"Redcarscometoascreechinghalt"

Jac trying her utmost to join Redcarsgofaster as a band member...Did someone not tell her that it was their last ever gig?



It's so true! Leicester band Redcarsgofaster came skidding to a grinding halt on Saturday night (8th Sept) in a tiny building in the middle of their hometown. The venue was The Charlotte in Oxford St. Redcars were on in the upstairs room and when I say room, I mean quite literally a room...a dark, hot, wood floor room! No stage as such. Just a corner where all their gear was set up and a few speakers. A very intimate affair indeed! Perfect for witnessing a great bunch of guys yanking up the handbrake to their band and playing their last ever gig ever! You see, I was there with my friend Jac who also Love them and when we heard that they were gigging and that it was going to be their last performance...well, we just had to go didn't we. All we had of them in the way of music were six tracks that we managed to find on itunes and nothing else. We heard them once on the radio (which is where we first heard them and instantly fell in Love)...we were sitting in the car one night listening to Xfm and on came "I Am the Storm". The rest as they say is history.

So, we left London behind & drove the 100 miles or so North in a black fast car to the venue. We were a little early (3hrs) and spent most of that time looking for a part of Leicester that wasn't made up of old mens pubs and university campus buildings. We found a place to wait and then before we knew it was almost 8pm. Half the small queue waiting outside to get in were covered in blood and scars of all shapes & sizes! Fake of course...at least I hope it was...I think they must have been seeing the band who were playing downstairs..."Send More Paramedics". They're playing in London on the 14th...I might pop along to see. These guys are also splitting up! What is it with bands splitting up all over the place?

Upon entering the venue, I hadn't realized just how many famous bands had played there! The walls were covered in posters of all the bands that have since 1985...Radiohead, The Killers, Bloc Party, The Buzzcocks, Oasis, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Manic Street Preachers, Suede, Echobelly (MMmmm!), Pulp, Kyuss (cool!), Muse, Coldplay, Coutney Pine, Blur Joe Strummer (of The Clash fame), Razorlight, The Libertines and many more. I bought a t-shirt and Jac bough a red wine and upstairs we went. We had got talking to a guy who was there to see Redcars and he really knew his music and was there photographing the band too. We found him at the top of the stairs talking to Redcars frontman James and spoke to them a bit before we went in. He couldn't believe we came all the way up from London to see them! I asked him if he had any cd's of their homemade album...I'd been kind of communicating with the band the week before by e-mail and they said they would be selling them at the gig. They even remembered me from the e-mails and went and got our cd's before they went on...in fact, even before the first two bands ("Tired Irie" & "Rotary Ten") went on. They were very good too...Jac was in her element and was having a great time. Seeing live bands really seems to be her thing and makes her feel happy! I too Love the whole live band scene. And since the smoking ban on the 1st July you can actually breath in there now!

As I said, Jac was absolutely Loving it...and then on came Redcars! She had already fallen in Love with their music over the last year and now she was falling in Love with James the bands singer. We met him briefly just before the gig and he was just such a nice bloke! He looked very young and we had both imagined him to be a lot older looking. Great looking with a wonderful voice...where did it all go wrong? We had to keep reminding ourselves that it was their last ever gig and that we would never (no one would ever...) see this band again! Good job then that I videoed it! Check these guys out by having a listen to them on their myspace page; http://www.myspace.com/redcarsgofaster click on track "Neurath's Figure"...this is a favorite at the moment. Tell me what you think and if you think they're mad for calling it a day with such a great sound under their belts?

So, the band came on, did their stuff, played more tracks than they have ever played before in a single gig, laughed and joked between themselves and us and even stripped down to their waists just because they had always wanted to during previous gigs and didn't have the bottle. The gig was brilliant, especially the last track, which I'd never heard before, where they just invited the audience up with them...Jac got right up there and had a ball being James' right hand woman for five minutes. Guitars and cymbals were flying around all over the place whilst James stood up by the window over looking the street outside and scribbled something like "Redcarsgofaster...R.I.P" into the steamed up windows as Phil drummed his nuts off along with Andy's deep bass. Then guitarist Matt lifted his guitar right over his head and went to smash it down onto the drum kit until fellow guitarist David jumped in and stopped him. It was sheer madness for a few minutes...a few minutes I'd Love to relive at least once a week for the rest of my life it was that cool!

Thanks guys for such a memorable gig!

REDCARSGOFASTER ARE FUCKING DEAD...R.I.P.

In other news...My mountain bike marathon up in Ruthin, North Wales is fast approaching. Sunday 16th to be precise. The weather looks set to be pretty bad so I may not do the 100k route...but we'll see. My bike is all ready...I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be and I am looking forward to it come rain or shine. What more could you ask for...a weekend camping in a beautiful part of the world with your mountain bike and you best mate? The only thing missing will be my kayak! I'll tell you all about it when it's all over.




Jason








(C) JPT 2007.........2823.01 miles.

"My Mate Factor VIII"

Me yesterday on Pitch Hill with a very clean Elvis...and look!, I've got my ruck-sack on back to front and I lost my Hep C Badge that was punned to it too! What a wally!



Firstly let me wish my best mate Lee a very happy birthday for Friday just gone. He turned a whopping 36 years old on that day. I've known him for nigh on 26 years and you couldn't even dream of finding a nicer buddy such as Lee has been to me! Cheers dude and thanks Nicola & Evie too for the wonderful BBQ in your new garden. Also hello to Pam (Lee's Mum) who was there too who might be reading this Blog for the very first time.

Right, so on to my Factor VIII level test results...again! This second lot (taken on the 1st August) of doing without F8 for a full 6 days produced some just as interesting results as the last time. This time I went to 4% after absolutely no F8 for 6 days when I am supposed to be less than 1% considering I am a severe haemophiliac! But no! I am 4%. Not 5% like I was last time a few weeks ago...and not less than 1% like I must have been when I was diagnosed back in 1973...but 4%. So...they want to do it all over again a third time in a few months time to see if it changes again. I reckon that the rate I am giving away my bloody blood I shall have less bloody blood in me than a blood bank that has just been bloody robbed!
They (My docs) said that your original haemophilia diagnoses can actually improve as you get older. The normal range for a normal normal person is between 50% and 150% Factor VIII. Maybe by the time I am old and grey (around the 360yrs mark) I shall be a Haemophiliac no longer. Will I become a Moderate to severe as time goes on or shall I remain a severe for as long as I live no matter what my Factor VIII levels are? I was born a severe...therefore I shall die a severe! So up yours ugly!!

Christ! You should have seen the needle they stuck in my vein! And it was a vein I have never ever used in the whole of my bleeding life ever in the whole wide world...ever!! It was just three inches short off the height, length & width of an actual London Underground train! But fortunately not as blunt and as slow;) And did it suck the blood out too! When I cut myself shaving later on when I was back home I bled water! They bloody took it all!

Ok, the weekend. Saturday was spent down on a small section of the South Downs Way just outside Worthing on the South Coast where my friend Matthew lives. He's the creator/founder of the website Blood, Sweat & Tyres. He raises money for the Haemophilia Society by riding bikes over long distances with other riders who are willing to ride along with him and raise a little money on the way. He's the chap and his mate Phil (among others) who I am riding with next weekend across the North Downs Way.

Phil (left) & Matthew on the South Downs Way Saturday.

Matthew, Phil & I did 35 miles in total on what has to be one of the best days weather wise this summer (see photo above). The sun shone the whole time, the route Matthew choose was very scenic and was a very pleasant ride indeed. It was kind of a small taster of what to expect maybe next weekend during our 100 plus miler across the North Downs Way from Dover to Dorking. There will be seven of us riding and an eighth man (My mate Lee) who'll be driving the support vehicle. All seems to be going according to plan and the ride should be hard but very rewarding. I can't wait!

Next comes Sunday (yesterday) and I went for my second ride of the weekend this time with Lee. And instead of the SDW we headed for a small section of the NDW and did 10 miles around Pitch & Holmbury Hills. And what a complete contrast in the weather! Just half a mile into our ride the heavens opened and completely and utterly drenched us and our hills! The trees were next to useless at being umbrellas so we headed off back to the car and almost went home because we were so wet but the rain stopped and the sun kinda came out again and off we went and did another nine and a half miles through water logged single track where the roots are as slippery as eels and the mud was as brown as dark chocolate ice cream! I fell off twice at very slow speeds because I couldn't get my feet out of my pedals quick enough. I blame it on the eels! We had a bite to eat by Peaslake Village and watched the other mountain bikers come and go covered head to toe in mud and water as were we. We did in fact end up having a great time and a good laugh too. I certainly didn't look as clean as I do in the photo at the top of post.

Oh...remember I said I went to see The Eighties MatchBox B-Line Disaster late last month? Well, I went again last Tuesday in London. I took an old friend who used to live down my Mums road in Twickenham as I knew he would like them. Another great live band experience! Very loud & atmospheric! This time I recorded the whole gig on my digital camera and have been uploading it onto YouTube the last several days. If you go to this link; http://www.youtube.com/TheMightyC you'll see all my videos in one place. Check out the gig at London's The Scala. The quality seems to be worse on YouTube than it is on my Mac. I think the uploading process downsizes the file size and therefore the picture quality too. But it's still ok. The highlight of the night was when I stole a poster advertising the gig from one of the inside doors directing us to the stage area. I missed out last time in Brighton as I waited until I came out and well, it was gone! Also right at the end of last Tuesdays gig, Guy (singer in the band) threw some bottles of water over and into the crowd and one of them landed right at my feet. And being the sad case that I am...I picked it up and still got it in my kitchen.




Jason


Happy Birthday to Claire (15th) & Becky (11th) too:)xXx






(C) JPT 2007.........2426.98 miles.

"The (un) Infected"

Heart Shaped Moss that I found on the entrance into Teddington Lock over looking the River Thames the day before I got my SVR results (18.07.07) I was out cycling and had a rest and a think and a contemplate before I went back home just around the corner.



Oh yes! The uninfected will keep going on about it won't they. I must remember to remember that I'm not totally uninfected am I, & my Hep C could come back...couldn't it? I must try and remember that. Did I just say that? Oh Yes, I did;)
You know what I mean though don't you. My Hep C is still up in viral heaven, heavily indulged in some sort of sordid sex act no doubt with someone else's recently gotten rid of Hep C. I can just imagine them both right now, entwined together like a couple of horny slugs, with a sign on the wall saying "HIV virus welcome" (You never know, maybe one day eh). They're not bothered about their previous owners in the very least! They're far too stupid to care about us anymore.
As a result of my good result, I have found (as I new I would) that my cycling OCD has more or less gone away and although I am feeling quite tired these last few weeks during my rides I am still doing the miles. 30 on Monday and another 30 Wednesday afternoon and yet another 30 miles yesterday afternoon. Talking of cycling, maybe someone can help me...Warrior Woman? A few times now whilst riding around RP I have almost collided with a few runners coming from the opposite direction on the Tamsin Trail. What happened was that as I was going along minding me own business, listening to me moosic on't i-pod and also minding to stay on the left hand side of the track (just like you would on the roads here in the UK) these runners were on their right and seemed surprised that I didn't move over for them and instead carried on as I thought I ought to. I wasn't going too fast and could see that they could see me and anyway, they didn't like it and right at the last minute jumped out of my way and shouted something. I didn't say a word as I really don't know what the score is for a shared public footpaths/trails. Is it the same as on public roads, like I had thought? If it is then they should be on their left too right? Maybe they don't drive cars and don't have a clue what side to be on (but then do many car drivers either?). Most cyclists stay on their left and so do some runners...but most people just walk/run/cycle wherever the hell they want! I won't be the one crying when my bar end pierces someones soft belly or tangles up with another cyclist (believe me, it has nearly happened on more than one occasion!) and we both end up on the gravel apologizing to each other with me shouting "Stay away from my blood dude! You really don't want to get involved!";)

Also yesterday I was up at the RFH having an MOT on my joints, in particular my right elbow (also known as my 'Glass Elbow' and my 'Broken Wing') and both my ankles. My physiotherapist (Paul) drew some marks onto a sheet of paper that had an outline of my entire body on (back & front) and began to mark it with a biro where I was having problems. He also moved and pulled and twisted (firmly but very comfortably I might add) all my joints and came to the conclusion that both my ankles and my right elbow are indeed fucked and booked me in for another visit in two weeks time. He also X-Ray'd my left ankle as it has been playing up quite a bit whilst walking. He thinks there might be something rough or sticking out where the two bones rub together. Hopefully the X-Ray will show us what there is and maybe what can be done...if anything. I told him about all the cycling I do and kayaking and not once did he say that I shouldn't (which is good). Actually, even if he had I would have said 'Up-yours' and walked out...No bike...No Jae...Simple!

I had a great (last) weekend away in Kidderminster & Shrewsbury with a whole bunch of people from the Hep C forum which Joan had wonderfully organized. Ros & her Hubby Ade put me up for a couple of nights at their Kidderminster home and fed me & bathed me and watered me too:) Then on the Saturday we drove to Shrewsbury and met up with Joan and her Hubby Steve and loads of others too who are either on tx or have been on tx. And what a great bunch of people they are too. The weather was great and the food was also very tasty...especially Ros's flapjacks:)

Anyway, enough about that. What about my dreams? Have you noticed in the last several months that there has been a distinct lack of dreams in my blog? I thought you did. Ever since I finished my treatment for Hep C my vivid and highly detailed dreams have dried up terribly and left me with just tiny bits and bobs...even straight after waking from my dreams I can't remember them much at all! For instance; I had a few dreams the night before the night before last that I almost certainly would have remembered in much more detail previously. My bike gets stolen from a railway station, I look for it, find it and stick a scalpel into the young man that took it! In another one the same night I dreamed that a very good friend of mine got their Hep C back. But where are the details? And what's happened to my poetry? Where has it all gone? I do have a few dreams saved that I never posted whilst I was on tx. The one about the freeze dried vagina's (which I like) and another about a little boy who gets crushed under the wheels of a very big lorry (which I don't) and another where I come face to face with a green (and very sexy) woman swimming in this flood (which was also green) just outside my front room window (I like that one too).
Oh, one thing I do remember is that when I found my bike the wheels were all loose and wouldn't spin properly and just a little more gross is that when I stuck the scalpel into the Man's body I could feel it digging & picking into his bones!

And another thing. I have to do that study again where I do without Factor VIII for 72hrs to determine what my Factor VIII levels are because my results came back at around the 5% mark (I'm supposed to be less than 1%). What does this mean? Am I a moderate to severe (or even mild?) haemophiliac all of a sudden? I'm sure they think I didn't do my bit and stay away from the Factor during those 72hrs. I assure you my droogs that I did.
So back I go on Tuesday next week to have more blood sucked out from my leech-like vein and a whole weekend without any Factor whatsoever. Must remember to take it easy when I'm out up in the Surrey Hills on Sunday with Phil from 'Blood, Sweat & Tyres';)
And on Tuesday night I am up at The Scala in Kings Cross to see The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster' again:) Jac's on holiday in Portugal for that week so I have to find someone else to go with me who doesn't mind getting kicked in the head by crowd surfers or going deaf even!

Check out the video for their new EP 'In The Garden' in this link;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5ELJfSbm58

I Love this band!



P.s. If a bucket is too much, then a milk bottle will do;)




Jason








(C) JPT 2007.........2348.60 miles.