Man on the Edge.

For some reason I have had this song in my head all week, I have no reason why, I mean I’m not even a big fan of it, I simply can’t seem to shake the bloody thing!

So yes, the name game is in play for anybody who wants to play along, the only real bright spot in my life at the moment is the numbers for the blog, simple things for a simple man, I know I said it before you all piled in.

The title could have been any number of songs, but generally I seem to be falling an awful lot of late both figuratively and actually! We keep getting curve balls thrown at us, and although we seem to dodge most of them, it still seems to gets us on the rebound, I have tried to be good, but life keeps kicking me in the butt.

Work seems like I am the mole in whack a mole and it’s only going to get worse; I also didn’t win the EuroMillions this week so there’s no sign of my escape planning coming to fruition, well not yet! I took a slight tumble as I tried to motivate myself to get to a bus stop in time for me to make a connection, however it turns out the bus I saw and thought was going to take me to my destination went the other way and my futile attempt to pick up speed simply made me look like the old man that I have become, copious amounts of painkillers got me through the next 24 hours, go figure!

I realise that I’m no longer the world class (cough splutter) athlete that I once was, but my ego has been seriously delated in the last few months! We initially had a bit of good fortune but it’s still tempered with the ongoing saga of the crap with the estate of the kraken, which two years down the line is really starting to annoy me and its simply not helping the wife and her grieving, it’s like a scab that just as it heals gets ripped off and we have to start all over again, Legal people have one speed…..SLOW! the wife sorted out 99% of the issues within 14 days here we are 24 months later and the issue still isn’t resolved, we wont see any money out of it, we don’t care,  we simply wanted to clear the debt, all the while interest is still accruing I still say we should wash our hands of it and walk away, we have spent over a thousand pounds of our money paying for things including insurance, I keep getting told that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, I have a sneaky feeling it’s an oncoming train!

Music still is a massive part of my emotional blanket, I’m glad I don’t drive, simply as I drift off into the memories that surface while listening, one of the main joys this week is the remastered version of Queen’s debut album with an added track I must have played it more than half a dozen times, but I still go back to when I first heard it in 1974, who knew it would still be with me all these years later, I have to admit that six of the first seven Queen albums have been in heavy rotation this week, you have to rely on the classics!

A number of cunning plans keep resurfacing this week we simply have to pick one and walk briskly with it, I would say run but neither myself or the wife can…...at the moment! The wife is coming up on the outside lane with a dodgy knee (in a manner of speaking) I can’t say I sympathise, as I am suffering just as bad, as I set off to work to complete yet another 10000 to 18000 steps carrying a 23.9 KG bag ( I know its 24 KG it’s a two person lift and there’s only me so go figure) I have to tell myself telling her to “Suck it Buttercup” would probably see me stop breathing in the middle of the night, I might be dumb but I sure ain’t stupid (erm……).

So, that’s another blog complete let’s see if the numbers continue to rise, I don’t care as it something of a mystery why all of a sudden people start to read the back editions of the blog, but over 5000 hits in the last week is a bloody good mystery for me to have, so until the next one stay safe and stay alive, but for now it’s Toodles!

Right Here Right Now. Part 2.

Life seems to be one long cluster fuck after another at the moment, in my home life, Work, my Health, you name it, its circling the drain, but I’m not going down without a fight!

Work, there was/is redundancies, I was told I was safe, but my opo went and now my boss who was knocked back has left anyway, he went and got another job and is away so that leaves me, all by myself (I’m sure that there’s a song in there somewhere) yeah with the way my health is, let’s just say it’s getting interesting!

My Home Life, well there’s always drama in and around us, not between me and the wife, just nothing going according to plan, the wife has severe health issues and is now following me down the route of having a dodgy knee, I’m not being helpful as I suffer every day, me simply saying suck it up buttercup hasn’t helped at all…….OOPS!

My health is as crap as ever, I did have a rant at the last appointment saying I was doing everything that they have asked me to do with little or no success, to say I’m a bit miffed is an understatement, and a stern message was delivered, do something that will help or I will go off reservation and I don’t give a damn on the consequences! The staff are great, however they are following the party line, they know my feelings and they know I will follow through with my promise!

About the only thing that’s been doing well is this, the blog itself, for some reason peeps have been reading back issues and the numbers are through the roof, and I have no idea why!

Technology isn’t helping as my laptop has gone through a number of upgrades and now it seems to do whatever it likes, admittedly this particular laptop is 14 years old and all though I do have a couple of newer ones this is the one that appears to act as my muse, unfortunately most of the various platforms that I interact with peeps seem to not want to talk to me, so if you have been conversing with me and are not now, blame technology and not the luddite operating this fine piece of technology!

And that’s me disappearing down the rabbit hole, trying to gain some semblance of sanity, to be honest at the moment I really don’t give a rat’s ass about most things, but my bilge pump has stopped working and soon I’ll be drowning and not waving! People seem to like this type of blog 500 words and under so lets see how this one does, the last music one did above average and I have another nearly finished so hopefully will be along before to lo soon, so on that note, thanks for the peeps doing the reading, watch this space as there is more on the way soon!

Four on the Floor – Uriah Heep.

I have to admit to liking most variations of Uriah Heep, the only album I can honestly say I don’t like is Conquest (the first album ever recorded digitally fact fans) I like John Sloman as a vocalist, I simply didn’t like that album, so here we go my four Favourite Heep albums.

Uriah Heep – Demons and Wizards 1972.     8/10.

I heard this and the album Return to Fantasy on the same day ( on the day of release for the latter, and Demons and Wizards pip it at the post, I was never a huge fan of David Byron’s voice, it was OK on record but the live stuff I heard it was slightly off, he was a nice enough as I met him when he played at the Mayfair and Robin George was his guitarist, but I loved a couple of tracks on this album, The Wizard is still my fave Byron track/vocal and the whole album is pretty consistent musically and production wise, remember this was in the days when they used to release an album every six months.

Uriah Heep – Innocent Victim 1977.    8/10.

I like all of the albums (all three of them) that John Lawton sang on, even if he did look a little (ahem) dodgy this is the pick of the three, a little more “poppy” if you can believe it especially when it has a track like Free N Easy on it and my fave track with Lawton vocals on “Choices”, I don’t think the audience took him either, great voice but quite wrong image wise, I think that was because of the fact that they were never off the road so the light weight material was easy to produce, I still love Innocent Victim, I know some people who didn’t care for it, however it’s my choice so there you go!

Uriah Heep – Abominog 1982.     9.5/10.

My favourite vocalist and my favourite Heep album, a layoff while they considered their options, no Ken Hensley to bully them into recording his songs, mainly outside writers, and it rocked like a train with no brakes barrelling down hill to destruction, there was enough pace and shade, the only reason it loses from top marks is the production (which I do like) by Ashley Howe was a little muted in parts, I cant think of a single bad track, Pete Goalby sings like an angel again we got three albums before another change of vocalist, but in my eyes this is the perfect album!

Uriah Heep – Wake the Sleeper 2008.   9/10.

I have to admit that the band got off to a rocky start with Bernie Shaw singing, again I like him as a singer I simply didn’t care for the first couple of albums, dodgy production, dodgy record labels, something Mick Box realised, then he took the band by the scruff of the neck and give them a bloody good shake I remember blasting this album to death for nearly a month in my old job, the office was blasted morning noon and early evening I loved it to death and if I’m honest they haven’t done a bad album since, but this is the pick  of the crop for me.

So, there you go I had fun listening to the discography, I always knew which four albums I was going to choose, but you have to play the game don’t you, so until the next time stay safe , stay alive and well……..Toodles!

Right Here Right Now 1.

Ok so, I’m intending to do a series of small blogs, (hopefully no more than 500 words) a kind of thoughts of the day, the intention is to try and clear some of the deadwood that’s blocking the highways of my brain, yes the name game is in play but only for the first one and they will be named the same but numbered after this one!

My thoughts of today have primarily been about work and sleep, work the amount that is coming down the road in my direction, and sleep is about how very little I seem to be getting no matter how many cunning attempts I do to try and resolve the issue.

Work is well strange there has been a round of redundancies and I’m not one of them, let’s see what happens in the coming months, I’m relieved at the moment but lets see what the reality is six months down the line, we struggle with three of us in the team, so going down to two is going to be……Difficult!

As for my sleeping habits I’m averaging about 3 to 4 hours a night but with the potential to have small crashes throughout the day, I was at a symposium earlier in the week and yes you guessed it I fell asleep, if only for a couple of moments, but I still fell asleep, a worse one was I was on the bus home and one stop from the main bus station, we stopped at the lights and I was awake, I was asleep by the time we pulled away, yup you guessed it I was fast asleep just long enough to be half way down front street in Gimpsville, thankfully I managed to escape but was in a lot of pain by the time I climbed the hill to my humble abode, I’m starting to get tetchy (me with my reputation who knew) about the lack of sleep, watch this space, I have a feeling that this could get mentioned just a little bit more in the weeks ahead!

As for my weight that I have to lose so I can get my knee replacement, let’s just say’ I’m not eating a lot and not losing a lot, it’s at this point I have to be aware of the potential of me to start grazing through being depressed about the situation, I’m an adult I know that it won’t help but I find it hard to stop once the ball starts rolling! Worse is the fact if I don’t graze “Bob” will return with a pack of hounds to gnaw at my sanity, so there you have it more to come in the coming weeks, short and sweet with a couple of large ones in between, and look at this I brought it in, in under 500 words how good is that, see you all later but until then …... Toodles!

Four on the Floor – Anthony Gomes, Samantha Fish, Candice Night, Dio.

Ok so you know the drill, three relatively new releases and a classic, strap yourselves in it’s been a while! This blog is a lot later than intended simply as I have spent a lot longer reviewing/playing  these releases and consequently the scores have changed a number of times with the exception of one of them, here goes.

Anthony Gomes – Praise the Loud.   9/10.

This is the one that the score never changed, from the get go I liked it a lot, I’m late to the game and even missed him when he played over here earlier in the year, I won’t make that mistake again, but lets get to the album, it’s by a man who can sing and play the guitar, it’s nothing new, but I like it, I like the songs, I like the playing, I love the production, its an old fashioned album, and that’s probably why I like it so much, 12 songs clocking in at 42 minutes, it gets in it gets out and he even wipes his feet as he leaves, if you were to look in the dictionary under Power trio, there would be a picture of Anthony and his band! Is it going to change the world? No, it isn’t but it will bring a smile to your face because this is what music should be about……FUN! In the coming weeks I shall be having his back catalogue on in my headphones in heavy rotation, so far this year this is the top of the pile, I mean I know its only May but let’s see where we are at, at the end of the year!

Samantha Fish - Paper Doll.   4/10.

The disappointment of the year so far! I found about this young lady with her last album Faster, a cracking album again old school blues/rock, I liked it and I followed her career with a lot of interest watching live stuff on YouTube whenever something popped up. I saw the adverts for this album and waited with baited breath, and then it felt like my balloon had not been popped but deflated, I have played this album most out of the four being reviewed, and I simply don’t get it, I simply don’t like it, the score that I have given it is a damn lot better than I first did, primarily because I have seen a couple of numbers pop up online, and they work well live, the thing that I simply cant get my head around is the production, this is why I have gone back to it so much simply to see if I have missed something, I still like the artist, but this is 9 songs and 36 minutes I doubt I will go back to, I have played it around about twenty times since its release, its just not for me, hey what do I know I’m only reviewing it,  I will definitely be playing her back catalogue more than this unfortunately, a great artist but this to me is a misstep.

Candice Night – Sea Glass.   7/10.

Another album I have played quite a bit to get my head around, not that I was expecting a Blackmore’s Night type of album, well its kind of is, but not! Let me explain, I love her voice it’s like honey, and after seeing live her a number of times live I think she is quite a nice live performer as well, at ease on stage  friendly with the audience and takes no crap off Mr B, yes it’s not what I would call a rock album, but it could have been, the score for this album has gone up by one, down by one, in the end I decided to go with the middle ground, what’s missing from this album is a guitarist, go figure, I get why Mr B isn’t doodling away, it’s to let Candice have her own identity, not everybody is going to like the album, but its well-played, produced and sang with sincerity, she believes in the album, however the song Last Goodbye is a classic and it helps save the album from being one dimensional, there’s not a lot of variety style wise and there’s nothing wrong with that, and the instrumental Dark Carnival is screaming out for some bloody riffage, hopefully they will add some words and guitar and add it to the next Blackmores Night album, if it was a school report it would say could try harder, I know there’s tons of people who like her voice as she has guested on quite a few albums, go on get some guitar on the next one! Will I follow her career after Mr B finally? yes I will but it has to be something a little more special than this, its close but not quite there!

Dio – Holy Diver Remastered.   8.5/10.

I’m suspecting I might get some grief for this one, but before you jump in and bite my head off let’s see what my reasoning is. I am a fan of the album always have been however I hated the original production/mix of it I always thought it sounded “muddy” for the want of a better description, I also didn’t like the last song “Shame on the Night” it had filler stamped all over it, a couple of the other songs were not helped with the production, but hey that was just my opinion, so I was travelling to work looking for something to calm me down before heading into the new work space we were being moved to, and what was sat there? Well, it had been a while and so I decided to play it just a little bit loud (in headphones on the bus) it needed to be loud as I have explained as the sound was “Muddy” well this certainly wasn’t it was off like a whippet strapped to a motorbike, ye gods what has happened here, after a bit of research (Apple isn’t the best at putting the info on its pages) I discovered this was the 2012 edition remastered by Andy Pearce, and its like a brand new album, I was surprised but understood why Martin Birch wasn’t the man for the album (he was producing a young punk band called Iron Maiden at the time of recording) all of the songs have benefitted from the new spit and polish, well nearly all I still think “Shame on the Night” should have been relegated to a B Side like Evil Eyes was at the time, but what do I know a couple of million people bought the album (guilty as charged), I’m glad I came back to it, its still not my favourite album by Dio, I feel more grief coming for that but you know what, opinions are like arseholes, we all have one!

Enjoy the first of more musical and historical ones on the horizon, honest I get distracted easily …ooh look a butterfly, until the next time……. Toodles!

Time.

I have always been obsessed about time since I was a little boy and as I get older it would appear that I am getting more and more obsessed, me with my reputation go figure!

I was taught to tell the time before I could read a book, watches, clocks, items that tell time have always been a source of fascination, at one point in our house we had in excess of fourteen clocks of all shapes and sizes, I do admit to wish I had managed to talk the wife into having a grand Father or Mother clock (no joy boo hoo) I have had a number of watches over the years, my first being a Timex for my third birthday, I have only recently given up a watch I received for my twenty first (from my first wife) because there is no one locally who can fix it or source parts for it, I checked the original seller who I still know, he hadn’t seen parts for this watch for over fifteen years (shame as I do like the watch) but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a couple that need batteries, a Seiko Kinetic is my main watch these days but I do tend to wear my fit bit (cheap knock off) all the time except for in the bath or charging, sad I know! I’m not a lover of really expensive watches, I can appreciate them, I could never indulge in them, they are too much like technology and people know what I am like with technology!

Why the rambling opening? well time pretty much rules me, I hate it if I am late (I mean I really do get angry if I’m late) if a bus is late I tut, I have gotten used to the wife and her time keeping, I simply work around it, I don’t get angry anymore as I simply factor in her skill set, I’m obsessed with timings of things length of songs/albums, bus journey’s, length of time I need to factor in when walking these days (now that does annoy me since I have become a cripple)  my first holiday with the wife and eldest daughter I was told I couldn’t wear a watch (I bought one on the plane on the runway)as I get older I know that the beauty of time is slowly robbing me of the very thing I obsess about…….TIME!

I realise that at various points in my life I have wasted vast tracts of time with work and then even more work,  (unfortunately we needed money so I had to work long hours) I missed some (not all) important parts of my daughter’s lives, I also had some pretty great moments in both of their lives, with more still to come. I missed time with my own family, with friends and most of all myself, is he mad I hear you ask, whenever “Bob” turns up that time is lost from the madness that envelops my brain with a kind of deep fog, my life at the moment is moving in the right direction (touching wood) concerning “Bob” but I’m not cured, I know that as soon as I forget, like a tide he will sweep back in and play havoc!

What is this sudden resurgence in being obsessed about time, over the last three months I have been surviving on three to four hours sleep a night, I have no problem going to sleep but once I wake (as a rule no matter what the cause) I cannot go back to sleep, I have to get up and wander the rooms of the house in semi darkness like a burglar, usually finding old classic films on dodgy Sky channels that I have never heard of, or scrolling through You Tube for old classic concerts or even worse watching (shudder) Instagram, whatever will happen to me, I’m becoming normal……YUK!  

Last night however I fell asleep and slept for over twelve yes that’s right over twelve hours, I had had a terrible day with my knees I had to give in and take some painkillers, I had to take (the slow boat from China) long journey home on a bus with cramped seats which didn’t help, I tried a soak in the bath, that didn’t work, so some more painkillers, that did however after a small meal work and I was soon asleep, until this morning when I woke up (downstairs in a chair, the wife has instructions just to leave where I am)  feeling fab! I don’t even feel bad when I have only had a small sleep I may wake up deflated, but I can carry on ok, but you build that up over twelve weeks or so, you soon realise that your life batteries are fading (I’m not a Duracell bunny after all) and I do need to be recharged, today however I feel great, I doubt I will sleep like that again for a couple of weeks, but hey ho I miss that, I used to be able to sleep like that most days, I learnt in the army eat while you can, sleep while you can, I can do both, I can eat anytime anywhere and just about anything (within reason) as for sleep I have been notorious for being asleep on public transport before it pulls away, with only a few mishaps, lets not go into those LOL, so the message is spend time with Family, spend time with friends, this we both need to do however we have the grandkids for the bulk of the weekend, so our plans were blown out of the water, but soon I promise / threaten the world soon we will be out and about!

Now this wasn’t what I had percolating for a blog but after all of that sleep well let’s just say I have been a super busy bunny working from home with many spinning plates and loving it all, I have been running silent and deep on social media simply because I needed some me time, nothing more, I tend not to be selfish with my time for me, but these last couple of weeks have caught up with me , so stay safe, stay alive, love your loved ones and watch the skies as there’s a couple of musical ones inbound, but until then………………Toodles!

Darker Side of Blue.

As always, my health is cack, I intend to write this blog and then simply leave it at that. I seem to be going around and around in circles when it comes to my health.

My mental health although not perfect is constantly being chipped away at, thanks to work and life in general, bad luck seems to stalk us everywhere we go, because of this I am not as happy as I make myself out to be! I do attempt to plod on through but the ship is leaky and there’s only so much I can pump out before I become exhausted, I’m under no illusion that there are people worse off than myself, but for once I’m thinking about myself and not just everybody else!

Bob has not reappeared, but it’s only a matter of time, I can see the tell-tale signs, the first one is I have become listless, not caring  in many of my daytime tasks and when I get home I am exhausted, my get up go left me many months ago but here I am trying to continue for the sake of everybody else, Pain seems to a constant with my hip getting worse, I now take regular doses of painkillers, not every day, but I don’t deny myself these days! The fact that I’m not blogging as often as I used to is another symptom, I still have an abundance of ideas, but having the gumption to attack the keyboard, not so much!

I need my knee operation, so, I need to lose ten kilograms before they will consider me, so far, I have lost one kilo, this is also a symptom, I am doing all the right things with little or no results, I am slowly getting demoralised, it feels like I am trying to swim against the tide, and just so you know I’m not the strongest swimmer! I am getting slower in my pace and I stop every 500 yards or so to take the weight off my knees! Thankfully the chest issue seems to have receded, I still get the odd pain in my chest but nothing on the scale that I used to, maybe the medication is actually doing some good!

What I’m not happy about is my other conditions, and I do think that the issue is the medications that are the actual cause for the actual problems, I never had any of my issues for diabetes until I started taking the medication for the condition, my legs now seem to swell slightly, so much so that the wife has gone out and bought special socks for me, they are a sticking plaster to an open wound, I bruise easily and have no idea what has caused the bruise, my sleep pattern is totally all over the place (around 3 to 4 hours a night) and I can fall asleep at the most inappropriate times at work, I could always sleep on the bus (eat while you can sleep while you can) but there’s been a couple of near misses, where I could have actually travelled past my actual destination, that’s simply not me!

The amount of my medications has increased, as I suffer from a lack of this or that, thankfully they are about to come to the end of the course so hopefully (I doubt it) those issues will be resolved, I seem to be padding about my own house like a burglar casing the next robbery! I am up at least three hours before I would normally get up to go to work, and that’s early enough, I have started getting the first bus available to work, I beat everybody in by about 90 minutes, I’m surprised they haven’t had a security Prescence to make sure I’m not sleeping within the building, I’m not, but hey ho I might end up there if the wife doesn’t see an improvement in me and my health, when I “snooze” on and off through the early evening, its only a matter of time until she takes an large stick to my head, my memory is shot to pieces as well I used to be really good with facts and figures is this the beginning of the end (I’m not trying to be dramatic but it is unnerving) I’m not saying that I have dementia, but the wife has said it a number of times, so it could be!

As I said in the opening of this blog, no matter what happens this will be the last one regarding my health, as I’m starting to sound like the band leader of Me, me, me and Wailing Minnies! I can assure you all that I am just as sick of it as you are, I don’t know where my health is heading, I get the impression its not anywhere nice and I don’t think I’m going to have the final word!

So, the intention is for the next couple of blogs are intended to be musical (fingers crossed) I have the bare bones I simply have to knuckle down and get them complete, hopefully there should be at least one in the next 7 to 10 days (that’s the intention anyway), thank you for the kind words, and yes the name game is in play (and this one isn’t an easy one) so stay safe and stay alive, until the next (happier) blog……………………….Toodles!