This communication serves only to remind me which NFL matches I have seen in the London series. I should probably create a page like my Bands I Have Seen page, but this will do for now.
San Diego Chargers @ New Orleans Saints, 32 – 37, 26 October 2008
Denver Broncos @ San Francisco 49ers, 16 – 24, 31 October 2010
New England Patriots @ St Louis Rams, 45 – 7, 28 October 2012
San Francisco @ Jacksonville Jaguars, 42 – 10, 27 October 2013
Well, it may have been a boring match but it was good fun anyway to spend the day with friends at Wembley Stadium. I was quite excited as I was seeing my NFL team play for the second time. The first time was 2008. Now, 9 years later I have seen them again. My dream is to see them play in the Superdome one day.
Anthems
I do like the atmosphere in the stadium for these matches. It’s friendly and good fun. I’ve never seen any form of trouble.
I think I have written about the actual games in the past but I can’t really remember. There were some interceptions and two touchdowns. Will Lutz missed the first field goal attempt. The first two drives took more than the first quarter so it was quite a slow paced game.
Saints @ Dolphins
The Saints won the match 20 – 0. The cheerleaders were nice. It was pretty good to see Drew Brees and others playing.
Before the match I went to Savile Row to see where they filmed part of the Kingsman movie. Nearby was a street called Cork Street and so I took a photograph of that.
Cork Street
The Huntsman tailors is the shop where the secret service agency is based within London. Next door is a wine merchant in the film. Here are the shots I took.
I spent a lovely Saturday afternoon on a slightly wobbly chair in Rochester cinema watching the latest Kingsman movie: The Golden Circle. The tide was about halfway. I’m not sure if it was coming in or leaving. This morning on my run it looked as though it was coming in. Have just used the UK Hyographic Office Tide Predictor.
Rochester Tide
That picture shows how little I know or perhaps I just can’t remember a lot about the state of the river when I see it! I’m not really sure when this whole tide-cinema thing started. I know I was attempting to indicate the time of day that I went to the cinema but I can’t remember why I wanted to be so obscure.
I also rated this film on IMDB, please read this communication about the ratings system. I then “share” my scoring with twitter and those who follow me there:
I should probably explain what I liked about the movie. Well, it’s a good action comedy romp around the world. I laughed and found the whole film an enjoyable experience. There’s a lot of blood and gory ways to die. But then there are great actors who all look like they are enjoying themselves.
I actually wrote some notes down at the end of the film as I was sure I’d forget some things. I usually try and hold on to my snarky comments as I drive home ready to type this, but there were some nice touches through the film that made me smile.
I liked the dogs’ eyes and how they looked modelled on Cylons and KITT.
Elton John was actually pretty awesome.
The graphic matches from scene to scene were lovely.
Above the Kingsman shop there was a Blue Plaque to a physicist.
Jeff Bridges’ character isms when smelling or tasting the whiskey were really funny while subtle.
Tomorrow I am heading into town and if I have time, I’m off to see the blue plaque.
I have spent part of the last few days setting up my new mobile phone so that all the music is on it and that it works how I want it to work. Given that this is an Apple phone and most of my stuff is backed up to the cloud moving stuff to a new phone is remarkably simple.
In the old days you learnt how the new phone worked by entering all the contact details manually and playing around in the settings menu. Now all you do is enter your cloud details and wait. All the settings transfer over along with contacts and ringtones. While this is an improvement and people now have way too much data the requires transfer it is also a shame as it means most people don’t mess around in the settings menu.
When people ask me how to make a phone or device do a particular thing I often ask “Have you messed around in the settings menu?”. The reply is often “no”. People expect everything to work correctly out of the box and don’t understand how to tweak things or even that perhaps they should tweak things.
The main contents I needed to transfer to the new phone was music. Now, I suspect that within five years this won’t be necessary at all as I will stream all the music that I want. But that time is not yet so I keep “hard” versions of a lot of my music. I could use iTunes to transfer music. However, iTunes hates me. Or it hates my PC. Or it’s just shit. I’m not sure which it is but iTunes often freezes on the PC, fucks up the iPhone or just deletes the entire music content on the phone. I haven’t used iTunes to back up my phone for a few years now and I don’t use it to transfer music. I do use iTunes to import music onto the NAS and also create playlists and keep the folder contents organised to some degree. I have been frustrated with the way that iTunes hasn’t been consistent with the folder structure it uses and so I often delete the xml library file, move the folders around and then get iTunes to scan for new music.
A list of music that is contained within the iTunes folder is on this page: My Music. It isn’t a list of all music on the NAS because there’s also kids stuff, audiobooks, and stuff I rarely play.
I have used CopyTrans to move the music onto the new phone. It’s way more useful than iTunes and far more predictable.
Happily using @CopyTrans to put my music onto my new iPhone.
I have used CopyTrans in the past to keep text messages and back those up but I rarely do that now, it’s not needed.
CopyTrans doesn’t hurt the PC in the same was iTunes does. It is a positive experience and well worth looking into if you find that iTunes is unpredictable and hard work on your PC. I have transferred around 7000 songs onto the new iPhone in a few hours. Job done. I’m a happy chap.
It doesn’t do a great deal for me. In the past it has made me feel proud (?) or occasionally tingly but now it mostly leaves me cold. I’ve written about patriotism a few times before such as here, here and here.
As I don’t understand what it means to be British I looked up the official British Values in Google and there was lots of stuff that is accepted as Fundamental British Values for teaching in school.
Fundamental British Values
democracy
the rule of law
individual liberty
mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith.
Democracy – yep, we allow people to vote. But democracy is ruined by the political playing done by those in power who further themselves rather than act in what is best for the citizens of this country. I think Blair, May, Johnson, Rees-Mogg [cunt] and most of the so called “political elite”. See, there, that name “elite”, it reinforces that some are meant to rule and others should be subservient.
Rule Of Law – unless you are rich enough to bend that law. If you are wealthy then you can bend the rules and pay people to do that for you. You can find ways around tax and citizenship so you can play but don’t have to pay. Most of society is forced to behave in a way you find detrimental to your power. We’ve fought two wars recently, most likely based upon personal revenge and lies rather than for any humanitarian purpose. Oh, humanitarian war sounds oxymoronic but war to produce a better society fairer to all is probably the only legitimate reason for war. Politicians can lie and still keep their jobs or accept new jobs.
Individual Liberty – as long as you know your social limit I guess. This is something that people should have. They should have the ability to do what they want within the framework of a liberal legal and law system. You can’t have the liberty to break the law but by and large the state shouldn’t tell you how to behave or what to believe. As a humanist I can get on board with this one. I think the UK does this well. Although we have bishops in the Lords and the hereditary house of lords anyway. The law still states worship everyday in schools, but no school conforms to that. The people should be free to do as they wish. There are still politicians who don’t think that. There are still politicians who are anti-gay. They get elected by a population that is slowly becoming more tolerant, I hope, but occasionally I walk down the high street of my local town and see the intolerance in people and their attitudes.
Respect and Tolerance – sure. Sounds lovely. I’m not sure that’s the reality. So some people will always be scum and act horribly to anyone different. I think this country treats them as they deserve, we largely ignore them. Those who spout hatred and violence go ignored. Unless you are a MP for the DUP, in which case the more you shout the more likely you are to be elected.
So, I think that I am meant to be proud of these values and accept them as British, as part of the fabric of this country. But when I think of this country I think of the following and I am ashamed:
Imperialistic past
Pretensions of being a “world” leader
Incompetent politicians
War mongering industry
Iraq war
Slavery
Riches through stealing
Racism and xenophobia
I find it very hard to identify with the flag and the country. I am well aware that at least I live in a country where it is OK to say that. I live in a country with mostly liberal and progressive laws where freedom is cherished. But stand without and look upon the face of this bullish country and it makes me feel sad.
I tried explaining recently to a group of friends why I don’t stand for the national anthem. It was not easy to elucidate my reasons but I tried. I think they possibly forgave me and let it pass knowing what sort of person I am. Trump would, of course, have me sacked because he is very obviously an idiotic bully.
…our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!
If it was the law that we had to stand I would like to think I would still stay seated. What does showing respect mean? Why do I have to stand for it? I struggle with this all the time. Oh, how I am a tortured soul [I write ironically].
My friends replied that even if I don’t like the government I could stand for “pork pies and picnics”. Yes, I could stand for that I think, even though I don’t like either. But where in the list of things this country has done is that subsection called “quaint English things to do when it doesn’t rain”?
To be honest I am also struggling with forms of address. Why, if we are all people do I have to call someone else something specific. I am very willing to listen but just because someone does a specific job I have to call them something special? This is reinforcement of the ruling classes over everyone else. It confers a level of respect that possible isn’t due to that person. As an extreme example lets just consider all those parts of the Catholic Church, including the fucking pope, who have covered up / defended / NOT TOLD the police about all the kid-fucking.
I have my moments, when I think, “Wow, that was cool, look at what we can do as a group of people”. But I will not accept this as becoming because of the country. The UK has borders clearly defined by the sea, the parts of Earth where humans can’t live. We should be proud of Newton and Watt. But, they were only born here by chance, others would have worked those things out. Claiming people for your country is weird. Da’Vinci was Italian? Nope. Italy didn’t exist then. But they claim him now don’t they? Just because he entered this world geographically within their imaginary lines on this Earth. See, what does it matter who was born in your country?
I think I started thinking about this when I started work at my current school. On Speech Day we would sing the national anthem and also the school song, Gaudeamus. I found that the national anthem made me feel anger. It doesn’t stand for what I believe. Whereas the school song resonated more with me, even though it is a terrible song. I’ve a feeling this is about the level of community offered by both of these. The school community is more measured and tangible than what this country offers. I know the values and people of this place of work more than I do this country. I know what I sing for when I sing the school song, although that is changing towards a worry about the problems of indoctrination.
So, I do not feel proud to be British. I consider myself a person first and therefore part of humanity. I accept things that fall into the category of “being nice to people”, I reject things that miss that category. Nationality is a label and divides us, much as religions, class and sports teams do. I think this flag stands for dislike and internal-ism, it stands for selfishness and exclusion. It does nothing for me.
Note: This communication was started in February 2017 and thought about a lot. I will miss points I want to make. I have struggled with this problem of identity for a long time and the Brexit vote made me feel it even more. I do not recognise what this country or its people stands for. The current government is inept. The rise of hatred and general xenophobia horrifies me. I write as a stream and much like my lessons I lurch from one thing to another. It is me.
For exciting information about infrastructure then look here.
I updated the infrastructure in this communication although that one needs doing again!
Anyway, this morning I did another bandwidth test to see how the connection was holding up. Google have their own within the search results page and I go this returned:
Google Speed Result
Then, just to check I used the top search result also:
I’m a happy bunny. Streaming to multiple devices becomes more important as I listen to radio via the internet and others might be watching stuff on the television and another using the PC.
I have been and read three reviews about the film Mother! which I saw yesterday and didn’t like. I’m curious as to what it is about the film that was liked so much by the critics.
. . . . I found Mother! an increasingly exasperating experience – a claustrophobic exercise in ghastly black comedy; relentless, ridiculous, and occasionally panic-inducing. Yet give it time to settle, and the labour pains of watching Mother! produce something that you could grow to love.
Apparently this film is an observation of the world as a whole. I did feel claustrophobic, I wanted to see outside, to escape the house, but I will not grow to love it.
Aronofsky’s film is . . . . a fevered allegory of humans versus nature, a grotesque, Goya-channelling creation myth mash-up, a parable of artistic obsession, and a psychological horror set inside an introvert’s worst nightmare.
Well, that’s OK then. If you decide to interpret it non-literally then you can impose any scenario entirely on it. Here’s one for you: it’s an allegory of the life and times of Lady Diana. See, easy. You see what you want to see.
Employing biblical allusions with tremendous finesse and huge ambition, the director unleashes apocalyptic fireballs of condemnation on his targets. These include the control organised religion exerts over women, the cult of celebrity, and the vanity of the male creative process.
So, not about earth but control.
So, I like artistic films. I like clever films. But I did not like this film. Also, Aronofsky made Noah, which was bollocks too!
I’m reminded that Hollywood loves films about Hollywood. Want to win an Oscar? Then write a film about Hollywood. I think one of the reasons critics love this film is that it gives them the chance to place upon it all the anguish, threat and allegory that they learnt about in school.
I went to see Mother! to try and make up for the mistake that was American Assassin. The tide was in and the river was quite still. In fact it has been a calm day here altogether in this part of Kent. As is usual I rated this film on IMDB and you can read a description of the rating system in this communication.
I did not enjoy this film. I watched it to the end just to see what happened and hopefully answer some questions like WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON?
A more accurate title would be “Following Jennifer Lawrence around a house for two hours”.
In the past, when I have encountered a film I hated or didn’t get I have read through reviews and explanations before writing this. Not this time. I will go and look after this is published.
Sometime last week I noticed that the number of tweets I had sent was nearing 10,000. I’m not a massive user of Twitter and a lot of those would be to do with the automatic tweets generated by this website. Every communication I write creates three tweets to catch most time-zones around the world. I’ve just over one thousand communications and so that’s around three thousand tweets.
While keeping an eye on the count I had a few twitter conversations and was pretty sure I had got through the 104 barrier. I can’t see where in the iOS app there is a count so I had to wait to get to a PC to see how many I had done and count back if necessary. This morning I did that and the count was 10,011. The number on the website said 10k but you can hover and see the real number. So, I counted back and I am so very proud. My ten thousandth tweet was:
Being as plain as I can, Ress-Mogg is a cunt. He has antiquated views which he backs up with “faith”.
I am so chuffed. What a brilliant comment to have as a power of ten tweet. In case some of you aren’t sure why I think that, then read this about his comments on gay sex and abortion. You could also read this for his views on foodbanks.
There is a slight controversy here though. I recently requested my twitter archive as I keep a copy for your interest here. Within this there is a csv file which I have looked at and counted the number of rows. It only comes to 9975. So, there’s a discrepancy between my archive and what the twitter website says. I’ll use the website as I don’t think I could have planned my breakthrough tweet much better.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Well, given how fictional god is this is more about me asking for there to be light in my house and the lights turning on. Nothing particularly supernatural there. Just fucking science, baby.
My sister has an Amazon Alexa/Echo tower thing and it was actually quite fun to ask it questions and get answers [most of the time]. So, I bought a Google Home. It is a nifty little piece of kit. I don’t think it looks as good as Echo, the home is more organic whereas Echo is quite futuristic looking and flashy lights.
The voice control works really well. It’ll be better when Google becomes better at interpreting questions and answering them. The “tell me a joke” feature is amusing.
Google Home
When I was in the south west I met with a friend and he has an LED light made by Phillips. I am not really one for lights in the house, I lived for years without any lampshades on my ceiling lights, but I like the tech involved in the Philips device. They don’t make the actual model my friend had but they make a similar one. I have a table lamp in the corner of the dining room that I use a lot. It provides just the right amount of light to the centre of the house. I thought I could replace this with a colour lamp. So, I investigated Hue lighting by Philips.
I initially bought a starter pack with E27 connectors on the two bulbs. The expensive bit is the bridge to the home network. There is no need for it to be as expensive as advertised so Philips have added a premium to that device. The individual Hue lights are a reasonable price as long as you want white. The colour devices are expensive, I think.
Philips Hue Bridge
So, it turns out that most of my ceiling lights are bayonet connectors, not E27. I wasn’t sure where to put the new bulbs! I ended up putting them in the kitchen. So, I had to get some bayonet fixing LED bulbs for other areas of the house.
Now, the main lights in my house are voice or app controlled. The lights up the stairs and by the backdoor along with the bathroom light are still manual. There’s a fan attached to the bathroom light so that one probably can’t go wireless control and the others aren’t used much. I did get the colour lamp for the dining room.
Corner Lamp
The lamp can be any of the 16 million colours you can get with a 256 graduation of each LED. You can use the app to load a photograph and match the colours from that picture. It’s a good piece of kit. I also believe it can be used to match colours on a television to add mood lighting, but I don’t have a Philips TV and won’t be getting one.
The lights don’t have to be light controlled. The switches still work. If you turn the lights off [at the switch] and then on again the default position is On-100%. This means other people can still use your house if you need them to. They might feel silly talking to Google to get the lights on.
Oh, it did take over an hour to get Google Home to register the Hue Bridge. That was largely because the iOS app has a problem and it only really works via an Android device [this is forgivable given Android is Google]. I was using an online chat help window to figure out how to connect the two systems. The person on the other end of the line was helpful and patient. Especially as I had to download a new app on the Android tablet which, in normal circumstances is easy, but my Play Store had been not been working correctly for a few months. I had to roll back the Play Store software to then be able to download the Home app. This is what took the hour. Google Help were really good and everything is now connected.
It’s still odd asking someone to turn the lights on. I still forget now and then, espeically when leaving a room and I automatically physically turn the light off. Then I wonder why it’s not connected to the network when I get home!
I am looking forward to the some lights turning on automatically when I get home. I’m also looking forward to my parents being in my house and then lights turning on when I come back from the shop or wherever!
I am currently working on the Raspberry Pi I have installed in the loft as a web server and aircraft spotter. It’s been a while since I mentioned it here. I thought I’d just chuck up some images.
Aircraft Tracked
This picture gives an idea of how many aircraft can be tracked at once. Be aware this was early on a Sunday morning.
Radar Splat
This splat shows how far away aircraft are detected. Please note I am not where the blue dot is, that would be quite weird. The smallest locus is up to 9,999 ft, the green is 10,000 to 19,999 ft, the purple is the 20,000s and the red is above FL300.
So, I went to the cinema to watch American Assassin. It was that or Mother and I plumped for stupid action. I rated this film on IMDB, as usual, and there’s a communication that deals with my rating system here.
Sometime back I started using the Strava app on my phone as some friends were using it and they weren’t on Map My Run. The Strava app has the ability to use a photo taken as the main picture in the saved area rather than a map. I think it looks quite good and I have been trying to take a photograph whenever I am out running.
Having spent a weekend in Bradford for the Infest music festival I also got time to wander around the city and soak up some of its heritage.
While driving from Keswick to Bradford via Kendal I passed a road direction sign saying:
Bradford
Bingley
This amused me no end as most of you will know the Bradford & Bingley was a building society that was taken over by a bank [I think]. I had not realised they were the names of places. This maybe due to their advertising being based on two bowler hatted characters called Bradford and Bingley.
This area of the UK is lesser explored by me. I spent a week near York but didn’t actually go into York so this was a chance to find out about a northern industrial town.
On Saturday morning we needed some liquid latex and so used Google maps to find a shop that would hopefully sell some. It was in a shopping centre. On the way we passed the town hall.
Town Hall
This was actually quite pretty and built using local stone as a lot of the city was. The drive into the university the day before had highlighted that this city, while once great, wasn’t that great and had suffered a lot of economic depression. There were many boarded up buildings and run down areas. The overall tide is turning though as new shopping centres pop up in the centre, but the long term economic benefit of these doesn’t seem useful to a town. They might make the locals think the centre is nice and it looks good but the vast majority of money spent there will leave the town and head to corporations elsewhere in the world. A thriving shopping centre is not the economic boon to a town I suspect locals think it is.
The Kirkgate Shopping centre looked like a 60s build. While walking there I think we went past five Greggs shops. I get it that they are quite cheap but I’m not sure that’s a good sign. The Joke Shop in the market area of the Kirkgate sold liquid latex along with cheap sex toys and bongs. A funny little shop with an odd clientele.
Just What You Need
I had, in the previous week, been discussing “seaside” joke shops with Penguin and we wondered if there’re still places that sell joke fingers and snappy chewing gum. I was glad to have found this little shop.
Centenary Square
After a nice breakfast we wandered back the University and music and escape.
The Sunday morning meant that I wanted to have breakfast and also see the Science and Media museum. It’s possibly even a “national” museum. Just Googled that and yes, it’s a “national” museum.
Firstly we went to the Cathedral to have a look and it was “churchy”. There were some historical aspects that were interesting but I wasn’t that bothered. Little Germany was close by and we wandered that and saw the mural dedicated to a band of socialists.
Power To The People
The Waterstones in Bradford is in the old exchange building and very grand. A lovely space and ideal for selling books where those hushed tones of a library abound.
Waterstones, Bradford
Then the science and media museum. It was free and we wandered the history of photography which was pretty good and had a very lot of cameras. A lot of the older exhibits were reproductions, which I don’t like so much but, I understand why they are like that. We didn’t go into any of the temporary exhibitions and maybe that is where the value is in this museum but most of it was a bit boring and shit. As I explained previously that could be because all the museums I’ve been to before this are in this nation’s capital and large and big. I’ve also seen museums in Washington DC, maybe they aren’t representative. Overall I was disappointing by the museum there wasn’t a lot of science [none] and media was underwhelming.
Bradford seemed a little sad to me. A once majestic northern industrial town / city that has suffered and only now seems to be rejuvenating using shopping centres and little else. I hope it changes constructively, there’s a lot of glossing over the cracks when financial investment isn’t done correctly.
This morning [just, it was an 11:50 showing] I went to the Rochester Cineworld Cinema down by the Medway’s edge. Earlier in the day I had run along a stretch of the tidal Medway and also the non-tidal part above Allington lock and then later I found myself parking alongside the river but on the western bank.
I went to see It and after the film I rated it on IMDB, you should see this communication as it deals with the ratings system.
Before the film started there were trailers for a weather disaster film called Geostorm. This looked absolutely terrible. The timing of the trailer with its gratuitous floods and storms was pretty poor given Harvey and Irma this month. Another trailer for a horror film was called Jigsaw and I couldn’t give less of a shit for watching it. I’m not a horror movie fan. Mostly because they don’t scare me, I just think they are stupid. Then there’s a film trailer with an interesting guilt start which I thought should be called “We should have gone to Vegas” but was really called The Ritual. That looked hilarious too. AND there was a trailer for a modern Flatliners!!!!!! Along with The Lost Boys, Flatliners is one of the seminal films of my teenage years, it scared me senseless! The new film looks just ok.
IT
I’ve read the book a long time ago. I’m not sure I could tell you a great deal about it. Certain things stick in the memory but who knows? I also watched the original TV series with Tim Curry as Pennywise and remember it being good. I remember the adult characters but not a lot else.
This film turned out to be chapter one. You can’t do a Stephen King film in two hours. Especially It. Mazza and I once watched all of The Stand on video back in 1994/5 and that was a whole evening job, six hours I think. Good but long.
I recall the book being about the adults remembering the summer previously but I could be wrong about that. The overall set up was good. The film was good. Jump scares are boring. For a truly terrifying experience there needs to be a film with little incidental music. As it was so long ago that I read this story I don’t know how faithful it was to the book. It served memory well. Apart from the child orgy.
In the book there is def a thing where Beverly Marsh has sex with all the survivors of the experience. I think it happens in the barrens. It’s written in a very sensible way. This film version avoided that. Maybe the 1990 version did too!
I would be tempted, if I had the time, to go back and read the book or watch the last version of the film. The book is significantly more detailed. But then it would be.
The second half of my summer break was spent wandering the Lake District and attending the Infest music festival in Bradford. I had a very good time and did a lot of driving. I am quite convinced that my wheel balance is out very slightly for speeds above 70 miles per hour, there’s a fine vibration there but it’s not that often you can go faster than that here in the south east of this country.
I wasn’t deliberately keeping an eye on my fuel consumption as life is too short to worry about that. Life might be considerably shorter in future due to excessive fuel use but owning Bora Horza Gobuchul gives me a slight advantage in the smugness over non-hybrid drivers.
Consumption
This image shows that over this trip I did just over a thousand miles and returned a fuel consumption of 59 miles per gallon. That’s not bad. It’s a shame Bora Horza Gobuchul doesn’t report in litres per 100km which I think I prefer, but goodness that won’t catch on, it’s waaaay too European.
This summer was not a good one for me attempting to park the car. It seems I’ve been a little unlucky or forgetful!
The first incident was caused by me largely not connecting the dots and being in a slight rush. I parked my car at work when I left for CCF Camp. When I did this the entire site was locked because it was being used by the Ramblin’ Man music festival in the park nearby. I managed to get into the car park and was going to park “out of the way” in my normal spot. I decided there and then that I really wanted some CCTV coverage of the car so I zoomed around and parked in the main part of the car park.
I thought little of this until the Tuesday. I was walking down to the Eden Project and I had a phone call asking if the spare keys were nearby. Could I get the car moved as it was blocking the route for a new water and electricity trench that the school needed to build. There was a few hours of consternation until I was eventually called and told that a car breakdown service had been instructed to move the car. I was relieved.
Not In The Way Anymore
Bora Horza Gobuchul no longer blocked the path for the trench. I had been told about this work that was going to take place, but did not combine this fact with where I parked the car.
The next incident was parking at the M’era Luna festival. Along the journey we had received updates about the parking and rain situation and we arrived around midday to park. The queues into the car park were long and we wondered what the delay was. I followed the instructions given by the parking attendants and turned onto the field. Drive fast they said and don’t stop.
Well. That’s all very well for a manual non-hybrid car without and traction control electronics. I think we managed about 100 metres across the field before we became embedded in the mud. The car was not going anywhere.
Fucking Stuck
We weren’t the only ones. There were many cars getting stuck including a BMW X5. Shortly after this the organisers closed the car park and managed to arrange alternative parking for the festival attendees. One of the attendants explained there would be a tractor when we wanted to leave. I was quite distressed because the car was beeping and flashing lights at me. There wasn’t anything I could do and so I turned the thing off. Andy did well to calm me, slowly my stress lowered and I managed to enjoy most of the weekend without panicking too much.
Before leaving the car park we found the emergency tow hook and I read the instructions about how to fit it and be towed. Mentally I prepared myself for the car to be broken and the steps we would have to go through to get home.
Sunrise Over Bora Horza Gobuchul – note the lack of surrounding cars
On the Monday morning, in quite a gorgeous setting, we flagged down the tractor man and he towed us out of the hole. I had to put the car into neutral which I rarely do but it all seemed to work well. As we neared the edge of the field the tractor chap unhooked us and said we had to drive the last three metres by ourselves. I’m not really sure why. I wanted a tow to the road so I had a proper surface to drive on.
Tow hook fitted and ready to go
I floored the accelerator and the car moved to the road. I shouted to Andy to get in and we left. A few miles up the road I removed the emergency tow hook. We headed to the UK. All seemed far better than I had expected!
The good news is that since I am now back at work the summer is officially over and I have had no more parking incidents. I even had quite a time in the Lake District and then Bradford and neither resulted in issues. My nerves have dissipated now.
After leaving the Lake District I drove down to Bradford. I had known about the Infest music festival for a few years but the bands in previous years had not been enough to draw me, also it’s in Bradford. Smith and I had accommodation booked in the university halls of residence and the festival itself was based in the student union. I arrived, got my keys, found my room and also found somewhere to park the car. Then I waited for Smith to get up from London and wandered the university to get my bearings.
There were three bands, the headliners, that I wanted to see:
Rotersand – I saw these at M’era Luna and they were bloody fantastic.
Die Krupps – I’ve seen these at M’era Luna too and they were very impressive.
Revolting Cocks – pioneers of the industrial sound and iconic and influential band [although arguably Die Krupps were more important in musical history].
On the Friday evening I watched:
They Call Him Zone – slow beat goth and boring.
Noyce – band with a violinist, indie style fast beats but with goth lyrics. One of the musicians was playing a saw in a song. Could be improved (!) if the violinist played a melody rather than just holding a chord note for each line.
Accessory – good fast industrial pop, very fucking good.
Rotersand – fucking awesome.
Rotersand
And . . .Friday night was done.
More Rotersand
We hung around for a while chatting to a few people. The rooms in halls were pretty good although there wasn’t a basin. There were two shower/toilets for four people to share which I guess is OK. It reminded me of my time in student halls at Imperial. Mind you, that particular hall of residence is no more. Bradford halls were based on town houses with four levels, IC halls were a messed up design with spiral staircases which created interesting loyalties.
Saturday morning came and it was time to find food. We wandered Bradford, I was not impressed, and bought some needed liquid latex. Then we found a small cafe and had breakfast at the Smorgasboad Bar. Upon our return to Infest we got changed and I actually felt an unease at being different. I do not get this apprehension in Germany.
Preparation Table
Saturday’s bands were:
Riotmiloo – shouty female singer, microphone didn’t work for quite a while.Started slow, got better as beat increased. Good finish.
Chemical Sweet Kid- French. Female keyboardist and male singer and guitarist. Good, upbeat songs. Quite enjoyable. Slightly formulaic songs. Good version of Paint It Black.
Chemical Sweet Kid
Empathy Test – left after two songs. See this review in this communication.
Wulfband – fast electro punk. Singing in German. Guitarist on but only played in last half of songs. Singer had a posed fight with someone during one song. Crazy. Best comment from the crowd:
“I don’t know what you are but I want more.”
Wulfband
Then we had food. My notes say the letter B but I can’t remember what that means!
End.user – DJ type stuff. Bullshit.
Finally to top the evening were Die Krupps – they were heavy and really good.
Die Krupps
On Sunday morning we wandered around Bradford some more looking at the Cathedral, the Waterstones shop and Little Germany. I’ve just looked at the Google map of the city and it shocked the shit out of me as the University was on the wrong side of the centre. For some reason I had thought it was on the SE of the centre, I was wrong in my head and that explains what the sun was in the wrong place in the sky while I was there. This does happen at times, me being wrong, not the sun being in the wrong place. I should have studied the map a little more while I was in the city.
There’s a Science and Media museum in Bradford. We looked around it. While there was a good collection of cameras it was pretty shit for a museum. Very little science and not a great deal of media. This could be due to the fact that my local museums are all in the capital and generally pretty impressive.
So, Sunday’s bands and my thoughts follow:
Among The Echoes – standard guitar based rock with synth stuff over the top. Not good. Not bad. Quite routine.
Sidewalks and Skeletons – slow ambient DJ type stuff. Industrial noises. Not feeling it.
Vampyre Anvil – good, heavy industrial electronic. Two guys and computers. Distorted singing.
Juggernauts – Left for food after 10 mins. Belgians with shiny helmets. Not sure what was going on.
iVardensphere – upbeat. Heavy bass. Not the easiest to discriminate between all the sounds. Not sure it translates well to live. Still good but not quite same as album music. Drum solo! Really heavy song. Good variation.
iVardenshpere
Revolting Cocks – 38, No vocals for first half of song. Change of singers after Big Sexy Land. Last song Beers Steers and Queers. Then encore: If you think I’m sexy (not expected and quite disappointing).
Revolting Cocks
I was somewhat underwhelmed by the Revolting Cocks but that’s probably normal for a band of such stature. I had enjoyed Rotersand and Die Krupps far more. However, it was good to see this seminal collection of people doing their stuff. They are quite influential although Die Krupps win the overall who influenced who competition having influenced many including Nitzer Ebb who then influenced the Cocks!
We both decided that the atmosphere on the Saturday was a little strange and I didn’t get as much of a party atmosphere as when I’m at M’era Luna. Attendance at this little festival of goths and freaks will depend on the acts they book, as it did this year.
At some point during the weekend we were sitting outside around a table. I was reading a news article on Babylonians and their understanding of trigonometry. I need some head space during the weekends otherwise I get over-loaded. I kinda shut down for a while and enter calmness. A young woman sitting opposite [looking a little smashed] asked me what was wrong with me and why wasn’t I happy. I explained I was fine. She asked again. Smith tried explaining that being quiet now and then was what I do, to reset myself. So, she asked again what was wrong with me. It was one of those situations that happen when you keep getting asked why you are in a mood, when you aren’t. The incessant questioning eventually puts you in a mood.
So, I explained to this woman that I had read a news article about how the Babylonians had possibly figured out trigonometry before Hipparchus and that an interpretation of one of their clay tablets could show a decent base sixty understanding of trigonometric tables. I explained I was a little phased as it wasn’t something I had expected.
I went to see if Pixar had restored their story abilities yesterday by going to see Cars 3 at Rochester cinema. The tide was in and the mud flats were hidden from view. I was really disappointed with Cars 2, while it was a fun film it was a shockingly poor sequel to Cars. So, could they do it properly this time?
I was borderline between giving this film a four or a six, see my ratings explanation communication. You see, this film was pretty predictable. It was the same as the first film. I guess that’s the best way to make a sequel, you can just look at The Force Awakens. This film was OK in terms of plot. It seemed a little obvious towards the end, but it worked. I was surprised they bought the voice of Doc Hudson back, but they needed it for the film – just had a quick look and all the quotes were from the first film, so they didn’t need to resurrect Paul Newman.
I liked the idea that Hamilton was played by Lewis Hamilton. There were many other stars of the road included but when you remember this is based on NASCAR you’ll understand why I have no idea who they were.
The Lake District has now joined Hildesheim airport as a place I can go to clear my head and achieve things. This summer I drove up there to Keswick. I didn’t have many concrete plans on the way but did know I wanted to bag a few more Wainwrights. My attempts on these fells was weather dependent and so the first day seemed more appropriate to visit parts of Scotland I missed out previously.
The day started with a small walk up Castle Cragg. This is the smallest of the Wainwrights and number 214. It’s not even a mountain being slightly less than 1000ft, but it is 300m which makes it ok?
Castle Crag looking SE
While driving to Portinscale the surface of Derwent Water was lovely and smooth and an almost perfect mirror.
Derwent Water
As the weather wasn’t meant to hold out all day I then headed to Scotland to see some things that had been recommended to me the last time I was in the North. I drove to Lockerbie to see the memorial to the people who died in the Pan-Am 747 bombing in 1988. While on the way I saw a sign for the Ukrainian Prisoner Of War Chapel, I turned to follow these signs but when I got there the place was closed. Which was a shame, I had expected to learn some snippets of history about which I was unaware.
Lockerbie
From Lockerbie I drove to Eastriggs and the Devil’s Porridge Museum. This museum had been recommended to me when I was at Carlisle Airport and I have to say it disappointed. It was housed in a new building and very lovely and all that but it just left me feeling a bit “meh”. I had lunch there, which was perfectly fine, but the museum itself just lacked something. I’m not sure what. I did learn that pretty much the entire coastline from Gretna to Dumfries was used to produce explosive during the first World War. After the second World War the area was used to produce plutonium for the UK’s nuclear bomb effort. It was the decommissioning of this Chapel Cross powerplant that I witnessed.
Chapel Cross
On the drive back to Keswick I drove past the Skelton radio transmission station. It has the UK’s tallest structure and is used to transmit VLF signals to the UK submarines.
A big day now awaited me. I planned an assault on the top two mountains in England. I had chatted to experienced fell walkers and planned pretty well. I got up early and drove a crazy route to Wasdale Head at the end of Wast Water. I grabbed a coffee-to-go in the village shop in Gosforth and got ready for the day’s walking. The main plan was to get up to a saddle near Scafell Pike, decide whether to skip up to Lingmell and then go up Scafell Pike and Scafell. There were plenty of opportunities to remove myself from the mountain along the way if I felt not sure.
Lingmell Summit
Lingmell [number 29] was pretty simple to walk from the saddle and the whole world looked very desolate and calm, almost at peace with itself. Mind you, Sellafield was looming in the distance. I climbed the rocky barren waste of Scafell Pike [978m] [number 1] and at that point was higher than anything else attached to the earth within England. It was while up here that I looked SW and saw a blanket of cloud.
Scafell Pike Summit
I was above the majority of the clouds and was a little worried about visibility. I managed to get to Mickledore and I wasn’t too happy with the conditions but I met another chap who was heading up Scafell and so we joined together for the waterfall climb up to Foxes Tarn and then Scafell [964m].
Scafell Summit
Scafell [number 2] was encased in cloud and I couldn’t see a great deal. After lunch I headed down by a westerly path and headed towards Burnmoor Tarn. It was a very pleasant walk back to the car park.
Wast Water
It’s nice to see trees and colour again after you’ve been “at altitude” [I’m def not serious there]. I had a cup of tea at the Wasdale Inn and then returned to Keswick via the same stupid road. It was single track, hilly and had sheep everywhere. It was also used as a rat run by locals on their way to or from work.
The next day was a rest day. Although, I would say that I’m definitely getting better at this hill walking lark. I felt good and could have climbed again. But I had plans. I went to see Aira Force waterfall, I have no idea how to pronounce the first word. I don’t care. It was a short walk from the car park next to Ullswater to the waterfall. It was quite an impressive sight, as it had rained overnight.
Aira Force
It was very green at the waterfall. Very pretty. I then met some work friends in Bryson’s tea room in Keswick. It was nice to chat and catch up. I don’t think we spoke much of work, which is a good thing. After that I bought my Scafell Pike mug and headed to Cockermouth to see what it was like.
Wordsworth House, Cockermouth
The rivers through Cockermouth were quite impressive, they were flowing steadily through the town. No wonder it flooded terribly recently. I visited Wordsworth House, where the poet William was born. It was reasonably interesting. However, the fact that the flood waters were marked almost at head level made me very impressed with how the town had tidied up. I had lunch at Beatfords tea room. That evening I had dinner with Penguin and Mrs Penguin at the Inn On The Square. They sat us around the corner and out of the way as we were dressed quite poorly for such a lovely looking restaurant/hotel place.
On my last full day in the Lake District I decided to conquer Blencathra. I parked nice and early in Threlkeld and walked to the NE end of the mountain. My plan was to climb along Sharp Edge but when I came around a corner and saw it looming, sharp and in fog, I decided “screw that” and just headed up the rather plain and boring ridge route to Blencathra [number 14] and the other two prominences. The views were stunning. It was a shame about the clouds, but the sun shone through breaks and the rain showers drifted over the valleys. Utterly gorgeous.
Blencathra
On the way down I completed part of a Whatsapp! annual challenge and enjoyed the views as I descended into the valley towards the A66 and back to my car. There’s a certain level of clear headedness that comes from being on your own in the mountains. I really love it and am starting to think that I might actually be ok at this fell walking stuff.
On my last day in Keswick I breakfasted at the Filling Station Cafe and then wandered to the Lake side as I hadn’t been there so far and I enjoyed the wander through town.
Lake View
I was now heading to Bradford for a music festival. The traffic on the A66 was terrible after an accident so I took the scenic route to Kendal and then across Yorkshire to Bradford. It took two hours, but was a nice drive.
