50

Fifty years old.

For the first time since I was about twelve I celebrated a birthday with parties of a sort. On the Saturday prior I invited seven local friends and their families to join me and remarkably all said yes... there was me with a whole line up of substitutes and none got the call. Now, clearly, if I didn't invite you and you're fairly local then you were eighth on my list, promise.

Anyway, since my sister moved back to the UK we've travelled over numerous times to see her in South Wimbledon / Raynes Park, and driven past Fish! Kingston every time. I love fish, and having looked at the website it was a no-brainer.. top quality fish and chips plus other fishy dishes, mmm. As it was the food was exceptional, even better than I had dreamed! And the company, wow, wonderful, a lovely collection of people that I would spend the rest of my days with, thank you for coming out!

The following Saturday it was back to Suffolk to celebrate with my mum, Cheryl's mum and sister plus two. Tilly's, Halesworth is a 1920's themed tea shop. They recently started serving Friday and Saturday dinners and these were just as incredible. Brilliant grub and it looks like we'll be returning for mum's 80th in the new year: result!

As part of the celebrations I did some drawing:

I also tried to find 50 things I love but went slightly over..

Board Games	Books	Film	Food & Drink	Miscellaneous	Music	Music (cont.)	Places
Agricola	The Archbishop’s Children	Woody Allen	Beef Brisket	Apple Mac	4AD	Stephen Jones	Alte Lohnhalle
Andean Abyss	S T Coleridge	Luc Besson	Bread	Arsenal	‘A User’s Guide’	Jay Jay Johanson	Berlin
Boggle	Norman Collins	The Big Blue	Cauliflower	Badminton	Barry Adamson	‘Love My Way’	Bracken
Bruges	Dictionaries	The Billion Dollar Hotel	Champagne	Kevin Beattie	And Also The Trees	Billy MacKenzie	Bushey Park
Carcassonne	The End of the Affair	Blue Velvet	Cheddar	Blessings Roses	‘As Requested’ / ‘Mean Streak’	‘Making Plans For Nigel’	Dresden
The Castles of Mad King Ludwig	Richard Ford	Caos Calmo	Cheesecake	Blossom	Belasco	’Malicious Love’	Firenze
Codenames	Frederick Forsyth	Frank Capra	Chick Peas	Cricket	The Beloved	‘Mesopotamia’	Forests
Stefan Feld	Gabriel Garcia Marquez	Double Indemnity	Chocolate	Driving	Bjork	Mew	Fuchsias
Glass Road	Jean Genet	L’Enfer	Crumble	Gerbils	Broken Family Band	Morrissey	Hills
Le Havre	Graham Greene	Foreign Land	Epoises	Hedgehogs	The Cure	Conor Oberst	Lakes
Hawaii	Samantha Harvey	The Hairdresser’s Husband	Fish & Chips	David Hockney	‘Damaged Goods’	The Passage	Le Havre
Hive	Susan Hill	Alfred Hitchcock	Gruyere	Ikea	’Dear Heart’	John Peel	London
Kiesling & Kramer	Babs Horton	Jim Jarmusch	Jacket Potatoes	Ipswich Town	‘East St O’Neill’	Placebo	Lugano
Lewis & Clark	In The Springtime of the Year	Kitchen Stories	Kleftiko	Just One Sentence	David Eugene Edwards	‘Postcard’	Normandie
Memoir 44	John Keats	Fritz Lang	Lemon Sole	Charles Rennie MacIntosh	Dead Kennedys	Silversun Pickups	Otranto
Ora & Labora	The Last Letter From Your Lover	Leaving	Malbec	Margaret Merrell Roses	Annie Eve	‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’	Portman Road
Railways of the World	Henning Mankel	My Life As A Dog	Panna Cotta	Claude Monet	Gene	‘The Song From Under The Floorboards’	Soldeu
Rialto	Moscow 2042	Paris	Pasta	August Rodin	Vic Godard	Spearmint	Stockholm
Uwe Rosenberg	Jojo Moyes	Manuel Poirier	Rice	Scottish Terriers	‘Headache (for Michelle)’	David Sylvian	Streams
Splendor	Haruki Murakami	Jean Renoir	Rosemary	Alfred Sisley	'Heaven Sent’	Tracey Thorn	Suffolk
Ticket to Ride	Ivan Turgenev	Russian Ark	Rib Eye Steak	Snow	Kristen Hersh	Tricky	Tarn Hows
Tinner’s Trail	Mario Vargas Llosa	Trop Belle Pour Toi	Salice Salentino	Swatch	‘I Don’t Even Know If I Should Call You Baby’	The Unthanks	Trees
Tzolk’in, the Mayan Calendar	William Shakespeare	Western	Scallops	Swimming	Idlewild	The Villagers	Worlingham
Twilight Struggle	The Wilderness	Young and Innocent	Whisky	Frans Thijssen	The Incredible Shrinking Dickies	M Ward	Zurich

The Murky World of Barry Adamson

Next stop on the musical roundabout is Manchester. Away from London this place is magical for music, I adore the passage beyond words, although I will try expressing something about them in due course. Then I fell for the Buzzcocks and Magazine too, Joy Division, New Order and The Smiths. I cannot imagine what life would have been without these bands. 

Amongst the wonderful artists the most intriguing over the whole of my life has been Barry Adamson. Superb bassist with Magazine initially, his career has twisted through The Gun Club, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and film scores and the Magazine re-union and his jazz influenced albums. I’ve been lucky enough to see him live several times now and the whole family witnessed a superb gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in February snow, 2012. 

Presence the man has in abundance, and more than his fair share of rhythm naturally, and a wonderful sense of humour - introducing his shakers as his bald friends Dave and Howard! Mrs Hora and I went to see him at the Pigalle Club, Piccadilly and decided to eat first. As we were being shown to our table Barry had clearly just finished his soundcheck and we said hello. He said something along the lines of ‘good timing, wouldn’t want my voice spoiling your meal’, as if!

I’ve only recently noticed that he’s currently touring with Nick Cave again. Should have tried to get a ticket for the Albert Hall next year, mmm, might try, will be impressive I’m sure.

He had Billy MacKenzie sing on a song too. It’s a brilliant piece, ‘Achieved in the Valley of the Dolls’ on the ‘Oedipus Schmoedipus’ album which also featured Nick Cave on the lushous ‘Sweetest Embrace’ and Jarvis Cocker in a rare moment of his that I like, ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Pelvis’, great title.

My favourite albums (in order): Stranger on the Sofa; Oedipus Schmoedipus; The Murky World of;

Favourite songs (not in order!): Every single song on the ‘Stranger’ album, some amazing weirdness, it’s a belter!!; Still I Rise; Straight ’til Sunrise; Deja Voodoo; The Snowball Effect; 007 A Fantasy Bond Theme; What It Means; The Big Bamboozle; The Trigger City Blues; The Man With The Golden Arm; The Vibes Ain’t Nothin’ But The Vibes; Walk The Last Mile

Best lines: ‘and so they will find me, and in the middle of a cold afternoon, they will ask, ‘what is it exactly that you know?’ and then, they will take me outside, and they will kill me, that much I do know.’