climb

Browsing around the Interweb, I came across the website of St.Faiths Church (http://www.stfaithsgreatcrosby.org.uk/) in Waterloo - just yards from where I grew up on Milton Road.

Their picture galleries made all the memories come flooding back, especially this one. It was taken from the bell tower, and looks down over the roof of the main hall. As a kid, I regularly used to climb up on the church roof and walk along the guttering - lovingly shown on this photo.

There was the time I got stuck up there, and rather than have the fire brigade come and rescue me - there by getting into all sorts of trouble with the church authorities and my folks - I climbed down a 50 foot drainpipe. Our Mick was on the ground below, watching me in abject terror. I clung on for dear life, but my left leg once gave way shaking in fear. But I made it down in one piece, though looking back now, I really should've fallen and either injured myself very badly or worse.


I tell you, I can laugh now......

Mancland

I went up to Manchester today for their Transport Museum's "Spring Festival". Whoppeeee!!!!!


Oddly, it wasn't as packed as it usually is. Probably to do with the recession and that? But it was still possible to fart continuously and no bugger would know who it was? Result!


It was a nice cheap day out for me. Manchester itself is lovely. Being the first day of summer as well. The people are still, and will always be, the biggest shower of inbreds the planet will ever see. But the city centre is a lesson to the rest of us. Whereas Liverpool is basically just "Liverpool One" and all your big brands, Manchester wisely mixes the alternative retailers with the big names, and it works. Stick in a tram line, huge office blocks and loads of impressive water features and you have a vibrant European city, and it's no wonder people look to Mancland as the country's second-metropolis.


Manc folk don't deserve it, obviously. I would say that.


But the transport show was a let-down. I was after some old PSV Circle fact sheets for the Liverpool area, and nobody had them. But if you wanted some over-priced hard-backed books about bus services in Outer Mongolia, this was your event.


I overheard one stall-holder say to his mate, "it's shit this year."


But I'd recommend the odd trip to Manchester. It's always interesting to see how the other half live.

widdleplop

Bethany's had the lurgy, and has been innocently putting it around the entire family - me included.


Except when Jayne got it, she spent hours on the bog. Aaron got it, he threw up. I got it, and I suffered both.


I was out doing a Friday night chippy run, and the symptoms came on me so quickly. I really hope I haven't spread it around the chippy!! But I came home around nine o'clock and went to the toilet three times in succession before midnight, and on two of those occasions I both threw up, and kacked my pants with watery widdleplop.


Do you know how humiliating it is to experience both these sensations at once?


The kids were away, so Jayne banished me to Bethany's room. During the night, I woke up convinced that razor blades were going to come out all over my body, especially my mouth. But it's amazing what a good drink of water can do for you! I was likely dehydrated and hallucinating.


Spent Saturday on the couch. But today I was a lot more mobile.


These vomiting bugs are clever buggers. I lost six pounds in weight in 24 hours!!!


If you're a blog reader and you've had personal contact with me in the last 48 hours, I'd start to worry!!!

neanderthals

After a very disappointing exit in the UEFA Cup to a team I've never heard of, or that no one but no one will give a shit about when they're eliminated from the competition in the next round, it's nice to be back to winning ways at Sunderland.


Hate Sunderland. Hate their supporters. Only hassle I've ever had at Anfield was coming out of a match into a crowd of Sunderland neanderthals. With me Mum, of all people.


The partnership of Suarez and Carroll looks like it may pay huge dividends? When you get two hugely talented strikers playing off each other, it's like cucumber on the eyes. Another Keegan and Toshack maybe?


And I loved Dirk Kuyt's black eye? Where did you get that from, lad?

room

Me and Jayne went to look at a wedding venue today.


We were kept waiting at this swanky hotel in the centre of Liverpool, but the wait was probably worth it. The way the day will work is we're getting married in the morning, coming to this venue for a wedding lunch for close family, then both me and Jayne are staying at this place for the night.


The wedding reception is the following day, only to give us a breather because we're doing our own catering.


What sold us was the overnight room we can hire. It was modern, airy and so, so bright with a huge bed. The room faced out with a splendid view of our city.


We've put a deposit down for the venue already.


I'm still utterly confused though? This is next year, but it'll come around so quickly. I'm the kind of person who can't think about tomorrow, let alone twelve months down the line. Jayne, on the other hand, is completely organised, or appears to be. There's that show on the telly where the men organise the wedding - I couldn't do that because I rarely know me arse from me elbow.

Japan

The events in Japan are horrifying, to say the least.


A great many innocents will suffer greatly because of a natural disaster, and an awful man-made version too.


Humankind won't defeat nature. Sure, we'll get in our pop-shots every now and then, but we are at our planet's mercy. There is a train of thought that the Earth, slowly but surely, is getting rid of the human race in much the same way we go to the toilet to have a long, satisfying dump. A crude analogy, but true all the same.


Then there's the human race and our insatiable appetite for progress and profit.


What knobhead decided to build a nuclear power station so close to a known rupture in the Earth's crust??? No, let's backtrack a second, there's a more basic and serious question to ask - what knobhead decided to build a nuclear power station???????


Didn't the Japanese people learn ANYTHING from the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?


The answer is fairly simple - no. Because the demand for energy has countermanded any grain of common sense that atomic power is dangerous, and way, way out of our league to properly understand or control.


And, sadly, a huge wad of money can be made from it too - the moral argument against nuclear power goes out of the window there and then.


The scenes from Japan are heartbreaking and humbling. The power of nature is completely overwhelming. Mother Nature has fired a warning shot, but will we, as a species, take any notice??????


Predictable answer to the usual address.

salesman

Because Ron's on holiday from work, me has got mostly involved sorting out prices and doing quotations and the like. In essence, I've been a salesman. But I'll be honest - I haven't had much of a clue what I've been doing. 


Probably a lot of it was correct procedure, and some wrong. The thing is I've just picked up doing this sort of work by trial and error in a way. You've got to use your wits (if indeed I have any!) and try and work within a capitalist framework and make some money.


Which I don't like.


In an ideal world, I'd sell everything at cost. As long as I cleared my overheads, that'd be cool. Instead, sadly, we live in a world where profit is god.


Fortunately, I think I've been ethically okay this week, and a lot of the information on prices I need is in the customer files. There are some customers, however, who try it on, and pit us against another supplier to get a better price. They're scum, these people. They have no concern for anyone but their bank balances.


I've spent most of my life at work as a delivery driver, and it's only in the last few years where I've gotten on the sales side more. I'm still learning, and as much as it has its' perks and laughs, I think I prefer it still out on the road. Time will tell.

sense

In a welcome instant of common sense, a reporter for the Daily Star newspaper - Richard Peppiatt - resigned after having his conscience pipped at the multitude of false stories he was involved in writing over the last two years, culminating in a work of fiction concerning the tabloid's favourite organisation, the ultra-racist English Defence League.


His resignation letter appeared in The Guardian newspaper, just follow the link, it's a beaut.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/04/daily-star-reporter-letter-full



The thing about the Daily Star is it's aimed at predominately working-class readership who love their Page Three tits in the morning, but are one small step on the evolutionary ladder past a S*n reader (if, indeed, they can read!). Even so, the editorial is so blatantly anti-Islamic in its' breadth, that they feel they can print absolutely anything to show the Muslim faith in a bad light. The outrage is, because the Daily Star has withdrawn from the Press Complaints Commission, they have to answer to absolutely nobody.


Fair play to Mr. Peppiatt, he's admitted his wrongs, and hopefully he's learned from them. Now for the rest of them...... 

venue

Another thing about the wedding.......

We've booked our reception venue. It's a local Conservative Club.

Yes, I know what you're thinking. And I think the same too. But it's cheap, and gives me plenty of material for my wedding speech. Which I would like to go like this.......

"Well, it's a real pleasure for an ardant Communist such as myself to be standing here today in such a bastion of the capitalist agenda. I've suffered for my politics, now it's your turn.

You may wonder why I'm standing on this podium wearing dark glasses. The thing is, if it's good enough for Kim Jong-il, it's good enough for me...etc, etc....."

So now y'all know. Life is too short to be small, as the great Neil Innes once told me. I'm still briefly alive.

fuss

Me and Jayne went to the local register office today to give them notice of next year's wedding.


It was really funny because the registrar had each of us in on our own asking us questions. It was a polite form of interrogation in relaxed surroundings. While Jayne was getting the third-degree, I sat outside looking at the ornately-painted ceiling of cream background, green leaves and red flowers. Bliss.


When the registrar was satisfied with our status, and took £67 from us for our notices fee, she showed us the room we can use for the ceremony (another £43). It was all very nice and tastefully laid out. And the thing is, you're basically in and out of the place in ten minutes.


More bliss.


The thing with me and Jayne is we don't really want the fuss. She's been married once before, and would like to do things rather differently. If it wasn't for the kids, we'd probably get married on the hop, and tell the world later.


Still, this time next year, my circumstances will be rather different. Do I get a tax concession being married????

bus

I was reading a blog from a Newcastle lad who'd bought an old bus to do up and drive. 

Basically, getting the bus roadworthy was a fortune. But the advantages after restoration are undeniable. Any bus over 30 years old can be driven on an ordinary car licence, as long as no more than 8 passengers are carried. His full comprehensive insurance cost £152 a year!!!! Tax cost zero too. And storage put him back a miserly £50 a month.

As you can imagine, it got me thinking.

There's nothing more I'd love to do than buy an old Merseyside Atlantean (a little like that PDR1A/1 Special below) and drive around until my heart's content. Or kit it out and travel the world. Like Cliff Richard......

Basically, I have no interest in getting properly involved in the bus preservation movement. I make donations to them wherever possible anyway. But just for something for me, it'd be a giggle.


Jayne has no objections and as soon as she starts doing the Lottery, the sooner I can hopefully make my dream a reality!

United

Very simple victory today against a truly awful Manchester United.

What confuses me is how United are top of the league? Because they're the worst MUFCPLC side I've seen in over 20 years. Mind, I suppose the fact they're still top of the table shows how bloody woeful the rest of us are.


But credit to us - we maimed these bastards today. There are those who will point to the absence of Vidic and the over-rated Ferdinand as reasons to United's loss. Nonsense, we were just the better side. Better organised. Just better.


Dirk Kuyt is a true unsung hero this season. His work-rate is phenomenal, and he bagged the easiest hat-trick of all time today. But the Man Of The Match was the outstanding Luis Suarez. His movement was just too much for a ragged United. The replays of his John Barnes impersonation - taking four defenders out inside the 18-yard box - will be richly deserved.


I still think we're too off the pace to trouble the top four. And I'm still resigned to the fact that the Manc Scum will probably win the title again before we do. But days like this provide a well-earned rest-bite from probable future events.

Monkees

Jayne's got the two of us tickets for the Monkees upcoming gig at the Echo Arena in May.

I personally couldn't care less whether the band are all in their mid-to-late 60s - they're another set of heroes who I've had the pleasure of growing up listening to and watching. I may be a second-generation Monkees fan, but I'm one all the same.

Career highlights? Too many to mention. It'd be so easy to pick out any of the classic singles, but it's the lesser known work that's always gripped my attention. Stuff like "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" and "Circle Sky" (both Mike Nesmith originals) still see regular action on my I-Tunes. And their glorious disaster movie that is "Head" predated  Monty Python by a year with its' stream-of-consciousness approach and weirdly off-beat psychedelic kilter. Brilliant stuff.

Hoping upon hope that the reluctant Nesmith joins Micky Dolenz, David Jones and Peter Tork on stage during this tour. It could be the last time they'll be capable of being together as a group.


And then there's Cheap Trick....again!!!

Cheap Trick are playing their only confirmed UK date this year in Bristol (after a show in Dublin) on June 12th. Both me and Aaron would love to go, but the logistics are tricky and it won't be cheap either. But their gig in Mancland back in November was simply the best Rock I've ever heard or seen in a live setting, and to miss them would be a huge shame. 


So we'll see......

puppy

Here's some new pics of our puppy, Bella. She's four months old now and the best way to describe her is imagine putting a lit firework in with a box of matches.

I take her for walks at least twice a day. A short one in the morning before I go to work, usually accompanied by Bethany. And the big one at night. The long walk is becoming an increasing challenge because I wonder where else there is to take Bella around the locality. Tonight, for example, I took her all the way to Warbreck Moor and back, which is about three miles. Or the Gillmoss bus depot and back is about the same.

I have to say that this exercise is probably as good for me as it is for her. The original idea about the late-night dog walk was to knacker Bella out so she'd just konk out when I got her home, ensuring us all a good night's sleep. It hasn't really worked out like that.

What tends to happen is Bella will have a mad half-hour racing around and barking. Or fight with the cat. Her energy levels are incredible. All these long walks seem to do is empower her!


We love her though. She's the sort of dog who you wonder how life ever was without her.

daffodils

The first daffodils of spring are up and blossoming in our back garden.

The strange thing is I planted these bulbs back in the autumn, and judging by the weather we've had over the last five months, it's a wonder they've bloomed at all.

Still, it means there's probably some nice weather on the way...whenever!