Great Tit?

Great Tit?
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

It looks like a crow of some sort to me but what do i know? A rare New Year's collage for Flickr. I must admit I have found it difficult to get back into making anything over the last couple of weeks- feeling rather guilty that I've been adding work from the archives to my various blogs and groups.
Hopefully this feeling will pass and i can get on with things. Hoping to combine my pleasant task of dubbing all our VHS tapes to DVD ( a Xmas present) and running upstairs to stick something to a collage in between programmes!
This week has mostly been taking up with piling up suitable tapes in order of interestingness and seeing if they will fit onto a 4 hour disc without too much quality loss. The difference between the 2 hour disc and the 4 hour is only slightly noticable and the old tapes are pretty jumpy anyway. Luckily the Joseph Cornell documentary from the 90's I watched yesterday hadn't deteriorated too much. His birds and targets boxes are a definate inspiration in this collage here. So wonderful to see again and I must mention the fabulous book of Cornell and Duchamp that Angelica sent from Texas which arrived three weeks late but great too!
Not to mention all the other things in the parcel that seems to have been stuck in New Jersey over Xmas for some reason.
Other highlights of the week have been the school ski meeting that i didnt go to. Hazel has ordered some more ski clobber for Archie's trip. I have a photo of the resort in front of me- it looks fantastic! The hotel is on the ski slope doorstep at Hochkar in the Austrian Alps. "25 kilometers of piste- 12 ski lifts( 4 chair) Extensive snow making- good progression- exhilarating runs- fabulous powder, moguls and spring crystals ( whatever they are?) hot lunch included". Sounds fab! Hazel and I are extremely jealous!
Went to town on ednesday to the library sale again hoping for reductions but still the same price. I found some cheap cranberry juice with white grape which is delicious. Had a slight kidney infection over New Years so trying to drink more healthy juice and water. It seems a lot better now I'm glad to say.
Its Friday the 13th! Oh horror! I shall stay in out of the biting wind and rain to copy more old tat to disc. Hvae about three dozen tapes of old Warner Brothers, Disney and Ub Iwerks etc. to get through!

Book Sale at Library

The library sale is usually quite exciting with lots of cheap books, tapes and videos etc. but today they seemed to have found the dullest books imaginable! I didn't buy anything. Probably just as well as we haven't any shelf space. I did the usual tour of the charity shops but also failed to find a bargain. In the discount DVD and CD shop found "Ghost World" in a sale which Angelica had mentioned as being good. I waited in the baker's to be served but the shop girls were flirting with some labourers buying pies and seemed to take ages so I left in a huff. The old dragon was in the next baker's so I didn't venture in there. I ended up buying some white rolls and a small brown loaf from Iceland which I vowed never to go in again, but time is a great healer.

Skier Of The Day

Archie was awarded the coveted "Skier Of The Day" certificate at Runcorn today - the only one in his group to get one. This made up for not being allowed onto the big slope with his friend James who is more cheeky than Archie and just went up to the top without asking. Being polite and asking first is not always a good thing. Mind you, Archie seemed to settle into the lower slopes quite well and proved he could be quite slow and meticulous when it came to going round poles.

Spellchecker suggested I replace Runcorn with "reincarnate" which i thought quite amusing.

My feet were like blocks of ice watching them ski so I got back in the car to read the sunday papers.
On the way there we passed a group of cyclists going towards Chester and heard later of a terrible accident on a notorious stretch of road in Wales today on the TV where 4 cyclists were killed by a car, and wondered if it was the same group.
Archie went to James' house to play after skiing and I watched some FA Cup action on the telly. Sadly Northwich Vics. lost at Sunderland.
Watched again the programme I found of Tom Phillips talking about his work on an old C4 programme from the 80's.

Wonky wardrobe fun!

ajulotcard
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Not really. I had to make a hanging rail for Hazel's jackets etc. that she had scattered around the bedroom on picture rails and on chairs etc. We went to B&Q to get the expensive fixings and the expensive broom handle. A broom handle was £2.95 and a peice of dowel of the same length was £8.95 so we plumped for the broom handle. When it breaks from weight of garments I expect we shall wish we got the dowel but hopefully it won't.
Hazel was upset that NEXT hadn't yet opened - indeed the shopfitters were still painting and wiring the place up so doubt whether it will be open before the end of January.
Then went to Granma's to take down the decorations, this being 12th night and if you don't they all turn into pumpkins.
This took longer than we thought as the boxes that they put them all in were wedged in the wardrobe and the sliding door had come adrift and had to be manhandled back into it's grooves.
Then home to take down our decorations which was fun. Tree left an impressive wake of needles from the living room to the front door. Hazel hoovered them up and filled the Dyson several times. She bagged some up for the needle fairy and left them in the grate.

New year's sort out.

a10yearanniversery93
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

A day of sorting out books and junk from a wardrobe that was choc-a-bloc with stuff. Hazel needs space for her clothes and forced to hand jackets on picture rails round the bedroom which isn't the best idea. We managed to be quite ruthless and put aside a pile of stuff for the charity shop. Whether they will want it or not is another matter!
Found a lot of old slushy cards I'd sent to Hazel on our Anniversery and valentines etc. One such is pictured here. More at Flickr stream.
Being a Bank Holiday it was very quiet and no post and no shops open as far as we knew. We stayed in to fill bags of old books, toys and junk all afternoon. Hazel has enough room now to hang her jackets up at least. All we need is a pole and fixings to hang them on.

We also found an old Escalado horse racing game which Archie was keen to play. We dusted it off and tried it out despite our dining room table being rather short. It really needs a long table and the canvas "track" is held in place with brackets that screw under the tables edge. A handle is turned at one end and the lead horses ( some with three legs and a jockey with no head!) race along to the finish line caused by the vibrations of the cogged wheels moving the canvas "track" . Small wooden buttons act as "jumps" and if the horse hits them they bounce the horse back a couple of inches and so one never quite knows which horse will win. Mostly they fall over and go along on their sides! I'm sure it was a terrific game for all the family at one time before Nintendos and Playstations. The novelty soon wore off for Archie despite going to make robots out of Lego to try on the track ( a dismal failure!).

Happy New Year!

Feeding the ravenous ducks!
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Had a nice walk this afternoon to Marbury to feed ducks our bags of stale bread we'd collected over the holidays. They were mad for it! Lots of fights and scuffles broke out and we had to step in to pull them apart! Swans and geese joined in too- they must have been really hungry.
Having a quiet night in and will drink a toast with some Bucks Fizz at midnight and let off sopme rockets we saved from November 5th if I can keep awake that long! Cheers!

Mr Happy ( a sneaky addition by Hazel)

Mr Happy
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Michael also left his Blog logged on so I can add a page to his blog...little does he know.
I thought this would be a good one to say HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all....
Hazel x

There it was - gone!

Best present ever!
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Well Christmas has come and gone again in a flash and we are almost back to normal again except for the bloated feeling and the slight hangover. It went pretty much to plan with no upsets though Granma had to have her tooth out the day before Xmas Eve , so that wasnt so good for her, but she seemed O.K. when we went round for our Chritsmas dinner . She had to cut her turkey up really small. I made a nut roast with chestnuts, walnuts, cashews and variious roasted seeds which was very nice even though I say so myself. We had to take our own Marmite and onion gravy too. Archie took his new guitar which you can see here- trying to crack granma's ornaments! Even though she is partially deaf she had no trouble hearing him! Argh! The poor neighbours! Out of all his presents this is the one that is picked up constantly, so a good choice. The 99p balancing tops are a favourite too.
After dinner and the huge pile of washing we sat down to play games like Cluedo but we all felt shattered by this time and dozed off in front of the telly watching Shrek or whatever it was.
Yesterday was a quieter day with some more games- Ludo, Coppit and cards etc. and more TV and hazel and Archie went into the garden to burn all the wrapping paper and boxes. For lunch we had the rest of the nut roast and some of granma's trfle for pudding. Pulled the home-made crackers that Roger and Jilly sent and wore silly hats. Mine had "Mr. Happy" scrawled on it. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be ironic or not? But I was happy most of the time and felt a warm glow of contentment being at home with the family. How lucky am I?

Merry Christmas!

santa - xmas 1999
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Excursion to Crewe.

Deep fat fryer attacking South Sea islanders.
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

The market was pretty quiet at Crewe today with half the stalls taken over my xmassy things like holly wreaths and wrapping paper etc. Hardly any junk to look through. I didn't find one bargain which is unusual for me. Hazel got a few stocking fillers though and the pork pie her Mom wanted. Also some spinning tops.
We decided not to look for the bigger shops like Currys and Dixons etc. and come home again as we were hungry.
Archies gone to see the "Narnia" film today with the school and this afternoon an assembly and prize giving. After we are going to see Granma Jones as it's her birthday.

Week Buzzing By!

Make a Buzzing Snap Fly!
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Its hard to keep up sometimes - this last week seems to have whizzed by. Time to catch up.
On Wednesday went into town again and found a DVD of old Felix the Cat films from the 20's. They hadnt even been digitally restored - just filmed as they were projected onto an old bed sheet hung up between some railings in an industrial estate somewhere? Hazel went for staff meal at weird shack in seedy part of Manchester. she said it was lovely food but the photo of the outside looked pretty scary with old car tyres and rubbish lying about outside the mean streets.
Thursday was mostly forgotten. I sent out some more cards I think?
Friday I walked into town again for some exercise and swapped the dodgy PS2 controller for a new one as it had been sticking and driving us mad. The shop assistant happily swapped it but said most people dont bother to bring them back as they "obviously will wear out if you use them a lot" and are happy to buy another! What an idiot!
Also got some ink cartridges at a reduced price but even so they were very expensive. We tried the recycled ones but they last 5 minutes.
Watched the last of Bleak House which has been very enjoyable - the best thing on the telly all week apart from Creature Comforts.
Went to see the new King Kong film on Saturday which was excellent but very l-o-n-g! Too long really. I think they could have trimmed at least 30 minutes off it. Cinema only half full despite a big Q to start with.Hazel dropped us off at the Regal and went shopping for three hours as she didnt fancy three hours of screaming and monkey noises.
Very cold with a thick frost over the weekend.
Went to our old neighbours place in the nearby village for drinks and "light supper". I drank three glasses of mulled wine and felt very Christmassy ( tiddly).
Today it was the shopping again and a haircut. I can feel the wind whistling round my ears now. Hazel has been clearing out cupboards of junk and throwing more stuff away. Finding things for her blogs and some old sketchbooks.
The "Snap Fly" was an invention for SNAP comic which folded soon after I was introduced to it by Ivor Cutler. Typical! This was my first and last commission. It was published by Walker Books who had offices just around the corner from where we used to live.

Archie 's Interview.

We were searching through Google to see how Archie was doing with his animations and came across this INTERVIEW from the Cornerhouse website that was alos published in their monthly magazine. Also a whole page of mentions about the various film festivals his films have been seen at and mail art sites I have dropped his name over the years.

Curios Tuesday

Curios Thing 15
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Unlucky for some. It wasnt too bad actually despite the heavy shopping bag weighing me down and making my arms ache. I looked round for a bus but by that time I'd spent all my money anyway! Found a few bits and bobs for under the tree including a PC game about planet colonising and space station building for Archie. He likes all those Zoo, City, Rollercoaster Tycoon etc. type build up an empire games so he'll probably like this. Also some Popeye films on DVD from the 50's that have a couple of great old Fleischer Bros. animations sprinkled in between. A bargain for two quid in a charity shop. Bought a calender for next year to write reminders on- dentist appiontments, holidays, etc. Some typing and copying paper and sellotape. Found "Kid A" by radiohead for 50p which must be a bargain. I havent really liked much of what they do though- all sounds a bit doomy and gloomy to me. Also "We Are Scientists" from the library which is good and reminds me of Franz Ferdinand and The Kaiser Chiefs a bit.
The postman has just been. A card and nice letter from someone who I used to work with and they moved to Amsterdam a few years back and I lost touch with them so that was nice. No address on the letter or envelope though so hope the old one will find them. Posted tons of cards and packets today. The post box was full and they all slid out again so had to find another to stick them in!


A bit out of date but you can find a page about my Gocco exploits a couple of years ago courtesy of Mark Pawson HERE.

More Crimble Shopping.

axmasbuyersguide94
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

This is an old booklet I used to make around the festive yule-tide to swap with mail artists and amuse my friends with at Xmas. I dont make them anymore. I'm all Christmassed out.
Last night went to the schools "World Fusion " evening which was mostly depressing playettes and songs about death, poverty, AIDS, global warming etc. They could have lightened the mood a bit with something cheerful at this time of year! Bring back the panto! Archie was in a short piece about a black boy being bullied. Archie was a bully and had to say "He's black!" and "Blacky!" etc. and strike a pose as another group on the stage did there bit about the Greenhouse Effect and so on. Sheer torture! Hazel escaped by being at college all day and having a lecture to sort out when she got home but i think she was really watching the Culture Show.
She said it was weird at the college today as they are filming a future episode of Coronation Street in the main gallery and she kept seeing members of the cast and even walked to work with Sanita- a strange parrallel universe she'd been sucked into.
I went to town and didn't see anyone famous. The library book sale was still on but didn't find anything else. I bought a book about horror films in the Help The Aged shop to cut up. I already have it.
Also some small presents. Also milk and bread.
Walked home as it was quite a pleasant day , milder than of late. Found some packets and other mail on the doorstep so presume our usual postman is away or ill. Have been making more Xmas cards and putting them in envelopes.

Manchester trip

Went to Manchester yesterday and stayed over night at a hotel near the Cornerhouse where Archie's animations were showing at the Under Exposed student film festival. It was pouring with rain by the time Archie and I got to Piccadilly Station and we had to walk through great puddles all the way to the Cornerhouse where we met Hazel, who had been at college all day. We dropped out stuff off at the hotel just round the corner which was quite spacious and clean and dried off a bit before walking to the Continental market behind the imposing grandeur of Manchester Town Hall which has a huge plastic Santa climbing over the roof. The market is great and full of intriguing stalls of bubbling cauldrons of spicey soups and sauerkraut. Great rotating grills of sausage and kebabs were roasting over fires blazing under awnings groaning with holly and misteltoe etc. A brass band played carols nearby to complete a very festive scene. We all had delicious dutch pancakes which were tiny but very filling , covered in cream and chocolate sauce ( had lemon juice ). Archie bought some gingerbread and brandy snaps.
Then we had a pizza before the showing at 8.i5 at the Cornerhouse cinema 2, down in the basement which was a sell-out. Lucky to get seats ourselves as they forgot to put any aside for us.
A short interview conducted by Ra from the Cornerhouse with Soup Collective who make promos and films for bands like Elbow and Snow Patrol etc. Then the films in competition including Archies which was well recieved and won the runner up prize, we leaned today.
I didn't sleep very well in the hotel although it was perfectly comfortable. I never do in a strange bed though and woke up several times wondering where I was!
After breakfast at the college we wandered back to the Cornerhous for the next showing with Archie's films in the shorts section for Students ( last night was for everyone ). A bit rowdy with groups from several schools and youth groups attending. Some good films though and there was a raffle too which I won ( book about horror films and Corpse Bride T-shirt) so a pretty good day all round. Caught the 12.26 p.m. train from Piccadilly to Northwich and home by two. Had some japanese fishy/rice snacks on the rain as a treat. Archie has gone off to ski practice now with the school - a busy boy!

Overtaking the slow cars.

Beatle Beat
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

I think they must have been digging the road up somewhere because the traffic was at a crawl today into town. It was quite nice to actually walk faster than they were moving and get there before them. I felt quite smug and healthy as they fumed in their Ford Mondeos and Robin Reliants etc.
No rare Beatle Beat record at the Oxfam today. Nothing infact. I got some butter, bread and bananas- everything beginning with the letter "B".
Ex-Beatle George was next on the Concert for Bangla Desh DVD borrowed from the library. I never saw it at the cinema so nice to see now. The hair in it was phenomenal! Everyone had beards and moustaches, even the women!
Bought a video at the library sale too for a quid. "24 Hour Party People" with Steve Coogan and Peter Kay. It's about Tony Wilson and the Manchester rock scene of the 80's. I think Peter Kay plays Morrisey in it.
Walked home despite the heavy bag of shopping. Collected all the hair and fluff in the bedroom. Hazel is going to knit a vest with it. Hoovered the rabbit and cleaned out the hutch. Those big Sunday papers are so useful aren't they?

Sneezin' Dan McGrew

Percy and chum. 1913
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Whoever he might be? I'm certainly doing my fair share of sneezing and snorting at the moment - full of this cold that Archie has passed onto us! Hazel has it too so fighting over the boxes of tissues and paracetamol and the hundred and one other cold medicines we seem to have aquired in our First Aid cupboard!
I did stagger into town yesterday, for exercise more than anything. It snowed on me half way and the big flakes turned into small grains of rice by the time I got to the railway bridge and then they vanished and the weather improved a bit. I didn't find much on my charity shop trail - just a story tape for Archie ( another stocking filler) and some CD's from the library. I found the latest from Futureheads, The Bravery and Arcade Fire which I've heard lots of good things about and enjoyed them when they were on Jools Hollands show on BBC2.
Hazel found this old postcard at the boot sale ( or was it me?) It's of Percy and his "chum" in Liverpool of all places in 1913. One wonders if they were sent off to the war a year later, and what became of them.
Glad to get home after walking back in the cold, to a nice warm house.
A nice pile of mail for a change with a wonderful envelope full of little home-made books from William S.An Ivor Cutler CD from Pamela and a packet of lovely collaged postcards from Angelica in Texas.

Boot Sale Silence.

a22anniversarycard
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

I other words- i didn't find any scratchy records or any thing atall infact. Archie did quite well though - he got the Finding Nemo DVD for 3 quid ( two discs) and a PS2 game of Roller Coaster World which is even more tedious than Roller Coaster Tycoon! I think he may swap it for another quite soon. Hazel didnt find anything either. She took her Mom and sister there later and they bought a few nick-nacks. Afterwards we went into town to get some bread and general shopping. It was very quiet- mainly because it was Sunday but some shops did eventually open at 10a.m.
When we got home we found that the Finding Nemo had jam smeared on it! I knew it was a "special collectors edition" but didn't realise the head of Pixar would include jam? Thankfully the jam soon got cleaned off and the disc seems to play perfectly so it was a bargain after all.
Hazel has gone outside to the workshop to twiddle with her metal bits. Archie is sniffling and snorting still- feeling sorry for himself despite all the "bargains" he got. Colds, make you feel so lousy- I don't blame him. I think Hazel and I have caught it too as we both woke with sore throats and had a restless night- each blaming the other for stealing the duvet!

Cult figures of 2006.

acultfiguresof2006
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

This is a new mail art project by Ken Miller who has a different "cult figure" each year - usually a found photo. Find out more HERE.
Archie has a bad colb in de nobes so had the day off school. We had considered going into Manchester with Hazel to see John Hegley do a "lecture" on Inter-Active Arts course that Hazel works on. It would have been nice but Archie was full of cold and the train journey alone is enough to put you off going.Hazel phoned to say he was very good and it fitted very well into the Creative Methodology scheme of things.
Archie has been amusing himself with games , TV and reading. We played cards briefly and had a veg. sausage and fried onion sandwitch for lunch. A bloke just knocked at the door and thrust a leaflet into my hand. Another dodgy double glazing salesman. "I see you already have double glazing." he said and enquired "Do you need anymore?" My answer was in the negative. At least he apolygised for the intrusion and walked off - some just keep going on and on and on about double glazing even when you tell them you don't need any thankyou. I hate cold callers.
Time to go and get some dinner started. I think it might be stuffed pasta and tomato sauce tonight.


An old photo but a new recording of Archie's guitar progress. You can here a hissy sound bite HERE.

Flo's typing her memoires.

Make it go away!
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Thats what it sounds like anyway but really just the water dispenser wired to her hutch being used.
Just back from town looking rather windswept but it's milder today despite the hail stones bouncing off the window just now. Quite windy too. Leaves everywhere. I didn't find much though a good copy of Tim Hunkin's book about Everything for a pound in a charity shop.
Yesterday we were startled by someone rattling our front door - I assumed it was the postman trying to force a large packet through our letterflap. I opened the front door and this woman was in our porch with a big bunch of keys trying frantically to remove one from our key-hole! She looked startled and said "Is this Mr. Wilberforces house- she phoned to say she was stuck in bed?" Seems she was from the Social Services or the Council Help Squad or something and had got the numbers mixed up. The house she wanted was on the other side of the road about 10 doors down! Oh how we laughed!
I got a nice packet from an old tape swapper pal who had sent me a cassette of some rare Johnny Standley and Spike Jones he had found. I put some tracks on my Boot Sale Sounds blog. Coincidentally another tape swapper Jim in Basingstoke phoned during the day to find out if I had anything new. I told him I'd just been to the dentist for a check-up and got a 30 minute tale about the misfortunes that have befallen his gnashers over the last 30 years! Thankfully nothing alarming happened at the dental surgery- just a routine check and hygenist scrape and polish afterwards. Glad to get that over with - I've never been very good at going to the dentist but better than I was.