Sky Pirates

Whilst waiting in line to check my baggage with RyanAir for my trip to the Czech Republic, I could not help but notice the guy in front getting charged £58 as his bags were four kilos over the allowed fifteen.

Half of me wanted to ask him if he would like me to carry his excess for twenty quid.. That should by a sandwich and a drink on board.. Just. Then I remembered the question you get at the desk.. “Are you carrying anything for anyone else?” .. and I thought it not worth the trouble.

There has been much publicity around the no-liquids-in-the-hand-luggage rule being a farce, but at the same time, through conspiratorial eyes, I can see how it all ties in with the baggage weight limits also dropping by five kilos. All this excess liquid in our hold luggage must be earning the airlines a tidy penny or two. There must be a stat somewhere stating how much more we are having to pay to put our liquids in the hold and at the same time increase the amount of overweight bags..

So when it came for my turn to weigh in and my hold luggage was a massive eleven kilos under the limit, I asked the girl if I could have a refund.

She gave me a blank stare.

I asked if this was not justified and if no money was available, could she please offer my weight credit to a nice old lady behind me who seemed to have packed her greenhouse and contents.

Another blank stare.

She printed my boarding card and told me that if credits were offered, mine would be over £130 and as my ticket only cost £30 this was not really fair was it..

I gave her a blank stare back.

So.. You can offset your carbon use in other ways.. why not offset your baggage weight against other passengers? Maybe it’s obvious.. The airline has to itself offset these great looking low prices by stinging us in as many other ways as possible. Perhaps with oil prices doing what they are doing they may just have to up their prices and hopefully their standard of service too.

If you are going to charge for a service, no matter how much or little, at least make it a pleasant experience. There is so much cost cutting now it is getting ridiculous..

They have even cut using coloured ink from their boarding cards which saw myself and a couple of other passengers ushered onto the wrong plane! Can you believe it..? As paranoid as airports are about security, I managed to find myself on the wrong plane and only realised when I heard a fellow passenger talk about not being able to wait to get on the beach. Last time I looked at a map, the Czech Republic has no beaches. As I left the attendant apologised saying all the boarding cards look the same now.

One hour later, on the right plane, as as I stared down at my plastic sachet of gin, that I had been sold by a slightly guilty looking flight attendant for £6, I realised I should have taken the advise of the lush in the coffee shop. “Flying Ryanair” she said wobbling as she dunked a biscuit in her coffee. “Yes, I said.”
“Make sure you eat and drink as much as you can before you fly.. They will rob you blind.”

Dogwalking

I do it every day. Come rain or shine. It is at the moment my only form of exercise.

My dog is a Coltriever and needs three good walks a day. She has a wee and a pooh on all occasions and I sometimes wish my metabolism was that fast.

I am lucky where I live to have loads of intersecting paths through the Northamptonshire countryside crisscrossing all around so there is always a choice of direction and area. Not to mention a forest only a ball throw away.

Occasionally I tweet while I walk and throw the ball, sometimes I stream it live. Well almost live. Vodafone has not yet seen the benefit of equipping my part of the Northamptonshire sky with 3G.

Here is a Qik clip from today…

 

Melanie Safka

I’m so glad my parents were hippies. Without that fact, my musical upbringing would not have been a diet of the likes of Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Melanie.

One of the first sounds I heard was needle on vinyl and my first memory was gazing out of the window of a Welsh farmhouse to see silhouettes dancing around a bonfire playing acoustic guitars and singing.

The day I was born Melanie was also celebrating her birthday and had already performed at the Isle of Wight Festival and at Glastonbury Fayre, before it was even called a festival.

I think it may have been the constant comparison to the singer Melanie that may have made my mother pick up the acoustic guitar. She was a big fan and although she didn’t have the greatest singing voice, it didn’t stop her joining in on all of Melanie’s songs word for word.

Last night my Brother and I took a trip into Leicester to a little venue called the Y Theatre to watch Melanie play. If my Mother, Liala was alive today, she would have been there too.

It’s a small intimate venue perfect for one woman with a guitar. As it happened she was also accompanied by her son, Beau Jarred Schekeryk, an incredibly competent guitarist himself.

Her Son opened with some fantastic gypsy style flamenco guitar. He certainly added something to the style and listening to him you would think he’d grown an extra two fingers on each hand.

He apologised for arriving jet lagged as they had just flown in from Korea. I didn’t notice. His  delivery was laid back and chatty, great guitar music.

After a little while Melanie herself came on in a flowing dress, a different lady to the album covers that decorated my childhood but the same incredible voice, uniquely hers with the power to reduce me to tears in a single song. A song that I love but that thankfully She left out of her set.

Two hours passed too quickly as old favorites once heard at classic moments in time like Woodstock were punctuated with new material that could have been written at the same time.

Too many artists grow out of the magic they encapsulated and evolve into tired crooners. This is one thing that amazed me more than anything else with Melanie. How could this rare surviver of the Summer Of Love still be writing truly great songs after 40 years in the music industry. These weren’t tired, rushed or trite. Her new material seemed written by the same passionate young girl of the 60’s, it’s just that now you believed she knew what she was singing about.

Two days ago I had been at the ‘Radio 1’s Big Weekend‘ and although a great day in the sun, I felt the music certainly lacked something. I felt the artists were delivering me a product. That none of them believed what they were saying. It was without soul. Some person, singing some song, about some thing.

Melanie’s music filled in all the gaps for me. She believed in these songs.. That she has written.. That she now was singing.. And i believed her.

I admit, this kind of heartfelt folk isn’t for everyone. Once it’s produced with accompaniment on an album you need to know the singer and their words to get the best out of it.

This kind of live performance though, should be seen by everyone. Just the bare bones of a singer/songwriter who has been there and done the work. An honest exposure of the soul through nothing but guitar and voice. With her Son by her side it had the intimacy of a family moment. Many of the people in the audience have known Melanie and her music since before I was born. I guess if you count my time in the womb, so have I.

I am sad that my Mother never lived long enough to see this gig, to see that it was still ok to be a ’sincere hippy’.

As Melanie sang the song ‘I Tried To Die Young‘.. I was so glad she didn’t.

 

Melanie’s Homepage  Melanie in the Times  Melanie in the Independent

A petition to induct Melanie into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame

Tour dates

 

What Have I Forgotten?

Well to blog more really.. I have been far to busy.

Click the pix to see more..

www.flickr.com Documentally’s SXSW photoset

I Got Blogged

I have been blogged a few times this year but it was really great to wake up to this blog post in the Guardian.

I met Jemima Kiss last night at a Seesmic meet up in Austin, Texas. I thought she was a really nice person..

Nicer now..

Leave a comment if you have the inclination and you never know.. i may get interviewed again.

Arrived in Texas

This place is massive.. Sorry to state the obvious but on flying in on the approach in it looked like we would never find the landing strip and would have to put down in one of the ample parking lots that seem to adorn the county sized shopping complex’s sprawled beneath us.

It was dark and everywhere was built upon.. I had expected a little but of desert and perhaps the odd nodding donkey but no such luck.

Oh and how cool is this..?

Thanks to the wonders of blogging and the fact there are people that do actually read this, Bill a podcasting friend from the Florida Soap Box and also the Progressive Podcast Network (PPN) managed to hook up with me for a brief hello at Texas airport where we were getting picked up by our friend Kity Kity aka Susan.

For each of us it is the first time we had met a member of the PPN in the flesh and a great welcome for me to see a familiar face and hear a voice I have listened to for ages.

Myself and Phil Campbell are the guests of Kity Kity in Wylie, Texas before we head down to the interactive extravaganza that is South By South West (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, about 3-4 hours south of here.

Make sure you check out Bills blog at http://filthandthefury.blogspot.com
You can also follow/add bill on Twitter

He is a really decent guy and I hope we can grab a beer together soon!

So.. In amongst making content and recovering from the trip we are slowly getting excited for the week to come..

We have some cool apps on the horizon thanks to Phil’s magic hands.. Watch this space!

Back On The Road

It’s been a long ten days since the Landy incident, and in the mean time I have been too-ing and fro-ing with the insurance companies mainly just trying to get a straight answer out of them.

Getting myself to jobs has been a bit of a pain in the ass what with living in a village and having to either borrow cars, cadge lifts or use public transport..

That is until now..
Today I set out in search of a cheep car only to return with a not so cheap motorbike.

I have always had motorbikes of one type or another but this is my first BMW.

For those that are really interested it is a BMW F650GS.. I bought it with the money I have put aside for the tax man in the hope that my insurance company will reimburse me for my Land Rover. It’s a gamble I know, but I really need transport now so I can get on with my photographic assignments.

The F650GS’s engine has won the Dakar Rally at least twice and with a listed fuel consumption of 74.3 miles per gallon it is one of the most environmentally friendly motorbikes of it’s size on the road. I calculated that if I can keep the bike and myself in one piece for two years, the money I would have saved on fuel compared to driving the Land Rover would cover the cost of the bike.

So why a motorbike..?

Free parking.
No congestion charge to pay in London.
Easy to negotiate traffic jams.
Cheep road tax and insurance.
Low fuel consumption.
Good on and off road.
Hold their value.
Fun to drive.

On the downside there is the weather issue.. But when needed I have waterproofs and there is alway a car not to far away to borrow should I need to take the dog to the vet etc etc.. Yes I miss the versatility of having a truck that I can throw all kinds of crap in and not worry about a muddy dog etc.. But for all the other times where I am trundling along in a 5 mile tailback I would much rather be on a bike.. Lets face it, our roads in the UK are getting busier and busier, this is the ultimate congestion beater.

That said.. I will be realistic and see how the next few months go before I decide if this is just going to be a spring/summer thing. This bike with it’s ABS and it’s heated grips should do me well in all seasons. We will just have to see what the British summer decides to throw at us.

Check Out My Box

What Can I say.. Other than Thank YouI

There is nothing quite like getting post that isn’t a bill.. I love unexpected mail and this box came out of the blue and has really brightened my day.

You can see more about my recent crash by clicking HERE ..HERE and HERE

Or you can click these links below.. If the links aren’t working come back in a bit as the servers are being refreshed..

http://www.ourmaninside.com/blog/files/84acdca4295a8c386c63fbcf7954a1c2-77.php

http://www.ourmaninside.com/blog/files/0188b4e27e4482e04cf38d5effcd1afa-78.php

http://www.ourmaninside.com/blog/files/dbf66fea33e89f3defea42ce486c88e5-79.php

Thanks again to Summersault Communications

Crashage

Desperate times call for desperate measures and whilst thinking about how I can regain my freedom and leave the village I remembered a little Vespa wannabe I had hidden under a pile of junk in the garage.

I am not normally a winter rider, I don’t have the electrically heated kit that is normally required to survive our extreme temperatures. I don’t like falling off on the ice either.. especially after the Landy incident.

Still, i do have a fat no claims bonus on a motorbike having never claimed and the little 125cc LML Star Delux does do the length of the country on a cup of fuel.. so why not. If it weren’t for the ice this week I would have about 9 years no claimes on a car too.

I can insure tax and mot the bike for the same price as a set of Land Rover seat covers. So I have. And for the moment I have limited freedom and the means to get out of the village and at least into the nearest two towns without resulting to our sporadic and expensive public transport.

I am still going to need a car for those long distance kit lugging journeys but having a burn on the little bike today has made me yearn for another ‘practical’ bike that I can use for work.

I would also like to add a big thank You to the kind folks that have donated to the Land Rover fund. I can’t tell you how cheeky i feel having this on my site. It wasn’t my initial idea and I was asked from more than one person to set it up. I also won’t be a hypocrite and say i don’t appreciate the idea.. I do.

Insurance companies are notorious at being difficult and mine is no exception. After over 14 phone calls i have found the right person to talk to, only then to be told my claim has had to be re-started due to an internal error. It will be a while before I see this resolved and in the meantime I really need to be mobile. At the very least so that I can work.

You never know, Land Rover may still get wind of my appreciation and sponsor me to produce more content.

Parody and when to not look into a horses mouth..

parody |ˈparədi|
noun ( pl. -dies)
an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

I am loving the seesmic films that have sprouted after yesterdays crash.. It is linked here if you havn’t seen it.

Here are a couple of the parody’s posted so far..

There has also been talk of a Land Rover Fund and whilst I am sat at my Grand Mothers (an 83 year old Italian woman who makes killer pizza named Ofelia) she has seen a couple of people talking of a collection so I can get another sensible vehicle. This is amazing to her and she is more than a little shocked that a website made up of people I mostly haven’t met are considering helping me in acquiring a new car..!

I said they were joking but she said “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” or words to that effect. She actually said, “Never look in a horses mouth”, but i know what she means..

So i am not.. Perhaps I am being cheeky by posting this chip-in link here.. but hey-ho.. I did just get a repair quote for £6780.. and that pretty much means my Land Rover is a write off.. I can’t ever imagine getting another in the same condition for what i paid for this one.. Not unless someone out there knows the folks at Land Rover and they want to use my original post for marketing..

I do feel like it saved my life.. But whether i could ever get another.. who knows..

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