Ageing (dis)gracefully!
Friends & Family
Reflecting On 2009
Dec 31st
So it’s New Years Eve 2009.. a year that has probably been the biggest of my life. This is because the month of June saw the arrival of my daughter, Amelia.
Nothing quite prepares you for fatherhood and it’s been a rollercoaster of an experience so far. The nights of lost sleep during her first 2 months were pure hell on earth, but we pulled through and by 4 months the little tike was going down by 7pm and usually not getting up again until 6am. She is breast fed, and we started weaning her at 5 months. She now has 3 meals a day and generally only has the breast at night before bed. Quite an achievement and I am so proud of both her and Lucy.
The developing stages of a baby are brilliant. I love how things change and how they learn things so quickly. One day she is can’t do something, and the next day she is a pro at it. Rolling herself from her back to her front was one such milestone. Picking things up and holding them and then eventually manipulating them with her hands was another. As was the first time she managed to get onto all fours and crawl (kind of, she goes backwards!). She is growing up fast and it is so great to witness what new things she can do.
Amelia is now 7 months old and has a great little personality already. She smiles at almost everyone she meets (she takes after her mother there I think!) and doesn’t seem to have any fear.
Christmas this year was great. We were sat around Lucys parents dining table, as we have done every year since we’ve been together. Seeing Amelia sat there in her high chair was bizarre though! It suddenly struck me that I am a father. This seems to happen every now and then. It’s not that I don’t know I am a father, it’s that something happens to affirm it.
Roll on 2010, I can’t wait!
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Dec 20th
My beautiful 6 month old daughter, Miss Santa Amelia Lawrence Claus!
Merry Christmas!!! 
Neverland
Dec 12th
I took a flip HD camcorder to the Marillion Weekend in Holland earlier this year. I filmed most of the Sunday night gig without even realising it! I spent the gig next to one of the bars, drinking copious amounts of a beer called ‘Jupiler’. Most of the footage is through my drunken eyes …sadly, it also has some of my very own backing vocals!
The original plan was to put all of this (plus other weekend footage) onto a DVD and distribute it to the guys I spent the weekend with. I have been incredibly tardy with this though (6 month old baby, thats my excuse!), so have uploaded another clip to youtube.
This is the last 6 or so minutes of Neverland, complete with one of the best audience appreciations to a song I have ever witnessed. The hairs were stood up on the back of my neck at the time! My friend Leigh sums it up very well in the last 30 or so seconds of the video!
Bonus Time
Nov 16th
Just got confirmation of a performance related bonus in work. It got me thinking though … when I got my last big bonus about three years ago, it caused a monumental upset at home.
I was very very drunk one night. I knew the bonus was on the horizon and under the heavy influence of alcohol I told Lucy that when it came through, I would buy an engagement ring and propose. I was drunk and to this day I have no memory of this conversation.
Fast forward a few weeks, the bonus comes through and I go buy a nice shiny laptop. Lucy cries for about a week solid. After a few days I get to the bottom of the issue, apologise etc but there isnt much consoling her. She had gotten her hopes up big time, and me, being the nasty bastard that I am, dashed those hopes.
I did get a ring and got down on one knee about 6 months later, she said yes and we married the following year, so all ended well. I also eventually sold the laptop as it symbolised a pretty shitty few weeks. I actually felt guilty when using it!
So, its bonus time again and my thoughts are already turning to what I can buy. Im stopping myself though ..much easier in the long run if I let Lucy decide what we do with it! Im proper under the thumb arent I?! 
Marillion Weekend – Day 2
Nov 7th
I woke up in a grotty hotel in Amsterdam after approximately five hours of sleep/drunken unconsciousness. As I opened my eyes my thoughts immediately turned to how I was feeling. I had drunk a heck of a lot the night before and not had my traditional pre-emptive hangover cure (food!) at the end of the night. Surely I would be hanging?
However, I sat up and felt fine. I got up and felt fine. I took a shower, I felt fine! It was bloody brilliant!
Leigh, also as unaffected by last nights antics as myself, helped me rearrange the room back into it’s original ‘twin’ layout and we then met Ian & John downstairs for breakfast. When I say breakfast, I had a bread roll, some cold meat and a bit of cheese. I ended up slapping it all together and eating it like a sandwich. I hate continental breakfasts! I’d have a good old English fry up any day of the week!
We then sat around for about 30 minutes, drinking Orange Juice and Coffee, discussing the night before and deciding a plan of action for the coming day. We knew we had to be back at the airport to catch our bus for around midday, so decided we would take a tram into central Amsterdam and wander around.
Wandering around the murky backstreets was quite fun. We walked past lots of the establishments you would expect to find in Amsterdam such as the sex shops, cafes with the distinct smell of cannabis emanating from them, X rated cinemas, and Leigh’s personal favourite, a Pizza shop that miraculously had a smell of pizza coming from it! 
Marillion Weekend – Day 1
Aug 12th
So, it’s been a good couple of months since I got back from Port Zelande in Holland, the scene of probably the best weekend of my life! I was over there attending a music festival run by veteran rock band, Marillion.
They have held four previous ‘Marillion Weekends‘, each proving bigger and better than the last. The format is that they book out an entire holiday park and put on three big gigs on the site. Fans buy a weekend pass which gives them accomodation aswell as access to all of these gigs and the other events held onsite.
The events have traditionally been held in the UK, with fans travelling from all over the world to attend. However, for 2007 the band decided to look to mainland europe, settling on a very large ‘Center Parcs’ in Port Zelande, Netherlands. This site enabled them to erect their own purpose built arena, rather than rely on the facilities of the site itself. It also had superior accomodation and facilities compared to the ‘Butlins’ site they had been using in the UK. The 2007 event proved to be their biggest and best ‘Weekend’ so far, so for 2009 the same place was to be used.
This is where the irony steps in for me. The band have held four previous weekends, three of which have been within a stonesthrow of where I live. Despite this, circumstances at the time (lack of money and my sister getting married during one of them!) dictated I couldn’t go ..yet now, I was prepared to travel to another country to do this. Crazy? nah!!
Another slightly daunting prospect was that we were sharing accomodation with two blokes we had never met in our lives. The first, Ian, is a guy I have gotten to know through the fabulous last.fm. We have been in contact for about 3 years and get on really well, so when booking the tickets for the weekend we decided we would share digs. Then there was Jim. As we needed a fourth person to fill our chalet and avoid us having to pay a supplement for under occupancy, I posted an advert on the Marillion Forum with the title ‘Wanted: 1 Alki‘. Jim, apparently an alki, responded within a few hours and we added him to our party.
A few months after booking, I had noticed a post on the Marillion Forum from a chap called John who was looking for someone to share a car to the event with. I was intending to fly, but still still responded to say hi when I noticed he lived in the local area (literally 10 miles down the road). We exchanged a few emails and he also decided to fly, mentioning the fact he wanted to stop over in Amsterdam for one night before heading to Port Zelande. We (me & Leigh) decided that was a pretty damn fine idea, so arranged we would tag along with him. Marillion happened to be touring last autumn too, so we arranged to go to one of their gigs with John, to put a name to a face and so we knew who we were going to be travelling with. Thoroughly nice chap.
Why I Am Done With Facebook
Aug 6th
I’ve been on Facebook for a couple of years now. To begin with I barely touched it, then gradually over time it became a daily obsession of mine to log in and keep track of friends and family. I also found myself compelled to post status updates several times a day. I just had to do it!
Over the last few weeks I have posted a few status updates regarding Amelia and her unsettled time, referring to her as ‘Devil Child’. This week I posted a specific update and whilst several people made some jokey comments a few made some that I just couldn’t take as joking. Generally about my lack of understanding of Amelia and questioning if I even love her. Several steps too far I am afraid. It’s been pointed out to me that the comments could still be considered as humour, but I took offence. If it was enough to offend me, it was too far.
I proceeded to get quite pissed off and set about deleting every recent status update relating to Amelia so no further comments or judgements could be made. I was then in a foul mood for the rest of the day. It’s during that day I realised how much Facebook has become a large part of my life. The fact that something on there could upset me lead me to realise I have been spending far too much time on there. It shouldn’t have got to me the way it did.
So, i’ve made a very conscious decision to back away and to very rarely update my status (I will never say never). I could always have deleted the ‘friends’ who made the comments, but that misses my point slightly. I need to step away! I’ll still log on and still comment on friends and family, but I refuse to open myself up on there again.
The good news is, this blog will become more active as almost everytime I have something worth blogging I end up posting a small status update on Facebook instead. Every cloud ….
