Na Zdrowie!

Incase you didn't know, we're in Krakow, Polska. Cheers!

Everyone's asleep as it's silly o'clock in the morning but I'm awake, just.

Yeah, we got here on Thursday AM. A quick flight from LGW to Krakow's closest airport and then a 40 min minibus ride through the Eastern European countryside to this old city. It's nice. I like Poland. Growing up with all those films of the eastern borders of Europe it fits exactly with the vision.

As soon as we got to Krakow we hit our hotel and booked a taxi, via a perogi restaurant, to Wieliczka. There's a huge salt mine there, a trip recommended by a good friend who missed the opportunity last time he was here but made sure we stayed on track :) The salt mines are pretty impressive... down 60+ flights of stairs and into 100+ miles of caves... some of them hand-carved and beyond belief... there are chapels down here and a vast underground church...

On Friday we visited Auschwitz; Not your usual holiday destination but really interesting nonetheless. I'm not a big fan of human suffering and abject misery, especially on such a grand scale, but I'm sure the blazing sunshine made the experience a whole lot more palatable. I'd recommend a visit if you're passing this way. The sheer scale of the Birkenau camp is food for thought...

So tomorrow (later this morning, rather) we tour the city itself... Krakow, the Wawel Dragon, the castle... Dobranoc!

The TumbleDown Dick

Sign the petition!

Oh woe is me! They shut down the Tumbledown Dick. In fact, this is old news, they shut down the Tumbly back in February.

For those of you who don't know The Tumbledown, it is (was) the best local pub in the area for live music of the alternative/rock/punk kind. OK, there's The Agincourt in Camberley and the West End Centre in Aldershot (each 5 miles away) but the Tumbledown was ours. The Tumbledown was Farnborough's own unique pub.

Farnborough is a very average British small town, population c. 45,000. Apart from Farnborough Abbey, where Napoleon III is buried, and the Farnborough Airshow, there's not much to write home about other than our once-great music venue The Tumbledown Dick with live bands and the Quarantine Club rock/alt night.

After an environmental health inspection the owners of the Tumbledown Dick, Spirit Group, decided to shut the pub. Now, after literally decades of chronic underinvestment the rumours are that the pub could become a "family friendly" pub... that sends shivers down my spine. All the other "family friendly" pubs in the area are either totally dull and all look the same or the youngest members of the family have to be gone and in bed by 8pm, leaving only the older members of the family to prop up the bar and drink crap lager.

I digress...

The Tumbledown Dick was getting better and better as a live music venue, we even had our eyes on a Smiths tribute band in July and bands booked all the way up until November... until some silly person decided to shut our favourite live music boozer!

If you're from Farnborough or nearby, if you like your live music, if you ever enjoyed a band at the Tumbledown or ever played there, or like me, you wanted to get your first gig at The Tumbledown... then please please please help out and save this pub before it goes down the pan...

Sign the petition to Spirit Group to Save the Tumbledown Dick as a live music venue!

Snow? In April?

Well, as you can see, the blossoms that have been around since February (!) are still here and now we've had snow (Sunday).

For us Brits, and especially us southerners, it was weird to get snow in April. Even more surprising was the rapid change in weather from driving rain ("I can't sleep because the rain's banging against my window" at 7:00am) to a thick blanket of snow ("Look, mummy, it's SNOWING!" at 7:30am)

So rather than curl up and stay snug we all went out in it :)

Regroup

After 37 years of constantly forging onward I feel battle weary, I'm far from home and my army is stretched.

Death and mutiny, souls lost at sea, leadership challenges, cowardice in the ranks, the once loyal deserting their general and a plague amongst them... others have gone before this and endured greater hardships, suffered higher losses and yet every struggle is different for its own peculiar reasons.

And somehow I feel comfort in the territory once occupied, the reek of familiarity... it is there that I find the spoils of past victories an inspiration, moments to be cherished again and reminding me of the reasons to, once again, spill forth.

The world is not black nor white, nor even shades of grey. It is multi-coloured and multi-faceted, an ever-evolving state of flux where one must wait for the tremors to subside before making the next sure step.

And it is surety itself that defies my quicksilver soul. But the flighty, the chaotic, the come-what-may might be my saviour tomorrow or my Achilles today. I choose neither and step back from the plate, survey the scene, await, observe, regroup. Regroup!

Let me sleep, I shall feel better when I am rested. I shall need all my strength to conquer the Leviathan, crush the ravening hordes, wheedle out the assassins. My armour is dulled yet still strong, my sword always sharp yet still sheathed. They will be aired come the morning, either this or the next one.

Dawn cometh, I avert my eyes lest brightness pierce my sleep. Goodnight my friends, I might you see on the morrow.