First time to this most ancient and English of towns down there on the very beautiful Sussex coast, all in aid of Hidden Britain for which are are working on the Botley project.
Eight similar small towns there - Hungerford, Wallingford, Dorchester, Brading, Wootton Bridge, EdenBridge, Farnham and... oops?? each at different stages of the process.
Our work is up there with the best of them which was good to see.

MAde me see that we as a company haven't done nearly enough this year to promote and develop the Hamble Valley brand we took over last Christmas, and I think by letting this happen we haven't given enougfh respect to Jo and her contacts/experience.
What we need to do is set up an 'organistation' - Hamble Valley Tourism Association ?? - which we can then use to acquire the relevant funding and embark on a project such as that in Eskdale.

Winchelsea is a stunning place. And the 13th century church of St Thomas epitomises that - some great ideas from this conference today which entirely explain why we were called to go.
Paid my respects to the very wonderful Terence Alan (Spike) Milligan, who is buried in the churchyard there with the clever epitaph he wrote for himself (I told them I was ill) inscribed in gaelic.

First time I've seen the extraordinary Pevensey Levels and the seaside town of Hastings.
What is it about the british seaside town? Trash personified. Yet not lacking in a strange charm, especially in late November...

Big night for Stan the Little Man today. His first with nothing on under his PJs.
Three weeks ago we introduced the 'Mother Ease' pants in an attempt to break his wetting at night habit, and he has been dry in them right from the first night.
It did seem the time had come to address the 'problem' and get him out of napppies, and it was obviously right for him.
he's so please dwith himself and has got right out of the habit, now getting up about 8 o'clock for a wee after reading and then going first thing in the morning.

And read - wooo, does he read!! Pinocchio this week, not to mention ceral packets, library books, sSpiderman comics. Literally everything. He's just like ali, so luckily we have lots of stuff to keep him occupied.
And he loves being read too as well, but I think he's growing oout of the stories we have in the evenings.
Or is it good for them to just relax and listen to something a little 'simple' before they go off to their own rooms and get lost in stories by themselves?
I think so

IT's all systems go for Foxx at the moment!
The man's on overdrive.
I just successfully made a recording of the live session him and Louis did for Tom Robinson on 6music last night (including an excellent version of Underpass) and it has just been noticed that music nonstop are taking pre-orders for the Cathedral Oceans DVD which is set ot be released on 8th January.
This is only a few days after the 'release' of the NEW album (yes, another one!) 'Sideways' which was 'made available' at the Coventry gig last Friday night. Be interesting to hear this as I only know one track of the thirteen on htere, and it's supposed to be quite different to From Trash.
Doesn't alter the fact though that it's too much too soon.
Output overload.

I sorted out my CDs on the weekend and FOUND the missing ones by Bill Nelson and Holger Czukay! Hurrah.
Also realised just how much room my vinyl takes up. I don't have a lot by any means (probly 300 albums and 200 singles) but it really just sits there occupying space that could be put to better use.
Even more worthless now my turntable has given up the ghost.

Stan and Ali have both lost teeth this week.
Last night the tooth fairy left 50p, but also left the tooth behind in the bag.
Ooops…

AND hurrah for me! A couple of hours on the net last night browsing MAc Fix It forums and I managed to sort out the problem with Illustrator and Photoplop. So I'm only two weeks behind with work and I'm raring to go.
FontAgentPro is what you need - thesde new machines are too clever for their own good, too quicklyupdated and prone to all sorts of silly crashes.
But it works, and I feel so much better for that.

Ooooh, I'm cross!

It's just been announced that at the gigs this week "they" (Mr Ego and his Personal Motives) are giving away free entry to a one-off gig in London next ytear to anyone who buys an official "From Trash" T-shirt during the current tour.
Interesting I suppose that, given there are only three UK dates, they won't be selling many hundreds of shirts.
So will people who don't but a shirt be able to buy a ticket?

That's exactly the sort of crass marketing sales gimmick that dilutes the John Foxx brand and turns him into the kind of commodity he has also stayed clear of being. It's making him look ridiculous.
Why can't people just be given the opportunity to buy a T Shirt?
And then buy a ticket to a gig in London?

I really don't understand. There are enough Foxx fans who would go to any length to see him and don't need a Special Offer to encourage them to go.

It's actually enough to encourage me NOT to want a T Shirt...

Currently reading:
Critical Lives: Marcel Duchamp - Caroline Dios
Conversations with God - Neale Walsch
(this is quite challenging. I disagree with the whole thing and it makes me cross. So not what faith is about. Bless the Americans...)
Naked Lunch - William Burroughs

Currently listening to: (not at the smae time, obviously)
From Trash - John Foxx and Louis Gordon
Bounced Checks - Tom Waits
The best of - The Clash
Tiny Colour Movies - John Foxx

have just eaten:
Cheese and onion pasty with chips, peas and sweetcorn
Homemade banoffee pie
kindly donated to us this afternoon by Carol, trying to make best use of yesterday's party leftovers

Currently praying thanks for:
The safe arrival into this world of Miriam Ruth Rumble on Wednesday afternoon.
The news that there will be twins in the congregation next May
Having my computer back online,a nd the lessons its abscence taught me over the last three weeks.

Tonight John and Louis play 93 Feet East in London. Third night of the From Trash tour, and the last in the UK.
From what I've heard os far, the general reaction is positive from the hardcore fans, but tinged with a little disappointment. Criticism so far relates to no visuals, songs being too long, set list too retrospective and Luois being over-animated.
The set list thing is the most concerning of these. Seems the boys are playing only FOUR tacks from the new album on what is being called the "From trash" tour??? out of a sixteen song set that lasts nearly two hours that is a poor show. It's more of a best of, and apart from "Dislocation" from the Ultravox days there is nothing going on that they haven't played before.

Thanking God also therefore that He gave me the foresight not to go to the gig tonight!

Now it's a funny thing
I love doing this.

Three years now (six times) I've run the bric-a-brac selling other people's rubbish.
As Foxx describes, there is indeed treasure in trash.
Quieter today, and its not generally the stuff people want at this time of year, but fun nonetheless and always a good opportunity to catch up with people and compliment them on stunning new hairstyles (looking sooooo good, Rachel !)
F and A spent all aftrnoon running the "Guess the name of teh teddy" and auctioning a signed Saints pennant (they got a tenner, so top draw girls!) and they helped set up and clear away, so now onder there were tears before bedtime earlier.

There will be for me too, at least figuratively speaking.
Not only did I happen to sit opposite the very gorgeous Emma B at CB's party this evening discussing her philosophy and textiles course at college (interesting combination) while trying to keep my eyes on her face
but we were being served drinks and nibbles by those three Czech students who drift in and out of focus every now and again with a soft click.
Maybe this is why Bundy hosts them every summer and I don't even like to think about it...

Feedback on my negative review is not good. I've upset people.
For goodness sake, it's just an album - not liking it much and saying so is hardly heresy!! We are kidding ourselves if we insist that absolutely every bleep and whistle by any artist is a work of genius. They have off days, and Foxx is being put through the mill at the moment by pushy managers and people with big egos and personal agendas.
It will all be gone in six months time, but why why why is there going to be an album of "other" songs released next week??
Surely, if they weren't deemed good enough by John and Louis to go on From Trash, then they hardly make up another best seller.
Having said that of course, its another must have for all us fans and collectors, but that doesn't make it a sublime work of transcendental brilliance.

Bad attitude
No gratitude

They always come
They always come
From trash…

How can you bring £150 worth of shopping in from the car quietly?
I've managed to wake Nora "Baggins" up with my rustling of carrier bags and shuffling of feet, shutting of cupboards and dropping of things.

Which means Trx has woken up too, which means less than things are not for grooviness…

And I promised myself that when the internet connection was fixed up after the Crash and Burn of a fortnight ago I wouldn't spend hours and hours wasting time on it.
So what have I been doing since 10 o'clock?
My excuse is catching up on emails.

It's been an interesting and refreshing exercise ringing people up though, rather than relying on this impersonal way of communicating. I hope I can keep it.
Seems people have voices, and sounds come from their heads accompanied by expressions on their faces.
It's a whole new language. Might catch on.
And you get an infinite number of messages per month, all free and socio-economically safe.

John's new album is still crap though, which is a massive disappointment and won't win me any new friends. Or him, either.
Mind you, he has 4,700 on myshite.

Friends that he's never even heard of.
How does that work?

Oooh, thanks for the add. It's really cool to have someone like you on my list.
I see THERE's the point.

Cynical. Me? Ooops.
Still, everyone's entitled to my opinion

It just gets better.
When the man in the overalls hadn't turned up by 10.30 (after being told it would be about 9am?) I rang BT (half an hour, on a mobile) and went through five departments until I got to Maddi in the LTU (Line Test Unit).
Yes, they have a record of a 'network fault' on that line, but no engineer visit has been arranged?
What? I arrange dit yesterday?
Gave the name of the bloke on the phone (Mohammed sthg?) and anyway got it urgently re-arranged for 'before 12.30..
He arrived at 1.30 having struggled to find us, and then in ten minutes diagnosed that the phone socket wasn't connected to the line in and so it was an 'installation' rather than a fault??
He went off to the 'cabinet' (one of those green boxes full of wires in the street) and would ring the number when it was fixed.
I left the office at 3 and he hadn't returned.

And that's just one line...

We coul dbe here for a while.
And this is one of world's largest providers of telecommunication servcies?
Hello??

Flo's going to be in the paper this week. She was chosen to represent the school at the Presentation of the Healthy Schools Award at the football stadium this morning.
Very proud of her - she's so modest about all her wonderful qualities.

The new Foxx album (yes - another one. the THIRD this year) is getting f*cked about distribution wise. SM seems to be making a right mess of all these releases.
HMV and FOPP both had deliveries of "Tiny Colour MOvies" eeks' new releases on Monday!!!!
That came out at Easter.
Computer says that's the new album.
What's this other one called then mate?
from trash are you sure.
Ent not no record of anything like that.

Does make me smile. apparently you can't get it on Amazon either.
This is despite revies on ceefax and in the Independent.

There's an interview in 'Dazed and Confused" style magazine tis month too.
Probably another 3 stars.
From what I have heard of it, it is spectacularly average. Strange lack of urgency about getting a copy...

It just gets better.
When the man in the overalls hadn't turned up by 10.30 (after being told it would be about 9am?) I rang BT (half an hour, on a mobile) and went through five departments until I got to Maddi in the LTU (Line Test Unit).
Yes, they have a record of a 'network fault' on that line, but no engineer visit has been arranged?
What? I arrange dit yesterday?
Gave the name of the bloke on the phone (Mohammed sthg?) and anyway got it urgently re-arranged for 'before 12.30..
He arrived at 1.30 having struggled to find us, and then in ten minutes diagnosed that the phone socket wasn't connected to the line in and so it was an 'installation' rather than a fault??
He went off to the 'cabinet' (one of those green boxes full of wires in the street) and would ring the number when it was fixed.
I left the office at 3 and he hadn't returned.

And that's just one line...

We coul dbe here for a while.
And this is one of world's largest providers of telecommunication servcies?
Hello??

Flo's going to be in the paper this week. She was chosen to represent the school at the Presentation of the Healthy Schools Award at the football stadium this morning.
Very proud of her - she's so modest about all her wonderful qualities.

The new Foxx album (yes - another one. the THIRD this year) is getting f*cked about distribution wise. SM seems to be making a right mess of all these releases.
HMV and FOPP both had deliveries of "Tiny Colour MOvies" eeks' new releases on Monday!!!!
That came out at Easter.
Computer says that's the new album.
What's this other one called then mate?
from trash are you sure.
Ent not no record of anything like that.

Does make me smile. apparently you can't get it on Amazon either.
This is despite revies on ceefax and in the Independent.

There's an interview in 'Dazed and Confused" style magazine tis month too.
Probably another 3 stars.
From what I have heard of it, it is spectacularly average. Strange lack of urgency about getting a copy...

Found an inspiring new 'place to go' today during a wander around the back of the shopping centre that is our new home.
I do like to get behind the facade.
Reminds me of the fascinating walk between Waterloo Station and the Tate Modern.
Along the river embankment all glitzy, clean and busy. The way to go - where all the signs say.
But when you come back, try walking 100metres or so inland, behind the first row of buildings. Where the boarded up shops are. And the bins. And people's washing.
MUCH more interesting.

I went out of the fire escape just outside our offices onto the top floor of the car park - found a vantage point and drank my coffee looking out over the city from a view one is not supposed to have.
Looks amazing!
I think, but I suspect this won't happen, there is an 'art project' up here among the concrete and the pigeons. from Trash comes Golden Moments

The lovely, absurd beauty of forgotten, overlooked, neglected things. Gathered with touching sincerity and great care and inadequacy and love. It's happening everywhere, all the time.
The shambling, ramshackle collections become streamlined, as bits fall off and get discarded, refined, distilled. A sort of torrid elegance manifests. The gaps get filled. Mongrel gene structures are vigorous, vivacious, virile. It can adapt to every situation. Lurches at first, then runs. The thing becomes lithe, fast. Leaps tall buildings at a single bound . . . Flies . . .
Of course, this peripheral eventually become the main thing. Takes years. The New Thing rises like a fine morning sun - and everyone eventually has to use its light to see by, at least some of the time. It shines from an unexpected direction and so illuminates a new angle on almost everything. A new light, a new angle, a new lens. Makes everything a pleasure to see again. A new world appears. For the taking.

I feel inspired to spend time here. Collecting images. Finding words hiding in unswept corners.
Stairwells and railings. Abandoned things. Discarded. Gone from one life into mine.
You're gone. You're gone - and yet you're not gone.
Out of sight. Into mind.

After the messing around with delivery on the shelving, it's now BT taking their turn to upset a process which has otherwise gone very smoothly.
Having been told initially that there would be no problem with the changeover to a new address and all would be done last Saturday, I rang Monday afternoon from the old room to be told they had no record of the order!
Excellent.
But the nice lady did say she could hurry it through and both lines would be connected 'before lunchtime' tomorrow.
Hey - that's today. Guess what?
I rang BT on one of those new portable phones that D gets every six months (where do the old ones go...) once I'd worked out how to make a call on it to a number that isn't programmed into the memory - at 3 to politely enquire about the progress.
"According to our records, that work was carried out at 8am sir."
???
Seems the operators can ring our numbers and they work fine.
Are we sure we have telephones connected to the sockets?... etc
But I can put yu through to the software engineers - maybe they can give you some advice. Or run a test on the line, perhaps?
Ahh yes - seems there is an 'exchange fault' on one line which needs an engineer to look at which could take up to 5 working days () and the second line has an 'intermittent network fault' which needs an engineer to visit the premises.
'Will there be someone there at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning?"

Seems we will then have one line.
Could they not test the lines for exchange faults BEFORE advising customers that their line will be working at a certain time.

Lord, thankyou for making me a patient man.

Impromptu fireworks in the church garden this evening - thanks Frank!
Just popped over to B&Q ten minutes before closing and found them selling off hundreds of fireworks (why do ALL places overstock things, overproduce things and then rely on 3 for 2 offers? Just make less...) so he picked up four boxes and invited us and a few others over to let them off and burn a load of tree cuttings and generally garden things for an houor.
The kids thought it was fantastic, especially Elsie, who finds the stupid loud BANG ones all a bit 'jumpy' but tliked these small 'fizzy' ones no end.
I was on bonfire duty, which is always fun, and for an hour that we knew nothing about until ten minutes before hand it worked out really well.

Spontaneity has not entirely disappeared after all.

John Foxx played CO3 live in Leeds tonight, and a Big Part of me regrets not being able to go to the event. First time he has ever performed the material live, with the one exception of Shrewsbury in 1988 when the work was in its conceptual infancy.
Sinc ethen it has grown into three of the most beautiful and ground-breaking albums of its type.
There is, in fact, very little to compare it with.
If it was up to me, Foxx would be up there with Budd and Eno for a place in the Most Influential Artists Ever. For this work, translucence and the awesome Tiny Colour MOvies.
Not forgetting that his eighth 'metal beat' album "From trash" is released on Monday.
Who is is releasing stuff at such aproloific rate, and of such different styles.

I seriously can't wait for TCM in brighton now. The first reaction to the event tonight are so enviable!!!!

Here's what i wrote of the first album:-

Cathedral Oceans, by John Foxx.
Opens with bird song and light floating synths. Builds up reverberating notes that seem to hang high in the vaults of a huge cathedral. Soft strings slowly descend from the cloud, falling like feathers to the leaf-covered floor below.
City As Memory is immediately bigger and darker, reflected in deep water with echoing bass notes swimming in the pool like massive fish. Vocals appear over the surface like mist; Ghosts on water chanting heavily-treated Latin verse - more and more figures appear throughout the piece which becomes quite ominous and threatening before they descend into the water.
Through Summer Rooms I can hear a distant organ, played by a lonely figure in a crumbling, ivy-clad church. Long echoes. Unaware of my presence, the man lifts his voice to join the higher notes in the air about him, floating gently among the rafters. Beautiful quiet passage in the middle of this piece.
Geometry and Coincidence takes us back to the lake. A mournful oboe sends out deep cries, and a voice unseen answers, reciting indistinct Latin prayer from the reeds on the other side. This is a scene of unrequited love from some unknown opera - very powerful and full of sadness.
If Only…
Lighter. Strings and organs. Indistinct. A figure we can't quite see dancing among statues in the overgrown garden.
Shifting Perspective picks up this theme as the figure disappears again. His voice then calls out from some hidden place and we follow down cloisters looking into many rooms.
Standing so close, never quite touching. Like someone almost there, but not quite. Perhaps we are chasing a memory?
Floating Islands is the most visual piece so far. Heralded by angels dressed in white robes and blowing trumpets, a huge island appears to float into view on the lake. There are statues and luxuriant vegetation, rich with flowers and small fluttering birds. High strings drift and float across the scene like wisps of scented smoke. As the island comes closer and passes us it becomes clear that it is actually in a state of decay rather than splendour. The voice becomes more pleading and desolate as it passes, hanging in the air as the falling pillars disappear on the tide.
Infinite in all directions combines the voice with the deepest bass notes, like the wrecks of massive ships. This has a resonant underwater quality, as if the souls of those lost in the shipwrecks are singing to us. They have become the whales that majestically glide through the depths, chanting ancient stories to one another.
Avenham Colonnade describes the voice whispering through the splendid trees lining a magnificent parkland avenue.
Sunset Rising. The beginning of the end. The voice held high and strong, carried on an uplift of reverberating organs, as the silhouette of the singer glows in the sunset's blaze.
Invisible Architecture brings the album full circle. A new day is breaking over the water. Maidens dance on the water to the sound of birdsong on a cool spring morning.

Standouts
City as memory
Through Summer Rooms
Floating Islands
Avenham Collonade

Go on, try something new

Well, it's done. We're in!
Two busy days and I'm knackered, but by 4.30 this afternoon I had 3 Macs all printing and all talking to each other. The shelving is all up and done, the library has been started on, all the printers work etc etc.
It is really exciting and I'm looking forward to getting to know the place and working ot a slightly new routine from Monday.
Big thanks to Jo and especially Ian who has been an inspiration - one of the few people who can make me feel lazy.
He just goes and goes, a real model of diligence, generosity, committment etc - all those 'old-fashioned' values. He's given us the last two days for free and we couldn't have managed without him.
I've just been back to the 'old' place to collect the last few remnants, check the answerphone (only 12 messages, so most people have got the idea...), vac the carpet and paint the windowsills. Hopefully now on Monday we should comfortably pass the 'inspection' with the landlord and get our deposit back. This will pay for one of the new macs I want to get this month.
Room seems tiny now, and would fit three times into the new places, so we are definitely moving upwards.
It all looks really professional too, and we have a great opportunity to wave our flag a bit by having an 'open house' towards the end of next week.
Felt quite humbled today chatting with the guys in the pub over lunch - they are both so important to us, and such really kind, enthusiastic friends. It feels strangely weird that our business is now growing and really seems to be on the map.
This time last year we were two (and have been for four and a half years). By January we will be five, and turnover will have doubled again as it has for four years too. I know that means bugger all when you still have diddly squit as a salary, but that's all set to become less of an issue next year as well I hope.

Bring it on...:D

The racking for the New Office finally arrived this morning - and we move in tomorrow! It's exactly what I wanted and fits just as I visualised it, which is encouraging, and adds to the sense of excitement I feel about the whole move.
In total D and I will have spent about £5K ont he project, and while it would have been useful to take that money for ourselves, it feels really good to invest it into our business.
Especially when I think of the story he related to me this morning of a friend of his (a client, with whom he seems to be getting increasingly 'involved') who has just paid the same amount to get her one room office decorated???
Makes you realise there are a ridiculous amount of people out there who are gullible, totally unaware of how to look after themselves, care not about the money when a business is paying for it, are prepared to rip people off.
Quite shocking. Also makes me realise perhaps the value of having a partner with whom to embark on such adventures.
But £5K, for decorating an office and laying some carpet...?? hello?
She's not even happy with the result and thinks she might look to move anyway.

There's no doubt that many many businesses (most, but that would be cynical) prey on the ignorance of their clients.

On which subject, we had a photographer round three or four weeks ago who spent four hours with the family taking shots to 'practise' with and to use on her website to promote a new business. We've had three 6 x 4 prints that have been Photoshopped to Hell and back, selected by her from a DVD slideshow containing 75 beautiful images.
All we want is a CD of those original images, which would cost her what - half an hour of time and the negligable cost of a disc?
For whatever reason, she won't do this for us, instead insisting that we buy the disc for a 'massively reduced' £120. Otherwise the pictures are £5 each, £8 for 7 x 5 etc.
Places like Venture are an absolute rip-off and charge hundreds of pounds for a single image (big size) which represents an enormous and completely immoral mark up. They run their filters automatically on the original pictures (which applires their trademark 'style' to the images which takes next to no time.

I don't quite know what Julie Davis problem is with giving us the original images, without all the FX, just copied straight from camera to CD.
There could perhaps be a potential loss of income, but there is no cost, and the whole exercise was supposed to be a mutual favour.
I hate being let down by people.

Anyway up, the shelving. Took me four hours of hard work to erect it all and bolt it together in place - and now I have the 'packing room and store' more or less sorted.
Everything is packed up in the old place now and tomorrow morning I pick up the van with Ian and we get shifting.
It's a great feeling. All ours too, going back to the money. We have no investors, no loans and no overdraft. That's what makes us use the money sensibly and make it go as far as we can. And being so hands on with a business like everything else makes it all much more real and tangible.
So different from just borrowing someone else's money and throwing it at anyone who quotes for something.
Get involved, get off your a*se and do it yourself. get your hands dirty, make your back ache.
Then feel the return on the investment.

The antidote to all this?
Cooking.
This evening I've just made the most gimungous pumpkin pie for the Church Family meal on Sunday. It's cooking now and smells delicious.
Aside from music and a dabble at writing, cooking has to be my most enjoyable stress buster. And my pastry is better than my mum's, which is a buzz as she taught me in the first place.

It's annoying and disappointing that she's treating us like a customer, when in fact it was she that approached us because we have children covering a wide age spectrum and it would be a good opportunity to get some promos.

Little sTan lost his first tooth today!! It has been wobbly for a week or so, and he's been doing the usual disgusting laying-it-flat and swirling-it-with-his-tongue games but today he got hit in the face at school by a football and that did the ttrick,
Unfortunately, he lost the tooth at first and was very upset, butt he Year 6s that kicked the ball took him to he office where his face was cleaned up and they even managed to find the tooth.
He is so proud of it!! And now speaks with a ridiculously exaggerated lisp by poking his tongue into the gap at the front.
He's so funny.
Got stuck on a word last night - "thoroughfare". What??? Not bad for a five year old. He's readin geverything in sight now and we've been advised that he's at level they are expected to reach at the end of year 2!
Another Alice - she had read most of the school library by Year 2 and is miles ahead of all her peers.
I just hope we can keep up with them!!!