Guitars and Life

So the elections for the new Police and Crime Commissioners were a resounding success... errr clearly not.  Looks like most of the population didn't even know about them.  The predicted turn out is... *Dramatic pause, like they do on shows where someone is about to leave the competition....*  just a smidge over 18%!  Are you kidding me?  What an utter waste of time and money.  How now can any commissioner take up their new role with any sense of a "mandate from the local community".  About the only real publicity we had on it in our area was a slanging match between two of the candidates over whether one of them had been reprimanded over saying the new system was a waste of money on their blog.  Great bit of positive campaigning all round that was... So we are fighting wars to give people democracy - there are uprisings throughout the world against dictators so people can vote - we have that, we commemorated the dead last wee...

There has been more than one occasion when I have considered renaming this blog None The Bloody Wiser"!  The older I get the less I know I really know - both in terms of life the universe and everything and also in terms of my own ability to operate within said reality. The last few weeks have been a bit of a struggle - sorry folks this is all about work again, regular readers may detect more than one long-running theme here.  I've just felt overwhelmed by it, worried and stressed by it, lost about it etc. etc.  But of course this all comes down to a couple of major factors. Firstly impostor syndrome . This is something that I only recently became aware of in terms of it having a name and being well recognised.  I've suffered with this all my life.  The continual fear that today will be the the day that "they" realise that I am a fraud at this job, task, activity, whatever and that they will call time on me and expose me as the failure I undoubtedl...

Just cos this is simply just brilliant... The Temperance Movement (with the stellar Phil Campbell on guitar and vocals) with Lovers and Fighters.   Enjoy....

Any regular reader of this blog may well have spotted that my favourite kind of sport involves speed - motor-racing both cars and bikes with the series I most closely follow being F1 cars, MotoGP bikes, British Touring Car Championship, British Superbikes, British F3 cars, World Superbikes... etc but those are the main ones, British GT is in there as well esp this season which was good. So this is the time of year that championships wind up. F1 is still up for grabs but given the dominant performance in the last few races I get the feeling Vettel is going to reclaim the top crown for a third year running. It'll be a good fight back as they were not the all conquering team of the last two years and he has had to show his metal and come back into contention, but a shame as this starts to look like Schumacher at his dominant form in the 90s early 2000s. It'd be nice to get some other names up there I feel. Still some way to go and anything can happen, I wouldn't write A...

I was very lucky that a John a friend of mine had bought two tickets to see Newton Faulkner only to realise after he'd got them that this week is not in fact half term and therefore his intended partner for the night (his daughter) was not going to be able to come her being a busy newly qualified teacher who lives quiet a way away.  Since I'd offered John a spare ticket to see the Guitar Masters gig in Folkestone a few weeks back he kindly offered me the chance to see Newton live much to the chagrin of Daughter-of-Furtheron! So firstly the venue - like Folkestone Lees Cliff Hall this is an old sea-side posh dance hall venue built in the heyday of opulent summer seasons around the British coast I presume it is early 20th century, lovely mouldings around the walls and ceilings, over the top chandeliers etc.  Exactly the kind of over the top extravagance you'd never be able to get past a quantity survey and corporate accountant if yo...

I had a fantastic night out last night, Mrs F and I went to a packed Brook Theatre in Chatham to see Gordon Giltrap and Oliver Wakeman in concert.  Right - yes Oliver, not Rick who Gordon has collaborated in the past with but Oliver is now working with Gordon on a new album "Ravens and Lullabies" due out in a couple of months. Any regular readers of this blog will know that Mr Giltrap is one of my heroes having seen him in many concerts, bought a load of his albums, struggled over learning his pieces , bought one of his signature guitars and had the privilege of meeting him at a workshop some years back in Margate.  So this review will be biased! :-) Brilliant night - a couple of pieces off the new CD, one played in a "unique arrangement", i.e. I think Gordon went wrong somewhere but frankly I don't think anyone in the audience noticed at all - I certainly didn't.  Some of Gordon's famous pieces worked with brilliant accompaniment from Oliver - Isab...

via the blog world I came across  Saz  and through her to her Mum Moanie .  I was an irregular visitor/reader/commentor on both blogs.  A while back Moanie announced she wasn't well - "the Feckler" as she called it.  Last week sadly Moanie lost her battle with it. Everyday there are hassles, the everyday stuff of getting on with a job, doing the washing up, gardening etc. etc.  so many things that we "have" to do and how often do you get to the end of the day and reflect on where has any of that got you?  Life is short - I hope you make the most of yours today.  The AA programme has a lot about "living in the day", for me the endless negative projection I used to have was crippling and blinding, never seeing what was good around me there and then.  I have much to be thankful for and be happy about but my default position is to ignore all that and go into negativity.  Poor Saz and her family's loss reminds me that there was things I oug...