it's not the thing you fling...

Wherever I lay my blog thats my home

2011-04-21T13:31:00.002Z

After my flurry of 2011 posts I've come to the realisation that in this iPhone app friendly, wifi, 3G,web 2.0 world -Blogger just don't cut it no more. I always think that the wordpress blogs look so much better when you read them on your phone so I thought I would make the leap across.

So from now on the blog address is http://itsnotthethingyoufling.wordpress.com

Much better iPhone app to update it from and all the old post are wooshed over at the click of a button. Whats more it was all done from the comfort of my iPhone while two kids were covering themselves in pasta. And just to prove my point it wouldn't let me post this from my phone to blogger. so there you go.

And yes I am just copying mark rainey. He's such a trend setter.

List 1: "If it's in the house it's not lost"

2011-04-20T09:47:00.003Z

Lost (and sometimes found) through the years.

Monkey- Lost 29/3/11 11.00am Found 14.27 29/3/11

Evan's right shoe - Lost Marple Carnival 2010 Found the next day by Greenhalgh's the Bakers

2 skateboards-Lost March 2009 while moving house from Stalybridge-Marple- Still Missing

Howies Jumper- Lost 10/9/07 Castrojeriz (Northern Spain-Camino de Santiago) Found 13/9/07 90 km and 3 days later in Carrion de los condes. Picked up by unknown fellow pilgrim and carried to they found out who it belonged to!

Tomy Tronic Sky Attack c.January 1983 Last seen underneath seat of rental car. A christmas present taken far too soon

lost and found

2011-04-20T08:29:00.004Z

Monkey (23 months) pictured right

A few weeks ago we had quite a crisis as a family but I now feel like I can write about it. It all ended well and more importantly brought to my attention a new menace that is threatening our families ( but more on that later).

Having not long moved back to Marple, Finn, Evan and myself were taking in all the old haunts....first the playground, then the library then and quick stop at the famous co-op cafe for a quick fruit shoot and cake. but wait.....a quick head count on leaving the coop revealed we were one short. Finn, Dolly, Evan .......no monkey.

What followed was a hurried dash around the aforementioned sights of Marple retracing our steps. Now Monkey isn't just any old toy. Monkey is THE toy. Evan literally will not sleep without him. Likewise Finn and Dolly (we're good on original names- pretty lucky finn and evan they didnt get named Girl and Boy).

Coop...nothing.... Library...nothing....playground....nothing.... inbetween...you guessed it...nothing. we retraced most of the way home before I began to admit that the situation was now bigger than I could handle. 6 hours until bedtime and the Ratcliffe clan were informed. lisa rang her mum who went and scoured the streets afresh.

It was at this point i turned to other possible solutions and stumbled across the immoral trade in cuddly toys. we'd checked with mothercare only to find out that our monkey model had been discontinued but low and behold i found one on eBay.

but what was this.. a starting price of £20. and not just the one spare, "oh my child no longer plays with this" toy. this was organised. well these were desperate times. i scrolled down further to the description:

"New. Ideal as a spare or as a replacement for a child's must have toy"

Were people really buying up cuddly toys in the hope of selling them on to the vulnerable and desperate in the event of unfortunate tumble from the pram? oh no Monkey wasn't alone, there were scores of others caught up in the toy exploitation ring. And we seriously considered bidding for it. what could we do . we had tried to slip Elephant to evan as a stand in but he isn't stupid- he was starting to guess that something was up. But we knew we couldn't become part of this underground immoral trafficking.

Then the messages starting coming in from Lisa and from her mum. Monkey had been found. In front of Tittertons ........no Senior Citizens....... by a stranger? No....Great Granny Syb.

By some stroke of luck or fate or divine intervention Great Granny Syb had been going about her normal Marple business- helping out at the hatch at the Senior Citizens centre. She stepped out the door and looked down to see a fallen monkey. She didn't know at the point that Evan had lost it but "the tail was still wet" so she knew it was THE monkey.

So the day was saved (and the night). Now if monkey had dropped even a couple of meters in the direction of the library then she wouldn't have spotted him and of all the places for a sleeping evan to drop monkey, the chances of dropping him in front of the doors of his great granny's hang out seem quite slim. but there we are...reunited.

But lets just spare a thought for all those monkeys and bears that could be keeping kids safe at night but instead are being bought up and sold for huge profits when misfortune falls.

2010-12-05T14:07:00.001Z

are you still here. there really is nothing to see here. maybe pop back in 2011.

Tamburello's on streetview

2010-03-12T17:19:00.001Z

View Larger Map

View Larger Map

The reprimand for playing cards

2010-03-04T14:11:00.001Z

Mr Ratcliffe Ratcliffe I presume

2010-03-04T14:02:00.004Z

I've been doing a fair amount of family tree research since I've been at home with the twins. Sometimes its just easier to not move when they get off for a nap and use one arm to soothe them and surf with the other.

I've been looking into my family tree for about 7 or 8 years now but it kind of goes to bursts of activity. Either because of some genealogical brick wall or because of a lack of free trials on the family tree sites.

Recently I have had two big breakthroughs though. the first was a very fortuitous discovery. Last year I wrote to a lady who had written a booklet of the village of Bradenstoke in Wiltshire where my nanna was born and raised. It's right next to RAF Lyneham and Wooten Bassett (where all the war dead come back into the country). She had collected lots of memories as part of a Millennium Project. As it happens there were a few passing references to a few relatives. So through a long route I tried to contact her to see if there was any further editions in the pipeline.

Months past until just before Christmas I received and email asking whether I knew that she had been to visit my great auntie Lucy many times before she died, recording her memories of her childhood in the village.

I got the tape just before Christmas and surprised my family with it. I had only just got into all this stuff before Auntie Lucy died so only managed to ask her a few basic questions so to now have an hour and a half of her talking was amazing. More striking was to hear her and Wilf's voices after all this time. You could imagine them move around their little flat as they were talking. Auntie Lucy was quite an amazing woman. She worked for the Salvation Army all her life and got married for the first time when she 77! They were married for 13 years before they both died within a month of each other.

My other breakthrough was looking into Lisa (and the twins side of the family). One visit to Lisa's grandfather's grave open up the whole tree back to 1696. From the dates I was able to make the leap back to the 1911 census and from there a managed to get in contact with a distant cousin who had already done a lot of research into the tree. Strange to see old photos of strangers that actually remind you of people you know. Oh we also found out that there are apparently lots of twins on the Ratcliffe side of the family. So that could be where that all came from. Oh and a couple of people called Ratcliffe Ratcliffe back in the 1800's. so good they named him twice. Not quite sure what they were thinking but not a mistake, they named his nephew Ratcliffe as well. well someone has got to carry the name i suppose.

This was all courtesy of a free trial on ancestry.co.uk where I also pulled the document pictured at the top. It's the war records for my great grandfathers brother, George Iles. Really interesting details once you decipher the writing, like a reprimand in 1919 for playing cards on the stairs.

One of the reasons I love family tree stuff is that it is such a good leveller. Everybody has a story of where they come from that can so quickly get lost in the present everyday lives. Yet every-bodies story is interesting in its own way whether they be rich and privileged or working class folk.

Twenty ten

2009-12-31T11:57:00.000Z

I remember this day twenty years ago watching the year click over from '89 to '90 on my world time/temperature casio watch. I thought that was so cool. Can you believe they based a watches' selling point around being to add on 2 hours to see what time it was in some part of eastern Europe. As I wasn't travelling too much when I was 11 the need to know the time in Tokyo was purely academic.
Zip forward 20 years and i'm now updating this blog on a little machine about the size of the Horace goes skiing tape I was waiting to load for most of 1989 on our dragon 64.

There are quite a few things I wouldn't have guessed 10 years ago at the turn of the last decade. Obviously 2 kids would be a bit surprising for my millenium self. One maybe but twins no. In 2000 I didn't even own a mobile phone, now I'm carrying around some futuristic gadgetry.

I probably wouldn't have guessed that my uni house mates friends band that he kept talking about would go on to be one of the biggest bands in the western world. What are they called again dave? Cold play?

I would've thought I might have finished reading the wheel of time series by now. The latest and 12th book just arrived in the post this morning. A recap of the last 13 years of Reading might be in order before I embark on that one.
All in all it's been a good decade. 2000 seems like yesterday when you say it but then you realise how much has happened in those 10 years. Ok I still my be only living a semi adult life (a house and a reliable career are just a couple of the social milestones I lack) but I'd say a beautiful wife and 2 amazing little people we created is pretty good going. Add to that about 6 years of digging some astounding (and some mundane) archaeology and I think i would be quite happy if I had a glimpse into the future 10 years ago.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

And it's not even halloween yet

2009-10-30T17:02:00.001Z

It's only the 30th october but already i've prob had my fill of skulls,open coffins and crypts... And that's just day job. this month i've gone from mancunian slums to prehistoric landscapes and now to the inside of a medieval church. The architects didn't really take into consideration just how many people wanted to be buried inside the church in years gone by. This week has mainly been spent dealing with the numerous remains that were tossed aside into a shallow pit to make way for a nice little private crypt for one. Perhaps we will be able to redress the balance a little when we eventually re-inter them go the crypt.

Graham is the reason archaeology is going down the pan

2009-10-08T14:10:00.001Z

I went up in a crane today...

2009-10-07T15:53:00.000Z

Hope we can finally clear up the confusion...

2009-09-22T09:22:00.001Z

angel meadows

2009-09-21T19:36:00.002Z

So as I mentioned yesterday i'm digging in the Angel Meadows area of Manchester. a place full of thieves, fighters, alcoholics and drug takers. and it was pretty bad back in the 1830's as well.

this morning on my walk to work i passed by the back of the Printworks at about 8.01am. perhaps 1 minute before the sirens came wailing around the corner to deal with the guy that was laying barechested in the doorway of an apartment block, bleeding from the stab wound he had just received up in one of the apartments. you might have seen it on the news today.

This was all about 100 metres from the place i saw a guy last week collapsed in shudehill bus station receiving cpr and mouth to mouth. and not far from piccadilly station where i attempted last week to stop a shop lifter in boots (only with clever words mind you, which didn't really work)

this is all before i actually get to work. this morning we found a fence panel torn down and expected to find lots more new discarded syringes in our trenches ( we've found about 50 so far not including the ones that appeared and then disappeared). eventually we worked out that someone had been in to cut all the lead pipes out of our bulidings and had taken their pick of finds from the site.

so actually the area probably hasn't changed that much. instead of gangs of scuttlers there are gangs of young guys getting arested for violent conduct after the stabbing, instead of people out of it on Gin it's homeless guys drinking strong lager, we have modern beer bottles mixed with 100 year old beer bottles and the only difference with the drug abuse is that the heroin and cocaine were all legal back then.

a grim post but some grim sights. i haven't quite got the sight of that poor guy fighting for his life in that doorway this morning.

Binge drinking c.1909

2009-09-20T22:28:00.001Z

In am attempt to satisfy the few remaining blog followers out there i have decided to use the lonely and long 11pm feed to share some thoughts. The length depends on how much my phone will allow.  There are of course not the selection of bottles finn and evan get to choose from of a night. Rather the remains of a 100 year stash from the cellar of a victorian mancunian slum dwelling. One of many that i have the pleasure of uncovering on the site where the coop will be placing their new glassy hq.
Quite the shift from just a few months ago when i was trying to explain what there cholera ridden houses would have been like to a bunch of year 8's. I'd take the rubbish heaps any day of the year. Even the rainy ones but especially there sunny days.

Anna Tamburello

2009-08-07T19:04:00.001Z

2009-07-28T00:33:00.003Z

Smiles

2009-07-28T00:33:00.001Z

First smiles

2009-07-28T00:32:00.001Z

Feeding time

2009-06-04T22:29:00.001Z

2009-05-28T15:00:00.003Z

2009-05-28T08:38:00.003Z

3 pains

2009-05-28T08:38:00.001Z

Granddad and granddaughter

2009-05-28T08:37:00.001Z

1 week pb (post babies)

2009-05-21T11:02:00.002Z

so i'm guessing life has changed forever now. not that that is a bad thing just a new stage. a stage with less sleep and more poo. that would probably sum up the first week. we sometimes think we are getting the hang of it and getting into some sort of routine but then last night the twins didnt agree and decided to take their time drinking.

although i hadn;t planned topost lots of photos on the blog here it turns out that my auntie anna in cardiff has found her way here and therefore is a good place for my nonna and nonno to see pictures. I can also post blog post straight from my phone so quite conveniet all round. so expect to see many more gratuitous pictures of finn and evan with various family members.

One of evan to even it out a bit

2009-05-14T11:25:00.001Z

Finn being quiet

2009-05-14T09:27:00.005Z

Thats not her foot just a sock covering a tube in hand

Finn the thinker

2009-05-14T09:27:00.003Z

Finn

2009-05-14T09:27:00.001Z

Today at rest

Evan

2009-05-14T07:11:00.001Z

This is evan not long out go the open . Most pics are on camera not my phone to send so i'll take some more close ups today

Finn and evan

2009-05-14T07:07:00.001Z

Here's some pics finn is on the left and evan on right.

first blog of 2009!

2009-02-21T23:24:00.002Z

yes it's not how t used to be. february and no blog post but i have been inspired by tasha who has just started out in the blogging world, yes let us take a moment to welcome her ( her blog is linked with that new followers thingy on the side)

so its pretty much the end of my first half term which i appreciated greatly and its possibly only 7 weeks until the twins arrive. hard to say because apparently twins don't really observe due dates.

well i'm not really used to writing in chunks of over 140 characters these days so i will leave it there for now before i tire myself out.

2008-12-30T21:40:00.001Z

Steve and lisa's di-zygotic monkeys

2008-11-13T18:12:00.001Z

So here they are. Hot off the scan machine for you good few who still stop by here. These are exclusive, not for facebook shots. Well until we get to a computer anyway.

So obviously we were very shocked to say the least but extremely happy. A ready made family in one go. Well still a bit of preparation to go but that's just a detail.

But 13 weeks and both healthy. Both. Still can't quite believe it.

Twin 2

2008-11-13T18:03:00.001Z

Twin 1

2008-11-13T18:02:00.001Z

The twins

2008-11-13T18:00:00.001Z

famous faces

2008-09-05T19:42:00.002Z

I've been scanning stuff in for my family tree research this week so i took the opportunity to scan this in. i think i tried before but it didnt seem to work. i still find it strange looking at it. to explain: I did my MA at manchester this year so they sent me all the bunf including this. i must have had it for 2 months before lisa picked it up and asked why we were on the cover. we ha known nothing about it. some papperazzi had sneakily snapped us mid eifion joke telling. don't we looked the typical manchester student types!

the archaeology of archaeology

2008-08-18T17:08:00.003Z

quick update or long waffle? maybe a mix. it's been a strange site that i've been digging on recently. today i dug out some lovely artifacts up from the long forgotton 1980's. crisp packets (cheese and onion) cigarette boxes and general detritus; all left over from a manchester university dig on the same site in wigan in about 1981. so we have the strange task of working out what are their holes and which are more ancient. well more industrial although there are a few roman things about and a lovely medieval thing. not sure what it is maybe i'll put a picture up and we can all guess. unfortunately i can only dig half of it as there is a concrete walkway on the other half. This didn't stop a local volunteer asking me ( after telling him i didn't know what it was) how big one of these typically was? In the words of my friend Screwy " whatever it is , it's a perfect example of its type.

in other news i finally got around to starting driving lessons. i plan to pass by christmas which i think is a realistic goal. if the money holds out. expensive game this driving. i'm actually quite enjoying. doesn't seem so hard.... i think.

as my facebook status has been stating i have recently been reliving the nineties. re watching seinfeld, nearly ( so nearly) completing sonic on the megadrive (some credit -or blame must go to mark payne) and giving some long forgotten indie bands another whirl. finding lisa's gamegear last week just topped off the revival. can you imagine , a gamegear with a tv tuner. civilisation should have stopped there.

mark (the main blogger these days it seems) oftens recommends in this spot so i'll try to follow his lead. on more 4 tomorrow (tuesday) there is a great film called 'teh devil and daniel johnston. all should definately tune in. a unique character. did i ever tell you about the time i used the urinal next to him in matt and phreds. maybe another time.

1980's archaeology pictures to follow. possibly

it's a hard rain's gonna fall / ring of fire

2008-06-18T13:34:00.003Z

so i've been both rained and burnt off site today. I'm digging on the site of a tudor manor house near little hulton at present which is being used as an open cast coal mine. its also being used as a entertainment centre for all the scallies of the little hulton estates. before we got there we were warned but assured there was an evacuation plan in place in case we got 'set upon'. so apart from beiong greeted by a lot of rain on site today we were also told that we couldn't go anywhere near our site as scallies had set fire to about 30 tyres plus a couple of gas cylinders that had been cleared from the site.urban archaeaology eh. who said it wasn't as exciting as indiana jones.

in other news we are on the move again. not far this time. just another flat in levenshulme. a little cheaper and a little closer to the train station in the morning. we may be moving this weekend so you might get a call asking for some help.

i suppose i had better start packing then

visiting the great great grandparents

2008-04-14T19:37:00.002Z

i'm sure lisa will tell you what a lovely weekend trip we had to wales. it was very much a trip into our family past. we ended up in llandudno, somewhere lisa went every year on holiday to when she was growing up. i maintain that it was my first visit but my parents will probably correct me and say "don't you remember we took you when you were 6 months old".

llandudno was actually very nice and just as lisa remembered Barnacles served some very nice fish, chips and gravy.

my trip family memories took the form of dragging lisa around the graveyards of north wales. yes she does know how lucky she is to have me. As you can see i visited my g g grandparents Edward and Elizabeth Wynne in the very small, very sheepy and very mined village of Rhesycae in Flintshire. We arn't really a family that visits graves so it was quite an experience to see these names that i had only seen on census's, carved in solid stone. so much of family tree stuff can be done online now that you forget sometimes about all the physical connections.

Intriguingly there were fresh daffodils on the grave (as you can see in the photo) which must mean someone connected is still around there.

there search continues......
in other news

Might be off digging on the Isle of Man soon. that should be interesting. although it will be hard to be away from lisa and home again.

listening to the laura imbruglia album a lot at the moment. i know you might think how good can it be, surely she's just copying her sister but it's actually really good. more alternative than natalie- great song called anarchists and lettuces about her vegan punk friends.

"i'm hungry, i haven't eaten since later this afternoon"

2008-02-10T17:36:00.000Z

2008 and no blog post yet. is it life getting dull or facebook taking over. maybe not dull but busy. back and to to chester everyday and to the 9-6 of ofsted for lisa. my work has kept me on my employment toes this year as what was meant to be one week of work has turned into a month so far and possibly another two months if a contract falls our way.

i'm only really writing this as i'm waiting for various problems to tell me just how riddled our pc is with spyware. would be nice if just one of them was to actually do something about it without asking for £30 first. this all started cause somebody tried the phish (with a ph like phat) my bank account. lukily they didn't get very far but it does give you a wake up call. i think i have aways approached in a low key, "i hope they don't notice my little pc" kind of thing.

the title of the post comes from the dvd i bought yesterday - Primer- an amazing low budget film about time travel. it has to be seen to be understood. then seen again, then maybe looked up on the internet. this morning i watched it for the 3rd time then again with the directors commentary over the top and i think i'm beginning to understand. maybe it's a boy thing

crowded houses

2007-12-02T19:48:00.000Z

so this is just a glimpse of the excitement that the week has offered and the first of what must be a crowded house. its the smallest house in britain in conwy. we somehow stumbled across it while trying to find out how to get back up on to the walls of Conwy while on a day trip on Friday. by we i mean myself Cynthia Espinosa ( who some of you may remember from when she was over here) and Chris her musically talented boyfriend. we went in search of the archetypal British castle. i mean they saw that big house thing in Edinburgh but for real castles you really need to go to wales. and a very impressive castle we found too.

the second crowded house was thanks to the reunited band themselves. lisa and i, along with susanna and mancho went to see them at the MEN on wednesday night. a full 14 years after we saw them last. it was an interesting gig. almost Church like. i presume a lot of people were seeing them for the first time after listening for years. i say church like because everyone stood of the encores and sang along, almost reverentially, to song like 4 seasons in one day and better be home soon while neil finn played along. it was really good to hear them again but men is just too big for any band to play with any atmosphere. their old banter was there though.

it was a busy night for gigs. we hot footed over to sankeys to see the Bluebird kid Clark 'Aftershow' night and managed to get forcibly ejected from the club at the end of the night. the bluebirds were as good as ever just the crazy bouncers were intent on causing trouble. i mean can you imagine some manc indie kids making trouble but these guys were shoving and threatening everyone. when i politely pointed out a better way the big man could precede he decided to make his house (well club) a little less crowded and propel me out the door (along with about 5 others that got carried along in the flow). luckily jonny and mark held me and lisa back. boy what i would have done if they hadn't been there! actually the situation wasn't too dissimilar from an incident on our conwy trip. except the roles were reversed. i ACCIDENTALLY managed to knock a little girl into the gutter. look you've already seen how small the house are, imagine the pavement. a woman was trying to get past while we were looking at welsh things in a shop window. so we breathed in and let her past. so i turned...........and there was a little person .....why do they make them that small....they should carry head height signs or something. so i must have knocked her and she went face first into the gutter. she was ok but the worst was when she said " mummy that man tripped me up"

beetroot wee

2007-11-22T19:47:00.000Z

so enough of the archaeological pictures for now. yes i know you were all enjoying them but you can get too much of a good thing. plus the site is moslty machined away now to make way for the new.

in other news we are just about settling into to life back in manchester. we got our second organic vegable box delivered today from the conviently placed organic/fairtrade grocers in levenshulme. todays box offered some purple kale, white carrots and white beekroot. the last being much appreciated after we cooked up last weeks normal beetroot last night. who knew that eating fresh beetroot turns your wee red! maybe white will prove less ....interesting or more maybe. i'll keep you posted.

its also been quite a week for competitions. first i came a runner up in a bedouin soundclash comp. no tickets but i did win the alnum and a hoodie. unfortunately the said hoodie turned out to be a size small and very emo black. so thats waiting to go back in the hope of getting something more fitting.

then yesterday i got a call saying i had won tickets to the warehouse project in manchester this saturday. and i didnt even enter that competition. now thats luck. actually lisa entered on my email as well as hers, just so happened mine won . so come saturday nigh we shall be clubing til 5.30am i'm informed. we'll see. it's the company end of site do tomorrow, food and drink all paid for so it could be a big weekend. glad we've got some healthy veg to get us through it.

The romans were here

2007-11-13T17:46:00.001Z

Someone found this on the site today. Thought it was quite cool. It's a roman rooftile. With a difference. The stamp say LEG XX VV. which for those of you who are a bit rusty mo their roman inscriptions is the stamp of the 20th legion who were based in chester. The VV apparently stands for Valeria-where they were originally from in spain, Victus - cause they beat boudica's army.

*this pottery may contain scenes of an adult nature

2007-10-30T20:58:00.000Z

So as you can see by the last few posts i'm back digging holes. this time in chester ( the old police HQ by the racecourse if you know chester). yes its a bit of a trek in the morning from manchester but the amount of finds kind of makes up for it. considering i only found about 5 pieces of pottery in the whole of last year this is a teasure trove.

its great to be on a site where you can find everyday roman objects all oer thes site. i've been lucky to stumble upon a few personally. first the female head: prob a depiction of a goddess for a a house shrine? and then i found the copper alloy spoon: this would have been for scooping oysters out of shells probably.

then there is the 'colourful' pottery. if you look closely at the picture above.....welll ahem i'll let you work it out.

This is a roman spoon. I found this too

2007-10-29T22:32:00.001Z

Here's one i found earlier

2007-10-25T12:26:00.001Z

Santiago de Compostela

2007-09-30T08:57:00.000Z

This morning we didn´t have to walk anywhere. no 30 km walk to set off in the dark. We had arrived. We woke up this morning in our (single) hotel room in the city of Santiago de Compostela. 774km, 480 miles, 37 days (with a few rest days) and some sore feet.

we managed to walk 36km yesterday just so we could finish. strange was that the first day we walked it rained then it has all been sunshine- so sunny that you cant´t really walk much after 12. then yesterday the heavens opened again. actually it meant we could do the longer day without suffering too much.

so we rolled into Santigo about 5ish and headed straight to the pilgrims office. this is the place where you show you´re credencials, which is the booklet that has to be stamped each day at the hostels to show that you actually have walked all the way across spain. then then ask the reasons why you have done it. hmmm. basically if you cant´t say that part of the reason was religious they will just give you a ´certificate´ written on the back of an old swimming width certificate or something. now if you can say it was religious (as we did ) you get the ´Compostela´ - a form written in latin (even your name) which apparently might do you a few favours at the pearly gates, if you know what i mean. adn some favours around Santiago i here.

so we have a few days to kill around santiago. got to see them saintly bones today and tomorrow we should be meeting some of the other guys we met on teh way to have our celebratory drink ( got kind of messy last time the wine came out in La Rioja so it should be a good night)

right where´s taht taxi to take us back to our hotel

the Compeed sponsored camino

2007-09-15T19:02:00.000Z

so i won´t list every day. suffice to say we are still walking but we are making progress. we are over halfway now. in km (what they measure it in here) we have about 320km to go (out of 774km) i think thats about 280 miles.

we are a day out of leon (the spainish one not lyon in france). so we are taking a day off there. quite strange waking everyday knowing you have to walk nearly 30km.

so the lows. about 3 days ago we arrived at our hostel in some spainish town (they are kind of looking the same at the moment when i realised i didin´t have my howies jumper. now we have very few clothes on our trip so a jumper is a big deal especially my HOWIES jumper. i looked and searched. lisa even made lost notices with a little picture and my phone number but nothing. it was lost. i was sad

skip forward 2 days and about 50km. we stopped for lunch in a small town when a guy, another pilgrim called us over. hey amigos, did you lose a jumper? the man had picked it up on the path and recognised it as mine and remembered us because of lisa´s hat. amazing. i mean its something that he picked it up and carried for 2 days but to know whjo to give it to.

so the lows. well 28km per day is taking its toll on our feet. lisa ankles are sorting themselves out now but my feet have erupted in blisters. they are kind of like that bubble wrap. i´m sure if you twisted them they would crackle. i have a nice coating of compeed blister plasters ( that either don´t stick or stick too much sometimes on the smae blister)

thats it for now about 11 days left of walking we think. flat at the moment but the mountains are coming.....

a quick recap.....

2007-09-01T16:36:00.000Z

so we are up to about day 8 of walking. we are in a very nice pilgrims hostel in a place called Los Arcos today. just to give you some idea of our trip it´s gone like this:

24 august: St jean pied de port (france)- Valcarlos (spain) 11km

25 august: Valcarlos -Roncesvalles 19km -over the pyrennees to the monestry where most spanish pilgrims start.

26th: Roncesvalles- Zubiri 21.5 km really hard day. very hot. walked too much in the midday sun. ( mad dogs and englishmen etc......)

27th Zubiri- Trinidad de Arre 18km a small rastifarian enclave of spain . yeah mon. an oasis of a hostal attched to a medieval church. oh it wasn´t really caribbean by the way.

28th Trinidad - Pamplona 4,5km woohoo time off. we did a short walk in today and found a very nice hotel for some privacy.

29th Pamplona yes still here. but it is nice just to chillax.

30th Pamplona- Puente la reina 22.5km really good day walking . got further than we thought.

31st Puente la reina - Estella 21.5 another good day but crap crowded hostel

1st september Estella - Los Arcos 21.5 phew time nearly out on internet but thats where we are you can add it up. 640 km odd to go though.

more flesh to this story later......

...pilgrimage has gained momentum

2007-08-26T14:39:00.000Z

a funny thing. i was walking passed a vending machine in the mid day heat in the small spainish village we arrived in today when an ice cold bottle of water dropped out. i looked around...no one there but someone seemed to be looking after me.

we´re on day 3 of actually walking on our pilgrimage. we started walking from st jean pied de port on thursday morning.....early.....too early. it was dark and raining. we made it over the pyrennes about 30km, with a little stop in nice little town called valcarlos. the climb up to roncevalles yesterday was a real killer... the thunder storm didin´t help. luckily we found a derelict house to get some shelter from the storm (thanks for the song bob-going through my head the whole time).

so yesterday we reached Roncesvalles where many spainish pilgrims start. it´s kind of a pilgrim factory, stamp them in, bless them, let them sleep in a big (converted barn, quite nice actually) then kick them on their way in the morning.

so 22km to the next place today, Zubiri. nicehostel with free internet. although as i write numerous peregrinos (pilgrims) are asking me in a variety of languages whether i have any beds. some little spanish kids just booked a girl in while there mum was out when there wasn´t a bed left. that´s got to hurt after a long walk.

so onwards to pamplona and a hotel/day off. maybe tomorrow if we can make it .....or the next day. lisa and i are still getting into our stride

....to be a pilgrim

2007-08-22T06:53:00.000Z

so we are just about reading for the off. all is amazingly packed into our small walking bags. not really sure how, but i'm sure we will appreciate the lack of weight while we are walking. As i said a few posts ago we are off walking across spain towards santiago de compostela. it's been a bit of a dream of ours to do the walk ever since i heard about from my aussie/new yorker friend lisa did it back in 2001. see had just walked for a month before digging the bones of some long dead cisterians on the dig i was on in spain ( with that crazy guy, mark horton off Coast on the tele).

to make it more interesting one of the monk skeletons we excavated had a shell around his neck- i sign that he imself had done the pilgramage back in the 12 century. i suppose this is now a quite modern adventure but the connection with the people how have been treading these paths over a millenia is quite something.

so we think it could take 4-6 weeks ( we may take it quite easy) . we think we might be doing 20 km a day (it 780km to santiago)

apart from that i all quite unknown.

Just returned from Green Man Festival. Apart from having a great name ( and now having a green man tshirt) ths is the real credible festival of the summer. none of those obvious charty line ups of glastonbury and V. havent got time to go into all the bands which you will be thankful for, but i few highlights:

Euros Childs and Richard James- always great even Gorkys is no more
Battles- amazing new band- where music is going apparently ( though that sounds quite pretentious ), i have never seen a drummer go so fast- there was steam coming off him.
the folky stuff- Devenra banhart, men an tol, vetiver,
Hearing Stephen Malkmus interviewed and witnessing a less than obvious finale to the festival.
Gruff rhys (SFA) performing a 20 minute redition of SKYLON!, his epic telling of how he diffuse a bomb on a plane ( with acting and props)

apart from the music lisa and i had a great festival, bit muddy but its all part of it i suppose.

right better put my sandals on and hit the road.......

2007-08-01T18:35:00.000Z

look at my carrots and courgettes!

im so amazed

mainly because i had let them for dead after i had cared for them so much in the beginning but then i had no more pots or compost to replant them and spread them out and my garden is made from concrete, but then yesterday i just went to pull up some of the leafy bits for the rabbit and a whole baby carrot emerged, and then i had a look at the pot of courgettes, removed 12 snails, and there they were, three baby courgettes, just growing, against all odds, all on their own. i am amazed.

and we have started getting in shape for our walk and this is our local stretch of coast that we get to train on. almost as amazing as my veg.

such joys were short lived after the exhaust decided to fall off our beast of a citroen on the busiest stretch of road in town yesterday. this wasnt so bad, what was worrying was the stupidity of people. i dont even care if that sounds rude because those people were so rude! rude and stupid. we were sat on the verge by the side of the road for over two hours waiting for the rac, and not one person offered help, just a whole bunch of toots and insults and pointing. the high point was when a cropped trousered topless bald doped up man approached us and told us 'you cant park there'. steve wisely ruled out sarcasm and told him we were broken down to which he suggested we should put on our hazzard lights then. steve pointed out the flashing orange lights on the car. the man looked skeptical then walked off.

i love swansea.

an end has a beginning

2007-07-27T14:55:00.000Z

i'm trying not to forget about this old fashioned blogging thing now that the phenomenon of facebook as arrived. ok i have to say i'm hooked to facebook just for the fact that you can find so many people that you have lost track of. i suppose it is just a hi tech address book. that's right the good old blog won't get too neglected.

so i've finally finished on the pipeline archaeology job. it all ended today. so now i have to find something to occupy 12 hours of my day. its really good just to be back home and able to hang out with lisa knowing that i don't have to back to work on sunday night.

actually we only have a normal life for a few weeks then our summer plans kick in. first there is the Greenman Festival down near brecon. an amazing lineup. stephen malkmus from Pavement, euros childs and Richard James from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals and lots more.

then lisa and i embark on our pilgrimage to santiago de Compostela in spain. we set off from teh france/spain border and tae 4 or 5 weeks to walk along the top of spain with our pilgrims passport.

Tour de france

2007-07-08T12:43:00.001Z

Who knew so many people in this county enjoyed watching cycling. Just wait for my train away from the big city and back into sleepy wales. Hot to see le grand depart then the prologue time trial and the slightest glimpse of the stage start this morning. Great atmosphere.

Ruth and alice

2007-07-06T22:19:00.001Z

Rabbitgate,graduands and journeys

2007-07-03T16:39:00.001Z

This is the said culprit in last weeks rabbitgate affair that almost got me evicted from my work accomodation. Hard to imagine that this is the same rabid bunny that was tearing around the flat when the cleaners came in. This is biscuit by the way, our rabbit. Well lisa's really. The picture is of her right now in the back of the car mo our way back down to swansea. She's just just taking a few minutes out from driving. Lisa just been up for a job interview for a place on a graduate scheme doing community development stuff which seemed to in really well. As i say she is a graduand now as she passed her degree. It goes without saying that i am very proud of her. Well i purpose i just said it. So only about 4 hours to go. Exciting weekend coming up.on friday i shak my new contact lenses and then i head straight for london to watch the start of the tour de france. And before you say, i know it's in france but it starts in the uk this year. Ok

New roads to tread

2007-06-18T22:30:00.001Z

Well i'm finally off that cursed mountain that has been my life for the past 6 months. In fact it turned out to be quite interesting as we found 2 prehistoric houses in the last week. To celebrate our company threw a party with about £1200 behind the bar only we managed to run up a £2500 bar bill, good but messy night all round. So now after months of scratching hill sides we are back in the news for the cool roman road we are digging. You may be able to see of on the bbc website pretending to dig it.

Wes

2007-05-28T18:40:00.001Z

Mark eating

2007-05-28T11:38:00.001Z

Turkey pictures

2007-05-26T09:04:00.001Z

2007-05-18T12:18:00.001Z

2007-05-07T19:05:00.000Z

i come back to manchester for two days and it rains the entire time!
but despite the rain its nice to be home even if only for a short time. there has only been time to catch up with family, but back again at the end of the month so hopefully we'll see some much missed friends then.
i almost forget how awesome manchester is, there is so much going on. as much as i love swansea i can't honestly say a great deal happens. which is possibly which i like it. but manchester has jobs and music and galleries and social action things, but no coast! maybe i'll work on that.
so we are thinking of trying a joint move back up when the contract on the new place runs out in october. i know. another one of my plans. steve just nods and smiles. he is a saint. but i have a good feeling about this one.

but apart from thinking about what we can do with our futures, the here and now is all nice and easy and sunny and lovely. im not being smug, its just nice is all. normally there is a little good time, then some dreaded event or deadline or something on the horizon, but right now we only have good things to look forward to, holiday, graduation, and well thats it really! thought there was more. wow our lives are empty, argh! but still we have the gower, the brecons and great joy so that will do just fine for now. i take back the 'im not being smug' comment!

there is a kind of guilt from being happy, especially when you know others aren't having such a great time at the minute, those people are constantly in our thoughts (especially when we are kicking back on the beach and we know that poor city dwellers arent). but seriously. in the non-patronising way, you are.

take it easy xx

i'm not from barcelona

2007-04-23T09:57:00.000Z

as jonny right pointed out it has been awhile. this is mostly due to our packed social calendar. hmm actually its becuase my company is making me work every hour of daylight (and some that's a bit darker) and lisa has been swamped with her last few essays, which she is just in the process of handing in this minute. i however still have to work from 7am to 7pm tomorrow though and they want us to work saturday and sunday 72 hours last week. yes thank you all for the sympathy. and yes i'm still on that hill in the brecon beacons. now we are cleaning the whole mountian with just trowels and toothpicks.

on the other hand i am taking advantage of our new sick pay allowance by taking a paid sick day today. it was to help move our stuff to a new (non-shared) house in mumbles but i ended up actually feeling ill. i wonder if that is a guilt thing. so yeah we are moving again. a road or two away from the seafront but still close and with a great view of a big castle. we wern't sure about it at first but the place is growing on us now.

other things in no particular order or sense. been listening to a great new band our friend ruth recommended called i'm from barcelona ( i think they are on the T mobile). watched Pan's Labyrinth finally yesterday: brilliant. we're going to turkey next month on holiday and that's in asia.wooo. end.

Viva La Revolutione!

2007-03-02T10:57:00.000Z

so the main event of the week was lisa's employment tribunal in cardiff on wednesday. I took the day off to go along with her and so will be the faithful witness to the events that took place as lisa is currently feeling crap after i passed on the horrible head cold that i have been suffering from the last few days. i tried not to pass it on but it was probably inevitable.

the tribunal was surprisingly formal. i think we both imagined some arbitration in a room with a desk . as it was we sat at our desks the claimant and the respondent and had to stand when the chairman came in and sat behind his big desk at the front. then lisa had to swear on the bible before she gave evidence. actually he seemed really nice and it was good to get down to the facts after all the hassle we have gone through to get this money.

lisa had her chance to say what happened and what pay she should have gotten then Mr burrows ( the boss) could cross examine her. then he spoke and lisa asked him question.

so cutting to the chase the judge summed up into a tape recorder and he basically agreed with everything lisa said. about the hourly rate (no it wasn't 'just a guideline'), about the hours worked and about the need to give notice. basically teh judge told this guy off and told him he should be thankful that lisa hadn't asked for more money as he would have probably given it. he also told him off for not giving out contracts to people.

anyway i was very proud to sit there with lisa as my wife. i don't think that cocky 'businessman' expected to be out in that sort of position where he was getting told off by a judge and lisa was the one who followed through on her promises and stood up for something when she saw that she hadn't been treated right. there wasn't a vast amount of money involved but hopefully he will think before he tries to screw over the rest of his staff now.

so yes an unequivocal victory for lisa and downtrodden worker everywhere. Viva La Revolutione!

less importantly on the side. 2 things people should get hold of this week:
firstly everyone should take a listen to the new Gruff Rhys album Candylion (gruff is the lead singer of the vastly underrated super furry animals. there's a song called 'the court of king arthur' where he details his love of archaeology. genius.
secondly, another peice of genius: Guinness Marmite.

2007-02-24T13:07:00.000Z

so steve has finally managed to make it back up those brecon hills, and down again, and up again, and down again, all in accordance with the beautiful welsh weather. its real nice to see him wet, muddy, tired and happy again.

im working part time in the local wine shop and am refusing to call it an off licence. its really great. a laid back job, some nice laid back staff and its right on my door step. and part time is nice as it means i get to go and see steve for a night or two in the week which cant be bad.

yeah, its all a little slow, but right now i really wouldnt have it any other way, sometimes its nice just to be. work life, whilst enjoying it, is coming in second to living life, we're making enough money to cover rent and food, although not much else, and we get to do lots of things that make us happy. it crosses my mind that this may be a selfish way to live, but just for now i reckon its ok.

the one stress at the minute is my employment tribunal next week, really not looking forward to it and all for the sake of £210. i keep wanting to forget it but steve reminds me it's about the point and not the money. he's right. i really wouldnt have much room to talk about people standing up for their rights if i cant even be bothered to do it in a country that, for the most, allows me to do so (wow, im such a martyr i know), either way, id better walk away with a cheque on wednesday!

take it easy x

pipeline / kill time

2007-02-03T11:24:00.000Z

even though the bank finally came through with the money there always seems to be soo many things to pay (i've always thought that so should be spelt with 2 o's in this sort of context just like to- that makes sense doesn't it) . one treat i did surprise lisa with though were tickets to see bedouin soundclash next month in cardiff which is going to be amazing ( and it earned me some brownie points).

if you haven't heard bedouin soundclash yet you should seek them out. they have had a song on a phone advert for awhile but it doesn't seem to have broken them into mainstream consciousness yet.

as it happends they are also one of the those friend of a friends band. in this case the lead singer is a friend of one of lisa's friends in canada. (my friend of friend band is coldplay- obviously not as cool anymore.

as my location might suggest i'm still not doing any work. actually the last proper days work i did was october 19th. even though they spent £15,000 on mountain equipment (about £500 each) so we could work on the brecon beacons safely they still haven't actually let us go up there to dig our holes. I have been made a team leader so i'm not actually going to digwhich is going to be strange. i do however get to carry the leaders rucksack- fully equiped with mountain tent, first aid kit, GPS and a she-wee (i'll let you work that one out).

so lisa is back in manchester this weekend doing family stuff leaving me to endure my first ever filling today. not sure what that is going to entail but looking forward to being able to chew on both sides of my mouth.

bank charges

2007-01-19T13:04:00.000Z

just another short update. got a letter from hsbc this week. they are offering me £1180 to settle my claim. i'll take that thank you. going to try to close it soon and move to a move ethical bank.

updates

2007-01-14T12:50:00.000Z

seems like that last picture didn't work. i'll have to try to sort that sometime.

it appears that our optimism over lisa's cheque before christmas was premature. we were chasing it wehen we got back and found out that he decided not to send her pay after all for some unknown reason. it's all going to an employment tribunal at the end of february now unless he sees sense beforehand.

as for my bank charges. they are currently dealing with it and hiring more people to cope with the amount of claims for refunds that are coming in. 7 weeks was the maximum length of time it could take. but it all seems quite routine so it looks like i should get it back at some point.

and finally it looks like i will be back digging my holes on the brecon beacons this week. we had a meeting on friday 'preparing' us for the mountain. and trying to avoid hitting the papers like last time. felt more like we are going on a polar expedition. they are supposedly buying us goretex jackets, trousers and boots this time. oh and a whistle.

15 mb of fame

2007-01-05T09:59:00.000Z

found this while we were chucking some stuff away from lisa's bedroom in stockport and it made me laugh. i must have had this for 3 months before lisa pointed out we (and eifion) were on the cover. i don't think any of us were students at the time either.

smaller footprints

2007-01-04T12:11:00.000Z

2007. no matter how much you try not to subscibe to cliches it's hard not to think of a new year in terms of new starts and resolutions. i suppose this is partially added to by having a birthday nearby so i contemplate what having an extra year means ( not having started back at work yet also gives me the time to think such things).

coincidentally in a couple of months i'll get to skip back a decade when lots of my uni friends will come down to mumbles for the weekend. i'm not sure if will be quite like the reunion in 'this life+10' the other night but i've dubbed it 'leicester life +10 anyway.

so resolutions. was speaking to mark payne the other day and just read his blog entry. we decided to trade pounds. he could have a few of mine that i didn't want. smaller footprints is what i'm thinking. getting fitter yes ( i'm sure that will come when i have to walk up the brecons ever day come next week) but mainly eating healthier and having less of an impact on the environment. kind of along the lines of mark's ethical living. trying to make the extra effort to recycle stuff and make more ethical choices with my money. we'll see.

Bluebird Kid Clark

2006-12-27T09:49:00.000Z

among the many great gifts i got in my christmas stocking this year was this little album. many of you will know of them or maybe heard them in their early incarnation the pedestrians. They are now called Bluebird Kid Clark. anyway i thought it was worth a post saying how good the album is as i fear it won't get enough exposure. i think it's just being sold through the bands myspace page and itunes. anyway if you go to their myspace page you can hear some of the songs. TheLife and Times of Peter Smith is a real gem. It's sounds like it's right out of the 1960's . in fact i think they introduce it as a Mungo Jerry song when they play it live but it's all theirs.
Nice one tim.

that christmas pub quiz part 1

2006-12-23T23:29:00.000Z

ok so i'll put the finished pub quiz up so you can have a go at it if you have a few spare minutes over christmas. but be warned some would say it was too hard. see what you think. not sure what to do about the answers. think i might put them on as a comment. so the first half are on christmas and the second on 2006 (maybe tenuiously) then there is a picture round. if i did them again i would probably change quite a few but these were how they were presented in the Farmers Arms, Llanfynydd, Carmerthenshire on wed 20th December 2006......

Round 1 Christmas

1. Under which English Ruler was the celebration of Christmas banned?
2. Which countries soldiers won the festive football game during the Christmas trucein the trenches in 1914? Bonus point-What was the score?
3.What language would Father Christmas have to use to talk to the locals in his native Lapland?
4.Who wrote "A child's Christmas in Wales"?
5. The band St Etienne sang "I was born on Christmas Day" in 1994, but what day would your birthday be if you had been born on St Etienne's Day?
6.In what year was the first Royal Christmas Broadcast?
7. Which early Christian council was St.Nicholas kicked out of for slapping another bishop?
8. Which city was St. Nicholas the bishop of?
9.Mary, Joseph and Jesus fled to Egypt to escape Herod. What is the only other modern day African country to be mentioned in the Bible/
10. Which Glam Rocker did Bing Crosby duet with on "Little Drumer Boy" for Christmas 1977 of whom he said "I've never heard of him but he sings well, he's got a good voice and he reads lines well, he could be a fine actor if he wanted to be"?

11. What was last years Christmas No 1 and who sung it?
12. What are the traditional names of the 3 wise men?
13 Which religion did they follow?
14. Christmas Day is also a Quarter Day when tradtionally rents and rates were paid. Lady Day is also one on March 25th. When are the other two and what are teh days called?
15. Name the 3 reindeers with names beginning in the letter D.
16. In the Pogues christmas song "A fairytale of New York" what song were the boys of the NYPD choir singing?
17. A famous American actor appears in the video as a policeman. Who is it?
18. In which city was Handel's Messiah first performed?
19. What date is the first day of Christmas , as mentioned in the song- the 12 days of Christmas?
20. How many gifts would you have received form your true love after all 12 days of Christmas? How many of them would have been birds? (partridge and the pear tree counts as 1 by the way)

That christmas pub quiz (part 2)

2006-12-23T23:20:00.000Z

Round 2 2006

21. What year will it be in the Islamic world next year? (or century if you can't that!)
22. Which Welsh MP made the news this week after announcing he was dating a Cheeky Girl?
23. Who won the Tour De France this year only to be all but stripped of the title following a positive drugs test?
24. What is the biggest selling album in the uk this year (so far). is it...
a) Scissor Sisters- Ta Dah
b) Snow Patrol- Eyes Open
c) Arctic Monkeys- Whatever people say I am that's what i'm not
25.Which country won teh Eurovision Song Contest this year and what was the act called?
26. "The Devil came here yesterday, it still smells of sulpher today." Which South American head of state said this to the United Nations General Assembly 24 hours after George W Bush spoke fom the same platform?
27.What speed did Richard Hammond reach when he crashed in September/
28. Zara Philips won the Sports Personality of the Year award this month. In waht year did her mother win?
29 Who was John Prescott caught having an affair with this year?
30Radio 4's early morning Uk theme was dropped in January. What was the distinctly Welsh element of the medley?

31. Pluto was deemed to small to be a planet this year. What classhas it now been downgraded to? What are the other 2 bodies in this catagory?
32.What position will Ban Ki Moon take up as of Jan 1st 2007?
33.Which cult Carmarthen band, formed while they were pupils at Ysgol Bro Myrddin 15 years ago split up this May/
34.What was teh name of the World Cup referee who retired after yellow carding the same player 3 times in the same match?
35. This year Benedict XVI became only the second pope to enter a Muslim house of prayer. Which country was the Mosque located in ? Name?
36. A lot of publicity was given to the Borat film: Cultural learning of America for make benefit of glorious nation of Kazahkstan? what is the capital of kazahkstan?
37. Which country became the 192nd member state of the UN this June after gaining independance, leaving it's former partner the dubious honour of a Navy but no ports or access to the sea?
38. The DUP and Sinn Fein are negotiationg for a return to power sharing in Northern Ireland . What does Sinn Fein roughly translate as?

Pub quiz picture round

2006-12-23T23:15:00.000Z

39. Name the people pictured below

40. Who is the odd one out? Why? ( remember the festive theme)

And that my friends is that. I'll post the answers in a couple of days.

small battles...big victories

2006-12-16T13:07:00.000Z

we had some great news this morning. for the last couple of weeks lisa has been trying to get her pay off cowardly ex-boss. it was for a full time job at a champagne bar in swansea (yeah i know, it is as unsuccessful as it sounds). anyway after 2 weeks of messing around while he tries to work out how to run a bar, he phones up lisa an hour before her shift starts and tells her not to come in, there isn't a job for her anymore.

now apart from not having paid a penny yet he also thought it was alright not to give any notice. apparently because he hadn't gotaround to getting contracts sorted he thought that menat he could do whatever. anyway after seeing no money lisa went to citizens advice who put her through to legal aid who agreed with lisa that for the time she worked she should get 2 days notice and sent her a letter saying this.

the boss was having none of it saying he pays big bucks for his lawyer and she didnt stand a chance. anyway we phjoned him again this week and he still wasn't going to pay the extra money. he hadn't even made any moves to pay the worked hours. we made another call today and he sheepishly said that he had posted the full amount yesterday. all teh hours worked plus 2 days notice. now thats a result.

that and a bbc programme has really spurred me on to fight my corner. the programme was about bank charges. you know like when you go over your overdraft limit and they charge you £25. well they are actually illegal and you can claim up to 6 years of them back from the bank under a 1999 unfair charges and conditions act. so off we go on another little battle. i'll keep you posted.

up to about 25 out off 40 questions on the quiz.

christmas coffee

2006-12-13T15:41:00.000Z

as it's coming up to that time again and everyone is sorting out who going where on what day i got to thining about the 4th annual (or is it fifth?) soloman grundy christmas coffee. if people are interested in getting together lisa and i were wondering whether we should go on the saturday 23rd rather than christmas eve as it might be a little less hectic than the sunday. I know we are pretty much booked up already anyway. we could go for the morning or the afternoon is people still have shopping to do. anyway i'll await your responses.

in other news i was wondering if anybody had any good questions they always wanted to put in a pub quiz. you see our team won last week which means that as well as taking £120 of prize money away (it had built up over a long time) i also have to set the quiz for next wednesday (20th) i've written quite a few already but i thought i would throw it out there. so i'm thinking some clever questions that are vaguely christmas related or 2006 related. any ideas. come on rainey i bet you have some....

dentists

2006-12-09T15:48:00.000Z

seems like an age since i last had a chance to update the blog. i've been mocked on many occasions at work for even having one (hello sean or hazel-if you have ventured online to find material for the next mocking).

first thing on my mind today has been the dreaded dentist chair. many will know that i havent been there in awhile. well since before i went to uni when i was living in salford (about 9 years i suppose). i admit i avoided it during uni but that was mainly because i had a housemate with freakish teeth ( y'know those people with two rows of teeth) then after that i moved about so much it wasnt practicle. when i finally wanted one the nhs could offer me nothing. nye bevan has been turning in his grave ever since until 2 years later i manage to get one. cue the dreams about losing teeth all week. as it happens it was fine. ok i have to have one filling but not bad after 9 years and my first ever.

well this post has to come to an untimely end as i have to vacate the computer for the next library customer.

to be cont...

back in the news....

2006-11-09T14:29:00.000Z

yes they just can't keep us out of the spotlight, this time it's not so great though. 'Fragile' beacons common damaged is the headline this time. and we were named and shamed on the local news so now the regulars in the farmers arm's know that we are THOSE archaeologists. in our defence (which i don't think we'll actually get to state publically) everybody knew that we had to drive 4x4's to get there and we only ever drove on preexeisting tracks. but all the press has made it sound like we just struck out cross country like a scene from mad max.

I read the news today oh boy, 320 holes in brecon, powys

2006-10-14T11:46:00.000Z

And though the holes were rather small They had to dig them all...

as you might have noticed it all got a bit crazy there for a moment, what with the paparazzi chasing after night and day to get a comment on the now famous bronze age canoe (as seen in the times, bbc tonight, S4C news and yes lets not forget the metro). so they have sent us all away somewhere quiet now until the media frenzy has calmed down.

so my present job is a bit of a strange one but rather cool even if i do say so myself. for some unknown reason some bright spark decided that the gas pipeline should go through the brecon beacon national park, right across the mountain. so our job is to have a poke about to see if there is any archaeological remains up there. this involves spending the winter digging 320 1m square test pits all along a stretch of the brecon beacons. did i say that i loved this job. so we get to drive around in 4x4's up and downhill and dig in the most beautiful of landscape. certainly a nice walk back from work.

still living away though. although its not ages away from swansea it stil isnt possible to get out every day from home. so i get to live a weekend life in mumbles. which is probably the best time. there is a great local produce market across the road from us where lisa and i tried lots of samples of cheese and chutneys and bought the odd sausage and organic lamb burger. actually i just went back a bought the nicest stuffed vine leaves which i will hopefully save for lisa when i get back (otherwise she will read this and not be too pleased at all). and i get to chill out with my lovely wife each weekend without having to do any of that lesson preparation i had last year during my pgce. exactly what was i thinking-lots of teenagers and lesson prep vs the tranquility of the brecon beacons and the fame of bronze age boats?

Boatwatch

2006-09-17T19:31:00.000Z

today i have been on boatwatch. it's a little like baywatch but without the sand and busty women. we do have a lot of water though and we're working on the orange swimming costumes. to bring ou up to date: i'm still digging in pembrokeshire and still working on our bronze age boat (probably no longer a boat and more likely a trough-still rare and exciting though-yes i know a boat sounds more exciting).

this 'vessel' has attracted a fair amount of attention so far. if you have been anywhere near me in the last few weeks you will probably know that rhodri morgan came to visit it (who your saying-only the first minister of wales).

last week we spent ages digging around the vessel so we could construct a frame around it so it could be lifted. this involved chiseling through soid bedrock no less. friday was the big lift day. thursday we finished the frame only to be told at 3.30 that the lift was off: politics and lack of paperwork.

so your guess is as good as mine as to thedate of the lift now. until then 2 of us are on 'boatwatch' at all times. just to make sure nothing happens to it. this includes weekends. so today i was paid double time plus a day off in lieu (effectively triple time) just to watch the boat. cant be bad eh? had a er nice day actually. read the papers. drank a lot of tea and coffee and watched that film i was on about a bit ago "the devil and daniel johnston".

i'll keep you updaed on how 'boatwatch' goes.

in other news yes lisa and i have moved back to mumbles and it seems to be the most natural thing in the world. such a great place. sun , sea and sand. in fact you should all visit us. come to think of it why havent youu visited us (mark p excluded) you don't know what you're missing.

2006-09-11T15:07:00.000Z

just a quick update: we have moved back to swansea, woo hoo!

living in a shared house in mumbles again, just down the road from our last house, bay windows, sea views and two lovely housemates.

y'know that canoe i was telling you about.....

2006-08-26T12:57:00.000Z

the media blackout has ended and at last the amazing discovery can be revealed to all. on thursday the media of the world, well wales and bbc online. decended on our site to look at our bronze age boat. we even had a live broadcast on bbc wales tonight.it even made the metro yesterday.wooo. i havent managed to see any of the news items but it is on bbc online under the headline Bronze age canoe stops pipeline. which is a bit of a fib to make the story sound more dramatic.

so at the moment it's all uncovered now but we're not quite sure how to lift safely yet so we are just letting it flood over again for the present. when we left on friday for a long bank hoiliday weekend the polish security guard had just turned up. its his job to sit in a cabin making sure no-one decided to lift it for us. this guy whoi is probably getting paid 20p anhour has to sit there for 4 days in a muddy welsh field with just a book for company. see it is just like the indiana jones movies.

steve tamburello in shock retirement from best man role

2006-08-20T16:46:00.000Z

yes i have thought long and hard about it and i have decided to bow out of the best man role while i am still at the height of my game. so don't go looking in the yellow pages for my "wedding services" advert. Mark rainey's wedding and the speech i delivered there shall be my last. though it did seem to go down well even if i do say so myself.

those of you that were at tomoko and mark's wedding (prob most of the people that read this blog) will agree that it was areally good day. such a mix of entertaining and talented people form farm noises to traditional japanese kotos.

but it's back to the digging tomorrow. at least for a week. apparently there has been a cull at the site on friday with the majority of people being given a weeks notice. we knew we were running out of stuff to dig so we guessed it might happen. we'll see how it goes. might be more decisions to make soon though.

in other news it seems to be looking good for cardiff city this season. they best leeds 2-1 yesterday. placing them 2nd in the championship. i know it's early days but i might finally get to support a premiership team soon. watch out Man U!

a note from Archaeology World

2006-07-23T15:53:00.000Z

i've been occupying a parellel world for the past 3 weeks. it's called Archaeology World. in this parelell universe time goes a lot slower- i feel like i've been here for months rather than weeks. also it's hard to remember that there is is life outside of it and people who arn't archaeologists.i have been living and workingdown in pembrokeshire on the gas pipeline that is beng laid from milford haven to swansea then eventually on to hereford. it's been great to get back to digging after the stress ful PGCE year and the money is actually really good especially with all the overtime i have been doing (i've been doing 60 hour weeks so far).

so apart from getting a good tan ( well on my arms and neck) there is actually some really cool stuff that has been found. i'm digging on a site a the moment where we found a bronze age (roughly 3000 year) canoe in a bog, perfectly preserved. unfortunatly they aren't sure whether they have the money to lift and preserve it. elsewhere they found a massive henge monument ( really deep circular ditches not bit standng stones like stonehenge) again though half of it has been destroyed now by the pipeline. strange that its lain underdiscovered for 4000 years then uncovered for 3 months, then destroyed.

a few of us managed to escape to cardiff this weekend, out of Arch World. actually had quitea trip down memory lane as my friend happens to live about 10 doors down from the chip shop i used to live in when i was young. i get to escape again next week when i get to spend a long weekend in manchester in the new house i hae supposedly moved to.

S. Tamburello BA MA QTS

2006-06-29T13:54:00.000Z

this morning i didn't have to get up before 7 am and go into school and act as crowd control for class 9m3 because today i added a few new letters to my name- QTS Qualfied Teacher Status. yes i actually managed to get through it, so now i can be one of those people who say " hmm pgce yeah it's really hard, very intense).

so now, what now? well i haven't got a teaching job yet though still on the lookout, sent another application off this mornng. but not too bothered. if nothing else i'll look for some suppply work in september, get in that way. come monday i will back in a field digging away. doesn't work out too well with the whole moving to manchester timetable but its money and boy do we need that after a year of both of us studying.

people falling down

2006-06-27T19:39:00.000Z

from the maker of one red paperclip (so far he's traded up to "a role in a hollywood movie"- there's a link on the side if you want to know whats it's all about) noe comes PEOPLE FALLING DOWN . does exactly what it says on the tin. very funny.

2006-06-26T19:09:00.000Z

well, seems steve is keeping everone super updated, which is nice!
but from a lisa point of view: its all coming to a bit of an end here in swansea, the van is booked for next week to move our things back up to manc, although as steve is working in his new arch job, which is awesome, ill be doing the packing, moving and unpacking all on my lonesome. but im a little excited to drive a van. small things eh.
we have to find rox a home in the next week, its just so hard, its like giving a child away, its just awful. but its got to be done and im sure she'll be happy with whoever she ends up with, she's fickle, and if we find someone down here at least she will get to stay by the beach. which is more than can be said for me, grr!
so its stalyvegas for me, and steve ont he weekends. it will be fun, but cant help but be sad to be leaving here. it really is like nowhere else and i never believed this place would become home like it has when i came down 3 years ago. i dont know where else you'd find people like there are down here, maybe its the small city, everyone knows everyone thing, or maybe its the surf aged surf attitude, but it will be hard to leave.
but i am excited to move back north, just to hang out with old friends, find a new job, earn some money and hopefully build up the same group of randoms and misfits as ive had the pleaseure of spending my time with down here.
and due to my... well i dont know how to explain it, but after finishing my dissertation i fizzled out of uni, leaving me with 3 modules to complete by next april. this means i wont graduate until next summer, but i really dont mind, actually quite the opposite, i gives me an excuse to not technically leave swansea. my marks will be capped which is a shame but thats just the way it is, no point in worrying about it, it is what it is and i am what i am i guess and im absolutely ok with that!
so its a time of change. i hate change, im not afraid to admit it! but ill try to embrace it none the less.

things which are making me angry this week

2006-06-26T18:03:00.000Z

so our future prime minister, mr brown has said we should go ahead and replace our nuclear weapons so we can maintain our nuclear deterrent. even before this hit the news this week i had been thinking that this would be a great opportunity to make a statement to the rest of the world. britain could say that in the interests of world safety and peace they would not renew the nuclear weapons. now apart from gaining the trust of countries like Iran, britain would also be keeping up their side of the nuclear non-proliferation pact. and what would britain lose. well the deterrent but who exactly are we trying to deter, post cold war. this is 25 billion pounds worth of weapon that we will never and can never use.

firstly the (perceived) threat has changed- we're not exactly going to get bin laden to stand still long enough to get him with a nuke. Secondly, can britain really justify, ethically, launching a nuclear missile that is 8 times more powerful than the one that was dropped on hiroshima? even if one hit us could we really inflict that sort of civilian damage on anyone else.

yet if it was just left as it was i think the renewal would be rubber stamped in no time. there looks like there coud be a debate in parliament which is a start. other than that i think CND's membership might begin to swell.

to me a few less nuclear weapons and £25 billion spent on something that saves lives rather than ending them would make britain a much better place.

the reprieve

2006-06-23T19:33:00.000Z

ok scratch that last post for now. roxy has been been granted a reprieve, another weekend in the sun. she's coming home

all farewells should be sudden

2006-06-23T17:26:00.000Z

tomorrow we have to wave goodbye to our loyal sidekick roxy, sometime contributor to this blog though more often than not a sabouteur of the computer. we didn't manage to find anyone we know who was willing to take her so lisa is going to have the hard job of taking her to a woman who can hopefully find a good home for her. sad but necessary. unfortunately i didn't know she wouldn't be coming back down to swansea so i haven't really said goodbye but maybe thats the easier option. i had never had a pet before roxy so never knew how attached you could get . it definately makes you view animals differently. i mean roxy certainly had her own personality. so there we are. i wish you well roxy, have a good fun life.

name-dropping dostoevsky

2006-06-17T17:32:00.001Z

I noticed something the other day when i was thinking about writers being on a par with rockstars, i noticed that actually dostoeevsky gets quite a few mentions in songs. I was trying to figure out why this was when i saw a clip from the office where david brent is 'helping' someone with a crossword clue- something about a dissedent russian author. then there is that episode of father ted where he tries to impress a woman by saying he had read crime and punishment (he enjoyed the crime but thought the punishment let it down abit).

it appears that in our pop culture the sign of intelligence is whether you are familiar with dostoyevsky. if you are you can drop his name into something and look as though you are well read. so i thought i might see what songs a could remember that name dropped him. i thought of the 3 below but i'm sure there are more that i can't think of for now. if anyone can (and i'm sure rainey would have noticed some maybe you can send tham my way.

oh look what ive gone and done. i've only gone and dropped dostoyevsky into my blog so i look intelligent. huh

Sleeper-Lie Detector
she's got green eyes and she's lovely
reminds me of the 'it' girl with her lips
got an automatic license
reads all Dostoevsky's household tips

Willy Mason- Still a fly
But still, you're just a kid
You shouldn't read Dostoevsky at your age
That and nicotine will make you pale and lean
And twist your face like Mr. Grays
Religious manifests in paintings that you make
Or else your eyes will stay the same
Are you that hungry for a change?

Belle & Sebastian- This a Just a Modern Rock Song
I'm not as sad as Dostoevsky
I'm not as clever as Mark Twain
I only buy a book for the way it looks
And then I stick in on the shelf again#

Fun Lovin criminals-Come Find Yourself
I'm not a man with a grasp on reality
Kerouac is wack but I'm down with Dostoevsky
Sugar's got my back plus Baretta .380's
One of which I dropped as the man tried to bait me.

one i found i response to jonny's comment about doing more than just name dropping:

Mountain Goats, The - Love Love Love

raskalnikov felt sick
but he couldn't say why
when he saw his face reflected
in his victim's twinkling eye
some things you do for money
and some you'll do for fun
but the things you do for love
are gonna come back to you one by one

wanted: good home for dog, two careful owners (see post below)

2006-06-10T17:46:00.000Z

2006-06-10T16:39:00.000Z

well as much as it pains us to do this we have no other choice... we have to re-home roxy. it appears no-one in swansea or manchester is willing to rent us a house with roxy as well. as with us not having a clue what we will be doin or where we will be doing it, having a dog just isnt practical or fair on rox.

so we are making a public appeal! is anyone interested in taking on this awesome little dog?

we really really dont want to have to give her up but there is just no other way, and it would be great if someone up north wanted her because then there is more chance of us seeing her.

we cant even begin to tell you how great she is. she's such good company and she is really great on walks, and no lie, she is funny. and she has such a great personality and she's just really lovely.

she's quick to learn, really clever, and she gets on with everyone (except for a little thing she developed about mark payne, but i blame him) and she is beautiful, and a real dog. and she's a bit of a tom boy.

she love the outdoors, she can run for hours or just mooch around the garden. and she dosent mind entertaining herself whilst we are both at work.

she is welsh. she loves to cwtch and she's fully house trained.

we feel awful that we have to get rid of her, but the way we see it is that she had an awesome year with us and if we hadnt of taken her on in the first place who knows what the man from the pub would have done with her.

we know taking on a dog is a big responsibility and maybe none of you are interested but we wanted to give people we know a chance first before we have to give her away to a random.

but if anyone is interested then you would love her and you can call or post or whatever.

thanks x

make hay not war

2006-06-05T19:31:00.000Z

the hay festival is quite unlike any other festival i've ever been to. i always liked the idea of authors being as high profile as rock stars-for instance i always thought you should be able to buy big posters of dostoyevsky or tolstoy like you could of REM or the Chilis. i did have a good dostoyevsky penguin tshirt fow awhile but it was a really weird shape.

anyway for one week a year in a little welsh border town the book is king and the writer is received like a rock star. so it was that myself and my sister wound our way across the brecon beacons to get to the front row of the douglas coupland gig.

the festival site is just outside the secondhand bookshop filled town of hay so we killed a little time there. the site itself was a tented village with lots of middle aged/american/ families with wacky kids sitting around reading books and papers on literery themed deckchairs. actually the mix of people kind of reminded me of a christian event.

douglas coupland was his same random self. he read lists from his new book then there was an interview with an observer journalist. he was kind of pissed cause the guardian had given him his first bad review that very day. afterwards though i got to get my books signed. nothing less than the limited edition,boxed, hardback with the limited edition jpod cube figure (see i told you it was kind of like music). we actually had quite a lengthy chat- as lengthy as you can have when you are in a queue. we discussed flaming lips (from my tshirt-he likes them), podcasts and blogs (his book is about life in the time of google- i told him he would be on mine in a day or two) and ebay (he was going to sell our handshakes on it the next day).

of yes i had my picture taken next to some giant books

here comes the sun

2006-06-02T13:20:00.000Z

ah school's out, the sun's out and i've handed in my last pgce essay. it's a good day by the seaside in my shorts and flip flops. how could things get any better i hear you say.....

....well this morning i managed to get free tickets to go and see douglas coupland talk about his new book, jpod at the hay festival tomorrow.

Gorkys Zygotic Mynci RIP (Rock in Peace)

2006-05-27T08:26:00.000Z

The BBC report

one of the crap things about growing up is that eventually all the bands you loved split up. ok it's not like anyone died but when you have grown up with a band and listened to them for hours and hours there's still a gap there. that feeling that you will never get to see them live again. it happened with crowded house (and the death of paul hester- the drummer), it happened with pavement and now yesterday it happened with Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. they hadn't put out anything for a couple of years but there's always that hope that that they would tour.

what made this band great was the gigs. they were always really intimate affairs, like you were in on a great secret. they never got very big- more of a cult following so you always had the chance to chat to them while the support band was on or while you were buying a tshirt off them. the first time i saw them was when i was in college. all my friends were mad on the manic street preachers who were playing in manchester. so we went along in the afternoon to try to meet them. round the back was a huge group of tortured angst-ridden youths waiting for the manics. round the side was me and one other guy trying to catch the support band-gorky's. i got to meet them and they signed my album for me.

i've managed to see them about 9 times since and each time has been amazing. it's always great to see the faces of the people i have taken when euros childs starts up Poodle Rockin'.

The there we go Gorky's Zygotic Mynci RIP . of course with all these splits you still get to see someone from the band play- stephen malkmus, neil finn etc and i have already managed to see one ex=gorky play but it's never quite the same.

all over, bar the shouting

2006-05-23T22:16:00.000Z

the pressure seems to have eased off a bit now after my visit from Her Majesty's top inspector for Wales on monday. they really shouldn't make me be that organised. i had to show him my 'school experience files' which are meant to have everything form our school placements in. which would have been fine if i could have taken in my 'school experience cupboard' . that not being what he was after i had to spend the weekend file lots of bits of paper into little plastic sleeves.

but thats all over now and everyone seems happy. turns out the school was just as disorganised as me so we mucked through together. i wouldn't have it any other way.

so now i'm pushing through to half term or 'whitsun' as people call it in the trade. then i have 3 1/2 weeks . all over, bar the shouting as my uni tutor said today and there will probably be a lot more of that.

luckily i have the recently released season 3 of northern exposure on dvd to help me through it. old favourites, new episodes that i must have missed the first time around and lots of classic lines. here's one from the episode i watched today:

"we all want to be obi wan kenobi, and for the most part we are but there's a bit of darth vadar in all of us"

2006-05-20T18:44:00.000Z

i feel like i need a real kick at the minute. ive been caught up in the feeling that just simply surviving is enough work never mind actually doing anything. i think its that darn swansea influence again. there is so much i want to do but just have no motivation whatsoever to do anything and it makes me so mad! even the smallest things, i wanted to buy a new longboard so i could skate everywhere rather than drive. have i done it? nope. even cycling, thats so easy, but i still havent managed to unlock the bike from the back gate thats been sitting there for the last 9 months. join a boycott and stick to it. nope. no motivation to do that. have a fire. no. learn to speak spanish, no! when did i become so uninspired and unmotivated and just plain lazy? and it makes me mad at myself but not mad enough to actually get up and do anything. just studying and catching up with people, scraping money together to survive and 'thinking' about the things i should be doing seems like hard work, and at the end of a day of just sitting down and having a nice cup of tea seems like the most appealing thing. and even now im sitting here ranting about it instead of actually doing anything about it. ill head to the pub, being with people that are worse off than you always makes you fell better.

i'll tell you why i don't like mondays

2006-05-15T19:26:00.000Z

my positivity for the week lasted all of 3 hours. it was then that i found out that our car failed it's MOT and left lisa and roxy pretty much stranded in manchester. apparently it's a 5 minutes drive away from complete catastropic collapse. funny we didn't notice on hte way up to manchester but there you go. now we have to work out wether it is worth trying to get it fixed or cutting our loses. in other news i found out that out of all the people on my course i get the pleasure of having the chief history inspector for wales coming to watch me next monday. it's not all bad he's checking up on the uni and the school more so it won't directly effect me.