Helen Haygarth


My little (obviously) neice was born to Phil and Anne. Hurrah !!!!!! Photo added end of August – about 7 weeks old!

Excitement alert: this year’s Tour de France

click to viewGod it’s so bloody exciting. It’s great that despite this being the toughest and crueltest annual sporting event, this piccie of Aussies Stuart O’Grady and Robbie McEwen having a little cuddle shoiws the softer side. click to view >>

This comes to pass, when a child is born

click for full size versionHelen Something* Haygarth, my neice, was born at 10:45 yesterday, 4th July, in Exeter. That’s just so nice. I did this little card for her. *She will have a middle name, but it’s to be decided at time of going to press

On this day in pop history

The Harris-sterWhy do raindrops keep falling on my head? It’s (possibly) because that was no.1 in the US charts on the day I was born…. Rolf Harris had the UK no.1 on that special, nay, sacred day, with “Two Little Boys”. Must have been a bit ironic for my Mum and Dad, who had their second little boy. Check what was no. 1 on your birthday here.

Rossendale Triathlon

I took part in the first ever Rossendale Triathlon on 4th June. It’s my local event and although I’ve only done one triathlon before, I was dead keen to do it.

The triathlon started with a 400m (16-length) swim, followed by a 20k cycle ride through Newchurch, Lumb and Water to Crown Point and back through Dunnockshaw and Crawshawbooth to Marl Pits. The final leg was a 5k run over a two-lap circuit combining roads and bridleways and finishing at the running track.

Very chuffed to get 4th place out of 73 finishers (80 starters). My goodness though I could do with being a better swimmer…. I was in 40th place after the swim and lost so much time there. 4th in the cycle and 5th in the run (chuffed with the run especially. Results here. Story here.

Rock Snobster

Snobsite.com, the online home of the music snob’s dictionary, is worth a look and a giggle. A bit too close to home for a music snob like me.

This rather dry excerpt about Kraftwerk is typical….

Kraftwerk. Acutely German, acutely secretive inventors of “robot rock” (their preferred term), a highly mechanized dance-pop heavy on synthesizers, vocoders, and lyrics about robots, computers, trains, and bicycles. Founded in Düsseldorf in the late ’60s by the KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN-influenced art students Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, Kraftwerk effectively invented electronic pop music with their five albums released between 1974 and 1981, Autobahn, Radioactivity, Trans-Europe Express, The Man Machine, and Computerworld, all the while toying with Teutonic stereotypes by appearing in photographs as waxen, short-haired, emotionless mannequins. Hütter and Schneider have since become semi-recluses, infrequently releasing albums and playing live, though it’s said that they beaver away at their Düsseldorf studio, KlingKlang, on a daily basis.”

Baby names

Been a bit of a chaotic week with minimal surfing (aaah) but I got sent this (click here), which made me laugh and play alot. Very very clever way of showing popularity of different names through the ages…. Having a bit of a shocking name like David, it always interests me to see what the world’s more exciting people get up to.

Three Peaks fell race

IngleboroughThought I’d better get populating this blog cause otherwise it’ll go stale and I’ll get out of the habit. I did the Three Peaks Fell Race on Sunday, my first attempt at the classic race (it’s been run 51 times now).

It’s 24 miles and 4,500 feet of ascent and descent…

I magaed 51st position (freaky?) out of over 400 starters, and was a bit chuffed with this. Results, with all the check point times are here: http://www.sportident.co.uk/results/ThreePeaks2005Detailed.html
I had a bad time of things from the top of Ingleborough (the last mountain) because of recurring cramp.

MP3 Boards of Canada blogs

Thanks to Simon, my mate who also should be getting on with his work, I’ve found some not-reasy-to-come-by Boards of Canada MP3s that surely can’t stay on line for ever…. Dozer mp3 blog has some old tracks that you simply can’t buy anywhere any more, so that’s good use of the internet, and honourable mention to Scissorkick, who posted a BoC remix of a Beck tune. It actually works really well.

Going away for the weekend

Well I thought I’d better make a start…. been looking at a few blogs and thought it’s not all take take take you know….. I’m (we’re) off to Oxford this weekend to see Dips (- a friend – who is multi-faceted, but) who was involved in the Cheeky Guides. Great books. I got my photo in the second edition, wearing a fez.