Thursday, 1 November 2012
Zombies invade Exeter
On Saturday the city centre was infested with zombies’ as part of a Halloween celebration. The event started in Exeter city centres bus station. It then proceeded down Sidwell Street, through Princesshay, The cathedral green, then onto The Phoenix Arts Centre. The event was organised by Exeter’s Phonic FM and The Phoenix.
People came to the march from all over Devon, one woman said “We did this last year and it was very fun. So we did it again. We travelled from Paignton, but it is so fun it is worth it.”
The march was publicised “by social media the event was promoted through social media, word of mouth and Phonic FM, we didn’t use posters around town. “. This was very much a safe, fun community event, a strange disease had not spread around the world nor was Exeter being used as a horror film set.
The people dressed up had some open sores, blood dripping down their faces, calling and moaning after fresh blood. Strange brides wandered the streets complete with dead flowers. Terrified teenage girls ran away from monsters squealing in fear. Many were dressed in strange ripped clothes. Some chased terrified shoppers through the town centre looking for fresh flesh to feed on. This frightening behaviour had spread from North American towns, and then spread to London and Bristol now Exeter was invaded by the zombie mob. The participants reached The Phoenix at around 5pm where they were then greeted with a live music event called “The Zombie Ball”.
This was a community event was organised by Mike James, Phonic FM’s DJ of The Rock show. Mike has caused quite a stir in the rock music community. Mike had talked to mega famous rocker Slash has talked on his shows. He has also been nominated for FM DJ of the year award. The event was inspired by events around the world. Zombies marched to the Phoenix arts centre for a family rock show; money made from the show is “keeping the station afloat. Last year we made it to the top 100 zombie walks in the world which is amazing considering were up against cities such as New York and London.”
Many families went on to the Zombie Ball and the mix of heavy rock and dressing up kept all generations happy. Prices for the show were recession friendly £10.00 in advance and £12.50 the door “ten bands played and will be playing against a packed house of over 300 people.” All profits went to Phonic FM.
These money making events and contributions are the only way the station keeps broadcasting. Many zombies appeared in a rock video for up and coming band Cambion, the event was partly to find zombies to appear in their video. Cambion had been supported by Phonic FM since they started out; [The Rock Show] had also supported the band”. Many other local heavy bands played such as Your Mums Beard, Flame Fracture and with the Famous Vampire Killers headlining.
The event was a great fun family day out and showcase for some great heavy local rock music. If you want to join in the fun keep posted to Mike James on social media platforms and of course, The Rock Show on Phonic FM. Next a heavy rock Christmas party is due to be hosted by the radio station. Look for the link for a massive collection of stills posted below.
By Ruth Barr and Merlin Spiers. Please visit the link below for high resolution photos taken by a professional camera. Please only use them for personal use, for uses contact merlspiers@gmail.com before hand.
People came to the march from all over Devon, one woman said “We did this last year and it was very fun. So we did it again. We travelled from Paignton, but it is so fun it is worth it.”
The march was publicised “by social media the event was promoted through social media, word of mouth and Phonic FM, we didn’t use posters around town. “. This was very much a safe, fun community event, a strange disease had not spread around the world nor was Exeter being used as a horror film set.
The people dressed up had some open sores, blood dripping down their faces, calling and moaning after fresh blood. Strange brides wandered the streets complete with dead flowers. Terrified teenage girls ran away from monsters squealing in fear. Many were dressed in strange ripped clothes. Some chased terrified shoppers through the town centre looking for fresh flesh to feed on. This frightening behaviour had spread from North American towns, and then spread to London and Bristol now Exeter was invaded by the zombie mob. The participants reached The Phoenix at around 5pm where they were then greeted with a live music event called “The Zombie Ball”.
This was a community event was organised by Mike James, Phonic FM’s DJ of The Rock show. Mike has caused quite a stir in the rock music community. Mike had talked to mega famous rocker Slash has talked on his shows. He has also been nominated for FM DJ of the year award. The event was inspired by events around the world. Zombies marched to the Phoenix arts centre for a family rock show; money made from the show is “keeping the station afloat. Last year we made it to the top 100 zombie walks in the world which is amazing considering were up against cities such as New York and London.”
Many families went on to the Zombie Ball and the mix of heavy rock and dressing up kept all generations happy. Prices for the show were recession friendly £10.00 in advance and £12.50 the door “ten bands played and will be playing against a packed house of over 300 people.” All profits went to Phonic FM.
These money making events and contributions are the only way the station keeps broadcasting. Many zombies appeared in a rock video for up and coming band Cambion, the event was partly to find zombies to appear in their video. Cambion had been supported by Phonic FM since they started out; [The Rock Show] had also supported the band”. Many other local heavy bands played such as Your Mums Beard, Flame Fracture and with the Famous Vampire Killers headlining.
The event was a great fun family day out and showcase for some great heavy local rock music. If you want to join in the fun keep posted to Mike James on social media platforms and of course, The Rock Show on Phonic FM. Next a heavy rock Christmas party is due to be hosted by the radio station. Look for the link for a massive collection of stills posted below.
By Ruth Barr and Merlin Spiers. Please visit the link below for high resolution photos taken by a professional camera. Please only use them for personal use, for uses contact merlspiers@gmail.com before hand.
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Waikiki is a great restaurant for Exeter’s fussiest family.
Waikiki is a
great restaurant for Exeter’s fussiest family.
As a tribe
we are a fussy family. Theirs me, I eat a low sugar, very low meat diet. On the
occasions I do eat meat I would really like a full psychological report on the
animal, if was happy, I might eat it! I’m not keen on eating in pubs being
strictly teetotal. I not keen on menus in a different language, intimidation by
waiters and taking my tribe anywhere posh.
My children are easier to please, they like noodles, they make their own
lunch most Saturdays, and they can boil a kettle and their experts at getting
just the right amount of hot water in the pot. Clever! When we go shopping we
often end up in the place advertised by that creepy clown. I hate the food; my
kids hate the security guard. I need to watch out for him, I sometimes sneak
last night’s dinner in to eat under the table.
To solve our
problems with food we try Waikiki. This restaurant sits close to another
competitor, the place where you “eat fresh”.
They are aware of this and have competitive offers. I have eaten some
dead animal there, wild boar burger. It came with a simple salad, chips and
tortillas, all for under £7. I assume the pig had a happy life as it was wild!
I was happy to eat my food off a plate rather than a table, how civilised.
I took my
tribe to Waikiki . The décor is modern with fresh colours, a surf documentary
plays on a large screen and pop music plays at a conversation friendly volume.
My son who likes his food simple was happy with a familiar ham and salad sub.
There was a little too much mustard for his liking but there is a very cheap childrens’
menu. My son liked the bread better than the place you “eat fresh” at, praise
indeed. My daughter and I had the tomato and basil soup. The soup was very
refreshing and herby like a good pasta sauce. The bread the soup came with was
lovely wholemeal bread. I treated myself
to a frozen yogurt on offer at £1.99, you can only have low fat yogurt and it
came with a sugary sauce rather than fruit, I do sometimes eat sugar at the
weekend and it was lovely. The
atmosphere is very good, the staff wear smart surf dude and dudette clothes,
they are genuinely polite and friendly. There is a bar but it is a secondary
feature and well tucked away. The restaurant is pleasantly busy without being claustrophobic.
Wakikis is a
great family restaurant. It has a relaxing atmosphere with real plates and
cutlery. The surf theme is not overdone and the documentary give the most
stressed out family something to chat about; you can hear each other chat too.
There are familiar favourites for fussy children and older people and even a
bar. No security gaud is always a good sign in a restaurant. You can’t buy a
burger for a quid or salty skinny chips but the food is healthy. Lastly I would
like to thank wild boar, you tasted great!
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Rant and Write
Fed up with being a kitchen table bloger, YouTube ranter and disillusioned retail worker I started a course at Exeter college. As well as a student I'm also a single mum. I know my life will involve juggling and being skint for the next three years, but I'm up for new experiences and I have to make tomorrow better or die trying.
I spent some of the summer reading, as well as texts on the reading list I've read "Chavs" by Owen Jones. This is a really important book about divisions in society. Single mums are deionized, this is something I would like to write about. I'm only half joking when I tell people I don't spend my child benefit on Vodka and I know who the father of both of my children is! Owen Jones got there first but he helps make me realise what sort of journalist I would like to be. The book outlines the way some sectors of society are written about because of the background they come from. People do believe what they read in the papers about people they have never met. Flat Earth News was recommended reading. While in the park with my kids I studiously make notes. It makes me cynical about the business I want to be part of. I'm not hugely into cash so I think free lance is the way to go.
The first few weeks were a blur of introductions to introductions. It's great to meet new people, all the time I'm aware of being the old lady of the group. I do have dubstep on my YouTube channel but I'm not 19! Amal was one of the first girls I got to know. It's fun to have girls to go around Primark with. One of our first assignments is to write about another student. Through doing this I get to Know Lottie Fox. I admire her calmness and maturity, at nearly 40 I can't manage that sort of thing.
We get let out of our classroom and go to Crealy, a childrens' animal and adventure park. We go by bus armed with radio equipment, packed lunch and some background information. This man takes those cute pictures of animals doing human stuff. I have to ask him, how to get a pig in wellies We also think up some questions about animal rights. I'm pleased to be in the radio group. I grew up with radio 4 and John Peel. We find there's more to this man than cutesy pictures. He has lots to say about how the newspaper industry is changing and a brilliant picture of a hunt.Then for the bunnies pushing a shopping trolley with baby furry creatures, ahh. Merlin and I spend the next day editing three hours of material into 2 minutes. I realise how techno old school I really am. We also have editorial decisions to make, cute animals or controversy? We go for the cute animals, I regret that about five minutes later!
I spent some of the summer reading, as well as texts on the reading list I've read "Chavs" by Owen Jones. This is a really important book about divisions in society. Single mums are deionized, this is something I would like to write about. I'm only half joking when I tell people I don't spend my child benefit on Vodka and I know who the father of both of my children is! Owen Jones got there first but he helps make me realise what sort of journalist I would like to be. The book outlines the way some sectors of society are written about because of the background they come from. People do believe what they read in the papers about people they have never met. Flat Earth News was recommended reading. While in the park with my kids I studiously make notes. It makes me cynical about the business I want to be part of. I'm not hugely into cash so I think free lance is the way to go.
The first few weeks were a blur of introductions to introductions. It's great to meet new people, all the time I'm aware of being the old lady of the group. I do have dubstep on my YouTube channel but I'm not 19! Amal was one of the first girls I got to know. It's fun to have girls to go around Primark with. One of our first assignments is to write about another student. Through doing this I get to Know Lottie Fox. I admire her calmness and maturity, at nearly 40 I can't manage that sort of thing.
We get let out of our classroom and go to Crealy, a childrens' animal and adventure park. We go by bus armed with radio equipment, packed lunch and some background information. This man takes those cute pictures of animals doing human stuff. I have to ask him, how to get a pig in wellies We also think up some questions about animal rights. I'm pleased to be in the radio group. I grew up with radio 4 and John Peel. We find there's more to this man than cutesy pictures. He has lots to say about how the newspaper industry is changing and a brilliant picture of a hunt.Then for the bunnies pushing a shopping trolley with baby furry creatures, ahh. Merlin and I spend the next day editing three hours of material into 2 minutes. I realise how techno old school I really am. We also have editorial decisions to make, cute animals or controversy? We go for the cute animals, I regret that about five minutes later!
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Why I fell out with Vodka!
Nights out with my mate Vodka were great! A few shots and it was as if I had cheerleaders in my head telling me to have more fun, go in mosh pits, lose my shyness and dance on speakers/tables/buses and sing bad songs on karaoke in public! I felt witty, confident, sexy and funny with my mate Vodka. Recently I went on a night out without vodka, I missed the naughty feeling of the bitter taste at the back of my throat and not being ‘one of the gang’. The band was mediocre and sober it sounded worse. I watched people dance make fools of themselves and talk to strangers, I wanted vodka and my imaginary cheerleaders back, so why did I just not have a drink?
Was I really funnier when I was drunk? The answer is no. One of the first effects of drink is to lose the left side of the brain, the logical side! While drunk I was more confident and less capable, this is a dangerous mix. Women are more likely to be victims of accidents and raped by someone they know while drinking. Men often see a drunk woman as available. Much is made of short skirts giving out the wrong messages but alcohol is far the most popular date rape drug, and can you get arrested for buying a woman drinks? If you do wear a short skirt out on a Saturday night why not stay sober? You can have lovely, nasty replies to all the drunks that chat you up and a safe night out
Unlike real cheerleaders vodka cheerleaders do not always smile and do what their told! Sometimes vodka cheerleaders get upset about almost anything. Drunk people remind me of zombies, you only have to look at them and suddenly you become involved in their crazy world. Try to state your case even when your sober you can catch their temporary insanity! If a person is drunk their brains are not functioning and they don’t see the real signals you are giving off. When you think women in drunken fights you may think of chavs fighting it out over a man or dropped kebab but a high flying university student had a suspended sentence after assaulting a paramedic while drunk. (see Daily Mail on line) How ever clever we are sober we are all as stupid as each other when drunk. See you tube drunk women too, it’s enough to put you off getting pissed for life.
On my sober night out I noticed pissed face. This is a name I give to the spookily blank, baggy look to peoples faces after a few too many. Pissed face is not a good look on anyone. The cheerleaders may be telling you look great and that stunning bloke does fancy you but reality tells a very different story. Do you really want to sleep with a man you met without the logical side of your brain, with no idea what he looks like when you sober up? Worse still many of us meet or mate for life while swaying on our trendy shoes, away with the fairies. Is this a good way of meeting our life partners? I could not find a strictly scientific reason for pissed face but being drunk does slow down the nervous system so people may be forgetting what they look like.
Once I more than flirted with Tequila! I drank 12 shots in an hour. The body can only absorb one unit (about 1 small drink) an hour. Drinking this much is an overdose as serious as any illegal drug. At first I tottered around the club on my high heels with the room spinning, the cheerleaders in full force. Then the full horror of my completely legal drug overdose kicked in! Alcohol may seem to make you happy after a stressful week in your boring job but it is a depressant. Too many drinks slow your system down. Luckily my sweet house mate got me home, got my head over the toilet and made sure the huge amounts of vomit went down the toilet and not the back of my throat. My housemate may well have saved me from choking on my own sick. Not a glamorous way to go, even while wearing high heels! I accused him of trying to pull me because he was holding my wrist, he was checking my pulse to make sure my body didn’t give up completely. Alcohol is legal but an overdose may kill. Everyone knows what an overdose on alcohol looks like but few take it seriously, if in any doubt take a mate to casualty and they may just have a banging hangover and funny story to tell and you won’t have to go to their funeral.
Me? I don't drink anymore. I have decided alcohol is simply another drug, vodka and I have fallen out. People seem surprised, people even try to tell me alcohol is fine because it's legal. Alcohol is a poison that makes people behave differently, it is highly addictive and ruins lives, just like lots of other 'drugs' that happen to be illegal. I think I am the nicest drunk around but my own children tell me differently. I have heard about half forgotten Christmas days when I have said the most outrageous things to them. I will never forget a Christmas day again To be sober is to have to talk to talk to strangers without false confidence, to make mistakes with no excuses and to try to enjoy things as much as the drunk person next to you. To be sober is never to have a hangover. I feel a grown up because I have made a choice, not because I have a glass of vodka and coke in my hand but because I made a positive decision and I'm sticking to it!
http://www.intox.com/t-Physiology.aspx#Body
lhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJHPYWh6WCk&NR=1
Links http://wwwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASUB-Q60S0I
.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1281865/Alcohol-fuelled-violence-plague-modern-life-says-judge-jailing-high-flying-female-student.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3055122.stm
Was I really funnier when I was drunk? The answer is no. One of the first effects of drink is to lose the left side of the brain, the logical side! While drunk I was more confident and less capable, this is a dangerous mix. Women are more likely to be victims of accidents and raped by someone they know while drinking. Men often see a drunk woman as available. Much is made of short skirts giving out the wrong messages but alcohol is far the most popular date rape drug, and can you get arrested for buying a woman drinks? If you do wear a short skirt out on a Saturday night why not stay sober? You can have lovely, nasty replies to all the drunks that chat you up and a safe night out
Unlike real cheerleaders vodka cheerleaders do not always smile and do what their told! Sometimes vodka cheerleaders get upset about almost anything. Drunk people remind me of zombies, you only have to look at them and suddenly you become involved in their crazy world. Try to state your case even when your sober you can catch their temporary insanity! If a person is drunk their brains are not functioning and they don’t see the real signals you are giving off. When you think women in drunken fights you may think of chavs fighting it out over a man or dropped kebab but a high flying university student had a suspended sentence after assaulting a paramedic while drunk. (see Daily Mail on line) How ever clever we are sober we are all as stupid as each other when drunk. See you tube drunk women too, it’s enough to put you off getting pissed for life.
On my sober night out I noticed pissed face. This is a name I give to the spookily blank, baggy look to peoples faces after a few too many. Pissed face is not a good look on anyone. The cheerleaders may be telling you look great and that stunning bloke does fancy you but reality tells a very different story. Do you really want to sleep with a man you met without the logical side of your brain, with no idea what he looks like when you sober up? Worse still many of us meet or mate for life while swaying on our trendy shoes, away with the fairies. Is this a good way of meeting our life partners? I could not find a strictly scientific reason for pissed face but being drunk does slow down the nervous system so people may be forgetting what they look like.
Once I more than flirted with Tequila! I drank 12 shots in an hour. The body can only absorb one unit (about 1 small drink) an hour. Drinking this much is an overdose as serious as any illegal drug. At first I tottered around the club on my high heels with the room spinning, the cheerleaders in full force. Then the full horror of my completely legal drug overdose kicked in! Alcohol may seem to make you happy after a stressful week in your boring job but it is a depressant. Too many drinks slow your system down. Luckily my sweet house mate got me home, got my head over the toilet and made sure the huge amounts of vomit went down the toilet and not the back of my throat. My housemate may well have saved me from choking on my own sick. Not a glamorous way to go, even while wearing high heels! I accused him of trying to pull me because he was holding my wrist, he was checking my pulse to make sure my body didn’t give up completely. Alcohol is legal but an overdose may kill. Everyone knows what an overdose on alcohol looks like but few take it seriously, if in any doubt take a mate to casualty and they may just have a banging hangover and funny story to tell and you won’t have to go to their funeral.
Me? I don't drink anymore. I have decided alcohol is simply another drug, vodka and I have fallen out. People seem surprised, people even try to tell me alcohol is fine because it's legal. Alcohol is a poison that makes people behave differently, it is highly addictive and ruins lives, just like lots of other 'drugs' that happen to be illegal. I think I am the nicest drunk around but my own children tell me differently. I have heard about half forgotten Christmas days when I have said the most outrageous things to them. I will never forget a Christmas day again To be sober is to have to talk to talk to strangers without false confidence, to make mistakes with no excuses and to try to enjoy things as much as the drunk person next to you. To be sober is never to have a hangover. I feel a grown up because I have made a choice, not because I have a glass of vodka and coke in my hand but because I made a positive decision and I'm sticking to it!
http://www.intox.com/t-Physiology.aspx#Body
lhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJHPYWh6WCk&NR=1
Links http://wwwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASUB-Q60S0I
.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1281865/Alcohol-fuelled-violence-plague-modern-life-says-judge-jailing-high-flying-female-student.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3055122.stm
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