August

August for me is without doubt the best month of the year - as it is usually the one where I take the bulk of my holidays. This year was no different, though was very much a staycation, as I had a boiler and new sofa to purchase. The joys home ownership!

Another thing that was no different this year was the weather. For the five years I have been able to take August off, the weather has been dreadful. As I write this, the weather has taken a turn for the better…typical!

The weather has been good for writing, which I have been doing with regularity. The aim is to send more and more stuff out, instead of hording it in folders and on my computer. I have also been tinkering with a website, this will be a portfolio, which is something that I have been meaning to do for a while. That can be found here, I will eventually move this blog over there, all in good time.

I was also planning to set up another blog site but that idea (which I will keep on the backburner for now) was taken over by another idea I had for a football blog. I quite enjoy watching football and if I’m not at Everton then I like to find myself watching non-league football. This is known as Groundhopping, not something I have done that extensively but over the years I have visited a few weird and wonderful grounds.



Speaking of football, the new season is upon us and so far I have seen Everton twice, first for the unique friendly versus their Chilean namesakes, which was an interesting game and good to see Everton winning 2-0...well they could not lose. It was a significant game for me also had a first in nearly thirty years (gulp…thirty years) of going to the game that I had managed to catch one of the toffees thrown by the Toffee Lady. The second game was the first league clash against Wolves, which I haven’t put finger to keyboard to write about, given that it was typically a last-game-on-Match-of-the-Day-type-game. Roll on November, when Everton normally start getting their act together.



After months spent with my head in books researching for new modules and programmes that I will be involved in at work next term it is nice to spend my summer reading books that may not be work related. The range of books may not have been be too heavy or too frothy; I certainly did not envisage reading Joyce’s Ulysses this year, which I did not.

One omission from the reading list that I notice, is that I have not read much fiction of late, I’m not too sure why that is. I have read a few short collections of flash fiction, which I quite liked, one is produced by the University of Chester called Flash. I have bought subscribed to this for a while now and it gets better with each issue. The other publications I managed to check out were Square which I managed to get through a couple of back issues that I had been accumulating. Square is a Welsh based publication with a healthy Stone Roses obsession. As well as Square, I picked up another small-scale flash fiction publications Nutshell. I may not pick up some of these publications again, but its good to see different styles of writing are out there, without having to spend too much time reading them. What I like about Flash Fiction is the ability to dip in and out of publications.

The other books I read included Joe Moran’s On Roads, Luke Haines Bad Vibes and Louise Wener’s which I have blogged about elsewhere on this blog.

Music wise I went to see John Grant and my thoughts on that gig can be found here. Also I have listened to a few albums over the last few weeks, the pick of which is very much the John Grant album Queen of Denmark. My thoughts can be found on that and the others that I listened to can be found here.

In-between my car being on blocks (three trips to the garage of late) this summer has taught me that a new car is needed I tried to get away for a few trips Buxton and Morecombe were the height of my travels which is a might frustrating.



So its back to work and typically the next month will disappear in the blink of an eye…soon it will be a new term and then…I wont say it but you know what.

Writing

I read a number of writing blogs and subscribe to Writers' News. So I'm well versed in the mantra that to be a writer you have to write every day. That it is a given, but the problem tends to be when it comes to describing yourself as a writer. As yet I have not been published for my creative works - despite numerous resolutions that I will start sending this work off, that still sits on a hard drive or when I’m feeling really proactive in a folder.

Most of the advice tends to be the obvious, but the one about writing everyday alas that has not been possible of late given my commitments in work and somehow I’m no further down the road to achieving my goals.

This year I didn't bother writing down my resolutions for the year - though somewhere at the back of my mind I have a number of unwritten goals that I would like to achieve.

If I had resolution it would have been to send out more of my writing, which I have not really done – though I did send out a final draft of play that I had written. This was rejected though I’m not despondent about this, as I know why it was not suitable. This will give me pointers for the next one that I write.
So the summer months, where I will hopefully get a long break from work. I hope to devote a bit of time to a number of writing projects as well as getting this blog sorted, as it has been somewhat neglected of late.

It's been a while...

I have not been sat behind this computer screen to compose a blog for a good few months, to be honest, I just haven’t had the inclination to write. So here goes, by way of a catch up.

After nearly five weeks off work – typical really I haven’t really been bothered or had the time to update this here blog and suddenly I back at work with seemingly less time on my hands than before - I’m suddenly compelled to wax lyrical. Having lay awake in bed until after 3 am on Wednesday morning, it was back to work later that day and back into the routine.

To say the summer weather has been something of a disappointment is an understatement – though as someone who has probably spent most of my holiday indoors - I can’t say that I didn’t really worry that the weather was so poor.

The always ever-present list of jobs to do and things that I hoped to accomplish went out the window in the first couple of weeks. The joining of a gym and the purchase of a new bike has not happened.

Part of the planning was that the time was to be spent doing a number of routine DIY jobs that I had been planning to get around to over the last few months. This I hoped would only take a couple of weeks – leaving me with plenty of time to get on with the fore mentioned stuff.

No such luck I’m afraid, one job led to another and before I knew it – I’m back at work contemplating a long, long term and the next break, that will be at Christmas.

The plan with the DIY was to tile the kitchen floor and change the decor, as well as this I was planning to change the bathroom suite and fit an extractor fan in the bathroom. What I hadn’t planned was the fact that I had to get the floor leveled, the electrics rewired and the fact that the water stopcock hadn’t been set up properly – thus adding delays and further cost to my plans.

Also, just to stop me twiddling my thumbs, I decided to paint my bedroom too. I think I’m probably depicting this as some sort of heroic solo effort here – thankfully I had the help of my Mum and Dad to call on to help me with many of the jobs.

I do feel as though I’m imposing on them at times, but bizarrely they are always on at me, asking when I’m decorating, as they want something to do – there is never really a time when they aren’t tackling something like this at their own home. So this is probably like another extended project for them. So I’m back at work and the job is still unfinished. Thankfully they are on hand to help finish the job for me, all for the price of an endless supply of HobNobs, coffee and the occasional takeaway.

I did manage to leave the house for a reasonable amount of time; one of the highlights of the summer was going to London to catch up with friends Barry and Ann. I went down for a long weekend and had a great time. I was treated to a visit to a great pub not far from where they lived, as well as a visit to the numerous great sites that London has to offer. As well some great restaurants and bars too.

I managed to see a number of things while I was down there, there main thing I wanted to see was the Gormley exhibition at the Hayward - which was good. I also had the chance to visit the Tate for the first time – generally the weekend was spent drinking and eating too much - that’s normally a recipe for a good time in my books.



Speaking of the Tate, I went to the Liverpool version to see the Peter Blake exhibition, which was a little disappointing to say the least. For someone who was synonymous with the Beatles, this period of his career was strangely overlooked – especially considering that the exhibition was in Liverpool too.

I normally attend the Beatles festival every summer, this year I have decided to not bother (it is actually taking place this weekend) though I did managed to indulge in a bit Beatles related nostalgia last weekend when I gave a friend of mine from Stoke a tour of the Beatles Story and all the other haunts around the city.

A dream possibly came true for me over the summer, my obsession with all things Echo and the Bunnymen has been chronicled here and this obsession was satiated when St Helens third Eclectica festival had the Bunnymen as the headline act.




There was a double bonus was that John Power was also on the bill too. Both acts were on fine form – I missed the first bits of his set as I arrived late as I attended the first Everton game of the season – which wasn’t that great, though thankfully we won.




One down spot over the summer was the death of my neighbour Jim. He was in his late 70s and had been ill for some time. He had been fading for a while and the neighbours and I had rallied around to look after him – I even at one point had to get up and call an ambulance at 3 in the morning after he had a fall and I could here him calling through the walls.

He was a nice man but a bit of a stubborn bugger. He didn’t really have family that come to help him and he also refused to go in a home. This would have been better for him, as his quality of life would have been better for the last few months. Having lived in the same house for his 79 years he finally got his final wish, he said to me a few months before he died that: “There’s no bloody way I’m going in a home, they will have to carry me out in a box.” Which sadly what they did.

Another sad event this summer was the passing of Anthony H Wilson - a great man. Without his vision, mine and many others record collections would be devoid of the great bands he signed and nurtured. He was often regarded as someone who hated Liverpool, it was probably the case it was had a blinkered view of Manchester at the expense of all other places. It was telling that Liverpool bands who had met him came out with equally glowing tributes as those of the bands from Manchester. Ian McCulloch did so at the Eclectica festival.



I have also listened to a fair bit of music over the summer - catching up with old stuff that I seldom listen to and buying far too many Cds. I would have bought more if I didn’t have the afore mentioned DIY to worry about. Those that I listened to so far, I have enjoyed the Editors, The White Stripes, Feist, and The Coral – which is probably one of the best things released this year.

I managed to get through a good number of books over the summer mainly books that have gathered dust on the bottom shelf of my bookcase. I finally got around to finishing Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, which is great read, but it will make more sense when the other volumes are published. Volume one jumps from the early part of his career to 1967 - then on to a pint later on in his career.

Apart from the trials and tribulations listed it’s been a reasonably good summer – onwards and upwards to Christmas. I may even blog at some point before then.