i love juice

Sat in the middle of the smallest of villages is Hulme End General Stores. The shop is the only shop for miles with no neon sign or fancy offers, its located in this very small and old train station stop. You can turn 360 degrees and not see a modern day outrage anywhere. With a small river cutting through the village along side the Manifold Track that was once a working rail line feeding the country from these very important and yet small towns and villages.
Hulme End Shop is owned and ran by Eric and Jude the most fantastic people i ever have came across, to all the walkers and campers they provide a service and fountain of knowledge of the local area. To the residence of Hulme End and the surrounding villages they ensure that their lives keep in contact with whats going on in the outside world, as many people would rarely feel the need to go into the nearby towns or even cities living their lives comfortable in the beautiful English countryside.
The importance of the shop to the area is invaluable offering a sense of security and community and yet protected from the up market country eating mega stores. With no threat of their ever being another shop in Hulme End the shop can inevitably live on selling obscure items that you wouldn't find in any normal shop, it is a local shop for local people.
Coming from a town and living in a major city you do not see the importance of a local shop for this has disappeared never to be seen again instead we have a huge Asda, Tesco, M&S etc with their fake smiles and shallow welcomes filling the needs of the public with the only real intention of making money and not a relationship with the people that fill their pockets.
To visit Hulme End Shop every time im in the area gives me the image of what England use to be about and to come back to the city not wanting to go shopping but to buy online makes me think about how lonely city life can be.
As i walk to the end of my street i see boarded up houses and shops as the outside of the city dies the middle grows, sucking in all the money and consumers for miles around. The place with all the bright lights trying to direct the the attention away from the dying areas until its to late. The importance is lost, the local shops and stores and sense of community has gone never to be brought back as the new generation have no sense of community or belonging but selfishness, and the big bright city beating like a overworked heart has no feeling and is just a cold neon sign that will one day burn out.

Recent visits back to the sticks has taken my partner and i on a bit of a wonder to see some of the most beautiful sights in England.
Our Rambles took us to a mysterious place where legend has it, mermaids live and dark tales of murder and witchcraft have been talked about for centuries.
The picture above is of the Mermaid Pool at Blakemere. The view is over looking a old market town of Leek. The pool is supposed to be bottomless and contains a mermaid. The mermaid was once a beautiful young woman who was believed to be a witch and was thrown into the pool to her death, as she cursed the people who did this, she cursed the pool and since no animal or bird will drink from the pool and no matter the weather it will never freeze over.
The legend has continued over a thousand years and ever today as we stood near the pool it has a quiet eerie feel to it, although the view takes your breath away.

Before returning to the sticks this weekend i finished up watching the last series of The Wire. For those people who have not seen this program it a cop show set in Baltimore and is quite easily one of the greatest cop show on the TV. Now as it was the last series im not going to into what happened as i dont want to ruin it for those yet to see the finale.
I would suggest anyone out there who likes gritty cop show to get this on DVD or as i do download it. The characters in it are real and the show often uses members of the public. There is also a documentary that fits in with the show called The Corner. Watch this if your gonna get into this as it will help you understand what is going on.
Im gutted that i will no longer have this to watch or look forward to but im sure ill watch it all again in a year or so.
So here is to Macnulty, Bunk, Lester, Bubbles, the corner and Omar. Awesome Characters in a fantastic show about cops, the game and the cards life deals you with, shhhhheeeeeeeeeiiiiiittt.

i have just read that we may be on our way to serious mental disorders, as a regular reader of the American Journal of Psychiatry (ha ha yeah right), its highlighted symptoms such as;

Withdrawal and an associated sense of anger or depression when you cannot reach a computer, the constant need for better equipment and the feeling of social isolation and fatigue.

this all leads to Technology-related mental disorders.
is this you???

can you think of the all time greatest mustaches ? i racked my brains last night trying to think of the greatest top lip warmer and here is what i came up with, my top five.

1. Tom Selleck
2. Burt Reynolds
3. Hulk Hogan
4. Ned Flanders
5. Lemmy

what do you think??

i had a rather interesting discussion about marriage the other night which got me thinking about or when you decide its the time. we started talking about the event in general, the actual wedding day and what we perceive as ideal. many people see the day as an excuses to spend much money on lavish venues, dresses and food and as many people look at planning their wedding off the backs off these self obsessed celebrities i cant help but think that the actual purpose of the day has been lost.
with divorce at a high and most marriages failing within the first couple of years this special, expensive day seems like a waste of time and money.
i long thought to myself that marriage would not be for me (still only in my 20's) as i saw my parents marriage fail at a young age it reflected bad on my young mind however as i become more settled and older my feelings towards this are starting to changed.
what i do still feel is that although marriage is no longer no no, we have to make a choice about how it is we go about it. i will point out at this point that i have not popped the question and im far from getting down on one knee. those who have read previous posts will understand that i have a family which you could say is similar to that of a modern british family, rifts, divorces and embarrassing relatives it comes with all the trimmings. do we have to plan a day that is for the people in our family or should this day be about the two people getting married. an idea that we talked about is to elope, leave all the planning and family behind and go away. it sure feels like the best way to do it but (although not yet) i will have to take that plunge and tell the family.
whats more scary getting married or telling your mother she wont need a hat.

well what a great race and it looks like was right, this season is going to be more entertaining than ever. with the new changes to the cars it looks like they are heading back to basics taking away alot of the electronic driving that has taken away the skill of Formula 1 for many years.
the changes will show who the real drivers are and those who can drive will and these who have in the past relied on the performance of the car and the electronics that go inside will be the ones left behind. its a shame the changes had not come when Schumacher was still in the game, id love to see him drive with out his electronic engine management.
so the brits get off to a good start with LH winning the first grand prix of the season, it was unfortunate to see Alonso not reaching the podium, hahaha not really.
what i was disappointed with was the build up before the race , it seems Maclaren need to give the impression that LH and his new team mate are buddies and instead they film a cringing attempt to show the two guys having a relaxed jokey conversation. totally staged and obviously fake. LH is in it to become world champion not to make loads of friends. i loved the fact that he and Alonso really didn't get on last season i want more bitchiness.

on a lighter note im looking forward to grand prix tomorrow, our boy has taken poll position and looks set to give a fully entertaining season. im so glad that gone are the days of this boring no overtaking race where you could always predict that Schumacher would win.
check out grid position we are in for great start to the F1 season. i shall be found on the sofa all day tomorrow.

after a very stressful couple of weeks i can finally see the light and as of 13.30pm tomorrow i will be off work for two whole weeks. oh the joy, im considering what to do while im off and im pretty sure will consist of me not doing much of anything.
i love my job and everything that comes with it but the last couple of weeks have been hard, the reality that if something dosent work the way it should the amount of work that is needed to put it right is going to be a large effort. this may sound confusing but my laziness and other peoples ignorance has in time caused me alot of work. but after today it was finally clearing and the stress levels are dropping.
anyway another reason for no post the past week has been because the internet speed has been so slow that using it has basically pissed me off. i have almost zero patience so if a page takes more then a few seconds to download, i start to shake with frustration. i pay for a fast broadband as most people do however what you pay for and what you get are two very different things.
im pretty sure that somewhere it says you cant advertise a service, sell it and not give it.
iv read some shit excuses for this but this one has to take the biscuit. basically the reason i have slow broadband is because of christmas lights and to much outside noise interfering with my line speed.
so as a result of this im taking this opportunity to tell you all to shut up, stop banging your feet, slamming car doors, putting you dogs out to bark all night and most of all turn your bloody Christmas lights off!!

i always find myself flicking through the channels when the program im watching goes to break never really watching anything, just letting the time pass. however occasionally you come across something that luck would have stop and get engrossed in.
i have just finished watching a documentary on one of my two favourite product designers, Marc Newson. the other being Jonathan Ive (apple designer). i studied Marc Newson while in university and he influenced some of my work.
my first love has always been design and creating, this is why i studied engineering in my early youth and then left the industry to go to uni. i have always dreamed that in the future i would find myself sketching designing and getting dirty creating products that some mug would pay me to do. i am still young and there still may be a chance that i will get the opportunity, but while my career to a detour and not for the worst, this program reminded me of my love for design and the dreams for a possible future.

now another one of Mr Ritchie's film has just started, so in the words of Big Chris " its been emotional".

iv had a roller coaster of a day with ups and downs that has made me feel quite sick.
the job can be stressful at times and with tuesday just finished and the rest of the week so long it makes you want to return to that simple job of working in a clothes shop.
but i chose this and you take the highs with the lows. discussing the day with my partner and explaining why i am a little quieter than normal this evening i could see her thinking about if she wanted the same thing. my partner is studying the same profession as i and will soon be joining the club, which i cant wait. however she is very strong minded and i assure high that she will deal with it better than i and the rewards are priceless.
so as i reach the button that turns the stress off ( glass of red) i start to look forward to my week (my god this wine is strong), i have a day out tomorrow and another on friday so the week gets shorter and the weekend closer.
10 days until i get a short break, count down begins.

A new look for the blog, iv gone for a fresh clean look with a citrus tang to it hopefully this will sum up the blog just nicely.
i had planned to make up some cool fancy design with a glass of orange to link with "i love juice' title however i found this great little picture and thought that would do plus i couldnt work out how to do it with my MAC.
a great film has just come on the box which is a rarity so im not gonna hang about. i had just been reading this article on mental maths. Just as i was half way through this my partner asked me question on multiplying decimals, what a coincident i thought. so i shared the knowledge only to get my head bitten off. the article has truth in it, it may have only tested 2000 people and i dont really believe shit like this but after tonight i will consider some of the shit i read.
Now in the words of Bullet Tooth Tony 'You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity'