TITP 2014

So …. that’s Glastonbury over for another year.

Did I watch it?

Not really was busy with other things, but will catch up during the week.

The thing about watching a festival on tv is that, you get fantastic footage of the band, but you miss out on the festival experience which is the best part.

Only Two weeks on Thursday and it’s time for T In The Park 2014.

Just had a look at the line-up and got to say that I’m not really all that impressed .. read 4/10 ..

http://www.tinthepark.com/line-up.aspx

Maybe I’m getting too old for this and would be better off at Retro/Rewind/WhickerMan .. but nope .. save me from Five Star, Howard Jones and the rest of that crap .. Heaven 17 , ABC .. yes please

But the atmosphere is meant to be great .. so I’d be up for it.

For TITP, I’m much less excited about it this year than I was last year but to be fair, I was absolutely buzzing afterwards, not just with the music but with the experience.

https://dancingbhoy.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/t-in-the-park-residents/

This year, “slumming it” back in The Residence, none of that lying in a field and filthy portaloos for this bhoy .. that part of “the experience” I can do without.

The Residence, is just the most chilled out ( and clean!) concert area I’ve been to, well worth the extra cash.

Got to be honest, the experience will be great but some of the bands are pretty over-rated and who-are-they’s in my book.

Sunday night head-liners – Arctic Monkeys .. feck off .. I’ve tried to like them.. but just can’t see what the fuss is.

But let’s focus on the positive …

Friday – want to see Imagine Dragons, Manic Street Preachers, Pixies … fill in with Haim, Elle Goulding, Biffy Clyro

Saturday – want to see James, The Charlatans, The Stranglers, Human League, Paulo Nutini, . Pharrell Williams ,Bombay Bicycle Club, Calvin Harris . fill in with Embrace, John Newman

Sunday – want to see Paul Weller, Kaiser chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, Jake Bugg, Red Hot chilli Pipers .. fill in with Example, Sam Smith

When you put it like that it’s not so bad .. lots of goodies to keep me interested in between the dirge.

Remember Soul II Soul and their hit Back To Life .. I loved that song and bought the cd back in the day .. what a disappointment!

Even for novelty value how are they gonna fill in a 45-60 minute set?

Maybe I should do some research on some of the other bands I haven’t heard before I go .. Steve Angello, Alesso, Ben Howard, The 1975?

Open to suggestion.

Wellies – Check
Cowboy Hat – Check
Onesy – Check

Bring it on!

The Platform Lovers – Parallel ……. #Relationships

Michelle knew he was cheating, she didn’t have any evidence but she just knew it.

It was something in his attitude, the distance between them, the lack of physical contact and affection.

Since their early days, Charles had always been a sexual person. In those first throes of passion he wanted to make love, or fuck as he called it, at least 3 times per night, often more.

That was when she had thought that he wanted her, back when she was young and gullible. Protected by life from her family, attending an all girls private school with very little contact with boys until she met Charles at University.

Even then, He was a charming, good looking man and all the girls wanted him. She knew that he had a reputation as a bad boy, but he always seemed charming with her and her friends like him, possibly one of them a bit closer than she would have like.

Charles had reassured her that it was only flirting and meant nothing, but she wasn’t so sure.

With hindsight, she had closed her eyes, she knew that he was popular and she considered herself blessed when he proposed to her after only 6 months together, so it must have been love, or so she had thought.

She read through the evidence in front of her and thought what a fool I’ve been.

If only the 40 year old Michelle could have a quiet word with her younger self.

Wouldn’t that be fantastic, if you could go back in time and correct those things that we got wrong?

Even if you were only allowed to change one life affecting event, what would you change?

Me?

I wouldn’t change a thing!

Well maybe a kiss that I should have taken at the time but the moment was lost in youthful naivety.

I wonder how much my life would have changed if I’d went down that road instead of this current existence?

Maybe in summer parallel universe, that guy is still in love with the first girl of his dreams, while I’m divorced in this.

What a lot of nonsense!

Michelle, was not one to turn a blind eye, she might be old-fashioned and not as glamorous as Geraldine, Charles former PA, but she was as honest and loyal as the day was long and wasn’t half as stupid as Charles liked to think she was.

There was something strange about Geraldine leaving their employment so suddenly. The “official” excuse was family reason but there was something in her eyes, the way she looked at her that made Michelle think that there was more that Geraldine wanted to tell her but she had other reasons, pressure from elsewhere forcing her to keep her story straight.

Michelle couldn’t put her finger on it even when they had an informal chat on the day she left, a quick chat over a coffee while Charles played golf with a potential client.

Michelle asked her if everything was okay, if she had any reason to leave, if she had been harassed?

Geraldine could only nod her head and apologise through her tears insisting that it was because her mother had taken ill suddenly.

But something felt awkward, there was something else, she should have known then that there was more to her relationship with Charles than as a PA.

It made her wonder what he did when he stayed downstairs most evenings and if he wasn’t making love to her she knew for damn sure that he was doing it with someone else.

————–

A wee story today to fit in with Michelle becoming aware of Charles indiscretions.

Short because of work pressure.

How To Access US Content Outside the USA ….. @Netflixable

An update on accessing Netflix US content in the UK or anywhere else for that matter.

The availability of content on the US version of Netflix is far superior to that of the UK franchise. Not only do they have a large volume of content 10k movies to 3k in the UK but they also more recent content and content which was made in the UK but isn’t available here.

Previously, it was possible to access this content by making a simple DNS change on your device ( iPad, laptop, playstation ) to fool Netflix into thinking that you are in the US.

However this is o longer possible with the changes that Netflix rolled out a few months ago.

But there is an upside.

My own method is to set up a free VPN service on my iPad which allows me to pretend that I’m in the USA or a range of other countries if necessary.

After starting the VPN on the iPad, I start the Netflix app, which now thinks I’m in the US and make my movie choice.

The nice little bonus of this is that I then airplay the movie to my Appletv box ( 73 quid from Amazon )and watch the movie on the big screen.

My experience is that this works and has negligible buffering.

The following is a review of the Free VPN services available. Please note that some are free to try and some are supported by advertising, however there are some genuine out and out free VPNs if you read carefully.

CyberGhost for example will log you out after 3 hours of usage but that’s fine for watching a movie of an evening and you can log back in immediately.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/features/internet/3497781/best-free-vpn-services-of-2014/

The following is an excellent comparison of the content available on the various Netflix franchises and has regular updates as new content becomes available.

http://netflixable.com/

A Warning To Ladies Of A Certain Age … @DonnalouStevens

Would you believe that yesterday’s blog was one of my most popular?

It’s very unusual when the number of hits for a particular page exceeds the hits for the main page.

It seems that there were a lot of internet searches for Donnalou’s uplifting feminine anthem.

So in fairness to the lady herself and not trying to steal her glory, here’s a link into her site

http://olderladiessong.com/

Keeping with the Ladies Of A Certain Age theme, a friend sent me this by email, I’ve had a look on the internet and it’s been around a few years but I can’t find the original source .. So apologies to the author.

It made me laugh! 🙂

A Warning To Ladies Of A Certain Age …

You’ve heard about people who have been abducted and had their kidneys removed by black-market organ thieves?

Well my thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years go.

I went to sleep and woke up with someone else’s thighs. It was just that quick. The replacements had the texture of cooked oatmeal. Whose thighs were these and what happened to mine? I spent the entire summer looking for my thighs. Finally, hurt and angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans. And then the thieves struck again.

My butt was next. I knew it was the same gang, because they took pains to match my new rear-end to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier. But my new butt was attached at least three inches lower than my original! I realized I’d have to give up my jeans in favour of long skirts..

Two years ago I realized my arms had been switched. One morning I was doing my hair and was horrified to see the flesh of my upper arm swing to and fro with the motion of the hairbrush. This was really getting scary, my body was being replaced one section at a time.

What the heck? What could they do to me next?

When my poor neck suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a turkey neck, I decided to tell my story.

Women of the world, wake up and smell the coffee! I figured it out!!!

Those ‘plastic’ surgeons are using REAL replacement body parts stolen from you and me! The next time someone you know has something ‘Lifted’, look again – was it lifted from you?

THIS IS NOT A HOAX. This is happening to real women everywhere, every night.

These same thieves come to my wardrobe and shrink my clothes! How do they do it????

WARN YOUR FRIENDS !!!

P.S. Last year I thought someone had stolen my boobs. I was lying in bed and they were gone! But when I jumped out of bed, I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in my armpits as I slept. Now I keep them hidden in my waistband.

Thought this was too important not to pass on.

Older Ladies Are Divine ….. @DonnalouStevens

2am and still awake … I had a fantastic day out in Falkirk for the Rod Stewart concert, the man just gets better with age.

As a … Errrrr … Emmmm …. A totally unrelated comparison ….

( tread carefully there Bhoy ). 🙂

I’ve just came across the following song by Donnalou Stevens on youtube .. Absolutely hilarious and I’m sure if you happen to be a lady of a certain age you’ll agree!

Personally I like ladies of a certain age,

No I don’t mean 21 … Or even 31 … Jeez hard work and absolutely nothing in common, a different set of priorities and not looking for the same things .. Eg me!! .. So get real!

Older woman are more confident and capable, Know what they want and are not afraid to say so .. And I don’t just mean sexually .. They have personality, the wisdom of experience, stand on their own two feet and don’t put up with male bullshit.

I like that … So what if you’re not perfect .. Who is?

Anyhoo .. The yoddle in this is absolute genius, how come no one thought of that before!!??

Enjoy! 🙂

Well, I ain’t 16, not a beauty queen.
My eyes are baggin’ and my skin is saggin’
And if that’s the reason that you don’t love me,
Maybe that’s not love.

I ain’t 20 either and I don’t care neither.
My hair is gray and I like it that way.
And if that’s the reason that you don’t love me,
Maybe that’s not love.

If you don’t think I rock, well we ain’t gonna roll.
If you don’t think I hung the moon, my hot just turned to cold.
If you wanna younger model, I wish you well, sweet pea.
Cuz if you can’t see what it is you’ve got,
Then you ain’t getting me.

I Was Only Joking? ……….. @RodStewart

October 1971 and Maggie Mae by Rod Stewart And The Faces is number 1 in the UK charts for 4 weeks and simultaneously top of the US charts.

I was a kid at the time, skinny gaunt white kid, mum, dad, me and my 2 younger brothers Duncan and John at the time, another 2 followed later, living in a one bedroom apartment, colloquially known as a room and kitchen in sunny Govan, Glasgow.

A one bedroom flat with no bathroom or toilet except for the outside loo shared with 2 other families on our tenement landing. Thinking back now, we were poor but happy, we didn’t know any different.

The video below from Top Of The Pops with Rod resplendent in a red velvet suit, kicking a football about with Ronnie Wood and spinning the microphone pole in the air is one of my earliest childhood memories of music apart from The Beatles on the radio and dad playing Sinatra on Sunday mornings chasing us off to chapel and giving us money for the collection.

Ol Blue Eyes was a definite contributing factor in my other 2 brothers arriving In later years!

Of course us boys hardly ever went to church, we’d play football in the park and would spend the money on sweets until one day we were caught red handed and weren’t given “spending” money again!!

But Maggie stayed with me, family parties, trying to sing with a broom like Rod, waving it above my head try not to knock out the “big light”.

I’ve loved Rod ever since, he’s been part of the music of my life, good old fashioned singalong rock songs, Poignant love songs and let’s face it some real disco nonsense .. Do Ya Think I’m Sexy … Crap but good crap and I love that too!

It’s sometime after 1am here, in bed but wide awake, reminiscing in my head, some Rod songs that have meant things to me over the years, being in love singing You’re In My Heart and meaning every word or his reflective almost confessional lyrics of I Was Only Joking.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rodstewart/iwasonlyjoking.html

Tonight Rod plays Falkirk Stadium, big day out and I’ll be singing every word.

To Be Loved In Return …….. @GBguitar

There was a bhoy … a very strange enchanted bhoy.
They say he wandered very far, very far over land and sea
A little shy, sad of eye, but very wise was he.

Then one day, the magic day he passed my way
And as we spoke of many things
Fools and kings this he said to me

The greatest thing that you can ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return

To be loved in return …

Nature Boy – Eden Ahbez – 1947

Never a truer word!!

I’ve loved that song from the first time I heard it sometime in my childhood, my mum playing versions by Nat King Cole and dad playing Frank Sinatra’s.

The song was a number 1 in the US for 8 weeks in 1948 for Nat King Cole.

Being the eldest of her 5 sons, my mum used to sing it to me and I thought it was about me … duh!!

Then in my youthful days around 1982 on my first holiday abroad with my pals, travelling across Ibiza, back to the airport, listening to punk on my jangle box, the group of slightly older attractive females sitting behind us boys wanted to hear their cassette of George Benson.

George who? .. I thought, never heard of him!

But my despite protestations, I was outnumbered and outgunned by a bunch of women who knew what they wanted and it wasn’t punk rock!

( Has anything ever changed? )

Without too much of an argument .. as resistance was futile .. their tape was placed in my player .. and the party started.

Love X Love, , Give Me The Night, Turn Your Love Around, Lady Love Me One More Time , Love Ballad .. and more ..

A bit of a theme going on there, but this young guy realised what women like in music and its not punk music with rare exceptions.

George also put his own stamp on jazz classic like Summertime and On Broadway .. other songs I can remember being played in my childhood.

Back home, a few George Benson albums were bought, and there it was again Nature Boy, a jazzy version and exquisite combination of guitar and vocal.

Okay fair enough, George is mainly known for this poppy soul and there’s some really slushy crap in his repertoire, but the man is a classical jazz guitarist and can play a tune.

Last time I seen him was 2 years ago at The Clyde Auditorium, a little older but the ladies loved him and he’s still got it in buckets!

The place was jumping as Glasgow people know how to enjoy themselves.

Tomorrow night, George is gracing The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall with his brand of jazz, funk, soul, I can’t wait to see him again.

The following link is George singing Nature Boy with Natalie Cole, nice tribute to the original version.

PS – I bet that you’ve never heard of the Eden Abhexz before, one of the original hippies and well before the 60s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_ahbez

The Male Mid-Life Crisis? ……… #Relationships #Divorce

Do you the definition of the male mid-life crisis?

Many people think it’s when a guy in his 40s buys a sports car, starts going to the gym buying more fashionable clothes or has a trophy girlfriend.

They think that he does these things because he is having a mid-life crisis.

Wrong, he does it because he can and why shouldn’t he?

In my experience, these are symptoms of many men who get divorced in their 40s, they have been and may well still play the dad-role .. as they should .. but they have a decent career and money in their pocket.

So why shouldn’t they live a little, look after themselves, dress better, buy a dream car and pull a younger woman who realises that a more mature man appreciate them better?

As long as they are decent guys and look after their responsibilities then good for them I say!

This is not the male mid-life crisis, this is a man realising that he’s been stuck in life, became something he doesn’t like and he wants more.

So he breaks free of the marital cocoon and goes through a metamorphism to be the man he really wants to be.

Are you buying that?

If you’re female, maybe not!

Maybe you’ve experienced some plonker disappearing from the family home, not playing his part in family life or paying his alimony and you are left supporting the now teenage and money hungry babies while he paints the town red and spends his cash on other women.

Quite a common scenario and no wonder there are so many hostile divorces.

Timing is the key here, if the guy starts running around before the divorce process is in place well he deserves everything he gets.

If he does so afterwards, he’s a free man and allowed to do what he likes .. as long as he takes care of the family.

So .. do you know the definition of the male mid-life crisis?

It’s not the above …

It’s when no matter what he does, the sports car, the younger clothes etc don’t work and he realises that younger women just aren’t interested in his aging charms.

For men, that’s the killer, when they realise that they aren’t the guy they thought they were and they can’t do all the things they used to do and often only realise when it’s too late.

If you’re female then after the initial upset and the financial issues, you’re probably better off without him and more capable of standing on your own two feet with a better support network than he will have with his couple of drinking buddies who don’t really know him except what team he supports and beer he likes.

You’ll be free to see someone who appreciates you and doesn’t take you for granted.

Karma’s a bitch eh! J

Between A Father And A Dad! …………. #Relationships

It was Fathers day in the UK yesterday, a day for dads to be appreciated and to spend time with their kids or their own dads.

I had a lovely day, a 10 mile, 3 hour walk / run in the morning then a late lunch/early dinner with my 3 kids then went to see my dad in the evening.

Sometimes, my dad drones on a bit, but he’s my dad, getting older but proud of all 5 of his sons and we are proud of him.

My dad had been abandoned by his mother as a child and a consequence instilled strong family values in all of his sons.

https://dancingbhoy.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/do-you-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings-mayaangelou/

Do you remember the John Wayne movie the Sons Of Katie Elder?

We were brought up on that stuff, us 5 brothers might have our differences, but pick on one and you pick on all.

Anyhoo, I received a text from my younger brother Mark, a clever lad and has done well for himself as have all of my brothers.

Mark, quiet, clever, works within aero-engineering and is lead designer for the flight control and radar systems for some of the latest aircraft.

Young Mark, met a girl Linda 20 years ago, she’s a little older than he was, she had a couple of girls aged 2 and 4 at the time and a nutcase of an absent husband.

She lived in a bad area and when the guy got drunk he’d turn up and be abusive.

Mark couldn’t put up with that, so he proposed, they got married, bought a house together and the ex was told that if he turns up then he gets it .. end of.

Mark, quiet, clever, caring and an out and out demon if you cross him .. that’s my bro!! And my dad’s s influence on all of us!

Mark brought up the girls as if they were his own, bringing them to our family parties and they became part of the family and treated just like all the other grand-kids.

Unfortunately, Mark wasn’t blessed with any kids of his own, all the tests said it should work, but it didn’t, sadly that happens sometimes.

However, the big guy in the sky moves in strange ways and sometimes good things come from bad.

Gill, the younger of the 2 girls aged 17, went out dancing with her pals, met an older guy, one thing led to another and she was pregnant but the guy didn’t want to know.

So along came young Cara, now 5 years of age and Mark has been both dad and Grampa to her and relished every moment of it.

Last year, their other girl Lisa, announced she was pregnant and earlier this year had a baby boy. Mark was a proud Grampa again!

Last night at my dads, my phone pinged .. Lisa is getting married next year and she wants Mark to walk her down the aisle.

Let’s just say that Mark is absolutely delighted!

The moral of this story?

Any prick can be a father, it takes a whole lot more of a man to be a dad.

Oh You’re Hair Is Beautiful ……. #OnlineDating

Friday and feeling good, content, wistful even.

It’s the interaction with people you see, listening to their opinion, their fears, hopes and dreams, they influence your thoughts, change your perceptions.

Isn’t that the way life should be?

I changed my dating profile this morning .. why .. just for a change .. a refresh based on interactions.

I wrote about ugly ducklings and being a swan, the hope that someone appreciates you for who you are.

Because isn’t that what we all want?

To be accepted for who you are?

Online dating can be such a source of uncertainty and doubt putting yourself out there and being afraid of being judged harshly.

Not me of course?!!

I’m perfectly imperfect.

Online dating has its down side but I’d say it can also be a source of fun, knowledge, enlightenment and love if you are very lucky.

I like to dwell on the positive!

Its Friday, the weekend starts here .. Blondie currently playing in my ears telling me that my hair is beautiful.

If only she knew! 🙂