Music

It's a glorious sunny day again.We don't get too many of these up here so I am in shorts and sandals, sitting in the garden, drinking beer. I'm not watching the FA Cup Final. Don't care who wins although if pushed I hope the Chelsea rich kids don't win- if only just to see Terry cry again!

Perhaps I should have included football in the title of this blog as I have chatted probably more about The Beautiful Game than anything else over the last few months.

I was walking the dog this morning over Nuns Moor. The sun was shining, the dog was running around very happy and then we were spotted by the cows that graze there every summer. I think some new ones have arrived because, en masse, they all came running towards us. I put the dog on his lead and legged it through the buttercups to the path and relative safety. The cows stopped, Mooed a bit and went the other way. It was quite scary.

A band I quite like are called Scanners. I caught them about 4 years ago supporting The Wedding Present at the Uni. See if you like them too

Scanners- Raw

Barca v Man Utd

What happened, last night? I'm not a fan of Man U and I'm not that bothered they lost, but to lose in the spineless, disinterested way that they did was quite shocking.They made Barca look a lot better than they are and just added to the press hype that surrounds the team and that City ( Manchester by the sea in my opinion , with only Gaudi and his weird architecture and parks of any real note.)

Meanwhile here in Geordie land the relegation gloom stills hangs heavy over the Toon. Unbelievably, many still see Shearer as a saviour- it obviously doesn't matter that that the team only managed 4 points from 8 games under his leadership and looked even more clueless than they did under Kinnear, its gonna have to take something like relegation to League One under Shearer next season to convince people he has no clue.

Cheerio, cheerio, cheerio

Well, it has come to pass . Shearer could not save them. They are down.Hoo- fucking -ray!! A season or two out of the view of Sky and the newspapers may make them realise they nowhere near as good as they thought they were.
I have to admit to being really pleased and am looking forward to Posh v The Toon next season.
Now the blame game starts and the Cockneys Out brigade will probably march around St James Park with their bedsheet banners. Losers the lot of them. Do I sound self righteous and vitriolic, I hope I do. Love the City and the region. Don't care too much about a sizeable chunk of the season ticket holding population. Ha, I hope you enjoy your three year season ticket deal now.

Relegations caused tears and rows in the house last night. My brother-in-law made a comment about Rangers winning the League (he is from Larkhall and a Gers fan)and the wife was not happy (she hates him and the Gers) all went off from there. Wife and her sister etc etc
Anyway, Posh are up. All sing-a-long now!
Posh We Are

Stress

Stress is funny thing. It can just come upon you with no warning, or it can slowly build up. Two of my staff are off with stress/anxiety ast the moment. I had no forewarning of it. One day they were here, apparently normal, next day they were on the phone crying to me about being stressed.

My life is quite stressful at the moment.Let's itemise

1. Money worries- perennial problem, always overstretched. I must deal with it rather than manage it, but that would involve lifestyle changes my wife does not want to make.
2.Mother in law- more or specifically father in law's reaction to her recent knee replacement operation. The seems to be recovering well bit has slipped. She has had minor setback and is in quite a bit of pain and is not very mobile. This has turned my father in law into a raging loony as he struggles to come to terms with it all (and if I'm honest I suspect he doesn't much like being inconvenienced)
3. My daughter's GCSEs. I don't know if she is stressed but I certainly am by it all
4. My wife (see all points above which makes her quite stressed at times and she is behaving strangely)

But what would life be without stress? Pretty dull. But I might like dull at least for a while.

UPDATE Mother- in- law has torn her hamstring!!

Round Up

Well, the Toon lost to Fulham, wife is depressed. They now need to beat Villa to stand any chance of staying up. Here's hoping!

I spent two days in Court this week, and 45 minutes in the witness box being cross examined. I know the difference between being a bailee and an involuntary bailee now. Useful I'm sure. Judge was a bit tetchy, our Barrister was unusually a) quite sensible and b) quite feisty. I'm still fat. I am taking the adios pills , they make you fart and your stomach makes loud growling noises. I haven't done much exercise. I went for a 5 mile bike ride today. I'm knackered!!

GCSEs have started for my daughter and A levels for my son. The wife is super stressed about this and the fact that her mother had a knee replacement operation last week. She seems to be recovering well.

The MP expenses scandal has dominated the news all this week. Some of them have behaved exceptionally badly in maxing their claims,but of course it's not their fault it's "the system". The same people who want to obtain our DNA and force us to have ID cards and have stealth taxed us to fund their wars and eroded our civil liberties in the name of freedom obviously hold us in contempt and see us dumb cows to be milked to sustain their ruling elite. Orwell was right, some pigs are more equal than others. A pox on them all and their corrupt ways.

Thanks to the Blogospehre and The Vinyl Villain (see "Ones To Watch") I have discovered a great band. They are called Cloud Cult and are from Minnesota USA. Here's a link to their website where you can stream some of their stuff. A bit Arcade Fire in places but honest, refreshing stuff

Great Escape?

AAAHHH! Just when I was planning to (quietly) celebrate their slip into the Championship those Toon bastards win. Admittedly it was only against the Smoggies but that's still 3 points more than I wanted them to get from their last three games.

Surely they wont get anything from Fulham or Villa? Maybe Shearer is the righteous one.And the sun has been out all week here.

Weight of The World Pt 11

I reread that last post later in the day and was frankly a bit ashamed of myself. Not the applying for the job bit- that still applies- but the bit about being fat and not being motivated to do something about it. I thought, well at least getting thinner and fitter is something I can control. So I went to Boots bought some Adios tablets and then came back and enrolled in the BUPA 10k Run In Sunderland in July and bought some gym equipment off a mate who is moving to Belgium in July. I'm going to cancel my gym membership and just get out there and run and do some weights at home.

The mate in question is taking a career break in July and moving lock stock and barrel to Belgium. His partner is Belgian and she wants to go back home to be near her elderly parents. He doesn't speak French or Flemish so its gonna be hard but I envy him and his attitude.I wish I was that brave. He has two small kids, one is school age so it will be pretty tough for her in the first place but what an experience for them.

He is also a musician and author . He has a book out at the moment, a collection of short stories called Blunt Wound Trauma. It's good and shows promise and is an enjoyable, if slightly, shocking read. Buy it here and help him make a go of it abroad. Good luck Mick.

Weight of The World

I'm fat. No point hiding it, I am FAT. I weigh 14st 12 pounds . I stand 5ft 9 in my bare feet. Ergo, I am a fat bastard. My expensive gym membership hasn't been used for two months and I can't even get the old enthusiasm up for the Great North Run so I haven't done any running for couple of weeks.

This may be a symptom of a much bigger malaise in my life as I seem to be withdrawing again into my cave. I can't summon up enthusiasm for much at the moment.I think this is about changes in my life. Adult and near adult kids, more time with the wife, return of the money worries and our commitment to paying school fees which has brought us to near insolvency. But I can't talk about this with anyone except of course you, dear reader! My wife can't hear me, I am fading away..... The PC is f**ng bust again so I am typing this at work. I need music to power me out of this. I need This is The Modern World and Paul Weller singing " I don't give two fucks about your review!" to shake me out of this state, but I don't have it on my work PC.

There is a job here in my company. I can do it, its more money, but I'm not applying. What's worse is that I have lied to my wife to say I will apply. Why won't I apply? Because this organisation is corrupt and morally bankrupt. How do I know this? An example. A very average colleague of mine's career has sky rocketed over the last three years. This period neatly coincides with the rise of her ex lover to a position of power. And there is more, I could tell you how many people are related to each other here but it would take all day.I could tell you that me and other like minded souls play a game of who is going to get the job Bingo every time a job is advertised. We're never wrong. Why don't I leave? Golden handcuffs, mate. this job pays very well. Bitter and twisted? Passed over and pissed off? You bet.

A Funny Old Week

Funny old week this one. I haven't been in my office since last Thursday. I was at a Knife Crime conference on Friday at the Centre For Life here. It was reassuring to find out that the North East doesn't really have a gang culture nor much problem with youths and knife crime. Let's keep it that way.

Most of this week I have been on Community Cohesion and Conflict Resolution training course. Again lots of Police on this course. I was very pleased that at last the City Council (who were running the course with Safe Newcastle) have finally acknowledged that we do have some minority ethnic communities and this has not gone down well with the usual white working class on the Estates.
Having said that I have never encountered as much racism as I have whilst working in one of the most affluent parts of this city.This change in the make up of the population has challenged the self perception of the people here that Geordies are all welcoming and friendly ( remember Cockney Mafia out at St James' Park?). Geordies are no different to any other part of the country, in my experience and will only accept you if you fully embrace the Geordie Fatherland concept. Anyway, Thank God, I have been speaking out and challenging racism for years here (lets not bother too much about sexism and discrimination against the disabled as no one here cares)and twenty years (almost) after the Elswick riots there is this course. Better late than never.

Me and the son are off tomorrow to Peterborough to the last game of the season and a promotion party type atmosphere. That'll cheer me up!