I had an interesting conversation with a young colleague of mine today and thought I’d share it with you. The topic was handkerchiefs and his, undoubtedly correct, view that they are unhygienic versus my view that they still have a valuable role to play in modern society.

To set the scene, I am currently stuffed up with cold. My nose is either dribbling or my sinuses are blocked and my head is aching – the change from one state to the other is quick and unpredictable.

To add to the joy, there’s been the sneezing, the coughing, the phlegm and the sore throat. The end of my nose is now pink and sore and my voice sounds decidedly nasally. To be honest I am not feeling great, although at least I feel better than I did yesterday (when I felt really lousy).

Yesterday was a three handkerchief day and today, so far, is two. Just in case you aren’t sure what I was getting at with that last point, let me make it clear – gruesomely clear!  

My body is producing snot at such a prodigious rate that yesterday two handkerchiefs were sodden with mucus and needed to be retired in order that a third could be pressed to the end of my hooter.

Yuck eh! I hope you’re not eating whilst reading this post.

The thing about a damp snot rag is that there gets to be a critical point where you don’t want to put it back in your pocket because it will start to make your trouser pocket damp too. Double yuck!

Back to my young colleague’s reservations - he is as good as half my age and perhaps slightly squeamish. He has not grown up in the world where dads and granddads routinely produced a handkerchief from their pockets on any occasion as a mop for any bodily fluid or spillage.

In my day, one’s authority figures could fashion handkerchiefs into impromptu bandages or could tie knots to turn them into useful head wear. My view; the old snot rag is a multi-purpose and essential accessory for the man about town – it’s not like you can a use Swiss army knife to blow your nose or keep the sun off your bald patch!

My colleague has a view that wiping your new snot from your face in the older snot you produced earlier is grim, and when I write it like that, I get where he is coming from.

I have no idea if his views are shared by his peers as there aren’t many junior twentysomethings in my social circle. Maybe handkerchiefs are for just for old people these days and not the young and trendy types.

In discussing the value of the lowly cotton square, I reflected that handkerchiefs had resided in my pockets from the point when I was old enough to have pockets of my own.

In the Baldwin world, I am relied upon to produce a handkerchief at a moment’s notice and the wife and kids have been known to express real dissatisfaction on the few occasions when I have failed to meet expectations.

Handkerchiefs have been a staple gift option throughout my life. I’ll admit that when I was young, I saw them as a rubbish present but for years now I have been of the age where I’ll receive them with gratitude.

Handkerchiefs are practical, reusable and they don’t cause trees to be cut down either so are good for the environment – on the downside, I acknowledge they may well spread germs.

 Me; I’ll stick with them. My young colleague was snot swayed by my promotional arguments.

You are of course entitled to your own opinion – feel free to share it if you like.

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On Tuesday 8th May, the King Billy pub in Northampton hosted a gig night that saw three punk bands barrel up and evidence their assorted lunacy. I went and had a cracking night out and thought I’d tell you all about it (although it has obviously taken me a while to get around to completing the post).

The gig came to my attention because the Bleach Boys, a band that I have followed for many years was headlining. Given that Daventry is just a twenty minute drive away from Northampton, and the gig was free, there really was no excuse not to go and show my support. The fact it was a ‘school night’ was certainly not going to put me off.

First up, the pub itself. I had never stepped over the threshold before and was amused to walk into the bar to find a punch ball machine in the corner. I usually associate these punch ball machines with fairgrounds and the presence of such a thing in a pub sets the scene don’t you think? Perhaps the pub is not one to take your wife and kids to! The ball saw some action too with my good friend Mike taking it in turns with a chap called Nick to see who could hit it harder (the air positively crackled with testosterone).

The King Billy is essentially a biker (of the hard-rocking variety) watering hole and makes no apology for it, even the notice boards have motorbike ‘for sale’ advertisements pinned all over them (the Daventry Motorcycle Festival flyer was represented on the board and you can read my review of that event too if you like). One or two of the pub’s employees were well worthy of the ‘don’t mess with’ label.

A hard pub and perfectly suited to hard music! The clientele for the evening, rockers, punks and well turned out skinheads – and only about forty or so people in total.  

The first band of the evening was an outfit called R.S.I, not short for repetitive strain injury but rather for Routine Social Incompetence (both of course could suggest a bunch of wankers).  The five piece band has two singers and has a rap type approach to punk music (with the singers taking turns with the microphones).

The music was fast paced and fun and went down well with the assembled throng. The band members had a sense of humour, engaged well with the audience and got the evening going. The band’s guitarist was a very competent player and was as acrobatic whilst playing his instrument as the singers were with just their microphones. 

Nick of the punch ball was clearly a fan, and known to the band, and got the dancing going immediately.

The second band up was called Overload. This four-piece was fronted by a tall, slim, angular singer of eastern European extraction (I think).  The singer had a great accent and sang from his throat in the fashion I usually associate with Lemmy.

This band was very much the outfit that the skinheads had come to see. The music was fast and aggressively delivered and I have to say very good too. I even bought a CD (Overload 2011) so that I could listen to some more on the way home – in my opinion that was a well spent quid. I have subsequently found out that there is another compilation of tunes available and so I really must get that too.

The band members were once again capable musicians and I was particularly impressed to see the guitarist and bass player exchanging instruments and playing them without fault during one track. 

During Overload’s performance, the members of RSI joined in the moshing and the guitarist showed just how nimble, flexible and energetic he was. Crikey I was tired just watching him throw himself around.

Once Overload finished its set, it was the turn of the Bleach Boys to entertain.  Initially the reception for these veterans of the punk movement was rather lukewarm – the moshing took a while to get going primarily, I suspect, because most participants were knackered from the previous two acts and outside cooling down.

The Bleach Boys played on un-phased and it wasn’t long before the pub was bouncing once more. I was stone cold sober (driving) and so was my mate Mike (driving too) but even we joined in the mosh. We are both too old for this kind of nonsense and really should know better but I have to say we were having a good time. God knows what we looked like! But then again, who cares – we certainly didn’t.

In age terms though, full marks go to this pensioner that turned up in his blazer and got dancing – mid seventies if he was a day I kid you not! He must have been plastered but was accorded much respect by all assembled and rightly so.

The Bleach Boys played some great tunes right through to closing time, my favourites of the evening ‘Slapper’ and ‘Nuclear War’.

When it was time to go home, Mike and I bid our farewells to King Billy and drove off in opposite directions.  I drove back to Daventry hot and sweaty with my ears ringing and Overload doing an encore on the CD player.  All in all a great night and I must make time to do it more often – in fact I’d happily go and see any of the bands again.

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This is a quick little post to promote the capabilities of Kayleigh Howard, affectionately known as ‘Kayleigh Cakes’ in the Baldwin household.

Mrs Baldwin commissioned Kayleigh to bake a cake for our son for his tenth birthday. His party was Skylander themed and so the cake was too.

Some pictures are included so that you can see just how brilliant this cake and the surrounding symbol biscuits were. The ‘Wrecking Ball’ and ‘Stump Smash’ figures on the portal of power were handmade and they look amazing.

Not only was the presentation perfect, the chocolate cake behind the icing was excellent too. The cake was moist and tasty and got demolished in much less time than it took to make!

Kayleigh Cakes, an office job is a waste of your obvious talents!

If you read this post and need a special cake made for a special occasion, get in touch and I’ll pass your details on to the cake supremo.

This weekend saw the annual Daventry motorcycle festival take place and the town centre transformed from its usual unremarkable state into something much more exciting by a busy, noisy and colourful spectacle.

The 2013 motorcycle festival was due to start at 10:30 but as I wandered up Abbey Street towards the High Street at around 10:00am, I got to watch and to listen to an impressive cavalcade of motorcycles coming down New Street to turn left into the High Street.

The cacophony was amazing, the myriad of motorcycles rumbled, burbled, snarled, growled, thundered and whined/buzzed (in the case of the mod Lambrettas) through the town and it was some sight to behold, to hear, to smell and even to feel (thanks to the vibration and the sense of wonder). 

Motorbikes were parked and displayed on both sides of the road along the length of the High Street, up into Sheaf Street and in the car park bisecting New Street and Church Walk. 

Whatever your preference in terms of styles or makes, there was something to satisfy you – there were Harleys, Kawasakis, Suzukis, Hondas, Yamahas, Triumphs, Heskeths, Nortons, BSAs, Vespas Moto Guzzis, Ducatis etc. All very international!

Racing bikes, custom bikes, cruising bikes, trikes, scooters, vintage & veteran bikes, classic bikes, modern bikes; nothing appeared to be missing.

I wandered up and down the street taking photographs and dreaming of owning some of the seventies super bikes on show.  Some pictures are shared for your enjoyment.

In addition to the motorbikes, the day was brighter still thanks to a series of bands performing from an articulated truck trailer up at the war memorial end of town. A lot of heavy rock and heavy metal music was played and this seemed to complement the event just perfectly.

Of the three bands I watched, two played covers throughout their sets. The other band, an outfit called Terror Swarm played a lot of its own stuff and I was impressed enough to buy a cd – it’s an EP called “Take the world alive” and it’s good too. The heavily tattooed, decidedly younger than me bass player looked slightly bemused when I strolled up to him to buy a cd but hey I was into heavy metal long before he was born and he’ll have grey hair one day too!

Whilst I was having a thoroughly enjoyable time, I was slightly disappointed that my wife, son and daughter were thoroughly underwhelmed.  Still you can’t please everyone; I took them home and then headed straight back into town to soak up some more of the atmosphere. I was subsequently joined by my friend Jez and we wandered around like kids in a sweet shop.

Here are some of my observations – most of the lovely bikes on display were owned by chaps with at least ten years or more on me and I am not exactly a spring chicken. The biggest, meanest, noisiest American monster hogs were most likely to be ridden by fellas of pension age and with bus passes in their wallets. And it’s no surprise because these bikes are so damn expensive.

This might be a bloke thing, but there is something deeply satisfying about the burble and bellow of a Harley. If you have to have paid off your mortgage and put your kids through university before you can afford to buy one (instead of a caravan) then so be it!

Some might get nervous when hoards of black leather clad, back patched, bearded and stocky geezers wearing dark shades and open faced crash helmets turn up on roaring and powerful beasts; but the fact is that the atmosphere in Daventry was terrific, there was no trouble at all!  Whilst there were some coppers strolling around, I suspect they were enjoying the sights and sounds as much as anyone else.

I have to say, the event was marvellous, Daventry came alive and for a handful of hours had to be one of the coolest places to be in the country. Thumbs up to Daventry Council for being brave enough to sanction it.

Roll on 2014!

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My son has just turned ten and that, to me, feels like a big deal - for him, reaching double figures is very cool indeed!

I have been thinking about this landmark on and off since. The primary emotion is one of fatherly pride - my lad is a good kid, is doing well in school and is well liked too. It pleases me no end to watch him growing up into a decent individual.

On the radar too though is a feeling of aging, for some reason I feel much older than I did on Wednesday, which is just odd.  Ten years have aged me as much as my lad but whilst he is growing up, I am growing old, and that’s not exactly a comforting thought.

And growing up is evidenced in his birthday present too – a seven inch tablet with a selection of apps of his choice. Crikey when I was ten I was still playing with my train set, my Action Men and my toy cars. Computing in the home (and not in mine I hasten to add) was limited to the ZX81 (which was rubbish) and Atari/Binatone games consoles (that were also rubbish – although I’d have loved either).

The recognition that a decade has gone by since Master Baldwin arrived is thought provoking but I take much comfort from my complete conviction that the ten years’ of investment in Master Baldwin have been well worth it.

Happy birthday son.

Lots of love,

Dad

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Regular readers will know that I have been trading notes with my local MP, Chris Heaton-Harris (CHH) regarding government policy and expenditure on nuclear power.

Previous posts:

http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/1/post/2013/03/nuclear-power-questions-answered-well-sort-of.html

http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/1/post/2013/02/nuclear-profligacy.html

As a result of the last blog entry, the attached responses have recently been received from CHH and Baroness Verma of Leicester - Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Here is a link to the 52 page NDA 2013-16 business plan mentioned.

Interesting points from the baroness include:

Power generation companies like EDF will have to meet their nuclear liabilities in full (including waste management and decommissioning) and that pricing agreements reached between the government and the private sector companies will have to receive Royal Assent. The European Commission also needs to make the state aid position clear.

Some significant hoops for the EDFs of this world to jump through then.

Levelised ‘new’ nuclear power generation costs average (NOAK, FOAK) £77/MWh of which only £2/MWh of cost is attributed to waste management and decommissioning! Is that accurate? Is that enough of a provision? I am not convinced.

I would love to know what percentage of the cost per megawatt hour of Sellafield derived power has generated clean-up costs of £67.5 billion so far (and a further £788 million in 2013) – I bet it isn’t 2.59%.

Regardless of the costs, the government remains committed to nuclear power because it sees no viable large scale power generating alternative. The political protest movement will have to garner massively increased public support to sway the government from its position. Fukushima was not close enough to home to challenge the UK economists. 

Finally I am no closer to an answer about what Sellafield will actually cost to decommission than I was when I started this Q&A. I don’t think the government actually knows!

I think that this trade of notes with our elected representatives has gone as far as it is going to now and so I thank Chris Heaton-Harris and Baroness Verma of Leicester for their time and willingness to engage.

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