19-01-02 Wednesday I - Brexit Outlook

It’s not good, is it?  

The one thing to remember is that we are leaving the EU on the 29th March. If nothing happens, if there is no intervention, we leave by automatic application of law. All that needs to happen is – inaction, indecision, inertia.  

May’s Withdrawal Agreement shouldn’t get passed, going on the present numbers. Unless a hell of a lot changes, the House of Commons won’t vote for the deal as it exists. And the EU won’t renegotiate it, since the negotiation phase is complete. May might get some warm words, but that won’t change the legal text of the Withdrawal Agreement (WA). And the “backstop” part of the WA is unacceptable to most MPs. The customs union and single market aspects of the backstop mean that we will be “tied forever to the EU”, at least until the future trading arrangements are set. The trouble is that trading arrangements can take years to agree, and there are specific dates at which we enter the backstop. We could be in the backstop indefinitely.  

If May’s deal is voted down, there is no real alternative. Labour will probably call for a vote of No Confidence in the government, and hope to bring about a general election, but since they are still apparently pro-Brexit, I don’t see them being particularly successful. Probably smaller parties – i.e., the Lib Dems and the Greens – will pick up more votes than normal, but if Labour don’t change then they could be locked in a death spiral with the Tories, and end up with another hung parliament.  

The House of Commons can keep voting down each proposal brought forward by the government, but what is really needed is for the govt. to bring forward legislation which Parliament can approve. But it is unlikely that the govt. will propose a second referendum, or a revocation of Article 50. May’s approach to government is not collegiate or inclusive, and she is not persuading the majority of MPs that her way is the right way.  There has already been a party vote of No Confidence triggered by the members of the ERG, but they won’t vote with Corbyn if & when he triggers a vote of No Confidence in Parliament. Party above all else, after all.  

Before Christmas I was quite optimistic that something could be done to mitigate the worst of Brexit. Now, however, I am fully expecting the worst. And I don’t think we’re going to like it.  

TTFN. 

19-01-01 Tuesday - Happy New Year!

Last night was the last party for some time. Which is a good thing, because I’m all partied out. We’ve had celebrations before Christmas, over Christmas, and then after Christmas; specifically, we’ve been drinking on Friday 28th, Saturday 29th, Sunday 30th and now New Year’s Eve. It’s time for a rest.  

It may be a month-long rest, or it may be shorter. I’ve been considering whether or not to participate in Dry January, which may seem like a good idea now, while I am mildly hungover, but it may not be so clever on a cold Tuesday in a couple of weeks’ time. I’ve been given some whisky for my birthday, and some rum for Christmas, so I’ve got all the tools I need to not have a dry January, in case I decide to go that way.  There are also a few bottles of wine and prosecco which will need tidying away, and I'm not sure that they will hang around for 30 days.  

Resolutions that I have decided on for 2019 include:  

• read more often: I get Private Eye delivered and I don’t read it instantly. I need to do something about that. I also have a load of books I should actually read and learn from. And, of course, I have a bookcase full of comics which I need to get to grips with.  
• cook more often: I should be more confident in the kitchen. I may start off heating up chicken steaks or pork loins, for instance, but I’d like to add some value to the food I make for the family. I think I should cook once a week and demystify cookery and baking.  

I’ll need to revisit these in a couple of months and see how I’m getting along 🙂.  

TTFN.

18-12-16 Sunday - PWEI @ The Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton on 15th Dec 2018

It had been a while coming; Ewan had bought the tickets back in June. And after a Christmas works do on Friday night, travelling from Worthing to Wolverhampton felt like an odyssey. But here we were, in Wolverhampton, about to see PWEI at a relatively small venue. We’d had a beer or two in The Giffard Arms, which had been described to me as “a rock pub”, and it certainly fitted the description. There was a lot of black and leather going on, as well as a ceremonial throne which Ewan tried to get a picture of unsuccessfully. Not only were there lots of musicheads about, but Wolves had beaten Bournemouth 2-0 so the town was full of celebrants.  

Once we’d girded our loins sufficiently, we headed to the Slade Rooms with our dancing shoes on. Beers were £2.50 each, which was lovely, and of course the first stop was to review the merchandise. PWEI always do a good t-shirt, and they hadn’t let us down in Wolves. I picked up a nice purple number, which started off being too small for me, so I had to exchange it. I think they’d given me a girl’s medium by mistake! But issue resolved, we watched a bit of the support, Cut La Roc, as he DJed a host of big beat “choonz”. He was good, but it was clear that the crowd were waiting for the Poppies to take the stage. We were right down the front, and I was considering moving to the back. But we were chatting, and time got away from us.  

All of a sudden, PWEI were on the stage and tearing through “Ich bin ein Auslander”, and I was pressed up against the barrier, with people pushing and shoving behind me. It was too much for me, and when I got the chance I headed to the back. The first song hadn’t even finished, but I was already pumped full of adrenaline. The Poppies have been going for a while, and this latest incarnation certainly know how to get the crowd going. The songs they choose to play from their extensive back catalogue all have pace and verve. They actually played quite a few from Dos Dedos, which I don’t have, so I shall have to keep an eye out for that. They obviously covered all the favourites – “Def Con One”, “Preaching to the Perverted”, “Wise Up Sucker!”, “Dance of the Mad” – and it got to the point where I didn’t know what they had left to perform during the encore. But they didn’t let us down, they had kept “Not Now James, We’re Busy” and “PWEIsation”. They also performed a tribute to Pete Shelley, which didn’t go quite to plan but was certainly heartfelt. And then, they were gone, and it was time to get a nightcap and then hit the hay. Since we are now in our late forties, Ewan retired with a cup of herbal tea, and we enjoyed the hospitality of the Wolverhampton Premier Inn.  

Today we took things easy, and had a good hearty fry-up before another epic journey to get home, but I had slept okay and didn’t overdo the lagers last night, so I’ve been feeling okay. Ewan and I have agreed that we’ll have to find another gig to go to in November / early December next year, and so that is a plan.  And if it is half as good as the Poppies were last night, that’ll be a gig worth going to... 

TTFN.  

18-11-24 Saturday - Asus C302 - I've only gorn an dunnit!

So I took advantage of the Black Friday offer at Argos and got an Asus C302 for £399.99, which was on sale at £100 or 20% off. I also used my "Smart Spending" scheme at work to get a further discount of 6%. So, all-in, the laptop cost me £376.

It's impressive. The screen is bigger than the C101 I already had, but I'm getting used to it very quickly. Also, it's HD, which is noticeable. And the keyboard is backlit, which is nice.
Now I need to sell my C101 and get some money together so that I can pay for this beast. I might be updating this blog more often than usual, to ensure that I am getting my money's worth out of this chromebook. And I should be putting money aside to cover the bill when it eventually arrives, which means not going out, which means more time sitting in front of this and spouting inane waffle.
What a treat, I bet we can't wait...
TTFN.

18-11-13 Tuesday - Coming Back to Blogger

Well, I tried the sunlit uplands of a WordPress blog hosted by GoDaddy, but it turned out to be neither elevated nor sunlit.

I looked at what I was spending in order to maintain my domain ownership, and my quarterly Wordpress hosting costs, and then compared that against the vague ramblings I was / am publishing, and it didn’t quite add up.

To be frank, this is an exercise in vanity. No-one cares about it, least of all me, but I shall carry on regardless because that’s what I do.

Really this is just a note to myself; a record of what I was (maybe) thinking at the time. I’ve already surprised myself by looking back at how even-handed I was pre-Brexit whether to vote Remain or Leave, when it’s quite clear that Remain is and was the sensible option, and there may be other things that I can look back on and surprise myself.

What made me look at my costs, and the benefits? It was an email I received from GoDaddy, advising me that I had possible malware on my blog. When I looked at the files they referenced, they were all WordPress files. when I rang them to advise that I hadn’t installed any custom files, they responded that these files might cause an issue, but they could provide some security for about £80 per year. I realised then that my vague meanderings weren’t worth what I was paying to GoDaddy. I’ve been paying £6 per month in quarterly instalments for a basic managed WordPress account, and then I paid nearly £80 to own the .com domain for 5 years and £60 for the .co.uk domain. £140 for five years of vanity publishing, and (£18*4*5=) £360 for the WP hosting just doesn’t add up, in my view. I’m happy navigating the backwaters of the blogosphere, hoping to add a note of common sense here or there.

It took me a while to work out how to get back to viewing my blog on Blogger, I had replaced the theme with the Blogger to WordPress plug-in code, and so I set a new theme and voila! My blog reappeared almost like magic. I will take a few days, I think, to mess around with the settings and the look of the blog and get it the way I like it.

I shall continue to plug away on Blogger.com and be happy in chuntering away to myself here. I’ll update my GoDaddy hosted website (thatrobthorley.com) as long as I can, by copying and pasting, but really the blog of record will be this one, https://robthorley.blogspot.com/.

TTFN.  

18-11-01 Thursday - Asus C302 Chromebook

I have decided that I want an Asus C302 chromebook. I like my little Asus C101 Flip, and it is extremely portable, but I like the idea of a back-lit keyboard, a slightly bigger full HD screen, and the power of an M3 processor.  

The problem is that an Asus C302 costs £500. That’s quite a lot for a Chromebook, especially when I don’t really use it sufficiently to notice the difference between the 10.1” screen of the C101 and the HD 12.5” screen of the C302. I do a bit of writing in the evenings, and a bit of surfing, but not much apart from that.  

I’ve read some reviews and it seems that the C302 is the best value for money chromebook in town. With 4gb of RAM and 64gb of memory, it’d certainly be enough for my needs for a few years. I’m kind of hoping that there might be a special offer for Black Friday, but that would need the kind of luck I don’t get.  

I do love a new bit of kit though. I’ve been watching a few C302s on eBay and they tend to go for a fair sum. I probably wouldn’t use it any more than I currently use my C101, so it would probably be a waste of £500. I’ll probably stick with what I’ve got, to be fair. It’s nice to dream though. And I can always keep a lookout on eBay, just in case one of these turns up cheap 🙂.  

TTFN.  

18-10-28 Sunday - Our Girl @ The Haunt, Friday 18-10-26

Friday rolled around again, and before we knew it the weekend was upon us. This Friday had a different flavour though, as we had tickets to see Our Girl at The Haunt. “We” in this case was me and three friends of a similar age, all keen on live music. G and J had seen Our Girl before, I had listened to a couple of tracks on YouTube and was looking forward to seeing them live. G wanted to get there early to see the support band, Breathe Panel, as he was a fan of theirs as well, which was refreshing; sometimes people aren’t interested in the support, but I think it is all part of the night. The times I've had an absolutely clear view of the support and then been swamped by tall skinny indie kids five minutes before the main band take to the stage doesn’t bear thinking about. 

Breathe Panel had just started when we got there, and were your standard indie band – four lads, pretty proficient from the sound of it, and I’d be interested to hear their album. The second support act shambled on to the stage and honestly at first glance they didn’t look old enough to date my thirteen-year old daughter. On closer inspection they were probably in their late teens or early twenties, and all skinny rakes in jeans. They started playing and the lead singer was obviously channeling the spirit of the young Mick Jagger, all pouts and poses. But they played a pretty good brand of glam rock, and I for one enjoyed it. They managed to sound fresh and familiar at the same time, which is a good trick if you can pull it off. And their new single should hopefully find them a few new fans (me included!). 

Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard came and went, and then it was time for the main event – Our Girl. They formed in Brighton, being at Uni together, and it was the last night of their tour so it was a bit of a homecoming gig for them, I suppose. Anyway, they certainly impressed, knowing how to put a bit of space in their music. One of the stand-out tracks was, I think, called “Sub Rosa”, which was sublime, but they were all good. On one track I found myself thinking of Nirvana’s “Heart-shaped Box”, which I suppose is a good sign. I’d be happy to see them again, and I hope that they continue to make more music in a similar vein.  

On the way home we discussed the gig, of course, and also other recent and future gigs that were bubbling under. Miles Hunt is currently on his “Custodian” tour, and he is playing Brighton in a week or so – I might go to that. Obviously it won’t be a Wonder Stuff gig, but it might be enjoyable in a different way. And then there is a new band who are getting some attention, called TVAM – but they are playing the night before Courtney Barnett, and I'm not sure I can handle two late nights in a row. We’ll see though, it might be possible... 

TTFN. 

18-10-20 Saturday - A Musical Week

Last week was a bit of a musical week, for a change. It started with a trip to see Eek-A-Mouse at the Concorde II in Brighton, which was a bit different for me. Eek-A-Mouse is a big reggae star, and I was introduced to his music a couple of years ago by a friend. I've got one of his albums, and when I saw that he was playing so close by, I thought I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see him. The gig, as it happened, was okay. Eek-A-Mouse came out on stage in full Arthurian chainmail, tabard and crown, and wore that outfit all night.  

Eek-A-Mouse, wearing a crown and a tabard. Standard Monday night.

I’ve never been to a reggae night before, and I quite enjoyed it. I have to say, the crowd were shorter than I'm used to at indie gigs; I don’t know why that would be, but I did notice that I had a better view of the stage than I'm normally used to. The sound was good, and the crowd were into it and enjoying it, but it all seemed to be a bit same-y, there wasn’t a sense of building towards a big finish. Maybe because I only had the one album, maybe because I didn’t really know his music, I wasn’t on tenterhooks. I left a few minutes early to make sure I caught one of the last trains home.  

The previous week I had finally decided to buy Shigeto’s album, “The New Monday”. It’s been out a while, but I had heard the first track, “Detroit Pt. 2”, and it had wormed its way into my brain with its stripped back beats. So that arrived, and on Tuesday evening, while TW and the girls were out at rugby, I got some time to listen to it at some volume, and enjoy it. I liked the whole album, it’s really nice, mellow, with some insistent beats and jazzy too.  

Saturday night bookended the week and brought another trip to Brighton, to see another band I’d not seen before – Halo Maud. I’d received a promo email from Melting Vinyl referring to her “fantastic sets at the Great Escape”, and as the tickets were only £8, I thought it might be worth a flutter. And an added plus would be not having to sit through Strictly and X Factor at home. As it was, they were fantastic. They reminded me a bit of Sheen, who I saw supporting Cud at The Garage a few years ago, and also Cocteau Twins, in a way. I certainly enjoyed their set, to the extent that I bought their album, “Je Suis un Ile”. Having listened to the tracks again at home, I think I made the right choice. They are an enjoyable collection of tracks, and I am sure I'll be listening to them frequently in the future. 

I also bought some tickets to see “Our Girl” next Friday, and I have a number of gigs coming up over the next couple of months – Courtney Barnett in Brighton, Cud in London and then, in December, PWEI in Wolverhampton. And I've just seen that Kristin Hersh is playing Worthing in March 2019, so next year is beginning to shape up nicely.  

TTFN. 

18-10-06 Sunday - A Month of Sundays

I love a Sunday. They are normally quite relaxed, and things tend to happen around me, if I manage it right. Today has been no exception. TW brought me a cup of tea in bed which was very pleasant – normally it’s the other way around. But then I wake up early and don’t like spending time in bed when I’m awake. So a cup of tea in bed for me is a rare occurrence.  

After enjoying my tea, I got up to have some breakfast, and made myself some toast with home-made marmalade. We have an Amazon Echo, and I asked Alexa to play some Cocteau Twins. None of the girls were up, so it was just me, my toast and the Cocteaus enjoying some early morning sun in the kitchen. What a pleasant way to spend time.  

Then it was time to pop to the Co-Op, since we’d run out of milk. Last week I managed to pick up a Mexican half a chicken on the bone, reduced from £4 to £2.40. I managed to get one again this week, as well as some southern fried chicken steaks and some chicken breasts, all reduced. And the milk, of course, which was what I went for in the first place.  

On a Sunday morning the girls normally play rugby and today was no exception, so we headed off to the rugby club. It was a lovely sunny morning, so it was a pleasure to stand around in the sunshine. Then once the practice session was underway, it was time to indulge in another guilty pleasure of mine – a sausage bap. The sausages they use at the club are delicious, and more so when smothered in a blend of brown sauce and English mustard. I was overcharged for my diet coke, but I let it slide – this time, at least.  

Back at home and Dad popped round for a cup of tea. He and Mum have just been on holiday in Cyprus, so it was good to see him and it was good to hear that they had a good time. Once he left, TW mowed the lawn in the back garden, and I pulled a few weeds. And now we’re on the countdown to Dr Who. It would be nice to have a relaxing beer, but I think if I had one, that might turn into several, and I don’t want to start the week with a hangover. It might be time to cook that Mexican chicken now... 

TTFN.