Home is where I park it

hello dear diary for the last entry of 2006! i hope all readers of this blog (that'll be phil and clint then LOL) have a magical solstice and yuletime and bright blessings for 2007 :-) last night we ended the year with a trip to club ifor bach in cardiff for a powersteppers gig. it was lovely to meet colin (cod) powerstepper (ex zion train) at long last and what a lovely bloke he is! sometimes powersteppers gigs involve a band, sometimes they involve his life partner molara (ex zion train singer) but tonight was just colin spinning top tunes, playing his melodica and doing some vocals. it was a great set but the club was pretty empty so the vibe of a enthusiactic crowd was missing, still a top night though! finished it off with a tour around cardiff which was lovely and a slow drive home in the fog which was horrible! i am off visiting people all day tomorrow and then off to spain on sunday morning to stay at my mums for yuletime. will write again when i'm home :-) love only l

massive love and hugs to my beautiful friend kate who gave birth to a gorgeous baby girl yesterday. welcome lola!

have had a great weekend working on the merchandise stall for zion train at their two gigs this weekend in bristol and exeter. friday saw us at the trinity centre in bristol. i arrived early and watched the light and sound engineers get themselves ready for the evening. had a good chat with one of the stewards that volunteer to help with crowd control during the evening. zion train arrived back from the hotel, was so lovely to see them all again. i got set up with all the merchandise and phil arrived, was a great evening chatting to all the lovely people who came up to look or buy the music on offer. bumped into an old friend from gloucester who i haven't seen in years which was really nice. zion train did (in my opinion) the best set i've seen all year helped massively by the fact that dubdadda was back on vocals. takes me back to those early zion train gigs where he was there with molara. i have enjoyed seeing kenny knotts with zion train but to me having dubdadda doing vocal

ok they say things come in threes and i have now had my third run in with the feds. can you guys freakin leave me alone now and get on with actually catching real criminals? today i nip in the post office on the way home from work to post some parcels for work. i'd been trying to post the damn things for a couple of days and either every post office i'd been to had queues out the doors and round the corner or there was so many cars parked nearby i would have had to park too far away (bear in mind i had 6 decent sized parcels to carry in). so anyway today i stop on the double yellow lines outside my local PO where everyone stops all the time, intending to just nip in. there is a pretty big queue but at least it isn't out the door and so i decide to wait thinking it wont be too long. i can't see my car from inside the PO but i can see 2 feds chatting to someone parked in a car by the pub opposite. i think 'hum should i move the car, no i won't be long and anyway t

so on saturday night we ventured accross the border into wales land! first we went to phils place and then to a drum circle meet nearby. lots of different drumming circle groups were there and they all played for a while. we had really only come for the grand finale where all the groups drummed together so we missed the beginning. at the end there was about 45 drummers in a big circle drumming to the same beat, it was pretty damn awesome! after the drumming we made our way to the monkey cafe in swansea for some full on dub vibrations from the vibronics crew. we had to queue in the freezing cold for what seemed like ages to get in which was really crap as i haven't queued to get in anywhere since a valve sound system night in swindon 5 or 6 years ago. it was 1am by this point though which is far later than we normally get to venues. eventually we got in and although vibronics had already started their set we soon got in the vibe and boogied away what was left of the night. vibronics

we went to see iration steppas last night at the buttermarket in shrewsbury. we being me, jan, phil and tony. on the way there a CD decided to get stuck in the player of my car stereo. after many attempts by me and jan to get it unstuck i thought the only way to solve it was to turn the engine off and back on again. pulled off the M6 at the next junction and stopped on the slip road. who pulls off after me? you've got it PC plod! actually he was ok, well he asked if we were alright first but then asked us to get off the slip road. and guess what.... i pulle d off and still the bloody CD was stuck.... argh! after an unpleasant half hour of local and national radio stations i eventually managed to prize the CD out and we were bac k to the normal chilled vibes that generally run through the car (although not for that long). got to the buttermarket without any more mishaps and waited for iration steppas, and waited, and waited. turns out their clutch had gone on their van and they didn

no i haven't pulled LOL i got pulled over by the feds this morning on the way to work. the first time for about 6 years! i overtook an unmarked car on the duel carrigeway but spotted they were in uniform so made sure i was only doing 75mph. they pulled out behind me and put their flashing lights on, cheeky bastards! as the cop came up to the window a little sheepishly he said "i thought you had no insurance but it's a company car isn't it?" he reckoned as i passed him it came up that my car had no insurance on it. if i was cynical i'd say he saw a dreadlocked hippy in a silver vectra and thought 'must be sommit illegal going on there!' i was waiting for the pacing round the car looking for a fault and the ticket to produce my documents but no he was quite happy to leave me alone! and off i went to work. i also have a bad back which has been getting worse for the last couple of days. not on painkillers yet just doing stretching exercises i learnt from t

last night my 15 year old niece and her friend decided to leave school and bunk the train to cheltenham without telling anyone. after some frantic phone calls and me actually sussing out they hadn't gone far and were probably in cheltenham or stroud they bunked another train to bristol. she told me they were going to stay out all night and sleep on a park bench! i slept out a few times in my youth and it aint no fun and i think by mid evening she was beginning to realise that it was going to be bloody cold and very fucking scary! eventually she told her nan where she was and the police picked them up and brought them home. my niece is now staying with me for a couple of weeks as her grandparents who she normally lives with are finding it all a bit too much as she is quite often getting herself into trouble. also her grandfather has just come out of hospital. it's so hard to know how to help her out of this teenage angst, i guess only time will help. i was a fuck-up of a teenag

is it because of what clint said to you last weekend?" is what phil said to me on saturday night. well actually yes i had 'made an effort' i guess although it wasn't a conscious thing, well not really. i just felt that way, after a few weeks licking my wounds from my past relationship.... ok ok there wasn't much wound licking..... well none at all, but you still have a period of not putting yourself out there dont you? so yeh i felt damn good on saturday night i even shaved my armpits FUCK YEH! anyway don't get too excited dear readers cos i'll be back in layers of clothes very soon hehehe. had the morning off work this morning and instead of being sensible and dossing round the house for a few hours i decided that it would be a good time to do some xmas shopping URGH! now i don't like xmas, i celebrate the winter solstice and it's lovely to see family and friends around yule, eat some good food, drink some nice wine but i HATE all this buying stuff

another fookin great night out last night no thanks to the music! we went to the trinity centre in bristol (great venue BTW) for a reggae showcase featuring king tubbys sound system. when we arrived the brilliant DJ derek (see pic) was spinning some reggae classics. have seen derek before and he is a master reggae DJ. then came the jungle red band, they had a nice sound but just didn't quite have that special something to really get me going. then different guest singers took to the stage, this seemed to go on for ever (about 3 hours at a guess). none of them were anything special, the music varied from roots to ragga, lovers rock to dancehall. we were beginning to wonder whether king tubbys were ever coming on but for the final hour they did. were they worth waiting for? were they fuck, more crappy lovers rock some other not very inspiring reggae and a queen track??? what the fuck??? so music wise not the best night we've ever had! as always though the company was superb,

had a really cool birthday with lots of love sent to me by lots of lovely people. after work on my birthday we had a 6th form open evening for lee which was interesting. so mad to think we are picking A level courses already! after that i headed straight for my favourite thai place for a take-away. after lots of yummy food and wine i fell into a happy sleep on the sofa... hum must be getting old! got some great presents, a smoothie maker, the wizard of oz on DVD, candles, books, CD, chocolates, jewellery, head torch and money for a new bike! also my new dreadzone t-shirt came in the post WOOHOO! thought i'd show you all how great it is, if you want one go to the dreadzone shop HERE . today i finished work early for a change, was going to go out but lee's dad has gone AWOL so am staying here tonight. probably for the best as am off to king tubbys sound system tomorrow night in bristol till 4am! have a great weekend lovelys xxx

that i was out with a movie star on saturday night, the one and only jean reno off that film leon hehehehe :-)

"sam, why dont you just slit your wrists and the three of us will wank over you!" i really do not know where to start in explaining how someone would ever say that to me! it was something to do with getting pregnant by sperm in the bloodstream, my way of testing this theory was to inject some sperm into a vein, the above was clints answer to finding out! this was after he insulted be for being scruffy, smelly and saying i should wear make-up but before the time he grabbed me off my chair and dragged me up to dance or something not quite sure what as he lost interest once i was up. i knew there was something wrong with that cider! i did get him back though by spilling maltesers all over the floor of his car which he sulked about for a while. little does he know that i also wiped chip grease all over the seats mwhahaha!

last night we went to see the british acid/plasma/space rock band (yes i did nick that bit from their website!) omnia opera. their first live gig in 13 years to mark the 20th anniversary of the bands conception. on the way there phil tested our lateral thinking with a couple of brain teasers and we had a bet on whether badgers hibernate or not. thanks to the wonders of modern technology i.e. using the mobile to look it up on tinternet i found i had lost the bet as no, badgers do not hibernate. they do however as sparky guessed lay low and chill out. they have this kind of a hawkwind/pink floyd/ozrics type of thing going on which is pretty good but not really my vibe. they didn't get me wanting to dance but lots of people were jigging around like crazy! i was more than happy sat down just soaking up the vibe and listening to the music whilst getting more stoned and a little tipsy. there was quite a few old crusties in the crowd, overheard conversations of old busses rotting in the

we went out for a proper night of boogieing and socialising on friday night! first we went to the poets bar in gloucester to see my friend play the didge in a band. as it was the drummer hadn't turned up so we didn't see them as we had to get off to the guildhall to watch skindred! we started off our night here though and here we are........!!! we made our way to the guildhall to watch skindred. the guildhall was rammed as the gig was sold out. some poor people who had bought tickets online had been ripped off as the seller had re-sold everyones tickets, bastard! luckily i had got mine from the guildhall direct so we had no problems. i saw skindred last year at beautiful days festival and knew we would be in for a great show. my friend dawn had never heard of them and though i was taking her to a reggae gig! there is certainly a reggae/ragga influence in their music but they are more punk rock than reggae! she enjoyed it though and we danced our little socks off! there was a re

woo hoo, out tonight to see skindred a punky reggae band from wales who rock big time! one problem, there is 4 of us who want to go and we only have 2 tickets between us! luckily for me it's my birthday on wednesday so this is the start of the celebrations which means i won't be missing out on the gig! also we're all going to crackers afterwards to psy-trance the night away with the tribe of toadstool crew so the others won't have to stay in! it's been a good week and will only get better as my friend dawn is coming from brighton to visit, i am off out on saturday night to see another band and life is pretty damn sweet! check out this great forum if you like your reggae UK REGGAE GUIDE a top site with a great forum full of lovely people! better get my sorry ass off to work now for a few hours, bye xxx

went to see this amazing band last night in a great little underground venue in reading. in fact the venue was so underground we thought we were walking into a back street boxing club for a minute! (no there wasn't people fighting, it just looked like that kind of place from the outside) there wasn't anything going on when we first got there which was a little strange as we are so used to walking into a place full of banging music. it proved to be a good thing though as we chatted to many different people. soon a DJ started playing some reggae which was nice background music as we had got lovely comfy chairs in the other room and wern't about to move until the band played! i have had music by dub the earth for many years but had never seen them play. they have returned to gigging this year after having a break for a while to bring up families and persue other projects and careers. i wasn't disapointed, a brilliant mix of dub reggae and punk. emma on keyboards sings in a

It looks lovely outside, the winter sun is shining and my garden is bathed in it's glow. Off to work in a minute, not too much to do today (hence why I am blogging at this time in the morning and not already at work!) We are going to see Dub the Earth tonight, a band I have loved for ages. They have recently started gigging again and I never caught them the first time round so it should be a damn good night! At college on Wednesday we got the results back of our last test, I got an A! I can't believe it, I didn't think I was taking much of it in! Am well chuffed with that result, just got to keep it up now LOL Have a lovely weekend everyone xxx

welcome to my mushroom world.... i love fungi, it's amazing stuff! there have been some beautiful looking mushrooms about recently. i have been taking a few pictures of the best ones i have seen. arn't they amazing! i guess they are all over now it has been so bloody cold! anyway just trying to suss out this new blog thingy and adding pictures. wasn't happy with the look of my last entry but i think i've got it sussed now! thanks for looking xxx

well hello dear diary! last night i w ent to a really good gig, the congos, a reggae band that formed in 1977. if you haven't heard of them (like i hadn't) look them up. th ey have worked with lee 'scratch' perry amongst others, you will recognise some of their tunes i bet. these guys are still going strong, pumpi ng out beautiful roots reggae. and just look at them, they aint no spring chickens! i enjoyed a rare night of no driving as well thanks to a very kind friend, phil who drove to gloucester to pick me up. i'd forgotten how great it is not having to drive, i watched fireworks out of the window going up the M5! i had never been to the buttermill in shrewsbury before but had heard about the great gigs they put on there. i guess i was expecting a more community centre feel and was surprise d it was like a nightclub. the rest of the crowd seemed pretty friendly with a good mix of old/young and b lack/white. i could get us

well i wonder how well this new blog works. whats with the blog anyway, it's a diary! i didn't like the MSN spaces one because A) it was microsoft and B) it was crap at putting pictures up on a post. so here i am entering the world of blogging! i have stayed up far too late (again!) so better get my sorry ass off to bed. normal service will resume shortly. sam xxx