Fatuous Headline...

Today, a friend bluetoothed me this photo he had taken on the weekend.

I couldn't believe my eyes, as it does perhaps derogate away from what one would expect to see outside a shop selling newspapers, surely!

Me being a bit of such choleric disposition, it wound me up slightly to see a newspaper actually trying to lure local Kidderminster people in to a shop using such gripping headlines as this.
With all that is going on in the world and locally, the relevance of some Kidderminster public toilets being done up, is neither here nor there. What on earth does this say about the local people's mentality and ones who buy the Express and Star newspaper?


Today, I'm Most Angry About: Having to clean dog shit off my one-week-old new shoes for the SECOND time this week!!! Grrr... bloody irresponsible dog owners... Grrr
Grrr-O-Meter Rating: 7/10

scØre...

A few of my friends have been making music for many years and their latest project is called scØre

Their most famous work is being band members of Yeah Yeah Noh

Anyhow, they've asked if I would post one of their latest works...

It's called 'Do No Dog'

Performed by scØre - Words and music by Dermot Carney - Recorded at Springfield Road Studios

Right click this and choose 'Save target As...'

Then open it in the player of your choice!

"What do you reckon folks?"

Today, I'm Most Angry About: Getting the link to this MP3 to actually work! How complex can it be... Very... As I just found out... Grrr
Grrr-O-Meter Rating: 3/10

Test...

Snowdonia...

After a few days work in London, some play was in order, so me and a fry-end decided to go off to Snowdonia's National Park, in north Wales, and climb Snowdon - The highest mountain in England and Wales.

Snowdon and it's connecting mountains - Snowdon is the pointy one in the middle, with Crib Goch and Crib y Ddysgl on the right, Lliwedd on the left

My weekend abode: A luxury tent I like to call it. It's like camping, but with a bit more decadence, but definitely not caravanning, ooh no guv! You'll be suggesting I took my own pillow next... Pfff

GPS tracking CHECK - Rucksack full of clothes, food and water CHECK
Ludicrously tight walkers trousers on CHECK... Ready for the ascent

Hang on a minute, what's this? Do we have a stowaway on board? Yup, one cow torch!

After a while and loosing a lot of body weight in sweat, the views were starting to look impressive.
The tiny white dot on the right by the road is where the path started.
The car was parked a mile down the road, as the main car park was full!
I was not best pleased about the added 1 mile walking mileage here! :'(

Andy following me up one of the many climbs to reach the top of our first stop, Crib Goch

Half way up Grib Goch, the views down the valley towards Anglesea were looking great, and this circling seagull just gives you that sense of 'I wish I could do that'!

On the way up, a guy asked me for advice about how to get to the top... I warned him of the difficulty, but he was going to give it a go regardless and that was when I noticed the dog in his rucksack! How cool?

The top of Crib Goch and it's knife-edge ridge. Two people in front, starting across!
Not for the feint hearted...

Half way across Crib Goch, 1500ft drop to the left, 1000ft drop to the right... Yikes!!!

At very last... The summit... Yippee... 1085m / 3560ft high!!!

Talk about hard work, I was seriously hot and tired. Only a two-hour hike back to the car!

The view inland, towards England from Snowdon's summit

The view out over to the Irish Sea and out towards Ireland

The thin bit of land highlighted in the reflection off the sea is the Llyn Peninsula where I was body Boarding the other week!

OK, so here he is, the cow torch, upon Snowdon's summit

It's thirsty work for humans and cow torches* alike
(* Oh, sorry, flashlights to my American readers!)

I befriended this dogga at the summit, and the owner told me that he had to carry the mutt over half the way, as it's legs couldn't carry it to the top... Awww

The sun was setting on the way back, which gave some great shadows, including this one of my weary self on a path on the descent.. and yes, that is a path... just!

It was tougher going than I remember actually and ascending and descending stairs is now a serious problem for my thighs :[

Today, I'm Most Angry About: Opening a pack of garlic and coriander prawns, for my stir fry, but the plastic cover was that tight, it sprayed me with prawn juice when I pierced it, including getting some right in my eye! Grrr... It stings... Grrr
Grrr-O-Meter Rating: 3.1/10

The Big Smoke...

The past 5 days has comprised of me being in London attending and working at an exhibition called PLASA (Professional Light And Sound Association).
This event, along with other similar events around the world, happen every year, so early September always sees me in London. I've been incredibly busy lately, and this is partly why!

I was staying in The Holiday Inn hotel, Kensington. My room was on the 12 floor, so it had a pretty good view.

The first day a couple of us caught the tube into central London

It never ceases to amaze me just how far underground the tube actually is in places!

After wandering around Trafalgar Square and checking out the originals of Vincent Van Gough's Chair and Sunflowers along with many other amazingly old paintings at the National Gallery, we decided to go into Soho and China Town for food:

I spotted this rather entertainingly named restaurant, but we did not eat there

Along the way, I spied a small commotion going on, as a small group of kids were 'oohing' and 'ahhhing', so I went to investigate, only to discover this kid walking round with his pet rat sat on his shoulder! How cool, I love rats and used to have a pet one myself.

After stuffing ourselves full of Chinese cuisine, we went to see Mary Poppins in London's west end, near Leicester Square. It was an AMAZING show and it must have been for me to say that about a musical! The acting, effects and whole technical performance was stunning!!!

Every morning I headed off to my fave little cafe round the corner from the hotel. They have a stunning array of coffee, cakes and snacks to choose from and the people who run it are so efficient and friendly, it's great.

Every morning I indulged in a breakfast of freshly squeeeeezed orange juice (litterally, they had boxes of oranges and a juicing machine) followed by scrambled egg, fresh Scottish smoked salmon and toasted English muffin - Delightful!

Andy, Stu, Bop, Guy and Rich all looking slightly jaded at breakfast from the previous nights excesses. I'm glad I was taking the picture here, errrrr...

The PLASA exhibition from the top floor. The event is really quite large, covering both floors of Earls Court.

Works exhibition stand which myself and other colleagues man and chat with end users, customers and distributors from all around the world. It can be boring and quite tedious at times, but equally as interesting and fun at other times though.

For example, on the left is a representative from our Japanese distributor, Kunitaka Fukatsu and on the right our representative from our Chinese distributor, Glenn Wong. Glenn has a great sense of humour and was telling Kunitaka not only is Japan an expensive place to live compared to China, but also Tokyo is fucking expensive compared to Singapore, and so the banter continued!

We work quite closely with a few companies, one of which, Funktion One, make very interesting and very high quality loudspeakers. This is their 'Dance Stack'!
Do you think I could get a pair into my lounge?

The guy on the left here is Sir George Martin who is famous for producing the pretty much all the Beatles work. He's chatting to John Newsham from Funktion One who is also Underworld's engineer. I have no idea who the guy in the middle is, but I'm liking his hair style! :]

We always have several spare passes each year, so each time our Sales manager comes up with daft names for people who don't actually exist.

Every year, we try and have a new gadget or something on the stand to make things a bit more interesting. Our Sales Manager Guy excelled himself this year, as he hired in two masseurs from 'Urban Chill' to give out free Indian head massages on the stand to customers etc, including the staff of course! :)

I drove down to London and back and parked the car at the hotel. I picked up a bill for £97!!! Check out these totally ridiculous London tariffs. Luckily it was all a works expense!

I'm off for on a break in North Wales for a few days now, so catcha all and catch up when I get back...

Today, I'm Most Angry About: This stooopid blogging software only sometimes allowing photos to be uploaded, depending on how it feels! Grrr, I hope the Beta is betta?
Grrr-O-Meter Rating: 3/10

Body Boardin' and Boozin'...

A few weeks ago, I went to Wales with a group of family and friends, but never got round to blogging about it, so *drum roll* here it is at last:

A large group of us* invaded a nice campsite right on the Welsh coast and mainly ate, drank and chatted, except for a few body boarding outings and sleep etc.

[* Dogga, Andy, Mandy, Luke, Amy, Joe, Bee, Snooze, Roy, john, Dave, Maureen, Duncs, Mart, Rich, Mathew and Ashley]

The cow torch on it's first outing! Here he is, emerging from the tent on the first morning

The cow torch chillin' out while the rest of us play cricket

The excitement is too much for Mart who sneaks off for a nap. Dogga catches him red handed!

The weekend's resident dogga 'Snooze'

Andy and John busting-a-move or two in the morning, while I lie in tent in hangover recovery mode listening to Blue States... What a chill out album that is!

The Llyn Peninsula is an adorable place with many little alcove beaches. The sand is rather unique and very clean as it literally squeaks if you brush over the top of it with hand or foot. Locally the beaches are know as 'whistling sands' because of this phenomenon!!!

A bunch of us (Inc Andy, Dogga, Niece and Nephew here) went to the sea for body boarding.
I was a body boarding virgin until then, but I'm now a big fan!

Dogga catching his first wave and in style too, as I found a pair of children's sunglasses buried on the beach, so just had to wear them. I look like I should be in Devo! :]

Mathew and Bee in the surf

Roy and Big Rich catching a wave

While out in the sea, a thunder storm formed and and started rumbling all around, to I guess I can now say I've watched a thunderstorm from at sea, reagrding a previous questions post!

We noticed some old geezer streaking on the beach too *snigger*

After coming back from my first body boarding outing, we noticed this odd cloud hugging a coastal mountain

Most evenings consisted of putting a load of music on, eating hideously and drinking to match too. Early evening, Amy, Snooze and John.

I caught the torch going for the Doritos... Naughty cow!

... and then later at the makeshift bar. What can I do to discipline this beast?

Too many beers = Sillyness
Bee + Joe's glasses = Chuckie from the Rugrats! LOOOOL

A1 parenting here! Notice how Big Rich has 'beverage' still in hand'?
I'm SO dead when either Rich or, even worse, his wife Prescilla sees I've posted this! :]

John takes the cow torch for a dance... as you do!

Big Rich back in disco mode and throwing-some-shapes for us... WTF?

After much boozing, we thought it would be a good idea to walk down to the beach and back, but on arrival Roy noticed a seagull with something in it's beak.
I then realised it was in distress, so I legged it down the beach after it, cow torch in hand and managed to catch it. It turns out its beak has been skewered with a large fishing hook and the line was down it's throat and round it's tongue, presumably making it impossible or very painful to eat.

(Duncs, Roy, Mart, seagull and one proud Dogga. Andy taking the photo) I carried the large gull all the way back to the campsite, where we had appropriate knives and scissors to get the hook out and cut free it's tongue and remove all the line from down it's throat. We did it though and I let it go safely in a neighbouring field. YAY!!! I love rescuing animals.

The following morning, I ask the kids for a nice photo and this was the best I could get out of them! I give up sometimes with their 'special' ways. :)

Today, I'm Most Angry About: The unpresidented amount of technical support phone calls I took today, when I'm preparing beta software etc for an exhibition tomorrow. Grrr, really off putting!
Grrr-O-Meter Rating: 4/10