Hels Birthday Bash Pictures

Is it a 'group', 'gang' or 'gaggle' of girls?

Drinking Gin & Tonic from a plastic bottle on the tube...class!

Salmon & Compass in Angel - party central

A Tim-Vicky-Tim sandwich

Hels making 'Big' Tim look short!

( Our respective Best Lady and Best man )

Happy Anniversary of your 29th Birthday Helen!!

Ray Lamontagne 'v' Wolfmother @ the Apollo

Last year Vicky and I saw too classic concerts in Manchester, Jack Johnson at the MEN and Jose Gonzalez at the Apollo. Following this '2 concerts a year theme' we seem to have crammed in two visits to the Apollo in 2 weeks.

First up was Ray Lamontagne. Vicky being the new music generator she is, found this guy last summer, just in time for our road trip to Slovenia. Though the album 'Trouble' has been out for a while, it is still sits in the CD player ( his new offering 'Till the Sun Turns Black' is slowly taking hold ) and it was mainly tracks from this first release that he played. Amazingly talented and painfully shy, it was frustrating to hear the local Manc's shout at him "Speak up Ray", during the breaks between songs. Fortunately he wasn't put off and each time he started a song the crowd were in awe at his unique voice and the passion which he delivered each of his tracks. As the reviewer writes in the Metro, beg, borrow and steal to hear this guy sing live.

In stark contrast we rolled up again to the Apollo this last Friday to hear the rock maestros Wolfmother along with aged Zepp fans in leather jackets and the great un-washed ( aka Students ) looking miserable as ever. With support from 'Wolf & Cub' another Aussie band the stage was set for a rocking. With the biggest afro since Leo Sayer, skin tight jeans and silver shoes, the lead singer Andrew Stockdale took it to another level, from the first riff till the last. With stomping solos from all three members of the band, the soul of Hendrix himself must have been somewhere watching. Throw in a classic cover of Communication Breakdown and it was one of those concerts which we will remember for a very long time. If you have forgotten the roots of rock, buy their album and re-ignite your soul. Zepplin, Sabbath, Cream watch out, their is a new power band on the planet.

So which one was better? Well they were equally as good, but for different reasons. The Apollo is fast becoming a favourite venue and we now have two Wolfmother tour t-shirts which will be worn with pride till they fall off our backs.

Five things that really scare me...

1. Moustaches - There is just something about them that gives me the creeps. What are they trying to hide? There are exceptions to the rule; Burt Reynolds ( the Bandit has to have a Moustache ) and Earl ( Jason Lee in 'My Name is Earl' ). Other than those guys, I have yet to meet someone with a clear moustache who I didn't think needed some sort of professional help or just plain locking up.




2. George W Bush - I'm not sure what scares me most, the fact that this chump has the ability to bring to an end all civilisation or the fact that Americans actually voted for him! I look forward to Hilary Clinton getting into office....







3. Bum Bags and Mobile Phone holders - Much like moustaches, these things give me the heebie-jeebies. I'll quite happily and openly admit that I did have a 'hip pack' back in my early skateboarding days, but that was 20 or so years ago now ( aaaaargh 'getting old alert'! ).






4. Chav cars - If you follow a chav'd up car you are constantly worried that bits will fly off and hit you and if one is behind you, you are constantly worried that it's brakes ( as serviced by Wayne on his front lawn ) will fail and it will end up in your rear passenger seats. Dare I also mention no insurance?








5. Macs - How can a design masterpiece reduce a useful computer user to tears so easily? Is it the lack of a 'right click' or absence of certain keys? Either way if you stick me in front of one I go from being a cocky SOB to being that kid in class who wasn't quite paying attention during quadratic equations.

Machynlleth and Nant-Y-Arian Mountain Biking

This past weekend saw me hooking up with Ben, Matt, Ruth, Claire and Mark for a bit of Mountain bike adventure in Mid-Wales. The plan was to ride the Cli-machx trail at Machynlleth first, back to Claire's house in Llanymynech for a curry and then head out again on Sunday to ride at Nant-Y-Arian.

After the normal wait for Mr White ( who even after purchasing a new super fast A3 still can't get anywhere on time ), we left Mark and Claire to board the loft and headed out in convoy to the Ancient Capital of Wales, Machynlleth. Finding that place was easy ( seems like most roads in Mid-wales lead there! ). However using a dodgy bike map to the Cli-machx trail lead us up some interesting tracks before the Force was utilised to get to the car-park at the bottom of the trail.



The Cli-machx trail has been bigged up a lot recently, designed and managed by the Dyfi Mountain bikers it had an impressive reputation ( the longest downhill in Wales? ). Truth is, compared to other managed trails it rates as 'OK'. There are plenty of little jumps and stuff to keep you interested, but too many of the sections build up to nothing and on a couple of occasions you feel a little cheated. The final downhill is a bit of a gem though. Lots of nice drop offs, fast berms and some very cheeky North Shore ( if anyone knows how to get to it without walking can you let me know! ). It is just a pity the rest of the trail lets the whole route down.





After a quick stop in 'Mach' for a pastry we headed back to Llanymynech with empty bellies hungry for curry. After a quick pint in the pub, Claire persuaded/reminded/dragged us to the local village hall to hear a delightful Silver Band ( like brass, but silver? ). It was for charity though and their version of Bohemian Rhapsody did get the blue rinses headbanging! Soon after ( well in the intermission ) we were all in the curry house, toasting our day and filling our toned six-packs with calories in preparation for the next adventure.







After a night on the floor with Claire's cats, we loaded up the wagons and headed to Nant-Y-Arian, which is practically a stones throw from Aberystwyth. We were greeted by a hanging damp and cold wind. I know it is January, but what is wrong with a little sunshine? Playing around in the car park I managed to destroy my chain and for a moment I did think I would be sitting in the car park. However, Mark the Mountain Goat came to my rescue with his box of tricks and bodged it together to last the ride at least.








From the off the Summit Trail is a blast.( we actually did the whole Summit Trail plus a couple of sections of the another trail at the top ) Flying off the boulders on the 'Italian Job' with jelly legs right at the beginning is a great warm up and it just keeps going. The crux of the whole trip is an awesome alpine-esque downhill traverse. Great exposure, lots of whoops and plenty of 'nearly lost its' make this section of trail well worth the trip. OK, it is followed by a 2 mile uphill ( with a pointless off-fire-road section called 'Emmanuelle' ), but I will be heading back to 'Nanty' as it has plenty for a good days riding.

The only bad thing from the whole weekend was the management of the centre at Nant-y-Arian. I suggest they take a trip to Llandegla and see how you should manage a popular centre. The car parks were still full when we got off the trail at 15:30, yet they had closed the cafe 30 mins earlier. What is the point in having a centre and not catering for the needs of the users? Short-sighted would be an understatement.

Cracking weekend though, I just need to source about 15 parts to keep my bike going through the summer now...

MENTAL NOTE: Take more pics of the downhill sections