A dead mouse to start the morning. Cheers, Dotty. We've not had the pleasure for a few weeks now. The onset of autumn and the damp conditions lead to fertile hunting ground for Dotty. This one was completely out for the count. It was lying on its back on the kitchen floor, doing the Tiswas dying fly. Oh well.
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Album of the Day: The Saints - Eternally Yours#
Aussies never really got punk. This was probably recorded wearing denim. There are some decent melodies. The horns section hinted at where Crazyhead lifted their ideas from. I lost a little interest towards the end - not a good sign for an album that is 36 minutes in duration. I looked at picking up a £2.50 eBay CD. £150. No thanks.
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Some DIY was attempted by A. The corner of the house has taken a battering with bicycles banging against it over the years. The concrete has worn away. We've bought a small bag in an attempt to patch it up. I stayed well clear. It looked like porridge was being applied to the cracks.
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Surrey went off for rain at Old Trafford after a poor opening with the bat. I switched to the Comrades up the road in Liverpool with Starmer's conference speech. Oh dear. #whynotjointhelabourparty, etc. I did. FOOL.
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In Half Decent Rowing News: the crews were chosen for the next round of the Harker's Yard Winter Series. I've ben picked for the mixed crew - which I think is a promotion, right? It's a tricky race course launching from Rowhedge. The geography of the river means that it is a time trial and not a bunch sprint. There's the possible stigma of being caught by the boat behind. No pressure, then.
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I spent a little more time on some Colne Radio work. There's funding available once again for some more training courses as part of the Seeds4Growth package. This is the third time I've been asked to put in place a recruitment campaign. So far it's been a success - much to my surprise. I wasn't expecting to deliver the number of people we need, given the limited resources.
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I've tried not to change the messaging and the assets used previously - if it's not broke, etc. But I do feel that I need to freshen things up, mainly to justify my own invoice. It's actually a fantastic opportunity to be trained up by some industry professionals for free. Thirty years ago it would have been ideal for me.
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I rinsed a whole pile of reggae 12" late afternoon. There's some cracking tunes in there: Gregory Isaacs, The Instigators, Tippa Irie. Yep, I've reached the 'I' section on my reggae 12" A-Z. Aye... I'm still ploughing through the last job lot batch that I bought, then slowly uploading them to the Jay-C YT channel. The bass sounded amazing coming through the amp. I'm not sure if my neighbours felt the same.
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We both headed out for the veg pick up just before sunset. I listened to the Streets Ahead
podcast throughout the brisk 3km route. It's a wonderful broadcast, capturing the energy and enthusiasm with everything that is possible in a cycling city. It's pretty mnuch the opposite of the attitude around the Estuary Wilds.
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The podcast was anchored around Car Free Day. One interesting observation was that you can fit 42 folded Bromptons into the space it takes to park one car. There was also discussion about the BONKERS decision to ban Car Free Day in Hammersmith because of... the death of the Queen. wtf.
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The conversation then turned towards parklets and bicycle hangars. The hypocrisy of how how much it costs to close a road compared to the cycling benefits was highlighted. London has made some huge advances when it comes to cycling in the past ten years. But there's still a long way to go. The Estuary Wilds is stuck in the Middle Ages with Car is King.
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A cooked up some sausage shit of a meal. We've still got a freezer full of cheapo sausages that I snaffled when they were half price. We left the oven door open after the meal had been cooked, rather than put the heating on.
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A new bid came in for the FGTH Pleasure Dome picture disc. And so it will finally sell. We watched the Great Rock 'n' `Roll Swindle to end the evening. It's a shit film, but one that needs to be watched every five years or so as a wake up call. We were both shocked at some of the references, forty years after the original Swindle. These were different times.
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