Little bit

Another sunday, another day spent feeling horrible because of too much alcohol. I think I must epitomise the binge drinking culture of the UK.
It all started Friday night, we [Phil Bruce Myself and Nick] enjoyed a quiet drink in the John Millington in Cheadle Hulme. It was very reserved just a nice chat and a drink

Saturday I dragged Nick out to see a house in Handforth. Its a bit of a wreak a 3 bedroom mid terrace with a dodgy floor. However the building is sound, the location great and with a little TLC it could be a really great house. Its one of the few places where I could really see myself living in, so I will make an offer Monday, fingers crossed. The prospect both excites and completely terrifies me

In the evening Nick Ian Gilly and I went for a meal and a couple of drinks at TGI Fridays. It was a bit rubbish to be honest Nick and I had both finished before Ian's streak arrived. We decided to go for some drinks in Didbury after that, starting in the Slug and Lettuce and working our way through Varsity to the Pitcher and Piano for some Mojitos. As we were enjoying ourselves we headed to Deansgate locks to continue the evening. I used to drink in Revolution a lot but I had not visited for some time, its sure changed. They have renovated and knocked through making for a much more pleasant environment. We all enjoyed a few more drinks a bit of dancing and chatting. Bumped into some friend of Becky's they were gorgeous unfortunately it did nothing to improve Nick's mood to be reminded of her.

By the time we left Revolution I was rather sloshed and so did not really see it as a strange step to go for a Curry in Rusholme. It was a mistake I could taste curry when I woke up this morning, yuk. Gilly was on top form in there talking about his family work and such. We got a taxi home from Manchester the driver of which was some African guy who was chewing on some sort of root which given his general behavior I took to be some sort of stimulant. He told us that the world is all controlled by the queen (his argument lasted virtually the entire 30 minute journey), I was glad to get home.

As I was typing this piece I realised had little red lines under all the words ending in ise, it appears Safari / Apple prefer the American (or Oxford English) ize ending to words. There is a full discussion about it on wikipeadia.

Digital Love

I have just about made it through the week. I was so glad to finish work today, I got home and just relaxed chatted on the net for a while.
Martina was mad at me for not returning a message, and my phone was bleeping with texts from people but I needed to take a few hours out just let the stress levels drop.
I did end up going for a quick drink with Nick Bruce and Phil. Phil is in high spirits as he has some new plan to make money filming holiday resorts, it one of those idea that could be great or a damp squib, for his sake I hope its the former.
Nick was a bit more tired and stressed than usual, he is still waiting on some cash to come through after the bank have been stalling, I think like one of our clients they are running a go slow in the hope people go somewhere else.

Elmo

Elmo, originally uploaded by j0hncooke.

Come Together

I realised last night that I was seriously depressed, the problems from work were spilling over into other areas of my life. I was sat with Martina in the pub and I felt like this weight was pressing down on my. At first I thought that it was because I was tired, but analysing it I realised actually I am really unhappy and I have been for some time.
I thought perhaps it might be a good time to do something about it so I contacted my boss and arranged to meet after work. I told him some of my problems and he said he would address them with the manager at my customer. As I walked away I realised that I hadn't handled the situation very well I should have spoken to the people in question myself. For too long now I have let things slide
This evening I went for a short jog and started to piece together some bits in my own mind. I came to the conclusion that I have been doing a lot of things wrong and though I went for a drink with Ian and Nick which was relaxing I still feel stressed. I think I need some self determination to solve some of the issues I am facing I just hope the I can find the strength I need to face everything.
On a more positive note last night I did manage to arrange a potencial date for the next lan party the 19th July, that is at least something to look forward to.

Foundations

After prompting from Martina to go for a walk I found one round Macclesfield Forest on the Discover Cheshire. I had been ages since I was in that part of the world so we decided to give it a try this morning. Martina and her fellow language assistant Michael drove up to Macclesfield Forest getting only slightly lost, parking near the Trentabank Reservoir. It was very pleasant (photos here) the trees and undergrowth looked great and thought the weather was not quiet as good as expected it was a most enjoyable morning wondering round the tracks.

Less enjoyable was coming home and finding an ICQ message from Olya, "John, hi!
Dont be angry.... but can u delete my pictures from your website? Let they be on you camera on just on your computer, but not in the Net. Please." I haven't spoke to her in 5 months, the last time was after I sent her a message on her birthday and she told me she was married. It brought back a lot of memories from last year most of which I had tried to forget. I will remove the photos but not tonight, I am off to a BBQ at Bruce's to celebrate his birthday.

B Movie

This week work has been very challenging. Apart from the ongoing stresses from poor management they have decided to lay off some more staff including 3 people from the team I work with. The atmosphere is pretty strange, I think more people will end up walking out after their hard work has been rewarded with nothing. The level of uncertainty is the killer, there are only going to be losing a few people but everyone feels under pressure. I watched B Movie with Martina, I can't say either of us enjoyed it very much. I guess my head wasn't quite into it anyway.

Nuda Veritas

Today I went with Kasia to Liverpool to see the Gustav Klimt exhibition at the Tate Liverpool. She is a big fan of his work so I thought it would be really excellent. As it turned out this review is pretty bang on the money. The exhibition covers all his different bodies of work rather than focussing on the later excellent pictures. The work with the displays of furniture were interesting but both Kasia and I would rather have seen more of his later paintings, Notablely absent was "The Kiss". Kaisa also missed another landscape painting of some beech trees.


I had never heard of Klimt before Kasia told me all about his work, on looking at the paintings I realised that I recognised some of the works. The most famous of his work are very pretty paintings mostly of women (later in his career he was accused of being a pornographer due to the provocative nature of his paintings). Like most art I have seen pictures do not really do justice to seeing the real article in front of your eyes, my favourite painting was the first one Kasia ever showed me, Nuda Veritas (naked truth). It was a work Klimt did as an answer to his critics the general gist is its better to please some than try and please everyone.

After seeing the Klimt bit we viewed the DLA piper exhibitions which has a range of works charting the last century, it was pretty good though I am still not convinced by the abstract works.
Once we finished in the Tate we took a wonder around Liverpool, first taking in the three graces then perusing the new shopping centre Liverpool One. I am really impressed by what they have done and are doing to the city, in another year or so when all the builders have finished its going to look really awesome. Already I think thanks to the fact there seems to have been an over-arching design I would have to admit, (though it pains me to do so) the city centre is looking a lot better Manchester's.
I drove Kasia back to York, we ate a pizza together share a few more moments then I came back to Manchester alone, its pretty hard seeing someone who lives so far away and who works opposing times to your own, but I really enjoyed our time together.

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.