May the Force be with Lost Sheep and Wolves...

Wednesday night I saw Charles Ross.  If you haven't heard of him, search for him on t'internet.

I saw him, last year sometime doing one man Lord of the Rings.  One man, playing all parts, doing all three Lord of the Rings Films in an hour and a half.

This time, he was doing the Star Wars trilogy.  I didn't enjoy it as much as the LOTR, probably because I don't know the story very well.  It is thirty years since I've seen some of it...



Friday night, and I saw the Bad Shepherds. Ruarri Joseph came on as a warm up act and was very good. After the break Ade came on stage in a t-shirt printed "I STILL HATE THATCHER".

The band were superb as ever, but a little rushed.  I think some venues have a curfew - I prefer when bands can just play, and get carried away with the music without having to worry about when they have to be finished by.

The venues don't have much choice, the local councils seem to relish the chance to pounce on live music as noise pollution.  Often this is from a complaint, usually just one person who has moved in next to a pub, then spends their entire life complaining about the slightest bit of noise from the pub. Here's a tip.  If you dont like to hear music coming from a pub, then DONT MOVE NEXT DOOR TO A PUB!!



Sunday night I went to Wolverhampton.  Never been there before.  Unfortunately it seemed to be shut.
I walked past several closed pubs - even the KFC was shut at 6 pm.  I eventually found one that was open, but it didn't have any beer!

There are loads of superb old buildings in Wolverhampton, but unfortunately most seem to have been abandoned. 

I found the civic hall, where I was going to see Mark Radcliffe and Chris Lee. It was closed.  There was a poster in the window advertising the Slade rooms, about half a mile away, and this is where the gig was.  Nice of them to let me know!

Got to the slade rooms with ten minutes to spare. Have a pint - guess what - they haven't got any draught beer!  Maybe the Wolves Civic lot hadn't told the Slade room they had a band on tonight either.

Mark and Chris were very good, but it was unusual to see mark without his drums.  I know he isn't physically attached to them, like a grafted on accessory, but he is a superb drummer and I've kind of got used to seeing him standing over a set of drums (or leaning on a bar).

Mark read loads of extracts from his new book. Thanks Mark, I don't need to buy it and read myself now!

I noticed on their poster that they are playing in Clitheroe on Wednesday, very close to my home town. In fact I went to school in Clitheroe.  I might go see them again...

Beer steps and coffee...

Went to Ludlow to Judge beer of Wales and West on Friday.  I've never been to Ludlow before.  I wandered past the castle, and found a great mixture of old and new buildings.

  This Blue plaque mentions that this house used to be a pub.  Now where does that sound familiar ?

 

There is one remaining gate on a stretch of the city wall.  My only question is, why is the pub on the OUTSIDE ?

Back home on Saturday, and I managed a couple of hours on the boat.  I built the steps as per the design and they look great.  The top step should hinge, and the bottom step lift out.

 All I need is the Accumulator, and a few plumbng bits and I can get the Plumbing installed.  The steps need a hinge and a few clips to finish, then I will stain and varnish them to match the door.


Went up to the lakes on sunday for a beer or three in the Old.  I had a day off on Monday, as it was my birthday, so I wole up early in the lakes, and made a great coffee on the gas powered Italian coffee kettle that Luke got me for my Birthday.  I can see this becoming very usefull for the caffeine intake on the boat...

Low clouds, so all I could do was wander around at low level for a bit.

Monday night I went to Nottingham to see a live recording of I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue.  Brilliant again, especially the bit where John Naismith,  the producer accidentally locked himself out of the Theatre!

Changed my mind....

During the week, I thought of a better way of doing the shower floor.  I got back on the boat and ripped up the battens I had fixed the week before.
I put a sheet of marine ply direct to the Steel Angles of the base.  This will be 3" below the finished floor level because of the missing battens, but as the ply is fixed in many places to the steel, there is little or no flex in the floor.

I got a low profile shower trap from Taps4less.com.  The lower part of the trap fits into this sheet of marine ply.  I then fit tapered battens to provide the slope down to the drain.  More 18mm marine ply was cut into 4 "triangles" to form the slope.  This was then screwed to the battens.

The shower area is a slope, and the remaining area of the wetroom is still 1" lower than the floor on the rest of the boat, so that should keep the wet bits in the wet room quite nicely.

Sunday was sunny, so me and Luke decided to go climbing for the first time in 18 months.  Physically we did fine, in all respects other than the shaking!  I think that climbing is more nerve than anything at the moment!

Got a new toy at work, Turbocad 3D.  I thought I'd practice by drawing up the steps for the boat...