Recovering from a day out in Leeds

I’m visiting a friend in Yorkshire for a few days and yesterday we spent the day in Leeds. It was very tiring and interesting. I have had a headache since waiting for the bus to come back to the village I’m staying in.

Leeds has quite a lot of shops, there is something for every taste. And as the train and bus stations are fairly close to the city centre quite easily accessible. There are also maps and decent sign-posting for the easily lost and confused.

Continue reading “Recovering from a day out in Leeds”

Why would you boast about that? Or, admitting you have never read a book is not clever

I was at the day job yesterday, casually writing a short story on my break, when I was accosted by one of my co-workers wanting to know why I only worked weekends now and what was I writing. Apart from the great impertinence, although I suspect it was her way of making conversation, I couldn’t really see why I shouldn’t tell her the truth: I’m working part time to fund my reviewing habit, since nobody’s paying me in anything but books at the minute. She then asked about my writing, which is fair enough, but then she shocked me by admitting that she’d never read a book.

I asked why?

Continue reading “Why would you boast about that? Or, admitting you have never read a book is not clever”

Finally: Outta Line

image

This is the band that all the drunk teenagers appear to have come to see. They were here last year apparently. I must have missed them.

They’re not half bad, tackling The Beatles and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. And plenty of Green Day.Still waiting for some original stuff though; it’s another covers band, albeit a lot younger than the previous two.

It’s still disturbing that there’s kids here who weren’t born when I first heard these songs and they’re singing along so happily.

While they are really good at the songs they’re covering, I wonder just how far they could go with original material; they certainly have the talent. I had videos of them, but something went wrong and I can’t find them on my phone to transfer. It’s most irritating because I played them back earlier to check they were okay and the quality was actually quite good.

 

In all I enjoyed my evening, especially spending time with my sister and niece. The bands were not bad, for a free festival. I was soaked, because it began raining again, hungry and cold. I also really needed my bed. But I saw it out.

The evening finished with spirited rendition of ‘Highway to Hell’. And shouts for more; unfortunately the organisers didn’t agree.

Bye

Rose

Bob Jovi and Bond themes

image

This was the next band that came on, there name is, er, I don’t know, they haven’t said. But the keyboardist is one of the RMQA’s at my day job.

It took them some time to warm up and they had some technical problems with the drums, but once they hit their stride they were enjoyable to listen to. Even if they are bit ‘pop’ for me.

It’s started raining.

Rose

[I freezing, and soaked, but it’s stopped raining!]

I-fest; or Immingham attempts to rock

And it doesn’t do to badly either.

So far The League of Mental Men have entertained us with covers from a variety of bands, including Papa Roach, Guns n Roses, My Chemical Romance, The Foo Fighters and The Darkness. They’re apparently really popular in the local pubs and I can see why; the singer is fairly good. He manages to hit the notes 95% of the time (he’s not no Dave Grohl but he’ll do for Immingham) and the musicians are competent.

They were enjoyed by the whole crowd, even my sister who’s leery about this sort of music.

Back soon with a review of the next band. Provided my phone plays nice and I don’t lose the network again.

Rose

Review: ’17 Equations that changed the world by Ian Stewart

image

2012
Profile Books

Covering everything from Pythagoras’s theorem to Schrodinger’s Equation and chaos theory, Professor Ian Stewart takes the reader through seventeen important equations that have helped to advance human understanding of the universe (and how to measure it) over the last 2500+ years.

I wish I’d had this book while I was studying A level maths and later while studying for my degree. Ian Stewart explains the concepts involved clearly and comprehensively, including their history.

A great book for students and general readers.