In about 2 hours time I’ll be on a 2 1/2 train ride into King’s Cross in central Londonto meet up with our friends, Richard “Rocky” Meehan and Stu Harris. So this morning, after Rusty made an amazing breakfast,i decided to set offin the rain to see the York Shambles once moreand to geta nice sniff of the smelly Ouse river.

As I worked my way down Coppergate st. to Parliment st. to shop, even passing the house where Sir Thomas H. Bart was born (1606), I noticed an unsually high amount of young girls with bare midrifts in such cold weather. I guess this is all the rage? Ok, I’ll buy that…whatever floats yer boat.

Then I continued up Coppergate to the corners of Picadilly and Parliment, an area where “THE PAVEMENT” is located. Supposedly, The Pavement is one of the first Medieval streets in the city to be paved (around 1378). The used the sopt for proclaimations and speechs and stuff like that but when shit gotout of hand, they also weren’t above laying the smack down. if you don’t believeme, ask Tim Percy, who was beheaded at The Pavement in 1572 and in 1600, an effigy was hung and burnt here of Oliver Cromwell. That’s cold, huh?

From there I headed to one of my favorite pubs, Lendal Cellars, which is off Stonegate and Lendal streets. I figured my last pint in York had to special soi savoured every dropand just took in the pub feel.There’s nothing home quite like York; not even close. There’s somthing about North Britian that always makes me feel at home and welcome.

And thanks for the nice things people said about the “Profiles”, although I left out an important person, who’s profile shall follow the bottom of this diary. And also, it’s not my place to comment on the messageboard but I will add that, it’s there for everyone. I personally don’t like the nastiness that seems to be the norm now but I think that no one has to asnwer them and you can let the posts you don’t like die their own death. But I don’t like the idea of a moderator and I doubt there will be one.That said, you have no idea how hard I laughed when someone told me what a “Cheeky Shirt Lifter” was! I guess boys will be boys, huh? Speaking of which, why don’t you Scots be a tad bit nicer to the birds…and you know who you are, you cheeky rascals. (wink)

name: Karl

title: trumpeter(took Stefan’s place for 1week)

Nickname: Drugstore Cowboy

Home: Stockholm

Comment: Karl joined the tour for about 5 dates when Stefan had to fly back to Sweden for some prior gigs he had. Karl was amazing and weall hadablast with him from day one. Karl’s best antic was when he pulled his trumpet out (TRUMPET, ladies…TRUMPET) at BIG HANDS in Manchester and played along with the solo to “Alone again or”, which made that bar scene even more celebratory than it already was (and that was not an easy task cause that was a serious PARTY!) Karl also liked to pick up videoson his day off, my fave being “American Pie 2”, the unedited version, of course.

Mike Randle