Penultimatum

Well my "A Post A Day In May" is almost complete. It hasnt been difficult but some posts have been concise to say the least And must thank my friend who reminded to post on a couple of occasion when it has completely slipped my mind.

So I have had the disipline to keep doing this . This post will possibly be my earliest one, though I once tried to do this and the accidentally published it before midnight.

What I was hoping with this blog was that it would inspire me to write a book. That inspiration is still lacking , that now with Amazon's free publisher you can publish your own book electronically whether you can write or not ....

In A Hotel

Never really done hotels with work , but new responsibilities mean I may be spending time in London so I need to get used to it.The words to the song "Hotel California" by The Eagles:

"You can check out any time you want,

 but you can never leave" 

must ring so true for some people. Good thing is I have a lot of friends who live down here or are in a similar boat so lots of things to do , like tonight going to see the new Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom.

A shortie

This is just to maintain my post a day but I am shattered. Sleep now and three more posts to reach my goal!

Green Day Down at The Doctors

Well sort of . Another sunny day and I spent a lot of it making bricks for my woodburning stove from old newspapers. It is very physical but worth it and means I put less in the recycling bin because I am going to burn the stuff.

Lots of paper front pages caught my eye but I think it was the Sunday Post who were suggesting that it took 100 phne calls to get an appointment with a GP , and then you would have to wait months for it. If that is the situation change your practice . I have done it a few times and always ended up with excelent service. I've been with mine for around ten years , they are The Thornfield Medical Group based in Byker and Shieldfield and provide excellent service with and online appointment and repeat prescription service that cuts down the phone calls they have to deal with , an all round winner. Their website is here. The booking system is here.

Engelbert the English Eurovision Entry

Gerry Dorsey better known as Engelbert Humperdinck is England's surprise entry for Eurovison this year with "Love Will Set You Free" . I don't know if it's age or what but I personally think the song is fine , if reminiscent of Jim Croce's "Time In A Bottle". It also has shades of a Jacues Brel song sung by Scott Walker , and I think is all these reminders it causes are the reasons why I like it rather than the song itself.

Engelbert himself is a sprightly 75 years old and so a change for the X-Factor rejects we normally get , bringing a bit of quality and a sense of humour to the proceedings. I really wish him well and if the song doesnt get a decent placing , well it just shows what idiots voters can be (hey the put David Cameron in charge here!!).

With a sense of mistiming Roy Hodgsons's maiden England game takes place against Norway , with the tabloid hacks sharpening their paws waiting to pounce , no doubt the Sun will have sum pathetic headline again on Roy's pronunciation of the letter "R". And least you can understand what Roy Hodgson is saying unlike teh bleatings of your average tabloid journalist.

That Looks Familiar

We were talking aboutmusic in the Stand last week and the subject of Fleetwood Mac came up. A couple of us agreed that Lindsey Buckingham was a mad genius and Tusk was their best albim. After Rumours the execs at Warner Brothers were looking forward to bumper bonusses and were horrifed at what the band presented them. This was at the height of punk and I remember NME being stunned by the unexpected brilliance of the album , especially the title track. The fact it was a double album made this an even bigger coup.

Anyway the point I am making about this is that Camper Van Beethoven were stuck in a remote cabin and recorded their own version of Tusk , so there actually two similar looking albums with the same tracks by different bands. I have both.

While Mojo magaize have cover disks of revisited albums , the nearest to Camper Van Beethoven's exercise is te East Star All Stars "Dub Side Of The Moon" Anyway the samples abouve and a coupe of relevant tracks below for you to peruse!

Panic

In 1990 I remember seein a TV program in which some expert reckoned the average family had to spend £2000 a month on insurance premiums to cover them in case something went wrong. At the time my wage was about £1100 a month . I think you can spot the flaw in his argument, Basically he was trying to scare me into a situation where I'd be too frightened to do anything.

Today I saw a sign reminded us that the Digital Switchover is coming as though it wer the ent of the world . "You could lose ALL your TV channels!!" . Well no , actually , you wont , worst case is you will lose the ability to recieve the channels if you dont have a way of receiving digital channels and if you you buy a TV they have a digital receiver built in. But they're still trying to frighten people.

In Michael Moore's film "Bowling For Columbine"  he wonders why there are so many gun related deaths , compared with Switzerland who have mandatory gun ownership , and Canada where guns and ammunition are as freely available as in the USA. This is a very nice little theory cartoon from the film:


These days if you take out a new mobile phone contract you really need to insure against it been stolen of getting broken. The only insurance you really need is to back up your data and phone numbers . Insurance isn't cheap when the list price of a replacement iPhone or iPad us up to £700 !!

In Britain the Daily Mail and Express have a new crisis every week. Bird 'Flu , Pension Crash , The Economy is going to explode , Britain is going to be hit by a Tsunami , turned into a desert or flooded. The list is endless. Oh yeah and there's Al Quaeda , a convenient bogeyman . It was Iraq , now it's Iran , then it'll be China - oh sorry they have money so like the USA can do what the hell they like.

Anyway , my advice is take reasonable precaution , enjoy life . If you want to avoid pregnancy during sex , wear a condom , don't dismember  the guy or woman!!