Lost Job

I lost my job.

I came in to work only for my boss to say that they don't want me any more.

I went home straight away.

I now need to decide what to do with the rest of my life.

A Poser

They say that in relationships, sometimes "no" means "yes".

Is this true?

Is it possible to answer this question in one word?

A Proud Moment

Last night I went to see my 13 year old daughter play the flute at the school music concert.

We sat through an hour and a half of performances, some pretty dire and some showing amazing precocious talent. What you'd expect really.

My progeny was on last. She played a duet with a friend.

Sadly, I can't rate her among those with precocious talent, but what she did have was an amazing smile. Nearly all the other performers looked grim and sullen. She however fairly lit up the room with her beaming enthusiasm.

A proud moment indeed.

I Can't Find My Way Home

A pigeon walked through the french doors into our living room.

We shooed it out, but then it came into the kitchen.

At this point we realised it was a homing pigeon. It had rings round both legs and was so tame, it didn't mind being picked up. Its homing instinct seems to have been reprogrammed to our house.

If we called its "fancier", I fancy he would wring its neck (who wants a homing pigeon that doesn't home?).

At the moment it's hanging around eating the chickens' feed.

Maybe the kids will adopt it.

No Blogging

The urge to blog has left me.

I suspect this is temporary. I don't know.

There is a temptation to write something, anything, just to try and justify my blogging existence, but without saying anything sensible.

I wouldn't want to do that would I?

My god, I just have!

Will be in touch again if/when Bloggers' Block leaves me.

7/7

Such wickedness is impossible to comprehend.

As to the solution, I have no idea except that I know that love must be a part of it.

Stevie Gerrard

I'm going to lose some of my readers here.

However, this is not a sporting post. The Stevie Gerrard saga says to me:

• Undreamed of good fortune and a stratospheric salary do not rid a person of insecurity
  
• Beyond a certain point, money is not a motivator, merely a possible indicator of how much you are wanted
  
• An arm round the boy and a chat would have sorted this out long ago
  

London 2012

I was wrong!

They must love us more than I ever dreamed.

Except the French that is.

New Rules For Olympics

I'd change the rules for Olympic bid qualification and at the same time make them corruption-free.

• Rule 1: No country can hold the Olympic Games if it has held them in the previous 20 years.
  
• Rule 2: Every applicant country has to fulfil a technical bid that is contractually and legally binding. This is to cover things such as transport, accommodation, venues, stadiums etc. as set out by the IOC.
  
• Rule 3: All applicant countries are put into a hat and the winner is drawn out, Lottery style
  

Why don't they do this?

A Lovely Thing

It's easy to get carried away with political thoughts and objective assessments of the world. Personal things are more important.

This is why I like Three Beautiful Things. And why I want to tell you about one of my Lovely Things.

We had the first proper performance of our new band the other day. Two very fine musicians and me up front playing and singing.

Playing on my own has its own rewards. It's tough in that there's no-one to lean on and I always criticise myself (there's no-one else), but when things go well it's a buzz. However, playing with the support of others who seem to instinctively understand, musically what I'm up to is another thing altogether. It takes pressure off in the right places and makes it so much easier to communicate.

I just love it.

Exxon Mobil

I defy you to read Alfred Cavallo's report and claim it to be anything other than a well-reasoned, dispassionate, thorough review of the situation.

Exxon Mobil can hardly be described as an alarmist, green lobby group.

The ramifications of this are so serious (and underplayed in the report) and yet our governments are (apparently) sleepwalking into it unconcerned, probably assuming it will be the next bloke's problem.

Apparently not.

Not That I'm Bitter

So far I've missed probably the greatest women's Wimbledon final of all time, probably the greatest rock concert of all time, the start of the Tour de France, the Men's Final of Wimbledon, a Grand Prix and probably more besides.

Maybe it would help if they invented a Sport Patch to slap on my arse.

The kids don't seem to mind though.

No Telly

Today is the first day without Telly.

Last night I took scissors to the aerial lead. The sparks are now about to fly. The teenagers are going to suddenly realise what they have done. I'm missing Wimbledon (only a bit), and I've already had "a letter" from the Licensing Authority.

I paraphrase, but it said: "I know you said you will not be using the telly, but we don't believe you, and we're going to send a man round to kneecap you".

There was no mention of dates and times. I wouldn't want to disappoint them by turning up when we're not there. I thought of offering them some suggestions, but thought better of it.

The sad thing is that I really like the BBC. I listen to Radio 5 and Radio 4 almost constantly in the car. I read the BBC website every day. I would gladly give them money for a Radio Licence, or a Website Licence. I thought of paying the black and white TV licence fee for listening to the radio, but they probably wouldn't even get what I was on about, so didn't.

Not that I'm worried, but has anyone even seen a detector van?