Sunday, October 29, 2006

28th August 2001

Well, who's been a busy boy these last few days? Tuesday I put my
mixing desk back in the studio and I just have to put all the rest
of the toys in tomorrow and things will be back to normal in my
control room. I am looking forward to propelling myself in my swivel
chair at high speed on my new floor, a luxury that I didn't have
with my old carpet. Ooooh, I can't wait!! I got a visit from my mate
Nige on Wednesday and popped up to the Tuck Inn CafÈ for a bacon and
mushroom roll and an afternoon in front of the telly watching my
favourite movie of all time, Harold and Maude. Nige had never seen
it before and he enjoyed it so much he said he was going to get a
copy himself. I have to say it is a top film and really appeals to
my black sense of humour. Thursday saw the return of the family from
their longer-than-expected stay in Liverpool and although the house
has been quite without them it was nice to have them all back home.
I spent Friday preparing for the visit of my cousin and his wife
from America and for Timbo who was on his way down from Wales.
Preparation was making some Chilli and some Spag Bol. I haven't seen
Billy since I was in the US with the band so it was great to catch
up and to meet his wife Ella and his sister-in-law Mariah. Timbo
arrived just before they did so we crammed round the table and had
loads of grub and beer and ice cream and good conversation. If you
are reading this Billy, I hope you all had a great flight home
without delays (more of this later!!!) and I hope we can see you
again soon.
Timbo and I had an early start Saturday as we were flying to Holland
to play a secret gig in Holland. There are several of you readers
will know Marie-Jose and Ingrid from Holland so you may have known
about the plan to do an acoustic gig for Ingrid's **th birthday
party (it would be rude of me to tell you the lady's age but I will
say that it is a big celebration with a zero in it!!!). We had to
drive to Luton Airport to get a flight to Amsterdam where we would
be met by MJ and a surprised Ingrid. We saw a celebrity at Luton in
the shape of Ben Dover who is a porno film maker with a sense of
humour and regular viewers of Channel 4 would have seen him on some
of their various late shows. We arrived safely and Ingrid was very
pleased to see us both and I think MJ almost collapsed with relief
because the enormous cat that had been hidden for months was finally
out of the bag!!! The weather was excellent and probably up near 30C
if not above and things were shaping up nicely. We checked into our
hotel, The Kurhaus, an awesome building right on the coast of a
wonderful place called Schreveningen. This is where MJ & Ingrid live
and it is a really smart little resort but let me tell you about the
hotel. Better still I would just ask you to go and have a look at
the panoramic tour on their website at www.kurhaus.nl and take a
look at their panoramic tour of the main hall which is a sight to
behold. The architecture in Shreveningen is well smart also with
lots of curves and lines and I was very impressed with the whole
look of the place. Tim said some of the building look like they have
been designed by Ikea and I think that is a good description. After
we checked in at the hotel and got sorted we went down onto the huge
terrace at the hotel for a drink and to meet up with Warrior's Steve
and Blackburn Noel who had also come along for the jolly. Later that
afternoon we went to a beach bar for food and drinks and met up with
Alex and Pauline (I Hate FGTH except "Rage Hard"). There are
definitely a lot worse ways to spend your time than sitting on the
beach in Holland with top lager and a bit of nosh on the side. Tim
and I went back to the hotel to have a run through and then we went
on to the venue called The French Bulldog. The bar owner's dog was a
French Bulldog hence the name of the bar. These dogs are like
ordinary bulldogs except they have big massive ears and look like a
cross between a dog and a bat. This one wandered about the bar being
pampered by everyone and chasing the odd beer can across the bar. We
did our spot and we went down ok but the main thing was whether
Ingrid enjoyed it. The importance of her happiness was the reason I
butchered "Broke" but she still enjoyed it despite my Cumberland
Fingers. We left the bar and went down to the beach for a late
coffee. I had tea and watched the big tractor vacuuming the beach
for the next day. As we were sitting at the table there were three
guys who were on the table next to me and we started, on their
instigation, to talk about football. The irony of this was that MJ
is always going on about the amount of football stuff on the website
and chat room. Even though she hates footy she did get me a prezzie
of a cool Russian footy shirt that she bought from E-Bay and a nice
bottle of red wine that I will put away for Xmas in Jersey. Next
morning Tim and I went for a stroll along the pier and then met up
with the gang for a drink on the beach and then on to an Indonesian
restaurant for a banquet which was enjoyed by all. Things took a
slight turn for the worse when it started to rain with extreme
thunder and lightning. The weather was still the same when we
arrived at the airport and the planes were all stacking up and we
were delayed for about an hour. We were told to go to about three
different departure gates and this was probably the reason for our
guitars being sent to Glasgow shortly after we took off for Luton. I
met up with Afro Celt Simon at the departure gate. He was returning
from a gig and had his son and two mates in tow. After a short bumpy
flight our pilot bounced the plane down at Luton Airport. The
stewardess came on the intercom and said the following: "For those
of you who haven't noticed we have just landed at Luton Airport. For
those of you suffering from haemorrhoids we hope you are cured. We
would like to remind you that there is no smoking until you are
inside the terminal building and after that landing you will
probably need a cigarette. On behalf of Captain Kangaroo and his
crew we would like to thank you for flying Easyjet.
Well you would think that all that would have been enough excitement
but not for this rock'n' roll animal. Early start on Tuesday morning
for a day at Thorpe Park with Taylor, Jakey Ginger Ninja, Stevie
Cool Cat and Super Danny Wilkins for a day of junk food and
adrenalin. We got there early to get on all the rides before there
were big queues and got to do most of the good rides. We went on
this big ride called Tidal Wave, a big drop sort of thing with a big
pool at the bottom. I was glad I removed my shirt (calm down ladies)
and stuffed it inside my hat because it was like being hosed down.
We had KFC, ice cream and hot dogs and donuts and fizzy pop and if
they aren't the ingredients of a good day out then I don't know
what is.

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