Good Morning

The other day was one of those hideous morning when I got woken up my my alarm clock. I know that is the point of the alarm clock , but I have never figured out how to snooze it , so when the alarm goes off I know I have to get up. Although I have also observed that the alarm actually stops after a while then restarts after five minutes. I like waking up and knowing i hamaybe forty minutes before the alarm allowing me a gradual waking , but the other morning it wasn't to be.

The good thing about being woken by my alarm is that I must have had a good night's sleep, undisturbed by anything and though I had to drag myself up , I knew that I had benefitted from the rest. I would hate to be awake throughout the night and when the alarm went off having to drag a tired ad reluctant body towards the shower despite the physical protests and desire to just stay in bed.

Todays' music has been mostly Jefferson Airplane's first five albums, Edward II's "Dancing Tunes" and some Continental Quilts . Follow the links to the artist's Bandcamp areas. All worthy listens , and was particularly impressed with "Surrealistic Pillow" which contains "White Rabbit" , "You're My Best Friend" . "Somebody To Love" and I will share the wonderful acoustic "Embryonic Journey" , which I loved when I first heard it many moons ago.

My Alarums

Although I have an alarm clock , it's generally other things that wake me, and during the week I really don't want to get up for work, I want to stay in bed.

I tend to hear cars on the road outside that start around five am , and I think these people must get up really early to be driving at this time. The next thing is at around five twenty the heating comes on and you can hear water coursing through the radiators , then twenty five minutes later the actual alarm goes off and thein it is time to drag myself out of bed.

There will be lots of things that wake you up , the dawn chorus is a good one. When I lived in Shieldfield there was a lit yard behind the flat and the dawn chorus went on all night, although I slept through it.

My second job was as a computer operator for Peter Ctaig and I worked "continental shifts" which was days followed by nights and in a week you would work Monday day , then Tuesday night then Thursday day and Saturday morning , then the next week was Monday night etc. That taught me to be able to sleep any time anywhere.

So that's a few things on sleeping and stuff and I thought I would go with something by The Strawberry Alarm Clock , with then thought The Alarm was even more direct so we'll have "68 Guns". On tThe Best of The Alarm there is a song called "The Stand(Long Version)" that clocks in at 2'47" , not sure how long the sort version is.

Bed

This morning the alarm woke me up from a dream in which I was taking an online survey about why I was taking an online survey. Recently I've been sleeping extremely well always being woken by my alarm.

Bed was so comfortable that I decided to have another hour under the sheets but after twenty minutes stretched and and got out. For some reason I vaguely worry that I'm not going to be in work for eight o'clock though they are very flexible with work ours and people come in from any time from seven thirty to eleven. It doesn't stress me and I'm writing this at seven thirty so it's highly unlikely that I'll be in before eight, well I wont be, even if I get the bus. But I am certainly not stressed.

I am aware that some people become stressed over very small things and often it's their psychological make up that cause it. I have every sympathy for them. I also believe that stress is caused by things we can't influence or control, and can be reduced by stepping back and evaluating the situation, but usually you can't do this on your own, it helps to speak with someone. I have helped a few people who have been very stressed and talked and chatted and when we finished they were in a better place in their mind and more confident of being able to deal with the situation. I just did this as a friend, and friends are brilliant to have so always cultivate friendship.

I would recommend any book by Matt Haig who's "Reasons To Stay Alive" once saved a friend's life, it really is a book that everyone should have.

So I still have to take drugs, get dressed, and then get to work and choose a tune for this post. I think we'll go with "Sleeping In The Devil's Bed" by Daniel Lanois from his second album "For The Beauty of Winona". I first came across Daniel Lanois from his work with Brian Eno on the "Dune" soundtrack and U2's "Unforgettable Fire" . His first album, "Acadie" was an immediate purchase and I do love is franglais littered languid and brooding songs.

Alarming

For the past two weeks I have been woken up by my alarm from a deep sleep. This is a good thing really but each time comes as a slight shock as I normally tend to wake up before the alarm so it's just a question of switching the damned thing off.

Today is extremely cloudy and rainy, but we are in the second half of September so it's not exactly unexpected. I have been bingeing on some TV programs, mainly Parks and Recreation , Defending the Guilty and Vikings .

Last night I actually started on recording a song, and maybe I will complete it this week and put it on Soundcloud.

This is just a short throway post but I'll sign it off with with a live take of  "Framed" from 1974 as I've been chatting with a friend on Facebook about how brilliant a front man Alex was and Zal Cleminson's evil clown costume predates todays Joker and Pennywise from It

Alarm

Is there anything more disappointingly annoying than waking up warm and in the dark, checking the time to see it's one minute before the alarm is meant to go off, then do you wait, switch it off , get up or what? I waited.

Continuing on "The God Delusion" and the treatment of atheists is absolutely disgusting bry religious zealots and idiots. We are seeing this is the USA today where Christianity has been engineered as a power grabbing money making machine and woe betide anyone who questions it. One example was an atheist who wanted to protest against a faith healer who was telling diabetics to throw away their insulin and cancer sufferers to stop their treatment and pray for a miracle. He contacted the local police department about protection from the faith healer's supporters and was threatened in no uncertain terms by everyone in the police department because he was questioning "god's work".

I keep using a lower case "g" for god because in my sixty one years I have yet to see any evidence of a god, though seen plenty of evidence of the harm caused by religion.

It looks like another cold but bright day today and I was surprised to see that I was up to series five of "Parks and Recreation" so still 55 episodes to go but a lot nearer the end than I thought, and thoroughly enjoying it.

So this weekend Sky Arts are screening a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the film of "Quadrophenia" and to be honest I have never watched it, although I love the album and thought the classical version with Alfie Boe in the was very good. I will be recording all the Sky Arts programs and will get round to watching the film which one of the many unwatched films in my DVD collection.

So we will go for a live take of "The Real Me" the opening song from the the "Quadrophenia" album.

Six Minutes

One of my bugbears is waking up, wondering what time it is and seeing it's six minutes before your alarm is due to go off. You can't go back to sleep, or enjoy the few minutes you have left in bed so you drag yourself out of your put to start the day and take yourself off to whatever awaits you, work or whatever. I don't know whether it's worse after a Bank Holiday Weekend although the slight upside is that, for me, it's only a four day working week.

I think a four day working week for people like me would actually improve productivity and and work-life balance, although that imay not an option for one man businesses, or maybe it is. I remember the story of an American Tyre business who realised they got most of their business at the weekend, so they changed their working week from Monday to Saturday to Friday to Monday, so their employees got a four day week for the same pay and the company's profits went up. I know this is just an isolated example but it is something worth considering.

Anyway I think I'll just share The Stranglers "Five Minutes" with you before I set off for work.

Have a good Tuesday everyone.