A Wonderfully Arty Vegan Lift To The Weekend - #ALifeInNumbers #49

In a week that has felt like the world is raining hammer blows on us, today I had two pieces of good news. My friend Craig is out of hospital, but posting on Facebook and sounding very upbeat and positive, though has a drug stash almost as big as mine.

Not Wildflower

Not Thousand Yard Stare

Secondly my friend Jessica, well we've met twice, she has given me cake and I know her mum and we are Facebook friends, and her friend Asher Turnbull are opening Wildflower, an art / vegan café in Westgate Road on 15th of November.





I mentioned that their logo reminded me of the one that one of my favourite bands, Thousand Yard Stare ,had used for their new album (which is excellent by the way). If you follow the tag or click on her name you will find details of the amazing exhibition where I first met Jessica , but as yet I haven't visited  Wildflower but will do as soon as it opens.


While I am pleased to have a vegan eatery close to home I will give a real review when it opens but I am just going to share Jessica's words with you for this. Yes it's a bit lazy I know, but as well as being an amazing artist , she can write too:


Wildflower is a vegan art café opening up on 283a Westgate road, just a little walk from town. We are a friendly place aiming to help creatives express themselves while eating delicious cake!

The café is owned by two very creative young vegans, Jessie and Asher, who aim to make this place spectacular. We want to have many fun events and parties, such as still life drawing sessions, anarchy knitting groups, themed dinner parties, vintage markets, art markets, live music, comedy, upcycling workshops, cooking demos and many more things! All with demonstrating an eco friendly ethic, and helpful attitude towards the local community.

We have started out with very little money, but have so far managed to get most of our furniture from Freecycle, which has been rather glorious. But there are a few essential things that you simply cannot get for free, such as ovens (that work properly!) so we are raising some money to try and get those few essential things! Link to our crowd funder is here: 


Their Facebook page is here  and this is where it is, so also handy for me for lunch.

Anyway this is being woven in with my #ALifeInNumbers  sequence and for number 49 it was always going to be "Funk #49" by the James Gang. The James Gang featured Joe Walsh on guitar, and I have always loved his economic style. Pete Townshend once said that Joe Walsh was his favourite guitarist and you can see the similarities. The chord holsds sway in their songs and this means that they are easy to follow for budding musicians. I've included an excellent live session but you can here the James Gang original here.

Have a wonderful Saturday night my friends.

Staying Positive - #ALifeInNumbers #48

I'm staying positive and will likely have a rant on And Annoyingly over the weekend. This morning we learned of the loss of Leonard Cohen, but he will live on in his writing and music and my belief in the evolutionary process makes me feel he will be progressing in one form or another, and no doubt his record company will have a treasure trove of unreleased material.

Anyway we are at the the weekend (well almost) and this is time for the good and sensible people to regroup and realise they can actually do good, and make a world actually worth living in. The thing is not to give up and very often you find something new to work towards.

Stay Cool

Anyway we come to number 48 of #ALifeInNumbers and it's "48 Hours" by The Clash from their first album, one and a half minutes to blow any cobwebs away. Incidentally The Clash and Leonard Cohen are still label mates, they may have departed this mortal coil (well Leonard and Joe) , but Mick Jones still produces some great music, and actually I am going to include "The News" by Carbon/Silicon because it's an incredibly positive way to start the day.

Stay positive and find good things this weekend my friends.

Post Office and Customs Tarot and a 747 - #ALifeInNumbers #47

Yesterday I got home and saw a note through the door. from the Post Office. There was apcakage for me but I have to pay £8 Customs Duty and an £8 fee to the Post Office to administer the Customs Duty. This is on to of the £37 I paid for the item , which is a Goth Rock Icon Tarot, which looks absolutely beautiful, so yes a lot of money for a small package but I've just had a thought, if Brexit goes through there will be a hell of a lot more instances of this I think.

Psychobilly Tarot

Still, at the weekend I will have the thing in my hands, so I am looking forward to that. I don't know much about Tarot, but have a beautiful Psychobilly Tarot set. These are both limited editions and things of total beauty.

Anyway we are up to Number 47 in #ALifeInNumbers and again  this is a slight kludge which was bound to happen the further we get from Number One.

I'm still disappointed I forgot to include "Map Ref. 41°N 93°W" by Wire for number 41, but hey we are up to 47 and for this I am going for "747" by Joe Louis Walker, so enjoy this slice of Rhythm and Blues as you venture out this Tuesday.

Toot and Smile - #ALifeInNumbers #46

This is the first blog post I've done since I got home. I try to keep things positive, but I am sad that Brexit and Donald Trump are causing many people to think aggressive bullying, racism and misogyny , as well as the demonisation of the weak and poor is now ok. Farage, the tories and Trump do it so it must be OK.. Well you know what, it isn't, and I hope I am never brought that low.

Anyway I want to be positive, and I will be, despite the storm clouds there are lots of great things to look forward to, like spending time with friends and loved ones, getting out to great gigs (although Blyth is a bit awkward for The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, still one of my favourite live bands), and in Newcastle we have so much to enjoy and savour.

I am thinking of my friend Craig who is going through a difficult time at the moment, but he is the most loving, positive , inclusive person you could meet and he is the sort of person that makes life worth enjoying. We need to all follow that example, put a smile on other people's faces, that is a great way to live.

I've just realised that I missed at least one great song from my list because my list was on my home PC. Bugger.

Anyway we hit Number 46 and it's a bit of a kludge but it's "54-46 Was My Number" by Toots and The Maytals, and it's an excuse to fit one Toots song in. I found this live cut , but click on the title if you want to download the studio version.

Anyway that is Monday over with, enjoy your week my friends.

Thousand Yard Stare - #ALifeInNumbers #45

This morning I got another follower on twitter, someone called Kelly. I thought the name was familiar and I think she is a great girl I worked with at EE, I am not 100% certain but may be right or wrong. I was Facebook friends but dropped her when I started getting some spiteful harassment from other people and decided it was not a good idea to be Facebook friends with management at the place where you work. The good thing about social media is you can connect with people who are worth your time and effort and I do look to try and be friends with positive people and Kelly is definitely one of those. Who knows we may reconnect on Facebook.

Today is fairly grey and this morning was spent dodging cattle and sheep on the road between Orton and Shap on the way to Tebay services via the back roads. Today was meant to be total relaxation, with no driving, but needs must and I took the car out again. This means that I will have driven on every day of the holiday, which has still been very relaxing and enjoyable.

It is so nice to not have to get up and go to work. As I write this I am sitting in the warm listening to Tom Ravenscroft on 6Music, with the likes of Leonard Cohen, Yak, Prince and Grandaddy flowing through the airwaves.

Anyway we’re up to number 45 in #ALifeInNumbers and it was always going to be “God’s P45” by Thousand Yard Stare. Thousand Yard Stare are a band I always loved but didn’t get the success they deserved. I think their sound and attitude is in the same universe as Half Man Half Biscuit and The Wedding Present, and loved the titles of their songs such as “Happenstance”, “Buttermouth” and “0-0 After Extra Time” (that could have been Half Man Half Biscuit. I was delighted to hear they had got back together and produced a new digital album, which still have to buy, but it’s here.

 "God's P45" is the first song that I can't find on Youtube and it's not even available digitally. I have a copy at  home, so I will create a slideshow and put it up at the weekend and include it here. Anyway enjoy “Version of Me” , and enjoy your Thursday my friends, the weekend is nearly here.

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.

Nothing About Samhain and All Hallows - #ALifeInNumbers #43

I’m obviously a bit on my guard after the data drain caused by the Windows 10 update. The main “enhancements” see to be trying to make me log into OneDrive every time I connect to the internet and telling me I need to upgrade my copy of Microsoft Office (I’m on 10 but obviously I need their rented version) . I still like having some control Microsoft.

Similarly Apple did an update that forced me to add a credit card so I could use Apple Pay. I don’t think I will ever have an iPhone, and I won’t use my iPad to pay for anything, but it was a dead end, give us your credit card details or you can’t use your device. Very nice Apple you have really gone up in my estimation.

Anyway it lookslike yesterday I used about .7 Gb of data. My usual use is maybe 1 Gb a week, but that is in environments where wifi is often available, and this week I am in an area where wifi and phone signals are seen as a form of magic only practiced by “outsiders”.

Anyway we are up to number 43 of #ALifeInNumbers on this beautiful sunny 1st of November. I thought it was unusual that 39,40,41 and 42 could have been represented by those numbers as the song titles. I didn’t use 42 for reasons explained in my last post.

Number 43 I have no such qualms about , and I am going for “Made-Up Love Song 43” by The Guillemots, one of those bands I haven’t really followed but always enjoy hearing, they are just a casualty of there being so much great music to listen to in my musical universe.

Anyway enjoy your first day of November,Today is either All Hallows Day or Samhain depending on your belief system. Enjoy and and celebrate.