New Bike

I'm looking for a new mountain bike. I have had this bike, an Orange c16 for nearly 13 years and paid around £600 for it then. It was an amazing bike, weighs around 23lb I think and can pick it up with one hand. We have been riding around since and I've been using it for work but over the years it has become worn and tired. I would like to go for another Orange but they only make bikes now for competition at £1000 plus, so that's way out of my price range and I can't justify paying that much on something that is going to be parked outside of work. I have been looking around for a new bike but nothing really has caught my eye but I keep looking. I really need one soon as this bike is on it's last legs, it needs so many repairs doing that it would cost a fair amount which now would be better put towards a new bike. I don't drive so my bike is my transport around, so just got to keep looking I guess!

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The Impossible Dream

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chased from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question or cause
To be willing to march into hell for an Heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To fight the unbeatable foe
To reach the unreachable star

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What's In A Name?

I decided to explain my choice of name on here. It came about after I was chatting to a dear friend in America. He asked about my name and it's meaning and suddenly realised that maybe it might be a bit obscure so here's the explaination.

A Friend Called 5 came from a song by Gary Numan under his then band name Tubeway Army. Going back to 1979 he released a single called "Are Friends Electric" which got to number 1 here in the UK in 1979. It was, and still is a classic single and the album it came off, "Replicas" is just as good. On that album there is a track called "Down In The Park" which was the single before "Are Friends Electric" and it contains the line "down in the park with a friend called 5". Being a kid of 14 I thought this was a great line about someone having a friend with a number instead of a name not realising that he was talking about robots taking over as humans!

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Uuugghh

I had food poisoning this weekend and have been really ill. I have put it down to the fish and chips from the local chip shop and although they tasted ok the effects didn't hit me until Saturday morning. Me and my partner decided to go to Manchester this weekend and was looking forward to it, but I started to feel ill during the car drive there and gradually got worse. The scary part was that I almost passed out as everything started going grey but luckily I got sat down before I went down.

So I got home and went straight to bed and stayed there till about 7pm ish and just came down and laid on the sofa. Today I feel a lot better but not perfect, hopefully I should be ok for work tomorrow. It kinda scared me as a few years back I had uticaria (I think it's spelt) which is an ellergic reaction and was ill for days. My doctor told me not to try and find what it was as it could kill me, the symptoms were very similar except I didn't get a body rash!

I bought a mobile phone while I was there which I didn't open till today which is not like me as something like that I can't wait to get my hands on it! I also bought some record boxes for my singles which are like rocking horse shit! My old single boxes are falling apart but HMV are selling metal cases but they are hard to get and so far only been able to get them in Leeds and Manchester. I really don't know how many I need but have started so hopefully this time next year I will have them all!

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Healing

Time for a little more about me. I'm a Reiki healer. Reiki is hands on healing and the word means Universal Life Energy. It isn't attached to any belief system so anyone can recieve and learn Reiki, all you need is the desire to be healed. Reiki can help to heal all kinds of ailments being it physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. It is amazing and so much has happened since I had my Reiki attunment it has changed my life and beliefs around for the good. I am currently level 3 Reiki and I plan to learn to become a master.

It has opened me up to understand about Spirit Guides, Angels, Spirits, it has got me interested in Buddishm and Spiritualism. I use crystals and a pendulum to communicate and use with Reiki and also to use with the chakra's in the body. All interesting stuff which I will tell more about!

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Back To Work

Good Old Monday! Back to work after a good weekend and I found out that the prototyping I did at work last week has gone together well so that pleased me. It's my Partners birthday today so we went off to PC World to buy a lap top. It's amazing how much money you can get for a birthday lol!

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A Day In The Life

I went to York today, it was a really nice warm sunny day and I decided to wear my black kilt. It's the first time I have been outside in it (the other times were just parties) and I gotta say I felt really good in it. It isn't that often you see a guy in a kilt anywhere around here and it was funny to watch people trying not to look but they couldn't help but look and make eye contact. Guess I am becoming more of an exhibitionist than what I thought!

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Turning Japanese

Yes I guess I Am!

As you can see from the picture, I am heavily tattooed. Since I was 13 years old, I decided I wanted to get tattooed. I always had ideas of what I wanted and just a few days after my 18th birthday, much to the moaning of my Parents I got my first tattoo. I got an eagle on my upper right arm and it looked great and felt really grown up, two years later I got my next tattoo, a swallow and a heart with a scroll and my name in it. I knew I just wanted loads and got two more on my legs but resisted any more on my arms. My next tattoo was a dragon on the top of my left arm going onto my chest. It was outlined and that was as far as I got, the tattooist who did it wasn't that brilliant so I left it. I bought an american tattoo magazine in 1992 and saw exactly what I wanted. A guy had a japanese half sleeve that looked amazing, then I began to see pictures of Japanese style tattoos from arms to full bodysuits and they just blew my mind. That is when I knew I wanted a full Japanese bodysuit!

I managed to find a guy down South in Clacton who specialized in Japanese tattoos and was amazing and he did my half sleeve, well three quarters of it. The distance, cost of travelling and the work was too much so left it for a few years till I found a closer tattooist. I found one in West Yorkshire but was a little bit of an ego guy. I then left it another year until 2003 and found my tattooist at a tattoo convention in Manchester and started going to him,. He re coloured and styled my left arm and sleeved it over a year. Then we started my right arm, went over my old eagle and finished it Feb 2007. I start my back in June 2007 and plan to get a warrior fighting a dragon on my back. I will go into details when the work starts but I'm really looking forward to it. It has been a dream of mine to get a full bodysuit which is from my neck to my ankles completely covering my body in ink, and I also plan to get a tattoo on my neck and hands as time goes on.

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At Home

I guess I have to get used to writing my blog a little more regular so I have decided to put a little more about me here. I am an avid record collector, been collecting those shiny 7 inches of pleasure for around 35 years now. The first single I was bought was The New Seekers, Beg Steal Or Borrow back in 1972. As I grew so did my record collection covering all delights of Glam Rock, Punk & New Wave, New Romantics and 70's & 80's charts but as I hit the mid 80's music seemed to become really stale and uninteresting.

Getting into the late 90's Dance music, of all things, especially Trance began to interest me again. The music today has really lost a lot of the diversity it used to have. I remember when I used to listen to the charts and on a Saturday afternoon on Radio 1 there used to be the American charts. Nowadays our charts are really the American charts, so does that mean on a Saturday afternoon on Radio 1 they will be doing the UK charts? To me, all this r&b, rap hip hop all sounds the same but the charts has become full of this stuff, so what has happened to all the British music. I've nothing against American music but it would be nice to have good old music from Blighty in the charts!

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Easter

Well it's Easter time, the weather here has been nice so far as usually this time of year in the UK it's raining or just cold and dull. I've got a few days off and still recovering from having the tooth out, just got dull pain all the time now. I should be decorating the hallway and landing but I'm away for today and tomorrow so it won't get started till Monday now maybe lol, got stuff to sort and move too which I can do.

I have a huge record and CD collection that is basically in a shelving unit on the landing and in the spare room. I have been sorting through my collection and had a few bits sold on Ebay and stuff has been taken to the charity shop as well. I have got loads of old cassettes that I have bought again on CD so they have gone, hope somebody can find a use for them. Just my old cassettes to go through now, of stuff I've recored over the years although I have bought most of them on CD too, isn't it amazing how much you can collect over the years and not throw away.

Time to get a photo up of me on here, me thinks. Here is a photo from my London trip outside Harrods in 2005

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Dentist

I Went to see the dentist today. I've had a really sensetive tooth for about 2 weeks and thought beginning of my holiday I would get it sorted. I thought they would just clean it and re fill it but oh no, they had to pull it and I'm really gutted. Apparently I had described the last stages of a dying nerve before infection sets in and as I'd previously had it filled there wasn't much of my tooth left and it would have cost £700 to rebuild my tooth and root treatment. Even if I had said yes he didn't think it would have worked so out it came and cost £19.20. A great start to my holiday!

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Just Moving In

Hello Everyone!
Just taking my time to look around and learn how to blog. This place looks a lot better than the others that are around so hopefully I will feel right at home

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