Thunder and Lightening. Jools Holland Gig Review

Last night Mrs F and I went to see Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra at one of the Castle Concerts. These are a series of open air gigs played in the castle grounds of Rochester castle which is a lovely location. The whole event is a bit of a picnic etc. This is the first time Mrs F and I have been as often it has clashed with end of school plays etc. but this year the school took a different approach to that kind of thing so we are able to go. Jools Holland is pretty much now got a residency given he is a local himself living only a couple of miles away... in his own castle.

This was the umpteenth time we've seen Jools - well I think we figured it was probably the 6th but he is a firm favourite of ours. For a start his big band is something a little different, they are stunningly good musicians and clearly no matter how many shows they play always look to be having an absolute ball themselves. So last night we had several off the latest Informer CD with most vocal duties shared between Louise Marshall and the legendary Ruby Turner. Also Rico Rodriguez was a star of the show as ever - he maybe 74 but he still can get up there and give a show. He is a legend quiet simply.

The other big guest star was Dave Edmonds who rattled off a few hits finishing his stint off with The Sabre Dance - which given I was the only one who cheered when that was announced clearly many people didn't know what that was. Now about 30 odd mins into the show the predicted rain had started to fall and I had said to Mrs F "According to the BBC web site it'll be pouring down at 9pm". It did with lightening storms all about and The Sabre Dance was given a great backdrop. However the rain didn't dampen the spirits too much and it was a great show which ended a little sooner than planned I think as there was some concern over safety with more lightening on the way.

The support act was an American from NYC - Joshua Radin who I really liked. I've bought his CD, Simple Times, but not listened to it as yet. Anyone who remembers last year my discovery of Phil Campbell and who sought him out will appreciate why I like Joshua - he struck me as a bit of a similar USA type.

Funniest news story I read today

Sorry couldn't help myself laughing at this one....

Flat blown up in air bed accident.

Although given the devastation, the injury to the man and his daughter and now he might be prosecuted perhaps it's not so funny but... :-)

Blame Liz

Book Review - The Hunt For Atlantis – Andy McDermott

On the face of it this looked an ideal book for me, a bizarre historically led modern age thriller with an archaeologist who had found where Atlantis was and was stopping some loony who was wanting to stop the world finding out about it.

It wasn’t a bad thriller if somewhat unbelievable throughout. However the author goes for very over the top action sequences that read like a script from James Bond, Mission Impossible films. That is okay but there did seem to be far too many of them in the book to me.

Will I try another one his books? Possibly. Definitively a light read with plenty of action in it. I just wished for a little more depth to it, even the twist towards the end was so telegraphed throughout the book that did little to surprise you… other than that the very very bright scholar who was leading the search for Atlantis never once bothered to ask some questions I think the rest of us would have asked long before she did.

I don’t know if my reading tastes are changing but often now I seem to want something deeper from my thrillers rather than the light plot with plenty of car chases etc. I can get that through any Hollywood movie, when I read I’d like to stretch my mind a bit more. :-)

What I achieved over the weekend

This was a one of those weekends where nothing happened but a lot happened if you get my drift.

Friday after work I cleared out a blocked gutter downpipe. I hate that job and only do it when it has to be done, it involves me up a ladder which is not a combination that is good. I hate ladders and being someone who suffers balance issues not surprising. Still all done with my sons help. I then cooked a Roganjosh for Mrs F and I. Oh yes my prize from the guitarnoize comp turned up to much excitement as well.Then it was an AA business meeting for 3 hours in the evening which was okay but meant sadly I missed Daughter-of-Further on getting a 2nd place in a swimming gala.

Saturday - we went out to lunch to celebrate my son getting great results in his first year in uni, everything was pretty much above 90% which was excellent. He works very hard and should be very proud, we were also celebrating D-o-F's success as well as she's had good end of year results, nearly top of the year in Science and a brilliant Spanish result among the highlights. I put a couple of the new straps from my prize to good use and let Son-of-Furtheron take one of the leather ones for his Ltd EC-1000. In the evening Mrs F and I went to one of her best friends 40th birthday bash. It was fancy dress... groan!! I don't really do fancy dress, or parties pretty much. Still Mrs F and I went as Marc Anthony and Cleopatra - so I spent sometime learning the first part of March Anthony's famous "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" speech from Julius Caesar but that didn't seem to be understood at the party by those I tried it on. Never mind.

Sunday - up early, bad news given it must have been gone 1am by the time we got to bed after the party as I had to be at another AA business meeting - bad planning that 2 on the same weekend still never mind. That was a profitable meeting and in the afternoon having watched the GP I got on the computer and stuck into a few of my AA service actions - updating our local website, creating a spreadsheet to track something and looking up some people to invite to a seminar we're putting together.

Good weekend all round

How did I get here?

This month I'll have been married 24 years. Next month my son will be 19. Later this year I'll be 47 and my daughter 14.

Sorry! I am my Dad and he'll have been gone 25 years this October, that's more than half my life I've been without my Dad! No that's a whole other post... or a whole blog... or lots of counselling. Briefly I have spent a lot of time regretting and over compensating that I could never show my Dad that I could be a success in life.

Over the next few years we hit many big milestones. Next year obviously is our silver wedding anniversary. I'll have a son who will be in his 20s! The year after he'll be 21 and my Daughter will be 16! Then the year after that I'll be 50!!! (running out of !'s you know)

Somewhere along the line I went to sleep a teenager and woke up a middleaged "responsible" adult. Problem is I don't often feel like one in some ways I often feel like the teenager - you should have seen my son and I at the London Music Show. Difficult to know who was the more excited at times - I must have dragged him back to the Rob Williams stand 5 times!

What is growing up? What is grown up? Do people knowingly transition from various stages of their lives or does it just happen and then you suddenly realise that you've moved on? Seems to me my life is somewhat the latter version really.

Not that it's really a problem - acceptance is the key, accept who and where I am is the key and realising that some magic something will happen and that it'll all seem sorted out just isn't going to happen. As M Scott Peck points out... "Life is difficult".

Irony

I read an article today about rapamycin which is a drug that may lead to the creation of some kind of anti-ageing pill.

I'll not go into the ethics of all this ... in a world of increasing population, esp an ageing one in the developed world in which already we have a major elderly care crisis and future pensions crisis etc.

But the one thing that did tickle me is that the drug, rapamycin, is named after Easter Island where it was first isolated in soil samples taken there. Whilst historians and ecologists argue the exact facts there is a body of opinion that the population of Easter Island somewhere about 1700 basically was pretty much wiped out. Some of the theories about this are that the massive deforestation of the island could have been a major cause and one reason for this possibly was the zealot like worship of a religion on the island that led to the raising of the famous statues.

It just tickled me that we are naming the "elixir of life" (as I saw on one newspaper) after an island which has a history that shows the abuses man will take out on his environment and the devastating consequences that can have on a human population.