Songs You Should Hear

It's the Monday after Christmas. The world has gone shopping, at least they have here in Newcastle. We made the mistake of going into Eldon Square with our son to buy him some decent shoes.Does that sound middle aged??!!But, in my opinion, canvas shoes and a foot of snow don't go well together!!

Anyway on the way back home this idea popped into my head for this Blog. So, occasionally , every now and then and if I remember ( is that enough caveats?) I will post a link to a song you really should hear.

This is the first one. A great, great song by David Gedge's other band Cinerama. 


I saw Cinerama in late 2003 and they played this song as part of their set in the tiny Global Cafe upstairs in Newcastle University Student Union. That set and this song in particular reaffirmed my, almost lost, belief both in Gedge as a near genius of modern rock and my belief in music as a powerful emotional tool capable of bringing you face to face with real raw emotions, forcing you to deal with them.Turn it up loud

Wow ( extended Version) - Cinerama

Christmas Day

Not a bad Christmas Day. Our decision to have the wife's family round again after last year's success proved to be a good one. No arguments( well one small one) the food was good( stuffed aubergine in a tomato and wine sauce was our veggie option). The Duchy Original Christmas Pudding was superb and the wine and champagne flowed like the Tyne.

Another Xmas day has come and gone and another year has passed when I didn't do everything I promised myself I would  this time last Christmas. One day, yeah, one day I will.

I linked to this song last year . Merry Christmas to you all.  

Christmas In Jersey- Billy Franks

Christmas Eve In The Workhouse 2010

Well its not quite the workhouse, although sometimes it can feel like one. Another Chrismas sat at the same desk. Do I lack motivation to move on, or am I stuck here like a rabbit in the headlights too scared to move on?

Anyway HO HO HO it's CHRISTMAAAAAAAS.

Tales From The Frozen North (Part Two)

On Saturday the snow returned. Not that it had really gone away as  demonstrated by the piles of snow,5 foot high in some places, around my street  that had refused to melt despite us breaking through the magic 0 degrees centigrade barrier for several days in a row.

According to local Radio people were stuck on the A1 past Morpeth  for hours but this didn't make the national news , obsessed as it is with the South and the "bollock loads of snow" (copyright my student son in London) that had fallen on the Capital on Friday- thereby bringing the world to a white end overnight ,at least according to the London based Media that is.

My heart goes out to all of you stuck in Heathrow but  please stop phoning 5 Live and complaining that "We are not being told anything" and  don't phone  to complain when you are told that your  flight is cancelled and you're not going anywhere for a few days either.

Anyway the Sun is out here now and the roads aren't as bad as a fortnight ago. Not yet anyway. It is freezing cold again, -7 on the drive this AM as I was scraping the frost off the car for the umpteenth time this year.

The dog is still mad in the snow and when let off his lead just bolts for it across the Moor looking for anything green to sniff at. The father-in-law has not made it up to take the dog for his morning walk for  a month now. I don't think he will again, at least not in the winter.

It's Christmas Time

I am sort of feeling like Christmas now. We have started to decorate the house and the majority of the snow has gone so I can put the lights up outside.
This year though it doesn't feel really like Christmas just yet. My office christmas party (ha-ha) is on Wednesday and that might get me in the mood .After that I'll be winding down for Xmas.

Too Old To Rock n Roll??

Every so often a song comes along that speaks to you in a fundamental no nonsense way and gets into your head and into your heart. This song is one such song. This is an anthem for all us who fall in  love with any guitar and any bass drum. 

And, yes, even at my advanced age, I still believe as well

Frank Turner - I Still Believe

Self Destruct Time Again

Newcastle United have sacked Chris Hughton. If you follow this Blog you'll know I don't care too much for The Toon. I thought maybe this season, after last year's relegation they might have, worryingly for me, decided to act sensibly and not do anything daft. Luckily for me, they just couldn't resist fucking up again.

I don't have any inside information and there are already thousands of web pages about this  so I'll just say I feel for Chris Hughton. He seemed too good and reasonable for the club anyway.

Tales From The Frozen North

The temperature today at 8am was - 9c.

My wife decided to use the car to go to work today. After half an hour de- icing the vehicle and digging her out of the drive and the road when she got stuck in the snow and ice, I was knackered. I decided to get the bus rather than walk.

Apart from the fact that it actually took longer for the bus to get me to my place of work than it takes me  to walk it ,due to the traffic, snow, ice and completely useless drivers, what struck me was the amount of people getting on the bus who didn’t have Geordie accents and clearly had no idea about public transport (tip for you all : do not try and pay for a £1.60 fare with a £20 note- the drivers do not like this).

Normally in any city the people who use buses (apart from the obvious students) are local working class people. They know the vagaries of the public transport system in their city e.g. two buses arriving at once, rude and irascible drivers, unpredictable last minute route changes, bus driver road rage. They understand that you just never know who you are going to get a seat next to (if you’re lucky enough to get a seat). Will it be the drunk, the weirdo, the smelly old man, the woman with nursery age kids who climb all over her and you? Or will you sit in the seat just vacated by the incontinent old age pensioner you helped off the bus and realise too late that that smell and that strange damp feeling in your trousers is exactly what you think it is. (This has happened to me)

My daughter and her mates call a bus the”Poverty Wagon” which is harsh but I understand where they are coming from.

Snowed Under

One week later and it is still here. More than ever. It has snowed every day for a week now. My front garden is under three to four feet of snow and it is up to the height of the decking in my back garden.


My daily walk to and from work has turned into some army like assault course of clambering over piles of snow that are 2 foot high or bigger. My local council is obviously saving its grit as yes the main roads are passable, it's just that no one can get out of their drives into the street to get to them. Buses are fewer, Metros are packed. We are all pissed off. Constantly worried about food (rumours have started that the supermarkets are running low on supplies) every day we wonder are we going to get to/from work OK.  There was spectacular lightning and thunder on Sunday night just before midnight which in that strange eerie night bright light of the snow made it seem  like the end of the world. It spooked everyone who saw it. Me included.

To make matters worse it snowed within the M25 radius last night so consequently its the lead item on the national news.Like it has never snowed before.

The dog has gone doolally and literally runs like a wild thing through the snow  every time we go out. As he is small black dog this looks quite funny when he emerges covered in the snow. The thing is though  it sticks to his fur in little clumps and takes ages to get off when we get back from his walk.So I spend 5 or 10 minutes wrestling the dog- he is an excitable terrier who just wants his post walk treat- in the cold and wet to try and dry him off before letting him into the house

Me and the wife were supposed to be going to Edinburgh this weekend Christmas shopping. I think we will have to rearrange that trip. 

I'm dreaming of a slightly damp, grey Christmas.

Snow Is Falling All Around

As I trudged up the hill homeward from work I can't say that the snowflakes falling  felt like kisses but there is always something magical about being out and about in the snow as it falls and turns the pavements, roads and the Moor white.

I hope the snow  doesn't last as long as last year though.

The dog will be confused as always when we are out tonight, the snow seems to puzzle him as if he is wondering what is this white stuff and where is the the ground. Perhaps it muffles all the scents and smells he loves from the discarded KFC bags that get  dumped around the back of my house.

Back to the 80's

Tories in power, a totally ineffectual Labour opposition, public spending cuts, riots and now a Royal Wedding, Truly it is the 80's again. We just need a war ( Afghanistan doesn't really count- but watch out Iran) and a modern day equivalent of the Miner's strike and hey, living proof that if you live long enough history does repeat itself.

I have  a horrible feeling that my union,Unison,could be this time round's union fall guys.  Lots of tough talk about "Fighting the Tory cuts", "They have no mandate in the North East etc etc" are being heard here. I'm not sure the membership will go with this though. Depends how much more they clobber us with after they have frozen our pay for three years (this is year 1) and threatened  to cut our pensions.The latter might be what gets the rank and file agitated  enough to strike although  I thought Hutton's review was quite sensible in the main.

Thinking about the 80's made me think of this band for some reason.

Come Back - The Mighty Wah . 

I saw them when they were Wah! Heat in a club in Manchester with Pink Military sometime in early 1980. I don't remember much about the gig but I do remember some bloke bashing a tray over his head and ranting into the microphone. This was performance art according to my friend Dennis.

Remember

Remembrance Sunday, the annual commemoration of the death and maiming of the young by the (mostly) old.

The Easter Parade- Faith Brothers

The Chinese Way

Over the last few months I have been trying to avoid anything made in China. It's pretty hard. Clothes, white goods, sweets- you name it- all made in China.

This isn't about racism, it's about a response to the recession and the abuse of civil liberties in that country where the Nobel Peace Prize winner is imprisoned for 11 years for daring to ask for change. Cameron is arse licking the Chinese today when he should be saying we aren't going to subsidise your regime anymore by trading with you and by the way we are going to build factories in the UK to produce all the stuff you make and we will undercut you and force you through economic means to change to allow freedom of speech , free elections and assembly. Then we will do business with you.

Bleeuuuurgh

Its Autumn so its time for a cold. A real bitch this one- I've had it a week and  I still feel crap.

Gregory Isaacs R.I.P.

It seems I have reached that age where all my heroes are long gone, dead or forgotten.One of them, Gregory Isaacs, has died of lung cancer.

The wife and I saw the Cool Ruler once at The Lyceum on The Strand. We were standing next to a well known national newspaper music critic who was smoking the biggest spliff I have ever seen, except  for the one Mr Isaacs had  on stage. There was a large contingent of screaming girls who looked like they were going to pass out every time he looked at them. Gregory's performance was slick, he looked the part dressed in white suit and hat and he did all his hits.  The voice was rich and  powerful. Andrew Perry writing in the Telegraph says very accurately " In his prime, Isaacs had a voice which could have seduced a female statue into bed". Here

I played some of his songs - Night Nurse included- last night, just to as a way of marking his passing.

Another legend gone. R.I.P.

Family Relationships

We have just come back from the annual family get together in Norfolk. Every year we get together for a weekend to just meet up and share our lives and get back in touch with each other. Some years to be honest  these events are the only time I have seen or spoken to my brother and sister all year. My Mum and Dad love it all, they are the centre of attention all weekend and they get to see their grandchildren all together, getting on together. Family, I think, as they get older becomes more important to them.

The kids are now growing up and  my brother's two daughters weren't there,my eldest nephew left early as did my son. These weekend are sometimes really good and sometimes really bad and sometimes, like this year, really average. The weekend weather, a mixture of rain and wind and low temperatures didn't help.
My brother has been unemployed for six months now and is starting to get stressed about it and that probably didn't help the atmosphere. Sometimes these weekend make me realise why I was so desperate to leave home at 18. But as we all get a bit older we become more alike and I like my family more now than I did as a teenager.

Music doesn't feature much in these weekends although my Dad is a very keen jazz fan. He thinks music is for listening to not as background noise. So there is no background noise. Sometimes there is silence,except for  the sounds in my own head. This is totally different to my wife's family where there is never any silence. My kids find this  difference between the two families fascinating.

This song by Billy Franks was the sound in my head all weekend. Don't know why. sometimes it happens that a song gets into your brain and you can't shake it off. Good job it's not a bad song

.
She's The Messiah In Me- Billy Franks

The Distractions

I've written about this band before. I've written  of how they saw me through my university years in Manchester how almost 30 years later they still remain the group I have seen the most times and how I still listen to their songs.
Well , like lots of bands they are back. Not all the original line up (shame) but with Mike Finney and Steve Perrin the main song writing duo plus others. They have released an EP, Black Velvet available from Occultation. Its worth a punt and there is more to come. I am excited by this. Mike Finney's voice is still the blueprint of  top quality pop/rock for me, reminiscent of, but better than, R Dean Taylor. The music is the  guitar based pop that jangles and makes my feet move every time. Why this band weren't huge I will never  know.
Here is a website about them where you can keep up to date with their plans for more releases. Unfortunately the only way you'll be able to get hold of their original releases  is via second hand record fairs or Soulseek. For now it's all out of print. All that is apart from their single on Factory records "Time Goes By So Slow"which is available on the Factory Box set and various compilations and which is  ,in my opinion,apart from Love Will Tear Us Apart the best thing ever released on that label.

Daughter is growing up

A strange weekend, my 17 year old daughter has a boyfriend, he is from Doncaster and stayed with us this weekend.
I am trying to work out how I feel about this. On the one hand I am a pretty liberal, permissive, Guardian reading parent but deep down inside I feel weirdly uncomfortable about this but I am not saying I feel like Steve Martin in Father of The Bride. I suppose it's the recognition that my baby girl is actually now a woman and moving onto independence from me, the only man who mattered in her life up to now. It helps that he is a nice lad.

Would I feel the same way if my son brought a girlfriend home? I don't know is the honest answer.

There is a  twist to this story which appeals to the old romantic in me. My daughter and he met on a campsite near Biarritz about 6 years ago. Via text and MSN and latterly Bebo and Facebook they have kept in touch. Even when he joined the Navy at 16- he came up to see her before he went off to Portsmouth- they still kept in touch until earlier this year they decided to make a go of it and start a relationship. That makes me smile.

Love for life? I don't know but maybe it is.

Monday

After a weekend of rain worthy of the storms we saw in Cuba, today was a nice autumn day. Lots of sun. A light fresh wind and clear blue skies.

I have been having a break from listening to music on my daily trudge to and from my workplace. I am listening to Today on the way in and PM on the way back. I had almost forgotten how good a station Radio 4 is.
This listening has encouraged me to listen to much more of their output my departure this weekend from Radio5 hastened by the all day coverage of the Ryder cup, and I had almost forgotten how some of their programmes are so intellectual it makes your brain throb trying to follow them. Worth the licence fee on its own.
 

Wednesday Week

Dear Reader,
Another week has flown by without a post from me. What can I say , except sorry.

I went down to Peterborough on Saturday to see Posh win 2-1 against the McDons. Met up with my son.We had a good time. Sunday was entertaining my wife's Canadian cousins and that was good too.

Random post

I was walking to work today and this song came up on the MP3 player I am currently using (my Sony Walkman  16gb MP3 is bust after getting soaked through in a downpour a week or two ago).

 Hope and Social- Sunlight Hold Me


 In fact today was a good day for excellent tunes on the MP3 player

Keep On Running

Today was Great North Run day. I finished in 2:20:45 a big improvement on last year and next year I will be coming in under 2:20. The extra training paid off. Now to keep it going through the Winter.

I enjoyed the run which is not something I can say every  year but this time I could feel I had done enough  preparation. The crowds were as big as ever .This year many more people seemed to be walking especially up John Reid Road

I actually saw some people I knew as well- James and Jess- normally I never see anyone I know. The weather was OK but as I crossed the finish instead of the Red arrows it was a cloud burst and I got soaked. Journey back on the Bus was good  though and I was home with a cup of tea by half past two.

Roll on next year.

Blogging Habit

Like most things regular Blogging is a habit and like most habits you sometimes drop it. I'm amazed I have managed to sustain this Blogging lark for over 18 months. I still feel I have something to say- I just need to get back in the habit of telling you all what that something is.

All is mostly well in the household- son has gone back to London for 2nd year at Uni, daughter is in Year 13 (Upper 6th to you oldies), wife is getting stuck into her new job. And me? Well you know just carrying on carrying on. Running lots. It's GNR time again this weekend. Lets see if I can get below 2.20 this year.

see you soon
x

Bad Blogger

I have been a bad blogger. Forgive me. No updates for a month. How have you all coped without me?

Update

It's absolutely pissing down here.It has been since 3 o'clock. Summer??? I think it's over although to be fair it's not cold.

A couple of Saturdays ago the wife and me went to see Gilles Petersen's Havana Cultura night at The Sage. One of the main players was Roberto Fonseca  who is a very talented Cuban Jazz pianist. The whole performance was really good and could have done with a younger more enthusiastic crowd.   But me and Mrs ATQO got our groove on and the salsa steps came back to us very quickly!

Mind you , the mojitos at the Sage were not a patch on the ones at Hotel Nacional de Cuba.

Apart from that it is business as usual at home and work. Son is still in London although he is coming up this weekend. The daughter has settled into summer holidays and is gearing up for her week of performance in two weeks time when it is her Dance School's Summer Show.This is her 10th and last. It has been a big part of her life and she will miss it. In a way, although it can be boring and tedious to sit through 2 and a half hours of amateur dancers, so will I.

World Cup

The end of the  World Cup at last. It seems  such a long time ago since  England were thrashed by Germany.

The Final between Holland and Spain was not good to watch- mostly because the Dutch seemed to be determined to have every one of their players booked. Perhaps they had a bet on? Like an accumulator?

Anyway it was a surprise to see them being so physical. This approach almost put paid to the not so robust Spanish and if  Robben had taken his two chances Holland would have won. But he didn't and Spain took their chance and scored. Justice probably done.

Back To Life... Back To reality

Our holiday in Cuba seems just a distant memory. A week at work has seen to that. Still the same shit there , still being perpetrated by the same fuckwits. That will not change.

It's Saturday morning my wife is out all day on a Brownie trip to a local Pleasure Park. My daughter is dancing. The dog has a cut his paw and is feeling sorry for himself . I am left to my own devices all day. That means shopping, cleaning and DIY in case you were wondering- so no pampering myself, but I can fit in an hour or two listening to music and meandering around the internet. Still its warm and sunny and I am fit and healthy and so are the wife and kids so that's more than a lot of the world can say.

Cuban Thoughts

Regular readers will know that me and the wife have just spent a week in Havana.

Here are some of my impressions.

I know Cuba inspires great passion in some people (I share some of that passion) and a week in the capital doesn’t make me an expert on the country-just as a week in London will not make you an expert on England- I am just sharing some of my thoughts with you all and if I get anything “wrong” I apologise in advance.

First of all the obvious. It is a very very hot place. Especially in June. Average daytime temperatures of 34 degrees c. and the high humidity meant I was sweating like the proverbial fat lass from morning til night. Some buildings do have air conditioning but frankly it doesn’t mostly work that well in that sort of heat and in a country with electrical supply problems.- we had two- albeit short power cuts- during our week there . On this point I do recommend the Partagas Cigar factory behind the Capitolio in Centro Habana for having the best air conditioning in the city. It felt like going to heaven the afternoon we dropped in. The Bar in the shop is pleasant too.

Secondly, when it rains it pours down. Luckily it only rained twice when we were there. The second time though the roads were flooded within five minutes and Jose Marti airport is not watertight- which is a bit worrying.

Thirdly, Cubans are friendly people. We only had one minor problem in walking around Havana with a disgruntled local because we didn’t want to go to his friend’s restaurant. Havana felt safe – probably because there was at least one Police Officer on every street.- I counted 120 Police on the 2 and half  hour journey from Varadero to Habana. Speaking Spanish will help but I found Cuban Spanish very difficult to follow and understand.

Fourthly, it is a third world Country. There I’ve said it. Outside of the 4 and 5 star hotels Habana is, in my opinion, a ramshackle ruin. If you believed in Castro before you went then I guess you would find it hard to believe in him after spending sometime in the Capital.

Free health care and education and housing doesn’t mean as much when you are living without access to running water and with sanitation that is at best poor. We saw families living in one room taking containers to get water from trucks in Habana Vieja whilst back at our Hotel (Hotel Nacional de Cuba) we had as much water as we wanted. We saw waiters slying bottles of water to local kids from behind the bars in more than one place.We saw the ration markets and the entitlement per person chalked up on the board. A local whom we met whilst walking around Vedado told us it was currently 1 kilo of rice per person per month in a country whose national dish is rice and beans and pork. 8 eggs per person per month and 5 bottles of rum. I had no reason to disbelieve him.
 Our tour rep to Varadero told us she lived in a house with 11 other people. She said food was sufficient but not enough. She relied on relatives sending gifts from Florida and access to pesos convertibles to get by.Our  bus stopped, for no real reason, on the way back from Varadero I guess simply so we would get out and spend some money at the “service station” by a bridge linking Matanzas province to Habana province. Totally random but there was food, CDs and souvenirs available and it was packed with locals trying to get some convertible pesos to improve their lives. It is a poor country the average wage per month is £16 dollars. Some days we spent more on Mojitos and Cuba Libres than that.

It was a bit , to borrow the phrase, a cheap holiday in other people’s misery and we felt a bit uncomfortable at first. But it is a fascinating country with a fascinating history and architecture which they are slowly trying to rebuild. Plaza Vieja  and parts of  the Malecon shows what can be done. But they need money and investment and skilled workers to do it. It reminded me a bit of Barcelona in 1976 when I first went. A lot of work needed no equipment available. Hand mixing cement in the street to renovate a three storey 19th C colonial building is not the way to restore Havana or I guess the rest of the country at least not in my lifetime.

If you go to Cuba- and you should- don’t just go to the all inclusives- which we did for a day in Varadero- but stay in Havana for four or five nights. Have a Mojito at the Hotel Nacional overlooking the Malecon or at the rooftop bar of Ambos Mundos or Santa Isabel or Hotel Raquel. Have a Cristal beer at El Louvre in the Hotel Inglaterra and people watch around Parque Central and the Paseo de Prado. Go and have a drink in the bar (La Barrita) of the magnificientArt Deco Edificio Bacardi building. Walk around and see how people are living, their obsession with the peso pizza, the 50’s cars the ration markets and the farmers markets.Wonder why when there is o much work to do and the state provides everything a significant part of the population appears to sit round all day not doing much. Talk to the people a lot of whom speak good English and if you have some Spanish try it out. I had some great Spanglish conversations with people. If you aren’t a veggie (like us) try and find a Paladares restaurant in Miramar or Vedado and get a decent meal. Food was a problem for us but we had breakfast as part of our Hotel stay so we filled up on that. Bottled water is readily available and cheap (70cents for 1 litre in central Havana). You will need to drink a lot to keep hydrated in the heat. We would have liked to get out into the country and travel but didn’t have time. NB on the 2 and half hour journey to Varadero we went through three Police checkpoints. I mean proper checkpoints- movement is clearly restricted although we did note ironically that it was Afro Caribbean men driving the flash (50’s) cars who seemed to get stopped. Police are the same the world over!!! We didn't use public transport- the endless queues and crowded buses in stifling heat put us off  but the taxis were cheap and reliable and everywhere in Havana.

Fascinatingly a lot of the tourists there were not too familiar with Cuba’s history or Fidel or Che- they went for the sun, sea and nightlife in Cuba. Good job too as the Museo de La Revolucion was probably the saddest Museum I have ever been in I did note however , how well the tank outside and the Granma and truck and missiles from the Bay of Pigs had been looked after. Shame Fidel couldn’t have done the same for his capital or his people. The tour companies big up Ernest Hemingway’s stay on the island – and yes we did have a Daiquiri in Floridita- very nice and the band playing there were excellent as well- but I’m not sure it means much to people nowadays, if the Americans get back to the island it will probably mean more.

Highlight of the trip for me was seeing Grupo Compay Segundo play at Hotel Nacional in their fantastic Salon 1930. A great band keeping the Son tradition alive but showing how it can adapt and change and not be frozen in time


Would we go back? My wife is not sure. I would go back, probably in 5 years to see how things have changed.

I have always been convinced that top down absolute command and control does not work in the long term. Cuba is the living proof of that for me. Yes you can blame the Americans for their trade blockade. But that misses the point. Fidel’s revolution freed the people from a corrupt regime but for what?

Hang Your Heads In Shame

Got back from Cuba on Thursday and I will post about that trip soon.

I just had to post after England's less than glorious defeat against Germany. Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Rooney, Defoe,Johnson et al- you were an embarrassment to your country today. Schoolboy defending errors a complete lack of positional sense and just no ideas. I had given you the benefit of the doubt after USA and Algeria and had even allowed a bit of hope to creep into my heart after Slovenia but today you were woeful.

Not that any of you are admitting it on 5 Live.

Oh  and Alan Green you must be the only person to think that Gerrard has had a good World Cup

The Beautiful Game

I wrote  a while ago about this but long time favourite of mine Billy Franks (Faith Brothers) has recorded  his World Cup 2010 song called The Beautiful Game . All proceeds go to charity. You can buy it from iTunes or HMV.

See the video here 

It is at thoughtful record at a time of football fever . My thoughts on England's chances are quarter finals and a predictable exit on penalties.

It has been as cold this week as it was hot last week. Tipping it down with rain and flippin' miserable. I am sat here with the heating on, in June for chrissakes!!! 

Never mind Cuba beckons....

My daughter is finishing off her AS exams. My son has his German pal, Alex, over for the week. His exams are finished. Alex is a bit of a beer monster. God knows what they will be doing (clue; it will involve Pubs)

Feeling Hot Hot Hot (again)

Unbelievably good weather this week has had me feeling quite serene and mellow. At least until today when I get dropped the bombshell at work that one of my best staff is being moved a week on Monday. Just to sort out some  idiot who is causing problems elsewhere. At least he is not coming to my office. So what was all that "lets talk about staff moves in our monthly meeting" shit our dimwitted boss talked about a week ago??? Shit just like everything else at my place.


Running is going well. I am feeling it tonight. I have knocked 1 and a half minutes off my time home on my run  from work in two weeks. Not bad, for an old bloke.

Not long til Cuba. I am getting excited. So is the daughter with her threats of "housies" in our absence. She has been warned.

It being so hot we have been sleeping with the window open. I got woken up this morning by a very weird bird call that I had never heard before. This sent me to the RSPB website here and listening to all the birds I could think of that might have made it. I discovered amongst other things that the irritating little fucker that sings from about four o'clock each morning is the Coal Tit. Finally  after listening to the Kestrel  - a bird we have seen several times out the back and the Greater Spotted Woodpecker we saw one Saturday morning on  a bit of  a hunch I typed in  Red Kite and listening to it that was definitely what I heard.

There are some breeding pairs over at Gibside so they must be widening their area.

Under two miles from the City Centre and its like living in the country side with all this wildlife around us.We have seen rabbits and lots of hedgehogs and voles (and rats) over the years. No foxes yet but they are moving into the city and we are having problems at work on one of our estates near Jesmond Dene with foxes burrows in back gardens.

Humdrum days

I've been a bit quiet on the posting front. Nothing to write about I suppose is the honest answer. That and the fact that I have been a bit busy work wise.  A new month is as good a time as any to promise more postings on things about my life and obsessions and more music too.

See you soon

Hot Hot Hot Hot

If Thursday was hot Friday was even hotter and today is flippin' boiling. The dog had to sit down half way round the Moor cos he was too hot.
Still my potatoes and mini orchard are loving the heat
I've bought some Fit Flops to improve my fitness when not running (now running 5 days per week) and after wearing them when out with the dog this morning I feel like my legs have had a workout. Perhaps they really do work. Time will tell.

My son is up for the weekend - not to see us but to play for Gateshead Senators tomorrow. He will be expecting a cool North East weekend. He is not going to get one.

Hot Hot Hot

It's not often you can say that it is too damned hot in the North East in May. But today it has been.

The sun has shone and it felt really crap to be indoors and at work. The prediction is for a good sunny weekend and I hope that unlike most BBC weather predictions this one holds true.

Off to the GP tomorrow to get Hep A shot for Cuba. Hope it doesn't hurt too much.

Friday Evening

I am still coming to terms with the new Lib/Con coalition Government. I have read their joint policy statement and minus abandoning Trident and pulling the troops out of Afghanistan it's not a bad job. One I could sign up to.

The Left have already started their return to the 80's theme mostly written by people actually too young to remember the 80's.

I remember the 80's. I was a student and then umemployed and living in Hulme in Manchester between 1981 and 1983. It was grim. Most people in the area were unemployed.Drugs (heroin, glue) were rife, crime was endemic. We tried to stay but we gave up after a year of part time unemployment after graduation in 82 and moved down to London for a job my wife had got with the GLC.
I walked into Tooting Job centre the day we moved down and next day I was working. The guy who booked me at the Job centre nearly spat out his tea when I told hin how long I had been unemployed (1 year). I still remember his incredulous
" 1 year!!!?? Nobody's unemployed that long!" I replied "They are up there", but I don't think he believed me.

I could say we got on our bikes and looked for work (ouch that hurts)but actually at the time we were incredibly sad to be leaving Manchester behind.

The rest of the 80's was pubs and clubs and cocktails and holidays. It was pretty good living and working in London in the 80's. But I remember coming up regularly to Newcastle where it clearly wasn't. It was like a time warp both in fashion and attitude and career opportunities that really didn't knock.

What did it all mean, I don't know. Life just washes over most of us really and we don't get to control a lot of what happens to us- like my wife's redundancy last year. We float on the tide and hope we will make the shore.Most of the time we try and not think about it all.

So I am optimistic about this new coalition. The cuts will come but life will go on for most of us. Labour would have had to make cuts as well and they have taken defeat at the Polls very well. Probably because they think they will avoid being blamed for it all.

I, for one, won't forget their reckless endangerment of the country's finances by failing to regulate the Bankers. I won't forget their failure to renationalise the Railways and the Gas and Electricty companies. I won't forget ID cards, Iraq, Afghanistan, crazy NHS computerisation bio metric passports, the phoney war on terror, the ending of an absolute right to trial by jury. I could go on but I prefer to hope that things can only get better.

A New Dawn?

It's a good job I'm not a betting man. My prediction of a Lib/Lab coalition shone briefly for about 3 hours yesterday and then vanished in the breeze blowing around the House of Commons.

So the Tories are back BUT the Liberals are there with them to ameliorate their more bonkers right wing ideas.

As someone living in the North of England and who works for the Public Sector I can feel the ground shifting slighly under my feet.

Post Election Blues?

Well, who'd have thought the Labour party would still be here and (almost) in power? Gordon is still in No.10 and Dave and Nick are having a chat about a partnership.

I think that Nick will get together with Gordon after a brief flirtation with the Blues.

I hope so anyway.

Election Day

At long last it's time to vote. Make sure you do. I will be voting at the usual venue. I am voting Lib Dem as I have done since the Iraq war.

I can't ever see myself voting Labour again

Another Post

A hectic week at work this week. I have less than 50% of my team in due to holidays and sickness and I have spent most of the week answering the telephone.So much for the strategic side of my job.

At work the single status row rumbles on and trenches are being dug.Which side are you on, boys? (and of course girls and transgender colleagues) A review of our service is under way and most of us are fearful of the outcomes.

A colleague has been suspended for trying to enforce performance policies and has been accused of harassment and bullying. Our hostile, vindictive and incompetent management (always a very bad combination but in my experience all too common) have seized on an opportunity to take action against a long running thorn in their side.

At home this,our 25th wedding annniversary week has been quiet and pleasant, a warm glow of love and happiness all around us.

A nice contrast to the increasingly bitter and unwelcoming environment I face each day at work.

Holidays cannot come soon enough.

Cuba

After months of prevaricating and worrying if it is a good idea we have finaly booked a holiday in Cuba. We are going to be staying at Hotel Nacional de Cuba .

I am excited about this trip as we have been wanting to go for years. We were supposed to go the year my wife got pregnant with my son so it's been a long time coming. I love Cuban music, especially Son, so I hope to be hearing lots of it whilst sipping on a Mojito in the sunshine.

We want to get about as well so I will be planning a trip to Trinidad on the island.

Years ago we saw a Cuban band called Sierra Maestra play upstairs at The Riverside (RIP)here in Newcastle.A bizarre experience to see a band of old Cuban musicians playing to a packed club in North East England in the winter. All of Newcastle's middle class folkies were there plus me and the wife. I don't think I have ever seen as many beards together in one room before or since. The band were good and so tight as a unit like they had been playing together forever. They made it look effortless and it seemed like they could play all night.

Here is one of their songs

Dundunbanza- Sierra Maestra
The repetition of the phraases is hypnotic and I defy you not to at least tap your feet to this. Dundunbanza is a witch in case you were wondering.

I hope there are plenty of bands like them to see in Cuba

Friday I'm In Love

Friday today,the working week is almost over. It's been a funny week at work. My desk,which normally is buried under letters and complaints and post it notes to ring people back,is surprisingly clutter free. It's not that I have worked any harder to clear it. It seems that it is just unusually quiet. It's like the post Easter holiday rush has not started. Maybe the volcanic ash cloud has stopped them all coming back from Seahouses or from their caravan " up the coast".

I'm off to St James Park for the promotion party tomorrow.I'm not particularly bothered and probably the match itself will be crap what with neither Newcastle nor Ipswich with anything much left to play for but my wife wanted to go. The things you do for love, eh? Our son , who is back up for the weekend refused to go on principle. He looked at me and shook his head and said "How can you?" " You'll understand, one day, son" I replied.

Talking of which,it is our 25th wedding Anniversary on Monday. Hard to believe that its been that long.It's been hard at times but we have made it through to a pretty big milestone.Regrets? I have a few but I still love my wife as much as I did 25 years ago. I just forgot how much for a couple of years.

Relations are up for the weekend, we will probably go out for a meal tonight no celebrations of our anniversary though. Our wedding was a small affair at Brixton Registry Office,just us and two witnesses.We got the bus back up the hill home and stopped off to buy toilet roll at the local shop on the way.Over the years we have forgotten about our anniverary but recently it has started to mean more to my wife. I'll have to go and get a small present for her- just to prove to her that I love her. The things you do for love, eh?

Monday Monday

I was off work on Friday (continuing my deck cleaning duties in case you are wondering). Friday and Saturday were sunny and bright and a breeze, so typical of North East england was blowing. The sky was cloudless and blue. I had to wear sunglasses to treat my deck as the sun shone reflected back like a mirror from its beautifully cleaned surface!!! There was a smell of the seaside in the air and in the eerily quiet skies (no planes- volcanic ash from Iceland)you could hear above the muted traffic noise seagulls screeching.

It felt good to be off work for three days, there was more time to do those things you have to cram into the two day weekend, more time to do , well just nothing. I felt more relaxed this Monday morning when I woke up than I usually feel.

Weekends should be three days, not just a miserly two, every week.

Thick as Thieves

Back in the 80’s The Wedding Present sang “You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends” and I remember thinking “Yeah, you should”. Although, of course I didn’t and haven’t.

My wife’s recent redundancy and the impact that this had on her friendship with two colleagues she thought she was close to has had me musing on the nature of friendship over the last few weeks. One of these friends has dropped my wife like a hot brick and quickly moved onto the new “gang”. A few other things have happened as well which has set me thinking and remembering.

The Jam song, the title of this post, is from their 4th album Setting Sons released in the autumn of 1979. I was 18 and I had left my small town on the outskirts of London to go to University in Manchester. I had been looking forward to leaving home and I was having a good time making new friends and, unconsciously, starting to let go of my school friendships.
It took a few years but by the early 1980’s I had next to no contact with my hometown friends. Some of them had gone off to Uni so were probably in the same position as me but some had left school to go to work and they were still at home and mostly close to my parent’s so really I didn’t have any excuse in letting their friendships die. But I did. And so did they.
And we really were as Thick as Thieves. We grew up together, got girlfriends together – well some of us did-, got into trouble together, went to gigs together, got drunk together, took drugs together (even ones that sent us to sleep.I remember one visit home in my first year when my friend Simon- who was working in the local hip record shop on his year out before going to Uni- found some pills in a batch of records. They were blue and we thought they were speed so we each took two in the local pub washing it down with a pint of bitter). They weren’t speed we discovered.

I got home late that Saturday evening and spent all the next day asleep not getting up until the evening. My parents were a bit bemused that their son who had come down for the weekend to see them had spent all day in bed. I had to make some excuse up about not feeling well.

Years later by which time we were living in London, I was sorting out my LPs and I pulled out the Setting Sons album for the first time for ages and played it and Thick As Thieves almost reduced me to tears.

Of course in those pre mobile phone and internet days it was much easier to let go. Nowadays you have less of an excuse. But I still do.

I can see my son struggling with same dilemma now. He is back up this weekend to say goodbye to his home town mates who are off on their Gap year travels. They are gone for 4 months travelling before they disperse across the country in September. Will he keep in touch with them? I don’t know. I will urge him to but I know he probably won’t listen to his old man.

Someone we both knew very well at University got in contact with us recently via Facebook. The first contact we have had in 20 years. I think we are all getting to that age when we look back and wonder what happened? Where did the last 20 years go? Why did we make those choices? Looking to make contact again with people who fell along the pathway of our lives.

I got a text at the weekend from my friend Mick who emigrated (I think I can say that now) to Belgium with his family last year. It was his new mobile number. He is settling in and trying to get to grips with the Flemish It reminded me that I need to maintain that friendship.

Two songs for you. The first is that Jam song. Weller was still a teenager when he wrote this. Hard to believe really. The second is an updated take on the theme from Jamie T.It's cruder in tone but just as effective nonetheless.

Enjoy them and the perhaps take time to make that phone call, text or send that e mail to that friend who you haven’t heard from in a while.

Here’s to you, Mike, Steve, Tony, Simon, Colin, Mark, Gary, Sue, Cleone, Richard and everyone else I have let go. If by chance any of you read this, get in touch via the email address. How are things in your world?

DMCA

These lot are getting rather irritating. They are obviously crawling Blogger to find music related posts. Despite me already amending one post they have sent a notification again.Cunts!

Swine Flu

DMCA are cunts

Posh Are Down

So it came to pass. No surprise really as it has been on the cards since the first month of the season.We are down but are we out? We are going to finish the season with a new manager- our fourth as Gannon has decided not to stay. Gary Johnson ex Bristol City is the guy.

How many of our "star" players will stay? Actualy apart from Boyd and Makail- Smith I think the rest of them will still be there in August.

My wife is happy as The Toon are back up "where they belong " (trademark Geordiesaredeluded .co.uk). I'm not bitter (much) I hope they go straight back down.

Home Maintenance

A couple of years ago we decided to redo our back garden and had decking put down. It looks nice but two years on it needs cleaning and protecting. This is hard work. I have been finishing off the bottom deck today.If it's dry tomorrow I will treat it with our deck protector stuff. I've still got the top deck to do. I have been waiting until it was safe to go out the back door without risking the builders who are doing next door's extension dropping the odd roof tile on my head. They have finished that now so this Easter weekend I know what I will be doing.

The torrential downpours of earlier in the week meant a roof leak and water penetration in our bedroom. Tuesday night was a bit like sleeping in a tent in a downpour and the water dripping into the strategically placed buckets kept us awake for a couple of hours. Anyway T P Dillon roofing contractor is coming over the weekend to renew the hip and ridge tiles and cement and sand fillet and replace some of the more perished rosemary tiles on our 75 year old roof. I am hoping that is all that is needed to stop the rain coming in.

Today is Good Friday of course. Mr Dillon himself said he never used to work on Bank Holidays but "it's all different now". Indeed it is.

We had to go shoppping to buy a new Dyson today.Shoppping on Good Friday still doesn't feel right and I'm not even a bit religious.

What with Leeds Festival tickets x 2, roofing contractors to pay and a new hoover this week is turning out to be a very expensive one.

Family Ties

A weekend of slogging up and down the A1/M1 M25 and M3 to meet in laws and play happy families- fairly successfully as it turned out.

Meanwhile in Norfolk my Mum and Dad sit in splendid isolation and it's Easter Weekend coming up and I feel guilty about not going to see them.

I have been spotted on the Web by DMCA. I have removed the songs from the offending post. Never got the e mail they said they had sent though.

Wednesday Week

The more observant amongst you will notice that I have used this post title before. I know, I know but I'm feeling lazy. I am off work now for a week going Dahn Sarf to Weller country to spend time with all the in-laws.

The in laws are docking in Southampton on Friday folllowing their Carribean cruise taken to celebrate their Golden Wedding. We are all going to celebrate with them this weekend. Well, it seemed a good idea six months ago. Now I'm not so sure.

At home things are back in the work groove and the wife seems to be relishing the new challenge.Some kerfuffle in my place about promotions but I am not interested.

My son hasn't been well and now my daughter isn't well. Kids today, no stamina.

I have been using my new 16gb Sony Walkman (my birthday present) on my daily to and from work walks. It's weird having that much of your music collection to hand at the touch of a button. It's mostly on shuffle and seeems to like Yo La Tengo a lot. That's fine by me.

Today is my birthday

It is also St Patricks Day. Thank God my Mum didn't call me Patrick.

Anyway here I am another year older and closer to death. Time keeps on ticking. I don't do birthdays. Just another day for me.

This is Getting stupid aka Thick as Thieves

EDIT: I have received one of those DMCA notices that so rile other Bloggers so I have edited this post to remove the songs. I'm not so bothered by this as maybe I should be. If you would like to talk to me about it email me at timtwp@yahoo.co.uk.

Thursday

I struggled for 5 minutes or so to come up with a great title for this post. As you can see, I failed.

This week at work I have been concentrating on completing my Coaching Qualification. This is long overdue and I am only completing because I was basically told to do so by my boss. It is a worthless qualification but it makes the organisation feel good about itself. So I figured why should I do this in my owm time when I don't want to, I know I'll do it in works's time instead. There are some perks to having your own office.

A bitterly cold (minus2C) day but a bright and sunny one.It feels like Spring might be considering making an appearance.

Meanwhile back at the Posh the announcement yesterday that George Boyd was going on loan to Notts Forest means, in my opinion, that the management have accepted we are going down.

Sad news that ex Posh boss Keith Alexander died. He can take credit for starting the revolution at the club. He bought Boyd and the Macattack.

My daughter's dance group didn't win their regional finals which she is cross about. My son is somewhere between a pub, a nightclub or some hip hop scene rave or possibly even at a lecture somewhere in London. He is back up home next week to say goodbye to his friends who are off on their gap year travels. He told us last week that he wiill be here most of the four week Easter holidays. That will be interesting.

My wife is in a good mood and looking forward ,albeit with some nervousness, to her new post. I hope to God it works out alright for her.

Music wise another quiet week listening mostly to 6Music. I might as well get it in before the BBC close it and the Asian Network down. I have registered my displeasure on the BBC consulation website.If you too like 6Music please do so as well. If you have never heard 6Music but always listened to John Peel when you were younger and wondered where all those sessions went and who was playing the new stuff these days- well it's all on 6Music. Give it a try. You'll love it. But not for much longer if the DG of The BBC has his way.

Best Thing That Ever Happened...

Was what my wife was told by so many people when she was made redundant last December. Three months on and she now has a job (yay!)and she is becoming to believe it herself.
I always did believe that she could get another job and would learn something about herself along the way. I think she has grown as a person through this expereience and become a better person because of it.

This new job is at least a twelve month contract, back in the NHS, doing more or less what she was doing before her redundancy. Less money (boo!)but lots more self respect and belief.

I know she will be alright.

Getting On With It

It's my son's 19th Birthday today. It's the first birthday he hasn't been at home. Mixed emotions are running in the house. We spoke to him briefly this evening. He was in the Pub with his mates.This,I suppose, is how it should be. As always with children the parents miss them more than they miss us. So we are simply getting on with it and adjusting to being peripheral to his life.

My daughter is in love with her Blackberry- her upgrade phone on her mobile phone contract. I must admit I think I would have fallen in love with a Blackberry when I was her age.It's very sci-fi and Star Trekkie.
On her contract she has 600 minutes, unlimited texts and Internet for £30 per month- reducing to £20 a month in September. It's a two year contract from the Carphone Warehouse. The added advantage is that with the Blackberry Messenger you can communicate with other Blackberry users free of charge by Pinging them. It's a bit like Instant Messaging. And you can follow your emails on your phone, play music, take pictures, videos, games and even make phone calls.I think I'll get my son one when his contract expires later this year.Apparently my daughter tells me that at least amongst her friends the Blackberry phone is more popular than even the iPhone. I'll stick with my work Nokia.

Music wise it has been quiet, I am still mostly listening to the Radio. I've got it on now as it happens, listening to Radcliffe and Maconie on Radio Two.

Time of the week

It's that Tuesday posting time again!

Saturday's Toon match was poor in quality and excitement and a subdued crowd saw Newcastle comprehensively beat Preston 3-0. If the team could have been bothered it could have easily been six or seven. Blackberry Internet reception is very good at St James Park which gives you an idea of just how unexciting the match was. It was nice though to see so many youngsters in the 45,000 crowd- the next generation of the Toon army.

There was a jaw dropping moment however in the second half when out of the Leazes Corner came a low sound of "There's only one Chris Hughton" .According to my Boss- a season ticket sufferer- this was the first time this had been heard at the ground.The first song of a new dawn perhaps??

Otherwise an uneventful weekend.

My wife started a temporary two week assignment doing some recruiting for a Government Agency relocating to the North East. It's boring work and not a great deal of money but it does get her out of the house. She has an interview this week for a year long contract in another part of the NHS.Fingers crossed again.

It was my daughter's birthday yesterday. She is now 17. How did that happen? Where has my baby girl gone? It was a quiet affair. She had some plans but as nearly always they came to nothing. She might, she tells us, go out at the weekend.

UFO

Wth all the release of the declassified information regarding UFO sitings in the UK earlier this week, I was reminded that I had promised in an earlier post to put up The Wedding Present's version of the theme tune of the TV show UFO.

Here it is. UFO- The Wedding Present

This was the B side of the November 1992 single. The A side was Queen of Outer Space, probably my least favourite of their twelve singles that year.

I can well remember going into the local Virgin or HMV in Newcastle each month to get the single before going to work. I was there at 9am on the Monday, before the staff had even unpacked the deliveries. I managed to get each of the singles and of course, I bought the two compilation CDs that came out as well, and the compilation video Dick York's Wardrobe of all the promos. Gedge had his moneysworth out of me that year that's for sure. Willingly given, I hasten to add.

I have been tempted to buy the repackaged DVD but I have resisted that one, so far at least.

I'm off to St James Park tomorrow with the wife to see The Toon play Preston. It will be the second time I have seen Preston play this year. The first time was their 1-0 defeat of the Posh in January which I wrote about earlier. It will also be Darren Ferguson's second visit to the Toon this season. He quit Posh after his last visit, probably in a small part due to the comprehensive thrashing Newcastle gave his team that day.

Having already seen his new team I can't see them troubling Newcastle much, but you know, the thing I love about football is ... etc etc.

The Beautiful Game

I suppose one of the reasons I love football is the sheer unpredictability of the game. After Saturday's miserable performance, Posh only go and beat Ipswich 3-1. What happened in the three days between games to change an abject performance into a winning one? Perhaps Jim Gannon is as good as some people have said he is. Perhap Roy Keane's Ipswich really are shite.Anyway that is the beauty of football its unpredictability.Just when you think that your team will never win another match, could never win another match , they go and win and win well.

Talking of the Beautiful Game one of my long time favourites Billy Franks ( he of Faith Brothers fame) has posted on his website that he is recording an unofficial World Cup theme song called The Beautiful Game.It's going to be recorded with an African gospel choir and full band so I am interested in this.
Although I am, as you know a major fan of Embrace I wasnt that impressed with World At Your Feet their official England World Cup song four years ago so I am hoping for something better from another of my favourite performers. Here's hoping. I will post links to it when it is released in May.
All profits are going to a charity- this one

My wife has been in a good, positive mood all week, due in part to my son being home at the weekend, the offer of some temporary work and two interviews coming up.It's half term week and I was a bit worried that my wife and daughter would clash but so far, so good. My son went home on Tuesday so the house is quiet again.

Music wise it has been quiet too. I am currently using my portable DAB on the way to and from work mostly listening to Radio 4 or 5Live.Must go- work to do!!!

We're Going Down... Posh are going Down

Another away match in another shithole and another defeat. Middlesbrough's Riverside is quite a nice ground very similar to The Stadium of Light, Darlington's stadium, etc etc. Prices were ridiculous and £5 for 2 teas and two Kit Kats is taking the piss. We did get to see the Transporter Bridge though and the train from Newcastle went through Sunderland, Seaham, Hartlepool, Stockton and Billingham, hugging close to the coast for a large part of the way which was a minor plus.

We played with one man up front- Aaron Mclean. I moved in my seat more than he did on the pitch.Boyd was poor and we only woke up and played decently when Mackail Smith came on for the last 15 minutes. Even then we missed a sitter. The Smoggies were not much better.For us Reid looked good (but a bit too "chunky" for a professional footballer). Lewis made some good saves and Jim Gannon (our latest Manager) looked the part in a suit and big gestures with his arms at appropriate times. All in all though a poor match.Hard to believe the smoggies were in the Premiership last season but I got the feeling that Strachan's scottish invasion of the team would work for them in the long run. The former Celtic players did look good.
There was a heavy Police presence at the ground and train Station, videoing the Posh fans. Once again football fan = criminal in the mind of Plod.

Friday's Post

The week is ending on a (relative) high. My son is arriving home on the Mega Bus (he has texted me to say it's like travelling on buses in Africa - he should know he spent a month in Tanzania. My wife's job interview went well and she is through to the final round in a couple of weeks.I have been pretty active today and sorted out a lot of long standing stuff on my desk.

Tomorrow its down to Teeside for Posh v Smoggies with my son.I've not been to The Riverside before so I am looking forward to the trip. We will probably lose but what the hell I didn't expect us to stay up this season so it's not so bad. League 1 is probably where we belong for a season or two. I just hope we don't lose our stars (Boyd,Mackail Smith and Lewis).It probably means the ground move is off but at least we have had a season in the sun and it's still possible for us to get back up in few years and even make Darragh's 7 year plan for Premiership football.... Maybe not and anyway I am not that bothered about top flight football for Posh.This is proper football, proper English football with high balls up front and everyone chasing after the big kick up the pitch from the keeper, the crowd standing in crap terracing and buying ket from even worse catering facilities and don't mention the toilets- stuff I remember from when I was young not the poncey Premiership stuff. A new ground would be nice though.

Wednesday Week

It's a week since my last post. What has happened since then? Not much really. My wife is still unemployed(but has an interview this Friday). I still have a cold. It is still freezing cold. It snowed again yesterday.

Work wise , there has been a bit of a surprise as a member of my staff has decided to take early retirement. This came out of the blue and I wasn't expecting it. She is new to my office (but not to the organisation) and has a reputation of being difficult. She has been OK for me but I can't say I am too disappointed she has decided to go as her previous managers have all had run ins with her about something and I could do without that.

I have come across a website devoted to my most loved band ever The Distractions

Here is the link. Its worth checking out especially for the songs from 1995. I have written about this band before here but it is hard to convey in words how good I think this band were. Their music is unavailable , long deleted apart from Time Goes By So Slow on the Factory Box Set. Here is a song from their exquisite LP Nobody's Perfect which I hope will convince you to investigate them further.

Stuck In A Fantasy- The Distractions

Compilation

I was sorting through my hard drive over the weekend and I came across this CD I put together last year for The Wedding Present Forum Speed Date Round 10.I thought it was quite good reflection of my musical tastes. See what you think. It's a Zip file.


Compilation

Happy Birthday

Today is Kids, Wife, Music and Me's birthday!. This Blog is one year old. That is worrying. Another year has gone by and I am still sat at the same desk in the same organisation- albeit the desk is now in a much nicer part of the office. I decided to write a Blog influenced by some of the links on your left of this post. It has been banal at times but this is real life and real life is quite often banal.

It has been a big year for me. My son is now at Uni in London and loving every minute. I met up with him in Peterborough on Tuesday night as we both watched another sorry performance from our doomed team.

My wife was made redundant from a job she had held for over 10 years in December and is still looking for work. She has her good days and her bad days I am trying to be cheerful all the time, which dear reader is not me! These are two massive life changing experiences. To have them both happen in one year is stressful to say the least.

My daughter is growing up and spreading her wings. She has been out a couple of times clubbing. Luckily she is not that bothered yet about it. That will come I'm sure. The dog is another year older and a bit calmer but still mad like all terriers are

Music wise it has been a quiet year.Only Hope & Social have really grabbed my attention.

So Happy Birthday to me!!! I think I'll keep going.

Here is a cover by my favourite band The Wedding Present of Altered Images' Happy Birthday Not one of their best but it's appropriate on this my Blog's special day

Happy Birthday- The Wedding Present

Friday's Post

A strange quiet week at work. Very little to do. No complaints, no issues on the estates, not many neighbour disputes, no snow or slippy pavements, no big rush of terminations of tenancies caused by the deaths of OAPS due to the freezing conditions. Just routine, and sometimes routine does bite hard.

Found this on my hard drive the other day whilst I was tidying up my music files. Its the theme song from an old TV programme from 1970 called UFO. This was a Gerry Anderson programme that I loved. It only ran for 1 series but it has stayed with me since. It was a sort of bridge between Thunderbirds/Captain Scarlett 60's Anderson productions and the more sophisticated Space 1999 series. Here is a link to a website about the programme. Below is the theme song.

UFO

It's a bit Austin Powers but it's a good tune. I thought it was only me who remembered this series until The Wedding Present did a cover on a b-side of one of their 7" single a month back in '92. I don't have that on my pc but I will upload that version at a later date.

Tuesday

I seem to post quite frequently on a Tuesday.

Not much to say today. It's January so it's bleak and cold and dark and frankly, miserable. Work is the same as ever, home is getting more emotional by the day as my wife is slipping into a depressive state.(I think). She is still not well and coughing and congested particularly at night.I am encouraging her to go to the GP but she won't.

I fixed the sound on the PC by fiddling with the connections (Hurrah!) but I failed to set up a wireless network for our friends(Boo). Not sure why, everything seemed straightforward enough and I folowed all the instructions but I couldn't get online.Although the modem was on and showing up on the screen but only as a local network.

No snow here now but it is still cold and icy. At least this is a proper winter.

No More Snow

At least I hope not. The snow has mostly melted now although some pavements on my route to work are still treacherous. Funny but it seems colder now the snow is no longer covering everything. Must be because there is a biting wind blowing(gently, thank God!)

It's a cliche but I hate January. It's dark, cold, bleak with nothing yet to look forward to. Those long bright days of Summer are still a distant promise too far away to be real.

It was like working a night shift at work today. It was overcast and miserable all day.No brightness at all.

My wife has heard she didn't get two of the jobs she went for. She wont be happy with that and I am beginning to get a bit worried about her. She is down and slipping I fear into depression. She isn't well either which doesn't help. Not a good time to be unemployed (although when is a good time).

White Out

There has been snow on the ground here since 17th Dec. I can't remember a time when it has been so cold for so long. On Thursday morning when I left for work it was minus 8 degrees centigrade. Today it seems quite warm as it has actually got up to 2 degrees c.

Our road and pavement are a disgrace. It has not been cleared since the first snow fell except by the residents. I don't want to go all " I pay my council tax..." but the Council could have tried once in the last three weeks to clear some of the pavements across the city. I wonder how many slips, trips and falls there have been during this exceptional period. It will be chaos next week when everyone is back at work/school.

My son has gone back to London the house is quieter again. It's not that he is a noisy boy but he bickers with, and winds up, his sister which in turn sets the dog off and madness reigns with much shouting and barking. I miss that but I also am enjoying the quiet.

PC at home is still not fixed so I must get that sorted. I am listening to Beat Surrender on Radio Newcastle. It is one of those strange programmes that you sometimes get on BBC local radio amongst the middle of the road rubbish and endless phone ins. In the last 10 minutes they have palyed The Skids, Dr Feelgood and The Stranglers.

Christmas is now but a memory but this song still seems appropriate with the weather we are having.

Cocteau Twins- Winter Wonderland

I always liked The Cocteau Twins but I was in a minority amongst our friends back in the 80's. I well remember one dinner party when I was begged by all present to get "that whining shite" off the stereo. They wanted Sade on instead.

Back In The Saddle

Back at work since yesterday.Can't say I'm thrilled.

Luckily no more visits were made to Walk In centres over the New Year period although my son did go to GP for antibiotic eardrops as his infection did not clear up and I fell over in the snow/ice on Sunday night and bruised my arm but otherwise I was OK.

I am really fed up with all the snow now.It has been here too long and has lost any of the novelty value it had in the lead up to Christmas. The dog is fed up with it all as well. I think it must interfere with his senses because he races around in the snow like he is possessed.

This time of year is the time for Resolutions. I normally make several each year but this year I am not making any. Most of mine never get fulfilled anyway and I thought that maybe I was making the wrong resolutions - like wishing for things that I couldn't control. So after much deliberation I have decided not to make any resolutions at all and see how the year goes.

My wife is now getting upset about not working. I expected this and I have been ultra sympathetic and supportive but that too has its limits.

Music wise I am frustrated as the PC has lost sound again. As I listen to my music in the house mostly when using the PC online this is a big deal for me. I am assuming it's the sound card that is buggered once more. I wll have to bring it in to the local PC repair place near work to get it fixed.

I was listening to this lot again over the weekend. This band are really good and deserve a wider audience. This is another song from their self produced album

Hope and Social- Living A Lie

Happy New Year

May 2010 be a good one for you