Monday 16th August, 2010

IRON MAIDEN

Everything at work ran like clockwork, which made the morning go quickly. This meant that I could pop into Watford, at lunch, to buy the much anticipated 15th studio album by Iron Maiden, The Final Frontier! I had been waiting for this album for months and finally today was the day I would get it and listen to it. Iron Maiden had put one of the tracks from the album, 'El Dorado', on their website as a free download. This, I thought, gave everyone some indication of the sound of the album as a whole. Wrong!!! The style and composition of each track is incredible. From some heavy songs to amazing riffs to 'Metal Ballads'. (If there is such a thing.) This album has a completely different sound to some of their recent albums, but then is very similar to them. It also has pieces that sound as though they could have been taken from their albums from the early 80's, but are a lot heavier. And yet it has some amazingly soft tones to it. With each listen you get a better appreciation of how this band have grown and you can also see that there is no way they are going to stop... yet. Having listened to it for the last few evenings, when I have had the house to myself, it grows and grows on you. I thought that on first listening to it, that the song 'Coming home' was my favourite. Then it changed to 'The Talisman', then 'When the Wild Wind Blows'. Now, I can't pick out a favourite. Each song is unique and deserves to be a favourite. It is very rare that an album can hold my attention through 10 tracks, running at over 76 minutes, and I find that I don't want to skip a single song. This is quickly becoming my second favourite Iron Maiden album ever! After 'Number of the Beast.' If you get the chance, give it a listen.

Up the Irons!!!

 

On August 16th 1977, the World lost one of its greatest performers. Elvis Aaron Presley.

Knowing this I knew that my friend, Len, would be round for a few drinks after work. He is a complete Elvis nut who is currently saving to go to Graceland in 2012. Sure enough he turned up. I was listening to my new Iron Maiden Album, 'The Final Frontier', when Len arrived. We cracked open a few cans and we sat in the garden while the CD came to its finish. Then I put Elvis on. Not your normal hits or anything. I put on his unreleased, live, rare, demo, one-off songs. Ofcourse the first one I played was 'I washed my hands in muddy water'. This is one of Len's favourites, and mine. Len didn't even know this song existed until I played it for him a couple of years ago. We had got talking in the pub and I asked Len if he had heard 'Don't cry Daddy' by Elvis and Lisa-Marie? He said, 'No' and that there was no such version. So i went home put the song on my phone and went back to the pub the following day and played it for him. Apologies all round. We quickly became good friends and I told him to pop over the house, and i would play some more tracks that I was sure he had never heard. Sure enough there were quite a few songs he hadn't heard. Or, rather, he had heard the songs but not the versions I had. This was especially true of the aforementioned, 'Muddy Water'. So we sat in the garden, drinking beer and listening to Elvis.

 

Cousin.

A little after Len had left , my cousin Mark came round. He was only down for one day, from Norwich, and had spent the afternoon with the Grandparents and his Uncle. Then I had called him and told him that i would be very upset if he didn't pop in to see me and Emma. So, he did. Emma had gone to a friends to drop in a Birthday present for our friends daughter, so Mark and I sat in the garden, with a beer. Since Len had gone home, Iron Maiden was playing again. Not soloud to deafen, but just enough to be heard in the background. We sat and talked and joked and basically caught up. Emma returned and they talked for a bit before Mark had to leave. As he was staying at my Mum's, he thought that he should get there earlyish, so that he could speak to her too. So we said our goodbyes and he left.

Time with Friends

After my trip to London with Alysha (see last blog), I relaxed for the rest of the week. Swany and I did go to 'Shoots' Garden Centre, on the Friday, as I wanted some more fish for my tank. On all of our last visits to 'Shoots' they have had a 'Snakehead' in one of the tanks. Unfortunately, no one had bought the Snakehead at 'Shoots' so it had been returned to the supplier. Snakeheads are usually found in freshwater in Africa and Asia. There are a number of different species of  Snakehead and they can grow anywhere between 25cm and over 1metre in length. They are predatory and eat everything from aquatic insects to rodents. They can also breathe air and when they are out of the water they use their muscles and fins to 'walk'. The female can lay up to 150,000 eggs a year! It is a great creature to see in a tank, but people have started to release them in to the wild, especially in America, where they are causing havoc with the local ecosystems. Anyway, I bought six Admiral Tetras and two Glass Catfish for my tank, along with an ornament for them to swim through. Swany, the mad man that he is, decided to buy a hamster. He had hamsters before and still had the cage, so he bought a small, female Russian hamster. On our way home we stopped off at Swany's to pick up the cage and then carried on to mine. While Swany cleaned his cage for his new hamster, I set installing the new ornament in the tank and acclimatising the new fish to the tank. While my fish were were bobbing about in their bags in the tank, Swany decided it was about time he named the hamster. Various names were thought of, including: Rachel 2 (last hamster had been called Rachel), Muppet (why not?!), MRS A (for a laugh), Treacle (for a millisecond), and various others, before he settled on... Lois. Quite apt as most people know Swany as 'Super Swany'. I did make the comment that Lois might get lonely and need a friend whom he could call... Clark. Swany was having none of it, so I left it. That night Swany had to drive to Wales so Lois stayed with us. That's Me, Alysha, Emma 14 fish and two cats, Tilly and Gerry, who thought the little furry thing in the metal box was for them to play with. Lois survived the night and was reunited with Swany on Saturday afternoon. Sunday I chillaxed and I returned to work on the Monday, at St. Albans City Hospital, and I was back at Watford for the rest of the week.

On Friday (13th) I went in to Watford with some friends. Chris, Adam, Michael and Kevin. We started off at the 'Oddfellows' for a quick one before moving on to the 'Moon Underwater'. We each had a pint and then we shared a pitcher of 'Green-eyed Monster'. Fantastic stuff. We then went on to 'O'Neill's' where we had 'Jager Bombs' and 'Sambuccas'. We then headed off to 'Yates's'. It was here that the words 'Beaver Club' kept getting mentioned. I was in no mood for visiting a strip club, so I made my excuses and scarpered back to 'O'Neill's', where I bumped in to Deano. He was up from Cornwall for the weekend and we always seem to find each other when he's back. So the two of us had a few drinks in 'Chicago's' before I left Deano with his arms around some young lady, and I headed home. Turns out this was a perfect idea, as the others did indeed hit the 'Beaver Club' and one of them even managed to get a bill for £240 on his credit card!!!

On Sunday (15th) Emma and I went to her sister Rachel's house for a BBQ, with all her family. The weather was perfect and so was the food. Plenty to eat and drink and we had a real good time. Alysha didn't go with us as she is currently on holiday with her friend, Sophie. Sophie's family had picked her up earlier on. I am sure she is having a great time and I look forward to seeing all the Photo's and hearing all the stories, when she gets back.

Until next time,

May it be well with you.

Drinks & A Tattoo!

I have had such a great weekend!

It all started last Thursday (29th July). I had the week off work and was looking forward to a night out with a few friends, Tendai, Ed, Alan & Swany from A & E and Alex from X-Ray. All six of us met up at Riley's in Watford for a couple of games of pool, at about 20:30. We had booked two tables so there were always four of us playing, until the last match when we all had a game of killer. I am not a very good pool player but I did manage to beat Swany, once. He was Okay about it has he did beat Tendai, which he rarely does.

After this we decided to go O'Neill's for a couple more drinks. One thing led to another and before you know it we were on Jager Bombs! (Alex's idea!) He soon regretted it as he was seen running to the toilet soon after. After a few more drinks, and a couple more Jager Bombs, we decided it was a good time to head off. Plus, the pub was closing. Alex and Ed were sensible enough to head home. Alan was determined to go to a night club, but in his state that was not going to happen, so he disappeared off with Tendai. Swany and myself decided to head back to his for a coffee, before I headed home myself. When we got back to Swany's, and after we had drunk some coffee, we decided it would be a good idea to sleep out in the tents. Mine was still up in my garden and Swany's was in his car which was on my drive. Superb idea! We got back to my house at about three thirty in the ayem and we set about setting up Swany's tent. Less than 10 minutes and it was done. Not entirely sure that Emma was happy about us pitching the tent at that time, but this is the sort of thing that happens when Swany and I get together.

Swany was not feeling too clever on Friday when he emerged from his tent at around 09:00. He went home to freshen up and was back round mine for about 13:00 as we had to go to see our friend Curtis in Dunstable. Curtis is my personal tattooist and Swany had been waiting an age to have a tattoo of a lion put on his shoulder. The Lion he had in mind was a sketch drawn by his Great grandfather, while in Africa. My tattoo was an Ouroboros against a cross. This gives it that Celtic look but incorporates two different elements. The cross itself is based on the rosary from the  film 'The Boondock Saints' while the Ouroboros is from the Chris Carter TV Series 'MillenniuM'. To say we were impressed with Curtis' work would be an understatement. Swany couldn't stop looking in the mirror after his was done and mine was just as good. Swany's was identical to the sketch that he had given Curtis, mine on the other hand I didn't get to see until it was going on my arm. I had given Curtis a brief with a few pics and then he designed it himself. He got it spot on!

Saturday Swany had to work, but came over afterwards with another friend, Pete. Len was also here and Emma had cooked us all stew and dumplings. Len didn't have any as he wasn't feeling too well and went home early, but the rest of us tucked in. Emma's stew is something to be savoured, as it is the second best Stew I have ever had in my life! (My Great Nan's was better!) After feeding we moved the tents so that they were facing each other than let off a few Asian Lanterns, just because we wanted to and because we wanted to upset a farmer in Kings Langley who is calling for them to be banned. His reasons being that his cattle might eat the Lantern and choke on the wire or they may cause fires. One: Our Lanterns have no wire as they use bamboo which bio-degrades. Two: By the time the Lantern falls from sky the fuel cell has been used up and the Lantern is stone cold. Besides, there are some 'Special' people in Bushey who believe that UFO's are flying every time we send a Lantern up. God help us!  After the lanterns had disappeared from view we settled in to our tents and continued to drink and chat. (Emma had already gone up to bed) Pete and I sat up talking 'til ridiculous O'clock, while Swany had passed out earlier.

So all in all a damn good weekend!

My next blog will be along shortly.

Until then, May it be well with you.