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Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Happy Holidays


I've been on my holidays, a week away from the old country and my first serious trip abroad in nine years.
Sun, sea and sangria...well not quite all that at the same time but it was really good. It was actually a week's walking and resting in Mallorca but now it's back to normality and catching up on the constant amount of TV series that I record (only quality, no shitty soap's). I brought back too much duty free, spent too much ( the Euro doesn't feel like real money but it is) and put on four pounds (so much for the walking !!).
Now that I'm back I get to vote on a pay rise at work, I have another week off before I go back to my boring old job and I have found out that two greats have gone to music heaven.
So farewell Richie Havens and George Jones.
Enjoy
 
 





Monday, 8 April 2013

The Echo Of Pit Boots


 
I must admit I was struggling again for a good subject when suddenly today everything fell into place. Sometime just after lunchtime today I was told at work that Margaret Thatcher was dead. I didn’t celebrate as such because I didn’t think that was necessary, I just thought that she has finally gone. I do not ‘hate’ Maggie I just felt that she was the opposite of me personally  in every way. By that I mean she stood for everything I do not believe in politically, morally and socially and I had to wait so many years before she finally left parliament but even then her party still ruled for a few years after.
All my 20’s and early 30’s were spent with her and the cabinet in charge so all the main political decisions were entrusted to her and by association her rich benefactors and  Tory party sycophants.
Even now I am one of those sad old fools that believe that socialism is the means to a better way of life, a better society so ‘Thatch’ was never going to get my vote, my loyalty, my respect.
She was a symbol and a major reason why so much is wrong with our country, our politics and our popular beliefs today and for that I can never forgive her and even as a child she affected my life (see badge below), that was my first memory of her name.
Goodbye then you rotten old cow.
 






Saturday, 16 March 2013

Drink Real Ale You Know It Makes Sense


Alcohol is in the news again this week with different factions of our government disagreeing on whether to adopt a new policy to bring in a minimum price per unit of alcohol. Everyone seems to have their own opinion on this and I have mine.
Forget minimum pricing all that is needed is to restrict the availability of alcohol too licensed premises only and some regulated supermarkets, therefore no corner shops, no petrol stations, no newsagents selling booze to everyone and anyone all day long if they want it.  Supermarkets should only be allowed to sell alcohol between 11am to 10pm and they should not be allowed to buy big and sell cheap, get rid of these boxes of 12 cans that sell for a £5 or less, price it all in a sensible, reasonable manner and just restrict it and things will change.
When I was a lad you could only buy beer outside of a pub in an off-licence and we should go back to those days, I didn’t even know what binge-drinking was and that was often because I couldn’t get any beer or cider to drink at all because it was either closed or I wouldn’t be served because I was under age and they used to refuse you all the time.
24/7 living and the 24/7 availability just widens the scope and gives people too much freedom of choice. Sometimes choice is a bad thing especially where alcohol is concerned, it can be done if we just restrict choice a little bit and maybe the culture will change from this moronic idea of getting completely pissed before you even go out for an evening (personally I have never indulged in such stupidity) to a reasonable, sensible society that tolerates and accepts alcohol rather than abuses it on a daily basis.
 





Friday, 8 March 2013

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now


I’ve had this idea in my head for some time but it only came to fruition when I was walking back home after a trip down to our local shops to buy something for dinner or maybe ‘tea’ if you live in the North Of England as I do. My idea is to list the top twenty things that annoy, frustrate or completely send me ‘bananas’ about living in our modern British society today. I’m sure I could list more and some of these may seem rather petty to you but these are my prejudices and mine alone….

1.       People who spit on the streets (a majority of these seem to include male teenagers, both young and old men and some smokers)
2.       People who litter (leave it on train seats, drop it on our streets or  just casually throw it out of a passing car window or even just dump an old sofa in a local hedgerow)
3.       People who have to sit on the outside of two seats on a train therefore making it plainly aware that you cannot sit next to them or ask them to move so you can sit on the empty window seat (this also includes people who deliberately leave their bags on the spare seat or pretend they are asleep and lie across two seats.. you’re pathetic !! )
4.       Dog owners that let their dogs just crap anywhere and leave it for others to walk in it (especially outside your house or in the middle of a pavement.. if you don’t want to pick it up then don’t get a dog, morons)
5.       People you turn their cars into something else (you know, blacked out windows, exhausts that sound like concord taking off, loud bass stereos that make your house walls vibrate and tyres that should only be allowed at Brands Hatch not for driving 30mph down a normal local side road)
6.       Children and Babies in pubs (not needed at all when you want a quiet pint and to escape the world, stick to a Hungry Hippo or something in that family outing vein)
7.       Blokes that stand on street corners or walk down the street drinking from cans of crap lager (why do you feel the need to do that ???)
8.       Blokes that wear flip-flops to go out (it’s not British, the local high street is not a beach, watch out for the dog shit...take ‘em off, you look ridiculous and you aren’t in Magaluf)
9.       People who illegally park cars on road junctions therefore obscuring the view of the sensible car driver turning either left or right into the next street
10.   Car drivers who refuse to indicate when they are turning (do you think can we actually read your minds !!!)
11.   People who use personal phones as mobile stereos or who appear to talk to themselves as they walk( I don’t want to listen to your personal taste in music and it also then confuses me as I think you are talking to me)
12.   People who have no volume control in conversations with others or when talking on their mobiles
13.   Any music that falls under these categories (Hardcore, Trance, Drum & Bass, UK Garage, Hi-NRG, Chiptune, Dub Step, Speed Garage, Hardstep, UK Funky etc etc … I feel so sorry that you decide to listen to such mindless garbage)
14.    TV Chefs (no more please I’ve had enough)
15.   The British fascination with Soap Operas (especially Eastenders which is just the most miserable, depressing bollocks that can be inflicted on a daily on a population)
16.   Large Indoor Shopping Centres or ‘Malls’ (Meadowhall, Westgate. The Trafford Centre… how many times does anybody need to visit a Next or a Primark, shop local you know it makes sense)
17.   The Americanization (is that a word ?) of British culture, take your Krispey Kreme doughnuts and shove ’em up your you know what !!
18.   The Conservative Party (personally I have never seen the point)
19.   Men with baseball caps and or hoods who have vicious untrained, unloved dogs and let them off the leash/lead in parks because it looks cool and tough to their mates and immediate family (you are numpty’s you really are)
20.   Pointless tattoos (you know the one’s I mean - they look shite)

 





Thursday, 28 February 2013

It's Not The End Of The World


I haven't had the 'muse' again recently and even though different ideas where floating around my head I couldn't bring myself to have a good old moan and rant about existing in the modern world again !
So I thought once again I would just lay some music on 'ya.
I have chosen four immense but sadly deceased great 'British' musicians who all ploughed their own musical furrows with various degrees of success and fame but they have the common factor of leaving behind them a treasure trove of great songs and wonderful albums.
Also I thought I would then dedicate the four tracks to three of my favourite 'British' photographers two of whom are represented on this page...thank you Tom Wood, John Bulmer and Don McCullin.








Saturday, 2 February 2013

Hail King Car


The car rules OK !
Please believe me it really does rule us , we are now a subservient race all in thrall to the combustion engine that takes us from A to B then from B to C etc etc…
I actually came to this conclusion the other week when it snowed for a couple of days dropping more than six inches of the white stuff all over the country and basically the only thing that seemed to bother, annoy and stress people out was the fact that it was too dangerous to drive, the gritting situation on the roads and whether god forbid they might have to leave their precious car in their drive or parked outside their home. When it snows I get a train to work, I walk to the shops, I realise that some inconveniences will happen and when the ice and snow disappears I can use the car again. I have never moved to a  remote area because you are likely to be stranded in bad weather or have to purchase one of those monstrous 4x4’s that dominate the town & countryside therefore when it snows you should have take this into consideration when you decided to move there.
Now I wanted to clear my front path and the pavement both for my house and our neighbours after the snow had fallen. I had my snow shovel and the bag of grit I had previously bought in case the snow came so out I went and started to shovel the snow but I couldn’t really move it anywhere else because everywhere I looked there was a car parked taking up all the road space and some of the pavement areas too. The local council had gritted the main roads but no minor roads like ours so I put my grit down for the car drivers and moved the snow as much as I could. I then thought I would walk down into the town centre for some food, of course the council weren’t interested in gritting any pavements so it was treacherous to the extreme and if you were elderly you would not have been able to leave your house BUT for the car owner everything was fine, no ice, no snow, their little piece of the world was gritted because the car rules in this country and pedestrians obviously don’t, we just fall over, break bones and suffer………………………… 

Enjoy





Friday, 25 January 2013

Pointless


Celebrity, let’s repeat the word again…Celebrity, don’t you just hate that word. Personally I despise the word, the meaning behind it and often the people who create it, those that celebrate it and most of all the individuals that are supposed to be one. The cult of Celebrity has to be one of the most pointless, vacuous, inane creations every laid upon modern mankind.
They are meaningless, a pile of shit on the sole of modern culture.
 I have thought about this and what it might really mean to be a Celebrity and I think I know the answer. .
You have had to appear on TV for a maximum of about two minutes this includes any television show or channel from all over the world, maybe even some kind of viral YouTube video. Maybe you are a large breasted model or a shamed politician, perhaps a sportsperson or someone with a talking dog (who cares !).
You must be prepared to look at complete prat (most of the time), you must speak in words and sentences that only refer to the show or shows you may have appeared in (or acted in…acting that’s a moot point).
You must have around three brains cells and think that everybody really thinks that what you do really, really matters all the time. You must, I repeat must be on Twitter (why wasn’t it named Twatter) and finally for money you will prostitute yourself and perform anything that is required of you by the lords of the great unseen. The Unseen are the people who actually watch, dress, read and care about what celebrities do every day of their pointless, uncreative lives. Oh how the Unseen  love the X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing, that Jungle shite where they eat grubs and piss in the woods, Big Brother, Dancing on Ice, Splash.. the list is endless although I think it may have reached it’s nadir when I saw Celebrity Bake Off advertised in the schedules recently (yes a programme now where celebrities can bake on TV rather than actual people who may be rather good at it and want to possibly have a career in the industry)  but that’s OK because it’s for ‘Comic Relief’ (not OK for me it isn’t, plus I’m so bored with Comic Relief and Children In Need , what about real charities that are suffering in these depressed economic times).
So please  STOP IT NOW- RIGHT NOW before I put my foot through my flat screen and forever save my soul from these parasites that make me squirm and shout out loud with all the frustration I can feel inside, please go and leave me to my TV watching and newspaper reading  in peace. 

Enjoy Brothers & Sisters.