Sunday: Bikes and Punk; Alan

Alan

I've tried to write about this before, but it's difficult.

Alan is my maternal uncle, and we've always got along well. He's very gregarious and always well dressed: I've never seen him wear jeans or trainers, always good slacks and leather shoes, a shirt.

About fifteen years ago he had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised. He recovered and has been okay since until about six weeks ago when he started behaving oddly, the old problems coming back, and he was hospitalised again about two weeks ago. I've been spending the last two weeks zipping up and down the M11 and M6 to go and see him. He's in a pleasant enough ward, low security, and seems to be recovering slowly, three steps forward, two steps back.

Hollywood Doll at the NCC Custom Bike Show

On a lighter note, I went to see Keith (a.k.a. K.T. Glitz) and his band, Hollywood Doll, at the NCC Custom Bike Show. It always seems a bit weird to use the phrases "old-fashioned" and "punk band" together, but that's what came to mind, and jolly good they were too, playing with gusto and skill. It reminded me a bit of the B52's.

I took some photo's of the event, and some of the rather classy bikes on display.

Mad Men

I've been watching back-to-back episodes of the first three seasons of AMC's Mad Men, all about advertising executives in 1960's New York. It's surprisingly engaging and deservedly won umpteen Emmy's and Golden Globe's.