Continuing my charity work that consists of taxiing people back and forth from university, I took a small (50 mile) detour on the way to Cardiff to have a pit stop in Bristol. Purely so I can tick it off the list of cities I have visited.
I wasn't expecting much, as the last time I had been there all I can remember is sat on the motorway in the biggest tailback ever on the way to a holiday in Devon. When mentioning it in passing to other people no one else seemed particularly enthused about the place either. All everyone seemed to know was that it is impossible to park there.
As we only had a few hours I deployed my usual tactic of walking as fast and as far as possible. Perhaps going on a Sunday wasn't the best plan I have ever had, as quite a few places were closed. The town centre was fairly unremarkable, could easily have been confused with Swansea or Worcester. But once we got passed the generic shops and Starbucks things looked up.
We found the cathedral was encircled by a huge Sikh festival that was obviously gearing up for opening later on the day. Quite a surreal site, this huge cold Christian landmark surrounded by Bangra music, brightly coloured lanterns and the smell of spicy food. Was quite chuffed that we were allowed to wander around the cathedral for free, as the little tiny one in Chester charges, so we went and looked at the stained glass windows, got bored, and moved on.
Leading the way like I knew where I was going (as usual) we found a new development next to the river. It was still largely empty, had lots of signs about with 'coming soon' and 'to let' in the windows. There are wide open squares, reminiscent of Berlin and it is right next to the river so there are some beautiful views. And to top it off there is a huge screen in the square that was showing the F1 at the time.
I think that if we went back the same time next year (perhaps not on a Sunday) the place would be amazing. As it is at the moment there is the riverside and its ice cream parlours and coffee shops, which is lovely. But give it a year and it might be even better than Cardiff Bay.
Because of our complete lack of pictures. (do you have some Neff?) I leave you with Bang as Neff did an amazing air drumming solo in the car just as we got to the city centre - if you ever get a chance, ask her to recreate it. She is up their with Animal on the charts of best air drummers ever!
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Sometimes the Best Place to be is Lost
Back in November I graciously offered to drive Jeannie home from Aberystwyth. I have done the journey many, many, many times and so didn't think much of our travel arrangements when we left town.
However, once safely out of Ceredigion we became engulfed in the biggest snow storm I have ever seen. I have never been so scared in my life. Never having really driven in snow before, only that sludgey excuse for it that we get in Birmingham, I was rather nervous & racking my brains for information that my driving instrutor had mentioned 5 years ago. After 3 hours we were still in the middle of Wales, when usually we would have been home. Just as we got to a little town called Rhayader, the two cars in front of me collided, which i think was the final straw. This was the last town for a very long time, and I knew that further on the roads got steeper and at the pace we were going it wopuld have taken another 5 hours to get home. So I stopped the car.
Rhayader is a little farming community. It takes less than a minute to drive through and I had never really taken much notice of it before, except to moan about the ridiculous town clock that is just in the middle of the road. Luckily we found a bed and breakfast run by a nice old lady, so had a chance to try and relax after a horrible few hours stressing out.
After the pancea of a cup of tea, we tried to figure out what to do. It was still fairly early in the day and we didn't have anything to do. We decided that the most sensible thing to do in a blizzard was to go to the park and make snow men.
The town had come to a complete standstill as most of the roads in and out were now closed, and we meandered around until we came across a bit of country side that had been untouched since the snow had started. Needless to say, we went a bit mad. We had a snowball fight, made snow angels played on the swings and got completely drenched in the process. There was one hairy moment where, in my haste to avoid one of jeannies snowballs, I almost fell in the river. Aside from that it was so much fun. Just me and Miss Jeanniekins and a field of snow.
Come the evening we found ourselves in a little tiny pub, sat next to a log fire and chatting to two bikers who were in a similarly stranded. Warm and cosy, full of beer and pub grub, all of the days earlier stress and panic were completely forgotten. It was a few wonderful hours in what turned out to be an undiscovered beauty spot.
I encourage more people to go out into the countryside when it starts to snow, find a little tiny town to hole yourselves up in to enjoy the best winter can offer. Snow scenes to run around in and crackling fires to cuddle up to.
However, once safely out of Ceredigion we became engulfed in the biggest snow storm I have ever seen. I have never been so scared in my life. Never having really driven in snow before, only that sludgey excuse for it that we get in Birmingham, I was rather nervous & racking my brains for information that my driving instrutor had mentioned 5 years ago. After 3 hours we were still in the middle of Wales, when usually we would have been home. Just as we got to a little town called Rhayader, the two cars in front of me collided, which i think was the final straw. This was the last town for a very long time, and I knew that further on the roads got steeper and at the pace we were going it wopuld have taken another 5 hours to get home. So I stopped the car.Rhayader is a little farming community. It takes less than a minute to drive through and I had never really taken much notice of it before, except to moan about the ridiculous town clock that is just in the middle of the road. Luckily we found a bed and breakfast run by a nice old lady, so had a chance to try and relax after a horrible few hours stressing out.
After the pancea of a cup of tea, we tried to figure out what to do. It was still fairly early in the day and we didn't have anything to do. We decided that the most sensible thing to do in a blizzard was to go to the park and make snow men.
The town had come to a complete standstill as most of the roads in and out were now closed, and we meandered around until we came across a bit of country side that had been untouched since the snow had started. Needless to say, we went a bit mad. We had a snowball fight, made snow angels played on the swings and got completely drenched in the process. There was one hairy moment where, in my haste to avoid one of jeannies snowballs, I almost fell in the river. Aside from that it was so much fun. Just me and Miss Jeanniekins and a field of snow.
I encourage more people to go out into the countryside when it starts to snow, find a little tiny town to hole yourselves up in to enjoy the best winter can offer. Snow scenes to run around in and crackling fires to cuddle up to.
Monday, 23 May 2011
Sunday Part II. We are taking the Hobbits to Isengard.
I was woken from (yet another) white win induced hangover by Pel exclaiming that she was taking me to Middle Earth for the day. Yeah, I figured I was still drunk, so was a bit slow on the up take to what was actually going on.
Turns out that every year the good people of Moseley put on a Tolkien festival in The Shire nature reserve – yes thats an actual place! Bless Albert. He researched stuff that would be fun to do on his only day off and he comes up with this, a day where Pel & I completely geek out, whilst he trails behind us being equal parts bewildered and bemused by the many LOTR fanatics. - I would like to point out now that we were not one of the ones that dressed up.
The event itself was really small compared to the description on the internet. But there were a few random people milling around (we met Gandalf). And there were a few battle re-enactments, which we stumbled across unknowingly just seeing 2 grown men apparently beating the hell out of each other.
But the best bit was the revelation that inner city Birmingham can actually be beautiful. The aptly named Moseley Bog, which was Tolkiens inspiration for the Ents, is a huge forrest of oak trees. It is extremely well manintained and it was so lovely wandering around aimlessly through the woods on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Especially when we were geeking out over which one was Treebeard. We all had a go at climbing trees and generally pratting about. We even found a little den to hang out in for a while.I realise that I have lost a hell of a lot of cool points, which I gained by blogging about meeting Frank Turner, by talking about a Lord of the Rings festival. But it was such a nice relaxing day just chilling out and being Geeky. For some unknown reason Birmingham isn't on the list of 501 must see cities, so I can't tick off another place. But I would fully recommended the trip to The Shire, Moseley Bog and Sarehole Mill. For both the beauty and the little bit of history that a rather poor part of Birmingham has to boast about. I wander if Peter Jackson ever came here?
Oh and I met him to, unfortunately he was only made of cardboard, but that's something right?
The best comment of the day definitely came from my sister, whose response to my excited text exclaiming that I had just met Gandalf was "where are you and what drugs have you done". Thanks Neff.
Also, I had to include this as it is the best picture of Al ever!
Meeting Frank Turner
We went to go see Frank Turner (again) in Wolverhampton. It was a tiny venue and Frank was playing without his usual Dive Dive band mates. Just him and his guitar. Frank’s gigs are always poignant as the majority of his songs are about the same twenty something alienation that I reek of, not unlike the rest of the crowd who are hanging onto his every word. Songs like I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous and Photosynthesis are real anthems where you can’t hear Frank for the audience, which is pretty impressive considering the venue barely held 700(?) people.
However after the my break up which left me moping for a while and forced me to leave my beautiful Welsh town and move 150 miles back to my parent’s house, one song really pulled me up. The District Sleeps Alone has always been my favourite Postal Service song, its haunting, soft and played out so slowly that it comes across a little mournful, like a thought that just comes to someone too late. Frank covered it on The First Three Years, and seeing as it was one of the last songs on the album and a cover of quite a small band, I never thought I would get to see him sing it live. When he sings it he sounds angry and heartfelt. Shouting “I was the one worth leaving” with a kind of energy makes me ridiculously happy. And taking that kind of accountability of the end of a relationship is so rare in music that is about break ups, it is empowering to sing along to. This song has been my anthem for the last year, letting me own what happened rather than wallowing in the self pity that inevitably follows the end of a relationship. Making it even more spectacular was both Ben Marwood and Franz Nicolay joining in – who knew how much a song can be improved with the addition of an accordion. Seeing them perform it in such a tiny acoustic set I feel puts a lid on a truly horrific year. And I sang along beaming ear to ear.
Even more amazingly we got to meet all of them after the gig! The four of us were so giddily happy it was ridiculous. Elle told Ben how much his cover meant to me (embarrassing much) and as he couldn’t think of what to sign in the album, so I suggested he write down the first line in the book Franz Nicolay was reading. SO now we have an autograph that makes absolutely no sense. We then wandered over to Frank and for some unknown reason I became appointed the photographer – obviously I don’t outwardly appear to be a complete technophobe- I sincerely hope that the photos I took for complete strangers with alien technology actually came out OK.... But that meant that Frank actually got his official photographer to take one of us (or it could have been the amount of boob on show, it was me and Pel after all), and had a wee chat with us too. Don't think I've ever seen Pel so nervous. I of course just continued nattering away - I actually got Franz Nicolay's name wrong, called him Nicolay Franz, but as I was speaking in a Murray Walker style speed I (hope) he didn't notice.
An amazing acoustic set from Frank that included so many songs from his whole back catalogue. Support acts that were talented and witty. Franz Nicolay is definitely the coolest man alive. Topping the evening off was spending it with my wonderful friends, as Franks music is best when shared with other fanatics. So the countdown starts now for when we see him at Leeds festival in the summer.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
How Many Books can I read in a week?
6 it turns out. I went away on holiday for a week, so naturally buried myself in my reading and ignored everything else for the extent of the trip - except for the royal wedding obviously, was glued to the TV then.
I was amazed to find that the house we were staying in came complete with it's own mini library, which included a number of books on my reading list that I had yet to buy. There was also a little patio at the front of the house Steff and I sat drinking our Pimms and watching the sea and reading our books. Bliss. Because of this I am now much further ahead on my big book challenge (here).
No. 96 A Town Called Alice is the best book I have read to date from the list. I couldn't put it down (literately fell asleep with my nose buried in it). Can't understand how it is only 96. Especially when there are books like the earlier mentioned Five People You Meet In Heaven ahead of it. I raved about it so much, Steff abandoned what she was reading to become a convert to Alice too. It is one of the longer books on the list, and covers so much time and harrowing events plus has a very happy ending. I do think though that you could be forgiven in thinking that the actual author finished the book about halfway in and a fanfiction writer has decided the ending as it follows the main characters for a very long time after the main heart of the story has ended. But there is nothing wrong with that. More books should have as many nicely tied endings as this.
Unfortunately I went from a book that I loved to a book I absolutely hated. No. 18 Catcher in the Rye. I disliked the style, the protagonist and the story. In fact I thought there was barely a story held in the pages. I like my books to have a beginning, middle and end; this seemingly had none of them. I can't fathom why it is so highly praised. I can understand how the stream of consciousness style of writing could be popular, it just isn't for me. But the lack of plot bugged me. It is an extremely short book, took me about 4 hours in total. So if anyone else is doing the challenge read it to get it out of the way, but I wouldn't read it for pleasure.
No. 72 Dracula was much better. I have never watched the movies, although my Mom tells me we watched them together when I was a few months old, funny how I don't remember that, and I haven't really paid any attention to the spin-offs (Van Helsing, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) so the story was brand new to me. In fact I quite enjoyed seeing the characters on the page, having previously heard them mentioned in pop culture but genuinely not knowing they were actually associated with the original vampire novel. I particularly enjoyed the way it was written, in the form of journal entries and letters between the 5 protagonists. If anything it ended to soon and the main event had happened before I really had time to notice it (not unlike the death of Sirius Black, yes I'm still bitter about that).
The Best thing about the house was that it contained a copy of Alan Alda's Autobiography Never Have Your Dog Stuffed. He is perhaps my favourite person in the world (Hawkeye & Vinnick!) and has always seemed like a lovely and bubbly guy when I have seen him interviewed. I know it isn't on the list seeing as it is "literature", but there should have been an exception. It is full on anecdotes rather than a full blow by blow of his life which means that although there are parts where I genuinely did laugh out loud, you don't really get into anything overly personnel. He keeps the contents strictly about him, mentioning his family and people he has worked with but they are in the background to his stories about his experiences, which in my opinion makes him very classy.
And he really did have his dog stuffed.
I was amazed to find that the house we were staying in came complete with it's own mini library, which included a number of books on my reading list that I had yet to buy. There was also a little patio at the front of the house Steff and I sat drinking our Pimms and watching the sea and reading our books. Bliss. Because of this I am now much further ahead on my big book challenge (here).
No. 96 A Town Called Alice is the best book I have read to date from the list. I couldn't put it down (literately fell asleep with my nose buried in it). Can't understand how it is only 96. Especially when there are books like the earlier mentioned Five People You Meet In Heaven ahead of it. I raved about it so much, Steff abandoned what she was reading to become a convert to Alice too. It is one of the longer books on the list, and covers so much time and harrowing events plus has a very happy ending. I do think though that you could be forgiven in thinking that the actual author finished the book about halfway in and a fanfiction writer has decided the ending as it follows the main characters for a very long time after the main heart of the story has ended. But there is nothing wrong with that. More books should have as many nicely tied endings as this.Unfortunately I went from a book that I loved to a book I absolutely hated. No. 18 Catcher in the Rye. I disliked the style, the protagonist and the story. In fact I thought there was barely a story held in the pages. I like my books to have a beginning, middle and end; this seemingly had none of them. I can't fathom why it is so highly praised. I can understand how the stream of consciousness style of writing could be popular, it just isn't for me. But the lack of plot bugged me. It is an extremely short book, took me about 4 hours in total. So if anyone else is doing the challenge read it to get it out of the way, but I wouldn't read it for pleasure.
No. 72 Dracula was much better. I have never watched the movies, although my Mom tells me we watched them together when I was a few months old, funny how I don't remember that, and I haven't really paid any attention to the spin-offs (Van Helsing, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) so the story was brand new to me. In fact I quite enjoyed seeing the characters on the page, having previously heard them mentioned in pop culture but genuinely not knowing they were actually associated with the original vampire novel. I particularly enjoyed the way it was written, in the form of journal entries and letters between the 5 protagonists. If anything it ended to soon and the main event had happened before I really had time to notice it (not unlike the death of Sirius Black, yes I'm still bitter about that).
The Best thing about the house was that it contained a copy of Alan Alda's Autobiography Never Have Your Dog Stuffed. He is perhaps my favourite person in the world (Hawkeye & Vinnick!) and has always seemed like a lovely and bubbly guy when I have seen him interviewed. I know it isn't on the list seeing as it is "literature", but there should have been an exception. It is full on anecdotes rather than a full blow by blow of his life which means that although there are parts where I genuinely did laugh out loud, you don't really get into anything overly personnel. He keeps the contents strictly about him, mentioning his family and people he has worked with but they are in the background to his stories about his experiences, which in my opinion makes him very classy.And he really did have his dog stuffed.
Pit Stop in Cambridge 3/501
On a mammoth drive to the other side of the country, Steff and I decided to have a quick ( 4 hour) pit stop in Beeeaaauuutiful Cambridge. She hadn't been before, and I had only really wandered around the shops a few times, so we were proper tourists & wandered around gawking at everything. A look that was completed by Steff carrying around her paparazzi camera.
Although yes the town is gorgeous, and the buildings are oh so historic, the best part about our trip was the sheer number of buskers around and about. Our favourite was a 10 year old boy playing the saxophone down one of the arcades with a little sign saying playing to pay for music lessons. So cute. There were bands everywhere complete with full drum kits and one with their own violinist!
We watched the punting for a while. Couldn't convince Steff to actually go on one as she was worried (rightly so with my luck) about falling in the river. However, there was a VERY nice view of all the topless punters milling about waiting for fairs..... that was also a highlight.
As usual I had little to know idea where I was going, but I directed us around to see all of Kings College and also some of the grounds of Clares. Plus we milled around the outside of a few others, but I forget which. We picnicked on Jesus Green whilst listening to the steel drums (another busker) and pretended we were back in the Caribbean resort in Florida. IT WAS THAT HOT.
It would have been nice to go around with some one who new some of the proper history (ahem Nick) or if we had paid to be part of one of those guided tours. But considering how far we still had to drive and how warm it was, we managed to see an awful lot and both said that it was one of our better road trips.
Although yes the town is gorgeous, and the buildings are oh so historic, the best part about our trip was the sheer number of buskers around and about. Our favourite was a 10 year old boy playing the saxophone down one of the arcades with a little sign saying playing to pay for music lessons. So cute. There were bands everywhere complete with full drum kits and one with their own violinist!
We watched the punting for a while. Couldn't convince Steff to actually go on one as she was worried (rightly so with my luck) about falling in the river. However, there was a VERY nice view of all the topless punters milling about waiting for fairs..... that was also a highlight.
As usual I had little to know idea where I was going, but I directed us around to see all of Kings College and also some of the grounds of Clares. Plus we milled around the outside of a few others, but I forget which. We picnicked on Jesus Green whilst listening to the steel drums (another busker) and pretended we were back in the Caribbean resort in Florida. IT WAS THAT HOT.
It would have been nice to go around with some one who new some of the proper history (ahem Nick) or if we had paid to be part of one of those guided tours. But considering how far we still had to drive and how warm it was, we managed to see an awful lot and both said that it was one of our better road trips.
Panic at the Disco (with an optional !)
I am not an avid fan or even worse a dreaded fangirl of PANIC, but I was a good sister and went with Steff to see them last week & was surprised to find that I actually really enjoyed it! (It helped that they are all very pretty).
I only new 4 songs before I went, and didn't really like them that much, but they were all off their older album and thankfully they have moved on from the guyliner, weird hair and top hats. The new stuff is poppier and there are 2 or 3 songs from their new album which I have had stuck in my head since Tuesday. But I'm not complaining as I have been singing Just a Day by Feeder almost constantly for a month.
I was shocked by the fangirls that turned up. It has been a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg time since I went to see a band where the audience was 99% made up of teenage girls. I had forgotten just how loud they can scream. Strangely enough Panic don't seemed to have earned a new generation of 14 year old's swooning over them (at least not in Birmingham). The fangirls here are now almost 20 and yet turned up dressed like we did in 2005 as if nothing had changed since their first album had come out. Very odd.
The gig was at Birmingham HMV Institute which is such a swanky venue (much better than the Brum Academy, although smaller, and leaps and bounds better than the Wolverhampton Civic (but what isn't)). We were in the second balcony which had little velvet benches to sit on, and I had possibly the best view of a Gig I've ever had. Plus I wasn't squished to death by the hungry mob of girls in the standing section. If you get a chance to see a band there, DO IT. Just to see the pretty remodelling and shiny retro gothic interiors of The Library.
Also the award for worst support act ever has been snatched from the hands of 'The Likes' and awarded to 'Love Letters' a band that couldn't look less cohesive if they tried. If they had had less base, a drummer who was engaged in the band and a singer that could be still for longer than a nano second they could be bearable. I actually felt sorry for them when they spoke to the crowd and not a single person responded.
This is the song I liked the most called Always, its quality isn't great, but Steffi filmed it especially.
The earlier video is rather cute to.
I only new 4 songs before I went, and didn't really like them that much, but they were all off their older album and thankfully they have moved on from the guyliner, weird hair and top hats. The new stuff is poppier and there are 2 or 3 songs from their new album which I have had stuck in my head since Tuesday. But I'm not complaining as I have been singing Just a Day by Feeder almost constantly for a month.
I was shocked by the fangirls that turned up. It has been a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg time since I went to see a band where the audience was 99% made up of teenage girls. I had forgotten just how loud they can scream. Strangely enough Panic don't seemed to have earned a new generation of 14 year old's swooning over them (at least not in Birmingham). The fangirls here are now almost 20 and yet turned up dressed like we did in 2005 as if nothing had changed since their first album had come out. Very odd.
The gig was at Birmingham HMV Institute which is such a swanky venue (much better than the Brum Academy, although smaller, and leaps and bounds better than the Wolverhampton Civic (but what isn't)). We were in the second balcony which had little velvet benches to sit on, and I had possibly the best view of a Gig I've ever had. Plus I wasn't squished to death by the hungry mob of girls in the standing section. If you get a chance to see a band there, DO IT. Just to see the pretty remodelling and shiny retro gothic interiors of The Library.
Also the award for worst support act ever has been snatched from the hands of 'The Likes' and awarded to 'Love Letters' a band that couldn't look less cohesive if they tried. If they had had less base, a drummer who was engaged in the band and a singer that could be still for longer than a nano second they could be bearable. I actually felt sorry for them when they spoke to the crowd and not a single person responded.
This is the song I liked the most called Always, its quality isn't great, but Steffi filmed it especially.
The earlier video is rather cute to.
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