nicpillinger.com

T28 Transporter T5 130bhp low mileage, factory options on eBay (end time 03-Mar-10 18:41:18 GMT)

2010-02-24T09:26:00.000Z

I am selling the van:

T28 Transporter T5 130bhp low mileage, factory options on eBay (end time 03-Mar-10 18:41:18 GMT)

blogger ftp is no more

2010-02-22T15:13:00.002Z

dagnammit

also

2009-08-24T21:27:00.002+01:00

good veg what we have growned and picked and eaten ourselves this year so far:
peas
broad beans
runner beans
green beans
courgettes (far too many)
spuds (anyas and some others)
cauliflower
onions
beetroot
swede
carrots

and still to come - looking pretty much ready now:
cabbage
borlotti beans
sweetcorn
kale
leeks

also looks like we will have a bumper crop of apples for the 2009 vintage!

33 weeks

2009-08-24T21:13:00.002+01:00

spent the weekend learning lots about scary childbirth stuff at NCT classes. nice to meet some like minded people going through the same stuff though.

thanks to lots of lovely family and friends we've got loads of the stuff we need for when kirk arrives (due 10th oct), just a few things left to get, oh and a name which doesn't make him sound like he's named after someone in Star Trek.

this is my last week at landmark so just trying to hand stuff over and hopefully leave the team without anything half finished or unexplained! then it'll be off to twofour where I'm looking forward to getting stuck in as Head of Development, ooh get me with the fancy title.

things to mention

2009-07-16T18:13:00.002+01:00

em is now at 28wks, woo! going to have to start thinking about prams and suchlike.
the garden has delivered us our first veg. very happy with the potatoes, courgettes, beetroot and peas that we've had so far. lots more still to come in the form of cabbages, sweetcorn, runners, broad beans, borlotti beans, dwarf beans, carrots, swede, cauliflower and some kale.
we've planted some apple trees which look to be taking well so should get some more apples out of them in the next few years. the cider I made last year is nearly all gone. very tasty it was too (although not very alcoholic!).
new bike is running well - very relaxed compared to the mental kwak.
coverage of glasto and t in the park made me feel old - do glastonbury go-ers really like things like lady gaga? jee-sus.
new coxon album is good, and the coverage of blur at glasto has made me re-listen to parklife which is a good thing. still loving the doves latest one and the new engineers.

nick fermi's stag this weekend which i cant make, sorry - brother in law's 40th which I need to drive em to. good luck!

couldn't find these chords and couldn't remember them so have just spent 15 minutes working them out, posting them here so when i forget them again in a few weeks have them written down somewhere. ahh back in the day...
A F# E
If you dont want me to destroy you
D A
Take a leaf out of my book
D A
Turn it out round and have a look

E Eb
Gravity
D A E Eb
It just pulls me down so quietly
D A G
It just pulls me back to earth

F C D
Let me go into the depths of your infinity
F C D
I can sense your presence in the vicinity
F C D
La la la, la la la, sha la la la la

timely update

2009-03-24T13:50:00.002Z

hello, things to mention:

had an amazing week down in that cornwall, no-one there and we had a stupendous week of sunny weather. the surf started out huge and gradually tailed off all week, has some superb days in the middle where it was 2-3 foot and glassy. roll on the summertime and evenings after work in the water!

not 1 but 2 lovely meals whilst we were on hols - the first in Custard. yet again, an excellent meal for an excellent price. I cannot recommend this place highly enough! the 2nd was at Margots Bistro, somewhere we've wanted to try for ages. well it was worth the wait. the food and the service were both superb and we'll definitely be going back given the chance :D

also it was my birthday yesterday so I had a few friends down to devon for the weekend. great to see you paul, ralph, simon, jamie and rach. thanks for making the big journey it was really nice to catch up with you all. GLC rocked The Cavern in Exeter on Friday night and then we all rocked the Timepiece (or something, I don't know, it was all a bit blurry by that point). Saturday was sunniest day of the year so far and the garden got a spruce and we had a rather civilised BBQ. ACE!

might have sold the mini - only put it on auto trader on Sunday. fingers crossed for the cash buyer coming later today!

arf!

2009-03-24T13:47:00.000Z

arf!

stuart lee's comedy vehicle

2009-03-10T22:32:00.001Z

just noticed this is starting on monday at 10pm - bbc2. we went to the filming last year - lots of good stuart lee stuff in there old and new.

no news is good news?

2009-03-09T09:23:00.002Z

Not much happening, things have been busy busy at work and the new Royal Mail UK Addresses application is now out the door (phew!).

I bit the bullet and finally bought a new TV. The old CRT was taking up ridiculous amounts of room along with the enormous Yamaha AV amp. The AV amp went up for sale on avforums and sold quickly, which was nice. The massive old boxes have been replaced by a panasonic lcd and sony surround system which has tiny golf ball sized speakers. All this is hooked up to a PS3 which I have to say is also, bluddy grate. not sure where the money for this lot came from, I think I may have made us poor. Having said that the Loewe CRT I bought what must've been 10 years ago is still going strong so fingers crossed this will all last a long time. Been having lots of success getting rid of old stuff on ebay recently, is this a credit crunch thing? Are more people shopping for bargains on there?

Time now to start thinking about the garden as we have a ready-to-go veg garden coming in the not too distant future. That means we need to fence off an area from the sheep, and get digging. I think I'm going to need a rotivatorrrr.

happy new year!

2009-01-16T09:38:00.004Z

This is possibly the longest I've been without posting owt here. Hmm what does that mean? Anyway 2008, what a year, finally we are living the (pikey) dream and having it large in Devon :D By having it large I mean getting lots of fresh air walking Tzar and surfing more than ever before. Our social/night life has completely gone out the window! That said when we do go out now we certainly make the most of it!

Things what have happened since we moved to Devon:

Green man festival in Brecon. It rained a lot but we got very drunk on cider, SFA were superb, the fire was warm and the weird late night film/music venue with cakes freaked us out! Great to see the Fermster in full effect.

Mighty Boosh in Blackpool Opera House - oh how the mighty have fallen. Disappointing on so many levels.

Fireworks display in Tedburn with Big Al, Heath and the boys.

Dinner at The Conservatory in Exeter with Gra and Dor. Mmmmmm, another great meal and this time the service and ambiance of the place was on a par with the food and wine.

Jason Manford @ The Phoenix in Exeter - weird tiny theatre venue the phoenix, the crowd were very arty Exeter types, JM was excellent and went out of his way to do more than just a set piece of standup :D

Picked up our new sofa from Liz and Jim in London - thanks for the donation guys! Finally we have a sofa big enough for us both to lounge on, hurrah!

Christmas Eve pint in the local (Red Lion) and scored some Christmas cake, we've cracked it. Finally it feels like our local.

Christmas Goose! Got an excellent Goose (from Moonridge farm - on the outskirts of Crediton just a few miles from us) which we cooked on Christmas day. 1hr 40 @ 220 and about 30 minutes resting was medium - for future, 10 minutes less cooking would have been a perfect pink.

New Year snowboarding in Saalbach (again) - a rather excellent holiday. The snow was good and we had lots of sunny days. Landing my first backside 180s properly and starting on backside 360s. New board (Academy 159) was a treat but not nearly as grate as Em's bargain new Salamon Ivy 151.

We also fitted in a few weekends and longer trips to Cornwall. The surfing was excellent and being less than an hour from the beach really is ace.

Coming up:

GLC @ The Cavern 20th March. This is the Friday before my Birthday, woo!

And not much else planned at the moment. Planting a veg garden and getting some chickens/livestock is next on the list. Come on!

they're off the o2 and ready to go home

2008-11-10T09:48:00.001Z

no this one is!
Originally uploaded by nicpillinger

jack and alfie are on their way home this week - fingers crossed. good luck abby and andy with the transition!

long time no blog

2008-10-06T13:20:00.002+01:00

Still reading other peoples blogs (keep it up guys!) - but don't seem to have found time recently to post anything of note on mine. Very poor.

news of note:

We have moved house (again). finally moved into St Vincent a couple of weeks ago. really pleased we're, at last, in our own place again and feel like we can start to settle.

Abby has had her twins. Alfie and Jack are doing great - hoping to get up to London to see them this weekend.

The surf has been great down here for the last few weeks - have got some great sessions in. Missed some epic windsurfing this weekend by the looks of things :(

finally: this is ace!

love me do, with cowbells

2008-09-12T14:58:00.000+01:00


	Make your own at MoreCowbell.dj

surfing after work

2008-07-25T10:54:00.002+01:00

Polzeath clean evening swell
Originally uploaded by nicpillinger

Its all worth it when you pull up to the beach at 6.30pm and see waves like these coming in. I still cant get over the fact that I can do this after work. What an evening! Have uploaded a few other recent photos to Flickr including our new back garden (Meldon) and Tzar in a Parka. You need to be my friend on Flickr to see them.

hibbett's new single

2008-07-14T13:25:00.002+01:00

and rather good it is too.
info from the man himself...

THE NEW SINGLE

Our brand new single, "It Only Works Because You're Here" is
officially released next Monday. It'll be available on Amazon and
(theoretically) in SHOPS, but you can get it direct from our webpage
right NOW by going here:

http://www.mjhibbett.net/releases/itonlyworksbecauseyourehere.htm

As well as the title track it's got two brand new b-sides,
"Professional Competent Rocking And Tight" and "Sod It Let's Get
Pissed", and a veritable GREATEST HITS of bonus tracks taken from the
Edinburgh Show. It's a bargain!

THE NEW VIDEO

The rather smashing video for "It Only Works Because You're Here" is
now on YouTube, HERE:

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

testing scribe fire firefox addin

2008-07-08T11:36:00.001+01:00

nice add-in to firefox for blogging - not sure why I would use this rather than typing blogger.com into the browser mind.

jill cocker/moving house sucks ass

2008-06-24T12:03:00.007+01:00

I always thought moving house wasn't as bad as everyone makes out. I've moved house lots of times and bought and sold a flat and a house. Its always been a pain but hardly "one of the most stressful things you'll ever do in your life". That is until now.

Nothing quite prepared me for the extreme stress of the last 2 months trying to sell our house in London and buy one in Devon. The way the housing market/conveyancing system works, seems to me, to be completely knuts. it just creates it's own problems with a lack of communication generally occuring at all levels.

yesterday after 3 months of back and forth, at 4:55pm on the day of exchange (for completion in two days time) our seller decided to to ask for more money. with the market in it's current situation I'm not sure what they were thinking. they were already getting over the odds as we agreed a price before the market started to tumble (down here). anyway we duely told them where they could stick that request and their house (this was the last straw in three months of them dicking us around) and are now left with the uncomfortable situation of having to move out of our house in London on Friday with no where to move to in Devon. added to this we've lost about £10k. thanks Jill Cocker, I look forward to seeing your house back on the market for £70k less than it was when you accepted our offer and led us down the garden path of thinking we might have a house to move into on Friday. just leave it right till the last minute before fcuking it all up - don't worry about the whole chain of peoples lives you have dicked with.

update:
I got carried away with the story, we've now got somewhere to live! it's all karma, fate, whathaveyou. a cottage has come up for rent this week, about 100 yards from where we are staying. we can move in on Friday :D crash housing market, crash!

west is best

2008-05-19T19:40:00.002+01:00

let me start by saying, I am not complaining. new job started just over a week ago after a traumatic and slightly crazy long weekend of travel and moving stuff to our temporary home at little bidlake farm. the commute is a "hellish" 30 minutes of traffic free A roads which I would probably describe as "the most relaxing commute i've ever had the pleasure of doing". the work so far is interesting and challenging although to be fair I've yet to really get stuck into it. best of all the team are great, has to be said I'm missing the banter of the uSwitchers but I think I've moved to a very similar environment in terms of humour vs work vs did you see that thing on tv last night? so all good. the biggest problem I have right now is leaving work on time. I seem to be stuck in the london leave at 6/6.30 unless you're busy mentality. I regularly find myself as one of the last to leave and thats at 5:20pm?

like I said I am not complaining. I think this is something companies in London have completely wrong. if you work your 9-5 and work it well there is no reason to work any longer. the added relaxation time helps balance out your life leaving you more motivated and ready to work again the next day.

house purchase/sale is still all going through but man does it take a long time. next weekend is bank holiday surf, then hoping to be back in London weekend of the 30th. also barrett if you're reading this - my accent is back already and within weeks will be rivalling yours!

ididntvoteforboris

2008-05-07T10:08:00.001+01:00

neither of us did in fact
http://www.ididntvoteforboris.co.uk/

ipodclassic

2008-04-10T10:19:00.004+01:00

I had one of the 2nd or 3rd edition ipods which I used for quite a few years, monochrome lcd and about 10gb if i remember right. when I got my first walkman phone I flogged the old ipod on ebay and never looked back. it seemed like having a gb of music in my phone was enough to get by and it meant I didn't have to carry another device around. bonus. last year Em bought me a shuffle which I still use on the rare occasions I do any non water based exercise. the shuffle does my head in though. it's got enough room on it to put 10 albums on it but if I want to listen to album 9 and I'm currently at album 1 I have to click through all the songs. grrrr. that may not be the point of the shuffle but thats how I listen to music - I dont listen to one song, I listen to an album.

anyway, recent experience with my new nokia music phone drove me bonkers (5310, nice phone but reboots randomly when playing mp3 - but it's a music phone?) and I decided it was time to get myself a new fangled mp3 playing portable music device. so I checked out the market and looked for something big enough to get all my music on - shockingly it turns out that there isn't much choice of mp3 player with a big hard disc. you can buy an ipod or .. well nothing really (you could buy an expensive archos media player but who wants one of them?). so I plumped for the whopping 160GB ipod classic. a good choice I think, it rocks. more space than I could ever use, better sound than any music phone or indeed my old ipod. and as for coverflow! as I said before I listen to music an album at a time and being able to flick through and pick an album by cover is reminiscent of flicking through lps - it really is a nice way to interact with your music collection. I've listened to it pretty much everyday since I bought it and this morning I realised how nice it is to have all my music with me everyday again. who knows when I'll feel the urge to listen an early 1970s Genesis gig?

do the indie kid

2008-04-07T14:06:00.002+01:00

the new single from mj hibbett is ace. check out the video...

the times they are a changing

2008-04-04T11:42:00.002+01:00

out for some refreshing/expensive pints of san miguel last night with ralph. back to the nell gwynne, an old fav which despite being under constant threat of closure still seems to be doing a roaring trade. the thing I will miss most about living in London has to be those summer pints after work - the freedom to just go and get sloshed and get a tube home at whatever time is a really great thing. Mind you, I think I've made the most of my time in London in this resepect - I've done my fair share of summer outside the pub drinking. I guess I've been lucky that all the places I've worked have had such an ace social bunch of people who like to do this sort of thing.

so the next couple of months will probably be a bit crazy, the house is on the market and we've made the decision to move (back) to the West Country. I'm still waiting for it to sink in but it seems to just all be happening. I have three weeks left at uSwitch and not long after that I'll be starting my new position at Landmark. blimey. looking forward to living in Exeter again it's now nearly 13 years since I left. time flies and all that. I think I'm the last of my group of friends to move out of the capital - not sure what that says about me really, I guess I'm a sucker for expensive lager and crowded stinking tube trains :D

happy easter

2008-03-19T11:59:00.001Z

happy easter
Originally uploaded by nicpillinger

all I said was "that piece of halibut was good enough for Jehova!"

keeping chickens

2008-01-16T14:02:00.001Z

a chicken housing solution (the eglu!) for the less rural location

shoegazing making a return?

2008-01-11T17:26:00.000Z

my bloody valentine and jesus and mary chain both playing gigs at the roundhouse in the coming months.

there'll be Ride reunion and all the other hangers on like slowdive and chaperhouse will be coming out of the wordwork before you know it, I HOPE.

HURRAH! for dreary 90s indie.