Hunstanton, Moniave and Men on Wires

It's always a good way to take stock and relax whilst away from home. Last weekend we were invited to stay at A Summer Place in Hunstanton, Norfolk by Bale and James. A perfect spot for a weekend out of the smoke, situated right on the sand dunes. Lots of good food (butterflied lamb shoulder BBQ), great company, daft drunken endurance games and long walks down the beach and through picturesque villages. Very relaxing indeedy do - a beautiful part of the world. Set us both up for the now norm of full throttle work week. Got back in the swing of taking a steady stream of piccies - loving my Pentax W30's amazing Macro capabilities. Such a great little camera for the price and some sweeet, quirky features. Big credits to DragonDrop for endorsing it's predecessor the W20 a year or so ago. Keeping the momentum going on the video stuff too - need to learn not to rush the 'post-production' and to trash ideas that don't work on instinct. I sometimes don't listen to my gut critic when I should. Anyway, took a load of footage that will come to light in some form soon(ish).

Went to see a fantastic film with Mark on Wednesday - Man on Wire. Documentary about Phillipe Petit's build up to and ultimate tightrope walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. An inspiration to any human being, Petit is a rare breed amongst driven human beings, whose passion shone though every part of his life (and still does - he survived...with a big smile on his face too). A huge amount of vintage Super 8 footage charts up his early life as a Parisian street performer, his relationships, challenges, plans and achievements made on a wire between very high buildings (Notre Damn and Sydney Harbour Bridge to name a few). Even the cop that arrested him after his successful 40 walks between the towers (in one sitting), said he would never meet such a person or see such things ever again. The sort of bloke I would love to be sat next to at a wedding breakfast...if I could get a word in H-ways. To be honest, he has led such an amazing life I could quite happily just sit and listen. Aceness. 8.5/10.

Just got back from a great, if wet, long weekend in Moniave, Scotland - home of my lovely in-laws Clare, Alastair and Jenny. The usual lovely weekend of walks, epic paper reading, farm smells, good food and fine wine (Alastair keeps a sensational cellar) ensued. Lovely to see them all again and we were thoroughly spoilt. It all went far too quickly as per usual and now we are back in Londinium fending off Sunday (Monday) blues with a fine fish curry.

A short, but sweet blog this week - not in the mood to post much more, but not for the wrong reasons. :)

Recharging north of the border

This will hopefully be a more cheery post than last weeks, though I am still soul searching and questioning myself over many things - I don't like the person I have turned into recently and am trying to make a-mends, but not beat myself up too much about it. 

We lost more of the team this week - some great talent who will be sadly missed. One chap in particular has gone to an amazing job working on Sony's SingStar on-line song store - a dream job for the lad and I wish him all the best. In true miser fashion the company is trying to find ways to cut corners and save money, so much so that we currently have no replacement and our websites could technically grind to a halt. Utterly unprofessional and ludicrous of the management, but somehow we will manage - some quick calls to agencies are in order.

A long awaited 4 day weekend was upon us, so C and I flew up to Scotland to visit her family (my lovely in-laws). They live in the beautiful part of the world that is Moniave in Dumfries & Galloway. Remote, cold, wet (next to the wettest place in the UK) but stunning - the perfect place to wind down, take stock and recharge the batteries. C's old man is a prize winning beef farmer with a large herd, plus sheep and a scattering of goats. His beef is without doubt the best I have ever tasted (a tall order considering we pigged out at Goucho's last weekend)! He farms Galloway cattle - big, butch, black hairy beasts, that are rarer (no pun intended) than the commercially popular Aberdeen Angus. Alastair and Clare (my parents in-law) always make me feel so welcome and we were thoroughly spoilt. Lots of chilling, epic paper reading sessions, walks in the country, great wine and the best food - a top time was had by all. I even bottle fed some early spring born lambs...which was nice. C's younger sisters were both there as well, so it was a real family home-coming and little Muffin (cheeky Cocker Spaniel) was so pleased to have Uncle Simon back for a few days. 3 days went far too quickly and before we knew it we were back at Prestwich Airport waiting to fly on to the metropolis. Ryan Air can kiss my ass by the way - charging us an obscene amount for an extra 7 kilos in our luggage (2 legs of lamb kindly donated by C's mum) - crooks. Their online 'web booking charge' is a swizz as well - surely administration doesn't exist with web bookings?! I'm slow roasting one of the legs of lamb tonight so it will taste all the more juicy at the price. *Update - I am the slow roasted lamb king...heaven*.

Just finished (and speed read) a great book - Kill Your Friends by John Niven. A fictional story of a high-powered A&R man in the mid-90s. One of life's true bastards, seriously lacking in moral fibre and living a life of excess at other's expense. I loved every minute (not that I related to or empathised with him at all). A great insight into the back-stabbing, power-hungry, fickle world of the music industry and how someone who seems to live the utopia life lads mags write columns inches about - you know the party has to end at some point, but not in such a spectacular fashion. You feel not one ounce of pity, but can't help fascinating into such a rarified way of life. 8/10

Tunes of the week: Rodrigo y Garbriela (latin guitar flavoured/percussion loveliness), Elbow - The seldom seen kid (welcome back lads - you get never cease to amaze me), MGMT (trippy, squirky, harmony driven...er...thingy).

Meat of the week: Gourlay farmed leg of lamb!

Until next time...