Blog – Page 40 – Where is Phil now?

Spectres gig @ Power Lunches.

Wednesday 18 November 2015 – Spectres Gig @ Power Lunches, Dalston, London.

Bristol four piece Spectres, are definitely the band I have listened to most in the last year, especially since their debut LP ‘Dying’ arrived on my doorstep in February. Their music is pretty uncompromising, it is dense, it is dark and it is noisy, but if you dig deep enough you will find some lightness and pop touches – you would need a long handled spade though! To me they sound like the bastard off spring of two great bands – A place to bury strangers and early Swervedriver – with a little bit of Sonic Youth thrown in.

Spectres – Rattle the cage

As well as liking their music I like their attitude to the music business as well. In protest of the corporate take-over of Record Store Day, along with a great article from their record label, Sonic Cathedral, instead of releasing a new single on the day they are releasing one copy of that single a day, every day, for a year. It took me a long time to land a copy of the split single with Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, with each band covering the other. Spectres played ‘Stealed Scene’.

In a very amusing piece of publicity they also released their last single ‘Spectre’ the same day as the abomination from Sam Smith that is the theme song to the new James Bond movie, Spectre. Somehow, ‘by accident’ a version of this ended up on YouTube under Sam Smith’s name and their version was reviewed by numerous leading newspapers, as well as by numerous, bemused and unhappy Sam Smith fans on Youtube. Coup !! It is not a typical Spectres song though…

Though they are currently touring the UK I was not expecting them to be playing London any time soon, however, I discovered yesterday that they are playing tonight as support to ‘The Naturals’ under the pseudonym of ‘Buckfast Crimewave’. Though I have a bit of head cold I could not miss the opportunity so decided to go along.

The gig was at Power Lunches, a small bar in Dalston, not too far from home fortunately, given I was not feeling 100%. I liked Power Lunches, it was small, a bit dingy and dark, but they were playing what sounded like some really old school US punk rock on the PA, and sitting in the bar waiting for the first band to come on was quite enjoyable.

The bands play in a small basement, it was very dark, photography was going to suck… I didn’t stay for the opening act, not really my thing. As the music was so good up in the bar I went back there and waited for Spectres to go on.

Earlier today Rough Trade Records announced their top 100 albums of the year, it did not have Spectres on it. The band announced via Twitter that as no-one liked their old songs, they would only play new material at the show. Which they mostly did. The light was complete rubbish, there was someone shooting with a flash which I should have done, but didn’t. Next time I see them I will take a flash with me.

From memory they played four new songs, with the last one definitely pushing a Sonic Youth vibe and was my favourite of the new tracks.

This was not a tune up… This was using tuning as a sound effect !

They played two old songs, I think Sink and Where Time Sleeps… It was a short but gloriously noisy set and I am looking forward to seeing them again, but as the headliner. I was very tempted to go and see them in Manchester on the following night as I have Fridays off of work, but it was too expensive to get there and working less days means getting paid less money!

A line from the song ‘In a box’ from their earlier Hunger EP seems an apt description about how I feel on occasion. “I want to catch a train to any where, I want to go on my own, come back on my own’.

I watched a couple of songs of the headliner “The Naturals’ but like the opening act, musically they were not my thing. If I was feeling better I would have stayed and watched their whole set, but I felt rubbish so I didn’t. Sorry The Naturals.

A noise fest – The Fuzz Club Festival

Friday 13 November 2015 – Fuzz Club Festival at the London Fields Brewery, Hackney.

After a fairly long spell of not going to gigs, this is my second in a month, and I have a further show to go to next week.

I have long been a fan of droney, shoegazey, psychedelic rock so when the record label Fuzz Club announced the Fuzz Club Festival weekend at London Fields Brewhouse; just a bus ride away, I was interested enough to check out who was playing. Discovering that The Telescopes were on the bill for the Friday session, I bought a ticket for the night straight away. I have liked The Telescopes since the early nineties and had recently bought their great new album ‘Hidden fields’. I have tried to see them in London once before but they were delayed coming back from Europe and I couldn’t be bothered hanging around the venue to wait. Maybe not a really really dedicated fan…

With five other bands on the bill, across two stages it promised to be a good night. I had a couple of albums by The KVB who were also playing and after checking out some of the other bands I was really keen to see Portuguese three piece 10000 Russos as well. I was very excited !

Naturally the traffic was a bit crap and the bus seemingly stopped at every bus stop between Walthamstow and Hackney so I ended up arriving at the venue too late to see the first act, Throw Down Bones. Reviews say they were good too. I have not been to London Fields Brewhouse before and found it to be a great little venue built in two railway arches, allowing two stages, two bars and two sets of loos – important for someone in their 50s, which, like me, a number of the very mixed audience appeared to be.

I had not heard much (if anything) of Italian four piece New Candys and got fairly close to the front as they were warming up. I brought the Canon G16 camera tonight, I had thought about bringing the big Canon 5d, but was really glad I didn’t as the light was too low and the old 5d would not have coped at all. I was not using flash so was shooting manually at a higher ISO than the 5d was capable of (maybe I should buy that new one ). I took a couple of photos of one side of the band before getting pushed out of the way and forced a bit further back. I really enjoyed New Candys, they reminded me a bit of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (when they were good), a bit poppier than some of the other bands tonight.

I did not stay to the end of their set as I really wanted to get a good spot for The Telescopes, I have seen a number of photos of them and they play close to the crowd with singer Stephen Lawrie spending a lot of time crouched down or kneeling on the floor. The Telescopes have been around since the late 1980s, though the only original member left is Lawrie. They generally seem to be made up of Lawrie and the members of other bands, in the case of the last LP, Glaswegian band St Deluxe. I am not sure if St Deluxe were among the band tonight, but there was a whole load of them. Six guitarists, plus bass and a drummer. That was a lot of band to set up – there was a long delay…

Their set was manic. With over half the band on the floor with the audience – I had a guitarist inches from me for most of the set, it was cramped and loud and apart from some technical difficulties with the bass, pretty awesome. The Telescopes are masters at the art of the droney, psychedelic tune and the first track they played was the first on the new LP – ‘You know the way’, a slow burning, dense track with a hint of menace in the vocals, with six guitars it was awesome !

I tried to take photos when I could, it was even darker here than at the stage the New Candy’s were playing on, so photography was difficult to start with and got harder as the crowd started to push once the set was fully under way.

They were really good, I thoroughly enjoyed their set, and would like to see them again, somewhere less full possibly.

As they were so late I left before the end of their set to go and see some of The KVB playing next door, they must have started reasonably on time as I pretty much missed the entire thing, just catching a couple of songs at the end. I was also way down the back so didn’t get any opportunities to take a photo.

I pretty much completely missed Camera as well, only hearing half a song of theirs. But I did get back up to the front at the other stage for the final band of the night 10000 Russos. I was really keen to see them, reminding me a little bit of Loop with vocals from The Fall’s Mark E. Smith. I really liked them and would definitely go to another gig, shame their last LP is sold out as it would fit nicely in my record collection!

Vocals were provided by the drummer, and I have never seen anyone stick a microphone between the cymbals of a high hat and sing into it before !

Unfortunately I had moved to the back so missed what was a mad end to the show with cymbals being passed around and band members in the crowd.

It was tough to choose, but I think they were my favourite band of the night; but a very close call indeed as New Candys and The Telescopes were brilliant as well.

I enjoyed the gig, it was good to get to a small show again after being to a couple of larger gigs in bigger venues. The sound was good, the venue was good, and the bands I saw were awesome. I wish I had bought a ticket to the Saturday session as well.

I highly recommend you check out all the bands on Bandcamp or something similar, you never know, you may like it !

A walk along Poole Bay

Saturday 07 November 2015 – Bournemouth, Dorset.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to a four day working week, or more importantly a three day weekend, was to be able to go away overnight on occasion yet still have time to do all the things that need to be done at home.

After a really good trip to Folkestone last Saturday I decided to go to the complete opposite end of my ‘where should I live on the UK south coast’ line and head to the Bournemouth area. I have long considered Bournemouth and Poole as an area to live in, not that I have done anything more than drive through. They are two hours from London, which is the furthest I want to be away, but more importantly they are a short ferry ride from the end of the South West Coast Path, an area I remain completely fascinated with.

There is quite a lot to look at, Bournemouth is a reasonable size town and Poole runs right along one side. Bournemouth sits on Poole Bay with its long long strip of beach, so I planned on getting a train to Poole, walking down to the bay and then along the coast to Southbourne where I will stay the night. On Saturday I will go to Christchurch to have a look around and get the train back to London from there. There were a few flats to check out on the way, so it seemed like a good plan. It rained both days…

As it was a Friday I chose to leave after 10:00 as the non-rush hour fares are significantly cheaper than peak fares. The train left from Waterloo, I paid a little extra to get a first class seat, mainly as I wanted to get a seat with a table, and with free wifi in the carriage I could catch up with emails and other things on the way down. I did not pay much attention to what was going on out the window until we passed Southampton and got into the New Forest. Not that I could see too much through the rain anyway.

I arrived in Poole a little late at 12:30. It was not really raining, just a fine drizzle, but it was being blown by a really strong westerly wind. There was no station at Poole, just an exposed platform, so I hurried off in the direction of the old town, but was faced with a massive roundabout and big wide roads, which took me a while to navigate across and around to get to some shelter and put a rain coat and my pack cover on.

For a change I had actually packed well for this trip, and even had appropriate clothing for the conditions – lessons finally being learned. I had also printed off some maps of the route I wanted to take, but paper maps were useless in these conditions, so maybe I had not planned that well…

I did find my way to the old centre of Poole easily enough, it is only a couple of streets with a scattering of old buildings. There was a flat opposite the church that I wanted to walk past, checking the area out. It was nice, but really only just one street nice.

I had read that Poole itself was not the most attractive of towns with a lot of the centre built during the dire architectural period of the 60s and 70s. It was fairly evident, especially around the harbour at the end of the road. I was also disturbed to see a few closed restaurants – never a good sign.

I started walking down the harbour side in the wind and drizzle, I was planning on walking through to Bournemouth a few miles away, but a bus happened to stop at a bus stop just as I was walking past, so I jumped on board and got a ride to the bus station and from there a bus towards Bournemouth. The traffic was pretty bad; as my tummy was telling me it was lunch time and we were not going anywhere fast I got off the bus in Westbourne to look for an open cafe. I am glad I did, it had a decent looking high street and a vegetarian cafe, where I had a very nice lunch.

There were a few flats to rent on West Cliff Rd, so I walked down it to Bournemouth central and the coast, passing the ubiquitous Conservative Club. They seem to be everywhere in small towns.

I skipped Bournemouth town and headed straight down to the waterfront by the pier. I was surprised, pleasantly so, to see a few surfers out making use of the small break, I never considered Bournemouth as a surf town, so this is good news as surfers are generally laid back types, and I want that where I live.

With the wind blowing the rain into my back I headed up the beach front towards Southbourne, three miles away. After pebbly Folkestone, it was nice to sea a long stretch of sand.

It was an interesting walk, a bit damp, but I was wrapped up well and if I did not point the camera into the rain I managed to take a few photos without rain drops on the lens.

The strong winds brought out a couple of para-surfers who were really making the most of the conditions, whistling up and down the beach.

You can see from the, very New Zealand looking, grasses and trees just how strong the wind was.

I loved how these beach huts followed the colours of the rainbow from beginning to end, nice to see some real thought put into planning and designing public space.

Like Folkestone last weekend the sea front is a narrow band between the sea and the cliffs and for the most part it is free of buildings, in fact walking along it was rare to see anything at the top of the cliff as well, I really liked that. There were not that many places along the sea front to access the tops of the cliffs, though there was this cool funicular.

And further along there was this zigzag to the top. I walked up so could I have a look at what the houses looked like on the cliff-top, but apart from the large building at the top of the zigzag there were no other buildings, there was a little more cliff to go.

I walked along the road into Boscombe Spa, which looked quite nice from here, a winter time flat on the beach would be OK – not sure if I would want to live here in the summer when it is really busy.

There was a nice little chine here, and the trees looked amazing with the autumn leaves still on, the photos I took was just washed out of colour sadly. I checked out Boscombe Pier, though there was nothing much to see, just a few stragglers braving the weather for some fresh air.

There was another mile or so to go to Southbourne, and though it had mostly stopped raining my trousers were soaking, and my legs were getting cold in the wind. I picked up the pace a little bit, though still had to stop and take a couple of photos. It was nice down here, and I loved the weather as well! The Toi-tois – or pampas grass as they are called here, just reminded me of home – as did the acres of scrubby gorse all along the hill side. There are no beach huts in Auckland – so I remained rooted in southern England.

I found another zigzag and headed up towards Southborne.

I popped out not too far from where I was staying the night at the Cliff House Hotel, I had booked a single room online and it was tiny – but very comfortable and nicely appointed, though the shower was rubbish

The bar area was booked for a party in the evening, I was planning on not going out once I had arrived, but had to change that plan to find some food. After getting into some dry clothes and shoes – I am so pleased I bought a rain cover for my day bag yesterday, I went for a walk to the local pub. One pint and out, it wasn’t my sort of place, not bad, but not great either.

I looked for restaurants on my phone and found a place that looked OK, but took a wrong turn in the dark and found Southbourne’s high street instead. It was a nice high street, couple of bars, coffee shops, loads of other shops etc and only one bookie. Not bad. I found myself a bar, had a drink, felt comfortable enough to sit and read my book and eat my dinner so did. It was not a late night and I was back in my room well in time to watch The Returned on the TV. A great episode too, the best TV for a long time !!

I slept pretty well, and woke up to the expected very heavy rain. I lay about in the room for a while, eventually going down for breakfast just before last orders. I was trying to kill some time until the rain stopped, which it did pretty much on forecast mid-morning, though it was only a brief respite. I walked back up to the high street and had a look around in the day light, taking some time to visit a couple of real estate agents to talk about short term furnished rents – food for thought. It is very expensive !!

Christchurch is the next town along the coast , on the other side of the River Stour. Fortunately there is a good bus service running along the coast so I jumped on a bus rather than make the walk the in the newly started rain. Like the view of the New Forest from the train there was not a lot to see crossing the river from the bus.

Leaving the bus at the top of the high street I took a leisurely stroll down towards a big old church I could see at the end of town. I was talking to a woman on the bus – I like a friendly town, and she was telling me about all the good things in Christchurch, including the volunteer run cinema.

What I did not know prior to visiting, was that Christchurch had a small castle. I saw a sign at an intersection in town, so had to take a detour to check it out. It was a bit wet, so I did not get a good explore.

There has been a fort here since before Norman times, but the ruined keep on the hill was built in the mid 1100’s when the castle was extensively upgraded from wood into stone. The site was largely destroyed in 1652 after a short siege during the civil war. The castle was built near where the rivers Avon and Stour meet and guarded the entrance to the New Forest.

The first thing I found was the remains of the constable’s house, built inside the castle walls around the time the keep was built. It has one of only five remaining Norman era chimneys left in the UK – the fact there are any left amazes me! The rain was falling quite heavily now and the ground around the house was just one large puddle, so I took a couple of rain splattered snaps and left.

There is not much left of the keep, only a couple of walls remain standing, I am sure there was a nice view to be had from the top of the low mound, but I did not linger up there after taking a quick picture of the priory from the shelter of the walls.

A path down the side of a small tributary of the River Avon took me to the back of the priory. The church is all that remains of priory which was (as usual) destroyed around 1539 in the dissolution of the monastries. I took a walk around the churchyard, but did not venture inside, which I now regret as reading about it on Wikipedia I have discovered it is more interesting than I thought. Next time.

After stopping for lunch, and a respite from the drizzle, I headed back up the high street to the station and caught the train back to London.

The view of the New Forest on the return was worse than the view on the way south !!

Despite the weather I really enjoyed my two days out, walking along the sea front in the rain was not as dire as it sounded, or could have been. There were enough people around to make it not seem deserted, but few enough for me to enjoy the space and the scenery. I liked the area and will add it to my list of places to consider moving to.

Sun, sea and pebbles. A day trip to Folkestone

Saturday 31 October 2015 – Folkestone, Kent.

Another day, another blog post, and yep, another change in my employment situation.

Only 28 days ago I wrote that I had decided to not take a permanent role at my current employer, which created the opportunity for me to look for a job outside of London and I could start my move towards the sea. Since then I have signed a permanent contract and am now staying right where I am!

What changed my mind was a change in working conditions which pretty much allows me the lifestyle I want. I am now working four days a week, but can work one of those days at home. This means I can stay with El in London on work days and once I have found one, I can stay in my own flat on the coast for the other days, sharing weekends between London and where ever I end up.

I do not have a lot of money for rent, going to working four days a week means I have even less than I used to. This very definitely rules London out, so I am looking at reasonably priced coastal towns that are not too far from London by train. I also have a whole bunch of minor, yet critical criteria as well – access, to the countryside, decent coffee shops, a pub I will fit in, a record shop etc – all the essentials.. This does not leave too many options.

I have drawn a line on the map and today El and I decided to visit Folkestone in Kent. It has its issues, but it is ‘up and coming’, reasonably priced and just over one hour by fast train from both work and El’s. Sounds good!

We were blessed with one of those awesome autumn days as well, fresh to start, but clear skies, lots of sun and very little breeze. A perfect day for the coast.

We caught the train from St Pancras and decided to get off at Folkestone West, walk down to Sandgate and then up the beach to Folkestone centre. Checking out a few rental properties on the way,stop for some lunch, find the record shop for a look and then head back to London from Folkestone Central.

I have been to Folkestone as a child and visited recently for as long as it took to get a bus to Dover from outside the station, so had not remembered/realised that the town was on the top of a cliff. It was a surprise to walk down quite a steep path to the shore side village/suburb of Sandgate. I was also a bit surprised to find the Norfolk Hotel so far from home.

Sandgate is small, pretty much a single street village backing on to the English Channel, and it was very nice on a sunny Saturday morning. A couple of nice cafes – even a real ale bar, and you really could not get too much closer to the sea than this.

A nice place to fish, or doze in the sun…

It even has a blue plaque!! The author H.G. Wells lived in this cottage briefly in 1896 but moved out due to the rough weather causing the waves to break over his house. He lived further inland in Sandgate until 1909. Sandgate and Kent featured in some of his books from that period.

Sandgate has a small castle, not accessible unfortunately, but a castle nonetheless. Built under the rule of Henry VIII as an artillery castle, it is part of a chain of defensive positions along the Kent coast in response to the potential threat from France.

The walk along the waterfront from Sandgate to Folkestone proper is quite lovely, with cliffs looming over one side and a pebbly beach on the other you can almost believe you are not on the edge of a busy town. There were some quite nice, very brightly coloured beach huts along the stretch, it was nice seeing some old wooden huts that are obviously being cared for.

We walked up through a park and a surprisingly steep cliff side path to Folkestone West where there were a couple of flats I was interested in doing a walk past, just to see if the outside looked like the photo. The first was in the Metropole – and I was quite excited to see it. It actually looked better than the photo, the flat does not have direct sea views, but it can be seen from a window ! It is surprisingly cheap which does worry me a little…

There was nothing but carpark and grass between it and the cliff edge – no other buildings to spoil a view!

We walked along the cliff top towards the town centre, nice views, nice quite town, not too many bums, I was probably the only one. It all seems quite idyllic.

By the time we got into town we were feeling a bit peckish and once we spotted the British Lion, the oldest pub in town we were pretty much sold on going in for lunch. It was good pub grub too.

And the square it is located in is not too shabby either.

So far all our impressions of Folkestone have been really good, it is clean and tidy, not run down like some coastal towns, the people seemed friendly. All jolly good really.

One of the things that attracted me to visit Folkestone was its creative quarter, an area between the town centre and the harbour that has been purchased to provide places for creative people to live, work and sell. It is a really cool area with some great little shops, cafes and galleries.

We visited Vintage and Vinyl, which had, along with expensive records, some wine and cider, but only from English vineyards – we bought a really nice (but not cheap) Sussex Pinot Gris. Did anyone know they made pinot gris in Sussex ???? It was really nice too.

We took a detour down to the harbour, which seemed to be the main entertainment strip in town, with more pubs than I have seen elsewhere,. I suspect this would be a place I would not be going on a Saturday night in summer if I did move down here. On a sunny day it was very nice, and quite popular too.

One of the things that is critical in my choice of a place to live is access to the countryside, I want to be able to ride my mountain bike or go for a run without having to get into the car. Pretty much like I have in Walthamstow, but maybe with the occasional sea view and a hill! Folkestone seemed to be quite proud of its access to the countryside – and it wasn’t shy about its cliffs either.

Inspired (obviously) by Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid, but not crowded by morons, this sculpture by Cornelia Parker was gifted to the town as part of the Folkestone Triennial in 2011, and is modelled on one of Folkestone’s residents. I really like some of the art around this town, and there is plenty of it to see.

We wandered back up through some more of the Creative Quarter and what is probably of the older, more historic part of town, and after a bit of searching found Hot Salvation Records. Wow. What a great record shop, not something I expected in a small coastal town. A really cool collection of punk/goth/metal/indie vinyl. I could easily have spent an awful lot of money. I did pick up an LP of a band I am going to see in a couple of weeks, I was not planning on spending any money today either. I suspect if I moved to Folkestone they would get to know me quite quickly. I was so excited I forgot to take a photo…

We walked back up through the high street and its market, the market was kinda OK, but the high street was a bit drab, probably more like I expected Folkestone to be, I guess. I would not hang out there. Though the road up towards the station was quite nice with the autumn fall,. I imagine it would look a lot bleaker with winter trees, blowing in a high sea wind under a dull December late afternoon sky.

I am going to have to say, that Folkestone was way cooler than I expected it to be, I am going to have to check out what the top four are !!

We enjoyed our day out, I do forget how nice it can be to take a day out and just go walk by the sea.

I am tempted by Folkestone. It has its problems, it has a horrible UKIP controlled council which is a bit of a worry, but tempted still I am (to use a Yoda’ism).

Ride @ Brixton Academy.

Wednesday 13 October 2015 – London.

I have a confession to make. I love music. I mean, I really, really love music.

Lots of people say that they love music, and they may well think they do, but after a bit of gentle interrogation I usually find that they really like music, most of the time. A bit like they love puppies and small children and other things that distract from the important things. Like music, for instance.

My love for music started in December 1988 on a trip back to the UK with my family. I was 16 and my childhood friend Nick played me the Buzzcocks song ‘Promises’. It was love at first listen, complete and total. I had enjoyed music before this momentous day, some could even say I had loved music. I was a fan of heavy rock, of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple – my first LP was a birthday gift of Deep Purple’s Burn. I had even flirted with disco when Saturday Night Fever was taking over the world, but I had not found my true love, and to be honest I didn’t know true love really existed.

I had missed the whole punk thing. New Zealand is small, and was a long way behind the rest of the world, and without older siblings of my own or knowing anyone really connected with local music I had never heard anything like it. I believe it did literally change my life. I started my final year at school when I got back to New Zealand after Christmas and the first thing I did was look for others who had heard this amazing noise – and over time my social group changed as I met other like minded people. I bought my first records. The Clash ‘Give ‘em enough rope’ was the first LP I bought with my own money. Once I started working it was gigs and records and parties where only MY music was played. I turned into a true music snob – If I did not like your music taste then you would never be my friend. It was not pretty, this lasted for many many years – I have mellowed a bit, I think.

I was, and am still, very fussy about music. I like what I like, and it is within a very narrow band. I did finally move on from punk, though I still like and listen on those rare occasions when yelly music is required. My tastes are a little more publicly acceptable – I still like guitar orientated music, but now acknowledge there is a place for keyboards, in the right place. I think it is finally time to admit to myself that really I like pop music, I do not mean popular music, just music that is a bit pop. Lots of melody a bit of vocal harmony, jangly guitars, solid beat, but…. There has to be a bit of a racket going on as well, it cannot be all sweetness and light. There can be sweetness and light, in fact I like that, but only if it is all descends into some noisy feedback, overdriven chaos. Which leads me to Ride.

In 1990 the Oxford band Ride released their first EP Chelsea Girl on the Creation label. I am not sure when I first heard it, but it must have been soon after its release. It was a great song, sweet and jangly and then nice and noisy, I loved it, and then I never heard it again for years. I bought their first album Nowhere soon after it came out later in 1990 and it has remained a favourite album of mine since. I still had not heard Chelsea Girl again, it was not on the album and while the song itself faded from my memory the fact that I liked it did not and I did not get to hear again until well into the Napster days when I finally found an illegal download of it. It immediately became one of my favourite songs again, and slips in and out of being my favourite song of all time. I finally got a copy on a CD compilation of their first three EPs. I still want it on vinyl though…

Ride split in acrimonious circumstances in 1996. They never came to New Zealand so I never got to see them play. They reformed last year for a few shows and I tried to get tickets to their first London gig, but missed out. I wasn’t prepared to go to a festival to watch them so sort of forgot about seeing them again.

A couple of weeks ago they announced a series of shows to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the release of Nowhere, I jumped straight on to a ticket booking website and grabbed two tickets for the show at the Brixton Academy in London. Yes !!!

El could not make the concert so I ended up going to down to Brixton on my own. In 2008/9 I did a small amount of gig photography and got quite used to going to concerts on my own, so while I would have liked to have shared one of my favourite bands playing one of my favourite all time albums, being on my own was OK as well.

I arrived at the venue early enough, raised a second mortgage on my house so I could afford to buy a can of beer and sat myself down upstairs. I had decided to get an upstairs ticket, I was never going to get close enough to the front to take a photo so the front of the balcony was a good second choice. I took the little Canon G16 as I was not sure if they would let me take a DSLR in. My spot was not the best, but I took a few photos, very high ISO and a bit far away, they are not my best work. A good memory for me though!

Ride were supporting themselves in this show, playing a first set of classic songs, mainly from their second album ‘Going Blank Again’, followed by the Nowhere album. It all kicked off nice and early at 8:00pm.

They were fantastic, playing most of my favourite songs in the first set, starting with Leave Them All Behind and ending with the wonderful Mouse Trap. The lighting was brilliant and the sound quality was superb. The band are playing better than ever and are incredibly tight, with the solid rhythm section of Loz Colbert on drums and Steve Queralt on bass holding it all down for the twin guitar/twin vocal attack of Andy Bell and Mark Gardener.

Loz

There was a good crowd, and they were really getting into it.

After a short break they returned to play the Nowhere album from start to finish. My favourite track from the album is Polar Bear, and I really expected this to be brilliant and noisy and a bit of a squall, but it wasn’t. It was still great but just a little too clean sounding for me. What did surprise was the last track on the album and the one I always liked least, Nowhere. Live it was fantastic, a highlight of a really good set.

Andy – 10 years as the bass player for Oasis, mod haircut and sun glasses – and a lovely Rickenbacker guitar.

I went downstairs to the main hall for a short while at the end of the set, it was really packed down there and I could barely get in through the door. Sadly there were too many people hanging round at the back chatting so I went back up stairs and, after getting told off by security for standing at the top of the stairs, took another seat closer to the centre of the venue.

The album cover for Nowhere is a classic, and has been the inspiration for a few photos over the years. Including this one I put on Flickr in 2008. I named it Chrome Wave, after a Ride song.

The Nowhere record sleeve was used as the backdrop between sets.

There was another short break before they came back on for the encore. They played Drive Blind, which is a fabulous song, one of their earliest and it really did not disappoint. A mix of sweet pop with a massive wall of noise break in the middle. Fantastic. I have read that this is often the final song in their set and was gutted that Chelsea Girl had not been played, but thankfully, I was wrong. As the last chords of Drive Blind faded Andy Bell, plucked the first few notes of what is again my favourite song of all time and I jumped with joy…

Mark

It was a great gig, almost perfect. There was only one song in the first set that I did not recognise. The sound was really good throughout, lighting was great and the band fabulous.

Andy, Mark, Loz and Steve – thanks for a great evening and some fantastic songs!

Here is Chelsea Girl from a gig at the same venue, but from 1992….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPbNp2LnBOM

The Buzzcocks thing is not actually true. Nick first played me ‘Hanging on the telephone’ by Blondie which was (and is) a great song. This was immediately followed by the Buzzcocks track. Sadly in my musically snobbish world, having Buzzcocks as a first love is much cooler and I pretty much wrote the Blondie episode out of my memory.

A castle-ing I will go! A day trip to Dover Castle

Saturday 03 October 2015 – Dover Castle.

I wanted to get out and about today, summer has drifted inexorably into autumn, days will get shorter and days out are going to become less frequent, though they can hardly be much less frequent than they have been lately. With the forecasters predicting a sunny but cool day El and I planned on heading across London to Richmond where I was going to show El around my mid-1980s ‘hood before walking along the Thames for a late lunch in Kew. However, El was not feeling well, a nasty head cold on the back of chest infections preceded by a flu meant she did not feel like, or want to go out. She was keen that I made use of the day though, and unsurprisingly, so was I.

As I have been so busy at work for most of the year I had not prepared any sort of a list of things I want to do or see, so I spent at least an hour finding and then rejecting places to visit, before I settled on Dover Castle. Dover suited, not too expensive or too long a train journey and plenty to see, and I would get to be outside in what would hopefully be a sunny day – once the low lying cloud has cleared.

Work has been interesting, the madness of the past 12 months is over and it has become almost relaxing – I do not work in the evenings or weekends anywhere nearly as much as used to, though I cannot help myself at times and have to have a week peek at email. My contract expired while I was away walking and I have renewed it until the end of the year, though I turned down taking on the role permanently when I was offered it on my return.

I am now committed to finding a role outside of London – preferably towards the south west. I want to be able to feel the sand between my toes more readily and not have to quit a run half way through as I cannot breathe due to the pollution. I want to be within a couple of hours of London so El and I can see each other easily at weekends and on the occasional ‘school’ night. Plus, I don’t hate London, I have just had enough of it for now.

I booked my return train tickets for Dover on-line, I wanted to go from Stratford as it saved travelling into central London, but return from Stratford to Dover was 113 pounds, a return from St Pancras, was 30. I discovered once I got on the train at St Pancras that the first stop was Stratford… Go figure.

The journey was pretty fast, high speed train to Folkestone, however, as I also discovered once I was on the train at St Pancras there was no connecting to service to Dover as the station was closed for maintenance – there was a replacement bus service. This seems to feature a bit on my train trips to the south east! Sitting in front of me were three blokes who worked for the train company talking about their model railway collections and some of the trains they owned or lusted after. It was an interesting discussion from an observer’s point of view. Model trains can be very very expensive! I was also intrigued to learn you can control some parts of a model railway with an iPhone app. The world has moved on since I last saw a train set – or a layout to use their terminology.

I reached Folkestone on time and there was only a short wait for the bus to Dover so I did not get to experience the joys of Folkestone. I have family who lived here for many years and vaguely recall holidays when I was a child. I liked this figurine under the bridge arch outside the station, a little bit of street art.

It was short hop to Dover and the bus dropped a few of us off at the station before continuing on past the castle to Deal. I thought about asking if the driver would drop me at the castle entrance as it is up a hill, but suspecting a refusal I decided not to. I will reserve my un-informed opinions of the delights of Dover, as I passed straight through it on my way to the castle – it was pretty obvious where the castle was.

The rail works at Dover Priory Station were fairly obvious too.

Finding a sign that showed a simple walking route to the castle took a little bit of effort. I suspected there would be a way to get there that did not mean walking up the side of the main road, and I was right. It would have been nice to see more signs in the centre of town that did not just cater for drivers.

Unsurprisingly it was all up hill – via a delightful alleyway strewn with food wrappers, empty booze cans, and most charmingly, the residue of both. Luckily that was the only downside to the entire journey!

It is only a ten minute walk to the castle entrance. Last time I was here, I took a shot at English Heritage as the castle was closed, which I found a bit ridiculous given its status amongst southern English castles. I would like to give credit where it is due and say English Heritage have done a fantastic job with the castle though and I thoroughly enjoyed my visit today. Nice one EH !

Dover Castle is one of the major English castles, from a distance it looks spectacular, and from the sea it must dominate the skyline. It was built to guard the Strait of Dover, the narrowest point of the English Channel (what do the French call it ? The French Channel ? I must ask !)

There has probably been a fortification here for many hundreds of years, though the oldest remaining part – the Roman Lighthouse, “only” dates back to the first century. The main sections of the castle were formed in the 12^th and 13^th century and the castle has been changed and developed and used continuously until after WWII – when it was a crucial command centre in the retreat from Dunkirk in 1940.

The pedestrian entrance to the castle is through the Constables Gate, built in 1221, it is a mightily impressive entrance in to the grounds.

It was early afternoon when I arrived so I decided I would head directly to the cafe and get a coffee and something to eat before taking my tour around the castle, the cafe seemed to be in the right direction – i.e. downhill so it seemed like a perfect choice. I loved these old mortars.

There was a small path up along the side of the battlements so I walked along for a while, taking a photo back up the moat and the outer defensive wall. The banks and ditches all around the castle pre-date the construction of the castle itself and are believed to have been the defences of an old iron age fort that predated the Roman invasion, perhaps over two thousand years old. The builders of the castle certainly made use of them.

When I got to the other end I saw a sign saying ‘no climbing’. Oops….

I stopped for a sandwich and a coffee in the cafe, not a great coffee at all sadly, but it had caffeine so that was something. The afternoon was getting on so I carried on down to the far end of the castle to the ‘Wartime Tunnels’. There are guided tours through these every few minutes, but the queue was really long so I carried on going. The tunnels were originally started in 1797 as barracks but had been heavily modified and strengthened during the second world war.

There was a small section at the far end that could be entered down a long sloping tunnel that had a small display on the castle during the war. I loved this old poster.

There was a great view from here over the harbour mouth with one of the numerous ferries departing into the mist still hanging over the channel.

The castle is reasonably open to the public, but there are lots of sections gated off for, I am assuming for safety purposes, but I am always intrigued about stairs and ramps that lead into the ground. I suspect this whole are is utterly riddled with tunnels – more so than has ever been let on.

The officers new barracks were built at the end of the 19^th century and are closed off to the public, they are surrounded by a large car park, so a shot from the slopes of the bank leading up to the chapel was the best angle.

I started a walk around the northerly walls, stopping to take a photo out of the start of the famed White Cliffs of Dover.

When I was travelling in SE Asia, I developed a habit of walking the outer walls of the places I visited, firstly to give a bit of perspective to the size of the place, but mainly because other people didn’t do it, so it was less crowded. On rare occasions I found things that other people never got to see. I still do this perimeter walk, so even though time was not big today I did walk the outer boundaries first.

Looking into the ammo stores for the gun emplacements, and their heavily graffitied walls.

Past the back of St Mary in Castro.

And down the view of some of the old cannons facing out to ward of potential threat.

The inner bailey and the great tower kept appearing in my view and I was saving them to last and looking forward to having a look inside.

One place I was really looking forward to exploring was the medieval tunnels. The original entrance to the castle was in a different location until 1217 when it was under-minded during a failed siege by the French. Once the siege was over the castle’s constable, Hubert de Burgh supervised a rebuilding of the wall and gate towers and outer towers to prevent attackers getting close. These were all linked together by a series of tunnels, some of the linking tunnels had port gates to allow defenders to mount counter attacks, and much of this 800 year old system is open to the public. It was my favourite part of the castle.

Dark and smelling of damp, cool and quiet – with the occasional childish shriek and laugh coming from places unknown as family groups toured the tunnels. There were lots of steps and ramps and rooms and it was all quite fun.

I loved these massive door handles that allowed the opening and closing of the port gates from the protection of solid bunkers.

After the tunnels, and back into glorious warm sunlight I walked past the massive imposing outer walls of the inner bailey and headed off to see the Roman light house and St Mary’s Church.

The pharos (lighthouse) was probably built at the end of the first century, it is the only surviving pharos in the UK and its survival is probably due to the importance that Dover Castle had since those early days. It was still used as lighthouse into the 13^th century but was roofed and floored in the 1580’s and used as a gunpowder store.

The Church of St Mary in Castro has a Saxon core and has been dated to around 1000AD, it was heavily refurbished and modified in the 19^th century, but the main structure of the building is still the Saxon original.

Last but not least I headed towards the inner bailey and the great tower. This 12^th century construction is massive and solid and stunning to look at. I had lost the angle of the sun, so my photos do not do it justice, but the guide book I have in front of me as I write this has photos that make me want to go back and try again.

Most of the buildings in the inner bailey are of later construction as military barracks were built in the 1740s.

Exploring the great tower was great fun, it is large and it seems that visitors can roam most of it, there are a heck of a lot of stairways, and I do love a circular staircase !

The tower has been modified many times since Henry II commissioned its construction in the 1180s, and it has been used for many purposes – from royal residence to holding prisoners of war and as a munitions store. The interior has been decked out as it would have been set up as a royal residence in the time of King Henry II.

I was really surprised to find that visitors were allowed up on to the roof, so many of these ancient places are not safe for roof visits. With its great height, and location on the cliff top there were lovely views to be had from the roof!

And over the hills on the far side of Dover town.

Back down from the roof, it was time to bid farewell to Dover Castle, I had seen most of what I wanted to see, and the day was drawing to a close – as was the castle. I took a few parting photos as I left, before heading back down the hill to Dover.

It really is a magnificent looking castle!

I bought a can of beer from one of the local corner shops and got to the train station about 30 seconds before the rail replacement bus was leaving for Folkestone. The bus arrived just before the train left, so I jumped on and sat down in a mostly empty carriage with my can of beer and my book and relaxed. It was the first time I had sat down in over 3 hours and I was knackered !

I swapped trains at Ashford to get the fast train to Stratford, it was a short wait and I was lucky to walk out of Stratford station and straight on to a bus to Walthamstow. Never has my travelling luck been this good !!

It was a great day out, I really enjoyed Dover Castle, it is a great place to visit and comes highly recommended.

Happy birthday to my blog, 4 years old today!

11 September 2015 – London.

When I started the blog four years ago, I really expected it to only last a short time before I got bored with it and gave up., hence the ‘I will see if it lasts past day one’ comment. I am truly surprised that I have carried on with it. Looking back I am, of course really glad I did, there are some fabulous memories in those back pages.

Looking at the stats – I have written 537 pages and have had just under 36,000 views, a lot more than I ever expected.

My most popular post is the one wrote in Myanmar about getting from Bagan to Inle Lake. It is the most popular by a very long way, with over 1500 views. It is still accessed regularly, 2 ½ years later. Myanmar posts feature heavily in the top ten, I guess a lot of people are keen to travel there. I know I am keen to go back – as you can tell by this happy face from the bus from Bagan!

I will aim to do another year of posts, try to make the writing crisper and more interesting, which means doing some interesting or photo worthy things – which has to be good

To those of you who pop by regularly – thanks. And Happy Birthday WheresPhil !

Bike exploring in Epping Forest.

Sunday 30 August 2015 – Epping Forest.

I haven’t been out on the bike for a few weeks so I took the opportunity of the extra day off work with this being a long weekend to pop out for a couple of hours of pedalling up to and around Epping Forest. It was a solo ride today so I took the camera along as well, it always gives me an excuse to stop riding and have a rest, not that I really needed one as this was a slow ride.

After a few weeks of not too bad weather there has been a bit of rain over the past week and some of the tracks were really slippery, like someone had poured oil onto an ice rink – with added ruts to keep it interesting. Surprisingly I did not fall off like I usually do in the slippery stuff.

There are many things I love about riding in Epping Forest, and one of those things is getting to Epping Forest. In Auckland I had to drive 40 minutes to the forest, here I ride 40 minutes, and just about all of that time is off road. The small area of Walthamstow Forest is five minutes from home and there are a couple of really good trails in there. I am always finding something new, though this one didn’t seem to go too far.

I just cannot believe there is riding this good in NE London!

Across one of the numerous roads is the narrow stretch of Highams Park and its small boating lake, I don’t think I have ever seen any one in a boat on the lake though. There were lots of dog walkers and families out, so it was a slow and polite pedal around the lake.

I was keen to try something different on this ride, Epping is pretty big and riddled with trails, I am slowly getting familiar with the basic layout of the forest now, and while I still get ‘lost’ on every ride I haven’t resorted to using my phone to find myself for a long time. I was a bit annoyed that the battery died in my Garmin watch as I do like to see where I have been when I get home. I ended up riding up Warren Hill, a change from the single and double track I had been riding on.

I rode up the side of the forest looking for a way to get in to the trees to see if there was any single track in there, I ended up riding up the grass and ducking down to the right at the top and a wide section of track that was really starting to show a bit of early leaf fall. Autumn must be on the way, though it was pretty warm out this morning. I just love the trees in English forests. I was still taking it pretty slow, the track was slippery as heck and stupidly I didn’t have my riding glasses in my bag and there was a lot of loose dirt flying up and hitting my face, on occasion I was riding one handed with the other in front of my eyes. This does not make for high speed runs, even on the downhill sections.

Soon enough this part of the forest ended up at one of the main roads, I think I was crossing Epping New Rd. I haven’t had to life my bike over a fence for ages!

My mission for the day was to find Loughton Camp, the site of an Iron Age fort. There is, of course, nothing left now except the dirt mounds. As this site is from around 500BC, over 2500 years old there is still some speculation as to what it was used for, the most likely being that it was used to protect cattle from other tribes/villages. There are stories that Boadicea used the camp, and that many many years later the highway man, Dick Turpin had a hideout here. It has some interesting history !

The sign says no cycling as this is a listed historical site. A you can see the place is riddled with bike tracks, in fact I rode through it myself as I came from the opposite direction where there was no sign and I didn’t really realise where I was until it was too late. Sorry !!

I can see why people have been riding here, with all those banks and berms, it looks like there would be a bit of fun for those more inclined to jumping than I am. A shame, as a fan of preserving history, as well as a mountain biker, I like to see these place preserved, but accessible. There needs to be a better education plan – and some more signs. It is a lovely part of the forest though.

By complete accident I found my next stop, the tea hut at High Beach. Cup of coffee and a sausage roll. A perfect mid ride refuel and hugely popular with all types of riders – even those weird lycra clad road types.

The ride back towards home was as random as usual, I don’t think I rode on any tracks I have previously ridden on, such a warren of single track around here, just perfect for losing time and place in. I love it how tracks that are so clear just sort of die out in a clearing, and I have to ride around trying to find another track to get out, or make my own way through the trees, proper trail riding.

Soon enough I was back on the familiar trails that lead from the official Epping Forest back to home in Walthamstow. I usually ride on this River Ching (calling this a river requires one to take a massive leap in imagination). The bridge gets ricketier and ricketier each ride.

Over the North Circular and that was pretty much the end of the ride, just a blast down the road to home. I love it that this forest is that close to the city !!

El has been doing up the garden over summer, and there is now a nice new patio area – just where I used to clean the bike. I am not sure what to do now !!

The bike is still dirty….

A day of sun and a day of rain.

Sunday 23 and Monday 24 August 2015 – Lanivet, Cornwall and back to London.

Sunday was supposed to be another rainy day, but for a change when they got it wrong it was in our favour, and it turned out to be a pretty damn good day. We checked out of the hotel after a late breakfast with a plan to drive down the coast to Lands End. I had been there a couple of years ago, but El had not been there before.

I was keen to take the coast road from St Ives as I wanted to see some of the old Cornish tin mines. We made good time into St Ives, which was as expected really busy. We were going to try and find somewhere to stop for lunch – preferably at the Tate, but there was just nowhere to park the car. We still love St Ives though, and there will be more St Ives stories later in the year I hope.

At Carn Galver I found my roadside tin mine, yay !!

We drove down to Lands End and were shocked, stunned and horrified to see that there was a 6 pound fee to get into the car park, it was packed. I illegally backed up the road and drive off in disgust, 6 quid to park a car for an hour is ludicrous. We had a plan B – The Minack Theatre a couple of miles away. Which had a free car park, though we did have to pay 4.50 each to get in. Well worth it though. El had not been here either, so after a coffee and a couple of scones with cream and jam we went for a look around this unique site. The view over Porthcurno – what can you say !!

The Minack Theatre has been in operation since 1932 when Rowena Cade, who lived in Minack House offered her cliff side back yard to the local theatre group to perform Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest. A couple of years later the theatre had taken shape and was in use. Over the next 80 years a load of changes were made to the site and it is pretty near perfect.

We were fortunate to be there while a local group were rehearsing a new musical comedy to played at the theatre in the next couple of weeks, so we sat and watched under that nice warm sun for a while. We were not alone.

Over the years there has been a huge amount of productions, both big and small at the theatre, and we are quite keen to come here one and day see one.

Such a lovely spot.

We dragged ourselves away and headed off towards Bodmin Moor, we had booked a night in a 600 year old abbey that is now a guest house. From modern luxury to some really old luxury… The abbey was great, we were not allowed to enter the old tower alone, and as the guest house owner was busy at the time we did not go. This was a real shame as the rain on Monday morning was near torrential so we could not go then either.

We walked into the small town of Lanivet for dinner in the local pub, we had to book a table and had to eat at 6:00 as it is so popular. The food was OK, just pub food, so we were a little disappointed as we had read good reviews. The pub was nice though and we sat outside in the sun for a while before our meal.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel via the small church. There is supposed to be a marker in the church yard that indicates the geometric centre of Cornwall. I am hoping it was this, as it was the only marker in the church yard.

After an early night we had been planning on a couple of short walks in Bodmin Moor, before catching a mid afternoon train back to London. The weather was just foul, pouring with rain. We went to the station and changed our tickets to a much earlier train and drove into Bodmin town. We saw a sign to the historic jail so decided to head there for a coffee for half an hour before returning the car. The jail looked really interesting, and another place to go back to for a visit. I mean interesting in a grim historical way, definitely not in a wow way….

It was a really popular place on such a lousy day.

And that was it, back to Bodmin Parkway station and the train back to London.

Our original plan was to go back on Sunday, but the rail union had announced strikes on Sunday so we changed to Monday. As did everyone else. With last minute changed tickets we did not have reserved seats and the train was jammed, we grabbed unreserved seats where we could, and changed two or three times until we got seats together from just before Exeter, all the way back to Paddington. It was a long trip back. Why are return trips always slower than the trip to the holiday ?

And that was the end of my holidays. I had a few days off back in London, where I did all the blog posts from the past three weeks. Work tomorrow – Friday 28th. Not looking forward to it really !

A great weekend away, love Cornwall.

A wee bit of luxury.

Friday 21 and Saturday 22 August 2015 – Mawgan Porth, Cornwall.

El and I booked this trip a while ago, when I first decided to do some walking on the coast path. My plan was to walk to Mawgan Porth and meet El at the very lovely hotel we stayed in for her birthday a couple of years ago. The hotel backs on to the path and I had visions of me walking up through the hotel to reception with my backpack on, 3 weeks worth of facial growth, possibly a bit smelly and asking for a room. Well that didn’t happen.

What did happen is we went together from London to Bodmin in Cornwall in a first class carriage on the train, picked up a hire car and I drove us to the hotel. It was far less strenuous.

We had booked ourselves on the 9:00 am train out of Paddington which meant leaving home really early as there are month long works on the Victoria underground line into Walthamstow and we had to do a rush hour run across London. It actually wasn’t too bad in the end.

Paddington station is famous, for one thing.

It was really nice sitting in first class with plenty of space, gallons of free coffee, a decent sized table, power points and extremely dodgy wifi which allowed me to work on my SWCP walk blog posts as we roll back towards the coast that had so recently defeated me.

The train ride is pretty pleasant, it is reasonably quick and there are some lovely views, especially on the coast between Exeter and Plymouth, a journey I have taken a couple of times in the past. From Plymouth the train passes through Saltash and across the river Tamar on the wonderful Prince Albert Bridge, designed by the engineering genius – Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1859.

The weather was pretty average when we arrived in Bodmin to pick up the rental car and had not improved 30 minutes later when we pulled in to the Scarlet Hotel in Mawgan Porth. We did not have high expectations about the weather as the forecast for the whole weekend was pretty rank. We had high expectations about the hotel though, and planned on just having a relaxing weekend. The view out of our room over a stormy Mawgan Porth was pretty lovely.

As was the room itself. A bath with a view, I am going to have to test that out.

The rain gave us a moment to nip out and go for a quick walk into the thriving metropolis of Mawgan Porth, all half dozen buildings of it. We walked round the beach and up the headland on the far side to the hotel.

The beach looked lovely under the low clouds, and was still quite popular with the surfers that come to this part of the country.

We bought a bottle of wine at the local shop and headed back up to the room and sat, just inside the door to stare at the rain and the listen to the sea across the deck. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant both nights we were there and they were both superb. Excellent food and wine, including a delicious, light and flavoursome Cornish sparkling wine from Camel Valley.

Saturday morning broke wet and warm and shrouded in low cloud. We had been expected this so were not overly disappointed by it all, though the view out the window was limited.

After breakfast we took a walk around the hotel, the view from the outdoor pool must have been amazing, but I was not willing to get into it to find out. I did take a dip in the indoor pool though.

We both had very indulgent massages, I was of course planning on needing one after three weeks of walking, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, well I you would wouldn’t you.

The rain cleared early afternoon so we walked back down to the beach again, I wanted some more moody beach shots. I have swapped my G16 to shooting in raw mode and man what a difference it makes, huge improvement in image quality.

We had lunch in one of the beach side cafes before heading back up to the room, where I took the opportunity to relax for a while!

The sky soon shut in again and there was no romantic sunset to share our dinner with. We had to have the bubbles again.

It was a lovely couple of days, being spoilt, eating lovely food, washed down with some fantastic wines. A two year treat!