The Porridge Fairy

I never know how to spell porridge, if you follow the link it lists a few alternatives (porage, porrige, parritch, etc.) so that could explain my confusion , so it's not just the fact that my IQ is less than my show size. Anyway today one of those series of events came together to cause a particular  non situation.

Faerie Tales

Breakfast

I started cooking my breakfast of organic porridge and also made a cup of tea. When I'd measured the stuff out I elastic banded the bag an chucked it in the cupboard. This was stuff I'd got from the excellent Mmm in The Grainger Market ages back and very nice it is too. Anyway I then noticed that the milk in the tea had curdled, and I'd used the same for the porridge , so chucked it away and went back into the cupboard for more oats .... and there were none there!! I thought I saw the bag but it was noodles. Then I finally found the errant bag and it was hidden behind some cans of beans and pulses. How did that happen?


Unless someone ..... or something moved it! Well actually what happened is I threw the porridge bag a bit harder than I though and there was a gap behind the cans where it landed.

Then I thought about the similarity with faith, haunting and magic situations where people don't want to really know the answer and in most cases are just too lazy to find it. It's the basis for atrology , psychic charlatans and religious fraud like Creationism. Oh I cant think the Devil or God or The Fairies did it. Derek Acorah and Most Haunted play on this situation. I mean this are as as valid.

• My car has stopped, God must not want me to go to worker so he stopped my car: 
• NO - You've run out of Petrol!
• The lights have gone out, Satan has plunged us into darkness: 
• NO - A fuse has blown or you've not payed your bill
• The porridge has disappeared from the food cupboard, the porridge fairy must have moved it:
•  NO - you chucked it in there too hard and it went to the back of the cupboard

Fairies

So anyway that's what happened this morning , but the sun is shining brightly this morning just in tome for a great weekend. Have a fantastic Friday everyone and have an even better weekend.

Thought the rather excellent Bastard Fairies would be an appropriate song for today.

Autumn, Hemp, Nettles and Australian Penetration from Pauline

Autumn is definitely here, the leaves are turning yellow , gold and brown and falling from their trees covering paths and gardens, and it's windy and rainy but we are in the middle of  October. It's dark when I leave for work and dark when I'm getting back and the heating is now on for longer and getting turned up.

There's a couple of upcoming gigs, next week including a warm up one for Pauline Murray at the Tyneside Bar and Cafe before her first tour of Australia. I've seen her twice fronting Penetration recently , check out posts here. so I am looking forward to that. I recently went for an evening of Nic Cave songs so as yet my gigs there have had an Australian connection.

Blood Better

The other thing this week is that I had noticed that my blood sugar was getting high, yes I'd been on holiday , but it was hitting 12 to 20 at it's worst. I couldn't think what had changed , and then realised I'd run out of hemp oil tablets, and at the same time I read that nettle tea was good for reducing blood sugar , so I got myself some and the blood sugar is now back to normal after a couple of days. I'm quite amazed that something can have an actual effect that quickly so I'm going back to see my doctor to discuss it with her.





So an interesting week, and hopefully we can all keep warm and cozy while enjoying the good things in life. Have a great day everybody. Thought I'd include the Philosopher's Song from Monty Python as it always bring a smile to my face and I'm sure it will to yours.

Ai Weiwei at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The Iron Tree

Back from holiday but I was mightily impressed by The Yorkshire Sculpture Park . It's big and it's impressive and it's mostly outdoor. I originally wanted to go for the Ai Weiwei exhibition, but this turned out to be one of many wonders at the place. I've found a copy of the documentary "Never Sorry" to include with this post , but there's details of the exhibitition Ai Weiwei "In The Chapel" , which includes poetry from his father and some wonderful exhibits, The Iron Tree being my favourite, here.

Ursula Von Rydingsvard

I was also impressed with the work of Ursula von Rydingsvard , one of her sculptures hits you when you when you enter the park , which is just off junction 38 on the m1.

The brilliance of the park is that it attracts you to an exhibit, and then as you are studying it you will see another, five or ten minutes walk away, and before you know where you are you are way off your original planned visit.



Because it's mostly outdoor it's best to have a good day for a visit, and make sure you have a camera with you. If you are reliant on film , make sure you have plenty of rolls, and if digital , you may need an extra memory card or two because not only are the exhibits worth picturing, the landscape is wonderful too.

My photographs of the day are here and you can use the website to find out more about the pictures I took.

Ok have a brilliant Saturday , the weather here is fantastic.

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.

Consequences

It's quite funny how simple things can have unexpected consequences. I'm on holiday in Ampleforth and manages to forget a lot of things, but thank god not the remote for my media player, but I forgot my glasses. Without my glasses I can't really see much detail without them, enough to get by but not to do the stuff I want.

I don't like showering with contact lenses in so effectively to actually do what I want I have to get up and shower and then I may as well get up. It's not a problem but it does mean that I need contact lenses in all day that I don't usually do.

Freakonomics

This post is probably the most boring one that I've ever written but I'm on holiday so I'm allowed to do things like this. Although I could have gone on about unexpected consequences and that reminds me of a great book by Levitt & Dubner called Freakonomics which details the unexpected consequences of events and actions and poses such scenarios as:

• What do estate agents and the Ku Klux Klan have in common?
• Why do drug dealers live with their mothers?
• What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?
• How can your name affect how well you do in life?

And a lot more, it is amazing how simple events can have a domino effect on other events. Anyway that's as deep as I'm going to get today, so enjoy your day  and I will continue enjoying mine.I thought the Guinness advert was fairly appropriate for the subject of this post. Have a great day!

Sunday Sermon:Pitch Black Into Naked Religion

Apologies for this being slightly ranty rather than positive, although it's just some things that have recently crossed my mind brought tho the fore by last nights dream. Given the nature of the post I thought Randy Newman's "God's Song" would be appropriate.

I slept well last night,, but woke up from a dream that I remembered some of. It didn't finish, and nothing bad happened but it was a pre disaster scenario which could be dealt with with certain precautions. This is the dream as it happened. Basically I was is a Pitch Black scenario (Pitch Black being the best sci fi "B" Movie since Alien starring Vin Diesel as Riddick). I was in the deserted outpost building with the knowledge from diaries that were strewn about that the previous occupants had been wiped out by the inhabitants of this planet. I was with a group of people who sounded like eastern European Bond villains, and they had returned from a reconnaissance trip with what looked like tatty Russian dolls about two feet high. I knew from the diaries that these were eggs of the vicious creatures that had destroyed the previous occupant. I said that we had to get the m outside immediately. Then the argument started.:

Them: "How do you know they are dangerous?"
Me: "Look at the evidence, theres been violence here and the diaries have drawings of eggs and descriptions of the creatures that hatched and probably killed them all"
Them: "How do you know that these are the same"
Me: "Even if they're not we should err on the side of caution, leave them outside then we are safe and we can observe with a lesser amount of danger"
Them: "We think they are cute, so they're staying"
Me:"That is not a good idea, being cute in a hostile environment is not an sensible objective stance to take"
Them:"They're staying, we think they'll be fine"
Me: "What do you base that on?"
Them: "The look cute"

Then I woke up, and thought , this argument is a lot like religious faith (Mainly Creationists)  vs  Science. Science always questions itself and that's how truths are discovered, and extreme religion uses this to deny science while refusing to question it's own belief. I know it was a laboured tale to illustrate a basic point but I've met many religious people who use it as a moral supportive code and do not force it others or question others beliefs. My problem is when religion is used as a bludgeon to spread ignorance (ie Creationism).

The Lovers

Anyway the second vaguely religious point was something I noticed from this Facebook post here.  When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden they were happy, God was happy and all was great until Satan got Even to eat the apple and they discovered SHAME and started wearing makehift clothes which got God angry and he chucked them out of the Garden. So using that scenario wearing of clothes is and obvious sign of Satanism , because God wanted us to be naked.

David

So why is there such a furore when we see a nipple, willy or pussy or bum?  If God's will were to be carried out we should all surely be naked. Actually there is the practicality of weather and keeping dry and warm, and let's face clothes can make a person with the most unappealing body look good. It's that that if we see someone "exposed" there's far more uproar than a knifing or shooting, so if you do see someone either laugh, appreciate or ignore, don't act like a Daily Mail reader.

OK that's my Sunday Sermon , have a brilliant day everyone, I'm enjoying my holiday (and fully dressed)

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: