Dum, Spiro, Spero!

 

I may have mentioned I am not in the best of health; well, the title of the blog is Latin for “while I breathe, I live” well it would appear that at the moment I am struggling to do both things!

This is not a woah is me blog, this is a wake-up dumb ass and give your head a shake, I realise that I am burning the candle (life wise) at both ends, I am also taking a flamethrower to the middle bit, let me explain, I have been carrying a couple of injuries for more than the last 20 years, knocks here and there, but by and large just little niggles,

A torn rotator cuff and yes I did go and see about it however back in the day the recovery time was over four months , at the time I couldn’t afford the time off (this was pre Management role) so I did the pyshio and then soldiered on, and to be truthful  there is probably way too much scar tissue to resolve the issue now, I still do the exercises the DR prescribed for me and simply get on with it., although as I now carry a pack that at its heaviest is 24 KG’s at it’s lightest its around 15KG’s, I have to carry it with me everywhere, I don’t drive so can’t just dump it in a car, I could leave it on the bus, but in this day and age it might simply be blown up as a suspect device!

I have had a number of broken bones and so consequently they hurt when they feel the need to, I have a fractured bone in my hand from when I was 15, didn’t hurt then, I wore a cast, now I can barely hold anything in it, copious amounts of painkillers when it decides to kick in, a fractured skull, eye socket, the list goes on nothing major and all healed (trust me the list is longer) but every now and then they flare up,  my knees are well documented and its beginning to wear me down.

The one that’s bugging me more than anything is the thick coating of phlegm that I try to expel from my throat and chest every morning isn’t helping, with a slight niggle in the top left side of my chest all at the same time! What’s that Blue Oyster Cult song again?  I’m not going to go near a quack (not that I can get an appointment) as my holiday is in 10 week’s time and I need some RNR, the old irritable me is returning to the surface, generally because of my health, I sleep when I shouldn’t, and then sleep for around about 4 to 5 hours a night, I learnt in the army to eat while I can and sleep while I can, I have a normal size meal then I’m out like a light, not good.

I have been the wife’s crutch during the time after the Krakens death and I knew this would be hard and long I simply didn’t understand how long and how hard, and I’m there for her every step of the way, but I am getting slower and slower, soon I might not be of any use to her, and that’s not what I want, I have realised (better late than never) that I need some me time, I need to chill and relax and recharge my batteries, I mean god help me if I had any form of social life at all as well, we are fine on that front!

So I am not stopping this is not a goodbye this is me simply saying I need sometime for me and the wife, nothing else, nothing more, I need to take stock and get some answers from a DR for a change, so I may be missing in action for a couple of weeks (fingers crossed) we are too close to number 600 to stop now, I’m 60 this year and I really do want to reach 61, I only have three things on a bucket list , make the wife better, get myself better and finally reclaim my social life, so don’t panic, the earliest you might see me is the 1^st of October, either way I will keep everybody in the loop, don’t panic I’m not about to shuffle from this mortal coil just yet, however the engine could seize on me if I don’t do something about it soon, I would hate to my timing belt go twang at a most inopportune time, so until the next time, stay safe, stay alive and for now its………….. Toodles!

Four on the Floor – Blue Oyster Cult Live.

One of my all-time favourite bands, brought about primarily because of their first live album, over the years there have been a few so today I’m going to concentrate on the first two and the last two, so let it begin!

On Your Feet or on Your Knees – 1975.     9.5/10.

My brother borrowed this off somebody who he went to school with the intention if he liked it he was going to buy it, he didn’t but I did, he didn’t seem to have a great interest in it, but to me it had me hooked from the first chord, it was also my first double album (which I still have) and my first live CD I bought, the sound was typical of the early seventies, weedy in some parts awesome in others, I didn’t care, as soon as I heard Then came the last days of May and Bucks Boogie I was in love! there were a couple of tracks I didn’t get straight away, I was ten, I mean Harvester of eyes, Seven Screaming Dizbusters (which I loved and still do) it didn’t matter that I didn’t understand it, the songs appealed, the playing appealed, I didn’t care that Albert Bouchard was wearing silver shorts in the middle of the sleeve, the only downer for me simply because  it was a cover and I was already at the age of ten sick of it, Born to be wild, it’s a great cover, just it was always on the radio even then, a little like Kiss the band simply toured and toured and this was a stop gap album so they could try and write some new songs, which arrived literally six months after I bought this (Agents of Fortune) before for that arrived I had bought the first three albums and got really acquainted with the studio versions of the songs of this album, and I was upset that they put Born to be wild on the album instead of Astronomy!

Some Enchanted Evening – 1978     9.5/10.

My favourite  BOC live album, I had over the years some excellent bootlegs but this was the dogs bollocks, not least because I got to see the band on 1-6-1978 at Newcastle City Hall and two tracks are featured on this album, a friend of my brother took me simply because he was being mean to me about going to the gig , he had no intention of going, but he didn’t tell me that until the day of the gig and I was devastated that I wasn’t going to see them, an older friend who was going and had a friend drop out took me instead of my brother, ha did he have a sour look on his face, I was close to tears when they came on stage and have very little memory about the gig, I wasn't quite a teenager at this point (nearly but not quite) and I was a wee thing compared to the hulking brutes in the surrounding seats, Why the same rating as the first one , well again it was the sound, it had lost a bit of its balls as they had moved to radio systems for instruments and although its an excellent album the weedy sound does kind of annoy me, it’s a personal choice, again we had covers but I didn’t mind, a stunning cover and glorious inside sleeve, I played my original to death and had to wait to get it on CD as they weren’t a priority for Sony by the time CD’s started arriving, just as COVID hit I bought it again in a number of colours (Blue & Red ) allegedly there was a Picture Disc but I never got my hands on that. I did get a reissue on CD with bonus tracks with an alternative version of We gotta get out of this place and yet another version of Born to be bloody wild!

50^th Anniversary First Night – 2023     8/10.

In reality the band should now have been called Two Oyster Cult by this time, with the loss of the Bouchard Brothers and Allen Lanier dipping in and out due to ill health but they continued to release some good live albums and some terrible ones as well, I have seen them tour on every tour except the last tour since that first one back in 1978 and have never been disappointed by them live, the less said about Eric Blooms Silk Pyjamas  on the Club Ninja tour the better, this was an anniversary tour celebration of the early albums this first night was the debut album, I haven’t bought a physical copy (I’m assuming that it’s a double album to be honest I haven’t seen any physical copies so I can’t confirm) the first album is just that it’s the debut album, I would have preferred to see them split the songs between the second album, because the songs haven’t fared well over time, I still love them but you can see the limitations that they were operating under, especially when you compare them to the monsters on the second disc, why the lower score, firstly Mr Blooms vocals have lost some of the growl, he is a lot older, I get that but some of those songs do need the growl, and some of the first album songs simply don’t compare, the band are good but there’s little bits and pieces that wouldn’t have got through on the first two live albums.

50^th Anniversary Second Night – 2024. 8/10.

More of the same, with the second night being for the second album Tyranny and Mutation, these songs seems to fared a little better with again some tracks that the band haven’t played in what seems like forever, a good mix of songs (including The revenge of Vera Gemini) same faults as with the first one I would have preferred them missed it would have made for a more even mix and there’s a couple of guitar parts that simply don’t seem to gel, still a good introduction if you haven’t heard anything before by the boys, I would recommend you start with Some Enchanted Evening.

And there you have it I know this is really late no excuses I simply wasn’t feeling it, its been written a while I simply didn’t want to publish, anyway onwards enjoy and keep spreading the disease, until the next time stay safe and stay alive………Toodles!

Where Eagles Dare!

A blog of two half’s, and again not the blog I had intended, well in a way it was, let me explain, I had the base line written out, I simply had to polish it, then life as it does gets in the way!

The week started with the usual aches and pains for me, knees, shoulder various little tweaks here and there, it was further complicated as I was attacked on the bus by an old lady and a suitcase, its not dramatic as it sounds, the old lady was trying to deal with a young child and her suitcase ran down the bus as I stood up to vacate said vehicle, there’s nowhere to store bags these days and well I acted as a braking system for the case, I think she was transporting gold bars for some third world dictator , I smiled and said it was ok (it wasn’t, but I’m a gentleman) thankfully a day in the office I was able to suffer in silence. Thankfully they get thirty-five hours and no more, it’s still double the rate of most of the other teams seem to be up to!

Upon arriving home, I discovered that the wife had Covid again, thankfully she’s a much better patient than I am and she simply got on with life, with little sympathy for my suitcase tale! It would appear my brother and his daughter have also succumbed to the Covid, so its doing the rounds again, even the pooch has come out in sympathy as he needs a major operation as he has dislocated something and it needs to be held in place and although we have insurance he has had issues this last year and so is nearly up to his limit, so for the operation to go ahead we need to stump up at least another £2000.

Another day in the office with my headphones in, but not switched on I simply don’t want people to bother me while I work, and I’m aghast at these privileged pampered people who have no idea what life is like outside the rarefied oxygen outside of the university, they are nice enough people (well most of them) they simply have no  idea about the universe or anything in life in general, I keep getting caught looking at peoples shoes to see who tied them, as I doubt many of them could! As the week continues, I feel worn out, my body is a temple, or rather a ruin at the bottom of someone’s garden!

By and large I’m not normally a jealous person, but I keep seeing peoples status’s on Farcebook about the life they are leading and I am so jealous, well to be honest I’m jealous for anybody who seems to walk to their front gate , something I should do more often, just to cheer me up, by the time I get home I am wiped out, I’m beginning to think my diabetic riddled worn out shell of a body is worthless, and by the time I actually I do get the chance to retire ( lunch time on the day that I die) it’s not going be a worthwhile endeavour. I/we simply need to break from the shackles that we have created for ourselves, one day someday soon, maybe, maybe’s not! Then to cap it all I finally catch (after 4 years) Covid, not as bad as the wife, but my chest seems to take the brunt of it, I will stay home until I’m clear (that’s today) I seem to doze and do very little for those five days and I do sleep the sleep of the dead most evenings however I’m still up an hour before my alarm goes off, so I take to haunting downstairs, until the wife gets up!

I made a joke that it couldn’t get worse, could it? Well yes it could, as we lost an avid reader, a Mancunian living in Germany, someone who had been with the blog literally from day one, Dave Robinson, who I had had many meaningful/nonsense conversations, and he was a great supporter when doubt kicked in, he had been poorly recently and he passed after a couple of days in hospital, we hadn’t met in real time, but I would say that we were friends, and the title of the blog is in memory of Dave as whenever I need solace/support I would send up a flare of “Broadsword Calling Danny Boy” to which he always responded, we hadn’t spoken since earlier in the year, when as always he was supportive about me getting my knee sorted (he had his done a couple of years earlier) its funny how a loss hits you, even a friendship over the airwaves, my best wishes go out to his family and friends, god speed and goodnight!

Yes the name game is in play no its not the film, it is a song, google it if you must, the blog took a darker turn than expected and simply want what had been planned, yes I know its late, but I was poorly go sue me, and then I was devasted that we lost Dave,  for his sake I will get back on track and the rest of the year the blogs will be dedicated to Mr Robinson, Achtung Broadsword Calling Danny Boy one last time in the ether! Until the next time stay safe and stay alive until then………………………...Toodles!