Home of Andy and Diane's ramblings

Saturday 8th September 2007 - surely it's not a year since the last one is it? Apparently, it is - Fris-Stock is here again! As you can tell from the rather ghastly snapshot of hero drinker Timothy (left) it was yet another night of drunken debauchery, which is what makes Frisby-on-the-Wreake the splendid (if rather alcohol-soaked) place it is. Usual rules apply with this gig - turn up, pop cork, descend into madness - you know the routine by now, as do the people caught in all their drunken glory [here]. In the wine-fogged lunacy that ensued there was a fine display of fat-dad-dancing from Andy, who apparently ended up in such a totally blethered state that he basically forgot how to speak English (abject apologies to the ever-patient Jonny Lovesay for having to deal with the series of grunts, squeeks and burbles that replaced normal conversation for an hour or two).

What an egregiously shameful state for a forty-something bloke who's supposed to be reforming his character to get into. Still - he wasn't on his own, was he? No names, no pack drill... you know who you are ;-)))

Saturday 28th July 2007 - woohoo - retail therapy ahoy! We're just back from the splendid GOoutdoors, having just spent a crazy amount of money on a bijou and petite Outwell Montana 6 tent - the great outdoors, here we come - woohoo! As you can see, this acquisition follows the regular pattern employed by all purchases made by Maison Clayton-Smith, in that it is wildly over-the-top and in many ways just a teensy little bit silly. One can only assume that the Chipperfield family has given up the circus business, as we are clearly now the owners of their big top tent (which might also explain the smell of dung - or that could be the dogs). However, all this said, the business of communing with nature will be a damned sight more civilised than on previous occasions and, more importantly, the advent of an entirely sewn-in groundsheet ensures that there's none of the Colditz style nocturnal break-out stuff usually performed by Charlie (and which, no doubt, Bert will also attempt on his first outing under canvas). Having borrowed Will & Sarah's garden for the weekend (the bloody thing's too monstrously large to fit in our A4-sized plot) it appears that we're able to erect our collapsible village hall without too much hassle, so the weekend after next it's off to New Hall Farm for a dry run - watch this space to find out where (almost inevitably) it all goes horribly wrong...

Saturday 14th July 2007 - just back from Denver where, unlike good old Blighty, it is HOT! Andy was in town doing geeky stuff at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Convention, which was basically a great excuse to see somewhere new, gatecrash any amount of corporate parties and soak up vast quantities of free booze & grub. Denver's quite a good town, actually - very laid back with a huge amount of growth and redevelopment going on, as it's a bit of a downshifter's paradise, apparently. Points to be recommended? Well, the Lower Downtown district (or LoDo, as it's known locally) is good for bars, restaurants, shopping and stuff. On the sporting side, if you like that kind of thing, there's the Coors Field baseball stadium, which has to be the cleanest public building on earth but which, unfortunately, is home to possibly the dullest, most pointless sport ever invented. Partay-wise, as well as the Hard Rock Cafe gig that these tours almost inevitably include, there were some top bashes at The Church (trendy gothic chapel conversion), Grizzly Rose (wild west/cowboy & injun/saloon stylee), Vinyl (cool, super-smoove lounge club) and the now famous Teddy's (rather radio-rental cowboy bar attached to the hotel that acted as base-camp for the week) the latter of which undoubtedly serves the best happy-hour snacks and draught Blue Moon beer on the planet. In 1882, Walt Whitman wrote of Denver 'over 5000 feet above sea-level, irrigated by mountain streams, one way looking east over the prairies for a thousand miles, and having the other, westward, in constant view by day, draped in their violet haze, mountain tops innumerable' which kinda tells you all you need to know - not a bad week really.

Saturday 30th June 2007 - ah, the balmy, halcyon days of late June... how nice it would be to experience one or two - as it is, midsummer revelry in the UK is being accompanied this year by torrential rain and nationwide flooding... how splendid. So, the weather's atrocious, which makes it pretty much the worst time possible to be attending an outdoor shindig… which is unfortunate, as that's exactly our plan of attack for the weekend. Saturday evening sees a couple of car-loads of brave Frisby explorers setting off for the deepest, darkest depths of the Vale of Belvoir to enjoy a teeny smattering of Jools Holland and chums in concert over at Belvoir Castle. Despite an unpromising start with downpours most of the day and severe weather warnings for the whole country, the addition of a rather superb gazebo to the general collection of waterproofs, collapsible tables & chairs, wellies, copious bottles, cans and cool-bags brimming with sumptuous grub makes this a really enjoyable evening, as you may able to tell from the snaps [here]. Ten points to Rick and Kate for providing our collapsible base camp for the evening. As is usual with most Frisby social gatherings, it ended up being a bit of a corker - despite the shockingly bad weather.

Saturday 11th November 2006 - and a small, yet perfectly formed Frisby posse sallies forth to the big city (i.e. Leicester) to attend a magnificent gala performance from that bastion of British lunatic musicianship, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who have stopped off at DeMontfort Hall at the end of the first week of their 40th anniversary tour. All hugely exciting, with founder members Neil Innes, Roger Ruskin Spear, Rodney Slater, Sam Spoons, Vernon Dudley Bohay Nowell, Bob Kerr and "Legs" Larry Smith diving in with extreme gusto, admirably supported by a small army of 'second generation Bonzos', most notably including Phill Jupitus and Adrian Edmondson in the combined role of stand-in for the late Viv Stanshall. There's very little point in trying to convey in a few paragraphs just how good this was - let's just say that it goes down as being one of the very best gigs your humble bloggist has had the good fortune to attend - and there have been quite a few over the past twenty five years. High points of the night? Hard to say - there were so many. Certainly worth mentioning Vernon Dudley Bohay Nowell's superb saw solo and tap dancing par excellence from 'Legs' Larry Smith. Hats off also to Messrs Jupitus and Edmondson in the roles of Elvis & Mr Slater's Parrot... brilliant. It was a real privilege to have been a part of this one, so well done Johnny P for spotting the tickets going on sale all those months ago! You can get a flavour of the tour by reading the rather splendid blog from Phill Jupitus on the Sunday Times website [here].

Friday 4th August 2006 - Yeehah! It's that time of year when everybody gets to take a couple of weeks off work and kick-back for a bit. To welcome in the holiday season, a certain portly individual decided to experiment with facial hair, as you can see [here]. Clearly, this was not a good look and you'll no doubt be pleased to hear that normal service has now been resumed, with naked chubby chin(s) back in abundance. Along with going all Robinson Crusoe, the hols also spawned a rather unhealthy interest in the wonderful world of camping. Having recently spent a small fortune at outdoorworld, la famille Clayton-Smith now owns an impressive range of folding chairs, collapsible kitchen larders, pots, pans, mallets, water carriers, etc. Add one large tent and a blow-up bed to the mix and there you have it - we've finally managed to acquire a holiday home! Rather than letting it go totally pear-shaped by diving straight into an extended/overseas trip, the inaugural waterlane jamboree was restricted to a couple of days lurking around Tattersett in North Norfolk, where all sorts of strange outward-bound nonsense went on, as you can see [here]. Typically, having sweltered in 30+ degrees of heat throughout the previous week, Norfolk was cool, rainy and v. windy. Clearly, this was a bit of a baptism of fire for newly christened part-time pikeys but nevertheless it was all very enjoyable, so it's three cheers for a life under canvas!

Friday 14th July 2006 - The youth of today - tut, tut... actually, this shambolic bunch are anything but youthful. They are, however, more than a little bit 'radio rental'. Apparently, it is thirty years since Melly made the dreadful error of joining the teaching profession (I know - it confuses us too - she became a teacher at age 2?) and so, in an effort to shake off the trauma of having to spend time with several generations of moody teenager, it's time to party. Given that this is a Melly / Craigos bash, there's a twist... and it's fancy dress with a 'school days' theme. Accompanied by a smattering of Duran Duran and bedecked with a surfeit of prefect badges and stripey ties, we all merrily descend into the usual Friday night Frisby chaos, with pregant schoolgirls being chased around the garden and moustachioed ersatz headmasters threatening to cane anything that moves. Clearly, for those who were there, the image on the left needs to be added to that eclectic collection of gap-toothed, tragic hairdo wearing, knobbly kneed nonsense that is your average person's catalogue of school photos. Just in case you fancy printing a copy, there's a hi-res version [here] - be warned, it's a 1.49Mb file, so you'll need broadband. There are some more snaps of the evening [here] and [here]. Happiest days of your life, etc. etc.

Saturday 11th March 2006 - Yet more fancy dress japes in Frisby-on-the-Wreake with a French Night at Ye Olde Bell Inn (or "Le Clappeur Ancienne", as it has been coined by resident loon, Jonny Lovesay - pictured left ). It's alarming how readily people will don the costume in this village - so called grown-ups reduced to dribbling wrecks in no time at all, as you can see [here]. Actually, the ACScam was not alone - Diane was busy snapping throughout the evening too and you can check out a few of her photos [here]. Thanks also go to Pam for providing snaps of three well known village studs [here]. The timing of this one is slightly worrying, as England travel to Stade de France tomorrow to take on French types in the Six Nations. Let's hope that our little homage to la vie en France doesn't turn out to be somehow prophetic... given the state of the England squad recently, a damned good hammering from Les Grenouilles isn't completely beyond the bounds of the entirely possible, so fingers crossed and start praying at 15:00 GMT Sunday! Quick PS to this one... 31 - 6 to France.... shocking behaviour... we need to seriously consider the consequences before attending any further theme nights!

Sunday 26th February 2006 - Just got back from a snowy weekend in Wales, where a pretty top time was had by all, as you can see from the photos [here]. Nothing much on the agenda for this trip, to be honest - arrive, light large fire, open bottle of wine, find comfortable armchair and crash-out with a good book. Add to this a large smattering of snow and a view out of the lounge window that most people would kill for and there you have it - heaven! Unfortunately, as is often the case, it turned out to be one of those occasions when a good thing was immediately counteracted by a not-so-good thing... we've had another bereavement at waterlane.com, with the unfortunate demise of Dudley Fish (pictured left). Poor old Dud wasn't exactly the healthiest of fellows; in fact, he was a bit of a mess from day one (the whole 'Pete & Dud' thing being, in part, an homage to Messrs. Cook & Moore but also an acknowledgement that Dudley was exactly that - a dud). Interesting to see that Peter Fish is coping admirably with the loss of his rather substandard tank-buddy - he's in rude health actually, as he now has sole access to the grub being lobbed in on a regular basis. So much for friendship, eh? He's a cold fish, that one...

Sunday 1st January 2006 - Where does the time go? It only seems like five minutes since the last one but here it is again - Happy New Year! As has become the tradition in recent years, last night saw all and sundry donning their posh frocks (and that was just the blokes) and heading off to Casa Ken & Louise (aka The Bell Inn, Frisby-on-the-Wreake) for an evening of gluttony and alcoholic excess. Needless to say, it was mission accomplished on both scores and, in summary; a rather fine night was had by all concerned - as you'll probably gather from the rather messy collection of snaps [here]. You know the story by now - lovely meal, good company and a sensible amount to drink.... quickly followed up quite a bit more than sensible. OK, as far as plans go, this one's a little hackneyed - nevertheless, it works ever so well! Right, time for a rather large fried breakfast, followed by a quick trip to the local hostelry to have a laugh at other people's hangovers... it's all so grown up!

Friday 2nd December 2005 - oh lordy... look out, as someone's just hit forty!! Scary though this might seem, the reality is that certain people (i.e Andy) are so grumpy and irascible that they've been honorary members of the old codgers brigade for some time anyway. Take this into account and all of a sudden this just becomes a good excuse for a right old knees-up, with the promise of top presents thrown in... woohoo! The former was somewhat jeopardised by a severe bout of man-flu, however, with our plucky hero rising manfully to the challenge, fortieth birthday celebrations went ahead as planned and were damned good fun! On the prezzie front, it was a massive haul - assorted music and DVDs, whacky Suunto wristop computer, rather flashy Sherwood Forest wellies (let's gloss over the fact that the first box actually contained two right feet... tee ho!), a rather groovy DAB radio, Barbour scarf... all great toys - thanks very much chaps! Given that there was a bit of running round filling glasses and sorting out music, coupled with a certain amount of 'can't be bothered 'cos I'm feeling a bit snotty'-ness in evidence, photos of this one are in pretty short supply. However, there are a couple of rather messy snaps [here] which give a flavour of the drunken debauchery that went on. Right - time to return to the Suunto instruction booklet and the thrilling subject of setting an altimeter... all very important stuff!

Thursday 22nd September 2005 - this week is going far too well! Having returned from deepest, darkest Wales, we're off in the opposite direction for the day, to soak up the atmos in sunny Norfolk. In particular, Thornham Beach, in the company of top chums Fiona & Simon. As usual, Charlie-Dog ended up drinking gallons of seawater and exploding at both ends (thanks for sharing that with us right in the middle of our picnic lunch, Charlie). However, intestinally challenged dogs aside, it was a glorious day, spent sploshing around the shoreline and crashing-out in the sand dunes - there are worse things to do with your Thursday afternoon! There are a few snaps of us having a good time when we should have been chained to a desk [here]. Post-beach, it was off to Burnham Market and the rather smashing Hoste Arms, before giving it the full-on 'Cannonball Run' homewards, thus ensuring adequate time for a much-deserved nightcap at The Bell (seven minutes advantage Si... told you the Trooper was faster than it looked!).

Friday 8th July 2005 - just back from yet more Microsoft based shenanigans in Amsterdam. As you might expect there was an element of post-work activity and so, rather predictably, Andy's now in a wheelchair and expecting to be on dialysis for the next week or so. During the week, the chaps managed to find quite a few interesting places to hang out, which included the rather excellent Bar Americain on the Leidseplein, the Cafe Int Aepjen just across the road from the hotel and the supremely noisy Paradiso (pictured left), where everybody was swinging their pants until an insanely late hour. On the accommodation front, the Hotel Prins Hendrik is to be recommended - it's in the cheap and cheerful bracket, so don't expect too much but it's quite a cool place, nice people and a good restaurant-bar. Additionally, (for all you jazz fans out there) it's the place where trumpet supremo / industrial strength pill-popper Chet Baker experienced his last and largest rush - from a second floor window to the rather unforgiving pavement below. If you ask the lunatic night-porter (who, by the way, presents a public access radio show, live from his reception desk), Chet is still very much about the place - which is a nice thought if you happen to end up in the rather ghoulishly labelled 'Chet Baker room' (the door of which bears a ridiculously large brass plaque in celebration of this noteworthy exit). So, all in all, a pretty good week - new places seen and new friends made. Oh - and quite a successful business trip too, which is always a bonus!

Saturday 2nd July 2005 - one of those dates that we'll look back upon and say to each other 'what were you doing on that day?'. Luckily for us, we'll be able to say that we were right there, in the thick of it - cheering as the bands thrashed out music across the park, dancing about the place with total abandon and soaking up the atmos of this historic event. I imagine the people at the Hyde Park Live8 gig almost had as good a time! You guessed - it's July and therefore it must be time for FRIS-stock, the UK's answer to Woodstock but with a cricket pavillion. This year, the crowd was kept entertained by a couple of absolutely cracking bands, Rollo Markee and the Tailshakers and Panic, both of whom did their level best to keep residents of the Wreake valley awake until the early hours of Sunday morning. Right now, Andy is stone deaf and there's a strong chance he's not the only one who'll be suffering from a bit of the old Pete Townshend style 'Marshall amp induced hearing diffculties'. Have a look at the snaps [here], which will explain more... Note to self - no more dancing two feet away from the speaker stacks next year...

Saturday 25th June 2005 - been a while since we all had a drunken evening at the Village Hall, so thank goodness for Mr Penny and his rather significant birthday, which required some industrial-strength celebration. As you'll see from the number of bottles strewn about the place, coupled with the fine selection of vacant, wine soaked expressions on the faces of most of the people in the photos [here] this one lived up to our usual inebriate standards, that we all hold so dear... marvellous!!

PS/ Suddenly realised that there isn't a single shot of the birthday boy in the photos above - [here] is a shot of John that could possibly have been taken a little while ago...

Monday 20th June 2005 - Blimey... how tired? Five of us finally rolled back into Frisby-on-the-Wreake this morning at around 3am, having pootled back from Le Mans by way of Cherbourg and Poole. According to the milometer we've done 1347.7 miles and whilst that doesn't sound an awful lot, we're all pretty much done-in! Nevertheless, it was an absolutely cracking trip - despite horrendous rain on day one in France and the untimely demise of one of the bikes on day three. With the weather ending up in the high thirties, Le Mans was a fantastic experience (if not a little sweaty) and one to be pencilled into the calendar as an annual fixture. To get a true flavour of this adventure would really require integral 5:1 soundtrack and a series of accompanying scratch and sniff cards (enough said). Unfortunately, you'll just have to browse through the photos [here] and try to imagine the rest. Actually, there is a little bit of video footage of some night racing, taken whilst en-route to the bar at Tetre Rouge in the early hours of Sunday morning - it'll probably take a week to download but feel free to have a nosey [here]. Also, if you want to get an idea of what goes on at Le Mans, visit the excellent beermountain.com to pick up handy hints and tips on where to go, what to do and generally how to survive the weekend - required reading! Talking of top Le Mans material, take a look at the shots that Monsieur Newcombe grabbed [here] - brilliant stuff!!

Tuesday - 14th June 2005 - Wahay! To your left, witness the latest modification to the trusty Trooper... a rather splendid tour logo for the spare wheel cover - that's right, we're off on a road trip! Well, to be precise, Andy and his chums are off to France for a couple of days, pootling down through Brittany, Normandy, the Loire Valley, etc. and ending up in Le Mans at the weekend for the 24 Hour Race. So, this afternoon will see the departure of one heavily laden 4X4 (Andy & Johnny-Boy) and three motorbikes (Craig, Mark and Simon) - initial destination, Towcester Services, to meet up with bike four (Pete) and thence to Portsmouth and a night-crossing to St Malo. Somewhere along the way we'll be joined by bike five (Huw). As you'd imagine, the ACScam will be snapping the whole messy affair, so you can look forward to seeing plenty of embarrassing photos popping up here in the very near future. OK - back to the last-minute packing... now where the hell did that passport go?

Monday 30th May 2005 - another bank holiday weekend and yet another liver-cripplingly excessive round of partying and pub visits. Take a look [here] for signs of yesterday's drunken debauchery at The Bell, where a motley assortment of people belatedly celebrated the birthday of mechanical wizard, Johnny-Boy Hatton (pictured left). What a splendid afternoon! Tables groaning under the weight of a veritable wall of barbequed grub, beers sploshing around all over the place, plenty of sunshine, Connect Four championships (wow - we're animals, aren't we?), all finished off with a quick dash inside to grab a table and stomp/clap/dance/wail along to a spot of the old higgidey-jiggidey music, supplied by regular visitors to Frisby-on-the-Wreake, Duff Paddy. A great end to a brilliant few days - now we just need to take the rest of the week off to recover from the relaxing bank-holiday weekend!

Sunday 14th May 2005 - we are clearly bad-luck totems for the Tigers... another howling disaster - this time against Wasps at Twickenham. This was made worse by the fact that it was Leicester's last match with Johnno and Neil Back aboard, against a team they comprehensively battered 45-10 only two weeks ago (when we weren't attending, by the way). This time around? A total massacre - 39-14.... waah!! Still, not all bad news, as we did meet up with a fine selection of fellow Frisbyites who introduced us to the delights of a replica Bosnian field hospital, situated just across from the grounds. Here, a collection of highly dubious characters served beer and hot dogs of indeterminate origin all afternoon long. As Señor Ken pointed out at the time 'what happens on tour stays on tour', thus making a more detailed account a wee bit tricky. However, the are a few snaps posted [here] that give a general flavour - sorry guys but they were too good not to share! Anyway, post-match, it was back to weekend HQ to shower, change and prepare for a rather tippy-top meal at Le Pont de la Tour. Top nosh, fantastic wine and all topped off with a cheeky Calvados or two - brilliant! Right, time to write that blackmail note to Peter Wheeler... 'fifteen large in used notes or we buy the season tickets and inflict the same bad luck upon your team again next year'. You never know, it might work...

Sunday 24th April 2005 - a gloriously pleasant Spring afternoon, spent at the Walkers Stadium watching the Leicester Tigers play at their potential new home. Unfortunately, the final score was far from pleasant - 27-19 to Toulouse... ugh. Clearly, the French types were cheating, as at any one time there seemed to be about forty black shirts swarming around the pitch, laying waste to Tigers, left right and centre. Thankfully, the ACS-cam was not involved on this occasion, so there are very few pictures of this event to display, apart from a few snaps that Diane took with her 'phone. This includes a rather blurred and yet still comical shot of Andy and Mark crying into their beer about five minutes before the final whistle [here]. For now, the photo on the left is of a Mr A. Healey of Gaddesby, Leicestershire, demonstrating the standard playing position assumed by our brave boys today - i.e. upside down and/or under a pile of French bodies... what a nightmare!

Saturday 11th December 2004 - Yay! It's almost Christmas so it must be time for the annual bash at the village hall... woohoo! As expected, this one ended messily - what a great night! Amazing how the guys that organise this one take a very utilitarian setting and create some really lovely surroundings to eat turkey and get drunk in. This year was no exception - the theme of "snow" involving hundreds of decorations, silver sprayed trees, lights and glitter ball to finish the effect - brilliant stuff. There was a clear opportunity here for the ungallant sort to take embarrassing snaps of friends spiralling ever downward into complete inebriation. Only a bounder of the first order would sink so low... and [here] are the results.

Saturday 20th November 2004 - the end of a rather windy week in grotty old Copenhagen for Andy, attending this year's Microsoft IT Forum, where not only did he get to hear the thoughts of Chairman Bill up close but also (and probably more importantly) got to watch the excellent SAS Band. This lot were really rather good but then they should have been, given that the line-up included Midge Ure (guitar and vocals), Graham Gouldman (acoustic guitar, bass and vocals), Madeleine Bell (BIG vocals), Chris Thomson (likewise) and Roger Taylor (vocals and LOUD drums). Midge Ure totally hammered out a few Ultravox and Thin Lizzy numbers, whilst Roger Taylor gave it large with a selection of Queen hits. Graham Gouldman did a slightly odd bundle of stuff that went from songs he wrote for Hollies to "Dreadlock Holiday" and Chris Thompson plumped for some Manfred Mann classics like "Blinded by the light" and "The mighty Quinn" - all good stuff. Post-concert it was off to the centre of Copenhagen and to the rather unpromisingly named "Olde English Pub". Actually, this turned out to be a bit of a find - the beers were flowing and they were accompanied by some absolutely TOP music from a couple of Australian chaps, singing away like good 'uns whilst playing acoustic guitar and cello (looked a bit odd but it worked). All in all, there couldn't have been a better end to the week. Ta-ta to Denmark (which, in all honesty isn't the worst of news - three years was about enough). Next year IT Forum comes from..... Barcelona! YAY!!

Halloween - always a good to time to party-up and so, after some frenzied internet searching that led us to www.joke.co.uk, super-whiz new costumes were purchased and off we went to Simon & Fiona's for an absolutely brilliant fancy-dress bash. This one really was a hell of a lot of fun and one can only imagine that there were more than a few sore heads the following morning... Hopefully, blackmail photos will be available soon and should include Diane looking very Lily Munster in her witch costume. Chances are, there'll also be a couple of snaps featuring Andy, attempting to look frightening but actually ending up looking like the vampire that ate all the pies... ho hum :-(

UPDATE: Yep, the photos are in and it's official - that's one lardy vampire! (see image to the right)

2001