overjoyed boys, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Pic – Felix & Jaygo celebrating our first trip out in Clover this year.

Lots of “first time this year” activities today. YAY – We’ve got Clover back on’t road. She’s had the electrics sorted out and this morning (after a scrabble marathon last night with Eirene and Fi) I woke up inspired to fix the van. Worked out that the battery was probably the root cause after all and bought a new one (£99! ouch!). She started first time. Tip runs and a full sort out in the back yard followed by tea in’t back yard (first time this year), followed by a trip out in clover to see sundown at little Almscliffe. Superb. Ready for summer – go go go!

Blind Faith by Ben Elton

I picked up this book from the exotic shores of the ASDA book isle. I was in a book doldrum after finishing a run of cracking titles, everything I picked up seemed to fall short.

I decided to donate some of my downtime (of which there is less than I’d like to be these days) to reading Ben Elton’s latest title. I’ve read two of his other books – one, set in history (The First Casualty , WWI), one set in modern day (High Society) and so it seemed a natural progression for me to read on set in the future – Blind Faith.

A very Orwellian 23rd century London that due to a flood, thanks to global warming has changed shape dramatically. New shorelines and water ways surrounding the “London Lake” are in absolute scrutiny with CCTV and documentation of every aspect of day-to-day life. An attitude shift that on the surface looks like organised Utopia, whereby everyone is devoted to the same God (and Dianna) yet underneath has some dark, dark secrets.

A very quick, easy and engaging read (as all his stuff tends to trend for me) – the only downside is that the geek in me would of liked to of seen more details about how some of the spectacular technological advancement has come about, how it looks and works. All in all, a good read.

Lovely long Bank Holiday weekend. After a couple of beers on Friday, we headed back to ours and had a bit of a fire bin in the company of some lovely people.

Saturday was a biggy. It was Bongo’s wedding at the Dower House in Knaresborough. So many old faces (well, some quite young, but old as in I’ve not seen them for a while.) Many a family in full representation. The Dyson’s the Pearson’s, (bar baby Ben who’s just gone to Australia) ,the Bleasdales, the Webbers… it made me think how our clutch is going to be attending weddings in a similar vein in a generation – people will associate them with each other. Anyhoo – lovely day, lovely service, lovely wedding breakfast then we drank ate and were merry. Stunbled out of there at about wrong o’clock and had a slight party back at ours.

Sunday = hangover. Felix was away at Keilder with cubs, Jaygo was with Nanty Neena and Sophie (she’s so lovely) was babysat on site. A big chill where I did loads of reading, was needed. I cooked a big spanish stew for 6 of us (we had two lovely couples round) followed by a bit of Michael Palin DVD watching.

Monday, we went to the Beckwithshaw Gala. Dogs + coconut shy type activity and a Bernie. Again lots of reading. Finished Ben Elton’s new book in pretty much the weekend. More on that to follow.

BBC have just used my pic…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/7409755.stm

Dragon Road car park fire 1, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Last night Eirene and I had just settled down to watch an episode of Michael Palin’s Pacific Ring, when Felix came downstairs in a bit of a flap saying “Look out the window”

Huge plumes of smoke were billowing from the truck park near my house (Dragon Road Car Park). I quickly grabbed my camera and made it to the scene as the second fire engine pulled up.

I managed to stay inside the cordon area (The police pushed everyone else back, perhaps it was because I was wielding a camera..?) and get some great shots (I’ve put the best 3 on flickr)

The chap pictured here is Steve Jones from Colechester. He awoke at about 9pm in his cab to the sound and smells of a fire. He quickly bailed his truck (right) and watched his livelihood and possessions catch fire. (I nipped home and got him a flask of tea and a parka coat the good Samaritan that I am)

I’ve submitted this to the local papers via a freelance Journalist who arrived at the scene later…

Callisto by Torsten Krol

So I got this book whilst racing though an airport. It was 6am, pre Portugal stag do, the lads were already at the bar getting combat beers.

I gave myself 5 minutes to find a new book. I’ve always been a big fan of judging a book by it’s cover. As I flicked to the usual bio / blurb section on the inner jacket I read “Torsten Krol is a writer. Nothing further is known about him” and from that moment, I was hooked (perhaps that was it’s intention).

It really felt like this guy was telling his own story. The Forest Gump meets Vernon God Little first person narrative took me into the dark heart of America. The story is wrapped around murder and intrigue (not a genre I normally go for) and dark secrets and manipulation. Very strong character lead plot, funny in places, horrific in others this book was a solid piece of satisfying literature. A truly brilliant ending left me wanting more.

This book goes a good way into the study of fate. The way life’s path can turn on a knife edge, go one way or the other. It’s a dark version of the dice man.

New job is settling in well. I’m waking up in the mornings looking forward to my working day at the moment. That’s a good thing. Less time for blogging and dragondrop gardening in general though – I’ve still got a stack of shirt shots to go up..

So – Ireland was lovely. Chucked a few photos up on flickr. Got to sit around in the sun in a brace of back gardens with contentment abound. Got to see a few overs of cricket as well on the Sunday which was a bonus.

Weekend just gone involved some quality time with ‘just’ the 5 of us down by the River Wharfe nr Linton Falls, nr Grassington) where we splashed and crayfished (We threw them back this time, but Jaygo counted up our haul of 16), chilled and chatted. Saturday night we had our first fire bin of the year. Had a lovely collection of people round and the vibe was smashing. I awoke in the hammock, and fell into bed for a few hours, where I slept a bit and read the end of a FANTASTIC book – Callisto (I’ll blog it on it’s own, later.. it’s a doozie) before heading off the The River Nidd for another day of river fun. It was v.busy. Looking at all the various parties and disparate groups assembled (there was a couple of chavalanche instances nearby) I sat back and though – what a lucky chap I am to be part of this particular group of humans. Nice people. Happy people. Interesting people. (as opposed to our shouty sweary tracksuited neighbors).

Another top bonus was that there was a VW meeting – splitty buses, safari buses, oval bugs, baja bugs… it was car porn! Top fun. Finished off with Fish and Chips from Drakes (meh – Jenny’s was shut) and an episode of Doctor Who on DVD. Nice.

You may of noticed the new thing “Twitter Updates” on the right hand side of the site – tis a thing that we’re playing with. The idea is, you and friends sign up to it, and update it whenever with whatever.. you can ‘follow’ your friends and get free text messages when they update. I’ve been describing it as micro-blogging, paintMonkey associated it to something akin to Internet telepathy, which I liked. Anyhoo. I’m off.

Thing found, pebble beach, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Friday.. that was a funny old day! We set out with the intention of getting on the ferry to Dublin to visit relatives for the bank holiday weekend. Did I account for the massive volumes of extra traffic due to the bank holiday? No.

How many minutes late? about 3. That was annoying. But, with our “make a good situation out of a bad one” attitude we took stock and booked ourselves into a hotel (which serendipity lead us to) called The Boathouse. Quirky little place in a great setting just along the coast a mile or two from Holyhead. We went for a walk after checking in, as it was a glorious evening. Stumbled across this beach where we found this funny little head nestled amongst the rocks (pictured above). On the 4 maps I’ve looked on, this beach seems to have no name. (MSN, MultiMap, Google (flickr) and Ordinance Survey) Anyone mind if I call it pebble beach?

The lovely Irish Ferries transferred our ticket – no bother – to the crossing on the Swift the next day. Got into Dublin and went our for a meal with Eirene’s cousin in Renlrgh – a lovely cosmopolitan ‘burb of the fair city. Eirene’s cousins Fiancee is an actual film producer so that made for some really interesting chattage.

Today, we’re off to see more rellys then.. I dunno!