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Tuesday 1st March 2005
God, what happened to February? Well, anyway . . . busy right now . . . OU assignments to complete. Nothing to see here. But, say . . . wasn't "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" an odd film? I must have watched it recently.
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Thursday 3rd March 2005
  
Not sure what's going on here, although I recognise these people. I lent my camera to M**** that night and she came back with these images. "So, what do you want me to do with them?" I ask. "Oh, I don't know," M**** replies. "Well, shall I put them on my web-site?" "Erm . . . oh, whatever, I don't know. I don't mind. Just, erm . . . yeah, that's fine. What? What was I saying?" "We were talking about those pictures you took the other night, remember?" "What? What pictures? What are you on about? Who are you anyway?" After all, she is trying to construct another brain right now.
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Saturday 5th March 2005
   
So, the plan for this morning/afternoon was to head to Hadrian's Wall with me, M**** and my brother. We got to my brother's house at about . . . well, perhaps 11 o'clock. I'm not too sure. We then headed up towards Carlisle, stopping off at the services near Tebay in order to buy some spanners (the nut holding down the driver's side windscreen wiper was loose and kept going off at a funny angle). On the outskirts of Carlisle, we stopped off at the Tesco there,
for victuals, as my brother likes to call them. Our first stop was Birdoswald (sp.?!) where we had a bit of a wander around, but then it started raining, so we ate our lunch in the car. Then on to Walltown Crags, which are where these pictures were taken (15:27 through to 15:30). As you can see, the weather took a turn for the worse, so . . . back to the car. Finally - Housesteads, which we reached at just before 16:00. But, of course, it closed at 16:00, and this we realised AFTER I had paid for the parking ticket. Grrrrrr. I let my brother have a go in the car when we left Housesteads. That's him in the picture to the right there, taken at 16:02.
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Sunday 6th March 2005
 
Then in the evening we had dinner over at M****'s dad's place. It might be easier to say Mark's place, but then you would have no frame of reference. You'd be lost. Lost and scared. Anyway . . . those pictures were taken quite late, 01:09 and 01:11 (and therefore Sunday) and the man who is not me is Mark and the woman who is not M**** is Mark's girlfriend, Maria. All clear now? Blimey - writing to a 4.7GB DVD at 652KB/s sure as hell takes a long time . . . perhaps just over two hours, come to think of it. That can't be right, can it? Crazy . . .
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So, following many, many hours of sleep, M**** went off to see her mum (this being Mother's Day, of course), and my mum's children (less Jessica) plus dad and Hilary (sister-in-law) sauntered over to the Boot and Shoe for a reserved table there. I'm not sure when this picture was taken. Well, I know it says 15:09, so I'm guessing that would have been after the Boot and Shoe . . . that would make sense. Yeah . . . so . . . a fairly typical family scene, really. My mum's probably just taken some highly embarrassing picture of someone caught unawares.
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Saturday 12th March 2005
   
Tonight we went out to Casa Mia, I seem to recall. Food was gorgeous. I had, erm . . . meatballs, or something. One of the bits of pasta was huge. M**** was driving. I think we parked in The Light car park . . . probably. And last orders (this isn't in order) were at the, er, the . . . the Victoria. Yep, that was it. And that's the car in the second to last picture there. It's a bit dirty on account of all the grit on the roads, you see.
   
Note the obliteration of the number plate. It doesn't really look that. That last picture (bottom right) will be back at home.
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Sunday 13th March 2005
 
. . . continued from Saturday night . . . well, it wouldn't be right if there weren't a load of blurry pictures in the early hours of Sunday morning, now would it? I've no idea why I had that light on up there. That diagram on the black-board is M**** trying to explain how to get to Asda. Something about going right at Mike's Carpets and following signs to Pudsey until you hit some roundabout, at which you have to turn around, effectively. You get the idea.
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Guess where I was today? I like the crow in this picture. Well, I think it's a crow. That's what they all sounded like anyway. Erm . . . it was about 16:08 and, yes, we're in Howarth here. It was a rather tortuous journey there. I took us a direct route there, but it was a via a load of nasty 30/40 mph roads through some rather tatty areas at times as well.
 
M**** thought I had taken the wrong route but it was actually correct, as it turned out. I'm sure it's quicker by train though. At one point, this crazy dog kind of loped right in front of our car, seemingly oblivious to any danger it may have faced. Had M**** not braked sharply and had there not been traffic in the opposing lane (allowing evasive maneuvres (?!)), we probably would have hit it, and it was no small dog neither. Not good. But, yeah . . . we got there fine, arriving a few minutes after Liz and Anthony. M**** and I also had Simon and Beccy in our car, you see.
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. . . and then we have various other pictures. This is the parsonage (to the left there). If I was a fan of the works of the various Bronte (sorry - can't be bothered to find a character with two dots above the E) sisters, I might be a bit more excited by all this, but it was pretty nonetheless . . . The parsonage had been converted
  
into some kind of museum thing, where M**** and I sat outside, laughing about something (I think it was the fact that M**** had said to Liz when asked what was up here, "Oh, just some church and gravestones," in a kind of bored/dismissive way) and waiting for the others. Then I took the picture with the tree on the left there (left of the picture, that is), and then I think Simon had a go and then M**** took the one with the, er, white flowers . . . what they called? Snow-drops?
 
. . . and there lots of graves with children buried, and some rather odd gravestones, hence that picture to the left there. I thought there were too many pillows there myself, but hey . . .
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. . . and then some boring pictures of a street somewhere. Oh, it's Howarth again. We had dinner at the Old White Lion and the food was amazing. P'raps one of the best, most richest, sticky toffee puddings I've ever had.
Mmmmmmmmmmm. That to the left there is a picture of M**** and I at the Old White Lion, at exactly 18:19.
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Monday 14th March 2005
Finally have some time to work my way through this back-log of photographs and get this thing vaguely up-to-date. My recent university assignment was handed in on time but incomplete. The last ten points worth (out of one hundred) were just doing my head in. Tonight I have been updating the web-site here, but am starting from the oldest pictures, which go back 17th February, when M**** and I went to the Clarendon Wing of the LGI to do some ultrasound stuff. Right . . . anyway.
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Tuesday 15th March 2005
Hello? Today is Tuesday, I think. My watch is broke. M**** and I went to the hospital again today, for another scan, so that was good. It's a boy. Although that's not really how the radiographer (?!) put it. She zoomed in to the pelvic area and did a freeze-frame thing. The picture kind of spoke for itself and she just said, "I'm not saying anything." She kind of humoured M**** when M**** asked, "But are you sure? I mean, it could just be a shadow or something," as she had probably seen this kind of thing hundreds of times before. That picture was taken afterwards at some pub or another . . . no, it was the, er . . . Joseph's Well. Yes, that was it. That's M**** checking out the pictures we got of the scan, but they were nothing exciting, once again. Ah well. Where's my scanner anyway?
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Wednesday 16th March 2005
Tonight night I was largely preparing the walls in my lounge for paint. That sounds like I've got a friend called paint who insists on extremely clean walls whenever he comes round my house. Erm . . . yeah. So, this included sounding down previously plastered bits (the plastering was done on Tuesday night) and then washing down a few walls with this 'sugar soap' stuff (apparently the sugar refers to the crystalline structure and nothing more) and then washing all ther remains off with, erm, water, hot water. So, nothing too exciting, and no pictures. Whaddaya want, pictures of clean, bare walls?
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Thursday 17th March 2005
Went wandering around town with M**** after work. There were quite a few freaks in large black/green hats staggering and shouting around town at that time. Indeed, on our way from Borders to, er . . . I don't know . . . somewhere like Monsoon . . . we were just heading down Briggate, you know? Anyway, we're heading down there, and there's this freak, a man in his mid to late thirties, dressed in jeans and denim jacket, I guess . . . nothing special, and he's dancing to something, and there's these community support officers, a man and a woman, kind of watching him, smiling but also wondering what to make of this. I noticed he had a little, portable CD player of some kind . . . the music was odd, foreign, Hawaiian perhaps . . . whatever, so it wasn't like he was dancing to something only he could hear, although his sense of rhythm was questionable, so maybe the music he was dancing to wasn't the music we could hear. I just don't know. A town full of freaks. Yeah, so . . . what was I going on about? I think you had finished. Oh, okay. No time for decorating tonight. We got home late and then I had a DVD to burn for Liz.
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Friday 18th March 2005
Another odd e-mail . . . they seem to have trouble ending sentences . . . this one's from 'Palmiro Pate' (Stanford@gaf.com) and addressed to another of my many personalities, Samuele Ashton (damn it - how do they keep finding me?):
Hello,
a day or two; and in that time he would, he hoped, be beyond the
miracle wrought by my genius, which is considerable.
frowned. He had not conceived that Curacao was of such considera
honour to give you welcome aboard the Arabella. My name is Blood
been too credulous of all the unspeakable things attributed to Pe
is on the gun-deck. You'll return to it at once, and take your c
I thought that you....
niece to him. Miss Bishop was aboard the Royal Mary also, and I
of land, we are in a difficulty. The only man among us schooled
The tale was barely done when they drew up at the Colonel's door,
Have a good day.
    
I guess I should explain those pictures above. It was Steve's suggestion to go out for a few drinks after work, just for the hell of it. So, me, Steve and Lisa met up with Steve's partner, Andy, outside work, probably around 5-ish, I guess.
We had a few drinks at Reclaim, where Lisa's friend, Nicola, appeared. After Reclaim, there was a lot of um-ing and ar-ing about where to go next. I fancied the Palace, as it wasn't too far away, and they have good beer. That first picture is the church next to the Palace. Looks like it was about 7pm when that was taken. Then I think we went to the Wardrobe for dinner. Second picture along . . . god knows. I only know we went to Milo's after the Wardrobe . . . but did we? Well, anyway . . . it all got a bit confusing. I remember being at Milo's and Steve saying goodbye. So did we go to Mook after that? Hmmmmm. The third, fourth and fifth pictures from the left (top row) were taken at Mook . . . things are starting to get blurry.
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The next pictures above (or maybe to the right) are after I had managed to make it home . . . actually not too far behind M****, Liz, Simon, Anna and Justin. I think around the time that last picture was taken, M**** had seized control of the camera and was trying to document what a mess I am when I'm drunk. M**** even managed to make a couple of brief videos of this phenomonommonomon (hate that word). However, all these pictures and videos have now mysteriously disappeared. So, fourth and fifth pictures from the left . . . that's Justin there; and then M****, pictured (albeit badly) sat in "M****'s chair" at Liz and Anna's house on Sowood Street (Anna moved in when M**** moved out, you see). Liz and Anna moved out six days after these pictures were taken.
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And then, erm . . . more pictures . . . Simon, money . . . stuff. This is some Chinese money that one of Liz's friends had given her for her travels. I think the money you see here is worth about £2. Something crazy like that anyway.
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Saturday 19th March 2005
 
Right, so, erm . . . Simon and I thought it would be a good idea to pour ourselves hefty gin and tonics and then get to work shooting apart various objects with my 1.77 air-pistol. These objects included but were not limited to apples, candles, empty cans . . . whatever, really. We made a bit of a mess, and M**** wasn't too impressed in the following morning. It was fun though, and the holes in the wall can easily be filled in. That ancient Thermos flask ain't much good any more though. Still . . . one has to expect casualities.
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So these are pictures taken from Liz and Anna's leaving party event thing. They had hired out the, er, private room at O'Neills, you see. And, yes, I know what you're thinking . . . M**** took these pictures, actually. Well, obviously it wasn't me taking the last one there. That's Nicola, incidentally. I don't think Nicola's been in any of my photos before. Nicola and M**** met at university and then lived together at Hartley Grove and have kept in touch ever since. That picture reminds me a bit of one of those 'fill in the caption' things, you know? Hmmm, yeah, sure.
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and, erm . . . some more pictures . . . dunno who took these. Maybe it was me. I had a dream recently about this black and white tiger. I never knew these things existed. I was in this huge museum and taking this black/white striped tiger for a walk, although it was so big, it was more taking me for a walk. But, hey . . . whatever. The next day, there was a story on the BBC web-site about black/white striped tigers, so I was like, "Oh, so maybe they do exist after all."
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Wednesday 23rd March 2005
What on earth are they trying to sell?
The possibility of finding a bad character mark on any of their familiar
faces made him shudder, and he determined then and there never to use the
spectacles to view the face of a friend or relative
Had any one, at that moment, been gazing at Rob through the lenses of
the wonderful Character Marker, I am sure a big W would have been found upon
the boy's forehead
When the family circle broke up, and all retired for the night, Rob
kissed his parents and sisters with real affection before going to his own room
But, on reaching his cozy little chamber, instead of preparing for bed
Rob clothed himself in the Garment of Repulsion
We included in our review a small subset of trials that assessed the value
of addition of an aminoglycoside in Gram positive infections
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Saturday 26th March 2005
 So, there's this brown sheep, yeah? This is somewhere around Garstang. This was 14:57. Me, M****, Helen and Stu had been for lunch at Th'Owd Tithe Barn and then we went for a walk along the canal. We saw this monument on the other side but couldn't quite reach it. It was a public right of way but the farmer seemed to think differently and had removed those little yellow house symbols so that they led to his field and then ended, if you see what I mean.
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Sunday 27th March 2005
 It's 13:20 and this is the view from, erm, Ruskin's View, Kirkby Lonsdale, shortly before me, James and Hilary went for a walk along the banks of the river Lune. Yeah . . . it was a bit cloudy that day. Not much happened today. Bought some evaporated milk from a shop in KL (no, not Kuala Lumpur) and, later on that day, I had dinner with mum and dad. M**** rang me at some point (7? 8?) to say she had returned from seeing her grandparents and was now back at Halton and I imagine I drove to Halton at that point. Yawn.
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Monday 28th March 2005
 So that's M**** at the window of our cute little Scottish holiday cottage (it's actually a bothy, but hey) at 17:35. I'm not sure what time we set off . . . midday, maybe? We were staying here for four days. The cottage was located not too far from the house of the owners, Jean and Hector (I think), but we never actually saw them. On arrival, they were out, so we just collected an envelope from their porch telling us how to find our cottage.
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Couple minutes later, and I find this outside (the tree to the right there). Those sticks leaning against the tree were probably burnt in the wood-burning stove later on that week. And, er, round the other side of the tree there was some kind of dead bird/pidgeon thing. Just
thought you might be interested. Later on, I also found a dead sheep somewhere, but that kinda freaked M**** out. Odd how the bark looks almost purple in comparison to the branches. Odd how the branches look almost green in comparison to the bark. Oh, and that other picture is inside the cottage, the downstairs of, taken at 22:20. God knows why you would be interested in that, you freak. Anyway, we stayed in for dinner that night.
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Tuesday 29th March 2005
 RED SQUIRREL!!!! 13:14! The grey squirrels are far too wussy to make it this far north, so the reds rule the trees. We saw a few, but this is the only time I managed to capture one on 'film'. They don't hang about. And, no, it wasn't a cat. Unless it was some freaky tree leaping cat, maybe.
|  So, it's 13:48. The plan today was to walk from our cottage in Glen Prosen, through Glen Prosen village (about two miles) and then over the top of the valley (glen) into the adjoining valley/glen, Glen Clova. This was following the so-called "Minister's Walk". Apparently a four mile walk, but I guess that's priest miles. We spent a long time about two-thirds up the valley, gradually gaining altitude. Eventually, we just got bored of it and there was no sign of Glen Clova anywhere. Besides, every step away from home was a step we would have to repeat on the way back (albeit in a different direction). Oh, and note the strange markings on the sheep: red, orange AND yellow. What does it all mean, eh?
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So, instead, we headed back and then drove to Glen Clova instead, getting there not long before 5pm. Those first three pictures were taken at 17:02, 17:03 and 17:04. The last one was taken inside the only open public place there, the hotel/bar (tourist information was shut), and that was at 17:37. It must have been some kind of quiet period. There was us and three other people, I believe. Or were they a group of four? God, I don't know. Who cares?
|  Later on, we went into Forfar for a meal. We went to this odd little 'bistro' run by this guy in his forties who sounded like we was from Essex. He seemed kind of robotic, giving me eye contact for slightly too long . . . just by a fraction of a second . . . with no expression . . . blank. On leaving the restaurant, I learnt me, the man, must have been getting the eye contact meant for M****, as she hardly got any. Food was good though. I ordered a curry. He asked me if it was okay afterwards and I said, "Yes, it was very nice, thanks," he kept staring, "Erm . . . perhaps I would have made it hotter, but then I would have been a horrible, sweaty mess, so that wouldn't have been much fun," still staring, smiling benignly (sp.?!), "so I probably wouldn't have wanted that, come to think of it . . . really. So, yes, it was very good," to which he goes, "Right," and wanders off. "I think you could have stopped after saying, 'it was very nice, thanks'," M**** pointed out. The picture of the fire was taken at 20:41.
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Wednesday 30th March 2005
13:27. Still cloudy. We decide to check out the nearby Glamis Castle today, seeing how the weather wasn't brilliant. This picture was taken at a picnic stop along the road (largely single-track) from our cottage to the nearest B-road. The weather was like this most of the time, really. Various levels of grey-ness, I guess.
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Not sure when we got to Glamis Castle . . . some time between 14:00 and 15:00, maybe. The pictures to the right were taken at 15:45, 15:46, 15:53 and 15:55. There wasn't really an option for wandering around the castle, it still being occupied and all, but the guided tour was pretty good. You're probably looking at this castle thinking, "Where's the portcullis? Where's the moat? Where's the defences, goddamnit?" and you would be right to think so. I mean, look at it - the bricks are almost pink, for gawd sake (and probably would be in sunlight). I dunno what kind of castle Glamis is meant to be, but it certainly didn't look very defensive. But, erm, interesting all the same.
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After the castle, we checked out some kind of 'ornamental garden' which had some pretty cool topiary. These were taken at 15:57 and 15:58. Here you have two different people, two different angles. I'm taller, hence I got a bit nearer the 'ceiling', if you can call it that.
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More pictures from the grounds of Glamis Castle, taken at (left to right) 16:17, 16:26 and 16:26 (again). Those gates are the entrance to the, erm, fruit garden, if you can call it that. It's now just a walled field and that wooden fence, that you might just be able to make out beyond that iron gate on the right of the picture . . . well, that is the edge of a tiny section that the public are aloud to wander around in. But, hey . . . it's not like there's much to see. No loss. There was a freaky little octagonal hut there, explaining a bit about the history of the fruit garden, but that was about it.
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M**** took these pictures (with the possible exception of the last one) when she saw a baby highland cow and got all excited. Then some vehicle (tractor) came along and it started leaping around (the cow, not the tractor), going crazy, so M**** took those pictures, see. The flash came on, hence the freaky green eyes.
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Then after traipsing about through the gardens, we had a wander around Glamis village . . . not much to do there . . . there was a museum, but that was shut (I think we were out of season) and, erm . . . a post office and pub/hotel thing. Oh, and this standing stone thing that I took a picture of at 17:20. Well, we think it was a standing stone. Could have been an old gravestone for all we knew. Glamis village wasn't very big, and we were told there was a standing stone somewhere. We went into the pub for a drink after the landlord finally found the right key to let us in.
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Thursday 31st March 2005
Today was Kirriemuir day. M**** wanted to check out J M Barrie things, Kirriemuir being the place he was born, raised or something. God knows. The picture (taken at 14:24) of the wooden hut is a camera obscura, paid for J M Barrie and built on some cricket grounds that he would often frequent.
The universal joint was broken in the mechanism to rotate the mirror, so the image was fixed. Also, on account of the weather, there wasn't much to see anyway. Still, the two men running the obscura were very friendly and also apologetic about the weather and broken-ness of it all, so let us check out the obscura for free. I had never seen a camera obscura before, so it was all new stuff for me. Effectively a huge camera, of course. Anyway, that's the gravestone to the left there. M**** took this one at 14:28. And, as I sit here, writing this, I kind of had a feeling that the date of my birthday would be somewhere there, and there it is. Maybe it registered subconsciously when we there. Dunno.
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Then, on the way back, we went for a walk up to this Airlie monument that everyone in the guestbook had been going on about. I took a few dull pictures of trees here, this one (first left) taken at 16:54. Before we began our walk, we stopped for lunch, and it was rather disappointing to see bits of rubbish lying around where we ate our lunch. I thought we were in the middle of nowhere, damnit. The other picture (second left) was taken at 17:01. That's M**** there in the distance. In fact, we didn't see another soul throughout this walk.
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So, after about 15/20 minutes of walking (the pictures to the right there were taken at 17:15, 17:19 and 17:21) we began to make out the shape of some kind of structure through the mist. We were ascending and the mist was definitely getting thicker, but I kind of like the effect. It reminds me of something from, erm, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. A bit. Yep. So . . . we stopped there momentarily. I really wanted to get in the tower, climb to the top and all, but it was definitely locked, so I comforted myself slightly by taking this picture (third along) of the inside of the tower.
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These ones were taken at (left to right) 19:20, 17:51 and 17:50. After walking back down the hill from Airlie monument, we checked out this, er . . . cairn?! Not sure what you'd call it . . . anyway, it was there to commemorate the occasion of, erm . . . an explorer deciding to explore something . . . Walter Scott? Yeah, that was it. There was once a fountain here, but it was 'accidentally destroyed' some years ago. The cairn was on a sharp bend, so I suspect a tractor came around the corner a trifle too fast. That evening, I think we stayed in for dinner and I played with the fire some more. At some point today, M**** took this 'movie' of the cottage, river and gardens.
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March 2005
other months
other years
navigation
friends
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So, the plan for this morning/afternoon was to head to Hadrian's Wall with me, M**** and my brother. We got to my brother's house at about . . . well, perhaps 11 o'clock. I'm not too sure. We then headed up towards Carlisle, stopping off at the services near Tebay in order to buy some spanners (the nut holding down the driver's side windscreen wiper was loose and kept going off at a funny angle). On the outskirts of Carlisle, we stopped off at the Tesco there,
for victuals, as my brother likes to call them. Our first stop was Birdoswald (sp.?!) where we had a bit of a wander around, but then it started raining, so we ate our lunch in the car. Then on to Walltown Crags, which are where these pictures were taken (15:27 through to 15:30). As you can see, the weather took a turn for the worse, so . . . back to the car. Finally - Housesteads, which we reached at just before 16:00. But, of course, it closed at 16:00, and this we realised AFTER I had paid for the parking ticket. Grrrrrr. I let my brother have a go in the car when we left Housesteads. That's him in the picture to the right there, taken at 16:02.
Hello? Today is Tuesday, I think. My watch is broke. M**** and I went to the hospital again today, for another scan, so that was good. It's a boy. Although that's not really how the radiographer (?!) put it. She zoomed in to the pelvic area and did a freeze-frame thing. The picture kind of spoke for itself and she just said, "I'm not saying anything." She kind of humoured M**** when M**** asked, "But are you sure? I mean, it could just be a shadow or something," as she had probably seen this kind of thing hundreds of times before. That picture was taken afterwards at some pub or another . . . no, it was the, er . . . Joseph's Well. Yes, that was it. That's M**** checking out the pictures we got of the scan, but they were nothing exciting, once again. Ah well. Where's my scanner anyway?
So, there's this brown sheep, yeah? This is somewhere around Garstang. This was 14:57. Me, M****, Helen and Stu had been for lunch at Th'Owd Tithe Barn and then we went for a walk along the canal. We saw this monument on the other side but couldn't quite reach it. It was a public right of way but the farmer seemed to think differently and had removed those little yellow house symbols so that they led to his field and then ended, if you see what I mean.
It's 13:20 and this is the view from, erm, Ruskin's View, Kirkby Lonsdale, shortly before me, James and Hilary went for a walk along the banks of the river Lune. Yeah . . . it was a bit cloudy that day. Not much happened today. Bought some evaporated milk from a shop in KL (no, not Kuala Lumpur) and, later on that day, I had dinner with mum and dad. M**** rang me at some point (7? 8?) to say she had returned from seeing her grandparents and was now back at Halton and I imagine I drove to Halton at that point. Yawn.
