new year – mercuryvapour.co.uk

Happy new year!

Hmm, we’ve already somehow made it to 2nd January without me posting my traditional HNY message. Normally I’d cue up a post to automatically appear at midnight, but my word, 2020 was such an embarrassment that I don’t think anything needed to be said at the time, and I’m pretty sure people had more things to do than read my bletherings at the stroke of midnight.

So, yeah. I’ve decided that I’m not going to follow up my 2020 posting with another one, as to be honest, I’d have struggled to say anything. the whole year is best forgotten if I’m honest. Onto a bit of musical statistics now.

2020 is the first year that my music collection has shrunk It’s hardly surprising, however, as I’ve barely been out of the house, but approximately 632 CDs / records were added to the collection, with 836 taken to the charity shops (or are waiting to be taken when they reopen). This is a trend I intend to continue into this year.

Right, so that’s it for now. Have yourselves a good one no matter what you’re up to.

Ooops! Happy New Year

Ah, crap! I forgot to set an automatic post to trigger at 00:00. Therefore, please consider this a heartfelt greeting of a happy new year, and all the best for 2020. Maybe I’ll do a review of 2019. Probably not.

Happy new year!

Happy 2018!

You can’t have failed to notice that 2018 is here… at least in GMT / UTC circles anyway. No doubt the sound of fireworks going off has woken everyone on by Facebook profile, and are now desparely checking their phones to see which drunken tirade is happening on there right now.

As usual, I’m not sat in front of my computer typing this at this ungodly hour, instead, no it’s almost 3AM on the day before, but through the magic of technology, it looks like I’m wishing you a happy new year. Deep down, I really am, but I know, by the time you read this, I’ll be the wrong side of a crate of beer (or indeed Southern Comfort – one appeared in my drawer at work, and I genuinely have no idea where it came from. Thanks, anonymous gifter!) just like I am every New Years’ Eve.

2017 has been there year where I’ve started enjoying blogging again. Nowt much happens in my life, but I’ve certainly enjoyed transferring that nothing into text for you to endure.

Here’s to the rest of 2018!

Happy 2016!

If you’re reading this at the moment it comes out, you’re a very, very sad person. If you’re reading it several minutes after 12, then this is for you. Have a happy and prosperous 2016. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. I don’t know what that’s even supposed to mean, but have a good one anyway.

I considered writing a “Review of 2015” post, but it was so dreary, I couldn’t even bring myself to type it out.

2010… what a pile of… boring (Part 2)

Okay, it’s mid-way through December when I’m typing this. We’ve had snow, but it’s all-but melted now,. I’m munching on Roast Beef Monster Munch (85g packets from Home Bargains – 39p each. Awesome), and I’m almost ready to go to bed. You may remember in the previous post, it was… erm, June.

JULY 2010

Mercuryvapour Towers was greeted by another new visitor, a rather frosty one at that. Our old chest freezer, which we’d had for roughly 20 years, was showing signs of giving up the ghost. It leaked terribly, and always had a coating of mould on it, thanks to the seals perishing, and the hinges snapping. They were held on by a small piece of trouser belt.

This month, for some reason, saw me doing day shifts, meaning I actually got to see some daylight. Unfortunately, the daylight also brought with it stupidly heavy rain, with rain showers almost as heavy as the August 2003 deluge. I can’t remember the exact date, but it was a Tuesday, as Daddykins bought us both a Blossom Garden Special. I also had a loan of ATIF’s zoom lens for a few days. Shiny.

AUGUST 2010

A month of fun and frolics, and by that, I mean that the Tall Ships visited Hartlepool. It was a busy month for me when it comes to photos, with the tall ships, a night-time visit to Hart with ATIF, and the last ever performance of Accidents By Design, at the Seaton Carew Cricket Club.

We also deadified another mouse.

Not much else happened.

SEPTEMBER 2010

New stuff dominated September. And sunflowers. After finally giving up on my ancient phone, I went out and got myself a HTC Desire. It is still a shiny piece of kit. I also talked extensively about my purchases on Steam. It seems strange, but I started getting into gaming in a big way. Sucky weather and pure laziness meant that very little happened in this month. even the photo archive dried up after the well-documented sunflower walks.

Mercuryvapour Towers received a new heating system late-on in the month, and although we were without hot water for a day and a bit, it was a small price to pay for the warmth that we’d experience during the coming months…

OCTOBER 2010

Unfortunately, Employment Palace took quite a hold on me in this month, so I didn’t really accomplish anything. I missed a bus, that’s about it. There was the trip to Newcastle with ATIF, where I managed to take some 300 photos.

… not all of them great.

NOVEMBER 2010

Something happened in this month, which normally doesn’t happen. It snowed, and plenty of it too. In fact, it would appear that every photo I’ve taken since then has resulted in a “snow” tag being added to it. Some other stuff did happen, I started 15 days off work, interupted by a night with the people from work for a few hours of bowling… I won’t bother linking to an individual photo, instead the flickr set is, erm.. there.

DECEMBER 2010

I’m sat here, flipping my way wearily though a spindle of CDRs, for no reason other than I don’t know where to start with this particular month. It just passed me by. I had a lot of time off work, thanks to leftover holidays (and my first full day of sickness since 2008, bloody chest), but thanks to the snow which dominated the month, saw me hardly leaving the house. I’m too old to enjoy the snow now!

Though, saying that, I’m not tired of taking pictures of it – each time the sky clouded over, I was rushing around with the camera, taking as many shots as I could. One of them even ended up in the Dec 30th edition of the Hartlepool Mail. Cor, I quite clearly rule!

So, erm. That’s it, except for the bits I’ve missed out. 2010 in a nutshell. I can assure you it’s not really been as dull as I’ve made out on here…. actually, that’s a lie, it really, really has.

2011 hopefully will be different, I’m going to try and do stuff worth blogging about more often. which means I’ll be wasting more time sat in front of the PC, which, in itself is counter-productive to doing stuff worth blogging about… ah, it’s a vicious circle.

2010… what a pile of… boring (part 1)

You’ll be surprised to find out that I actually started typing typing this on November 9th. It’s a Tuesday, and the autumn leaves are falling from the trees. By the time you read this, it’ll be 2011, and 2010 will be a long distant memory. And by that, I mean distant by 1 minute. You gotta love scheduled/postponed posts.

Anyway. 2010. after the disaster of 2009, I’ve had a pretty uneventful year. Work is still work, I’m still single, and somewhere along the line, I’ve managed to save money and lose a bit of weight. Yay. Let’s get underway with… 2010 in pictures! I’ll try to choose, wherever possible, my favourite pic of the month which I’ve not put on here previously.

JANUARY 2010

The year started as it ended, with snow. And lots of it. Probably the most snow I’ve seen since I was a wee nipper. For the first week, I don’t think there was a day where there wasn’t some snow on the ground.

I struggled through the freezing conditions, however, to see Accidents By Design play their last ever gig at The Studio…

Somebody should really sack my cameraman.

FEBRUARY 2010

A month where, quite literally, nothing happened. For the first time in a long while, the entire monthly archive fitted on one page. I don’t know why I linked to it, because it’s not really worth reading, unless you want to know more about “ass knives”. In this month, I took 5 photos, and 3 of those were of the local hospital…

I got paid for use of the pic, so it’s not all doom and gloom! The removal and replacement of the ancient streetlights on Lancaster Road and Clarence Road also began…

MARCH 2010

The month of long walks, and the month where I broke my Acer camera…

As mentioned in the previous month, the remaining old columns from Lancaster Road, and Clarence Road, got removed. Andy The Iridium fan saved one of the lanterns for my collection. Awesome!

Also, for some unknown reason, my right foot started giving me a hell of a pain. There was no rhyme or reason behind it. I hadn’t jarred it, sprained it, anything. It wasn’t even swollen…

APRIL 2010

This shall be the month that is recognised solely for my change in hairstyle. Or rather, the admission that I am indeed, going rather bald…

A trip to Jedburgh also saw me break my personal camera-to-flickr record of 11 minutes, though it did involve me knowing where there was a good, free wi-fi connection, and lugging the laptop in the back of the car with me. It was six months ago. It seems so primitive. I also stole a chilli from Tesco.

MAY 2010

Just looking at the thumbnails in this months collection brings back fond, and harrowing, memories.

Let’s start of with the fond…

And then move onto the harrowing….

Those photos are, of course, the aftermath of the “huge wasp” incident of 2010. There’s at least one of these a year, and I always almost end up with brown streaks running down the back of my leg. I used two cans of fly-killer to take care of this little bastard. I’d have loved to have been able to get better photos on it, but the “delivery” of my little Canon didn’t take place until May 27th.

Despite the whole new camera situation, the biggest change had to be the construction of a new door for the off-shot. I’m not sure which I enjoyed more, the manual labour, of the fact that me and Daddykins actually did something together for once.

JUNE 2010

I’m really struggling to think of something exciting that happened in this month. I lost my headphones in a field. Twitter was dominated with ITV’s shocking coverage of the World Cup, awful weather, and a half-cooked chicken lying in the middle of Warren Road…

This was the only time in the whole year I played darts.

The rest of the year continued, with a faint glimmer of hope that something exciting may happen… you’ll need to wait for Part 2, which should be on here some time tomorrow…