Watching Swindon Go Down

It was all going so well when this picture was taken ( thanks to the official Swindon photographer for this great picture). This cross led to a Matt Ritchie goal, and the first 30 minutes of Saturday's game against fellow strugglers Notts County was all Swindon. And if only Douglas' thundering volley had not come off the crossbar, I guess the good fortune would have continued. But the 30 yard effort, direct from a corner, blasted back off the woodwork and with it fell away the Swindon composure. Time and time again they lost the ball yards outside their own penalty area, and after Lee Hughes equaliser within 15 mins of full time, a mistake by Cuthbert in the same area gifted the former prison-mate Hughes with his second and eventual game winner. The ups and downs of football lost on the desperate Swindon fans. It must be all over now, with only an outside mathematical chance of survival. I think I have seen 6 or 7 home games with no victory and little passion for winning, so it is no surprise Swindon are where they are.
Saying that, next season could be fun. Lots of potential local derbies with Cheltenham, Oxford, Hereford and Bristol Rovers. Just not sure if I will be seeing any of them.

Weekday Afternoon Radio

I have tried so very hard to like Richard Bacon - 5live weekday afternoons - but I just don't. He is no replacement for the professional and quite brilliant Simon Mayo. My super little solar powered DAB radio provides many alternative stations - Absolute 80's being one of the better options - but I still hadn't quite found what I was looking for. Until Radcliffe and Maconie moved from Radio 2 to 1pm on BBC 6Music.

A week into their new show, and I am starting to get hooked. And already I have discovered some new music. The best of which - so far - has to be the not-quite-irritatingly catchy 'The Look' from a band called Metronomy. I expect I am the last person to find out about them, but if I am not, I present a performance of the very same song top right of this blog.

For One Night Only . . .

I may look like someone belting out the last bars of My Way, but this is me, last night, having my first go at stand-up. And I had just the best time. I was kindly asked by a friend to entertain at his wife's 40th party, and buoyed by the promise that others would do their bit too, I agreed. Of course, everyone else bar their daughter, Hannah - who sang beautifully - pulled out, but I actually relished the prospect and surprised myself how enjoyable it was. I suppose that performing to friends three hours into a party, at a pub, isn't the hardest gig ever, but I still had to get up and remember, and deliver, the material I had been writing over the previous weeks. And make people laugh.

And as for one night only? No, thank you, but can I have another go, sometime, please?

The Best Ironman Ever

When training is tough, or you are down or you think that life is just a struggle - watch the link top right. Your money back if you don't have a tear or two

A Day In The Life

My working day is no different to that of any dry stone waller from the last few hundred years – apart from my truck, radio and mobile phone of course. This traditional skill requires no modern interventions, and the walls and their construction are timeless features of the Cotswolds.

With over 6000 miles of Cotswold walls to work on, no day is the same, and the English weather provides plenty of variety too. I can be on one wall for a day – a simple collapse caused by tree roots perhaps – or maybe a longer stretch of decayed wall for a few months at a time. Each stone is different, picked out from the remnants of the existing wall, or from fresh bright stone heaps delivered from the quarry.

There is always somebody or something about – walkers always ready for a chat, or horse riders trotting along. I see stoats, kingfishers, red kite, toads ( always nestling deep within the base of old walls) and lizards sunning themselves, mice and lots and lots of spiders. And nearly always there is a robin, searching for food when I am digging the ground.

Sometimes I get cold, sometimes wet and, very occasionally, hot. But always I feel satisfaction and great pleasure from my own small contributions to the Heritage of the Cotswolds.

All ship-shape and Bristol fashion . . .

Some do's and don'ts from a recent family weekend in Bristol:-

Do - look out for the works of Banksy as you wander around. The one above has since been graffitied again with a paintball gun.

Do - visit the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Bristol Museum ( until June 5th).

Do - visit @Bristol. It is very good.

Do - use your Tesco Clubcard vouchers to book free rooms at the Ramada Jarvis hotel. Only cost us £10,000 in groceries.

Do - visit the Arnolfini Gallery but only if you are VERY tall. Most of the sculptures and installations there went over the top of my head.

Do - enjoy the shops around Cabots Circus

Don't - eat a supposedly gluten free meal if it isn't and you are a Coeliac. I did, it wasn't and I am. I was very, very sick as a result..

Another Skid In The Wall

Vehicles often crash into walls and I often get to restore them. Usually the landowner knows the vehicle, but it can be interesting trying to deduce the make and model from bits found on the site. A registration plate can normally be pieced together from shards found amongst the stones.

Today there was no problem in identifying the responsible vehicle. I watched it happen. 30 yards from where I am rebuilding a wall from a previous accident. How grateful we must be for crumple zones and airbags, because the car hit the wall with some force, displacing 5 tonnes of stone with ease. And yet two thirds of the car appeared undamaged, and the driver, though shaken and taken by ambulance for a check-up, should be OK.

And all this happened on the sunniest, driest day of the year so far, with no other vehicles involved.