Brother 52

So, as the year draws to a close and as always at this time of year my issues have played havoc with me and my brain (only due to tiredness and nothing to worry yourselves about) , thankfully the family have been great and have given my head a bloody good shake.

The year has generally been one of my most positive years, I have had my ups and downs but as a rule I would say 90% of the time I have been up! hopefully going forward things can stay positive in the new year ( I bet it all goes horribly wrong once I have completed writing this) and blog wise there should be more historical items coming down the track.

Negativity disappeared after my small little rant (see previous blog) and the numbers were quite stable given the nature  of my rant, numbers are in the ascendancy with over 38000 for the year, you think that I would be happy, and I suppose that I am, but you always want it to do better,  some have done well some have done even better and some have traipsed behind like the lost children that they are, but with an average 730 hits per blog this year I seem to be doing something right, the problem is I have no idea how that happens and I have no idea at how to improve what I’m doing (no I’m not looking for any tips it is what it is and I’m more than happy with what’s happening, as I have said in the past I’m a technophobe living in a modern age).

The name game still has its fans and if I’m honest it’s an easy way to get a head start and I like doing it, although I think these days when Nils gives me a wrong answer I’m sure he’s doing it to cheer me up. The landscape has changed over the last couple of years with the countries who are reading the blog and are not natural English speaking (however their written English is excellent……...much better than mine) some of the responses are lovely!

I have been receiving questions for the next “Now Hear This” blog, I have no problems with this however it is around a year and a bit away so try and keep your powder dry, I will stock pile the best questions so fear not fire them in when you can. Potentially blog number 500 is still online to be the last one, unless something else crops up, huge explosion of inspiration or some such thing, I honestly can’t see it progressing from there, I would like it to end on a high, and by then I have a sneaking feeling I will have said just about everything in my addled brain! If I thought I had anything interesting to say I would continue but even I know when the well is going to dry up!

I have plenty of ideas I’m just not sure that the way that I am saying it is not going stale, I’m sure that some of you will tell me one way or another and it is quite a way off (we are potentially looking at 2021) I intend to keep to 52 a year if I can and you know I have a tendency to move the goalposts when I want, why? Simply because I can!

Before anybody gets on my case “The Whalers Dues” is a true blog I just want to make sure that it is the best piece that I can write no matter when I finally do release it , a lot of people will be disappointed, some might find it humorous and some might simply enjoy the bile, it’s been so long gestating that I feel it might also be a damp squid, I had so many great thoughts whilst it formulated I simply did not want to lose it to the ether, its simply too good an idea to waste!

So that’s the end of year blog, I will see you all in the New Year with new ideas and some great blogs enjoy the holiday season enjoy the company of your loved ones, pets and anybody that I have missed, as always keep spreading the disease and watch the skies for incoming until then ……..

Toodles!

Still got the blues

So, the year is drawing to a close and the blog is slowing down for the end of year, my intention was to ensure that we averaged 52 blogs over the course of the year this is number 51 the end of year blog will be 52.

All was well in blog land until the last blog, I was relatively content with what I had produced , as well as I can be that is, and the blog did reasonable numbers actually it’s in the top three for the year (numbers wise) however I received a few negative comments, from people who were unhappy with the historical content, it would appear that one or two people (ok it’s 4) are only happy when I’m miserable, me with my reputation! No names but they were unhappy that (gasp shock horror) that I had consistently been writing happy blogs.

Now that is not my intention…………………..hang on a second , I don’t write the blogs for you lot, I write them for me and I write what’s in my head at the time (hence this rant….incoming)  I admit at times I can write some dark stuff, but that’s not the intention now or at any given time, having said that, if the only reason that  you read the blog is to laugh at the clinically depressed person writing them, then you really are a sad individual.

Now this is not going to be a personal rant at these individuals (I’ve learnt my lesson with that particular issue) if you do not like what I’m writing then all I can say is please don’t read them (see I’m being polite) there is enough crap in the world without feeding off someone’s misery, am I really that miserable (answers on a post card to FOAD .com) my intention is to write something I’m happy with.

The fact that four individuals are only happy when I’m unhappy says an awful lot about the state of some people’s minds, the fact that you write such negative bile to inform me that you are unhappy with what I am writing really is mind boggling, just for the record I intend to write nothing but sunshine and rainbows from now on positivity is the keyword, watch this space boys and girls.

Other than that, there’s not a lot going on, I have mainly been concentrating on work, and the health of the wife which has been flagging just a little. The fat man’s (that’s Santa and not me) visit is just around the corner so I need to gather my thoughts for the coming end of year blog and I need to list all things positive (hahaha it might be a short blog) and what to expect in the coming year “The Whalers Dues” is definitely going to have to wait, simply because even with all the polishing that has gone with that particular blog, there is simply too much bile and unhappiness to post for all of the doom mongers, I am trying to actually make it as positive as possible however just when I think I have turned the corner to positivity, it slides back towards darkness, and that is exactly not what I want to post.

I hope all of the readers (five of you lol) have a great Christmas and I can only say thank you to all of you who read this on a regular basis so many times so……. THANK YOU! Keep spreading the disease and watching the skies for incoming, the blog survives because of you lot (good or bad)  so until the end of the year……………………………..Toodles!

All Systems Go

I was a normal teenager I liked music, drink and then girls in that order, music and drink at the same time were pretty much high on the list, not many bands came to Gimpsville so we normally had to travel to see even local bands!

I had seen a few, many lost back in the mists of time, Wet Dream (I wasn’t old enough to get in so I stood outside The Mount to listen), Fallen Angel and New Disease to name but a few, I liked local bands, I supported them as often as possible, I loved pubs as well, I supported them every single day, I had to it was my god given duty!

To be honest with little else to do pubs were a great source of comfort either with company or not, although I tended to get insular (hammered) if I went drinking on my own, as I tended not to gravitate towards company, just the bar! One day in 1982 I was invited to go and join a cunning plan to see the mighty Hellanbach, playing in Gimpsville, was I up for it hell yeah I was.

It was a mid-week gig (a Thursday if my memory serves  me right) and it was at the Masons a great pub that has gone to waste, one of best music venues in the area and the owner does nothing to it, how the band managed to get the gig in there I have no idea, but it was my focal point to get me through the coming weeks, I had to go there as I had  not a lot going on, Big G told me where to be and when, it was a plan, I then had a really bad episode so disappeared off the face of the world for a few days, when I resurfaced, I had cut off all of my hair and was not in a good place.

Thankfully Big G was just the right medicine for this world-weary gutter snap, I was given instructions to grow up and buckle up, I was told to stop drinking as it would kill me, “erm is that a clown’s nose you are snorting shorts from”? “This isn’t about me come on man up”! and with that we disappeared into the night arriving at the venue just in time for the crowds to appear ok maybe about 30 people but not a bad crowd for Gimpsville somebody who I didn’t know asked if I was a member of the road crew, allegedly a crew cut and a combat jacket is what it takes!

Much merriment ensued with Big G snorting so many shorts out of that clown’s nose I got drunk just watching him, I had one or two pints (cough splutter) and then enjoyed a great gig from one of the better local bands, do I remember the intimate details of the gig hell no I was shitfaced and I know I slept behind Helen’s Cash Stores ( a local landmark from back in the day) a mere 400 yards from my mother’s house as I was so emotionally tired (ok I was as pissed as a rat) I know my intention to sit and look cool as the band played lasted all of about two songs, what the band thought of the lunatic with a crew cut and a combat jacket on headbanging along to all of their hits was doing I have no idea whatsoever!

Although I saw many more bands in Gimpsville nothing ever matched that gig just for the sheer power and spectacle, me and Big G might have been slightly intoxicated but we knew how to enjoy bands local  or national, the fact that the gig is still in my top ten gigs speaks volumes, I suppose the moral of this blog is get out and enjoy music be it local or national level groups, it sooths the savage beast, I still enjoy the power that music brings, I still like a drink (I’m old I probably drink in a year what I used to drink in a night go figure) and I’m still married so I must still enjoy the company of girls, well the wife I don’t want her to get any ideas that I’m a bad person I am most definitely a one girl guy (one crazy Pyscho bitch from hell is enough………..but she is my crazy Pyscho bitch from hell) .

So there you go I hope you enjoyed keep spreading the disease until the next time keep watching the skies for incoming until then ………..Toodles!