Its the Final Countdown—-

So here we are the Final Countdown the big one the last one, the final decade. 2020 to 2030, if we are all still here and everything has gone to plan no WWIII or Climate Apocalypse, Solar Flare, Alien Invasion etc WE CAN RETIRE. Done, no more working for the MAN with that in mind I reckon that gives us 120 opportunities to do something meaningfull in preparation. Surely one step a month should be doable. Obviously reviewing Crappy Pension ™  options it occurs to me I will either have to eat Pasta every day or spend some time somewhere cheap especially when the Snow and -45 c takes hold. Hence the winter escape plan.   and of course street BBQ all sorts of delicate bits on sticks.   Lots to keep me busy there appears to be many Antique houses and storefronts that need rescuing and travelling about by pump boat is lots of fun even if occasionally the belt comes of and they explode in a cloud of smoke or that I am a bit too heavy and occasionally tip them over. I have been working on it in the last 2 years down from 233lb to 213lb only 10lb to go to my 14s7lb target.   Its possible that I may be able to get closer to hearing all 1001 Albums before the end. 120 x 2 = 240 pay days at 2 CD for $10 that’s 480 CD plus the few hundred I already have means I may make it it also means I will have to spend $2500 + but seems very reasonable to me.. With that in mind my 15 year thank you from the company, points to spend on Amazon. See my new Marantz CD & Media player .     And for Christmas from #1 Daughter and Santa some CD’s   That leaves me with the 2019 Family portrait not my best work but you get the...

Happy 55

Well Happy Birthday to me. My surprise Birthday trip from the good lady wife to the Philippines pretty fantastic.Part Holiday part recon it was a success. I can state categorically, no phone no wifi no TV is actually the best. Unplugged with intermittent free wifi when its needed..     So first the birthday bit, went to Bohol to Pangalo Island and stayed in the same cottage at Alona Kew White Beach as 25 years ago before I asked the good lady to marry me. Its a good job I did it back then as the photo evidence from this trip definitely puts my chances nearer to ZERO. Also Stayed in the Fox and Firefly Echo Lodge pretty awesome and lots of other places.   Well the second part of the trip worked on the LOT  surveying the best location for the cottage. Well lots of work here are a phew photos of the proceedings   One last romantic image and a  warning  to fellow travelers.   all the best for the New Year until Next...

Drinking Flying Squirrels!

Sitting in the Laundromat drinking Flying Squirrels would normally indicate the summer is here and I am perched in the Rocky Mountains camping, walking and frantically camering. As it happens I am not drinking Flying Squirrels and am there fore not in the Rockies. Unfortunately that non- statement, statement is the only way I can explain the last few months or more exactly, December 28th 2015 to December 28th 2016. That’s the dates between which I wrote nothing, not a word in my novel and only two post on this here Bio Blog. The fact that I can now happily contemplate Flying Squirrels is in fact a good sign. That I am blogging away with little hope of being heard is strangely calming. Oh I still occasionally give my blog address to some one on the odd occasion I peer out from the silence. You see I turned off the voices in my head. No, No, don’t picnic sorry panic; not those sort of voices. The Narrator Voice remember the one I credit with all the ramblings on this blog and the world building in the novel and the life  building in life. You know that day to day stuff that stretches out to make a life time. Together with  the general background noise of existence  and  the anxiety of reality makes for a deafening non-functioning roar. A garbled sense of conversations from the bottom of the swimming pool.  So click, you switch it all off, Yesterday & Tomorrow ™ and you do Today only Today. When the background sounds of interference and static finally ebb as they undoubtedly will if you take the proper steps, the world lazily blooms back into focus and voila!  There is room to contemplate the what if once more, the Narrator wakes up refreshed and timidly service is resumed. The trapped self once again races out into the world and reconnects the pathways and breaths a sigh of contentment.   While I was gone lots of wonderful things have happened the good Lady wife turned into a fantastic photographer Instagramer and image editor. In fact I have stolen a lot of the imagery from here photo files. see we have 500 gb each on a hard drive for our imagery. Mine fills slowly and hers at a pace, she is miraculously recording all our...

The Ghost of New Years Past

  So here we are New year 2016, Christmas is finished and I look backwards! Well that doesn’t sound right I think I don’t look too bad for an old duffer like our new dog Diego who joined us in March 2015 I in solidarity sport a set of almost magnificent whiskers. Any new year resolutions or recommendations for this year  nope the Grumpy Elf has had his editorial rights rescinded and its just me. So to follow the theme boldly set out here is Christmas present.   Here is the Tribe 2015 and yes #1 Son is 6’5″ and #1 Daughter is 5’9″ and Diego well he is shorter, I will have to admit this is the second attempt at a Family photo the first for some reason made me look like a right fat batard, there are rumors as to some sort of resolution that fixes that but apparently I can’t eat cheese, white bread, drink wine or eat curries. (So good Luck Enforcing that then.) Well 2015 was the year I started putting my name on things my Flickr and Instagram account so the Funky Nomad not so incognito and in that spirit I give you the Millennium Falcon (Sorry about that I actually mean the Millennium in the Falklands, because that’s where I was when 1999 rolled into 2000 and all the computers kept running.) With Star Wars coming round once again I thought I would have to get on that band wagon. As for music not listened to much or bought anything in the last 12 months Just classic stuff Ramones, Green Day; dookie and Getz/Byrd Jazz Samba. It also began to dawn on me how awesome the Rolling Stones are and while I was busy being  a rocker it turns out Mod stuff was pretty good as well I have to admit to Liking Paul Weller and I do have  two Specials albums. Which feels disingenuous in light of Lemmys passing. I saw the Bomber Tour and was at the No sleep till Hammersmith gigs and at one point had started embroidering the Hawkwind Spaceritual album cover on my denim jacket only got about one fifth of the way and I will have to admit to removing the Thin Lizzy ( Not sure what that was about.)   So found some negatives from personal...

Charlie Don’t Surf, West Street.

Well Charlie Don’t actually surf on West Street but were playing Live at the West Street in Sheffield. On my recent trip home to the good old Steel City I get the opportunity to use my camera for more than taking pictures of beers. Its been a while since I photographed Live Bands not since my student days. To get the opportunity to see my good buddy Mark (who has had the pleasure of knowing me since before infant school ) and Charlie Don’t Surf in action was something I was looking forward to, It seemed only reasonable to offer my services to take some photos. Having been a Professional Photographer for 12 years+ it seemed like the perfect idea. And to be totally honest as ideas go one of my better ones, however this now requires me to actually put my money where my mouth is. How is this going to turn out? I had been hearing rumors of West Street its changed they say, we better warn you, you might be shocked. Well this was certainly a turn up for the books, I had spent many a year ploughing up and down West Street crawling from pub to pub. I moved in just off West Street ate at the Bombay 3 times a week ( Still don’t know what was in their curry) worked at the Job Center it was everything I knew. How crazy could it be? I remember Pajama Jumps  and other very dubious happenings. I also remember early mornings walking down to the bakery and getting fresh Parkin in November, buying cheap Bavarian larger at the corner store, lunchtimes drinking in the “Frog and Parrot” just because. On a hot summer night just returned from Europe a case of Alsace white in my hands, being collected from the station by the usual suspects. That night it was hot,we went to see “Haze” upstairs at the Hallamshire, oh what glorious days. What ever happened to Gabadon?( Don’t trust my spelling) I have photos of it all, hang around a bit follow my blog, I am not as big an ass as you think. Well probably not. Turns out they were warning me about the girls! Girls on West Street, I knew about meeting girls on West Street, well the ones hanging around the Hoover shop...

And did those feet in ancient times….....

So did those feet? No doubt and mine have just made their way from Woodseats to Totley, not an inconsiderable feet. So what’s it all about “Life the Universe and everything?” To be totally honest the more I look at it the more worried I become that there is no purpose to it at all only the one you make for your self. So what makes for such a topic on a late summer afternoon Moonshine in hand (Moonshine is a beer by the way brewed by my local Abbeydale Brewery here in Sheffield.) Well I have just been up to the remembrance garden and sat talking to my Granparents memorial plac’s and had a long conversation accounting for myself. More of a thank you really as I talk to them all the time in my head but it seems more official to be where their ashes are laid to rest. Not a miserable task for me,friends relations dear departed are,like just stepped out of the room they may or may not be coming back but that does not deter me from talking to them anyway. I live on faith that they will be there when I need them and have not been let down so far; am I cavalier and thoughtless in my friendships it may seem that way but it never crosses my mind that any of those that are close to me will take affront, friendships rise and occasionally meet their demise but not really.Everything can be forgiven on your journey through life ( Now obviously there are a few grand things that pose a difficulty and I am sure those don’t need mentioning here, but I would prefer it if you didn’t rodger the wife over the back of my Ikea futon, not unless you were looking for a good slapping.) So what did my esteemed Grandfathers tell me? Nothing new I received all the venerable advice long before they passed. What I was formulating on my treck over here was something a bit more fundamental. “If a tree falls in a forest, even a very impressive old revered tree, if there is no one to bear witness did it exist at all.” That is the dilemma are we all only legends in our life times’ who will bare whiteness to our passing? Few will...