Sam and I visited Dudley a week or so ago. Our Premier Inn was evacuated on the penultimate day of our stay due to a brush fire on land behind the hotel. Fortunately, the fire brigade got the blaze under control and we were able to return to our room at night.
Next week, the whole family is away in Pickering, one of our favourite holiday destinations, though I'm ensure whether we'll get to see the steam trains. Last time we visited, there were only diesel locomotives running due to the danger of sparks causing fires on the train line.
Considering the wildfire situation in Europe at the moment, missing the sound of the steam train firing up seems a small price to pay. Still, The Orange Idiot assures us that global warming is a "con job", so nothing to worry about there.
Former Go-Between Robert Forster's solo output is a continuing joy to me, even if some people get frustrated he won't revisit his old glories anymore...
My agent used to tell me
You give people the shits
Why can't you be like everyone else?
Play the hits!
That's a good question and it's a mystery to me
But I've come to see it positively as my destiny
That track is taken from last year's album Strawberries, an excellent collection of songs, my favourite of which is Breakfast On The Train, an 8 minute story song written during a train journey from London to Glasgow.
There was a family in the room next door
They were woken by the banging and the roar
They phoned Reception to complain
Reception said, "Over the volume of love we have no claim"
