How Cute Is This?

Diet Update

I haven't done an update on how my diet is going for quite a long time, I'm pleased to say that I have now lost 28lbs and am over halfway to my goal weight! I still attend the Weight Watcher meetings regularly - they really help me keep focused.

The weight's coming off very slowly recently, these last 3 weeks I've only lost half a pound each week. But it's still a loss and they say it's best coming off slowly. It's hard at times, my social life tends to be mainly centred around going out for meals, but I'm managing that fairly well.

People are really noticing now and it's always encouraging when people comment on the weight loss. I still feel motivated so - watch this space!

Another Irish Band Outsells U2!

Found this on the Net and I thought I was seeing things at first. The veteran Irish band The Batchelors have released a greatest hits album and it has outsold U2s Boy, October and War by a large margin. Even in their 60s heyday The Batchelors were considered cheesy. Seems more people than me thought re-released re-masters are a waste of money.... And the re-releases have done even worse in the US. What people really want is NEW music, U2 please give a release date - for October!

You can read the full article here

Rock Star on Holiday

Bono has been with his family on holiday in the South of France. But he's crossed the border to Italy now and these lovely photos were taken in beautiful Portofino in Italy. It must be really weird having photogrpahers following you when your on your hols, but I supposed they are well used to that by now.

Bono Remember's U2's "Boy"

Bono remembers U2's "Boy"
Rolling Stone, August 05, 2008 by Bono

(Bono seems to be regularly writing into music magazines nowadays, this is something he sent to Rolling Stone. If Bono's name had not been on this I would have known it was written by him. It's absolutely fascinating reading in his wordy and inimitable style, full of wit, honesty and many insights into this very complex man. I must admit though he lost me a couple of times when referred to some films I'd never heard of, and what exactly is "maleneÿss"?)

Without further ado: Entering the blogosphere, a review of BOY from the singer who was one at the time of recording… We the members of said post punk combo are very complimented by DAVID FRICKES 4.5 star review of our debut, an album we always believed in. I remember now a generous JON PARELES review from the VILLAGE VOICE in 1980, a line something along the lines of “this is peter pan, I hope they break up before they grow up”. Anyway, as my band mates and I attempt to finish our most complete and radical album yet, here’s my why and what I think is right and wrong about BOY having listened to it for the first time in over twenty years.

If you start from the pseudo british accent and the little reported fact that the singer sounds like a girl, things don’t look too promising …the annoying gene is present in self consciousness and self immolation… you do want to give the singer a slap for lots of reasons but let’s start with the pretentiousness….the singer has obviously been listening to SIOUXIE AND THE BANSHEES, JOY DIVISION and a few others whose combined archness and artfulness was just too much for the freckled face teenager from northside of DUBLIN…. neither fully protestant or catholic, IRELAND had left the boy with a face like a baked bean and in search of a nonregional identity…a theme that continues to the present.

As for the non lyrics that Wunderkind STEVE LILYWHITE had begged him to no avail to write… well….the excuse is that in the manner of another POP idol, IGGY, they were for the most written live on the microphone ..this was noble in its search for authenticity but a very flawed idea that almost gauges the eyes out of the albums open face but alas, the strengths way out weigh the weaknesses…maybe because it was an album about vulnerability.. BOY eschews the usual subject matter of rock and roll’s hurry to deface its own innocence through knowingness, sex, drugs etc in favour of a refusal to grow up …think GUNTER GRASS’s Tin Drum VOLKER SCHLONDORFs film of the novel released the same year as BOY…if ninetynine percent of rock and roll is about sex this one percenter is about virginity and not wanting to lose it…maleneÿss is more elusive here and I can see now why the album had such a connection in the gay community with songs like TWILIGHT and STORIES FOR BOYS.Then there is the galling religious audacity of writing a song about agape love at eighteen years old….that alone deserves some gold stars as well as the custard pies.

I WILL FOLLOW is still a rush and a marker for innovation (the percussion in the drop was a bicycle spinning, wheels upside down and played like a harp with a kitchen fork…)ADAM CLAYTONs bass is a revelation to me on this listen, and up there with JOHN ENTWISLE and PETER HOOK in its inventiveness… LARRY MULLEN too is jumping through hoops to create a circus of tom tom parts and spectral spectre like snaring…. giddying up and clearing the fence every time…. I agree with DAVID FRICKE that they are not yet a rhythm section in the traditional sense but maybe something more interesting … the ‘weight’ of U2….Steve LILYWHITES production deserves a lot of credit here for its sonic prowess, big music in little hands..But the star of the show is THE EDGE some guitar credit must be shared with the groups that helped shape us,people like PINK FLOYD, PIL and TELEVISION… guitar players like STUART ADAMSON VINNIE REILLY etc but there is something happening here that is truly special…EDGEs genuine genius developing on the blank and bleached photographic paper…. avoiding all the obvious blues scales that blind every other guitar player that ever heard LED ZEPPELIN …THE EDGE finds some new colours for the spectrum of rock. Colours he now owns … owning a colour, wow .. imagine owning the colour yellow like VAN GOGH… EDGE owns, well I'm not exactly sure what colours they are… indigo or violet or crimson?… but you sense an emotional colour temperature that is unique to him… its his palette we’re painting from. he’s following the jazzmen’s maxim to “own your own tone and you will become contagious ” and as a result you can hear him show up in lots of rooms hes not in, isn’t that right…?Surely this is the most influential guitarist since the great composers JIMMY PAGE, PETE TOWNSEND,NEIL YOUNG but remember he doesn’t have the history of the blues to plumb, these are unchartered waters…was to the English psychedelic revival we were also inspired by and plundering .. THE TEARDROP EXPLODES and ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN…they were better than us no doubt about it…with ECHOs CROCODILES a better debut on pretty much every level… that and their next album HEAVEN UP HERE having the same effect on their moment as RADIOHEADS BENDS AND OK COMPUTER.

It was all there… songwriting, playing and standing in front of the mirror type coolness but of course the pursuit of coolness is rarely the same thing as the pursuit of art. This was obvious to a lot of our contempories too BUT maybe not enough..im not not talking about Teardrops or the Bunnyrabbits or Wah Heat! but for many of our peers, the most important bit was lifestyle and the fashion piece which we clearly were not very good at. And it is very very important…An almost essential companion to greatness… From ELVIS to THE BEATLES THE WHO to THE STONES THE CLASH to PRINCE, STYLE has been part of rocks revolution and evolution…. our only addition is comedic failure to fit into the grey or vivid clothes of rebellion and the crime of thinking no veneer was the utterly radical way to look and sound…and then there’s the other thing, the lifestyle….of course the life of the artist is always more compelling than being an artist. To live in the garret with a knife in your hand and a bleeding ear is more romantic than the fragility that leaves open the wound … Bohemia is more attractive than suburbia but maybe you don’t live there, maybe you live on a street which is like any other street where the opera that goes on behind parted curtains is more than enough…..It was briefly for U2. You can have everything the songs, the production, the face, the attitude but still not have “IT”…U2 had nothing really, nothing but ‘IT’…

For us music was a sacrament …an even more demanding and sometimes more demeaning thing than music as ART, we wanted to make a music to take you in and out of your body, out of your comfort zone, out of your self, as well as your bedroom, a music that finds you looking under your bed for God to protect your innocence……i’m proud of this little Polaroid of a life I cant fully recall. As well as the ability to make embarrassing mistakes, the demands of a great debut might be fresh ideas, fresh paint and sometimes for its canvas, a fresh face.

I miss my boyhood.

Bono, 3rd August

(c) Rolling Stone, 2008

Please U2, Release the New Album in October!

I'm really excited as a friend and I have just booked a holiday in Florida and the Keys! I always planned on having a special holiday to celebrate my retirement (as well as a long-awaited jaunt to good old Dublin of course!) and after a couple of false starts, we ended up settling on this trip. We'll be checking out Miami for a couple of days, then going up to Cocoa Beach and the Kennedy Space Centre for another two days. Then we'll head south to the Everglades and the Keys and just go as we please, stop where we want, explore and chill.

BUT ...... I just realised, we are going on 4th November and return home on 19th November...... And what are the rumours of the new U2 album release date? 17th November. I won't be home to get the album when it comes out, what torture, agh! Please, please U2 bring the album out in October!!!

Mountains, Sheep and ...... Silence

As the good weather continues here I decided to go for a run out in the car today. I didn't want to go far so I decided to go to Warnell Fell (fell is Cumbrian for hill) which is about fourteen miles from my home. I hadn't been there for a long time and it was one of my favourite places.

So my dog Max and I got into the car and drove south and around twenty minutes later we were parked at Warnell. It is set high in the fells, which are really the foothills of the Lake District, close to the picturesque village of Caldbeck. From up there you get a stunning panorama of the surrounding countryside. To the north you can look over to Carlisle and Scotland beyond. West past other fells to the Solway Firth. South and east the Lake District mountains rise up majestically. Today, because of a heat haze the views weren't as clear as usual, but they still captivated me.

What I've always loved most about Warnell Fell is the silence. The day to day world we live in is so polluted by noise be it traffic, music, TV, people, noise all around us. At Warnell it's like being in another world, it is so peaceful, the only sounds are the occasional mournful baaing of the sheep that wander free over the fells, the occasional cricket in the grass or a skylark's song. It is just so wonderful to be away from society's noise for a while!

Max and I walked around the fell, past the long disused quarry, the sheep giving us cursory glances and then continuing to unconcernedly munch the grass. The thistles were in bloom and the heather was just starting to bud - I must go back in two or three weeks when it is in full bloom and covers the fell with a blanket of purples and lilacs. Some parts of the fell can be quite boggy, and reeds grow there, but due to the recent warm and dry spell there was little wet ground. There was a gentle breeze, just enough to keep me from getting too warm in the sunshine.

I've been coming to Warnell since I was about fourteen years old, my mother loved it there and as I walked I thought of her. It hasn't changed at all, it has a beauty coupled with wildness. Nature here goes through it's cycles year in year out and has seen many generations of people pass through. I love the sense of permanence there, the peace and the permanence.

A Day in the Lake District

A few weeks ago various staff in the National Health Service Trust that I work for got letters inviting them to a 20 Plus Presentation. This consisted of a buffet in a hotel in the Lake District which was the Trust's way of saying thank you to staff who have had 20 or more years service in the NHS. A lot of people invited were cynical about it and said they wouldn't go. And it is true that long service or retirement has always been ignored by the Trust before. But really, they have to start somewhere in recognising special events amongst staff and I saw this as a first step and at least they were trying.

My good friend Margo who I work with was also invited, so this Wednesday we headed off to the picturesque town of Keswick in the Lake District, where the event was being held. As I drove there and was entranced by the sheer beauty of the countryside I once again thought that I must visit the Lake District more often. This gorgeous area is on my doorstep and I tend to only visit for special events like this or to take visitors to show them the sights of Cumbria.

The Keswick Country House Hotel was where the event was being held. It was a huge Victorian building, that had very Scottish-like turrets, but built in the local grey stone and slate. Inside it was so beautifully preserved with intricate coving and ceiling roses, oak panelling, big shiny brass hooks for your coat, tiled or wooden flooring. It was a bit like stepping back in time, I always rather like that.

We were greeted by Glenys from our HR department who pointed us towards tea, coffee or fruit punch that we could drink in the bar. I opted for the punch which was gorgeous, full of strawberries, melon and orange with little pieces of mint leaves, very refreshing on the warm day.

We sat with our manager Kath and her husband Steve who we both had worked with in the past. The higher managers mingled and did the rounds. One, who I had heard of put could never put a face to, came to us and chatted. He talked about their reasons for doing this, the Trust felt that they had not recognised long service staff put into what is a very demanding and stressful job. He also said that special events like retirement and maternity leave were not acknowledged and that was wrong. They wanted to change this and also in the process hopefully build up more of a community feeling amongst staff - as it used to be in the past. He asked us about how it had been working at the hospital years ago and seemed genuinely interested in our responses. He came across as easy to talk to and genuine which surprised me!

Everyone was then asked to go outside into the beautiful garden for a group photograph. Margo managed to sneak off to the back of the group - she doesn't like her photo taken. After this it was time to eat, and we went into a large dining room where we each had allocated seating complete with our names! People were seated in groups of those who worked together along with one of the higher managers. There was a fabulous hot and cold buffet, the choice was amazing and everything I put on my plate was delicious, and the pineapple upside down pudding was to die for!!! The diet was forgotten for the day .

After the meal there was a short speech from one of the managers and we were all given long service certificates. We were also told that if we wanted photos taken by the photographer just to ask him and HR would arrange for copies to be sent to our home addresses. I managed to persuade Margo to pose for one with me.

That was it really. Afterwards we mingled a bit and chatted to colleagues we had not seen for years, catching up on each other's news. Then we sat at the tables in the garden and just relaxed. Our manager came up to us and said that we didn't have to go back to work and just to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

All in all it was a lovely event, and I'm glad it happened before I retired. Hopefully I'll get a card to acknowledge my retirement in September!

Great Support Band

Just found out that The Editors are supporting REM at the gig we are seeing in Manchester next month. I'm really pleased about that as I love them! So we'll have to make the effort to be there in time for the support instead of arriving just before REM come on. It's a long time since I've been to a proper concert and I'm already looking forward to it already!

New Album Release Date?

@U2 is reporting from two separate "reliable sources" that the release date for the new album will be 17th November. This site usually has accurate information and U2 have released several albums around that date, so I think this could well be true ...... Hopefully we'll hear about a single soon, God I'm really excited already!

U2's Producer Reveals Studio Secrets (From the Early 80's)

Some interesting stories from Steve Lillywhite about the recording of Boy, War and October can be found here.

Love the one about recording drums for the Boy album in the hallway of Windmill Lane Studio because they liked the "clattery" sound. But they had to wait until the receptionist went home, then they discovered once she had gone home that ringer on the phone could not be turned off so sometimes the phone would ring mid-take!

Also, the backing voices on Surrender were Kid Creole's backing singers The Coconuts who just happened to be playing in Dublin at the time.

Girly Day Out in Manchester

I'm on holiday from work this went down to Manchester for the day on Wednesday. My friend Margo, who lives in the same city as me, was cat-sitting for her daughter who was away on holiday, so another friend, Kath, and I went to meet up with Margo for the day.

I really enjoyed our time there, I like Manchester and it has so much on offer compared to my small home city. We hit the shops and though I wasn't looking for it yet I found a gorgeous dress in Per Una for the holiday in Dublin that Debbi and I will be having in November. One of the nights we are there we will be staying at the Penthouse in the Clarence Hotel (we've been saving for ages!!) and I wanted a "posh frock" for the evening . I found the perfect one and what really pleased me was that I fitted into a size 14!!! I could hardly believe it, that diet is certainly working.

Margo bought the most gorgeous designer bag, very classy, beautiful leather, for £200 (reduced from £400!) - she has expensive taste! Think I might be borrowing that for Dublin.

We had a lovely meal at my favourite Thai restaurant in Manchester, Chaophraya. I think I walked off any calories I put on as we shopped, as Margo is the consummate shopper. We were up this street, down that street, round that corner..... Kath and I were flagging by 5pm when we got our train back home - and we are both younger than her - we flopped into our seats with a huge sigh .

But it was a great day. It was lovely being my friends, chatting, trying on clothes, testing perfume, eating in a good restaurant. It does you good to have a girly day away every now and then!

U2 for O2?

I was looking up more information on the refurbishment of The Point Depot and one of the things I found out was that it is going to be renamed The O2 (O2 and Live Nation each own 50% of the building). That got me thinking (oh dear!) ..... Remember Paul McGuinness talking about the strong possibility of U2 playing at the O2 and rumours of a residency there? Well everyone assumed that he was referring to the O2 in London, but maybe he really meant the Dublin O2? It would be a great way to open the new venue and on U2's doorstep.

Just a thought, time will tell if I'm way off here or not. Meanwhile below are pictures of the front and rear elevations of the new Dublin O2 (which I'm sure the Irish will continue to call The Point).

U2 Deluxe Edition Boxset

This limited edition collectible U2 Deluxe Edition boxset comes in a hardbound shell. Inside are the newly remastered and expanded 2 CD deluxe editions of the bands first three albums BOY, OCTOBER and WAR, plus room for a fourth (not included). Re-mastered from the original audio tapes, each deluxe includes a disc of b-sides, live tracks and rarities, and the packaging on all three titles has been restored and expanded, with new liner notes for each record, previously unseen photos and full lyrics.

This set also comes with a limited edition, exclusive 18'x24' full colour replica poster from the bands beginnings, recreated just for this boxset.(But surely this will be ruined by folding it?) The three albums will also be available separately as deluxe CD reissues.

Am I going to buy this, you know, I don't think I am. I have bought the original vinyl versions then upgraded to CD. Do I need to buy these for a third time because they are re-mastered and have some "rarities"? I always feel "re-mastering" or "re-mixing" are just easy ways of getting more money from fans. I know many fans will love this boxset and buy it as soon as it's released on July 21st, but I won't be one of them, I'll be keeping my money for what I'm really looking forward to - the new album.

RED Pop-up Stores

Below is a snippet taken form an article on the architect Frank Gehry in which he talks about a project he is involved with for Product Red. Interesting idea pop-up stores, it would certianly get the products into more places and it would be good publicity too.

(By Hugh Pearman - Times Online)

"Frank Gehry is taking breakfast in an impossibly pretty sunlit square in Arles, Provence. I’m staring at a set of squiggles he has just drawn in my notebook and wondering if I should ask him to sign them. He’d reached for a pen, as architects in conversation do, and started sketching away. “I’m doing these pop-up stores for Bono,” he explains. “They’re for his Product Red company. I’m really excited by them. They’re like pieces of jigsaw.”

He starts drawing slowly, then accelerates until his hand is flying over the paper. The shapes left on the smoking page could be dancing figures, snowcapped mountains, blossoming flower buds, leaping salmon - you know how it is with Gehry buildings. You see in them whatever you want to see.

I’m left with no real idea what Bono’s “pop-up” temporary stores - profits from which will provide Aids-tackling drugs to Africa - are going to look like. They seem to be designed to travel around like rock stage sets. I’m wondering what the squiggles might fetch on eBay, if auctioned for the cause, because Gehry is the most famous architect on earth, and has been since he completed the titanium-clad Bilbao Guggenheim more than a decade agoFrank Gehry is taking breakfast in an impossibly pretty sunlit square in Arles, Provence. I’m staring at a set of squiggles he has just drawn in my notebook and wondering if I should ask him to sign them. He’d reached for a pen, as architects in conversation do, and started sketching away. “I’m doing these pop-up stores for Bono,” he explains. “They’re for his Product Red company. I’m really excited by them. They’re like pieces of jigsaw.”

He starts drawing slowly, then accelerates until his hand is flying over the paper. The shapes left on the smoking page could be dancing figures, snowcapped mountains, blossoming flower buds, leaping salmon - you know how it is with Gehry buildings. You see in them whatever you want to see.

I’m left with no real idea what Bono’s “pop-up” temporary stores - profits from which will provide Aids-tackling drugs to Africa - are going to look like. They seem to be designed to travel around like rock stage sets. I’m wondering what the squiggles might fetch on eBay, if auctioned for the cause, because Gehry is the most famous architect on earth, and has been since he completed the titanium-clad Bilbao Guggenheim more than a decade ago......."

The Past and the Future?

This huge hoarding featuring a photo of U2 taken in 1980 has appeared outside The Point Depot in Dublin which is being re-developed at the moment. The Point is situated on the northside of the River Liffey, and of course all of U2 grew up on Dublin's northside

The Point Depot was originally built in the 1870's as a railway depot. In the late 1980's U2's friend, Harry Crosbie, bought the now derelict building and turned it into Dublin's premier entertainment venue. U2 has had links with The Point since 1988 and their famous "Dream it all up again" New Year concert was held there in 1989.

Once the work is finished The Point will have a capacity of 13000 and will be Dublin's largest capacity indoor venue. U2 haven't played any gigs indoors in Dublin for nearly 20 years, but maybe this hoarding is telling us something about what may happen in the future ......

U2's Album Almost Finished

Daniel Lanois has said in a Canadian interview that the U2 album is finished except for a few mixes. He said the album was different in many ways but, like Achtung Baby in the past, it pushes the known limits of sound. I hope it is as good as that second sentence suggests. So it looks like the band is on track for an October/November release - I'm getting so excited!

60 Years of the National Health Service

As you may know I'm a nurse who works in the National Health Service and today is the 60th anniversary of the NHS. A lot is said about the state of the NHS now, and a lot of it is negative, and I've been one to say things too. Working within the NHS for a long time I've seen a lot of changes, some good, but many for the worse. Society has changed, needs are different, and it's now difficult to give that free care "from the cradle to the grave" as set out in the original NHS manifesto.

Last week the tables were turned on me and I was a patient in the NHS. I've been having a health problem for a while and went into hospital on Thursday to have a not too pleasant procedure - I'll spare you the details! Previously I'd seen my General Practitioner who took blood tests and referred me to a Consultant at the hospital. I saw her three weeks later she examined me and took more blood and booked me in for the procedure.

Six weeks later I had the procedure, which involved a doctor, two nurses and expensive equipment, plus nurses in the preparation and recovery area. My treatment was very professional, but also very human, the nurses knew patients were scared and did all they could to allay any fears, even a friendly smile helps and there were plenty of them. The best asset of the NHS is its staff, despite much reduced staffing they remain dedicated and caring.

And, I didn't pay a penny for any of the treatment, that's the good side of the NHS and a pretty special thing. So happy 60th NHS, there are a lot of hurdles to get over, it's far from perfect, but let's hope it survives to give free care to the people of this country for many more years.

And the good news for me personally is that the procedure found nothing to worry about, so I'm relieved and happy about that!