The Fog

This weekend, and this morning, I've been surprised by the amount of sea fret, fog and low flying cloud I've encountered. Coming down on the train at times the train was in thick sea fret and my attempts to take photographs in the earlymorning of the Forth Bridges were affected in the same way.

I know this is just part of summer weather and it will burn off.

Over the weekend I was in a taxi and the guy was playing music from local radio hell, Hall & Oates "Maneater",  probably the worst three minutes on their otherwise excellent "Private Eyes" album (standout songs "Mano A Mano" and "Head Above Water". This was followed by some American AOR mercifully wiped from my memory , then America's "Ventura Highway", even more bland that the one chord, one note of "Horse With No Name". He did eventually redeem himself with a popular Simple Minds song, either "Don't You Forget About Me" or "Alive and Kicking" although these, in my opinion don;t touch "The American" from "Sister Feelings Call" (the companion album to "Sons and Fascination") with one of the most vicious guitar solos that I've heard.

Then there was the instance of the guy on an East Coast Train with a West Coast Advance ticket having to stump up £150. While I think the rail network is a total rip off you really need to go in there knowing what you are doing. I always tend to go for open returns to cover me for most eventualities, though some people become so obsessed with saving money by booking fixed tickets, that they are left high and dry if  any part of the plan fails.

Then I was in the wonderful No. 28 and there was a group of 3 startled by their drinks bill and had to split it. Lesson here is if you are running a tab either now the price of what you are buying or have enough money to pay whatever your cost.

I know this has been very rambling, but it is and excuses to play "The American" , my favourite Simple Minds song.

Hope your Monday has been great.

Getting Older With Hall & Oates

I do find it amazing the number of people who refuse to acknowledge birthdays , or the fact they are getting older . Surely a birthday is an excuse for a celebration . And its funny when I was young people wee old after thirty , had grey hair , smoked pipes , wored cardigans , slippers and cords, and sat in a chair to await their inevitable demise.

These days if you take reasonable care of yourself you can go on for a very , very long time and have great fun doing it. Itook delivery of the first Hall & Oates CD this week and compared the pics of these two with the latest of their CDs that I have "Do It For Love" , on the first CD Daryl Hall looks like an androgenous afghan hound hybrid , with John Oates looking similarly bestial , but this was the seventies and that got the girls and helped sell the records . I wish that I looked like that in the seventies , I might have even got a girl!! . On the more recent CD the guys look very good and this is 35 years or so after the first photographs were taken  , so while we'd all like to be younger I think we'd rather go for the current look.

This then led me to the discovery of the excellent Live From Daryl Hall's House site , so the guys are obviously enjoying life , and having a good time. A definite lesson for us all , always look for the good things , and be positive , and generally life will be better and make it easier to deal with the dross and crap that comes our way!!