The ritual of the rhythm of the heat

While the boys and I were Christmas shopping in Southampton earlier today we came upon this drum group.

Actually "came upon" was more "deafened by". As we alighted from the bus (from the station having journeyed in by train) I thought that a jet was taking off from Eastleigh airport. It was only as we rounded the corner that it became clear that a group of drummers besides the Bargate (the ancient entrance to the walled city of Southampton) were "doing their thing" very loudly.

They were excellent and certainly made our shopping trip far more entertaining that we had expected. If you want to sample their sounds (or visuals) then click here.

Bordering on the ridiculous

Last Thursday at lunch time, I visited Borders store in Bournemouth. Now I love Borders, I could spend hours in there but Thursday may just have changed my mind

Having made my choices, The Times, Word Magazine and a small Christmas present, I went to the counter to pay. My bill came to £10.19 and I only had a £20 note. So I gave the girl at the till a £20 note and a 20p piece so that she could give me a £10 note and a penny.

She had another plan and gave me a penny! So I said "Sorry but I gave you a £20 note". "Did you?" she replied, "I don't remember". Now this is a transaction that happened only 20 seconds earlier and her job is to take the correct money in exchange for goods! So not very good at her job and no memory!

She went to her senior colleague and explained my request. He came over and said "Sorry about this but I'll just need to check the till, I won't be long" where upon he printed a journal roll and then in front of the queue, lifted the whole cash tray out and disappeared, into the back of the store, leaving me standing at the counter, in my lunch hour for 10 minutes.

When he reappeared, he placed the till back on the counter and with a face looking like a cat handling it's owner a dead mouse, said "there you go sir" as he handed me the £10 note I should have had 10 minutes earlier.

Now here's the real clincher...he them returned to his till without any further comment. No "I'm really sorry sir, but we do have to check the till and I'm really sorry for my colleagues mistake here's your £10 and have this discount voucher for the inconvenience", no just walked off!

Now firstly, what ever happened to trust or the customer is always right? But far more importantly, why no apology??? It draws the conclusion that no customer is important, just the money in the till.

Unbelievable!!!!!

Title of the year (well for today!)

As a huge fan of the band Yes, Chris Squire releasing a Christmas album with a choir (my new found hobby, see previous blog) is something to look forward to.

True, it feels a bit early for singing "Adam lay Y'Bounden" but when the album has such a great title what the heck!

This Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday, I am appearing in a musical!

My church are putting on a performance of Roger Jones Jailbreak, based on the story of St Paul in Phillippi. I am part of the choir, singing bass, and although I haven't sung like this for years I am enjoying it immensely. Both of my sons are also appearing as actors so it's a family affair. In fact my eldest son will celebrate his 15th birthday by performing in it on Friday.

While the music is not my first choice style wise, there are some beautiful parts and when the choir is in full throttle, it is an amazing feeling.

I have also established that my voice, while not a thing of beauty, can hold a tune, when it tries hard.

Big old jet airliner

The UK government has two brothers in the cabinet, Ed & David Milliband. Do you think there is a third one called Steve.......?

Way!

While flicking through the TV channels, I stumbled upon the Bo Rhap video which I must have seen hundreds of times.

But this morning I watched it properly and some of the sensations I encountered in 1975 resurfaced.

I first heard it one Sunday afternoon while doing my home work and listening to Annie Nightingale's Radio 1 show. I was a Queen fan so when she said this was the new single i put pen down and listened. But she made a mistake and played at least two songs off the new album. which one was the single? The slow one I presumed and then there was an album track with an operatic bit and a great heavy ending?

It seriously wasn't until at school the next day that I was told "no that's the whole song". But it's 6 minutes long!

Then there was the video! Never seen anything like that before and the effects and everything were awesome. (I know today they look very basic but this was 30 years ago!) We tuned in every Thursday night to watch Top of the Pops just to see it. And that was the only time you would see it each week. And therefore you absorbed every detail, nuance and pose. Freddies overhand piano playing, Brian and Freddie's outfits, Brian's guitar solo, the operatic effects "how did they do that?" and then the ending with the live bombastic bit, dry ice, smoke and everything. All would be discussed with real enthusiasm just because there really was nothing like it on TOTP at the time.

Then there were the lyrics! At Youth Club we would try and sing the whole song. Who killed who? What's a fandango? My best friend Grahame was convinced Freddie sang "Hit me when the wind blows"!

This morning for six minutes I was 16 again.

Wanted cash

Things at Southampton FC have started to get silly. And that is off the field rather than on it!


It's fairly well documented that following relegation from the premiership, the clubs financial position was only really viable if they got promoted back to the Premier League (as it has become in the intervening period) during the next two seasons when they still received the parachute payments from the Premier league. (This is a payment paid to relegated teams to help them adapt to life outside the Premier League, I.E. continue to pay the players the salaries demanded by Premier league players for the remainder of their contracts).


That finished for us at the end of last season and to avoid administration, at the end of last season we sold Gareth Bale, Chris Baird and Kenwyne Jones (something like £15m for the 3) and we all thought that was us sorted financially for this season.

Now this is posted on the website. So that's probably Andrew Surman sold in Jan then (and maybe Grzegorz Raziak). As you can see there is an offer on the table, but the existing shareholders are not happy with it and it's from a hedge fund, which has all sorts of implications I'm not comfortable with.


There is one recurring rumour , based around Microsoft founder Paul Allen, ignore the date on the linked article it's just an example and I can only hope that is true. Otherwise at present a formally financially well run club is going the way of Leeds and Coventry.


And Pompey are 7th in the Premier league.....