I love being single
Full-stop, next sentence.
There’s no need to add any reasons … as in .. I love being single because ..
Nope, I just love being single.
I guess if you’re asking me for reasons it’s mainly because of the freedom that comes with living alone and being able to do anything I want when I want.
Day 3 of my 8 songs from the 80s as nominated by Alan.
In 1984, I was a daft boy ( what’s changed??!! 🙂 ) working in the shipyards in Govan, Glasgow.
But there was no work.
So they transferred a few hundred workers of various trades to work at Swan Hunters shipyard in Newcastle.
I spent the whole of 84 working in Newcastle on the Ark Royal aircraft carrier and a replacement for the Atlantic Conveyor container ship which had been requisitioned by the government to carry troops and equipment to the Falklands war where it was destroyed by two Exocet missiles
We were all put up in cheap hotels and B&Bs in Whitley Bay, out of season and freezing cold with the winds coming off the North Sea.
There were wild times on the weekends we stayed down, the bars in the hotels were open all night for us residents and some guys made full use of it. Some went over the top by distracting the night porter so that others could raid the bar.
The place I stayed in had a couple of bars and this song was popular then, the bar full of people singing its anthemic chorus, but nobody really knew who Nelson Mandela was.
I believe in his quote in the image above that education changes the world both globally and personally.
Education freed him, education freed me from shipbuilding and a cycle of boom and burst and living just above poverty.
I think this song is the proof that music raises public awareness and that changes the world.
Just as well it was a catchy tune or Nelson might have stayed locked up! 🙂
The scenes of horror at last weeks events in Paris will live long in the memory for lots of people, particularly the people affected by this travesty.
Horrific doesn’t cover it, those were ordinary people having fun, gunned down having dinner, drinks or enjoying a concert.
Things that we take for granted in our ordinary life’s.
The majority of the victims were killed while attending the Eagles Of Death Metal concert at The Bataclan.
I’d been to see the band on last Wednesday night when they played the ABC Glasgow. Not my usual choice of music but enjoyed the gig. Which made last Friday’s events that little bit more poignant and hard hitting.
The people killed could have been any one of us.
The band themselves are safe but lost some friends and colleagues on the night. I’ve extracted the following from their Facebook page.
“While the band is now home safe, we are horrified and still trying to come to terms with what happened in France. Our thoughts and hearts are first and foremost with our brother Nick Alexander, our record company comrades Thomas Ayad, Marie Mosser, and Manu Perez, and all the friends and fans whose lives were taken in Paris, as well as their friends, families, and loved ones.
Although bonded in grief with the victims, the fans, the families, the citizens of Paris, and all those affected by terrorism, we are proud to stand together, with our new family, now united by a common goal of love and compassion.
We would like to thank the French police, the FBI, the U.S. and French State Departments, and especially all those at ground zero with us who helped each other as best they could during this unimaginable ordeal, proving once again that love overshadows evil.
All EODM shows are on hold until further notice.
Vive la musique, vive la liberté, vive la France, and vive EODM.”
Last night New Order played the Academy in Glasgow, they’ve played more or less the same set list on the tour so far so we knew what was coming, 60/40 old to new material punting the new album.
This album has more of a commercial electro dance sound, perhaps because guitarist Peter Hook has parted company with the band.
I quite like the new album but some of it is filler. Which is pretty normal. The crowd were waiting for the big finish with a string of hits belted out which had the place jumping.
At some point while the new material was playing, I was looking round the venue, Unlike the Bataclan its multi-tiered, but there are some similarities as the main standing section is overlooked by balconies on either side.
For a few moments I imagined what it must have been like to have been there, terrorists standing on the balcony above you demanding that you lie on the floor, people packed on top of each other then the terrorists shooting them or dropping bombs on them.
Horrific.
Thing is, you can’t dwell on it, you can’t let these fuckers change our way of life or they win.
A hard truth is that these terrorists live amongst us, they feel disenfranchised and that they have some right to inflict their poisonous thoughts and actions upon ordinary people having a good time.
They may think that they are freedom fighters fighting for a cause, but they’re not, they are cowards who can only attack defenceless people going about their daily life’s.
I believe in personal freedom and freedom of speech even if I disagree with what someone is saying. I stand against state control or the new legislation to intercept people’s private communications which are being pushed through parliament.
Well I did, but not now.
As far as I’m concerned this needs to be stamped out, any sympathetic viewpoints to the causes of terrorists needs to be stamped on hard and mercilessly.
For years we allowed that cleric Abu Hamza to spout his hateful rhetoric and poison the minds of many young people.
We watched helplessly as the powers that tied themselves up in legalities about his human and civil rights, when he did not care about ours.
On Facebook last week, hours after the tragedy in Paris my mate told me of a Muslim friend of his justifying the attacks and quoting the numbers killed in Syria etc
Really?
And that’s relevant because of what?
You can’t justify last week because of whatever is happening elsewhere in the world, Two wrongs will never make a right. Whatever is happening elsewhere should be sorted out politically not with guns.
There is no justification for last weeks attrocities.
I believe in freedom of speech but that guys attitude crossed the line and should be stamped on.
Tolerance and acceptance is no longer an option, Allowing people freedom seems to make them think they can get away with saying anything but that needs to stop.
We need to take the fight to them.
The motto of the band last week is Peace, Love and Death Metal if only these terrorists and their followers listened instead of preaching their hatred.
—
The pic is taken from the bands Facebook page .. I knew the hand sign for peace but had no idea what the other two were!
Just had a fantastic weekend starting on Thursday night with a visit to Balmaha on the shore of Loch Lomond then a trip to Ardlamont Point south of Tigbnabruich with its fantastic views to the isles of Arran, Bute and The Mull Of Kintyre.
There’s just something fundamental about wild camping, no electricity or running water that brings you back in touch with nature and makes you realise what is important in life.
The most important thing in life isnt money, clothes, music, concerts or everything that city life in Glasgow or Edinburgh provides. All of wlich I enjoy to one degree or other.
But it’s about having friends and people that care about you. Having them around doing all the basic things like cooking together, helping set up tents, finding firewood, sitting chatting about life rather than watching tv.
It’s very grounding.
New friends and old friends including Jim and Tommy, my two best pals from childhood.
People that know you from your earliest age, like having another two brothers that know you inside out and will back you or give you it straight as real friends should.
I love my 4 real brothers but family isn’t always about blood.
—
A few pics below.
How beautiful is the west coast of Scotland?
I count myself very blessed to have been born here.
Balmaha Bay 
Loch Lomond
The Rest And Be Thankful 
Argylls Secret Coast – Kyles Of Bute
Ardlamont with Arran in background 
Portavadie Marina
FREEEEEDOM!!!! 🙂 
Bongiorno!
My last post before we left port in Barcelona was regarding my experience of being upgraded to club class.
It was a nice treat, but I want really comfortable with this curtain divisor.
Today we are on the way to Roma having spent the past few days on the Norwegain Epic cruise around the med.
It’s hard not to compare the experience with my last two years cruising with Roysl Caribbean. But I’ll save for a later post when there’s more time and the holidays over.
The irony of this cruise is that we are in the other side of the curtain as NCL operate a VIP section called The Haven, which isn’t actually VIP just an upgrade but has the choice parts of the ship reserved for its members.
Now if you know me .. I’m second best to nobody. That doesn’t mean I think I’m better than anyone. I just don’t like division based purely on money.
So … it looks like that old Tory Government of ours are on the way towards foisting driverless cars upon us.
Transport Minister Claire Perry said:
Driverless cars are the future. I want Britain to be at the forefront of this exciting new development, to embrace a technology that could transform our roads and open up a brand new route for global investment.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-lead-development-of-driverless-car-technology
Is that right Claire .. exciting technology?
Exciting for who?
6am and wide awake …
Don’t you just hate that on a Saturday morning when there’s no need to get up and do the rush to work?
Mind active so can’t sleep, chilling listening to music on Spotify.
Isn’t it great how browsing the web or in this case Spotify can take you to places or music that you’ve never heard of?
I was listening to the new Waterboys album, very bluesy, love November Tale as yesterday’s blog, tells a story that I can relate to.
Then browsing the Waterboys back catalogue took me to their version of This Land Is Your Land. An American Civil Rights protest song written by Woodie Guthrie in response to Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.
Being a Celtic fan, I know the song very well as its often sang at Celtic Park in response the vile and racist Famine Song sang by some other teams support.
So I was browsing the various different versions of the song, Spotify is fantastic for that, it’s like having all the music in the world at your fingertips.
I came across versions by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and a great soulful version by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
What a rich soulful voice that lady has.
Next stop was browsing Sharon Jones albums and came across this belter.
Love that sound, her voice, the sax, and pulsing beat makes me want dance and it’s just turned 7am … Feck!! 🙂
The Power To Speak
Like most people I watched in horror as The details of yesterday’s atrocity in Paris came to light
These poor people were targeted for making fun of Islam, Mohammed and the ISIS leadership.
How cowardly are these assassins?
How pathetic are these people of “faith” when they cannot stand against any criticism without resorting to violence.
What God ever preached that violence was acceptable?
This isn’t about God or religion, it’s a consequence of blinkered indoctrination that these factions are unable to tolerate anyone else having a different opinion, thought process or lifestyle to the one they choose.
That’s bad enough when they live in some middle eastern country, but the problem is that they live amongst us. Yesterday’s assassins were French nationals. The 7/7 bombers in London lived among us as UK nationals.
These are disenfranchised people, they feel that they don’t feel that they belong. They have no loyalty to our western countries or our liberties. They believe that they are standing up for some justifiable cause, but nothing justifies attacks on innocent civilians.
They want to come here and reap the philosophical benefits of freedom, liberty, free expression to put out their views even if we don’t agree with them as well as the practical benefits of our infrastructure, health services etc but then enforce their opinion upon us.
The problem is in the west we are just too liberal. The PC brigade have made us so frightened to speak up in case we are judged as racist or intolerant.
Well I don’t care what race, creed, colour, religion, gender or whatever someone is, but as soon as they want to threaten violence against our liberties, support ISIS or join some Jihadist movement, then we need to take action.
We need to turn our own dogs against them, the intelligence agencies, covert, nasty, it wouldn’t be my ideal choice, but these guys aren’t playing fair, so neither should we.
If there is the merest threat, a hint of conspiration to make threat become real, then round them up, lock them up and show the rest what we won’t accept.
Or am I not allowed to say that?
—
On a related note, a young Scottish guy of Pakistani origin was jailed in the UK last year for having downloaded a pamphlet on making bombs.
At the time, I believed this was harsh, he was a kid (17)sitting in his bedroom, probably a bit disillusioned with life. At the time I thought locking the kid up was overreacting because there’s one thing reading about it and another thing actually doing anything.
Call me idealist, but I think we should be able to read, or say just about anything we want. That it only becomes a crime once intent had been established and steps have been taken to move from ideology to actual threat.
But that’s changed, we need to set out what is and isn’t acceptable, we need to be harsh, we need to stop being so liberal when liberty itself is being affected.
Loving the version of Stand By Me by Playing For Change.
Their purpose is to bring the world closer by music, I think that already happens as technology improves and the world becomes a global village.
But anything that gives the people a voice and a medium to speak, share and develop is good in my book.
http://playingforchange.com/episodes/stand-by-me/
—
Last day before the grind starts again tomorrow.
Really can’t be arsed heading to Edinburgh, I’ll need to play for change and get back working in Glasgow soon.
My elder daughter has lastnightoutivitis and has just arrived downstairs white as a sheet and wanting tea and toast … Poor girl!! 🙂
A “friend” of mine .. no not that kind of friend .. put a post on his Facebook page yesterday.
The gist of it was, now that Scotland has had a demographic vote and decided NO, can all the YES voters please shut up and accept everything as it is.
Actually no Joe, that just isn’t happening.
Even as part of the UK, we will not be silent.
Not because you want it, because you’re a crabbit faced old bastard and you are scared of your pension and the value of the pound in your pocket.
Not because you’re actually English and arguably shouldn’t have had a vote in the first place.
Not just because you’d prefer us YES voters to go away like the subservient race you’d like to think we are.
Not because we are intimidated by the misguided Anglicised Thugs that believe they are Northern English rather than Scottish.
The No voters did win .. this time .. but there’s a momentum now, independence will happen at some point in the future.
Take a look at the demographics below.
The young and the poor were more likely to vote YES because they feel disenfranchised from the UK.
Time changes everything, the older generation who voted NO will die off, the young will lead the way.
The future belongs to Hope.
——-
Polls And Demographics On Why Scotland Voted No
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/20/scottish-independence-lord-ashcroft-poll
DancingBhoy 
