Kawwio's Little World

Day 1 - Saturday, 4th January 2009
Pelsall - Bloxwich - Aldridge

Day 1 began with a walk to Rushall and a bus to Pelsall where we stocked up in The Co-operative Supermarket and set off for the Official Start of the Fingerpost, Bloxwich; a famous landmark which is basically a signpost. With fingers. Pointing. 'N shit.

The 4th January was COLD. Very cold. It was so cold that the canal was frozen all the way across and so deep that where bricks had been thrown on it at various points they had failed to crack the surface.
Quite a lot of this leg of the journey took place on the Wyrley & Essington Canal (or the 'Curly Wyrly' as its meandering route has come to be affectionately known round these parts).

There was a pretty frozen pool by The Fingerpost. It was disturbingly cold. After, the Fingerpost, we joined the canal at The Fingerpost pub and it became a little sunnier.
The canal was so completely covered in ice that all the birds that usually swim around in it were confined to small, sheltered areas underneath bridges where the ice had left tiny pools that were stuffed full of bemused-looking birds. Unfortunately, the dimwit in me didn't think to take a photograph of this :/
I was so struck by a little gaggle of fruit and veg (including a lettuce, tomato and radish) making a break for freedom across the ice, though, that I actually remembered to photograph that!

It was supposed to be simple: follow the canal until the Beacon Way, walk through a little area of trees which looks nice and straight. Straight my arse!
It gradually got darker, and darker, and the forest thicker and more filled with trees. The 'straight line' began to meander, and split. And there were people in the distance with a dog that they kept waiting with lest it feed itself upon us. The Dog People took one meander so we selected another. And everything went eerily quiet.
The meander kept splitting. There were 'youths' on quad bike raging around in the mid-distance, and muddy tyre tracks from previous adventures that were so deep that I was very pleased indeed that they were frozen solid.
I climbed out from one of these and tried to scout the way out, listening very hard for the A5. It was all a bit Blair Witch; I thought we were never going to get out, freezing to death overnight in the attempt! But thankfully, I heard the tiny roar, and saw the little movements, of distant ants on the horizon. The A5. Whew! So we headed out at the hurry up.
I forgot to take any photos of the forest too, dammit! :/

Brownhills, The Rising Sun (deceased) and another pub (with chips!!!) were encountered before heading to Watling Street and Chester Road for forgodssakedon'tstoporyoumightfreezetodeath adventures in the dark. Which gave me a sore knee*. So, after taking a photo of a stick man falling off an assumed cliff and a Give Way sign that had actually given way we blagged use of a posh pub's toilets (which bizarrely had porn daubed all over the walls) and buggered off back to Walsall on the 366, hoping that my knee would be up to Day 2...whenever that might be...
Hopefully the photography will be more interesting for that one!

*I've just realised this sounds really rude! But it was just walking really.

A lack of on-going geographically-based projects has been preying on my mind for a while so, when curlyredgirl said she wanted to walk more, I thought it would be good to resurrect this one and actually get on with it. The main bonuses are that it's dead cheap and the walking doesn't actually take you all that far from home as it's kind of orbital.

The plan is both simple and thus:

To walk, in a number of parts, around 10 miles on each occasion, around the approximate boundary of the West Midlands metropolitan region, flirting with Staffordshite, Warwickshite and Worcestershite en route.

It should take a couple of moonths and updates and photos will appear here...

...It's nine-thirty, and you're watching...
... ... ... Ant World News ... ... ...

♦ There are reports in tonight that the upper reaches, and possibly much more, of the Vertical Ant Republic have been invaded by aliens.
The armoured creatures (reported to be woodlice from the planet 'Over There *Points*') have been seen to be swarming around the parapet of the nest in their thousands.
There are giant ones.
There are tiny ones.
There are middle-sized ones.
There are even carrying a little-biddy-weight ones.
Swarming and burrowing all around and about.
The ants haven't all gone, though, we've witnessed several zooming around in mild panic and others looking more relaxed so there are hopes that small pockets of resistance remain.
We can now go live to our on-the-spot reporter, inside Compost Dalek 1...

..."H...Arrgh! AAAAARGGGHHH!!! AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!"...

...Right, well, sorry about that, our reporter appears to be being eaten. We'll try to go back to Compost Dalek 1 later


♦ Moving on, the Horizontal Ant Republic has also had a day filled with drama. This afternoon the order was unexpectedly given that today...they fly!!

Soldiers have been patrolling the extremeties in an interestingly aggressive dance all day and there have been scenes on the top of the wall of total bemusement, panic and aerial display.

~cut to interview with ant H3327~
"It was terrifying really mate. I just woke up with these...things! *wiggles wings* I mean, wtf am I supposed to do with them then eh? I mean look at poor old H2211 over there, he's in a right state. We should have been given leaflets or something; it's CHAOS up there!"
~back to studio~

At least one female was seen to safely leave The Garden, just about clipping the top of the fence on the way. What has happened to her beyond there we can only guess. However, the attempts of others to take off have displayed a mixture of comedy and tragedy.
Females have been accidentally loop-da-looping and ending up on their backs, struggling to find the legs to try again. Some of the smalle male ants have had so many impacts that their wings are simply destroyed - they certainly won't be flying anywhere in a hurry. Hopes are high that sufficient of them managed to take to the skies to propagate the species.

♦ And so, it has been a day of mixed fortunes for the antdom of planet The Garden. Better news is that a breakaway set of escapees appear to have crossed The Path and have come to a truce with the resident woodlouse population. There are hopes of a new Northern Republic being created.
Meanwhile, there have been many sightings of the mythical Bumblebee monster around the purple flowers that are almost as big as The Wall. More on this as and when we get it.

That's all for tonight folks. Hope you have a good evening.
*nipnip, scuttlescuttle* and praise be to the Queen.
*raises front legs in adulation*

In order to keep kawwiosworld free for mad little projects and the like, the chart and voting and stuff has now moved to parrotradio.

To vote in this week's chart Click Here :)

No futher references to the chart will appear in kawwiosworld

Coming soon* to kawwiosworld

The £25 Radius Exploration of the World
Destination 2: Bishop's Stortford...

Date to be arranged! If you want to come too just let me know :)

* Sometime in April most likely

Some of you may remember the kawwiosworld Chart (the Karl's House Residents' Chart, as was). Well it got a bit behind and it was all very fiddly to do and everything but it's been ticking along as the family chart all this time and as of next week I'll have caught up properly and shall return it to the doman of LJ. Likely to a total lack of rapturous applause, lol.

I have to keep this going though as I started it way back in 1988, aged 13, and it's a family tradition, or old charter, or something like that. So there! :P

Anyway, I'll put the chart and new releases on here again for anyone who feels so inclined to vote as before (1 or 2 points to anything you want to vote for).

However this, too, is somewhat fiddly and time consuming and I can't see many people wanting to do it really. Sooooo, why not get a LastFM account, add me as a friend (LastFM name = threepymeepy) and every time a track that I own gets 'scrobbled' by you it automatically gets 0.25 points! What could be simpler eh?

The parents and myself still get 15 votes each per week, but then it is my chart ;P I just thought I'd like my friends to influence it too :)

I know; I'm sad, I can deal with that. But music is my life and this is my way of embodying it, hehe.

Number one at the time of typing is In The Morning by Razorlight; that and Kasabian's Empire have been swapping round for literally months, lol.

The first ever number one was Twist In My Sobriety by Tinita Tikaram, remember that?

beep...beep...beep...beep...beep...beeeeeeep.

non-BBC Radio Karl. The News at stupid O'Clock:

---
♥ A new news programme appears to have appeared on the recently invented metaphysical radio station non-BBC Radio Karl. In fact, this is said news programme on aforementioned pretend radio station so the report on this story will now end before everything implodes in a horrible mess! :S

---
♥ Due to the accidental passing of the deadline for no less than two scheduled General Elections, the Democratic Republic of ToyLand has decided to suspend its democratic status and reinstate former President Steven Spielbear as leader until such time as someone can be arsed to arrange another election.

Drumnadrochit, incumbent President, today said "I had actually forgotten that I was President; we all get along so well here and have so little problem with any other country that it doesn't really matter. Life in ToyLand is just one big fluffy bundle of fun :)"

One of the prospective candidates for the next election, Desmodus the Bat (of the Chirop Terror! Party), was unavailable for comment today as he is believed to have emigrated to Oldbury following a Hallowe'en night of binge drinking where he was ceremonially attached to vientral's wrist and used to scare people all night.
The residents of the Democratic Republic of ToyLand would like to say that they hope he is happy in his new life but that he is more than welcome to return should he so wish :)

Former President Spielbear will take charge indefinitely from 21st December 2006.

---
♥ Master Karl has now fully recovered from his assault and attempted robbery of Thursday evening; no jaw pain remains and he has tonight engaged in a very satisfying night out where the sight of a Beyoncé-style rnb girl leading him (while dressed very 'goth') by the hand to the dancefloor must have been quite bizarre to the eye indeed.

After Thursday's attack, six asian youths were arrested following the robbery, shortly afterwards, of an elderly lady in nearby Birchfields.

---
♥ After a prolonged hiatus, it has today been announced that The £25 Radius Exploration of the World will recommence in January of next year.
The next destination of this adventure, which was revealed back in October 2005, is Mallow's Green near Bishop's Stortford, just over the border with Essex.
The project was devised in order to test the hypothesis that Wolverhampton is a centre of 'weirdness' in the United Kingdom. The two previous destinations were Wolverton in Milton Keynes and Tiddington in Warwickshire.

---
♥ And the weather. Following a brief period which was officially declared 'warm' due to Spoz#'s readoption of level 2 of the indoor greenhouse as his bed of choice, he has now returned to the basket in front of the kitchen's warm air blower and as such it is now once more officially 'cold'.

non-BBC Radio News...

Kawwio's Chart
14th April 2006

(1) - 1 - Wise Men - James Blunt
(4) - 2 - Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz
(2) - 3 - Sewn - The Feeling
(3) - 4 - Oh My God - Kaiser Chiefs
(12) - 5 - Encore/Numb - Jay-Z & Linkin Park
new - 6 - 24 Hours From Tulsa - Gene Pitney
(5) - 7 - Enjoy The Silence [reinterpreted by Mike Shinoda] - Depeche Mode
(10) - 8 - Wrap My Words Around You - Daniel Bedingfield
(22) - 9 - Tainted Love - Soft Cell
(11) - 10 - I'm Not OK (I Promise) - My Chemical Romance

To influence this week's chart...( vote here )
You have until I return from Whitby on Monday to vote :)

Kawwio's Chart
7th April 2006

(1) - 1 - Wise Men - James Blunt
(3) - 2 - Sewn - The Feeling
(4) - 3 - Oh My God - Kaiser Chiefs
(5) - 4 - Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz
(12) - 5 - Enjoy The Silence [reinterpreted by Mike Shinoda] - Depeche Mode
new - 6 - (Take A Little) Piece Of My Heart - Erma Franklin
(10) - 7 - Naive - The Kooks
(11) - 8 - Valentine - Delays
new - 9 - Cigarettes - Fort Minor
(8) - 10 - Wrap My Words Around You - Daniel Bedingfield

VOTING HAS CLOSED FOR 14TH APRIL CHART - NEXT CHANCE TO VOTE ON TUESDAY EVENING

To influence this week's chart...( vote here )

Due to a couple of administrative problems, this, or rather last, week's chart is a little late!

31st March 2006

new - 1 - Wise Men - James Blunt
(1) - 2 - I'm Not OK (I Promise) - My Chemical Romance
(16) - 3 - Sewn - The Feeling
(7) - 4 - Oh My God - Kaiser Chiefs
(9) - 5 - Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz
(5) - 6 - Encore/Numb - Jay-Z & Linkin Park
(10) - 7 - You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) - Dead or Alive
(15) - 8 - Wrap My Words Around You - Daniel Bedingfield
(20) - 9 - You Don't Love Me - The Kooks
new - 10 - Naive - The Kooks

If you want to vote for the 7th April chart you still can if you do it by the end of Monday, otherwise next week's list will be out by Tuesday.
All far too complicated to be bothered with really isn't it!

( vote here )

If you want to vote...

( vote here )

I did try doing it with polls but it would have taken two polls to do it and you'd have had to have submitted both for it to work.

Back in the long-ago days of 1988 (yikes!), the 18th December 1988, to be precise, the very first Resident Top 10 chart was produced using votes from myself, Mrs Mum, Mr Dad, Brother Gary and Brother Iain. I was 13 years old, lol!

The very first chart looked like ( this )

The Brothers gradually stopped voting but The Parents carried on and I could never bring myself to stop compiling it.
And so, despite getting into a right old mess in the last couple of years involving it going monthly and playing catchup for ages, it's now caught up and is still going 17 years later!!
Although a few other people have had a fleeting influence in years gone by I thought it was time for a change...

And so, my dear kawwiosworld members, you are now able to have a small say in what happens in what, over time, ultimately evolved into a top 25 chart and shall from this day forward have a different name (as soon as I can think of one! - any ideas?).

The current top 10 looks like ( this )

There'll be a post sometime tomorrow telling you how it'll work. If you can be arsed, of course! And if I retain any credibility having broadcast my sad geekiness to the LJ world!! Lol, I have little shame when it comes to music.
*snogs iTunes and goes to bed*

Well, the walking-around-with-the-directions-being-decided-by-dice went rather well, even if I didn't actually make it out of Walsall, lol. Here is a brief summary:

11:45
Started in ( Goscote )
Started off going slightly into Coalpool and then went back and continued into deepest darkest Goscote [this was a bit scary :S ]
Then past the edges only (thank the alleged deities) of Blakenall and Blakenall Heath.
Then it was either Bloxwich or Pelsall - the die chose Pelsall.

And at 12:45 ( Pelsall ) is where I was.
Then meandered around a few little estates in Pelsall before being sent back where I'd come from.
Just touching the edge of Bloxwich by literally a few metres, I was then sent back down the road towards Goscote; hoping I could avoid Blakenall again.
And...I did! *phew!*
And avoided Harden as well, excellent stuff :D *values his life despite how it may appear*

But, come 13:45, I was just on the edge of ( Blakenall )

Then, there was a small meandering around Coalpool before a surge into Walsall, where I heard two cars crash into each other in my wake (thankfully I didn't see it so I didn't have to stop! lol) whereupon the die deposited me in Walsall Bus Station exactly at the time I needed to urinate. Perfect timing! :) (there's a toilet there I mean, not that people piss all over the bus station; though I guess they might).

Walsall town centre has a lot of roads and I was sent on a very meandering roamabout to the extent that I was still in ( Walsall )
at 14:45

So, with just one hour left to go; where would I end up!? It was pretty certain it was going to somewhere in Walsall; but where!?!? (I'm trying to make this sound exciting; play along or else!!) :P
Well, There was Upper Rushall Street, Lower Rushall Street, a bit more of the town centre, the edge of Gillity Village (I think!) and ultimately, after having first taken pictures of a ( rooftop view of Walsall )
and a restaurant that appeared to be called ( Cum In )
ended up at 15:45 in...( Chuckery!!! )

There were 9 entries in the Guess Where Karl Will End UP competition and the results have now been declared here!

My feet are a bit sore and my knees ache a little, but overall I declare the venture...a success! :D

...And so it was decreed by Almighty Bob that upon the 20th day of the 10th month of the year that shall forever be remembered as 2005 (until such time as it is forgotten completely), in the presence of threepymeepy and etoile_violet, Mrs Mum would undertake, by means of the Great Destination Selection Ceremony involving many dice and vegetables and She-only-knows-what else, to decide upon the Destination that shall be Destination the Third in the Now Legendary £25 Radius Exploration of The World...

...And so it was decreed by Almight Bob that upon the 20th day of the 10th month of the year that shall forever be remembered as 2005 (until such time as it is forgotten completely), in the presence of threepymeepy and etoile_violet, Mrs Mum would undertake, by means of the Great Destination Selection Ceremony involving many dice and vegetables and She-only-knows-what else, to decide upon the Destination that shall be Destination the Third in the Now Legendary £25 Radius Exploration of The World...