20cc

On Wednesday I decided to have a (birth)day off and have a couple of beers.  Random idea: A couple of beers in Edinburgh with a trip up the East Coast mainline, which is a great journey.  Once you get north of York the train heads through the towns and cities that were big in Victorian engineering, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle...

Once past the great curved platforms of Newcastle, the line continues to curve to the east, giving one last view of the bridge, then heads off to the Northumbrian coast.

As I was travelling First Class, I got fed on the journey, and the Fish pie was superb, washed down with a glass of Pedigree.

As you approach the coast, you can see Lindisfarne in the distance.

Berwick is the border town, and you sweep over the great viaduct and get a view of the town from above.  I have never been to Berwick, I must do someday.

After arriving in Edinbirgh I wandered up the long stairs from Waverley Station to Princess St, and along to Hanover Street.  Here there is an underground bar called Milnes, serving 7 or 8 real ales along with a great atmosphere.

Edinburgh Castle in the distance.

The Assembly rooms stand proud accross the valley, and I walked accross the Railway and around the Art gallery to climb the mount to the Royal Mile.

St Giles Cathedral Dominates the start of the mile, which has all sorts of nooks running off the sides.






  I wandered past John Knox House where the Scottish Literary movement started.







I continued to the end of the mile to find the Tass, but it has been changed and is no longer a real ale bar.  I plagueishly avoided the aptly named "End of the World" across the road. From the end of the mile you can see accross to the Royal Terrace.

Just down one of the "nooks" there is are two pubs which seem to sit on top of each other, Jinglin Geordie and the Half Way House, great beers in both.

Walking back down to the Station, and you can see that the backs of the terraces have turrets and towers and all sorts.

Thursday I was back in London to the Royal Albert Hall.  I've never seen a concert here before.  I had a couple of pints of Skinners in the Queens Arms just around the corner, which is a great pub.  Next time I am here I will have to try the food.

10cc in the Royal Albert Hall.  It doesn't get much better than this.  As usual they did an accoustic first set.

Followed by a 10cc hits second set, joined by Kevin Godley on a couple of songs.

I may be some time...

Wednesday evening I went to Bridgewater Hall to see 10cc.  I haven't been to bridgewater Hall before.

Opposite what used to be Central Station, there is the impressive Midland Hotel. There is still plenty of this architecture remaining around Manchester but I still can't believe what idiot thinks that some of these modern glass monstrosities like the one to the right "fit in".

10cc were great, but I don't like the hall.  The sound was very echoing where I was in the third tier.  I think the room is too "squared off" for good accoustics, I think the people at Bridgewater Hall agree, because there were sound muffling blankets thrown over many of the surfaces.












At the end of the concert, to celebrate 40 years since "Donna" was a hit, they performed a superb acappella version.





Mayday bank holiday weekend we went down to Sherwood Forest for a show at the start of the Robin Hood Festival.

Even the knights have to have time off to walk the dog...

There was afantastic set-up of a blacksmiths forge, demonstrating making nails, hooks and all sorts of bits and pieces, there was an archery demonstration, but all to no avail.  Mayday weekend, the snow, the sleet, the high winds, rain, sub-zero temperatures and freezing fog destroyed any chance of a large public turnout.

It was that wild, we decided to set up the tents inside the beer tent!

What water shortage ?

I had an hour to waste in Leeds while waiting for a train, so I took a walk down to the canal basin.  I hadn't been there since Me 'n' Luke had walked there from Liverpool a few years ago.

As I walked under the railway station, there was plenty of water about!

The canal basin has been improved quite a lot over the last few years, all the warehouses that were empty are now offices and the like.  I had a couple of beers in "The Hop" which is a great little bar under the railway station.

I passed through Bury on the way back, so I called into the Met to get a pint of DJ.  Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts were on in the studio.  I like the studio as it has a great atmosphere, much better than the main theatre.

The music was great, both Kat and Jamie are fantastic musicians, and both have great voices. Jamie has an unusual "flat" style of playing Guitar, and what a great effect.
 I had seen Kat before with the Albion band and Tiny Tin Lady, and Jamie with Kerfuffle but together they are superb.

Saturday night I had to go over to Bradford to be presented with an award for brewing what is at the moment, my favourite style of beer. Light Ale at only 3.2%.  You can have a few of an evening without worrying too much about getting up and driving in the morning.  I tried to pack as much flavour as I can in this beer, and it must have worked as it won its class at Bradford Beer festival.  Named after Lau's first Album, "Lightweights & Gentlemen" 3.2%, Great.

First Light

Thursday evening I went to the Lexington in London, just between Kings Cross and Angel.  I've not been there before, but Rachel Sermanni was playing.

She started the set on her own, with her superb guitar playing and amazing voice.  Having listened to her CD, it doesn't do her credit - you just have to see her live.

After a couple of songs she is joined by three girls playing fiddle and harmony singing, and one on piano.  This was truly a fantastic evening of music, and a shame when it ended.

On Saturday I was supposed to see Mark Radcliffe and the Big Figures at Bury Met.  3pm I got a phone call, "Mark has had to cancel the gig because he has food poisoning".  Something he eat maybe ?

Sunday afternoon I managed to get a couple of hours on the boat.  A trial fit of the Sterling Inverter/charger, and the electric cupboard is starting to get quite full.  I am going to fit a fan to the base of the cupboard in order to keep a reasonable air flow around all of this equipment.

A quick fitting of the first downlight, and a couple of switches, and the first of the many lights is working.
I got three different LED's to try and see the difference.  They range from cold, slightly blue-ish light, a reasonable neutral light, and a quite powerful slightly yellow light.  I can't make my mind up, so I will just buy a few of them and swap and change them until I am happy.

Loads of splicing

Easter weekend is great!  Two bank holidays at once, and I don't even work in a bank!

So I managed to get two days on the boat.  Now I can run the engine for a while every time I go to the boat, all of the batteries are charging happily and hopefully the Smartgauge will synchronise itself soon.

I started working down the boat getting all of the wiring connections in place, and splicing all of the junctions.  All except the shortest of the main lighting runs is done in 6mm tinned thinwall cable.  This is way over the top as far as current rating is concerned, but (hopefully) the voltage drop will be minimum. At each of the switch positions a splice is taken off the red cable with a 2.5mm tail, the splice is soldered, cleaned up and then bound in heatshrink.  At each of the light positions the Black cable is again spliced off with 2.5mm tails.

When I thought about this job a few weeks ago, I thought "One day should see all the cables in place".  A day and a half over Easter, and I have managed to get half way down the boat with just the lighting!

One problem is the cold weather, which has rendered my 25W soldering iron near useless against the 6mm cable.  So lost time for a journey to screwfix for a 40W Iron.

I have also run out of black heatshrink, so I used a piece of yellow on the last splice.  I sticks out like a sore thumb, so I will have to replace that!

Sunday I went to the Major for Sunday dinner.  Stu and Nita have been to the Lakes, so I had a fabulous enormous Herdwick Mutton shoulder Sunday dinner - I don't need to eat until about Wednesday now!

Sunday evening, The Accoustic Gathering were playing at Hitchin Folk Club.  Doug still has his cold and Rays' Granddaughter (aged about 1) was joining in with the singing at one point!