Smoke on the Water (and Everywhere Else Too)
I got my first guitar when I was 12. It was an acoustic. My father also got a guitar at the same time and while he focused on learning notes I focused on chords. He and I would play various folk songs where he would pick out the melody to my chords…. At age 14, I was bought a Woolworth’s electric and small amplifier. Of course, I was soon ‘jamming’ with other kids and we formed a band called Brutus shortly thereafter. actually, we simply met one night a week to sit chatting, strumming and tasting my Dad’s home-made beer shandy. Brutus however eventually became Nemo and Nemo had a weekly practice at the Conservative Club up in Willerby Square. Eventually, we could actually play a few songs…. passingly. The
Read More »Computerized Democracy
The US Government has shut down – ran out of money. Do we think anyone will actually notice? I’m being facetious of course but I am so sick of US politics. Apologies to friends and family who have strong feelings but the Republicans and the Democrats are bankrupt of ideas and have simply managed to create such an ideological gulf between their respective supporters as to make civil unrest a distinct possibility. Unfortunately, this bankruptcy of ideas isn’t just an American phenomenon but affects the entire western world. So here is my proposal for a new system…… I dreamed it up when I was a kid but it might have some merit to it. Since a census is taken every decade, we have a description of each nation. We know
Read More »Fall Cometh
The temperatures dropped significantly on Sunday – from in the 20’s to 7C today. The leaves of the trees outside my window are beginning to discolor and even fall already along with the conkers that my daughter loves to collect. Fall cometh. Actually, I quite like Autumn. The colors and the earthy smells. The damp and even the cold. We used to go camping right up to November when I was a boy and the final camping weekend was always down near Goole by the River Humber. By the first weekend in November, many trees are already laid bare and leaves blew around in large numbers or lay in damp heaps sticky and wet. The air had a chill in it and by the relative warmth of a major estuary
Read More »9-11… It’s my Daughter’s Name Day
Today is 9-11 and my 6-year old daughter’s name day. In the Czech Republic, everyone has a name day – except me. My name is too English unfortunately to appear on the calendar (it does however, appear on the Slovak Republic’s Dog Name Calendar…..:-)) A few years ago though, 9-11 meant something quite different to me….. I walked into my office in The Woodlands, TX that morning shouting a cheery “Hello,” as I passed other’s office doors. One of the other business owners looked up at me as I walked by. He looked shocked and pale. I stopped. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Have you seen the news?” he asked. “No, why?” “A plane has crashed into a building in New York,” he replied. I didn’t quite know what to say.
Read More »The Ride
The flight into Halifax was late and, as a result, I had missed the bus to Sydney on Cape Breton Island. It would be all day before there was another. As a PhD student on a tight budget, I could not afford to do anything but take the bus so what could I do? The answer was stand in the doorway of the airport periodically asking people if they were headed in that direction and if so, might they give me a ride? I stood there for about 30 minutes before two gentlemen approached and told me they may have a ride for me. Not them but a colleague was heading to Cape Breton in a rental car and he may be inclined to give me that ride. Eventually their
Read More »School Days
After posting the story of how I was nearly became a member of the rock group The Police, my best friend from those days – Steve – and I compared notes. He pointed out that not only was my memory correct but they also offered him a job as a roadie! And they did too…. However, posting that story got me to thinking. What a hell of a life I have had! Really, very few complaints – well, more money would always be useful but other than that…. So, my next few posts will deal with some events from my life and how I became me…. I couldn’t wait to leave home and Hull. Wolfreton School did me well in that I got a good education – 9 “O” levels,
Read More »Nearly Famous
Today, as I work, I have been listening to older music. The kind of stuff I listened to growing up – Its nostalgic. But it reminded me of another time and place….. The location – Aston University The time – circa 1978 I was stage manager for ACE – Aston Campus Entertainment at the students union. The job involved organizing the social events from a logistics point of view. Making sure sound checks were done, making sure the bands had their contracted for beverages, making sure their equipment was set up and dismantled etc. Frankly, it was super fun. I met a lot of people as you may imagine. There was one local band we rather enjoyed having called Streetband. I think we had them 4-5 times performing at the
Read More »Just A Dream
The just over two weeks in Florida and NY now seem like a dream. If it wasn’t for the photographs I might even believe that it was a dream. But good vacations always have that dreamlike quality don’t they? Now it is back to the real world – jobs, bills, tidying and so on. Our vacation started more like a bad dream however as our daughter immediately started with a fever, stomach pain and diarrhea more or less on arrival at Disney World. Once the diarrhea turned bloody it was time to deal with US healthcare. The hospital was just outside of Disney in Celebration, FL and it was palatial – I am not surprised after being presented with the bill for around 4-hours cooped up there, one saline drip
Read More »Just Today
Have you ever wondered if today is, in fact, the only day of your ‘life’? Ever since I was a young child, I have puzzled over reality. As I have mentioned many times, in Inner Journeys, I talk about how as a young boy, I really felt like this wasn’t real and that I was in a booth somewhere looking through some glasses and experiencing life as a ‘virtual reality’ game. Back then there was no virtual reality of course. Later, at school, I couldn’t quite understand how I could be just a bunch of atoms floating around in space! What kept me together? How did I know which atoms where mine? and many many other questions. Other kids thought I was a bit weird. Probably they were right. I
Read More »Technology is Killing Us
I was reminiscing to myself last night as you do from time to time. I recall back in the early part of my career how there where no cell phones, no smart phones, no IPads, no PCs, no windows, no Google, no Facebook…… and wasn’t it great! If I went on a trip, I didn’t expect to keep in touch with people, no one called me looking for something. Occasionally, I’d get on a payphone and call home to check in but that was it. Back then, a holiday was a holiday. On Sunday, we leave for two weeks in the USA. Sunday looks like being miserable with three flights and around 14 hours in the air. But I am looking forward to my vacation and going back to the
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