Merry Christmas

I haven't written anything since August :(
So . . . this usually means I end up doing a complete re-design of my useless website.
I probably will

First ride since last August . . .

Steph asked me to go on a bike ride cos she needs to do a bit of training for her charity ride in November.
I agreed, even though I haven't been on my bike for more than half an hour since last August.

We decided to start from Fiddlers Ferry and follow the Trans Penine Trail east. but before we had left the car-park Steph had two punctures. We finally got going at about half 10.
I used my whizzy new cycling app thingy on my iPhone. It records every mile of your journey via GPS and posts it live via Google Maps to Facebook.
It also relies on you to remember to pause and unpause the app every time you stop and start your journey. . . I forgot!
So we ended up doing a load of unrecorded miles which sort of defeated the object really. Our fifth mile turned out to be FIVE miles long and our 7th mile was about THREE MILES long. So we seem to have teleported about 8 miles of the journey. Here's a link to our route CLICK ME.

The weather was changeable. (Well that's what the weather man said anyway, and for once, he got it right.) It was cloudy and a bit breezy then the sun made an appearance followed by wind and rain. . . . And that was pretty much the way it stayed all day.
We took a lunch break at The Star Inn in Lymm which consisted of Coors light and Monster Munch. This is a cosy little pub and was a welcome refuge from the pissing down rain.

After about 40 minutes we set off again, following the old railway cutting towards Altrincham. This is a nice flat path that is broken up by gates every mile or so. Steph hates these gates. They're the type that are made narrow at the top to keep motorbikes off the path, and with in minutes of leaving the pub she had popped the stays off her front mud-gaurd (while trying to traverse the gate) The stays then tried to wrap themselves around the front wheel.
Talking of mud-gaurds, I think i might invest in a set. After we had ridden another couple of miles through mud and puddles. I seemed to be covered in shite from head to toe. And it wasn't smelling too good either. Whereas Steph and her bike were still immaculately clean and her fleece was "PURE"*** white. I had a line of horse shit six inches wide running right up my back and over my head :( . We made it to Altrincham for half 1 in the afternoon. Which wasn't bad considering we had stopped at Morrisons (for water), The Star Inn for lunch and a little sit down somewhere along the trail. We hid in the woods when the rain started and then made our way back half an hour later. We were making quite good speed until Steph got another puncture. We repaired it and while it was drying I fixed the busted mudguard. We were about to set off again when we discovered that the tyre had gone flat again . . .Meh! We ended up stopped for an hour. . .

The rest didn't do us any good and we both were really saddle sore and had to ride the next mile standing up. We picked up the pace again and made really good time considering. . . Anyway I rode through more shit and ended up smelling like a wild stallion for the last 5 miles or so. We were happy to arrive back at The Ferry Tavern only five and a half hours after we set off. It seemed like days. The iPhone App had worked out our average speed to be about 4 miles an hour. But that didn't include the lost 8 miles or our 2 hours of stoppages. . . . Well that's our excuse anyway.

*** Always say "PURE" in a really broad scally Scouse accent, followed by "Lad" or "Mate".

The Swell Season

One of my favourite bands ever ever ever . . . .

The Swell Season from The Room Live on Vimeo.

11/19/09 The Swell Season holds a special private performance in The Room Live with special guests Matthew Perry and Sheryl Crow.

Clatterbridge Rocks

My friends Steph Lewin & Ashley O'Malley are raising money for Clatterbridge Cancer Research. They are joining a group of registered fundraisers for a sponsored bike ride across Taiwan in November. They've collected money for Clatterbridge whilst packing shopping bags in ASDA, collecting cash in various fetes and fairs.

On Friday 20th of August they are putting on a rock concert at the O2 Academy in Liverpool with the help of Paul Bromsgrove. The O2 are kindly donating the venue for free and all the bands playing are also performing for free. All proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to Clatterbridge Cancer Research.
Bands who are performing include Bunny Munro, The Little Secrets & We//Are//Animal and tickets are only £5.00 and are available from the O2 Academy Box Office CLICK HERE
http://www.justgiving.com/Steph-Ashley-Cycle
Steph and Ashley have also set up a fund raising page on JustGiving.com you can donate any amount you would like to, and also leave them a message of support.

Token posting

I thought I'd write this because I haven't posted anything here for over two months.
I've been doing a few more paintings, but mostly I've been working :(

The massive project is now officially over, and my bonus for doing all those extra hours turns out to be about five times less than what I could've earned if I was getting paid overtime :( . Now I don't have a clue what my job will be. Maybe I should go back to the factory? Maybe I don't have the choice??

I've put all my weight back on, that I lost and I'm officially a fatty again. . . Meh!

Paintings

I spent most of the weekend putting the

finishing touches my big painting ('UNTITLED' 1.5m x 1.0m) for the Short Spring Open @ The Egg. I was up at 6 am this morning painting the edge of the canvas

and screwing on some hanging plates. Then I just about squeezed it into the back of the car with my other two canvases ('Yer Ma!' 0.5m x 1.0m & 'My Arse' 0.5m x 1.0m) and spent an hour

crawling down the M62 into Liverpool.

I parked on the double yellow lines outside of The Egg and miraculously I didn't get a parking ticket.

But there's still over a week until the launch night, so something else is bound to come up by then. Someting that'll cost me at least sixty odd quid :). Anyway that's it. I've actually got my first paintings in a gallery. No doubt I'll be on the front cover of Art World next month and I'll be wearing a wide brimmed hat and carrying a gold topped cane. This time next year I'll be minted and the toast of the art world. . . I just know it. It's bound to happen. I've also priced them ridiculously low. So get down to the Egg and buy one or two . .. It'll be an investment.

Movie or Book

Why is it, that when they make the movie based on the book, nine times out of ten they are crap? Or if they're not really crap, they just have one or two scenes that are so significantly different from the book, that they make you shout out "That doesn't happen!' or "WTF - Who's he/she??? - They weren't in the book???" and "Why have they missed out my favourite part?". Worst of all is when they leave out a complete character and give his lines and actions to another character, which ruins everything.
Last night I watched the movie adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Travellers Wife". If you haven't read the book you'll either enjoy this movie or be confused by the plot and then get into it just before it ends. But if you have read the book, you'll be screaming at the screen within seconds of the opening titles. I'm not saying this movie is crap, I actually did enjoy it, but it just can't compare to the book.



Another movie, based on one of my favourite books is 'The Golden Compass' - Phillip Pullman's Northern Lights (I should have realised it was going to be crap, when they used the dumbed down American book title for the movie version.).
Why doesn't Hollywood put all that money into making epic TV series from great novels? After all, the majority of the population watch movies on their massive HD LCD tellies. Instead they keep pumping out endless series' of shite, Lost, 24 and CSI. It's impossible to fit a book that can take up to 30 hours to read, into a screenplay of 3 hours or less.
The only exceptions to the rule is when a movie is made from a short story, one that you could read in the same time it takes to watch the movie. Or when the screenplay is so good it brings the movie up to the books standard ( Stand By Me). It's like a cover version of your favourite song. You imagine you'll hate it but somehow it grows on you and you end up liking it just as much or even liking it more. Although Madonna's cover of American Pie will never be in the same league as Don McLean's original tribute to Buddy Holly...
So my conclusion is this - If you enjoyed reading book, don't ever expect the movie to be anything like it. You'll always be disappointed. The best movies are written directly for the screen or are adaptations of plays.

Alderley Edge

Yesterday me and Steph went to Alderley Edge. I think it's my favourite place in the world :)
I've been a bit obsessed with Alderley Edge since I read Alan Garner's books The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath I was convinced for some reason that "The Edge" was an invention of Alan Garner's imagination, i never thought it could be a real place. . . It wasn't until a few years later, when I got my first car, that I found out that The Edge was real!

No-one in our family had ever owned a car, so suddenly having the freedom to travel anywhere I wanted to, in the country, was a bit too much. I'd pick a place from my road atlas and just go. It was great. One day I was planning a route to the Peak District and spotted Macclesfield on the map. I remembered that "The Edge" was situated on the Macclesfield Road in Alan Garner's books. I traced my finger back along the road towards Alderley

and there it was! I couldn't believe it. The Edge actually existed... Two Hours Later I was there. I was standing on Stormy Point with my back to The Devils Grave, looking out over the Cheshire Plain. After a bit of searching, I found The Wizard's Well, Castle Rock, The Golden Stone and loads of other caves and mines. I was chuffed.
That was back in 1983 and I've visited Alderley Edge as often as I can, ever since.

First Proper Exhibition Entry

I've actually pulled my finger out and entered four paintings for the Spring Open @ The Egg.
I was originally going to enter some in the last open exhibition 'Winter Blues' in December, but I bottled out at the last minute. Well this time I'm a lot more confident and I'm even painting two new pieces especially for this exhibition.
I've never shown any of my paintings before, so it's quite a big achievement for me getting this far.

I know I won't sell anything. . . . The art world isn't quite ready for Mikey Gannon

Bleuuurgghhhh!!!!!

I woke up this morning at 1am and projectile vomited from both ends. It's a special talent that I didn't know I had.

Another Expensive night out.

What is it with me and these gallery nights at The Egg? I buy myself a cool piece of art for a bargain price and it ends up costing me an arm and a leg because some other weird thing happens to me on the way home. Well it happened again. I went to the opening night of Tinsel and Twinkle's show,
'It was the best of times, It was the worst of times'
As determined as I was not to repeat the 65 quid taxi ride, I think I would have been better off getting drunk and letting it happen all over again.
I took all the precautions I could; I didn't drink Alcohol, I didn't travel home by train and I took my car.

The show as great, very Banksy/Pop Art-ish (I'm not an art critic so that's as far as I'll go). I bought a couple of prints by Twinkle. (Click on them to see bigger versions) and Jazamin found a "Lucky Penny" on the floor and passed it on to me and I thought everything was going great. I got the prints for a bargain price and I got a bottle of wine to take

home. But then the good luck turned bad.
Being a good samaritan and wanting to show off my new car, I decided I would give Karen and Jazamin a lift home. As I was reversing out of my parking space I 'kerbed' one of my whizzy alloy wheels. Then, about ten minutes later, I got flashed by a speed camera on West Derby Road :( I was doing nearly 40 in a thirty. It felt like I was doing about 20. Bloody quiet modern cars. . . . There's a 60 quid fine and 3 points already. I don't even want to know how much an alloy wheel is to repair.
Lucky Penny My Arse.

Tomorrow, I'm having a lie in. . .

I'm not getting up until 8am tomorrow. That's a three hour lie in and i think I deserve it. I'm getting a bit fed up of 10 and 12 hour days, for no extra pay. By 7 o'clock tonight i had a bit of brain ache. I think I'll start claiming some overtime. . .

Painting

I bought a couple of canvases today and started a new painting. At the moment I've got a green thingy going on, so it's green and that's about it. I'm off to the Egg on Wednesday for the latest opening and to pick up Karen's Cannibals :)
This time I'll be driving, so there's no chance of me falling asleep and waking up in Manchester. I'll just be drinking orange juice.
Forthcoming Exhibition

I wonder if I. . . .

. . . . should delete my MySpace account? Does anybody still use MySpace these days? How long will it be before Facebook goes the same way? What will be the next big social networking thing?

New fastest month of my life. . . . ever!

I know I said this last month, but THIS has been the fastest month of my life ever . .. It's March tomorrow??? What's going on? It's still freezing and there's more snow forecast for next week. Everyone's saying that this has been the longest, coldest winter for years, but I think it's going really fast. . . I feel like time has been whizzing by since November, it just doesn't seem real.

My super fast weight loss seems to have levelled out now. I feel a lot better for it. I'm still having an 80's retro clothing revival :) I've got bags of stuff that fits me again and still looks ok, by todays standards. I went shopping yesterday and it was like 'Back To The Future' All the stuff I used to buy back in '82 is in the shops again. The biggest difference is, I don't have to bring my jeans home and sit in a hot bath with them on to shrink fit. I don't have to get my sister to take 'em in and make them skinny. And I don't have to attack em with a bottle of Domestos and a 2 inch paintbrush. All that's already done before they sell you them.

No car until Tuesday

I was looking forward to picking up the Lardmobile MkIV on Saturday, but have just been informed that it won't be ready until Tuesday :( . You watch the weather. It's bound to start raining for the next 4 days and I'll get soaked every day . . . I suppose I'll just have to make do with looking at photo's on the internet. My train pass doesn't run out until the 8th of March anyway. . ..

I just bought myself a birthday present.

I just bought a car. I didn't mean to, I just did. I just got myself a KIA Soul "Shaker" 1.6CRDi. I pick it up next week. I cant wait! It's like something that the ant hill mob would drive. I think its cool! :)

Happy Birthday To ME!!!!

Hello stalkers. It's my birthday and I'm writing this on a stolen internet connection. I'm off out for some food with the family and then I'm off to the pub with some of the people from work. I'm bunking in on somebody's leaving do.

Then tomorrow,if I'm still alive, I'm going on an all dayer with the Lardy Boys. . . .
I feel younger on this birthday instead of older . .. .

:)

iPlayer Downloader

The BBC have made it possible for you to download shows to view on your iPhone, but iPlayer on your mac, PC or PS3 only allows you to watch and not record. And then you can only watch if you have quite a fast internet connection otherwise it just won't work.

About 18 months ago I discovered 'iPlayer Downloader' while I was Googling for ways to download programmes from iPlayer. Seems that a couple of geeks had the same idea and wrote this cool app for the mac.

Basically it allows you to download most TV and all of the radio programmes available on BBC's iPlayer. That's probably why it's called "iPlayer Downloader".I was quite chuffed to find it works perfectly and now I can watch all-sorts of stuff on my mac or my iPod when travelling to work on the train. I love it :-)

Click here to download it

When Annie Met Sally

I'm just watching "When Harry Met Sally" on Comedy Central. and I've only just realised that the reason that I like it so much is because there are loads of bits taken straight from Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" and "Play It Again Sam". The references to Casablanca, The split screen phone conversations and the back story that men and women can't be friends because the sex part gets in the way. And even the theme song is the same as in Annie Hall ("It Had to Be You" - It's an instrumental in When Harry Met Sally and in Annie Hall Diane Keaton sings it. It's also on the soundtrack of Casablanca) In a couple of scenes in WHMS Sally dresses like Annie. Even the credits are straight from a Woody Allen Film, plain white text on black. There are probably another hundred or so references, in there, that I haven't mentioned.
I'm not saying it's a rip off, it's definitely a homage. It's one of my favourite films but for some reason I've never realised this before. What's been going on in my head for the past 20-odd years?

This weekend . . .

I've mostly been building this website, whilst laying prone in my bed. Only getting up to visit;

a. The bog, b. The Kitchen and c. The pub.

I've just had an automated phone-call from Santander Credit telling me I must immediately pay the sum of "Zero Pounds and Zero Pence" to clear my outstanding credit card bill?
I was then given three options, none of which, was to talk to a humanoid. I chose button 3 "I have already paid" . . . Some robot's going to be pissed off, when she finds out that I lied and haven't made the minimum payment of "Zero Pounds and Zero Pence".

Expensive night out :(

Last night I went to The Egg for the opening of Karen & Jazamin's joint exhibition, aptly titled Karen and Jazamin :)
I bought one of Karen's pen and ink "Cannibal" drawings. "Something To Stew About" Initially I thought that the evening was excellent value for money. Free wine and a framed pen and ink drawing for £35. Then we went to the pub and had a lock in. But I had to leave because the last train to Warrington was at 11:30.
I made it to the train with seconds to spare and was soon on my way home with chicken and chips for my supper.

But then things went a bit wrong. I closed my eyes . . . When I opened them the train was just leaving Warrington Central. . . . Bollox!!!
I was expecting to have to get off at Birchwood (About 3 miles from Warrington) and have a short Taxi ride home. Unfortunately the train didn't stop at Birchwood. It didn't stop until it reached Manchester Piccadilly and my 3 mile taxi ride home ended up being a £65 trip down the M62.
Karen , I told you last night, that you had set the prices too low. I should have kept my mouth shut. I ended up paying a hundred quid for those little cannibals. . .

Eggspace

Today I feel GREAT!!!

Today has been great!. . . I feel great.
I haven't done anything great in particular (Is that how you spell it? It looks wrong to me)
My dad told me that he has thrown a load of my HiFi equipment out, because it was "broke". But I know it wasn't and he just hasn't ever learnt how to use anything even slightly more modern than a record player. And it cost me about 700 quid and in reality that should detract from the greatness that I am feeling, but it doesn't. I still feel great.
I FEEL GREAT . . . .
A Chinese Sky lantern has just flown past my window as I was typing this . . . If you're reading this Lesley, how weird is that??? :)

Fastest month of my life

Yep, time is definitely speeding up. It's February tomorrow and less than 11 months till Christmas. :)
I still haven't had the results from my CaT Scan, but I'm feeling 100% better than I was a couple of weeks back.
The weight loss is still happening, but not as quickly as it was just before Christmas. I'm about 68Kg now. I was 81kg in November. In my medical, last week I was told that I'm still 16lbs overweight. So I'm aiming for around 60-61kg to be my ideal weight.
I've tried loads of diets over the years and have always found it really hard to keep the weight off. But now I've discovered the easiest diet in the world. and it costs absolutely nowt. I just drink loads and loads of water. About 3 litres a day. I don't feel the urge to eat a snack or make a sandwich. I think I used to eat out of pure boredom. I'm not even that hungry anymore. Now when I eat, it's because I need to and not because I'm looking for something to do.
The only problem is, none of my clothes fit me now. I need a load of new stuff.
Anyway, I'm fed up of being mistaken for a hobo.

CAT Scan fun

I went to Halton Hospital today to get a scan. I was expecting to be there for hours and also expecting to get some sort of dye injected into my veins.
I waited for about 20 mins and then my name was called. I went into the scanner room and was told to lie on my front on the scanner bed. I was put into the scanner, arse first and a robotic voice told me to hold my breath. I was scanned and then the whole thing was repeated. I was on the bus home, less than 10 minutes later. No injections or anything. I didn't even get undressed. How cool is that?

New Year, New Website.

Seeing as it's a new year, I thought I'd build myself a new website.

At the moment it's just this blog and is a bit boring, but I'll try and make it a bit more interesting, in the future.
It's been a bit of a crap start to the new year. On NewYears Eve I got myself some kidney stones, which basically meant I was in bed until Sunday the 10th. I went back to work on Monday but by Monday night the pain was back and I was up all night, feeling like crap. I stayed in bed all of Tuesday and quite a lot of today. I feel a lot better now, so I might go back to work tomorrow.
The weather has been great for the past three weeks. Great if you like snow, but I've only been out of the flat 3 times since boxing day and that was to buy some thermal underwear & a bit of food and a visit to the doctors.