Sunday 26 April 2009

Exploding CDs and Championship Unpredictability

This morning I was ripping so CDs and noticed that of them CD2 of "The Tzar, His Library And The Winter Palace" by Al Stewart (home page here)had a couple of cracks at the centre. Thought I best rip this , the drive started up , revved up to 500 rpm , or whatever it is for CDs , then BANG!!! , the thing exploded in the CD drive , leaving me a drive full of fragments!!! Amazingly , I took the thing apart , hoovered it out , emptied out the sparkly bits , put in back , and the thing is now working fine. Though I need to contact Mr Stewart about a replacement CD as it was purchased at one of his gigs and isnt commercially available!!

On the penultimate day of the Championship , due to Preston's atrocious away form , a home defeat by the relegation threatened 'Poo' , our season was finished unless , Cardiff lost at home to mid table Ipswich (with new manager Roy Keane) , , Burnley didnt beat relegation candidates Southampton , and we beat the team with the best defence in the league, a squad full of ex premiership players , on their own turf , that's Birmigham City!!. What I didnt realise was that in Phil Dowd we were against a big club homer referee as well . In the first half he denied us three excellent penaly claims , Jaidi stamping on Mellors leg , Quedrue's deliberate handball in his penalty area. Trevor Francis reckoned they were lucky to have 11 men on the pitch at half time. Well they had 12 !! The second half got worse , Sean St Ledger missed a great chance , the Birmingham scored an excellent goal through Fahey . On 60 sixty minutes Bowyer started a fight with Lee Williamson . Williamson tried to get away but ended up face to face with Bowyer and Dowd red carded both of them , I'm just surprised he sent Bowyer off.

Then with both sides down to 10 men Paul McKenna scored a wonder goal , just as a I was resigned to our season being over . After 88 minutes Ross Wallace took a free kick and scored a goal the equal of McKenna's , I was rubbing my eyes , thinking has in gone in , it had!!!! Wallace pulled off his shirt and Dowd took great delight in red carding Wallace to reduce Preston to 9 men for the four minutes of added time.

All credit to Trevor Francis on Sky, he was extemely objective in his match assessment.

So now I have to go though a nailbiting last day . Am I bothered ?

Not a bit

Tuesday 14 April 2009

I'd Like To Live On The Chatsworth Estate

I noticed on Facebook that my niece had joined the group "I'd Like To Live On The Chatsworth Estate". Having visited Chatsworth twice , including my most recent holiday , I thought "That's nice , I didn't know she was that much into culture" and assumed she'd spent a day visiting the stately home and gardens , maybe having a champagne tea and seeing stuff like this:











In fact what the group is about is that they're fans of Frank Gallagher and his lovely family stars of the excellent Shameless. Amazing that I've watch the whole lot and not realised that they lived on the Chatsworth Estate! It's nice to think that youth can teach us a thing or two!!

One thing in common , both Estates know how to throw a party!!

Monday 13 April 2009

A Garden Post and a Pair of Magpies

Nice weather for the Easter Bank Holiday , and we've managed to get the umbrella up , which seemed to contain an unwelcome infestation of flies, though hopefully our resident spiders and frogs will have devoured them by now!!

Also managed to get a photo of two magpies in our garden ruined by the fact that in was taken through the kitchen window , the flash went off and scred them away, still this is the result.

And here's a short video of the garden featuring "Always With Me, Always With You" by Joe Satriani which is available here:

Sunday 12 April 2009

The Odd Postbox..

My dad's job / hobby is the maintenance and installation / de installation of postboxes between Carlisle and Buxton . I saw this odd one on our recent Tideswell holiday which was one that he put in.









Previously I've come across few oddities such as this one in Worcester.








And then there's this similar one in Buxton which is probably another of my dad's.






And finally a Chinese style one in Stowell Street , Chinatown , Newcastle!!

Thursday 9 April 2009

Around Tideswell

Just a little more on the Peak District holiday , and more recommendations . Tideswell is a great village with some great buildings such as the afformentioned Natwest Bank,
with it's Griffin at the Front door:

Then there's the corner chippy , which highly recommended , opposite the bank ,and is another striking Tideswell building:










Just near to Tideswell , is the village Litton featuring the excellent Red Lion pub , which apart from being excellent features some incredible caving photographs on the wall , the work of Robbie Shone who's gallery can be seen here:

Saturday 4 April 2009

Tideswell - Cathedral Of The Peak!!

Just back from a week in Tideswell in Derbyshire , the Peak District. Took a great cottage (Rose Cottage) for a week details of which are here.

Tideswell is incredibly friendly as well as having a bank with working cash machine, two chip shops , three pubs (which serve food) , at least three churches including St John The Baptist the afformentioned Cathedral of the Peak, a Post Office, and Art Gallery and a few cafes.