Pieces of a Man

Think it. Do it. Be it. Embellish.

67.68.69.70.71.72.73.74.75.76
77.78.79.80.81.82.83.84.85.86
87.88.89.90.91.92.93.94.95.96
97.98.99.00.01.02.03.04.05.06
07.08

19.8.06

Bright Lights, Big City

Now showing - pictures from our long weekend in London last week.

The first day was a bit ambitious and the walking round the sights of central London got to Jo and the kids a bit. Sunday was much better, with everything happening at the Natural History Museum, where we met up with Tom'n'Anna and Christos. After larking about in South Kensington all afternoon we went for a great Turkish on Green Lanes. Monday was London Zoo. It was different to how I remember it - smaller and more laid back - and that made for a very relaxing day.

Thanks for the flat, Nick and Jo! (I think the cat is still there; it was wise enough to stay under the bed the whole time and not waste any of its nine lives.)

Labels: 2006

15.8.06

Vinyl Solution

The recent arrival of a digital telly box has trigged a reworking of the house audio-visual arrangements and the repatriation of my turntable and vinyl from the attic.

With the hi-fi and records boxes all newly installed in the yellow room, I sat down and gave the kids a lecture on the first day along the lines of "No anger you've ever seen in your brief lives will compare with what will happen if you mess with my records".

It seems to have worked and, two weeks on, nothing has been scratched, bent or covered in jam (all things I envisaged).

So anyway, after a wait of quite a few years to get to this point, I made a note of what happened next;

Sign of the Times - Prince
Rastaman Vibration - Bob Marley
Want Fi Goh Rave - Linton Kwesi Johnson
Me and Sarah Jane - Genesis
Oh Me Oh My - Aretha Franklin
I Wanna Be Adored - The Stone Roses
It Must Be Love - Madness

It's been too long.

Labels: 2006

6.8.06

Hope Springs

Didn't go to Elland Road to see Norwich's opener at Leeds yesterday. The whiff of uncertainty from Mum and Tom was in the air when we got together a couple of weeks back, and we were all secretly relieved, I think, to discover that nobody wanted to carry us there on a personal wave of misplaced optimism.

It seems the horror of last season is still too strong in our collective psyche to expose ourselves to it again. I didn't share Nick's grim fate of 7 games, 7 defeats, but nonetheless, footie costs a lot now - tickets, travel, time with Jo and the kids - and Tom hit the nail on the head when he said Norwich are going to have to bloody earn it this year. Show me the money!

(And guess what? We outplayed Leeds yesterday, missed a hatful of chances and lost. Good call, people.)

Labels: 2006

5.8.06

Norfolk Memories

Have just uploaded pictures of our long weekend in Norfolk at Woodrow Avenue. We got the last of the brilliant July weather and squeezed the most out of it, hitting the beaches at Wells, Holkham and Sheringham. We also managed to get over to Auntie Valerie and Uncle Brian's 50th Wedding 'do' in East Dereham, a big family get-together. (Will try to retrieve group photo and post later.)

Also amongst the photos is a special trip down memory lane to 42, The Avenue, Sheringham, the place where Nina, Nick and I spent a few years growing up in the late 70s (how many, anyone?). It's hardly changed at all, except that everything seems smaller, of course.

Here's some stuff I remember about the place;

my fabulous polyester Norwich tracksuit with the number 8 on the back (Justin Fashanu)
my fabulous attic bedroom with vertical wooden panels painted in classy alternate yellow'n'green stripes
being scared stiff in my fabulous attic bedroom after watching 'The Ghoul', an old Peter Cushing film about a leper in the attic who would creep down and eat people
Dad's Crystal Gayle and James Galway records (skeletons in the closet, rather than cannibals in the attic)
Nina, Nick and I watching a massive storm in our sleeping bags all lined up by the french windows
buying my first single in Woolworths - 'Kool in the Kaftan' by BA Robertson; it had a gatefold sleeve and these fingers popped out doing a hippy V sign. You don't get that for 99p these days!
watching and recording 'Top of the Pops' - my friend Mike remininisces about this, too
Dad watching boxing - Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammed Ali, Roberto Duran - a golden era
sitting for ages in the toilet reading those Hal and Roger(?) adventure stories (Whale Adventure, Tiger Adventure...)
'Anarchy in the UK' coming out
Nick having his tooth knocked out with a Matchbox truck (OK, it was by me)
Chinese food on Thursdays after guitar lessons - the Lotus House is still there by the station, exactly the same.
Mum saying the 'F word' and throwing a cup across the living room (can anyone remember why?)
Terry Wogan on BBC2 in the kitchen every morning - remember 'The Floral Dance'?
the smelly house next door owned by Norfolk bus magnates, the Saunders family, but covered in cat/dog shit
growing crystals and making things go 'poof' with my chemistry set
Black Shuck up on Beeston Bump

... it's all coming back. Happy times.

Labels: 1977, 2006