Category: Blog

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Remembering Rory Gallagher

Rory was and still is my favourite blues guitarist – the gentle Irishman has been gone 25 years this Sunday 14 June 2020.

https://flic.kr/p/6wFHux
Rory Gallagher
Het Turfschip Breda The Netherlands
26 march 1976

I have been listening to Rory Gallagher before I knew who he was, as older cousins used to listen to him (along with Peter Green & Taj Mahal), I just thought it was great music – and in my late teens I listened constantly to his (and some may say the best live album every produced) Irish Tour ’74 (15 years after it was released, as I was 3 in 1974!)

That was the vinyl that really got me into Rory and I had to try to find every live track he had every done (which of course now is a lot easier since the invention fo the internet).

I was very lucky I got to see him once, but even though his health was failing him, he was still a showman when he picked up his battered old 1961 Fender Stratocaster and played his blues.

Of course his legacy lives on with all those people wanting to play the blues and the Rory Gallagher International Tribute Festival every year, the best way is to just listen to his music.

Here are my favourite Rory songs – so just enjoy the master from Ballyshannon

2) Arriving Somewhere but Not Here

3) Ride On

4) John The Baptist

5) Holy Diver

6) Man in a Shed

7) Die Laughing

8) Where Is My Mind?

Book: American Gods

Luxury: TARDIS

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Blog

Dynamo does his thing with a London bus

Illusionist Dynamo ‘levitated’ from the side of a double-decker bus in his latest stunt

Now I would love to see him do it from a shed

Via http://www.spreaditfast.com/

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Blog

I did not have a favourite film of 2011 – which is a shame but these guys did

Maybe 2011 has passed me by in terms of great films – the ones I went to see were dissapointing –

i have been mostly been watching great DVD and streaming!

the whole 3D expericence has totally put me off the cinema experience

Here are some montages of the films of the year from various youtubers who have edited the clips together added some funky music and they look like the films may have been great!

What films should I have seen in 2011? or should be looking forward to in 2012?

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Blog

How about Iron Man Arc Reactor Tshirt or Love Two Hearts Dr Who Tshirts – I would buy a Moon Tshirt

Some great Tshirts from ThinkGeek that someone who is reaching his forty’s would love for a special day.

This may look like a standard t-shirt, but it’s actually the Iron Man Mark IX suit. This latest version is much lighter than all previous versions, featuring a flexible interior with knitted cotton exterior. Unlike the Extremis version, the movement with your body does not require you to inject carbon nanotubes into your brain. The chest-mounted uni-beam is powered by photons, which it collects and then disperses when the wearer enters a dark area. For all body parts covered by the Mark IX’s new form factor, the suit provides protection from adverse weather conditions, UV rays, and temperature extremes. It is designed for up to two days of use inside Earth’s atmosphere, although after the first 12 hours of use its effectiveness is reduced. After 24 hours, it begins to act as a repulsor.

They are also doing “I HEART HEART Dr. Who” Tshirts.

But more importantly my mate unklerupert who runs the manmademovies.co.uk blog is asking people if they would want merchandise from the great Moon film – Of course we would! – vote and as the Director Duncan Jones says

There’s a CHANCE we may finally get to sell Moon posters & Collectors toys.

Basically we need to show there are at least 500 fans out there who would buy a Gerty desktop toy or a collectors Sam piece.

So go and vote and comment and you could win a MOON promo T-Shirt.

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Blog

Tips for getting the best Groupon deals, they should do more beer and maybe sheds ;)



I have been using groupon in the UK ever since it was mycitydeal.:) over a year now and we have had some great treats at vastly reduced prices, my only quibble is that everyone is using it now and you have to be quick 🙂

So some varying offers – but they need to do more alcohol offers – online beer companies you know who you are – maybe getting a certain yearly beer club a bit cheaper I would sign up no sweat for that offer.

And my other passion as you know is sheds -so 20% off a certain size of shed would do wonders for the shed industry 😉

My tips for better groupon use.

1) Sign up for multiples areas (and the National Deal) and use Gmail to Label them “groupon” so you can look at them later (not too late) – this way if any tasty hotel deals come elsewhere along then you can grab it asap

2) or Create a Tab in Igoogle (or whatever you use or maybe your mobile) and bring in the RSS feeds of the towns you are interested in.

eg Cardiff feed.

so you can see the deals as they are published and grab them straightway.

3) When you get the voucher, book straight away as you will be able to get the date you want – I have waited a few days and never end up getting the date we wanted!

4)Don’t panic buy – think about it ask your other half but the bigger deals will go quick – so if you have the money in your paypal (my prefered payment for this) then BUY BUY BUY 😉

5) Join their recommendation program – so you earn £6 when you recommend your mates – you can use this cash to pay for more deals – so everyone is a winner!

5) Enjoy your deal!



Sign up using my ref and I get £6 from groupon or use an affiliate link where I get a small percentage of your deal price.

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Blog

Hair, full frontal nudity, french beer & mud

Last Friday myself and mrsunclwilco went to that London for a short visit.

I had a meeting with a potential sponsor for Shed Week 2011, and they and their PR company treated us both to a great lunch in cote bistro in Soho – good food and a couple of bottles of Kasteel Cru, a French Lager I have not had before and it’s was a pleasant surprise and I have since found out you can get it in Asda.

Kasteel Cru

The food was good simple French style – Scallops with lardons and Steak & Frites with Crème brûlée to follow, yes predictable but its what I fancied!

Anyway they also put us up for the night in a hotel near convent garden and got us tickets for a show, Hair……

with the broadway cast – not sure if that matters but it was a jolly romp of sex,drugs and hair but not as much as I would have thought giving the title.

Another new experience was on our return to Wales, we went off for a SPA day (not SPAR) which I bought for MrsUW birthday swimming, sauna, spa you know the sort of thing. – I know Iam going all sheddiesexual – and I had a Mud steam combi thing, Rasul Mud experience

This traditional Arabian inspired cleansing ritual combines the health enhancing properties of heat, steam and mud for a totally relaxing and skin conditioning treatment in a magical and sensory private environment with twinkling lights and aromatic vapours, whilst jets of steam keep the air warm and moist. Finally, a gentle tropical rain shower washes the mud away.

We got it very cheap from the groupon/myCitydeal Cardiff page – a bargin 60% off.

A great time was had by all.

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Blog

Fabio Capello – gets a new job in Porec, Croatia

Just got back this week from a holiday in Porec in Croatia a lovely time was had by all 🙂

On the harbour there were loads of gift stands and tat for sale and also a few artists doing 20 minutes portraits of people, your normal holiday souvenir type of thing – you will be glad to hear I did not get one.

But one of the artists look like England’s Football manager Fabio Capello.

fabio capello doing some work on the side?

In fact some of the “celebrity” caricatures, he had done were the England squad, but no David Beckham – I wonder why 😉

If you want to be bored on the interweb, instead of coming round to my shed and looking at hundreds of slides, some of my other Crotia & Venice (we went there for a day on the ferry) photos are here.

Anyway I hope

Fabio Capello

does well in his new job 😉

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Beer Blog

The Greece national football team, Mythos beer and World Cup Beer Sweepstake

The other week I joined the beer twitters & bloggers behind the wonderful beer swap (still need to write up my beers for swap II, oops) in their new beer related celebration, to coincide with the world cup.

You get allocated a world cup team and you have to pick a beer from that country and drink and review it, then one person wins lots of beer from the kind sponsors, so result I thought you get to taste a great beer from another country, and drink like a local and have the chance to win some great UK beer.

Unfortunately I got Greece 😉

That’s a bit unfair As I love Greece, the country, the people & the food but they are not the ale capital of the world.

Right where in Cardiff could you get a bottle of Greek beer, simples, Wally’s famous deli in one of the Victorian arcades – they had it in the window! £1.35 a bottle result – so not a Greek tragedy finding it.. now the downside drinking it.

mythos

I have been to Greece a few times and when you are in that beautiful country in the sun, with the water lapping against your toes after a days lazing on the beach and the smell of oregano and roast lamb in the air, a cold Mythos is the best drink you can have, I would go as far as, it’s the drink of the Gods, also it’s great with a metaxa (a greek brandy) chaser on the side.

A warm evening in the Welsh valleys is another matter, so I put the bottles in the freezer as it has to be very cold.

I was out for a pint of Brains Up & Over, while Greece played Nigeria today.. but to celebrate their two-one win thought It was time to crack open a bottle of Mythos, basically a “Greek” version of Carlsberg who own the brewery.

It’s quite malty, with a slight fizz but overall a bit tasteless but as I said perfect when you are in the lovely Ionian isles in the heat. and you need something to wet your whistle.. I don’t think Greece will go any further in the world cup but at least they can commiserate with a few bottles of their bland brew.

mythos

mythos

They do a Mythos Red, looks like a new alternative to this bland lager.. so next time you are in Greece grab me a bottle?

Mythos (Μύθος) is a light straw-colored, pilsner style lager introduced in 1997. It is available in both 330 ml and 500 ml bottles or cans. The alcohol content is 5%. It was awarded at the “2001 INTERBEER INTERNATIONAL BEER & WHISKEY COMPETITION”.

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Blog

Now this is the best England World Cup Song ever : Frank Sidebottom sings Three Shirts on my Line

I won’t be mentioning the world cup much on this blog, you can go elsewhere for that.. but an old hero of mine, Frank Sidebottom who was diagnosed with cancer recently has released a single (is that what they kids call them) for the South African World cup.

Hope frank gets over his bobbins cancer all proceeds from the song which you can buy on that itunes, goes to Cancer Research.

>> very very sad news that Frank’s creator Chris Sievey has passed away…

There are lots of inter–web campaigns to get Frank to Number one, search it