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I was proceeding in a northerly direction at a speed of approximately 70mph when a young pheasant attempted to take off over the road just in front of me. I crossed its flight path and the results were catastrophic for the pheasant and not wonderfully fun for me either. I had to pull this startled and recently expired bird out of the front of my car. Eughh. Traumatic for all involved.
This afternoon, Toni forced us all to go for a walk - and you know, we're quite glad she did because it was good to get out and have a walk along the shore with the kids and Kieran. When we got down to the beach the combination of recent rain and sudden warm sunshine made the whole beach into a steamy misty expanse that looked very strange and eerie.
The tide was out so we went and had a look in the rock pools. Not much to see in the way of wildlife, but nice to have an explore anyway. On our way back we bumped in to Derek and Margaret, Toni's mum and dad, and they walked back along with us. We're lucky to live somewhere like this - and I can't wait for this summer because more people will find out how nice Newbiggin is. There's a good season of activities ahead this year - and we should soon have our own range of branded merchandise and a village guide too.
Last night we had a visit from a fast hedgehog. When we first saw it it was in the middle of the road outside our house. It was so fast that we could only take a picture of it. I tried to get it into our pet carrier so that the kids could see it in the morning, but by the time I'd gone in to get it it was too late! So they'll have to make do with this picture. Rebecca has called it Prickly. I bet Sparky would have liked it - and he really liked the pet carrier at tea time - and jumped inside and went to sleep. And we were having Kebab for tea and there was some leftovers so we gave one to him. I think the hedgehog spent the night in the thorny hedge at Argyle Terrace.
This blog was written by Rebecca and Jason!
It wasn't football though it was music. Soul Doubt was playing a charity gig (I don't usually talk about my charity work, but this time I was paid in full at the expense of poorly orphans so I'm prepared to give them a name check) for Children North East.
If you're a musician or performer and are engaged to play at The Magpie Suite in Newcastle's St James' Park, I advise yo to take transport so that you can get your gear from the nearest lift to the room. It's a very long way and we were absolutely shattered before we even started setting up. Badly planned building, yet strangely impressive. Chris Gray our lovely trombone player entertained us all by playing the Close Encounters alien tune to a totally empty stadium, and the echo was amazing. Not sure what the locals thought though.
Also entertaining the posh rich selflessly giving punters was magician, contortionist and escapologist Chris Cross, an 18 year old Newcastle lad who is making a name for himself in the world of entertainment. He showed us a few tricks in the green room, and generally kept us entertained. See a short documentary about him below:
It was a good gig, but we didn't start until 11pm when a totally inebriated Mike Elliott introduced us - just about. We played our fast one hour set, with Chris Cross doing a few shoulder dislocations and straight jacket escapes in the middle. Typical evening really.
I saw this on a wall in Ashington. I thought it was nice that a vandal should care so much about how we feel.
Er...not the girls doll. I mean a barbecue. We're currently searching for the ultimate portable barbecue so that we can use it at home, or take it to other lovely places and enjoy the unique taste of food that burned on the outside and still raw or even frozen on the inside - as is The British Way.
I think this started a couple of days ago when we were searching on line and noticed a thing that looked like a steamer, but they were selling as a Fire Bowl - well we had a steamer just like this except with holes in it, so as a test we took it into the back yard (which resembles a building site since that's what it is at the moment) and lit a small fire in it. It worked well, and since the fire was there, the kids toasted marshmallows on it.
Last night to up the ante, we did it again at the other end of the yard, and put 4 breeze blocks around the fire and a grate over the top and tried it out as a barbecue, sacrificing a few sausages and burgers to it in a semi-experimental way. At first we were using wood, but this created a huge amount of smoke, so we found an old disposable bbq and put the charcoal from it onto our fire. That was better but not as hot. But it worked, and in only a few hours we had perfectly charred sausages and burgers, sitting amongst the bricks and building debris. It was more fun than it sounds. There was so much smoke the kids were wearing their swimming goggles, and there was something strangely post-apocalyptic about it in ambiance.
We hereby announce the the barbecue season officially open.
That was a good day. The meeting was short and sweet - just over an hour - and it results in me preparing a slightly revised proposal, and also opens up the door to two further unrelated web sites for the Australian marketing guy I met today. He owns a couple of ski resorts in Japan and he wants me to work on web sites for these too. Strange but that's business.
After the meeting I went to Denmark Street where I whiled away an hour browsing through the music shops. I played a top of the range Taylor acoustic (staggeringly beautiful guitar and probably worth every penny of the 3k price tag) and I also played slightly dodgy Beatles licks on a Rickenbacker 330. I was slightly embarrassed to play in front of other customers, but others were doing it louder and slightly worse than me so - I don't care.
A quick walk to Covent Garden to find a place to eat resulted in dinner at Carluccio's. I will definitely be going there again. A nice soup of bacon and wild mushrooms with focaccia followed by Tortellini with a Carbonara sauce. Delicious - and very nice service too - and no more expensive than a similar meal in Newcastle. The shop was great too and I picked up a few strange delicacies for the rest of the family - I hate leaving them out...
This won't mean much to many people, but whilst I was in Borders on Charing Cross Road I was standing next to the man who plays the psychotherapist from The Green Wing - he was also in The Magicians. And briefly in Nathan Barley. If he hadn't been on the phone I'd have bothered him - the celeb stalker that I am. He's very funny though - except that on the phone he seemed exasperated with (probably) his agent over whether a show he was up for was suitable for children or not.
Right now I'm heading North again, about to read this month's Empire magazine. Bye again.
I've just left Stevenage and my train is heading south on the final half hour approach to London's King's Cross. I got to the train wonderfully early thanks to a combination of Neil's excellent driving and the lack of traffic due to the Easter Holidays. I had a leisurely and - unusually - fresh Danish pastry and coffee on the train before it pulled away at 9am.
Since then - it's now 12noon - I've been reading a biography of Laurel and Hardy. Recently we've been watching some of their films after I got the complete collection box set after my birthday, and I became interested in knowing a bit more about them as people. Unusually for me I read this book 'Mr Laurel & Mr Hardy' by John McCabe, in just two sittings. It was fascinating. I knew that Stan was the one more interested in the process of film making and editing, but not much more about their lives. Well worth reading and a great companion to the films.
On the book I noted a couple of local interest points. One was a reference to Stan Laurel's father having managed a theatre in Blyth around 1910 - and several others in the region. Stan went to school in Tynemouth amongst other places.
Then in the late 1950s Stan and Ollie were touring England's theatres and in a conversation with the author, Stan pulled out of his pocket a newspaper cutting he carried around with him. It was a short article about a raw onion eating competition taking place in Ashington, Northumberland. This idea cracked Stan Laurel up and he had an idea to put it into a film if he and Ollie got round to making any more. They didn't.
I'll keep an eye open for cute rats on the underground, but for thetime being I'll mentally prepare myself for talking about carbonated frozen drinks and how such things may best be promoted on the Internet. Wish me well...
Well, the last traces of Tonsillitis are only just noticeable, after nearly two weeks of discomfort, and at times agony. I decided not to resort to antibiotics, as I'm useless at finishing the course - so it just went of it's own accord.
I've been preparing for a few web and photography jobs that I'm looking forward to in the next few weeks. On Thursday I'm back in London at a meeting to plan the forthcoming Tango Ice Blast web site. I'm looking forward to getting started on that - lots of exciting things like video and flash animation to get stuck into, and the chance to work with a few talented friends who'll help bring it to life.
I've also been asked to submit a tender for a year-long photography project to cover lots of arts events in the region. I'd love to do that - so fingers crossed. If my tender was successful I'll have an interview next week.
And I've also been invited to take part in a dance project in Newbiggin - as photographer I hasten to add - and it sounds like an interesting project too - so I'm looking forward to that.
I've been taking pictures of lots of cakes and puddings for Jenkins and Hustwit recently, and last week my good friend Roly Johnson and his daughter Jess came over for a photo session which turned out well. I really enjoy the people photography - I love seeing a picture of someone that captures a bit of their personality. I also enjoy tidying up shots in Photoshop, so it's fun all round.
I'm also really enjoying the ukulele I got for my birthday. I've found a web site (Dr Uke) that's got lots of good chord sheets on it for songs and I'm having lots of fun learning some new 'old' stuff, like Paper Moon, Nature Boy and 'Till There Was You. I'd like to do more jazz on it.
Today I have another meeting about the future of the Newbiggin Arts Forum, and particularly whether we get to employ someone and have our own building. It's all change - and I have a feeling that some parts of my life are moving up to a new level. In a good way I hope - and it's slightly scary and slightly exciting.
That's where I woke up this morning. Yesterday I travelled down to this part of Scotland (it's south of Newbiggin so one of the few parts of Scotland I'm able to go DOWN to) in order to spend an evening training a client to use their web site.
The business is Capricorn Mohair, makers of knitted products and knitting kits, but the proprietor also runs his very large country house (almost a Hall really) as a Bed & Breakfast (hence my overnight stay) and a farm with rare breed pigs cattle and sheep.
The gardens are lovely - topiary and ponds and paths, a walled garden with apricots and beehives which they use to make their own preserves and honey, and meadows rolling down to a little river that's too far away to see from the house.
The welcome was very warm and we began the training session as all internet training should be - with two large gin and tonics followed by a hearty meal of home reared pork. Ooooh and raspberry crumble and custard. And some wine. Followed by actual computer based training.
By the end of the evening we had his site sorted and lots of questions answered, and we chatted about business and music and this amazing old house (see www.croys-house.co.uk for pictures and more info).
I had a better night's sleep than the evening before, because the tonsillitis from which I'm currently suffering seems to be slighly less agonising today. I have been living on extra strength paracetamol, strepsils and Chloraseptic.
So this morning, after a light full english breakfast, I will drive back to Newbiggin and see if the old place is as I remember it. Bye for now.
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