Let it be

Sunday night was the Liverpool Sound concert. Once Phil finally made an appearance we set off to Liverpool. I was feeling incredibly hungover but Paul McCartney was playing so I had a soak in the bath and some tea and pulled myself together.
Paul had this notion that there would be some sort of early birds area so wanted to arrive well ahead of time. It struck me a decent idea get there early, get a nice parking space, have something to eat together and queue up. Unfortunately I hit a problem. I bought Phil a ticket to the concert for his birthday present only he wasn't at home and his phone was switched off. I got stressed, but finally I booted my computer up to find that at 3.26 am he made friends with Andrea, I assumed this meant he was at her place. At about 12.30 he came online on messenger to tell me he would meet me at his house at 2. I arrived and waited getting more and more stressed chatting to several people on the phone. Finally at 3 Phil arrived and we left for Liverpool, as it turned out our timing was great. I managed to park right next to the stadium and get near the front of the queue. We even somehow beat Paul in though he had been in the queue an hour longer.
Our early arrival gifted us a forward position to watch the bands. The Zutons started around 6.30 they were really good. The sound was great. Kaiser Chiefs were next, I am not really a fan but they put on a really good performance, Ruby and I predict a riot were stand out. Unfortunately by this point I needed to visit the bathroom and Phil having been up all night needed to grab some caffeine.
Thanks to the toilet being right at the back we were unable to get back to Paul and Pippa, we found a place that had a reasonable view, which was good as Paul was superb, well not just superb, superlative.
He put on a great show mixing in his own, the Beatles and Wings numbers. I couldn't remember the full list but fortunately another blogger has it.

Hippy Hippy Shake
Jet
Drive My Car
Flaming Pie
Got to Get You Into My Life
Let Me Roll It with the Foxy Lady
My Love “This one’s for Linda”
C Moon
The Long and Winding Road
Dance Tonight
Blackbird
Calico Skies
In Liverpool
I'll Follow the Sun (with 4 endings)
Eleanor Rigby
Something (tribute to george) played first on ukelelee and electric for other half
Penny Lane (forgot the words off the bat and had a false start)
Band on the Run with David Grohl on guitar
Back in the U.S.S.R. with David Grohl joining Abe on drums
Live and Let Die with stage pyros and fireworks
Let It Be
Hey Jude

ENCORE
Yesterday
A Day In The Life then Give Peace A Chance ending
Lady Madonna
I Saw Her Standing There (with David Grohl joined Abe on the 2nd drum kit)
Dave Grohl came out and joined Paul to play Band on the Run, Back in the U.S.S.R. and I Saw Her Standing There. Then moved to the drums to a couple of songs, he also joined in the encore on Day in the life. I cant really adequately describe in words how good the atmosphere and the music was, hearing an entire stadium singing along to Hey Jude or being overwhelmed by the pyrotechnics on Live and Let die was all just awesome.
We caught up with Paul and Pippa as the crowd dispersed at the end, to the bangs of the fireworks over our heads. We were all buzzing, I boughta program and we said our goodbyes as Paul and Pippa headed for London and Phil and I to Manchester. We were both really awake so as to extend the evening I took a detour into Rusholme for a curry and a chat about the gig.

Hey Jude

Its been a pretty hectic weekend, and a long one for me as I had Today off as well.

Friday night I went round to Phil's house for a Chinese and a few beers. I dragged round the Philips DVD/Hard disk recorder I bought in error as Jim needed something exactly like this for a job he was doing. He was delighted to be able to play around and make sure it was capable of doing everything his job required (recording an event from a Camera and being able to burn DVDs of it at the event) so offered me the original price.

Saturday night was Nicks birthday so we headed out for a meal at Pizza express. Phil, Ian, Gilly and Nicks builder Neil all came out. Nick was running late (Quelle surprise) due to him having to finish a roof in time for a building inspector on Monday. The food was really tasty though the drinks were expensive and the service was a little overbearing.
After the meal we headed to the Slug and lettuce, stays for a couple of cocktails, which weren't very good so we headed to the Bollin Fee. Just as we were about to leave a group of drunk girls arrived the door man turned them away. They weren't turned away from the Bollin fee though, at least nit until later on when the manager realised how drunk they were. I basically got rather drunk, I stupidly had whine with the meal then beer then gin and tonic then back to beer it really wasn't a good combination.
Phil pulled a blinder, Neil was chatting up some girl and he went off for a drink, like a shot Phil was in there and ultimately ended up accompanying her home. Apparently she liked the way he resembled Gary Barlow. Neil spent the rest of the evening repeating "I cant believe it, I just turned my back and he was in there, Gary fucking Barlow!".
We randomly bumped into Ian and Nicks sister Ali in the queue, she was out with a couple of girlfriends. At some point around 1.30 Phil and Andrea vanished and the rest of us moved onto Suede. I don't remember much at this point, the bar had no tonic so I moved back to beer, and my head began to swim.
There was a big police presence in Wilmslow, they had a van parked outside Suede, so no real trouble. In fact it felt pretty safe, I did however feel old in there. In its previous incarnation Zest, it was one of the first places I used to go drinking in back when I was at college, a long long time ago now. Eventually we left I got a taxi home only to be invited back to Ali's, so sometime around 4.30 I cycled round to Alis for another few drinks before going home, not a great idea though it seemed like it at the time.

Dan and Ian in label

Dan and Ian in label, originally uploaded by j0hncooke.

23:10 23 May 2008 23052008137

Label

Label, originally uploaded by j0hncooke.

23:10 23 May 2008 23052008139

Best Foot Forward

I watched the final Pirates of the Caribbean this evening, I was kind of shocked at it. I felt like they almost totally forgot number two, certainly the beginning was a confused mass of non stories that divert away and confuse the "plot". I didn't really like it I felt it was a little like cinema by numbers rather than a film experience.

After that I headed out to see Martina at the March Hair in Cheadle Hulme. She had been waving off Peggy who is returning to Martinique. We talked at length about her housing situation, about how cruel and calculated Suzanna had been to throw her out. I do generally thing its pretty unreal to throw someone out onto the street with only a few hours warning and not a care for their well being. I mean you can fall out with someone without trying to ruin their life, in the end Martina is a foreigner here, she hasn't got a lot of money if Mack and Pat had not agreed to put her up she could have experienced serious problems. She also told me how agitated she was apparently jumping up and down and shouting in German. It reminded me of something kasia said yesterday; Apparently her room mate Ola was in Argos and she observed two Poles getting increasingly irate at the store for giving them the wrong item. Only thet were shouting at the assistant in Polish and it wasn't getting them very far.

On happy topics, Martina's parents are coming to visit her. Though for some very strange reason they haven't chosen to travel from German by coach. This weill take 36 hours to get to London then another two and a half to Manchester. A flight only takes just over an hour, so it was a very strange decision.

That's not my name

I had a long chat with Martina, she had been kicked out of her house after Suzanne the owner let living together tensions get the better of her. She is staying with a couple of retired folk she met at Japanese class who kind of adopted her. I think Suzanna her housemate bottled things rather than talk to Martina about them until the point she simply exploded. I think was pretty unbelievable of her to kick her out without any proper notice. The law states that excluded occupiers only have to have "reasonable notice" but this does not have to be in writing. I would say 12 hours is unreasonable but my opinion is that of a friend not a lawyer.

After chatting I went for a swim, managed 40 lengths then went to relax out in the sauna. There were a group of lads in there talking about the drinking binges they had been on. One of them threatened to take out another lad and "get him fucked up", the other one replied "yeah go get fucked smash some windows and get chased by the police". I felt both afraid to be in the same room and sad for humanity to hear this conversation.

In the afternoon I went to York to visit Kasia. We made a salad and sat and chatted for hours, it was a really pleasant and relaxed evening. I really enjoyed our time together and I was sad to leave, I wish she did not live so far away.

Long weekend

I had a great weekend, so I thought I would tell you all about it. Friday night was the first night of the M.A.P.S. festival Paul's band Ciné were playing. Unfortunately for me I had to go into work at 6am on the Saturday so I decided to drive.
Ciné were playing at the dry bar so we all convened there, it was a good crowd, Ian, Nick, Danny, Jo Holly myself Phil several of Hulme hall crowd including Sara and Catherine. Notable absentees included Bruce who went shopping with Nina instead and Simo and Sarah. Missing Sarah was a real shame given thanks to work commitments we have not been able to catch up in ages.

Paul was stressing there was some problem with the sound set up meaning that they had to go on without a proper sound check and once on stage apparently they couldn't hear themselves perform. It annoyed Paul so much I he delivered a stinging criticism during the middle of one of his songs. As much as the lack of sound annoyed Paul it was only negligible to the people listening. I thought they sounded really good. I like what the addition of the keyboard did to the sound. James and Paul were both on form, we all seemed to enjoy it.

After the gig (and much messing around, should never let Danny organise anything ;) we walked to Deansgate and headed to a bar called label. It was a very nice club, Sara's boyfriend was playing saxophone. The place had a kind of roaring twenties feel to it, there weren't any trouble makers. We were however accosted by a very drunken women; Paul and I were standing outside while he had a smoke, and she came up to us and started telling us about how she had "Just had her make up done", she was rocking on the spot, the conversation went downhill from there really.
When we came inside she followed us in and started looking for her bag around the table we were sat at, although she hadn't sat with us.
She was not the only drunk one, I left around midnight so as to be able to get up in the morning, I offered Phil a lift he dithered for about 5 minutes started following me out then stop told me he was getting a lift with Nick and wondered back. As a walked back to the car I passed all sorts of nightlife including one guy who was having his head put back together by the police, must have been some sort of altercation. It made me a little sad that this is England violent and drunk, I managed to get back the car and home though intact though.

It was very hard getting up Saturday morning my ears were still ringing as I sat in the early morning light. It was an absolute disaster too, I finished my part by 8.15am then had to wait until 2 in the afternoon for the SQL server to replicated the changes. The DBA blamed a lack of a proper test environment and I cannot say that I disagree.

Saturday evening was Sandboxes turn to play, this time on the rear stage. I thought they did a respectable gig though the event organizers seemed to cut them a little short. They all seemed happy enough afterwards though we drank a few beers and listened to the other bands.

Afterwards we went for Chinese food in China town, it was very tasty though by this point tiredness and alcohol took over. I had been awake for far too long and pretty much passed out on the car ride home. It had been nice to go out with the Sandbox crew though sans LD who played his last gig and took off immediately at the end.

Today I spent the day reading and generally chilling out, in the evening I went out with Nick and some of his builder friend in Knutsford. They seemed like a nice bunch of guys, though I a not sure how they took me. I ended up getting quite drunk hopefully I didn't disgrace myself.

Let It Die

I went to see Feist at the Palace theatre this evening. The Palace is a strange Venue for music all seated and geared up for plays and shows, I wouldnt like to have been on the top tier the view must have been poor. However it was nice enough for us in the circle. The gig itself was really great gig. The support band were an odd group of music geeks, they were entertaining if only for they variety. From a song about death to one about unrequited love of a teacher.
Feist was wonderful and had a wonderful stage set up. Most of the themes of the songs were visualised by a shadow puppeteer. So rather than the usual computer generated scenes there was a really arty backdrop. She even opened her set playing behind a white screen so all we could see was a shadow of her singing. During the gig she was constantly engaging trying to draw the crowd in, she also alternated between singling and playing on her own to using a full band.
All in all it was one of the best gigs I have been to for a while, I hope tomorrows Maps festival proves to be as much fun.

Carolina Drama

I just about made it home past the hoards of football fans streaming out of the pubs and bars between my house and Martina's. The guys from work who took a half day to go and catch the game in the city should all be very happy and drunk right about now.

I didn't watch the game myself, I have never been a football fan, instead I went to Yoga class with Martina. It was actually really good, though I was the only guy in a room of mostly middle aged women, Julia the leader was really good I definitely feel stretched and worked out now.

We went for a take away curry and a chat after the class, idling our time setting the world to rights. The curry was really nice from a little take away behind Tesco metro in Cheadle Hulme.

My tickets to see Paul McCartney's concert on the 1st of June arrived today, I am really excited about it. I have never seen him live and its rumoured that Ringo Starr will appear, which would be just fantastic, fingers crossed.

Joker

I reached the end of the line with a couple of the Estate agents, I got tired of being sent to look at overpriced junk. The spiky haired estate agent was trying to convince me that £137,000s for an inhabitable ex council house in the worst part of Cheadle Hulme was in some way a good buy. In fact I think that the particular chain of Estate Agents overprice, and hard sell some of the worst places on the market, I have decided (partially on Nick's advice) if possible not to deal with this chain anymore.

I had a Japanese class this evening, I performed pretty terribly. I really want to learn Japanese, the culture, country and people fascinate me. Somehow though I never seem to get enough time to practise or gain the critical mass of education that I can start to really read, write and converse in Japanese. A lot of people who have good language skills tell me the point I need to reach is to be able to think in another language, once you can get to that level its possible to really start understanding conversation and language. I really hope I can, I would love to be able to read a Japanese book untranslated.

What Else Is There?

After last nights gorging on Pestos finest Italian tapas with Emily Andy and Nick I decided to try and be healthy today. I lasted about 6 hours.

The morning wet well I started reading "looking for the lost" Alan Booths second and final book about travelling in Japan. So far its very interesting, his style is really very readable and interesting. World weary and angry yet so engaging and full of humour.

I managed then to go the the gym do a workout, then go and view a house in Hazel Grove. The owner showed me round, he struck me as an angry man constantly apologising and explaining why his house was as it was. To be honest for me it was overpriced and needed quiet a bit of work doing, so it is not the one for me.

When I got home I had lunch then went to Barton grange to pick up an out door table and chairs for my parents. I didn't; think it would fit in my car but the guy manhandled the box until it was just about wedged.

After putting the table together Nick called round. He had just bought a bike off ebay. It was two years old but basically had been left in a shed it looked brand new to me. We went for a ride around some parts of Poynton where Nick is looking for a house. It was interesting cycling around you can hear and see a lot more of an area, sometimes cars are just two divorced from the surroundings to be useful. After scoping out the houses we popped in to see Martin.

Martin was working on his new buggy, we chatted about bikes and kites for a bit. I think Nick was surprised how much of an adrenaline junky Martin really is. I thought he was alone until we popped into the kitchen for something and found Char ironing in the half finished living room.

It was Nina's birthday yesterday so we went for a curry to celebrate. Nick, Phil, Nina, Bruce, Holly, Jo and I went to the Spicy hut for a meal. It was tasty, we had nice conversations about life, houses, and business.

I got home and crashed, emotionally I feel very low. A lot of things seem to be going wrong my life is wasted on useless pursuits like the fruitless campaign to find a house. Everything seems to be a bit pointless, working for things that bring only pain, desperately trying to be somebody when the last characteristic anyone likes is desperation. So many bad decisions, failures and mistakes haunt me, I seem to have lost my way, but I no longer see what the path should be. Perhaps one day I can shake off the malaise and feel good about things again, I really hope.

I'm Insane

Driving back down the other end of my road, the fields illuminated in the moonlight I started to think that the reason I have so much trouble finding somewhere to live is because the place I live at the moment is so very nice.

I have done a lot of miles this weekend already. Last night straight after work I drove to meet Kasia. It took nearly one hour forty five to get there in rush hour. We had a nice evening together, have a short walk by the river shared a pizza and generally enjoyed each others company. She has to work two long days this weekend unfortunately so I headed home in the small hours. Part of the M60 was closed so I ended up driving home through central Manchester.

Today I went to view some houses, the first in Hazel Grove was a great house but the position was all wrong. Diagonally opposite was some sort of freight containers, and on the lamppost was a police dispersal order notice.

The next house was in Cheadle Heath, it was tiny, badly turned out and on a main road. The estate agent who arranged it offered to take us to another. I assented and we headed to Cheadley Drive. Nick bet me that the estate agent would have spiky black hair, a black suit and be holding his mobile phone in his hand, he didn't have his phone in his hand but otherwise fitted the description. The house looked like a bomb had hit it, apparently that is what £135,000 buys these days. I am not joking here either, the place had been repossessed, there was tape condemning the utilities, boards on the back windows and the state of the place was terrible. The was after walking past some guys stripping down a car in the road, I hope it was theirs... Nick and I struggled not to laugh at the prospect this place offered.

Disheartened I headed home wondering if I will ever find anything suitable. Fortunately Emily cheered me up by arranging for Nick and I to join her and Andy for some dinner. After a bit of wondering round Manchester, and walking out of one place after finding Andy's favourite dish had been dropped from the menu (he was actually happy to stay but I thought it best we find somewhere that we all could enjoy). We finally decided on the Italian tapas restaurant Pesto. Nick suggested it which was surprising as the last time we had eaten there was with his ex girlfriend. However it is a good place to eat. I really enjoyed the food and company, after the meal Nick left, he had to get up early to drive and pick a bike he bought from ebay up; the seller is in Birmingham!

Consoler of the Lonely

I had an harsh session at the gym this evening, unfortunately not due to the special amount of effort I put in. Rather because the air conditioning at the Wilmslow site is broken and the weather was good, the gym was extremely hot. I had to slow down jogging a bit to avoid hyperthermia. Like most of the patrons I was extremely sweaty and anti social that people were spacing themselves as far away from people as possible. One girl started off on a machine next to me after about a minute she moved two machines away XD

Martina invited me round for dinner so I headed there after the gym for her homemade German bread, which was very tasty. We also had some seafood combination thing from Lidl which was ok. After dinner we started putting the world to rights. She was complaining her students are always quick to email and Facebook everything. Today's technology means you can unleash your thoughts on the world maybe faster than good sense would allow. It made me think how different it must be for children growing up today. I had the Internet at college but it was very new then. Pre pay phones didn't really appear until then either so mobile phones were much more of a novelty. Now everyone has one, in fact I read a mobile phone customer is worth around £20,000 to the mobile operator over their life time, no wonder with charges like these. However I digress, my point was that communication is becoming faster, today we have instant publication via the web, SMS and instant message is it eroding or enhancing the quality? Obviously as a Blogger I think it is a positive step, of course there are new techniques to be learned and this is still really the start blog's and social networking is going to evolve a lot from its current form, nobody really knows how yet. People that claim to know what is going to happen with technology usually have an agenda to push. Most of the developments that really shook the market come from almost nowhere, and profits trying to push something often fail to notice the new waves, Bill Gates famously omitted the Internet from his book The Road Ahead.

Amourissima

Today work was the usual abrasive and counter productive mess that I have become accustomed too. I spent the morning working on quiet a simple .Net app, the aim was to import an Excel file into our system. I used the .Net ODBC connector to read in the file and turn it into a comma separated file so our antiquated system could read it in. I got it all working only to find that the version of mono we use is unable to provide the ODBC libraries I need, so rather than a simple webpage I ended up with a monster which reads in the file onto an IIS server turns the file into a CSV, then encodes it as a binary file send the stream to a webservice on the Mono box which re-encodes it to a binary file CSV that Basic can read in. Way more tricky that it needed to be.

I was have found it really difficult to blog recently. When I started blogging I always expected to say all sorts of profound and interesting things. Mostly though I have ended up simply detailing my life and its little foibles. I really don't want to fall into the trap of endlessly writing the same things I would rather keep quiet.

I think I might be bipolar. I am happy at times, like my holiday and meeting Kasia, but still sad at work and in other situations. In fact the moments of sadness seem to be winning out recently, I feel like I have a lot of daemons dragging me down. Some are of of my own making some circumstance I just need a change to break out of this ever decreasing downward spiral.

I went for a drink with Phil and Bruce, we were all really tired and in need of some R&R. No rest for the wicked though, even after Phil paid me for the gigs the last couple of weekends I am really behind, having had to pay for the car, and trying to save a deposit.

Fluorescent Adolescent

I went looking at houses in Hazel Grove tonight. After going on a viewing tour of 5 houses I think that Shaw Heath / Edgeley offers a lot better value for money. I saw a couple of the smallest houses since I frst began looking, compounded by being on main roads so having no parking. The trouble is nothing I can afford is actually my dream house, I know I have to compromise, but surely I should at least feel excited?
I think some people are going to have a bit of a shock that they cannot just trust the inflated price that pops into their head.
I went for a drink with Nick, I wasn't the best company after all the problems at work. We had a pint at the John Millington but it was dead, so instead headed to TGI Fridays where Ian was doing a shift. It was a blast from the past going there, thought it has been redecorated it still resonates the same air.
We chatted about life love and the vagaries of pleasing / disappointing women.
After a few drinks Nick took me home, we arrived and had a long chat about our respective love lifes. I think we both have a long way to go but in totally different directions. I cant really give away the details but needless to say we both got some things off our chests which I think hope (certainly on my part) made us feel better.

Whiskey & Green Tea

It has been a long long week. Work has been incredibly stressful, I have found myself in a complicated web of competing demands from my employers and customers. Most of the time I spend feeling powerless and apathetic, not a great recipe for productivity.

All that said I suppose its slightly surprising that I agreed to help Phil out on with his webcasts. It was especially weird as I got up at 5.30 for a 6.20 pickup to get to Wrexham for the setup. I was feeling pretty tired after working hard and spending several evening s throwing together a web forum. Then last Saturday and this Saturday I have spent the day behind a PC watching a webcast of the most dull AGM's I have ever had the misfortune to attend. However his customer really appreciated our efforts. It was strange to get actual praise for doing a job.

On Saturday evening I went for a quiet drink with Phil and his sister. Phil and I both felt so tired after the days jobs and he had travelled back from Bristol. We had a few quiet drinks then went home, Tina went off with her friend for a big night out somewhere.

Today I had my first bbq of the year. It meant cleaning it up, there was compounded ash from last year and a layer of dirt on the grill to be scraped off. I cut the grass, cleaned everything up and lit the bbq, it was smoking when all of a sudden from nowhere it started to rain. The shower only lasted 15 minutes but it pretty much put out the fire, so I had to relight the fire. It was a tasty bbq in the end my dads home made burgers were really nice.

Once my dinner was digested I went jogging to Bramhall then Martina came round and we went for a walk down Old Hall Lane, before joining Bruce Nina and Phil for a drink at the Thieves Neck. Bruce and Nina were telling us about there time in Portugal, which sounded nice. On arriving home they arrived at Ringway only to be hit by a flash flood.

How to FIX IIS

I recently had an issue where IIS would not start giving a spurious error "Unexpected Error 0x8ffe2740". I did a google and found this site which showed the problem was Skype grabbing port 80, genius!

Polish Legendary Smak ;-)

Emily handed round a glass full of these Polish savoury snack. They were really quiet moreish even after a Frankie and Bennies club sandwich.

Vuelvo Al Sur

I have been busy this weekend. Phil talked me into helping him out on a job. He was putting on a series of live webcasts of the Co-operative groups regional annual general meetings. I had to operate the webcast encoder and help pack up at the end of the day. My gig was in Kettering (Phil had to go to Perth) so I had to leave straight after work on Friday night and motor down. I did get a rather tasty curry and a few beers when I arrived there. The event went really well, it was dry and boring to watch, top executives explaining the virtues of the business only to have audience members question why milk is 20 pence more expensive than another store.
We finished up by 5 so I was able to get home go for a quick jog, during which I realised I am really out of shape. Phil made it back around 10 so we headed to the Unicorn for a few drinks. I said hello to Julie but she was too busy working the bar to talk.
Yesterday I felt pretty tired, but I persevered, for the webcasting Phil needed a commenting system so people watching could leave messages for the presenters. I had put together a rough system using youtube.com as a basis. However there were a couple of bugs with the login system. I managed to run through and fix that functionality.
In the evening I bit the bullet and headed to the gym for my first proper weights session in some weeks. My arms are aching today, and I am a lot weaker, Ill have to work hard to get back to where I was. After the gym Phil and I headed to Andy Gilmore's to play some Wii. Emile's sister Hannah, friend K and Hannah's boyfriend Carl were also in attendance. Starting with a Mario Kart session we proved just how random it all is, you can be winning a race by miles only to be massacred by a series of attacks dumping you from 1st to the lower rankings, sometimes even in sight of the line. After which the Wii fit board came out and we all got to perform rather embarrassing moves trying to balance of hula hoop.

Declare Independence

I went to see Bjork at the Blackpool Empress Ballroom this evening. I thought we would miss it at one point because the satellite navigation started taking an obscure detour through a series of A road avoiding the motorway, not a great idea in rush hour. After an hour of getting nowhere fast I went through all the options only to find it was somehow set on pedestrian mode! Whoops, back on car mode and we were soon tearing down the motorway.

We arrived in time to catch Bjork doing a DJ set; Rather than have supporting acts she puts on her own DJ set to warm everyone off. She was pretty good if a little random, at one point using a Paul Mckenna motivational CD. There was lots of feedback and noise.

After a short pause she returned with a brass band, DJ, drummer, and harpsichord player. The set she played was tailored to the instruments and completed with a light and pyrotechnic show. There were lots of songs from her previous albums. The show encore included the only song from debut the anchor song in tribute to the sea town of Blackpool.

Violet Hill

Paul sent me today's title, it is a new song from Coldplay called Violet Hill. Available for free this week. I am not sure whether I like it or not yet, I feel it might be a grower rather than a stand out track.
Today the "credit crunch" (I hate that name) took victim another of our customers, this leaves us in a really weak position, basically according to the boss we are losing money and there will be no pay rises this year. Which given we have 3% inflation amounts to a pay cut in real terms, given this and the fact I am now working with a micro managing mega-lo-maniac got my CV out last night and gave it a polish. I think sometime soon that will come in handy. I quiet enjoy most of the work, but I never enjoy being micromanaged especially about stupid things, if I am 5 minutes late but sometimes spend whole evenings working on projects its all events out, I don't feel a need to justify this I always felt my works speaks for itself. It seems like now rather than care about outcomes the only are is conforming to some corporate ideal, well that dosn't fit well with me I prefer to be measured on results than the time I am sat behind my desk.

This evening I went to Japanese, hijacking the second half of the lesson to show off my photos. It was quiet funny really given I was so clueless when people quizzed me. I really need to practise a lot more. The photos went down really well though, people loved the Japanese gardens (even though my pictures hardly did them justice).

This evening I went for a drink with Phil, Nick and Bruce. Becky had initially said she wanted to catch up but she bailed. Hopefully I will catch her sooner or later. We all had a chat about the credit crunch and then road traffic accidents. Bruce made Nick turn green talking about the guy he saw get hit by a truck. He had finally received a reply to his transcript months after the accident. The guy luckily survived but there are lots of legal hoops to be jumped though yet.

Koop Island Blues

Tonight I went to the Buxton Opera house to see the Yamato Drummers of Japan. They were really amazing, I cant believe how much energy they had and wow drumming must be really good exercise because they had the sort of muscle definition most gym goers can only dream of.


Other than watch drummers, I have spent part of today trying to integrate this authentication system into the comments program I did for Phil. It had progressed well I just need to write a deletion function and tidy everything up, need to be done before next weekend though so Ill have to get a move on.

"Do androids dream of elecric sheep?"

I had to get up early this morning as I had agreed to help Phil out on a Webcasting job. It ended up being a long day what with loading gear.

I had difficulty sleeping last night, I went to see Sandbox at Moho Live last night. I was a very loud and hot gig, I stayed to watch them and drank one can of Red Stripe (£3.50) and two cans of Red Bull (£2.50 each!) by the time I left I felt wired on the loud music and Red Bull, sweaty and vaguely ripped off by the stupid bar prices.

Sandbox were good, they looked and sounded relaxed, I loved Million Marlboro lights, shame neither Ian, Nick, Phil or Bruce could come as they were all either busy or tired, or both.

After driving about for a while I found a space in Picadilly Basin; the area behind the train station. I remember walking around there when I was at uni, the place has totally changed. Gone are the dodgy back street enterprises replaced with flats apartments. As I got out and started walking I was staggered how much has changed in the last few years. I saw people in the windows of their apartments crowded round little tables, is it the future? There were certainly plenty of people milling around the Northern Quarter, I always think how great it would be to live there, yet its prohibitively expensive.

A while ago I read this Wired Article about how the contextual web is enslaving people as they become "memes for the machines". Slavishly adding context to pictures, maps and all manor of things. A few times recently I have felt myself being a machine meme, after Japan I uploaded most of the photos to Flickr and I was poised to add titles and geo-reference (add to the map).
Today however was much worse, a program malfunction causing slides not to upload to the website automatically. I had became a meme for the machine, manually uploading slides to the internet as they changed.

Gone Are the Days

Today was a strange day, on the way into work I was collared by my boss. He looked tired and stressed, and he detailed how the credit crunch is affecting us. Basically we are suffering, and to emphasize the point the customer I work at has cut back the support days from 5 to 3. So from next week I will be going somewhere else (T.B.A.) Thursday Friday, scary stuff.
This uncertainty and the cost of the car has really put me off searching for a house, I am really worried it might be a really bad time to make the plunge.
This evening was surreal, I went to the gym then helped Phil work on his Webcasts. I actually only tried to help we failed to do what we wanted because there was an issue with remote access, its all too last minute.
That wasn't the surreal part though, the unreality came with a visit to the Thieves for a couple of drinks. Phil and I met Ian, Nick and Faye. It was the first time I have seen her for years thought strangely it felt like old times. Lot of talk about Japan, from my point of view and Phil's, including a strange but not unwelcome reminiscing about the first time I was there; on a stopover with with Ian, Faye and Danny, it seems like a lifetime ago now.

Car

For anyone following the sad story of my car, its been in the garage since it broke down on the 1st March.
Yesterday I got it back, and today it goes back to the garage. My dad picked it up and in the heavy traffic he failed to notice that the turbo wasn't working so it slow as a snail, more of a tractor than a turbo diesel.

Sigh.

Whiskey & Green Tea

I had ment to spend this weekend uploading my photos, and blogging up the trip. Somehow its not happening, to be honest I felt tired and low. Post holiday depression has set in, and I feel awful.
After Tokyo life here feels grey and lifeless devoid of colour and sound.
I went into work on Friday, and thanks to Jet lag felt mentally tired and unable to concentrate. I had hoped to feel more human by now but I am finding it realy hard to rejoin the human race.
Last night I went out for a drink at the John Millington with Nick and Bruce. Sitting in the crowded bar drinking Gin and Tonic, after eating a take away curry, I felt joyless. I was happy to see them both I just miss Japan.

Weird Japanese Sign

I saw this at Maibara station, I particularly love the bit about reading a newspaper, XD

Japan Day 13 (Tokyo and home)

Back in Tokyo fr a final day we visited Akihabara electric town home to a plethora of electronic and gaming shops along side the Otaku anime and cosplay die hard territory. It was a fund way to spend the last day before jetting off back home. 

Japan Day 12 (Kyoto)

A word of warning when in Japan don't bother to try and visit on a Monday, unless you like closed signed. Most attractions and museums are closed.

On arriving in Kyoto and heading to the old imperial place we found it closed on Monday. We took a walk around the gardens, its gigantic.

Next we took the subway to one of the many Shrines. It looked a lot like a templet with the addition of the huge gate. 

There was also an incredible Japanese garden, it was outstanding especially with all the Cherry blossom, trees water. It was really something special.

Walking around Kyoto we found it a quite and attractive city. Full of shrines. 

We headed back to Osaka early, it would be our last night here and the trip is nearly over. Tomorrow we head by to Tokyo and our last night at J Hoppers. I feel like we only scratches the surface so far there is so much more to see and learn we are already talking about organising another trip here.

It was still early but with all the cultural places closes we ended up wondering around the shops. Then enjoyed another pizza talking about the day and the holiday.

Remarking on the time travelling on the railways seems the Japanese ride trains are so organised yet somehow so chaotic.

Japan Day 11 (Hiroshima)

Taking a 1:30 minute journey on the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Being further south we were hoping for better weather and compared to Osaka it was.

We arrived to find rather than a subway there are a confusing series of trains, you pay when you get off which caught us a bit off guard.

To memorialise the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima is a memorial park which contains the impact site the so called bomb dome. This twisted structure was directly hit by the blast but the energy traveled outwards destroying everything else yet leaving leaving this relic in it place. The park is incredibly peaceful so seeing the bomb dome up close was particularly chilling. Anything combustable was incinerated leaving only the skeletal structure behind.

We spent a couple of hours wondering the park, visting some of the many monuments and memorials there.

Emerging from the park past the baseball stadium where people were playing a game. We walked to the Hiroshima Jo grounds walking over the moat we passed a Kendo tournament in process. We stopped to watching in fascination.

Hiroshima castle was like much of the city flattened or burned following the bomb and rebuild post war.

I was stopped at one point where a Japanese man asked me if I were an American, and if I understood what had happened here. Fortunately as a Brit he let me pass.

The mood was a bit sombre on the way back to the hostel, we had a quiet evening and pizza from the place next to the hostel.

A tree which survived the bomb

Hiroshima Jo

Kendo 

Japan Day 10 (Hikone)

We felt tired after all the walking around Kobe so had a lie in cuddling in bed before heading out.

Today we headed to Hikone to see the castle there. It was one of the few castle stops survive unaffected by the war and is mostly original construction. We took the Shinkansen to Miabara then changed trains to Hikone. Hikone city is on the shores of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan.

We followed the crowds of people which led us first to a temple so we had a Quick Look around then headed to the castle on the top of the hill. Constructed in the 17th century Hikone castle is a good example of the style and gives suburbs views out from its high vantage point. 

Like Osaka the castle is best viewed from outside inside it was crowd and cramped build for people in a different age. The grounds were well worth spending some time in though we enjoyed the woods.

I grabbed a fried squid from a stand in the grounds and we met the mascot a cute rabbet with a horned helmet. 

Next we stumbled upon a garden in all its Zen glory it was very beautiful. It was starting to grow cold and dark so we left Hikone heading for Kyoto.

Arriving in Kyoto late, we managed to grab a map a from the tourist information place. It had all the local subway and tourist places marked. Kasia fancied a pizza so we found an Italian restaurant on the 10th floor of a shopping centre connected to the railway station. 

The food was really good (if a little expensive) and we got a great view of Kyoto.

The station complex itself is a marvel of steel and glass. Saint lead up from the ground to the top. It had been a long day so we headed to our hostel for a snooze.

Japan Day 9 (Osaka Castle and Kobe)

Finally we reached the part of the trip where neither of us had clean clothes to wear fortunately the hostel had some laundry facilities. Afterwards we grabbed a breakfast at a nearby store then hopped on the train to Osaka castle. The weather was much better today.

Osaka castle grounds are a lovely the castle itself like many in Japan is a reconstruction the original having been destroyed in the war. It's tourist central with a lot of food halls and convenience stands. The outside of the castle is rather magnificent the inside is a little bit more like a hotel.

It was full of exhibits and stories which were interesting unfortunately a lot of the English translations were not well done. I came away a little disappointed.

After the castle we took the Shinkansen to Kobe. I sent to a card back home to my parents. We wondered around and found one of the best examples of a Japanese Garden of the whole trip. We were also fortunate that it was very quiet we had the place nearly to ourselves.  

Kobe is a small city it took only 40 minutes to cross from the garden through China town to the port area. The town was very pretty and well kept which was a marked difference to Osaka. 

Next we attempted to visit the memorial grandees getting quite lost in the process. So lost in fact that a local girl asked if we were lost and did we need any help, certainly we did. Her name was Aki and she was so kind walking with use chatting about Kobe.

The memorial gardens were for the 1995 earthquake which had a bad impact on the city. We walked around, its seems to be a place for couple as we saw several cuddling up on secluded benches. I really enjoyed Kobe but we had to leave on the train back to our hostel in Osaka.

Japan Day 9 (Osaka)

We awoke late again and went out to see that Bay Area. It was a cold grey day and Osaka was proving to be less full on than Tokyo. It isn't as vibrant here everything seems a bit cheaper dirtier and less exciting. 

The bay proved difficult to get to, we attempted to walk but got lost on the anonymous streets finally finding ourselves back where we started so decided to break for lunch before continuing. We eat at the complex, Japans is full of complexes with department stores and restaurants spanning several floors usually with pedestrian art and underground walkways to the station or subway.

There was a hotel with a sky view resultant which we tried to get a view but only one window had a view.

Defeated we took the railway out past universal studios to get a view of baseball sports island. We made it to the end of the line it felt like the end of the earth. We couldn't find where to cross and it started raining so we headed back. Taking the subway which was not covered by the JR Rail pass to the bay where the Maritime museum was. It was lovely here it even stopped raining so we had a great view.

Heading back two stops we found a park and the Osaka port, though the rain came back. We had planned to go to the castle but the rain put us off, we headed to the aquarium.

Despite the rain we walked to the Aquarium to save the subway fare. It turned out to be a bit stupid as it was further away than we expected.

The aquarium was fantastic spiralling down around a huge tank sectioned into different areas. Beginning as sea level you descend down. Passing through the ring of fire and the pacific. There was even a whale shark in the central tank.

Behind the aquarium was a museum we decided to pass on as it looked a little dull after the wonders of the sea. Instead we found a 9th floor restaurant which was too expensive and had a lovely view.

Returning to the centre we browsed the shops a little then went to Starbucks for a coffee, and to make a plan to get out of Osaka!

Japan Day 7

The end of the road for our stay at Ryokan Fuji. It had been a nice home for our stay in Tokyo, as we checked out the owner gave us some souvenir chopsticks.

We planned to head to Tokyo proper but the weather was still bad so we mooched around Koiwa finding a park and a shopping centre that we had previously missed.

We took the Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka. I have never seen such an organised train. On arrival with 15 minutes an army of pink suited cleaners jumped on board to clean and swap the seats around. Leaving 5 minutes to get on board the train leaving exactly on schedule. The journey to Osaka took 3 hours, flying past Japanese towns.

Arriving in Osaka we found it even more confusing than Tokyo. The subway signs were mostly in Kanji, so it was difficult to find our hostel in Fukushima. After some searching we finally found the J-Hoppers Osaka Central Guesthouse. It was a bit basic and small, very disappointing in comparison to the Ryokan. Even the view from the fourth floor was only of other buildings.

In the afternoon we walked around the shops eat dinner in a Japanese India restaurant, I had a pizza naan! We decided to try and get an aerial view of the city however not as many of these seemed to exist as Tokyo. Eventually the lonely planet guide lead us to the rather crazy sky garden. This was a twin tower with a bridge / observation deck running in between. The views were really good unfortunately it had begun to rain heavily so 3we didn't stay too long.

Below the sky garden was a love. themed area! There were people getting married and doing wedding shoots.

We had a bit more of a walk round then headed for home.

Japan Day 6

Rain and wind battered us from the moment we stepped out of the Ryokan. Today we had planned to go to Kanubura but the weather forbade this so instead we decided to go and see the bar from "Lost in translation" then head to a photographic museum. 

Taking the tram to Shinjuku attempted a quick round of the shops (I still needed a coat) it was to windy even to use the umbrella mine nearly snapped when I tried.

Riding the Toca line we made the walk to the Park Hyatt hotel battling the wind and cold. The hotel is part of a commercial building occupying floors 37-52 with the bar and restaurant at the top. Taking the lift to the lobby we walked past the rather grand dining hall and lounge to another lift which went to the top restaurant bar "New York". Unfortunately at this point we were greeted by a rather zealous concierge who informed us that the bar would not be open until 5pm and no we were not allow to go see the view.

The nearest subway station was located in the opera house complex with some shops and restaurants. After all the battles with the elements and hotel staff were a little tired and hungry. Finding a nice looking Japanese restaurant in the basement. Unfortunately after having some language barriers ordering they gave us the food to take away. With the bad weather that posed a bit of an issue, as all the places outside were soaking. The inside space is all corporate and we weren't allowed to eat! After failing to find somewhere  to sit we headed to the museum defeated.

Located in a "Garden" complex near to where the Yebisu beer museum.  Finally we could grab a bite to eat. I had seafood noodles and Kasia grabbed a pizza. Unfortunately they had set an early closing time because of the weather so we only had 35 minutes to whip around. There was an exhibition of surrealist photographs including some famous artists including Man Ray and Andre Kertesz. It was a really good exhibition Kasia really enjoyed it being somewhat a fan of surrealist art.

It had been a bit of a crappy day with the weather so to cheer ourselves up we headed back to Ginza up to the top of the Denska building which unlike the Hyatt don't mind about visitors who come for the view.

The wind (which at one point had been strong enough to stop at least one and delay several trains) had finally died down, the rain along with it. So we took the opportunity to walk from Ginza to Tokyo station. We stopped for a coffee en route just to people watch everybody in the Tokyo evening. You might think in a Starbucks you could be in any city of the world, but these scene was unruly Japanese.

Taking the train back to Koiwa we bought some drinks and had the food we bought earlier. It was actually pretty nice breaded chicken beansprouts rice and shrimp.

It had been an up and down day but we ended it on a high, happy.

Free umbrellas

We woke up both feeling unwell, it was a struggle to get out of bed. When we eventually made it to leave the Ryokan the manage ran out and said "Do you have umbrella", I did not so he said, "Today is very rainy here take these" and handed us too umbrellas what a nice fellow!

As it was raining we appreciated how many of the walkways in Koiwa (and Tokyo in general) are covered. Pretty sure they could not do this in the UK as they would be immediately vandalised. 

We headed to Ginza, it turned out that museums are shut on Mondays so we decided to go shopping. The first stop was the Sony centre. The home of Sony has a whole building dedicated to the TV's stereos and other electronics produced by the Sony corporation. They had an amazing TV hooked unto blu ray looked stunning. I bought myself a pair of noise cancelling headphones in the hope that I'll be able to hear some music on the flight home.

Exiting Sony we walked around two buildings with restraints on the 42nd floor, then with a. viewing platform on the 46/47th flloor. There were spectacular views over the city. We decided to splash out and eat there, however we had missed lunch as it was 2pm so we decided to grab a drink and return later.

Ginza is one of the most expensive and exclusive shopping areas in the world. Think Kensington in London or The Champ-Elysees in Paris. There were a lot of awesome clothes. I had borrowed a bag from Ian but the zipper on it broke so I got myself a little "man-bag" to cart around my bits and pieces. It looks great in red leather. K found a wonderful top in the sale but decided it was still a bit too pricy so after a lot of thought put it back.

Dinner was held at the Oregon diner on the 41st floor sat next to the window looking out onto Tokyo below. The food was excellent, life doesn't get much better than this.

Day 5 in Japan Ginza

 Woke up both feeling unwell, it was a struggle to get out of bed.

As I was putting on my shoes to leave the Ryokan the owner ran out exclaiming, "Do you have an umbrella?", "Nope" I responded. "Today is very rainy here have these" and handed us two umbrellas. What a really nice fellow.

As it was raining we appreciated Koiwa covered pavements. The walkways actually had roofs with complete lighting for the evening. I don't know how long something like that would last in Manchester. Its like the number of vending machines out on the street, they would be vandalised back home.

We headed first to Ginza. The art gallery and museums don't open on Monday so we decided to go and check out the shops. First stop was the Sony Building. The Sony building is part museum part showcase of the various offering of the Sony Corporation. From TV's too Stereos and Computers. As a self confessed geek this was very exciting to see. There was an amazing TV setup playing from blu-ray which looked amazing.

I bought myself a pair of noise cancelling headphones from the shop. Hopefully this will enable me to listen to music on the flight home over the drone of the engines.

Following the geek fest we walked around enjoying the cityscape eventually finding two large buildings with sky restaurants 42 in the Shoa, 46/47 in the Durai. We went up for a look at the view from both so got some magnificent views of the city. We decided to eat there but by the time we finished viewing it was already past 2 so they were closed. We made a reservation for later.

Ginza is one of the most expensive parts of Tokyo home to major brands, labels and upmarket stores. It is certainly an interesting place to walk around. Lots of clothes and accessories. I had borrowed a bag off Ian but the zipper broke so I treated myself to a man bag to carts my bits and pieces around int. It looks great in red leather. I was a bit worried it might make me seem camp but Kasia said it looked great. Kasia found a beautiful top in the sale but it was still close to £200 which on balance seemed a bit too much so we put it back. 

For dinner we went to the Oregon diner not he 41st floor, sat next to the window looking out across Tokyo eating grommet food life doesn't really get much better!

Japan day 4 Imperial Gardens and Mori building

Finally made it to the Imperial East Gardens on the 3rd attempt. Walked over from Tokyo station to the gardens. They are really nice but quite reserved.

Afterwards we gave in an bought subway cards as the train stations are not always near the places we wanted to visit. 1000 Yen for the Tokyo metro excluding the Toie lines (which is a separate subway system because Tokyo is so massive it needs more than one underground system!).

After the gardens we went for a walk around visiting the Mori are museum. Grabbing a great view of Tokyo at night and eating some rice balls.

Tokyo Skyline

Rice balls

Tokyo international forum

We woke up late after forgetting to set the alarm. I'd slept for 14 hours which is the longest I have slept in years, at least it cleared my jet lag headache.

We attempted to visit the Imperial Palace again, but while walking from the metro we noticed the international forum.

An amazing building in steel and glass, rising majestically from the street. The design is an oval shape with a huge expanse of atrium surrounded by a walkway rising around the edge.

We made it to the gardens at 3pm and there were closing at 4pm, there is a 45 minute stroll to the entrance so we gave up on the palace and instead headed to Asakusa. 

Our tickets were only for the railway not the subway so we had a long walk from the garden to the station then from the Ueno station to Asakusa. It was a pleasant stroll though, Asakusa is a bit less full on that Shinjuko. There were a lot of nice shops and restaurants. We stopped for dinner in one of the Japanese restaurants. I had the breaded squid and green tea. It was another point and choose affair. 

After the dinner we wondered around and found a shrine. Like the Baddest shrines in Shanghai outside there was a large market. Kasia bought a fortune cokie, she will have good fortune. The light was failing and it was getting chilly so we headed back tot eh train station and Koiwa. We sat in the Ryokan chatting and enjoying the evening.