Waterfall

It's strange how we often have an aversion for paying for things that we see as just there. I thought that about the seven pound entrance fee for the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, but this is some buildings and a lot of paths, four and a half miles of them, that is a hell of a lot of maintenance, and well worth every penny of the entrance fee.

I was impressed with the village of Ingleton , came to the Waterfalls Trail and walked past the closed cafe / gift shop then through the gateway which reminded me of the entrance to Jurassic Park (on a smaller scale and no dinosaurs)  and finally got to the entrance and paid my way and started on my way round.

Although it's only four and a half miles a lot of that paths are very rocky so you need to be careful and sure footed. Eventually you come to the first waterfall and it is worth the effort. You can see some of my video on Instagram here. Although I had plenty of time, the bus back was due at one, and the next one was at three so I was trying to move fast through the final part of the walk  but could have slipped easily and fell into the river, but kept on my feet and got the bus which was waiting at the stop.

If I'd missed the bus Ingleton was full of interesting places and may be due a future visit. Also it is heavily featured in the Michael Moorcock book "The Skrayling Tree".

So some appropriate music would be "Waterfall", at first I thought by the Stone Roses, then decided to go for the 10CC song, originally the "B" side of "Rubber Bullets" but later released in it's own right.

Eillo

I don't know why that word came to me but it did. If you do a Google search this is what it brings back. It's among other things an eating  place in Perth, Western Australia. I'm writing this as my Facebook ban is still on which I have detailed here ,I've just noticed as I published this that Eillo is Ollie backwards.

I'm surprised how long this heatwave has been going on, although weather is a complicated thing so I shouldn't be surprised that I've been surprised. It's still warm as I write this although there is a lot of cloud. I'm also suffering from hayfever / cold symptoms which is uncomfortable.

Today I was checking my eamail and read Barclays as Batcave. I don't know if this is just something that happens as you get older or it's something that everyone does. Maybe it's my recent binge watch of Gotham to watch series three and get up to date on series four. I won't say anything on it in case a fan reads and is still not up to date.

I am feeling incredibly drained, I don't if it's the weather, but have my annual Diabetic Review on Monday so maybe they will have something to say. I could do with a couple of days of total rest I think, but is not going to happen any time soon, though at the beginning of August I have another Liver Biopsy so that will mean a few days of total rest.

Anyway one songs sums up the way Facebook censors have treated me and many others and that's 10CC's "How Dare You" the title track of their eponymous 1976 album, which appeared as an instrumental "B" Side of either "Art For Art's Sake" or "I'm Mandy Fly Me" and was great for annoying straights when I put it on the jukebox.

So I hope to share this with you tomorrow whn they let me back on Facebook.

A Little Blue Sky

Today has been grey and overcast with a foggy and misty start. This afternoon though there was a short period when blue sky came through and even a little sun. That soon went though and we were back to the grey cloud cover. The good thing though is that it is Friday and for many of us that means we have the weekend to relax and enjoy although I have to be up early tomorrow morning to pick up and undelivered item from the Post Office. It always amazes me that deliveries of larger than letterbox items are tried aroung lunchtime rather than early or late when there might me somebody in.

This in turn reminded me of that album "Goodbye Blue Sky" by Godley and Creme two very talented Mancunians who made up half of 10CC and from that I've chosen "A Little Piece Of Heaven" for you to enjoy. Enjoy your Friday evening, I may treat myself to a curry from Rajnagar after lunching on a Sweet Potato and Chickpea curry at Aurora Kitchen.

Going American

I'm just loading up my phone with a lots of sixties and seventies American music. Although to me they are major players , the only ones you may have heard of are The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Of couse that atter leads off to Paul Kantner and Grace Slick and the wonderful Hot Tuna featuring the amazing guitar of Jorma Kaukonen , who I saw at Knebworth in about '76 when The Rolling Stones headlined , 10CC had a three hour soundcheck, Todd Rundgren's Utopia went over the top with their pyramid and Lynyrd Skynyrd played one of their last gigs before we lost most of them.

I'm also loading up Tom Rapp , Pearls Before Swine and Dave Ackles , all class acts though seriously forgotten these days, but I will be pushing them over the coming weeks as I visit them on my walk to work. I don't think I've name checked so many bands and musicians in a post before, although I probably have.

I leave you with Hot Tuna's excellent cover of Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy" . Enjoy. It's time for bed for me.

It's Four In The Morning .. And I Feel Awful

Well it isn't it's actually 1:48 , but while trying to sleep since 8 pm last night have kept being woken up by coughing fits and an extremely sore throat coughing up some not very nice stuff. It's times like these when I get scared the ITP may come back, but last couple of times I thought it was happening I've recovered sufficiantly. Just found this ITP support site which includes an article on a (nearly) nude St Andrews Calendar , information here.

Just glad this has occurred at the beginning of my holiday at a weekend , which means , as I can't sleep, I can write this post. The fact I can write this means that I must be on the mend , last night I was only fit to drop into bed. Symptoms 'flu like aching , very sore thoat as soon as you lay down tickly cough kicks in , but you are actuallly too tired and weak to get up , but you have to to spit out the horrible phlegm to get it out of your system (swallowing is not an option).

Anyway for some reason the phrase "Four In The Morning" popped into my mind which I've just realised was a syruppy counry and western confection by Faron Young , but the one that I was thinking of was the song by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme from their triple album Consequences that they put out after splitting from 10CC (who have already featured in my June's Tunes). So here is the wonderful song , the kettle is on and I'm going to make myself a cup of tea!!

Now I've found the video , the song is actually called Five O'Clock In The Morning , memory not fully populated , it's still a fantastic song , have a listen. Just checked the albums on Amazon and they will now leave a serious dent in your pocket and there is not much available on download.

Trailing Spaces and TIA

Whenever you parse a string in any programming language you should usually exclude trailing or leading spaces. This is because usually they have been but there accidentally, It means that comparisons will fail if you do not remove the spaces.This has happened four times to me today on web forms.

It's amazing how many basic rules seem to have been thrown out of the window with the new programming regimes . Fast and cheap , standards gone , and we have to live with it.

In other news com back from hospital with the news that they think I've had a TIA except I still cant use my little finger properly. So it looks like its just going to be a long slog to regain the use of it once more , either that or I stick to playing bass!

Anyway today's tune for June  is The Hospital Song by 10CC , I'd forgotten how good this was :

In A Hotel

Never really done hotels with work , but new responsibilities mean I may be spending time in London so I need to get used to it.The words to the song "Hotel California" by The Eagles:

"You can check out any time you want,

 but you can never leave" 

must ring so true for some people. Good thing is I have a lot of friends who live down here or are in a similar boat so lots of things to do , like tonight going to see the new Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom.