Just a very quick blog – my first (I think) from a ferry. We are between Wales and Ireland at the moment. Superb adventure so far. Looking forward to Ireland. right – less that 1 min credit left! ttfn.

FIRE 50 photo set on flickr

What an innings. x 50 FIRE parties. Officially half centurions. I am the only person who has attended every minute of all of them (Allan nearly has, but he had to chip off early from one a few years ago as his better half went into labor – pathetic excuse if you ask me.)

What a party the 50th was. We were the official after party to the Harrogate Fringe festival – which itself was brilliant fun from what we saw. The set up for this FIRE, even though we were in a smaller space was way bigger than it normally was. We decided to go on the slightly smaller top floor and have it as more of a VIP party – wristbands and guestlist. It worked. Such a nice atmosphere in there. Those that were there had made an effort to get in there and as a result, it was spot on.

Only downside was that Dharma was away – playing a festival in France (again, pathetic excuse) – but we got old fave Craig Cameron in to fill the void and fill it he did. Loved his set. Len and Jimmy on the sax and trumpet were on top form as well and I had a right good bash on the congas for quite a while. All the other DJ’s were also superb – including new boy Nick Wakefield who did the tricky 4 – 6am slot.

Bottom Of The Bottle downstairs was so complimentary to our gig – and vice verca – I’m surprised we haven’t done it before! We declared the v’s bit and official draw. A second test is on the cards.

Looking forward to the next one – a new invigoration of enthusiasm has come about us – probably something to do with the milestone, something to do with the new format we tried out, something to do with it being such a top fun good times great songs ninety seven point two.

weeknightsfieldmusic, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Went to see Field Music at the Harrogate Theatre last night. Such a polished act. Thousands of hours worth of practice boiled down into an hour or so.  Interchangeable drummer / lead vocalist / keyboard kept things very interesting.

The two support acts were very good as well. Simon Wainwright from Hope & Social did an acoustic / unplugged set. Nice stuff – great voice. He demonstrated just how good the acoustics are of The Theatre’s main stage by doing a song  sans PA. He also give everyone a kazoo to emulate what is normally his brass line – an interesting experiment!

2×2 twins from Ripon called The Weeknights were the surprise highlight for me.  Young lads but they don’t sound it. The fact that they are so in tune with each other as twins really came across in their highly original almost Fleet Foxes / Sigur Ros sound.

It’s a while since I’ve been to a music gig in theatre – not since the (good ‘ol) Theatre Music Party days – where everyone who could play, played. The entire creative community of Harrogate got together for a one day celebration of just how good we are. It really was the flagship event in Harrogate’s rich musical calendar. Perhaps this Fringe Crawl day tomorrow will take over where that left off?  Hope so.

I was lucky enough to do a lot of my favourite activities over the past 5 days or so.
Thursday – went to watch the cricket at Headingley with a lovely bunch of people. ‘My’ team (Yorkshire) won one of it’s key matches of the season – they beat arch rivals Lancashire by 17 runs in a confident win. A train ride back to Harrogate, followed by a few drinks in town ensured a healthy hang over the next morning. Luckily, I’d arranged the day off so one of the first ports of call was coffee in town followed by a few missions to stock up for the festival we were headed to for the weekend.

As I’d mentioned in last years post, Lindley Woodstock is technically a private party but had the feel of a small festival – stages, fires, PA’s, people, curry van, bouncy castle etc. Very lovely it was as well. I ran the top stage – the format of top stage act > bottom stage act > top stage act (etc) meant that the music could go on seamlessly (ish) all day and night. The highlight musically for me on that stage was a psychadellic act who’s name I missed – all Gong / Hawkwind ish. really interesting. The highlight for the bottom stage for me would have to be Mick Artistic, who I’ve seen before somewhere but who was on top form at Lindley.

After a lovely Sunday in the sun we headed home to get the kids settled for school night. The next day – Monday – I went and had quite a major haircut followed by lunch at home, followed by the delights of seeing Sophie at her Baby Ballet class. Very cute. Very pink. We let Sophie have a potter about in the KidzPlay at Hammerian House – they had a TV on where I got to see the second half of Portugal thrashing North Korea. The big think of the day was Eirene and I’s 10th wedding anniversary. ‘Tin’ apparently. 10 years ago that day we had our wedding reception / party (and oh boy oh boy, what a party it was!) up at the Harrogate Arms. This was back when the club downstairs was still serviceable, so we took over that with DJ’s, set an acid jazz / funk type band upstairs and I think we had more stuff outside… all very much fun) so with those thoughts in mind we headed back up there with the kids after school for a look. Downstairs is no more, the pub has been knocked about a bit (still nice) and outside has donkeys and birds of pray! what a difference 10 years can make!

At my mate Henry’s house – got the afternoon off work.  Watching Argentina v South Korea – currently 2-1 to the Americans.  Henry, who’s just decided he’s a vegetarian who’s now allowed to eat fish because Dean Karnazes says it’s OK has just brought me a fish finger sandwich. He’s a big fan of them now after a decade in the fish wilderness. Beer and Rum, we should really be out in the sun.

Shortly (very exciting) we’re off to Headingley (YCCC) to watch Yorkshire  take on Lancashire in the T20. Super Sports Thursday.

After collecting my new DragonDrop shirts and kitting the boys out in the all new 12yr old edition , we headed off to a lovely garden at a friends mum’s house in Ripon to celebrate their boys birthday. The best gift was a massive cardboard box which kept all the kids amused for hours.

Following the rather splendid garden birthday party, we walked up for a look around Ripon. I’ve not actually had a look around the smallest city in England for a number of years, even though it’s just a few miles from where we live. We were lucky enough to see the bride of a wedding sweep past us as we loitered around the Cathedral. Felix bought some Nurf guns which he’s been after for a while. World cup viewing was taken in by all of us at a friends house via a big screen projection. What a disappointment of a match though. Our half time frisbee and nurf session on the stray was way more exciting. After the footy, we headed back to ours for a fire bin and a few drinks. A nice collection turned up and it was getting light by the time I wound down for the night. Sunday – a bit of a tidy up followed by a super BBQ in our back yard with some old friends. Nice way to spend a day – I’d just got the last thing off the bbq before the heavens opened – good timing!

We went to a wine tasting event yesterday at The Crown hotel hosted by Harrogate Fine Wine and their suppliers. 70 wines to have a go on, all of a very high standard. I experimented with whites (normally a red man) before going onto the reds.

Quite a fascinating culture the wine crowd. I don’t confess to much about wine but found some of the conversations a fascination. One of the wines I had zoomed in on and went back twice to make sure it was still to my liking was this 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon called “A”. I have always been a of the “you CAN judge a book by its cover” mindset – you can tell by the fonts, the layout, the corners cut, the processes and general attention to detail and due care that has been employed when looking at a book cover or wine label. Some of this has a correlation to the product inside (albeit story, or wine).
So this “A” had a simple black design with an A made with 3 colours. I was told that the colours were the colour of the taste of this wine. Someone with Synesthesia – the condition whereby people can ‘see’ taste, sound and smell – had been used to select the colours on the label and although I had no frame of reference, the colours (a purple, a blue and a dark magenta with white lines if wine addled memory serves me correctly) did indeed look like the taste. I’m on the lookout now for other products where Synesthesia has been used to create a design.

Apparently, there’s a football world cup starting soon.
Quite like this funny that good did..

do a search for ‘World Cup’ in google and scroll down to the bottom.

I have been off line most of this weekend and most of Friday. Not as a result of a lifestyle decision but as a result of technical gremlins. I couldn’t figure it, tech support couldn’t figure it and it annoyed. It’s quite alarming how much I rely on the internet. From in the supermarket to look up a recipe to full charged up with creativity and needing a screenshot of something.

Apart from that it’s been a great weekend
Perhaps it was meant to be. Had friends over on Friday, one of which has just upgraded from veggy status to fish eater status. Caviar and vodka with toast points to start, Splendid salmon, pasta, asparagus, mushroom sauce combo for main and they brought round a rhubarb grumble for afterwards. Super doop. Scrabble and extreme uno followed by sleeps and a reunited family as Felix came back from camp.
Eirene went to cinema to see Rocky Horror with friends and I stayed in and finished reading a fine book called eleven minute by Paulo Coelho.
Today, I gave the fishtank a deep clean and got a new fish called Billy.

Bit of a textual write up in the post below – here is my visual write up.

Click here to view the photo set.

We have just said goodbye to our boys as they are away on cub / scout camp this week at Kielder. Just the 3 of us, which will be nice to spend some Q time with Sophie.
Just made us all yummy lunch of home made French onion soup with Italian cheese croutons with Brussels pate on toast. Feels like we should eat something Dutch next then German, and perhaps some Danish pastry for afters.

5000th photo, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

This is my 5000th photo on flickr. A fairly random selection but I quite like.

"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." – Henri Cartier-Bresson.

I’m half way to becoming a phographer or something. I’ve taken loads more than 5000 (I have been known to take 1000+ in a week) but the significance of this being the halfway point to 10k on flickr seems poignant.

What a carry on. Police at 1 in the morning. Having a bit of a sleep (something I do from time to time as a bit of a treat) when trouble kicks off in the flat next door to our bedroom. Shouty fighty angry trouble. (Not for the first time I hasten to add.) Shouting outside the window is fairly commonplace for the company they keep but this time was bad. A fight had spilled out ont street. I was asked to phone the police, which I did after getting the requesters name.
Something about a ‘robbed mobile’ accompanied the general barrage of shouting.
Once the police turned up, I settled down with a cig and a brew on the wall next to our front door and watched the drama unfold (we’ve not got a telly you see). A lot of posturing and abuse, threatening and accusing deftly diffused by the boys and girls in blue attending the scene. Thought the dog van was a nice touch. A quick and perfectly timed single loud and powerful shout from the police dog within soon reminded the yoofs who the real hard cases were.
A quick natter with the police woman and back to bed. Bit of a pain having such a character living next door though. Police woman gave me some good advice though.

Right. I’m off to read for a bit me thinks.

I don’t like the sound of a hung parliament. So, what do we do now? Ask the two bigger boys to share? I know from experience (with my 11 year old and 8 year old boys) that such a plan can end in a disaster. What typically happens is a lot of energy goes into appealing who should have the right to it, who deserves it and who really should have it as a first round. Then, when a compromise is brokered through an independent (ie, myself or my wife) a further round of appeals breaks out which involves digging the dirty on the Shadow party, back stabbing, appealing and generally doing anything possible to gain power. Meanwhile the brother in power will be proffering analysis of this being an example of why, given the way the other party is behaving, it is best for everyone that he should be ‘the toy keeper’.

Meanwhile, their little sister is is playing quite happily in a quiet corner with the toy.

After a while, all creative energy is burned and the toy is discarded.

I really hope it’s not a case of “for brother and sister, read parliamentary candidates, for toy, read country.”

Alison just sent me a link to a slide show she’s made of shots featuring a DragonDrop Adventure shirt. I’ll add some into the main shirt shot gallery soon – but for now..

Click here to view ‘em>>