Lust

I want this perhaps a little too much....

Quarter exceeded

On Friday I became twenty five, doesn't sound to bad but lets think of it like this, I'm now a quarter of a century old. Yeah, it's super. 

Anyway, to celebrate I spent the day in Birmingham, and odd choice to some I know but having spent a few years universing at Wolverhampton it was a nice little slice of nostalgia. Birmingham, for all its bad press is actually a really nice city, sort of like a Manchester in the Midlands. You have the obvious tourist spots like the Bullring (its good, not quite as good shopping wise as say, the Arndale but I will say that Birmingham's Selfridges is far, far better than Manchester's. It's also home to my new favourite and most awesome shop in the entire cosmos, Pedlars.) and the Sea Life Centre (what more do you need other than sharks and otters).

The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is always worth a visit, and it's currently showcasing a glimpse of the fairly recent Safford Saxon hoard. Unfortionatly there really wasn't much Saxon treasure to see, but the craftmanship that would of gone into each of the individual pieces was incredible.

Another place I made sure to visit was the IKON gallery, set in a refurbished church up in Brindley place, it is a fantastic building and i was perhaps an awful lot more interested in the building its self rather than its exhibits. On I did like was this piece.

It captured the moment that a lamppost falls and collides with an awning, not pictured is the explosion of paving slabs surrounding the base of the post. iPhone cameras are only so wide.

Due to the rain we didn't stray to far from the centre, which meant missing out on the excellent custard factory and the vintage market on Digbeth Road. And then we left for home, the end.

This is a Turtle

Pix'n Love Rush

I am very enamoured with an iOS game at the minute. It's called pix'n rush and it is simply the most addictive thing since gamefreak invited you to catch them all.
The game offers you four different modes of play, several awesome plinky plonk tunes and graphics and a whole lot of pixels. Though it must be said I only really play the 'rainbow rush', a neat little timed game. You have one minute to collect as many pick ups as possible running back and two across a stage, suns during day and moons during night, the nice little mechanic being that when you hit a stage wall the day switches to night. You gain extra time and points by picking up the symbols, every ten or so netting you five more seconds. It is absolute zen bliss. Frankly there's no other reason to own an iPhone over than to play this game.

It's made by pastagames and is in the app store now. And it's free.

Victoria Park

The thing about Widnes is that for all the miserable and hideous excuses for humanity there is certain gems to be had and the big one for me has to be in the buildings. Widnes has scores (well ok five or six) of listed buildings from 900 year old churches to classic sandstone public buildings. Some of the areas of Widnes are lovely too, Widnes is essentially a conurbation on a tiny scale, several villages all being enveloped into a sizable town. Appleton, Farnworth and Cronton all have there green areas. Cronton having Pex Hill and Appleton having Victoria Park.

And its on Victoria Park that i want to focus, When i was a kid the park was my home away from home, be back from school then straight out to play a game very loosely based on football (all with enough time left over to be a geek, amazing). Its actually a very good park, its a fair size, has tennis and basketball courts and a skatepark. It also for some reason now has a climbing rock (is the council begging for some cocky little shit to fall off inebriated on blue WKD and try to sue for negligence). Now the council and a team of volunteers are putting a lot of effort into introducing wildlife. We have a pond, which already has geese, swans, moor hens and ducks (and duckings) and a nature trial though the wooded area.

welcome and also hi, i'm treebeard

a batcave, but where does the mobile go?

a carved rabbit

woody woodpecker!, i'll just go shall i?

Oh the options,

After struggling to find journalist work after my contract not being renewed at the Scottie Press I have what may prove to be salvation. However this lies at the other end of 20,000 leagues, no wait I mean words, to be honest it’s not the amount of words that I find daunting, its what to write about. When faced with something as impossibly open like this I tend to become just a little indecisive and lost. Twenty thousand may seem like an awful lot but I have written essays half that size in little under a day. 

Easy, but what do I focus on? Spoilers, it may be for a German magazine so politics and unemployment, two subjects I can rave on are out the window, anyway I will hopefully soon come to me in a flash of inspiration, that or I’ll fail badly and cry.

A day in Liverpool

We saw lots, Matisse, the big Henry the eighth (I am, I am) and also a Banksy, I've liked his work for a while but never been a huge fanboy.
Anyway here's 'Cardinal sin'.

Cafe

As I have been tearing though my garden of late, getting everything ready for a nice summer. Well judging by the march weather we've been having this is probably our summer now.

In my garden i have an old coffee table, not sure why I bought it, its not the prettiest item. Now the dilemma is this, its a little too large to fit in a wheelie bin. Throws a spanner into the whole clear out plan really. After ripping its legs of and cutting it down I was feeling pretty triumphant.

It still Does not fit.

It's now the only thing left in my garden that's not growing or sitting related. But while watching 'Le Salvager' the other week I was hit with twin bolts of inspiration. Not only would I re purpose the table, a drew an idea for a sign from a 'cafe' in the opening credits. Because the table lacks legs, it is essentially just a big wooden sign, so i drew up a stencil and opened some rather fetching paint.

the stencil in situ

red equals class

Stay tuned as I'll be adding to it here and there over the weeks to come