British Summer Time

I know I don't update my blog nearly as much as I should! Sorry!

Well we've been having a great Summer so far! The Almighty (with Floyd back in the line up) played 'Tommystock' with New Model Army. This was a benefit concert arranged for the family of a great friend of ours Tommy Tee. Tommy passed away suddenly and unexpectedly last December. Tommy was manager of The Almighty for several years and took them right to the very top, he also managed New Model Army. He was a great mate and a fantastic support to me throughout Floyd's illness and time in hospital. He came up to London regularly from Somerset to sit at Floyd's bedside 'sorting him out'. He sorted me out several times too. He helped me enormously with the Almighty charity shows in 2006. He gave moral support at every turning of our lives and is still dearly loved and sorely missed.

The concert itself was just amazing. Huge turn out raising lots of money for the cause! There was lots of Tommystock merchandise on sale too. The Almighty were feckin' brilliant. I just had to get down the front and jump about throughout the set. Brilliant! It took me right back to '89!!! Stump, Ricky, Pete and Floyd were really on form and I quite honestly think that was one of my favourite Almighty gigs. There were a few crushing moments when you remembered what this was all in aid of and how Tommy should have been there with you. But the boys did him proud!! I wish there was more to come from the Almighty (Floyd included!) because it's such a frickin' waste otherwise! I love that band, seeing them live and I know there are plenty of us out here who'd love to see them play a few UK shows every year!!! Well that's just my opinion anyway!

Floyd has joined Live N Kickin as lead singer!! They are huge mates of ours and Kent's biggest rock covers band (my homeland). I've known them for nearly 20 years now. They are great buddies of ours and we've been hanging out and seeing them all this time. They gig pretty much every weekend on the Kent pub circuit and have a huge following. They do a festival every now and then too. Floyd is in his element and is having the time of his life! You can check them out here and on Facebook here. They play Foo Fighters, RHCP, ACDC, Judas Priest, Killers etc etc. All great stuff!! Martin Kidd, one of the guitarists is a bit if a legend locally and is, quite literally, sh*t hot!!


We also went to Download in June as our mates Def Leppard headlined one of the nights there. Massive crowd! 80,000 or so!! Amazing taking it all in and seeing walking, talking living legends walking around backstage. Such a fantastic day and Leppard were on fire. The crowd were brilliant! Floyd took himself off to the sound desk to watch (which is in the middle of the crowd) and I was side stage - very, very lucky of course and this was a total priviledge. We were very honoured to be part of such a huge occasion.


I've been to Arizona (just got back) to stay with my friend for a week or so. 45 degrees!!! Never experienced heat like that before but I managed to sunbathe in it a bit and spent the rest of the time in the pool! Scottsdale was absolutely beautiful though! Came back via Atlanta.

We saw Pearl Jam at the O2 Arena last week. We jumped on Floyd's Harley and got there in less than 10 mins! Bliss! Had time for a quick beer and then watch 2.5 hours of one of the greatest live bands out there! Of course we were doing it for our friend Davo too and imagined and felt him with us. I sung my heart out to 'Alive' with tears streaming down my face - but grinning too!! An awesome (if not long) night!!!

Will dig out some photos but I haven't been behind the shutter much of late!!

Soph x

More Pics

I've been back behind the lens again this last week or so!! About time too! I have missed looking at life through the lens! Mustn't let so much time go by without taking photos again!

Took these shots last week in Kerry, South West Ireland (God's Country as they call it). It's my favourite place to shoot lots of landscapes. Our friends own an amazing property out there and we join them for weekends away and some madness. They have a motor cruiser too which we have excursions on to Dingle Bay. There are lots of wild dolphins bombing around the bay which is where the above pics come from. They just like having fun with passing boats but they are hard to photograph! They either leap out of the water about 2 ft away from you as you lean over the side of the boat wondering where they are....or they do acrobatics in the middle of the bay 500m away...when you think they are under your boat! Slippery little suckers!!!!!

Singing Sweet Home Alabama All Summer Long

Well....it finally happened. My husband has been unfaithful and is in love with another. I knew this day would come but nothing could prepare me for it. The sad truth is that I can't compete. The third party in our marriage? Well...words escape me so I will just show you a photo of her instead. The dirty little hussy...


Yes, my husband's heart now belongs to a Harley Davidson Sportster!!! He is completely obsessed and spends all of his time lovingly polishing her, twiddling with her buttons, carefully putting her to bed and murmering sweet nothings about oils and taking her out to nice places. Sigh. And when he isn't outside with her, he is on the computer searching eBay for all sorts of gifts he can buy her. I think the most Floyd ever bought me when we were first dating was a spikey plant from Covent Garden market!!!!! He has even bought her a special oxygen tent so she won't get any condensation on her little handle bars at night time!!! Seriously! Ah well....at least he is happy!!! :-)

Summer finally arrived in London - and then promptly left! But I must say it's nice to have some cool fresh air again so I can sleep at night! It's been way too hot these past 2 weeks and travelling on the tube has been unbearable!

I was in Sardinia with my friend a couple of weeks ago. Lucky me, I know. My friend Kristine and I always have a girlie holiday each year. We've been to the Greek Islands, all over France and Italy and now this year, we had 6 nights in Sardinia. It was great fun. The first hotel was a little remote for us - we stayed in Costa Verde on the northern tip of the island. A great hotel called La Coluccia. Loved the room and the huge terrace and the hotel was very smart and comtemporary - but the shower was awful. Fairly smelly and mouldy and had no light. There was no bath so you either had to wash over the basin or dive in to the pitch black, stinking shower and lather up and rinse off as quickly as possible - all the time screaming "arrrggghh!!! nooooo! it smells sooo baaaad! help meeee!!!". Hee hee!!!! Pretty awful! While we stayed there, we organised some sailing for half a day around the nearby islands. That was spectacular. We had a 45ft yaght with 2 crew and just drifted around for a few hours. Really wonderful and the colours of the water!!!! Stunning!!!!

For the last night, we stayed in Porto Cuervo, Costa Smerelda. Very smart and VERY posh! Great for people watching and for gaping at the £183 million super-yaghts!!!! My god, they were just massive and very, very luxurious!!! All the shops were designer boutiques and this was very definitely a millionaire's playground! Still, we had a nice afternoon wandering around and a nice supper at a charming restaurant overlooking the marina.

Floyd's band The Almighty are likely to be touring again later this year and again next year, as well as writing a new track. All very exciting.

I am thinking of entering my photo of the stoat in to a photography competition but am dithering as it's very blurry really - not up to professional standards. I need to decide pretty quickly as the closing date for new entries is very soon. Here he is again.


Tolly is getting more and more beautiful! Mum trains him so well and he's got such a sweet nature! We are all going to Wales this weekend for a very long weekend just chilling, cooking, walking and playing games etc. Tolly will come too which will be great fun.

Whew!! Glad that's over! What a mentally busy January! Got back from our event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (I was there just 2 days but have been preparing for it for weeks and weeks, ugh!). The drive from Zurich airport to Davos is spectacular!!! It takes 2 1/2 hours and usually requires a 4 wheel drivel and a gifted chaufffeur with 9 lives!!! The the scenery is breathtaking as you go up and up and up the mountain roads and see little trains travelling along ridges right below you! I regretted not bringing my camera equipment (goes without saying) but used my little pocket camera for some snaps. I was there working anyway so there wasn't much spare time!

These are some pics from the World Economic Forum in 2007...
(Note the machine gunner standing on the roof of the Belvedere, above my room!! eek!)



And these are some pics from 2008!

Floyd's been away for nearly 3 weeks with The Almighty who had a few days of rehearsals and then toured the UK. 12 shows in total and the occasional day off here and there. I had suggested the band doing meet and greets after each show and was planning to go on the road too for part of the tour but I couldn't stay on the bus (grumble grumble) and as I don't drive, I ended up only going to the London show this year. It would have been a logistical nightmare otherwise!!!!! What with the Switzerland trip too, I am glad it worked out like that really.

I was horribly drunk at the London show as everyone and anyone wanted to buy me a drink. I was putting them on the floor and leaving them in the end!!!! Lovely to meet fans and mates and get to chat to everyone!!! Bloody brilliant effort Brucebruce for flying back from Australia especially!!! \m/

The first weekend Floyd was away on tour, I went to Dublin to stay with our friends and then the second weekend I was in Davos so all in all it went by quite quickly. Floyd and I have rarely spent any time apart at all over the past 7-8 years (annoying aren't we!) - apart from when he was ill of course but even then, I was at his side 20 hours a day!!! But it was great on this tour....I actually got to use the remote control(s)...all 6 of them! And made a big pile of stuff to sell on eBay (lets see of Floyd notices anything's missing!!!!).

The Almighty website finally came to an end over the weekend. Wow...can't believe it's been 7 years! It was a long battle getting it off Sanctuary Records at the time as once they stopped representing the band, they weren't interested in doing anything for them. So it took forever and lots of angry emails to get them to give me the domain etc. It was funny because when Ricky and Stumpy had asked to meet me, with regards to me running the site for them, they didn't realise I was Floyd's girlfriend back then....I told them after the meeting!!!!! How's that for conincidence!! Back then, Nick and Gav were in the band as Floyd and Pete had decided not to rejoin. A few months after I started doing the website, Sanctuary and the band parted ways. So I started paying the bills and even when the band cancelled a tour due to poor ticket sales and Ricky's getting an offer to tour solo in the USA, I decided to keep the site going anyway - mainly because by then, we had such a brilliant online community on the forum and the fans were so decent and really devoted, I wanted to keep it all going. And I did...for the next 6 1/2 years!!!!

It's got to the point where I just can't keep paying the bills and doing so much work for free - even though Floyd has been playing with them for the past 2 years, I still can't keep paying the bills myself and doing all this work for nothing. I guess it had to end at some point, but it was so, so, so sad to see the forum go. The band will keep a page on Myspace and I think Ricky has his own plans for www.thealmighty.co.uk.

Floyd stayed up until 3am reading all the old messages of support which people had posted on the forum when he was ill. He said he wanted to read them again before they went. So it was then that I managed to persuade him to keep a blog and maybe even have his own mini-website. I could import the 'get well' messages from the old Almighty forum and we could keep the community going. Soooooo....any moment now floydlondon.com will be launched!!! Hurray!!!!

Here is the only photo I managed to take on Friday night, at The Almighty's show!! Floyd dived in to the crowd at the very end (I swear I am not feeding him anything to make him crazy!) and got carried offstage by Stumpy!!!

Soph xx

Summer? Hahaha...are you mad?

Bah. What Summer? Had a lovely hot week last week and now it's flash flooding again?! Boo... I don't think we are going to get a proper Summer this year which is really depressing.

Last Christmas, I bought my mother a huge energy light which simulates natural daylight and sunshine and...well...does what it says on the box, makes you feel energised. People use these to get over jetlag too. My mother gets awful Seasonal Autumnal Depression once the days get shorter in the winter and we lose our daylight.

Anyway, my dad confiscated it (men are like magpies when they see a gadget!) and it now sits in his office unused. I think I need a few sessions with it!!!

I haven't got much news to be honest. I have had my head down and have been working hard recently. Long hours as always. Floyd and I have working on our own little projects. I have years and years of my photographs to go through and archive. I am sorting through which ones I could use for calendars or nature postcards, that kind of thing. But as anyone who loves photography knows, you become your own worst critic and end up binning everything!

I have been adding a few new things to Davo's blog, beautiful poems that he wrote and left me to post after his passing. He had such a wonderful talent of putting his thoughts in to words. Lots of cancer patients or relatives of seriously ill people can instantly relate to them. His blog has so many hits each day now, from all around the world. I wish people would comment more though. It's that natural awkwardness when faced with a cancer patient or in this instant, someone who has passed.

I haven't told many people about my own blog here! Not sure why I haven't really! Maybe I am still just flexing my writing muscles a bit! Heh! Looch and Clare, I think I'll be back on MSN soon!

Floyd's band The Almighty are celebrating their 20th anniversary next year (twenty years!!!) and are likely going to be touring again. Cool!

There was some terrible news all across the British news stations and papers this week. According to the media a Hells Angel was assasinated as he left the Bulldog Bash on Sunday and had just got on to the motorway. He was riding his Harley along with 2 other bikers and and car had been following them (unknown to the bikers). Once the bikers were on the motorway, a passenger from the car shot one of them in the back of the head. He came off his bike and was dead instantly. The whole stretch of motorway had to be closed off. The car got away. Police have launced a manhunt. They are indicating that it was a pre-meditated assassination.

The Bulldog Bash is Europe's biggest biker festival and takes place annually near Stratford Upon Avon. The Almighty have headlined it a few times (last year was the last time they played there). The Hells Angels have been very, very good friends to the band over the years. I know nothing personally about the bad press they get. The guys I met last year and have met in the past through Floyd and the boys have been absolute diamonds. A great, very friendly bunch of bikers. Some of them helped me arrange a very special present for Floyd last year. I hope they get the murderer who did this and also hope that the biker who lost his life is resting in peace.

Talking of Harleys, Floyd and I are thinking of hiring one and touring Route 66 in the US. I'd love to go round the Grand Canyon too! We'll see if that happens!! Would be great I think!

Anyway, if we can't have a real Summer, here are some photos to remind us of what it's like....sniff!!

Soph xx

Lavender, lavender, lavender....sigh







(No-one I know likes this pic of grass! :-) I love it! Early morning dew and the warm sun on your face....lovely!)

And these are from last year's Bulldog Bash!

Almighty DVD in aid of Leukaemia Research

So for anyone new reading this blog, if you don't already know the background, my husband Floyd was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in September 2004. He was 3 weeks away from popping his clogs apparently and the docs gave him a 50/50 chance of surviving his 4 aggressive courses of chemo. He pulled through 7 months of hell where we declined a bone marrow transplant and also where I nearly lost him to a deadly fungal infection - but made it he did.

Floyd is the bass player in The Almighty. They were a very successful punk rock band hailing from Glasgow. They formed as school friends in 1988 and Floyd left the band for good in 2000. The band parted company 2 years later.

As Floyd's treatment was ending and our wedding was drawing nearer and after much nagging and a bit of double crossing each band member, I got them all talking about a reunion in aid of Leukaemia Research. I practised my new found nagging skills on newspaper editors, rock mag editors, photographers and old music biz acquaintances and the result was 2 huge sell out shows in January 2006. One in the band's hometown of Glasgow and one in London. We raised £25,000 for leukaemia research and launched the 'WELCOME TO DEFIANCE' red wristband for the charity. This is the name of one of the band's hits and it was also Floyd's motto during treatment. The band loved the shows so much and the reception and praise they received from the fans and the media have had them reform for more shows. Last Demcember was a tour of the UK and there is talk of a new tour in 2008. The shows were so great! We honoured Floyd and had the times of our lives! The buzz from the audience was just electric!

I got a film crew in for the Glasgow show but it has taken all this time to get the thing produced and edited. It's been a long time but the band are incredibly proud to release the offical live DVD, completely in in aid of Leukaemia Research!

More info on the release is here and it can be bought online from Leukaemia Research here.

We are so determined to keep fighting against leukaemia and to see it's demise in our lifetimes. Leukaemia Research is the only national charity in the UK dedicated to leukaemia and other blood cancers and they are NOT funded by the government, even though 25,000 people a year are disagnosed in the UK. They rely soley on charitable donations but still managed to invest millions each year in to vital research. I have met many of the scientists who have received grants for the LRF and am astounded at some of the research that has just come to light. Next year will see 2 human clinical trials funded by LRF. The future does indeed look bright!

So if you are keen to support The Almighty Fund at Leukaemia Research and add to our £25,000 (I believe this is closer to £28,000 after the first week of DVD sales, please buy a wristband or a live DVD).

Floyd's story is highlighted in a clip below. I hope it works, I am a bit shaky on embedding movies in Blogger.

Proud Little Sister

I am very proud to hear that my elder sister Clare has been given the 'Charity Blogger Award' from www.writersreviews.com.

My sister Clare lives in South West France with her husband Rex and daughter Alex (my beloved niece!). Clare has a passion for quilting and shares this with a great online community.

After my husband Floyd fought for his life by battling a rare and aggressive form of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, Clare decided she wanted to do something to help. To help the charities, to help raise awareness but most importantly, to reach out to people also fighting this dreadful blood cancer - by quite literally wrapping them in love!

The Quilts 4 Leukaemia blogging community grew and grew and grew and quite unexpectedly, Clare was soon receiving the most beautiful, handmade blocks from all around the world - from kind, generous people who also wanted to help. The colours are always red and white as these are the colours of the Leukaemia Research Fund (which Floyd and I are ambassadors for).

Clare would receive the blocks from around the world and then make them in to quilts to send to people fighting leukaemia (mostly young adults and children). My darling friend Davo was the first recipient and he absolutely adored his quilt as it was filled with so much devotion and love.

These fabulous ladies are very hardworking, caring and are doing such a wonderful thing. I am so proud of them all!

Last weekend, Clare presented me with a very special block that I had seen at Christmas time. I had told Clare that I loved it so much and it was so pretty and I was envious of who might receive it! So Clare kindly gave it to me to have framed. It was made by Hideko in Japan and
I shall treasure it.

So a big thank you to everyone who has made a block for the Quilts For Leukaemia scheme!!! (massive applause!).

Love Sophie xxx

London Calling

Back to the grind stone, sob.

Floyd and I were in Kerry, SW Ireland for a holiday with our friends who own a spectacular house there. This is the 4th time we have been in the past year and we love it so much. They are great friends too so we had a fantastic time. The house is about 3 miles up it’s own private road. It is perched on the side of a mountain and overlooks a loch – all part of their property. The mountains constantly change colour depending on the time of day and whether it’s sunny or cloudy. It is just spectacular and so calming. We also took a boat trip (in their boat) across to Dingle. We had the resident dolphin Funghie (who lives around Dingle Bay) leaping about in the surf of the boat and whizzing along next to us. So amazing. Sigh!

We left for Ireland on Saturday, 26th May and I hated going then because my friend Davo was becoming so ill. By this time, Davo couldn’t MSN with me but we had already made plans about how we would communicate when that happened. We would continue sending our home made short movies for him. His best friend was sat with him and would do the typing. I would have my Blackberry and could send emails back. So this is what we were doing for a few days. On Sunday, while we were in Kerry, things were getting much worse. Davo hated people knowing too much detail about his illness so I won't give it here. Davo died just after midnight. I cannot really describe the devastating, crushing feeling – made so much worse because he did not want to go. He was scared and wanted to be saved. He would say that all he needed was a new body, his mind was just fine. I have a million emotions and I am sure I will talk about them again here but maybe later!

We talked a lot about what would happen after he passed. We talked about whether he would be able to send a sign or not. Well after I received the news of his passing, the storm we had in Ireland just stopped. I stood at the window looking over the moonlight loch crying for a bit. Only the moon was out in the sky. Floyd was still asleep. I tip-toed back to bed and lay there crying and praying for peace for Davo. After 5 minutes, for no reason I sat bolt upright and looked over to the window. Above the loch was a huge bright star, like the North Star but a bit brighter. I just knew that was Davo and his sign. I whispered a couple of things and it brightened. I said “oh now you’re just showing off” and then it just vanished. No other stars, just the moon. I went back to sleep smiling. Davo’s best friend in Germany was with Davo when he passed. He said they too had a storm which stopped as soon as Davo died.

I miss Davo so, so, so much. He was one of my best friends and where we were in constant contact for the best part of a year, it's left a huge gaping hole. I know that he had made me a special package with a homemade video that he asked would be sent to me after he had gone. This is so typical of his kindness and thoughtfulness. Though I am sure my heart will break all over again.

I am ok. I like to turn terrible situations over to create something positive from them. I am not scared of leukaemia but I respect it's power. If sat here weeping and mourning forever, then I go against everything I promised Davo I would do. I will carry on the fight against leukaemia by continuing to be an ambassador for Leukaemia Research, working on new projects I have coming up with them and helping fundraise.

I will see this nasty disease wither and die in my lifetime and I promised Davo it would all be for him and Floyd. You can count on it.

Soph

Weekend

We had an exhausting but wonderful weekend.

It was my aunt Jean’s 80^th birthday and there was a huge family get together in Hereford where she lives with my uncle.

I am so blessed to have a very large, fun-loving, warm friendly family! Floyd and I were sucked in to the sea of cousins, aunts and uncles and distant relatives we haven’t seen for years. There simply wasn’t enough time to chat to everyone. Everybody loved Floyd and he seemed to have a wonderful time. There was a big lunch in a church hall and then back to Uncle John & Aunt Jean’s to continue! We had tea and sat around in their beautiful garden (all 61 of us!). Floyd was playing croquet with some of my cousins. All I could hear was “we gotta knock Floyd out” or “right, let’s get him this time”!!!

On Saturday night we stayed in a gorgeous converted barn B&B near the Welsh border with some of my cousins. Even though we’d been up since 5.30am that morning, we were still totally up for meeting up with everyone else that evening. We went to another farm cottage where the rest were staying and sat up eating and drinking until late. Lovely. Just what I needed!

What I haven’t mentioned yet is Floyd and I should have driven to the B&B to join everyone on Friday night, as was the plan, but we wanted to spend time with Davo, my dear friend who is terminally ill with leukaemia. Davo keeps being given weeks and then days to live. This past week has seen him get weaker and weaker and his blood counts, heart rate and blood pressure are all faltering. I spend all day, every day on MSN Messenger with Davo and have done since October. Even though he has been in so much pain recently and struggling with his breathing, it hasn’t stopped our daily marathon chats.

I promised him on Friday that I would just go home and carry on messaging him from home. We would not go to Hereford until Saturday. That’s exactly what happened. We recorded some hilarious home movies on Friday and emailed them to Davo as each one was recorded. We were all laughing our arses off!! Floyd gave a ‘guide to the Scottish language’ which was great!

I had helped Davo arrange a special mother’s day present for him to give to his mum on Sunday. It was a top secret, military style operation which required sleuth like detective work from both my end and in Davo’s house. Even from Hereford, we were emailing on Saturday with ‘has the FedEx man been yet?’ ….. ‘the doorbell just rang! I think it’s him!’ etc. But it all worked out for the best possible result on Sunday!!

We rushed home yesterday and got in late afternoon. We had given a lift to my wonderful, amazing ancient relative Jock who is 92 years old. He usually drives himself everywhere but a his hip is playing up at the moment, he needed a lift home. But we still had time to hang out with Davo.

I was crushed to get news of Davo’s condition from his mum this morning. It’s not good and his breathing is much worse and he was unable to communicate this morning.

I cannot describe the anguish I feel at the thought of losing one of my best friends. But I refuse to give leukaemia any kind of victory. It tried to take Floyd from me and now it’s tugging away at Davo. It will never win because as Davo told me, it will die with him when he goes. So true. It will.

The plans we made just mock and make me sad. But the happiness, laughter, fun and love that we created always wins and that is something leukaemia will never get it’s hands on.

I love my friend dearly and send you arms of flowers and hugs Davo.

Meh.

xx