Widnes 1990.......

i was reading an article today about The Stone Roses & their famous gig at Spike Island in May 1990 - it brought the memories flooding back, i was a mere slip of a lad back then living in one of the most run down areas Manchester has to offer, carefree & totally hooked on the Stone Roses

they were the soundtrack to my late teens & we'd got on board the bandwagon pretty much before it left the station, big fans pre-debut LP & first seeing them in front of a few dozen people at a club called Legends underneath the Rugby League ground in Warrington, one dark, dank night in '88

fast forward a couple of years & the band were super nova, it's hard to describe just how massive they had become in Manchester by the time Spike Island rolled round, forget the Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, James etc etc - The Stone Roses fired up the whole late 80's Manchester craze, they were streets ahead of Oasis but unfortunately unlike their plodding succesors, they succumbed to a blizzard of drugs & in-fighting

Sunday 27th May 1990 for me is a haze, chemically imbalanced i dont actually recall that much - just hazy flashes of the band on stage, a giant globe beach ball bouncing around in the crowd, fireworks & of course 16 or so perfect pop songs

it seems a long time ago & a different world, but i was there - in the days before V2 festivals & the like, this was about a northern band with attitude, and 30,000 or so kids witnessing a legendary group at the all too brief pinnacle of their powers

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

Good old Hugo - loved the speech today at the UN.

Viva Hugo. Viva Venezuela.

Banff, AB

there's not much to interest anyone other than hungry, souvenir hunting tourists in Banff - if you are looking for humorous tee-shirts or small bears in Mountie uniforms you can't go wrong

it is very, very much a tourist town, it is however surrounded by stunning scenery & on a sunny Sunday afternoon your eye is constantly drawn to the snow capped peaks & the amazing blue waters of the River Bow

even though i only live 25 minutes away by car, this was only the second time this year i have stopped for a look around the shops & notwithstanding the possible need to buy bears in Mountie outfits for disliked relatives at Xmas, it'll probably be my last

on the way home i nipped up the potholed, dirt road that takes you above the Spray Lakes Reservoir to take a few pictures - now my car with it's fancy 4WD makes effortless work of this steep, winding, rutted road & I admit my speed was a little higher than it should have been

so i apologise to the old guy who had for some reason pulled over & stopped on the side of the road, (in the area that states "No Stopping - Avalanche Danger") - how was i to know he had his window wound down & was taking a photo from his car window as i came round the corner swooshed past him, through a lake of a muddy puddle & soaked him & the inside of his car - ooops - sorry Grandpa!!!

a newt's eye view

I

if you were a newt paddling eastwards down the River Bow through Canmore this afternoon, this was what you would have seen.......nice eh?

Sunday morning snapshot

The snow clouds have lifted & its a glorious September morning again, there's a big melt on & I had to capture the scene from our bedroom window - a few days ago, the mountains were bare.


I'm off to Banff now, to take a few more pictures.

a reminder

on a cold, snowy day it's nice to recall a bit of sun - our local swimming pool just a few weeks back

a jammy situation

well it was a good night in the Rose & Crown last night, too good in fact & it was struggle to get up this morning

it will be even harder in a few hours time when i have to drag myself out of bed at 5.30am to watch Charlton live on the TV - now there's commitment for you, the question is should i go back to bed afterwards of concede defeat & just stay up as though a 5.30 start on a Saturday morning is perfectly fine - hmm decisions, decisions

whats the worst thing you can spill in a car? well i managed to smash a huge jar of jam in my trunk (boot!) yesterday afternoon, i guess there are worse things - but what a pain cleaning that up - the spare tyre is now officially glued into place with apricot based confiture, god help me if i get a flat in the next few days - as i scraped the sticky mess out it was falling all over the sidewalk (ha!) & up my driveway, really bad news when there are hungry bears everywhere - it took ages to clean up, not helped by the slush & snow & my car has a sickly jammy fragrance to it

i drove to Innisfail today, the weather was attrocious & everywhere just looked dank & depressing - unusual for Alberta which seems to be sunny 90% of the time - a real Fall feeling abounds, but its due to warm up again rapidly after Sunday - not that it matters, i have a few days next week in Vancouver & i know it will be all fine & dandy over there

so thats about it, another week whizzes by, 11 months we have been here now & it only seems like yesterday that we were heading down the Trans Canada Highway from the airport to Canmore for the very first time

three inches...

of snow today, the street looks like a scene from a Xmas card - it's the 14th September

just off out to the pub for a few beers with my good mate JG

it's quiet at the moment with Nicky & Tabby back in the UK, i'm rattling round this big old house like a pea in a drum

i'll be back soon enough, two weeks today I'll have a pocketful of pounds & pence, driving on the other side of the road & looking for the nearest good Indian restaurant

yes that's one thing i miss over here - a decent curry

memories.......

with the nation in the grip of 9/11 reminiscing i guess i should just say that i was at home in Greenwich, London on that fateful day - i remember looking out of the windows every few minutes to see if Canary Wharf was under attack - it wasn't

i recall we had fish & chips that evening, too shocked to cook & in need of comfort food - it was all too much - no matter what despicable politics were behind it all

and now we have movies, TV "Docu Dramas" & all sorts of what some say is "cashing in" going on - i haven't & will not watch these things, people's lives obliterated turned into entertainment

on a cheerier note the good weather continues, it was +30 in Calgary today, amazingly they are calling for just +1 on Friday!!!! Must be some cold front rolling in...........

Canmore United lost in the final of the end of season Bow Valley League Tournament, disappointing but the tournament was pretty meaningless & the real trophy, The BVSL League Championship was handed over to us, halfway during the day's proceedings. I played all 5 games yesterday, from 10.30am to 7pm - knackered isn't strong enough to describe my physical state at the moment & we have to do it all again in Cochrane this coming weekend, with an even bigger tournament and tougher schedule - better get the thermal gloves ready for this one

of bears and cabers....

the 3rd night of 3 in Toronto on a little work jaunt, i am back on Westjet to Calgary first thing tomorrow morning

it's a short week, after another public holiday on Monday - we seem to get one a month - i'm definitely not complaining

the weekend just gone was scorching, we went to the Canmore Highland Games on Sunday - lots of dubiously connected "Scots" larging it up - but it was fun & I finally got to see someone tossing a caber- i can tick that off my ambitions in life list

the week before Canmore United won the Bow Valley Soccer League - it's been a pleasure playing for this multinational team, with great lads pulling together to win this hotly contested title - shame the Championship winning party is when i am back in the UK

i also found time to cycle the rugged Rundle trail from Banff to Canmore, we were well aware of the dangers of running into bears but luckily they were nowhere to be seen - maybe they were tossing cabers too, some of those hairy Scotsman were suspiciously bear like in appearance come to think of it

a bear.......

finally got to see my first Grizzly bear on Saturday morning, as we drove down Highway 40,(roughly where the green arrow points, for a hike into the mountains

there he was, sitting on the edge of the forest, his coat shining in the fierce sun & looking rather sleepy

we turned the car around for a second look but he was gone, dissapeared into the vast forested wilderness that the highway cuts through

the hike up at the Highwood Pass was strenous as we climbed several hundred metres in elevation, but at the the top a series of cascading waterfalls offered some respite from the heat

all good fun & wholesome exercise

the following day i starred for Canmore United in our 7-1 demolition of Caribou in the Bow Valley League, actually i saw stars as a nasty clash of heads forced me off dazed & confused shortly into the 2nd half - it was odd, i kind of felt OK but my head was swimming & i couldn't walk for a while - needless to say my head hurt for the rest of the day but i hope to be fit for our final game of the season on Sunday, a win guarantees us the league title

bloody Brazilians....

I am on the Island for a couple of days, as ever it's a lovely place & the weather is good - i flew into Comox today from, Calgary - a route that took us over the Coastal Mountain ranges of BC in pristine blue skies

then a pleasant drive down from Comox, via Nanaimo to Victoria with a few work stops on the way

which brings me here to a hotel in downtown Victoria, temporary home to the Brazilian National Swimming Team competing in the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships & currently running riot in the hotel, worryingly close to my bedtime

i'll have to go & shout at them - maybe I'll remind them of their dismal World Cup

on second thoughts, as an Englishman I better put the stones down or my glasshouse will be well & truly broken

so what is Portuguese for "SHUT DA FUCK UP!!!"

sunset over the mountains....

this summer seems to have lasted for ever, it's another lovely evening & i am sat in the lounge of our new home with a beautiful view of the sun setting over the mountains - the few wispy clouds slowly reddening as darkness nears

the new house has brought with it nothing but hassle & expense in terms of actually buying it - thanks to an idiotic buyer of our UK house turning out not to have the money to fulfill the deal, she so happily entered into & an estate agent redefining the boundaries of incompetence - but enough - we are here now & on a balmy August evening that's all that matters

recent weekends have been spent at festivals

the Calgary folk festival was headlined by Kris Kristofferson - a true legend, but also a legend who refused to leave the stage & was still playing after about 3 hours by which time our initial spell bound attentiveness had succumbed to weary, cold boredom

the weather was gorgeous - hot, dry & with much lighter evenings over here - it was a truly wondrous day - my 21mo old daughters first festival & an experience that spilled over from the cool bands playing (the great Son Volt, Robbie Fulks, Dave Alvin) into the craft stalls, ethnic food vendors & of course he beer tent/garden - not a chav in sight

the following weekend was our very own Canmore folk festival, a smaller, more family oriented affair - but again, perfect weather & lots to do outside of the music, including a small enclosure filled with tiny sheep, goats & pigs which the kids could stroke - i never knew pig's had such wet, slimy noses

so back in the Uk for 2 weeks hols at the end of September - really looking forward to it - hopefully all this stuff about the planes & security will have calmed down

out here in sleepy, balmy Canmore it seems a long way away

saskatoon shakedown........

sorry about the lack of posts - i was watching the world cup

my thoughts on it.......later

another busy month whips by, i'm in Saskatoon tonight - its 35 degrees & hotter than Zinedine's temper - last time i was here it was 30 degrees under & i had my car dragged out of a snowdrift after i veered off the road

yesterday i was in Victoria & on Monday, Vancouver - i wish Westjet did air miles or something - i could fly home for nowt

talking of which, i will be back in the UK for 2 weeks in September - hurrah! Also BA will soon fly direct to Calgary from Heathrow & its cheap - drag your sorry asses out here because

we have pretty much sold up in London & bought a house in Canmore, its a single family house 3000sq feet backing on to Mount Lawrence Grassi & acres of wilderness - the people we sold it to have had bears, wolves & lots of deer in their back garden - theres also a really cool swing strung between two of the trees in the garden - maybe this is why the animals visit?

in the basement theres a fully separate flat, so visitors can relax in their own space & if so minded avoid all contact with us during their stay

the house buying process has been smooth, selling up back home has been like pulling teeth

in other news - i had a week off & spent it fishing, biking, hiking, shopping, drinking & umm watching football (proper football not the American stuff) - i now play for the great Canmore United in the Bow Valley Soccer League - we have a squad of 24 & almost 24 different nationalities - which is great & has made WC2006 all the more interesting

the weather has been scorching, really hot & usually bone dry interspersed with huge rumbling thunderstorms & awesome lightning - Canmore is really swinging, on the weekends the bars are full, the pavement cafes buzzing & the mountains swarming with visitors - i flee to Peter Lougheed National Park - here you can escape the cowds & come face to face with nature - but i still havent seen a bear

what we have had for the last week, an annual event is mosquitos - they have gone now but for a couple of days it was hell - thank god for Deet

so that is it, i go home 9canmore of course) tomorrow afternoon just in time for training for Sundays game & then i'm playing golf for the first time ever on Friday i also play poker with a crowd of mates now on a regular basis, another new thing

it's all good

my thoughts on the World Cup

Rooney - harsh sending off but i'm not convinced it wasnt deliberate if it had been Crouch i would have believed it to be accidental, Rooney has that evil streak in him

Sven - absolute twat who only picked the players the Arsenal mob wanted him too - his decision to take Walcott rather than Darren Bent was utterley ridiculous & ended up costing us dear - thank god he's gone but McClaren is just as bad

Zidane - who knows what motivated that headbutt, i'm sure there was sledging going on, but hasnt he heard it before? - he's been sent off 14 times before so maybe he has

Italy - good luck to them, i love Italy the country, the food, the people

Portugal - ditto, people whinge about Ronaldo but forget Crouch cheating & fouling his opponent to score the vital goal against Trinidad

Crouch - shit, shit, shit OK he tries hard, so would i

roll on the new season

who knows where the time goes?

i can't believe its more than a week since i last wrote this thing - it has, as is per usual these days, been hectic - i have been to Vancouver & Toronto in the last 7 days - & even had time to play in Canmore United's 10-0 drubbing of Rim Rock in the world famous Bow Valley SoccerLeague - we even get weekly coverage in the local paper

the weather has of course been wet & dull & i only get to watch the World Cup in the evenings, hours after the games have finished - meaning the deliberate avoidance of scores all day - which is not that difficult in the footballing desert that is Alberta

the trip to Toronto was great by the way, i missed my evening flight on Sunday & ended up on the 12.30 night flight out East - stuck in the middle seat on a packed & sweaty plane - horrid, horrid, horrid!!

well it's nearly the weekend & some much needed rest, so on Sunday i am getting up at about 6am to head out on on a photography field trip up to Emerald Lake which should be fun, as long as this rain buggers off

all the travelling has given me some time to listen to new albums & i can definitely recommend

Madlib - Beat Konducta Vol1-2 Movie Scenes
Gotan Project - Lunatico
Primal Scream - Riot City Blues

I have piled money on Spain winning (or at least reaching the final of) the World Cup - i am feeling pretty good about this after their 4-0 drubbing of the Ukraine this morning

Viva Espana!!!!!

last minute breakdown

i know the whole world is going World Cup crazy right now - and it funny how suddenly the world, his wife & every Z-list celebrity is suddenly an expert on the beautiful game when oridnarily they would know their Inter from their Milan - but it's also Stanley Cup Final time & Alberta's own Edmonton Oilers suffered a sickening loss tonight in game 1 (of 7) against the Carolina Hurricanes

the game was tied at 4-4 with 20 seconds to go when the Oilers goalie fucked up a clearance & gifted a tap-in to the Hurricanes striker - all the more sickening that the Oilers earlier led 3-0

what puzzles me though is how a game of 60 minutes stretches out for nearly 3 hours - it would be the equivalent of a football match starting at 3pm & ending at 6.45pm - my advice, cut down on the millions of ad-breaks & get the game over & done with - we fit 90 minutes into 2 hours with the Worlds No. 1 game - time for the hockey boys to do likewise

so just got back from Victoria, as i have said before it's a great place - an (almost) tropical climate, ocean & mountain views at most turns & a quaint Britishness pervades - we drank in pubs, ate fish & chips, saw double decker buses & heard plummy accents on every street

the only thing missing were the hordes of Burberry cladded ASBO-ed up chavs hanging out at the precincts

what a shame eh?

Two Lane Blacktop.......

I finally got to see this 1971 movie tonight after capturing it from the net, it was so worth the wait - an extremely rare film - and if you get the chance to ever see it do so

QF exit................

my first competitive outing for Canmore United soccer team ended in a QF penalty shootout loss in the Molson Cup in Banff - we got through our group in relative comfort, but faced the Bow Valley League champions in the Quarter Finals & after a tight 0-0 draw were dumped out thanks to the superior penalty kicking ability of our opponents

still it was good fun, playing on a pitch ringed by snowcapped mounatins with players from every nationality you could muster taking part and the upside of going out early was that we were able to hit the Rose & Crow in Canmore earlier than expected & sink a few consolation beers

i was in Edmonton for a few days last week, of course the big news up there is the progression of the Oilers to the Stanley Cup final - unfortunately this happened last night, (Saturday), rather than on the Thursday when we were up there - Edmonton is hockey town & their fans are almost European in their sports fervour - good luck to them in the final

next week we'll be in Victoria for most of the week, a mixture of work & pleasure - hopefully the weather won't suck so much as it has this week

Bank holiday sunshine - whats this all about eh?

somethings not quite right

its a bank holiday Monday and the sun is shining brightly - in fact it has been for most of May - warm sunny & hot - whoever told us Canada was cold was having a laugh - even more amusing is the reports we keep hearing of torrential rain & downright miserable weather back home

(at this juncture i should point out that this laptop doesnt have a functioning comma key - so apologies for the bad punctuation)

well the only thing to ponder now is what to do today - yesterday we scrambled up Mount Yamnuska not right to the top i should stress - it was hard work with a 19mo old baby in a back pack - but the views were wonderful - i will post some pictures later

Saturday was partly spent at the Canmore childrens festival - my daughter loved the clowns & the spachoppers - wasnt so sure about the bizarre fairy type creature on stilts who semed to invoke terror in every kid under 10 years old

we think we have sold our house in London - i wont say too much cos I dont want to jinx it - but we are a step closer to buying a house over here

i have caught up this last week or so on my music listening & have a handful of albums which i really dig

these are

Espers - Espers ii
Richard James - The Seven Sleepers Den
Mojave 3 - Puzzles For You
King Biscuit Time - Black Gold
Neil Young - Living With War

The Espers album is a real gem - ancient folk tunes dusted with modern electronica & effects - truly captivating. Richard James used to be part of Welsh band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and here he presents a stunning folky album - think Nick Drake folk rather than the trad. hey nonny type though. Mojave 3 seemed to have peeled off several layers of the swoonsome country ambience that were the hallmarks of prior albums & this LP has a rockier side - with some songs charging by at express train rate - its all good in my book - Neil Halstead has hardly put a foot wrong since his Slowdive days & deserves more attention than he & the band ever get. King Biscuit Time is the new-ish project for ex Beta Band lead singer Steve Mason - its a heady mixture of beggy melancholia & dancehall riddims - i particularly love the first track C I Am 15 - where after 3 minutes or so of a lilting indie tune dancehall MC Topcat blasts in with a witheringly sarcastic denouncement of those brothers in blood - Mr Bush & Mr Blair. And - talking of politics I leave the best til last grumpy old Canuck Neil Young has issued forth with an album full of hate for the odious Bush regime - no matter that Youngs political judgement has deserted him in the past - this is heartfelt stuff & while it would be too optimistic to see it as another nail in the coffin of Bush & his axis of evil - the fact that is has shifted enogh units to reach the upper echelons of the US charts shows plenty of people buy into his message. There is hope yet.

back in business.......

it's been a while

i'm back in Canmore, playing my first game for the local soccer team in the Banff Sunday League - i defy anyone to find a more picturesque setting than the one we play in, an elk poo, mosquito ridden field surrounded by forests and mountains

i got back from a week in Toronto last Wednesday, i even had the pleasure of watching the UEFA Cup Final live on TV thanks to the live satelitte TV Westjet provide - it was great, the normally dull 3 & 1/2 hour flight, um, flew by

we have had scorching weather in Canmore, 30+ degrees for about a week & at such altitude the sun is brutal, however as it's a bank holiday weekend this weekend the weather is due to turn crap about 4pm tomorrow might - honestly it is

now i'm back i'll get this blog up & running again

having said that i'm in Edmonton next week, Victoria the week after & then pretty much a week in Montreal

as the Beach Boys used to say, round, round, get around.....etc etc