The Runner

Another piece of artwork on the Liverpool Discovers trail.

Celtic Cross

Celtic Cross, originally uploaded by Dark Dwarf.

It was a misty, frosty morning, and I had the camera with me so I took the opportunity to stop off on the way into work and try an atmospheric shot of this Celtic Cross in Toxteth Park Cemetery.

The Leaving of HMS Liverpool

HMS Liverpool leaving the Mersey for the last time - 1pm 28 Feb 2011. Saluted by ferries and tugboats she sailed out to sea with Rod Stewart's 'Sailing' (amongst other appropriate tunes) playing over the landing stage tannoy.

Heaven and Earth

One of the pieces of artwork on the Liverpool Discovers trail.

Captain Walker

Whenever I see this statue, I think of the opening song in Tommy - the Rock Opera by The Who.

Captain Walker didn't come home.
His unborn child will never know him.
He's believed to be missing with a number of men,
Don't expect to see him again.

Of course it's got nothing to do with that! The truth is even better:

Captain Frederic John Walker specialised in hunting down and and sinking Nazi U-boats. By all accounts a charismatic and eccentric character, blasting out the tune "A Hunting We Will Go" over his ships Tannoy as he returned to base from an operation.

HMS Liverpool

HMS Liverpool, originally uploaded by Dark Dwarf.

Took this photo this morning - HMS Liverpool, a Type-42 destroyer, on it's last major visit to Merseyside, where she was built, ahead of decommissioning next year.

The crew and officers paraded through the streets, exercising their freedom of the city - you can see them in this picture on the landing stage.

Monkey

Monkey, originally uploaded by Dark Dwarf.

This is the stuffed toy monkey that Frodo made at his Art & Craft club on Wednesday. "The nature of Monkey is irrepressible!"

RIP Nicholas Courtney - "The Brigadier"

Nicholas Courtney - the actor who played a character who has been around since my childhood died today. Farewell Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart

"The Brigadier never encountered an alien that he didn't attempt to shoot or blow up". :-)

Scarab

Samwise visited the Liverpool World Museum with his Mum on Wednesday, and brought a gift back for me - an Egyptian Scarab - hopefully it's a replica one from the museum shop!

Flowers

Trying out the camera that I got for Xmas, on the valentines day flowers I bought for Novelist Supermum.

Valentines Day - Zombie Attack Survival Guide

I've received a couple of gifts from my Valentine, in book form.

1. Dr Dale's Zombie Dictionary, The A-Z Guide To Staying Alive, from How To Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

2. The Necromonicon - not the original evil grimoire (I hope), but a well presented, large collection of the tales of H.P. Lovecraft.

Some say it with flowers, and some with animated corpses and unspeakable terrors :)

Still Got the Blues - RIP Gary Moore

There's some breaking news going round the interweb that Gary Moore has died.
e.g.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12377862

In My Ears and In My Eyes

Samwise had a school project to go on a short journey and take photos en-route. Since we had to visit to a local Barber Shop this morning we decided to make this the journey and walked there - took the final photo at the sign of a popular song.

John Cooper Clarke Night

Burns Night tonight so we've had a pleasant meal of Haggis, 'neeps, tatties and Black Grouse Whisky. Should have followed up with Manchester Tart for dessert, as I've just discovered that it's also John Cooper Clarke night tonight too :) I'll remember that next year.

Cow Pie

Made a cracking "cow pie" yesterday, the sort that Aunt Aggie would have made for her nephew. Topped it with a bovine pastry decoration. No time to wait for a photo before tucking in :)

My Portable HiFi

My igrado headphones developed a break in the wiring after about 2 years of use, so I've recently recabled them using these instructions as a guide.

Took the opportunity to take some photos of my current portable HiFi rig.
"Phenomenal cosmic sound in an itty-bitty living space!" :)



Kit List: igrado headphones (recabled). Graham Slee Voyager Portable Headphone Amplifier. Apple iPod Classic 120G housed in a clear fronted plastic case whose brand I've forgotten. Sendstation Pocket Dock AV. Audio Elevation i-lead. Berghaus E-case (large).

My choice of the iPod Classic is because it has the capacity to store digitised music in a lossless format. I tend to buy CD's and rip them up to the iPod in Apple Lossless format, rather than downloading those lossy MP3 thingummies.



Velcro sticky "coins" are used to fix the ipod onto the top of the headphone amp. These then both fit snugly into the Berghaus E-case (although I did have to snip out the elasticated securing band that's inside the case, as it wasn't needed, and was getting in the way).



The Berghaus E-case has belt loops and/or a buckle to fix it to your belt. The size is about that of an '80's Sony Walkman.



I just wear the headphones around my neck when not in use, although they do fit nicely onto the E-case.



The E-case also has a built in waterproof cover that can be pulled out and stretched over everything to create a package that can be packed neatly away.

Birthday Cake / Fire Hazard

It's Novelist Supermum's Birthday today, so I tried putting the correct number of candles on her cake (I'll leave you to count them). Lighting them proved to be a risky business - the heat given off was tremendous. She managed to blow them out in one go, leaving a smoke signal behind that a Native American would have been proud of, and a strong smell of hot candle wax.

After the babysitter arrived I took her out to our very local Thai Restaurant Chaba Chaba for a few Thai beers and a rather excellent meal - could hardly move afterwards, had to walk it off, then popped into Pod for a last beer before home.

A Few Christmas Photos

Megamind

If you find yourself at your local cinema and having to choose between TRON: Legacy and Megamind then go see Megamind.

Took the boys to see Megamind as a holiday treat today, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a CGI animated comedy, sending up the superman films, from an evil villain's point of view, and explored the relationship between villain, hero, damsel in distress and villain's sidekick.

The humour was working on several levels, as all good family films should. As with all good comedies it was tinged with a little sadness and home truths, which made the humour all the funnier when it came.

The soundtrack was right up my street. Appropriate use of 2 AC/DC tracks (as was done in Iron Man 2). What bad guy shouldn't make an entrance to "Highway to Hell" and return to "Back in Black"? Ozzy Ozbourne's "Crazy Train" featured and the finale was to the tune of Guns 'n Roses "Welcome to the Jungle".
Don't get me wrong though, it's not all Heavy Metal - the last song in the film was Michael Jackson's "Bad".

Great film - go see it for yourself.

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year Everybody!

We've been out this New Year, for a change! First we went to see Tron: Legacy, and for a treat we saw it at the IMAX in 3D, sitting in the Premier seats.
To be honest the film wasn't that brilliant - too much hype about how good it is possibly?, but not bad, particular with the extra sensory enhancements.

Afterwards we wandered up the hill to Catherine Street, and spent the rest of the night in the Blackburne Arms. There was some excellent live music and singing from an acoustic guitarist (although he did favour the "extended mix" for almost every song).

3 people wandered in wearing '70's fancy dress, claiming that they always dressed that way. Told them that they couldn't top the Willy Wonka with 11 Oompah Loompah's who I saw out and about on Xmas eve. Beer was good (Black Sheep), as was the atmosphere so we stayed for "the bongs" at midnight. - Spotted one of the teachers from the boys school in there too.

Caught a taxi home, and saw the end of this years "Hootenanny" with Jools Holland and guests (OMG! look at Alison Moyet - she's a shadow of her former self).