rob and Sarah, and their daughter Caitlyn, and 10 month old son James. Did not take many pictures but I did manage to get some! It was a joy to watch little Caitlyn, just 2 years old, seeing the fair for the first time! I expected, with the loud noises, flashing lights etc, for her to be a bit overwhelmed, but she took it all in her stride.

Didn't go on any rides, I was too busy stuffing my face with fast food, but enjoyed the walk around anyways!

A funny story about Rob.....once at work we took part in "secret santa" with the rest of the department, Rob got a guy called Dave and bought him a "lucky Rabbits foot" upon receiving the" lucky Rabbits foot" Dave subsequently contracted MRSA when going into hospital for an operation, had his new house partly collapse which then had to be demolished and his wife left him for his best friend, not so funny for Dave!

Going to the fair!

I have the day off work, as I had accrued about 12 hours, so I thought I would use 8 of them and have a day off! I was about half way through recording a new song when my computer just turned itself off, something it's been doing a lot over the last couple of weeks, I don't know why!

Not been up to much over the last couple of weeks because I have been feeling a little bit ill...I have been going to work, but I have been feeling drained of energy when I get home....hence no blog posts, today is the first day in about 2 weeks I have felt OK, although I still feel a bit brain dead, so I decided to sit down and record a song, hoping it would help to get my brain working!

I'm going to Hull Fair tonight with some friends, I'll try and take some photo's like I did last year, but maybe some black and white ones, in contrast to the colorful ones I took last year.

I have also managed to procure myself a bass guitar, I am buying one off a mate.

Speaking of being off work, the whole site had the day of work last Wednesday due to a power cut to the site, which was unexpected and welcomed (although I had to work a bit harder yesterday to catch up) It would have been even better if they had phoned me to tell me not to bother getting out of bed, instead, I did have to get up and walk to work and back before going back to bed. So there I was, at home getting paid to sit watching the new Tarantino/Rodriguez, Grindhouse movies....cool!

My watch went on the fritz a couple of days ago, I took it back to the shop this morning, as it was still under guarantee and chose another watch, which was good because I did not like the old one very much anyway!

The above pictures are of an old tree stump which was cut down and left in a local cemetery.