After a day working in the garden...

I feel the Jungle Lord's pain...

( From Jungle Action no. 15, May 1975  -  by Don McGregor, Billy Graham and Dan Green )

On Tuesdays...

Tuesdays are rubbish. Tuesdays are nothing and nowhere. On Mondays you've just had your weekend and can feel optimistic about the week ahead. Wednesdays are halfway through, so that's good. On Thursdays you can feel yourself sliding down towards the weekend. And on Fridays the weekend's so near you can practically taste it. But Tuesdays... Tuesdays are rubbish...
Unless you've got the day off, like me:-)

Snow days

Winter finally arrived in my corner of England on Friday, after weeks of rainy, gloomy weather. A snowstorm swept up the Severn estuary and hit Gloucester at about 05:30 in the morning. I headed out to work at 06:45am ( allowing more time than usual ) trusting the main roads to have been sufficiently gritted by the local council. Of course, they weren't. This is England after all...
I managed the 13 or so miles ( unlucky for some! ) to Nailsworth on the icy, snow-covered roads but, on the A46 above the town, my car decided it would rather slide sideways than carry on up the hill. After much slipping, sliding and swearing I ended up abandoning my car to the snow and decided to walk to work...
The above photo was taken on my trek through the snow, along the Nailsworth / Avening / Tetbury road which borders Princess Anne's estate. Strangely enough I didn't see her along the road... or anyone else much, to be honest, just the occasional 4x4 or tractor...

And here's a pic of me on the road, looking like a fat turtle, reflected in this convex mirror :-)
Apart from the blizzard blowing in my face the hike through the snow wasn't too bad  -  beautiful, almost Scandinavian scenery and the crunch of fresh snow underfoot. After stopping off in Avening for a medicinal Mars bar I trudged on up the hill to Tetbury. Up there on the top the blizzard was howling and it really wasn't too pleasant. At about 10:00am I met a bloke coming from the opposite direction who said he'd been walking from Devizes in Wiltshire since 05:00am that morning  -  I thought my journey was far enough! I was getting a bit bored of it all by this point so stuck my thumb out at the next passing Land Rover and, luckily enough, the guy stopped and gave me a lift for the last mile or so. Phew! As I'd expected, hardly anyone else had made it in to work and, after I'd only been there for about an hour, one of the managers gave the few staff a lift home in his 4x4. It was good to get home... even without my car :-)

Yesterday Sarah and I caught the bus into Gloucester and I took a few photos of the snow-covered city, starting with this view of the docks. The white stuff was starting to melt by this point but still looked, er, cool...

This is St. Mary De Crypt church, just along from Cafe Rene, one of Gloucester's premier rock 'n' roll venues, as seen in this post...

More views of nearby buildings and faces...

And below are a few glimpses of Gloucester's beautiful Cathedral...

We also had a quick look around the shops, including the currently-ailing HMV, where I picked up a few albums which I wouldn't be able to find in bloody Tesco's if HMV do go under. ( For the record  - ho ho  -  I got The Beatles' "Red" Album, TV Smith's Last Words Of The Great Explorer, John Cale's Paris 1919, the Floyd's Meddle, Jane's Addiction's Ritual De Lo Habitual and Television's Marquee Moon. A few of these I already have on vinyl, but what the hell... )

This morning my father-in-law and I managed to free my car from its icy tomb ( melodramatic, moi? ) and Sarah and I brought it home. But with fresh snowfall forecast for the next couple of days it remains to be seen if I'll be going anywhere...

Soundtrack: Last Words Of The Great Explorer by TV Smith's Explorers

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

...Go!

Last day at work today. I've got to go back in on Monday to fill out various forms and then I will officially be unemployed. It's quite an ominous but also liberating feeling. I've wanted to get out for so long ( and actually applied for redundancy a year ago but was turned down ) and now it's finally happened.

It's been 20 years almost to the month since I was last made redundant. Last time around was a lot worse: I was at home sick with a bad back when I was laid off, so I didn't have a job and was unable to get a job. ( Nowadays you'd probably sue for something like that... ) And I was only 3 months away from my wedding - not good. This time hopefully won't be so disastrous but it's still a strange feeling, knowing I don't have a job to go to next week. I've got an interview on Monday, so... fingers crossed :-)

What's been going down in Groove Town this week?

For starters I've finally finished watching Season One of Battlestar Galactica. The two-part season finale, Kobol's Last Gleaming Parts 1 & 2, is a thrilling, budget-busting adventure, deftly gathering up various plot-lines and delivering a gob-smacking cliffhanger. Special mention has to be made of the extraordinary performance of Katee Sackhoff as the tough/vulnerable/cocky/sexy Kara "Starbuck" Thrace - she's a knock-out! I'll have to search out Season Two pretty frakkin' quick...

Back on planet Earth ( specifically Gloucestershire ) we've been enjoying some sunny weather for a change, so Sarah and I have been getting out in the countryside whenever we get the chance.

Here are some dazzlingly yellow fields of oilseed rape in my old home village of Moreton Valence. My family used to own land a stone's-throw away from this crop and we also have a family plot in the churchyard which overlooks these fields. But I don't plan to move in just yet...

And when we're back safely indoors, we've got a whole new DVD library to work through. My brother-in-law is currently helping to clear out the house of a former compulsive hoarder who has left behind mountains of computer games and consoles, DVDs, books, CDs and other assorted junk. Below are just a few of the films we've bought for a quid each - all proceeds going to the deceased's mother. There is a surprisingly high proportion of Keanu Reeves movies here for some reason...

Following the sad loss of both Levon Helm and Maurice Sendak recently, I was upset to hear of another couple of deaths. Firstly Beastie Boy and all-round cool dude Adam ( "MCA" ) Yauch who lost his battle with cancer at the ridiculously young age of 47, and then legendary Filipino comics artist Tony DeZuniga who has left behind a legacy of outstanding artwork, such as the Conan piece below. Joe Bloke has posted loads more fantastic DeZuniga work over at his ever-wonderful Grantbridge Street blog.

Update 18/05/12

Another classic Filipino artist, Ernie ( "Chua" ) Chan has also sadly passed away. Yet another blow for the comics community. My condolences to the families of both of those very talented artists.

Finally, I've found out this week that the company I work for, Q Park Medical, has gone into administration and will very likely close next Friday. I've been with the company for the last 14 years and have been trying to get out for quite some time as things have been getting worse and worse there, with staff cuts and a terminally clueless "management" team making every working day a pain in the arse. Hopefully I'll get a redundancy payout soon and be able to move on. I applied for a similar position at another local firm this week, so fingers crossed...

I don't think I'll find myself working for whoever created the advert above but, as the Beach Boys might say, wouldn't it be nice...?

Soundtrack: One Drop ( new single ) and assorted old tracks by Public Image Ltd.