Kids, Wife , Music and Me

Lovelorn

2012-01-28T17:06:00.001Z

The Jonathan Richman song has got me exploring the soundtrack to my lovelorn youth.

This song was a particular favourite of mine, and was part of a series of classic singles they released throughout 1977 /1978 which apart from this one included Orgasm Addict , Love You More, I Don’t Mind, Ever Fallen In Love With ( Someone You Shouldn’t Have), and Promises.

What Do I Get- Buzzcocks

UPDATE My daughter has been dumped by her sailor boyfriend again adding poignancy to this post.

Here Comes The Summer?

2012-01-20T20:02:00.003Z

Are the days getting longer yet? It didn't feel like it this morning as I walked over the Moor to work in that strange time between daylight and sunrise when it's not quite dark but not quite light either- one of the last times I will be doing this as I am moving soon to my workplace on the other side of town.

On my MP3 player, set to shuffle today, this song came up. I‘ve probably not heard this for over 25 years and I’m not even sure why it’s on my player but it took me back to being 17/18 and wondering if I would ever meet a girl I cared about so much I would break my natural reticence and shyness and awkwardness to get her. Before I realised that most girls were feeling just the same as me and it didn't really matter.

Luckily for me I met my future wife not long after that but until then I struggled and got nowhere.

This is a great song and from a great band who produced this great album. I’ve got Roger Scott (RIP) to thank for introducing me to them on his Drivetime Capital Radio (In tune with London ) show back in the late 70’s. Are DJs as influential now?

Someone I Care About

I think this song shows that you can be rock n roll and still care and be positive. In this world women aren't bitches or Ho's and men aren't gangsta after only one thing. I found this song uplifting and comforting in 1978 and I still do in 2012.

Billy Franks

2012-01-18T21:49:00.000Z

The regular readers of these pages will know that I have a lot of time for Billy Franks the main man behind The Faith Brothers from the 80's. Just before Christmas, he released for download a live CD, From The Court To The Empire, a recording of a gig he did a couple of years ago at the Shepherds Bush Empire.

His website, The B-Spot is here and you can buy the CD together with artwork for just £6. It includes some Faith Brother's classics and a good selection of his solo material.

If you're not sure you want to buy the live album, you can preview clips from 3 of the tracks on his site.

If you like what you hear he is offering some copies of his last studio album The Turtledove Boutique for sale for a fiver. If you're still not sure you can sign up and receive a link to a free 12 track compilation of his songs.

Sunny Day

2012-01-14T14:17:00.000Z

Frost on the Moor, a nip in the air, clear blue skies and sunshine. this is why I love Winter in the North East.

New Year, Old Concerns

2012-01-11T12:31:00.000Z

Well and truly back into the swing of things and the indolence and relaxation of the Christmas week off is a warm, fuzzy, fading memory. Old concerns rise to the surface after being buried for 10 days beneath the weight of mince pies, christmas pudding , old films on the TV and the Christmas and New Year football festivities.

Will 2012 be the annus horriblis I thought 2011 would be? Why am I still sat at the same desk doing the same things I have been for the last 9 years? What about the children? Are they happy, will they make something of themselves and use the education we gave them and the talents they have to be happy and make a difference?

Will the wife’s parents (and mine) sink further into old age and confusing, bizarre behaviour and how will we deal with them?

On the job front I am applying for another job!!! First for over a year. And in my current job I am being moved to an office in a much less salubrious part of the area. A challenge, Oh Joy!

2011 Review

2012-01-04T12:23:00.000Z

Happy New Year to you all. A bit late but better late than never, I say.So 2011, a good year? Or a bad year? For the world economy it was a poor year. For my economy it was a good year. The remortgaging saga was worth it in the end.

For the kids it was a mixed year.Son on his year abroad doing fine, daughter starting at college- didn’t quite get what she wanted- but enjoying it all the same and back with her boyfriend. For the wife, a frustrating year she delivered what she was employed to do but hasn’t enjoyed it. For me, Well here I am still sat at the same desk so in one way a poor year for me. But I did get a pay rise (!!!) after a lot of hassle and negotiation which for the public sector at this time is pretty good going.

The dog is now 9 but still lively as ever.

For music, it was an OK year- not outstanding but good. I particularly enjoyed Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues and Florence and The Machine’s Ceremonials. Brett Anderson delivered a solid new album in Black Rainbows. Adele’s 21 was a surprise for me. I sort of liked 19 but wasn’t struck overall. 21 is a brilliant mature (both musically and lyrically) album. Well worth owning. PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake was classic PJ Harvey.I have never been completely convinced by her but if you like her stuff its good. Haven’t bought or downloaded a lot of music this year but have really enjoyed discovering new music via Blogs and 6 Music and other places.

Looking forward, again we face uncertainty come the end of March with my wife’s contract ending. I am strangely not worried about this. I think we will be OK. The kids will continue to develop and grow into the good adults we raised them to be (here’s hoping)

In reality though , who knows what lies over the horizon. Nobody predicted the Arab Spring or Libya or the Euro crsis this time last year so I am not going to place any bets on what will happen this year to the world or me or the family.

One of The Best Songs Of The Year

2011-12-28T16:52:00.000Z

Adele- Someone Like You (Live in Amsterdam)

This song has gone through my head lots this last few days. Something to do with the time of year.

The Friday Before Christmas

2011-12-23T14:01:00.000Z

It’s the Friday 23rd December. I am at work although not much is happening. Even if something did happen I’m not sure I could summon up any enthusiasm for dealing with it. I am feeling mellow, and all pre Christmassy. You know when you are waiting for the Big Day and really are happy to let everything else slide (diet, exercise etc) until the New Year.

I’ve not run for almost a fortnight now- I hate running in the dark so have put a couple of pounds on. I am not worried about this. Come the end of January I am moving to an office 5 miles away from home. I can get a Bus straight there but I plan to walk/run/cycle/bus there and back. That should keep me fit.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-22T22:21:00.000Z

It's not quite Christmas but we are nearly there. Our son is home from Bordeaux and asleep. Our daughter is, as I write this, on the train from Doncaster after spending a couple of days with Sailor Boy.

This song is by Cinerama.. Merry Christmas to you all.

Christmas Song- Cinerama

Inspirational

2011-12-19T21:51:00.000Z

After months of not featuring this series here I am posting two songs in a short time. This is what comes of having too much time on your hands and hooking up your turntable to your PC.

This song is a particular inspiration to me. When I fist heard it I was unemployed and living with my future wife in the cockroach infested concrete jungle of no hope council flats that was the Hulme estate in Manchester.Times were so tough – even tougher than they are now- to paraphrase the song.

I heard this song played, I think, by Janice Long, in late 1982 and Pete Wylie’s tale of rejection and refusing to accept it made me realise that I wasn't alone and that there was away through it all. I still listen to this song often and it always moves me. I have on occasion found myself quoting it when speaking to people. This is not just pop music, this is proper art.

This song also made me read Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, which if you haven't read then you should.

The Story of The Blues (12") - The Mighty Wah

Bleak Midwinter

2011-12-16T23:25:00.005Z

The first snow of this year's winter is falling.It's grey and cold.Economic news is depressing, the most depressing its been since I was a young man. You wonder how your children will survive in this new world order of austerity and no work for the young. This Government seems to have run out of ideas and now keeps simply keeps repeating the cuts cuts cuts mantra. On the other side we have the two Eds and their spend spend spend mantra which we already know didn't work. Neither side seems to be able to move on.

Capitalism is in crisis but where is the change going to come from? The answers are in history. Good article by Simon Jenkins in the Guardian yesterday on that subject. Economics though is like religion you either believe or you don’t and the other side is damned to hell for eternity.

What I do know though is that we borrowed too much, paid too much to too few , regulated the financial sector too lightly, went to war too quickly, exported manufacturing jobs too readily and thought too easily- because we were told- that boom and bust had ended.

Another Song You Should Hear

2011-12-10T15:20:00.001Z

This song popped into my head the other day. I dug out the vinyl and played it. Still so powerful 30 years on. Maybe it is all the reports into the riots, blaming the Police and their "oppression" that made me think of this. As a middle aged, middle class white male I never have any problems with the Police. Even as a youngster my contact in suburban Hertfordshire was minimal and mainly confined to a couple of times when names were taken for being young and out late at night. I work closely with the Police in my job and my impressions of them are that they are decent men and women , not too bright mostly but very world weary and cynical.

I was moved to hook up the record player to the PC and make this the first song I have transferred from vinyl for your enjoyment.

I saw Linton Kwesi Johnson the year this came out (1979). My memory is more of Rico and the brass section than the rather serious and sombre Mr Johnson who looked ill at ease performing his poetry to a mainly white audience at The Marquee.

This pre dates rap and is closer to "toasting" that many reggae artists did at the time. The song is from the album Forces Of Victory which is well worth buying.

I didn't know what happened to Linton Kwesi Johnson after this so I Googled him here.

Sonny's Lettah ( Anti Sus Poem)- Linton Kwesi Johnson

STRIKE!

2011-11-30T13:56:00.001Z

It has been a long couple of weeks since my last post. My wife came down with two very heavy colds, one after another, which made her (more) irritable and grumpy. To be fair she hasn’t been well since she had the flu jab in mid November.

Late autumn in North East England has settled into its grey, damp darkness. This time last year we had the snow. I am sort of missing that. At least it was bright and sunny with beautiful Clear Blue Skies. Now we have darkness in the morning, and darkness from late afternoon.

I am running home from work at least twice a week still. This is good and I have put on only half a pound since the Kielder marathon. We are coming up to food fest time of year so I need to be careful I don’t overdo it during December.

My daughter is working hard at college on her degree. My son has been his usual uncommunicative self but says things are fine in Bordeaux .

This week is strike week for us so an interrupted week.I don't mind working longer, I don't even mind (much) paying more towards my pension. I do ,however, object to my extra contributions going to reduce a deficit I didn't create. It's a pay cut really on top of three years of a pay freeze with 4-5% annual inflation.

Is It Too Soon For that Christmas Feeling?

2011-11-19T20:02:00.000Z

I only ask because work wise things have slowed down as if Christmas is next week not still 5 weeks away.

The wife and I went for our first Christmas foray into Town on Saturday. Fairly busy but no one as yet has the mad look of panic in the eye.

The busiest road in Newcastle (in my opinion) runs by my office and that has already started to have the mid morning Christmas tail backs. I suppose for those of us lucky enough to still be in jobs in the pubic sector and the North East there is only one more pay day before Christmas and two years into our pay freeze we need to spend over a longer period rather than leave it all til December.

Daughter is back from Portsmouth and from welcoming sailor boy back to Blighty after seven months at sea. Our son is in Bordeaux and has booked his flights home for Christmas so we know he is coming home but not sure for how long.

Not started listening to Christmas music yet but have discovered Smooth have launched a Christmas radio station playing only Xmas hits. No ads. Wife is already watching the Sky Christmas Movie Channel

But I’ll hold off on the Ho Ho Ho for a few more weeks.

Technology Changing

2011-11-08T11:34:00.001Z

We all accept that things change in the world of technology. 25 years ago CDs made vinyl old hat overnight. And 10 years ago Apple revolutionised the small portable Walkman digital music market with their IPod and CDs suddenly seemed old fashioned.

Before the late 1990's the majority of people only had access to the Internet at work and then mostly for emails. We bought our first PC Christmas 1999 and had a dial up connection via AOL. The memory on the PC was 8GB! My current desktop has 250gb and I have a separate external Hard drive with an additional 250gb and I still worry about running out of space for my “must have" data! And near universal Broadband has made dial up almost obsolete. I can take my laptop to Costa or Starbucks and numerous other places and browse the Net on their wireless service for little or no cost and at speeds undreamed of 15 years ago.

My new (Smart) HD TV has access to the Internet (wireless connection to my router) and I watch BBC iPlayer and HD You Tube videos on my 42” TV from the comfort of my armchair.Picture quality is superb

Even mobiles (and my kids cannot comprehend how we managed before mobiles especially when I tell them that my first mobile was issued after much pressure from me via work only in 1993)have changed too and it is commonplace to access the internet on them. In fact I can often be found watching You Tube music videos on my HD TV Googling the band’s website on my wife’s Blackberry.

What has brought this all on is a couple of recent Skype chats with our son who is in Bordeaux. Now I know Skype is not new and in some senses old hat but it still impresses me. Growing up and watching Dr Who and Star Trek we dreamed of this sort of technology and now here it is. I wonder how soon before we get “beamed up” to our destinations rather than drive/fly?

So there we were sat in our kitchen in suburban Newcastle, me, the wife, sister and brother in law chatting to our son in suburban Bordeaux. Sound quality as good as most phone calls, picture quality more than acceptable (we could see that his spots had cleared up). Via his Web Cam (built into his laptop) he gave his Aunt and Uncle a tour of his apartment and we all sat there in Newcastle marvelling at it all.

Then we signed off and ordered a curry from the local excellent takeaway which got delivered to our door. It's not just technology that has changed

Funeral

2011-11-04T22:42:00.000Z

Today I went to a funeral. A friend’s Mum died last week. She had been ill for a while but death is still always a shock despite it being the one thing that we know is going to happen to all of us.

I hadn’t seen her for years but she was good to me and my wife when we were young.

RIP, Mary

Letter From My Holidays

2011-11-01T22:42:00.000Z

Last weekend was the annual family get together in Norfolk. This was a better one than last year because we didn’t stay in the usual caravan site but in a cottage in the nicer part of Hunstanton. The weather was good.We also went to the pub lots and drank more. Alcohol always makes these situations more tolerable.

In all honesty I don’t dislike my family I just don’t really feel I have much in common with them socially, politically or even lifestyle wise. They are all Daily Mail readers which tells you all you really need to know.

After the weekend we drove down to my sister-in-laws and stayed overnight before catching a flight to Bordeaux to see our son. He was mildly pleased to see us but again if I'm honest that’s about all. It's truism that parents love their children so much more than the children love them.

Bordeaux is a nice place but obviously not a party town despite its 5 Unis and large student population. Food and wine were good though.

We went to St Emillion, a place I have long wanted to go to because of the wine. Our trip has rekindled my wife’s enthusiasm for red wine which is a good thing cos I am sick of Sauvignon Blanc.

Going to this medieval village and a tour of Chateau Souchard made me think of this song.

Explanations are not required- just two bottles of St Emillion.

Mercury- The Wedding Present

Another Song You Really Should Hear

2011-10-16T20:31:00.002+01:00

I have let this supposedly occasional series slide into almost an annual series of posts.

I can’t pretend to be a massive fan of Leonard Cohen but he has always been there, in the background, popping up every now and then on the radio ( for example Lauren Laverne’s show on 6Music the other day) . Normally they play Hallelujah or Suzanne, rarely these days this particular song.Sometimes I put this album on, but not that often. I should listen to him more than I do because the man is very good.

This song reminds me of sitting one Sunday evening circa 1979 in the local town cinema with a crowd of hippies watching the movie of the same title, shown as the first part of a double bill where Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii was the main feature. The air was thick with patchouli, cigarette and dope smoke rising like a mist from the mostly long haired denim clad audience.

I had my number three haircut, Fred Perry and Desert Boots and 501s on. God knows what they made of me.

This is modern day poetry .

A Song By Leonard Cohen

Keep On Running

2011-10-13T22:28:00.000+01:00

I ran the Kielder Marathon on Sunday. My finishing time was a bit of a disappointment at 5:23:24 but after the first few miles I knew I wouldn’t be breaking any records. The course is described as “undulating” in the publicity,and the signs around the course saying “Steep Incline” and Steep Decline” weren’t lying. The switchback route zig zagging up a “mountain” at around the 20 mile mark was particularly taxing.

I completed the half marathon distance in 2:20- which is what I was aiming for. I had run a disciplined race thus far. I hadn’t set off too fast.Unlike my only previous Marathon in Manchester 10 years ago when I completed halfway in a record breaking (for me) 1:55 and paid the price in the final third. I knew I would slow down in the second half but did not anticipate how much the hills were taking out of me and how much my legs would hurt.

My run/walk strategy turned, in this part of the race into a walk and occasionally run strategy. As it turned out many other runners were in the same situation and at times the course was more like a walking event rather than a running one. I was aching and my IT band in my left leg was causing me some considerable distress especially around the knee and big toe areas. I had to stop three of four times to stretch it out to get some relief. The pictures of me approaching the finish line are not particularly flattering as I look, to be frank, old and knackered. And I was.

Did I enjoy it? Will I do it again? Yes and possibly yes. It’s billed as Britain’s “most scenic” and at one point between 15 and 17 miles the scenery was breathtaking. Otherwise the driving rain and wind sort of dampened my enthusiasm for it as a spectacle and the weather conditions ramped it up as an endurance event. It was without doubt the most challenging physical thing I have ever done and I feel proud of myself for having completed it.

There were nice touches at the end,- a silver space blanket wrapped round you as you entered the finisher's Marquee. Good quality T shirts, towels, goody bag and a bunch of bananas (!) were given to you as you walked through to collect your baggage.Someone hung the medal around your neck and massages were available as were tea and coffee and cake from Falstone Village WI. My wife can recommend their Lemon Drizzle cake.Organisation wise it was as good as it could be bearing in mind the remote location.

We stayed in nearby Bellingham at the Riverdale Hall Country House Hotel. That was nice if a bit pricey. Food and service were excellent.

Alone Again

2011-10-06T14:13:00.001+01:00

Another afternoon spent waiting for a delivery. Never sure why I cop for these, although if I'm honest I'm not complaining- it means I get to listen to lots of music that I don't otherwise get a chance to listen to. So, here I am, cup off coffee in hand , digestive biscuits on the desk, Media Player on shuffle, cruising the web.

I recently checked the download figures for all the songs I have posted on this blog. The Mighty Wah! are coming up strong on Be Bop Deluxe's Maid In Heaven with a couple of dozen downloads in the last two months. Here is the post, if you haven't checked it out yet.

Media Player has shuffled to Faith Brothers and their classic song Fulham Court. This song describes what it feels like to live on a run down estate "the dumping ground of the borough" and is probably the only song ever released that mentions rent arrears.
Faith Brothers- Fulham Court

Autumn Leaves

2011-09-30T11:32:00.003+01:00

The son flew out to Bordeaux a month ago now to start his 4 months stint at the Uni there. His journey started on the Sunday at 8:30pm when we dropped him off at Central Station. He arrived at Kings Cross at Midnight and then made his way across town to London Bridge where he caught a train to Gatwick. He got there at 2am. His flight was at 7:45 am. He arrived in Bordeaux about 10.15 (their time) and got to his hotel by midday. Hassle and he said he was knackered but this was the cheapest way of getting there apparently.

He found somewhere to stay after 10 days looking (staying in cheap hotels) and seems quite cheerful when we have spoken and Skyped. We are off to see him in late in October for a couple of days.

For a week or so, what with the daughter being in Malta it was just me and the wife. Although of course the dog was there. The house was quiet and it felt like something (or someone) was missing but we couldn’t quite put our finger on it. I suppose it is the start of a new way of life and learning to think about ourselves first again rather than putting the children at the centre of our lives. After twenty years that feels weird. There is just more time available. Now the biggest question is what to do with that time.

Of course my daughter came back and started college so life went back to a sort of how it has been since the son went off to London two years ago. She is staying at home at least for the first year so it’s like she is still at school in a way. We are feeling our way to a new relationship with her as an adult and that is sometimes not easy. One thing about life though and that is it is always changing.

The weather has been amazing this week with temperatures in the high 20s C. better than most of our Summer. Its strange to walk in the heat of the sun and see the pavements and Moor covered in the Autumn debris from the trees.

Music wise got a new 16 GB mp3 player so playing lots of stuff on shuffle. Brett Anderson’s new album has caught my attention- heavy promo on 6Music has seen to that -and I may buy it. I haven’t downloaded my 30 tracks from EMusic this month which is unusual but I still have a couple of weeks to go. I’m not enthused by anything but I did hear this band Tribes on Sean Keaveney’s show this morning and it made me prick up my ears. A great guitar sound -yes not highly original but young and passionate.

REM have split up. Not my favourite band, but a band responsible for two great concert experiences at T in the Park and Ballado a few years back. Live they were excellent even if on records they were sometimes lacking in inspiration.

A Great Great North Run

2011-09-18T20:21:00.000+01:00

Here I am sat at the PC feeling pretty chuffed with myself. Not only did I make it round in under 2:20 , I smashed my prediction of 2.17 and in fact completed the run in 2:12:45
I felt good, the temperature was good (not too hot, not to cold- just the right amount of rain to cool things down).The band playing on the first roundabout over the Tyne Bridge before the Felling bypass played The Blaydon Races as I approached followed by Keep Your Feet Still Geordie Hinny as I departed down towards Gateshead Stadium. What more could you want? And I was home in about an hour of finishing. To add icing to the cake we came back via the Tyne Tunnel. I have never been through the Tyne Tunnel and I was quite excited by this unexpected route home.

All in all today was a good day.

Yesterday was good too. We Skyped with our son in Bordeaux. Our first experience of Skypeing. (if there is such a word)

Great North Run 2011

2011-09-15T21:48:00.002+01:00

Another year and , come this Sunday , another Great North Run. What with all my extra Marathon training I am expecting an improvement on last years time- which was itself an improvement on 2009's time.

I'll stick my neck out and say I will do it in 2:17. I am actually hoping for faster but feel like I have a cold coming and I had to stop and walk on a run home from work earlier in the week as I felt so crap. In any case way I will enjoy the race and the build up - actually I hate the build up but you know you're not allowed to say that really.

This year of course this isn't the culmination of my training.That is still 3 weeks away in the cold and damp of Kielder when I take on the Marathon for only the second time. That is a challenge I am going to enjoy even if it almost kills me. I have lost a few extra pounds this year with all the additional training so I am the lightest I have been for a long time. This should see me in good stead for this Sunday's run and the Marathon.

Onto other news ,daughter is back from Malta- with a tattoo!!!! Can't really say much as the wife has one. Sailor Boy eventually turned up so she came back very happy.
Son is in France in Bordeaux starting his year abroad. He has just sorted himself out some accommodation after 10 days in a hotel. The wife is still on the Dukan diet and has now lost 10 pounds.

The dog is still, well, the dog.

In The Navy

2011-09-01T16:14:00.000+01:00

My daughter flew to Malta to meet her on/off sailor boyfriend. Everything is sorted at 4pm on Monday (when she flew) but by 7:30 pm when she landed in Malta all leave had been cancelled and he wasn’t coming. Cue much tears on the (expensive) phone call home. From talking to people who have been in or who have had relationships with people in the armed forces, this sort of thing happens all the time.

She has decided to stay for the week regardless with the other WAGS if only because the earliest flight she could get back to Newcastle was the one she had booked anyway and flights to other destinations were full. So a couple of hundred quid (for spends)from us later and she is settled and lessons learned about future booking of meet ups with the lad in question i.e. don’t until he is actually docked and running down the gangplank in full On The Town style.

Phew!

2011-08-30T18:00:00.000+01:00

Second bit of good news in the last two weeks. Daughter is now going to study Dance at Newcastle College. Maybe not what we would have chosen for her, but it was either this or Gap Year and three years of 9k+ loans.
The wife is not particularly happy and this has caused some rows between us but that is life. Glass half full, I say.

Summer Update

2011-08-25T10:26:00.003+01:00

Well the remortgage is now done and finished and we are saving a tidy sum in monthly payments. This is a relief. Finances have been hard these last (almost) two years since my wife’s redundancy but we are still here.

We were feeling flush so bought ourselves new garden furniture set (after three years of deliberating) and a 40” Samsung HD Smart TV - the internet on the telly- whatever next. I have been watching You Tube videos of The Wedding Present latest gigs and the new songs. The TV is also 3D enabled. You can probably tell I am impressed by all this.

The wife is following this new diet The Dukan Diet. She is living on oat bran, yoghurt , cottage cheese and fish with the occasional lettuce leaf and bit of cucumber. Bizarre but she has lost half a stone in two weeks.

My daughter’s A level results were good ( A & two Cs) but not quite good enough for her first choice Uni or her insurance offer. So, a mixed bag of emotions in the house.

She has been offered places in Liverpool (Hope not John Moores) and Uni of East London but is reassessing what she wants out of further study. Looks like she might be staying at home for a while at least- I have ambivalent feelings about that.

The son is back in LDN after his German holiday-a week of which was in Majorca – but iwill be back home shortly before starting his year abroad in September.

A couple of Sundays ago the wife drove me to Blackpool to see Posh lose 2-1. Made up by Posh trashing Ipswich 7-1 on TV last weekend!

Music wise not much. I am listening to 6Music on the way to and from work. I am missing Radcliffe and Maconie on Radio 2 during the evening. I don’t get to listen to their 6 Music afternoon show as I am at work – but just realised I can listen again on the iPlayer on the new TV!!!

Bank Holiday weekend and the sister and brother in law are up – so a mixture of drinking eating and arguing. And I have to fit in a 20 mile run

Explosions In The Sky

2011-08-12T22:46:00.000+01:00

I am excited. This band are touring the UK in a few months and today I bought a ticket to see them at The Sage, Gateshead. The acoustics at this place are second to none as I can vouch having seen Nick Cave, Yo La Tengo and my daughter (!) amongst others perform there. So thank you email alerts from Ticketmaster for alerting me to this. Something to look forward to. Check them out here .

Another bit of excitement was caused by receiving an e mail from Embrace. They are back in the studio and writing and recording new stuff. Six years after their last album I wonder if they can still do it. I hope so.

Sunday Morning

2011-08-07T14:25:00.000+01:00

The daughter is back from Thailand for a couple of weeks before she goes to meet her sailor boyfriend (it's back on- I know, these young things) in Split. Before then we have the joys of A level results.My fingers and toes are crossed for her.

The son is temporarily back in London before jetting off to Hamburg to see his mate. He might be back for a few days towards the end of August before he goes on his year abroad.

Me and the wife have finally got the remortgage sorted and the deal should be completed by the end of the week. Not much music at the moment that has grabbed me although I am enjoying Sleigh Bells'Treats and Hope And Social 's latest Sleep Sound . This is released again on a pay what you want basis and available from their .http://www.hopeandsocial.com/

Saturday Night

2011-07-30T19:53:00.000+01:00

On my own in the house. Daughter in Bangcock, son in Austria, wife out at the theatre.

Been off work, went down to sister in laws in Weller country. Relaxing time was had by all.

Marathon training is getting harder. I have to run 18 miles tomorrow- that's at least 3 and a half hours so an early start for me as I would like to have some of the day to relax.

Ran the Great North 10k a couple of weeks ago in 58:45, almost three minutes faster than last year so the extra training is paying off.

The Good Post I Promised

2011-07-20T21:35:00.004+01:00

Remortgaging is still ongoing, we are down to leg measurements and the size of my c*ck and that Girl On The Phone keeps ringing back. Still, anyway here is the really good post I promised.

From early 1977 to December 1978 I loved this band and thought they could do no wrong. They were political and from the street and they knew what it was all about. Then they released the second album and although it was OK it wasn't great. Nevertheless I would probably have stuck with them but unfortunately for The Clash at around the same time, All Mod Cons was released and my allegiances started to shift to The Jam. I could identify much more with Weller's description of outer suburban London boys and his songs portrayed a world I half knew and aspired to.

But in December 1978 I saw The Clash two nights on the trot at The Lyceum and they were great -everything I wanted them to be from one of the greatest bands of all time. Luckily for me and you, they recorded the gigs and here it is. The sound is raw and they are a bit all over the place at times but it is an excellent reminder of how good this band were.

Nine months later I was back at The Lyceum to see the March of The Mods tour. I had seen Secret Affair and Back To Zero at The Marquee and had discovered The Teenbeats and by the August of 1979 I was a New Mod., suit, Hush Puppies, Desert Boots, Fred Perries,, the lot. Nine months now can go by in a blink of an eye but at 18 nine months is a lifetime.

Of course The Clash redeemed themselves musically with London Calling later that year but by then it was too late.

3 Weeks Later

2011-07-18T16:10:00.002+01:00

I know- it's been a long time. But I still feel the same, do you miss me?

Sorry about the absence of posts, I will be back shortly with a good one. Honest,

Long Hot Summer

2011-06-28T18:31:00.000+01:00

I don't know about the long bit but it has definitely been ridiculously hot these last few days.

I am still in the middle of sorting our finances and the rather tiresome process of remortgaging. The whole process is different to the last time we did this 5 years ago.. Back then I wandered into my local Bradford and Bingley and asked if they would lend us some more money. The only debate was how much more money they would lend and a sort of negative bidding process with the B&B offering more and me saying actually I don't want that much. I do remember leaving the office thinking this can't be right and I wasn't surprised they went bust a couple of years later.

Anyway, this time round it is rather different. The girl on the phone keeps on ringing back asking for more and more information- leading to frantic hunts for photo id, payslips proof of residency etc followed by hurried photocopying and special delivery letters containing details of my life just in the hope we get a better deal.

Still this is sort of a make or break for us- 15k a year down on salary since my wife's redundancy in 2009 - down to the last tranche of her redundancy money, failure to get this deal could mean selling the house or worse.

2011-06-17T09:20:00.000+01:00

Bit of a quiet time in the house. My daughter is in her bunker-i.e. bedroom- revising (we hope) for her A levels. My son is not yet home although he is returning this week sometime “for the summer” Oh Joy.

Work is pretty flat at present nothing much on the go and I am trying to sort out our finances longer term- not something I enjoy doing but it has proved quite sobering.
My running is going well with minimum aches and pains. I am tired though and am going to bed earlier.

On the self sufficiency front the potatoes are growing well, my apple tree has about a dozen apples. Sadly no plums or pears this year. On a more positive note the tomato plants are doing well.

Music wise I am listening to 6 music on the way to and from work and whilst out with the dog during the week and when I am running. So I am listening to a lot of 6 music. I have been impressed by Sleigh Bells, impressed by Nemone on a Sunday morning and super impressed by Marc Riley in the evenings during the week. Steve LM on the Drive Time show of course is still great and I even quite like Sean Keaveney in the morning – although his constant whingeing about being tired is a put off. For God sake man you have a dream job playing music for a living shut up whingeing and just remind yourself each morning how damn lucky you are.

Saturday

2011-06-11T21:32:00.000+01:00

During the week my father in law walks the dog during the day and I walk him in the evening. At the weekends I walk him twice.

Of these walks Saturday's are the ones I enjoy most. That is mainly due to two BBC Radio programmes which are (almost) for me worth the Licence Fee alone.

Saturday morning's walk across Nuns Moor is soundtracked by Radio Two's Brian Matthews' long running Sounds of The Sixties show. I love this programme as it plays so many tunes I remember as a (very) young lad growing up and songs that I couldn't possibly remember and were almost certainly never played in my house. I have discovered some great songs I never knew existed on this show and even on dull wet and windy days such as today this programme brings a smile to my face and a warm feeling in my heart. Listen to it on iplayer if you've never heard it.

At night I listen to BBC Radio Newcastle's Beat Surrender programme. Those of you of a certain age might conclude quite correctly from the title that this plays music from a certain period. ( for those of you too young to have guessed that, well go ask your Mum or Dad). Indeed on this show you are guaranteed to hear The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam , Buzzcocks, Joy Dvision and sundry punk/new wave oldies like tonight and Eddie and The Hot Rods, Martha and The Muffins,Big Audio Dynamite, The Ruts, and occasional Prince Buster and other ska songs. Sometimes they play current local bands such as The Vinyl Jackets. You can listen again to this one on line as well.

Fundraising

2011-06-04T09:47:00.002+01:00

I have contributed to two fundraising events this week. The first was simply a donation to someone cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats's for charity. The second involved me and the wife going out for a meal.

My daughter is off to Thailand and Laos for a month In July after she finishes her exams. This is a trip organised through her school by World Challenge. Part of the deal is that she has to raise at least some of the money herself and do community work whilst she is out there.

Her World Challenge team organised a fundraiser at a local restaurant this week( luckily the owner’s son is a friend of hers) and that is how we ended up eating out on a Monday night.

South East Asian ( principally Vietnamese) cuisine doesn’t figure very highly on my list of must eat foods but I admit I was pleasantly surprised by the venue, and the quality on offer. Here is a link to the website.

The venue is in a newish part of Newcastle off the Boulevard called Waterloo Square,I had a very nice Pad Chai with vegetables and tofu for my main after some spicy squid rings with plum and tamarind dips. It's not particularly cheap (we had a fixed price menu of £20 for three courses) but it's not outrageously expensive either. For what its worth, if you are in Newcastle and want to go out for a meal I would recommend it.

Fergie Is Our King

2011-05-30T22:18:00.000+01:00

A long emotional and tiring day yesterday. A journey down and back from Old Trafford on trains full of Huddersfield fans. Hopes and dreams alive and bursting into bloom 3 times in a few short minutes. Nearly 15 minutes of nail biting tension and then a whistle and it was over. Posh are back in the Championship at the first time of asking.

This is not the time to ponder our fate next season.

We are Boro, we are Boro

Long Weekend

2011-05-27T18:53:00.000+01:00

Bank Holiday weekend another extra day off. Yayy!

Sunday is the Play Off Final- I am getting excited about this. Hope we win convincingly not by penalties or because Huddersfield are crap. Us fans will be outnumbered 2-1 by the look of things and win or lose I will be on the train home with a lot of Hudders fans -can't avoid it train goes through Huddersfield- so I will be generous in my assessment of them in victory or defeat!!!.

Up the Posh!!!

Posh We Are

2011-05-23T21:27:00.001+01:00

An exciting time. I was at London Road to see Posh destroy MK Dons in theLeague One Play off Semi Final second leg last Thursday. The London Road end went mental and we were on the pitch at the final whistle. I was still buzzin when I got off the train at Central Station at 2:30 Friday morning.

This Sunday we are in the Final at Old Trafford ( shame its not Wembley- thank you UEFA). Me and my son will be there. Its 11 years since we saw Andy Clarke score the winner at Wembley.A couple of promotions and several relegations later we hope Craig Mackail Smith scores the winner at Old Trafford and we get back in the Championship. And this time we stay there.

United we all stand

Songs You Should Hear-Maid In Heaven

2011-05-13T22:38:00.001+01:00

The return of my occasional series is highlighting a song that has been downloaded the most from my online selection. I haven’t ever posted it here so it must be downloads from people searching for it online. Hence my belief that this is a song that people really want to hear.

Its not particularly obscure, not particularly hard to get hold of in CD or vinyl form, but it is a particularly great song.

Be Bop Deluxe were my first big musical crush. I was obsessed by them between 1974 and the end of1976 and the punk storm that blew most things away (for a while at least) . I still have a fondness for Bill Nelson ( the inspiration force of the band) and check his website (here) out regularly and have been known to buy his increasingly esoteric solo output . I have written about him before so won’t repeat myself. But he is a genius. He can make that guitar sing.

Maid In Heaven- Be Bop Deluxe

Cloud Cult

2011-05-09T11:18:00.002+01:00

I have been meaning to write something about this band for ages. It is a band I discovered via a music Blog. I downloaded the track, loved it and promptly bought all their stuff available on their website. So there DMCA, music Blogs are promoting artists and bringing them to people’s attention not destroying them. Now I can’t claim to do this with every track I downloaded but if I really fall in love with the music I do buy the product. So for me, it’s all about the art. Blogs are just another way of getting your art seen and heard by more people.

Anyway to the band in question.Their music sums up all that is good about mixing classical instruments with guitar bass and drums. There is a space in the songs that to me reflects the open spaces of where the music is conceived. Craig Minowa's voice is not technically perfect (like another singer whose band I also love- Danny McNamara of Embrace) but it fits perfectly with the music.

It helps that heir website is slick and upto date and you can stream their songs on the player. It helps that they include lots of personal stuff that draws you into them and gives another dimension to their work. It helps that they are concerned about the environment and take steps to ensure they are as far as possible not polluting the world.

I hope to see them one day. I really like them. I think you will too.

No one Said It Would Be Easy- Cloud Cult

R.I.P. Poly Styrene

2011-05-06T22:13:00.002+01:00

I know I am a little late with this but nevertheless Poly Styrene’s death from cancer is still making me come to terms with both getting older and wondering who will be next to go amongst people who have had at the very least a musical influence on me.

Poly’s band X Ray Spex were the first band I ever saw live. I was 16 years old and had discovered John Peel and punk.

It was 1977 and half term. Me and my mate Michael decided to go for a day out in London . Reading NME on the way in we learned that X Ray Spex would be playing at The Marquee that night. I had heard Peel play the debut X Ray Spex 12” ( Oh Bondage Up Yours! b/w I Am A Cliché )in his shows several times so I knew what sort of music we could hear.

It was 75p admission and we figured if we skimped on paying the train and Tube fares and didn’t eat much we could afford it. So we rode the train the twenty or so miles into London dodging the guard , walked confidently through the tube stations and found ourselves in Leicester Square and as night fell made our way up Wardour Street .

This was pre id , pre obsession with under age drinking days so we got in without as much as a second glance even despite not looking remotely like punks ( I was still wearing flares for god sake as my parents wouldn’t shell out for new jeans)

We bought ourselves a pint of something or other ( it was supposed to be beer but to this day I’m not so sure) and waited amazed that here we were in the famous venue waiting to see a real proper punk band. The club was half full of punks, the sound system played all the new punk standards and then X Ray Spex came on.

It wasn’t the best gig I've ever been to ,the band weren’t the most proficient but the energy and chaos shown by both them and the audience had a profound effect on me and Mike. Poly’s voice was powerful and full of raw emotion and soared above the music effortlessly. They were short of material and played some songs twice. The whole set couldn’t have been more than half an hour long.

I was hooked on music and live music especially from that point on.

We missed the last train home and I was grounded for a few months but it was worth it. It was also the first of many visits to The Marquee over the next two years.

Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons in The Boy Looked At Johnny reckoned Poly was the future of music. For whatever reason she wasn't . That doesn't matter because although I never met you Poly you left a impression on me that remains as clear to me today as it was all that time ago. And Mike if you're reading this, I hope you remember that night as vividly as I do.

The world is poorer without people like Poly. RIP

April

2011-04-29T11:43:00.003+01:00

Today is the Royal Wedding Day- so an extra day off for me. Whoopee!!!

This song has nothing to do with The Wedding but has everything to do with the month. I have posted about this band before. They are pretty good. Here is a link to their website and this song below is from the album of the same name released last year on a pay what you think it's worth basis.

April- Hope and Social

Another Post

2011-04-18T17:30:00.004+01:00

Out of the habit again of posting. This is partly due to work being extremely busy due to handover of new properties and also the lighter nights and my vegetable growing plans have taken up most of my time. Anyway who wants to be indoors when the sun is shining?

Marathon training has begun as well which is quite tiring. Although I am pleased to find out I can run six miles without any effort at all this early in my running calendar. I normally don’t get up to a six mile long run until July time Although it also proves that I haven’t been pushing myself these last few years and would explain why my weight has not dropped below 14st for 10 years. Since my last marathon in fact.

Lesson learned. I am obviously a slow learner.

Anyway, I have been listening to a lot of Idlewild these past weeks. I love Roddy Woomble’s voice- and his solo stuff is worth listening to- although sometimes the band are a bit leaden. I have seen them live twice. Which for me is pretty good- both times they were excellent, my comments notwithstanding.

This song was made available to people who bought their last CD- Post Electric Blues

Take Me Back In Time (Demo)- Idlewild

Passing Through

2011-04-06T19:50:00.000+01:00

Sorry too busy to stop and chat. Will catch up with you in a couple of days. Promise.

Back For Easter

2011-03-29T22:29:00.000+01:00

Our son has returned from London for a few weeks. He hasn't been home since Christmas. My wife is very happy to see him.

Old Man

2011-03-24T22:40:00.000Z

Well it finally happened. I officially became old last week. By officially old I mean I celebrated my 50^th birthday. Well, celebrated maybe a slight exaggeration although me and the wife did go out for a meal at our old favourite Loch Fyne.

But now I think – what should my reaction be as a 50 year old to life? Does my age give me a greater insight into the trials and tribulations of life? Can I now say without a hint of irony “Well, of course in my day……”

I am planning on running a marathon this year and is that a good idea now I’m officially old and my health could go at any minute. Will I look at techno gadgets and say what's the point of that? What’s wrong with a pen and a piece of paper. Why don’t people just talk to each other any more etc etc

Or is 50 the new 40 and I can leave the corduroy trousers in the wardrobe for a few years yet?

Emotional Turmoil

2011-03-17T22:21:00.000Z

My daughter and her boyfriend have split up. Cue much tears and wailings in the house over the last week. I am strangely not perturbed by this at all. Of course I don’t like to see my daughter upset and I hate her ex for upsetting her like this but I am not really moved by it all. At least not in the same way that my wife is who is fretting about our daughter, laying awake at night worrying about her wellbeing and has got emotionally involved in the situation. Is it a man woman thing?

Or am I just a cold hearted bastard?

My Favourite Dress

2011-03-13T22:28:00.002Z

There isn't much I can say about this song.It means too much to me. It is a song I have listened to probably at least once a week for over twenty years. And at certain, emotionally stressful times over the last twenty plus years I have listened to this masterpiece every day.

If you haven't heard a song by The Wedding Present before , listen to this , because it pretty much sums up David Gedge's output. Yes the sounds are better produced these days but this song and its two guitars bass and drums, plaintive vocals and subject matter is what it has always been about.

For me it is one of the best songs of the last 50 years.

My Favourite Dress- The Wedding Present

Musical Regrets- Northern Soul

2011-03-11T17:57:00.004Z

One on my musical regrets is never going to Wigan Casino or Blackpool Mecca ballroom when I had the chance and was a student in Manchester in the late Seventies early Eighties.

I came to Northern Soul relatively late. Growing up in the Sixties and Seventies Motown was on the radio a lot and later even Tony Blackburn kept the soul flame burning on his post Radio 1 shows on GLR. Growing up I ‘d seen the crossover hits mimed along to on TOTP but it took The Jam and the track Non Stop Dancing on their first album to really stimulate my interest in Northern Soul.

If there were any all nighters in my Hertfordshire market town home I never heard of them them and anyway by the time The Jam came along there seemed to be just so much new and exciting music to listen to I didn’t have a chance to pursue a new found interest in obscure- and at the time ,I thought, uncool, music, seduced as I was by other Weller, Foxton Buckler songs and The Clash and reggae and all the stuff John Peel played.

I got into the Mod Revival through '79 and early 1980 after being blown away by the music and images on The Jam's All Mod Cons album and so I kept an interest in Motown and Northern Soul.

In reality though it wasn’t until 1983 and the move back down to the South and into London and where I discovered all the pirate stations playing soul music, that I started to research Northern Soul in detail. Compilation albums were easy to get hold of (still are).Some of the sound quality was (is) naff as most were(are) analogue recordings straight from the 7" vinyl and some of the songs are so poor they really do deserve to be obscure.

But some of the songs are the epitome of good quality honest no nonsense dance music and if you play some of them loud, really loud I defy you to not want to perform some daring moves in your living room. Or even just tap your feet.

This is one of my favourites. A classic northern soul voice and sound.

In Your Spare Time- Cindy Scott

Day Off

2011-03-07T19:42:00.000Z

I was off work today.It was a nice sunny day but still quite cold. We went out for a drive and ended up in Amble via Tynemouth and Druridge Bay. Blue skies all the way. A sort of day that makes you feel good.
Bands like The Wedding Present make me feel good even when the sun isn't shining and the skies are overcast and grey like they have been for weeks here.
I discovered this live concert from 2006 whilst tidying up my music files. This is a concert filmed for French TV. I've got the DVD somewhere and here is the audio in full as broadcast.

Its excellent sound quality is only slightly marred by the over enthusiastic clapping at the start and end of each song.

Of course every decent music blogger knows Gedge is a genius. This collection of songs from his career only goes to prove it.

Le Trabendo Session- The Wedding Present

Sunday Morning

2011-03-06T10:11:00.002Z

It's Sunday morning.

The wife is at a Zumba session (the latest get fit craze for women -mostly-sweeping the gyms and village halls up and down the country apparently). Me and the dog have been out for a longer than usual Sunday walk. He is asleep at my feet whilst I post this entry. The daughter is in Doncaster with her boyfriend and my son has probably just gone to bed as he was out last night.

I am listening to some Jazz. Dave Brubeck to be precise.Currently listening to Kathy's Waltz from the Time Out album. This album was the soundtrack of my childhood. Listening to it brings a nice warm , happy glow to this miserable , cold and overcast March morning.

My wife has got another year's contract , albeit doing a different job, with her current employer. So financial disaster has been averted for the time being. Maybe this wont be an annus horribilis? Fingers crossed.

Enough of that, it's time to Take Five

Long Time No Post

2011-02-27T16:57:00.002Z

I haven’t posted this last week or so, partly because I have been busy with life in general and partly because I haven’t felt the need to share thoughts or opinions or indeed music, with you all. This inattention to my craft means I will never get to be a “Blog of Note”.

I could easily post a song each day which would undoubtedly get the page views numbers up but that would mean it was just another music blog and I was trying to be a bit different. This lack of focus which I have previously mentioned is another reason why I will never be a “must read Blog” Not that I am bothered by that either.

It was my daughter’s 18^th birthday on Tuesday gone. She is now all grown up with a boyfriend in tow. Her one concession to her departed childhood was in the fact she wanted a Barney cake for her birthday from these people who had made her sixteenth birthday cake and my son’s 18^th cake which I wrote about at the time.(see here). We took the day off went to Francescas for lunch and she went out in the evening with her mates. My children are now adults, it’s a weird feeling.

It is a big family gathering at the weekend. My son, whose birthday is this Friday, was meant to be coming up as well but he has decided not to come up after all, much to my wife’s disappointment. Still sister and brother in law are coming up to celebrate Harriet’s birthday anyway.

Now its only three weeks until my 50^th.

Sunday Night

2011-02-13T20:36:00.001Z

My daughter is performing at her school show at Dance City tonight. My wife has gone, I haven't. We left it a bit late to get tickets and we could only get one. Can't say I am too disappointed. She is only in three pieces which would have meant sitting through about 1 hour of stuff I'm not interested in. There will be many more performances to sit through if she gets onto one of the dance courses she is applying for. Lucky me.

So , here I am in front of the PC, listening to music, very loud. Media Player is on shuffle and it is currently playing Sugarbabes Overload. (An acoustic live version- which is actually very good)

On The Road

2011-02-09T22:30:00.000Z

We took our daughter to an audition at Liverpool's John Moores University yesterday. It was a 9 am start so we got up early and set off at 5.15 am. Traffic was heavy around Liverpool and my wife took a wrong turn once so we got there a bit late- just after 9am.

The campus is in South Liverpool and was very pleasant and suburban. The campus looked like an old teacher training college and later a bit of Goggling confirmed that it in fact it had been. In fact I was a bit surprised by how nice this part of Liverpool , Aigburth, was. Not at all like my memories of Liverpool or how it is portrayed in the media.

The prospective students were mostly girls, mostly local to Liverpool and the North West (judging by the accents) and mostly looking like extras from Hollyoaks with Jordan style hair and make up. There were a handful of parents there; who we guessed mostly had not gone to Uni themselves.

Whilst she was in her audition classes we went to Sudley House which was a pleasant hour and we also went for a walk along the Mersey which was only a short distance away. I have only been to Liverpool once before and I had forgotten how big a river the Mersey is. It makes the Tyne look like a stream.

Anyway after a very perfunctory presentation, the daughter's audition classes and a shambolic tour of campus and demonstration of current students work (not impressed) we were away home by 2pm, driving past the Halewood plant and John Lennon Airpor which has the slogan Above Us Only Sky on it's welcome sign. This made us laugh. My daughter took a picture and put it on her Facebook page.

This is the only audition/interview we are going to with her which is probably a good thing. Both as ex students and parents we are pretty critical of what is on offer and although I am sure the staff and tutors etc are all competent, lovely people we were not impressed by the campus or the course as judged by the presentation – by a bloke who looked a bit like Stuart Maconie only less well maintained- or by the tour and performance.It was a bit sixth formish and amateurish.

We could be wrong of course.It is many years since the wife and I were students and neither of our sets of parents accompanied us to interviews for the Unis we chose so we have no idea what they would have made of it.

Language School- The Tours

2011-02-04T22:43:00.000Z

The third in my occasional series of Songs You Really Should Hear this song seemed to be played every night on John Peel's show when it was released but it probably wasn't. It was played enough for me to register its brilliance and use my school dinner money to purchase it from the cool record shop Tracks in Hertford.

Anyway it is a cracking song that races along with added advantage of barely intelligible lyrics that made it seem more alluring. I almost took a TEFL course on the back of this song with its seeming promise of foreign girls in language schools being very keen on their teachers!!

Language School- The Tours

I never heard anything more from them after this masterpiece but if you Google them you will find some stuff. I could provide you with links but that would just make you Internet surfers even more lazy than you already are. Look it up yourself if you want. It's not hard.

2nd birthday

2011-02-02T09:51:00.000Z

Two years on and I am still (well,sort of) going strong. It has had its up and down this blogging thing and sometimes I haven't felt like posting anything for weeks. I do come back to it though and my series idea for Songs You Really Should Hear is getting me thinking and planning

Looking over the last two years I can see that I still haven't really found a groove and stuck to it . In other words this Blog is a bit all over the place. That I suppose is reflected in the Blog's strap line and in reality is a reflection of me.

Went To see Posh play last night. We won 5-3 against Sheffield Wednesday .Met my son. Those two things made the not getting back to Newcastle until 2:30am worthwhile. So today I am off work, resting.

Page views are increasing so I know some people out there are reading this. Leave a comment I welcome all feedback about this. Why not listen to some of the songs. You never know you might even enjoy them.

Review

2011-01-28T22:43:00.001Z

Reading back over my posts for this month has been a bit depressing. I seem to be suffering from the classic “winter blues” not uncommon at this time of year. Yet I don’t think that this is really true of me. Yes January is a very long month and yes it is bleak, dark and miserable but I think I am still presenting myself as upbeat, relaxed and cheerful.

This did get me thinking though about the way I behave. People think of me as relaxed, cheerful etc etc but am I really? Is that just my public façade and I really am as miserable and bleak and dark as some of these January’s scribblings seem to indicate? Am I tortured inside living a lie and desperately unhappy. Well I guess like most people some days and some parts of days I am.

Perhaps it’s just easier to be miserable when you are writing. It’s a deeper well of emotion and maybe a natural default if you are trying to express emotion in words or in music. Maybe it gets people’s attention more easily.

After I wrote this I caught news on the radio that public confidence has dipped to its lowest point for a couple of years.

Come in , your time is up

2011-01-24T18:26:00.002Z

I am going through one of my more dislocated phases. This is where I turn up at work, do the bare minimum , go home, do the bare minimum etc and exist in a parallel life of my own mind’s making. This happens to me every now and then and can last for ages- months/years even. Sometimes I look back at my life and wonder if I have just been going through the motions for most of it. Whole years just seem to have slipped by without me noticing.

I am reading this book 59 seconds as part of my attempt to shake myself out of this mood. I have also started running two months earlier than usual.This is having a positive effect. As I get older I am realising I have less time to waste. I need to maximise what is left of my three score and 10. I owe it to my wife, my children and more importantly to myself.

A Passing Thought

2011-01-20T20:59:00.000Z

January is a very long month

Location, Location, Location

2011-01-11T22:10:00.003Z

Song Number two in this occasional series is from that most iconic of all bands The Velvet Underground.

If you have never heard their material you are really missing out on one of the truly great bands of rock (ouch!), up there with The Beatles, The Stones, Beach Boys The Who, The Clash. etc etc.

It was Radio Caroline not John Peel who introduced me to this band, although they did only ever seem to play this one song. It did take John Peel however,to introduce me to the depth of their genius by playing songs from the double live album on his show.

Now there are so many of their songs that you should hear especially from the Banana album (The Velvet Underground & Nico) but I have chosen that Radio Caroline favourite. Funnily enough, despite its subject matter, this song, like Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side was openly played on daytime radio in the late 60’s and early 70's.

I have been to New York twice. During our visit last year I actually made it up to Lexington and 125 albeit on a tour. I was so excited to be at the spot described in the song. Is that sad? Probably.

This version is from the legendary Norman Dolph acetates. Despite all the fuss about these "different takes", most of them sound like demos to me.

I'm Waiting For The Man- The Velvet Underground

Back To Work Blues

2011-01-06T22:34:00.002Z

I’ve been back at my desk for three days now after a week off and it feels like I was never away. Same people with the same problems. A new year but nothing changes.

This year has to be the year I get a new job. This job no longer does it for me and although I moan about them, it’s not the public with their problems that bother me, it’s the structural changes within my organisation that have made my job more difficult and so much less satisfying.

When I first started in this job I could solve problems more or less without reference to anyone else. I had authority to spend money on repairs, authorise moves, resolve anti social behaviour etc, and the back room functions and senior management supported me. Yes I sometimes got it wrong but I learned and got better at my job of helping people.Now it seems my purpose here is not to provide a direct accountable service to our tenants (sorry, customers) but to compile stats for the back room staff and senior management and meet targets that are set for my team without reference to me (although it always says I was consulted). My skills, knowledge and experience built up over 25+ years are ignored.Not valued, worthless in the eyes of my employer.

Over the last 6 years we have lost 15 posts on the front line, the ones who actually deal with the public. At the same time this organisation has increased its establishment from just under 500 staff to just under 900 staff. There was a time when I knew almost everyone who worked for us. Nowadays I go to the extremely plush HQ building (the old HQ of a big IT company) and don’t know anyone.

I remember old hands telling me similar things when I was a youngster starting out and maybe it was ever thus. That doesn’t make it feel any better.

This year the New Year has to be a new start for me.

Atishooo!!

2011-01-02T20:57:00.000Z

I've spent most of the week since Christmas Day being not well. Neither is the wife. This combined with the grey dark sunless days have made this a miserable time to be off.

Now there is one day left of the Christmas holidays and it's then back to work. I have no enthusiasm for this return to the workplace but we all have to eat so back I go.

2011 could be our annus horribilis and I approach it's dawning with trepidation and an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Here's hoping.

Songs You Should Hear

2010-12-27T22:18:00.002Z

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

2010-12-25T22:01:00.000Z

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

2010-12-24T10:28:00.001Z

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)

2010-12-20T13:18:00.001Z

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

2010-12-13T21:19:00.000Z

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??

2010-12-08T19:14:00.000Z

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

2010-12-06T22:18:00.002Z

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

2010-12-03T15:06:00.001Z

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

2010-12-01T23:08:00.001Z

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

2010-11-24T18:59:00.000Z

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

2010-11-17T19:00:00.002Z

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

2010-11-14T18:24:00.001Z

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

2010-11-10T10:53:00.000Z

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

2010-11-04T22:33:00.001Z

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.

2010-10-30T16:38:00.000+01:00

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

2010-10-26T09:39:00.001+01:00

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

2010-10-16T16:39:00.001+01:00

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

2010-10-10T20:19:00.000+01:00

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

2010-10-04T21:18:00.000+01:00

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

2010-09-29T18:28:00.000+01:00

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

2010-09-21T21:48:00.000+01:00

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

2010-09-19T21:09:00.002+01:00

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

2010-09-15T19:54:00.000+01:00

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

2010-08-25T18:43:00.002+01:00

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

Update

2010-07-19T19:41:00.002+01:00

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

2010-07-12T17:29:00.002+01:00

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

2010-07-03T09:38:00.000+01:00

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

2010-07-01T10:37:00.004+01:00

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

2010-06-27T18:26:00.001+01:00

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

2010-06-09T19:26:00.002+01:00

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)

2010-06-04T22:56:00.002+01:00

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

2010-06-01T22:34:00.000+01:00

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

2010-05-22T12:27:00.000+01:00

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

2010-05-20T21:21:00.001+01:00

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

2010-05-14T21:36:00.000+01:00

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?

2010-05-12T13:56:00.001+01:00

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?

2010-05-07T22:45:00.000+01:00

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

2010-05-06T10:42:00.000+01:00

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