blueshawk

breathless

2008-10-29T22:19:00.003Z

Air moves in a mysterious way

its wonders to perform

invisible, divisible, irresistible

insensate blast, engine of all.

Born in the borderland between sea and sky,

falls on land, and brick by brick by brick

reduces ash to ashes, dust to dusts.

Parent to the form of trees.

Shaking, shaping limbs in rage,

bending the child to your whim.

high on heaths in violence abounding

maddening the maddened, making madder, mad kings,

fooling fools and blinding the blind;

whilst lowly heathers and bilberries lie low

sifting and dividing to nothing your every notion.

We hold your madness near, erect barriers -

stone, wood, glass, metal;

catch cubed power, the better to live

in the footsteps of salt men

who, driven before you on lines between life and death,

end: reduced to leather and bones.

Strangely attracted to chaotic turbulence

you (eddy to your friends) whistle up your fluid familiar,

ring-leader in wanton ruin,

gang-leader on the coastal chain,

breaking rock

stones

pebbles

gravel

sand

silt

mud

slime

Everything.

It's definitely autumn.....

2008-10-16T23:14:00.004+01:00

Dodging the showers this afternoon I got my tripod and took some long exposures (up to two seconds) of moving leaves in the squally winds.
For a short while I became lost in what I was doing and forgot my aching feet and knees.
The colours are particularly startling this autumn - I think that is something to do with the recent warm spell which allows trees to convert and reabsorb a lot of the green pigment (leaving behind the reds and yellows) in their leaves before they fall off. Whatever the biochemistry - the results are an extraordinary range of warm hues that lift my spirits.

I'm back........

2008-10-12T20:39:00.008+01:00

.....I haven't been able to get into my blog for yonks - since the spring, at least. I tried all sorts of likely combinations of passwords and user-names. Nothing worked. Appeals to Blogger Support (hah!) lead nowhere useful. And before you suggest otherwise, I am certain that I tried the combination that has just miraculouslyworked ("Many times; many, many times; many, many, many times" as Dame Celia Molestrangler would have said).
Anyway...... I was talking to the magnificently craggy Klahanie on Friday, at a World Mental Health day event, and he quite justifiably castigated me for my failure to put in an appearance here in many a long month. Being the generous soul that he undoubtedly is, he accepted my explanation vis-a-vis Blogger obstructing my every effort to get at my blog, but his interest put lead in my pencil, improved the cut of my jib and made me pull up my socks - and persistance has triumphed - here I am again, large as life and twice as wobbly.

Calanais

2008-10-11T21:03:00.001+01:00

From some fathomless place in a yawning sky
the lark falls soft, loft on salty breath
(its song-of-place a sharp decline)
to be an unkempt bundle,
post-bound & mundane.

Purpose runs deep
in the bird
in the land
in the standing stones,
old as any named for their place.

here on an edge,
the stones’ cipher, cracked by birdsong,
unbroken remains.

Martin Luther King died 40 years ago on the 4th April 2008

2008-03-29T21:30:00.000Z

We owe a huge debt to this man - find out more here

british winter-time two – Lakeland

2008-03-22T20:21:00.003Z

rain glosses a jackdaw’s bill
against the promise of a cold bright day
..........................
cloud spills through wintergreen wands
the landscape’s spectral magicians
conjuring crags and fells
we deny all magic but draw sharp breath
at the effortless skill of air
and applaud moisture’s motion
that draws modest veils only to strip the bracken-rusted bank
.............................
pan left, and water rushing to escape ragging rocks
flings itself into space
divides, and divides again and again to multiply the mere
lost tarns mirror blackthorn ashamed of un-named mist
...............................
in the distance the air gathers its breath
and exhales to exalt the jackdaw and split a graveyard yew

You can find 'British Winter-time (one)' here...

portrait

2008-03-21T20:00:00.001Z

to embiggen the photo click here

work in progress...

2007-12-02T07:51:00.001Z

Sad, soft, saturated light seeps into Sunday’s corners, and heaps greyness like slush
I ache for snow to overwhelm the sound of improbable traffic
And give way to a deluge of feeling -
Some women long for longed-for babies, tears overflowing; sing songs, make hay, right wrongs
Some men search for words; grasp at songs long unsung; recline, descend into memory without recall, documenting decline
We all make do and mend, do the do-able, try to lead while laughing - dancing out of control
This starts, that ends
Meanwhile I digest poison, it calms me as I listen for news of death, and wait on news of life
I want for nothing but comfort and comforting
Life then, like lava, hot and unstoppable, carrying, charring, hardening, just to hear the sound of cracking rock and falling ash

mark my words...

2007-10-10T12:48:00.000+01:00

I'm the kind of sad git that listens to, and watches current affairs programmes on radio and TV. And I am endlessly enraged by the way that politicians speak to us - often patronising and pompous, inevitably evasive, hardly ever informative or convincing, invariably aggressive, but most aggravatingly of all, they use stock phrases that only politicians ever use -

"I'm bound to say...." - what, I ask myself, binds them to say the bit of nonsense they then go on to utter?
"Let me just say...." - most often said when nothing at all is preventing them from speaking - "Go on then say it" I shout, "get on with it....."
"across the piece" - for example - "this policy will be effective across the piece" - the piece of what? cake? (oo! I do hope so)
"a raft of "- as in, "a whole raft of measures"

I'm bound to say that I don't like this kind of language used across the piece by politicians, when talking about a whole raft of issues; and let me just say I will not tolerate it any further!

Do you have pet language hates?

ahhh...!

2007-09-18T21:18:00.000+01:00

Well I shouldn't have worried about having an injection of methotrexate the day before my uni course starts - my liver has intervened - it is protesting that it has had enough methotrexate for the time being. I went to get my first injection today, only to be told that that I should stop taking methotrexate completely - no tablets, no injection.
Good news in the very short-term - I should be reasonably well on Wednesday, but potentially very bad news longer-term 'cos despite its ill effects it was helping to supress the rheumatoid arthritis. I'm not sure how quickly the pain and stiffness will wear on but it could be quite soon.
Back to hospital next Tuesday to find out how I'm doing... keep your fingers crossed for my liver (now there is a strange request).

Txxx

PS I'll try and post about something else next time

needling myself...

2007-09-13T12:57:00.000+01:00

Well.... all those sleep depriving symptoms that I mentioned in my last post, and one or two more problems too personal to mention, turn out to be clear signs that my body is reacting badly to methotrexate. Much more worryingly, blood tests show my liver is struggling. My rheumatologist (a knowledgeable and decent man who I saw earlier this week) says we need to get things sorted quickly because my joints are continuing to deteriorate.
Now, your liver is not an organ to cross - as essential to life as the heart and the brain, the liver is the biochemical powerhouse of the body. However it is pretty sensitive to "alien" chemicals like methotrexate.
I currently take methotrexate (mtx) tablets once a week - it knocks out the immune system for a day, which then takes the rest of the week to recover. Many of the unwanted effects of mtx occur because it passes through the gut. So a possible solution to those unwanted effects is to have methotrexate injected. From next Tuesday therefore, I will trundle up to the Haywood each week to have an injection. Not too much of a problem with that, I'm not phobic about needles, although I still have to look away when they take a blood sample. However, after a couple of visits they will train me to inject myself, and I can't say I'm looking forward to that.
What I'm most concerned about is that, in an attempt to try and stop my misguided immune system attacking my joints, they are going to increase the dose of mtx - so although some of the symptoms should diminish, others may increase.
It's a high risk approach - they will monitor my liver function very closely to make sure it doesn't suffer permanent damage. The potential benefits are that my joints will suffer less damage.
At this point in the consultation, I asked the rheumatologist if we couldn't just leave things as they are - on a tolerable, slightly reduced dose of mtx - he responded, rather darkly "You wouldn't thank me in a few years time if we did".

Oh bugger, and there was me thinking I was doing alright.

On a very positive note - my MA in Community Arts starts next Wednesday - I'm really looking forward to studying again - the discussion, the reading, the learning - unfortunately I will have had the first injection of the increased dose of methotrexate the day before - I hope I feel well enough to attend...

wednesday morning - too bloody early...

2007-09-05T04:55:00.000+01:00

List 1 ...can't sleep 'cos:

I'm itchy all over
my mouth and fundament are sore
a high pitched discord rings between my ears, punctuated by foghorn blasts (Ah! - the joy of tinnitus)
my eyes are dry
I'm thirsty
my knees hurt
I needed a widdle
the covers were weighing heavily on my aching feet
I'm worried about going to see the rheumatologist next week
the house stinks of vinegar 'cos I made chutney last night (no, I'm not an earwig)
and my mind spins at the thought of all the change over the last year.... and I'm making lists of lists

List 2 - September 2006, I had:

two sons living at home
a job
a reasonable income (for the voluntary sector)
two very used cars
some very good and caring friends
a loving partner
a load of symptoms
fingers that itched to play the guitar (and frequently did)
an urge to take photographs, and about 32,000 images on disk
a feeling that life was getting less exciting
too many responsibilities

List 3 - September 2007, I have:

a second son in less than a year preparing to move away
no job, and my income is a shadow of its former self
a camper-van - aka "Scourge of BMWs / Instant Holiday", and (for the first time in my life) a brand new car
some very good and caring friends (Facebook thinks I have 48 friends - I know I have more)
a loving partner (who is one of the 48 friends, and the best of all)
rheumatoid arthritis, which after years of uncertainty explains the symptoms
a load of new and exciting symptoms (see List 1 above) thanks to the drugs I take to deal with the original symptoms
fingers that ache (quite literally) to play the guitar
an urge to take even more photographs, and about 45,000 images on disk
a melodeon
a book entitled "The D/G Melodeon Absolute Beginners" (nothing like rubbing it in)
a feeling that life is getting more exciting
fewer responsibilities, but still too many
and I am, for the fourth time in my life, about to become a bloody student.

I think this must be what they call "counting your blessings" - no wonder my head is spinning

how do they do that....?

2007-08-05T23:13:00.000+01:00

ever wondered how your computer works - just how does moving the mouse, move the cursor around the screen?
Well - here is a great visual explanation - it takes a moment or two to load, and it's best to have the sound on.
Enjoy the power of education...

the WI

2007-07-30T11:53:00.000+01:00

we went to Leek Show on Saturday and visited the Women's Institute tent, mainly to see if there were any cake samples - sadly, all that was left were a few crumbs. However we arrived in time to see the prize-giving, and this group of women, who were from Bradnop (where?), seemed well pleased to get a good many prizes. Most of the prizes were for curiously obscure achievements, one category of which looked like an oversized dolls house packed with vegetables, cakes, savouries and oddments from someones loft, all colour co-ordinated.

I'm strangely fascinated by the WI - someone I respect greatly is a member and I love to hear her talk about her branch and its doings. I'm not alone in this - there are endless TV programmes at the moment about the institute, and the press regularly runs stories about it and then of course there was that calender and a consequent film.

What do you think? Are you a member? If you want to join (and you are a woman) go here... - how helpful is that?

atypical rides again...

2007-07-28T09:10:00.000+01:00

Pen and I have sorted out, spruced-up and re-launched our photoblog atypical...

We've chucked a load of pictures in the skip, changed the layout and chosen a new colour scheme - but most important, we've added a load of new pictures... and we will add a lot more over the next few days... and then we will keep the site up-to-date with regular new posts.

You can copy pics from the site for personal use - but please ask before you use any image commercially, or to promote a product or an idea - see details of our Creative Commons license on the site.
<<< pan people puzzle - Stoke PAN is a purchasing co-op committed to sustainability of food supplies and the environment. They had an event for members in spring 2007 and used an innovative consultation tool based on a jigsaw to put across their views...this picture won the Higher Education Academy SWAP photo competition.
click pic to see a larger version

always change...

2007-07-26T09:35:00.000+01:00

I'm delighted to say that the brown-outs (see below) have retreated. They were replaced for a few days by inflammation, stiffness and pain, and then blessing of blessings, three days of near normality which coincided with a trip to Suffolk to see my Mum. And whilst I was there, the enjoyable, nerve-rack of a joint radio interview with ace mind-bloggler Klahanie**.

It would be good to be able to say that it was wonderful to see my Mum - but we are not close, and time has widened rather than narrowed the gap between us. She is now 86, and I'd like to think that something could happen that would bring us closer again - but that kind of thing only happens in novels.
When I was young she seemed warm and affectionate, but when she met a new partner following the death of my Dad, she became increasingly detached from my sister and I.
I sometimes get the feeling that she resents me moving so far away from the east coast, but there were always very good reasons to be elsewhere - to be further north and west where both the people and the countryside are more friendly and comfortable.

For lots of reasons (mostly to do with being brought-up there) I have never much liked East Anglia - it's flat, and the light is cold and glaring - well, to my eyes. But Pen and I had a great day out in Orford and Aldeburgh - a boat trip, ice-cream, cake, fantastic fish and chips, a paddle and a walk - since the onset of RA, a proper walk has become a rare treat.
We took hundreds of photos - including a couple that I think are amongst my best yet. Pen made a wonderful video starring that perennial heart-throb, the sea.
I'll do a gallery of Suffolk coast images very soon - but left is a taster - taken in Aldeburgh, at the origin of the remarkable spit of shingle that is Orford Ness. (click to see a bigger pic).

We had a nasty journey back - long, tiring, queue-ridden and hassled by faster vehicles. But when we got home - a really good surprise - a letter telling me I have won first prize in a photo competition organised by the Higher Education Academy. And then, while looking in a magazine published by English Heritage, Pen noticed another two of my pictures - they'd asked ages ago if they could use them - I thought they'd forgotten.
Less good was opening my payslip - sick pay has stopped this month - from this point on I'm unwaged and effectively jobless. If I could cross my fingers, I would that work's sickness insurance will pay-up - it's not a lot of money but it would really help.
Perhaps you'd be good enough to cross your fingers for me?

It was four years ago today that Sara died - in part a victim of ill-funded and ill-founded mental health services, her last few years were troubled and anxious. Those who knew her, will remember her caring ways, a clever mind and an uproarious sense of humour. She is most greatly missed by our sons Phil and Rich who lost the best Mum either of them could have had.

** - you can hear the interview about mind-bloggling, along with a chunk of Radioman's podcast about Sanity Fair, on Radio 5 live on Tuesday 31st July at around 2-o-clock in the morning or on the BBC's listen-again facility

BTW - If you have been - you can un-cross your fingers now - Thanks

2007-07-04T13:29:00.000+01:00

A brown-out is not a form of political protest against a new head of state, but a term used by workers in the electricity industry to describe power reductions that fall short of a complete blackout - bulbs dim, kettles take ages to boil, tv pictures shrink and lots of other stuff just stops working.
Well... I've been getting brown-outs, sudden bouts of fatigue - not just ordinary tiredness, but a sense that if I don't stop doing what I'm doing and rest right now, I will collapse. My brown-outs always happen in the afternoon - usually around four or five-o-clock - and the only way I can cope is to sleep for a while. Sometimes a ten minute nap will do, but recently I have been waking after several hours, having intended to have a short restorative doze.

Fatigue is one of the main symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis - for many, unaccountable tiredness is one of the earliest and most distressing signs of the onset of RA. Quite why fatigue has been affecting me so badly again, is difficult to know - maybe the underlying disease process is very active? I've had to up the dose of the main drug I take - and that has made me feel pretty lousy at times. Also I seem to have taken on too much (see my last post) and I certainly overdid things a few weekends back.

I've had lots of anxiety-provoking things happen recently. In some ways the anxiety has been the worst thing of all, because it feeds on itself, working away insidiously, robbing me of energy at a level at which I'm barely aware. And for me, anxiety points towards depression - and it takes a lot of energy to fight that decline. Studies show that around three-quarters of people with RA experience moderate to serious depression.

However, I feel I may be having a lucky escape - last night I slept solidly for seven hours, despite sleeping for four hours during the day yesterday (and the day before that). I woke this morning feeling truly refreshed, and as well as I've felt for ages. I turned on the radio and the first thing I heard was that Alan Johnson had been released... it is so important that news keeps coming from places like Gaza where ordinary people suffer terrible deprivation and oppression. Unhindered, fearless press access and comment is central to the maintenance of decent societies. Alan Johnson's release is a bright point of light at a time when trust between differing communities is under threat. It gives me great pleasure to be able to remove the "free Alan Johnson" banner from my blog!

So.... a good start to the day. Later I'm off to see Spiers and Boden play - they are among the most imaginative and skilled of musicians playing in Britain today and are a joy to see live. Then... a couple of days off travelling with my lovely Pen, who is simply the best partner I can imagine for me.
Not out of the woods yet, but I'm heading for higher and brighter land.

Sorry to have not been around for a while - there are people (not least fellow mind-blogglers) to whom I would like to have given more support recently, but, I suppose you can only do what you can do....

busy, busy, busy...kind-of

2007-06-09T00:06:00.000+01:00

Re my last post ...I've been doing lots of stuff over the last few months -

doing a short course on community arts at Staffs Uni
applying for Disability Living Allowance - got it!
getting a Motability car - I got an adapted, easy-to-drive Yaris - which is completely liberating - I can go places again
getting a blue badge - got it!
making an insurance claim - not got it (yet)
challenging the insurance companies decision that they couldn't pay 'cos I should have known I'd got rheumatoid arthritis 11 years ago!!!
applying to Staffs Uni to study for a part-time MA by negotiated study
trying to negotiate a programme of study acceptable to me and the university
trying to get some money to support my study despite a bizarre rule that denies Disabled Students Allowance to anyone who needs to spread their study over a number of years
volunteering at MAGMH for a few hours a week
trying to make and eat a bowl of porridge each day (it's good for you)
going up to the Haywood hospital and to my GPs a lots
getting involved in patient participation / consultation stuff at the Haywood
up-ing my dose of methotrexate (because my joints are still bad) - and dealing with the consequent sickness
trying to perform at least some of my duties as a trustee of N Staffs Mind
ditto as trustee of MAGMH
trying to take some half-decent pictures
designing / setting-up a website for my friend Bernard
trying to enthuse all sorts of people about my idea for a project which seeks to engage people experiencing enduring mental distress to take photographs as a way of challenging stigma and discrimination
getting involved with the Happy Man-days project
thinking a lot about disability, stigma, disablism, mental distress
learning how to negotiate with organisations who want to buy photographs from me (a good feeling)
growing food and flowers
de-cluttering our house, so when we move (sometime in the next year) we don't have to do it in a rush
not worrying about what I'm going to do for money when I "formally" retire
keeping this blog going and visiting / commenting on other blogs
counting the different sorts of birds visiting our garden
doing bugger-all on days when I feel crappy - as Klahanie says "busy being ill"
eating lots of ice-cream and cake
giving love and support to family and friends who have given me so much support and love
talking a lot, about all sorts of things, with my best friend Pen
seeing lots of people, making new friends and generally having a good time

I don't know whether I'm coming or going a lot of the time... but I guess it will all settle down sometime soon - and it's better than sitting on the sofa

deep and important questions...

2007-06-08T23:57:00.000+01:00

...has anyone ever made a left-handed piano?

apologies...

2007-06-05T14:51:00.000+01:00

...no posts recently, but more importantly, no time to look at other people's blogs and leave comments - sorry.

Life has been so busy - either busy re-organising for life after retirement, or busy being ill (thanks Klahanie for recognising that - it was good to see you today).

In all of this I'm remarkably cheerful - in the past I would have been very anxious about the future - and all but paralysed by that anxiety. But these days I seem to be able to be more philosophical.

I'm very occupied at the mo' with developing ideas for work around photography and mental health - in particular working with people who have enduring mental health problems. And I'm trying to link this with a programme of study/research at Staffs University - I'm doing a short course about community arts there at the moment and really enjoying it - I'd forgotten how much I enjoy academic work. It feels odd to be a student again, but not unpleasant...

Anyway - I will be looking at other people's blogs very soon...

pj and peggy...

2007-05-19T11:56:00.000+01:00

PJ Wright sliding on a resonator, with Dave Pegg, in Leek, on Wednesday night.
PJ is a fine guitarist, vocalist and writer - his latest solo album "Hedge of Sound" is rattling the cones in my house a lot at the mo' - you could do worse than get yourself a copy.
I managed to get a few shots - including this one (left) which I like a lot - about half the audience seemed to be taking pictures.
Sadly I had to leave at half time because of a minor-ish family crisis, and didn't get to chat to PJ and thank him for using one of my images on PJ & Peggy's latest CD - so - Thanks PJ, long may you prosper, and may the licks always come nice and easy...

click the pic to embiggen it - snapped with a D80/Nikkor 70-300 @ 300mm, ISO3200, handheld.

Tuesday was a good day ...

2007-05-17T00:02:00.000+01:00

- new opportunities, friends, laughs, discussion, great pictures, useful work, and partnership

image by tone using a nikon D80, sigma 50mm macro, ring flash and a little post-processing with photoshop
click for a larger pic

going west...

2007-05-10T22:43:00.000+01:00

... it was rather windy in Wales last Monday (that's why I'm squinting)

another beard sculpture by blueshawk beardology, picture by Pen

eventual karma...

2007-05-09T22:39:00.000+01:00

A few years back my mental state was precarious. My family and I were experiencing the most difficult circumstances - challenges, both acute and chronic, came thick and fast, any one of which could have destroyed our equilibrium.
Something had to give. I could no longer cope with an anxiety-provoking job, at the same time as dealing with bereavements, illness (my own and that of others) and endless bureaucracy. My doctor gave me a few weeks off work to deal with my mental exhaustion.
But I also needed something to take my mind off all the problems - I ended up writing a detailed, possibly obsessive website about my favourite electric guitar the Gibson Blueshawk - it took hundreds of hours, but it helped me remain sane. I had no idea anyone would ever look at it - but now, if you type "blueshawk" into Google it is at the top of the list!

In the four years since I first published the site, I have had hundreds of contacts from guitarists in over 50 countries - and never a negative comment.
Some of those contacts have turned into real friendship.
There is Andreas in Austria, and several correspondents in the US. And then there is Dave in Wigan who is making me a wonderful new custom body for one of my guitars. Most recently there is Ron in Hampshire who sent me a hard case for my Blueshawk. The hard case is an expensive option (not provided as standard) and they have become as rare as hens teeth since Gibson stopped making them - and yet Ron has given me his (his Blueshawk having come to a sad end).... thanks to Ron, Dave and all the others out there in webland who have repaid many times over the effort involved in in writing blueshawk.info.

As Earl discovers in the magnificent TV series "My name is Earl" - what goes around, comes around... eventually.

I give you.......

2007-05-01T08:12:00.000+01:00

the HandleBar Beard.

You've seen the handlebar moustache and the ZZ Top beard.

Marvel now at the wonders of the HandleBar beard - a true marvellous wonder, and a veritable wonderful marvel.
I give you the future of beardology.

#3 in a series of beard sculptures

let them eat cake...

2007-04-29T16:08:00.000+01:00

...on Saturday we went to that most civilised of events, a cake party.
It was in honour of Janet's birthday, and there were some friendly and interesting people there and a little alcohol for people for whom cake is not enough. There was tea. And there was CAKE, prodigious quantities of it, the vast majority of which was prepared and baked by Janet's own talented hands.
I ate quite a lot of cake, but (and I say this with a tear in my eye and sadness in my heart) I didn't have the capacity to try all the varieties - in particular I didn't try a reportedly very fine Victoria sponge. A younger me would have done better - it is one of the sadder truths of ageing, that one's capacity for cake consumption is greatly diminished - ho-hum.

If you are thinking of holding a cake party, please don't forget to invite me - I like cake, honest...

PS we brought some home with us - I've just had a piece of brownie - mmm-mmm

click the pic to see bigger cakes

boing, boing, boing....

2007-04-24T08:37:00.000+01:00

Life is up and down at the mo' - several big highs and a few big lows. I also feel pretty knocked about by arthritis - it seems like I'm very gently getting worse again - not as bad as last autumn, but enough to be troubling me quite a bit. I've got a consultant's appointment soon and I'm hoping for a bit more help of some sort.

I've also had a few people pull the - "Oh - my nan / aunty / brother / I've (delete as appropriate) had / got / has that and they - swore by "blank" / just got on with it / never moaned / worked until they were 99 etc etc etc" - thing. Less than one in a hundred people have RA - but if I went by the number of people who think they have RA or a relative with RA, the prevalence would be around 50% (in reality it's about half a percent - even less for men). Most people confuse RA with osteo-arthritis - which is the kind of arthritis most people get as they get older - RA on the other hand, is an active autoimmune disease that can quickly destroy the joints - http://www.rheumatoid.org.uk/index.php?page_id=36 .

I'm finding it increasingly hard to not to get cross when people say this kind of stuff - and of course if I do it's bound to be with someone who does really have a mum with RA.
And besides all that, RA is variable - some people are in wheelchairs, some bouncing around like hyperactive five-year-olds - so even if your mum does have RA and still does the London Marathon thats far from typical.

People with depression get the same thing - how many have heard - "Oh I felt really fed-up last week - I know what you're going through"?

As Pen's dad would say "Flappy-nack"...

And now summat very good - I'm about to become a student again - it looks like I'm going to get offered a university place to study how photography and mental health issues are related - whoop-de-whoop!

found sculpture - beard 2

2007-04-14T09:32:00.000+01:00

I had such a positive response to the last picture of my facial quiff that I thought I would, on an occasional basis, share with you what I see when look in the mirror first thing. I will not visit the rest of my face upon you - it is simply too disarranged first thing in the morning.
This morning's effort is a particularly fine example of the genre, which has form reminiscent of early Henry Moore or even Babara Hepworth. I did consider posting the picture the other way up - that's the problem with modern art, you can never tell which way up it is supposed to be.

list of the month...birds

2007-04-14T00:02:00.000+01:00

better late than later...
- this month its "birdies seen around your house in the last month"

herring gull
blackbird (male and female)
blackcap (overwintering female)
goldfinch
blue tit
coal tit
great tit
long-tailed tit
greenfinch
wren
starling
songthrush
robin (who was bob-bob-bobbin' along)
magpie
rook
wood pigeon
feral pigeon
house (possibly tree) sparrow
collared dove
mottled chickadiddle

...not bad for a suburb eh? When we first moved here ten years ago the estate was 18 months old and we didn't see a bird from one day to the next - now you can hardly move for avians.
I got some new binoculars the other day - I don't suppose they'll help me see more birds, but I will be able to see them better - did you know for instance that goldfinches have a pillar-box red head?
What have you seen recently around your house?

the picture shows snow falling around a feeding starling in our garden - click pic to enlarge

Note - the mottled chickadiddle doesn't really exist - I just wanted 20 birds in the list

photographic revival...

2007-04-10T15:35:00.000+01:00

update 23:35 - since writing this post I've heard that I have won three of the ten prizes in urbanvisions brilliant buildings photo competition and Pen has won one as well! We had no expectation of winning, particularly on that scale. You can see the winning pictures here...and there is an exhibition of all the entries, including of course the other winners (to whom my congratulations), at Ceramica in Burslem. Sentinel story here...

original post
...over the last few months I've started to take more photographs - I pretty much stopped last autumn when I became really ill - I didn't have the energy, flexibility or enthusiasm - fortunately enthusiasm has returned, although flexibilty and energy are sometimes still in short supply.

This weekend we went away for a couple of days to a campsite on the banks of the Dee, looking across to the coast of north Wales - the location was truly stunning.

Both Pen and I became entirely lost in photography several times over the weekend - I love that state of "involvement", when I become perfectly focussed (excuse the pun) on getting good pictures - all troubles evaporate.

On Sunday we went into Liverpool and we took more images - the city was very quiet, it being one of the very few days in the year when the shops were closed - and this image was one of the results >>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Along with the revival in image-making we have revived our main photoblog http://blueshawk.info/texasflood/ and we aim to post a new image there every few days - I hope you will visit regularly...

lunch at Reubens with Pen and Eva...

2007-04-06T23:10:00.000+01:00

smoothie

panini
coffee
there was cake - but it went to quickly to be photographed

thanks Nat for saying "situational photography"

here we go again...

2007-04-06T21:56:00.000+01:00

...it has been gently brought to my attention, that whilst impressive for it's variety of effects and autobiographical content, my blog layout was a bit cluttered.
So I've had a spring-clean and rid myself of loads of rubbish.
I've also moved the side-bar back to the right (where it doesn't crowd the eye so much), widened the left and right margins to make things a bit more readable, increased the main text size and even found a way of making natty little bullets appear where bullets would be good.

summat fer nowt?

2007-04-05T00:33:00.000+01:00

Pictured to the right is everything you need to set up a darkroom - and in this case, what makes those items remarkable is that they were all given to us recently through a web-based movement called Freecycle.
Freecycle matches up people who want to get rid of something, with people who want that thing. In this case we asked if anyone had a developing tank, as we had a hankering to develop our own black and white film - b and w processing has become expensive difficult to come by over the last few years.
Well - we got our developing tank but we also got everything else needed to develop film and make black and white prints - kit worth well over a hundred pounds if bought new, and most of it was either new or nearly new! Thank you Sophie.

Strangely we had been encouraged to start taking 35mm film photos as a result of taking digital pics - Sophie had stopped using film because she had made the change to digital photography.

And lest you think this is all a bit one sided and unfair - we offered three bikes a couple of months ago (one of them a posh Swinnerton 531 framed racer which I made some years back) - they all needed a bit of attention, but they suited a practical chap, who was delighted to have them.
Give it a go it - you may well get your hearts desire, you will be able to give unwanted things to good homes, and you will help preserve our poor creaking planet....

waiting for Godot...

2007-04-03T12:02:00.000+01:00

...it looks pretty much certain that I'm going to have to retire because of rheumatoid arthritis - which is an odd state of affairs to have thrust upon me - and I'm having a fair bit of difficulty getting used to the idea. It will be the first time in my life that I have not had a proper job - I have either worked or studied since I don't know when - I have, compared to many people, been incredibly fortunate in that.
I would prefer to earn a wage, but I'd need an unimaginably flexible employer - you'd have to be damned tolerant to offer paid employment to a 57 year old with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, who stands a 30% chance of being ill on each work day.

So I'm thrown back on non-earned income - insurance policies and benefits - and ad-hoc odds and sods of paid work. and none of that income is at all reliable - I am currently waiting to hear about two insurance claims and two welfare benefits. Assuming my claims are successful they will, for a while at least, keep me going - and I suppose no news is good news....

the blog that gives you more...

2007-03-29T20:36:00.000+01:00

...our policy of continuous improvement has lead us (us?) to offer a new service - a unique (well not entirely) gaming area - see the side-bar. This brings us into line with government policy on gaming - Blackpool bid for this - but we beat them to it (sorry guys).

BTW if you manage to win let me know how you did it - I've tried several strategies but still not succeeded... ho-hum

featured blog...

2007-03-25T12:56:00.000+01:00

a new initiative - featured blog - in which I highlight blogs that I particularly like because they are lively, thought-provoking, human and regularly updated...

klahanie is a newish blog that satisfies me in all sorts of ways - it makes me think, I identify with the writer, it is funny and doesn't take itself too seriously - all in all well worth a visit

...oh and it is part of the mindbloggling group of blogs

christmas revisited...

2007-03-25T10:38:00.000+01:00

What with opening so many exciting little parcels - it's been a bit like Christmas just recently.
First there was my own replacement camera (see below). And then, I went into MAGMH on Friday there were three digi-cams there - along with a load of accessories. I've brought the new MAGMH cameras home with me so that I can test and set them up ready for Tuesday's mind-bloggling session, when I'll be showing mind-blogglers how to take pics and add them to their blogs... I'm really looking forward to it - it'll be great to meet in person some of the bloggers I have reading so avidly...

from the sofa of Jones the snotty

2007-03-22T15:58:00.000Z

....got a norrible cold (sniff) which has set off my RA - so I'm a bit stranded in the cockpit- see pic left - missed lots of things I planned to do this week.

Talking of pics - a vivid illustration that some clouds have silver linings...
I lent my lovely baby digi-cam (a Canon IXUS 40) to Cath 'cos she was going to Finland on business (I have such globe-trotty mates), and although she packed it carefully in the middle of her suitcase, it got broken on the journey back. Bugger! we thought - but she claimed on insurance, and I now have a replacement - a Canon IXUS 800 IS. And because prices have fallen and technology has advanced a lot recently, it is much more super-wizzy than the old one -and if you show the slightest interest I'll bore you with just how much wizzier it is than the old one.

You know what your hair is like when you've just crawled out of bed? - well I get that with my beard - attractive and a little raffish eh?- see pic right

update (decisive - definite)

2007-03-18T20:46:00.000Z

...music is the food of love - no ifs, no buts (how can Shakespeare have been uncertain?)...

Pen and I have just got back from a singing weekend at Wedgwood Memorial College. And we both feel deeply relaxed, and have harmonious noodlings coursing through our minds.
The sessions were lead by Jane Read, who we have sung with several times before - she is a wonderful teacher and encourager - it is difficult to imagine that anyone leaves one of her workshops with anything less than a massive increase in their vocal skills and confidence.
She'll be back in a year's time - a bloody long time, but well worth the wait...

update (decisive - sort-of)...

2007-03-18T20:43:00.000Z

...it is a female blackcap (probably)

good weekend...

2007-03-12T08:34:00.001Z

which started badly...
Pen and I were due to go Brighton to stay in a friend's flat; but it would have cost over £150 in train and taxi fares, or ten hours driving on some of the nastiest roads in Britain, including the M6 around Brum, the M25 around the west of London and the M23 towards the south coast. In the end I had a really bad day on Friday with my joints (which are generally bad at the mo') and we were both ill on Saturday. Plan B was to go away in the campervan on Saturday - but we never got round to it.

We ended up doing loads of positive stuff...

- went to see The Illusionist at the cinema - enjoyable and understated

- finally worked out that the small nondescript visitor to our garden is a female greenfinch (probably - or it might be a linnet, or a female blackcap (only it has the wrong beak and is too early) )

- made a tomato and lentil soup on a whim - it was damn tasty with fresh baked rolls

- put new strings on my acoustic guitar and noodled until my fingers hurt - Cath bought them for me as a very late birthday present (only 16 months overdue), and they are very light and easy to play

- got loads of work done on our allotment - laid the beds out, with paths between; dug in loads of compost, manure and seaweed; planted onions and garlic to add to the fruit bushes we'd planted the week before; pruned the large area of old fruit bushes next to our plot; tidied up a load; sowed green manure; set up a water butt; chatted to Karen, Harry, Nick, Jude, Cath, Scott, Cael, Ro, Ava, Kath, Roy, Dave and Stuart the man in the allotment shop (it's a surprise we got anything done); and made tea and toasted hot-cross buns in the camper: and as a result went to bed physically and mentally worn-out on Sunday night and slept the sleep of the just...... "the just what?" "I dunno - the sleep of the just knackered 'spose............. snore"

frogsporn

2007-03-06T17:24:00.000Z

... I suppose I might come to regret that title - but probably not as much as some who arrive here via a google search.

There were around twenty frogs in our pond this afternoon - soon you won't be able to see the surface for spawn.

Frogs have actually been active since the 21st Feb, and spawn appeared first on the 26th - significantly earlier than in the last four years. Also out and about in today's sun, a peacock butterfly...

click for a big pic - taken in our garden this morning

list of the month...

2007-03-04T23:03:00.000Z

...this month - at the end of grey, dank windy winter - a look back at memorable holidays and a chance to look forward to more eye-opening, beautiful breaks...

photo - the beach at Essaouira, Morocco - click for big pic

sad but true...

2007-03-04T21:21:00.000Z

Stoke City Council is the worst local authority in England - along with Rutland, Sandwell, Bristol and Lambeth; and whilst they all got a score of one out of a possible four in a recent Audit Commission assessment, at least they are all improving, all except Stoke. In fact most local authorities are judged to be getting better, even the best of them.

So what's gone wrong in Stoke?
I know a lot of people who work for the council and the vast majority are hardworking and committed to improve things for the people they serve; and many are imaginative and creative to boot. I also know a good many who have left the Civic orifice, heaving a great sigh of relief as they left.
I struggle therefore, to imagine where the problem lies - perhaps you, dear reader, can advise me?

Oh and whilst I am impotently foaming at the mouth - a different lot of poxy politicians have decided to have a go at nurses - I'd be right with them if they took industrial action, not least 'cos I benefit from their work every week... up the workers

looking towards Burslem from Tunstall - click to big it

lunar eclipse

2007-03-04T20:44:00.000Z

.... I'm a bit odd me - I got invited to Will's birthday party, and I took my telescope and my camera kit (I took some cans and a bottle as well). Well I'd never seen a lunar eclipse before - and it was bit of a hit - a queue formed to have a look - a lovely bright night and lots of laughs with C & S and all.

click the pic for a big pic - see if you can spot three stars pulled into a line by the earth's rotation and a 4 sec exposure

PS - in case you're wondering? - I've been doing a lot of housework - I've felt the need to do something physical and not sit so much with the laptop - oh and I've been up the allotment and spread a load of horse-shit + home-made compost and planted some fruit bushes... what a busy boy

how many drummers does it take..? (part 2)

2007-02-23T22:01:00.000Z

...a while back I posted about the supposed stupidity of drummers (in my experience they are anything but). In that post I mentioned, amongst others, drummer/percussionist Pete Flood who I'd just seen performing with Van Eyken.
Last night Pen and I went to see Bellowhead - an astonishing eleven piece band who perform mainly traditional folk tunes and dances in a style that collides morris, 19th century balladry, jazz, burlesque/music hall, big band and folk rock. Deservedly Bellowhead won "best live act" and "best group" at this year's BBC Folk Awards. As when we've seen them before, they were astonishingly good - both loose and tight. This apparent stylistic contradiction is made possible only by great arrangements, and a framework of endlessly rhythmic, wild and imaginative drumming from Pete. I was delighted to discover that Pete had also arranged my favourite track - "Across the Line" on Bellowhead's debut album "Burlesque"...
So - how many drummers does it take to make great arrangements for virtuoso bands?

I managed to take a few reasonable pics, against all the odds (we were 30ft from stage), with a compact digital camera

kinda karma...

2007-02-18T22:54:00.000Z

.rheumatoid arthritis has robbed me of stamina, hard-won skills, financial security, physical strength and independence

..it has rewarded me with:
a renewed ability to live in the moment
time for reflection
being cared for, and caring in return
long periods of calm
a rewarding sense of my own resilience
time to blog, and plenty to blog about

...life is continual change

....if you let things balance, they will

.....perhaps I'm becoming a buddhist?

stop moaning you wuss....

2007-02-13T13:56:00.000Z

...well after last week's doom-laden piece it didn't take much to wipe that stupid smile back on my face (and music back into my heart).

Pen opened this months fRoots (UK's main folk/world music magazine), and gave a great shout - there on page 64 was a picture I'd taken, advertising PJ Wright and Dave Pegg's upcoming tour and latest album "Galileo's Apology". I knew that they were going to use the picture on the CD cover somewhere - but it is the whole back cover - and I didn't know they were going to use it for their promo stuff.
And the cherry on the top - today arrived a lovely little package containing copies of PJ & Dave's CD, PJ's solo CD, some promo material and a warm and thoughtful note from PJ. Just before xmas they put us on the guest list for a Dylan Project gig (they both play in Dylan Project, and Dave P plays in Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull; PJ plays in Little Johnny England), and we are to be their guests when they play in Leek in May.

I've also just heard that Pen and I are to be official photographers again at Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival in June - I think I'll pluck up courage and write to the organisers of Shrewsbury Folk Fest and ask if we can be official photographers there as well.

I'm just listening to the CDs now - and they are both excellent - highlights include PJ's "Lily of Barbary", his muscular and sensitive guitar playing, Dave and PJ's version of Sandy Denny's "Bushes and Briars" (distinctly better than Denny's own rather sugary version) and a cracking acoustic version of the The Chantay's '63 guitar classic "Pipeline".

My hands are feeling pretty good today, and no-one is in, so I think I'll go and crank up my Strat...

pic at top - rear CD cover photo by Tone;
right bottom Tone and Strat by Pen

w(h)ither music?

2007-02-07T18:39:00.000Z

... I've been sorting out my tags (low in the sidebar) - weeding out useless ones and generally tidying up - and I realise how little I've posted about music. If you'd asked me six months ago what I was most likely to post about, music would have been at the top of the list - it's always been important to me, right from a very young age. It has often acted as a relief valve for strong emotion - music often moves me to tears.
And music has never been a passive pursuit - I've always played or sung, and even when listening, it's an active emotional and thinking experience - in fact I can hardly begin to explain how I experience music...

Since October my guitars have sat almost entirely unplayed - it is usually too physically painful, but more significantly it is emotionally painful, because I find it impossible to express myself adequately - RA has robbed me of facility and accuracy - and it has also made me question whether it is worth playing at all, when I can't play as well as I used and I may, fairly soon, be robbed of my capacity to play at all. So you go for it Purkul...

I used to go to loads of gigs/concerts - all sorts - rock, folk, blues, classical, jazz, musicals - I'm a complete musical tart - but I hardly go to any gigs now; the truth is, I hardly go out at all any more - I'm mostly too tired and uncomfortable...
And I've realised today that I'm not listening to recorded music any more - it must be a couple of weeks since I last put a CD on.

There are only three tags on this post...

photographically speaking...

2007-02-07T10:49:00.000Z

...this woman walks on water

bad day...

2007-02-07T10:22:00.000Z

I'm lying in bed with thick pyjamas and Pen's fluffy pink bed-socks on 'cos it's so bloody cold - I don't want to put the central heating on to heat one room/one person - me being at home all the time is really caning the gas bill. It's a very bad day today - the worst in months - I have finally phoned the hospital to see if I can have another steroid injection, and I'm waiting for them to phone back - it's a really hard choice to make knowing the seriousness of steroid side-effects.
Good job I've got David Attenborough and Planet Earth in bed with me (it's a king-size bed), otherwise I'd be right bored...

and then..........

2007-02-06T22:47:00.000Z

...nothing happened....

...life is pretty uneventful here in the cockpit....

Highlight of the last few days - a visit to occupational therapy today (a very uncomfortable day joint-wise), and I met a caring and professional OT, and spent an hour discussing what I can and can't do six months into this RA flare. It felt pretty uncomfortable listing all the things that I struggle to do now - a repeat of how I felt a few days back when I filled in a Disability Living Allowance claim form - a demeaning and dispiriting exercise if ever there was one - on this occasion however the balance was restored by being congratulated by this very kind woman, on how well I had coped with all the change...

...my next appointment is on the 28th Feb when she will tell me how to protect my joints, what aids and adaptations I should have (but which I won't get because Social Services can no longer afford to supply them) and I will get measured for night splints.
I'm looking forward to it already...

has spring sprung?

2007-02-03T18:58:00.000Z

click on each of the pictures to see a bigger version
...we have just had the warmest January in about 300 years (since records began), and the last couple of days have been unseasonably warm and bright. This has encouraged plants and animals alike, into activity, much earlier than is normal. I feel sure that this has something to do with global warming, and is not just normal variation - Pen has posted about this recently.
Whatever the cause and long-term consequences, today's sun and warmth lifted my spirits no end, and as a result Pen & I took a great ruck of pictures in our garden - (from top to bottom, left to right) - white primula, sweet scented mahonia, purple heather, winter flowering clematis, snowdrop, a mason bee on viburnum flowers, cotoneaster berries and an auricula flower.

There have been quite a few bees around, yesterday we saw ladybirds and most surprisingly a red admiral butterfly fluttered across the garden today.
metcheck is forecasting up to 8 degrees of frost and seven inches of snow for later in the week - I'm not sure how all these early arrivals will cope with that...

all the pictures were taken with a Nikon D80, Sigma 50mm macro lens and a Centon ring-flash (the best £17.50 I ever spent on photo-gear)

list of the month...

2007-02-03T11:47:00.000Z

...is memorable books.
I deliberately restrained myself from looking at the bookshelf, and tried to let my mind relax, as I compiled this list. After making the last list I realised that lists of "best" and "favourite" things are very volatile - changing almost from moment to moment. And also they imply some criteria that define best or favourite - and I wasn't sure what criteria I was using or whether there were any worth using.
So these books are simply the ones that came into my head on an unseasonably sunny & warm, early February morning. The list definitely includes books I would want with me on a desert island...and some that I wouldn't...

What are your most most memorable books? - and what makes them memorable?

question...

2007-02-02T23:38:00.000Z

...if someone has a frozen smile should they speak through gritted teeth?

hello - my name is blueshawk...

2007-01-31T09:46:00.000Z

...and I am a webaholic...
And whilst I accept some responsibility for this situation, actually Bill Gates is to blame really - him and his bloody fancy, tabbed browser - internet explorer 7 - which allows you to have dozens (hundreds?) of web pages open at once
I had dabbled with tabbed browsing before - for a while I was a leisure/weekend user of Opera, but when microsoft released the beta version of internet explorer 7, I just couldn't help myself - I downloaded, and from then on it was ctrl-left click on every link that came in sight, wili nili -

the plight of Asian women forced into marriage - I heard about this on radio this morning and googled "karma nirvana" and found this Times article that mentions Stoke - if you don't read anything else on the web today please read this
wikipedia article on how zoom lenses work - you'd have to be a bit sad to read this
Guardian page - how Marx was right after all
Guardian comment piece about the failure of the "left"
Aldi's website to see what Thursday's bargs are - about 4 pages open (alright 10)
Guardian - Bush plans to bomb Iran - 3 articles
where has all the extra NHS money been spent
the coolstoke website - new on the block, about a project which aims to educate people in Stoke about climate change - they've got a sort-of half-baked blog
my blog - whoopee
article about Jade Goodey's Svengali-like agent - don't ask me why I'm reading this
the Guardian front page
an article about Serena Williams - a mistake that one - tennis being the most boring activity in the universe (I suspect that may be a controversial remark)
the wikipedia front page
the wikipedia photography portal page
metcheck the weather forecast site - 3 pages - the weather's going to be cloudy and cool
BBC R4 Today programme home pages - and 3 pages leading off it
Serendipity Sunday - a lovely post about pictures of her Mum
etcb - about the pleasures of scribing for students who are disabled
domesticated bloggage - stuff about knitting of which I can make neither head nor tail (knit nor purl?) sorry Lynn - by the way I am not ignoring other mind-blogglers - it's just that ie7 has a built in RSS feed checker, and it says you haven't posted anything new since I last looked.
helen highwater's blog
my mate Joi's photoblog - but the RSS feed lied - he hasn't posted since early Jan, and it's still the picture of Sonja
New Scientist's blog which has a fascinating post about maps
Natl Rheum Arth Soc site - to find out about getting some support from one of their volunteers
a BBC page about planned programmes on BBC4 tv - they keep advertising a programme about Iran with Rageh Omar and I want to find out when it's on

That's about 36 pages open - and no doubt there'll be loads of links I'll want to investigate - I'd better get reading. Ho-hum - there's no peace for the wicked...

phew (wipes sweat from brow)...

2007-01-28T19:00:00.000Z

... I've just managed to deliver the last of my christmas presents...... I'm really sorry Lynn!
(I wonder why nobody asked me to be father christmas, despite me having the beard for it?)

today...

2007-01-27T07:23:00.000Z

Up to 800,000 "gypsies"/Roma were murdered by the Nazis — over a half of their European population at the time. Other groups believed by the Nazis to be "racially inferior" or "undesirable" included 6 million Poles killed, of whom 3 million were Christian, and the rest Jewish, up to 1.2 million Serbs killed, around half a million Bosniaks, many Russians and other Slavs, the mentally and physically disabled, homosexuals, Africans, Communists and other political enemies, trade unionists, Freemasons, and many non-conformist Christians and dissident clergy, were also killed. And of course as many as seven million Jewish people. Some authorities say that as many as 26 million "inferior" people were murdered by the Nazis ... source - wikipedia

Holocaust deniers deny these killings took place..

You and I probably would have been murdered by the Nazis...

There were many genocides prior to the Nazi Holocaust - although none as thorough and purposeful...

And appallingly there have been been many since, including the Khmer Rouge's 1970s reign of terror in Cambodia, the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides in the 90s, and the killings in the Dar fur region of Sudan that are going on now...

in memory of Sara

rheumatoid arithmetic

2007-01-26T12:56:00.000Z

Much of what is known about Archimedes and his work was revealed and explained in a fascinating programme on Radio 4 yesterday. The programme series - "In Our Time" - is one of the highlights of my week. It is invariably thought-provoking, and often so interesting and challenging that I can't even do the washing-up at the same time as listening to it.

The two things most people know about Archimedes are - he ran naked from his bath into the street shouting "Eureka (I have found it!)", and that he was a Greek. Sadly, neither are true - there is no evidence that he ever appeared in public without his clothes, and he was born on the island of Sicily and probably never went near Greece (or what passed for it in 250BCE).

Less commonly known is that he is one of the greatest mathematicians ever to live, and that nearly two & a half thousand years ago he was successfully working on problems that remain of interest to mathematicians today (he calculated a value for pi /π (see * below) that wasn't bettered for 800 years, and laid the foundations for the calculus).

Top and bottom of it is he was a bloody clever human - one of the smartest ever.... and one of the smartest things he did was to invent a way of getting at fundamental logical truths called "proof by contradiction" - that is -

if you think something is true, but one thing happens that contradicts that truth, then your "truth" isn't true...

Doesn't sound like much, but it was revolutionary in its time and is still one of the main ways in which mathematicians and philosophers prove things.

What (you might be asking yourself) has this got to do with arthritis? - I have had three days in succession virtually free from pain, stiffness and fatigue. I could be turning the corner (I thought - and so did my rheumatologist when I saw her this week), maybe I can go back to work after all? Today however my arthritis is worse than it has been for months - feet, ankles, knees, shoulders, upper arm muscles, elbows, wrists, hands, jaw and neck, all stiff and throbbing (no sniggering at the back please). That proves I ain't better yet - it's just this stupid disease playing with me. QED

_____________________________________________________________

Up until next Thursday, 9:00am you can listen to "In Our Time - Archimedes" here

* Pi or π - is the number, 3.142 (approx) that is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The reason why pi has always fascinated people is that a) you can't calculate an exact value for it, and b) it pops up in the strangest places - it saved Dr Who's life, you can tune pianos with it, Kate Bush and the Stone Roses have both recorded songs about it, and as if that weren't enough - descriptions of just about everything in nature depend upon it..........

animation showing how pi is calculated, ripped from wikipedia

a proverb for our time...

2007-01-25T16:41:00.000Z

... my son Richard caught* me cleaning my lovely digital radio, which lives on top of the fridge-freezer in the kitchen, and he observed - "A clean radio brings better news". Perhaps if we all cleaned our radios the world would be a better place.
Ask yourself - "Have I got a grubby radio....? Hmm?"

* it's the kind of thing better done in private

don't know whether I'm coming or going...

2007-01-25T07:51:00.000Z

... did you ever play the game Pick-up-sticks? You know when you tip all of the sticks out of the tube, before you start to try to pick them up? Well that's how life feels at the moment.
Most of the structure of the past is gone or going and I'm not sure I have the energy to build something new. And yet I'm absolutely certain I have to work at it otherwise things will become shambolic.
This week has been particularly strange - my arthritis has been coming and going like the wind; I had what I suspect in retrospect will turn out to be a turning point day when I went into work on Tuesday; and when I saw the consultant rheumatologist yesterday the sense of uncertainty and indecision was only increased - it feels like the ground is moving beneath me. The only thing I seem to have aplenty is images and metaphors for how uncertain it all is. I don't want to wish my life away, but I could really do with it just suddenly being six months from now - cos by then, one way or another, things should be settled.
Oh dear...

question...

2007-01-23T22:34:00.000Z

...is it just me or is Blogger's service crap at the mo'? - "frustrated of bradwell"

Dear Blogger - please don't cut me off - I don't mean to be moany - "f o b"

my great uncle Percy...

2007-01-22T16:07:00.000Z

... I have been scanning more old photos, and also trying my hand at retouching and correcting.
I decided to work on this image because I met Percy's son John last summer and it was he who suggested I take my Aunt Joan's photos for scanning (she had originally lent them to him). I'm in touch with John by e-mail and have just sent him some pictures of his father...

The first image (left) is a small version of the original scan, which I then cleaned up in various ways - getting rid of stains, marks, folds and dust. I then processed the image to improve the contrast, sharpness and also indulged in a bit of artistic license and "improved" the highlights in Percy's eyes. I think I prefer the original sepia - but I also produced a black and white version - what do you think?

problem is it's too easy...

2007-01-22T00:00:00.000Z

...to change the template on a blog ... hedged my bets though and saved the old template ...

2007-01-21T10:26:00.000Z

list of the month...

...this month it's gigs - what are your best gigs ever - when and where were they, and what made them so good?
Also do you remember who the support were, and were they any good?
And do you have a gig of gigs?
...mine would be Fleetwood Mac at the Bluesville Club Ipswich in 1968. Forget the flabby, celeb Fleetwood Mac of the late seventies and later. Fleetwood Mac were originally a blues band formed around probably the best British blues guitarist ever - Peter Green. Their best known single from that time is Albatross - which has become a complete cliche - desperately over-played supermarket music of the worst kind. However hearing it fresh and live (before it had been released as a single), played loud, in the midst of a set of hard-driving Chicago blues was a real wonder. Peter also had a great blues voice.
Sadly Peter Green left the band having become seriously mentally ill in the early '70s as a result of which he received electro-convulsive therapy whilst in mental hospital.
He lived a reclusive life for 20 years, before going out on the road again in the 90's with a band that appeared to be simply exploiting his name. Pen and I saw him in the mid-90s at the Wheatsheaf and he was an anxious and confused figure barely able to play his guitar - his solos were taken by "Snowy" White who mostly reproduced the originals note for note from recordings. Pete, when well, was a great improvisational musician - melodic, exciting and unexpected...
Going to a good live music gig is one of the most postive things I can do - offered a choice I would rather go to gig than do almost anything else...

picture - Eddi Reader and John McCusker at the Middlewich Folk festival in June 2005

wal and nan...

2007-01-17T15:13:00.000Z

... I just love this picture - it's one of the several thousand loaned to me by my Aunt Joan - and I really like the way they are dressed in best bib and tucker, and the expression on their faces.
Wal and Nan sent this picture to my Granpa and Nana, perhaps for Christmas one year? The picture must have been taken in the 1920s or '30s because Ernie (who the picture is addressed to) was my Nana's second husband - her first died young. She married again and they had two children - my mum and Aunt Joan. My mum is 85, so that means this picture was taken some time after 1920 (when my mum was born). The photo came in a rather tastefully textured presentation folder with the printed message "Hearty Greetings"; written in hand on the back - "Wal and Nan with love to Ernie and Dora".

There are hundreds of wonderful photos in the collection. But there are also many duff ones featuring headless people and featureless landscapes - some of the worst date from the 60s and 70s - it's almost as if people lost the ability to take good snaps at the end of the 50s. It makes an interesting comparison to now, when as a result of the introduction of digital technology the quality of people's photography has improved immensely, both technically and aesthetically.

The oldest images in my aunt's collection date back to "cartes de visite" and "cabinet portraits" which were produced between about 1860 and 1900. Photography only really became a commercial proposition in the 1850s, so these early images were quite possibly produced at a time when Dickens was still writing - this is a spine-tingling thought - to be connected so intimately, via the image, with people who were probably born before Victoria came to the throne.

I will post some those early images soon - they need to be scanned with care, and I would like to experiment with enhancing the images to remove fold marks and the effects of fading etc

dank & dark places...

2007-01-17T14:23:00.000Z

...I said a couple of days ago that I would post a gallery of photos of damp dark places. These are pictures that Pen and I have taken in low light on damp days - the locations range from Longport to Iceland via Italy.
I've got a bit of a thing about this kind of photography - see the pictures here - I hope you like them.

There are 15 fairly large images in the gallery so the page may take a while to download...

good day...

2007-01-16T09:02:00.000Z

...sometimes my expection that a day will be bad is utterly confounded. Yesterday was such a day...
I woke at 4:18am and couldn't get back to sleep - my knees and shoulders hurt. I lay for a while hoping sleep would come, but by 5:30 I was downstairs seated in the cockpit with a cup of tea and my laptop. "Bad day in the offing" forecasts Bradwell man (57).
A couple of hours reading the Guardian and wikipedia ended when a knock on the front door announced the arrival of a new scanner (see previous post).
Now - whenever I install a new piece of computer kit I know that things will go horribly wrong. Several hours of frustrated fumbling and cursing, will be followed by an interminable call to a professionally pleasant person in Bangalore, Limerick or Kirkintilloch. Pessimism was proved unfounded however, and it all went perfectly - I was delighted with the results.

Sitting with a cup of tea and "Herland" I came over all dozy and snoozed for a couple of hours, waking refreshed. Lunch was peasy - a delicious leftover of veggy pie in the fridge, whereupon I was seized by "housework urge". Having satisfied the need to clean, I played with the scanner a bit more, finding loads more exciting featurettes, and then set-to reading the papers for tonight's meeting of the MAGMH trustees. Next, a positive and supportive phone call with my boss. Then, Christine arrived at five, we chatted for a bit and she gave me a lift to the meeting. The office was full of MAGMH trustees and workers, including some "mind blogglers" - purkul, etcb, domenica. Kind colleagues allowed me to chair the meeting, which was positive and productive, not least because we welcomed two prospective trustees. One of the outcomes was that we would set up a trustees blog in support of the "mind bloggling" project - coming soon - watch this space.
Another lift and I was home. Pen and I waded cheerily through some bureaucracy I had been putting off and off and off and ... I don't have to put it off any more, because it is done - hip hip... so ends a good day.

new kit...

2007-01-15T15:56:00.000Z

... I'm going to do a right geeky thing now and wax lyrical about a new bit of computer kit that has just been delivered... we've had a posh scanner. And as well as the obvious stuff like scanning photographs and pages of text, it scans in colour film negatives and automatically converts them into jpgs (digital photos). The quality of the pictures it produces is absolutely excellent and I can now embark on the mammoth task of scanning in a lifetime's worth of negatives, if only I can find where I put them.

I also have my Aunt Joan's lifetime accumulation of photos which I can now put onto disc - there are around 500 photos - going back to late Victorian times, often portraying people who I don't know from Adam (or Eve come to that). Getting these scanned-in will be wonderful, as I love old photographs

The two picture accompanying this post are (above) a wedding group from the 1920s - my maternal grandmother is just below and to the right of the bride;
and (right) my aunt, on the right in the dark skirt, and her friend, on a beach somewhere (probably Hunstanton) in the 1950s.

Now let me see where did I put that box of negatives? - probably up the bloody loft ... moan moan grumble grumble

BTW - I'm going to put a gallery of photos of "Dark & Dank places" on our photo-site soon - I'll let you know when I do

getting something off my chest...

2007-01-12T10:58:00.000Z

warning - long and possibly offensive post

I'm not sure how many people have said to me "Oh my Gran has got that", when I've told them I have rheumatoid arthritis. It must be about the same number of people who have said "Have you tried cider vinegar and honey?", or "It must be bad at the moment because it's cold/damp", or "You ought to take glucosamine, a friend of mine takes it and she doesn't get arthritis any more", or "Why don't you wear a copper bracelet?"
In the vast majority of cases of course, people are genuinely trying to be kind and helpful, although there is sometimes an element of "what are you moaning about - it's not that bad." The assumptions that lie behind all these comments is that people know what rheumatoid arthritis is, and that all arthritis is the same.

"Arthritis" simply means joint inflammation, it does not just mean "aches and pains". There are around 100 different arthritic conditions - some relatively benign and short-lived, others are lifelong and highly disabling. Rheumatoid arthritis is in the latter category. It affects less than one percent of people - so it is not likely that your Gran has got RA - although she almost certainly has osteo-arthritis. As we age we all get osteo-arthritis (OA) to some extent - it is caused by a lifetime's wear and tear on your joints. Taking glucosamine or cider vinegar & honey may help, and changes in the weather may make your joints more uncomfortable. People with OA find all manner of things that help relieve the symptoms - the internet is packed with sites claiming that "this" or "that" treatment is "proven" to work. To be frank I mistrust all simple solutions.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by contrast with OA is a disease of younger people (although it persists into old age). It can come on literally overnight, or as in my case, gradually, over many years. Once established however it is usually highly active - destroying the joints of the hands, wrists, elbows, feet, ankles and knees within a few years. Why it usually leaves out the hips and the spine is just one of many mysterious things about RA. Sometimes the eyes, the heart and the lungs are affected. If left to itself RA glues joints together (fusion) and they lock solid - often the only solution is joint replacement - many people have several joints replaced. RA is an auto-immune disease, where the body's immune system turns on itself - and many recent treatments rely on damping down the immune response (although this in turn can bring the problem of increased risk of infection/cancer)
Until recently people with RA had little hope of treatment doing anything other than making their condition a bit more tolerable - painkillers (RA is a very painful condition), anti-inflammatory drugs to try and stop the joints getting so inflamed, and a few exotic drugs, including gold, which seemed to slow the disease down, although at the cost of very unpleasant side-effects. More effective treatments have become available in the last few years - they slow the the disease down and help prevent serious joint damage.

So I say (genuinely recognising just how well-meaning people are) - just because you know roughly what arthritis is, and "rheumatoid" sounds like "rheumatics" (a word some people use to describe "aches & pains") please don't assume that you know what rheumatoid arthritis is.
RA is a painful, crippling, debilitating, unfashionable, unattractive, depressing, incurable and life-restricting disease. And at times I (in common with other sufferers) feel tired, uncomfortable, angry, irritable, useless, insecure, unemployable, sexless, patronised, bored, lonely, old, a pain in the bum, moany and un-lovable. Sometimes I even wonder whether I'm just putting it all on, or exaggerating - not least because a few people obviously think that I am.

It's no wonder that people who have RA sometimes seem a bit fed-up and moany - especially when people say, as people have recently said to me -

Helpful person - "My Gran's got that - she swears by cider vinegar - have you tried it? You must be feeling worse with all this cold weather. My friend has got it and she takes that stuff gluco-something?"

Me - "Glucosamine? - I've tried that and unfortunately it doesn't help."

Helpful person - "Have you thought about moving somewhere warm?"

Me (thinks)........ well yes, I've thought about it, but then again, who hasn't?

This post has been a long-time coming out, not least because I've been afraid of writing something so apparently negative and critical....sorry if it offends, I don't mean it to.

Please find out more about RA here and here...

just how nerdy can you get...?

2007-01-12T10:22:00.000Z

...as dad to two sons, I've spent a fair bit of time playing with Lego - making things with and for them (and sometimes making things just for myself). Phil and Rich still talk about a motorised fairground ride I made for them (although had it been scaled up to full size it would have accelarated the occupants to death).
This however this is in an entirely different league - I can't imagine how many hours it must have taken to build. I kind off admire the person who made it - and then again......

you may need to click the start button twice to get the video to play

this is a link to the original video on utube in case you want to watch it full screen...

2007-01-09T20:51:00.000Z

lathkill dale, nr bakewell

... a good "joint day" on Saturday, so we went for a walk in the Peaks with Rhian and Richard. We talked a lot about them moving to the US (which they are likely to do later this year). They will only be going for a few years (Richard is going to take up the academic job of a lifetime), but we will miss them loads...
Lathkill Dale is the site of lead mining on a vast scale in the 19th and early 20th century and there are some remains of that past - but the real star of the valley is the River Lathkill and the plants and animals it supports...

click on picture to see a larger version

stigma...

2007-01-09T20:50:00.000Z

... is a "mark of infamy or disgrace; sign of moral blemish; stain or reproach caused by dishonorable conduct; reproachful characterization" (Webster, 1913)

this is what people who experience mental ill-health have to suffer....

how bloody stupid is that?

stigma at wikipedia

2007-01-08T15:13:00.000Z

bird in flight...

...taken on the edge of Derwentwater last Wednesday - and it was blowing a young hurricane. The gulls had to do nothing but jump in the air and ride the wind. Very difficult to catch and focus on them as they were moving very quickly - also light levels were very low so I didn't have the benefit of high shutter speeds - hope you like the result..... (thinks - is this blog morphing into yet another photoblog???)

click on the picture to see a larger version of it

the proof of the marmalade...

2007-01-07T21:17:00.000Z

... well I've made it, and all went well - I haven't tasted it yet - well not properly, not with a piece of cheese. I'll give it a go tomorrow and I'll let you know whether it's any good - an honest appraisal, honest. If it's good I'll give a jar to all "my regulars" (assuming, of course, that you fancy it) - you can't say fairer than that can you? well you might be able to I suppose ...

Updated by Tone 15:40 8/1/06 - tried it - love it - see comments for more

it's recipe time...

2007-01-06T23:49:00.000Z

... I love onion marmalade, especially with hard cheese, but I've got a peed off with paying £2.99 for a small jar of something that claims to be hand-made and "original", so I'm going to make my own. I studied the ingredients list on the brands that I like, and looked up recipes on the web, and this is what I came up with -

Red Onion Marmalade
Ingredients - 450g/1lb red onions - peeled and sliced, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp pine kernels (optional) 150 ml red wine, 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar, 15 black peppercorns - crushed, 2 Bay leaves, Salt to taste, 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

Method - In a medium size stainless-steel pan gently fry the onions in the olive oil for about 8 mins until soft and slightly caramelized, then add sugar and stir over heat for a further 2 mins. Add the vinegar and red wine to the pan. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the bay leaves, crushed peppercorns, and salt to taste. Cook over a low heat for 45 minutes until it reaches the consistency of marmalade (make sure the bay leaves are covered). Add lemon-juice and cook for a few minutes until reduced again. Add wine if needed to keep marmalade from scorching whilst cooking. Remove the bay leaves.
Whilst still hot - Put in a hot, oven-sterilised jar and seal. Should keep up to 6 months un-opened and then a few weeks in the fridge once opened.

Serve on slices of toasted french bread, garnished with chopped hard-boiled egg and watercress. Also with cheesy oatcakes (Staffs), hard cheese, most meats, sausages or spread over cream cheese and served with cream crackers/water biscuits. A few tablespoons will also improve gravies. Good with toad in the hole.

I'm going to make some tomorrow - I'll tell you how it turns out, although I expect it will be better if it is kept a few weeks...

Updated by Tone 21:40 7/1/06

risky or just crap?

2007-01-05T00:52:00.000Z

...initially Pen and I both had the same macabre reaction to this piece of wood on the floor of Whinlatter forest - we both thought that it was covered in dead mice!
In fact holes had been bored through a wooden post and rope been threaded through the holes.
This picture was taken in near darkness - mid-afternoon, deep overcast sky and thick coniferous forest. I set the sensitivity on the camera to ISO 3200, and also set 2 stops of exposure compensation (equivalent to ISO 12,800) - the shot was hand-held at 1/20th sec (please excuse the techy stuff if it means nothing to you).
What I like about the shot is that it is pretty close to how I perceived the original scene - I could, of course, have wacked the flash on, and done all kinds of subtle (or unsubtle) things with the lighting that would have made a clear and colourful shot - but that would also have been a "lie" - as it is, the picture is gloomy, ambiguous, almost colourless, but I like the melancholy feel of it...
See here for some more recognisable and accessible shots taken in the Lakes in December '05....
click on the picture to see a larger version of it

a taster

2007-01-05T00:31:00.000Z

... having said I'd taken some risks with the pics I took in the Lakes, this is a pretty safe shot photographically - the technically chancey stuff will come when I've done a bit of processing in Photoshop.
Physically, however, this was quite risky as the wind speed must have been 40-50 mph and I was worried that a falling branch would brain me: my camera got drenched every time I took it out from beneath my coat: Also I wasn't sure that my knees would get me back to the car, and Pen couldn't have carried me. Anyway, this is Derwentwater, looking south (from the north coast) towards the Jaws of Borrowdale. It was very dim, and I've allowed that to come through in this shot rather than let the camera expose it "properly". More soon...

back again...

2007-01-04T20:32:00.000Z

..we've been to the Lakes for a few days, and I had a lovely time despite increasingly achy joints and encroaching fatigue. I also took a lot of pics - but as I haven't uploaded them yet, so I've no idea how they have turned out. I took a lot of risks with the images - working a lot of the time in shadowy woodland on an overcast day with only available light - in other words nearly dark, for those photo-techies amongst you I was working at the equivalent of ISO 12,800 (I'll explain how when I post the pics).
It is the first time in several months that I have become completely absorbed in picture-taking. I paid the price later in overwhelming tiredness and retired to bed in the afternoon for a couple of hours.

blogorrhoea-stipation

2007-01-01T09:45:00.000Z

.... eegh that sounds so nasty I wish I hadn't written it - but I've got so much to blog about that I can't - I don't know what to write about first - so I won't, I think I'll just have a little kip...
....remind me to post about new years eve and G and J

new year moon

2007-01-01T01:08:00.000Z

...this slightly less than impressive picture of the moon was taken a few seconds past midnight at the Bradwell Observatory - it was an atypical (Pen & Tone) collaborative effort and is not too bad for a first effort at imaging the moon I suppose.
I ran out of steam at C & S's party - I have felt pretty ropy/tired much of today, so we came back about 11:30, had a bit of a slob and decided to do a bit of sky-watching.
Anyway the real point of this post is to wish you a very happy new year - so Very Happy New Year to you all.....

2006-12-31T06:00:00.000Z

The Olds
Brought to you by "TimeLie" * - 6:00am GMT (ahem) New Years Eve 2006 - the Cockpit, Tony's house

+ ....And at the top of the olds this morning - Clouds cleared briefly at 1:00am GMT today allowing a Newcastle-under-Lyme man (57) his first close up view of the moon using his new telescope.... first impressions are "the moon is made of cheese, and has a man in it"....

+ ....and in a separate development the same man (57) admits he is going "down-bank" again. Earlier this month we reported to you that heavily bearded, balding, father of two, Tony Jones (57) was getting better. Ashen-faced "Tone" now admits "It was all a lie, damn you; my joints are stiff and painful again - I could hardly get out of bed this morning, my hands hurt like hell as I type this and I get tired very easily - it's been getting steadily worse for a couple of weeks, although haven't really wanted to admit it. It's probably the steroids finally wearing off - I hoped the methotrexate would be having more effect by now. Arse...!"

+ .... and finally.... It's New Years Eve and it's Party Time - we're off to Zoe & Warren's for the first part of the evening, and then Cath & Scott's later - and for the first time in years a Bradwell man (57) will "stay dry" tonight - he admitted, "Yes Jeremy.... I'm on the wagon... doctor's orders...".

+ ... and absolutely finally, from all of us here at "BlogHawk Olds" we wish you a Good Hogmanay and a very Happy New year

+ ... and completely & utterly finally, why not confuse everyone tonight by singing the full version of
"Auld Lang Syne" -

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pou’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
sin’ auld lang syne.
CHORUS

We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin’ auld lang syne.
CHORUS

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gies a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie-waught,
for auld lang syne.
CHORUS

* TimeLie is a registered trademark of Blogger Beta Inc - a feature that allows you to write a post, and then make it appear to be published at a time of your choosing

Disgruntled of Stoke

2006-12-30T10:06:00.000Z

For weather watchers, I can report that the sky above Stoke-on-Trent has been cloudy over-night, every night since Christmas day (at least it has been during the hours when I am awake). Had it been clear I could have been looking at the Crab nebula (see right) through my lovely new telescope. The best I've managed so far is an exceptionally clear, but frankly uninspiring view of a neighbour's gutter.
The Crab nebula is the remains of a super-nova that Chinese observers saw in 1054AD, although because the Crab is 6300 light-years away the super-nova itself (the cataclysmic explosion of a star) took place when people where still knocking stones together to make tools.
Actually I have no idea whether the Crab would have been visible from Stoke in late December - but then how would I? - since it has been overcast every night since Christmas (in case you haven't noticed).
Metcheck rather helpfully run a free service for amateur astronomers here.
Perhaps if everyone in the Potteries stopped breathing for a bit that would stop things steaming up so much?

party on

2006-12-28T09:32:00.000Z

I went to a real party last night - one like you see in films, where you stand talking with fascinating people while sipping good wine and, thanks to Rhian and David, eating fantastic food. Despite desperately achy joints, I had a wonderful time - I don't think I've ever met and talked to so many new people who were interesting, funny and kind, in so short a space of time.
The occasion was the birthday of our friend Richard who was 60 yesterday, and another of his friends David, who was 55. Pen and I felt honoured to have been invited as there were only about 25 people there, of whom I knew only about a quarter.
Amongst others, I met Sue and Julian who own and tend the best garden (I'm sure of it) in N Staffs - Pen and I had been there on open days and were astounded at the imagination and excitement packed into such a small area - the garden includes a 30 foot waterfall, a roundabout, a Japanese tea house over water, a surprise fountain that delights and shocks both children and adults, and of course wonderful planting. It was great pleasure to meet them and hear how they had transformed a derelict plot and house. If you like gardens even just a little bit, watch out for open days at Bleak House in Bagnall, the experience is far from bleak.

Happy birthday Richard and David - thank you for a wonderful evening - and Happy birthday Dad, who died in 1962, but would have been 86 yesterday....

The 39 Steps

2006-12-27T08:43:00.000Z

wake - any time from 4:30am to 8:30am
fidget - three aims: 1) get shoulders, knees, ankles, elbows and wrists comfortable; 2) don't wake Pen (who needs more sleep than me); 3) try to stop worries crowding into my head - optional activity: incubate idea for blog post
cuddle Pen
get out of bed - having given up on above three aims
pee
put on jim-jams
get socks - grope in dark drawer for a pair of large, soft socks (not tight, crisp ones - I can't get those on with sausage fingers)
wrestle with djellabah - an almost impossible garment to get on at the best of times, but particularly challenging first thing in the morning with stiff, painful joints, however, well worth the effort because it is warm and comfy - the occasion of the first of many bouts of (silent) cursing
open and close bedroom door very quietly - which is next to impossible as the latch has needed oiling for the last four years
brush toothy-pegs in other bath-room cos that's where the electric toothbrush is (I can't manage a manual one first thing), and also, so as not to wake the Sleeping Beauty aka Pen
go down stairs - a slow, "one-step at a time" process
shuffle to kitchen
switch on kettle - hoping it has some water in - if no water - fart about with water filter thingy and the stupid eco-kettle's knobs and doo-dads
turn on lovely digital radio
turn down radio cos it is inevitably too loud, threatening to wake Pen and Rich (aka The Sleeping Beauties)
feed cats - a cause of much cursing if there is no catfood open, or one of our two cats is missing
get today's pill box
prepare breakfast - toast or weetabix + a cup of tea - got to have this even if I don't fancy it, 'cos pills must be taken with food (otherwise dire consequences)
turn off radio
lurch into lounge - with tea, toast/weetabix, pills and socks (note- mode of locomotion has shifted from shuffle to lurch, my joints are loosening)
arrange cockpit
sit down and wrestle with socks
turn on laptop
turn on TV - tune to Radio 4
return to kitchen to get things I have forgotten
stagger back to turn down tele cos it is inevitably too loud, threatening to wake Pen and Rich (aka The Sleeping Beauties) - note- mode of locomotion has shifted from lurch to stagger, cos I'm hurrying
slurp tea/eat fodder
check email while doing above, trying (unsuccessfully) not to get crumbs in keyboard
take pills
browse Guardian and Wikipedia front pages - opening articles that interest me as background pages
read some of above articles - cursing as necessary at Bush, Blair, Cameron, "state of world in general"
get cold (especially if it's after 8:30 when heating goes off)
either -
- put blanket over knees
- go to utility room to turn central heating back on - optional activities: step in cat sick, curse, clear up cat sick whilst cursing (who said men can't multi-task)
settle on sofa again
get annoyed with radio especially if it is "Midweek" with bloody smug Libby Purves
turn sound down
open "bloghawk" - snigger at enormously witty posts
sign in to blogger - optional activity: curse at inability to type password accurately with sausage fingers
settle to write new blog post

Those are the 39 necessary steps preliminary to writing this post - I just hope you are grateful for all the effort

luck

2006-12-26T21:31:00.000Z

Over the last four years we have been through some extraordinarily rough times - the serious illness and death of Sara (Tone's former partner & his sons' mother), the death of Tone's step-dad, Pen being made redundant, Tone's mum and Pen's step-mum both recovering from life-threatening illness and Tone's own illness. We have both had times when we were anxious and depressed.
There have also been, we're glad to say, some wonderfully positive things that have helped us cope - Pen getting an exciting new job, the remarkable love and support within our immediate family, Jude & Hywel's wedding, some great holidays (the best we've ever had), and our growing involvement in all kinds of artistic stuff - especially music and photography.
Throughout that time there have been two friends who have made an especially positive impact on our lives - Cath and Scott. There have been times when their kindness, generosity, help and staggering musicality have made the difference between us staying afloat and us going under. They've just been visiting us with Cael, Ava and Jaro (their wonderfully alive children) and we realise yet again how important they are to us - we laugh so much with them, and yet at times we also have the most serious and challenging conversation. We will see them again on New Years eve and we'll have a great time (it's pretty much guaranteed).
Purkal is absolutely right when she says that she is lucky to have good people in her life - we are the possessors of the same luck. There are loads of other really important people to us - we started to list them but that just seemed to water down how we feel about them, so let's just say that we would not be as well as we are today without the support and love of all those friends, family and colleagues......thank you.... Tone and Pen xxx

Christmas day post.....

2006-12-25T23:37:00.000Z

BAH HUMBUG

...no, not really - I've had a brill day - felt pretty well - cooked christmas dinner for six, with loads of veg and trimmings, I did a lot of it and didn't get too knackered - Pen and Phil and Rich got me an astronomical telescope, a 127mm reflector on a equatorial mount, I'm absolutely bowled over - Sheila and Bernard came over for dinner, and then Emily and then Torb arrived (a nice surprise), so, a house full for a while, and more visitors tomorrow.
I hope you had a great day - and I'm looking forward to reading other MindBlogglers christmas posts....

explanation and clarification

2006-12-24T11:50:00.000Z

Alec, as always, is right on the button; there is something "fishy" about the previous post. In his comment on the post, he raises the issue of inverted commas/quotation marks, and their overuse in our annual newsletter.
Well, it's a long story, but one well worth the telling, because it contains lessons for us all....
This time last year (roughly) I made a resolution (of the New Years variety) to write more romantic fiction. To this end I purchased and installed on my laptop a copy of "Mills & Boon's Romantic Digital Assistant v2.04" - a piece of software that Mills & Boon produce (and sell for £21.99) to help aspiring authors meet the exacting publication standards set by M&B for their romantic novels. The program runs in the background on your computer, and amongst other things, helps the novice author keep track of the numbers of clinches, kisses and swoons (and other seduction-related data). For historical romances it also provides a series of acceptable defaults for bodice-ripping parameters (e.g. number of buttons ripped off, and percentage of heaving bosom exposed).

It also helps with matters of writing style. It ensures for example, that, in the interests of keeping the reader engaged, the text doesn't include too much boring description, but is firmly based in dialogue - for example -
"Oh Roger I've never felt this way before", Helena gasped.
"I know" groaned Roger;
"I know you know my darling", whimpered Helena;
"I know you know I know" heaved Roger....... and so on.
Pretty steamy stuff, eh? And of course in the heat of the moment it is very easy for an inexperienced author to lose track of all those inverted commas, or even to miss them out altogether! I'm sure you can see where I'm heading here. I lost track of, and even missed out, some inverted commas. And because I had (stupid smug man that I am) altered the program's default inverted comma setting, excess punctuation built up in the keyboard buffer, and the even the computer's main I/O bus.

Early versions of Windows used to include a facility for releasing the pressure of excess, unused punctuation (rather like the spit valve on a tuba), but of course the latest versions don't (Microsoft cost cutting again!). So I had this problem - my laptop was slowing down because it was clogged up with inverted commas, but their was no way to drain-off the excess - what was I to do?
And then it came, a blinding flash of inspiration!!! Write an excessively long and tedious annual newsletter to send out with the christmas cards - that'll help, especially if I litter it liberally with words and phrases enclosed in "utterly pointless quotation marks" - and I'm delighted to be able to report there is hardly any extraneous punctuation left clogging up my computer.

And that would have been that, if I had not also fiddled with the "Reality" settings on the program. The default setting for your average romantic novel is 17.5% - 100% provides pin-sharp realism (e.g. Big Brother), 0% leads to utter fantasy (e.g. a New Labour election manifesto). Before I wrote the newsletter I had mistakenly set the "Reality level" to minus 14%....
So take note before you make those New Years Resolutions, the "law of unintended consequences" is hard at work in the Universe, and set to undermine our very best intentions.

the Vincent-Jones family newsletter 2006

2006-12-23T15:20:00.000Z

This year we've decided to go on the "information superhighway" with our little "newsletter" so that it can be more widely read - so many of our our friends and family have told us how much you like to hear "the news" from "our little family" each year. Apparently sitting by the fire on Xmas Eve reading it out loud has become something of "a ritual" in the households of many of our friends and family -

Overall it has been a good year with lots of "ups and downs" but the Vincent-Jones' have "emerged battered but un-bowed"!!!

Sadly the year has brought death and destruction to the household. Great Uncle Ralph's third wife's mother died after "a very good innings" at 102 in August - it was really nice to see so many of you at the funeral - the vicar and the Co-op did her proud. Taffy killed a robin that he caught, after Penny had worn it out trying to catch it, to stop Taffy eating it, in March. Penny was a silly girl and ripped the campervan roof off a couple of weeks ago - that was a shock - but we are over it now - we are just trying to find a "little man" to replace it for us. The highlight of the year was Tom and Katie's wedding (no not that Tom and Katie!).

Many of you will know that Tony has been ill this year - in February a nasty cold laid him out flat and he was still catarrhal in March. Piles once again reared their ugly head in June but after a visit to "our GP" things have settled down again (fingers crossed). Tony's charitable activities continue apace, with an autumn highlight being his tirade against government budgetary constraints and their effects on the voluntary sector at the annual VS do in, the delightful conference suite at Port Vale football ground. Andrew was terribly impressed and offered to poach Tony - which of course Tony outright refused - how could he "transfer loyalty" "at this stage in the game"?!
Of course Penny has got a new job. She has continued jetting around to conferences - Birmingham, Manchester, London, and Burslem! She has some "ladies' problems" "down there" but again "our GP" has "fixed her up".
As many of you know we like to think that in both our jobs we are making "a big difference" in the lives of those "less fortunate than ourselves".
"Our boys" Philip and Richard - both have, of course, "shot up", although Richard remains "the baby of the family" - although Tony always quips "I wouldn't like to change his nappy".
Richard now has so many holes that Penny said "he'd have to be careful people didn't think he was a sieve". Phil is now living in Hanley and Tony gave him one of his many guitars. He has a lot of mates - Boggy plays guitar in another "up and coming" local group and he and his girlfriend Sally are having a dinner party to which we are all invited - Penny can wear her new shoes at last!

Our cars - our 1998 Toyota Corolla 3 door saloon 1.3GL continues to perform its duties as the family workhorse, although it still makes that funny little noise when you let the clutch out - we'll have to get Adrian to have a look. Our much loved Nissan Micra 1.3GX moved on to pastures new this year, and is apparently doing sterling duty with his "new owner", taking him to and from work, and sometimes a trip down to Redditch to see his friends.

Taffy and Sampson- continue to give us lots of pleasure, although Sampson tends to dribble on the quilt when you tickle his tummy, and we are all heartily fed up with clearing up after Taffy has vomited in the washing machine. As many of you know we are "animal-lovers" - and its good to know we are doing our bit in the fight to prevent the extinction of the the domestic cat!

Travel
The highlight of our year has been the acquisition of a trusty Volkswagon T2-based campervan - it is the Autosleeper Trident conversion, with 1932cc, water-cooled rear engine - it's a little beauty and promises to take us "all over the place" over the next few years. So far we have been to Buxton, Alton, Preston and Skegness. We have also been to lots of other places including, Manchester, Kendal, Birmingham, Keswick, Preston, Southport, Crosby, Derby, Stone, Cheltenham, Glasgow, Formby, Kirkby Lonsdale, Warrington, Shrewsbury, Leicester, Poynton, Leek, Moira, Bedworth, Kidderminster, Cambridge, Harkstead, Middlewich, Northwich, Alsager, Alton, Whitchurch, London (not together) and many more - phew! We would have liked to go to New Zealand, but once again didn't quite make it - "ho-hum". Phil and his friend jetted off to "Gay Paree" for the weekend!!
Our sub-Arctic endeavours are still very much in our mind, we'll never forget

Artistic endeavours -
Penny's hankering after art classes still continues to "draw" her (Ed - "joke") and Tony's musical activities have seen him making great strides with his vibrato. As many of you know, Philip's "group" go from strength to strength and they may release a CD of their efforts in future - Phil says "It's all down to lots of practice".
Dancing - we we're able to dance for much of the year until Tony's rheumatics and Penny's hand injury put a stop to that. We'll never forget the night when she was dancing "Foggy Loggy" to "Much Swindon" and she dropped her "stick" during the sticking (Ed - sticking is hitting your partner's stick with your stick).

Shopping
Many of you will be surprised to know that we have changed our shopping habits quite a lot this year, we were regulars at Sainsburys for many years as many of you know, often "having a laugh" with the girls on the tills - we liked the "bargain fridge" and often bought yellow label items to "pop in the freezer". You may, therefore be surprised to hear that we go to Aldi in Tunstall a lot now. We "like the prices" and they have lots of things you can't get in other places, like "German ham"! Tony also likes the "bargain bits" - he recently narrowly missed getting an inverter for only £15.99 (Tony says - an inverter takes 12 volts DC car battery current and makes it into 240volts allternating current mains electricity) - which would have been very useful for the campervan. We also go to the fish-stall in Tunstall market a lot.

"Doing our bit" - we are now managing to recycle much of our household waste (ably assisted by Richard) and often drive specially to the recycling centre with a box of cardboard or a plastic bag of plastic bottles - we think it is so important to do your bit for global warming. We also get rid of rubbish using Freecycle. Along with global warming, we are very concerned about the awful state of affairs on the continent, as many of you know we both think that war is awful - those poor Iraqis - when will our leaders learn not to dabble in the affairs of others??!! We email "our MP" regularly, and he always replies!

"Our Garden"
As many of you know "Our Graden" is our "hearts delight" and is quite the littel "wildlife haeven". We have had lots of little visitors, amongst others we have had pigeons, sparrows, cats and rats visiting!! We have just "lived out there" this year, and it really has paid dividneds don't you think? We are thinking of doing an open garden for charity next year - we'll let you know when. Oh! and thanks for the busy lizzie cutting Marge it "settled-in" very nicely!

Socialising
This year's socialising has been dominated, as many of you know, by music-making - we are between us in lots of choirs and lots of "groups" and "combos" where between us we play as many as 11 different instruments! We also re-entered the thespian world this year with small but significant parts in the Penkhull Mystery play (Ed - it's a Mystery to me how they ever got the parts) - Tony was particularly striking as "Death's" assistant - many friends and family came to see us at various perfomances - to all those who didn't get to see us - sorry you didn't get to see us, maybe next year?
Our friendship with the Headmistress of the Burslem School of Art and her hubby has blossomed this year as we have found a new interest in common - music! - we have been encouraging their first steps on the "musical gang-plank" a lot, and they will make great strides when they learn to "let their musical hair down".
Tony and Penny's summer was dominated by lots of festivals, and so was Philip's and Richard's - although our taste in festivals is very different (as many of you know)!!!!!***???!!!
We are very grateful to our long-time "festival partners" S and M for all their support with Tony's condition. As many of you will know Tony met his all-time musical hero this summer and managed to take a picture of him, "it was almost as good as the time I met Jimmy Hendrix!" Tony quipped later.
We have seen a lot of Harold this year.
We have been very worried about Dave's wife - but you will be relieved to hear that things seem to be "on the up" for them now after a very difficult time. We have spent many hours on the phone and up and down the motorway.

Other news
Matthew is now wearing glasses and is becoming a beaver
Tom and Katie got married (not that Tom and Katie though!) - it was a lovely wedding. As did Diane and Linda - although the food wasn't very good. As many of you know, Tony was in much demand as the "semi-official, official" photographer! (Tony quipped- "I will really have to replace that instamatic"!!) - Congratulations to both the "happy couples"
Rachel is pregnant again!! Congratulations!!!
Tony's Aunty Sandy was 63!!! this year - we just don't know how she does it!
Doctor (no less!) Michael has got his PhD at last - what he doesn't know about synclinal folding in triassic sandstone bedding planes isn't worth knowing. Congratulations Dr Mike!

Well that's it from the Lady-Chairman and Chief Executive of "Vincent-Jones plc" for another year - Hope to see you in the New Year (and if we don't "same time same place next year?")

video experiment 3 - Proud father II (er...well I think so)

2006-12-20T18:14:00.000Z

When I showed Rich (my second son) the video of Phil (see below), he said, all hurt - "What about my video?" - I didn't actually know there was a video of him - it turns out there are two.
Those of a nervous disposition are advised not to watch these -

you may need to click the play button twice to get it to start

In the end neither of these piercings stayed in - Rich is, as you can see, thin as a rake (I was like this at his age, although it may now be difficult to believe) and the pressure of hips bones meant that the piercings never healed properly.....

video experiment 2 - Proud father

2006-12-20T14:52:00.000Z

I can't post a video of "Cap'n Yange" without also posting one of my son's band "Here's to the atom bomb". Here they are caught live earlier this year on a phone (by the looks of things), at the Underground in Hanley - the picture/sound quality ain't great but HTTAB are wonderful. If you want to see them they're playing the Underground on Friday 22nd December....
HTTAB are Phil Jones (vocals - that's my boy), Richard Dooley (guitar), Alex Shenton (guitar), Pete Bray (bass) and Tomos Hughes (drums) -

you may need to click the play button twice to get it to start

video experiment 1 - my mate's band

2006-12-20T14:22:00.000Z

I've wanted to embed a YouTube video for a while, but I couldn't work out how to do it - but a bit of persistence has paid off, so here we are. These are my mates "Captain Yange" - they are Scott Ralph (guitar, bass, vocals), Si Waite (guitar, bass, vocals), and Paul Murphin (drums, percussion, vocals). The video was made by Darren Teale of "Junction 15", who are based at Burslem School of Art -
you may need to click the play button twice to get it to start -

no more Mr FineGuy...

2006-12-19T21:30:00.000Z

...I've just realised I must stop saying I'm fine when I'm not. Being positive when you are ill is really important - but feeling guilty about being ill, and then lying to protect other people having to deal with the facts of illness, is wrong.

A few weeks back when I was telling a friend that I was trying to stay positive - he said "Yes - you don't want to be an energy Hoover." I agreed at the time, but now I'm pissed off and I don't know how to tell him. Another friend said in an email to Pen (my partner), "it's bad for Tony, but it must be worse for you." It is bad for Pen - but it doesn't take much thought to realise that it's likely to be worse for me.
People who are sick and disabled are marginalised enough in society, and yet we are expected to pretend everything is fine so as not to bring other people down.
So if you don't want to really hear how I am, don't ask - you just might hear that I'm feeling lousy today.

there's drugs and "drugs" and non-drugs....

2006-12-19T08:35:00.000Z

drugs
are all the things that you and I take to help cure or alleviate a medically recognised condition - most are harmful if used wrongly, and most are sufficiently dangerous to have to be prescribed by a doctor. Despite the potentially ruinous effects, these drugs are generally regarded as good.
"drugs"
Then there are "drugs" - these are things that are judged as bad, perhaps because they are often used in the pursuit of fun. "drugs" also have very dangerous effects - often exaggerated by the media, they are in many cases no more dangerous than some things you can buy over the counter in any chemist's. Many of the most dangerous effects of "drugs" depend on the context in which they are taken.
Cannabis is a "drug" - and there is some evidence that long-term, heavy use can trigger schizophrenia in pre-disposed people. However it's benefits in treating conditions like multiple schlerosis, Parkinson's disease and arthritis are at least as well proven as it's ill effects. Which makes the decision of Carlisle Crown Court to prosecute and convict Lezley and Mark Gibson for supplying small quantites of cannabis to MS sufferers, utterly bizzare. Lezley herself suffers from MS and gets relief by taking cannabis, so she and her partner Mark, being kind and helpful folks supplied small amounts of cannabis to other accredited MS sufferers. They didn't charge for this service, but accepted donations to cover costs. Following their conviction they will have to stop doing this. Cannabis, in the form of Sativex spray, is available to people with MS, on prescription - but due to a cowardly government fudge, it isn't properly licenced, so the legal basis for doctor's supplying it is uncertain.
I would stake my life on cannabis being no more dangerous than at least four of the drugs I am currently taking - but because it is a "drug" it cannot be a drug - my GP cannot, for example, prescribe cannabis to relieve my arthritis.

non drugs
...I won't even mention alcohol and nicotine, which are still most peoples non-drugs of choice.

Our society has some pretty strange, inconsistent and hypocritical attitudes towards drugs/"drugs"/non-drugs ... and it's to the detriment of just about everybody except landlords, drink and fag manufacturers and dealers.

no time for blogging

2006-12-18T22:59:00.000Z

haven't managed to do any of this since last Wednesday - we've had lots of visitors (joy of joys), and of course seasonal stuff has been taking a lot of time, and my joints are starting to get stiff and achy again. And I'm going to be busy again for the next few days - with more visitors (even more joy) and card writing and pressie wrapping (if my fingers will allow). But I will post on christmas day (like purkal suggests)...

honorary woman for a night...

2006-12-13T09:27:00.000Z

...well actually for about ten minutes - but it was a real honour.
Loud Mouth Women are an informal, acapella choir for women. They came together some years back with the aim of encouraging women, especially those who were not confident singing, to use their voices. LMW never intended to perform - however over the last few years, entirely because of the quality of the singing, LMW have increasingly taken to performing. My partner Pen is in LMW.
Last night they held a Christmas party in the Old Brown Jug (a fantastic music pub in Newcastle, Staffs) and as usual they sang their hearts out, and for the last few songs they invited the members of the Mystery Singers (a similar, mixed gender choir of which I am a member) to join them - it was fantastic - around fifty women and half a dozen honorary women, i.e. men, singing in harmony, in a pub, having stuffed our faces with food and drink - I was pretty knackered at the end, but it was life-affirmingly GLORIOUS

the picture above shows LMW performing last summer

becalmed....

2006-12-12T13:21:00.000Z

...is what you are when you get the wind taken out of your sails - and I have had the wind taken out of my sails today.
I visit the Haywood hospital rheumatology department regularly so that I can see Sarah (the truly excellent monitoring nurse consultant), who checks how I am getting on with taking methotrexate (mtx) - she reviews my most recent blood test and we have a chat about how I am.
I said I'd been feeling pretty good, and that the mtx must be having a significant effect. She clearly didn't want to dent my positivity, but she sounded several words of caution -

The improvement in my joints could in part be due to mtx, but the steroid injection I had 6 weeks ago would still be controlling the inflammation (I'd understood that it would have worn off by now, but apparently it remains active for up to ten weeks). It's simply too early to tell if the mtx is being really effective.
Just because I had virtually no ill-effects from taking mtx last week didn't mean it would always be like that - this week it might be bad again (oh joy!)
I can't have another steroid injection now, until I've seen the rheumatologist at the end of January. I thought I could, but it turns out that if I do, they won't be able to tell if the mtx is working - it makes sense now they tell me - but even still it comes as a bit of a blow 'cos they've been a bit of a lifeline. If things become unbearable they will bring forward my appointment with the rheumatologist.
The 15mg/week of mtx will not be increased until I see the rheumatologist - I thought I would be going up to 20mg and then 25mg straightaway, but apparently this is not inevitable. This is in some ways good news, 'cos it is less likely I will feel lousy over Christmas/New Year.
I must be careful not to overdo things just because I have some good days

I had clearly misunderstood a lot of things about my treatment - or perhaps had placed too positive a gloss on what I had been told? Whatever, I had built up rather too rosy a view of my condition....

I work for an advice agency that very often gives people lots of very complex information about their circumstances and what they need to do. We recognised some years back that often this was too much for even the most able and calm people to take in without misunderstanding, so we nearly always provide written confirmation of our advice, and sometimes also send a follow-up letter.
It seems to me that health professionals and the people they are treating, are in the same position, and that some sort of written confirmation of what has been said would save lots of misunderstanding and potentially, mistakes in treatment.

So today you find me feeling a little deflated, perhaps becalmed, but probably rather more realistic about my current condition.

Wednesday update - as if to confirm what Sarah told me yesterday, my joints today are as bad as they've been in a month, and if I'm truthful with myself they've been getting worse for a few days.... ho-hum

what's in a name...?

2006-12-11T18:19:00.000Z

I am really pissed off at the way in which the Ipswich murder victims have been represented by BBC radio news; as in - "Another prostitute has been found dead in Ipswich", not "another women", or "another victim", but "prostitute". I'm not sure I can think of another group of people who are as consistently referred to by their occupation, as women sex workers. The men who buy sexual services are, by contrast, "clients" - a posh word more normally associated with people being helped by solicitors, accountants or even, dare I say, CAB.

As a result of the publicity about the current cases, it has become apparent that there are many unsolved murders of women who sell sex, but they don't merit the media's attention because they are prostitutes, and are therefore they are "asking for it". Of course, selling sex is dangerous - the "clients" make it so - many sex workers experience regular and horrific violence at the hands of "clients" - selling sexual services on the street is an act of desperation driven by poverty and vulnerability.

There is something perverse about us humans, especially those who work in the media - we/they are happy to either ignore or vilify a group of highly vulnerable women, whilst letting this walking turd smarm his way back into our media.

By the way Lord Archer (he is still a Lord despite his imprisonment for perjury) was a "user" of Ms Monica Coughlan who was employed at the time as sex worker.

Here endeth this rant....

Update Tuesday 7:00pm - the worst news - the bodies of another two women have been found, almost certainly victims of the same murderer
... and a Guardian article

a "no show"

2006-12-10T08:41:00.000Z

.... after a load of werriting and maundering last week , I experienced virtually no ill effects after taking methotrexate. For the last few weeks Thursdays in particular have been really horrible, and I assumed that something similar would happen again - but it didn't, so I think we'll call that a "no show".... whoopee!

statistical update...

2006-12-06T18:45:00.000Z

... in the late 70s/early 80s there was statistic about the UK economy that was much bandied about on the left, it even gave it's name to the brilliant socialist - "7:84 theatre company" - the numbers referring to the fact that the wealthiest 7% of the British population owned 84% of the wealth.
The World Institute for Development Economics Research (part of the United Nations ) has just produced a report on wealth distribution which shows that just 1% of the adults in the world own 40% of the worlds wealth.
That's a lot of very rich people, but vastly more desperately poor ones....