California Dreamin’...

Well...after thousands of emails demanding “Why don’t you write them witty and informative blogs anymore”.?...and littered with worthy praise like “as I found your literary skills littered with bad grammar and your misguided observational musings so amusing and informative, not to mention enlightening.....and the world is such a grim place without them”

Really...?...so I have relented and bowed down to peer pressure!

View from the bow

Really...? Well...not really....I was just talking the other day and remembered that I used to enjoy to write occasionally and thought I should maybe give it another bash and do an update. I then made a New years resolution, there and then on the 26th Jan that I could at least try to produce at least one blog for each month of the year for 2022,,,can’t I?...we’ll see, can’t promise but I will try.

So here goes...I have revamped it and rebranded the product to freshen things up but it will be the same old me moaning about stuff, littered with inspirational pics and misinformed musings with a song based theme of my choice....

why change a winning formula?

I had better start with an update from where I left off.

After living and working in Italy I returned to blighty as I did each winter following the olive harvest. This time it was to serve a 2 year jail sentence thanks to Covid19...well it certainly felt that way! 

As the problem with the dreaded lurgy got worse, returning was not a viable option so I found re employment here and finally, after all the lockdowns, I was tagged and released and arrived back on Nb Andromeda as my weekday residence once again. 

I had a few bike trips to blog about but not much else inspired me so I thought I’d feature the boat life a bit more...for now.

She started up on only the second time of asking and was dry as a bone inside when I returned. She had suffered over 4 years in solitude on the mooring but had ‘wintered’ well’ so I was pleased with her general condition following my neglect of the trusty craft.

I had a few sails up and down as restrictions allowed in to 2021 but things weren’t going very well in the engine department. The old BMC 1500 was becoming to get a little too warm and a little too smoky for my liking 🧐something menopausal was up with the owd lass...

Today, she sits in navy blue livery, still unnamed, still off-grid on the same private mooring but with half the engine block missing. She had a few ‘temperature’ problems that were diagnosed as ‘the cylinder heads gone, mate”...so now, the cylinder head HAS gone...to the head doctor!

He came, he diagnosed and then promptly left with it, last seen pushing it up the field in an old wheelbarrow....

Like a reverse Father Christmas!

Life goes on....slowly.

It’s never my favourite time of year but it’s a mild, wintery scene that I’m painting for you here with the hedges cut short, the muddy towpath, the odd quack from a lonely mallard and the occasional red nosed rambler lurching past the window clutching a bag of warm dog pooh....followed by a happy, relieved fat labradoodle!

The Azzurri skies are a distant memory...

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey

The rain patters on the steel roof

The solar panel is hopelessly inactive 

Candles flicker

The mooring is slippy

Empty fields 

Frosty mornings 

This is the time when Pikey’s patrol the towpath with their stiff rods, wrapped up like mummies in camouflage pants and six coats trying to catch a wiley pike.

Did I mention the overbearing grey skies?

Nothing is “unprecedented’ anymore.

The parties are over...

And then an odd splash in the night...I wonder what that could be...Boris, is that you?

On the water, not many boats pass by, only a lonely young swan patrolling the cut these days looking for a mute mate that keeps stopping here to polish off most of my weekly edible groceries, snatched through the kitchen window.

I will probably contract Avian Influenza from the big greedy sod!

As the Ecofan spins furiously on the hot stove the log store continues to deplete....

Oh Madonna!, I’m depressed now...Iv turned into one of my heroes, Jon Richardson.

As my sad log store succumbs to the winter months, the cheery media now warn of rising fuel costs so, the good news is that the strong winds brought an old Ash tree down opposite so I reckon that’s me heading for carbon neutralisation. With the Ying and the Yang perfectly re-balanced, Putin can turn off the tap for all I care....I just need a hand to get the big heavy bugger over this side of the cut before the thieving boater’s in the area get wind of it and try to steal what i class as...all mine!

Storm ‘Alwyn’ also kindly ripped the felt off the shed roof so that was another job to do, so thanks to the windy Welsh wizard I spent a happy afternoon mopping up rain and then slopping bitumen about and nailing on a new membrane.

So, shall I conclude for January?

It’s a start, isn’t it?...not too political, not too topical, or rude and even kept on the ‘boating’ theme for most of it...for now!

Ok, See you in then February shipmates!

All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown) 

And the sky is gray (and the sky is gray) 

I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk) 

On a winter's day (on a winter's day)…

I chose this song to open with as its subjective meaning is simply, “dreaming of California.” The first verse mentions warm Los Angeles, and contrasts it with the local cold and wintery weather. And dreaming is not literally REM stage sleep, but rather, thinking of being in L.A. (Or some other warm place) rather than the bleak place they are experiencing at present....I know how they felt...but what a bloody haircut!

Things can only get better...

Ok, that’s the end of the trip. We had gone out in the sunshine and returned back in the rain passing once again the thought-provoking plaque to little Clare and Paula before we boarded onto the morning ferry.

The synopsis of our visit to Northern Ireland was very positive, the people we had met and spoken with along the way had been friendly and the drivers very courteous to us cyclists. 

Some flag waving Nationalist and Republican areas still seem uneasy and are a reminder that trouble could quite easily return and the gates could be closed overnight if the peace process was upset in any way...fingers crossed that this never happens.

On the whole, we had a great time so thanks to Buster and Pongo for the company and the ‘craic’...just need to get a few repairs done to the bike for the next one!

Today’s final title track from Derry band D-Ream that included a young Professor Brian Cox on keyboards.

https://youtu.be/V6QhAZckY8w

Chasing Cars...

Today was to be a jaunt taking the riverside route and cycleway down the River Lagan from Belfast to Lisburn.

Breakfast stop off at the Lock keepers Cottage by the overgrown and neglected canal

At Lisburn I stopped for a chat with Eric Morcambe, the comedic inventor of the defibrillator!

A few miles from Lisburn was affluent Hillsborough, with its royal residence for the Secretary of Northern Ireland and somewhere that Liz and Phil can stay when they visit the territories.

When they go out for a pint they usually visit the trendy Smithfield House bar in downtown Lisburn, so we did the same.

Todays track by frontman Gary Lightbody from up the road in Bangor, Northern Ireland lead the successful band ‘Snow Patrol’ that I once saw as a support band to ‘Athlete’ back in the early nineties. 

https://youtu.be/GemKqzILV4w

A Lady of a Certain Age...

Today, was going to be easier as it was not as far to make the return journey back to Belfast up the west side of the lake. We left an overcast Ardglass after a good breakfast. Downpatrick, Killyleagh and then a brew stop at ‘Daft Eddies’ at Whiterock.

From here it was back to Comber and returning down the Greenway towards the cranes on the docks.

The evening beverage was taken in certain lovely old famous Belfast pub owned by the National Trust that was opposite the most bombed hotel in the world...The Europa, bombed 32 times!!

Today’s track is by the the lovely Neil Hannon and Divine Comedy born in Belfast. Some of the best lyrics that you will hear in a beautifully crafted song.

Girl from Mars....

Leaving the hotel we had a quick tour round the dry docks in the cool morning air. It was ‘Titanic’ this and ‘Titanic’ that but disappointingly, the actual ‘Titanic’  was nowhere to be found. We did however find the old pirate radio ship HMS Caroline.

 The funny little fella on the Comber greenway wished us “Top o’ the mornin’” as we cycled on the 10miles for breakfast.

 From here it was up to Newtonards and then the rural back roads clockwise circumnavigating ‘Strangford Lough’ following Sustrans route 99. This took us out to the coast at Ballywalter then down the Mourne coastal route only stopping for Mr Whippy and milkshakes at Portavogie before making our way down to catch the little ferry at the aptly named ‘Portaferry’.

Here, the 4 o’ clock boat brought across all the kids from the Strangford grammar school and then we jumped on, payed our quid, and jumped off 5 minutes later.

At the 52 mile mark with only 2 miles to go our old bones needed oiling so it was fortunate that we came across the ‘Curran’s Inn’

Finally into Ardglass, a small fishing harbour with tiny boats and crab pots and a ‘wet’ pub that sold a locally brewed dark beer called ‘Guinness’....how quaint!

Belfast band ‘Ash’ have always been a firm favourite on my indie playlist so Iv dug this track out for you to enjoy. Tim Wheeler of the band was only 16 when he had this hit in the charts in 1995.

The bright side of the road...

It didn’t take long from leaving the ferry to get a hard reminder of the past, a plaque for a 4 and a half year old child, blown to pieces during the troubles on the side of an old church. Cycling down the and into the modern docklands was however very impressive and lifted the soul as it became apparent that Belfast had turned the corner, thriving again and attracting tourism and business. The city was impressive, a mix of the old and the new and felt cosmopolitan.

Time to have a ride round and look at the sights.

We left the docklands, with the famous cranes that lifted the fated ‘Titanic’ and headed to the outskirts of the town. When we got out to the Protestant Shankhill Road, with the Union Jacks flying, the memorial gardens and the loyalist posters on every corners it was obvious that no one here was ready to forget the past. 

Through the now open segregation barriers into the neighbouring Republican side and along the Falls Road things felt a bit diffferent here compared to the modern city. The high wall was still there, creating a cage for these residents and again on every corner tributes, wreaths and reminders of the years of murders of their people by the British forces. You were left in no doubt how both sides still feel but at least some progress has been made by both sides and good luck to them and may this continue.

Today’s track by the celebrated musician from Belfast leaves no introduction necessary....enjoy Van Morrison here.

Screamager...

 The weather was looking up, a good general synopsis of the sea state was a gentle south-westerly blowing good to fair off Dogger Bank according to the early morning shipping forecast. No warnings in force so with military precision everything was packed and carefully stowed away; egg butties wrapped in a spare pair of freshly-laundered Y-fronts were squashed into panniers along with copious supplies of bovril and baked beans, a harmonica, a packet of love-hearts and a corkscrew...nothing had been left to chance, it was time to depart.

At the port of Cairnryan the Stena Estrid, bound for Limassol Cyprus via Belfast was parked up and waiting to whisk us over the North Sea...

Today’s blog title track is ‘Screamager’ by Belfast band ‘Therapy?’