No Time

Just reading the excellent "Notes on a Nervous Planet" and something came up that applies to me. I continually feel that I do not have enough time to do things (may that's a symptom of getting older) but as Matt Haig points out, we can now communicate faster and more easily than every before, we have rapid travel options , washing machines, lawn mowers , microwaves , etc speed up things that took a lot more of our time than they did before.

When I left EE I didn't realise at first that I didn't have to travel, on general three hours a day to get to and from work. That's fifteen hours a week (I was stopped from working from home before I finished), that's sixty hours a month. Given that the average working week is 37 hours (150 hours a month) I gained more than 20% time by leaving. That is a lot of time.

The problem is life overload, to watch a TV program or a film , still takes as long as it takes, reading a book takes time, listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony takes about 70 minutes to listen to (you could play it at 78 rpm but that would sound silly), but basically we do not really appreciate the extra time that modern life is giving use, and we should do.

Writing this takes time, and reading it takes time (though not as much time as it takes to write).

It is a beautiful Sunday Morning and it's an excuse to share the wonderful Flash Mob take on "Ode To Joy" from Beethoven's 9th . I showed this to the lady in the the Oxfam Shop in Helmsley and she loved it because she said it makes you realise what instruments go together to make this wonderful music.

More Time

Not having Facebook active seems to be giving me more time. I could use this to do other things but I;m probably reading more, watching more TV, walking more but not improving my creative output (yet) unless you count this.

I spent some time in Helmsley today and because Scott's was not open to sit in we tried  La Trattoria , a new Italian based restaurant next to the Town Hall, and it is definitely an excellent new find.

I also had a brief walk round the Castle and posted some Instagram photos here.

I know I'm on holiday, but I can post this, I have watched an X-Men film , and am watching an episode of Marvel:Agents of Shield waiting for this weeks Gotham, while reading Neil Gaiman's excellent"Norse Mythology"".

This is day one with no Facebook and while I am talking about it,I am doing other things. I suppose I slightly miss sharing things and having things shared with me but I have Instagram and Twitter if I want to interact.

As yet no one (I told about five people) has asked me where I've gone so I am not being missed (yet).

So you can see the analogy between Social Media and Drug Addiction .

I thought "Free" by VAST is semi appropriate so giving the year a miss for this post but I will use it as I work up to 2019, we shall see, although 1935 was the year that my dad was born.

Waiting For Things To Happen

It's strange at times when you are trying to do a lot of things simultaneously, your focus obviously drifts and because you are waiting for something to complete before you can continue task ne you start on task two that engages you until you reach an impasse and you check task one and you are still waiting for something to complete so you start task three and then forget about task one that then sits waiting for you because you away with the faireies on task four by now.

Part of the reason for this post is to include "Rahaye,Rahaye" or "Rahe Rahe Jaan Waliye" or probably about ten other title variations by The Safri Boys , an absolutely joyous piece of Bhangra that I discovered on a Bhangra compilation many years back and then couldn't remember the title when I wanted to your use for a post in Settle about it's excellent pair of Indian Restaurants Ruchee and Royal Spice . I am lucky I also have Rajnagar round the corner from where I live, as well as Solomon's Dhaba fairly close, so I am well served with Indian restaurants both at home and on holiday. Also when I go to Oswaldkirk in a month or so I can sample the excellent Helmsley Spice.

So as the week draws to a break, I am thinking about Indian cuisine and Bhangra Music, which is not a bad thing in my opinion.

Verushka

Today I walked ten miles, which is a long way for me, especially on the last day of the month. It was basically Helmsley to Riveaulx and back much of the way through fields containing horses and sheep, and up and down some fairly steep inclines, one of which was nearly a thousand feet (remember this was meant to be a leisurely walk not a hill walking expedition). You see some Instagram images here.

This means that I have maintained my rolling million steps every steps every three months for the last year. That's not that much , roughly 11K steps a day which is maybe four and a half miles. I have a friend who did ten times that so my effort is not really that impressive, but I will continue doing it this year, although I will have a couple of days in hospital for a liver biopsy so that may be a little obstacle, but easy to overcome.

Today I saw a man mowing a field with what looked like a lawn mower, very odd.

The word "Verushka" came into my mind, so I wondered what it was. It turns out it's an alternate / mis spelling of Veruschka von Lehndorff and actress who appeared in the Antonioni film "Blow-Up" which featured a cameo from The Yardbirds featuring Jeff Beck playing "Stroll On", and this came up in a BBC4 documentary on Beck on Friday night which you may be able to watch here, so that is maybe where Verushka came from.

So I will leave you with the Yardbirds for this last April 2018 post.

Tiny Steps

Today was the day I expected to record my lowest step count (the lowest is 2,800 last year at Helmsley), the footpaths are icy with melted frozen snow, and that is melting, leaving a treacherous skid pad and I had something fairly heavy to bring back from Aldi about a mile away. That's nomally about 2,500 steps but when I got there I'd covered over 4,000 steps and at first that my step recorder is screwed, but then I thought..... becaus the paths are so bad I am staking smaller steps to make sure I don't end up slipping, so although the distance is the same the steps are double what I expected.

I'm back home now but thought I would post this as an example of something becoming clarified when you look and the whole picture. These days so many people are reactionay and focus on a very small area without looking at the bigger picture, I nearly did today.

Anyway I know this is a short post but it's an excuse to include the amazing "Tiny Steps" by Elvis Costello, have a brilliant last Saturday of 2017 everyone.

Idiots on Wheels

I went out for a short walk this morning and getting towards the end of the road I saw a car which I thought was turning into my road, so I got on to the grass verge as Yorkshire seems to be very short on footpaths. The car stayed there, then I realised it was positioned to possibly cross the Pickering road, blocking the road, then another car came up behind it. The car blocking the road was a BMW and you start thinking about the stereotype expensive car owners and their habits.

German cars are a beacon of engineering excellence, and that makes drivers feel much safer, and some drivers start to think that they own the road and screw everyone else.

The the passenger got out of the BMW, walked round to the drivers side and open the back door and take out a road map, walk back and get in then they started looking at the map. All the while there is the car behind being blocked in. They then sounded their horn. No reaction from the BMW driver so the car behind was forced to overtake on the wrong side of the road (very dangerous, but the BMW driver was oblivious) and get on their way.

The thing is, if you're lost you find somewhere safe to park up then look at where you are and need to go, but this BMW showed absolute idiocy in what he did and could have caused a serious accident. The Helmsley to Pickering road gets quite busy and the car forced to overtake could have been hit because they couldn't get a good view of the main road, or a car may have tried to turn in off the main road.

I think an appropriate song for this post is one of my favourite car songs from Chuck Berry, the excellent "Maybelline". I need to hit another eight thousand steps so maintain my holiday step average for my Million Step Challenge, which I think should be well within my capability.

Still Feeling Great

The Sugared Butterfly

Today I had the best Hot Chocolate I've ever had at Sugared Butterfly in Helmsley. It used to be The Old Police Station, but is absolutely lovely and, as I say, brilliant Hot Chocolate, and I just had the basic one. Chances are I'm going back tomorrow , the people were really pleasant, and it is the sort of place you can feel totally relaxed in and get a choice of both traditional and unusual food. This place is just one of many in Helmsley which is just such a pleasant village. My only criticism of the place is that they have space for an Edinburgh Woolen Mill shop , but still no Chemist! I've been holidaying in the area for about five years and still can't believe that situation still exists.



The holiday is continuing on in a relaxing fashion, not going very far, watching Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire, both extremely worthy series. It's amazing these days how much advertising you can dodge with catch up TV options. I'm surprised they let you fast forward through the adverts, although if you use 4OD you don't get that option. This is why I don't mind paying my TV License, I'm amazed at the number of people who complain about the £130 a year TV License while forking out £100 a month for a Sky Movies and Sport package without batting an eyelid.

Anyway another problem I had today was my phone not connecting to the Holiday Cottage Wifi. I tried lots of solutions on the web and finally solved it by switching the router off and on, nice simple solution, though I wish I'd done it this morning.

Today we've had blue skies, although it's been very cold, but still an excellent day, just good to be well away from the rat race.Thought I would leave you with a bit of Faust , sort of relevant to the holiday, not your average Krautrock , but then I don't think ant Krautrock is average, and if you don't enjoy this then listen to it until you do. It is very good.

So again I've managed to link up a relaxing holiday with some extreme music, but that's just the nature of things, everything is connected if you look for the threads

Sort Of Normal

After finally getting up today after a good night's sleep today has been a sort of normal day. It's nine o'clock and I don't feel ready to drop. I've had a relaxing day visiting Helmsley, and my holiday has started in an excellent holiday type of way.

The weather is what you would expect in December, but I've certainly seen much worse and have plans to visit Helmsley Castle (part of English Heritage which is free with my Barclays Bank Account) and Castle Howard during the week.

The Last Glimpse Of Summer

Though being away from Newcastle has extracted me from the situation of choosing between four excellent gigs tonight so I can relax, listen to good music , drink , and just feel good. Though this is a remarkably short post it has taken me a remarkably long time to write, for something with so few words in it.

Maybe I am getting tired and maybe I should go to bed. Well my weekend has got off to a great start, I hope yours is the same and I hope all my friends who are enjoying gigs and socialising tonight have an absolutely brilliant time. I have to include a picture of Rebecca Cothers beautiful latest work one here because it is a lovely evocation of the last of summer.

I chose David Bowie's take on Jacques Brel's Amsterdam because my daughter Juliet is doing a presentation on the place this week. And that's another coincidence I've had reason to mention both of my daughters in consecutive blog posts , and that is another reason to put a smile on my face.

2 x 12 x Magna Carta

Quite amazingly this week I have had two twelve hour plus sleeps, one managing to sleep through the alarm the day after finishing work. I obviously needed so rest and recuperation. A good friend remarked that I always forget something when I go on holiday, and this time I did again, although it was just various cooking things, olive oil and the like.

This week I've noticed some odd coincidences , I was reading a book about space and the fact you could buy an acre of land on the moon for about $20 then logged on to Facebook to find my daughter Kirsty had bought an acre of Moon for £10!

Now That's What I Call A Document

After a drive down in thick fog and tea at The White Horse it was bed for me last night, but I'm up now with options of a "Christmas Fayre" in the local Church Hall and visits to local centres. I still can't believe after years of coming to Ampleforth that Helmsley doesn't have a Chemist! The White Horse is a fantastic welcoming pub, all the staff and regulars are friendly and the food is excellent, and at the the moment it's very festively decorated although there will be no Christmas songs til December. Quite right too.

Just noticed it's 800 years since the Magna Carta was signed, though think this needs reinforcing given the state of current governments. Here are Helmsley's details on the Magna Carta page.

Although this post was more about me sleeping a lot, it has morphed into stuff about history and The Magna Carta and the most contemporary music that came to mind is the Jay Zed album so I've included Crown from that album, which is quite good if a bit sweary.Have a brilliant day everyone, I'm enjoying my holiday.

Hardwick Cottage Ampleforth and a Vinyl Record Shop

I may have posted this before , but Ampleforth along with Whitby is one of the few places I could probably live. Obviously I love Newcastle and that's where my life is full of friends and family, and I come from Preston and have lots of friends and family there.

This is about the fourth time we've stayed in Hardwick cottage and it provides the ability to be cut off along with the convenience of local amenities within walking distance, as well as pubs and the option to eat out or have take aways. The cottage is here. In May I thought that would be my final visit, but the situation has changed slightly and we will be back at the beginning of December and maybe again next year which really pleases me.

Slim Whitman 78

Elvis at the door

There are lots of small towns near such as Helmsley, Thirsk and Northallerton which I visited yesterday and shockingly found a vinyl record shop. I'm not a vinyl junkie but it was a pleasant surprise to actually find somewhere selling records just off the main street. The name of the shop is BetterDaze and has lots of vinyl, memorabilia, jukeboxes and record players, mainly rock and rock and roll. They also have a Facebook page here.




You're greeted by an Elvis figure when you enter the shop and there were quite a few people in there when I dropped by yesterday afternoon.

So I'm just having a great holiday here and am really enjoying it, and the Happy Days intro always puts a smile on my face. Have a great day everyone.

Starless and Bible Black

Starless......

I must admit that the first time I came across this ominous beauty of a phrase is when King Crimson used it as the title of one of their great albums. Of course it comes from the opening of Dylan Thomas' wonderful tone poem "Under Milk Wood" :

"To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea."

Anyway, it perfectly describes the feeling of being here in Ampleforth in the middle of the night, but here it id perfect calm and very relaxing, though it was initially disconcerting when I first came as I tend to get a little unnerved in absolute  total darkness when you have no point of reference such as a chink of light through the curtains or late night taxis taking people home or the police helicopter chasing someone down the A1. In Ampleforth there is none of that, just calm and serenity, admittedly in the dark.

Actually the local Church clock auto chimes on the hour, or something does because as I awoke I heard three bell chimes.

Anyway after a good journey down, I found I'd managed to leave my contact lens solution at home (none to be found in Helmsley and about the only thing the loacal Post Office doesn't stock), then realised that I'd left my glasses at home, so once lenses are out the eyestarin gets a bit much for any reading or messing about on the computer, then I realised I'd left the DAB Radio at home (and we have 4!) so that's three things I've forgotten.

Anyway it's almost four in the morning now, so I am going to get back to bed, and leave you with the DubWood Allstars treatment of the intro to Under Milk Wood, which I have loved since Cerys Matthews played it on her 6 Music show. And if you want to watch the recent excellent BBC production, it's here:

My Seven Day Weekend

Last June I did 35 posts , more than 1 a day. This June that's unlikely, but I will still be posting, and hopefully will have a few this week. Yesterday I ate at Scotts of Helmsley , just the standard fish and chips. I thought the portion looked a bit skimpy but didn't by the time I had finished, full and with great service and I would recommend them to anyone who is in the area for any reason. Helmsley is slightly odd in that I've been visiting for years and in all that time it has never had a chemist, which odd for such a big village.

Anyway I could tell you what I'm going to be up to but that would spoil it for when I actually post what I've done and where I've been (which does sound a bit ominous but it's not honestly).

Well this is the first post of this month and the weather is really nice , I've posted pictures on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook so you can look there.

So everyone enjoy the rest of your weekend I have a seven day one this week so that's why I have the New York Dolls on this post!

Another Beautiful Day in National Sausage Week

Sausage Week

A good friend told me it was National Sausage Week in the UK and there's at least one website with all the details at LovePork a website name straight out of the Carry On canon! Although this theme carried through into the final episodes of series 3 of Game of Thrones, though not exactly rib tickling fun for the victim.

Ironically I've spent a lot of time in Helmsley in Yorkshire and there's been no high profile promotion of National Sausage Week. I think there is only one butcher there but there's a few "artisan" food shops but no prominent sausages! Earlier in the week I did sample some very hot ones from Pern's of Helmsley .

Yesterday I had fish and chips from the excellent Scotts though I should have gone for their small portion as I couldnt't finish the normal, and the also have a jumbo one, no way for me.

Any the weather is again beautiful, there was a frost , but it's blue skies and sunshine here. It's been a week of almost total relaxation, not going far and just enjoying myself. Tomorrow is a drive back to Newcastle for the Public Sevice Broadcasting gig, it's amazing how bands can still come up with new takes on how to make original music so even though it's National Sausage Week I'll post the last PSB video as a header to this post. Have a brilliant day everyone.

Adventures in A Yorkshire Landscape 2: Fire and Snow

The second installment of the holiday entry. We approached Oswaldkirk on a Friday night in the dark and fog , with ice on the roads , not helped by the fact that Sutton Bank on the A170 is a one in four hill (ie steep). The benefit of this is that during the day you can get some excellent views, though towards the end of the week anything but a main road was very dodgy for our renault Clio, seen below at the far end of our snowbound car park.

Once we were in Oswaldkirk we had an excellent meal in The Malt Shovel , and meant to get back there but weather and other commitments meant it will have to wait until our next holiday.

The short video below starts with the chimeniere (we have two in our garden and they are fantastic) outside the excellent Star Inn at Harome near Helmsley (A Michelin Star pub apparently , and the food is excellent). The place is run by Andrew Pern who's published a history of the restaurant cum cook book called "Black Pudding & Foie Gras" , available here.


The following section sees birds behind the Fox and Hounds in some village that I cant remember then a lot of snowscapes. The music is "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape" by Bebop Deluxe from the album Axe Victim and can be downloaded here should you wish to purchase it!