This will be my last myspace blog, as I have decided to move to wordpress.  Wordpress is easier to use and has a lot more functionality, such as allowing anyone to comment, not just myspace members and keeping stats on who has been looking at the blog.  

So the blog is now at http://hickey.wordpress.com/ and the rss feed is http://hickey.wordpress.com/feed/

All previous posts have been copied over (although the formatting is a bit all over the place).

It's the night of the blackpool lights switch on and its pissing down, so I'm listening to the festivities on the radio from the comfort of the living room, ive had enough of listening to bands in the rain recently….whih brings me on to this years V festival which had its highs and lows.

Lows: Rain, ebay thieves, police dogs, rain, people in a bad mood cos of the rain, Greta having a bad eye, carrying tons of tents and stuff through miles of mud.

Highs:  Lilly allen pissed on stage, Taking the piss out of greta having a bad eye (she was the Spanish widow, talking rubbish with friends in the tent (ask golden Virginia and I still say Man City would be a great name for a gay bar) and dancing the night away on the Sunday night.

Despite the hastles of camping in the rain, we went camping again the following week in a beer garden in Inglewhite, during the day we walked the 6 miles up and around beacon fell.  As usual tyler was bounced around it with no problem while we struggled on behind.  During the evening we bought as much booze as we could from the pub then back to the tent for a final bottle of wine.

Although it's the light swith on tonight Simon and I had a preview when we cycled down the prom and back along with 100's of others.  It was a great evening and fairly healthy (apart from the sausage roll, donuts and southern comfort we had on the way)

Right I'd best head off

Tra'

So after the art we popped back to pick up oscar and his new housemate Lee. We headedover to tyne mouth where we discovered there was a festival on although. We didn't really see much part the crowds other than the odd brass horn and some smoke. The tyne mouth market was interesting as ever selling everything from dolls that look babys suffering from a lack of oxygen, to plaques of the old tourist posters telling the world 'Life is gay,in whitly bay'. While browsing simon and I  could hear oscar the other side of the market 'enthusiasticly'  explain to Lee why a gollywog was not just an innocent childs toy. I felt sorry for ian on the journey home as he was trapped in a car with 3 gay men and a shirley bassey cd.

Simon and me them started our evening about 4.30 by meeting martin in the beautifully converted train station building, the centurion. Simon listened to martin and of reminise about our wild drinking nights, involving strip clubs,chillie vodka, and the scar martin still has after my 30th birthday.

We left martin and headed back down the scene to surprise diane, my favorite karaoke hostess .lots of screams, hugs and kisses plus a couple of karaoke numbers. The night continued onto several bars. I was driving so i stuck with soft drinks. Si however was feeling the affects of drinking for several hours so he moved onto the still orange drink reef. How was he supposed to know it was 5%.

So other than stopping off at haidrians wall and carlisle on the way home, that was our trip to newcastle.

I dragged Si up to Newcastle this weekend to see all my old mates as I haven't been back since I moved to blackpool a year ago.

A missed shortcut meant we got their late but manage to drive past the angel of the north ond over the Tyne bridge to Oscars.  A quick chill later we were off into the toon and first stop was the Trent House which is a great student pub which has been loved by generations, It has a cabinet of novelty condoms and claims to have the best juke box in the world.  From there we moved over to a similar pub called the Forth which was far too noisy so after a toilet break it was off to Coco.v which was full of hen parties, stag parties and a waiter with a fantastic butt, as Oscar pointed out.

Then on to the Gay scene we started at a new bar called gossip which is part of the club.  Bland bar, high prices. Then down to The Eagle (or the Vulture as oscar called it)  this was always my HQ where the nights out would begin and end.  When  Simon saw the place he pointed out it looked like the hillbilly shooting range at the amusement arcade on the North Pier.  By this point I had consumed several vodkas so recollections may get haizy.  Over the course of the night we met up with many old friends including Mitch, Jeff, Bobby, Jason and many whos name I couldn't remember not to mention a few I have no recollection of ever seeing before in my life, but they all asked how I was doing in Blackpool.  At some point we ended up over at the yard and heavens above although I cant remember much from there other than a fight broke out on the stairs.  When we drunkenly made it back to the eagle se met up with paddy, a good friend who is far to intelligent and thinks too much or his own good.

By then it was time to go home, particularly as the drinks rounds were astronomical, as was the taxi fair home.

Day 2 started with the full tourist thing, breakfast in blakes (according to the observer the 50^th best place in the country for breakfast) Then down the beautiful dean street, through the Sunday market and over the winking eye bridge to the Baltic art gallery where we popped up to the viewing platform to see the bridge raise .  We then looked at all of the exhibitions, includeing a collection of paintings by Beryl Cook.  This collection included a painting of sailors getting tattooed, which was slightly different to the drawing, on the same subject,  by Tom of Finlad that we say earlier in the day in Oscars

collection.

Every so often, especially on a busy and bright weekend, It still find it odd to step outside my frount door and find Blackpool there.

Is it just me or is everyone getting loads of emails at the moment from friends asking to join one social network or another? On the whole myspace seems to work for me as i can blog, customize my profile and keep in touch with people. It would be better if you could manage it on a mobile or text in a blog entry.

But after a recent flurry of invites i have got myself a Facebook account, although its early days so i can't really see what the advantages are over myspace. I have also set myself up on twitter ,which allows me to say what i'm doing via sms which then appears as if by magic on my other profiles.

Not to mention MSN Messenger and Skype.

There are others that i've not managed to get set up on or not kept upto date with such as second life, elgg and tag. Its no wonder i haven't found time to try my favorite social network, The New Road Inn on karaoke night.

Evil selfish posh bird is out the apprentice, but only cos she quit. I wanted her to be fired.

After a working week of arguments and tension and a Saturday morning of chores and housework,  which somehow made the house look worse than when i'd started, I picked up Simon from work early Saturday afternoon and randomly suggested we go camping.  So an hour or 2 later we were on the road with a tent and a dog in the back.  We got into a nice little campsite near lake Windermere.  With tyler tied to a fence we got the tent up and the kettle on in no time at all. We enjoyed a wander in widemer where tyler received a hissing off some swans, a conversation with a farting horse, an evening of a few cans  with fellow campers james and jade (we recon they were swingers), a night of trying to sleep on the hard ground ( we forgot the airbed) and Tyler taking over half the sleeping bag.  In the morning we had time for campfire bacon butties before we packed up and headed home.

Big Brother started this week and I have no shame in saying I am watching it.  I know most us BB fans are looked down upon by the rest of society, most of whom are proud of the fact they have never watched it, although I don't see how anyone can be proud of never doing something.  It's a building of opinionated, volatile personalities who cant make a simple decision, such as who uses the hair straighteners, without going through a full committee, that cant agree, and never stick to the decisions they make.  It's very familiar.

Today I was loaned a copy of "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.  I have only got through chapter one so far but I love it already.  Its not just that the subject matter is interesting, but I really enjoy Richards cantankerous style of pointing out the arrogance and stupidity of other people, particularly religious fundamentalists like the protester with the placard "Behead those who say Islam is a violent religion".