Moggy Update - Finally!

So there has been lots of advancements over the past weekend, which have not only been exciting, but also meant that on Sunday night I took Lucy out for a spin for the very first time! After Scout Camp at the weekend, I was extremely excited to be greeted with a covered Lucy there on my drive, and when I found out off my parents that it was ready to go I was extremely excited.

It has been fixed and MOTd, as well as the underside being scrubbed down and wax-oiled so that it is protected against the rain and wet that will be thrown at it over the coming months. However, the work has only just begun. There is still the sealing of the wood to do, as well as polishing, cleaning and touching up the tiny patches of rust, not to mention trying to get l the chrome to a reasonable shine!

There is still a mountain of stuff to do, but already it appears to have brought together the entire family, working together to perfect the car. My dad was really chuffed about being able to drive it home from the garage and proud to tell me about the amount of times he crunched the gears on the way!

Anyway I will keep you posted with further progress, after I have enjoyed driving it round a lot of course, and will try and get some pictures up for you to see the work so far.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Moggy Update: Nearly Roadworthy!

Well Well Well. I have to say, a lot has happened in the past few dayssince I last talked about the moggy. Not only that but it has bee themost exciting stuff and we are ever closer to getting her roadworthy.So there I sat, at the dining room table, the morning before I set offto Yorkshire to pick it up, on the phone for 51 minutes and 14 secondsto try and inquire about an off-road insurance so that the moggy wassafe on the trailer on the way back. Well apparently it has to belocked in a garage for it to be eligible, so that was a non-starter.However when we inquired about the difference in the premium from 17to 18, there was, to our surprise, absolutely non! So I gave the niceman a Footman James my card details so he could take a deposit from meand jumped out of the house and straight into a family friend's car,trailer attached on and ready to go.The journey up north was pretty good, only small amounts of Fridayafternoon traffic and a very nice Costa at Wetherby Services. Weproceeded up the A1 to a junction which nobody knows the number of andheaded through a little town called Bedale into an even smallervillage called Newton-Le-Willows. The tyres on the Moggy had stayedpumped up from my Dad's exertion up there a few days prior, the clutchand the brakes freed, but still a flat battery and a dead engine. Wehooked her onto the trailer winch, and without many issues we got itonto the trailer. Then came the issue. The garage which it was storedin faced the opposite way to the farm track andwith the towing car only being a 2 wheel drive, there was no way itwas going to move on the wet grass. After burning the clutch and thetyres, we had to do a bit off imaginative thinking and tow the trailerwith a rope. Eventually, with a bit of persistence we finally got itrighted and on it's way.I spent the entire journey looking out of the back window to check ifLucy had fallen off the trailer. And yes, I have called my car Lucy.For 1 reason only. The number plate is LSD 496G. LSD > The Beatles -Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds > Lucy. Explained? So when we got backwe dropped it off at the local garage, slightly nervous about it'ssafety. I have to say I didn't sleep very well that night, and as soonas I had finished my paper round, I was off to the garage like a shot.What I didn't expect to find was 2 men with their heads in it. What Ialso didn't exect to find an hour later after I had gone home for ashower, was a call to say "It's started," ratified by the sound of itgently chugging away in the background!Needless to say, I am awaiting an MOT for it, while the chaps at thegarage service it and prepare it, and then all that is left to do isto scrub away a small amount of surface rust on the bottom and thenre-coat it in wax oil and rust remedy! In the future I hope tore-varnish and re-seal all of the woodwork, possibly upgrade thebrakes and fit in a nice little audio system so I can play all theclassic 60s tunes on my various road trips around the country. I amalso looking forward very much to further participation with TheMorris Minor Owner's Club and also a trip to the Classic Motor Show atthe end of November! I am looking forward to many more stories andadventures to be had with my Moggy, as well as much toil I shouldimagine!Thanks for reading.Follow me on Twitter: @peachy146

Arts Fest Round Up Part 3: Everything Else

A short one today, and the last one of the Arts Festival Round Up 2012. Alongside the Oddfellows photography and the Alrewas Radio, I also had a very busy week bobbing about here and there. For radio purposes, I tried to pop into as many workshops as I could, but unfortunately I didn't even scratch the surface.

On the Saturday had a quick look at the street market, after helping to set up an Art exhibition from the Alrewas Show, and it all looked really fantastic. The whole village was out in force! I have to say though, the most striking thing about Saturday was the knitting which had suddenly sprouted across the village. I noticed on my paper round, and believe me, at that time in the morning it is slightly disconcerting when you are great with a multicoloured array of knitted penguins, bow ties, bunting and poppies, before you have even got past the front of the shops!

Another thing I also really enjoyed was the unveiling of the 101 oddfellows on the front of the village hall. Once again the village was out in force to celebrate this, and it was great to see the end result of the project I had been working on!

On the monday I was playing with fellow members of a county run jazz orchestra called BYJO (Burton Youth Jazz Orchestra) which was a great experience and I enjoyed very much I also enjoyed listening to everybody else who was performing on that occasion, especially Adam Wright Jazz, Sam Garrett and the Barbershop Quartet who once again put out an absolutely pitch perfect performance (did you see what I did there?)

As well as that commitment musically I did a couple of lunch time concerts in the Methodist Church which were great. A fantastic showcase of some of the classical talent within the village, right from people of the young age of 8. It was really inspiring to see how much musical talent there really is in the village. 

The final thing which I was involved with is the Graffiti Art Project, ran by the village's very one Jeff Jacks, as well as Fiona Reeve, Sue Williams and Paula Stanley, to name but a few of the faces I saw about over the workshops. The idea was to refresh an area of the bridge by the canal that was previously covered in dirt to something to last as a legacy to do with the Olympics of 2012. This was a great project to get involved with, not least because we ended up painting ourselves more than the walls, as well as the various people who came to admire whilst walking their dogs, and the vast range of artistic styles which you can see of all the different young people from the village who gt involved.

I couldn't talk about the arts festival without summing up the Party In The Park.It really was fantastic. I think it finished to night on exactly the right note and left people feeling truly inspired by the talent and abilities of the people of the village (not the Village People you must understand). With outstanding performances from local bands and artists such as Toxic Crocodiles, The Signs and Sam Garrett, as well as Twisted Cigarette, The Ample Band, Shy Heights and the 20 years standing The Hoovers, it was a great night of fantastic entertainment and there was a really pleasant atmosphere which overtook the playing fields that evening. 

I am very much looking forward to the next Alrewas Arts Festival, with so much more to come alongside the fantastic things which we have seen this year. I am also very excited as to what might be happening in the future in terms of the radio and also the Oddfellows Photography group and also a mini Arts Festival in the autumn next year. I am not sure of any details about that, all I know is Jim seems to have some big and amazing plans up his sleeve, and as usual they are going to be spectacular. So I will try and keep you updated with Arts Fest News, as well as the website which is www.alrewas-artsfest.co.uk which is definitey the place to go to check out what is coming up and what is happening with stuff in the future.

once again, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next. I've been Tom Peach

@peachy146

Alrewas Radio: Official Timetable

I am proud to present to you, the official timetable for Alrewas Radio, supporting Alrewas Radio 2012! I do also have to make the disclaimer that although we will endeavour to maintain this at all times, it is subject to change!

Firstly, The morning show, where we will be explaining all the day's events and looking back at the previous, then generally warming up for another fantastic arty day.

The second show of the day is with me, Tom, which will involve a lot of lovely music to keep you going until lunch, as well as some chatting and hopefully some special guests, but I better not get you too excited! I will also try to cover all the workshops going on in that morning session as well as keeping it entertaining for the rest of the village.

Interconnecting the afternoon's proceedings are various pre recording sessions involving artists and bands from the local area, including long standing band The Hoovers, who have a very special anniversary this year. more to come about that.

To look out for is the Decades show, which will take you on a musical journey from the 60's right through to the teenies, playing some of the highs (and possibly lows) of those decades. Co presented by Rob Spall, this looks to be a great show.

Also to look out for is the alternative show, for all those who are a fan of alternative music, there will be all sorts to listen to on their, with the 2 incredibly funny and talented Tom and Alex presenting that for you.

Finally make sure you catch the special Last Night Do. I can#t reveal to you what that is yet, but I can assure you it will be fantastic.

Also you can keep up to date with us on twitter @AlrewasRadio and with the hashtag #AlrewasRadio, which I am not entirely sure how that works, but I am assured by people who spend a lot of time on twitter that you can get the important info from there. also for further information please go to the Alrewas Arts Festival website. Have a fantastic festival week and I hope you can also enjoy the beautiful sounds of our voices throughout.

Here is the link for the radio internet stream: http://radio.canstream.co.uk:8032/live.mp3.m3u

I can assure you this link works as I have spent about 2 hours today trying to get it to!

A big thanks to Jim Ralley for making this happen, and James "Womble" Richardson for managing to organise this!

Real Life Minecraft

One of the current garden projects is to extend the chicken run out to accommodate double the amount of chickens. Now because my parents are my parents, they have to do it in a very convoluted way and make it as complicated as possible.

Anyway, in taking up the lawn to make space for the new part of the chicken run, I was tasked with moving the pieces of turf after taking them up so that Dad could patch up areas of the lawn elsewhere where the grass had died. Fair enough.

so I set about this in the usual manor: tea in one hand; spade in the other; and my sister bossing me about, even though she didn't really know what I was doing.

After I had moved a few pieces of turf, my sister from the other end of the garden suddenly pipes up: "Tom, that looks like real life Minecraft!"

Minecraft Huh?

twitter: @peachy146

PROJECT MINOR (Part 1): Official Morris Minor Owners Club Member!

I am pleased to announce that I am now an official member of the Morris Minor Owner's Club of Great Britain, now that I am officially the owner of a lovely 1968 Morris Minor Traveller, navy blue, a dead battery, 4 flat tyres, and seized engine, a leaky roof...

Still I am very much looking forward to the project of doing it up and will keep you well and truly updated with how it is going. Now the first thing is getting it back from North Yorkshire, with the seized engine and the 4 flat tyres.

Nonetheless, first thing tomorrow I am off down the garage to try and scab and trailer in exchange for my car to fix and make happy again. Genuinly can't wait to get in it and drive round the UK in my Moggy!

Twitter: @peachy146

Thanks!

AS Level Results... Meh

So in my parents eyes, I am a genius. In my teacher's eyes I am not so much a genius, and in mine I am definitely not. So I pretty happy with 2 As, a B and a C and a D. It is what I was expecting, if not better. My parents as you can imagine weren't so chuffed, but that's fine at the end of the day!

However there was one surprise. I am both an Art student and a Music student. Now these to subjects are what I see as the ones I enjoy, rather than the ones I need to get into university with. I always knew that my music grade would come out better than my Art, however I did not expect 4 grades higher! I got the D in my Art. Well enough said. I actually am quite pleased with the A I got in music too. Now there is a dilemma.

I have to pick one of them to continue with into my final year. Now the reasoning that I always had for art was that it would lead to more places as a career. This, my friends is utter rubbish. I don't know if you have seen any polls lately, but they all say the artists are the least employed profession in the entire world! Don't make a decision on a career based on what you think might be the case. do your research! 

Anyway, on that note (no pun intended!) I have decided to carry on with my music. I am almost relieved at this, as it means a shed load of work, and a shed load of scrappy scribbles on pieces of paper, can be forgotten about at long last! Now it isn't that I don't enjoy art, I love it in fact. I enjoy photography and manipulating pieces of recycled materials into new and wonderful things. But the way it is taught, by trying to make a creative process a physical curriculum structure is impossible, and therefore you can't examine art in the same way as you examine other subjects. It just isn't possible. Sorry. But Art isn't a proper subject on it's own. Unless you continue it on to gain skills and knowledge to move directly into that profession, it is useless. Trust me, I have done it!

Welcome

What's up guys, my name is Tom Peach. I am a sixth form student in the UK, with a life entirely revolved around music, and Minecraft. And that is really all there is to know. Oh and the fact I like to get on my soap box and recite, to whomever may be listening, what ever random facts and interesting anecdotes I can dig out of the recesses of my brain.

I hope that you enjoy reading what I have to say, and also I hope that you learn something from it too. Thanks for reading!