Big Day

My daughter got her GCSE results today. she did well 1 A* , 1A 3 Bs two Cs and , unfortunately 2 Ds. Enough to get back into the 6th Form at her school. Well done, H!

She did better than both me and the wife thought she would. She is a bit disappointed with her Maths D but she can retake that. She has decided to swap Politics for History in her AS exams.I'm pleased about that as she has never expressed any interest in politics and I didn't understand her logic for choosing that as an option in the first place.

Elsewhere my son is at Leeds festival, trying not to poo for 5 days he told me. I told him he'd never do it. Wife is out with work, daughter is out with friends who didn't go to Leeds. I am here alone- apart from the dog- listening to Glasvegas' Lonesome Swan very loud.

I am in good mood

London Here I Come Pt 2

My son got his offer of accommodation from UCL yesterday- Schafer House on Drummond Street. Fantastic central London location. Fantastic fucking Central London price as well £4400 for his first year. It's self catering by the way.

So he gets a Student LOAN for £4988- as its London he gets more. Out of this LOAN he has to pay £4400 for his accommodation, leaving him about £500 to live on in a year. Yes he can get a job but have you ever tried working and studying? Its not easy, is it?

So guess who will be subsididsing him.

I vowed never to vote Labour after the Iraq war and the way they forced Counils to divest themselves of housing management responsibilities by either selling off the stock or setting up a quasi buisness to manage it. I am now adding abolition of Student Grants and the introduction of Tuition Fees to the list of reasons never to vote for them again. Another back door tax from the party of education and they wonder why the proportion of working class kids going onto higher education hasn't risen. My son will be leaving University with a minmum debt of £24k. Shame on them all

London Here I Come

That's what my son texted me this morning. He got 4 As at A level.So much for rejection by Cambridge. That disappointment seems a long time ago now. He is off to UCL. I know he'll enjoy London.

I know each year there is a lot of press talk about how A levels are not as hard as they used to be and part of me agrees. But that is not fair on the kids who take them each year. They can only pass what is put in front of them.It is still an achievement to get an A level. It is even more of an achievement to get four As.

Well done, Guy!!!!

Whatever Happened to the Minidisc Recorder?

I was sorting out some CD and vinyl over the weekend and rediscovered my Minidisc recorder in the front room. I had almost completely forgotten about it even though it can't be more than six years ago I was convinced that these mini cd players were the future of portable music listening.

Looking at it compared to Ipods and MP3 players it looks big and clunky and clumsy. I remember spending hours copying CDs to the discs (up to 4 CDs per minidisc- woo hoo!!!) and then laboriously typing in the Disc and the individual track's names.The sound was near CD quality even on the compressed discs, it was easier to run with than a CD player and it felt quite modern to me.

And then Ipods and Mp3 players took off became more reliable, you didn't have to individually name tracks, you could create playlists and shuffle and look at the album covers in colour on the screen and music on the move was changed forever.

Whilst rooting around I also came across my stock of Mindiscs. I had made copies of all my favourite bands' CDs . I picked up one unlabelled disc and popped it in the player to give it a whirl. It was my Embrace disc.

Regular readers will know that I love Embrace.

On the way to and from work so far this week I have been listening to Embrace on my Minidisc. I still love that band and hope that one day they return. I have to admit I prefer the earlier stuff over the later stuff- with one or two exceptions.

This song is one of those exceptions.

I remember standing in the Uni basement at Newcastle in September 2004 full of excitement waiting for this band because they had been away for three years. I had been following their website for news for almost that long. I had bought the tickets for this gig back in the June. I had heard the album and wanted to see them again so much. They began with this song- Ashes, Mike Heaton the powerhouse drummer stomped the bass pedal to start the set off. My wife arrived late just as Mike started we looked at each other and smiled. They were back.

This is an acoustic version of the song from backstage at the Oxygen festival in 2005.It's still great and shows the song off in the way they had originally intended it to be before Youth their producer suggested they speeded it up. It works well either way as a song about rebirth and a refusal to give up.

Ashes- Embrace

Monday I Got Friday On My Mind

Or something like that.

Well, it's Monday again and here I am at my desk in my office in August, which is probably the last place on earth I want to be right now. Luckily it's raining heavily- that nice warm(ish) Summer rain that I remember from the long summer holidays of my youth which meant a day watching the Test match on BBC1.

Talking of Test Matches what the hell happened to England at Headlingley? My son was thinking of buying tickets for the 5th day and I did warn him to wait until it started. Glad I did. My wife's cousin was not so lucky. His kids has bought him tickets for Day 5 as a birthday treat, and apparently he can't get a refund.

Big family do on Saturday up at my wife's cousin's house on Abbey Grange as rellies are over from Canada. Better than I thought it would be and everyone got on OK. It was a couple's 28th Wedding Anniversary as well and their kids had made a compilation CD of tracks from 1981. The wife and I went to their wedding at Liverpool cathedral (the Catholic one) but we don't really keep in touch. As we all get older and numbers at these gatherings decrease, we all realise how short life is and how we should make more effort to see each other.But, like every other family who feel the same, we probably won't.

There was much dancing to the CD including many a pose struck to this one.

To Cut a Long Story Short- Spandau Ballet

Can't Be Arsed Part Two

The apathy and indolence of yesterday has only slightly abated today.

Today is of course Friday and that in itself is a good enough reason not to do any work. I can remember some Fridays from my years with Lambeth Council when we would go to the pub at lunchtime and get pissed and not go back to work. We would put a sign up up on the office door to read "Due to unforeseen circumstances the office will be closed this afternoon" It didn't happen every Friday but we never got found out. Couldn't get away with that these days. You have to be much more subtle now.

For some reason this song has been going round in my head all week.

Maybe its all the stuff in the news about Afghanistan and my son threatening to join the Army. I have posted it before but here it is again. In my opinion it is probably one of the most profound and upsetting songs about war/politicians and youth another being Flags of Freedom by Neil Young

The Easter Parade- Faith Brothers

A Can't Be Arsed Week At Work

Today is Thursday. I can honestly say I have done nothing all week.

One of the joys of my job (and as the Manager of my office) is that some weeks I can get away with doing absolutely nothing. This is particularly true in August when a lot of our tenants are on holiday , or at least at the caravan in Seahouses most of the week, or just simply can't be bothered with us when the kids are off school.

I usually have at least two weeks off in August so don't see this side of my work. This year with not going away I have noticed how quiet the phones are, how nobody is coming in, there isn't much to do.
Now of course i should be pro active and sort out all those things I am normally to busy to pay attention to. But what the hell it's sunny, its warm and I can't be arsed.

No music today, I can't be arsed to upload a tune!!!

Don't worry ,normal service will be resumed soon.

Day Off

Off work today.Mum and Dad have gone home. My daughter's Dance show is over- it's back to normal.

The sun is shinning, it's warm and pleasant. I can't believe it's August. We are not going on holiday this year but I am only doing 4 day weeks until the schools go back. Sort of a mini holiday every week. That's how I sold it to the wife anyway.!!!

I might even extend it into September.

My brother -in-law's temporary work at Johnson & Johnson factory has ended. He's back on the dole. Poor bastard.

Me and the wife are off for a walk around Gibside to day. Haven't been there in a while. We were thinking of taking the dog but he's just too anti social.

Bobby Robson- after whom the dog was named ( well, him and Bob Marley)- has died. He seemed a great bloke. I read his autobiography a couple of years ago and he seemed to be really genuine and in love with football. There is a big shrine to him at St James Park. Which is sort of ironic as it was those fuckers who sacked him from his last job in football. Another reason to want them to go down the divisions.

Back to work tomorrow. Oh well, never mind.

I've not had an opportunity to listen to much music this weekend what with the parent's up and having to entertain them and all the fuss and talk of the show.

My Dad is a big Jazz fan, so in his honour I am listening to Dave Brubeck's Time Out. MMM, nice!!

Actually the album is pretty damn good. If you don't believe me, listen to this.

Strange Meadow Lark- Dave Brubeck

This album is one of the main reasons I got into music. My Dad was always playing it and lots of other jazz in the house when he was at home.

Thanks for the legacy, Dad- and don't forget you promised the Bang & Olufsen and your record collection to me, not my brother or sister, me!!!