The Urban Hobo

Retrobabe

2011-10-19T12:05:00.000+01:00

My Old Music Blog Icon !

Now back on Last.FM

Mercury Prize Winner

2011-09-07T12:45:00.004+01:00

PJ Harvey

Great to hear a real talent has won The Mercury Prize

looking forward to seeing her live in Manchester

tomorrow!

Why don't we get gigs like this in Stoke anymore?

Answer?

The Victoria Hall is being abused !

!00 Art Galleries Challenge !

2011-09-04T15:09:00.002+01:00

I post on Urban75 & have just set myself a challenge to visit 100 Art galleries in 12 months from today 4th September. Each visit will be recorded on this blog, photo, scan of leaflet/brochure etc. link to museum website where available !

Bridge Street Stencil

2011-08-21T21:59:00.000+01:00

Riots? What Riots ?

2011-08-14T17:38:00.000+01:00

A typical Sentinel headline while Britain burns !

Stoke City FC v Hajduk Split 2011

2011-08-02T21:55:00.002+01:00

Begovic / Wilson / Huth / Delap / Shawcross / Jones / Walters
Wilkinson / Whelan / Pennant / Etherington

Cornbury Balloons !

2011-08-02T21:52:00.002+01:00

###

Salut! Sunderland

2011-06-30T16:07:00.000+01:00

Stephen Foster R.I.P.

Nice tribute to the late Stephen Foster at Salut! Sunderland .... Stephen was probably best known as the author of 'She Stood there Laughing' & the the follow up '.... and she laughed no more' ..

Burslem Scooter rally

2011-06-04T17:39:00.000+01:00

@~@

~@~

4th June 2011

Neckenders

2011-06-01T03:54:00.000+01:00

http://www.facebook.com/neckenders

They talk 'bout Re-Generation .... well you know !

2011-04-15T11:28:00.000+01:00

The Lost City of Stoke on Trent by Mathew Rice

The above will be the first major addition to my intended library of local history

books. I have a few small items & of course Stoke City FC books by the ton !

Reading:

http://www.thepotteries.org/heritage/victoriana.htm

http://www.thepotteries.org/index.htm

Blog Read ~ MS Related

2011-04-04T13:04:00.001+01:00

From 'Nuns Escape Unscathed :

ll too soon it's Sunday 3rd April.

No more tweaking, prevaricating and bollocksing around.

We're here now. Prepare food and drink. It's a long one.

It had been my intention to keep the world up to speed concerning developments in my progressive MS but this has been hampered by developments in my progressive MS.

Since posting my original blog I have been keeping the black clouds at bay. Well, trying to keep the black clouds at bay. At times, it has felt as though I am fanning those cumulus whogivesafuckus armed only with a handful of pigeon feathers.

Result? Limited success and a homing pigeon that veers slightly to the left.

Last September, I wrote about giving my brain an autumn wash and that was fine. However, I wasn't prepared for the turbocharged, “ batten down the hatches this could get ugly” spin cycle that followed.

My thoughts/ideas/messages from Elvis started behaving like a kindergarten class rushing around all over the place while I'm trying to get them to sit down. No sooner would I have one idea patiently waiting than another idea would burst in and require my complete attention and thus allow the first idea to run outside and play on the swings.

Classroom disappears under a flurry of paper planes.

At first, I was surprised to discover that I wasn't really bothered by the MS sponsored brainswirl. On the contrary, I enjoyed my cerebral merry-go-round. If this was MS in the brain, bring it on. This is fun!
Textbook Stockholm syndrome.

It didn't last long and the melancholia bearing clouds rolled in.

I have never experienced such a profound all-consuming sense of despair, not even when watching Nicolas Cage.

Phone left ringing, e-mails left unopened, visits from friends postponed, iPod silenced, and TV pumping out the visual Valium all the live long day. Lost in thought although if you had asked me what I was thinking about I couldn't have told you because I would not have remembered.

The world was Matrix coloured and I sat in the middle while it swirled around me. Nothing entertained, irritated, excited or even bored me. Nothing caught my imagination or stirred my emotions.

Anybody attempting to have a conversation with me would be disappointed. I'll talk to anyone about anything at any time but I had nothing to say. It turns out that the VonTrapps were right; nothing comes from nothing.

Life didn't bother me. Nothing bothered me. I was no longer part of the world and it no longer interested me.

I'm not quite sure how long I remained in this state of perfect apathy but it broke just as quickly as it had arrived.

Therapy? No. Medication? No. Meditation? No.

My wonderful carers had become used to my silences and wouldn't press gang me into conversation but chat around me. Not excluding me but not demanding any response. I could join in if I wanted but if not, they carried on without me. It was one of these conversations that hooked me back into the real world; a discussion about spaghetti Bolognese.

Carer 1: “… onions, garlic, some chopped up carrots…”
Carer 2: “Cream.”

Carer 1: “Cream? In a bolognese sauce? No way! My sister uses milk though…

Carer 2: (laughing) “No. I meant cream.”

Carer 1: “I know what you meant but cream would taste disgusting.

Carer 2: (sobbing with laughter) “No. Not any cream, Jim's cream.

Carer 1: “Jim's cream?”

Carer 2: (barely able to breathe) “The cream for Jim's bum.”

Penny drops. Both carers in hysterics…and me too.
OK. It's hardly Noel Coward arm wrestling Oscar Wilde but context is everything.
This little scene was played out as I lay on the bed wearing nothing but a catheter and urine bag (form a queue) having been towel dried after my morning shower. Then, they apply E 45 cream to my whole body and a more intensive cream to sensitive areas like my bum.

They work from dawn to dusk (not a metaphor). They care for people with Alzheimer's, dementia, strokes, multiple sclerosis, paraplegics, quadriplegics, alltheotherplegics. Bathing, dressing, toileting, general housework, shopping, preparing breakfasts, lunches, dinners, brewing a lake of tea, feeding, washing up and listening to clients for whom they may be their only contact with the outside world.

They do all this without complaint for a wage that shames us all.
…and for a few minutes past 8:00am on a grey spring morning, the three of us giggled helplessly with faces wet with tears like a bunch of kids in the playground.

Result? The clouds disappeared and normal service resumed-ish.

My deflector shields are damaged and my ego canna take it, Captain. It doesn't take much to have it whimpering under the bed. It has to be coaxed out gently with old episodes of the Masterson Inheritance. Having to concentrate on a single task requires whatever and my short-term memory ain't what it was when I started this paragraph.

The clouds seem to be staked out permanently on the horizon. Some mornings can start a little misty but that soon clears. At the moment, I can handle the bad days with various strategies including a nibble of Daddy's special chocolate. It works for now but the day draws ever closer when I will be running for the shelter of a Mother's Little Helper.

“And though she's not really ill/
There's a little yellow pill”
Mother's Little Helper

My brand-new friend melancholia had not been induced by fear of death. I know where I'm going and I am completely at peace with myself. All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go .

When I write about dying and the MS, it can often set off a shower of e-mails/comments telling me that I have given in to the dogma of Western medicine. On more than one occasion, I have been advised to look to the East by people who live in the West.

Life looks a little different from the inside and Western medicine is working fine for me. I do have my own mantra; “Love What You Do” by the Divine Comedy. It always does the trick and requires no incense, a dash of medicinal marijuana perhaps but not mandatory
Fear of death? I'm with Epicurus:

“Why should I fear death. If I am, then death is not. If death is, then I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist while I do?”

(It's a bit clunky, Epi. You could have tidied it up in the rewrite.)

Taken from 'Nuns Escape Unscathed'

Reubens; Coffee shop of choice ..

2011-03-19T12:04:00.001Z

Ruebens Newcastle

The Last Snowman ?

2011-03-16T10:38:00.000Z

Manchester haunts ....

2011-03-16T10:15:00.000Z

Happy, happy !!

2011-03-15T23:48:00.000Z

Destined to be my image of 2011

Recent Student Demo's

2010-12-14T13:20:00.000Z

Democracy = Right to Peaceful Protest?

Or Does it ?

Simon Szreter: This is a show of disrespect for the people in defence of a duplicitous government

It has been this new politics of bare-faced lying to the electorate, led by Nick Clegg, whichhas led to the level of outrage and the volume of protesters

Police believe 'organised thugs' infiltrated fees protest

' Organised? '

...... at last a post

2010-10-04T11:40:00.000+01:00

The Oatcake shop .....

Needed .............

2010-08-13T02:47:00.002+01:00

To give this Blog a kick up the Ass!!

Spotify! Plus!

2010-07-20T21:02:00.000+01:00

OK, 7 hits so far, but it's early days & I have lots of friends who are Luddite by nature, not much fear of them being insulted by that because finding their way here would take so long the very meaning of 'Luddite' will have moved in to Street slang init? Anyway I'm posting a link via Spotify! which is the best thing to hit the music scene since turntables started to Spin! If you've already got it I Share My Playlists @ShareMyPlaylists or you can just click the link provided like the one below & listen in. Reciprocation is the name of the game ..... Websters Dictionary

Spotify Playlist Link

Easy Rider OST

Soundtrack music from the movie, 'Easy Rider' & music from that era ............

The above is the result of me watching 'Easy Rider' along with another late 60's gem 'Two Lane Black-Top' whilst on dialysis. Been so long since I'd seen the Dennis Hopper classic & had forgot how good the soundtrack was! I need to make a note in my diary to buy a season ticket to the Film Theatre in Stoke, the very same venue I first saw the seminal movies of the late 60's/Early 70's. The Old Cinemas of Stoke on Trent is a big interest of mine.

Cinemas of Stoke

Later became The Odeon opposite the old Sentinel Offices.

More Later But .....

2010-07-19T12:17:00.000+01:00

.................... for now my rear view mirror decor!

Day out !

2010-07-16T03:05:00.000+01:00

Had a day trip today, short train ride took a few pictures with the phone camera bought some photography collections & a Railway atlas in order to start planning my trip around the coast of mainland Britain by train or any other means necessary !

Meanwhile met a nice old fella playing a recorder!

~
So sad to see this place boarded up. Long known in our household as 'My Favourite Sweetshop'
& somewhere I wish I had the cash to give one last chance.

Dialysis day's ...

2010-07-14T11:38:00.000+01:00

Now I'm not about to harp on about how I'm a dialysis patient & how life's not fair or that Jennifer Aniston never answers my mails etc. But at present Mon/Wed/Fri are sort of dead days due to ongoing treatment. Therefore until such time as I get a transplant forthwith these will be known as D-day posts & will showcase my photography skills or written posts about ..... well anything I feel like frankly! Here's one of my pictures ......

'Soap'

more @ IanB/Shutterchance

First Things First

2010-07-13T21:19:00.000+01:00

Been a day in & around home today, taking care of business, form filling, errands around town {Newcastle} & dog walking ! Look out for regular links to Spotify! playlists, I'm a big fan & find play-listing irresistible!

Made a fairly decent start on the blog and I'm looking forward to my first comment! Meanwhile I'm off to watch a Tom waits DVD .....................

The Urban Hobo

2010-07-13T20:51:00.000+01:00

The Urban Hobo; A blog that is about Stoke on Trent & surrounding Areas, far & wide ! So there that's all the intro you is gettin' ! The rest is all about reading & looking .............. The Hobo ultimately has an aim in life, to complete a real journey one-day, maybe a few. I might become Stoke on Trent's Michael Palin [The Traveller not the Lumberjack!}. At present I'm not able to make extended trips, but that will hopefully change one day! So, meanwhile it'll be a blog full of images, occasional thoughts, links, culture, art, some of my photographs & some by other folks {Yes, I will try to credit them where applicable}.

So my first 'Share' is the discovery today of the website 'Speechification' . A site that saves in mp3 form some real interesting speech radio, primarily gems we all miss on BBC Radio Four. It's just a goldmine of stuff you will all find something to get in to!

It's going to take some time & work on my part to get the blog to match the vision that is floating around my head, I keep other blogs & usually end up adding related blogs on Wordpress & Tumblr as the thing grows. The Stokecentric stuff will start to appear gradually as I make my journey around my Hometown & find things to add. I know that no one is reading right now so I'll go a Hobo-ing & see what I find ............