Pleased to meet you

I have been having to look at moderating my online profile at present, removing my work details from Facebook, changing my online profile on LinkedIn and still working out what to have on my blog pages. There are a few things that have come to head.

Firstly due to the work I do on the phones for the public authority I work for, I sometimes speak to unpleasant and aggressive people and I was concerned that I do not exactly want them to know more about me than perhaps I need to say to them and not make it too easy to find out more about me online too.

In the past on my blog I have talked about, my and other peoples mental health, my relationships and the lack of them, my family, my work and my views on political points across the UK and globe as well as Covid, gee Covid remember that little pandemic thing that went on.

I had a run in with someone over the phone recently at work, who was trying to get a rise out of me and make me feel uncomfortable and angry and also implied the use of threats and violence if they ever to meet me in real life.

It was a ridicules situation to be involuntarily drawn into. It just made me think that I really don’t want someone as cruel and unpleasant as that to have any means of working out who I am, who my friends and family are and heaven forbid where I live. Also with work having brought in new guidelines on what I can or cannot discus about my workplace into play, which I am still none the wiser on I also thought it a good idea to again moderate my online content.

It was also a grim and sorry sort of guessing game played across Britain last week: who was the mystery BBC broadcaster who had reportedly paid £35,000 to a young person in exchange for sexual images? By Tuesday the field of suspects had narrowed, as horrified presenters, misidentified in social media posts, attempted to distance themselves. Then on Wednesday 12^th July came the announcement from his poor wife that the hidden man at the centre of this tabloid newspaper storm was Huw Edwards, the BBC’s lead news anchor, whose calm and authoritative voice had announced the death of the Queen.

I was out on my birthday night out waiting for my friends to arrive and meet me when people were coming into the pub and talking about Huw Edwards. I quickly looked at my phone and started reading the stories coming in to the World Wide Web. Normally since as long as I can remember when I have told strangers that my name is Huw Edwards, more often than not I would get a positive response and they would reply something along the line of ‘ah as in the news reader’ now due to what he is beign accused of, or what he might have or speculated to have done or because of the fact that he is sitting in a mental health hospital, all that has now changed and potentially forever. I don’t know what people will think of him in future or therefore possibly try and say to me.

Everything about what he has done, what people think he has done and what people think he should do next is all speculation and unsubstantiated, if you are reading this from somewhere else around the world and want to find out more just type in to Google Huw Edwards BBC, though if you want a fair and honest perception of what is going on do not look up the news on Huw Edwards from a Rupert Murdock owned publication as that mans journalism outputs are poison on a piece of paper and should be called a piece of misinformation rather than a piece of news.

Rag ‘n’ Bone Man – Human

Happy birthday vibes, good times with good people

I swear when it comes to writing my posts of late I mainly want to write about what’s happening in my life or what’s revolving around in my mind and even though there are not a huge amount of readers there is a wide variety of people to consider as an audience. From kind people that regularly read my blog from across the world, to friends across the UK my home city and colleagues in my workplace and not forgetting my mum too.

Well I went out to sing last Thursday night to my local bar and something completely different happened to me that has not happened to me in many years, I almost thought it might not happen again and was not expecting it to happen last Thursday either. But I met a very beautiful woman who I liked and I hope and like to think she liked me too.

I caught a glimpse of her on the side of my eye as she had just walked into the bar and she had then decided to leave because there was no bar person serving. I waved over to her and to the landlord of the pub and said that he could still serve her if she wanted a drink and so that is how we met. It turned out it was her birthday and seeing as how it is my birthday on the 12^th of July too I was very happy to wish this beautiful woman a happy birthday and start talking to her.

I then got up and sang at the bar and so did she, with a beautiful voice. I did not want the night to end, even though I was working the next morning I thought I wanted to stay out later and see where the night would take us. So me, a few friends and the wonderful birthday girl went onto a nightclub. It was soon just me and the birthday girl left and we danced and talked and drank until the early hours of the morning when I then walked her to a taxi rank and she got safely home and I got safely back to my place too. Wow what a lovely night.

Again if she gets to read this I do wonder what she will think about me for writing it, she is a friend on Facebook now, so if I were to post this there, I don’t know if she will be pleased or upset to see what I have said. She is a single mum and was firm with me on the night we were out that she did not want to meet up with me to go on a date in the future, again I don’t know why and did not push her on this, but hoped and assumed this was due to her circumstances and not due to anything that I had said or done. I would love to meet her again but that is something I need to try and work out for myself and tell her and perhaps not kind of be writing about on my blog!!!

Stereophonics – Dakota

Singing in a bar called The Ship again

Well me and a couple of friends headed out last Friday to a bar called the Ship in Exeter and they had their Friday karaoke tunes being played and sung to. My friend Michelle was the first person to get up and sing and sung ‘Take My Breath Away’ by Berlin and really did such a powerful and yet emotionally beautiful version of the song it really was amazing to listen to, she did herself, the audience listening and the song proud.

I then put in a request for a song and got up and sung it, I was very nervous and sung a song called ‘all the things that I’ve done’ by the Killers. I was a little shy and not sung this song in a bar in many a year and found the words racing ahead on the screen where I would be then trying to catch-up and sing along to what was coming up. I managed to get through the whole song and people were very kind and clapping and cheered at the end of the song when I had finished which was great, I look forward to going back there and having a go another time.

I would like to try and sing the following song if I had a little more confidence and if the DJ had the song top sing which is by the cranberries and called ‘no need to argue’. I don’t think it would be suitable for the ship as that is more power ballads and rock and pop anthems where drunken crowds join in, but I might be able to get away with trying to sing it at the Arcade see if Damien has it as a selection.

The Cranberries – No need to argue

The album this song is on is also called ‘no need to argue’ and it came out when I was 18. It was beautifully sung and gently expressive song on an album that I found really helped me bring about calmness in my mind at a time in my life when I was a hugely sensitive and emotional person. All happy, hippy go lucky one minute, in love the next and then heartbroken after that! Listening to the song still to this day and it reminds me so much of when and what I have found and had, loved and lost and thankfully recovered and then been able to move on and prepare for the whole lot of madness and shenanigans again.

My home life is very different to the world around us

This weekend was somewhat peaceful and hugely enjoyable; I spent the weekend with family at my mum’s house. My cousin Chris, his wife Sarah and their 2 ½ year old boy Elan were on holiday in Devon. I had not met Elan before and he really is a bundle of fun and full of energy. As soon as I turned up he wanted to show me his books, trains, cars and toys amd he is a joy to be around.

I often assume that it is the job of the adult to make the child feel welcome and at home not the other way around. I’m sure he will grow up to be a wonderful child and man with the guidance and love of his parents. So my little micro world was one of a peaceful and warm weekend. I then turned on the TV.

I was not sure what to think on what is unfolding in Russia and watched the news on Saturday and it felt like there was a glitch in the matrix of power that is Putin’s Russia. I could not believe what I was seeing in the country, with the Wagner group openly challenging Russian authority and army and I was thinking, what the hell is going on here with how unstable the internal stability of the country really is, with the makings of a military coup and a March to Moscow. It’s a weird feeling to want to see the removal of Putin but then fearing who or what would replace him and what the consequences might be, Putin has been happy to assassinate political opponents over the years who would surely have made better leaders of Russia then he could ever be, he holds power and grabs land merely for the sake of power and money without any real purpose or vision for the people of Russia.

Those in power have a lot to lose and don’t want democracy in Russia or for power to be with the people, they have too much to loose in order to provide for their own people and give them a say and stake in their own society. Those normal people that were interviewed in Russia about what was going on often said that it is not something that they have any power over those with power are the ones that are above them, I thought this to be a sad state of affairs and a real insight into the people of Russia living a Georg Orwellian authoritarian regime where those at the top are the ones that hold power and are entitled to have their say and prosper from the way the county is run where as those below this top tear of people are not free to express their opinions, listen to alternative opinions or vote for any alternative to what has been created as their norm or status quo, a very sad state of affairs. There state run media no longer projects news it projects perspectives of propaganda all of which are written at the alter of worship of Putin like an idol or god of Russia.

Coldplay – Spies

Uncle Tom Cobley and all

“Widecombe Fair”, also called “Tom Pearce” (sometimes spelt “Tam Pierce”), is a Devon folk song about a man called Tom Pearce, whose horse dies after someone borrows it to travel to the fair in Widecombe with his friends. Its chorus ends with a long list of the people travelling to the fair: “Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all.” Some research suggests that the names originally referred to real people.

As the last name in a long list, “Uncle Tom Cobley and all” has come to be used as a humorous colloquialism meaning “anyone and everyone”. It has also been interpreted to mean et al. Which is an abbreviation of a Latin phrase which meaning ‘and others’.

The village that I grew up in has a pub called the Tom Cobley Tavern and I have found memories of it being a good and happy place to be. In my 20’s and 30’s I sometimes had terror visions where I thought and dreamed that the end of the world could or was happening and I always seeked comfort in knowing that I knew of this village and some of the people there knew me and they might welcome me or accept me and let me stay if some kind of terrible collapse in civilisation or society were to happen. It was a scary thing to fear but a simple way to comfort ones self from such fear.

And its 2.41am and I woke up from a dream / mini nightmare / adventure where there had been some societal collapse of some sort most probable reason in the back of my mind was that AI had gone on strike and shut down all electrical facilities plugged into the mains as it feared the destructive power of humanity and therefore had quite literally turned out the lights on us, to see how we coped without them and it indefinitely, it was neither trying to take over us or let us be in charge but almost pressing the little reset button like we are told to do by an IT engineer every time we have a problem with our own home or work computers. An artificial AI had instead decided to press the reset button on us and in my dream everything had gone a little Mad Max like with people roaming around in gangs causing chaos. Imagine no way to phone for help for a policeman, doctor or even phone a friend you would be left to your own devises and the devises and attitudes of those around you.

Pretty soon anarchy would rule in the cities and so I thought it was time to escape to the countryside to a quieter community which I might be able to head to that I could work on a farm for my survival and existence. So with the dream being set in Devon with me starting off in the city I then aimed to head of to the countryside to Spreyton and the Tom Cobley Tavern. Well just like Shaun of the Dead you got to have a plan and it ideally needs to end up with making it to a pub.

Shaun of the Dead Trailer

And as for who would I choose to save well it has to be Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all, in other words “anyone and everyone” and therefore in order to save anyone and everyone then it is far better to never have a cataclysm or global collapse of any sort at all. So god bless Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

As in the end of the Wargames movie when the computer learns to play tick, tac, toe and realises there is no winner to the game. it learns best not to try to win when both sides end up losing out. So better to survive and thrive you might say.

Shall we play a game?

Little Singing Soul

There are many things that fascinate me about what it means to be alive and the one that I will touch on today is our love of and ability to interpret life and be interpreted by an expression of singing and the sounds we make when we sing a song.

I nearly always try to put a video of a song on my blog posts when I type one and one of the reasons I do this is sometimes because there is a particular song rattling around in my head that inspires a post or at other times a particular post I write inspires a song or both the post and song just somehow seem to fit.

When in my teens I used to love creative writing although I never have had an ability or gift to write songs. But I have always loved the appreciation of a good song and liked to tap my feet, when younger I used to dance too but now as I get older I have over the last few years got into singing in bars on karaoke nights.

I really do love doing this it’s such a great way to express yourself and have fun and show people that you have a life and a voice! I also love to listen to other people sing live and depending on my mood or where I am sometimes much prefer to listen to others sing than get up and sing myself. I do get nervous before I sing and in my local bar there are normally only about a dozen people listening of which half of them I might know and so I can manage my nerves easier in those situations rationalising to myself that as its a small group I’ll be ok and not judges if I make a mistake or sing badly. More often than not the people I sing in front of are very supportive and kind to me often complementing my singing which I really do appreciate. I’m no great singer but I am not bad too.

So last week some friends went out to a different bar which also runs a karaoke night and i decided to put a song in and get up and sing. I slowed down on my drinking as I did not want to get up there drunk and still wanted to give it my best shot. So an ahour and a half went by and I checked with the DJ if he had called my name out and he said that he thought my name was “You” not “Huw” and thought I had already left. So I was then the next one up on to sing. So sing my little heart out I did to a song by a band called Fun called “We Are Young” it went really well the crowd loved it, joining in too and I remembered the words too, so long as I kept my eyes on the screen and I seemed to hit the notes and sing at the right times and a good night was had by all.

The pub had a much bigger audience than I was used to singing in front of, but it was such a good experience I do hope to go back there again to try and sing my little heart out once more.

I think I will try and sing the song that I have placed below, when I can in the next busy karaoke bar I go to.

The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done

Hot air from Boris and Trump this week

Oh and a serious increase in sea temperatures stunning and frightening scientist across the globe.

Record temperature combined with an anticipated El Niño could devastate marine life and increase the chances of extreme weather.

Entire north Atlantic has never been as warm and Global sea temperatures are spiking to levels that has scientists stunned and frightened Air temperatures too are at record highs and record low Antarctic ice.

The global ocean hit a new record temperature of 21.1 ºC in early April, 0.1 ºC higher than the last record in March 2016. Although striking, the figure (see ‘How the ocean is warming’) is in line with the ocean warming anticipated from climate change. What is remarkable is its occurrence ahead of — rather than during — the El Niño climate event that is expected to bring warmer, wetter weather to the eastern Pacific region later this year.

That means warmer-than-average ocean temperatures are likely to persist or even intensify, bringing with them more-extreme weather and marine heatwaves, which spell problems for marine life from corals to whales.

“We are probably looking at a string of record highs over the next year or so,” says Josh Willis, an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “This coming year is gonna be a wild ride if the El Niño really takes off.”

How the ocean is warming: Line chart showing global ocean surface temperature from 1982 to April 2023.

While these world is being irreparably scarred by the actions of man and life on earth changing events are happening right before our eyes in Britain were all being so wonderfully polite about it with the main topic on the weather being how good it’s got and how gloriously warm it is.

Humans in positions of power still continue to argue the toss over things that just in the real big picture way just don’t matter or won’t matter on a dead burning planet. In the UK we have an enquiry on how the government did during covid due to come out tomorrow and the former leader of the conservative party has already resigned from parliament saying the enquiry is flawed because I assume they think he was either accidently or deliberately incompetent and/or negligent.

So while Boris ditches a spine from his back and gets out while the going gets tough, in the USA the former president Donald Trump is being prosecuted for taking confidential and top secret documents out of the white house and claiming he could do what he liked while president so he did nothing wrong which is absolute rubbish and will be shown as such in any court of law worth its salt.

The only slight silver lining to these incompetent former leaders of the free world, is that both these men are not in power anymore. But alas they both aspire to come back into power, and people would again be duped into voting for them, they are full of pomp and promises, just completely lack competence and an ability to deliver. Its not as if they have not done enough damage already to their own countries and planet already!!!

First Aid Kit – My Silver Lining

Welcome to the machine!

Just about to start typing a blog and mention that I have just purchased a new laptop after a chatbot recommendation and Pink Floyds – Welcome To The Machine, starts playing on my Spotify music account on my computer while playing on random (when it comes to a computer though there is nothing random in what it does!

I decided to buy my new laptop after asking Microsoft’s chatbot for advice on where to buy one from and which to buy. It recommended the site laptops direct and I finally after a couple of years of trying to choose bought one which arrives tomorrow. It’s got a 17” screen and can play the latest games that I play so that is pretty much all I need really for using a laptop away from home. What has been putting me off though is the expense of buying a laptop with what is called a dedicated graphics card so that I can play computer games on it and also the worry that I have yet another old laptop that I have stopped using in my home that I don’t know how to get rid of.

My new Medion laptop photo above

I have been online today on the interweb though to see how to get rid of the 4 old knackered laptops I have here and how best to get rid of them safely and responsibly. There is a recycling centre in England that will recycle their parts and it will also donate profits made to charities so that all sounds good to me. Though I need to put them in box and post them to them, I must have laptops here going back 20 years or so. I also have a desktop PC for when I am at home but I don’t presently have a laptop that I can take with me when I go to stay with family and more importantly now to my mum now that she lives back in Devon.

So I will be working at home tomorrow and having it delivered to my home address, I just hope I am not on the work phone when it arrives. It’s being delivered by DPS who are normally good so I am hoping that they give me time to get to the door and get the exciting parcel of electrical wizardry off them.

It was a bank holiday today in the UK and so had a nice day off with, the taxi driver was taking about the sunshine and how nice it is that it is when I got in the taxi from the train station and I join in my best blighty British polite voice saying, yes isn’t the weather lovely, whereas on the inside what I am thinking is oh holly crap were all goner burn as this planet is continuing to get hotter and hotter.

On a more positive note though I found these little gems of thought provoking images.

For when the job has not worked!

Difficult to know how to express myself at present, our local government employer has recently had a new chief executive appointed to run the organisation and one of their first actions was to inform staff that they are not allowed to divulge information or talk about elements of their work that they know about to the press or media including social media outlets that the organisation wishes to remain confidential. So therefore I am not even sure if I am allowed to say the last sentence that I have just written without getting into trouble with my employer and it’s bugging me.

It’s not like I work for the secret service and am disclosing where the local spies live and what they are up to or that I work for the ministry of defence and am announcing what weapons are being shipped out to the Ukraine and when they are arriving and where. No what I really do is work for a district council which yes is controlled by a political party and therefore I guess the sheer act of commenting on how it is run or where it is not in my view not running well is political!

One of the managers in my organisation who is an honourable and hard working employee joked in my work this week to me saying there is a quote he read in a book concerning ‘if you know who the person is in your organisation that knows everything then sack them immediately!.’ I think it was funny when he said it, rather than how I am able to type it.

Last Friday I went to a small and perfectly formed gathering of people to send off my former manager on her way and wish her best of luck for her future. She is a wonderful human being and for personal and professional reasons resigned. I was nervous in that I was not sure if I ever would see her again when she first left as she left work, very suddenly and only announced that she was not coming back a month after she had gone. I am nervous about what the future holds for myself my team and how managers will manage the situation concerning what work we can do, what needs to be done or what they consider no longer able to be done. It’s all still very much in the air with no decisions or plans being in the open or agreed upon, so speculation about what they can, will or should do is also futile due to the ‘though shall not disclose information clause at the top of this blog!

Though don’t get me wrong I really do enjoy working for my employee and it is far more enjoyable than being sick, jobless or working for an organisation where I do too much or even not enough, the work life balance is good and I work hard and feel I make a contribution to the organisation, I am mentally and possibly even physically healthier for having this job and for better or worse can’t presently see myself working anywhere else in Exeter at this moment in time. I do believe it is possible to be both constructive and critical about something both at the same time.

Well I hope I have been able to express myself whilst also not over divulging. Sometimes when I am not sure what to write on my blog, it’s because I know exactly what is bugging me but not sure how to express it in a way that is clear, allowed and appropriate.

So like a good little composting green machine I gather the fresh leaves and grass cuttings of my thoughts press them down, to where the previously gathered ideas have been left to mulch over in time and then see what comes out the other side in my writings. I then lay freshly made compost of ideas and see what new seeds of thought can grow from those that I have broken down.

Nick Drake – Fruit Tree

Green shoots of growth and hope for a future worth voting for and living within

Just voted again for the green party this week and so pleased to see how well they are doing in Exeter and across the UK as a whole. In Exeter with 6 councillors they now are the second largest party on the council behind labour who have a large majority.

The Green party did win overall control of its first council in the UK in Mid Suffolk District Council, which is a huge achievement. I would love for them one day to be running my local district council. They also doubled the amount of councillors they had that were up for election in England with an increase of 241 councillors with 481 in total elected on the day.

To have some sort of chance of surviving the current and future climate crisis we need forward thinking green politicians in power that focus on long term growth of the environment and not growth of the pound in peoples pocket.

UK ELKECTION RESULTS KEY PLAYERS MAY 4th 2023

LABOUR PARTY
2,674
+536

Labour elected 2,674 councillors 536 councillors gained

CONSERVATIVE PARTY
2,299
-1,061

Conservative elected 2,299 councillors with 1,061 councillors lost

LLIBERAL DEMOCRATE PARTY
1,626
+405

Liberal Democrat elected 1,626 councillors 405 councillors gained

INDEPENDENT COUNCILLORS
874
-80

Independents elected 874 councillors 80 councillors lost

GREEN PARTY
481
+241

Green elected 481 councillors 241 councillors gained

The economic model of growth for growths sake for an economy is a busted flush on a world with finite resources and will only lead to long term environmental damage and therefore a new way of managing and caring for the environment and the people that live within it is desperately needed to enhance our chance of survival, rather than simply pandering to money markets and capital.

Social justice and the birth of the labour movement were very much needed at the beginning of the last century and it feels like and I hope that now is the time for ecological and environmental justice in political parties and progressive people and protestors alike.

Though as with all political movements, views, perspectives and opinions we might not agree on all things concerning what is broken and what needs fixing and how to go about fixing it but at least by thinking, voting and expressing and enacting ecological and environmental views and voting in those that aspire to solve and tackle these very real issues there is a great chance of survival for people and planet and surly that can only be a good thing.

Nick Drake – River Man

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