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Unless you are really desperate to do it, I wouldn't bother taking kit to enable you to cook.
I went on two long cycle camping holidays many years ago and on the first, we took all the cooking gear, though not jars of pasta sauce, a chopping board and a meat tenderising mallet, unlike some Dutch cyclists we encountered. You end up needing lots of stuff - tea towels, sponges, plates etc - and often, the meals you put together aren't great. This is just my view but we really felt all the extra kit, the additional time and additional processes simply weren't worth it.
The second time, without all that clobber, we got on just fine. We ate out a few times and even when we ate in, we were able to put together reasonable meals without resorting to cooking.
Three other tips (which you have probably already borne in mind) for if you are taking your own tent - Don't forget the instructions for erecting the tent. I'm probably going over the top here but a mate and I had real problems putting up a second hand frame tent we had borrowed from a mutual friend. When we eventually finished the task, the bloke at the neighbouring pitch, who had been reclining with a beer while he watched our travails, gave us a sarcastic round of applause
- Don't forget something to knock the pegs in with. On the cycling trips, we were so focused on saving weight that we hammered the pegs in using rocks or stones we found lying around, but that's clearly not ideal!
- Don't forget a torch. Petzl make a container for their amazing head torches, so you can use them like a lantern and hang them wherever you need light.
I'm not much of a country fan but may have to reconsider based on what I am learning on this interesting thread.
I love, love, love Wichita Lineman, though, it's a haunting track with a great guitar solo. I've taught myself to play the basic tune on the guitar.
Without wishing to take us way off topic, which Ozrics album were you listening to just now? I am a huge Ozrics fans but feel that the albums since "Paper Monkeys" are really just rehashes of what they have already produced. My theory, not just for the Ozrics but for any band, is that the quality of their music is always better when more than one band member is responsible for the creative process.
When I was young, my gran had a shelf of books in her back bedroom and one of them was, if I recall correctly, "The coral island" by R M Ballantyne.
The start of each chapter featured a few lines about what was covered in the section. One chapter was preceded by the comment: "In which we have intercourse with the natives".
A cricketing rarity has cropped up: Someone, Jadeja for CSK against RR in the IPL, has been given out for obstructing the field.
CSK were at the end of a very tight run chase when CSK had to abort a second run. Jadeja was a long way out of his ground and haring back to his crease as a CSK fielder lined up a shy at the stumps. Jadeja seemed to spot this as he glanced behind him and changed direction slightly, to cover his stumps. The shy at the stumps then hit him.
I love Grand Funk but my favourite track is "Sin's a good man's brother"
It's so hard to pick a favourite band, let alone one track by them, at least, for me it is.
I will go for "Burning the hard city" by Californian instrumental rock band Djam Karet, from the album of the same name. The band's two guitarists cram riff after riff into the disc, but the band create many and varied moods and atmospheres using synths and other electronics. The bass playing is monstrous, sinuous and rumbling yet clever and inventive and very much to the fore.
The guitarists crank out solo after solo but the solos complement the tracks and aren't gratuitous. The use of bends and vibrato is astonishing, and it isn't all fast playing, there is a lot of space between the notes at times, with great use of sustain.
The whole album is a beast and stirs up the emotions. Magnificent, in my humble opinion.
My runners up are:
It Bites - Once around the world Fates Warning - And yet it moves Ozric Tentacles - Saucers Black Sabbath - Into the void Kaki King - Final state
I mainly like instrumental music but I do also like clever wordsmiths like Pink Floyd, Asian Dub Foundation, Primus and Rush.
I also like riff based music, so by bands like Fu Manchu, Testament and Black Sabbath.
Another thing which I love is bands who create music with multiple, complementary layers, rather than just one dominant instrument with all the others playing second fiddle, as it were. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon achieves that and a lot of Fates Warning's tracks have multiple, simultaneous guitar parts, as many as five, some of them very simple, which combine to create a glorious whole.
I love bands which can create an atmosphere or mood, like The Black Dog (ambient), Tangerine Dream (electronic - the start of their album Rubycon is breathtaking, otherworldly stuff) or rock (Djam Karet - there is so much emotion in albums like Burning the hard city).
That said, I also live a catchy, original tune with quirky, amusing lyrics and It Bites have knocked out loads of songs like that.
What I don't like is artists who slavishly copy what has gone before and who don't offer anything original.
Finally, as someone who also plays an instrument, I'm a fan of musicians who come up with inspirational new techniques and ways of playing, eg Becky Langan and Kaki King (acoustic guitar) and the two guitarists in Animals as Leaders (on their 8 string guitars, they can switch between playing bass and lead lines).
I could easily do 20 minutes on how to create and maintain a wildflower meadow but I'd only need the first ten minutes. They'd be sound asleep after the first half of my slot.
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