Good

The weather is nice and I think things are improving with the lack of vehicles and planes travelling. Wildlife is more prevalent and things look good. I would like a lot of things to stay like this.

I don't particularly like working from home as the days are much longer and I end up eating while working , something I generally don't do in the office, but I listen to a lot more music and that is another good thing.

There are some people who are only happy when they are miserable and have something to complain about, but you can always find something wrong , look for the things that are right. I was tempted to use the Smiths "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" which I once had as my ringtone for a good friend Lee when I was at EE , a great character and great at pretending he was grumpy. He definitely wasn't.

I haven't ridden a bus for two weeks although surprising I have kept almost on target with my step count. With this weather that is very easy to do while working my way through "Monkey Island" by the J Geils Band , which is a very listenable album.

One song that has caught my ear on 6Music is "Crocodile" by Melt Yourself Down with it's insistent driving saxophone motif, and I kept hearing and didn't even know who the band were, well now I do, and so do you.

As I post this I noticed my boxed set "The Smith Complete" is priced at £1200 on Amazon , who the hell would pay that much for a CD box?

The First of A Million Steps

Tomorrow is May Day, The first of May and tomorrow I embark on a Million Step Challenge. That's a million steps in three months taking me through to the end of July. To do this I need to average 11.5K steps a day, so that's nearly two hours a day walking.  That is not a major challenge really apart from the fact that today I ran for a bus and have pulled a muscle possibly , somewhere round my hip region. If I don't move , it doesn't hurt, but to continue the step challenge , I have to move (obviously). I have 4K steps to complete today to do my first month in years of more than 10K a day , and hopefully hit the average that I will need to maintain over the next three months.

I know I don't HAVE to do this, but I want to do this. Today I managed my ten thousand steps, but intended to do the last four thousand downhill past Hadrian's Wall and through Denton Burn. That all went well but I intended to get the bus back , but that didn't turn up. Twenty minutes after it should have been there I started walking back ... and then it flies past me. If I was paranoid I'd think the bus driver was waiting for me to set off. The major thing is I got the steps done, and I am in a good position to start the Million Step Challenge.

The other thing is my phone is playing up and that is what I use to measure my steps. I have a feeling the problem is the battery, but the replacement battery doesn't seem to work at all, so hopefully that will get resolved soon.

Sorry if all this seem negative and mundane, you know I don't like to be either of those, but tomorrow is a good way to start the week , with a day not going to work , because it's the May Day Bank Holiday.

I'll leave you with the excellent "Genesis" by Grimes, which I haven't heard for a while but when I first heard it, I went out and bought the album. Take a listen and enjoy my friends. Then for some reason on the same page, one of my favourite singers Peter Gabriel covering the song that got me into Tom Waits "In The Neighborhood" . I'm not sure if this is available on an album (it is here), but check it out and then check out the original (on "Swordfishtrombones")

Right , it's Sunday, the weather is beautiful, go out and enjoy yourself.

Days and Banjoes

I'm finding it a bit weird that some mornings it's light but this morning it's dark, I'm sure all is OK and I am just waking, getting up and noticing the morning sky at different times. Yesterday it was light but I was up later as I had a doctor's appointment, but still, due to buses being early AND late , managed to be on the last minutes. Why is it when you're on time the bus comes 2 minutes early and you miss it, then when you wait for the next one it's ten minutes late then the driver insists on taking a ten minute fag break halfway to your destination as other buses sail past.

Still it is Friday and we have the weekend to enjoy, the weather is not too bad , yesterday was cold but bright. It looked like summer outside the office, then you went out and realised it was very old.

I've just been looking through a couple of old blog pages that people have been visiting this week and noticed that some of the Youtube links are no longer there. Some of their draconian copyright removals are annoying. I can understand if people don't acknowledge the original author of the music or are offensive about it, but it still grates about the Christopher Lee video that I posted and they removed after a day (see here)

Looking out this morning and it is quite foggy, so it may be not too warm, and it's an excuse to play Earl Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" this version featuring a banjo solo by Steve Martin (yes that Steve Martin). The piece was originally written in 1949 and has been used in many TV and film chase scenes including "Bonnie and Clyde".

Have a brilliant day my friends.

Pain and Being Positive

Today I had to make a doctors appointment, however a lot of things were thrown in my way which seemed to be making me miss it. First of all my bus was late followed by trains. But while I was thinking this may go wrong , I thought as long as it's not too late I can do it.

I got into Newcastle and walked across town to catch a bus which I jumped on, but as I was walking to my seat a car pulled out in front of the bus, causing him to slam on. I was thrown backwards , but managed to catch a hold of a pole and steady myself with a my right leg , rather too hard resulting in a jarring pain in my right leg, I informed the driver and said I'd report the incident just in case , and told him to do the same. It wasn't his fauldt and it could have been much worse.

Next off we got to Byker Bridge and there was a major accident requiring the bridge to be closed off and the bus to be redirected. I phoned the surgery and told them the situation that I may be late. Amazingly the redirection only added ten minutes to the journey and the doctor's surgery was running ten minutes late so it all worked out OK, and I need to go back in two weeks to have some minor surgery.

So basically I kept thinking positively throughout this and eventually in all worked out. So even when things seem to conspire against you , keep going and the chances are you will get a good result. Although after an early start I'm going to go to bed early tonight. So have a good evening everybody and keep being positive.

Oh and I watched the first two episodes of Yonderland, and it is very good. Made me laugh several times.

What A Shower

Today has not been good but maybe has been a learning experience.  This morning my shower pipe snapped so shower was taken a la redneck hosepipe style.  So tonight's task will be shower head and pipe replacement which should be a simpke task but who knows ...

Then the bus decided it wasn't turning up. Been like that for the past two weeks either late or none existent , but it dies make me walk through town although got annoyed to find my shortcut through the Eldon barred because it was before nine am .

Anyway it made me use my blogger on the phone so that is a slight plus point. It's still raining but the snow has gone so I will sign off here