Set off to ATP after little sleep due to work, the decent into sleep deprevation madness begins... arrive via Stonehenge just to add to the trip.  Arrive at Butlins in Minehead (sounds f*ckin weird saying that)... its a massive place and checkin is like
 a sea of beards of all different sizes, you will never meet a more wretched set of beards... I must be careful, after all the beardless are in the minority.  I am in mostly beardless company with part of the Leeds music scene, all know each other and can name check journo friends on Drowned in Sound  The best beards however are reserved for the Dirty Threes Warren Ellis and Josh Pearson.  Check list for next year, beard!  After wandering round it becomes clear this is going to be an odd weekend..the main stage (The Pavillion) is surrounded by a Pizza hut and various eateries, it is huge and cavenous but seems out of place with ATP, the other two stages are much more compact and inside.  The night gets started with Dirty Three and follows on with a few other bands before Josh Pearson rounds off the night (he looks like he should be on Americas most wanted)...  I'm not sure I am here yet... no sleep and not very sober...bed...

 

Start off the day in the real world with Everton losing to Man Utd on a old cinema screen in town.  We walk off accross the beach and mudflats to the little Minehead marina, it all sounds a little Morcombe cockle pickers as indie kids get trapped by the encroaching tide... back to the venue for Felix Lajko and his Hungarian folk music before decamping to the main stage where Low pull off one of the best sets of the weekend. They fare better than Spirtualized in filling the massive space with sound... Spiritualized follow but I just want to bend time and transport them to the smaller venue where they sound amazing and all is good.  Its all about to go a little mad with the collective weirdness of Nick Cave and the Grinerman who are showy and amazing and set off the evening.  Even have a bizzarre appearence of Bobby Gillespie doing some Bez like antics on Stage, why?  Everyone else returns to the challet to sort themselves for the night and I wander off round the other stages... Catch the Drones on the centre stage who are a bit of rock fuelled energy to continue the Nick Cave wave of energy... Techincal isues stop them, only for the singer to crack the joke, Why do you get peadophiles?  Because children are just too damm sexy... Oxygen expells from the room through collective gasps and the rest of the band look at each other... technical issues over and they continue on... catch a bit of We Ragazzi, can see why they keep splitting... The night finishes with Einsturzende Neubauten who are suuposed to be a new wave industrial band who play radom bit of industrial equipment such as power drills and pipes etc.. they turn out to be somekind of Shakespear Sister crossed with Bowies industrial sound of the early nineties sounding band who run on for what seems like hours... stop depriving me of sleep!  Need Orange Juice!

Woke up after a few hours sleep, starting to flag now and Papa M doesn't change that, an acoustic set sends me back into my own world created by the music with dust bowl landscapes and smal midwest towns, indesperate need of some upbeat pop music now, this continues through Dirty Three who are still excellent and have potentially the best song introductions ever... this song is about...Silver Mt Zion start, its still all too weird being in this cavenous room with burger king and pizza hut adorning the walls...the music seems lost, wander into the smaller centre stage venue to see Mary Margret O'Hara finish off with 'Somewhere over a Rainbow', things are feeling more surreal and I am knackered.  I am not sure what happens next but it was either the eating of a Yorkie bar or just the shear weirdness of the last song but things start to pickup.  I return to Silver Mt Zion who are now brilliant with vocal harmonies of one million died to make this song and then a wall of noise. I go outside to recharge in the sun before a distinctly underwhelming Cat Power and escape to the centre stage again where  Bill Callahan (of Smog fame) plays out his weird midwest slice of Americana/pop, this is followed by Joanna Newsome who plays with a harp and has some mad elfish, Bjork, child like vocals.  You are grabbed and taken through some massive white mansion and up a huge staircase to her room where she is playing harp with her band trapped in her mad world.  Going to have to buy some of her stuff.  Then thats it, escape from the beards and the Butlins madness back into the grim realitly of motorway service stations and crazy driving...the thought of work, project plans and even more madness does not appeal right now, more sleep is required!  No sign of Pingu either...

First big pitch game of footy in too long and how weird is it playing with so many people and space!  It was a good game in Great Ashby, where we played SEI who do Mcdonalds support work.  No big burger eaters were playing and it was a close run thing in the end as they came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2.  The team was, Richard, Chopper, Allan, Alex S, Alex D, Ike, Me, Lewis, Raf, Holger, Paris.  Pretty much every outfield player being from a different country!  Impressive!  Really need to start playing 11-a-side football again.

 

Away this weekend to the ATP music festival in Minehead which should be cool.  Don't recognise half the bands playing so should be at least interesting.  Hoping for sun rather than the snow and cold weather for the last one I went to at Pontins in Camber Sands.  I was hoping to join Angus and co in the Lakes for there Blair Witch video remake and some hiking but will have to wait until the next adventure!  Just glad to be getting away from work! 

On my way to footy tonight there was a bloke who had just won £25k from William Hill for reaching 100, he put the bet on at the age of 90 at 250-1.  Asked about his secret to life he said that breathing was the answer, if you stop you are not going to make it.  Good advice I reckon.

Instead of running the marathon which I should have been spent most of it with a pint in hand watching it at the 21 mile point after walking half a marathon to find a pub, all the way from Tower bridge.  Managed to find the typical east end pub with regular regulars who were seved by name and had a wad of notes under pint glasses ready for the next round.  We did have a competition to spot the number of celebrities which i managed to lose to Chopper and co who managed to spot Nell McAndrew, some girl off Eastenders, some girl off big brother, the welsh guy off big brother... I did manage to see Curtis just after returning from a round and narrowly avoiding getting run over in an attmept to say hello to someone I actually knew instead of a thousand random people who we randomly cheered on!  Even had one guy request a sip of my pint only to attempt to down the whole pint, bastard.

 

Met up with Jo who joined us for dinner after the race which was cool.  We went for food in Zizzi's and narrowly missed a man running into the building and the kitchen, stealing a knife and proceeding to cut off his penis and randomly stab himself (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6586879.stm).  Just weird!

 

We did plan to have a challenge to run up an escalator the wrong way, but managed to ride the tube back to Kings Cross without coming accross one which was odd and probably for the best given the lack of water and drinking of beer.  The challenge now awaits at Angel (The undergrounds longest escalator (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzPk_8zmeAc) as part of Ikes leaving do. 

 

Anyway got home knackered, probably more so than if i ran the marathon.  Realised I left a couple of burgers in my car which although managing to cook in the heat didn't smell the car out!  There is a god.

Just returned from a sailing stint in the English channel for Easter with friends Clare and Tom from university and some of their friends.  We spent 4 days sailing round the Solent between Southampton and the Isle of Wight.

 

 

Escape the madness of holidays at easyJet to the sun of the outdoors.  Get to Southampton just after 6 and head into town for fish n chips with the crew.  Get settled in cabin with John, my room mate for the weekend.  Get the big cabin which is lucky as night turns out to be cold and damp in the other cabins.  One thing I learn to dislike about boats is they are cold and damp at night!  Our boat has room for 6 while Janes Boy the other boat sleeps 8.  I actually have no idea what our boat was called!

 

 

We get underway from Hamble in Southampton waters and off towards Cowes.  There is no wind and hot sunshine which is great for me but not for sailing.  Start out with briefing about how to sail and what to do from Tom who is skippering our boat for the weekend.  Get to hear a load of sailing terms about tacking, and jibing and lots of other techy terms which I manage to forget in an instant.  In the end it is all about pulling the main sail up, and then pulling two ropes to change direction of the sails.  There are a few other ropes but they seem to be there to play with and make seats and pullies and whatever else you can dream up.

 

Arrive in East Cowes after some basic sailing, not much to say as no wind.  My face is burnt to a crisp, must remember sun cream next time and sunglasses!  Go out for the evening in East Cowes which is full of sailors trying to impress the local women of their exploits.  How they were throwing toilet rolls overboard to lose weight and gain speed (we saw one of their boats with four people pissing over the side into the sea - I am never sailing by a marina ever again after I learnt that boats eject their waste straight into the sea, although the toilets onboard have been designed not to make that an easy process).  Judging by some of sailors  they would be better served by a gym membership than a pub one and they might win a few more races.  Local women seem to be impressed though.

 

 

Another cold damp night but improved by copious amounts of alcohol to knock me out.  Bit more wind once we get going and sailing is much more exciting as our boat ploughs through the waves at a 45 degree angle, amazed that boats stay upright.  We harbour in a bay for lunch and some dingy fun before heading over to Yarmouth, a picturesque town on the Isle of Wight.  Dinner on board Janes Boy, the other boat and more drink before another damp night.  Failed raid on Janes Boy to capture the Crunchie nut cornflakes.

 

 

Back accross the Solent listening to mayday calls to Solent coastguard, one goes something like this:

 

Random Boat: Solent coastguard, solent coastguard, mayday, mayday

Solent Coastguard: Whats up random boat?

Random Boat:  Just left Cowes and realised taking on water quickly, don't think we can make it back

Solent Coastguard:  Do you have lifejackets on board?

Random Boat: Yes, they are onboard

Solent Coastguard:  Are you wearing them?

Random Boat:  No

Solent Coastguard:  Better put them on then (with a strong hint of irony!)

 

Also, heard that a motorboat had an engine fire which brought a more cheer from pretty much every sailing boat on the Solent.  I can see why there is the dislike as one motorboat buzzes our boat causing us to rock violently.

 

Head up Beulieu river to the west of Southampton which is probably the pefect image of old England.  Huge houses and amazing scenary capture .  The small village we visit is an old ship building village where they built over 60 warships some used in the battle of Trafalger and one was Nelsons favourite boat.  Stop for lunch before heading off enroute to Lymmington.  One of the things you learn about sailing is that you have to do it properly, you raise your flag at the start of the days and then bring it in at sunset.  There are a whole host of black shapes that you raise on your sail to say whether you are sailing but under power or are at anchor.  Its all very British and to get your skipper license there is a shit load to learn!

 

Go out in Lymmington for food and more drink (another strong feature of sailing and probably to do with the cold damp rooms you are returning to).  We attempt to play poker but after 1 hour have managed to play about 1 hand due to the inquisative nature of drunk Scottish woman.  The game only finishes after plying her with enough alcohol to fall asleep and we have a single all in round to determine the winner before bed. 

 

 

Return home to Hamble.  All in all had a great time, think if it had rained then it would have been rubbish but good weather, a bit of wind makes for a great sail.  Check out the photos.