Fox on the Run

Yesterday, I thought I’d get up early and cycle to North Camp station. But I’d forgotten to put my alarm clock with the hour change at the weekend! Cue my rush to get dressed, and find the cycle lock before jumping on the bike to Farnborough North.
I did a little grocery shopping in Redhill before unlocking the bike and catching the 17.44 stopping service. Despite my best efforts not all the shopping would fit in my backpack. By the time I’d reached Ash it was raining heavily and coldly, and it was very gloomy. All the cars had their headlights on, but had I remembered to pack my lights after taking them off the bike in transit back from Fareham? No, of course not! At least my pack had its dayglo waterproof cover, good one Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative!
I cycled up the road from Ash to North Camp, very wary of traffic, not being able to see very well because of the droplets on my glasses. There I made the decision to brave the mud on the track of the Blackwater Valley Path home, rather than the cars.
Lindy-bike and myself became soaking wet and plastered with mud - I only had my work clothes on, being in too much of a hurry that morning to sort out lycras. As I neared the Coleford Bridge Road I spotted a fox, and chased it up the path a bit before it jumped across the stream to avoid me. It sat looking at me from the far bank as if to say ‘It’s a muddy human in the rain on one of those bike contraptions! She must be mad!’
When I got home Bill had to fetch the doormats to put under the bike before it made the carpets dirty, as I went to change my clothes. Still after Bill’s homemade Spag Bol I warmed up nicely. No cycling for me till the rain goes away again!!

Fareham and Gosport Folk Festival, Easter 2005

Back from Fareham! What a fantastic weekend. The weather, company, music and pubs were all great. There were too many bands to review so here's a few awards!
Overall best band of the festival: Show of Hands (Steve's voice a lot better than a few days ago, thankfully)
Best t-shirt: McDermotts 2 Hours with Steve Bell's cartoon fox
Best English artist and Levellers fan: Deborak Peake (skinny cow)
Best Irish artist: Elena McEvoy (better late than never)
Best Welsh artists: Ffynnon
Best Scottish artists: Julie Fowlis & Friends
Band that I thought were going to be crap but were really good: Eliza Carthy and the Ratcatchers
Band that I thought were going to be great but was disappointed: Sharon Shannon Band, runners up Broderick
Best band I'd never seen before: Ffynnon (and not one mention of rugby!)
Worst compere with the worst jokes in the world: George Wilson (but we are grateful for the effort he puts in to running the festival)!
Pub of the weekend: The Hampshire Bowman (although the Shire Horse wouldn't pose for a photo)
Beer of the weekend: Harvey's Porter back at the Prince of Wales yesterday!

Steve Knightley and Martyn Joseph, Swan, High Wycombe

Just a quick posting today…yesterday I had some fun on the trains again. The 07.26 train was cancelled so I had to get the 08.00, which was running late because it had to stop at every station, which it would not normally do. I went and sat in First Class, knowing that the ticket inspectors would not venture forth. However there were disadvantages to not having a ticket. As I walked down the steps at Redhill, Clive walked past, smirking. When I saw the queue for tickets, I realised why! It looked to be about 30 minutes long. I queued for a little while, but then thought I’d try my luck on the back gate. My luck was in! The guard knew I was a regular and let me through. Some railway staff can be nice!
Went to see Steve Knightley and Martyn Joseph at the Swan in High Wycombe last night. Of course we went for a little drinkee in the Bell first. Two pounds eighty a pint for Fullers Porter! Outrageous!
The Swan (ex town hall) was a strange venue. Inside was painted white, with a few grey panels. The ceiling was very high, and the hall did not stretch back very far – it was a bit like sitting in a huge cube. The acoustics didn’t seem that brilliant, also Steve’s voice was not on good form – the poor guy looked like he had a bit of a cold. Martyn was helping him out a bit though.
Martyn was very well behaved, only mentioning the rugby a few times (“well at least you managed to beat the Italians” he said). The banter and teasing between Steve and Martyn, who are obviously really good friends in a laddish sort of way, are what makes the concerts really good fun. The music is usually quite drepessing!
As well as the old favourites, such as Please Sir, The Flood, Widdecombe Fair and a few covers such as Stuck in a Moment by U2, they also played some new material about George Bush and Tony Blair and the low oil prices achieved by armed conflict. Quite how that went down with the residents of High Wycombe I don’t know! A few of us fans sang along to Country Life and Are We All Right. Also lots of CDs and Make Poverty History wristbands (see link in the top right hand corner) were sold so I think the guys were quite pleased.
That’s all for now – I’ll post again after Easter and tell you how Fareham and Gosport Folk Festival was!

'Drunk In Public' at the Adge, 18/03/05

The nearest the Levellers come to playing to my home, the Agincourt in Camberley! It is a good venue as well, nice big dance floor and lots of bar space. Was pleasantly suprised to find the Adge was serving Hogs Back TEA and Hop Garden Gold from partypins - but it ran out quite quicky. Get a couple of firkins next time guys!
'Drunk in Public' (acoustic Levellers, without bassist Jeremy and drummer Charlie but with Rev Hammer) didn't start till quite late, as they were all next door having a Chinese meal. But the atmos was good, and I met up with a lot of the local boardies from the Levellers' fanclub.
The set was quite similar to DIP sets that I'd heard previously. As the band play sitting down it's harder for them to play the Levellers' faster numbers (which is most of them). The Revered Hammer usually contributes a few songs but I don't like his ones so much and his voice is too Elvissy for my liking.
Anyhoo the boys played Julie, Men-an-tol, Robbie Jones, Carry Me and even One Way of Life all the way through for the encore, which was great! Usually One Way doesn't get played seriously, perhaps the band are a bit sick of requests for it.
I got a front spot whilst Other Val, Julie, Kev and Matt lurked nearer to the bar in order to have a chat. Matt got caught up in the mosh pit and got into all sorts of trouble, it seemed! I was relatively safe at the front, next to Angie's daughter. I took some photos of the gig using Other Val's camera, you can see them on her blogspot
We girls also had our picture taken with Jon, the fiddle player from the Levs! He stuck his tounge out though. Anarchists, eh? ;-)
A fantastic evening, hope DIP come back to the Adge soon!

Joint Social of SHB and EMS CAMRA, 11/03/05

The pub crawl got off to a bad start – I turned up at the Plough in Guildford at about 11.10am, and the boys were still waiting outside! The landlord and bar staff were ‘running late’ and hadn’t opened up the pub. However, when he did open the door for us, there were nice pints of Fullers London Pride waiting for us in a proper pub atmosphere. The crawlers present at the start were Mr Badger and myself, Tony and Social Bob from Surrey/Hants Borders, and Keith and Rob from East and Mid Surrey.
Next it was on to the Keystone, ex Cannon, just around the corner from the Plough. It is a very smart pub with leather sofas, trendy décor, healthy meals etc. Again, the pub wasn’t really open but the staff said we could pop in for a drink while we were waiting! The beers on offer were Black Sheep Bitter, St Austells Tribute and Courage Best. The Black Sheep was excellent, others attested that the Tribute was in good nick as well. Keith and Rob seemed very pleased and surprised at the Keystone’s transformation!
Lastly in Guildford we tried the White House by the river. Again a very smart looking place (it has to be refurbished regularly, as it gets flooded every few years) the Fuller’s Chiswick was on good form. It was also serving Pride and ESB, with Jennings Cumberland as a guest ale. There was a lovely view of the river as we sat by the window – far too cold to sit outside, of course.
Bob then decided to leave us, as he was unsure of transport back to Woking. The remainder of us set off by bus for Shalford, where the Victoria awaited. We were pleased to find Triple fff beer there, in good condition.
Next stop was Shere where we visited the White Hart, a Chef n Brewer place with cloudy beer, and the Youngs pub up the hill (can’t remember the pub’s name…the Wellington perhaps? Things were getting hazy by then!
At Abinger Hammer we tried the Abinger, bit touristy but the beer was on good form. At Westcott we tried the Fullers pub and the Crown, both very good. The Compasses at Gomshall was excellent, really good range of beer. For the hard men (like Keith!) there was a concurrent pub crawl in Dorking! But Bill and I wimped out and took the train home.

Billy Mitchell, West End Centre, Aldershot 3/3/05

Apologies for the late posting!
Billy Mitchell was of course the lead singer of Lindisfarne after the death of Alan Hull and before the band split up last year. He’s now touring alone – just him and his trusty guitar! His set consisted mainly of cover versions such as Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Secret Garden’– just songs he’d always fancied singing, some folk, some rock and some country. He played a few Lindisfarne songs that he never got to sing, such as ‘Meet Me On The Corner’ as well as songs that he’d written himself, such as ‘Happy Birthday Dad’ and ‘Born At The Right Time’ – but not ‘Fog on the Tyne’!!
He has got pretty good taste, and Bill and I really enjoyed the evening. Malcolm from our local was also there with his daughter.
Billy was standing at the bar with a Guinness after the gig – so I bought a ‘Best of Lindisfarne’ CD and went over to ask him to autograph it. Billy was friendly to talk to, he was a bit disappointed, I think, that not many people had turned up for the gig but then he WAS up against Jules Holland who was playing in Aldershot! Unfortunate. I said how much I liked his song about his Granddad – and then felt all embarrassed, as it’s a bit of a kiddies’ song :-[ Billy is only little but he has very hard eyes – you woudn’t want to heckle him or anything, he’s probably had a bit of a hard life up there in North Shields. So I was wilting a bit under his gaze as well!
Will soon be seeing Rod Clements, also at the West End Centre – so another autograph for my Lindisfarne CD!

Battered and Bruised

What they don't tell you about laparoscopy is how painful it is afterwards! I feel like I've had a good kicking. I'm still walking around doubled-up and I've got two lovely purpley-yellow-black bruises. I had to phone the doc yesterday for some stronger painkillers, so he suggested taking ibuprofen on top of the paracetamol-based tablets that the hospital gave me.
I haven't yet gone back to work, and I haven't been able to get up to anything interesting beyond playing on my playstation, beating Bill at scrabble, and of course surfing the net.
Hang in there readers, I'll soon be on my feet with something more exciting for you! Hopefully later this week.
PS Happy St Davids Day to all my Welsh readers!