You are allowed to enjoy this…

Shingles are bloody painful and annoying. I knew something was wrong a fortnight ago when the lymph node in the right side of my neck started to hurt. Thinking it might be portent of a sore throat or cold, I didn’t think much of it, but then about five days later the skin on my right shoulder blade felt really sensitive. Then it began to burn.
When the blisters appeared, I already knew what it was. Shingles and stress seem to run in my family. When my grandmother (dear departed) lost her father, she had a bad case of them and I used to help her administer the cream on the blisters. She had them worse than me and I now have a hint of what the pain was like. I saw her cry and it was upsetting, but she still managed to do a day’s work, despite all her work colleagues shunning her because they were ignorant pigs who thought she was somehow contagious. That’s probably why she cried. Friends she had known for ten or so years would get up and leave the staffroom whenever she would enter. Ain’t people lovely?
My grandfather also used to get them, but only minor outbreaks. Again, directly linked to stress and work. I am going through a minor case by the looks of it, but the pain is sufficient to make every movement uncomfortable and I do feel nausea from time to time, but I am hoping that they will eventually go and the scars aren’t too bad.
I just have this permanently erect and painfully sensitive right nipple to deal with. I don’t think our relationship is ever going to be the same again.

Meanwhile, I just discovered that my loss assessor’s final fee is £14953.27 (+ VAT @ £2242.99). Jebus H Crumpets! Everyone pray to whichever wooden idol you worship and hope that the Motor Insurers Bureau are going to meet this cost. It would be a nice Christmas present.

The events of the last 12 months have finally manifested themselves in a breakdown of my immune system and a very painful nerve infection. The right side of my body and my arm feels like it is on fire, prickled by a thousand darting needles. But don’t fear gently reader, this is my pain. This pain belongs to me and no-one can take it away from me. I thank my assailant for this pain. It is a nice Christmas present. I thank you. I suffer for you. And I thank the insurance company too for adding to this pain. And I thank myself for bringing us here and putting us all in the line of fire. I must be punished and if this is my punishment, then I will take it like a man.
What really hurts is not being able to pick up and hug my children, such is the pain and nature of the infection. This may possibly last until beyond Christmas and the pain could continue long afer the infection has been overthrown.
I have instructed The Missus to only call the doctors when I cannot leave my sick bed, such is my aversion to medicine. Thankfully, I am still walking around and lugging stuff, so no sign of me falling over just yet.

My recent illness has poured a little cold water on the delivery of a new piece of musical kit: a Korg Wavedrum. I’ve had a Roland Handsonic for a long while but was interested in this item as it appeared to be more drum than an electronic instrument. It appears to combine mocrophonic input as well as a touch sensitive pad, so you have the best of both worlds and an instrument that is more responsive in a performance sense. So you can tap it, stroke it, scratch it, etc and those actions will be picked up microphonically.
The only downside is that there is no MIDI output or input, so it really is just a live performance instrument and, as with most Korg gear, the operating manual might as well be written in Chinese. There are only six operating buttons and one settings knob, so a lot of the buttons double up. I can’t get my head around programming the thing, so I am just enjoying the presets at the moment. There’s also not as many sounds as the Handsonic, but this is a mere quibble because the sounds you do get a very, very realistic.
Comparing it to the Handsonic is a bit like comparing an apple to an orange: they are both fruit, but completely different. I think they would complement each other though and plan to setup my Handsonic with the Wavedrum and see if I can get some grooves out of them both.
This is something I recorded with the Wavedrum. It is done is two passes as live. The first pass is me on the drum, just vamping along, with the output going through a digital delay pedal and the second pass was a live tracking of my six-string bass. I like it. It goes a bit African in the middle and is sufficiently different to keep me interested. Enjoy!

Spent time and good money on Christmas decorations in order to impress Madame V because last year we couldn’t really have decorations as we were living in rented accommodation. I was proud of my display. Madame comes in after her nap, is less than impressed and tells me “No like them”.
It’s the first time I’ve had a woman break my heart…

This is the artwork for the forthcoming CD. Nice and minimal, isn’t it?

Yesterday, I received the letter telling me what sentence JNB got for all the damage, upheaval and stress he caused to my family and myself. It was 16 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years and a two year driving disqualification, plus our £175 compensation. Call that justice? I don’t…
This is the first and only official communication I’ve had from the police since the incident. There’s no counselling or victim support for us, because when broached at the time of the crash, it was revealed that this wasn’t a crime, merely a “road traffic accident”. Meanwhile, we discover that this person has his address in Muswell Hilll, where the average house price is half a million quid and is only around the corner from the former home of radiactive russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Strange world, innit?
Yes, I am thankful that no-one died, but the mental scars run deep and I find every day increasingly harder to deal with. The property is for sale and I will sell at any price to leave and start again. Meanwhile, this piece of human filth is probably driving around without a care in the world because there is no justice and no real weight behind the law. He was found guilty of five charges, but only sentenced for two. So for him he probably thinks that even if he does get caught again, he can dodge his spell in chokey by spinning some sob story.
And that’s why this country is heading down the sewer because you can do exactly what you like without any real comeback until you murder someone. And if, by chance, we’d all been blown up by the ruptured gas main that Mr Browne caused with his dangerous driving, he’d have probably only got five years (out in two) because it was a “road traffic accident” and “he didn’t mean to hit the building”. My only regret is that this scum wasn’t wiped out in the crash because I very much doubt he’s seen the light or seen the error of his ways or feels any remorse for what he inflicted on us. A true waste of human life, destined for nothing, just put here to inflict misery on others. I hope you have a happy life because your day will come and it will come at your own hands, and it will be remorseless and brutal.
Oh well, chapter closed. Time to move on…

New album is “finished”. Now the hard part: designing the sleeve. 

New CD sleeve design is finished. Huzzah!