Watch. And be amazed.

This is just too cool.

Dark suit required for Tuesday. Time for an emergency suit purchase. We stop off in Leeds (on the return from London) and quite amazingly pick one up, have it adjusted and move on within around minutes.

Saturday morning we patrol the National Portrait Gallery. Therese and I pop off to Amalfi’s  for a rather top lunch, then on to the show.

I don’t know if we technically had the best seats in the house – but it certainly seemed like we did. Halfway up the stalls, level with the stage and a break in the seats ahead of us, there was nothing to obstruct the view.

And the show itself? Well, I need to listen to more Frankie Valli now …

Spotted outside the Swiss lounge, Zurich airport.

We manage a second walk this month. Destination : Embsay, near Skipton.

It’s cold, and a little wet. The OS map is overly optimistic in assignation of some paths. We don’t intend to wade through marsh for several hours. Route replanned, were up on the high moors. Once more, I misjudge how long we’ve been walking and we turn back a little earlier than we need. Still, we now have a new day long route we can walk later this year.

New cocktail:

1 part Gin, Noilly Prat, Cointreau

1 quarter Absinthe

1 half fresh lime juice

Splash of bitters

Film of Galliano

Surprisingly well balanced.

The pleasures of an 0700 flight

Due to pick up the 15:11 to Birmingham which is … cancelled due to a damaged rail line.

Diverted via Sheffield on a train which leaves on time and stops after 10 minutes for 70 minutes. This turns out to be the (now famous) multi junction failure … as a result of wire theft.

In Sheffield (for the first time), we catch the 65 minute delayed Plymouth train … which is running a bonus 25 minutes late.

Finally in Birmingham three hours late for what should have been a three hour journey.

Courtesy of The Poke

I should have posted this sometime ago. Look here for all the variations …

Janet was straight in with the starter and dessert. We dealt with the mains.

Evening started at a rather sensible 20:00

Asian salad to start (Janet), a kir royale sorbet from us and the main of wild mushrooms with port and red wine in a veg herb suet pastry along with our garden veg (potatoes, shallots, sprouts).

Wine poured throughout … and dessert wine … and port. Cheese and chocolate were around – but I don’t remember much about that. In fact I don’t remember much about anything after midnight except the Champagne seemed very dry after the port.

And best of all (apart from the company), a twenty second walk home!

Next day was a write-off. The hangover didn’t pass and we resorted to a mammoth movie watching session … listed in order of viewing … and coincidentally in order of concentration required.

Never Let me go

True Grit (the Coen Brothers version)

Limitless

Morning Glory

Source Code

Sarah has requested Indian.

Clockwise from the top left:

“baby” curry (veg bhaji with cream)

Dhal

Veg bhaji

Curried chickpeas

Pea Paneer

Unseen : veg samosas, chapatti and rice.

Thanks to ‘Have I got news for you’ for providing this …

That evening it’s to Khan’s for what’s probably the best Indian meal in Zurich. We’re upsold the Indian Red.

Considerable snow throughout the evening curtails the festivities.

Sunday morning we’re both out early. Breakfast in the city centre turns into a lengthy affair. In so much as it’s 40 minutes from placing the order to receiving our incredibly complex meal of croissants, jam and cheese.

The snow remains heavy and the temperature doesn’t climb above zero.After coffee at Café Odeon we’re on the gluhwein at the market.

Hungry again, it’s to Hiltl – Europe’s oldest vegetarian restaurant. Therese is somewhat impressed by the vegetarian tartar … which is quite impressive (especially since I’ve not had a beef tartar). Early evening it’s a nightcap at Bar Jules Verne….

…and the end of a rushed weekend away together.

I receive a text late morning advising the flight is cancelled. She’s already on the way to the airport. Turns out that this is due to a Hurricane …

For some time it’s looking grim with reports of no flights until Sunday. This transitions to a morning flight via Brussels. So it’s a night in the Crowne Plaza, Manchester for Therese and a night in the Crowne Plaza, Zurich for me.

As of now. The initial Brussels Zurich connection is cancelled. The next one is on time.

I’ve spent the morning starting to update the blog whilst the rain is heavy. With the sun now out, it’s time for some exploring.

The local free paper has a daily entry supporting their singles listings. A selected male and female answer what are typically straightforward questions. However I did notice yesterday one had slipped in a comment about a preferred style of music to have sex to.

Today I’m struggling to work out what Bauchnabelpiercings are. I hazard a guess at this though on a personal level can’t say I agree with the sentiment.

It’s usually cloudy when I fly over … though we were too high for me to easily spot the key locations.

Usual blue skies …

Three days later it’s a similarly early flight from Zurich. Up at 0500 for a 0700 flight. I have to deny my body clock telling me it’s actually 0400 GMT.

Sunrise as the flight turns West …

With a special reference to Mulhouse … The Nuits St George of Germany. At least for us when we were Motorhoming …

Normally this would be straightforward. Unfortunately my passport is at home.

Up at 0530 Wednesday. At Kings Cross 0610. Need Coffee.

Off at Leeds and on to Harrogate. From there it’s a taxi home, collect the passport and pack a case for 2 nights away.

Car now … to Manchester Airport.

On the early afternoon flight to Zurich.

Skirting the Alps …

Then the train…

Tram …

and a funicular…

And FINALLY the Hotel view … that night and the following morning.

Kings Cross. Far too early. Going North by train to go West by car to go East by plane.

The support band is Halloween, Alaska (from Minnesota). Somewhere in the musical canon between Death Cab for Cutie and Coldplay they attempt to introduce some post-rock sounds to their otherwise pedestrian set.

Still, it’s over quickly. Here comes Anna Calvi. Wearing red.

Vocally perfect renditions from most of her debut album. A pretty excellent percussionist too. Short set – but she certainly belts out the songs… and can’t quite believe it was only £10 each for Therese and myself!

It’s all over and we’re on the train home. At this point the “lost back” comes in. I’d dropped my nice new phone (one day old) whilst taking the photographs. The back of the case is somewhere on the floor on  the cockpit. The replacement is now in the postal system on it’s way.

Really. I just don’t know how I cope …

Bonfire night in Harrogate. Apparently one of the remaining free firework displays in England. Helen and Chloe join us, as do some neighbours.

After the display it’s back to ours. Therese has made the main course (vegetable pasty, mushy peas). I did a home made gravy (twice).

Our neighbour, Janet deals with dessert : toffee apples, cinder toffee and flapjacks.

I’m not convinced by the mushy peas. Clearly a matter of personal preference. However, everything else is delicious.

Courtesy of The Poke.

I really need to watch this show

It’s possibly not easy to notice. However, 50% of the rear of the house has had guttering and tiles installed/replaced. The original guttering appears to have been timber/resin and rested upon the wall. This allowed for wonderful water ingress in the event of heavy rain … and general penetration around one wall in particular (see the dark mark on the right).

It should all dry out in the next couple of months.

The Scottish Parliament introduces legalisation of class A drugs without publicity. Possibly due to no-one else having a fax machine to receive the announcement.

Since the Horseshoe Bar’s ladies toilet is upstairs, the bar staff have thought laterally.

Well done to “The Sun”. Even improving upon the “Daily Mail”.

You don’t have to agree with it – but it is effective.

Yes, the boiler has depressurised again. But what’s this … water staining in the living room ceiling. Floorboards are lifted and a leak spotted. It’s dripping a litre or two a day – so it would make sense. Except it’s a 22mm hot water pipe. We still can’t find the leak.

Plumber is called and scheduled for Monday. Unfortunately the carpet is also due to be fitted tomorrow in the hall. The job won’t complete until we’re happy the leak is located and fixed.

Monday arrives, along with the carpet fitters. They are thankfully relaxed about having to do the job in two stages. Even better the plumber arrives late morning.

No, he can’t fix the leaking pipe because he’s a central heating plumber (thanks E.On). However, he can have a look at the depressurising boiler. For once I’m hoping there’s a major fault with the boiler, since it’s covered and a damn site easier for me to deal with than another leaking pipe hidden from view.

Result – the heat exchanger is cracked. The bulk of the hall carpet can be laid with the rest next week.

On first, Glen Gregory covering Wichita Lineman … followed by an impromptu guitar only version of “Don’t you want me”. Midge Ure followed, opening with an explanation that he wouldn’t be singing “Vienna” as tonight was about “Music of Quality and Distinction”.

Following on Kim Wilde, Green Gartside, Sandy Shaw, Kate Jackson, Shingai Shoniwa, Polly Scattergood and Boy George. All good …. though I did struggle with Polly Scattergood … as a ghost of Kate Bush.

Good gig. Only pain was some of the audience in front of us who insisted on walking, eating crisps and undertaking “mum dancing”.

Tube from Camden, We alight at Leicester Square for no particular reason. I’m confronted by the opportunity to see both Vanessa Redgrave and The voice of Darth Vader James Earl Jones performing Driving Miss Daisy.

There’s nothing I can add to the review here. It was superb.

It all starts well. Holiday Inn Camden Town provide a room upgrade.

Here’s the view:

It’s not far to the Roundhouse, where the gig is on. We stop off at a vegetarian restaurant en route, then to the bar at the venue.

Mark Jones is the warm-up DJ. Kicking off with Brilliant Mind, it couldn’t really go wrong. We can order wine by the bottle, but with plastic cups. So it’s two plastic cups with 37.5cl of wine in each for Therese and I.

An hour later, Heaven 17 are on and do an almost sound-perfect rendition of the Luxury Gap.

Squeezing in “The Black Hit of Space” and “…and that’s no lie” as an encore was a bonus. Absolutely fantastic gig.

Good God! It turns out I was good at French after all. Need to remove this psychological block and return to study"!

Our neighbours are friends of Leeds City Varieties. A few months back they received early notice that Marc Almond was playing.  Given the advance notice we were fortunate enough to reserve boxes directly above the stage.

We loaded up on miniature bottles of wine, closed the door to the box, sat back and enjoyed the show.

It’s all torch and romance. Scott Walker, Brel, Bowie, Lou Reed and more. Given it’s in essence a “home” gig, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a performer look so happy and relaxed. It’s just become the best gig I’ve ever been to.

I had a mini-highlight after waxing lyrical about the talent of Baby Dee. Standing outside the venue, Therese encouraged me to tell her how wonderful I thought she was. I did. She was very flattered.

Stuck in traffic in Oldham. The Subway is just to the left of Ladbrokes.

Autumn on the M62 is  ‘mare as ever. And I used to think the M8 was bad.

Positively I decide to dispense with the 70mph limit, turn off and spend 30 minutes driving across Saddleworth Moor. It’s overcast, raining and absolutely magnificent.

Rain like we’ve not seen since Gandia. The rear gutters, only seen by a roofer on Friday, can’t take the volume. The water breaks through the cavities and exits – finally – through the kitchen ceiling.

Not good. At least the roofer is lined up to replace the guttering in the rear of the house.

Death in Vegas are back!

Change of plan this Saturday.

Walking along the path to the smallholding, we come across something like this:

A young bull has escaped and is running down the lane.

My life repeats itself in slow motion. Well, certainly, a vague semblance of a near death experience. Honestly.

We run back to the car. The bull runs past and just avoids a man walking his dog.

Back on track we collect our hour old eggs. The owner laughs : she saw us walk up the lane then run away. The “responsible adult” for the bull appears latterly in his 4×4. No lasso though.

It’s really good (seriously). Which is more than I can said for Bolton. We’re left wondering quite why it actually is there.*

The four of use (Janet is with Husband) spend some time actually locating a restaurant before retiring to a local hotel for a nightcap.

Yes – that means three nights partying. I now need a rest.

*it does have a nice town hall though!

In return we’re given an Indian salad and some fresh not-on-menu dhal and mixed vegetable dishes – loaded with the chilli’s.

It really is the nicest Indian meal I’ve ever had. We’re told there’s more effort involved as we both provided the chilli’s and just asked them to ‘make something nice’. The pressure is on.

It’s topped by the owner handing over a bottle of wine at the end of the night when he found out it was my birthday!

My birthday is a Sunday this year. I’d rather not wake bleary on a Monday morning. We’ve decided on the Box Tree to celebrate . First stop is the Crescent Inn, our accommodation for the night. It’s rather nice to not be in a chain hotel for one.

Second stop is Martinez for a couple of glasses of wine. A change of clothes later and we’re off for our meal. A vegetarian tasting menu is offered (great) and matching wine.

Overall the meal and wine were good … but I think after Martin Wishart’s tasting menu, we’ve become a little spoiled.

We indulge in a nightcap back at Martinez …. where we’re upsold to a bottle of wine. As you can imagine – we are bleary come Sunday morning. A walk along the riverside in Ilkley helps. Then I realise : Harrogate is the first place I’ve lived which doesn’t have a river running through it.

I’m rather tired. I did catch a couple of hours sleep on the flight and look forward to some more. There’s work to do (and some unpacking). It’s after 5pm I finally stop.

It’s with some effort I say awake until 10PM. I’m not particularly lucid. It will – though – clear residual jet lag and provide for a more capable weekend.

$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

$ sudo mount –bind /dev /mnt/dev

$ sudo mount –bind /dev/pts  /mnt/dev/pts

$ sudo mount –bind /proc /mnt/proc

$ sudo mount –bind /sys  /mnt/sys

$ sudo chroot /mnt

# grub-install –recheck /dev/sda

$ sudo aptitude install grub2

0600 up, ready and breakfast at the Radisson Manchester. After forgetting to check out, Therese and I check out (she needs the parking ticket validated, I need a receipt). We had been on the top floor – so as airport views go, it’s one of the better ones.

Walk from the hotel to terminal 3 for a domestic departure. Something of a flashback in the BMI Manchester Lounge. My place of residence every Thursday for the best part of two years. This time I’m in business though – unable to wave a gold card at them,

The plane is due to leave at 0930 for a 1220 connection in Heathrow. We take of and land nearly an our late, making for a tight, queue jumping connection. I’ve little hope my bag will follow me through.

I’m on the flight around 30 minutes before departure (and 30 minutes after the gate officially closed). Decent business class and reclining seats. I mix work, a couple of  trashy movies  (though X-Men is actually quite good) and a nap. Eight hours later I’m in Philadelphia.

Typically long passport control. At the baggage collection it’s not looking good. It sounds even worse as my name is called. Bags are still in London.

Now, one time when some bag went to Perth rather than Alice Springs, the airline gave me a pack with some decent toiletries and a change of under garments. US Airways gave me a sheet of paper and some short thrift.

From there to the Doubletree on Concord Pike. It’s to the Hilton what a Holiday Inn is to a Crowne Plaza.

I’m still without any clothes for tomorrow and after the flight really would benefit from freshening up.

The hotel staff are friendly – in so much as advising where the shopping mall’s are.

And so my salvation comes via a walk across several car parks until my arrival at Macy’s

… and it is SEVERAL car parks.

I do have two things to contest with here:

1. Sizes. With hindsight I’d probably be better in the children’s section!

2. A distinct misalignment of American and British ‘fashion’.

It takes over an hour to find clothes that both fit me and don’t implicate me as a future American tourist.

The mission takes a riskier turn as I then need to locate a shop which sells toiletries. I’ll need to shave, brush teeth and so on. This is on the other site of the road.

After walking for ten minutes –I actually spot some traffic lights which permit pedestrians (though it does require a 5 minute wait on the lights)

From there, back to the hotel. A few emails and generally too tired for much else except some food in my room, staying up as long as possible to avoid jet lag and … well … at some point : sleep.

In the interim – it’s American TV time again …

… though I finally find HBO.

We get talking and offer to bring in some home grown chilli’s that he can cook. A deal is struck and we’ll be back in a week or two.

Saturday it’s some more DIY in the hall while Therese works on the garden and making some hawthorn ketchup (which takes an age).

It’s Cheryl’s Saturday night, where I fall asleep around midnight.

Sunday – some more DIY then off to Manchester Airport. Tomorrow it’s out to the States for me … and back to Yorkshire for Therese.