Pictures of Ed in his school days.

Ah memories on the hardrive, ye canny beat it. I happened to be looking through computer memory and came across some pictures from a few years ago between being 16- 18 years old. I think I look quite different. It was the days in which I gelled my hair into a comb over for some reason. Anyway here are the pictures...


This picture was in France when we went on holiday. I think I was sixteen and had just done my GCSE's. I think that this was one of the last pictures taken of me wearing short sleave shirts...come to think of it I don't even wear t- shirts anymore. I only wear shirts with buttons and collars in a relaxed manner...which is information that no one gives a hoot about but I'll leave in this blog anyway.



Yeah I know...the comb over. The person I am lunging at is my old mate Paddy who I met over the summer and hadn't seen since sixth form. Funnily enough he has short hair now...he's still ginger sadly.



My friend Dave did this ages ago on his computer. Me levitating...which I can do in reality...but only when nobody is looking.



This is a good memory. My friends and I always used to stay the night at my mate, Munchy's house(who you may or may not know from previous blogs). When it got dark and Munchy's parents had gone to bed we used to sneak out and walk around the village. It was literally deserted. In the picture we are sitting and talking in the middle of the road because there was no cars on the road at all. The parents probably wouldn't have minded if they found but we enjoyed the idea of doing something sneaky. That is all really. I shall end this with the last few pictures that I found...






Over and Out
Ed.

Wandering the roads back to Derby... like a gypsy.

I have been living back in Derby for few days and all is as it was when I left it some months back. The first thing that I did was hug the bookcase in my room where I had left most of my books and film collection and all of my graphic novels and most of my manga. I love my collections; my big book collection, my film collection (including cool B Movies and Universal Studio films from the 1930's) my graphic novels, my comics, my manga and my CD's (my Cd's are at home...if you wanted to know). My taste is somewhat eclectic. I don't discriminate on good art (notice I said good art...(maybe the last statement was a bit hypocritical on some level but who cares). I left my X Box and games back home because that is where they live...I'll just have to buy Halo Reach when I can and play it when I get back.

Anyway I missed Derby. I missed the smallness of it compared to most cities (aka Leeds where my sister resides. It's too big...but beautiul nonetheless).
Here is some funny stuff that have happened to me since I got back.

1. I was carrying my bags from the bus station to my house, butterflies in my stomach for some reason because I was back in this city. When I got off the bus I walked out of the station and was passed by a man dressed in a suit who gave the impression that he was going to work after a lunch break.
"Alright mate. How's it going?" said he.
"Fine thanks." I replied.
Oh Derby, how I missed your inhabitants saying things to me on the street for no other reason except to say hello. (I assume he didn't say hi to me because he was drunk...because he was wearing a suit. Therefore it may have just been a nice gesture.)

2. The first time I had to go to the uni was to partake in commitee training (because I am the scribe/secretary of the storytelling society...and we are an amazing society. After the first day of commitee training I bought some food at the Sainsburys that I pass on my way from Derby to the house. I bought what I wanted, payed for it and just as I was being handed the change the cashier said this,

"Sod it darling."

Hmmmmmm thought I. I smiled to her, said thankyou and left with my stuff. As I was walking back I realised that what she said in actuality was,

"Here yar darling."

I love Derby

I love back home.

I love jippos (apparently there is no gypsy blood on my mother's side...but my Nan spoke about being aware of gypsies around her where she lives). I still consider myself a gypsy though and WILL buy a wooden gypsy caravan sometime in the future.

Over and Out
ED

TwistyFest in Wales!!!

At the moment I am sitting on my bed with a cup of tea, with an unbelievable urge to impose my life experiences on people...not that I'm forcing people to read this at all. Lose all blah all ye who enter here.

Last Saturday my Mum, Dad and brother travelled to Wales to the location of the brother of me mother (I made that last bit sound like a rhyme on purpose.) This place is in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by mountains that go up one thousand feet into the sky. A few years ago we travelled to the top of one of these mountains and when we were at the top some sort of jet flew past just a few metres over us. In fact here is a picture of the very same mountain that I was talking about...


Now this was not a family event exactly. This was something else a little different...this was TwistyFest. Twistybach is the name of the old farm house residence that my uncle resides and what was taking part in Twistybach was a festival...hence TwistyFest.

About twenty or thirty people came altogether, most of them camping out in the field or going into the house opposite the other house. One of the houses is being changed or renovated if that is the right word and the other house was made by my uncle.

Now that I have given details of the TwsityFest here is a picture of some guns...



A shooting range was set up with balloons, bottles and anything else that could be used as a target. A few enthusiasts had arrived and really knew what they were talking about, reenactment people and so forth. It is always fun to watch people jump out of their skin every time a shot was fired.
We went for a walk just about a mile or so up the pathway until we got to an old ruin of a cottage. It was overgrown with nettles and was surrounded by sheep. You could really write a story about this part of Wales. It's really wild and the lack of civilisation only makes it better.

The night time was the best part of TwistyFest. There are no street lights for miles and so if you looked up at the sky you could see the stars. The icing on the cake was that people gt their instruments out; guitars, violins, their voices and so on and had a sing along.
I went to bed with my father about one in the morning (my mum and brother had already gone to bed) and fell asleep. I woke up during the night and turned over and saw the window. All I saw was stars. We should have taken a picture of the sky and the people singing and playing instruments. The grub was nice as well.

Here ends the tale of the TwistyFest.
Over and Out.
ED

Ed has one more summer occupation...lumberjack (with pictures.)

Here is one more thing that I have done over the summer. On the driveway of the family house we have this massive tree that has never been lopped or cut by anyone since I can remember. Over the years the tree had got a bit cheeky, the roots sneaking underground to next door and sucking on some of next doors water supply. It also shed it's leaves over next door. This tree had to know who was boss. So with a saw, an axe and one more saw we went out to kick some tree butt and give it the hair cut of it's life. Observe as you travel through our journey through massive tree to the finished result of the cutting and the chopping.





As you can see from the pictures, this was a beast of a tree. Also on the left of the picture you might be able to see the windows that I painted.




Here is my brother, my mum et moi standing in the chaotic mass of leaves and branches of our own creation. Two things that I wish to point out here. 1. I am wearing my hat. 2. My brother is wearing his glasses below his googles. 3. You wouldn't know this but as the picture was being taken the tree was shouting insults to us because of what we were doing. As you can see from our happy faces we were doing well at ignoring the tree.




Here is my brother up the tree, sawing another branch off, wearing goggles and glasses at the same time ('Oi, six eyes). You can't see this in the picture but on a roof a pigeon is writing an angry worded letter to the government complaining about the unauthorised destruction of his home.



"Hey Mother! Stop bothering that horse! You should be using that rope to pull down branches!"...I am so funny.



An upper story view of the battlefield.

It was done. We had chopped the heck out of the tree, gone through the fire of sawing stuff and now it was all over. We felt like gorillas or chimps in the forest, surrounded by branches (well I did anyway)and all that was left was to clear away everything to the tip. It took two cars and four journeys for each car to clear everything from the front. Below is a picture of what everything was like when all was finished.



To commemorate this day it was decided that we would take one piece of cut off branch and get someone to carve something. It was thought that the best thing to do was to carve the face of a wizard.

That is it really. It is not long before Autumn, it is the first day of the fall on the 23rd September. CRIKEY!!!

Over and Out.
ED

My brother is a year older, a family gathering and a quiz with curious questions.

I shall relate to you three events in my life in no particular order that I have experienced between this post and the 'I love Interpol' post that came before this.

Yesterday (August 10th) my brother turned twenty two. He has glasses by the way. I am the only male in the household that doesn't have glasses and also the only male that actually wants them...oh yeah and his name is Thomas...or Tom (other nicknames include Astill, Pastill, Ryan Stiles, Harry Potter and T. Whenever we are all watching television, if anyone happens to be wearing glasses or is tall we say that it looks like him...it's why he is called Ryan Stiles.)
My brother is a bit of a boffin know- it- all when it comes to building mechanical stuff so he got a clock building kit (we're all boffins in one particular field in this family).Then there was also a book on cars (I just went into his room and he said that it was in fact TWO car books that he got.) My parents bought him an amazing ukelele shaped like those 'V' shaped guitars that you sometimes see. Oh yeah and he got a nuclear bomb as well but I may just have lied about that one.
He got a Toy Story cake which I ate (this time I ate the cake and the icing at the same time...very unlike me). I then got some Halo X Box action from my brother where he 'pawned me' as non-gentlemen gaming fellows would say.

Once every year my extended family on my fathers side have a golf day in which we all go and play golf and then gather at the house of the winner of the previous year. We even have prizes at the end. We celebrate the event in the name of coming together as a family and to remember my grandparents who brought about an explosion of the Astill family. In our family there are roughly eighty something people who all came from my grandparents. There was my grandparents, who brought my uncles and aunts into the world and then came everybody else. Now we are a massive family that live all around the place, dominating the world...and is still growing.
My twin sister and mother left the house about two o'clock to look after the kids and meet people early. My father, my brother and I stayed at home because we couldn't play golf. My sister was at work at the time. But anyway eventually my sister got back, my dad had a shower or three and we left for the evening meal. A pleasant evening. Every time I go I am surprised to see the children...they all seemed very Aryan, bright blonde hair and blue eyes. I was like that until my body decided that my hair should be brown.

Here is the last event to all who have read this far. Munchy and Dave (who you may know if you were a regular reader) and I went to the local pub of Munchy in order to take part in my first ever pub quiz. A few hours past and we came about seventh in the end. I'm fine with that. I believe the first prize was £10. It was fun anyway and none of us were desperately trying to win anyway. Dave and I went back to the Munchy residence and stayed until the next day, watchng a film and then leaving.

I believe that is it.

Have a goodun as they say.
Over and Out.
ED

Adoration of Interpol.

Originally I was going to write a love letter shamelessly expressing my love of the band Interpol. I may still write one in some sort of tongue in cheek thing to show my appreciation for a band that I have enjoyed since I was short haired, spotty, comb over(ed) fellow in secondary school but I just wish to post this video in order for people to see it. My musical tastes are infinite and ever expanding; some pop to disco and folk and metal to name a few. If you name any song (within reason) there is a chance that I may like it...apart from obvious exceptions.

Anyway here is the video. The normal babble about my life shall continue after this post.
If you have come across them for the first time I hope it is a good experience.

Over and Out
ED

P.S---The video might be dodgy but please still give it a try. Wink.

A birthday party, playing Rock Band and a knackering walk...read on yah!

I have just returned from the house of Munchy after a celebration of the twentieth year of the life of my friend Dave. Dave and Munchy (their blog is in the followers bit to the side of this blog) and I camped out in the garden, each bringing our tents with us...apart from Munchy because we were at his house...and he had thrown away his tent some time ago because it said some very mean things to him. But anyway onwards with the story.

We arrived in Leicester at about 5:00pm, after being at the Munchy house for a few hours, at a place called Soar Point, a student type place where most people from Demontfort University go to (an inferior uni to Derby uni...just because of something that I like to call 'patriotic discrimination'...hence Derby is the best uni in the country).
We sat in the corner on some comfortable seats and talked about the usual things that young dudes talk about. After a while loads of people came in their...threes to wish Dave a happy birthday. It was through the coming of these people that I got a few good conversations...even though I was continually commented on giving off vibes of being quiet.
I got into some good geeky conversations which I'm happy about and found out about an event that is on at Demontfort which I may be thinking about going to.

After a few hours of chilled out chatter we headed to another place where I danced...surprisinging I never did the robot. I generally just moved my arms and feet in a way that suggested that I had a basic understanding of what dancing actually was. I may have seemed to everyone else that I was having an electric shocks through my feet which may have been a good excuse for my skills.

Twas just like Soar Point that we stayed at this place for about an hour then walked back to a flat of with my newly acquired aquantences in order to play Rock Band on Xbox.
We were all tired after a bit (as was to be expected) so Dave, Munchy and myself bid all adieu and headed to the bus station to return to the tents in the garden. We were waiting too long so we decided to walk from the bus stop in the direction of other bus stops. We did this for an hour until we passed a bus stop and was picked up. We travelled until we got to Loughborough, got off that bus and then walked for a few miles until we got back to the house and fell asleep in the tents.

The next day I woke up at 12:00am, said goodbye to Dave and bought things. Myself and Munchy then melted some Fruit Pastilles in the microwave and ate the goo, then I left.

One of the best times I have had this summer.

Where did I put my Fruit Pastilles?

Over and Out
ED