What's Going On

Over the last week I have been on antibiotics because of swelling on the right side of my face.  I and other wondered if it was a gum infection or something, but the dentist said that there were noticeable signs, but once the swelling has gone down they will be able to see better (with an x-ray too), so that is next Monday afternoon - an expensive thing this dental work business.  I wondered if it was because I had accidentally poked myself in the gum with a fork whilst eating, and they said it didn't look that way.

It's funny how my National Insurance payments enable me to pay towards the dental work (and I don't actually think it's a waste of money by the way), but there are plenty of unemployed people around that I see who can have free dentistry but don't, and this I don't completely understand (other than them being scared of the dentist).  I'm sorry if saying that has irritated anyone, but it's just something I was thinking about.

Anyway, we'll see what the reason for the swelling is.  It's nearly gone completely now, and my antibiotics run out tonight.  An irritating thing about taking these things is that when I started on them I was on night shifts, so on my day off I had to get up in the early hours to take a tablet.  That's just a passing rant.

I do know that something I have done is to post three more blogs on the music blog series I'm doing over the last week or so, and that is something that I am proud of.  I know that some question my versions of songs mentioned, but then I am just using the laptop's microphone and nothing else, although I could do I suppose, such as when I was recording vocals using my camera's?

I think that the songs sound okay considering what I use, and I am playing all of the parts (with the exception of the sampled drums on 'Oo You'.  What can I say?  The neighbours would be well pissed off if I bought a drum kit and had it set up at home.  That plus I don't have the funds or space, unfortunately.

I remember having a drum kit set up in the living room of a flat off Sandy Lane in Mansfield, which was so great to just get onto and play the hell out of it with rushes and sticks (rushes are wooden brushes by the way).  That was fun.  Me, Paul, Andy & Tim enjoyed practising there with that kit set up, but the neighbours weren't pleased, for obvious reasons.

If you're interested I am listening to Ringo Starr's album Beaucoups of Blues for future sections of the music blog, but not for a little while yet.  His first two albums were surprising.  The first, Sentimental Journey, was a set of standards, and this was his second set, which is a set of Country & Western songs which were specifically written for him.  At the moment I think it is one of his best that I have heard, and I haven't heard it before!  I especially like what sounds like Jerry Reed's breathtaking guitar playing on the song on now - $15 Draw.  That and what sounds like Pete Drake's slide guitar on it.

Anyway enough of that.  In less than two weeks I'll be off for a fortnight, and that I am really looking forward to - I'll get to watch a gig or two that's for sure!

So that's where I am at the moment.  I thank you again for reading.  Please take care.


January 26 2012 (41 years, and 2 months old)

More catching up

I know, it's been over a week since my last epistle, but I just haven't seemed to get around to it.

Not much has happened really since the last time we met here online.  I've been moved to another site since then, and it is one that is incredibly near to where I live.  I won't give away any details because I can't do that if I am being honest.  It's probably a good thing if I stop talking in any way about the work that I do, other than people knowing that I am a security guard.  Like I said, I think it is best that way.

I have been enjoying playing music lately, and that has included doing something towards the music blog, where I have put mandolin down for the Paul McCartney song Kreen Akrore.  If I am being honest then I have to admit that I'm fed up with that song.  I do however have an idea of something to do, and will sort it out very soon.  Possibly within the next few days.  The actual next few blogs in that series are already written, but music is obviously required.  I am also starting to discuss a new album altogether in a couple of blog posts time, and it isn't one by McCartney!

I'm really looking forward to getting a couple of weeks off work soon, but I am crossing my fingers that they will only cover me on the site I am working at rather than replace me during that time.  That is something that worries me now, rather than with companies that I have worked for before now.  Before now I sort of knew what was going on.  When I was working for the company where I was being security for different Morrison's stores, then I knew that I was working for different Morrison's stores.  When I was working for the company where I was security at a site in Chesterfield, then I knew that was where I would be.  There is now the slight fear and insecurity that I haven't had for a long long time.  In fact, probably since, well, forever really.

I can go back through my life and look at the jobs I have done over that time and see that there was a certain job security there, but this is different.  That plus I've grown tired in a way of being moved from one place to another and all of that.  There is something about getting used to working at one place and getting to build relationships with those people that work there, although I suppose I do have to learn to keep that slight bit of distance at the same time, because obviously they are just being who work where I am based, and I sometimes find that tricky because I like making "friends" with people, and that's not always the way to go.  It's taken a long time to realise that, but I am starting to at last realise that that is the case.

I'm not completely sure what I will be doing over the couple of weeks that I am having off, but I'm hoping to catch at least one gig over that time, because I have really missed catching bands playing, especially those that feature musicians I am friends with.

I won't be doing an absolute load over that time, but basically chilling and possibly not having to use every single penny of my wages just being able to survive.  I suppose that is the same for a lot of people nowadays, but I am also sure that there must be something that can be done about it!  I won't let this get the better of me.

Anyway, I think I will leave this blog here right now.  I know I haven't really said that much, but what the hey.

Thank you for reading, and please take care.

More waffle about this and that

So here we are on another day, and yet life just seems to keep moving on and on, without much ever changing from one day to the next.  I keep going to work, and doing the same old thing day in and day out.  I suppose that is the same for everyone.

I'm sat here at work now looking forward to a few hours time when I will be leaving and making my way home for a couple of days off.  I will be just chilling out over these couple of days.  That plus going to the cinema to watch the latest Sherlock Holmes film with Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law in it.  I am really looking forward to that.

Me and Louise both went to see Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol last week on a buy one get one free deal at the cinema (the same as we will be doing this week), and we thoroughly enjoyed that.  We don't take much notice of what reviewers say about films.  I myself watch television programmes and all sorts of things that people and critics say "nerr" to if I am being honest.  That could maybe have something to do with me being a big science fiction fan, because the majority of science fiction is looked down upon by those supposedly in the know.

One big problem though with the whole sci-fi thing is that Louise isn't a fan, unless it's Harry Potter or something to do with time travel.  She did like the first season of Heroes, but none of the seasons after that.  I can understand where she is coming from with that though.  I think the programme could have been saved, but there were a lot of mistakes made, and stories lasting for too long.  I agree that the show needed stories that needed to be carried over more than one episode, but what I think they needed was probably to make stories go for maybe four or five episodes at the most, and keep relatively the same team of aforementioned Heroes.  I'm sorry, I've started rewatching it and got back into it again.

I'm planning on going through all of the Star Trek series as well, because that's really where my love started from.  I also remember watching Buck Rogers when I was younger, Space 1999, and other programmes such as that, but I don't own any of them, and I also would have guessed that like a few programmes that you watch as kids, when you try to watch them again as an adult they seem to not retain that seem sense of, erm, magic that they did way back when.

There are a number of films that me and Louise have seen trailers of when we went to the cinema last week to see MI:GP, and we would like to see them.  It's funny really because it's the first time that we have been to the cinema to see anything since the end of 2010 with the film 2012 (thank you John Cusack, one of Louise's favourite actors).

It's difficult to find the money to do these things, especially now that everything just seems to keep going up in price and my wages just seem to get less and less as I pay more and more tax to get the country out of the financial shit that all of the rich people who don't have to pay more tax got us in to in the first place.  It's nice to feel like I'm helping people, although I prefer helping people that can't help themselves rather than rich fat cats who make stupid money that is more in a month that I make in one or even two years.  Sorry, I hit that subject again there.

Anyway, days off now, so best get on with all of this.

Take care and thank you for reading.

Tuesday 10 January 2012 (41 years, 1 month, and 15 days old).

A New Year

So, Christmas has come and gone, and we are still here.  The government of the UK had decided before Christmas to leave the European Union and go it alone, and so we look forward to a year where things are "going to get harder, but we can get through it", so says Prime Minister David Cameron.

Of course with the money that he has behind him it is easy for him to say that.  If he were one of those like the people on the lowest pay scale, who were being forced to have to put up with a rise in taxes then it would be different.  He is however one of those in the higher bracket who always seem to get away with these tax rises.  Please excuse me while I continue to be irritated by their taking of the piss!  It doesn't bloody matter too much to them that everything is going up in price.  Food just keeps going up, fuel keeps going up, transport for those who can't afford to keep their own transport (or choose not to), and everything else does.  Bills keep going up such as gas, electricity, and the like.  Yet to them this is pocket money, but to us it is more difficult because we also have to put up with getting paid less at work, giving us less money to pay for these things that cost so much more.

I'm sorry, but I'm retreading old ground that I have discussed before now.  I just found that comment to be irritating coming from someone who won't really feel it.  I'm sat here at work wondering how I am going to afford to pay the bills that I didn't pay because I didn't want to be a tight arse over Christmas.  I bought presents for people.  I'll admit that I didn't spend as much as I would like to normally on presents, and there were people who I didn't buy presents for that I feel awful about not buying anything for.

Now though I am hopeful that I can catch up with what I didn't pay so I could afford the season.

I know, despite what other people might say about these things being necessary, that people such as Cameron, and anyone who makes money in that higher echelon didn't really have any trouble like that.  If they had to decide anything it was probably "should I forgo a couple of days from one of my couple of dozen holidays I was going to go on so I can afford to buy every present for everyone?"  Yeah, times are hard for everyone, unless you are one of those who make these decisions.

Anyway, that's enough of that.  I am hopeful that this year will be so much better than last year.  I look at the things that I do have that make things better.  I am one of the lucky people who actually has a job.  Admittedly there are bad parts to it, and these have caused me problems for many years now.  I can't go out and catch gigs with my friends any more, but I still have those friends.

I have great support from my family, and from someone incredible who loves me so much, and from her parents as well.  There are a few friends in Newark that we have, and that is a great thing.

As it stands, I know that I will catch up with what wasn't paid over Christmas, and I also know that I will make every effort to try and visit people that I miss, and that I will try not to let everything get on top of me to the extent that it has.  Everyone is having trouble, but I am going to try and regain some of the fun that I have lost over the last couple of years worrying about things.

This year will be different.  I know that I have probably said that before, but this time I am adamant.  I don't make resolutions because they always get broken.  When I quit smoking all those years ago I did it about a week or so after new year, because I didn't want it to be a new year's resolution.  That has worked well, and so I am so will this belief in me that the coming year will be better.

Here's to a great year ahead for all of you.  Take care, and a belated wish of a Happy New Year.

January 3 2012 (41 years, 1 month, and 8 days old).