N O W H E R E Near the End of the Rainbow

N O W H E R E Near the End of the Rainbow
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An account of something that may one day turn out to be wonderful.......

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Erm T in the Park SOLD OUT AFTER 56 mins. PANTS

TOUTS IN THE PARK

TICKETS for T in the Park sold out in less than an hour yesterday after a mad scramble frommusic fans.

Thousands braved freezing conditions to queue overnight in a bid to get briefs for Scotland's biggest music festival.

And the police had to be called to clear a mob of angry and disappointed fans who failed to get their hands on tickets.

Meanwhile, phone lines and internet sites were jammed as tens of thousands tried to buy tickets by credit card.

They went on sale at 9am - limited to two per person - and were all snapped up by 9.56.

Now a feeding frenzy is under way as touts try to sell their stash of tickets.

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Within minutes of the sell-out, touts and ticket agencies had marked up the official £115 weekend and camping price by 500 per cent.

Some tickets were selling for £500-plus on eBay - and prices were even higher from agencies.

One fan who lost out, Alison Calder, 22, of Glasgow, said: "Ticketmaster told us that the tickets were sold out at 10am. But we were offered a pair of weekend tickets which should have been £115 for £700 from a London agency. We don't want to pay over the odds."

Fans have been warned to steer clear of touts in case they end up with forgeries.

In all, 170 acts will performacross 10 stages at Balado, Kinross, on July 8 and 9.

Rock legends The Who and US giants Red Hot Chili Peppers are headlining the 13th festival.

They will perform alongside triple Brit winners Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Primal Scream and The Ordinary Boys.

And with the Glastonbury festival not being staged this year, T in th Park will be THE music event of the summer.

At Glasgow's Tickets Scotland outlet, staff arrived at work to find a massive queue of fans on Argyle Street outside the agency's office.

They snaked round on to Oswald Street, then along nearbyMidland Street.

First in the queue were students Lorna Ronald and Ashley Croll, both 19, who had been waiting since 4.30pm on Thursday.

Lorna said: "We knew the queue would be really big and we just really, really wanted a ticket. It's the first time we've been."

The girls said they were keen to see Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys.

Ashley added: "Every person that went by was asking us why we were standing here but I think it will be worth it."

Lauren Brown, 19, from Glasgow, spent most of the night wrapped in a tartan rug along with friend Erin Hogg, also 19.

She said:"We knew tickets would be hard to get so decided to get down here at about 10pm.It was agood night, we just drank a bit and had a laugh."

They were among the lucky ones. There were angry scenes at the Glasgow office when many in the massive queue failed to get tickets.

Some threw small missiles such as coins and cans towards the shop after the shutters went down.

And bitterly disappointed fans shouted abuse at the stewards who tried to clear the area.

One of the security team said: "It's not a pleasant job. I've been threatened all morning. They've told me they'll put me through the windows if they walk away with nothing. But I'm just a messenger."

Eventually, uniformed police arrived at the scene to ensure people moved along.

Even then, dozens continued to protest.

Among the first to be told they would not get a ticket was 25-year-old Katy Whitlaw.

The student, from Stirling, had been in the Glasgow queue from 6am.

She said: "I am gutted. Earlier this morning one of the stewards went around counting us. He said I was about the 1009th person in the queue and that I'd get a ticket.

"So I have queued for hours, am absolutely freezing and still go away with nothing. So many people jumped the queue and nothing was done about it. In that sense, this was badly organised."

In Edinburgh, granny Rae Begbie, 77, waited for hours to get tickets for son Russell, 40.

She said: "I am a good mother. He is working but I didn't mind coming down. I couldn't believe how many people were in the queue."

More than 200 fans suffered sub-zero temperatures in Dundee to snap up tickets from the city's only outlet, Grouchos.

Graeme Sharp, 21, took the day off work to ensure he could get the briefs.

He said: "It was a bit cold, but really worth the wait. There is a fantastic line-up this year."

In Aberdeen, 200 fans pitched up outside the city's Tourist Centre on Union Street from 2am. Many left empty handed.

David Banks, 31, from Aberdeen, queued for two hours hoping to buy a ticket for his girlfriend.

The financial adviser said: "I was looking forward to seeing the Kaiser Chiefs. Hopefully, I'll still manage to get tickets on eBay but I'mnot willing to spend too much."

Last night, Geoff Ellis, CEO of festival organisers Big Day Out Ltd, said: "Once again, music fans have shown that T in the Park tickets are the most hotly sought after in the UK.

"The beautiful Balado location, coupled with the unrivalled passion of the Scottish audience and, of course, the consistently brilliant line-up, all add up to a festival experience that is unrivalled anywhere else in Europe."

But Ellis warned people to avoid ticket touts - in case they landed a forgery.

He said: "The tickets will not be sent out to those lucky enough to buy them until 10 days before the event. They will have their names on them, which must be matched with ID.

"Do not buy these tickets from touts, as they do not physically exist yet and many touts do not even turn up on the day to hand over the tickets.

"We will not allow fans in with forged tickets."

posted by Nack at 2/19/2006 11:44:42 AM

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

After all that sleep I was rearing to do something on Saturday. Well I replaced the electric window regulator on the Eunos. At last I can have the roof and windows down again. While I was messing with the car I thought it might be wise to condition the leather seats as I havn't done them since owning the thing. I bought some Auto Glym leather care cream. It was worrying just how much was being abosorded. In fact on two seats I went through half a bottle. However they have now become extremely soft and supple like sofa leather. No more sliding around in them either they actually hold you. After that I was tired so I relaxed and organised a hire car with Hertz to be collected from Lyon airport with my dad for our next holiday in the mountains.

By night time I forced myself out to see my mates that had organised to go out. We started in O'Neils where I enjoyed a nice black current juice. From here we moved onto the EuroBar which Di and Greg reconed they had never been to.

Straws....

Lollies's....

Real fruit... Wew are easily made happy.

They didn't seem to willing and weren't impressed to find we were the only ones in there! 3 jugs of sangria later things were slightly better and more people in the place. From here we headed to the varsity, The Quban Bar, The Little Civic had and extensive que which some girl informed me there was some brillant DJ on. We ended up in Blast Off of course.....

A quick beer upstairs indicated that while there were loads of poeple on the dance floor no one was actually danceing. Then Greg and Di ran down to the start of a tune. Look carfully at the photo.

Bumped into a few people in there in one way or another and as the night got later the music finaly got better.

In fact once I had my coat on and Rog had gone home the music was positively buzzing but it was soon time to go.....

For a curry of course. The usually closed Neel Akash was closed as usual until you knock the door and explain you want feeding. They turn the burners back on and serve up some delicouse food.

Finaly at home and getting into bed. Will Big-L remeber not to collect me in the morning???? (as I requested)

posted by Nack at 2/14/2006 08:07:14 PM

Friday, February 10, 2006

Not been to work today as I wasn't feeling well and still don't. In fact didn't get out of bed unitl 4:35pm!

nothing else to say as I've done nothing but dream....

posted by Nack at 2/10/2006 07:31:18 PM

Thursday, February 09, 2006

For those of you bored there are now 112 new picutres from last Sundays game on the football site. And some of them are dam good pics. Apart from going swimming on Tuesday I've not done much other than watch the 4 latest epsoide of Lost season 2. I've now got to part 12 and the plot is changing somewhat to the extreme! When will they screen some more??? Well I'm not going swimming tonight as I think I finally have got the flu everyone elese seems to have had. This is bad timing for the weekend! :( Greenie seems to have misslead me about the Inxs gig. There isn't one in the UK yet! What I can't believe is they used Terrance Trent Darby as a guest vocalist at one point. A Debate got going at work and perhaps like Queen should have done when Freddie passed away, they should have quit and restarted under a new band name???? Nowt else to say at this point other than let me sleep somewhat, my head hurts sooo much.

posted by Nack at 2/09/2006 08:10:00 PM

Monday, February 06, 2006

Friday night I stayed in after the big expense of being on holiday last week. I did manage to get off my bump though no matter how knackered my body felt and go swimming last night. Although I never did anywhere near 60 lengths and boy was the pool busy. Arrrrr drives me mad. Anyway Friday night I stayed in and watched The Land Girls, rather apt has it happens.

Got up nice and early and headed off to the Whacky Warehouse at The Rock in Tetenhall for a couple of hours of Kiddy Kingdom and a pint with some friends. As you can see if all the colourings in this cake don't effect the kids I'd be surprised. I'm already light headed! While the others head off to the Great Western I need to do a couple of things. One is get my hair cut. Its got too long and is driving me mad. Luckily there was no que and so this was solved quickly.

A quick jump in the car and off I went to Birmingham to have a look for a new board sharper. Couldn't get the same one I already have but worn out so I'll have to make do with this gadget!

Having given or in that not given him but put in Matts flat his ski and snowboaWolverhamptonrd book, I avidly looked around the book stores of Birmingham to replace it with something other than this years addition to give us some comparison from the editors. However I could not find another one that was any good and so ended up with this years book anyway!

Now before I had set off from to Brum I had been around the shops Wolverhampton in search of a new phone. I could not take being without one any longer - cripes I only lasted 2 days if that! Having been on line I thought I wanted the personal touch and the search ended at T-Mobiles phone shop. What seems to be a cracking deal if on an 18 month contract. So I now pay £8:50 a month for 100minutes then £16 for six months then £8:50 for as long as I keep the contract. unfortunately they couldn't get in the safe and were awaiting a service man to get off their arse and get to the Wolverhampton branch to sort it out. Well he did so I stopped off back in Wolverhampton and collected this very nice pink bag. Now I'm thinking that this must surely reduce the number of male straight customers they get! Surely while its very flash its just not manly.???!? Perhaps they only want female customers, how, knows.?

Oh yea I got the all singing all dancing phone as well free :)

So lets hope the service is as good as the signal is back home, which is full bars!!!!! Aye new number above by the way.

I quickly popped into Beatties to get some dye for Bart who in the sun seems to have lost his colour. I don't hope for much but lets see what we can do and get him back in Pride of place of toys in the back window of the cavalier. All the Bart fans on the M6 must be wandering what I've done to him! Saturday night I head over to my uncles for a game feast and some firework fun. Only the fireworks turn out to be damp and won't light. We put them away somewhere warm and we redo the firework fun another night. The night is ended in the Rainbow in a heated debate about when its getting demolished and rebuilt over a fair few Newky Browns. Looks like Diane and Gaz are going going going :( pants.

Big-L picks me up from home and its off to the Jenny Lea center of entertainment to watch the Rainbow play. In fact its a great game to watch with many twists and turns to the game including a change of tops for Rainbow at the mid term interval and the oppositions goalie getting the red card. And ho the photos are really good - got to get these on the web site. unfortunately the result is only 1-1. From here we nip into Wolverhampton and see Norfy and Kirsty for while before raiding the corridor for anything that could be 'recycled'. Oh how I love the environment especially of Wolvo.

I finally get to find some time to have a go at rectifying the problem I'm encountering with the electric window, hence I have not been anywhere with the roof down lately. The problem however is worse than I first thought and on Monday I'm going to have to speak to the parts people to see if I can get a refund on the bit I've got and get a full assembly instead (which has the parts on it that I've got you see).

The day is ended by me going over to see Terresa, Andy, Dylan and their new born child Liam. All seems well and for a change its one baby that doesn't scream when in the hands of Nack!

posted by Nack at 2/06/2006 09:36:00 PM

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Well last weeks holiday seems to have exhausted me, I'm permantly tired and my legs ache. I have got the photos up though, although there is one or two that have gone astray as usual. I may well put that right at the weekend.

For those who don't know my phone is disconnected from orange. I'm looking at T-Mobile or O2 for a better signal at home (I would go with vodaphone again without out a doubt but signal is as bad as orange back at home). But I'm not sure which of the two to go for and I'm not taking my old number with me so it will be good bye to my number which I've had for over five years now....

osevenninehundredeightofiveeighteighteght.

Whats life going to hold for me during the next few days without a phone while I decide which to plum for. Mind Orange have charged me until the 22nd February but the letter I got did say that they would send one last bill to add credit / outstanding charges after disconection. Lets hope they put that credit on or I'll cancel the direct debit with immediate effect and let them swing for the money for a bit from all those calls I made in France last week. Oh course their automated phone system makes it imposible to talk to them now that it won't accpet my telephone number at the begining. Got to say Oranges customer service is far far better than when I used to be with Phones 4 U whom most people know I would not go with even if they offered me a year free with completely free calls! Mind the last person I spoke to at Orange had obvously moved jobs from phones 4 U!

hence.....

The Furtures Bright But I Doubt It Will Be Orange.

posted by Nack at 2/02/2006 08:21:00 PM

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Last week was spent in an area of France known as Paradiski. Why is it known as this....

Because I guess there is such a large area to ski. Not the biggest but up there in the top 3, I think. The area covers 3 main parts - namely Les Arcs / Peisey Vallandry and La Plagne.

Matt had done a grand job in booking us not only the flights from Birmingham, Transfer to our resort but the actual chalet we were staying in was great. Much better than the usual French confined apartment accomadation. Our chalet is located in Vallandry and not far from the lift. YIPPPPPPEEEEEEE.

There was plenty of space for the seven of us staying there, and even a balcony for when you got 'evicted'.

First full days skiing for us all and Matt gets his padded pants on! What a wuss. You don't see the professionals wearing them. Its something from the rocky horror show. Next he'll be wearing moisturizer!

That morning Graham and Michelle head off for a lesson. Mean while....

Matt and Nack teach Chris some top tips on how to snowboard. He soon discovers the famous sitting position.

Once Chris is also in his proper lesson, Rob, Matt, Norf and myself head up the mountain to do some proper moves.

As we can see Matt is as mad and confident on his board as usual. I wonder how long it will be before he gets us down a black run?

Norfy is straight back to his old form which is lucky really.

Matt also has another toy. A back pack with a hydro pack! Oh how we laughed but in fact it did come in handy. Mind I would rather stop and have a drink at some mountain restuartant, wouldn't you Matt......

In fact would you like to make that a bottle of vin rouge while going down some slopes!

Well after the bottle of red stuff we headed up this lift. Now this lift takes you up to the top of a mountain called Aigulle Rouge. This only means one of two things....

Either a hellish wide black down or a hellish narrow down. The Boarders (Nack and Matt) go for the black. The Skiers (Norf and Rob) wimp out and go for the red. The truth be it the boarders would have also gone for the hellish red if it had not been so narrow. Either way, Matt nor myself made it down that part elegantly! The runs joined up and our first route dispute happened. The route splitt back into two, one way black one way red. Matt wanted to do the black, Norf wanted to do the black. Nack wanted to do the red and Rob was easy. And so the boarders did the black and then followed the rest of the route (one of the longest in the world at nearly 7kms) all the way down to Villaroger. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as the top bit but such a long route was exhausting.

Day two saw us head across from Plan Peisey to the La Plagne area via the new and biggest cable car in the world the Vanoise Express. Here several things happened....

Some boarder ran over my brothers pole (that would be me). The boarders and skiers splitt up after a rest break and were ment to met in a cafe bar, only the snowboarders got lost and ended up in Champagny area (we only found this out when we admitted to another English person we were 'lost').

We finaly got back together on the Vallandry Peisey area. To tell our stories we nipped in Jimmys Apres Ski Bar for one, two, three, four..... (This would become some kind of habbit)

Next day I was full of beans and on my usual form.

Later that afternoon we meet up with Michelle and Graham to see how their lessons had helped.

Off the piste then and straight into Jimmy's for one, two, three, four, five, six... ok so this night we lost count. The Europop is beating and the English were dancing (we were the only English by the way). We even went to some restuart really late straight from Jimmy's in our ski gear.

I don't know about you but I feel a bit rough - what about you???

Thursday morning and Chris shows us some of his snowboarding tricks before Matt and myself head over to Les Arcs for the snowboarding park.

Before that Matt has a Texmex burger. One of our favourite dishes at the Rapid Resturant at the bottle of the slope. Matt always gets served by the most usless waittress ever and food is not served as rapid as the name suggests. Mind Ian Beals other half seems to run the waitressing.

Thursday is ended on a high for me and Matt by finishing on the black from the top of Vallandry. We of course then relax in Jimmys for one. two, three.....is anyone counting???

The next day Norf and Myself head over to Les Arcs with Matt and Rob. Jimmys has effected us though and we give up leaving Rob and Matt to it. We have a snack and drink in the shit whole off Les Arcs 1800 and head back to Vallandry very slowly. By the time we get back Michelle and Graham are at the Rapid Resturant. So we have lunch there and a few non alcholic drinks. Matt, Chris and Graham pack up for the day and Michelle, Norf and Rob want to head over to La Plagne. I'm not sure I'm well enough yet but go for it. Luckily this time we don't get lost!

We stick to nice easy blues and for me it was a great way to finish rather than the messy morning I had done. Many miles done it was time to head back to the chalet to pack and tidy up.

An ealry morning start followed by the usual flight delays and we eventaully get home. Charmed I'm sure......

posted by Nack at 1/29/2006 10:47:00 PM

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