Tag: gigs

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The unusually cold weather seen previously became unusually mild instead. The communal area of the flats has no heating so didn’t heat up as quickly as outside. This resulted in a three storey slip-n-slide being created as condensation settled on every flat surface. Equilibrium was reached after three days.

A return visit to London, this time for the annual Christmas-time tour from The Kunts starting at the New Cross Inn. A suitably cheapo hotel room (a Travelodge, of course!) was obtained at nearby Deptford Bridge so a walkable evening was in order. The Shirker’s provided pre-gig drinks, plus I was pleased to see that the venue bar at the New Cross now has a bank of cask pumps in place. The gig was therefore enhanced by several pints of Brockley Pale.

I was also talked into a run down to Milton Keynes, for the final stop of the tour at the Craufurd Arms. Gem and Lee are to blame for that. It was a no-go originally, as I was supposed to be working an early shift on the Sunday, but the new rotas starting that week changed it to a late instead so I could wangle an overnighter in. It also gave the Grannywagon a good run. Both the Craufurd and the hotel bar stocked Brixton Reliance Pale, which is apparently owned by Heineken now and brewed at Beavertown in Enfield so has lost some of its provenance.

Speaking of rota changes, I now have the Nottingham line signed off on the route card. Not a bad run, but they can get rather busy on the weekends.

Additional Grannywagon mileage was also clocked up over Christmas week, primarily caused by bad planning on my part. I had a pub shift in Derby on Boxing Day between socials in Merseyside on Christmas Day and the 27th, so two round trips were put in. I got four different routes each time though:

  • Snake Pass, M67, Manchester city centre, M602/M62, M6, M58
  • M58, M6, M56, A555, A6
  • A50, A500, M6, M62, M57
  • M57, M62, A57, A50, A537/Cat & Fiddle Pass, A6, 13 Bends

The roadworks on the M6 through Haydock have finally finished, so it was a pleasure to drive along the newly resurfaced carriageway without worrying about average speed cameras.

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Wow, a weekly round-up post. Let’s see if I can keep this up to beat the current record run of three weeks1I could technically also argue that the record is 34 weeks, but that was back when I was doing fortnightly posts in 2021..

🎦 The Apprentice: I was expecting this to be a Donald Trump hit-piece, which it was to some extent, but it was more of a Roy Cohn hit-piece.

🎸 Kevin Bloody Wilson/Jenny Talia: Good, clean family fun. I’ve been humming FOCUS for the rest of the week towards dickheads.

I was out in Leeds on Friday for Light Night, although I was more interested in the Indian restaurant that had been booked for tea beforehand. I suppose having lived in Blackpool for a decade makes me less impressed by light shows.

The site is now fully Automattic free, as I’ve replaced Akismet with an alternative anti-spam solution. The themes of the recent messages it has caught have been porn and bitcoins.

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    I could technically also argue that the record is 34 weeks, but that was back when I was doing fortnightly posts in 2021.

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Blow me, some happenings rather than some links to amusing stuff. Anyway…

I spent some time in Edinburgh as it was the start of the Fringe Festival. Stuff I saw:

Stand Fringe Showcase: Primarily a press event, I got in on the basis that JC has a press pass. Basically, around 15 acts had three minutes to do their best bits for the journos.

Shannon Matthews: The Musical: From the Kunt and the Gang stable. I’d actually seen this in advance at the preview in Leeds a couple of weeks prior. The usual quick fire pun and catchy tunes that you can expect from Basildon’s finest. The cast work well with the minimalist set.

Four Funny Feckers: Revue featuring four sets from the London club night of the same name. Wes Dalton, acting as MC, was genuinely exuberant and worked the audience well. Other acts were Michael Akadiri (in line for Dave Joke of the Festival), Caroline McEvoy, Luke Chilton and Sergi Polo.

Continue reading →

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The house is no more. I’d grown tired of the lack of forthcoming upkeep on various bits of the premises coupled with another rent increase. Whilst I could cope with that by itself if it was the only increase, factoring in the cost of utilities, fuel, and pretty much everything else and it starts me worrying about whether it’s worth it. I’d been looking around but came across a flat at a nice price and got lucky with it. The resultant savings in rent and utility bills should provide some buffer for the forthcoming period of shit.

The move itself went generally without a hitch. I employed Doc Rob as an unwilling volunteer and Pastor Matt as a willing one, thus increasing the manpower available by 50% on the previous move. This was worthwhile move, as getting a washing machine up two flights of stairs was somewhat interesting. We managed it though, thanks chaps.

  • Somehow, I was able to fit this move in around a horrendous number of other activities which had been booked well in advance but all fell around the same sort of time, including:
    various pub shifts.
  • an evening out in Manchester, as I’d booked tickets for the Lancashire v Yorkshire T20 fixture at Old Trafford on what turned out to be the night before the move. Underwhelming result.
  • an evening out in Birmingham, as I’d booked tickets (in 2019) for the Pet Shop Boys gig at the NEC on what turned out to be the night of the move. Doc Rob was practically ushering me out of the door at 5pm to make me actually go to it. An enjoyable gig, although they opened with my favourite PSB track – Suburbia, for the record – so the excitement was spent relatively quickly.
  • a visit to the blood bank.
  • a Queen’s Platinum Jubilee party. Lol, actually this got binned off as the new letting agent actually sent round a decorator on the same morning to repaint the lounge in the flat, three days after I’d moved in. Something the letting agent of the house never managed to do in the two years I was there. Promising start.
  • Another Queen’s Platinum Jubilee party. I actually managed to make that one.

The keys to the house go back in a couple of weeks time, so it’s just the fun task of tidying the place up to look forward to. As well as work, another cricket fixture, another pub shift and probably some other appointments as well. It’s going to be rather busy for the next few days.

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August 2nd was apparently Social Media Detox Day. I celebrated this event by deleting my Instagram and Twitter accounts. I still have a very limited use for my little-updated Facebook account so that survives for the time being, but I’m still eyeing up the deletion menu.

The majority of the month that wasn’t spent working was spent travelling around and spending money on hotels. I took the Grannywagon for a run up to the North to see some friends and former work colleagues. There was a somewhat boozy pub crawl of Preston which was quite enjoyable, with a few new micro-type pubs now in existance which got a visit. This was followed by a stop off in Southport where I didn’t see the folks, as they’re still being awkward about the pox.

I then took a run down South to re-visit Basildon. This time was for my first live gig in some time, being the initial live outing of Kunt and the Gang’s punk outfit, The Kunts. That song was performed. The attempt at staying over demonstrated the generally poor design of the town, which has no hotels in the centre of it. I ended up in a Premier Inn located in a retail park that was a 25 minute walk away, and even then it was up a track around the back of the site. I also learnt that MegaTrain is still a thing, even after Stagecoach lost the Midland Mainline rail franchise. As a result, I got return trains to London for £30 and at reasonable times too.

Got a good day of cricket at Headingley, at the first day of the England-India third test, including that India 78 all out collapse. I only just made the first bowl as the trains went to pot in the morning, resulting in a two hour delay outside Wakefield and eventually resorting to a bus into Leeds. At least I’ll get the fare back thanks to delay repay.

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So there’s another year gone. Pretty crap one and all. I aimed to post weekly and managed twelve posts, so averaged monthly. Could have been worse. To round off happenings:

  • Another year older. Normally I’d go to the pub on the day and then do something party-like in February or March to avoid the Christmas Party scene. In this event, the pubs around here were shut (the nearest open with substantial meal establishment being around 35 miles away so I went to the off licence instead.
  • Attendance in the office was generally low. As a result, I had to both put up and take down the Christmas decorations – admittedly a 200% increase on the usual amount of effort I put into these things.
  • Had a trip out to Derby to get a haircut. Who knows when the next one might be?
  • Had a trip out to Nottingham to give blood. Who knows when the next one might be?
    • Actually, that’ll be early March
  • This.
  • Owing to the constant relaxing and tightening of what could and couldn’t be done over Christmas, a trip to the Folks was off-radar. Likewise too for Doc Rob, so the ‘bubble’ (crap name) rules got used to spend Christmas there instead.
    • Also, New Year as well.