In Between

So here I am, in between xmas and New Year. I really should be watching crap TV and finishing off beer and JD but I'm in Browns waiting for the call to change a barrel or something. Funny thing is that it's more of the same tomorrow. I was looking forward to kicking back.
Oh well, there's always next year and My Cat and I are off to the Netherlands in about four weeks where there may well be a lot of kicking back.
I'll just have to look forward to that.
Happy New Year everyone.

Here He Is

This is the picture you've all been waiting for, this The Strangecoach.
He's my new travel buddy and he's been doing a great job of getting me to work this last week. In return I've been tinkering under the bonnet and today I gave him a nice drink of Redex too.
If you see us having fun on the roads give us a wave or jump aboard, there's a comfy sofa in the back.
(That sounds pervy but it's not!)

One Week To Go

Since I can remember I've had a wish to own a Transit van. I've had romantic dreams about touring around and living some kind of romany lifestyle. As a teenager I built an Airfix model of an old style Transit and allowed myself to daydream about the adventures I might one day have.
Well, I have just seven days left in which to end the dreaming because in seven days time I get to drive off in my very own Ford Transit. I'm sure my dreams and the reality of owning a Transit are quite different things but I'm not too worried about that. The fact that I'll own one will be just another milestone reached and a dream fulfilled.
It's true that if you wish for something hard enough you get it and for me it's been a long wish. I couldn't be happier that it's come true.

What's Red All Over

In the next few days I may well have some important news for you.
I don't want to say much at the moment but it will be decided one way or another this week. I'll keep you posted as things move on.
Think nice thoughts and all will be well.

Tired

It's 9.15 and I'm usually pretty near to going to bed, but it's Wednesday and I'm in Browns and it's the midweek late night out.
I'm tired but I can't complain too much because I'm drinking beer. It's nice beer, it's called Peroni. I think it's made by special European cats that are stripy.
I think they are clever cats for learning to make beer. I made beer once, it made me drunk. That means I'm good at making beer I suppose.
I'm off. Drink to drink.

Piet Hein

Mind these three, TTT... In this case it's Taxed, tested and now touring. Yup, GrimV is now road legal.
The first Leicester to Coventry work run is planned for this Friday morning. I'll get some pictures of GrimV at our destination.
While I'm here a quick shout to Dan and Phil who have rediscovered the site.
By the way, I'm writing this in the pub. Don't you just love modern technology.

The First Run

Grim 5 is home at last. After a couple of months work he's as ready as he can be for his first MOT in eight years. He ran well on the short journey to Leicester and showed some promising bite just over 60mph.
I want to try and get the MOT done this week. I'll let you know how it goes.
Grim 5 even got a nod of appreciation from a young guy on a Honda Cub. Still a desirable bike after all these years. I think so.

Bacon & Eggs

So here I am in Norwich, in a pub drinking Abbot Ale. My Cat is in the hotel. I just fancied one more but this beer tastes nasty and I'm going to head for the hotel bar.
More in a minute.
OK. I'm in the hotel bar and this is shit because it's non smoking. What an option, crap beer or no fags.
Anyway, Francis Bacon tomorrow. That, and a bit more shopping. So off to bed to dream about a fish.

In the garden.

I'm sitting in the garden because I can't go inside for half an hour. This is a self imposed exile. I've just sprayed the whole house to get rid of the annual flea fest.
It's about this time of year that the little sods party and because of the cats and plenty of the red stuff inside me they just go crazy. I've brought my anti flea stuff with me so Paul is going to get his drops in a minute.
Neville has had his and got some nice leaves for his trouble. Bailey will get his when he returns from his job at the milk bar around five.

Guess Who?

Right, here's a small competition with no prize. All you have to do is guess who's in the hemlid and when you get the answer right you can pat yourself on the back.
Did you get the answer right?
Of course you did. It's me!
This is the hemlid to look out for when I finally get on the road. I'm hoping it won't be too long now. I've got a battery to collect on Friday and then all I have to do is drop it in and fit the new horn. I'll be on the blower to the MOT man next week too, it all hangs on that really.
Right I'm to get some butter to rub around my head so that I can get this thing off.

 

Media Frenzy

I think that I'm going down the road of 'Media Mogul' at the moment. At one stage it was just me and my website. Now it's my website, my MySpace and my Youtube. You'll find links to each on the right.
I've been using my phone to blog via email to this site. Now I'm using it to make little movies to post on Youtube. It's the best phone ever. Anyway, enjoy the little flick below and look out for more soon.

Very Nearly Ready

That's yours truly sitting astride my very nearly finished machine. All that is required now is the horn fixing which should be a simple job and a battery adding which is indeed a simple job. All that remains after that is for me to buy a nice hemlet for me bonce and the nerve steadying MOT. Tax and insurance is just a money thing and will take a couple more weeks but that's all.
I doubt there'll be any reasonable weather left by the time that's all done so I've resigned myself to breaking myself back in in waterproofs.
The machine is now called GrimV (that's Grim five to those without knowledge of roman numerals) as all my bikes seem to end up being called Grim. I'll explain that one another time.
Anyway, Grim and I went for a quick spin last night and a whole bunch of fun it was too.
Happy days ahead.

Old Haunts

The Town Wall Tavern looks so different yet so much the same as ever. I haven't been here in a decade. Then I was getting pissed and reading the Sunday Times. Now I'm just getting pissed. Coventry is really as sad as people say. If I still lived here I'd be a regular at the off license by now, not that I wasn't before. You really do need a drink to make the most of Cov city centre. Sober, it's a bore.

Wanna win?

Remember Brian Dowling?
He's the gay irish guy that won Big Brother a couple of years ago.
He's now doing very late night telly. It's the kind of show that gives you the answer on screen in a not so jumbled form and asks you to phone in the solution at 75p a minute. It's basically, filler TV. It's the presenters grave yard. The kind of TV you do when there are no decent offers left on the table.
I'm not saying that talented people don't end up there and I'm not saying it's not well paid. But when you've embarked on a media career, off the back of a game show, it can't be the road you thought you'd be travelling along.
A message to all future housemates.
Watch late night TV. If you win, two years down the line, that'll be you.
I think I'll stay at home and laugh at other peoples aspirations...and drink wine.
Cheers.

Changes

First things first. I started smoking again today. I'm crap at giving up, maybe next time.
What I did do was start writing. I've been meaning to do this for a very long time and what's more is that I found out that I really like it. So much so that I wrote over 3900 words today and that's just the start of my first short story. It'll need some adjustment before I'm happy with it. I'll let you know how it's going.
Watch this space.

It's started.

The next few weeks are going to be pure hell for me. Not only did I give up drinking last week but I'm giving up smoking today.
The reason is that I said that I'd give up when I got my next bad cold. Right on cue I've got a right stinker. I'll phone the doctor when I get up and get his wonder cure. At this moment I'm lying in bed and this is where I'm staying.

It works.

Having just checked that my phone blogging works I've also just read that I can't send pictures from the phone. There is another service that I could use but it's not available in the UK. Hopefully that might change in the near future.
Anyway, all this means is that I will be posting ever more frequently because I can post from anywhere. I must admit that it took a while to work out my phone settings but it's all done now.
Right, that's it for now. More soon.

It's a first!

If this works it'll be a first. I'm sitting on the loo and blogging to you from my phone. You probably didn't want to know that but it's the truth. Stranger than that, the picture is my view from said loo.

This is my AR125

This is my bike. All shiny and waiting for a couple of bits before it heads down to the MOT station.
I'm off on holiday to the Lake District tomorrow so it'll be a couple more weeks before I have the money to finally get it finished, that and I have to buy a helmet. I'll let you know how the holiday goes when I get back. I've just got to go to Coventry and do my DJ/VJ set and get home before I can forget about work for the next week.

 

Can you believe this?

I subscribe to a cycling news group and this article was posted today. Have a good read and then follow the links in the posts for more information.
Even to a non cyclist I think the content of the post will smack of unfair. It seems that cyclists are being targeted and you have to ask who will it be next?
If you value your freedom at all this will make you think.
Follow the link here.

Here's some good news for a change. For one thing I don't have piles, that's a relief. It was some other thing that just clears itself up anyway so the panic is over.
Another piece of good news is that I now own a motorcycle. It's a Kawasaki AR 125 and it's my first bike for about 7 or 8 years. I've got some work to do on it and I'll need to spend some cash on stuff like a new front tyre and a helmet. I tried on my old leather jacket and it still fits so I haven't put on as much weight as I first thought.
Today I'm very hungover because I drank so much wine last night while watching TV, I still feel terrible. I wish I could just stop drinking. It's getting to be too much of a hastle the next day. The doc said I should give up smoking. It will apparently cost £25 and take 4 weeks. I told him I'm not ready yet but that I'll give up next year. I might give up this year when I get my annual winter cold and don't feel like smoking anyway.
It seems like the holiday to the Netherlands is in doubt. The timing for the return of university students and the trip has collided so it's not a good idea that I'm away. Who knows where we'll end up. I wouldn't mind saving some money and going in winter anyway. The heat in England at the moment is getting on my nerves. I am definitely not a sun worshiper.

I've found the title bar.

I've been looking at other peoples blogs and wondering, why don't I have titles to my posts?
As you can see, I've worked out how to do it now. It'll be easier for readers to find older articles now. Just thought I'd share that with you.

Waking up this morning with an itchy arse was bad enough. But then finding out you've got piles is even worse. It's a sign of being old and over-weight. I'm only a bit pissed off because I have been dieting these last few weeks in order to get my weight down. Now I find out that all my efforts might have to be doubled to stop the onset of more medical problems.
I think the worst part about it is I've got to see a doctor that I don't like and he's probably going to want to stick stuff up my backside. I'm not sure who'll that'll be worse for.
Anyway, I've made an appointment for next Monday so I'll let you know what happens. Not that stories about my bum are going to be that thrilling.

If you're ever in Leicester and especially New Walk, may I suggest that you steer clear of New Walk Burgers.
Despite trying hard to look like a cool take away food place it is in fact 'all fur coat and no knickers'. Their moto is 'Fast - Fresh - Fun' so let's break that down and see how they get on.
Fast. Judging by the lack lustre approach of the hired help behind the counter you can easily work out that fast isn't on his mind. It's true that me and my cat didn't have to wait long but that was because the place was empty. I would imagine like us, most people were less than impressed and haven't bothered going back for another helping.
Fresh. It was really hard to tell how fresh most of the ingredients were. The buns were all in plastic bags but there really was more than that business could hope to shift in a day, I couldn't tell how long they'd been there or how long they were likely to remain. The salad seemed fresh so one point there. The burgers came out of the fridge so your guess is as good as mine as far as they are concerned. The chips were frozen then deep fried so I would guess they could be anything up to a month old. The pre-made sauces, well, just take a stab in the dark.
Fun. If your idea of fun is dodging the sauces as they rolled out of the burger the second you picked it up then you need therapy.
To sum up the place is a tart in the honest world of tacky looking kebab shops. The food tasted like any other burger and chips from anywhere UK. Mine was supposed to be Penang Satay but I couldn't taste any satay at all. What I could taste was lashings of monosodium filled sweet chilli sauce.
It's a bit obvious to say this but I won't be going back. You can get an idea of the whole experience by just looking at their method of presentation.
New Walk Burgers: 1/10

Hello my secret blog readers.
This is my private blog which is why it's away slightly from my main site. I'll be blogging all kinds of weirdness and pictures and stuff on as regular basis as I can. My main site will still show the selected highlights but this blog will be slightly more blood and guts. That is to say that some stuff will be pretty dull as well as other bits being bloody funny.
I hope you enjoy the real world of MikiStrange.