A SHOUT-OUT FOR LAURENCE..............

Not that this slightly off the wall cockney and resident of hartlepool needs it,,no way he is known all over the country for his cross-dressing habits and musical talents(not) in and around hartlepool town centre and on match days he can be found strutting his stuff at victoria park,,entertaining the pools fans as they gather to see their team.



The first time i took my mrs to see pools while visiting family in the area,,she was totally gobsmacked at the sight walking past her in the town end terrace,,yes true to form laurence was cheering on carlisle united in his knee length boots and very fetching skirt and matching jacket.
well being a norfolk lass the wife hadnt seen the likes of laurence before on the streets of yarmouth and she just looked in total amazement at him/her or is it IT.

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH NORFOLK (part 1)

Its shortly coming up for 20 years since i left my native north east for the green lush pastures of norfolk..
to be honest i wasn't too impressed at first,all pretty flat and uninspiring and it kinda reminded of of holland and belgium..where i'd spent a few years as a kid in the mid 70's due to my dads work in the oil industry..thats a story for another time.
So yeah im here in norfolk in sunny great yarmouth and my main concern is getting a decent job,,being a young keen hardworking chef with a few years of very good training and a head full of recipes and ideas my first job in the area was landed by pure accident,,while i was talking to a waiter in a restaurant..
so after a quick phonecall i was off to the very grand sounding "savoy restaurant" to sell myself..getting the job was a piece of cake and i immediately felt the warmth of the cypriot people,my employers.
Filled with pride on my way to work next day at 8-30 am i breezed into the kitchen to be greated by the owners and a curious old man cutting chips by hand..anyway sleeves rolled up i got stuck in and started one of my many shifts on regent road.

Cutting away from the catering for now,,i was discovering the wonders of life in norfolk and despite a bit of a bumpy first year getting known and getting used to the locals,,i was beginning to feel very comfy with the laid back chilled out way things are here.the main thing that struck me was how unfriendly and very wary the locals(yarmouth people) were but being a friendly outgoing fella , there was no way that was gonna bother me..i was in a pub on my day off and happily playing darts and having a bit of banter with a few locals,,i knew they were wary of me being a northern stranger but because i am a fairly good darts player i soon won them over and was invited to join their summer darts team, ice broken my social circle had just taken a turn for the good in this very hostile pub in the dingy backstreets where the holidaymakers never tread.

DARYL HALL WITH SMOKEY ROBINSON (dedicated to T-BONE)

simply the finest singers and musicians on planet earth...pay special attention to sarah smile "pure genius"

"OH I DO LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE SEASIDE"

A few random photographs from a visit to the beach today............

" ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR IN GREAT YARMOUTH "

Rocketsmith

May i take the pleasure to introduce to you "Rocketsmith" a band that has just completed its first year in the indie/rock scene.,hailing from pickering in north yorkshire,england...they are fronted by andy warriner on lead vocals and acoustic guitar,then comes the very charismatic guitar wizzard hank bartrum and on bass the "baby" of the band as andy calls him john-henry joss cheetham,completing the line up is rowly palmer on drums.

I came across rocketsmith via myspace last may time,when i recieved a request to follow the band,being a curious chap and lover of all genres of music i joined and awaited some tunes to listen to.i didnt have to wait long as the lads had been hard at it in the studio putting a few numbers together.
The first track i heard was "three car pile up" "BANG" something clicked and i was so impressed with this and played it over and over till my poor long suffering wife couldn't take anymore,then came "real life" and "gravity",three cracking tunes that had me hooked on this band.



As you can see from the live gig in york last year at the dutchess,the band are more than capable of performing live and have done various slots at charity functions/private parties and in pubs in the north yorkshire area.

It only remains for me to wish the rocketeers of rocketsmith all the very best in their future ventures in the music world,they can be found on facebook/myspace and reverbnation and are building a good steady following...i hope you will follow them too and boost their fanbase.

2000 TWEETS AND LOVING EVERY MINUTE I SPEND ON TWITTER.

Just a quick blog to thank all the truly smashing people i've had the pleasure of sharing a bit of banter with on twitter,you each have your own unique qualities and i thank you all.
i've been on twitter since mid may 2009 and built up a nice following , its always a pleasure to read blogs and links to various sites and of course read your tweets.i have learned a hell of a lot from twitter and have only had crossed words with one person who tried to tell me i was something im not.needless to say that asshole got banned and can go rot in hell for all i care.
Anyway that said and out of the way all thats left to say is happy tweeting folks and remember the buzz word on twitter is RESPECT.