(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.
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
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.
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)
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)
Monday, 19 May 2008
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Bank Holdiay Monday
We took the children down to Muncaster Castle for the day today. The weather was lovely, and we were almost organised, so we got out of the house just before noon. Once we got there, Chrissy checked out an electric buggy to save her legs, and we started off with a picnic lunch on the lawns, then decided that we would head up to the bluebell woods, come back via the wildflower meadow then finish with the owl center.
The bluebell woods were gorgeous - if there was another plant there other than the bluebells and the trees it was completely hidden. I always thought it was a cliche, but the wood was genuinly carpetted with bluebells. The children liked it too, and Chrissy got a bonus adventure out of driving the electric buggy back along a path that was definately not disabled-accessible!
After that, we did the Meadowvole Maze, then headed back for the owls. By this time, I was pretty exhausted, so we stopped at the stableyard for a short break. Chrissy and the children went round the shops while I had a rest (and a slice of cake) to restore my flagging energy.
After that, I took the children around the owls while Chrissy took a look at the garden center, a division of labour that made everyone happy. David was very enthusiastic - "look Daddy, another owl!" especially after we ran into one of the staff who was going round with a bucket of mice and a bucket of chicks, loading up the feeding areas in each cage. After I had told David what was going at each cage for a while ("The man is putting food in the aviaries for the owls."), David went up to him at the next cage and said "Man, what are you doing?"
For the most part, the owls don't feed immediatly, prefering to wait until they are unobserved, but in the hawk owl aviary, the two adults have just raised six chicks and none of them were willing to wait, so the children got a wonderful view of the two adults divvying up the chicks, and in one case, dismembering it and feeding it to one of the fledgling.
All in all, it was a great family day out.
The bluebell woods were gorgeous - if there was another plant there other than the bluebells and the trees it was completely hidden. I always thought it was a cliche, but the wood was genuinly carpetted with bluebells. The children liked it too, and Chrissy got a bonus adventure out of driving the electric buggy back along a path that was definately not disabled-accessible!
After that, we did the Meadowvole Maze, then headed back for the owls. By this time, I was pretty exhausted, so we stopped at the stableyard for a short break. Chrissy and the children went round the shops while I had a rest (and a slice of cake) to restore my flagging energy.
After that, I took the children around the owls while Chrissy took a look at the garden center, a division of labour that made everyone happy. David was very enthusiastic - "look Daddy, another owl!" especially after we ran into one of the staff who was going round with a bucket of mice and a bucket of chicks, loading up the feeding areas in each cage. After I had told David what was going at each cage for a while ("The man is putting food in the aviaries for the owls."), David went up to him at the next cage and said "Man, what are you doing?"For the most part, the owls don't feed immediatly, prefering to wait until they are unobserved, but in the hawk owl aviary, the two adults have just raised six chicks and none of them were willing to wait, so the children got a wonderful view of the two adults divvying up the chicks, and in one case, dismembering it and feeding it to one of the fledgling.
All in all, it was a great family day out.
Ruth's Birthday Party
Thanks to the timing of Easter and our weekend in Scotland, we weren't able to organise Ruth's birthday party for the actual day so we had a small family party on the day, and threw the big party a couple of weeks later. We had the party down at Seascale Sports Hall, with the bouncy castle and all the softplay stuff out. It was a fancy dress party so Ruth (and most of the other girls) were in various princess costumes, while the boys included skeletons, pirates, superheroes and Scooby Doo. Chrissy and Claire did face-painting, and the afternoon was rounded off by a nice simple party tea .
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