Showing posts with label Ambleside. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ambleside. Show all posts

Monday 1 October 2018

61


That's me sixty one years on this planet, and I still find it amusing the number of people who deem themselves old or middle aged at thirty, forty or fifty. Really you can do nothing about time and a birthday should be an excuse have fun not be despondent. Though the fact is some people are only happy when they're miserable, the usually read the Mail and don't listen to music.

I have not done much today barring visiting Ambleside, eating at The Priest's Hole and researching whether to visit Skipton Castle and Woods, due to the amazing cane sculptures that I want to see.

I was in Kendal yesterday and was sad to see that the only record shop I know has gone, so it may be that I don't pick up any music this holiday, but I do have more than enough to listen to, and one of those is the new James album as well as the new Arctic Monkeys album. So I willleave you with "Better Than That" by James, which is just absolutely wonderful.

Going to catch upon "Better Call Saul" and "Constantine" tonight.


Sunday 30 September 2018

The Value Of Music (Again)


A few weeks ago I noticed a Bruce Springsteen box set. It was good quality bootlegs from 1978, comprising five complete concerts backed by the E Street Band, and the tracks are obviously the same for each concert, but this clocks in at fifteen discs, which is more sixteen hours of music and the cost of this set? Thirteen Pounds. Even if you class it as a single three disc concert that's still a lot of music for your money. That's less that a pound per disc.

In 1975 albums were around £2.75, at that time Job Seekers Allowance or the equivalent was £2.75 a week, so if albums had kept pace with inflation we would be paying £80 for an album, but even I think a tenner is the norm for a CD these days. A vinyl album is around £20 and I did pay £25 for Hawkwind's "Space Ritual" on vinyl with the original fold out artwork.

I also bought a box of Phil Collins' first eight albums in a presentation box for £7.99, again less than a pound an album, and a Graham Parker set for the same price for his first five albums.

Rhino have a series of Original Albums consisting of five albums in replica card sleeves for around a tenner, less than two quid an album. Although this is already recorded material so there may not be any production costs apart from the printing and pressing it's still a remarkably cheap way of getting your hands on music and I do wonder whether the artists are getting their just rewards for this music.

So this is the last post for September and tomorrow my number of years on this planet increases  by one. Luckily I don't have to go to work but think I may be off to Ambleside,weather permitting.

Tuesday 24 April 2018

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #7 - CSI Ambleside - Half Man Half Biscuit


Described by Andy Kershaw as England's greatest folk band and may John Peel said the describe the minutiae of everyday life every album holds gems to be discovered and this is no exception. If you want to sample to poetry of the lyrics check out the HMHB Lyric project here

The album opens with "Your Evening of Swing Has Been Cancelled" careering though incidents and accidents by way of detours and u-turns to hit the finale of "National Shite Day".

The cover feature the lovely Royal Oak in Ambleside who were unaware of their adornment of the sleeve when I first informed them of it. I'm am not sure if they were pleased about that, but both pub and album are wonderful artefacts of our times.

The thing is Half Man Half Biscuit have so many essential songs in their canon, anyone that you choose is something that you just never want it to finish. Lyrics like the following make you realise just how essential this band is:

And the christening party arsehole
Who hitherto had blurred
My conception of man as nature’s final word
Was fleeing from the lava
His satnav pleading thus:
“I’m not from round here mate, you should have got the bus”

So I will leave you with their opening salvo and get myself to bed.

 

Wednesday 1 November 2017

Sixteen Miles an Hour


Yesterday we took a trip to Ambleside from Orton. Checking on Google Maps the distance is sixteen miles, but the actual distance is further but due to hills and lakes in between the route is a little more circuitous than the direct sixteen miles and takes closer to an hour to navigate.

It’s not a difficult journey but the sixteen miles does stick in your mind as you drive down the M6 waiting for the turn off to hit the south end of Lake Windermere. While in Ambleside we tried the vegetarian Italian Restaurant, Zeffirelli’s and Fellini’s also home to a cinema.

We spoke with a couple and the man said he’d been eating there for twenty years and it had taken him five years to realise that the restaurant was vegetarian.

Today is the first of November and another start for my step challenge. Quite surprisingly I’ve managed to hit 11K today so that’s a good start although I should have hit 11.5K but a 500 step deficit is hardly insurmountable.

Anyway the data on my Google Pixel seems to me draining and a rapid rate. I’m not too sure why although the tethering has used 2 Gb so it’s probably Windows that decided to do an update, so I may have to buy a data add on, but at least EE have created a few more sensible add ons so it won’t cost a huge amount if I need to buy some extra.

Anyway it’s time for bed, so I will leave you with “Let’s Eat” by Nick Lowe. Sleep well.

Wednesday 2 November 2016

Howling - #ALifeinNumbers #44



Well we are two days into November and although there was frost this morning it has been a pleasant day. The rest of the week is not meant to be as good, but this week I have visited Kirkby Lonsdale, Kendal and Ambleside as well as using Orton to walk and relax.

I have done catch up TV, finishing series one of Fortitude and continuing with Better Call Saul which is most entertaining.

While in Ambleside I noticed front pages from the racist Daily Mail and idiotic Daily Express and I am seriously sad that people I know still defend the red tops, because the like the crossword or the horoscope or the sport coverage. But I will try and not let that bother me, you cannot argue with these people, because they are too stupid to understand what you are telling them.

Anyway that’s enough of a rant and we can continue with #ALifeInNumbers #44. I was racking my brains for this one and was sure there must be some kind of firearm or motor vehicle or motorbike with that number in its name or description, and sure enough there is a Howlin’ Wolf number called “Forty Four” which is about his gun, which he has to pawn.

I love Howlin’ Wolf and always thought “Smokestack Lightnin’” was an amazing title with a monstrous loping riff. A couple of years ago I found that he used to watch steam locomotives go past his residence at night with the funnels shooting out smoke and sparks and fire, the funnels are also called smokestacks and fire was Howlin’ Wolf’s Lightning.

So enjoy you Wednesday evening my frienda and enjoy this classic slab of Howlin’ Wolf.

Saturday 28 November 2015

Black Friday Has Gone (Hopefully Forever)


Well Black Friday has come and gone , retailers would have the rabble spending money they haven't got on things they never needed. Black Friday to me was the Stock Market crash in the late eighties when we let the idiot traders freed by the idiot right wingers have computers so then could predict how they were going to mess up so much faster. My biggest ever financial loss came when I bought shares in Lastminute.com and some other company that bombed on recommendations from Morgan Stanley, and I bet at Ladbrokes and William Hills. Stock Market Traders aren't that much different than the guy who goes down th ebookies except they are paid to do it with other peoples money.

I Will Be Here Soon
Anyway you what I did yesterday after work. I spent a great night with friends who I hadn't seen in ages , laughing chatting , drinking eating and catching up , and that put a huge huge smile on my face and theirs. The only money that was spent was on food and drink , and a couple of expensive taxis. That is the way to have a Friday , having a great time with great friends laughing and giving hugs.

Obviously only one song for this , and John Scott will hate me for it. Black Friday by Steely Dan.

Have a brilliant brilliant weekend everyone , CSI Ambleside is calling and you know what that means..


Sunday 22 March 2015

Seven Days In Orton Cumbria


I came up with the name for this blog as a travel blog about places I'd stayed, which maybe is a bit ambitious as I don't travel very far. I detest flying , not for the actual flight , but for the endless queuing and excuses for delays, plus the fact the flight is usually a miniscule part of the journey unless , say, I were going to Australia.

Anyway the place we were it was Orton in Cumbria, just off the M6 but very quiet and very relaxing. It is also about a mile away from the Tebay / Westmorland Farm Services which are the benchmark for Motorway Service Stations. The now have one on the M5 and one on the M74 planned. While the prices are Motorway Service Station levels, the service, location and food on offer is the best you will find on a Motorway (In this case the M6).

The cottage is a converted barn and can be seen here , and has everything you need although the village is still waiting on broadband and the mobile signal is a little erratic. This meant that for the first time I ran out of data on my EE contract , and due to the stipulations and expense of buying extra data I decided I didn't need it. Of and after 2 messages with a URL to buy the extra data , their app then stops letting you see your data information so you couldn't buy any if you wanted! But it wasn't a major hassle , there are lots of places that let you hook into wifi including the aforementioned Westmorland Farm Services and the excellent Kings Head at Ravenstonedale, which sounds like somewhere from Game of Thrones.


We ate at the excellent Black Swan which is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area, this is one of the meals I had , runny scotch eggs, gammon , garlic cheese potatoes, tomatoes and green stuff. There's also images of the giant meringue on my instagram feed if you want to try and fine it.



The countryside is very relaxing and great for just walking and doing not much out of contact from mobile phones and the like, and the great thing about staying in Orton is that it has a post office that sells 99% of stuff that you actually need, then there's the George Hotel which does food and drink and the people are really pleasant in there, and then you have Kennedy's Chocolate factory where you can buy almost anything made of chocolate , including boxes of chocolates made out of chocolate.

I thought a suitable tune was Lindsey Buckingham's Holiday Road from National Lampoon's Vacation , the guy is a total musical genius , and that is the best of the vacation films.

So that's some short thoughts on my week away, now I'm back home and the weather is looking very good.. Have a fantastic Sunday everybody

Saturday 10 December 2011

December Starts Quietly

...or it has for me. A week in Cumbria was very relaxing , alogh driving past Ullswater was scary , butA mbleside was superb visiting the excellent Lucy On A Plate , seeing the actual first Lilliput Lane Cottage and going for a drink in the pub on the cover of Half Man Half Biscuit's CSI Ambleside.

Appleby was interesting veering from discussions on extreme violence , to excellent coffee shops and superb architecture . The village is wifi'd up as well but our cottage was just too far out to benefit.

Rheged was an interesting shopping centre with so quality stuff on sale , an excellent restaurant and an interesting art gallery , and it's all under grass!!!

I know this is a short post but needed to get December started . Holiday pictures are here.

By the way the Dail Mail and Express have been forecasting Armageddon again because it's a bit cold and windy!!