If you walk through Friary Gardens this week you will see the lovely Daffodils and Crocuses in full flower under the trees, making a beautiful woodland scene slap bang in the middle of Richmond.

You will also see a number of carelessly discarded empty cans of McEwans export chucked away by some dysfunctional youth(s) oblivious to anything in the world but their own desire to get pissed or high in the name of having a good time.

The Friary Gardens have long been a Jewel in Richmond for both the local population and visitors, with the well-kept flowerbeds a joy in the spring and summer months, and for me at least, a haven of peace in the darker months.

The District Council have finally come round to the idea that the gardens are good for the town (though they did try to get out of looking after them a few years back), so it’s about time the police got to grips with the drunken yobs that all too often frequent these beautiful gardens.

I suppose I could look on the bright side… at least there isn’t the minefield of dog crap along the footpaths anymore, no - the lazy dog owners have all moved to Castle Walk!

It’s been ten years since the Antony Gormley sculpture raised it’s head majestically over the north of England.

I was one of those doubters who complained and whined about Gateshead Council spending £800,000 on a “piece of art” when there was so much poverty and degradation in certain areas of Gateshead and Newcastle. What do I know… thank God no-one listened to me and many others of same mind all those years ago, we might have missed out on something special.

I love that Angel of the North, I loved it the second I saw it.

Happy birthday Angel of the North.

Well fancy that! For the second year running the Christmas tree in the Market place has been removed the day after I posted about the fact it was still there in February.

I’d like to think there’s some connection here, with the powers that be, monitoring my every word, attending to my every whim…

It’s the 5th of February and our caged Christmas tree stands sadly in the market place like a forlorn and forgotten prisoner.

I look out of my window and see another sad reminder of Richmond’s inability to function efficiently when it comes to what really ought to be a simple task. It’s bad enough that what should be a proud, joyful and glittering symbol of Christmas is caged like a criminal as soon as it is erected, like someone ready to be mocked and derided after being dragged through the town in shackles, shamed and humiliated as they stand in their final resting place.

I’m pretty sure that the Richmond Christmas tree is erected by volunteers and ultimately taken down by volunteers (if this is so, then this in itself could be the problem), I know the ridiculous fence around the tree is there because of a pathetic “health and safety” reason, and I’m sure everyone concerned gets on with the job with the best intentions…

But sooner or later, someone has to be brave enough to ask the simple question - If it can’t be done properly, should it be done at all? If the last few years of Christmas tree fiasco are anything to go by… then no, it shouldn’t.

Anyway when the Obelisk is lit up, it makes the perfect Christmas tree!!

There’s been a huge amount of crap hovering around a bloke I know over the last few months.

He’s had to put up with a number of unpleasant situations which I know haven’t been helped by a dodgy ticker that seemed to be getting worse by the week.

There are the idiots who wanted to shaft him a few months ago and it appears that they still do. There are also the idiots who listen to the idiots, absorbing the malignant chatter and feeding off it as if it were their only source of nourishment. To make things worse these dark and shifty characters who walk in the shadows of the town have been able to contaminate his appetite for one of his more satisfying and successful ventures. To make matters even worse the perpetrator of these dark and dishonest deeds had presented himself as an ally in the aforesaid venture…. unfortunately we all come across people like that from time to time. “You should’ve known better” I told him.

When I saw him just before Christmas he told me that he had been kicked out of his house by his wife who was sick of his bad temper and moods (brought on by the frustration of having a debilitating heart condition for well over a year no doubt), he was very unhappy, I wasn’t suprised, he’d put up with a load of crap and was still buried neck high in it. “Well” I told him “It could be worse, you could be in Iraq, Afghanistan, or even the Sudan.” I’m not sure that helped but I knew he would understand.

A few days ago when I saw him he looked decidedly chipper. I thought he must be back with his missus or something. “Nope” he said “I got this ticker sorted” he went on “It hurt like hell and damnation, like fire and ice… but I think the doctors fixed it!”

I was pleased, he deserved a break. I asked about the idiot wind blowing around his skull…

“You know Andy” he said “It’s been a real journey, this last year - especially the last couple of months - but I’m glad I made it. There isn’t an idiot anywhere who can bring me down at the moment, I am truly in the pink!”

No artificial flavours, no artificial colours, no hydrogenated vegetable oil - just a good honest chocolate wholemeal biscuit.

A cup of coffee, accompanied by one or two of these - and in my case, a fag to follow (sorry Doc, just the one!) - has got to be the best way to spend a break from whatever it is that you need a break from.

My son, who is nearly ten, has also taken a liking to the humble chocolate digestive and, like me, enjoys them even more when chilled straight from the fridge - though not necessarily with a ciggy afterwards!

Of course, he doesn’t call them chocolate digestives - too much of a mouthful - he calls them “daddy biscuits” I wonder why that is!

When we’re born our bodies are to be turned over to the state…. we’ll be bar-coded at birth and pitched to the highest bidder.

George Orwell? no, Gordon Brown - the Dark Primate from Hell - who wants to donate all our organs for us - unless we tick the box on the opt-out clause.

So, we are all now destined to be nationalised, loose our civil liberties, get taxed to death then raped in the morgue by a thieving, dysfunctional and degenerate government that’s done nothing but plunder the country’s population.

I’ve held off posting on this blog because I’ve been “too negative recently” - well that’s true, but when I heard about this latest blood-fest from the Gordo government it just made me mad mad mad….

Despite the world being thrown into turmoil over the Christmas holiday period (season of goodwill, my arse!), my new year’s resolution is…

Stop being a grumpy old git!

On condition that…

People stop pissing me off, people stop lying to me and each other, people stop blowing each other up, governments stop allowing children to die of starvation, people stop spending millions on fireworks when the above said are dying of starvation, when governments tell the truth and nothing but the truth, when brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers aren’t ripped open by the blood lust politician who sends them to war…

Happy New Year!

Why oh why do we have to put up with postal delays, just because it’s Christmas? I have been waiting for some quite important mail for the last few days now - posted with first class stamps - which would normally only take 1 day to arrive.

The excuse? It’s delayed in the Christmas post. Well it’s not bloody good enough! It’s not like the Post Office haven’t known about Christmas coming…. they’ve had ample time to hire extra people to handle the extra post, and any business worth it’s salt wouldn’t use pathetic, flimsy excuses for not being able to come up with the goods.

It’s astonishing the amount of mediocre service we have to put up with now - not just from the pathetic postie who doesn’t want to have to work too hard in case he tires himself out - we get it from every corner of the commercial and public service sectors and I’m bloody sick of it!

There, that’s better!

Happy Christmas to everyone who actually works for a living… everyone else can go jump. XX

This is what the sky looked like from my office window this evening at about 4.30… just thought I’d share it with anyone who’s interested. Who needs Christmas lights with this kind of thing going on!… just as well really ‘cos they ain’t working tonight!

See, it’s not all bad on a Monday… though recently it’s been hard to see why not, until I took this pic after getting off the beautiful bus yesterday.

It wasn’t bad on Tuesday either… You know, I think someone may be talking to me!

Recently, I’ve needed to use the public transport system from Richmond to Catterick Garrison, a journey of about 2 1/2 miles. After a week of being put through misery, torture and hell - with possibly another week to follow - I can honestly say that the local bus trip is just not worth the suffering it can inflict. Not only are the buses dirty, smelly, quite often late, (or even too early so you miss them!) they are too damned expensive. I have great sympathy for all those poor souls who have to use the buses as a matter of course.

My bus trip costs £1.70, so over a week, not including Sundays, with return journeys, that’s a massive £20.40 - over a month that’s £81.60! All for a daily round trip of 5 miles.

In this day and age - with our lovely Government telling us that we should all use public transport, and that we should all be thinking about ditching our cars - you’d think there’d be more incentive for people to use the beautiful bus. Of course, I could choose to walk the distance and take in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside… yeah right, maybe in the summer Gordon.

This was going to be a huge rant about the shameful way our servicemen and ex-servicemen are treated by the Government, the lack of coverage in the media and the lack of interest by some sectors of society about armed forces issues. Issues like the lack of support for the wounded and the lack equipment for the fighting… but I changed my mind, it would only derogate what is a time for remembrance and humility.

So click this link or this link and do what you can to help.

It’s all well and good having lots of fireworks (and they were pretty good this year I thought), but how can you have Bonfire Night without the bonfire?

We couldn’t have a bonfire in the Castle - that, I could understand. However, now I think we should be taking advantage of the move up to the old racecourse, and have a proper bonfire night - you know the kind, a bonfire with a Guy, toffee apples, roasting chestnuts, baked potatoes, hot soup and yes, sparklers!

C’mon Richmond, they manage to do it in Reeth…

The first pic is of our normal Saturday market, the second of the Continental market a couple of weeks ago.

We’ve had a market in Richmond since the dawn of time and unfortunately some of the stalls look like they’ve been ravaged by it for at least that long. This is more noticeable now we have people running regular Farmers Markets and Continental French Markets who really seem to know how to present their goods.

You only have to look at the pics to see the difference. The Saturday market (top) is jumbled up, tatty and chaotic. You could say that dodging the vans and generators, taking care not to trip over boxes and rubbish is all part of the character of an old traditional Yorkshire market, but I think it’s just a mess. The French, or Continental Market (bottom pic) is much more colourful, tidy and is a superb example of how a market in Richmond could be. The Farmers’ Market, though in a different position, is similar in that it has order, it has continuity between the stalls and a generally better presentation of its goods.

The Town Council are now looking into tidying up our scruffy Saturday market, I only hope they take a few lessons from the very successful Framers’ and Continental Markets. I also hope they can make sure the stall-holders adhere to any new rules about presentation, encroaching onto walkways, and above all, rubbish and waste disposal.

I’ve often thought that the Saturday market was an eyesore, so I’m really glad the Town Hall is finally making efforts to fix it.

Today was a good day for going out in the afternoon sun to take some pics.

I did.

Unfortunately, the only one that was worth anything was this one.

I got a new lens the other day and this was the first time I had had a chance to go out with it. I was pretty excited about it at first, but soon that excitement fell into an abyss of misery. The lens is faulty, the auto-focus doesn’t focus, the image stabiliser doesn’t stabilise and I now have to pack the whole thing up and send it back. I really hate it when that happens, you spend hundreds of pounds on something only to find that it’s a crock of shite. One good thing did come out of it though - I now know not to buy stuff from ebay.

Bollocks!

So Lewis Hamilton can’t bear it in this country any longer - off he goes to Switzerland so he can get away from his fans and fame.

Well off you go little boy, and don’t bother coming back!

I have to admit when I first heard this I was kind of sad… but it didn’t last long and soon turned to irritation. I wonder if, just a year ago, he would have treated his Country and fans with such disdain. Of course not, he needed the support of the adoring fans, the publicity, and even the prayers of the brits wanting him to win the championship in his first year, not to mention all the money that was flying his way on the back of it all. I would have thought now would have been the ideal time to give a little back.

There’s no doubt that Lewis Hamilton is a fast and talented driver - but it seems he’s much faster at finding his tax haven.

As it’s now half term, and I don’t take the sprog to school for a week, I can enjoy a different, far more enjoyable route to work than the one mentioned in my previous post.

I love going to work this way, (I think I mentioned this in my old blog before it was torn violently from the notice boards and tossed in the fire, never to be seen again….) up this leafy lane, around castle walk and back into town at the top of the market place.

When I go this way I can enjoy the peace of the morning, breathe in the clear cool air of the Yorkshire countryside and get into the office feeling much more positive about the rest of the day.

This is a good kind of therapy for someone like me who tends to get worked up about most things in the universe!

If there’s one thing that really hacks me off (ok, I know there’s more than just one!) it’s cars, and in this case, lorries that park on the pavement.

This is the Woolworth’s lorry at about 8.30 am at the bottom of the market place. I was on the way to school with my youngest son and I can tell you that it’s not easy negotiating the lorry at the best of times, but it was just bloody dangerous trying to get past that tin plate that acts as a ramp for the trolley lift at the back of the truck. You can just see it sticking out at the back. When the lift is up, the tin plate is just at the same height as my son’s head…

Of course I’ve spoken to the lorry driver and the shop staff, but they don’t want to know. “We have to get the goods into the shop somehow, and we have to park on the pavement to keep the lorry level”

My or my son’s safety is not relevant in the daily workings of Woolworth, neither is the condition of the footpath which is damaged by the Woolworth lorries…

Further along my hazardous journey to school there’s Frenchgate, here we have a shining example of parking on pavements. In this case, it’s usually done by members of the District Council - even though they have their own private car park close to the council offices…. but I don’t want to get started on the Richmondshire District Council - I’ll only get myself into bother again!

Here’s an aspect of Richmond that is probably never seen or noticed by more than a handful of people… it’s a shame because it’s a surprisingly uplifting one for me.

It’s one of those ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ views which are actually quite common in this town.

Ok, so this photo doesn’t do it justice, but on a clear morning, especially in late Summer / early Autumn, the light is perfect at about 7.30 - 8.00 am. Take my word for it!

From the top of the side steps at the top of Frenchgate you can see through Lombards Wynd down towards Easby. The alleyway down the hill creates some rather romantic images of old Richmond in days gone by. In fact, you could imagine this pic being taken quite some years ago - apart from the yellow line on the roadside. (I have to admit that I did remove a pretty large TV areal from the pic as well - well there would be no point in making this post or posting this pic if I hadn’t!)

Anyway, it pays to walk around with your eyes open from time to time…