Diary

Adventures in Doncaster

So it was Jake’s 27th on Saturday. He decided he wanted to go around Doncaster.

He also told me he was going to wear his new rose gold pvc jeans (ASOS, pretty much sold out now).

Not wanting to overshadow him I decided to go fairly vanilla – just a pair of jeans and an Oxford shirt. But when I jokingly said that I was thinking of wearing the PVC suit he said “mint!”.

Ok, I followed his intention…

It wasn’t too warm a day so I thought perhaps I could get away with it for a while.

We arrived in Doncaster and immediately I was a talking point. Loads of people commented on the amazing suit. Jake looked stunning in his outfit. Very metrosexual – quite flamboyant.

I was driving though so the only drinks I could have were Mocktails and low alcohol beers.

The night went as follows:

The Gatehouse -> The Wool Market -> The Gin Rooms -> The Red Lion

We left after the lion as my pvc suit was getting a bit clammy. It’s a great looking suit but it’s not really practical to wear on a day in day out basis.

"I lost my phone"

I often see the phrase “I lost my phone” or “my phone was stolen” on Facebook, and I sigh a little when they then tag on “lost loads of photos of my xxx who died earlier this year”.

Precious moments eh?

So, essentially, you’re telling me that you keep all your precious family photos in the equivalent of a photo album you take everywhere with you? And you never think to take a copy of them? Or back them up?

Sorry if I sound intolerant, but there’s a hard lesson here for the person who loses such a device.

Here’s my top tips to have this NOT happen to you.

1. Lock it. Secure it. Encrypt it. A secure lock – fingerprints, with a good strong pin. You can set most new devices to require a pin on bootup. You can even get many to display a message on bootup such as “Stolen from…”. That’s the resale value immediately killed.

2. Make sure it’s registered with your carrier. If it’s a carrier locked device such as one provided by them it’s fairly easy, but if it’s a PAYG device you can still register it. If it’s stolen you can then get it activation blocked and added to a stolen device register which again kills the resale value.

3. Track it – turn on tracking services and find my device services. With most devices you can locate it within a few metres. You can also make it ring at full volume even if it’s locked and muted. Better still, some devices can now be forced to take photos from both cameras and send them to you. Handy if a thief happens to be staring into it at the time.

4. Sync it with a cloud backup service. Most manufacturers provide something of this nature. Google does it for Android. Don’t forget also to turn on sync in Google photos. That way you’ll always have a backup of your camera roll. If you have enough data then why not set it to back up immediately? Half way through a precious wedding and you drop your phone? You’ll probably find every single photo already backed up!

5. Remember it’s just a phone – the most important one – if it gets stolen at an event, it’s inconvenient; but if you can hard lock it within a few minutes using a friend’s phone then don’t risk trying to find it there and then. A thief can become violent if approached, after all, they’re dumb enough to go around stealing what in essence is a mobile tracking device with GPS and ID services built in, and provided you’ve done all the right steps it’ll have 24 bit encryption so they can’t be too bright.

Great gig!

It has to be said that Saturday’s gig was probably one of the best we’ve ever played! The crowd were brilliant and really up for it. The venue was a nice place and we played so well. Tight and sounding great. We’ve since had a few posts go online and a review which always makes it feel worthwhile. We’re still on 100% verified 5* ratings.

It was the hottest gig in ages. The suit in the first set was dripping by the end. I’m glad I remembered to take a second suit though – I always remember at weddings (strictly it was a vow renewal) that there will be at least 3 cobalt blue suits in the audience. You don’t want to look like the guests do you?

It was a 10:30 finish for us, although Jake couldn’t finish DJing until half past 11 so we broke down the stage whilst he finished off and got all the cases ready to go, and then whilst the guys loaded the van I packed down the PA and wrapped all the speaker cables.

Classic film!

After last night’s rather good gig in Thornaby, I’ve settled down to watch Gremlins 2.

One thing that always fascinates, though, is that at the very end of the film Billy & Kate both walk away from the building and look absolutely impeccable.

I own a couple of pairs of light coloured trousers/jeans and yet I can’t even walk near a wall without ending up with a dirty patch on the leg.

Billy Peltzer, on the other hand, fights dozens of gremlins and gets covered in exploding gremlin glop at multiple points in the film and yet he finishes the film perfectly pressed.

I cry shenanigans.

It’s gig day!

So why am I up so early?

I hate it when this happens. I’ve got a late night ahead (probably about 2am), and I’m up at before 8.

I’m out with Face the Music tonight. We’re discussing the future and new projects/sidelines (after all, I’ve got enough of my own). I think we might decide to call it a day as FTM, the project has pretty much run it’s course.

Of Giggage the First

I presume you’re wanting to know how the first Strangefish gig went? After all the build up has been huge from my point of view. About 6 months since I joined the band and we’re doing our first big gig.

Ok so the arrival time was rather early, 2pm, as is always the case with these things. Bob was later than the rest of us but soundcheck went incredibly smoothly. We ran through my most nerve wracking song “Progress in Reverse” and then disappeared off the stage for John Hackett and then Encircled to do their sound checks.

At 9:30 we took to the stage for my first gig with the new band. I can honestly say I’ve not been as nervous to take a stage in years.

Continue reading →

Strangefish Rehearsal the ER… Fifth?

So we are now dangerously close to our first gig in the lineup and I’m looking at it thinking “wow that’s close!”. It’s next Sunday!

Yesterday was our final rehearsal before the gig and we had last runs though the material, tweaked a few bits, and generally played very well.

Unlike the last rehearsal where Steve was poorly we were up to full band again. All six of us.

To see the photos you’d think all we did was wore silly hats though!

We also discussed stage wear, which for the guys is an interesting concept. They’ve never really done the “specific” clothes before. Of course I have the Strange Fish trousers, and the Shark/Kitten shirt. But it’s now becoming a confusing matter of what to do…

The problem with the strangefish trousers is that I can’t actually find anything that goes with them! The shark shirt, on the other hand, makes anything you pair with it look ridiculous.

I have an idea though…