Pointless Journeys

The gasman is back this morning to fix a leaking pipe on the boiler. Unfortunately he is here and drilling holes at the same time as I have a meeting. Which wasn’t terribly helpful.

Now that the weather is no longer hot I was started taking the Lad to Sainsbury’s with me. I’ve not trained him to push the trolley yet so he stays in the car and watches the car park. I’m not sure if he prefers that to staying at home.

I’ve still not got my parcel off the Post Office. They are not on strike today but I didn’t realise they close at noon on Mondays. So on Tuesday the Lad (and me) get a third trip to the Post Office depot and we finally get my parcel. Although they very nearly didn’t give it me as it was addressed to the Dog Club and not me. Can I prove I’m a dog club? Not really.

When we got back home the Lad gave me such a look as if to say ‘that’s yet another trip where I haven’t got out of the car’.

Our Great South Run numbers arrive and, having failed to get the Lad in any of the local kennels, the Holiday Inn have confirmed they’re happy to accommodate him.

On Wednesday I head over to Derby for a night out. I get the last seat on the third scheduled Red Arrow after the first two don’t turn up. I felt a bit bad about the old lady I elbowed aside to get it but I doubt she’d got a pint waiting for her somewhere like I had. My old school pal and I drink in the Alexandra before eating in Peppitos. We did try to get in the cheap Indian on London Road (the only cheap Indian on London Road) but it wasn’t open.

On Thursday L and Daughter frequent the Goose Fair. I hadn’t expected L to throw herself into the festivities quite as much as she did as she is caught on camera at the top of the Big Wheel. Not only has she got her eyes open but she’s taken the photo as well which must have meant letting go of something. Extraordinary. She did say she needed a G&T after her day at work perhaps she’d already had it.

On Friday we go out with some friends to Vi-Va Indian Street Food on Goosegate. It’s small odd place and while the food was decent enough I felt it was all very ‘child portion’. So I was still starving afterwards and nobody else left anything that I could assist them with. The restaurant also didn’t seem to have any desserts, at least they didn’t offer us any. Nor did they offer us more drinks after our first one. So it’s quite a brief night out but one that L and I continue in the Borlase having previous started it before Vi-Va in Brewdog.

On Saturday L and I both Parkrun at Wollaton. Then Derby lose at home to Port Vale after conceding two penalties and having a man sent off.

On Sunday it’s our warm-up race for next weekend’s Great South Run. We run the Brewers 10K in Burton which is a new closed roads race starting and finishing at the Pirelli stadium, the home of Burton Albion Football Club. The route took us through Stretton and Rolleston before returning to the Pirelli Stadium.

I take it easy, because I don’t have any choice these days, and finish in 56 minutes. Then I head off to get the Lad out of the car so that we can cheer L in. Unfortunately the days of having a nice buffer of time between the two of us finishing are long gone and we have to yell our support from a distance across the car park as we can’t get back to the course in time.

We get a t-shirt and a medal that they described as being made of eco-friendly wood but surely it's a beer mat. It looks like a beer mat to me and that's surely what you should get from something called the Brewers 10k in what used to be the brewing capital of the UK e.g. before they closed nearly all the breweries and soon the National Brewery Centre as well.

Back at home we get chance for a rare post-race warm-down, which is rare because we hardly do any races these days. Then we stay in with a curry.

(Sunday 9^th October)

To A Safe Place

While L is becoming a film star in a new promotional video at work, I am hooking up online with Romania. I have a first meeting with the boss of project team who I could be working with. L immediately enquires whether there’s any chance of a visit to Romania. Unlikely I’m afraid, everything is done remotely these days. 

Late afternoon I head over to my Dad’s to check on what’s happening with his hedge because two guys are cutting it today. When I get there they’ve already finished, packed up and gone home. It took them four hours to do all the hedges. The guy who did it last year took four days.

I bike into work on Thursday and typically it rains on me. This seems to happen every time I cycle at the moment. At least I’m not alone in the office this time. It is packed today. There’s three of us.

After he jumped the gate last time we both abandoned him, L leaves the gate open for the Lad but, probably because she’s closed the curtain across the front door to try to stop him sitting on the stairs all day looking for us, he seems to stay in his own bed most of the time. He's such a grown up boy now that he doesn’t seem to be terribly interested in being upstairs. 

I go to the gym just to try to make L jealous. This doesn’t work the other way round.

Naturally on the one day I’m not at home someone tries to deliver something. Today it’s my monthly beer box which they say they have ‘delivered to a safe place: NEAR CAR.’ Thankfully no one has stolen it by the time I get home.

I also have a card telling me I missed a second delivery but when I go to pick it up from the sorting office on Friday naturally I find they’re on strike.

On Saturday we both Parkrun at Clifton.

(Sunday 2^nd October)

Frank Turner

Unsurprisingly Frank Turner again delivers two strong support acts tonight in Truckstop Honeymoon and Pet Needs. First up are husband and wife team Mike and Katie West aka Truckstop Honeymoon. They have been together a long long time and have a well-honed act, part comedy banter part bluegrass country music right down to the banjo and the double bass. Anyone who has song titles such as ‘Louisiana Tug Boat Captain’ and ‘Your Mother Is a Sociopath’ are fine by me. They are immensely entertaining and a great way to kick off the evening.

There is then a complete change of gear when Colchester’s unashamedly punk Pet Needs take to the stage and they take to the stage serenaded by Art Brut’s ‘Formed A Band’. Has anyone anywhere ever come on to an Art Brut song before? Other than Art Brut themselves? Eddie Argos would be so proud.

They may now be from Colchester but singer Johnny Marriott grew up in Nottingham and tells us that he saw his first punk gig at Rock City when he saw Rancid. 13 years later he’s on the same stage. It’s also a great story that their first album got picked up during lockdown. They are clearly a band on the up and they’ve brought a huge crowd with them including Johnny’s Mum and Dad. Like Truckstop Honeymoon they don’t lack for confidence although we won’t mention Johnny’s dancing but you can’t knock his and the band’s enthusiasm which is truly infectious.

They’re playing at the Bodega in December but given tonight’s reception I’m not sure that’s going to be big enough for them.

It’s been a while in the making but Frank Turner is back at his spiritual home and what he calls the ‘best gig venue in the world’. I have almost forgiven him for the two cancellations in March 2020 and February 2022. That is cancelled rather than rescheduled meaning loss of booking fees and having to fight the pre-sales all over again as getting Frank Turner tickets is no picnic. Meanwhile he plays four acoustic shows locally that, of course, you couldn’t get tickets for… but anyway. Ancient history now.

The ‘never-ending tour of everywhere’ show 2689 is now here and surprisingly Frank opens with a track that usually comes at the end in ‘Four Simple Words’ before move into ‘The Gathering’ the first of many tonight from his new record ‘FTHC’.

A couple of these new songs tell the story of his relationship with his father. First up ‘Fatherless’ telling of their estrangement and then three songs later comes the second part of the story with ‘Miranda’. His father's called Miranda these days, a proud transgender woman and, he says, they’re ok.

It’s a night of emotional songs as he also pays tribute to his late friend Scott Hutchison, Frightened Rabbit’s lead singer who sadly took his own life in 2018, with the excellent ‘A Wave Across A Bay’.

His now customary solo section is ‘There She is’, ‘The Ballad of Me and My Friends’ and ‘Be More Kind’ but he is sort of heckled, as usual, for other tracks including most prominently 'Thatcher Fucked The Kids'.

Once the solo section is over the Sleeping Souls return for the finale including the monstrous newbie, that harks back to his hardcore roots, ‘Non Serviam’.

When he returns for the encore he whinges a bit about the earlier 'heckling' and then adds 'Thatcher Fucked The Kids' to the set, which I think is the first time he’s ever played it at Rock City before launching into the always excellent ‘Prufrock’. 

 

His shows are always good but some of the ones I’ve seen in the last few years have got a bit samey but tonight he seemed to go up another gear, perhaps the enforced pandemic break did him good, as this was the best I’ve seen Frank Turner in quite some time. Although... I still think he has way too many tracks on his ‘must play’ list but I best not ‘whinge’ too much about that.  

(Tuesday 27^th September)

Beetroot

On Tuesday the gasman comes to service the boiler which manages to ease the lad’s boredom. He spends his morning alternating between checking on him and peering over next door’s fence for his ‘friend’ the part-time lodger next door who we think\hope has gone home to his castle. Yes, he lives in a castle. 

We both struggle with Wordle the first day back after our holidays and then subsequently both stop doing it altogether.

I take my Dad to dog training as he’s already as bored as the Lad is mainly because both of Derby’s home games this week have been cancelled due to international call ups.

Wednesday is his 94th birthday, so my brother and I take him out for a pint at the New Inn. We are also all going out for a Chinese meal together on Friday at the Golden Dragon in Shardlow.

I had loosely suggested that I could be fit enough for tennis on Thursday but despite my 'normal person' style holiday (e.g. no exercise) my knee is nowhere near being up to the rigours of tennis.

Instead I cycle to work which was tough obviously and made the knees throb. Which isn’t really surprising as the last time I cycled was the 24th August, a month ago.

When I arrive at work, it is to find that I am the only one there. So it wasn’t a very social day. At least at home I have the Lad to talk to. I felt a bit like the Lad looks on Dog TV. Lonely. I go to the gym at lunchtime, so at least I see some real live people. Meanwhile the Lad is so bored he jumps the gate for the first time in ages. We did think he was growing up.

Then I hear that, for some inexplicable reason, Derby County have changed their manager again.

I am back working from home on Friday which means I can take charge of another deliver of beetroot from our neighbours. They have an allotment which is great as it means we get lots of freebies. The problem is there’s only so much you can do with beetroot.

On Saturday L and I both run at Clifton Parkrun. I make my return at Clifton which is my new favourite because the grass is softer on my knees. L’s run is her 242^nd parkrun. Then on Sunday we go along to support those running in the Robin Hood Half Marathon. Those, unlike me, who haven’t deferred their entry. I’m very jealous of those in it while L is delighted she’s not in it.

Inspired\uninspired (delete as applicable) by the half marathoners L again lets me run with her and we do 8k together on Monday evening although she accuses me of extending it. As if I would. 

(Monday 26^th September)

New Monarch New Government

First day back to reality after the holiday is at least a Saturday which means Parkrun, for L at least, and the match, for my Dad and me. I manage to jog to the Wollaton parkrun start which is at least a small step along the road to recovery. 

The match comes accompanied by a minute's silence for the late Queen and the National Anthem for the new King. Derby come from behind to win 2-1 over Wycombe.

On Sunday L grudgingly agrees to run with me and I do 4.3k, she carries on to do a bit further unencumbered.

Monday was supposed to be back to work but now it’s not as it’s the Queen’s Funeral, which we watch, and has become a Bank Holiday.

The funeral is an impressive affair with its crisp military precision but the abiding memory of the Queen’s death will be the famous Queue. If anything has killed the republican movement stone dead it is that. If the Queen had lay in state for six months or more they would probably have continued to come and queue probably forever. Also what event in the world would have caused all those world leaders to drop everything and come to the little old UK?

The Queue has a touch of us ‘all being in it together’, a notion that doesn’t look as if it’s going to be taken on board by the new Truss Government. A least we do have our first u-turn and Liz has offered to pay everyone’s energy bills. Not that anyone knows how she’s going to pay for it.

(Monday 19^th September)

House Of Love

Support tonight is from Pete Astor formerly of The Loft and The Weather Prophets back in the 1980s. He’s very popular with the crowd and an impressive performer that somehow I’ve managed not to see over all these years. Most of the material tonight s from his later solo career and mostly from his new album ‘Time on Earth’ although he does include ‘Why Does The Rain’ from his Loft days. 

 

While having not seen Pete Astor before, I did see the House of Love four times in a sixteen month period back in the day when they were one of my favourite bands. This was 1988-1990. Isn't it amazing how you let things slide... Now Guy Chadwick is stood back in front of me 32 years on.

Of course things changed for the band when lead guitarist Terr Bickers left in late 1989, a month before I saw them for the last time at Derby Darwin Suite in January 1990. Then the band broke up completely in 1993.

I've been missing in action a bit since. In 2003 the reconciled Chadwick and Bickers reformed the band and even released new material. This reunion held until 2020 but now Chadwick is back on his own with a new line up which includes great guitarist of around ‘our age’ and a much younger bass player who seems almost styled in the band’s original image. They could be father and son and, as it turns out, they are. Keith and Harry Osborne.

Kicking off with the three opening tracks from House of Love’s debut album ‘Road’, ‘Christine’ and ‘Hope’ but not in the right order. These obviously go down well with the crowd before we are then delving heavily into the band’s impressive new album ‘A State Of Grace’ from which no less than seven tracks are pulled tonight. One of which ‘Hey Babe’ Chadwick dedicates to the Queen on the day of her funeral.

He is chattier than I recall him being in the past and among other things we find out that he lived in Chilwell for 18 months which he says ‘wasn’t great’.

There are plenty of other oldies of course including ‘Shine On’ their first single from 1987, the sheer indie brilliance of ‘Destroy The Heart’ and a hauntingly brilliant ‘Love In A Car’ which closes the set. While another belter from the old days ‘I Don’t Know Why I Love You’ is part of the encore. Possibly the highlight though is a thunderous ‘Burn Down The World’. 

An excellent gig and I best not leave it another 32 years.

A Cornish Reminiscence

On Monday we head off to pick my Dad up and then head off to Cornwall via Devon. 

It’s all quite a nostalgia tour. Of mine and L’s first trip together in 96 and later trips with the kids, my trips with my Mum and Dad in the late 70s\early 80s while my Dad is also harking back further to a motorbike tour with my Mum in the 50s.

The first stop once we get off the M5 is an old haunt of mine and L’s in Watchet. Then we stay overnight in a really nice pub called the White Horse Inn at Washford. Day 2 takes us through Ifracombe and Woolacombe with L indulging in a run during a thunderstorm, she has impeccable timing, while the Lad gets beach at Saunton Sands.

Our overnight stay at the West Country Inn just outside Clovelley doesn’t happen as they have lost our booking. This at least saves us from a night on the Doom Bar as this is all they appear to have. Forced to somehow honour our booking they send us to the New Inn actually in Clovelley itself. On one level this is great because Clovelley is somewhere we have always wanted to stay but having seen where the hotel is situated, down the near cliff face that is the cobbled trackdown the village, I’m not sure how we’re going to get my Dad there.

The owner of the hotel has a plan. He conscripts four strong lads who happen to be working there to carry my Dad down in a sedan chair, they just happen to have. So all sorted and I real thrill for my Dad. I’m not sure what my Mum have thought. Well I know what she would have thought and she wouldn’t have been amused. We manage to walk him back up the hill the next day.

The next day we have coffee in Tintagel, ice cream in Padstow and overnight accommodation in Newquay at the Beresford Hotel overlooking Tolcarne beach. Newquay was a childhood haunt of mine and while parts of it have changed a lot, much hasn't changed at all. Sadly the legendary Macari’s Ice Cream Parlour is no longer there and now appears to be well known pub chain. Despite sporadic and heavy rain, we take the ‘land train’ through the town and tour the sights. Then we get the Lad on the beach in Perranporth.

A ferry is required to get to St Mawes for our fourth stop, it’s a ferry called Harry. Our hotel, the Ship & Castle, doesn’t have much in the way of beer but the Victory Inn across the road does in the shape of a nice pint of Sharps 5% Sea Fury. I mean, who’d bother with their Doom Bar when you can have that instead. We raise a glass to the Queen who died today at Balmoral. 

On Friday morning L swims in sea at St Mawes and then we have the first Cornish Pasty of the trip at Charlestown near St Austell. Later that day we arrive at our cottage in Lelant near St Ives, where we will stay for the rest of the holiday, to find we have no hot water but the owner advises it will be fixed in the morning and it is. In the evening we order our usual Friday curry, just from St. Ives rather than the Savera.

We have a pub, the Badger that serves St Austell beers, just across the road that we visit multiple times throughout our week.

Saturday is of course Parkrun which L does at Redruth Heartlands, a former tin mine, and then the Lad gets on the beach at Portreath. On Sunday we visit Lamorna Cove for coffee and apple pie, having to find a real live coin for parking, before finally ending up a Lands End after trying to catch what may have been a lost dog.

 

On Monday we drive into St Ives but struggle to park and also fail to find anywhere to recycle which seems a county wide issue. After a circuit of the coast we end up back near the cottage at Carbis Bay where L gets another swim and the Lad gets on the beach after waiting for the daily dog ban to expire 6pm when suddenly all the local dogs appear from nowhere.

The next day we’re in Helston followed by more coffee and cake at Lizard Point where the Lad ends up sat in the car on his own for the only time in the whole holiday and even then he didn’t have to. Everywhere has been so dog friendly.

In the evenings as well as eating a few times at the Badger, we also eat at the Watermill Restaurant and the Old Forge Bistro, all are dog friendly.

There’s a match on Tuesday evening which I manage to stream on to the TV in the cottage which we accompany with another take away curry.

On Wednesday L goes for a morning run along the coastal path to Carbis Bay then all of us go in the sea up to our knees even my Dad at Gwithian Towan Beach. It is possibly my most terrifying experience encounter with the sea since the Llandudno Tri.

Our final day is spent in Falmouth, which is really really nice, before a long and painful traffic laden drive back home the next day.

(Friday 16^th September)

Cars

On Saturday L and Daughter parkrun at Bestwood while the Lad and I spectate. Afterwards we look at cars with Daughter and think we have found a suitable replacement for her current one that seems about to expire. Seemingly inspired by the Astras I have for the last thirty years and that have ferried her around the country she is joining the Astra club just as I have decamped to VW. It does look a good buy, now she just needs to get it past her +1 and her Dad. 

In the afternoon there’s a match against Plymouth which doesn’t go very well. 

On Sunday it’s the Wilne 10k that I have more or less talked L into as I needed it as a warm up race for the Robin Hood Half Marathon that I’m now not doing. Nor am I doing Wilne either as simply walking is still proving to be difficult.

We did the first ever Wilne back in 2011 and we thought we’d ran it again since but we can’t find any record of that, so perhaps we dreamt it. My time in 2011… 41:48. I was quite good back then. L did it in 56:27, we were both quite good back then. 

(Sunday 4^th September)

Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire appear in Birmingham a few days after sexual misconduct allegations were made against the band's frontman Win Butler. We park in the multi story next to the arena but getting to the gig is difficult from there, steps everywhere and I can still barely walk.

Somehow we make it to the arena and sup some eye wateringly expensive lager as we wait to see whether the rest of the audience or even the band will turn up.

The allegations by four women followed an investigation by American music website Pitchfork. Allegations taken seriously by many but suspiciously by others as they were revealed just as the band were about to head off on a European tour.

The band's support, Feist, played in Dublin on the first two dates but then quit the tour and returned home to Canada. So we have no support tonight just a DJ with some maracas who goes on forever and really starts to annoy after a while.

The arena is dead quiet and there are loads of empty seats so we are starting to suspect a big boycott but in the end I think they may have just been avoiding the DJ as the place fills up as Arcade Fire take the stage at 9pm despite the arena putting out messages saying the start had been moved from 9pm to 8:30pm. Seems no one told the band.

It’s not full but then it wasn't sold out anyway so it's hard to tell how many have stayed at home. There are gaps in the seats which probably doesn’t make sense unless people have stayed away. Therefore it would have been nice if everyone had just shuffled up a bit as we were miles from the stage. It wasn't quite as bad last time I was at the NIA but this is almost binoculars territory and it reminds why I usually skip arena gigs unless I can stand at the front.

Being so far away dulls the experience a touch but that apart from that they are very good. The crowd's enthusiasm seems undimmed by what may or not may not have gone on and nor did the band look phased. It was the first time I have seen them live and they certainly didn't disappoint.

Making up for the size of the arena, the band played the first song on a second stage in the middle of the arena on which the seven-piece band somehow managed to squeeze themselves as they opened with 'Rebellion (Lies)'.

The band then transferred to the main stage for ‘Age of Anxiety I’ from the new album ‘We’, their sixth LP, from which much of the set is understandably pulled. There are some excellent oldies though ‘Ready to Start’, ‘Creature Comfort’, ‘Keep the Car Running’ and an excellent ‘The Suburbs’ among others while ‘Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)’ from the new album comes accompanied by multi-coloured inflatables rising up from the stage.

The band's sets are never predictable and they are well known for mixing up sets lists which they do tonight with first appearances of the tour for ‘We Used to Wait’ and ‘Half Light I’. Something that more bands should do.

Butler’s wife Regine Chassagne probably steals the show with ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’ heading off into the crowd in party mode with a security guard in hot pursuit.

After closing with ‘Everything Now’ the band return to the second stage for the encore playing the full nine minutes of ‘End of the Empire I-IV’ in all its pretentious glory.

The band have been doing different cover versions every night so far roughly linked to the area they are in. After U2 and the Cranberries in Ireland I'm not totally sure of the relevance The Verve, ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ and Wigan to Birmingham but then the Cranberries aren't from Dublin either. After which they close a very pleasant evening with ‘Wake Up’.

Being Calm

On Monday, which is a Bank Holiday, the Lad and I go to a dog show at Catton Hall purely to practice being calm as by now we know that achieving anything that doesn’t involve an Elimination isn’t going to happen. I’m not sure some folk would recognise our style of calmness but we all have to start somewhere.

In the evening L and I head over to her Mum’s where we clear some stuff out of her garage. We leave the bulky waste out for the council to collect the next day and, lo and behold, they do actually take it on Tuesday.

The deer blockade again forces us to do our morning walk route backwards but I decided my knee wasn’t going to make it that far. So we turned around before we even reached the main gate and came back home. We were still out 40 minutes though and the Lad is soon wrong way up in his bed. So it still must have been exhausting for him.

L has left something called a ‘TRX’ hanging from our tree. She suggests I use it to work on my knees. The only problem is that the Lad has his own unique way of joining in.

My Dad and I have a wild night out at the Papa Johns Trophy or the Pizza Cup as it’s known to its mates. Derby beat Grimsby 3-1 in front of a mere 3,000 crowd. The club bar at the Yard closed is closed so we are forced to drink at the Exeter instead. Which is a pretty decent back up plan.

I decide that my knee is too bad to go in to work by bike so it’s another day WFH and listening to the Lad repeatedly sighing with boredom in the hall.

I also cancel tennis. It’s probably good that we've got a holiday coming up with the state of my knee. I was hoping for an active holiday but now it will have to be more of a ‘normal’ holiday like normal people have.

Thursday would have been my Mum's 94^th birthday so we take my Dad out for a meal to our new favourite, the New Inn.

(Thursday 1st September)