Keith Hannon RIP

Believe it or not its now been two years since we lost Keith. The plan is as ever to go the beach and down a few drinks in his honour. I no longer work at the same place but I have actually stayed friends with a lot of the people I used to work with there. Its a very rare thing especially for me, we'll see how long it lasts I suppose. I play football with the lads every tuesday so that helps to keep some continuity there.

One of the joys of Flexi-working is I was abel to take yesterday afternoon off and do all the little jobs that had been driving me mad. we're away this weekend and I just wanted to get everything done ahead of schedule so I wasn't worrying about it whilst we're away DAAWN SOUFFF!

Its my Great Aunt Ritas birthday on sat and we're all heading down to the south of England to get the whole family together, We were fed up of only seeing people for funerals so we organized a big nosh up for a birthday party instead. 67 of my close family will be there which is a good turn out. Also my first opportunity to meet my American Nephew Jack! I'm so proud and happy for my brother and Amanda, They're so good together that I just know they're going to raise him right . Of Course I reserve the right to spoil him rotten on his trips over here!!

Got The first draft of Switch three back from The editors. More red ink on the page than black but he said he enjoyed it, I'm just needing to polish it up before its ready for mass consumption.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is highly enjoyable. Its very much switch off the brain and go along for the ride. Some plot points don't make sense, some characters are ill-used and badly drawn, and some of the CGI is a bit overly done. HOWEVER its enormous amounts of fun, Indy has some great lines, the humour is well used and not too OTT and, in the words of the great Warren Ellis, It obeys and enjoys the genre. Its a big summer popcorn action movie, the kind they didn't make anymore.

So as Lincoln said "The kind of person who enjoys this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they enjoy.". (No speechwriters in the early eighteen hundreds.)

Right I'm off to get drunk and remeber a good friend taken from us too soon.

Peace out houseys.

Saturday mornings,

Saturday morning is as close to a sacred ritual as I get, I'm aways up by 7 having no disposition to lie in. I've tried to do it a number of times but unless I'm actually comatosed I'm always up. I start thinking of things to do or read or write or muck about with and I just can't lie still.

I think if you spend most of your week waiting for the weekend spending a goodly portion of it in bed seems counter productive.

Or maybe I'm just weird.

Did a months worth of course work in four days. I feel like my brain is leaking out of my ears but I've completed the reading material for my course next weekend. It's a residential coure so I'll be away for a couple of nights and all the people that have been on the course before talk about is the atmosphere in the bar after the sessions are over.

Sounds like everyone relieved their uni/college days which is fun but besides the point of being there.

Speaking of which if you ever get the chance check out Fandango.

Yes it has Kevin Costner in it... Wait! Where are you going? Come back! Its from 1984 before he got crap!

Anyway but its a really entertaining story of four and a half guys who finish college and go on a road trip that deserves to be a lot more famous than it is.

Anyway off to a stag do at a Zoo, where else could we get genuine stags for the barbeque?

Laters

Sunny Day

Yet another gorgeous day here in Rhyl. A couple more like this and we'll actually be allowed to keep the tag 'Sunny' Rhyl. 'Scummy' Rhyl is more appropriate but I'll leave that for another day.

I keep getting these odd whiffs of random smells that are triggering off the old memory banks. One is the smell of the Bar I worked in when I lived in Liverpool. It's some particular type of cleaner they used to get the Stella/cocktail crap off the floors at the end of the night mixed in with old beer and cheap ciggies.

I was going to send you to the home page but it's a flash monstrosity that I think is best avoided.

Why I can smell that particular smell today is totally beyond me but it is a reminder of happy days making cocktails, flirting with the customers and staying afterhours for a few bevvies ourselves.

We stayed up one saturday to watch the late night boxing and I drank so much I woke up in Milton Keynes Train Station. Apparantly I'd got it into my head to see a girl I knew in Bath and no-one at the bar could stop me or rather could be bothered to.

Anyways lots of characters lots of fun and a fair amount of drinking, thats what a bar job should be about!

Hmmm

Right. Which bastard decided that May the first would be the most beautiful day in the history of mankind? Why is the sun shining when I'm stuck in a room away from the sun bathing in the cold glow of the VDU whilst the rest of the world is buying ice creams and wearing ill advised speedos on the beach? Why is the Gordian knot of a question I'm trying to write an essay answer to, wriggling away from me with the lithe rapidity of a young snake? Why am I blogging AGAIN when I should be answering the goddamn essay question?

Actually thats easy, I've just had a five minute break to go outside and curse those fortunate enough to have nothing to do today and bloggin helps get the fingers typing in the right direction.

Enjoy the day.

travelblog: moment of zen in Bodfari

Theres nothing like driving a great empty road in the blazing sun and then the perfect song comes on the radio. My heart just soars.

(Song: 7/4 shoreline by broken social scene, road: Mold to Denbigh around Bodfari where the road starts to rise into the hills.)

Oy Sunshine!

You know we think we're pretty hip. We've got all these great things sewn up and all these amazing achievement as a race. We're sitting damn pretty thank you very much.

Then nature comes out of left field and socks you into submission with something truly amazing.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you THE SURFACE OF THE SUN.

How cool is that?

Well cools the wrong word obviously, but it just needs some Jean Michele Jarre IMHO.