The Bells Have Made Me Deaf

I came across Michael Hedges a couple of years ago, recommended by friend Joe. Instantly mesmerised, I immediately acquired practically everything he ever recorded before his untimely death in a car accident in 1997. I’m happy to see some videos appearing on YouTube, (thanks to DAIC for finding them) a couple of which follow for those of you who like acoustic guitar and have the bandwidth to appreciate it without it taking all night to download.

Read the rest of this entry »

I was happy to be below average, I think that mine is probably even less than that since the questions they base the thing on aren’t exactly conclusive. There a few things that could be improved on… like insulation and draft proofing but I might be glad of a few drafts once this stove gets going. Oops… there goes efficiency!

How big is your footprint?

[image:545:c]

My arm often goes to sleep but it never dreams.

[image:544:c]Today I took a hammer to the fireplace which could potentially have been the start of a DIY disaster. As it turns out even though it was held in place by 6 inch nails into fire cement, the copper surround came away fairly clean without taking half the tiles with it, so now it’s ready for the stove to go in. I have also bolted the legs on the stove and hoisted it back upright from off it’s back while almost doing my own in. That thing weighs a ton. I intend to sit and stare at the naked fire cement that still needs removed to let the flue go where the flue should go and slowly eat a big dish of Mullins Belgian Chocolate Chip ice cream before I attempt to do the job of two burly men and heave the stove onto the hearth so I don’t have to climb over it to get to the kitchen. I’ll save stage II of the installation for another day when I have a bucket of fire cement on hand and a pair of bright pink Marigolds.

Last night I dreamed of making toasted sandwiches after not having eaten for days. All the food I had was 4 slices of bread, some cheese and an onion. I just happened to have a toastie machine handy too. I hope it wasn’t the one that was in the cupboard here when I moved in. Covered in greasy scum that had mildewed and moulded until it had a life of it’s own, I picked it up with the coal tongs and put it in the bin. Now it’s come back to haunt my dreams. Weak with hunger I sliced the cheese and onion and put the sandwiches in the toastier maker. Beats me why I didn’t just eat them raw. I could smell the cheese melting with that hint of onion and after five minutes they seemed to be ready. I opened the jaws of toastie heaven only to find that they were cooked on top and still raw on the bottom, only one hot plate was working but the heat had made everything stick to the bottom plate in a soggy mush. I woke up after that so I have no idea what happened. I think yesterdays conversations of nuclear holocaust and going to bed hungry may have triggered the imagination to think toasties but who knows, the mind is a strange domain.

I ran out of real tea a few days ago and having not been next nor near a shop since, I’ve been making do with the Twinings Earl Grey that was lurking in the larder. While I adore the bergamot flavour, the grey lustre of the brew is entirely unappealing. This morning I decided to remedy the lack of colour by using 4 bags instead of the usual two and giving it a good five minutes to infuse into something that may resemble tea. On pouring, the 4 bags had certainly changed the colour. It was dark grey instead of light grey. I never before realised that the name was actually representative of what was in the pack. I wont be buying any more Twinings tea. Their Earl Grey seems to be mainly made up from dust off the blending room floor with a touch of aroma just to keep it authentic.

Just gimme a cup of Bells Belfast Brew, none of this pretentious crap.