F'Day: Giant Choc Bar and card with Cruyff shirt...

... the boy done good... :-)

(I'll even let him off the YOUR/YOU'RE thing)

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="333" caption="Fathers Day"][/caption]

Pam & Arthur Photos Spring 2011

Various Photos from Pam & Arthur's Camera in 2011

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Photo Set"][/caption]

Photos: Day Out in Cumbria - Easter 2011

Charlie, Grumps and Steve visit Wendy, Richard & girls in Kirkby Stephen.

Rode on a couple of old classic buses as part of the '13TH EASTER CLASSIC COMMERCIAL VEHICLE RALLY' (http://www.cumbriaclassiccoaches.co.uk/ecvg.asp)

Charlie, Grumps and Steve visit Wendy, Richard & girls in Kirkby Stephen.

Rode on a couple of old classic buses as part of the '13TH EASTER CLASSIC COMMERCIAL VEHICLE RALLY'

(http://www.cumbriaclassiccoaches.co.uk/ecvg.asp)

Photoset here

Photos: Charlie's Birthday Curry

Charlie, 5 friends and family enjoy a birthday curry at the Bengal Spice Restaurant in Catterick.

Charlie's 9th birthday - April 2011.

Charlie, 5 friends and family enjoy a birthday curry at the Bengal Spice Restaurant in Catterick.

Photo set here

Happy Birthday Charlie!

It's Charlie's 9th Birthday today (9 - really... 9!!!)

He has some friends coming round to watch a DVD this afternoon and then off for a curry at a local restaurant.

He's making great progress with his new Lego Star Wars Clone Turbo Tank (only 135 pages in the instruction manual!)

More photos later...

Farndale Daffodils

A trip to see the Farndale Daffodils 12/04/11.

Grandad Bill and Joan visiting for the week so a family trip out in the bus with Granny Pam & Grumps too.

Farndale Daffodils - North York Moors National Park

<a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk%2Ffarndale-daffodils%2F&h=fa327" rel="nofollow">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk%2Ffarndale-daffodils%2F&h=f...</a>

A trip to see the Farndale Daffodils 12/04/11.

Grandad Bill and Joan visiting for the week so a family trip out in the bus with Granny Pam & Grumps too.

Link to photo set here.

Farndale Daffodils - North York Moors National Park

http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/farndale-daffodils

World Book Day

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Quentin Blake illustration (you can buy a print - click through)"][/caption]

I'm going in to Charlie's school this afternoon to read a to some kids to help celebrate World Book Day.

I'm going to read from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - hopefully have time to get to the finding of the Golden Ticket.

Apparently the official name for this day is: "World Book and Copyright Day" - doesn't have quite the same cosy  feeling put like that, does it?

Charlie's Broken Arm...: New Pots for Old

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="160" caption="Charlie's new cast"][/caption]

Charlie had his “above the elbow” cast removed today - however the doctor says he must have a new one (below elbow) for two more weeks... (then no contact sports for 4 more weeks).

He chose a very nice blue colour this time and he's being very brave :-)

Charlie's Broken Arm.

Charlie has broken his arm (Ulna) in an accident at a "soft play" centre (we know.. soft play... irony etc.) when one of his friends landed on him during another friend's birthday party.

He's been very brave.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="67" caption="Charlie's Green Cast"][/caption]

We spent a few hours on Thursday evening at A&E (Darlington Memorial Hospital) where they examined, X-ray'd and put a temporary cast on him. He has a "green stick fracture" of his forearm. This morning we went back to the hospital and Charlie now has an "above the elbow" cast in a fetching green colour which he'll wear it for 3 weeks.

All the staff at the hospital were friendly and efficient and we were well looked after.

Meanwhile... who's my goalkeeper for Sunday's match?!

Photo Set here

Amazing (planned) Chinese bus reminds me of...

This amazing public transport plan from China (found via slashdot)

China to build ginormous buses that cars can drive under

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/02/china-to-build-ginormous-buses-that-cars-can-drive-under-video/

Reminds me of the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro.

Bowie STATIONTOSTATION SPECIAL AND DELUXE EDITION BOXES DUE IN SEPTEMBER

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="480" caption="STATIONTOSTATION Deluxe Box...mmmmmmm"][/caption]

I mostly buy music as mp3s these days... although I still buy a few CDs (especially where the CD is cheaper/the-same-price as a download). However this would be tempting.. even though I already have most of (nearly all) the music on multiple formats. I remember buying the "Live Nassau Coliseum" on a bootleg cassette at the Portobello Road market... and then some time later finding it as a vinyl bootleg - you can't replicate that excitement of discovery via a torrent search.
I expect my/our generation (mid forties now) must be the last who will likely still lust after "owning the object".

We first mentioned this one almost a year ago (08.11.2009 NEWS: STATION TO STATION FOUR DISC SET DUE NEXT YEAR) and it is with much pleasure that we are now able to exclusively announce the release of EMI's 3-CD Special Edition and 5-CD, DVD and heavyweight vinyl Deluxe Edition of David Bowie's massively influential 1976 album, Station To Station ...along with the much bootlegged fan favourite: Live Nassau Coliseum

From: davidbowie.com/news

Photos for Dennis' Birthday

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Family Group at Dennis' 70th"][/caption]

Uncle Dennis is soon to be 80.. can it really be 10 years ago since we got together to celebrate his 70th?

Here's some photos from that event 10 years ago plus some other old family ones which were dusted off on that occasion.

Photo set - click HERE

Photos/Videos of Day out with Wendy, Richard & Girls & Dogs & Horses.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Horsing around"][/caption]

Charlie and I had a great day out with (sister) Wendy and family over in Cumbria yesterday. Charlie had an excellent horse riding lesson with Wendy and progressed to enjoying "rising trot" under her tuition.

Photo Set here

There's also some Videos here

Pam & Arthur's Trip to Paris for their 50th Wedding Anniversary

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="180" caption="Pam & Arthur visit to Paris (May 2010)"][/caption]

Photos from Pam & Arthur's weekend in Paris to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Click the photo to link to photo set (or click here)

It's our wedding anniversary today

It was 12 years ago and what a great day we had.... the online photos were from our first digital camera (a Fuji) - many taken by our friend Minos.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Wedding Day 1998"][/caption]

Happy (63rd) Birthday David Bowie

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="242" caption="Bowie - Nov 2009 SoHo NYC"][/caption]

My hero David Bowie is 63 today - so Happy Birthday to him.

It's been several years since his last album (Reality, 2003) and well publicised ill-health whilst on the tour to support the album - and he's been laying low with infrequent media appearances (celeb stuff with his wife Iman, supporting his son's movie "Moon", some movie and music cameos). Recently there's the stamps thing plus a new live album (based on the live DVD) of his Reality tour out at the end of the month.

There has been no new music either rumoured or released - and some fans have speculated that he's really not well.

It was almost a relief when back in November these photos surfaced of DB walking around in SoHo NYC looking quite the dapper man about town (what's in that bag? a new album?)   ;-)

So - happy birthday DB and lets have some new music you old bugger!

The 100 Most Iconic Internet Videos

This is from last summer -  but I just bumped into it.

A comprehensive list - many I know and remember fondly - many which escaped me till now (e.g. No 2 "Christian the Lion" - how had i missed that?).

It's hard to argue against the "Star Wars Kid" being at No 1.. but my favourite is still probably "David After Dentist" (No 7 - if you only watch one... watch that one).


A good list with useful contextual commentary too.

The 100 Most Iconic Internet Videos [Full List] - Urlesque.

Recent Photos: Back to School and Summer 2009

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Charlie back to school September 7th 2009"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Photos from Summer 2009"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Photos from Summer 2009"]<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/distractedbyathing/sets/72157622156735423/"><img title="Photos from Summer 2009" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3480/3896004444_e879d080d7_m.jpg" alt="Photos from Summer 2009" width="240" height="180" /></a>[/caption]

Recent Online Music Distribution Musings #2 - Frisell

One of my favourite musicians has a  new cd/album out.



[caption id="" align="alignright" width="133" caption="Disfarmer"][/caption]

Bill Frisell has a very well received CD named "Disfarmer" - see info & reviews via http://www.billfrisell.com/news/main.html#disfarmer

"Disfarmer was an outsider artist who became famous for his Depression-era photographs of families, farmers, and individuals around his hometown of Heber Springs, AK"

I've listened to samples (npr.org had the whole thing up to sample a week or two ago - not there anymore) but have yet to buy it... Interestingly the mp3s cost very nearly the same as the CD... and i have this whole shelf of Frisell CDs... and I kind of want the physical thing...

After a long period of buying CDs and ripping them to an electronic format - these days I tend to buy albums as high(ish) quality mp3 (or (FLAC) as/when available  and rarely miss the "packaging/physical object".

I tend to buy from play.com as they offer (generally) competitively priced, higher-quality mp3s, always sold without (stupid, stupid!) DRM, don't require I use any "special download tool/program" (you get a .zip file and can download straight from the browser and more than once if necessary) and were one of the first in the UK to adopt this model. The catalogue is now very good with much/most things available.

I absolutely avoid  iTunes (and similar) as they are relatively expensive, restrictive and require me to use their own software to access their store. Software which I can't run on my preferred Linux systems (as they don't suport it).

Fortunately some of my favourite artists really  "get it" and have taken control of their own output. They have their own websites and stores (often using a partner site/service) and  make good quality audio files avaialble at a fair price (sometimes with choices on quality & extras) and often with accompanying electronic artwork and information/notes (e.g. Byrne/Eno, Sylvian).

They sell direct to me and can keep all of the revenue themselves (passing on an agreed percentage to any 3rd party who helped them - e.g. an online store provider).

Consequently they own the relationship with me and they have the opportunity to offer me other things/merchandise (Tshirts, special extras, concert tickets) and keep me informed about their activities.

What about you?

- do you still buy CDs?

- do you pay the Apple tax for iTunes? (if so what give the value here, the convenience)

- do you have music that you are now locked out of as is encumbered by DRM?

- do you download free/pirated/shared music

- has spotify become your library?

Family Picnic 2009

A few pictures from our recent family picnic in Surrey.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="180" caption="Family Picnic 2009"][/caption]