New guitar video - Classical Gas - A work in progress

Yet Another Dire Straits song - Romeo & Juliet

Some more Dire Straits

Some Monday Noodles

I thought I'd plug the guitar in for 10 minutes and see what happened - here it is......

Valentine's Day

I surely can not be the only person in the world to whom the arrival of the annual profiteering extravaganza for Hallmark celebratory day of love and romance bring on feelings of dread, loathing and exploitation. I'm a very happily married man. I tell my wife of my love for her on a daily basis. If it were down to me I'd physically prove it on a daily basis, or even twice daily at weekends, assuming a grandparent or two would remove the kids to an otherwise 'fun' location.

But Valentine's Day pisses me off. Not because I have to openly show affection, or publicly declare my feelings - I'm an enlightened modern human being, apart from when I've had more than six pints - but for the simple reason that this one, arbitrarily chosen, day seems to possess the power to cancel out the acts of the other 364 days of the year, should one not purchase the cutesy card, flowers, posh dinner, chocolates etc. Any number of posh dinners and chocolates provided earlier or later in the year do not, could not ever, cover the expectations and anticipations of this one day, this day when, amazingly, the price of roses goes up threefold and a table at a decent restaurant is harder to find than than Nick Clegg's integrity.

I would lead a campaign to boycott Valentine's day, but as it's bloody cold sleeping on the sofa at night I'll refrain from doing so and simply vent my frustrations through the medium of blogger. By way of balance I would urge you to read the excellent 7 reasons that love is important post over at  7 reasons

A song for you.....

I recorded this on my iphone a while ago as a test, to see if the iphone camera helped cut out the lag I got recording from my webcam. It did that, but left me with this rather narrow looking effect which I'm underwhelmed by.

Anyhow, this is me playing and singing (if you can call it that) Dire Straits' "The Man's Too Strong" from the Brothers in Arms album. Real blogging will happen one day soon I promise.

Is this thing on?

So, the temptation to blog my incessant, occasionally incontinent, mental processes has become too great to resist. However, before I embark upon a journey from which I may never properly return, it occurs that a prudent thing to do would be to test the process, learn from a few inevitable mistakes and use the acquired knowledge to improve future output. Hence this initial, rather directionless, post - the maiden voyage, the virgin earth being tilled to make way for what will ultimately turn out to be a carbuncular edifice upon the blogosphere. Whether or not more follows depends on the success, or otherwise, of this rambling offering, as well as upon the amounts of red wine and cheese I consume in the meantime. So here it is. Whatever it is.