Weds Evening 6.30 pm
Walk, sheepskin coat, 24 Hour Church of Elvis T-shirt (Original green version still in one piece)KilkennyEvening standard (Diana & Charles in different stories but on front page)
StellaLog fire
Evelynska pokes the fire between pulling pints of Guinness
Pool with Bob Mason
Two- one to him
Chelsea BarcelonaTwo- one to themJ
ohn West breezes in
StellaLoud jukebox Nashville
Merton High Street
Overcast cold but dry
AdchayaTamil restaurant
Sara- man (long curly hair like a Tiger) used to be best chef at Yhaal HouseHe cooks mutton khottu in two minutes
Waiter fills another customer’s plastic bag full of bonda, wuddie & onion bhajeeLike Lowestoft in 1973
When one ordered chips and end of service and got fish’n’chips
(“Soft chips or crispy chips?”)
We cross road
Jump low fence
High Path Estate
Princess Royal
Like a saterlite Who Killed Kenny Irish outpost
Black & white Staffordshire terrier
Still a proper old scruffy pub’
StellaPeter Hungry Grass
Irish singing unaccompanied
His girlfriend says she liked my Pepper
Dark rum
Walk back to Datsun 280ZX
Road name sign looks like someone’s sat on it
Instead of rectangle shape is rhomboid
See if I can bend it further, I can’t!
Drive to 163
JW drops me off
Wave him goodbye
Dying for a wee
Freezing cold
No key!
Locked out
Can’t raise Marguerite
Wee in baths car park
Walk round to cab company near Confucius
Car to Tooting Junction
‘Phone from public ‘phone box
Flat door unbolted and I go in

Thurs morning
11.30 amRain, cold, east wind
Clothes from last night“Star Cabs” car to 163
Get in house and go out again to shop for milk for Marguerite at Tesco garage
Back at home
Put tenor ukulele in baritone ukulele carrying cover (black zip-up)
Walk to Wimbledon station
Cold, sleety, Grey Crombie coat
Purchase £4-30 TravelcardAll zones except “one”(Which is the grockle-filled central bit and no one in real-London ever goes there)
Pint of Fosters in the newly re-furbished Prince of Whales
Thank the gods they haven’t ruined this one this time
Blue train to Kingston
Winter showers down on train windows
Raynes Park, New Malden, Norbiton (rather like Dawlish station sans sea)
Cross the road outside Kingston station with hordes of people
Pedestrians with no idea of how to walk along a pavement
As if fused at the shoulder, ignorami
Students with colour boxes on their heads in main street filming art project
Apple Market
Hogsmill River, police station, it’s the road to Cholmley Terrace
Music shop gone!
Become estate agents
How appropriate in this ever more material world
It was there a year ago!
Circle round to check I haven’t missed shop (I know I haven’t!)
Walk through Mall to Eden StreetSite of shop where Dymore first worked
Half of Strongbow in the Wheelwrights’ Arms
57 ‘Bus
Go round the corner where the Kingston Hotel and dirty films cinema was
Kingston Hospital, can’t see a single original piece of building from thirty years ago
Coombe Lane, ridiculous cycle path
Raynes ParkRaynes Park Hotel (another half of Strongbow & a wee)
Raynes Park StationTrain to WimbledonTrain via Haydon’s Road to Tooting
Frozen drizzle falls out the low grey cloud
Arrive at flat
Mary reminds me of music shop at Abbey Mill
Walk through the back streets
Sleet turns to flaky snow that settles on my coat but not the pavement
The area that used to be the Savacentre/ Market car park It now resembles the outskirts of Seattle or Salzburg
Apartment blocks, Burger King Drive-In, brick road pavement
Enter music shop
Acoustic six string devils, banjos, mandolins, violins, student instruments
Splattering of small Fender amps & cheap electrics
Percussion, music stands
Gormless young male shop assistant (sounds antipodean)
Speak to Lisa
She seems to know her stuffBuy new tuning pegs for tenor ukulele
Grovers £9-99Also purchase cutest case you’ve ever seen.
For treble uke (or is it soprano or concert?)
Walk to 163: cold, wet snow
Check on Marguerite
Put treble uke in new case
Walk to South Wimbledon with case & uke
Tube to Tooting Broadway
Snow has turned back to sleet
‘Bus to the flat
Put new tuners on tenor
Job simpler than I had envisaged
Must find voice of this instrument
An hour later catch train to Peckham Rye
Getting dark
Walk in rain and cold wind to shop
Wheeze up the flights of old stairs
Get new fresh air
Peckham high street cold and dark, lights twinkle stridently
Yam, snapper, Jeyes fluid
Train to Streatham
Pint of Young’s Bitter in Bedford Park
Sit by coal fire
Train back to Tooting
Stand on balcony and have first breath of good fresh air for a week
Leg & feet ache from walking
Stella in Railway Bell, Les, Simon
Talk to Jethro and Rick
“Yes, I haven’t listened to your CD yet!”
Chinese food from Grace’s
Old fashioned slow service
Hong Kong sweet & sour chicken, roast duck & rice, shrimps chow mein- £11-70
Free prawn crackers have no taste except sweet
Bottle of Lambrusco 4%, 99p from Lidl
Watch episode of sit-com about Earl’s list
On comfortable sofa drift off to contented sleep…

Friday
Wimbledon
Cheerful early morning knock at door (8am)
Plasterer, buckets, dust sheets, Radio One, whistling, work, bosh, bosh, bosh…
He leaves suddenly at ten thirty, job done as far as he can, return & finish Monday…
Call drummer for ETA
Usual sort of one or two hour delays
Call Mary
Concider pub & paper
But routine shattered by departure
Mary arrives
See the plaster and the garden
Rick finally arrives
Car chock-a-block
Kingston by pass
Heathrow band demo
A3 M25
We chase the sun down the
M3
A303
Watery sunshine
Question mark shaped woods, brown, black
The new innocuous Kate Bush album
Crows, starlings
Yhaal House vegetable roti
Stonehenge, the Bell at Winterbourne Stoke, the Eagle is closed
Newcott Chef just as they are closing, cup of tea, pints of cider (Strongbow and Blackthorn)Thousands on a raft for the drummer
Large fancy goldfish
Sun spectra, plane condensation trails in shape of a fish
Exeter rush hour, M6, A30
Car lights, city shimmers with sodium on our horizon
Jubilee Terrace
Waggy shiny black dog
Robin Sara Mary stay at house to come down later
Drummer & I go on to Redwing
Martin pulling up as we arrive!
Take everything off cars, haul into pub
Set up in the familiar bijou-ness that is the Redwing
Mr.Moir very subdued (still recovering from last weekend?!)
Sound check
Change t-shirt
Blind Dog, Magoo, Julie, Bryony, Jim, Lady Di…Meaning of Life and rest of first show
Mary, Sara, Robin arrive, Bing
Wiggy Stardust
“We’re gonna take a five minute break. So, we’ll see you in half an hour”
Carpark, Fresh air
Second set
Sara’s spot
All the usuals
The smell of brown leather
Put stuff away, carry it out, load the vehicles
Walk with Mary to Jubilee Terrace
More fresh air, beer, port, party
Ukulele music, Weller music
Mary, the Captain & Bing slumber upstairs in the guest bedroomsI sleep with dog on floor in conservatory

Saturday
LympstoneRead the Exmouth Journal and the pamphlet-like Lympstone Journal
Narnia, MRSA, new house building
Mary takes to the bath, I take to the Saddlers for a livener
Fresh air
Thence to the post office
Guardian
Red Wing
Mr.Moir writing out the quiz and telling parrot jokes
Mary arrives and we go to boat shelter
Tide way out
Grey water, seabirds, beached boats, grey-brown mud, shingle mixed with the mudShe stands on harbour wall, large black shawl covering her head, cold breeze protection
It’s a Lyme Regis cob film image
I’m on the mud, a hundred yards out looking back at her up there, still have the dry clay mud on my shoes two days later
Catch the train to XMF
I say I’d like a ticket from Lympston Village to Exmouth and then a return from Exmouth to DawlishTrain man thinks about it
At Exmouth he says just get a ticket from Exmouth to Dawlish
(at least in Devon he didn’t think I meant Dulwich)
Fish’n’chips at Capels
Haddock, chips, mushy peas, pickled onion, egg and gerkin
Visit Oxfam shop: buy Rutles and first CSN on vinyl
Go to the prom
Mary on beach
Me in the Beach (and the Grove)
Walk back to station via dock-side
Horrible road furniture- 70’s street lamps
Catch train to St.Davids
No wait for train to Dawlish
Train goes through fields and then breaks out onto estuary side at Starcross
High tide, piers, jetties, grey sky and water
Admire the view of XMF from the otherside
The new coloured buildings around the dock certainly enhance XMF’s appearance
Red Rock
Alight at Dawlish
Marine station
Big victorian rivets on footbridge
Jeyes Fluid strongly in the air
Brewery Bar, order car
Car takes us to Two Farthings for five pounds
Rick asleep on sofa
Bing in Kitchen
Slight rehearsal in living roomI travel with Martin Mary travels with Rick
Bing stays at the homestead
Drive through the woods to the main road
Arrive at the car park in XMF
The Barrell is adjacentRick/ Mary arrive
We load in the gear, set it up litany
Concern over new noise level limiter (cuts off juice if music too loud)
Sound check- no trouble!
Usual suspects drift inPut on brown suit and green turban
First set: much as last night but no Rockaway Beach
Rick & I try hard to switch the device
Interval: go out to Pound Street for usual fresh air
Second set
Sara’s section
Mary joins us all for Happy Together
Mary does Regrets (in Dm and not Am) and Reachout ( in C not A or Bb)
End of show
Beer!
Speak to the pub’ manager and he is very pleased
Can’t believe how loud other bands must be to trip the cut-out
Take off suit and put on Levis and blue suede cuban heel Beatle boots
Walk back to Blind Dog and Rachel’s
More beer, fresh air, G six string devil, harp and ukulele music
Martin leaves relatively early and drives home to Dawlish
Five AM (?) get cab to Jubilee TerraceGet a bed tonight…

Sunday
Lympstone
Cab into XMF and meet Robin, Sara, Blind Dog and the drummer in Franklins
Venue for first ever FW gig in this illustrious town
Plaice goujons, Budweiser, smoked salmon and scrambled egg on toast
Walk round to Blind Dog/ Rachel’s house
Fresh air
Load up Rick’s car
Leave at about three
Drive north-eastward into the darkening countryside, golden sun behind us
Stop on A303 for chocolate, Red Bull and junk food
Arrive in Tooting about seven
Go to Yhaal House: special biriany and vegetarian chef’s special plus bottle of Necto

Friday
7am, Mary’s flat in SW17, bath, nearly light
Cram bag with old shoes, wear new monkeys; still hurting
Booted and packed (shoulder bag and baritone uke), Mary wheels suitcase with handle and tiny casters like an old lady’s shopping trolley
Take in the view and the fresh air on the balcony
9.20 We trundle out of Tooting- Watery sunshine, Streatham, Tuls-ee Hill, Herne Hill, Brockwell Park
Elephant & Castle, Blackfriars, Farringdon, King’s Cross
Walk down Euston Road, Australian, South Afrikan, Polski
The same Euston concourse
Platform three
As ever past new Wembley Stadium, through Watford, the neat autumn countryside of Bedfordshire
Pause at Rugby, Crewe, Warrington, Wigan, names from the north more rugby than Rugby
Preston Station- big bright busy
Walk through dirty subway and out into street
Shopping trolley suitcase keeps falling over
Pint in the Railway Pub
Walk through hideous shopping mall to find incense shop
Bright sunshine, unremarkable town, lovely lurcher tied up outside shop
Decide on earlier train
Speedily heel luggage back to station
Up and down two footbridges inside Preston Station
Rush to get branch line train with the locals
Chug-chug-chug went the blue two diesel carriage rail car like something by the Rev Audry
Show the conductor our tickets
Through non-descript suburbs and warehouses
Green and brown lumpy hillsides
Straight streets of terraces
Sunny enough for shades
Train about half full, no one standing
Chavs and Muslim women
Look for the three thousand nine hundred and ninety nine other holes in Blackburn Lancashire after spotting a big one next to the track there…
Everywhere looks the same
Semi urban, semi rural, messy, pylons, main roads, bleak corner pubs, northern grime
We arrive at Rishton
Reminds me of the Phipps Bridge tram stop
Another Railway pub, still closed at three PM on a Friday afternoon!
Wee in the vicarage garden
Catch bus, nearly empty
Next stop a thousand school kids in dark blue
Old fashioned uniforms
Shouting and effing and blinding in that embarassing teenage way
Reach the town of Great Harwood
Looks like Trumpton, all old buildings (except the very new and blue Co-op supermarket)
Rows of large brick terraces, brown and black
The young passengers mainly left the bus by the time we disembark and wrestle our luggage onto the pavement
Walk to Frank’s house
Go straight to Blackburn with Frank in his car
Leave Mary unpacking
Go to multi-storet car park and then through into an shopping mall that looks like the Whitgift Centre at Croydon
We go to a “record shop” and buy DVD’s
“Brief Encounter”, “The Third Man”, black and white
This is all I see of Blackburn
Back in Great Harwood walk down to newsagents and buy Lancashire Evening Post
This disguises me as a local, no visitor would normally stroll in the Walmesly Arms with such a publication.
£2-30 for a pint of wife beater.
Walk to the Royal Hotel with Mary
Large pub at end of long terrace
Brews its own beer, try mild, tastes terrible
Drink draught Red Stripe
Tropical marine, clown fish (red & white), damsel fish (blue) in corner of bar
Listen to two bars of live band, withdraw to bar with fish in
Saturday
Showery morning
Can’t get a Guardian!
Make do with the Torygraph
Read it in the Plough and the Royal
Walk up town, suddenly realise that place is smaller than I thought!
Drive to Nelson with Frank and Mary
More hills, pylons and small bleak towns
See the new house with a rainbow over it
Visit two antique warehouses
Buy a 50’s. 60’s or 70’s glass candlestick holder
Walk through Great Harwood with Mary
Pound shop, Crossed Axes pub, half in the Plough
Afternoon snooze
Drive to Oswaldtwistle with Mary, Frank and a drummer called Lex
Can’t find the gig
The Weavers Institute in Lock Street
Bright! Like a church hall, tables and chairs around periphery
Crucifix and Mary of Nazareth
Very old fashioned, very cheap, very straight
Open Mic NiteGet up and do a couple with Frank and Mary, me on baritone uke
Crazy Arms, Who Will Buy The Wine
Also loud bedroom BlooZ guitar player
Visit local pub for fresh air
Go back to Frank’s
Sunday
Cloudy, showery, grey but mild
Starting to look forward to going back to London
Purchase Sunday Times
Read it in the pub (the Royal)
Sit around at Frank’s
Go out to the Lomax and the Merrie England
Listen to a white local using the words “paki” and “nigger” with no embarrassment
Miss the trip to visit house in Nelson
Speak to Daisy and Henry and their mother
They have grown up!
Mary & Frank return
Go and get “curry” from take-away called Megna
Look in music shop window
Student acoustics and cheap electrics
Sweet yellow dhansak
Plain yellow rice
Sleep in the chair
Miss 10.30 in pub
Monday
Buy last Guardian (or maybe only Guardian!) from Co-op
Read in the Plough
They must think I’ve moved to town
Back at house pack up bag
Bus to Rishton, train to Preston, Virgin Express to Euston
Arrive in London about four PM
Pint in pub near station
Idiot football supporters
Walk to King’s Cross
Train to Tooting, fabulous Tooting…