New Windows

Well, the newwindows went in today, about two weeks later than we were expecting. Here's a picture of the one in David's room.

We're back

Well, we're home, and mostly over the jet lag.
More to come soon, with photos.

Passport day

Well, for my first day in America, we had an early start, and ruched off down to DC to get Ruth a new passport. If you haven't already heard, when Chrissy got to the airport on the outbound flight, she found that Ruth's passport had expired. We'd simply forgotten than children only get 5-year passports. Chrissy managed to get Ruth onto the flight to America anyway, propably helped by the fact that Ruth was travelling on an American passport, but Ruth would not be able to leave America until she had a valid passport.

I had arranged for the documents needed to be couriered out to Chrissy, so that she could make the appointment with the State Department. It turned out that the best appointment available was the day after I arrived, so off we went.

Peter volunteered to drive us down to DC, and Patrice watched David for us. We were a bit late setting off, as we had to get new photos for Ruth, but we had all the forms filled in the night before, with a pre-paid mailer to get the passport sent back to us. Peter got us there well in time by taking a local road rather than following the Interstate all the way. We found a parking garage right next to the Passport Office, so Peter dropped us off at the door then went to park.

Once through security (show photo-ID, x-ray bags, metal detector arch, etc) we were in and out so quick that we were ready to leave by the time Peter got back from parking the car, about 15 mins at the most.

After that, we went down to the Mall to see the Lincoln Memorial, and had a walk by the refelcting pool, before heading home.

We stopped for lunch at Fuddruckers, the fancy end of burger bars, then drove home. By this point, every one was so tired that I drove the last 20 miles, and everyone else was asleep.

We will get Ruth's new passport delivered on Monday.

America....

13th August 2008

Well, I got here OK. My flight out of Glasfow left about an hour and a half late after a minor mechanical problem on the plane, but I still had just enough time to make my connection in Philadelphia. The flight was OK, but the airlines are still cutting costs - food portions were smaller, no complimentary alcohol, headphones were $5 a pair, etc

Drip.....Drip......Drip.....

Well, the plumbers arrived this morning to put the new bolier in, and joined me in cursing who ever installed the old heating system. They've been here about an hour now, and are still trying to work out what all the pipes do, and why there are two more than there should be.

There's a hole in my roof!

(but it's ok really - the roofers are taking the old slates off)

That's right, work on the new roof started today. I nipped home at lunch to collect a couple of things I had forgotten, to find that the entire back of the roof was stripped, and the roofers were just getting the last nails out before putting the felt on.

I'll put some photos up later if I can find the charger for the old camera.

4th August 2008

Home again

I drove up from Reading today, and stopped at Birmingham to see Aunty Pat & Uncle Ron. I hadn't warned them I was coming, so it was a big surprise for both of them. We had a nice chat and a cup of tea, then it was time to get back on the road.
I had a nice quiet run home. A good finish to a fun weekend.

Caldicot Castle Rock Festival

2nd August 2008

Caldicot Castle Rock Festival

I had an early start today as I needed to get some shopping done on the market, and was due at Caldicot, in south Wales by 5pm for the Rock festival. I got out of town about an hour later than I had hoped, but had a very fast run down. Some minor delays on the M6, but the M5 was clear all the way to Bristol, and I got my first experience of crossing the Severn on the big suspension bridge. I didn't measure it exactly, but it felt to be a bit over three miles long, and unlike many big bridges, you could see through the safety barriers and get a bit of the view. In the end, I got to Caldicot just after three, so I got some lunch and took a short tour of the castle before heading off to the concert field to make sure I would be at the front of the queue and get a good place once in.
The weather was hot & muggy, but there was an ice-cream van there to help out.

We got in just after five, and I ended up front-row-center, right where I'd hoped to be.
There were four bands on. Magnum, the headliners, are one of my all-time favourite bands, and the reason I'd come this far. They were supported by Get vegas, Rattlesnake Remedy and Bad Company 2008. I didn't know much about any of the support bands, other than that Bad Company 2008 will be playing Whitehaven while I'm in America.

Get Vegas were first up. They played a good set of mellow blues-rock. I was a little surprised, expecting something faster from a group who are still in their teens. It was good music, but I really wanted something livelier after so many hours in the car. I'll look out for them again though.

Rattlesnake Remedy livened things up nicely. They stormed onto the stage with a blistering heavy rocker to open with, and the pace never eased up. The singer had an interesting voice that reminded me somewhat of Alice Cooper; there was a similarly dirty, dangerous and seductive tone there.
The lead guitarist was one of the tallest people I've seen, and played with his Les Paul slung ridiculously low, and the whole band seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, especially when they saw a young lad playing with a beachball, and got him to throw it up onto the stage to that thay could have a kickaround, first between themselves, then back and forward with the audience. I can't remember any of the songs clearly, but I very much enjoyed the show, and would definatley see them again.

Bad Company 2008 appears to be a partial reincarnation of 70's band Band Company. I'm not sure how much of the original lineup was present. Overall, I found them the worst band of the evening - they just felt like they didn't really want to be there. The musically they were OK, but even when they brought out a couple of the old hits, it didn't quite work, and the audience were very subdued.

Finally, at half-past nine, Magnum came on, and cliched though it may be, the crowd (me included) went wild. They opened with a brilliant rendition of Back To Earth, then ran through a good mix of concert staples and a number of rarer tracks before closing with their first hit, Kingdom of Madness.

The setlist, best I can remember, was as follows:
Back To Earth (not an album track)
When We Were Younger (Princess Alice & the Broken Arrow)
We All Need To Be Loved (Rock Art)
You'll Never Sleep (Princess Alice & the Broken Arrow)
Midnight (Vigilante)
The Spirit (Chase The Dragon) - a combined acoustic and electric version
Days Of No Trust (Wings of Heaven)
Wild Swan (Wings of Heaven)
Start Talking Love (Wings of Heaven)
Must Have Been Love (Wings of Heaven)
All England's Eyes (On A Storyteller's Night)
Vigilante (Vigilante)
Don't Wake The Lion (Wings of Heaven)
Kingdom of Madness (Kingdom of Madness)

Time for lots of updates.....

{placeholder for 28th July post coming soon}