Resiliant little buggers

Only 10 days after the massacre of their young the parents have dusted themselves down, built a new nest  (from my new hanging basket I have to say) and populated it with yet more pastel blue cadburys mini eggs. I'm not sure how many but I have had a surupticious pike and can see at least two. Lets hope they have better luck this time around. Thankfully, they have had the sense to pick a less accessible location in the Leylandi hedge.
I shall be keeping an eye on Charlie this time. I would be very dissapointed if his recent murderous activity is repeated and he turns out to be a serial killer.

Testing BlogPress

I've just spent quite a long while setting up a "blog" account. I had previously had my own website but after a big falling out with my hosting company I decided to bin the blogging website and move http://www.soloartwork.com/, my art website, to a new hosting company, taking the opportunity to do a bit of redesign and making it a little easier to manage using up to date technology. The blogsite is http://soloartwork.blogspot.com/

My old blog was more of a diary, there was no functionality to add comments. Google's 'Blogger' looked ideal. And even better, it was free. I set about pulling it all together and transferring some of the detail from my old website onto the new blog. After a few hours work it now seems that 'Blogger' does not work with iPad.

Bollocks!

The beauty of iPad and iPhone is you just switch them on and away you go. No waiting for the laptop or netbook to boot up and all that nonsense, it's pretty immediate, consequently I was a bit miffed that it didn't seem to work with the mobile

Is all lost? I think maybe not. I found this neat little app called BlogPress.

So let's see if it works..... It was only £1.79 so it's not the end of the world if it's crap. Will be ideal for my travels.

update- 8/6/2010 - Oh ye of little faith, it seems to work a treat. Obviously it does not have the full functionality but it is fine. I have quite a few people asking when the blog will be up and running so here goes. One nice little feature of Blogpress is the locations it gives when blogging on the move. It shows the reader where you are in the world when you post the blog. Wicked !

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Woodmere Dr,Chesterfield,United Kingdom

Planning the tour of South East Asia

Where to go?

When you sit down and look at it South East Asia is a fucking big place.

The starting pont was booking my flights to KL. That done,via Emirates on Airmiles, it was on to sorting out the Itinary. I have a BIG list of places that I want to visit. In no particular order.

Borneo

Indonesia

Phillipines

Singapore

Hong Kong

China

Vietnam

Laos

Cambodia

India

Sumatra

Thailand

Myanmar 

As I start checking out the flights and connections it is becoming clear that I probably won't be able to fit them all in, never mind, will just have to go again in the new year.

I did start to feel ather like a travel agent ;-).

AirAsia is probably one of the best value budget airlines in the area.  They serve a whole host of destinations in the area at a really good price. Kuala Lumpur to Singapore - £9.00. Cheap as chips !

I'm likey to be spending the next few weeks getting the trip put together but the first bit is done.

iPad

Despite the fact I have no job and no income at the moment it's still OK to splash out £750 on the 64g wifi and 3G iPad.
I love it!!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Woodmere Dr,Chesterfield,United Kingdom

Murder most foul !

Spring is such a great time of year, my favourite season. Light mornings, spring flowers, tweeting birds springing lambs (hmmmm) and the promise of summer.

In the front of my home I have a Leylandi hedge, wouldn't have been my first choice, but living in a grade 2 listed building has some disadvantages.  You can't put a hanging basket up or change a plug without asking permission from the local authority listings department.

My apartment is a converted Ballroom in a Georgian Manor house. That in iself is unusual, but the fact that it used to be a lunatic asylum prior to being converted raises the interest stakes. Each Sunday morning, at least half a dozen cars stop outside and disgourged their pasengers. These are usually of ex asylum workers, ex asylum inmates or people genuinly interested in the conversion of the Ballroom.

 It was a bit of fun at start, but over the months this does start to get a bit of a pisser having people peer through your bay window. I did have people knock on the door and ask if they could look around.

I contacted the listings people at the council to ask if I could put a fence up and, as expected, the answer was a big NO.

Over the years, I had got to know the council chap at the listings department, indeed, he had always been most helpful. While declining permission to put up a fence, he did empathise with my problem and suggested a hedge.

The point of this posting is that in spring the hedge comes into it's own, after a winter of relative inactivity, it springs to life, growing at least a foot. In addition it also attracts wildlife.

Each of the last five years I have hosted a family of blackbirds. They slowly construct their new home in late April and mid May they deposit a clutch of eggs and wait. We have had a couple of cot deaths over the years but nothing to compare 2010.

On my return from Ireland at the end of April there was the ususal 'Spring like' activity in the animal kingdom and I knew there was also the usual interest in the hedge. I only usually get one nest and the hedge is somewhere near 30 metres long. What sort of idiot bird would build its nest 3 foot from the ground and right opposite a slate obelisk that also doubles as a cats scratching pole.

Guess what, this years tenant is a rather dim Blackbird, lovely singing voice but not a great deal between the ears ( do birds have ears ?)

Over the proceeding weeks while tidying up the garden I occasioned to pike into the hedge and observed  Monk - I like to give things names and as this female always appeared to have the 'monk' on I decided to name her 'Monk'

Monk was either sitting there or she was out doing what Blackbirds do, there were five powder blue speckled ( uncannily like the Cadbury's mini eggs ) laid in the nest.

At the end of May the eggs hatched and five little baby blackbirds came into the world.  Apart from my occasional pike into the nest to see that all was OK I had deliberately kept away from that part of the garden also avoiding cutting the hedge (much to the dismay of Liz next door who gives her hedge a short back and sides every other week.)

I didn't want the noise to scare the birds as they were getting to grips with life and building themselves up to fly the nest and  become next years spring  dawn chorus.

No such luck. Arriving back from visiting friends after the spring back holiday I was faced wih what can only be described and a massacre.  Around the nest on the blue slate chippings were the  body parts of the five young blackbirds torn to pieces.  Very little eaten, just tortured and torn to pieces and left for the flies.


I have no evidence but I'm pretty sure I know exactly who the culprit is. But what do you do?
Punish him? Five murders in coldblood and you didn't even eat them. Is killing something lower down the foodchain acceptable? I don't think so !


I know you did it Charlie. God will be your judge, but if you come around here you'll feel the back of my hand you nasty twat.

Location:Woodmere Dr,Chesterfield,United Kingdom

A Lazy Month !

May came, and May went.

What did I do? Absolutly nothing.....

Actually, I probably did, it just seemed that way. Going from long hours in BT, leaving at the end March and then straight to 12 - 14 hour days in the bakery it seems to me that I deserve a bit of a break. I did make myself a bit of a list but at the end of the month it is just a wee bit longer than it was at the start of the month.

My word of the month had to be 'manjana. It really suited my thinking.

I didn't get to be a waiter in a Deli Bar - It was even better !

24nd March 2010

Oh no....... Another public transport day. Can I do the bus this time. We will see !!

My flight is with BMI Baby from East Midlands to Belfast InternationalAirport. The plane leaves at 5.00pm and arrives at 6.00pm. The first bus opportunity was lost when I copped out and decided to take a  taxi to the  railway station a train to Derby. Fron there a second train to East Midlands and a coach to the airport. On the train to Derby I sat next to a huge man, so much so that I had to perch on the edge of the seat. What happen if you are so big that you take up too seats. Does the train manager have the right to ask for double fare. They should do !.

I arrived early ( nothing new there !). I am flying with BMI Baby, check in was funny, the rules about hand luggage and checked in luggage are really tight as each of the budget airlines has its  own rules and regulations regarding weight and what you can carry on. It is a couple of hours entertainment in itself watching confused people trying to juggle and re-juggle their luggage so the weight is on the right side of the rules and the had baggage fits into the metal cage. One poor elderly couple had hand baggage that didn't fit so they were sitting in front of the check in desk doing a bit of portion management.

Never seen a pair of pants as big !

I find that the problem isn't so much getting your bag in the measuring cage, it's getting it out again after you've prised it in. A tip... If it's got wheels on put it in upside down. You will save yourself a considerable embarrassment and anxiety. Do you know, my case cost more to go Belfast than I did ! That's never right. Bring back the good old days where the price was the price and the booking process wasn't peppered with  a god knows how many extras and a  50 quid flight translates to over £100. There is talk that Ryan Air are planning to change £1 to go to the loo on the plane. That would be a step too far. I would be very tempted to take a spare set of clothes and sit there and piss in my seat just to make a point !

I do like watching people in airports. Ryan Air fly from East Midlands to Poland and the airport lounge was full of Polish people and their children causing absolute chaos. They all appeared to have brought the own packing up. The takings from the in-flight catering was going to take a hit ! My flight with BMI baby was on time, pretty uneventful apart from the lady sat next to me snoring and salivating down her front. I arrived at Belfast International at 6.00pm. Paula was due to pick me up and on leaving baggage reclaim I gave her a call. Alan, Paula's partner picked up, he was on his way and would be there in 5 minutes. I headed right and stood at the side of the road, 5 mins came and passed. The phone rang.

'where are you'? he asked


'Outside the arrivals'

'OK - just about there'

another 5 mins passed.. The phone rang again.



' Can't see you'


' I'm by the side of the big billboard advertising Jet2Com' I advised.


' Jet2Com don't go from Belfast City' was the response'.


' That's cos I'm at Belfast International'


' Fuck'



Paula is priceless, I know there was a danger of them going to the wrong airport so had text her that very morning to confirm that I was arriving at Belfast International.45 minutes later I was is the Land Rover heading out towards Belfast. I had noticed that although it was dark Alan had no lights on the car. I didn't want to mention it but after a few flashes I thought it best to say something, concerned for my own safety.

' Have you got the lights on Alan?'

' No - The nearside bulb has gone and I didn't want to attract attention'.

Now that must be Irish logic. One light does not work so I'll turn them all off so I don't get noticed. It turns out that Alan had been to pick up a new van for work and when they checked his licence it had expired two years ago.

Great.... No lights and no licence....

We finally got to my new workplace and picked Paula up and headed home to Carrowdore some 15 miles from Belfast city centre.  I caught up with some of the gossip and was in bed for 11.00. Have to be up at 5.30 for my first day in the Deli tomorrow..... Slept well!

My first day in the deli was not as expected ! I went along fully expecting to be the front of house manager serving latte's and americano's to the trendy Irish. None of it. I was working in the bakery. Over the next 6 weeks I was to learn some new skills. I'm now THE Muffin ad cup cake man.

Over time I developed my repetoir and after only two weeks I was actually trusted with doing all the baking on my own. It was hard work, of that there is no doubt but very enjoyable and quite theraputic. I did get a little tired of tidying the place up and then two days later it was a tip again. However Paula ever found anything was quite beyond me. During the 6 weeks we had two shop refits. Brought out a number of new products  (Perhaps the most novel was the spring collection of Cup Cakes). These featured one with a bumble bee on and another with a Ladybird nestled on a bed of green icing.They both sold extremely well although the insects did take quite a lot of detail work. Imagine my dissapointment when the ladybird cupcakes were described as 'slugs on slime'
The thing about the Irish is that they will buy anything with a sweet on the top. You would not believe how a couple of dolly mixtures and some glitter on the top of a simple cake will make such a difference to the salability. 

Above is a small selection of the things that I made while I as on my trip. At the end of April I returned home. Knackered but much wiser !