NEW YEAR - NEW LOOK!
I'VE ARCHIVED
2008's NEWS'N VIEWS
(MINUS PICS)
As the result of a conversation with my brother
Dave, I'm making a changes to the way this page is presented. From now on,
entries made here on the News'n Views page will show (hopefully)the most recent at the TOP not the
bottom. so instead of having to scroll through reams of material you've
already read, you just read down until you come to the last article you
read. That's the theory, the proof of the pudding is yet to come! I also
intend to put more pics on the
ODDS'N SODS
page of us and friends we've made on our travels over the years.

For those who might be interested, I written a bit of
an Autobiography, just click the link
NOBODY SPECIAL
(You need Office Word 2007 I think)
RECENTLY THERE HAS BEEN AN
UP-SURGE IN THE NUMBER OF MESSAGES I'VE RECEIVED FROM FACEBOOK ASKING ME TO
VERIFY THAT DIFFERENT PEOPLE HAVE ADDED ME TO THEIR SITES. I HAVE NO WISH TO
OFFEND ANYONE BUT I DON'T LIKE FACEBOOK, CALL ME CRANKY IN MY OLD AGE!
I'VE ADDED AN INSERT ON THE INDEX PAGE BUT THOUGHT I'D BETTER EXPLAIN
FURTHER.
I WILL GLADLY CONVERSE WITH ANYONE, EITHER BY PHONE OR E-MAIL AND CAN BE
CONTACTED ON 01752 295061.
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR THE COMPLIMENTS AND HAPPY READING (AND LISTENING)!

If you're any sort of gardener you'll know
that, when you get weeds, you dig out in the hope that they'll go away, but,
sadly, it never works that way.
For every one you get rid of, it seems two more take it's place and this
fact doesn't just apply to gardening, it applies to Life in general.
The Americans learnt the hard way in Vietnam, the Brits with the IRA.
At least they SHOULD HAVE, but it seems that's not the case.
Would you stick your hand in a hornet's nest? No I didn't think so.
Chances are, if you leave it alone, the hornets will leave you alone because
they only attack to defend their territory.
I wish I had all the answers to the problems we hear about on a daily basis
but I haven't.
Two things I do believe are that Enoch Powell was right, and the UK should
NEVER have joined the EU.
History shows that none of them could defeat us at war, now they're walking
all over us in peace-time!
Another saying that springs to mind is "When I shout SHIT, you jump on the
shovel".
Very fitting these days, especially if you happen to be a member of the
Armed Forces!
If you've got an opinion on the above, email me and I'll air your views.
It's official, I've got Senile Dementure!
I was sat at home last night (Sunday 1st November), fat and full after
consuming a big roast, when the phone rang.
It was Lin from the Tamar Valley Westerners wondering if I was going to turn
up to play for them at their club!
I had checked the diary a week or so back and noted I was booked but, for
some stupid reason, I thought it was the week after (next Sunday).
Obviously it was a mad panic to get the car loaded up, quick change, and off
to the club where a load of the lads helped us get the gear in pronto.
Within 30 minutes of the phone call I was ready to play but then there were
more complications!
Although I had checked the tuning of my guitar a couple of times after the
re-fret job, it was still tending to go out of tune, and it seemed to take
forever to settle in, with me having to check the tuning literally after
every song for the first set.
Eventually it settled down and was fine from then on and, I was chuffed with
the re-fret because the action seemed a lot lighter and easier to play.
My only other problem was physical! For years I have had to endure a nasty
Hiatus Hernia, so, when I know I'm doing a gig, I tend to eat sparingly,
normally a tin of soup.
As it was, I had not long eaten a big roast, and it was laying heavy, making
singing that much more difficult.
To add insult to injury, it was a Birthday Celebration that night for Lin
and, as usual they'd put on a fantastic buffet which I could only look at!
I played over the normal time (to make up for being late) and eventually
packed up, went home, and took a double dose of Gaviscon!
If there was an MOT Test on musicians I reckon these days I'd be struggling!
My ol' mate Bobby Jones had a couple of
cracking jokes from Ivor James which he's passed on to me, they're on the
JOKES page.....

Wednesday 21st October -
There's light at the end of the tunnel concerning re-fretting my Gibson.
I've replaced 12 frets having decided "in for a penny" and, after some VERY
careful filing, am happy with the result.
One of the biggest problems encountered was, not so much fitting the new
frets as removing the old ones because, it's is very easy to mess up the
fretboard.
The knack, I discovered after some research, is to use a hot clean
soldering iron which melts the glue enough to very gingerly prise them out.
Maybe at this point I ought to mention that, as an engineer familiar with
"delicate" work, I found the project fairly straightforward, but I wouldn't
recommend re-fretting a guitar unless you are reasonably proficient because,
should things go "pear-shaped", it's liable to cost you an arm and a leg to
get it put right!
Anyway, I've had the strings back on, tuned to concert pitch, slightly
adjusted the truss rod to get the required action, checked the tuning
the length of the fretboard and everything seems fine. At the moment the
strings are off again and I'm in the process of giving everything else a
severe looking at, like the tune-o-matic bridge etc, and I'm waiting on
delivery of a bottle of leather stain to give the custom-made leather
plectrum plate I made years ago a face-lift.
Considering my RD Artist was built in 1977, and I've had it from new, it
ain't done bad, has it!
One thing I've never been able to understand is that it has never been
classed as a classic like the Flying V, or the Les Paul, neither of which,
in my humble opinion are fit to kiss the RD's backside. It's like
comparing Mini Coopers to a Ferrari!

Friday 16th October -
Apologies again for the lack of entries recently, it's been fairly
quiet.
I'm still waiting to hear from anyone with a copy of the October release of
Southern Country, I'm itching to see the write-up re the gig I referred to
last month.
I did take the time to compose a little verse dedicated to that dreaded
section of society, the Crafter
BEWARE, CRAFTER AT
WORK!
Beware the dreaded crafters they’ll
drive you round the bend. They churn out cards from dawn ‘til dusk
it never seems to end!
There’s times I’ll get the hoover out to
clean up all the floor. Next thing you know it’s all back again
in fact, there’s even more!
They use small bits of paper, and card
and glitter too. I’ve even seen it on the floor when I go
to the loo!
They watch the crafters programmes, to
pick up tips and then It’s back to work and, before you blink
the mess is back again!
But at least it keeps them happy and to
me that seems just fine But it’s hell for the poor vacuum ‘cos
it’s working
all the time!
(dedicated to my beloved Chris and all
her friends at the Craft Club)
Another thing I've got around to doing was remixing 16
beautiful Country Ballads I've recorded over the years and making up a new
CD entitled "Memorable Love Songs".
Chris has been telling me for years that
I'm better suited to the ballads, and I'm inclined to agree.
Here's a sample of one of the tracks called "Maybe I Should Stay Here" which
just happens to be one of my favourite songs.....
Maybe
There's more info on the CDs
page.....
Wednesday 7th October -
For a while now I've been contemplating a fret repair job on my beloved
Gibson RD Artist as the bottom-end frets are looking pretty worn.
I decided to "google" the subject and study the results before jumping in
with both feet which turned out to be the wise move.
Having said that, I did feel that the write-ups I read tended to advise the
job being done by experts, although you could do it yourself if you didn't
mind ruining the guitar.
Just as a matter of curiosity I looked at so-called professional pricings
online and found them to be around the £250 - £300 range which is a bit OTT!
So I began the business of getting all the bits I would need.
I ordered the fret wire from an eBay supplier (after first measuring the
existing frets) and it arrived in a very unique form of packaging.
The 2 foot length wasn't bent into a coil, it was laid out straight in a
groove that had been cut into a piece of wood and then packaged in a thick
cardboard sleeve.
Andy, my "postie", must have wondered what the hell it was!

Next thing I obtained was a tube of Aliphatic Resin which, probably like
you, I'd never heard of until now.
It seems it's what the pro's use because it sets hard, fills all the gaps,
and can be lightly sanded and shaped which is ideal.
The next thing needed is, what is known as, a fret-press, which is used to
clamp a new fret in position until it's set and they run out at around £150!
If you're doing re-fretting for a living it's a good investment, but for a
"one-off" it's a bit steep, so, after studying pictures of it, I designed my
own.
The first thing you need to bear in mind is the slight curvature of
the fretboard which is different for different models so it's got to be
right.
With this in mind I cut a piece of cardboard until I got the exact shape,
then stuck that onto a piece of, what is know as, mending plate, and
filed the necessary curvature.
When I was happy with that, I sawed off a piece of the wood pictured above
and then filed a groove in it, into which I fitted the plate.
Then I drilled 2 holes in the groove straight through the wood
and then, 2 bigger holes from the underside just in part way.
The idea being that, when the groove and holes were filled with Araldite and
the plate inserted, when it set off, it wouldn't be able to fall out.
I then mixed up some Araldite Rapid, filled the groove and holes, inserted
the plate, and let it set off, which doesn't take long believe me!
Next I stuck my contraption to one jaw of a quick release clamp with some
strong double-sided tape and hey pesto, ready to go!
Bearing in mind the curing time of the Aliphatic Resin I decided to do a
fret a day which, bearing in mind I intend to replace about 8 frets, should
take just over a week which is fine as I'm not out playing now for
roughly a month. Below are a couple of pics of my "fret-press" which works a
treat....

As the clamp moves up the fretboard I will have all the time in the
world to dress the frets up with Swiss files.
I'll report back on this when I've finished.
Monday 5th October -
Played last night at the Parkway Club in Plymouth for our old friends, the
Renegades/Medicine Wheel.
It's been a while since I was there, because the last gig I had there, I had
to cancel because of a gammy foot.
The number of members is a sad reflection of most clubs these days but the
total was increased with the help of Julie, Taylor,her Mum, Dad and brother,
and Ernie who is Dad to Julie and Gary, and grand-dad to Taylor and Jack
(her brother). One big happy family!
It was my first gig since buying the new guitar effects pedal so I was
itching to see how it would sound.
In hindsight, I should have set up the mixer amp to set it up, but thought I
was being clever by just plugging it into my PC audio... wrong!
The balance between guitar and midi output was way off and I had to make
some quick adjustments to make it sound reasonable, but knew I needed to set
it up properly which was a job to do in the not-too-distant future.
My gear spends a lot of time these days stowed away in a cupboard which can
cause problems, and on this particular night I did have a couple of
"funnies".
Halfway through one song the PA took on a mind of it's own and started
howling for no apparent reason, and a while later, when I did "The Fields of
Athenry", it got to the flute solo I'd laid down, and the flute came in at
least a tone sharp, weird!
Although I hadn't mentioned anything previously to the club members about
Taylor, I had a quiet word with Terry and told him about her, and asked if
it would be alright if she did a few songs, to which he replied,"Go for it!"
She sang the same songs as she'd sung for the Tamar Valley Westerners and
received an equally enthusiastic response, which is what I expected.
Her family are all very proud of her and it's not difficult to understand
why.
We'll have to see about some new material, especially for the
Westerners.....
One other thing which gave me a chuckle was, the gent who I wrote about
recently, who runs the C&W Club at the Royal Fleet Club once a month,
was there, but I noted that he didn't come over to say "hello". He must have
got to hear about my write-up about him and decided to remain inconspicuous
which was the best thing he could have done.
I'm just waiting to see what write-ups appear in this month's Southern
Country!
Sunday 4th October -
I logged on to a novel little site called "chordbook.com" which gives any "wouldbe"
guitarists the chance to see how to play scales and chords.
It's interactive so you can choose what scale, or what chords, and
then see and hear them played, which is clever.
The trouble is, as I mentioned in my Tutor, it's another one of those
programmes that don't give you the all-important info such as, HOW to build
the chords (what notes to use), or, HOW to play a scale (root -tone - tone-
semitone .....)
So, although it's a nice little gimmick, there's no "self-learning curve",
and anyone using it will never progress beyond playing what the programme
shows and, most importantly, they won't have a clue WHY they're playing the
notes making up the chords or scales they play.
My apologies for sounding a bit condescending, but I'm afraid there's no
easy way out. If you REALLY want to learn to play the guitar, you've got to
knuckle down and learn certain basic fundamentals which should become second
nature. It's like driving a car, over a period of time you do it without
thinking about it.
Maybe I shouldn't have used driving as a comparison because nowadays there
seems to be an ever-increasing number of crap drivers round who STILL
haven't learnt the basics!
Friday 2nd October -
Nothing much to report about. Having a little problem with some prat on eBay
who was quick enough to take my money but has been dragging his heels when
it comes to sending the item. Thankfully it was nothing important so a visit
to Paypal will sort it, and now, as they say, here's something completely
different!
Chris and I buy our eggs from a local veg shop and they are good. A few
weeks back I bought a dozen and every single one was a double yolker -
impressive!
This morning Chris went to get some to start making Christmas cake and
called to me to have a look. She cracked some into a bowl and out of the
six, two were big single yolkers, three were double yolkers, and, wait for
it .... one was a TRIPLE yolker! Here's a pic for the unbelievers....

The expression on that poor chickens face getting that out must have been a
sight to see!
Friday 25th September - Trials & Tribulations!
Recently my PC has been acting up and, after trying several Windows repairs,
I bit the bullet, saved everything I could think of elsewhere, and
re-installed XP.
Thankfully, with my friend Scott's assistance, everything went smoothly and
he left me with the monumental task of putting all the programmes etc back
in.
To add insult to injury, a new guitar effects unit that I was waiting on,
turned up that day and I couldn't stop to even look at it, though I was
sorely tempted!
Two days later (yesterday), I'd just about finished loading all I wanted on
the computer, so I took time to examine my new toy.
It was all Chris James' fault because he showed me his new unit when they
came down on the 12th September and, when I heard it, I was very impressed.
The only thing was it had no foot pedal but Chris said there was a similar
unit which incorporated one so I did a search and found it.
It's a Digitech RP90 and it's a cracking unit. It took me a while, some
swearing and a couple of phone calls to suss out how to set it up but now
I've cracked it and can't wait to try it on a gig (which is Sunday week at
the Parkway in Plymouth).
Sunday 20th September -
Ten out of ten to Anne of Southern Country magazine.
I had a prompt reply to my email in which she stated that it had been
forwarded to the Editor requesting him to incorporate it into the Letters
page of the November issue, which is where any report from the club would
appear. Hopefully it will help set the record straight!
Thought for the day....
Another item on BBC News 24 about the animal farms closing down made
me wonder how people my age are still around.
As a kid I worked on a farm in close contact with cows, chickens etc with no
problems.
The trouble now is, kids haven't got an immune system any more because of
all the Whitehall crap about cleanliness. Definitely OTT!
Friday 18th September -
My one and only long-haul gig for the year, (if you can call Plymouth
to Cheltenham a long haul.)
Chris and I drove up to Ray and Linda's place (the club organisers) which is
a beautiful house set on a big estate outside Cheltenham.
It has six bedrooms and is massive and sits on their 30 acres of land, real
olde worlde!
Although we've been up there a few times I was a little uncertain as to the
route so I printed out Google directions to be on the safe side, but used my
HTC mobile phone which has TomTom built in. I must admit, it knocked spots
off my old navigator and took us to their Post Code without going
wrong once. I was very impressed. That, coupled with the Snooper, assured us
of an uneventful journey, with the Snooper warning me about all sorts of
devious speed traps to which there were no visible warning signs. Definitely
good investment!
We had a bite to eat with Ray and Linda then headed off to Notgrove,
the little village where the club is held.
It was nice to see all the familiar faces and I was kept busy all night
playing all their requests, some of which I hadn't played in a long
long time.
Obviously there were a few fluffed words and bum notes, but I conveniently
put it all down to Senile Dementure, and as Ray so aptly put it, "At least
it shows it's a live show!"
They're a great bunch not slow in showing their appreciation, and the
evening literally flew by as is the way when you're having fun, then it was
back to Ray and Linda's for a cuppa and off to bed. This morning we were up
reasonably early as we were going our separate ways. Us coming back to
Plymouth, and Ray and Linda driving up to Derby for a weekend at the Country
Music Awards. We'll probably be doing it all again next year because it's
not so much a gig, more a couple of "awaydays" with good friends.
With regard to the article below concerning the attitude of the organiser of
the C&W club held every month at the Royal Fleet Club in Plymouth, I have
sent an email to the Southern Country monthly magazine stating the true
facts of the evening along with a copy of my write-up. It'll be interesting
to see if I get an acknowledgement or my letter ever gets published.
Wednesday 16th September -
I have just learned that the pillock who runs the C&W club monthly at the
Royal Fleet Club in Plymouth telephoned the agent who arranged for Chris
James to play there and complained about his performance. I could say that
words fail me, but they don't!
Chris plays clubs all over the country and, although obviously some gigs are
better than others, the gig at the Royal Fleet Club has got to go down as
the worst by far.
He did his utmost to please the organiser, and I can say with conviction
that, if it had been me booked to play there, I would have packed up my gear
and walked out, telling the guy what he could do with his club.
Having turned down offers to play there in the past, I know now I was right
to do so, and if any of my musician friends on the circuit get to read this,
my advice is, if you get offered a gig there, make the necessary excuses but
decline.
Say you've got to attend a funeral or something because it would be a bloody
sight livelier than playing there!
To give everyone an idea as to how two-faced the organiser is, I was
standing beside Chris when the guy was saying to him that he wanted him back
again around Christmas!
The problem I foresee for Chris is that this guy could send in a bad
write-up to some magazine like Southern Country and, as everyone in the game
knows, one bad report can cancel out a load of good ones. A little unfair
but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Monday 14th September -
Time to relax after a hectic couple of days.
I had received a text message from Dawn (Chris Jame's wife)(our adopted
children) saying that, having played at the Exe Ranch CMC on the Friday
night, they were coming on down to Plymouth on the Saturday as Chris was
playing at the Royal Fleet Club that evening.
I had also had a phone call from Ramrod to say he was playing for the Tamar
Valley Westerners on the Sunday.
I had also arranged for Taylor, my promising protege, to come around
Saturday morning for more guitar tuition, and she was still there when Chris
and Dawn arrived.
My Chris then dropped Taylor home and then we relaxed and had a bite to eat
before setting off for the Royal Fleet Club.
Despite the fact that I'm not known for my diplomacy, I will endeavour at
this point, to be as tactful as I can.
The gent who runs this club had asked me on a couple of occasions if I would
play at his venue and I had politely declined because I didn't really want
the work.
The warning bells started ringing when Chris was asked TWICE whilst doing
his set-up sound-check to turn down, NOT a good omen.
This was followed during the first break by further criticism regarding the
mixture of material he was playing and he was told that the crowd, all 24 of
them, liked the old songs!
In my humble opinion Chris played an excellent range of Country Music,
albeit some more recent than others, but ALL Country.
Over the years I've played a lot of gigs like that one, but they were
usually on the Social Club scene not the Country circuit.
He played the last set to about a dozen people and was probably thinking
long the same lines as I was, "Let's just go home and have a cuppa."
They stayed with us that night, and we sat and put the world to rights until
3am!
Sunday afternoon we all went for a drive to a couple of the local places of
interest, one of which was Kit Hill, the highest point in our area, which
gives a great panoramic view to all points of the compass, and then on to
Morwhellam Quay, which is a National Trust venue featuring the exporting of
copper and other minerals by boat down the River Tamar bound for Cardiff.
Very ole worlde! The icing on that bit of cake was Vintage Car Rally being
held there that day.
After a lovely afternoon, we drove home, had a lovely roast dinner, then all
trooped off to the Tamar Valley Westerners for the evening to support
Ramrod.
He knew Chris and I would probably be there, but the look on his face when
he saw Chris and Dawn there as well was a picture!
Obviously he was delighted to see them and we had a great time which was
compounded by the fact that it was Lawrence's 60th birthday celebration and
Lin had put on one of her famous buffets, including a fabulous fresh cream
birthday cake.

The makers of Nicorette might be a little peeved with Ramrod because he uses
one of their little plastic cases to carry his rollies in, doubtfully what
they had in mind!

Meanwhile all the girls had a good ol' chinwag - left to right ....
Pat, Joy, Chris, Dawn and Di (Ramrod's good lady)

and while the girls yapped, so did Ramrod, Chris and I ....

As Chris and Dawn were staying with us overnight again, I thought it would
nice for Di and Ramrod to come back for a well-earned cuppa before heading
home to Clevedon, and so it was that the six of us sat around and had a good
chat. Having had a late night the night before we decided not to have
repeat performance, plus the fact that Ramrod and Di had a couple of hours
driving to do, but the best of plans can fall to bits, and we eventually
settled down for, what was left of the night, at 3.30am.
Never mind, it was a brilliant couple of days!
Friday 20th September -
Trust Foxy to come up with something out of the ordinary, get a load of
this....

Thursday 10th September -
For those who might be interested, I have now
put together the necessary templates to produce the
GUITAR TUTOR in an A5 size book.
A recent phone call from Foxy put a smile on my face. It would seem that the
organisers and patrons of certain Country Music festivals are up in arms
regarding things that have been published in the Crazy Cowboy monthly
magazine published by Mr Ken Dyche. Feelings are running high and the
gentleman's popularity rating is sinking beneath the waves rapidly with
rumours flying around that he will be banned from attending some festivals.
As far as I'm concerned he's been a submariner for years!
On the home front, I've often commented as to the convenience offered
regarding the location of my accomodation. A local corner shop open all
hours, nearby superstores, and Plymouth City Centre and Plymouth Hoe within
a comfortable walking distance.
Now, according to a report in the local newspaper, I see there's also a
brothel which has just been raided!

Monday 7th Sept -
Relaxing after a busy night last night. I was playing for the Tamar Valley
Westerners and had a great night.
I had suggested to Taylor, the young lady who I've taken under my
wing, that she, and the rest of the family, might like to come along
and see how I work on-stage, and, after the fiasco last Sunday when she sang
at the Seymour, prove the point that Equalisation is all-important.
I asked her if she'd like to come onstage and sing some of her songs and she
jumped at the chance.
None of the club members knew anything about it and, after doing an opening
song for the second set, I introduced Taylor to them and she sang five
songs.
You're probably aware of the saying "chalk & cheese", well that was the
difference between her previous performance and this one.
The backing and her vocals were both crystal clear and the levels were
spot-on, it couldn't have worked out better.

She did herself, and the rest of us proud and the club members loved her.
Obviously there are still little things which need working on, like mic
technique, but she's a very quick learner and will soon have that off to a
fine art!
There was one little incident later in my second set which, thankfully,
didn't happen whilst Taylor was singing.
Not long ago I got a new laptop and decided to take it along and try it out
in place of my old Sony.
For some strange reason the screen kept going to sleep and, although I had
it plugged into mains supply, it started indicating that the battery life
was running out until finally it died on me. Luckily I had the old Sony with
me and it happened on the last song of the second set so there weren't any
problems as I changed laptops during the second break and was ready to
resume with time to spare with no more problems.
The last set flew by and it was time to pack everything away and head home
for a nice cuppa.
Obviously the incident with the new laptop was bugging me, so today I fired
it up and checked the screensaver and power options.
I HAD disabled the windows screensaver but, unbeknown by me, Acer (the
makers), had installed their own screensaver software.
They had also installed their own Power Options software which over-rides
the Windows one, and this was the problem.
I un-installed ALL the Acer rubbish and, hey presto, an icon popped up on
the taskbar showing I was plugged into the mains!
I went into the Power Options and up came the XP version which gives you
alternatives for either battery or mains, ideal.
Why these manufacturers feel the need to install a load of crap is beyond
me. Must be an inferiority complex!
Anyway, the bottom line is, having left said laptop on, with the programme I
use onstage running for a considerable time, the screen hasn't gone blank,
it hasn't gone to sleep, and is behaving as it should. So the next time I
take it on a gig it should be fine but I'll STILL take the old one just in
case............????
Friday 4th September - Has it been one of those
days? Maybe these little gems will help...... PADDY & FRIENDS
Paddy and Mick go to London to donate sperm.
It was a disaster! Paddy missed the tube and
Mick came on the bus!!
A Muslim was sitting next to Paddy on a plane. Paddy ordered a whiskey. The
stewardess asked the Muslim if he'd like a drink.
He replied in disgust, 'I'd rather be raped by a dozen
whores than let liquor touch my lips!'
Paddy
handed his drink back and said: 'Me too, I didn't know we had a choice!'
Paddy
calls EasyJet to book a flight. The operator asks: 'How many people are
flying with you?'
Paddy
replies: 'I don't know! It's your f***ing plane!!'
Paddy
and Murphy are working on a building site. Paddy says to Murphy, 'I'm gonna
have the day off, I'm gonna pretend I'm mad!'
He
climbs up the rafters , hangs upside down and shouts:
'I'M A LIGHTBULB! I'M A LIGHTBULB!'
Murphy watches in amazement! The Foreman shouts: 'Paddy you're mad, go home'
So he leaves the site.
Murphy starts packing his kit up to leave as well. 'Where the hell are you
going?' asks the Foreman.
'I
can't work in the friggin dark!' says Murphy.
Two
Irish couples decided to swap partners for the night.
After
3 hours of amazing sex Paddy says
'I wonder how the girls are getting on'
Paddy
takes his new wife to bed on their wedding night. She undresses and lies on
the bed spread-eagled and says
'You
know what I want don't you?'
'Yeah,'
says Paddy. 'The whole friggin bed by the looks of it!'
Paddy
the electrician got sacked from the US prison service for not servicing the
electric chair.
He
said in his professional opinion it was a death trap!
Paddy
and his wife are lying in bed and the neighbour's dog is barking like mad in
the garden.
Paddy
says 'To hell with this!' and storms off. He comes back upstairs five
minutes later and his wife asks,
'What did you do?'
Paddy
replies, 'I've put the dog in our garden, lets see how they like it!'
Paddy
is said to be shocked at finding out all his cows have Bluetongue. 'Bejeysus!'
he said, 'I didn't even know they had mobile phones!'
Mick
and Paddy are reading head stones at a nearby cemetery. Mick says 'Crikey!
There's a bloke here who was 152!'
Paddy
says 'What's his name?' Mick replies 'Miles from London!’

Wednesday 2nd September-
I'm not sure which worries me the most. The fact that the Government say
that there was no hidden agenda behind the release of the Lockerbie bomber,
or the fact that they expect us to believe it. I'm inclined toward the
latter, because these same politicians appear to have no qualms about
sending British Servicemen into battle in a place where the mortality rate
is increasing literally daily. It's like Vietnam all over again and proves
only one thing - Life is cheap.
How about this? If the politicians are that keen to sort out Afghanistan,
let's send them over there and bring the troops home!
Sunday 30th August -
Years ago, as a young guitarist struggling to learn to play the more
complicated chords used in Jazz etc, I was always afraid people listening
might notice any bum notes I played and I'll never forget these words of
wisdom uttered by the band leader who said, "Don't worry about it, half the
audience are tone deaf, and the other half are stone deaf!"
That saying has stuck in my mind, and you'd be amazed how true it is, as a
trip to one of the local pubs today showed.
Taylor, who I talked about recently, was singing there during the afternoon
raising money for Charity, and Chris and I went along to see her.
It turned out she doing alternating spots with a 3-piece band, and had been
invited to use their PA. This would have been fine, but unfortunately it
seemed that none of the band members knew anything about Sound Equalisation,
and, inevitably, the sound coming out of the speakers was pretty dismal, and
certainly not portraying what she is capable of.
My suspicions were confirmed when the group took over and I rolled a
cigarette which was my excuse to beat a hasty retreat outside.
I'm afraid I have to admit, I'm against murder, especially where
music's concerned.
Hopefully, as a result of this unfortunate incident, in future, Taylor will
thank others who offer the use of their equipment, but decline and use her
own. It's the only sure way of not having a repeat performance, and ensure
that she can produce a sound which reflects her abilities.
Wednesday 26th
August -
I've just had an email from Julie entitled "Tighten your what???" with
accompanying picture and caption.....

Helluva name for a vessel full of seamen!
and there's another good'un on the JOKES page
Friday 21st August -
Although I applaud the Scottish Minister's humane reasoning for sanctioning
the release of the Lockerbie bomber who was responsible for the deaths of
270 people, I have severe doubts that it was done for those reasons. Being
the cynical sod that I am, I'm more inclined to think it was money & power
related.
The fanatical welcome the bomber received on his home arrival is further
cause for concern because, knowing human nature, I can't help getting the
feeling that a large proportion of his fellow countrymen are probably
thinking "Brits are softies, let's up the ante!"
So let's just hope and pray that things don't start getting frantic because
there's no turning back now, the political prats have made the bed, but
we've got to lay on it!
and, on a lighter note......
Our good friends Scott & Michelle have gone on holiday to Cuba and I heard a
snippet on the News that there's a hurricane brewing. Fingers crossed!
Tuesday 11th August -
It's nice to be able to publish something a bit different now and then, and
this is certainly different!.....
Sunday 9th August -
Down to the Tamar Valley Westerners again because my ol' mate Bobby's
playing this time.

It was a great evening with one of the best turn-outs number-wise that
they've had for a long time.
I don't know if it's because the audience are more listeners than
dancers but Bobby went down the same road as Jim did last week, and I do
every time I'm there, by playing a real mixture of songs with a lot of
oldies chucked in for good measure and it went down well.
As always when you're enjoying something, the time just shot by and it was
time to go, so Bobby finished off with his usual number "Myfanwy", a lovely
Welsh ballad that he sings in Welsh which has always been a firm favourite
of everyone wherever he goes.
Then it was break down and pack the gear and back to my place for a
well-earned cuppa and a bite to eat before he and Anthea drove back down to
their caravan down at Fursdown Farm near Liskeard where they're staying for
a few more days before heading back to Wales. Let's hope the fine weather
keeps up!
Saturday 8th August -
Recently, Julie, Chris' good friend, brought to my attention her niece
Taylor who, she said showed a lot of potential as a singer, and it was
arranged for them to come around for a chat about one thing or another as
Taylor had also voiced a wish to learn to play the guitar.
At the tender age of 14 Taylor has already performed at several events,
including well-deserving charity do's and has had good write-ups and showed
a determination that took me back ?? years when I set out down that long
road.
Despite her age, Taylor has a
good head on her shoulders, and, thanks to her mum and dad, Jane and Gary, a
very balanced attitude about everything.
She is polite, respectful, and has the personality to project herself. All
the necessary attributes to further her ambition as a singer.
Obviously, at this age, her voice is still developing, but, with
the necessary dedication, she will achieve her goal and get the recognition
she deserves.
Remember the name Taylor Roper, it could become well-known with the right
opportunities.
Further to the above, Taylor performed at a charity event being held in a
pub called the Mount Pleasant in Plymouth that evening, and we went along to
watch.
We had our good friends Bobby Jones and his good lady Anthea with us all
day, because they had come down on holiday for a couple of weeks, and,
having told Bobby about Taylor, it was chance for him to hear her
sing.
When we walked into the pub, some young guy was thrashing away on a guitar
and bawling his head off in competition with a football match on a large TV
screen with the sound full on, making it extremely difficult all round.
I asked three different people serving behind the bar, including what I
assumed was the manager, if the sound could be turned down on the TV, and
they refused saying that, as they advertised football, they had to
have it on.
I'm afraid if it had been me who had to perform there, I would have told
them what I thought, and turned and walked out again, and Bobby voiced a
similar opinion.
Putting it mildly, it was a disgusting attitude, especially considering that
the artistes were giving their services free!
Full marks to Taylor, she went on-stage and sang her set and it was obvious
that the people listening enjoyed it, well done girl!
Sunday 2nd August - Another
"busy" day.
The artiste appearing at the Tamar Valley Westerners this week was our good
friend Jim Ryder and, as usual, it was arranged that he would
come to my place for a bite to eat and a bit of "feet-up time" before the
gig. It's a lot of years since I was on the road touring, most of my more
recent trips to festivals were with my Chris and we towed the caravan, but I
remembered what it was like to be away from home and the benefits of good
home cooking, so I knew Jim would appreciate the change in routine.
We had a meal around 4.30pm so there was plenty of time to digest it, then
sat around chatting about anything and everything until it was time or the
gig.
Jim put on a great night's entertainment, concentrating mainly on the
"older" Country material, and it was nice to hear songs I haven't heard (or
played) for ages.
For those not familiar with Jim's act, he sings and plays accompanying
guitar and his only other backing is a drum machine.
I've been down that road and, take it from me, it's bloody hard work, but
very rewarding. I didn't do it for long because, being used to having a band
behind me, I always missed the bass and other instruments, which is
why I started down the "midi" road where I could play ALL the instruments I
felt were needed for each song. The trouble is with using midi backing, once
you start the song that's it. There's no ad-libbing because you get
back what you put in, nothing more, nothing less.
Jim did a song called "Sunday Morning Coming Down" with just guitar (no
drums), and, to me it was one of the best numbers he played all evening.
At the end of the evening we said our fond farewells and look forward to the
next time we get together. Thanks for a lovely evening mate.
I had an email from my ol' mate Bobby Jones which raised a smile, read
on......
THE WORLD'S SHORTEST FAIRY TALE
Once upon a time a guy asked a girl, "Will you marry me?"
The girl said, "No", and the guy lived happily ever after and rode
motorcycles, went hunting & fishing, played a lot of golf,
had tons of money in the bank, left the toilet seat up, and farted
whenever he wanted to.
THE END!
Sunday 26th July - A lovely surprise.
We knew our "adopted kids" Chris James and Dawn were arriving in the
afternoon because Chris was playing for the Tamar Valley Westerners that
evening, but when they did arrive, they had a couple of surprise passengers
with them, Mick and Angie, who we hadn't seen for a long time.
They're a great couple and we've shared many a hour with them at different
Country festivals over the years. As with a lot of our Country friends,
they're great jokers and it was always a laugh a minute, so we had lots to
catch up on.
(Left to right - Angie, Mick, Chris, Dawn & Chris)
The afternoon flew by and, after getting fed and watered we all set off for
the club for the evening.
Angie and Mick are very keen Western Dancers which is right up my Chris's
street so I knew it was going to be a "busy" night.
I managed a few dances, (gammy foot'n all), but Angie, Dawn and Chris were
on their feet literally all evening!
Below, one of the dances Mick & Angie did with Chris behind learning the
steps
Chris was on form as usual, and
gave everyone a good mix of old and new, including some songs I'd never
heard before...
and next, the girls during one
of the rare occasions they were sat down....
As is always the case when
you're having good time, the evening was over before we knew it, but I
got Kenny to take this picture for me at the end of a perfect evening
Then we all went back to my
place for a cuppa etc before they started the long haul back to their
beloved Wales.
Roll on the next time!
Thursday 23rd July - A great
story about David and Goliath......
You might have caught the news snippet about Canadian musician Dave
Carroll who was flying to Nebraska to do a gig with his band.
While they waiting for take-off another passenger looked out the window and
saw the baggage handlers THROWING guitar cases around!
On landing, Dave checked his $3500 Taylor guitar and found it was
broken, so he reported the incident to the airline staff who showed complete
indifference to the damage.
TWELVE months later, he was no closer to obtaining any sort of compensation
for the damage, so he came up with a very ingenious plan.
He wrote a song entitled "United Breaks Guitars", recorded it, and put it on
YouTube.
The result of this was fantastic. The song had thousands of hits, the
airline suffered heavy losses financially, to the point where they FINALLY
admitted liability and offered to pay Dave compensation, which he refused
much to their embarrassment.
The song is great, extremely catchy, and the lyrics say it all, and that's
not the end of the matter because, it seems, Dave is bringing out a sequel
regarding the battle he had with the airline staff naming names which will
probably produce a lot of red faces.
If anyone who wants to hear the song just do a Google (or whatever) search
for "United Breaks Guitars" on Youtube.
All I can say is, good for you Dave, you're a man after my own heart. Power
to the People!
I've noticed, from time to time, that people are visiting my site looking
for Midifile downloads of different songs.
I thought I'd set the record straight by explaining a few things.
Firstly, I don't use Midifiles as such. I create the backings as Midifiles,
but I convert and store them on my laptop as Work Files, which is basically
like a mirror image of the Midifiles. I do it this way because,
whereas a Midifile takes time to load, a Work File is instantaneous. Just
find the song, hit the space bar and you're off and running.
Secondly, although I could offer my original Midifiles, they wouldn't sound
as good as they do when I play them because I don't use General Midi format.
I invested a considerable amount of money in buying the JV1010 sound module
I use, and more on the special sound card I installed into it which
gives me loads of dedicated sample sounds of Country and Western instruments
such as Steel, Banjo, Fiddle etc, so the instruments used in General Midi
would never have the same impact.
It's not that I don't want to share my work, more that it just wouldn't
sound that good.
One day I might get around to recording all my tracks in MP3 format but I'm
getting a bit old for mountain climbing!
Monday 20th July - The
continuing story on eBay.......
I've been logging on to eBay regularly to check on the lowlife selling the
FREEWARE software and, surprise surprise, he's STILL trading, which
means that, either the staff at eBay haven't got around to him yet, or they
know about him and couldn't give a toss. I'll give them the benefit of the
doubt as to which, but I've put Plan B into operation.
I've put a listing on eBay under video software entitled ADVANCED VIDEO
EDITOR which will run for the next 7 days.
The listing is VERY similar in appearance to the offending one but with a few
home truths in it.
It states that the programme is freeware, and about 30mb in size, which
makes putting it on a DVD about as stupid as p********g into the wind.
If, by some quirk of Fate, somebody actually places the 99p bid, I'll
supply them with what they've paid for at half the postage matey is charging,
but that's not really the objective.
All I want to do is make as many people as possible realise what's going on
and avoid this seller like the plague.
I've noticed that this is not the only thing he's selling, there's other
software as well, and my bet is they're freeware downloads as well, you just
have to know where to look!
On another subject, my brother Dave sent me a cracking joke which he
thought would make a good addition to the
JOKES page.
Tuesday 14th July - Another
little story
Recently, while surfing around eBay, I came across a piece of software in
the computer section called Advanced Video Editor.
After reading through the advert specifications I was extremely interested
and, at a starting bid of 99p with minutes to go, I bid for, and won the
auction.
I awaited arrival of the software which, according to the advert, was on a
DVD, supplied in a protective case.
The "package" arrived Saturday around noon, and I found it consisted of a
plain envelope on which was printed "Do not bend", and had a 1st class stamp
on it.
Inside was a CD in a plastic sleeve, and it was cracked and, of course,
unplayable.
This misrepresentation, along with the fact that I'd paid £1.98 p&p, put my
back up, and I emailed the seller to let him know I wasn't a "happy chappy",
and required him to send me what I had paid for, a DVD in a protective case.
Over the next 2 days I sent the buyer 3 messages, and got no
reply, even though on the 3rd message I gave him a deadline before I
contacted Paypal & eBay.
On getting no reply, I opened a dispute in Paypal and, within 10 minutes had
confirmation from Paypal that I had been given a full refund (including
p&p) by the seller, and the dispute was closed.
I was not happy with this because, to my way of thinking, this bloke was
getting away with murder. I checked the eBay section again and found that,
in fact, this guy was selling this piece of software every hour daily.
Then I had a look at the CD I'd received which was totally useless but had
the name of the actual programme printed on it, AVI Demux.
I did a Google search for the programme and found more than I'd bargained
for because AVI Demux is, in fact, a FREE piece of software that
ANYBODY can download!
So this crafy b******d had downloaded a FREE bit of software, stuck it on a
CD, and was selling it 24 times day at 99p plus £1.98p&p less the cost
of a 1st class stamp.
Even taking into consideration the cost of CD's, plastic sleeves, stationery
and eBay charges, he was on a good little earner, especially when you
realise that, so far, he's sold a lot of copies!
Whether or not his gravy train will keep running I wouldn't to like say,
because, armed with all the ammunition I had, especially his gross
misrepresentation of the actual goods, I contacted eBay and let them know
what he was up to, and have had a reply with a promise that he will be
investigated. Time will tell.
If I log on in a week or so's time, and he's still trading, I've got
another little surprise up my sleeve. We'll see what happens......
Sunday 12th July - A strange but
true story.
Picture, if you can, a bloke dressed in a wetsuit, standing under a golf
umbrella, cooking stuff on an open-air barbecque while it's chucking it down
with rain.
I'm hoping someone has a photo that I can publish because it did happen.
Chris and I had been invited by Jo, a friend of Scott and Michelle's to the
bbq in her back garden Saturday night and the weather was diabolical, but it
went ahead as planned.
I wasn't feeling up to standing around for hours, especially in the rain,
but Chris went along for a while, and returned a couple of hours later
saying she hadn't laughed so much for a long time. Everyone was gathered in
a couple of gazebos leaving Scott standing at the bbq doing the cooking, and
that's where the wet-suit comes in, because he was the one wearing it! I
would imagine the theory was, it's better to be warm and wet than cold and
wet. Ten out of ten for originality!
Monday 29th June - Last night I
played for the Tamar Valley Westerners, my first gig for 7 weeks and I'm
feeling it!
My policy of doing less gigs these days has it's pitfalls, namely the effort
used to perform to the best of one's ability. I suppose it's much like being
an athlete, if you don't keep up the fitness training you're going to live
to regret it. All I know is I'm aching all over, my ribcage, my chest
muscles, and my fingertips feel like they did when I first started playing
guitar!
Plus my left foot, which has been playing up recently, caused me
considerable discomfort, because most of my weight is on it when I'm using
the volume pedal.
I enjoyed the gig, but must admit, I was glad when it was over and I could
go home and put my feet up with a nice cup of tea and a cigarette.
With regard to my recent views on people taking pride in their work, I'm
delighted to be able to say, I found someone at Canon Support who was, not
only attentive to detail, but extremely competent, and she sorted my
long-standing problem in no time at all. It certainly proves the point that,
if you dig long enough, and deep enough, you'll eventually hit
pay-dirt and, as folk who read this page have probably already realised, I'm
an old hand at that. I'm a bit like a bulldog, once I sink my teeth into
something, I'll keep chewing away at it until I get to the marrow. This sort
of persistence is fine if you've got the right attitude, and time on your
hands, which I have in plenty.
Just in case you didn't hear, someone called Michael Jackson appears to have
died, that is, of course, if you're the slightest bit interested.
As usual, the media have played it to the ridiculous limits to which we have
become accustomed, but it never ceases to sicken me. It's like when there's
a nasty accident or a bad plane crash, the ghouls seem to come out of the
woodwork, especially if there are deaths involved.
The news item I've just heard relates to a soon-to-be concert in the UK
which, obviously won't happen, but the chilling part of the story is the
attitude of the organisers, who are offering people who bought tickets for
said concert, either their money back, or keep the ticket as a souvenir.
In other words, they're using the age-old weakness that they know everyone
has in varying degrees .... Greed! They're assuming that most people will
want the tickets as collectables. I hear there are already people looking to
get hold of them.
Still, as they say, it takes all sorts. I'm just relieved I'm not one of
them. Personally I wouldn't even want one for ass paper!
Thursday 25th June - Apologies
for the lack of entries again.
Both the funerals we attended went smoothly, if that's a good adjective to
describe such sad events.
I must admit to feeling a bit of a hypocrite at such occasions because I'm
an atheist and, although I believe in right and wrong etc, that's as
far as it goes.
I attend to pay my personal respects to the sadly departed, nothing more.
On another subject which saddens me because it seems to have gone - pride in
your work.
It has become increasingly evident to me that the younger generation in the
main, have lost the ability to feel concientious about their work.
The latest offenders are members of the Canon Support Section, but it seems
to apply to every big company. You can tell by the tone of their voices that
they're not the slightest bit interested in getting to the root of the
problem, they just want to get you off the phone as quickly as possible. I
won't rabbit on about it, suffice to say, they don't put my nose out of
joint without some serious repercussions!
If your computer has started playing silly buggers recently, you might have
picked up a "nasty" bit of malware that's doing the rounds which doesn't get
picked up by your anti-virus software. Mine didn't find it, and I use one of
the best on the market, BitDefender. Try doing a search on Google (or
whatever) for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. It's a great bit of software and
there's a FREE version you can download. The first time I ran it, it found
47 items! Next run found 5, and the next found 2 more. Fingers crossed, it's
been clear ever since! Definitely worth a look.
Sunday 14th June - A very
eventful week in several ways.
First we learned that a good friend has passed away which upset us both, but
Chris especially, as it was her best friends husband.
The we had another phone call from other close friends of ours to say that
their Mum had sadly passed away.
Then the TV Chris has in her front room decided to stop working,
it was one of those weeks.
I suggested to Chris, who is not a fan of large TV screens, that she
had the 26-inch set that I had and I would get something a bit bigger.
The next part of this story takes some believing, but I can assure you, it's
true.
At my suggestion we went to Tesco's where I opted for a lovely Samsung
32-inch HD set which had all the necessary connections I needed for all my
bits like a Media Player, DVD player etc and paid pence under £500. I took
it home, set everything up, and was well pleased with it's
performance.
The next day, out of idle curiosity, I did a Google search on the model I
had purchased, to see what other shops were charging compared to Tesco's.
I was very surprised to find that, at Tesco's Direct, the online shop, the
exact same model was quoted as costing £350!
Needless to say, I drove to the store where I bought it, with my receipt,
and questioned the high difference in price. Their explanation was that it
was always going to be cheaper to shop on-line, and while I agreed
that this is a well known fact, but I questioned a difference of £150, to
which they literally shrugged their shoulders.
The next day Chris and I went in the City Centre to do a bit of shopping,
and, in one of shops she wanted to look in, I spotted the TV I had
bought was marked up at £348.50!
Armed with this information, I contacted the Tesco's store again by
telephone and asked for the Store Manager. I explained to her how much
I had paid for the TV at the store she managed, the attitude of the staff
when I questioned the amount I had paid, and the fact that other stores in
the Plymouth area were, in fact, selling the same TV at least £150 cheaper.
I then asked her what she intended doing about it. She assured me she would
look into it and phone me straight back. True to her word, she phoned me
back and stated that if I returned the offending TV, I would be given a full
refund.
We went back to where I'd seen one at £348, bought it, took the other one
back to Tesco's and got the full refund.
Again, although it was different staff who dealt with the refund, the
attitude was the same, one of complete indifference. No one had bothered to
check with Head Office regarding the ridiculous difference in price,
and no one apologised for any inconvenience the incident might have caused.
It seems to be part and parcel of the times we live in, there's no longer
such a thing as taking pride in your work, or job satisfaction. Nobody
gives a toss, and when mistakes are made, everybody slopes shoulders and
says, "So what, I'm not interested."
Sunday 7th June - Yet another
shining example of the depths that the so-called Human Race has sunk to.
We visited the Cemetery today so that Chris could refresh the flowers in the
Garden of Remembrance on her Mum's plot. Without thinking she emptied the
water out of the holder and asked me to refill it with fresh water from the
tap. On going to the post where the tap was I found it was missing, so
I walked tp where I knew there was another tap and that one was gone as
well. On talking to another gent in the Garden he told us that vandals had
ripped out EVERY tap in the entire cemetery and the only source of
water now was at the Lodge House at the top of the site. I realised a long
time ago that young people today (not all I hasten to add) have no
respect for anything or anybody, but I didn't think that anybody could
stoop that low as to get a kick out of laughing at the fact that family
members who had lost loved ones, and spent hard-earned money buying flowers
to show how much they missed them only to find there was no water available
to put them in, they must be more than a little sick. It seems the word
RESPECT is extinct, it's certainly not something that the younger generation
knows the meaning of. I feel at times like this that I'm glad I'm as old as
I am, because I don't particularly want to be around to watch the continued,
and it would seem, the ever accelerating downward decline of the so-called
"human" race. We're going backwards!
Wed. 3rd June - Further to
the saga of the problem I've had with Virgin Media re accessing my WebPage
statistics, it's finally working again. I suppose that's not bad, it's only
taken them FOUR MONTHS to sort out the problem.... but wait ..... there's
more!
Since it's been working again I've been logging on and I noticed, in the
bottom left-hand corner of the screen "Webalizer Version 2.01", so I logged
onto Google and did a search, and found that Webalizer is a bit of FREE
software that anybody can download if it fits your system's specs! So some
bright spark at Virgin Media downloaded some free software and incorporated
it into the SelfCare site as part of the Virgin Media service. With that
amount of cheek you would have thought they'd have taken the time to see
that there's a newer version available, again for free! Still, I suppose
anybody with that much neck wouldn't be bothered with anything as minor as
an upgrade. They haven't openly said that the software is theirs, but they
haven't said it isn't either!
Here's another little gem that I bet not many people know about.
If you go to buy anything, and they try to sell you an extended guarantee,
DON'T BUY ONE, read on......
The Sale of Goods Act
The rights of customers: goods
If you sell your customers goods that
don't conform to contract - that aren't as described, are unfit for their
purpose or of unsatisfactory quality - you are legally
obliged to
resolve the problem if they seek redress.
The Sale of Goods Act states that if customers want to reject faulty
goods, they have to do so within a "reasonable time". A legal definition of
'reasonable' is not given though - it varies from case to case and could be
just a few weeks from the date of purchase.
If a customer rejects faulty goods within this 'reasonable' period, they're
entitled to ask for their money back. All customers can claim compensation
at any time if they choose. If you sell to consumers - not other traders -
they can ask for a repair or a replacement immediately (instead of asking
for a refund) at any time until six
years after purchase.
If you're dealing with a consumer, any repair or replacement you arrange
must not cause them too much inconvenience. You may have to pay for other
costs such as transportation. However, if a replacement is impossible and
the goods cannot be repaired economically, or vice versa, then you can offer
a full or partial refund.
In law you have a responsibility to your customer for up to six years from
the date of purchase (in Scotland, five years from discovery of the
problem). During this period, you are legally obliged to deal with any claim
of breach of contract.
If you don't believe the above, look it up but don't try to understand
the phrasing of the legal jargon, as usual it's designed to confuse
everybody!

Quite a while ago I purchased a DVD player which had a USB slot which
made it capable of playing video. I bought it because I was rapidly running
out of shelf space for my substantial collection of films etc, mostly
courtesy of the wonderful world of bittorrents! At the time it was a great
buy at Lidl's costing a mere £33, albeit I'd never heard of the makers and
the machine wouldn't accept anything over 1gig in size. Sadly it gave up the
ghost a while back and I started looking for a good substitute. I found the
ideal thing made by Western Digital who are one of the leading manufacturers
of Hard Drives. It's called a TV HD Media Player and you can hook it up to
any size external hard drive and watch videos, play music, or look at photos
(including slideshows) in just about every format going, it's
fantastic. So now, no more worries over shelf space.
Monday 1st June - A couple of new additions to the
JOKES page (thanks Julie)
Friday 29h May - Just a couple
of updates on current items.
On a positive note, after four months of persistent complaints by me to
Virgin Media, I can again access my WebPage Statistics. I appreciate that to
most people it might seem "much ado about nothing", but to me it has
always been a very handy tool and is, after all, a part of the service
Virgin Media advertise and you pay for.
On a less positive note, I've heard another version of how the
Oswestry Festival went last weekend, and it was nowhere near as rosy as the
initial report I received. Mind, this second report was from a
musician so I'm bound to appreciate the details more clearly, especially
bearing in mind past fiasco's that I have personally been involved in during
past festivals! Suffice to say there were quite a few disgruntled people who
probably won't bother to go there in the future. It's a shame because it
could be one of the best festivals going if the organiser paid a bit
more attention to advice from musicians rather than listening to other
people who think they know but in reality are clueless.
One other thing that's beginning to outstay it's welcome is the continuing
news coverage of the "corrupt" MPs expenses scandal. Fair do's they been
caught with their hands in the cookie jar, so let's get it sorted without
all the bells and whistles. One thing I will say is, I'm not a religious man
by any stretch of the imagination, I learned very early in life that most
so-called religious people are the biggest hypocrites walking this Earth and
the more I've delved into the subject, the more sure I am of my views,
but having said all that, a phrase springs to mind which everyone should
bear in mind regarding their outrage of the wayward MPs. "Let he
without Sin cast the first stone", because, let's face it, everybody's
guilty of the exact same thing, albeit probably on a far smaller scale.
Sunday 24th May - A couple of
telephone calls, one from Foxy, and one from Gwyndaf (ex Closing
Time).
The call from Foxy was to report on the Oswestry Festival at it's new
location in the Criftin's Village Hall, Ellesmere, where everything
was going well, and it was a great weekend. It's always better if you expect
the worst and everything turns out well. Far better than when you looking
forward to a good weekend and everything goes to ratshit!
The second call, from Gwyndaf who retired from the music scene not long ago,
made me feel that there was a glimmer of hope for Live Music because it's
sadly been on the decline for several years. He told me that, in Trefriw,
where he lives in Wales, someone has started organising an Open Night for
Live Musicians, where you can go along and join in, and the reponse has been
phenomenal with would-be musicians coming out of the woodwork! He'd gone
along there with his old partner from Closing Time, Len, and they did a spot
to get the ball rolling so to speak, but Gwyndaf said he was very impressed
with some of the talent that had come along to participate. Obviously
it wasn't just Country Music that was represented, it was a wide spectrum of
styles which was great because it shows that there are still a lot of people
out there who want to play live, even if they have to do it for
nothing!Obviously, if they're any good, and want to do it for a living, the
would-be's will have to sit down and have a serious think about how to go
about it because money's still pretty scarce out there and paying for
a band is something that got phased out with the advent of Kareoke etc.
It has always been a bona contention with me that a lot of good musicians
went hungry through lack of work while somebody with a half-tidy voice and
some backing tracks (prepared by someone else) got all the work they wanted.
There are a few who create their own backing, which is the way it ought to
be, but FEW is the operative word in an era where commerciallly-made
backing tracks can be picked up for a song. I know the Music Business has
always been "Dog EAT Dog" but, come on, let's show a little respect for
those that deserve it. I just hope that the "Live Music" trend does catch
on.
While I'm on the subject of backing tracks, here's a clip of the song I
wrote after our Nashville trip in 2009, "Heading
Home Again", one of four songs on, what I'm calling , my EPCD. The last line of the verse is the one I hope won't
upset our American friends, see what you think.....
Sat. 23rd May - Recently a
couple of people have asked to add me on their Facebook sites and I've had
emails asking me to log on and confirm etc etc.
Please don't add me if you have a Facebook site, I've looked at it, thought
about it, and decided I want nothing to do with it.
I've got this website and I've got an email address if anybody wants
to contact me, 'nuff said.
Tuesday 19th May - the pantomime
in Westminster goes on, if it keeps this up it will be getting listed
alongside all the other long-runners like Cats etc!
The latest casualty of war, the speaker Michael Martin is asked to resign.
What a load of bollocks that is, I've always thought he was a waste of space
but, come on folks, see this for what it is, a bloody smoke screen created
by the other conniving b*********s to steer the limelight away from them in
effect saying, "There, we're getting rid of the culprit, let's get back to
the way it was." Then there's the other prat David Cameron calling for
a General Election, as if his party members are whiter than white! I always
knew that MPs were arrogant bastards whose main aim in life was to better
their way of life and if it helped some other poor sod along the way, fair
enough, but even I didn't appreciate what a gutless, scheming load of horse
shit they really are! The frightening question is, "where do we go from
here?" What are the alternatives to our so-called Democracy. We could be run
by the Church, or some other questionable organisation so I suppose in a way
we should be thankful for small mercies, especially considering the latest
revelations regarding the Catholic Church in Ireland etc.......
I thought I'd pass the following on to one and all....
NOTICE ON CAR (NOT A JOKE)
Just last weekend on Friday night we parked in a public parking area
As we drove away I noticed a sticker on the rear window of the car. When I
took it off after I got home, it was a receipt for petrol. Luckily my friend
told me not to stop as it could be someone waiting for me to get out of the
car. Then we received this email yesterday:
WARNING FROM POLICE
BEWARE OF PAPER ON THE BACK WINDOW OF YOUR VEHICLE -- NEW WAY
TO DO CAR JACKINGS (NOT A JOKE)'
You walk across the car parking , unlock your car and get inside. You start
the engine and shift into Reverse.
When
you look into the rear-view mirror to back out of your
parking space, you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear
window. So, you shift into neutral, unlock your doors, and jump out of your
car to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view.
When you reach the back of your car, that is when the carjackers appear out
of nowhere, jump into your car and take off. They practically mow you down
as they speed off in your car.
And
guess what, ladies? I bet your purse is still in the car.
So
now the carjacker has your car, your home address, your money, and your
keys. Your home and your whole identity are now compromised!
BEWARE OF THIS NEW SCHEME THAT IS NOW BEING USED.
If you see a piece of paper stuck to your back window, just drive away.
Remove the paper later and be thankful that you read this e-mail.
I hope you will forward this to friends and family, especially to women. A
purse contains all kinds of personal information and identification
documents, and you certainly do NOT want this to fall into the wrong hands.
Please pass this on.
Thursday 14th May - Is it just
me, am I over-cynical regarding politicians and their lack of honesty and
morals? I've been watching some of the news clips regarding this latest
scandal to hit the headlines over MP's expenses claims where they've been
interviewing some of the culprits and getting the reactions of members of
the public. All I can say is it's both hilarious and very disturbing
because, on the one hand you've got a load of bent politicians who are
only apologising because they got caught, and on the other members of the
public saying how wrong it is and that the MPs ought to be ashamed of
themselves. From what I've seen and heard, some of them ought to be doing
time as we speak! It's the old old story, one law for them and another for
the rest of us, and that, unfortunately, does not cover just politicians, it
involves an awful lot of people. The saying goes "it's not WHAT you know,
it's WHO you know" and that folks, is the sad fact of life, ask any
Freemason, they're experts. And, on a lighter note:

Sunday 10th May - Chris is like a dog with umpteen
tails, proud as punch because Kieran, her grandson who now lives with her,
had just finished the 35 mile version of the world-renowned 10 Tors walk
which takes place every year at this time over the Saturday and Sunday. 35
miles over rough terrain like Dartmoor is no mean feat for a 15 year-old,
and something he can be proud of listing amongst his accomplishments. She's
sat here waiting for a phone call from him to go and pick up up to go home
and he's going to be tired, grubby, and extremely hungry. I had a big
appetite when I was young but this young man had got hollow legs when it
comes to food. Still, at just under 6 feet tall with size 12 boots it's not
really surprising, there's a lot to fill up! Well done mate!
Then a little later .....
About 8pm I'm sat relaxing when the phone rang. It was Lin from the Tamar
Valley Westerners saying,"Where are you? You're supposed to be here with
us!" With all the 10 Tors stuff going on I'd completely forgotten I was
playing that night, and to make matters worse, Chris had the car at her
place so I didn't even have wheels. Lin said not to worry, she'd organise
something and phone me back which she did a couple of minutes later to tell
me that two cars were on their way to pick me up. Luckily it's only about a
five minute journey from where I live now to their club so I was still
getting the gear out ready when they turned up. We piled it all in the
cars, drove back to the club, set it up, and I was playing by 8.40pm which
wasn't bad going, but the fun wasn't over for me yet as my new laptop
decided to play silly buggers, or at least the Virtual Jukebox programme I
use to play my midifile backing was. To cut a long story short Chris had to
drop everything, grab the old laptop, and bring it to the club so I could
carry on. Thankfully, after a short break, I got going again and everything
ran smoothly for the rest of the evening, then, at the end of the gig, Chris
dropped me back to offload the gear, and we found that we'd left two stands
back at the club which we'll have to pick up tomorrow. Talk about one of
those nights!
There's a
few new additions to the
JOKES page thanks to my good mate Bobby
Jones...... and this one, from Ramrod, which is very topical at present:


Friday 8th May - All I can
say is "Thank God for BitDefender!"
2 days ago I tried to update the virus definitions in my BitDefender
Antivirus Plus v10, which has served me well for the last 4 years or so, and
I got a warning that the programme was unable to connect to the download
server. Thinking they might be doing some site maintenance I closed it down
and left it a while. Later that day I tried again and got the same message
so now I'm wondering what's going on and went to Google to access the
BitDefender site. All I got was a box saying "unable to connect", so I tried
logging on to something else and that was fine. I tried umpteen different
sites and they were all fine, but no access to BitDefender. I phoned my mate
Scott to tell him and he told me that another friend of his had picked
up a new worm which is doing the rounds. In fact, it's not a new one, it's a
new variant of a nasty called "win32.worm.downadup", and is extremely
difficult to get rid of because whatever drives you attach to your pc (for
example Flash Keys, exterior storage drives etc) this blood thing gets onto
it and spreads like wildfire. It seems it's sole purpose is to stop you from
being able to log on to ANY site on the internet connected in ANY way with
antivirus software, and ANY site connected in any way to Microsoft.
Thankfully it didn't affect my ability to end emails and believe me, did I
send emails! I was emailing the Support Section of BitDefender like it was
life threatening, well, you know what I mean. They asked me to "do this" and
"look at that" etc etc which was awkward because I could "do this" but I
couldn't "look at that" because I couldn't access any of the links they were
giving me! Eventually we figured out that the only way to get around the
problem was for me to go to Chris's place, use her computer to download the
new version of BitDefender 2009, take it back to my place, uninstall my old
software, install the new version and run it. It sounds a bit long-winded
but that's what I did and, the Saints be praised, it worked a treat,
everything's back to normal. It seems the new version of BitDefender had a
few more options built in, one of which is a manual scan of ANY part of ANY
drive connected to my computer, another is, when you connect a storage drive
of any description, for example a CD, DVD, flash pen etc, BitDefender
detects it and offers to scan it for viruses, 2 very useful bits of
kit. It turns out that it was BitDefender who detected this worm in
the first place, so who better to sort it out.
Monday 4th May - Bearing in mind Easter Monday's
fiasco, Chris and I decided, rather than trying to drive somewhere, we'd
stay a little closer to home and just go for a walk around Plymouth Hoe and
the Barbican. It's silly really, it's literally on my doorstep and we only
go there once in a blue moon, whereas people come from all over the world to
see it because it has so much history. I took the Canon along just in case
and took some shots, and the two I've put on here are a sad reminder
that human nature hasn't changed in thousands of years. The first pic shows
the War Memorial which, as you would expect for the City of Plymouth as it
was once a major garrison city for every branch of the armed forces, it's
pretty impressive. All the dark-coloured plates are in fact cast iron plates
containing the names of all those who gave their lives in the Great Wars and
it is a fitting tribute to them. Unfortunately, some low-life who crawled
out from under a rock, saw fit to rip a load of these plates off the wall
and try to sell them off as scrap, and you can imagine the hue and cry that
caused. Thankfully, it looks as if everything's been put right again:
The second pic shows Sir Francis Drake, you know, the
guy who played bowls on Plymouth Hoe when the Spanish Armada was
coming. He was, supposedly, a great seaman and explorer in the days of
Elizabeth the first, but I reckon, if the truth was told, he was no more
than a bloody pirate who could handle a ship better than most. I had
to smile when I took the picture because, if you look at his head, it's a
great reminder that, no matter how big and important you might think you
are, you can get shit upon just as easily as the rest of us mere mortals:
From the Hoe, we walked down to the Barbican where
there was a big outdoor Jazz Festival going on. There were plenty of people
and a nice atmosphere as everyone listened to the music being supplied by
different groups and solo artistes. I have never really been keen on Trad
but I have to say that the most impressive outfit as far as I was concerned
was a 4-piece outfit consisting of a tuba player, a clarinet player, a banjo
player and a percussionist. I say percussionist because there wasn't a drum
in sight. All he had was one stick, a wood block, a small washboard, a
tambourine and a whistle, but he certainly made good use of them and it
reminded me of my skiffle days! It was good lively music, which is more than
could be said for a band of some dozen or so other musicians who were doing
a blues number which was so repetitive it was certainly giving me the blues.
I said to Chris the guitarist must have bored out his skull, playing the
same 4 chords over and over with no improvisation whatsoever. There's no
accounting for taste.
Friday 1st May - and the battle with Virgin media is
still going. It's just as well their complaint section is up in Manchester
because if it was in Plymouth I'd have been locked up by now charged with
murder, or at the least grievous bodily harm because their attitude is
disgustingly condescending and full of pat well-rehearsed answers which are
no help whatsoever. The guy I spoke to this morning is someone I've spoken
to frequently over the LAST FOUR MONTHS, and I got the impression from
his replies to me regarding the problem that he just wanted me to hang up
and stop pestering him. I did eventually, but not before I'd torn him a new
asshole and obtained the name and address of his boss's, boss's, boss's
boss, someone called Neil Burkett who is, from all accounts, the CEO
of Virgin Media. We'll see what sort of reply, if any, I get to the
following letter I wrote to him:
Dear Sir
Even as I put pen to paper (so to
speak), I have the feeling that it is a futile gesture bearing in mind
dealings to date with anyone connected with Virgin Media, but I had to make
you aware that, in my humble opinion, your company is being run by a bunch
of smooth-talking, arrogant retards who, in reality, couldn’t give a toss
about the people to whom they owe a living, namely the PAYING customer,
myself included.
For years I was a contented
customer with Telewest, then Blueyonder, and then your bunch took over, and
soon things began to go pear-shaped. I have a website, which seems to be
quite popular, and I used to log on to the SelfCare site from which I could
access My Webpage statistics and note how many were logging on, the sort of
subjects they were browsing, and the sort of subjects they were searching
for. This was one way I could keep my site interesting and was very useful.
Last year, just after the Virgin take-over, this part of
the service became un-obtainable and, despite frequent complaints from me
(and I suspect many others), it remained that way for SIX MONTHS. Finally,
some bright spark fixed it and everything was fine for about 2 months, then,
lo and behold at the end of January this year, the facility disappeared
again, and hasn’t been available since despite frequent complaints from
yours truly.
I have heard every excuse in the book, been apologized to
profusely, been promised the earth, and even been informed that they don’t
know what the fault is with the attitude that no one really wants to know,
so why don’t I just go away stop pestering them over something so miniscule
and come back when I’ve got a REAL fault.
My response to them (and you, if
you are of
like mind) is, it is an integral part of the
service you advertise, and, as such, should be readily available to ALL
PAYING CUSTOMERS WHO WANT TO MAKE USE OF IT.
Your company are, in reality,
breaking the law, as you are advertising something which isn’t available,
and I strongly suggest that someone in the organization does something
positive about it before I feel
the need to start contacting the Office of Fair
Trading and any other organization better suited to make the case for me.
Richard Branson has already lost
a few million recently, the last thing he needs is bad publicity
as the result of a workforce with a “couldn’t
care less” attitude who seem to forget that without people like myself,
PAYING CUSTOMERS, they wouldn’t even have a job.
Yours sincerely
It'll be interesting to see if I get a reply, we'll see.
I just won't hold my breath.

Thursday 30th April - How's this
for nostalgia!
I grew up in the time of the 78rpm records, and as a lad was lucky enough to
have the 1st amplified record player in the neighbourhood. I used to
balance the speaker facing out my open bedroom window and entertain the
neighbours to Lonnie Donnegan, Bill Haley and Elvis to name but a few. They
probably called me all the names under the sun, but, funnily enough, no one
ever complained to my parents! Then some bright spark invented the 45, which
usually contained four songs instead of the two you got on a 78, and it was
smaller which was great because they didn't take up so much room and were
easier to carry around!
I'm not playing much nowadays and I haven't been putting together any new
material but I've had a few numbers which I thought it would be nice to
record, one of them being a song I penned after Chris and I went to
Nashville in October 2006, which I wanted to send to out to our good friends
Rod and Shirley who live there. I hope they won't be offended by the
lyrics because one of the lines is "Nashville's not a place, that I would
ever want to go again"! Don't get me wrong; I thoroughly enjoyed the visit,
the people were extremely friendly, and the music was fantastic, but the
place is living on a reputation, and the food was, to a basic eater like me,
bloody awful! When you've got a Hiatus Hernia, and you've got to avoid spicy
food, it doesn't leave a lot of leeway over there. I spent the first week
living on basic Chinese nosh like special fried rice while I tried to find
something else I could eat, and it's all take-away on polystyrene plates
with plastic knives and forks (but that's another story)! Suffice to say I
wouldn't want to live there.
Anyway, as I only had four songs that I really wanted to record I thought
I'd make the equivalent of an old 45, so, that's what it is, a 45-style CD,
and the songs are:
"
LookAt Us", a beautiful song from Vince
Gill, "The Fishing Song" from Brad Paisley, "If You Wanna Make Me Happy"
courtesy of Alan Jackson, and my song "Heading Home Again", giving a playing
time of 18 minutes.
Wednesday 29th April - I've just received a letter
from Rick & Emily who organise the annual Oswestry C&W Festival in which he
asks if I could let people know that, contrary to a lot of crap going around
about this year's do being cancelled, it is still on. Unfortunately,
due to the greed of the Oswestry showground's organisers who decided
to hoist the rent by £500, there WILL be a change of venue. The festival
will now be at Criftin's Village Hall (The Parish Pump), Criftins,
Ellesmere, Shropshire, SY12 9LE which is situated off the A5 on Duddleston
Heath on the B5068 (sign-posted St. Martins.) The show starts on
Thursday 22nd May, and runs through Fri 23rd, Sat 24th, Sun 25th, finishing
on Mon 26th as usual. There is still a bar and ample parking for
caravans but it might be advisable to book as soon s possible if you're
thinking of attending, just to avoid confusion. To the misguided souls who
have been spreading the false rumours - get a life.
A website I came across whilst surfing contained information as to how to
use a formula supplied to work out, using the serial number stamped on the
head of my Gibson RD Artist, the day, month and year of actual manufacture.
Using it I was able to ascertain that my RD was made on the 26th May 1977
making it one of the forerunners of the series. Not that it makes
scrap of difference to me, it's always been very special.
Sunday 26th April - A joke Ramrod sent me about
vampire bats paled into insignificance against a news item I heard today
where David Cameron, the leader of the Opposition, challenged Gordon Brown
to a face-to-face verbal punch-up on TV. Aside from the cost of staging such
a debaucle, can you imagine it? You wouldn't get a straight answer
from either one of them so what the hell would be the point, unless of
course, they both want to behave like a couple of suicidal lemmings and show
everybody just how big a joke this country's politics are nowadays. It seems
that whatever these prats do, it's always "Joe Muggins Public" who end up
footing the bill one way or another.
Wednesday 22nd April, it's time
to admit that I'm a cantankerous, cynical old bugger who calls a spade a
spade come whatever. First, of the latest couple of incidences was yesterday
when the front door bell rang, and I opened it to find a man and woman
standing there armed with the usual briefcases full of wonderful facts
about religion etc. If you're at all religious I would suggest that you
don't read the next bit because it might offend you, it's up to you.... The
woman asked me if I believed in God and I said no; then she asked me
if I believed in Evolution to which I replied, " Yes, I believe that
man hasn't really evolved since he got up off his hands and knees, we're
still bloody animals!", and proceeded to shut the door noting the looks of
total bewilderment on the faces of the couple on the doorstep.
The second incident occurred today when I had to go into the bank to
complete a couple of tasks. There were only about 6 people in front of me so
I assumed it wouldn't take long, but I hadn't taken into consideration the
mentality of a young woman who was stood at the counter being served. Just
as the bank assistant was finalising her transaction, the woman's
mobile phone rang which she promptly answered, leaving the bank assistant
sitting there with her arm out holding the stupid woman's card as she
carried on a conversation on the phone. After about a minute, having noted
the looks of disgust on everybody else in the queue waiting to be served, I
bluntly interrupted the woman's telephone conversation, and told her, in no
uncertain terms to take the card the bank assistant was trying to give her
and get the hell out of the way as there were others trying to get served. I
could see, by the expressions on the faces of others standing in the
rapidly-growing queue that most of them agreed with me but nobody wanted to
say anything which really gets my dander up. If you've got something to say,
for Christ's sake say it, or are you afraid you won't be eligible for any
popularity contests they might be holding somewhere.
Wednesday 15th April, I went into Computerbase, the
shop I frequent for the majority of my computer-related issues, and
collected my brand spanking new Acer 5630Z laptop which runs on Windows XP
Pro, NOT Vista! I took it home, installed all the software I needed with no
problems whatsoever, and everything runs smooth as silk, which just bears
out everything I said about Vista, it's definitely NOT user friendly. So if
there are any other disgruntled folk out there who want to get a new laptop,
but don't want one with Vista on it, it is still possible. There are
still manufacturers out there supplying laptops with XP, the crafty way they
do it is they advertise the laptop with the Vista Business Edition PLUS
optional XP Pro. Obviously it's going to be a bit more expensive, but
if you're as set against Vista as I am, it's money well-spent for the peace
of mind of a stable work-station. You've probably gathered by now that
the Insurance company had second thoughts about how they handled my claim
and agreed to do it my way.
Monday 13th April, Easter
Monday, is a day that will be long remembered as a classic example of
how the best of plans can go to ratshit in the blink of an eye.
Chris said it would be nice to go somewhere for the day and after giving the
matter a little thought I suggested a trip to Paignton in Devon which is
only 30 odd miles up the road so to speak, and offers a nice
change of scenery etc. Cornwall was ruled out as, from past experience,
we've found the roads get very congested which doesn't make for a
relaxing day, and so we set off for Paignton at about 11am. As we were in no
particular hurry I thought it would be nice to take the scenic route, and so
we went via the back roads to Totnes, and on to Paignton. Everything was
going to plan until we were roughly halfway between Totnes and Paignton when
we came to a grinding halt in a long line of traffic which as moving
at an incredibly slow rate. After moving a distance of about 2 miles in 30
minutes I decided that it was best to do a u-turn and head back to Totnes
and think of somewhere else to go. We drove back there with no problems
but as we entered Totnes we hit a load more traffic so, again I took an
alternative route, which was fine for about 10 minutes, and then we hit
another big traffic build-up. By this time we were all getting a bit fed up
with it all so when I saw a sign for Plymouth I followed it and then found
the road was blocked off and there were a group of workmen standing in the
road having a laugh at the expense of all the cars who were queueing up with
no clue as to where they were going. I asked one of them why the road
was blocked off to the A38 and he said there'd been a big accident involving
3 vehicles in which there were fatalities, and the Police had closed down
the A38. When I ask for directions he just said that I should follow the
traffic which was ridiculous because there were no signs anywhere re an
alternative route and nobody had a clue.
Again I did a u-turn and found another way to go, and again everything was
fine for about 15 minutes when again we ran into traffic. We were able to
get to Trago Mills, where we got something to eat and stretched our legs for
a while. It was obvious by now that Devon & Cornwall Constabulary had
successfully gridlocked all traffic in South Devon anywhere near the A38, so
I decided, since my car doesn't float, to get home any time that day,
I had no alternative but to head for Dartmoor and take the long way home
which is what we did, and, throughout the entire journey, not once did we
see any indicatory signs re alternative routing or a single Policeman
directing traffic. As an ex bobby, I appreciate that, when there's a traffic
accident, evidence needs to be gathered regarding what happened, especially
when there are fatalities involved but, these idiots closed down the major
trunk road in Devon for EIGHT HOURS so you can imagine the chaos it
caused, especially because there was no Police prescence anywhere offering
alternative routing. God help us when something serious happens if that's an
example of how they handle traffic, you might as well put your head between
your legs and kiss your ass goodbye!
Monday 6th April, just a couple
of snippets. I played at the Parkway Club last night for the Renegades /
Medicine Wheel Club and sadly, like all the other clubs, numbers were down
and they're not likely to improve in today's financial climate. It was nice
to see our old friends though and Chris had a chance to catch up on
everything, especially how Mike H was getting on after his stroke. Hopefully
now, after all the warnings he's had, Mike will retire gracefully, put his
feet up, and let the world go by. I appreciate, knowing Mike, that he will
find it extremely hard to do, he's a very active person, but I think his
options are getting slimmer by the minute. Anyway, that's my five-penneth, I
played his favourite song, "High Noon" so he'd know we're thinking of
him.
On the laptop front, feet were being dragged as expected, so I did, what I
always do in situations like this, I give things a helping hand, or a big
shove to help them along. I did some digging to find out who manufactured
the Advent laptop and eventually traced them to be DSG International
who, surprise surprise, are part of the Dixons Group. I wrote to them asking
for the XP Pro drivers and had a reply stating that the laptop had
been built around Vista, and there were no XP drivers available. Armed with
this piece of information in writing I went to the Curry's store where I got
the laptop and they had no real alternative but to give me a full refund as
I couldn't change the damn thing over to XP Pro even if I wanted to.
Dinnertime today (Mon) I had a phone call from the guy supposedly dealing
with my complaint to say that he'd been in contact with a representative of
the Dixons group who had stated that they were not prepared to take back the
laptop, so you can no doubt imagine the pleasure I had in telling him that I
had already taken the item back and got a full refund. I also told him that
refunded plastic card to the value of ... was already on it's way to
him accompanied by copies of various letters relevant to the complaint, and
that I expected things to be sorted out quickly to my satisfaction or
else..... I also pointed out to him that I was aware that DSG were not
only the manufacturers of the laptop in question, they were also the
Insurance brokers handling the claim, and that, as a paying customer, I
expected things to be sorted out to MY satisfaction, not to the benefit of
the Dixons group. It's a bit naughty when you think of it. You expect a fair
shake and all you're getting is the bloody shake-hand brigade lining their
deep pockets, well they picked the wrong guy to piss off and I
think they're beginning to realise that. I'll let you know what happens.....
Nothing to report re the Virgin Media problem at present but it's
still there. How they ever got to be a multi-million pound concern is beyond
me, it certainly doesn't say much for the competition!
Tuesday 31st March - more
updates .......
First, the laptop, which is still not sorted. I've sent the following letter
to the Insurance company and am awaiting their response:
I am writing reference a recent Insurance claim (in fact the ONLY claim I’ve
ever made) regarding the alleged replacement of my laptop which,
unfortunately, was accidentally damaged beyond economical repair.
On the 21st March I received a letter from
DSG Insurance Services containing a Replacement Card to the value of £300
(less the £100 excess I had to pay) which I was advised would enable me to
go to any Curry’s or PC World store to obtain a new laptop to that value.
On Sunday 22nd March I visited Curry’s at
Coypool near Plymouth to get a new laptop and discovered that ALL the
available machines came pre-installed with Windows Vista rather than Windows
XP Pro, and I was further informed that I had no choice regarding this.
I have since tried to install essential software which
was the sole reason for possessing said laptop and it failed dismally which
means that the laptop is of no practical use to me whatsoever.
I have contacted your Claims Dept twice with regard to this matter and have
been glibly informed that the item was replaced and the fact that my
socalled “obsolete software” won’t run is classed as “consequential loss”.
I have surfed the Internet using
my desktop (which runs very efficiently on XP Pro) and found hundreds of
examples of laptop manufacturers STILL selling their products with the
option to install XP Pro rather than Vista. I have attached a copy of just
one of the entries I found where you can see that XP Pro
IS STILL AVAILABLE ON CERTAIN MACHINES. The
fact that the Dixons group are not amongst those sympathetic to the cause is
your problem, not mine.
In my opinion you have NOT replaced my old laptop
because the replacement will not operate in the same way, and, in it’s
present form, is of no use to me whatsoever. Therefore you have not
fulfilled the Insurance cover that I am paying for and I would like to know
what you intend to do about it.
I'm still waiting for a reply one way or the other.
Next, the new electronic cigarette is the bee's knees. Before I bought
it I emailed the seller and asked a load of questions. The very next day I
had a reply with answers to all my questions and that, coupled with what I
already knew from Scott, was good enough for me, I bought it. Since then, I
have also bought an extra battery, an extra atomiser, and a plonky little
case which has room for 2 batteries, 2 atomisers, a fully-assembled
cigarette, and a load of spare cartridges, which is very useful if you're
going anywhere.
I've had another gripe going
on with Virgin Media which I haven't mentioned until now because after the
last bout which went on for over 6 months, I thought people would be sick to
death of it. It involves the same fault as last time, I can't access my Web
Page Statistics on their SelfCare site. I've been plugging away at them
since January when it went wrong and I'm sick and tired of their attitude
but today was the last straw when I received an email stating the following:
Thanks for getting in touch
with our team recently about your Virgin Media service. We hope things are
now sorted out for you.
In fact, that's what we're writing
about. At Virgin Media, we want to make sure we give you the best customer
service out there. So we'd really like to find out how things went for you
when we dealt with your issue.
We've put together a few quick questions about how things
went, and we'd really appreciate it if you'd take the time to let us know
your thoughts. It shouldn't take longer than around one minute to complete.
By finding out exactly how
things went for you, we'll be able to understand the things we're getting
right, and if there's anything you'd like us to do better. And we promise to
use your feedback to make improvements where we can.
Keeping my answers printable took an extreme amount
of self control but I think I conveyed the fact that I'm not a happy chappy,
we'll see.

Reference the two articles
below, here's an update.
With regard to the laptop, I went on a PC World site (because my
investigations revealed that the Advent series are in fact manufactured by
them) and sent them an email via their support centre. I'll give them their
due, I had a reply the very next day, the contents of which did take me one
step closer but not close enough. Vista really is a load of crap.
I found this little gem of a quote whilst surfing re opinions on Vista:
"Anyone that thinks vista is a remotely reasonable upgrade has one hand on
their mouse and the other in their lap."
As to the fun and games with the electronic cigarette, I duly opened a
complaint in the Paypal Resolution Centre (which entails sending the
offending seller an email complaint via Paypal to which the seller responds
through Paypal etc etc), and guess what????.... they've decided to give me a
complete refund on receipt of the returned goods. My advice to anyone buying
online is, if there's a Paypal option, use it. Then if there's any funny
business you stand a good chance of getting your money back.
It's soap-box time again, and
I'd like to sound off on two subjects that are currently giving me a royal
pain in the ass.
The first is the sheer arrogance of Bill Gates of Microsoft, and all the
lesser beings in computer outlets all over the world who say if you want to
buy a laptop it comes pre-loaded with Windows Vista so tough! Who the hell
do they think they are??? I thought the buyer's preferences set the market,
so, either there's more morons out there with no sense of taste whatsoever,
or I'm the moron for not accepting it as gospel and following all the
other sheep like a good little boy. Vista is, like most new products for
computers, full of a load of crap which is no good to man nor beast, but
sadly lacking when it comes to individuality and accessing things you want
to get to or change. I'm pretty confident that I'm not alone in my
opinion of this software because on surfing Google I have found literally
thousands of people complaining about it. One guy described it as "all bells
& whistles and of no practical use whatsoever. It's definitely built for the
makers not the users. Having had an unfortunate accident with my old laptop,
I had to replace it with a new one and, whilst I can't fault the
actual machine, I could sit here all day and gripe about the cons of Vista.
I will, however, state one example of it's uselessness. I installed my old
version of Cakewalk Pro9 which is the software I use on stage whilst
performing, and it installed no problem. The problems started when I
tried to open the programme, it just froze, seized up
completely. I couldn't shut the programme down again, not even with
a Control-Alt-Delete and ended up having to crash out! I then tried to
uninstall the software and it wouldn't do that either so you can imagine
what colour the air was! If Bill gates had been standing next to me when it
happened he would have walking funny for a week with what I had in mind!
So here's a thought to contemplate. If everybody in the world didn't buy a
new laptop for a week so that Gatesy noticed a dip in his weekly pay check,
maybe then these arrogant b*******s would stop and listen to the
people who supply their bread & butter.
The second gripe involves the
eletronic cigarette I bought. Beware the imitations and shoddy lookalikes,
which is what the one I bought turned out to be.
I persevered with it for a week before finally contacting the firm I bought
it off. I questioned it's performance and appearance (which was slightly
different from that illustrated in the acompanying booklet ) and, after
getting nowhere with my criticism of it's acual performance as opposed to
what they said it was supposed to do, I said that I intended sending it
back, and would expect a complete refund. I was bluntly told that there
would be no refund as, as far as they were concerned it met the criteria of
their description of it, to which I bluntly replied that my next
correspondence regarding the issue would be via Paypal Resolution Centre.
Having already had two claims awarded in my favour against prats similar to
this guy I feel reasonably confident as to the outcome, especially when I
provide the illustrated proof I have to offer! The one my mate Scott bought
(just before I bought mine) is doing everything it's supposed to do and he's
well pleased with it so, guess what .... I'll get one from them!
To anyone who noted the website address I supplied in my earlier entry...
avoid it like the plague! The site to visit is "the electronic smoking shop"
on eBay.
Wednesday 18th March, time to report on the
electronic cigarette which arrived yesterday, giving me time to try it out
before putting to paper so to speak. It's quite straight-forward to assemble
being made up basically 3 pieces, the battery, the atomiser, and the
cartridge containing the fluid, so, as long as the battery is charged, and
there's fluid in the cartridge, you're ready to go. Actually smoking the
thing is a little strange at first because, although it looks like a
cigarette, it doesn't feel like one. If the part that you put in your mouth
had been made a little more spongey, instead of being hard plastic, it would
make a world of difference. The range of flavours and strengths of nicotine
levels is impressive and any individual should, after a little trial &
error, come up with, what they consider to be, their favourite taste, and
nicotine level. My first attempt was made using a full strength tobacco-
flavoured cartridge which, I found to be far too strong after smoking Golden
Virginia rollies for years! Whether or not I will convert to using this
device fully is the 64000 dollar question, but up to now, since it arrived I
haven't rolled a fag, so time will tell.
Sunday 15th March, my first gig
since the end of January! Needless to say I was a little cautious on
the vocals to start with and kicked off with "A Good-hearted Woman" which is
easy on the vocal chords which, after all, are only muscles, and if they
don't get used regularly it takes a while to wake them up. I also found,
with great relief, that the old Senile Dementure has not taken over
because, apart from the odd word "fluff", I managed all the songs I did with
no problems and the sets seem to fly by. It was a good evening although the
numbers of members still seems to be diminishing, but with the present
economic climate that comes as no surprise. It would a great shame if the
Tamar Valley Westerners did fold because they've been running for over 25
years which is no mean feat and have given pleasure to countless people who
have enjoyed their shows.

A recent news item about the new electronic cigarettes prompted me to
investigate further and what I found was very interesting. I phoned my
mate Scott to find out what he'd heard about them and he cooly informed me
that he'd bought one and it had just arrived! I gave him time to suss it out
and then rang again to see if it was a "thumbs up" or a "thumbs down", and
he said he was very impressed although he did say it tasted different. It
was a little later he phoned me back to say he'd found he reason it was
different. The cartridge he'd used was APPLE FLAVOUR, but once he'd used it
for a while he thought it was great! That's the glory of this gizmo, you can
get cartridges filled with umpteen different flavours in varying strengths
obviously including tobacco which comes in full, medium, light or zero
strengths of nicotine. You can buy ready-filled cartridges or refillable
cartridges which you charge yourself with liquids bought from the same
company and each cartridge gives you the equivalent of up to 20 cigarettes.
Obviously "up to" is a variable depending on how you use the cigarette, but
whatever way you cut it, it works out a damn sight cheaper than ordinary
fags. I worked out that if I bought a 30ml bottle of what they call "E
liquid", and a box of 25 refillable cartridges, it would give me the
equivalent of 5,625 cigarettes, working on the assumption that each
cartridge was used 15 times, and each cartridge was refilled 15 times
(which they say is possible). (25 times 15 = 375 times 15 = 5625) When you
think a 30ml bottle of liquid comes to under £23 (inc p&p), and a box of 25
refillable cartridges comes to less than £13 (inc p&p) which gives a total
of less than £36, and compare it to what you pay out for 5625 cigarettes
which is at least 281 packets of 20...... I haven't bought tailor-mades for
years but I think they're at least £5 for 20 so 281 times £5 is £1405!
If you smoked 20 a day they would last over 9 months, if you smoked 30 a day
they would last over 6 months. So for that period of time you would save
1405 less 36 = £1369. I'm not going into the technicalities of the
thing at this stage, suffice to say, if I had one, I could get down
off-stage after a set, sit down, relax, and smoke this and nobody could say
a dickie bird because it's perfectly legal, and the thought of not having to
go outside to freeze your nuts off or get drenched is like manna from
Heaven. To those narrow-minded critics who say it's a filthy habit, I say,
not any more, because with this contraption there's no smoke (because all
you breathe out is water vapour), no smell, no passive smoking, no fag ash,
no brown-stained fingers, no burnt clothing and, (at present anyway) those
robbing b*******s in government don't get their slice of the cake! It goes
without saying I've bought one and, hopefully, it's on it's way. So once it
arrives I can come back with a more personal opinion but, in the mean-time,
if there's anyone out there reading this that would like to know more about
it, go to
www.theelectroniccigarette.co.uk
it's an eye-opener! By the way, the one I bought was the super E which
even looks like a real cigarette!
My apologies for the recent lack
of entries, especially with this next entry being a very sad one.
Sadly, a good friend Reg Wilcox, who we befriended when I was playing at
Tumble in Wales, died of leukemia last Saturday morning (21st Feb).
Pictured (right) here with Gareth who runs the Tumble Festival, Reg was a
giant of a man, not just in stature, but character as well, and he will be
sadly missed by the many people he came into contact with during his busy
life.
The funeral service will be held
at 2pm on Wed 4th March at Cymgors Church, near Ammonford, followed by a
service at 3.30pm at Morriston Crematorium, near Swansea.
Although, unfortunately, we won't be able to attend, Reg will be in our
thoughts and lovingly remembered. God bless mate.
Sun. 8th Feb - I know I've said
it a few times before, but I'm glad I've reached the stage of almost full
retirement, especially when I look at the weather forecasts we've been
getting for the last couple of weeks. I certainly don't envy those hardy
souls driving around the UK to fulfil bookings they probably took back when
the weather was a little more clement. I do remember touring back in the bad
winter of 62-63, driving around in a beat-up old Austin Somerset which had 4
bald tyres and no spare! We were averaging 4000 miles a month and driving in
conditions that were, at times, horrendous, but at the tender age of 21, we
ll thought we were invincible. Looking back, stupid seems more appropriate!
I remember one night we were booked into a recording studio near St Jame's
Park in London and I drove there in a blizzard. I actually mounted the
pavement and drove through the park in amongst the trees before I
realised what I'd done! Anyway, we got there on time but had to wait
for Frank Ifield to finish his session which was running over time, and the
song he was recording was "I Remember You!" We all thought at the time,
"Yeah, we'll remember you", sat out in the van freezing our nuts off because
the heater didn't work.
Changing the subject, I had a couple of great jokes from Ramrod that I've
stuck on the JOKES
page.
Just to pass the time, I've put some funny pics I found on the
JOKES page, here's a sample:
My brother has just sent me an email he had received
relating to something that happened recently. Here it is:
Am I right in
thinking that PAKI is short for Pakistani? Just an abbreviation?
Prince Harry calls
a mate "Our little Paki friend" and is forced to apologize two years later.
This guy was a mate of his for heavens sake!
Am I right in
thinking that "Brit" is short for British? Should the Sun Newspaper be
forced to apologise every time it prints the word Brit or The Brits are
coming?
Is the word Brit offensive?
Is "Scot"
Offensive? "The Scots are coming". Another Sun Newspaper Football Clash
Headline classic.
What about Ozzie?
Kiwi? Pommie? Limey? Where or when will this lunacy end? The Cornish call
all holiday makers "Grockles" Anything wrong with that?
If a Pakistani
called you "His Brit friend" Would you feel offended? Would you demand an
apology on National TV?
Of
course not.
Del Trotter refers
to "The Paki Shop" in one episode of Only Fools and Horses. (Now overdubbed
for UK Gold with the offending word taken out, the episode when they build a
nuclear fall out shelter).
Should Sir David
Jason now apologise? Should the writer John Sullivan apologise? Should the
BBC apologise?
What about the
Fuzzywuzzies? "Dads Army"
What about "You
stupid Kraut"? Fawlty Towers.
Both still being
broadcast regularly with no overdub.
The Idiots are at
it again trying to stir up racial hatred. It's just madness surely?
I'm happy being a
BRIT, BRITISH, ENGLISH, POMMIE, LIMEY or whatever. I don't care a fig.
I only care when
I'm called a racist.
I'M LOOKING
FORWARD TO NEXT YEARS "BRIT AWARDS" ON THE TV. LUCKILY, THANKS TO THE
ZEALOTS, RACISTS AND BIGOTS THERE WILL NEVER BE A "PAKI AWARDS". Oh no
indeed, because all the Pakis will be at The Brit Awards. And us Brits won't
mind at all will we?
There's something
rotten in the barrel and nobody in government or local politics has the guts
to stand up and say "GROW UP THE LOT OF YOU".
If you agree then
pass this on. If not then you still have the democratic right to delete it.
(Well for the time being anyway).
Short answer to
the above - Send all the prats who object to the term "paki" back to
Pakistan, see how they like it there!

Sunday 25th January - one of my ever-diminishing
number of gigs and it was with the Tamar Valley Westerners. It was an
extremely quiet night night numbers-wise due mainly to illness of some
description or another. Lawrence, who founded the club with his wife Linda,
had been taken ill and it would seem one of the things mentioned was kidney
failure, so we're hoping it's not going to be too serious and that he
recovers. He is, in fact, home from hospital, but not fit enough to go out
anywhere yet so, take it steady mate and we hope to see you up and
about soon. As for the evening, it was a good one, albeit a trifle quiet,
but when I got home, unloaded the gear, put it away and sat down to relax
with a nice cuppa, I felt totally knackered and was aching all over,
especially in my back. I know my Gibson RD is a very heavy guitar, probably
one of the heaviest on the scene, but when I was playing regularly I didn't
notice it. Now, playing once in a blue moon, I do, and I'm beginning to
wonder which is coming first, me packing in altogether, or the clubs packing
in through lack of members! That bloody government have got a lot to answer
for, especially as far as those still trying to make a living in the
entertainment business are concerned.
A little bird tells me that some social clubs are
installing decibel-measuring equipment to control noise levels. This is not
a new thing, they've been around for years, and they're a pain in the ass
because they can be extremely temperamental. I can recall one club I played
that had this thing installed where the background noise of the members used
to trigger it even when the band wasn't playing! Plus the fact that when
these things are triggered the power is automatically cut off and it doesn't
do amplifiers any good let alone computers. Plus the fact that, most of the
time there's always some clever dick club member who thinks he/she knows
what it all about and messes around with the settings so that it goes off
when it shouldn't, and let's face it, the accoustics of every venue
are different depending on the size, shape and structure plus how many
people are there. It's a constant variable which most responsible musicians
learn to deal with over the years and adjust their output accordingly. To
have the power shut off before the equipment is shut down is not to be
recommended and I for one decided not to take bookings at venues using it.
If the club committee members (who should be there) can't be bothered to get
off their asses and ask musicians to turn down when they think it's
too loud that's their purogative but to use a machine with so many variables
coming into the equation is plain crazy!
Wednesday 21st Jan - Just when you think you've seen
it all, another surprise comes along. The News item I heard today involved a
peaceful little picturesque village in the depths of Cornwall where
the war drums have started beating. It appears that 70% of the inhabitants
of said village are second home owners, or, to put it bluntly, the richer
side of society who can afford to buy what the poorer side of society can't
- - houses. The trend seems to be, when these rich folk fancy a break from
the rigours of life, they just swan down to their second home for a few days
or whatever. So what, I hear you say, if you've got the money, why not? Why
not indeed, except that the poorer locals, who live there 24/7 for 365 days
per year, and a lot of whose only source of income is fishing, wanted to
build a new jetty to land their fish, instead of having to ferry it
ashore in dinghys which they do at present. Good idea you would think but
sadly they didn't take into consideration the mentality of the richer folk,
who decided in their infinite wisdom, that the proposed new jetty would be
an eyesore which they didn't want and so the fight goes on with the rich
folk hiring highly paid lawyers who can turn the law inside out when it
suits them, and the poorer folk, who just want to get on with their meagre
everyday existence. My reaction, as a country boy born and bred, was one of
disgust that these rich b*********s have so much clout, and also a feeling
of helplessness, because, let's be realistic, if you've got money you can
crap on everybody else and to hell with the consequences.
Saturday 17th Jan - Not much to report so I thought I might pass on a little
new-found wisdom. All of us with computers who regularly surf the net are
always prone to picking up viruses, spyware, adware and all the other
nasties that are lurking there, so installing decent protection software is
critical. As far as I'm concerned, I swear by BitDefender as being one of
the best for Anti-Virus protection, and, until a couple of days ago, used a
programme called Adware Alert to detect Spyware etc as well. Then whilst
surfing around I came across a couple of reports about some programmes that
PRODUCED items to be removed so that the software could be seen to be doing
something, when in fact, nothing needed doing. It seems a few software
companies have been prosecuted for this, but what I found disturbing was the
fact that these reports both condemned Adware Alert as a programme to be
avoided! Needless to say I started looking for a replacement and came up
with Webroot Spysweeper. What I normally do when looking for software
for a specific task is do a search for surveys of the top 10 products in
that field and also read as many independent reviews as I can, that
way at least you've got a fighting chance. Another thing to bear in mind is,
the best is not necessarily the dearest (Norton springs to mind), more often
than not it'll be somewhere in the mid-price range. Another must is to back
up your C drive regularly, and for this I use Acronis TrueImage which I have
found to be a great piece of software. There are dozens of bits of software
that profess to do this and that, just take that extra step to find the
right one for the job. Happy surfing!
Tuesay 13th Jan - I have never been interested in Politics in any shape or
form and that's probably the reason why, at present, I'm totally confused by
what I hear on the news. It seems that the government are going to enforce a
ruling re single mums getting jobs. Where they're going to get jobs with all
the redundancy at the moment is anybody's guess. There's also this business
of phasing out ordinary light-bulbs in favour of the new low energy
ones. Very commendable... or is it? I've tried some of the new ones and now
I know where the saying "dim as a TocH lamp comes from! Still, the idea of
trying to cut down on power consumption to reduce pollution is
commendable, but then I hear that Greenpeace have bought a bit of land
in an effort to stop the building of another runway at Heathrow to run
more planes which would cause a load of pollution. I suppose we'll have to
put it all down to normal behaviour for government officialdom. The
left hand never did know what the right hand was doing!
Saturday 10th January - I had an email from Julie, a lovely lady that Chris
met at her Craft Club. They hit it off from Day 1 and have been close friends ever
since. I'm always going on about Chris' compassionate nature and Julie is a
kindred spirit, but she's more than that, she's a shining example of the
"There's always someone worse off than you" syndrome. She has endured a
double lung transplant, meningitis, has heart problems and kidney problems
and never complains about anything.
This was the message she sent....
If you think you're unhappy, look at them....
If you think your salary is low, how about her? ...
If you don't think you have many friends ....


When you feel like giving up, think of this man ....
If you think you suffer in life, do you suffer as much
as he does? ....


If you complain about your transport system, how about them? ....


If your society is unfair to you, how about her? ....


Enjoy life as it is and how it comes. Things are a lot worse for
others.
There are many things in your life that will catch your eye, but only a few
that will catch your heart..... pursue those





ARE YOU STILL COMPLAINING?
LOOK AROUND YOU & BE THANKFUL FOR ALL THAT YOU HAVE IN THIS TRANSITORY
LIFETIME
WE ARE FORTUNATE, WE HAVE MUCH MORE THAN WE NEED TO BE CONTENT
LET'S TRY NOT TO FEED THIS ENDLESS CYCLE OF CONSUMERISM & IMMORALITY IN
WHICH THIS
"MODERN & ADVANCED" SOCIETY FORGETS AND IGNORES THE OTHER TWO-THIRDS OF OUR
BROTHERS & SISTERS
LET'S COMPLAIN LESS AND GIVE MORE!
What
can I say to that, says it all doesn't it.
Sunday 4th January, my first gig of 2009, and not the best of starts because
we got there on a wing and a prayer! Around dinnertime we intended to drive
over to Saltash to visit Mum but on starting the car, noticed that all was
not as it should be. It wasn't that noticeable, in fact Chris didn't notice
anything, but, maybe it was my engineer training, I could tell things
weren't as they should be. As I pulled away I felt that there was a
noticeable lack of power and I realised we were only firing on 3 cylinders.
As I drove cagily to Saltash things didn't improve and I had visions of
having to call the RAC but we got there and back with no further
deterioration, which left the big question, would we make it to the gig at
the Parkway Club that evening. I didn't want to let our friends down at the
last minute so we crossed our fingers and set off. We arrived with no
further incidents and I played the gig. It was an extremely quiet night
numbers-wise which is par for the course after Christmas, but those who did
make the effort showed their appreciation and we had a good night. Then it
came time to travel home and that's when the fun really began. The parkway
Club is situated on a hill and, as I pulled out of the exit to drive up the
hill in first gear the car didn't want to know. I had to really get the revs
up and ride the clutch to get up the hill but once we got to the top we were
alright and managed to get home in one piece. Needless to say, I'll be going
over to the garage tomorrow to get it sorted and just hope that the price is
right as they say. Let's hope it's not a taste of things to come in 2009!
All sorted! One of the fuel pipes was leaking and was replaced for the
princely sum of £20.
Here we go again, another year gets under way. Let's
hope thing's perk up a bit all round, we've probably all had a bellyful of
the doom & gloom, what with the recession, fuel prices (which, touch wood,
seem to be coming down), the fighting (supposedly in the name of religion),
and the ever-increasing crime rate.