Me? An influence? With my reputation?

I was bored at work, so decided to google my name .. I discovered there's an Ed Partridge OBE, and also a couple who are rather good at sports, but this link surprised me:

http://www.mikedolbear.com/forum/post.asp?method=ReplyQuote&REPLY_ID=606638&TOPIC_ID=50394&FORUM_ID=1

Scroll down a bit until you get to the post by Jim_Royle. No idea who it is, but whoever you are, it was a pleasure!

The weird Japanese guy ...

I like to get out and about during my lunch-hours at work, as sitting in front of a PC all day is frankly soul-destroying. My office is 2 minutes walk from the Thames, so I've got myself a couple of walks I do depending on my mood. I can either:

• Walk over London Bridge, then down to Tower Bridge and back over and back to the office.
• Cross London Bridge and go for a wander round Southwark Cathedral.
• Walk upto the Millenium Bridge and go and have a walk round the Tate Modern.

I went to the Tate recently to look at Richter's paintings up on the 5th floor, but had to pass Doris Salcedo's "Shibboleth"

Basically, it’s a crack in the floor that runs the entire length of the Turbine Room (Which is MASSIVE). I’ve looked at it before so wasn’t really interested in looking again (It’s a crack ....), but the weird Japanese guy taking photos of the crack did catch my eye ...

He had two bags with him, full of toys which he was carefully positioning either side of the crack. The WJG started with a tiny Batman and Robin which he carefully positioned on the right of the crack, and a green dinosaur which he had on the left ... He then moved onto adding a fire engine, with it’s ladder extended length-ways across the bridge and a group of tiny creatures queuing up to go across .. Couldn’t they see the dinosaur on the other side waiting to get them? The fools ... Anyway, the WJG drew quite a crowd whilst he was taking his photos, some nodding in an apprecative way, others wondering where he got the Batman and Robin from, and of course, no-one had to supress a laugh when he dropped Robin into the crack ... Oh no.

I did take another photo from the 5th floor of him, which on reflection looks like he's fallen from a great height, and cracked the floor on impact .. The feller to his right obviously saw him hurtling downwards, and ducked ...

I have spent a wasted afternoon googling Doris Salcedo's crack, but nothing Superhero related has been found ...

I did have to break the Oakleys out this week, as the Sun was so bright when walking down the Thames. Also decided that Tower Bridge is one of my favourite London landmarks - one day I'll do the tour of it again (Last did it with my Dad when I was about 10 ...). The Tower of London is another favourite, only wish it wasn't do damn expensive to get in! I'm lucky with the amount of London landmarks within walking distance of where I work, and seem to find something new to explore each week. Beats sitting at a desk ...

I want to make beautiful music ...

Well, I want to make music ... I've been scouring eBay and Gumtree and have spotted a couple of digital studios I like the look of. I've got a palmtop studio that I've used before, but I'm restricted to how much I can fit on the internal memory card and to the drum patterns loaded onto the palmtop.

I did record a few things about 5 years ago, which I wanted to use in a possible Salvation Army band (Electralyte do it far better than I ever could have). I even got so far a writing 2 songs in a trilogy about 'Army life but got stuck on the theme for the 3rd song! Song 1 was entitled 'Sunday Christian' and was about whether you went to the SA for the 'right' reasons, or just so you could play in the band (And ripped off "Round Are Way" by Oasis quite a bit!) , and the other was about the open air and had a very big nod towards Sgt Pepper! There was a 100% original song, which I may do some more work on once I get setup .. So just need to get the studio, find the drum machine which is out in the garage, get the bass guitar from the in-laws, and then strap on the guitar, turn it up, and rawk like it's 1994 ... (As seen in the photo!)

Charlotte had a choir rehersal today at the local church for a concert I'm going to have to endure next Saturday ... She doesn't want to sing in it, and I don't want to go, but we're both going to grit our teeth and go through with it! Whilst she was in rehersal, I took Bethany to the farm park over the road from the church ... £6 to get! £6!! Wouldn't mind but there's bugger all there, and the majority of the animals you can see from the road anyway! So B and I went in clutching her bag of bread to feed the ducks with (£6!!), but soon gave up when a goose got a bit too close for B's liking (Taking her finger as well as the bread) so we went and looked at the animals .. B wanted to go home, but I wanted value for money. So B was in charge of my camera phone, and took some photos of me with various animals, and begrudgingly posed with some for me including one with an overly friendly goat.

SIX QUID!!!

Watched some films on the train this week, the pick of the week being 'The Darjeeling' although it's more well known for being the film Owen Wilson tried to commit suicide after ... This week I have 'Run Fatboy Run', and 'Flood' ...

Back to scouring eBay ...

It's not my birthday yet, but ...

Charlotte and I went to watch Ipswich Town take on Blackpool today, and as todays match is the closest one to my birthday, 9 year old Charlotte arranged a surprise for me.

Off her own back, she mailed ITFC and asked for my name to go on the scoreboard during the birthday dedications! She was supposed to keep it secret, but couldn't contain her excitement so told me 3 weeks ago ... So at half-past 2, we were sat below the scoreboard, to ensure we got a good view of my name in lights .. Charlotte was annoyed that her full message of "Happy Birthday Dad, lots of love Charlie x" wasn't displayed, but we decided there probably was a limit to how many words/characters you could have on the screen.

Oh, and we won 2-1 as well. Which was nice.

It's only a jacket ... But it's MY jacket ...

I'm not happy ... My beloved leather jacket is looking a bit, well, mouldy ... I bought it in 1993 during my first stint at Camp Kuratli, for $99 from Wilsons in Clackamas Mall. It went back to America twice with me, and was my jacket of choice for my time working for NLD Sound and Lighting. It's nicely battered, that only 15 years of wear can do to a leather jacket, and I've had people offer to buy it from me because of it's look. And in the little pocket on the front, still resides my silver 1991 quarter ... But now hanging up in a damp garage for the best part of the year has got to it, and it's in need of some tender loving care. Unfortunately Mia can't stand it, so it's down to me to rescue it - yes I've probably not worn it in a year, and chances are I won't wear it for awhile yet, but it's my favourite item of clothing and has many good memories associated with it. It's not going without a fight! (Incidentally, the photo was from 1995, and 'Grease Night' at Camp Kuratli)

We were talking last week about Epping Forest Country Club, which if you know your dodgy nightclubs, was the 'Faces' of it's day. I used to spend my Friday evenings in the club called 'The Jungle' manning the lighting desk, whilst 100's of drugged people danced to a monotanous beat made by people in their bedrooms .. But depending on the DJ, I quite enjoyed it .. Some DJ's would treat you with disdain, so that would be when you leave the desk on automatic and wander round the club and chat with the bouncers or Terry the cook (Before he got busted for drug dealing!),but there were DJ's who would want you to help them put on a show. These fellers knew that the lights looked better if there was someone controlling them manually, and if you were nice to the lighting jockey then you both would have fun, and it was those times when I quite enjoyed being the only sober person in the building .. I was CS-gassed in the club (Thanks to some over-zealous bouncers letting off a canister through the air conditioning to try and clear the place), saw someone die from a drugs overdose, watched numerous fights, saw Sid Owen get barred pretty much every week, and learnt an interesting array of swear words ... 15 years later, I wonder how I made it out alive!

4 year old Bethany and I took the dogs for a 2 mile walk on Sunday .. She wanted to try out her new 'Charlie and Lola' wellies, so off we went. I really enjoyed the walk, as the weather was nice (Had to wear my sunglasses), and B was in a talkative mood.

At one point we were in a field with a few sheep .. Now B has a thing about sheep, so after much pleading I said she could go over and have a look at couple of sheep standing in the corner of the field, whilst I stayed with the dogs. B made her way over, and had a conversation with these 3 bemused looking sheep, then came back and told me she wanted a pet sheep! I asked where she planned on keeping it, and was told (as if I was plainly stupid) that she'd keep it in a cage in her bedroom ... After explaining that sheep prefer living outside to cages in little girls bedrooms, and promising that we'd come back and visit, I managed to get her out of the field. Thought I got away with it, until I realised on the way back that she was looking for rabbit holes, as rabbits like to live in cages in little girls rooms ...

Still as we were making the final push for home, B came running back from one of her excursions for rabbit holes, grabbed my hand and said "We're on an adventure aren't we? I like having adventures with you Dad!" And I like having adventures with you B also ...

I really should be out running ...

I need to shift some weight, as the picture to the right so plainly shows ... Taken Summer '07 in Devon, and I'm fat. Numerous Devonian's preparing to push me back in the water and/or harpoon me just out of shot.

I should be out pounding the streets, burning those excess calories, shifting that weight I'm carrying around my gut, bit frankly I'm too tired ... I'm eating better, cut out most of the junk food (Did have a Mars bar on Saturday though), no take-aways for a month, no alcohol (I have a cupboard full, taunting me) and cutting out caffeine from my diet has meant that come 8pm I'm dead on my feet. (I get up at 5am) By the time I get home from work, eat something, put the girls to bed, walk the dogs etc, I'm too tired to actually get my trainers and run round the block ... Tomorrow. I'll start tomorrow.

So the past week? Not a lot has happened really. Took Charlotte to Manningtree library last weekend, and spent a good 15 minutes in the attached museum talking to the curator (With the most amazing buck teeth. Think Ken Dodd and triple the effect) about a blown up aerial photo of Manningtree taken in 1974. It's changed a bit ... I watch programmes like 'Life on Mars', or see photos in the library, and think how I'd love to go back and have a look. Even in the 5 years we've lived here there have been some big changes, but thankfully due to the town's status of being the smallest town in the UK (Though I swear it's lost the title, but we don't like to mention it incase people start building things) nothing major has happened. Although ... Tesco are threatening to build a superstore in town! The locals are up in arms, citing traffic problems etc .. Although one person I spoke to didn't quite understand what he was up in arms about, as he told me that Tesco would bring traffic problems and generally lower the tone of the town, however if it was Waitrose, then he's all for it!

My dogs don't understand the concept of weekends, and as they're used to me being up at 5am for 5 days of the week, expect me to be up at 5am at the weekends also. I stagger downstairs, swear at the dogs, let them out for their cocking of legs, and then go back to bed and try and find the comfy spot I had just left. Occasionally though, I think what the hell, and take them out for a walk in the early hours of the morning. If I'm lucky then the mist is still hanging over the fields and river, the picture taken to the left was on a lucky morning.

Having said that, I do get my own back on the dogs now and wait for them to fall asleep, then go and cry in their ears ... See how they like it!

Watched a few films on the train this week, and have to admit I've rather enjoyed 'Sweeny Todd' which I, er, acquired somewhere. Been finding myself singing some of the songs to myself at work ... And it's another one of those films where I'd love to go and look around at the setting ... London in the early 1800's certainly looks a bit different to 2008.