jamesofdoom

We just popped into London for the evening.

Had some dinner in Bar HaHa

CHICKEN SATAY SKEWERS

Grilled, marinated farm-assured chicken fillets, served with a pot of peanut sauce, coriander and seasonal leaves.

SEAFOOD TAGLIATELLE

Salmon, haddock, king prawns and green beans, in a four-cheese sauce, served on tagliatelle, with grana padano and a lemon wedge.

Then we walked across to the Southbank and had a drink and listened to this Jazz band called Tommaso Starace Trio.





At 7pm we went to the Olivier Theatre to see Every Good Boy Deserves Favour by Tom Stoppard and André Previn.

They had a full 40 peice orchestra on stage which I was kinda excited about (I love big orchestras).



And the reviews were good as well:-

FIVE STARS: 'Tom Stoppard's superb black comedy... one of his greatest works.' Daily Telegraph

'Crackles with dangerous wit... Julian Bleach and Adrian Schiller are superb.' The Times

But it was rubbish. Real proper cack and we left early and came home to see some real culture. New episode of Glee was on tonight on E4.

1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends outside of lj?
3. When and how did we meet?
4. Do you have a crush on me?
5. Would you kiss me?
6. Describe me in one word.
7. What was your first impression?
8. Do you still think that way about me now?
9. What reminds you of me?
10. If you could give me anything what would it be?
11. How well do you know me?
12. When's the last time you saw me?
13. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
14. Are you going to put this on your LiveJournal and see what I say about you?

Yesterday we went into London to see Billy Elliot the Musical. We've seen it umpteen times before but there's pretty much a whole new cast and it's been re-written in parts as well - so well worth another visit.

I must admit to being initially disappointed to find a queue of school kids at the door when we arrived. Even more so when we arrived at our seats to find ourselves surrounded by them. But they were actually really well behaved.

I had their teacher sitting next to me and we got chatting about things and he was saying that the kids have all been studying the storey of Billy Elliot because they come from ex mining towns. When I got home I looked the school up in Leeds and sent an email congratulating them for their theatre etiquette. It can't be easy carting about 60 teenagers down to London and keeping them that well behaved - and if anything, my praise should help the nice English teacher get a few extra school trips (I'm assuming teachers actually relish the idea of getting out of class now and then).

Anyway, back to the show which was fantastic as always. I think the well known critic Charles Spencer (who's notable for being really nasty about much of what he sees) summed the show up rather neatly when he said -

"This is not a time to beat about the bush. Billy Elliot strikes me as the greatest British musical I have ever seen. The whole cast is blessed with a freshness and sincerity I have rarely seen equalled, and one leaves this triumphant production in a mist of tears and joy".

After, we met some friends in a bar in gay bar in Victoria called the Stag (I think we're trying to get into the habit of calling them 'no attitude bars' these days which means everyone's welcome just as long as you're friendly). They had a couple of Police Officers in there wandering round chatting to everyone as part of a Victoria safer neighbourhood scheme. It was interesting having a chat to them about what it's like in the Metropolitan Police being a gay copper - especially bearing in mind the rather refreshing news that the Police have been voted in the top 5 best employers for gay people in Britain.

We had a nice free meal in Bella Italia using Tesco clubcard vouchers then caught the train back home. It was a really nice day.

I'm quite impressed with my gym attendance statistics over the last year even if I am fatter than ever. I'm averaging 28 visits a month.

To be precise, I'm not fat as such, just far too muscular for my short height, but if I can lose some weight the muscles won't look so over-bearing.

I keep saying to myself I'm going to eat more healthily which I do (we eat very healthy main meals) - but I let myself down with convenience snacks like Soreen malt loaves, bags of revels and doughnuts. If only I could just stop all that rubbish I think my body would be ok.

So, today I've bought up lots of little pre-prepared fruit snack packs from Tesco which I'm going to eat every time I'd normally feel like chocolate. I've got pomegranates, apple slices and mangos.

We've been up to stay in Manchester for the Carling Cup Semi Final against Man City.

We arrived in Manchester at 2 0 Clock yesterday and walked down to the Travelodge just 10 minutes from the station. Travelodge has gone really moody lately. They wouldn't let us check in because we were about 20 minutes before time. Everyone was just hanging around the lounge. Then when we did check in - our rooms was as cold and uninviting as the reception staff (see picture below).

We went for a walk to try and find somewhere to eat. In China Town we found a place called The Great Wall which was doing a three course set menu for £9 so we had that and a bottle of wine.

At about 6pm we got a text through from Man United updates saying everyone should get to the ground much earlier tonight because the police were searching everyone. So, we went and caught a tram to Old Trafford. It was packed. Totally packed. We travel on London tubes all the time which can be busy but never been so squeezed in like that tram. All the boys were singing, this tram feels like Hillsborough but some angry guy had a go at them for bad taste.

It didn't take long to get in to the stadium. And the atmosphere in the ground was electric. One of the best I've seen. There was a few bits of trouble here and there but nothing unusual for a crowd of 75,000 people.

We went and found our seats in the new quadrant section I've never been in before and we had a really fantastic view. The game itself was great. As I say, a really good atmosphere because of the high profile nature of the match.

On the final whistle we hurried round to the Red Cafe where Gary had bought me a three course meal in the hospitality lounge. We got seated on big tables of 10. Alex Stepney was the football guest walking around chatting to everyone and they also had a table magician.

We got chatting to a group of lads who'd come all the up from Devon. One was a Man United fan and his two mates were both City fans. They were trying to chat the young girl waiter up for ages which was amusing. Anyway we had a good laugh with them - found out one is a pro-surfer and one's a trainee electrician - and then they invited us into town with them to some nightclub after. They were nice lads (fit and lovely west country accents) but seriously they were only about 19-20 and I don't think they realised we were old enough to be their Dad. And they were pretty hardcore drinkers as well. I was saying how much we'd drunk since we arrived in Manchester - various beers and about 3 bottles of wine between us and we really should be going back to bed, LOL. They were like ..that's nothing, we've just drunk that in the last two hours.


We didn't stop out. We'd actually already ordered a cab for midnight. Before we left they gave us a gift of a Man U v Man City mug with the date on. The lads didn't want theirs so Gary took them as well.

I guess we got back at about 12.30 and the Travelodge bar was showing the game again. Loads of Man United fans were up and watching so we had another drink. Gary picked out a few random Man U fans who looked nice and offered them our spare commemorative mugs. This Irish guy (a Dad with his son) nearly cried. He said that's the nicest thing to happen all day.

Anyway, here's a few random pictures.

This evening, the Archbishop of York was fighting in the house of Lords to ensure that religious groups and churches can continue to refuse to employ someone because of their sexuality or gender. He believes that religious organisations should be totally exempted from equality employment laws in relation to hiring gay or female staff.

Disappointingly, The House of Lords agreed with the Archbishop and voted accordingly. Church led intolerance wins the day.

This raises two pertinent questions:-

a) How can anybody on the planet be comfortable allowing people to opt out of state secular law on the grounds of what they claim is their belief - not least for the fact that you can just lie about having a faith anyway (I don't want to adhere to that law so I'll just say I have a faith which backs me up). What's more, defining faith is a notoriously difficult business. For example, the European Court of Human Rights have clarified that having a faith need not involve a god at all; it can simply mean a deep belief in something, so on that basis, any such opt out on faith grounds could be afforded to anyone at all, and that would be ridiculous and wholly unworkable.

b) The Archbishop feels he should have a legal right to refuse to employ someone if their way of life 'goes against the Bible's teaching' and I'd like to take issue with that.

Clearly if you're lazy enough to read the words in the bible literally, some people could reach the conclusion that homosexuality is an abomination; but it’s long been established that these words need some historical interpretation, not least for the fact that God’s word was supposed to be about meaning, not just the text on the page. Sadly, it's still common for people like the Archbishop to just pick and choose which parts of the bible to take literally and which need careful interpretation, though. That normally depends on their own personal prejudices. But if this man is serious about barring people from his workplace if anything they do goes against bible teaching - why hasn't he said anything about not wanting to employ an adulterer or a thief? It puzzles me somewhat bearing in mind homosexuality is not nearly as prominent in the bible as the forbiddance of theft or adultery - both of which are religious (and moral) imperatives, surely?

Despite the Archbishop's victory - I'm pretty sure right minded decent people wouldn't want to work for anyone with such medieval views anyway. Personally I try and steer clear of those who adhere - almost cult like - to an organisation with such a long history of unpleasantness. But it's pretty depressing that - despite being supposedly intelligent - people like the Archbishop don't even have the basic ability to critically evaluate what they read in a book written 3500 years ago.

We're back from another adventure at sea on board the Artemis, currently the smallest ship in the P&O cruises fleet. 550 crew and about 1200 passengers.

The journey started on Boxing Day when the four of us arrived on the island of Aruba.

Aruba is 12 miles off the north coast of Venezuela. In contrast to the snow and cold we left behind, it was nearly 90 degrees and remained so for the next few weeks.

We've been to some interesting places including Panama City and up the Panama canal, then across to the central American country of Costa Rica which borders Panama, Nicaragua and the Pacific ocean. From there we went down past Columbia and onto some lovely islands like Limon and St Lucia and out into the Caribbean sea across to Tobago and Barbados

The trip was at times eventfully. On day we were all stranded at sea for 10 hours. The ship suffered a complete power failure so no engines, no nothing. Adrift - too deep to anchor so just bobbing around on the thankfully calm waves. They had to feed 1200 passengers via bar-b-que on open deck. Luckily the crew did a temporary fix until we could limp to the nearest port. And we got a letter from the Captain with £300 each to spend on the ship as a goodwill gesture.

The entertainment on board was good as always. Not just top quality west end productions but they had some guests on board as well. Author Gervase Phinn did several literary lectures. Gervase has written five autobiographical novels about his time as a school inspector in the Yorkshire Dales. The guest cabaret was Tom O Conner. He's an old Liverpudlian TV quiz host. The after dinner speaker was Richard Noble, the Brit who holds the World Land Speed Record with the first ever supersonic car (he aims to break the land speed record and is building a car capable of over 1,000mph). He was fascinating, even for me - I'm not into cars at all..

Locations: West Indies, South America, Caribbean


The ship




Our Cabin


Our Cabin 2


One of the ship pools


Ship's library


Just ready for a night out


Lots of lazing about


The ships cyber cafe


The weather was 90 most days


Sunsets


Gary finds a West Indies branch of his office and immediately feels at ease


Casino


Panama City


Cruise ships are well know for good food








Barbados


We met this guy who's been in loads of West End shows


I think this was an 80s night




You can choose out of two restaurants. One is a wear what you like eat when you like. The other was more formal and you had a sitting time (8.30pm) and a dress code.


Chefs parade through the restaurant


On shore we went on canoes through the rain forest and spotted all sorts of cool animals




Tired or tipsy?


This was Bonaire




The TaxMan strikes again








People we got friendly with on the ship


With friends and our restaurant waiters


Cheers and thanks for looking

It was my last day at work yesterday.

Today, Christmas Eve, I'm up early to get into town to do clothes shopping. I don't normally leave things so late but I've been flat out the last 3 weeks (this explains the inconsistency of my blogging, but I've still found time to read stuff).

December is always my busiest month. I do about 45 gigs as opposed to the normal monthly average of 25. But in January I get my tax bill so the extra money soon disappears. I've also had to struggle through the month with a stinking cold which is only just disappearing. I'm normally fine with colds but working in the job I do makes it a whole lot worse. The snow was the final straw to be honest. Not only was my part of the south hit badly but I live right on the edge of the motorway junction which was closed due to operation stack (that's when the police shut the road to use it as a lorry park when the channel tunnel is closed). I obviously rely on getting to venues via road.

But Christmas is pretty stress free this year. No decorations, no food shopping. Today we're going to Gary's Mums and having Christmas dinner with her tomorrow. I've asked for a nice bit of beef because I'm not keen on turkey. Then on Boxing Day we're driving up to Gatwick to meet some friends and we're all flying off to Aruba for two weeks where we board a Caribbean cruise. Very excited about that. It will be a fond farewell to one of our favourite little ships which we've had many an enjoyable vacation on but P&O are selling.

Communication from Caribbean Islands and up the Panama canal is going to be difficult. Data and voice call charges are prohibitive at £1 a minute to phone the UK and £6 per MB for using the net. However, texting is only 25p and it costs me nothing to receive texts from you guys in the UK so I'll be using that to keep in touch. I've been using Facebook more over the busy period to micro blog and I'll be texting holiday updates there over the coming weeks. Feel free to add me on Facebook if we aren't already linked. Just search JamesHailes@gmail.com and you should see and recognise my icon picture (which really needs changing after all this time).

Have a good Christmas you guys. When I get can find a free wifi connection (maybe there's a McDonald's in Barbados or something) I'll have a read at what you've been up to, but enjoy whatever it is. Peace and love to you all - be back soon.

1. What time do you usually wake up on weekdays?

I generally wake up at 5am but I don't actually get up until 6am. I have an hour listening to the news in bed.

2. What about weekends?

Same times as during the week. I have a pretty automated body clock which doesn't differentiate between weekdays and weekends. It's been finely tuned so that I don't even need an alarm clock.

3. What do you eat for breakfast?

I have breakfast every day at the gym. I alternate between the following:-

Porridge, followed by scrambled eggs on toast and a pot of tea.

or

Fruit and fibre, followed by fried eggs and tinned tomatoes and a pot of tea.

4. Do you take a shower at night or in the morning?

Mornings at the gym. It's rare I use the home shower.

5. How long does it take you to get ready?

Since I'm in the gym, swimming pool or spa every day, I only ever 'get ready' in public changing rooms so I'm pretty quick.

Dear Kent Highways

Whilst I appreciate you're busy right now (supposedly), I would like to register a formal complaint. You see, I'm not busy: I've just come in after being stranded on the M20 near Leeds Castle since 7am (that's 3 hours). I've lost several hundred pounds in work having be forced to cancel my first two gigs in schools this morning. The road was a sheet of ice. Lorries were jackknifing and cars sliding as they attempted to get up the incline. Clearly, whatever treatment work you did on this main artery from London into Kent was wholly inadequate.

In general I think the public copes pretty well with adverse weather and the only people who hinder us with regular monotony are Kent County Council who do such an appalling job of keeping the main roads clear. This snow was very accurately predicted - almost to the hour - so it's a disgrace that yet again you've comprehensively failed.

I'd like this letter dealt with under your advertised formal complaints procedure.

Yours faithfully


Mr James Hailes

I LOVE my new Sky Gnome.

Sky discontinued them a few years ago but I thought I'd find one and try it because the digital radio signal in my house is so poor.

The Gnome wirelessly picks up the signal from your Sky dish so you can listen to any Sky radio station or TV audio feed anywhere in the house. You can plug it in or use the supplied rechargeable battery, so you can even take it in the shower room with you.

There are plenty on Ebay, but there's one guy who has dozens advertised at £27.99 - or best offer. I offered £25 which was accepted and delivered free today.

I liked it so much I've just ordered another one.

There are rumours that Mitch Hewer has agreed to do the very last celebrity Big Brother in January. That would be compulsive viewing.

He's my desktop background.

Last night we went into London to see the provocatively titled Cock (imagine the embarrassment of phoning to book tickets for that).

I had a few initial quibbles; the new seating at the Royal Court theatre upstairs is on unreserved bum-numbing benches which feel like they've been assembled from Argos flat packs. And it started late because staff were frustratingly waiting for late-comers who casually drifted in 5 minutes after it was supposed to start (I really, really hate that). But the show itself was superb. Ben Whishaw plays a young gay man in a long term relationship with an older man whose lives are thrown into turmoil when he unexpectedly falls in love and has sex with a woman.

We'd also planned to have a mooch around London as well as see the show: we haven't even seen the lights in Oxford Street and Regent Street yet. But the weather was appalling and the heavy rain meant we just scurried straight over to Bella Italia where we plonked ourselves down for a few hours to eat and drink and be merry, instead.

Out of all the chain restaurants in London, I think Bella Italia has the most interesting menu - and for voucher freaks like me it's perfect. They gladly accept Tesco Clubcard tokens so our £50 bill was reduced to about £15 (you can't use vouchers for drinks). Still a cheap night out, though.

I had this for starters -

Grande

A platter of succulent buffalo wings, smokey barbecue ribs and breaded mushrooms with garlic bread, vegetable batons and a selection of dips

Then this pizza -

Carne Mista

Mixed meat in Italian! Spicy pepperoni, mixed Italian salami, smoked ham, and pancetta

The last few months have been really unsettled because our stuff has been in storage and we've been living out of suitcases at Mum's house. But we're moved in and pretty much settled now. It's hard to think we've been here 3 weeks.

We're totally loving the new house and new area, although it's not been without its problems. We have a number of rights-of-way issues on the go at the moment including the pub landlord on our block who seems to think he's entitled to let rock bands traipse their stuff over our land, also a woman who keeps parking on the turning circle I need to get my car out. Other than that it's perfect. It's absolutely ideal for us because it's in a nice quite village but we have a rail station just over a minutes walk which gets us into London. Since we do most of our socialising in London, we couldn't be better placed.

The actual village itself is nice. We have a pub within 30 seconds of the house and they do good food, sports on the big screen and have live music - particularly supporting new up and coming local rock bands. And I'm about 5 minutes from the motorway which zips me all over the south east for my gigs.

The neighbours are nice. One side is a young lady who sent us a card saying welcome to the village, then on the other side is the pub landlord and his girlfriend who have just moved down from Scotland to take the pub over. I think he's addicted to his Wii games because I hear him leaping about and swearing allot.

So, here's a quick look round? Bear in mind we're not straight yet. We're both tidy freaks so we're conscious things are still a bit disorganised.

Here's the view from the front door.



And looking up the other way is the old fashioned petrol station.



We mostly use the back door because we have a parking space at the end of the garden so we walk up the garden path.



That's where I park my car



Here's the pub on the corner of the street.



Living Room


Kitchen


Kitchen


The house is on three floors and we're still getting the next two sorted out so more pictures soon. I'm not quite used to the steep staircase yet and fell down them last week. I was sore and bruised for days after.

Tamsin Outhwaite was awesome in Sweet Charity last night (Ex Eastenders).

Best known for the songs 'Hey Big Spender' and 'The Rhythm of Life - the whole show was rather brilliant and one I'd even see again.

Highly recommended if you wanna few hours watching an old fashioned musical with a cast of the most stunning girls (and a few boys) and a 10 piece Latino brass band which blows the roof off.

Sweet Charity continues through to March 7th, 2010 at The Menier Chocolate Factory right near London Bridge.


8/10

Government busybody Jim Gamble from the CEOP has laid into Facebook because they refused to adopt his ridiculous HELP button on their website.

I say - good for Facebook for not pandering to him. This industry of fear is now totally out of control and this rotten government are the perpetrators. They really need reigning in before it's too late.

Sadly we already live in a society where normal interaction between adults and children is almost non-existent. Poisoned by over-zealous, self-serving, nanny-state departments like the CEOP, CRB and ISA - and campaigns like having HELP buttons on websites just go to bolster public paranoia. Of course all this is totally disproportionate in relation to any actual risks posed. But the bad news is, all this scaremongering is already causing huge long term damage to the relationships we all have with our rising generations where children are becoming more and more insular and fearful of adults. Is it any wonder we are losing our sense of community and neighbourhood and family when perfectly normal human interaction between adults and young people is continually laced with suspicion and mistrust.

Worse still, 'HELP' buttons like this also get abused and invite unfounded allegations which ruin peoples lives. It won't be long before we'll all need to risk assess even having a conversation with a younger person on-line, and that's a shameful position to be in. We already know from the CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) and now the new ISA (Independent Safeguarding Authority) it's easy to be banned from working with children simply on allegation or hearsay - so I can see where all this is heading.

Shame on this government.

But here's a radical idea to help. Let's get parents to take responsibility for their own kids. It's really rather simple actually. Maybe then we can have a button which allows us to eliminate people like Jim Gamble. Just think of the money we could save getting rid of his fat and unnecessary wage - paid for out of the public purse.

I for one do not want to be turned into some over-regulated automaton of the state, so back off, at least until May 2010 when we're going to punish this bunch at the elections anyway.

Incidentally, Jim Gamble was the former Assistant Chief Constable of the National Crime Squad and is no stranger to controversy. In 2005 complaints to the IPCC regarding his conduct as a child protection officer were upheld after innocent people were criminalised.

I can't say I'm particularly endeared to the BNP. However, whilst beating Nick Griffin up (metaphorically speaking) - we'd do well to remember that he isn't responsible for the current state of the country - or human condition. That's all down to the smug centralist politicians who sat around the desk berating  the man last night.

Nick Griffin can't be blamed for the tens of thousands of people detained, tortured or killed in an illegal war in Iraq.

The BNP aren't responsible for current disastrous education policies. Facilities have improved but 4 in 10 leave school unable to read or write properly.

So called fascists can't be blamed for the utter mess our economy is in.

British Nationalists aren't responsible for the current unemployment crisis?

Griffin isn't to blame for the rise in violent crime.

The BNP didn't make us officially the worst country in the developed world to grow up in.

I could go on, but my point is -  we'd do better to vilify and attack the parties and politicians who <b>have</b> already and continue on a daily basis to cause this country harm (and other countries) by years of failed mainstream policies, and we should stop keep harping on about a guy who's never going to be in a position to screw the country up even if he wanted to. What we do when we spend so much of our energy talking about Nick Griffin is divert attention away from the real villains and country-wreckers who, I'm afraid to say,  in the main, aren't nazis or fascists but mostly appear to be fairly liberal in their politics.

James

PS If Nick really does hack you off - you might find a slap theraputic
http://www.slapnickgriffin.co.uk/

Oh my God, this must be the best review I've ever received.

This has given me a smile all afternoon. Not one of smugness, but one of happy affirmation. It was unsolicited and totally random. Just a lady who sat through one of my shows with her son and felt she'd like to tell me what she thought. Sometimes being self employed is really gutty. You never quite know where the next penny is coming from; no sick pay; no holiday pay; always on call. But when you get reviews like this it makes it all worth it.

We've been living with Gary's Mum for nearly a week now which has been quite an unusual experience.

We were issued with the house rules on arrival which include turning lights out as you move from one room to another (even if you plan on going back there soon), leaving the toilet seats down, not throwing left over food away and using our towels more than once before putting them in the laundry basket.

It's fairly difficult getting used to living on council estate where life's a bit hard nosed. The mentality of some of these people round here is all a bit primitive. They blocked my car in the other day because I parked on the road where someone else seemingly always parks. Is it any wonder these kind of people don't have jobs, own 15 year old rust-bucket cars and their very existence is reliant on handouts; it all goes hand in hand with the shitty attitudes.

With most of our stuff in store it's difficult to live as normal, but we're coping fine. We've been into London a few times this week, once to see a very camp show called Liberace - Live from Heaven starring Bobby Crush, and also last night we went to the National Theatre to listen to John Lithgow tell two short stories. The show is called Stories From The Heart. It's quite unusual to sit and listen to someone sitting on an armchair on a big stage reading stores from a book.

I'm managing to keep up with work stuff. Our gym has free internet terminals so I'm arriving here at about 7 in the morning (it's a 30min drive from Gary's Mum's) - doing my normal workout and having a shower, then plonking myself down on the PC for the rest of the day. Gary comes along at 5pm and we drive back to Mum's for tea.

It's actually great having someone cook and wash my clothes. I've never had that. Even when I was 14-15 I was really grown up and independent doing all my own cooking , ironing, washing etc so since then that's always been my domain. But Gary's Mum is a bit old school - bless her - so the menu isn't what we're used to. Liver and bacon - yuck.

We were hoping to move into our new house within two weeks but that's not confirmed yet. It's looking like the first week in November right now.