It's all on one side, like Parkgate

At one time families used to travel
from all over the country to enjoy
the seaside atmosphere of Parkgate
over the years the river silted up
now you need binoculars to see the sea
but it hasn't stopped the tourists coming
and eating the ice-cream
and eating in the restaurants
and walking their dogs
and walking their elderly relatives
and riding their motorbikes
and throwing their chips to the birds

we ate at the Lobster Grill
I won't eat at Mr Chow's
I went for a job interview there
about twenty five years ago
needless to say I didn't get the job
but I think I did buy some shrimps
or cockles on the way home

Birthday Boy

Written on one of my cards
were the words
'First Class Mail'
spelling has never
been a family
strong point

Gorton Market

At one time it was the market
to go to
and be seen at
you could buy anything
but those days are gone
and
now elderly men lean on street
furniture
remembering the good old days
or bad
while outside the cafe
a woman nibbles on a burger
and close by a stall blasts out
Donna Summer
'Sitting here eating my heart out baby
waiting for my lover to come'
but all that's coming anytime soon
is Tesco

The future's so bright she's gotta wear shades

or her bendy glasses
don't bend
like that
and now she has to wear
prescription sunglasses
until her new ones
are ready

There must be a God

I was greeted by a very large
Jack Daniels

It's alive!

After two days in bed desperately
trying to keep alive
I'm back on my feet today
and if the rule that you feel your
crappiest first thing in the morning
holds any truth then I
will chance going into work
because to be honest apart from
a cough and a blocked nose
I don't feel too bad

Salad days

When you pay £7 for a
Ploughman's Lunch
you can expect something rather special
when you wait over 30 minutes for it to come
you just know that it's going to be out of this world
that is unless you go to the Abbey Grange Hotel
near Llangollen
we had to send the pickled onions back
and the women at the next table
left before their food arrived as they had
the rest of their lives to get on with
and the folk in the other room spent
five minutes trying to decide if the meat on their
toasted sandwich really was ham

the chips were nice though

Cardiff

The view from your hotel room can
make or break your overnight stay
so it's one of the first things I check on arrival
(along with fire exits*, if there is plenty of loo paper,
enough towels (bath, face and the floor mat one)
in-room tea and coffee facilities and
if there is an adjoining door to the next room
that I am able to
wedge a chair under the handle)
so my view at Jurys in Cardiff looked out over
the hotel reception area
I could actually watch people registering and
checking out
and who was going for a meal or to the bar
I think this is the first hotel I've stayed in
where I've had an inside room
I may request more in the future

*In this case, if there was a fire we'd all have
to put our trust in the CIA that apparently
has offices over the road from the hotel reception

Cardiff quotes

"Get the freebies and you get the people"
"Web 2.0 is more about social networking"
"Google is the remote control of the web"
"It'll be like a rash"
"We call 360, 720 because we have to do it all in Welsh too"

The play

I think I've actually finished
my first ever play
it's been specially written
for a local youth theatre group
who are already in rehearsals
for the production in the
summer
so I've been up against it a tad
but all being well
it's all done

Did I mention...

I've had a short story
selected for publication in
the next edition of
Transmission magazine
I popped into The Basement yesterday
to put a face to one of the guys (Jo) behind it
he seemed pleased with my story
which is now with an artist
who is illustrating it for publication
it's due out on
25th May

Note to self:
Go back to Basement Cafe for a coffee
looked like my kind of place

I wont sleep tonight worrying about the worry dolls

Listened to a programme
on Radio 4
National Obsession
it looks at people's obsessive rituals
and there was this young girl on
talking about worry dolls
and how if you have a worry you pop
them under your pillow
and in the morning the worry has gone

but where has it gone?
has it been passed onto the poor
dolls?

I couldn't live with myself
knowing that I'd passed on something like that

Sign up now!
FREE THE WORRY DOLLS

Weekend on hold

Usually by this time on
a Friday
I'm well into weekend mode
but it's my turn to work the
weekend shift
so my Friday feeling will
have to wait
until
Sunday

Clare does the Beeb

I met up with Clare today
not sure she'd thank me for calling her brave
but it takes some guts to come on the radio
and talk as she did
so openly
and frankly
about her miscarriage
which isn't over yet
so I hope it goes less painfully
than you imagine it will
tomorrow Clare
and thank you

Boob Pencil on BBC Radio Manchester

I'm not sure if you've been following the moving postings of Clare Sudbery over on Boob Pencil.

Coming to terms with losing a child through a miscarriage must be tough enough, but Clare decided to share it with those that chose to read her blog.

The posts are not for the faint-hearted but Clare says that the support of fellow boggers has helped her through.

I invited Clare to come on to BBC Radio Manchester to talk about why she chose to share this difficult time so publicly.

You can hear Clare on BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday April 12 at 3pm.

Listen online at bbc.co.uk/manchester

Tina Dico

So I got to interview
Tina Dico
AND
she brought her guitar
AND
she sang to me
Warm Sand
AND
she was amazing
AND
AND
AND

wow

Wednesday evening

Spent most of the evening
on my knees in church
not really praying
(although there was some of that)
but painting white lines on
the edges of steps

someone has to do it

Knock knock

The small guy
with the beard
standing at our front door
in the drizzle
held up a piece
of paper with huge letters reading
BOGOF
'this is just a courtesy call'
he said slipping into his best
UPVC sales patter
if ‘bog off’ is you being courteous mate
then I'd hate to meet you when you
were riled'
I said closing the door
On him
his beard and
the drizzle

Podcasting

Audio art and soundscapes

Fire!

It must have been nine years ago
perhaps even to the day
that half of Wren Nest Mill
in Glossop
burned to the ground
today it's the turn of the other half
which has only recently opened
as luxury apartments

at the time of the first fire
we were living right opposite the mill
and our house suffered heat damage
this time we're a little further away
but already the house
stinks of smoke

The Queen wore pink

We queued for well over an hour
in the weather that was best described as
'dank' by the weather forcaster
on the radio
but spirits outside Manchester Cathedral
were high
and once inside
and once the Royal Maundy service
began in a fanfare of pomp
we were enveloped in a
state of Royal exuberance
the Queen wore pink
and the Duke wore well

and when eventually the Queen left
the sun filled a cloudless sky and
81 little old men and
81 little old ladies
headed home to untie their
two little purses
and count their Maundy money

A really crazy idea about Life On Mars that is just so fantastic it just might be true and be the most exciting cross programme idea ever

*POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT*

What if Sam Tyler turns out
to be a Time Lord
in fact the most feared Time Lord of all
The Master

think about it
there's loads of rumours going round
that John Simm
is going to play The Master in the new
series of Dr Who

how fantastic would that be

Just one of those days in Manchester

Part of Manchester was closed today
after they found an old mortar bomb

but it turned out to be safe

then came the news that the fire at
the Library Theatre last week has meant
that the rather excellent Chapter Two
has been cancelled for the rest of its run

and then
if the day couldn't get any stranger
Tim Burton was spotted in the
Whitworth Art Gallery
I was far too busy working to notice him
but apparently he's there fairly often
and he even might come back at the weekend
with the kids
for their Colourful Sundays event

yeah right

Ken Hom

While I was in Geneva
trying to figure out how to buy
a ticket for the bus
I noticed a large crowd forming
and there
in the middle was TV chef Ken Hom

in Geneva at the bus station

fantastic

he was helping people buy bus tickets
in fact he was earning money doing this
by buying a cheap season ticket
and then selling on
ordinary tickets for the standard rate

the simplicity of his enterprise impressed
everyone
"I love the free market of Europe"
said some guy
in fact it was the freeness of it all that made me realise
that it wasn't Mr Hom at all

but for just a moment or two
I thought I'd stumbled on a great
riches to rags story
in Geneva bus station

A great idea

Buy a coffee on the station
to drink on the train

all we need are
cup holders on the train
so that we don't have to juggle
the MEN, a pen and a steaming hot
latte

Quotes of the day

"They want to kiss them, we want to sleep with them"

"Caffeine radio"

"We're marathon runners listening to sprinters"

"Watch soaps? No way do I watch them. I'm not thick"

"Stuff"

"Operation Ego-Masturbation"

Away Day

Had one of those sunny Sundays
when everyone is full of the joys
of spring
everyone that is except me and the
folk I work with
we were all at the
Imperial War Museum North
talking shop