Category Archives: Musings

May 2012

Musings, other

My older sister has been in hospital having a bowel cancer op.

She has been quite unfortunate with health generally having had thyroid problems from the age of 16 and a lot of other problems in between.

We are not generally on speaking terms these days as she has a very low opinion of me.  She recently emailed my other sister and expressed a view along the lines of how unfair it was that we had not been afflicted with cancer so far. We have several incidences of cancer in the family, (including my father who died a couple of months after taking early retirement at the age of 63), so there is no guarantee that I have escaped it.

She had a fairly successful career in nursing then health visiting and finally as a lecturer at Old Street until medical retirement, she also had a daughter in fairly good health and was married and has a very comfortable house too. Her husband died of cancer a couple of years back. Out of us 3 siblings she was the successful one, with the proper education and so forth. She also gets a very generous pension, which to be fair she worked very hard for.

I did a lot of odd jobs for her a few years back, I think perhaps she has forgotten all that. I hope that the op works out for her of course. Its very difficult to deal with the level of resentment that she projects on to us as she perceives that I and my other sister lead charmed lives. The reality is that for me the last 10 years have been have been the only point in my life where I have succeeded in anything much really. Getting 1 decent decade out of 5 is not that bad going really though.

Phew, a bit hot for me, but nice to see the sun.

More of the usual stuff really. Some pretty good fun gigs, mostly Delta Ladies duo gigs that went very well and a few at new venues that have got us repeat bookings so that’s pretty good so far.

I also have a date for my bone scan which will answer a few questions with luck. I am still getting a a bit of pain but less frequently and the more we gig the more exercise I get I suppose that must help.

Last night we returned to what used to be our home turf at a place called the Harringay tavern in Crouch End, it was a slow start but the second half was quite lively and even got a few people singing a long to some of the original tunes. We also told a few shaggy dog story’s and got a laugh or two which we do quite a bit on gigs now.

Latest bulletin from my sister just out of hospital is that (“I caused them considerable trouble over the last few years”). This is a truly remarkable achievement having not seen them for about 7 years or so, and I can only attribute this to my ability to channel the dark side of the force. Perhaps also attempting to play New Orleans style Piano also gives you the power of voodoo, though I am not convinced as none of these attributes has yet allowed me to win the lottery.

April 2012 So far

Delta Ladies, music, Musings, whatever

Not too bad a month so far a few good gigs and the sun is shining a little, so I am making the effort to take a little more exercise to help ease the back problems and stuff. Touching wood my back seems capable of withstanding regular accordion playing now so I am starting to work up a few more tunes on it, and its not seeming half so alien as it was at first. Its not an instrument to play after midnight on a quite night though as it kicks up a fair old racket that makes the violin seem quiet by comparison.

This year seems to be whizzing past at hell of rate thus far but with plenty of interesting stuff going on. I need to get back to the DR’s soon to see how the old bones are progressing as well. I am building up a bit more stamina but some of our duo gigs have been mini-marathons with often more than one encore. Once you have gone over the 2.5 hour mark it can get a bit knackering.

Saturday night we were at the Global Cafe in Reading. We do play one other venue in Reading regularly called the retreat but this was a new one for us with a younger audience than our usual demographic. We will be back there later in the year and its a really nice place to perform in. This year could be our buzyiest for gigs by the look of things mostly with the Delta Ladies. Doing a 2 hour plus show as a duo is quite demanding at times. We are also going to be putting some new material in to soon as well. So we need to learn that.

Currently we have two albums almost finished. One is the Elephant Shelf Album and the other is an album of swing standards. Once those are out of the way we need to start recording the Delta Ladies Album. Not much time to get bored by the look of things.

We will be back at one of our favorite gigs in a couple of weeks at the Bellvue in High Wycombe and strangely it will be coinciding with their beer festival. How spooky is that then 😉

So there!

Musings

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” (Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895)

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
(Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943)

“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.” (Ken Olsen, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977)

“The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” (Western Union internal memo, 1876) “Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” (Marshal Ferdinand Foch, French commander of Allied forces during the closing months of World War I, 1918)

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” (David Sarnoff’s associates, in response to his urgings for investment in radio in the 1920’s)

“Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.” (New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard’s revolutionary rocket work, 1921)

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” (Harry M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927)

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” (Charles H. Duell, commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899)