The debonair Basil Marigold's

I am sat in a pub tonight, not any old pub, but the pub. The one I used to frequent, a lot. It used to be the best and busiest pub in the bay. It used to be standing only, even in weekdays. I am sat alone tonight. There is no one really here, yet the same music is playing on the jukebox that we used to play. Except when we played it, it was new music. I can still look out of the windows and see the lights dance on the bay outside, the view will never change, i have. For example, this is my third drink in two days. I uses to be able to do three in twenty minutes, here, in this town any way. I could spend the night watching the ghosts of memories and people in this pub, walking past that bar, uttering the same conversation we used to have. I first met the girlfriend my wife saw for the first and probably, only ever time yesterday, in passing. She was a huge part of my life, for a time. It was a strange experience. I used to be able to walk into this pub alone but then drink with co

me, that's who. After my daughter locked me out of the back door. In the cold winters evening as I wore a t shirt, as I nipped out to put the rubbish out as my wife was upstairs changing the giant baby. As I knocked on the door my daughter, being ever the fount of initiative then disappears to help out. She then appears at the back door, squishes her face against the glass and smiles, a knowing smile, a proud and clever smile as she then attempts to help daddy by opening the back door by using a plastic fork to try and turn the lock. At this point she then disappears to tie some bows around the legs of the boys highchair, while smiling at me. Cold is obviously defeated by making bows! I knock on the window and she ambles to the door again. I say to her, 'go and get mummy'. She smiles again, and repeats parrot like, 'mummy' and them I stand and watch through the window as she then approaches the downstairs baby gate. Picks up her ikea step places in front of the

That London is the most amazing place in the UK. I've not been down for a good few years, possibly 5yrs or so. If any city felt like It was a living organism, then it would be London. If you listen carefully, I swear you can hear it's heart beat made from the energy of every living soul. Everything about the place fascinates and excites me, in one degree or another. The vast size of it's scale in relation to all the cities I've visited. The world class architecture of the enormous Victoria. Imperial period, blende into the tiny villages that once, made London. From walking past some. Granite and stone neo classical edifice, tagged onto or build around a mews house, seemingly blown wizard of oz style from the Cotswold into the centre of one of the worlds most vibrant cities! That blows my Devon, farmboy mind. I am awed by walking down streets vaulted on both sides so that you cannot see the sky unless you vertically look up! Did I mention the people? I love walking p

This morning finds me on the 9th of the 10 trains I will have travelled on since Wednesday morning. You would be mistaken if you thought I was tired of trains, I'm not. Tired of the journeys perhaps. This morning was an earlier start as I am heading to London, arriving in time for the tube rush hour, one of the many joys I have experienced in life. In a herodotean type digression, I once did central London to heathrow on the tube with a suitcase as I was flying to Madrid! How popular was I then! Still, one of the very many reasons I enjoy trains is the view. And Autumn/Winter is arguably my favourite time, especially coupled with starting in the dark and still being on the train as daylight begins. Why you may ask? I shall explain. Mainly, at this time of year there is an absence of sun rising in the sky when Dawn breaks, usually blocked by a thick layer of cloud. This makes the day break darker and more emotive, to me. When you travel through the countryside and see the un

It has been proposed by GP's and other health professionals that smoking is now banned in cars (it already is if your car is your place of work, taxi's, etc). Moving aside from the civil liberty issues of the state legalising what you can do in your personally owned car, there is more of a concern as to whats the point of doing this. A few years ago it was made illegal to use your mobile phone in the car when driving (this led to hands free kits). When I am driving home, I would imagine at a rough estimate that 20% of drivers flout this law, by holding the phone, talking or texting an I've even seen the police do This. If the mobile ban is not going to be enforced, what chance do we have of a smoking bam being endorced, seriously?

It happens and probably every one could relate a story of how what you assumed to be the case turns out to be a little more deceptive than originally considered to be. Tonight I had a refresher course in this. Coincidently the last time involved a female singer/songwriter, who this year won a music prize that the girl I went to see tonight was nominate for. If you are a musical fan you could begin to understand the similarities between PJ Harvey & Anna Calvi. Having now heard them both, there are some similarities, musically, between them. And some quite fundamentally nuanced differences. Anna Calvi, is not a large girl. She looks tiny and frail. Women shaped like this always remind of tiny little birds you will occasionally see, those which inspire a desire to nurture and care for them. Anna Calvi is still pretty new to the music business as can be gleaned from her almost zero interaction with the crowd, beyond the polite 'thank you' after each song. She stands dwar

I am a strong advocate for public transport. It allows people to live, it really does. But, an interesting side effect Is the high percentage of lunatics that use it. For instance, tonight while journeying to the big smoke I was sat behind a young lad who was practising with some determination the hand movements from, I'm guessing, karate. This is quite a sight on a bus. A sight the type I have missed since becoming a driving person. Buses are truly the home to humanity in all it's glory and on may this continue.

For those used to bus travel and especially bus Travel in the dark, you'll be aware of bus mirror. When the bus window essentially becomes reflective due to the darkness of night outside. I used the bus mirror a lot over the preceeding decade and tonight, after a break of nigh on 4/5yrs I don't recognise that old person staring back at me, where has that youth gone?

While at a half marathon this weekend my youngest child, Joshua (9 months) revealed himself to be a little bit of a ladies man and a cunning one at that. He'd been given a bottle of powerade to play with in his buggy, which he'd happily done so for a while. But this was maybe due to the fact that he hadn't eyed up a future wife. As he waited in the town hall corridor he saw the approach of a rather attractive st johns ambulance girl, probably in her early twenties. As she approached his buggy out flew the powerade bottle onto the floor in front of the st johns ambulance girl. She dutifully bends down and picks it up. Then she passes it back to Joshua talking to him in the process, Joshua, who is now smiling widely at her, as though the act of picking up the bottle means she has now committed to marrying him. He did have good taste though, if he is going to become a mini casanova.

Music has the power to move you, great music has the power to alter your life, change your thoughts, even, arguably become a better person.  To me, life without music is not a life at all. I have been fortunate to have loved so many different bands and hopefully there will be other musicians in the future that may inspire me as much as the ones that have come before them, and they drastically outweigh the musicians of the present.  I categorise bands into two types; Those whose music is timeless and has been created before I was born or I became aware of their talents, such as the great bands of the 60/70's, like Pink Floyd, Like the Beatles. Who, stride colossal like of the musical world. The second category can at times, not equate to those in the first, in terms of talent, but I have developed a more sentimental attachment to them, as I was fortunate enough to have grown with them as their music has grown over the years. Their music has been contemporary to my life and has e

So says the summer, as it packs up the sun in a suitcase and says, 'Bye, Bye' as it takes it leave. Replaced now by a grumpy old autumnal world. Autumn can be quite a glorious time, when, for instance the sky is a wonderful hue of blue and the vegetation is transforming from greens to golds, browns and reds. I am fortunate in that when I leave for work now, if I time it rightly and the sun wants to play, I can glimpse the sunrise when I am heading down the motorway. I am discovering that this is the best way to arrive at work. The only draw back is that once I turn off the motorway I am then directly driving into that very same sunrise, this is neither pleasant nor conducive to being able to see properly where I am going at times.

It's really annoying. They are supposed to be the trained specialists. The keepers of the sacred reading grail. In fact Librarians have been known to resist the natural american inclination to censor books that don't 'fit'. As professions go, I probably wouldn't place any other profession above them, not Doctors, not Teachers because Librarians, control and monitor the accumulated knowledge that the worlds possesses and they have done this task since the dawn of the written word. Librarians have at times secretly saved and preserved knowledge for the future and risked their own lives in doing so; it even has its own laws  that's how important they are. But, at a lesser level, they can also be really annoying. Though, technically this really is the fault of the County Councils, who in the UK are legally responsible for Library provision through the secretary of state, empowered by the 1964 Public Libraries Act. All great, and wonderful stuff. Here's my moan. 

I have been looking at Televisions. The reason for this is that at some point our main front room tele, all 14" of it and I have no idea how old it is, possibly older than me, perhaps, seems so my wife tells me, to have become a little temperamental and may well be due an respectful early grave. Probably where the telebugs went too. For those of an age who can remember! I can. This invariably led to the Amazon website. a Website I have used quite a lot, a fair few years ago now, for buying slightly obscure books, if needed for the masters course I began in 2003. Amazon, was, is a good book site, but it now does almost everything except high end military weapons and that is only because the postage costs may prove a little exorbitant from ex-soviet republics. But back to my point. I was buying some fairly esoteric works around 2003-2006, when I was a fairly heavy user of the website for this purpose of building a useful bibliography. Amazon, back then had a fairly nifty

I am rubbish with dates from the past, I struggle to remember my own historical reference points and often get chronologies incorrect. The reason for this is that, because they live in a time gone, they therefore become irrelevant to my mind and are cast adrift, like English Fireship's were at the Spanish Amarda. I am, you may not be, aware of the irony that I have spent 25% of my life on earth studying some form of history or another at a level above GCSE and, as part of this study, had to memorise many 'states and dates' as historians can label it. My personal history however is littered with dates I struggle to recall. But strangely over the last week I had a date appear on the calender that with what little spare thinking time I have at present, a memory and a date collided in my mind and pricked a memory that was so very clear and stopped me in my tracks. I shall now explain the significance which dawned on me at the moment I realised. The Date is the 23rd of August,

I would take today as a treat, as such, but it had been a fair few years since I have visited, Waterstones, in Nottingham. It was a place I often used to frequent/haunt in my younger days when I arrived in Nottinghamshire. It was a store I kind of just loved being in, for the sake of being in a building that had 4 storeys packed full of books. Over time and in changing circumstances, I have not visited Waterstones, or been out and bought a brand new, fresh of the presses book, either. The odd, second hand classic here and there, but not even remotely close to my pre-marriage book obsession I have carried over a lifetime. I don't say this is a good or a bad thing, it's just a statement. I have over the last few months started using my ipad, both with the apple ibooks and the kindle app, to read the odd electronic book, here and there. A little like a child dipping their toe into the water. I am sure that it will grow on me the more I get used to it. Maybe a Kindle will help!

The more we camp, the more, my wife and I get to grips with the campsites largest tent. We must now be down to 30minutes or less putting it up and being able to shelter into it. Fortunately the weather so great that you weren't desperate to get it up before the rain and wind made it near impossible. We were then fortunate indeed that we were able to pack into the car a collection of clowns with which to furnish the tent, and example here;

Blimey I missed my bed, after just one night I felt so much better. The fact that my hips hurt so much that it woke me up in the middle of the night, was never a good sign to me, but last night was great and refreshing.

The one true surprise is that I forgot just how isolated and dark the lake district can be. The benefit of his is at 1am on the way for the obligatory night time wee. A brief glance sky wards revealed such a glorious host of stars. The firmament was indeed full of stars as Dave Bowman would say. Such an impressive, awe inspiring view putting the world and our individual insignificance into perspective. But it was such a wonderful site, nature truly provides the most amazing views. The sight of so many stars when in the middle of the town I live in makes me realise just how poor and corrupted by the light pollution my world is and perhaps just once laying in a desert, 1000's of miles from any city, how amazing must that be. Which, in a round about way ties in with my dream of visiting Mongolia and the Gobi desert, where star gazing must be great, hint, hint.....Travel fairy.

Of all the things I have gripes with during holidays has become more apparent now that I've become a parent is the premiumbhjmk charged on entry to events ad places of interest. Once you start factoring in children the cost really does start to rise.  It can be most frustrating how the age ranges change, some places have free for under fives, free for under 2's, some have no concession. All I know is that money seems to flow quickly from the wallet when you have children, the more children you have the worse it becomes.And it isn't the children's fault. They just want to have a good time, it's the shopkeepers and the attraction owners that cynically exploit this. Damn this capitalist world.

But there is much to say for still being in this exquisitely manicured bubble. Here is a place were, when camping you sleep to mother natures whims, not to whenever you choose to turn the light off and stop. we would be less productive without electricity powering our existence. It started with the romans, who believed that cagey mother nature through building bridges and aqueducts made them gods themselves, little has changed philosophical, just that the technology has improved. Yet for all the technology we still have our Vesuvius moments when the world, harshly treated and abused by us, repays that tenfold and with interest, mocking our claims of advancement by knocking down our achievements easily and without breaking sweat. So here camp in a field exposed to the elements and all that stands between us is a thin sheet of waterproof fabric, microscopically thick. But it's still fun and a little bit harde than normal, which can add to the fun. We have been blessed with great

There is something quite wonderful about camping, once you've set everything up and can sit down in your fabric tent and then survey the world around you. Fortunately we have had a pre arranged trip to a place called Cartmel, located within the world famous, lake district, one of the UK's most picturesque areas. I have only ever been here once before, for our honeymoon, four years ago, to Ambleside, which is fairly central to the lakes. This time, we are in the south of the lakes, away from the really, really touristy parts. There is a splendid sense of isolation here, the village has no recognisable pavements for pedestrians to use. The village is still a creation of the time before cars when the streets where all for people, probably before the invention of the wheel enabled carts to hinder the road wandering yokel. And that age old feel of tight streets, small cottages, big houses set in large grounds, all with colourful flowers outside the kitchen window, under which,

Is when I write a post about Hay fever, I return to the Blogger dashboard to find a flipping Google Ad advising me of the treatment I can purchase in London, for....yep, you guessed it....my hay fever allergy. This is possibly more annoying than the allergy in the first place.

I forget during winter, but as swiftly as summer arrives I realise that I am a hay fever sufferer and at the moment I stuck between trying to figure out whether hay fever is pretty bad or whether I have an actual cold, because the symptoms for both are almost identical, but the result is equally as annoying to me. Just so frustrating, it really is depressing at times, summer. Just not fun.

I used to enjoy using eBay. It has at times proved quite a useful tool for disposing of items and also buying items, every now and then. I try to be a good ebayer, I pay quickly through eBay and to be fair I kind of like having that reciprocated. Over the last few weeks I've had a whirl of a time dealing with attempting to get rid of our first pram. I thought it would be relatively easy as it's a fairly easy process. I have put it into a fairly simple equation, which I present here; Person wants to sell (x) person wants to buy (y) paypal (f) satisfactory transaction (g) Hence; X + y + (f) = g Simples, as those annoying puppet ferrets would say on the tele. Except the two complete muppets I've dealt with on eBay lately. I will call them; time waster and can't read. For reasons I will now explain. Time waster won the buggy first. The first excuse was, 'oh my paypal is down, can I pay on collection?', oh, okay. Not my usual response but I was feeling generous. I th

1 - Attending a funeral for a man, who really didn't deserve that. 2 - A large glass of Jack Daniels. 3 - Kate Bush: 'a woman's work' on repeat. starting with the line 'Pray God you can cope' 4 - Thinking of my children and who'll look after them when I am not here (see number 1). 5 - Hating that I can't do anything about number 4 and will miss so much of their life. And I don't want to miss a moment. 6 - wish I could turn off my brain thinking, just once. 

Moved into a very uncomfortable place today. I returned to running club. A place I have not been for a long time, loads of excuses and complications along the way, but I am back there and the last few weeks that I have been out and running/racketballing has seemed to help and the evening session wasn't as tough as I had imagined it could have been. The one noticeable drawback is that training on a playing field really punished my legs, which are far more used to the feel of tarmac, which although jars the joints, doesn't sap strength quite as impressively like a grassy, shock absorbing field. For those asking, I hear, what is the toughest terrain to train/run on? Sand, every time, just plain difficult and strength destroying I've found. So here we go again, I have a half marathon in August. There is three years of neglect to turn around.

I had the pleasure of using public transport today, not often I get this treat but it is a time to reminisce back to when I didn't drive and how I achieved large levels of reading on public transport. Something I miss while driving, apparently ruled unsafe. So, imagine my joy, being a fan of English romantic poets that when I went to disembark off the bus, I passed a woman sat in her seat, who on the back of her neck had had tattooed, in what I imagine she thinks elegant hand writing looks like, because that is what makes neck tattoo's look good obviously, the words, 'Byron's Bitch'. Now, living in the district where Lord Byron was bought up and had his ancestral home, Newstead Abbey and also not more than 7 miles from the Church where his grave is, although all that is buried there is his reclaimed heart. I thought to myself that, apart from the language, the tattoo was a great way for her to publicly demonstrate her adoration to, arguably, England's finest 19

The domestic football season finished today. Thus ends the 2010-11 season and one I personally will not be sad to see the back of. One in which the club I have followed and Loved all my life nearly went out of business, destroyed by the greed of american's, rescued by even more american's. The return of the King and next season I will great with more optimism than I have done for the last 4 years. Sadly, this wait will now be for 3 months.... No football for 3, whole, months! I hate the summers where there are no European Championships or world cups. They make for sad summers. 

Today witnessed the first exodus of bulky items from our house, which were solely child related. After the birth of our first child, we like most other new parents, realised we would have to transport her around somehow so we purchased a second hand Pram, and a new car seat. We bought the pram off ebay, as we felt that paying the ridiculous amounts for a new one was a huge false economy. We ended up with about £400 worth of 'Travel System' for about £140 and a £70 car seat, so we halved to a certain extent what we could have chosen to spend. The only downside to the pram was that it had a scratch on one of the struts, which was hardly earth shattering and meant we had a quality pram for half the price, which freed up money to buy other stuff for the flump.  Since we have had flump 2: The sequel. We moved into a double buggy which is a lot niftier and trendier than the original pram/buggy. It also holds two flumps! The decision was then taken to off load the original pram 

Death has no respect. Death is indiscriminate; Be you good or evil, rich or poor it strikes with the same venom and finality. It never ceases to moralise the person it strikes, it just takes with no judgement. It is harder when it takes without warning. This situation has impacted on my life three times, so far. All significant for different reasons and discovered in different ways, and now thinking of them, all happened to be men. The reason I am writing this is that one happened yesterday, to someone I had only known for four years through running club, and who, seemingly as fit as a butchers dog to my knowledge and who I have run and chatted with often, spoke of life, children, retirement, etc. The stuff you talk to friends about. It really is a hammer blow that evacuates the wind from your lungs when you find out that they will no longer be there, anymore. The next time I go to running club, he will not be there, there will be a person shaped hole where once he ran, never to be fil

It's not every day that you wake up to your street being cordoned off by the Police. It's certainly the first time for me, even more so because of a suspicious package and to then be informed that the army bomb disposal team is on it's way to investigate. We managed to get out just in time as we were due to visit somebody and when we arrived back there were no missing houses, no blackened crater where the road once was. I presume it was a false alarm, a poorly delivered 'amazon' parcel or the like, maybe just a box of old pant's and Lego. What it did reveal is how much I despise the nanny-ish ways that the state can deal with you. The classic conversation with the policeman along the lines of, can we leave by the other exit as the package is at the bottom of the other end of the street? Replied to by, 'it's for your own safety if you stay in the house and don't go'. The frustration of this still gets me as I am the judge of my own safety. Should

Everything seems to run in four year phases. My four year stint as a district councillor came to an end last week. I was not sad, it is something in effect I was kind of hoping would happen for, probably, two years now. The one sadness was that the actual work was interesting and varied and I can honestly say that I served them all well, the residents got a good service. It was outside factors really, that pointed me towards seeing not being elected as a relief to me personally and professionally. Over the last few weeks I have been looking at where I was and where I am now, four years on. I have faced and experienced some pretty huge changes. In 2007 when elected, I was never married. Now I am facing my upcoming fourth anniversary. I now have responsibility for 2 children, one just about to turn two and the other is only 4months old, arguably the cause of my most fundamental life changes and experiences over the last few years. both have been an absolute joy in every way. At times, th

The last week has seen exceptional weather which can be rare for this time of year, but what has also been a rarer sights back too. A lesser spotted running me. Having now been an unfrequent runner, if put politely, over the last few years, certainly from the middle of 2008 onwards. Although I have done the odd half marathon or so since. What I haven't done is a systematic training plan, it's been get just enough to race and then stop, repeat. There have been enough valid reasons and unacceptable excuses over the years and enough to make me de-motivated enough to not really be bothered by this either. One of the valid reasons has been the increase in family members, while not being a burden, they have, in their own new born way, created havoc with our previous routines. We are having no other children so we shall now just watch them grow and go to bed earlier, so the really valid reason is no more, no more excuses either so with no more adequate defences, like Kasparov against

Sadly it's true. I have over the previous year been saving what money has come my way, such as birthday and christmas, etc. Mainly because I haven't managed to think of anything I really wanted at all and to a certain extent I have managed to curb my excesses by my lovely wife, who has been nothing if not a calming influence, at times. I have managed to curb my love of books and CD's but this has been helped by not really having or making time to read of late with a young family and the library has been, as always a good source of reading material. The Notts catalogue has always been superior to the Devon catalogue and when I had to buy books because there was, at that point, no internet and therefore I had read most of the books from the local libraries within a 10mile radius. The music was pretty similar as now with Spotify I have access to most decent new music coming out and my back catalogue of music is as it has always been, excellent and well balanced from Led Zeppel

While passing through the local town on a few errands I passed the local travel agents so I decide to have a little window shopping. When I came across the most bizarre holiday advert I have seen. Usually there are lots of card board rectangles, advertising 14 days in Ibiza, 7 days in Gran Canaria, 3 day city break to Paris, etc. Now I am not sure whether its the demographic of where I live but my heart sank when I spotted this in the window and I decided that there and then I don't think I'll be taking them up on the offer of this holiday. It just didn't appeal to me, not like Barcelona, Vienna or Budapest..... .....Croydon?

A nice, good news story I think, but a little aggrieved I wasn't in the Bradford area, when due to human error, probably called Kevin. Asda set their forecourt fuel price by misplacing the decimal point! BBC News - Asda sold 12.9p petrol by mistake in Bradford Instead of selling it for £1.29. The unmanned pay at the kiosk machines had been set to charge at 12.9 pence per litre! This became, somewhat unsurprisingly, the most popular fuel stop in the Bradford area, one bloke paid £4.23 for 32.77litres of petrol. At normal prices that would have been £42! saving himself a rather tidy, £38. And yes, there did appear to be the 'odd' person returning to fill jerry cans of fuel. And the moral of this story? Well according to the trading standards officer ' "Generally speaking retailers, whether they sell petrol or whatever, generally have to sell it at the price it is advertised at," he said. "So if it is advertised at the pump at a low price, then it is just a

For those of you out there who are aware of me know I have a small love of a nice and refined slipper. A well chosen slipper is like a well chosen dog. They are practically useful and can become a close companion and give you many years of love, if well looked after. Indeed, you cannot be classed a gentleman, I would propose, without possessing a pair of slippers preferably, luxurious. I live my philosophy. Imagine my delight when I had to purchase a second pair of slippers which will reside in the new home of the in-laws. Like that gun dog companion, they will sit and wait at this house and await their masters arrival, then they will provide that quiet but elegant slipper refinement with no complaint they will merely serve. Today I set out with my family to purchase the second pair of slippers. I achieved most of my goals. The only thing I failed in was that my chosen slipper colour is a deep maroon. They did not have maroon, the choice was black or dark blue. I went for the dark bl

When our friends first invited us away and mentioned Derwent reservoir, I initially thought that this was somewhere in Derbyshire. This is because the only place I know of 'derwent' is related to Derbyshire, a lovely county though. When I discovered that there is another Derwent further north then it all started to click together! After our arrival we went and had a nice walk around the reservoir, which is an exceptionally impressive piece of state overriding nature. The Roman's would have been pleased with this, they had a huge pride in harnessing nature as it meant they were more powerful than Gods, which is a long story but an interesting one, which I may relate one day. Derwent Reservoir was created by flooding the valley, and unlike the Derwent Reservoir in Derbyshire there is no small villages submerged by the flooding, it was just a vast expanse of farmland, although at very low water levels there is a small road bridge that will pop up to show the old roadway. But

While in County Durham we visited the nearby village of Blanchard. It is a picturesque village. Imagine, if you will a small village in any agatha christie novel and you have Blanchard. It's tiny. It had a beautiful looking pub, but It seemed to possess only three shops, a post office general store, a deli and a hat shop?! The kind of shop every village in the middle of nowhere is famed for; the obligatory bespoke hat shop, because they don't sell hats in towns or cities so you'd drive miles to an almost ghost village to buy a hat. Bizarrely we did see someone drop off people for the hat shop while we were there! But it wasn't at the hat shop because the lady whom I presume runs the hat shop had a notice on the shop door saying, she was at home and please go and see her there. There was a giant hat attached to her house's driveway gate as a help. But here are some photos from the very lovely but strangely empty village of Blanchard Bay Bridge This was taken fr