As someone who sells items on eBay quite a lot, I use the services of the Post Office and I often sit at home weighing letters and padded envelopes for transit around the UK. Today, a guide arrived to explain how from the end of August, the way we pay for postage is changing. The size as well as weight is going to affect how much we pay. I sat and stared at the brochure over breakfast and fell into a stupor. Maybe I am being thick, but I don’t get it. A small packet is bigger than an envelope and therefore heavier. That is fact. So I don’t understand why the size has much to do with the overall cost because size and weight are exponentially connected. I tried to do the math and worked out that there’s a possibility that the Royal Mail are attempting to screw another 20p out of us for this service. So instead of sensibly increasing prices, they spend god know how much money printing posters and leaflets to be distributed nationwide, telling us of this hidden price hikes. Goodness me, another waste of money where that saving could have been used to keep the cost at normal rates. But this is the UK – a nation preoccupied with wasting money and creating large inneffective structures in the name of customer service. Anyone remember how much cash was wasted on the whole Consignia debacle? The sooner they open up postal delivery to the market forces, the better.
Last night, I recieved a mysterious email from a chap called “G” asking about my music. Nothing weird about that because I often get a couple of emails a year thanking me for the tunes. The odd thing was that the name was a little familiar and so I went back to Friendsreunited and re-affirmed that “G” is also the name of my half-sister’s current squeeze. If he’d been John or David, I might not have noticed. Of course, I might just be a little paranoid (I blame the new neighbours) and this fellow is perfectly innocuous. They are coming to take me away – aha!
On a musical note, the Boss RC-50 is turning out to be quite a useful tool. I was expecting it to be used purely for creating soundscapes and looped ambient music, but I have discovered that it can also be used as a natty, on-the-fly compositional tool. So now I hit the loop button and record some chords, then overlay a slight melody and then use this as a template to solo. Below is another example. Of course, this isn’t a serious tune, but an insight to how I come up with guitar solos. I normally improvise until I find something I like and then refine the idea with a honest dollop of musical spit and elbow polish.


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