deluded

I really have very little else to occupy my deluded mind have I?

courage

I sincerely hope that the left-leaning Ed Milliband, the new leader of the Labour Party, has the courage of his convictions and follows a Socialist agenda for the benefit of all.

These are difficult times. The battle lines have been drawn. We are governed in the UK by a dangerously right-wing Tory administration. They must be stopped and to see the error of their vile ways.

For all of us, Ed, for all of us.......

small

This is a photograph (not one of mine!) of both the Earth and the Moon. Can you see them, just to the centre-lower-left of the picture? It was taken by the Messenger spacecraft that is heading towards the Sun.

It just shows how small and insignificant we are in this vast universe. When you hear politicians and the public bemoaning asylum seekers, the "send 'em all back" brigade, it would be interesting for them to open their petty little minds at this and see if anything humbling enters their near-empty heads after seeing such a grounding photograph?

around

More messing around on "Paint".......

possibly

This is possibly the most incoherent post I've done in a long time but I can't get my head around the events behind the scenes at Liverpool Football Club.

Forget getting rid of Hicks and Gillett, forget the re-financing deal that is being proposed to RBS, forget any interested party prepared to take over my club.

Just sack it all off, and let Liverpool Football Club rest in peace. Let us go under as a lesson to the greed in English football. Give the sporting world a stark warning, or wake-up call if you like, that the cause of this cancer is money.

The money isn't important to the average supporter. They just want their club to play well - to, if possible, translate the desires of us untalented to be the best we can be. If all you care about is a rich owner furnishing your club with immense transfer funds - PISS RIGHT OFF NOW!!!!

Also, the fact that onfield matters are as up shit-creek as in the boardroom hasn't gone unnoticed at LFC.

You know what, folks, I don't care anymore. I've seen the writing on the wall, and I'm finding it difficult to muster the enthusiasm for my club at the moment. Because, whatever happens, I can't see a happy ending any time soon - I predict hurt, betrayal and more hurt. Peoples' souls are gonna be ripped out before this mess settles.

Our Manc and Bluenose mates will be laughing rather nervously at matters here. "Nervously" being the operative word.......

northampton

Just when you think things can't get any worse at Anfield, then comes a defeat at the hands of lowly Northampton Town in tonight's third-round of the League Cup.

The goodwill Roy Hodgson received on becoming our manager has largely evaporated due to an indifferent set of results, matched by all too-familiar Rafa-like tactics.

You can accept a narrow defeat at Old Trafford, but against a Berbatov hat-trick? Come on now, the man is a horse, and a lame one at that. But shit happens. And we carry on.

Tonight's game should've been a formality. But, like Everton found out last night, the lower league sides very rarely lie down nowadays. It's a nice idea for some of the fringe players to get a start, but coupled with blaise attitudes of the senior players they're coupled with, it's asking for trouble.

Northampton deserved their win, and will surely party like no party's partied before! But, given a little time, they will reflect on the inescapable fact that Liverpool Football Club took the piss out of them tonight, denying them the professional respect and game they surely merited.

So much dead wood played for Liverpool tonight. Some of our kids are talented enough to make the grade at a Zingari Sunday League side.

Not content with the owners taking us to the cleaners, it seems the new manager is of a similar mind.

cumbria

I went with Jayne, Aaron and Bethany, with their Old Roan Church Group, to Great Tower Scout Camp, near Windermere in Cumbria at the weekend.

I was looking forward to a relaxing few days away, but panic ensued early on Friday morning. The lad who usually drives the hired minibus and trailer up to the camp couldn't find his licence to show the company, so Jayne (and dad, Ged, the organiser of the trip) asked would I drive the vehicle and trailer instead. I was a little hesitant to be honest, because they'd be a full minibus load of people and 12 foot packed-trailer behind. But I picked up the thing with Ged later on that afternoon, and it was actually alright to drive. I'm like me Dad (and our Mick for that matter) in that we get into vehicles, and just drive them.

We left Old Roan around 7pm on Friday night and save for a stop at a motorway services near Lancaster, arrived at Great Tower about 9.30. The minibus did 60mph, tops, which was fine by me, and dandy by Jayne too, who was following. It was absolutely pitch-black dark. The last five miles of road towards the camp alternated between single/dual track roads, up and down, but mostly up, and I still marvel at how I drove to this place without misadventure.

The original idea was for me and Jayne (not being part of the party) to set up a tent outside the lodge where everybody slept. But it was so dark, and nobody could see where the hell we were, that we set up our air-bed and duvets in a corner of the hut, adjacent to the dormitories. It was the best idea we had, as it happened.

The following morning, I took the below shot of our surroundings. Lovely isn't it?

Great Tower, as a place, is a huge estate. As is my want, I spent a little time exploring, and found the highest point on the site, where I took the photos below - particularly of Lake Windermere.

On Saturday, the group went canoeing on Lake Windermere. As we were waiting for our boat, a massive rainbow appeared over the water.

The canoes seated 12 people, and me, Aaron and Bethany took our oars with the first boat. We rowed across Lake Windermere and back, before meeting up with our comrades near the jetty where we, predictably, soaked each other with water.

One of the other lads jumped into the lake, and I wished I'd done the same. Instead, me, Aaron and Bethany waded into the water from land and played splash like the children we all are! Note my completely dry appearance below...

In the afternoon, we had a go on the death slide. Here's Bethany complete with her harness waiting her turn....

...and here's me adjusting my hard hat to cover my big head.

When I was a kid, I was a natural climber, so scaling this tree to the jump platform was the old days.......

And here's a video of Bethany's slide.....

I love this photo of Bethany, after completing her jump, and Jayne (who took most of the pics this weekend).

Aaron wanted to do the death slide, but he's not a natural with heights.....

It started to rain on Saturday night, but the downpour did little to dampen our spirits in the hut. That night we played loads of daft party games, and had a really good laugh. The following morning and the rain was still with us, but I still went for a wander around the site. The air was clean, the lack of city noise a blessing, it was bliss. Even with the inclement weather, it was still very warm.

We loaded up the minibus and trailer during the afternoon, and I drove us all back. Again, the rain didn't help with all the spray coming off the motorway. But we arrived back at around 6pm, and quickly emptied the trailer and took the minibus back to the hire company. Job done!

It was a special weekend for me personally. At each of these trips, they have an award for "Hero Of The Weekend", and I won it for driving the minibus at short notice. I was humbled, though I'd have given the award to Ged for organising the whole weekend. Me, well....I was just in the right place at the right time.

I'd happily do this next time!

and

And now the back cover........

monsoon

Due to circumstances, I did the paper round on me own today. As it happened, for Aaron's sake, it was probably just as well.

Part of this paper round takes me right on seafront in Blundellsands. There's been a fairly strong gale blowing for the last day or so in these parts, so I was quite exposed to the elements while I was out.

Then it started to rain.

At first, the droplets of water were pleasant enough. Despite the wind, it was still very warm for this time of year. But soon, it started to throw it down. The mad thing was I could see it coming. Looking out across Liverpool Bay, the visibility was next to nothing, the sea was very, very choppy, but there was nothing I could do except brave it.

The next thing, the wind really picked up, and the rain intensified to a degree I haven't experienced before - I'd say it was the closest I've seen to a monsoon. There was an initial feeling of me versus nature. "Come on, you bastard," I screamed, "do your worst, hahahaha....etc"

Sod's law, nature obliged.

I walked on, pulling my trolley. To passing motorists, I must've been such a weird sight. I was absolutely drenched from head to toe - water pouring off me. Taking the hint that nature will always win, one house I delivered to had a canopy next to the front door. I stood under it for the next 15 minutes whilst the weather lashed and slashed its' way throughout the neighbourhood.

There was little point going back home to change, the drizzle continued. So I just carried on, as best as I could, listening to the rhythmic slush of the watery steps I made in my sodden trainers.

Naively, I've been after a mad day of weather since Aaron joined me on the round. Not to do him in, but just to give him an idea of what the elements can be like in such an exposed part of town. We've had beautiful days for the last five Wednesdays...until today.

I must've been one bad bugger in a previous life?

something

Something I've been working on tonight - part of a much bigger strategy in a month or two's time!

personalities

Today, it was the Merseyside Transport Trust's annual Running Day. But rather than concentrate on the excellent vintage buses running a selection of vintage routes all over particularly modern parts of south Liverpool, I thought it better to show some of the personalities and people of the bus enthusiast variety.......

Penny Lane people, cameras at the ready

"My girlfriend dumped me for a train spotter"

A lost soul from an abandoned Care In The Community project.

The floor at Liverpool South Parkway.

The 66B bus to Woolton was two minutes and forty seconds late. Chaos!

On old buses, dogs have their own seats ahead of humans.

"I want me mam!"

"You may have seen me in a porn film?"

The loneliness of the short-distance bus spotter......

The day-release patients had another 1054 seconds of seeing the world as it really is before their next bout of medication.

Your man here was taking photographs of the vintage advertisements on this bus.

There was an extensive service of buses back to Funny Farm from Woolton today.

And to finish off, here's a little video I put together on You Tube.....

For the first time in many years, I felt like I was going through the motions here today. Maybe it was because this was the second rally I'd been to in a week. Or probably that it's much the same this time as it was last year. And the year before. And the year before that. Etc. Etc......

pipe

Remember me saying how proud I was of my little car passing her MOT and being fab and stuff?

Famous last words.........

I don't know how it happened, but the pipe that moves all the power steering fluid around the engine fractured the other night. Devoid of this liquid, my car sounded like a demented, juddery bus.

So I took Anya into my regular mechanic, Dougie, and got the shock of my life when he told me a replacement part would cost £140. If you looked at this pipe, it's about 6mm thick, 6ft long in total length, powder-coated, and bent at various angles to fit in with the engine, with a couple of junctions to go various places.

The whole job, including labour, cost me £220. I owe Dougie another £100 because I just haven't got the readies to pay this amount of money off in one go.

The other job Anya needs doing is the timing belt replacing. This should've happened at 60,000 miles completed. Anya's now on 70,000 miles. The belt itself....well, it's the sort of part that could either last another 60,000 miles or snap tomorrow. It's the chance you take. But this job is another £150 stopping me from getting it done.

As much as I love my car, I've come to a very sudden nadir with Anya. Because another major breakdown will force it off the road for good. And part of me wonders if I should sell whilst the goings good? And buy a decent bike instead?

beautiful

Just when I think that this beautiful weather won't continue, we still get nights like this on Crosby Beach........

That's a U.F.O that landed in exactly the same location that the current Crosby Baths stands. Funny, it looks exactly like Crosby Baths' roof as well.

Then there's the obligatory Gormley shot. I love getting photographs with a background sun.

hypocrisy

I've had a recent experience of the total hypocrisy of Christianity. So it only seems right that Rock questions religious-doctrine in its' own imitable way - the peerless Andy Partridge and XTC.......



I don't blame God, I don't blame Jesus. I blame an interpretation of the scriptures that makes it okay for believers to get away with anything.

toss

The start of a couple of bus rallies in September/October today. I went over to the Trans-Lancs Rally in Heaton Park, north Manchester and caught a load of shots (on Jayne's borrowed camera), some of the better pictures I present below.

The weather, yet again, was gorgeous.

Wallasey Corporation 1 (FHF451), a 1958 Metro-Cammell-Weymann bodied Leyland Atlantean PDR1/1. This bus has the distinction of being the first ever production Atlantean to enter service in December 1958.

Ribble 1847 (TCK847), a 1963 Leyland PD3. I'm not really front-engined buses, but I'll make an exception here. Fairly certain that this bus worked out of Ribble's Bootle depot in its' final years on local routes in Waterloo.

MTL 7227 (L227TKA), a 1994 Plaxton Pointer-bodied Volvo B6.

Merseyside PTE 1365 (DKC365L), a 1973 Alexander AL-bodied Leyland Atlantean AN68/1R. Recently repainted in the original MPTE Wirral livery of blue and cream, with the short-lived "Merseyside" badge over the door.

Merseyside PTE 1551 (OLV551M), a 1974 Alexander AL-bodied Leyland Atlantean AN68/1R. Withdrawn by Arriva in 2001, but cared for by the Merseyside Transport Trust in Burscough.

So there's another bus rally in Liverpool next Sunday, and another one the week after (that I won't be at due to prior commitments), and a third bus show at the beginning of October over in Birkenhead. I will be a busy boy.

Just a shame no one but me will give a toss, but there you go.......

annual

There was the annual family BBQ at Jayne's Mum and Dad's yesterday. Here's a few pictures from it (and beforehand)......

Aaron - a self portrait

Jayne's little brother Phil.

Bethany, showing off her new dress before we went.

Jayne and Aisling, Phil's girlfriend. From Sligo.

Me, done in because I'd been digging in the back garden most of the morning, could've easily slept the day away in my favourite chair at Jayne's!

We didn't stay too late because Bethany wasn't too well later on. But it was a chance to meet some of the family, and they're all nice folk, even if I can't remember most of their names!