Don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those tree-hugging hippy types, but I always find it profoundly sad when a tree is cut down. I don’t know why. Maybe it is because trees are the ultimate biological representation of the passage of time, from tiny acorns to giant oaks, etc. Maybe it is because the removal of a tree has an important impact on the local ecology.
Take our nearby neighbours. He has three trees in his garden. Through the bullying of his next-door neighbour, he has cut one of them down himself and today, the biggest tree of the trio was gone. This tree is home and perching place to hundreds of birds: sparrows, starlings, wood pigeons – we even had a cuckoo in the locality. All those birds will be gone.
Here today…
Gone tomorrow…
The Missus remarked that she’s already seen a couple of doves circling the area where the missing tree once stood. Obviously they are confused and can’t figure out where their nests have gone.
Oh well, that’s 50+ years gone in a couple of hours and by the swing of a chainsaw…
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With a heavy heart, I’ve put my Epiphone Black Beauty up on eBay…bid generously, gentle reader.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7337904881
On a separate note, I was snooping around Friendsreunited yesterday, trying to see if I could spot any chums. While snooped on Friendsreunited, I found an entry for my half-sister. It seems she’s just graduated from university with a 2.1 degree. Well done, you…
In the post: Adrian Belew – Side Two (Autographed) 🙂
Stomach pains still there, but subsiding…almost at the end of the pain cycle. Hurrah!
The mystery driver who deliberately drives down our road is upping the ante. He/she is now doing this in the early hours of every morning now. Before we thought that it was a random occurance, but something interesting happened. The other morning, I was awake in bed reading and I heard a car drive slowy into the road and as it approached the Lock Mobile, it revved up deliberately to trigger the car alarm. Before it might have been accidental, but now it seems to be a deliberate act. The culprit strikes between the hours of 1.30am and 3.50am and the engine in their car literally shakes the earth. I don’t get it. Why is this happening? Is it a grudge? Is it someone’s idea of a joke? What is this? Where we live is very quiet and it is unusual for cars to even travel down our road after midnight. I just don’t know what to make of it. If I mention this to the police that a phantom driver is disrupting our sleep they will laugh at us. If I lay in wait and pounce on the mystery driver, what then? It’s a strange one and it has been happening for about a month now and now the “attacks” are now daily. Bizarre world, ain’t it?
In the post: a letter from the Royal Mail explaining to me that my package wasn’t lost at all. Well geez, I know that now, but at the time when I contacted the Royal Mail they said it hadn’t been delivered. All this after watching a programme on TV last night about how shoddy the UK postal service is. They employ thieves and criminals to steal our mail and then won’t take responsibility for it. Hurrah! Makes you proud to be British…
A nice chap called Nadim wrote some nice words about some of my music:
Darren Lock I Am Not Your Enemy
Cool instrumental stuff from He Who Should Not Be Mentioned Here But Was Anyway. The couple of songs have funky lyrics and take some time to get used to, but they’re great nonetheless. Give the guy a record contract already!
That’s good, innit? Makes it worth it. I get very little feedback or enthusiasm, so I normally presume that no-one actually likes my music once they’ve bought it. This kind of restores the balance and makes me want to make some more music. (I know, I know…you all want me to stop, but I won’t. Mwaaahahahhhaaaa!)
Recently, I found a really neat CD case that holds four CDs. I am a bit of a packaging fetishist and whenever I see a clever CD case or packaging idea, I think about how I can apply it to my own work. I bought a pack of these cases and redesigned the artwork for “Sows’ Ears & Silk Purses” so it would fit. I usually use a four-CD case, which is styled as a DVD case. These are bigger and heavier and it costs me more to ship them to the US. The cases are smaller, lighter and will mean I can ship more off without breaking the bank.
Meanwhile, the sharp stomach pain is subsiding. Hopefully, it will be gone by tomorrow. The self medication with oil of peppermint capsules always seems to work.
While in the garden, I noticed some activity coming from the lawn. Suddenly, an army of flying ants began to take off. Yes, it was that day of the year when all the flying ants disperse to create new ant colonies. I grabbed my digital camera and snapped the seething carpet of black, winged bodies wriggling on the lawn.
It was quite a sight to behold. And then I saw nature playing a cruel trick. The birds of the garden saw the struggling Queen-Ants-to-be and began to snack on the slow and the wingless. Here’s one lucky blackbird who got a tasty beakful:
Ain’t nature wonderful?
So it turns out that the suicide bombers were Brits all along. This wasn’t a surprise to me. Neither was it a surprise that they were, in fact, suicide bombers. There was no way that they could have timed the bombs to go off with such precision without a human element. Trains get delayed, discarded rucksacks get reported, timers fail to go off – so a human trigger was needed. It’s the same with the bus bomber. It is obviously he was meant to go on a train, but he either couldn’t get on a train in time due to delays or he bottled it. If he bottled it, then it might be so that the bomb wasn’t meant to go off on the bus and he was travelling to another train station to wreak havoc?
Anyway, it reminded me of a fantastic animated satire show called Monkey Dust produced by the BBC. The series featured two sports-loving British asian youths from Birmingham, under the guidance of the ruthless Omar, who wanted to bring a holy jihad on the local population. It reminded me so much of what happened in London. Of course, in the cartoon they always failed because they were inept and they always wanted to catch the match on Saturday. You can always tell a good satire when it becomes painful to watch. Monkey Dust will now probably be banned on the basis of those characters.
Not much else has been happening here. I’m suffering from severe stomach cramps again, so I think I must have eaten something I shouldn’t have. This is strange because I’ve been careful with my food and in the past month have managed to lose over half a stone without even being on a diet. But the stomach cramps are painful, but not as painful as they have been or was earlier in the year. I can still walk and function, so there.
Apart from that, things are really nice and quiet. 😉
The sun is shining… Hurrah!
Alex the Wonderdog suffers from a condition known as “Westie Skin” – yup – he is a Westie, so it’s par for the course. It basically means that he is allergic to certain things and when these allergens are about his skin comes out in dark greasy patches which crust over and his fur is prone to fall out. Recently, he suffered another attack and gone some new, more expensive drugs for him. Unfortunately, the side-effects are vomiting and diarrheoa. If he were to suffer these side-effects were are to stop medication. Last night, a 3am, puke-boy decided to redecorate the bedroom and I don’t mean in a tasteful misty buff emulsion. Off the tablets, my walking vomitorium.
On a separate note, The Missus gave me permission to spend money on some new musical toys. I saw a Yamaha RG420 D6 guitar going cheap on a website and the interesting thing about this guitar is that it is a baritone guitar. That means it is tuned down to the key of “B” which makes it a deeper instrument to play. This guitar is top quality with a locking Floyd Rose tremelo and everything and it only cost £149. Bargain of the century. The funny thing is that because it was the end of line stock, the only colour they had was Mist Green. I was happy to settle for this pukesome colour, but you cannot imagine my delight when the guitar turned up and despite having “Mist Green” labels on the box and even tied to the guitar, the guitar itself was a tasteful black. None more black. Apparently, all the cool young kids use these guitars for heavy metal riffing. It’s fun because I am having to rethink all my old tunes on it. I must be getting good because within five minutes of playing it, I figured it all out. 🙂
In the post: the replacement 1Gb memory card from SanDisk
Now here’s the thing. I sent off my faulty memory card via registered post. The post office said it got lost and I was to fill out a form for compensation, which I did and returned with all my paper evidence. Obviously, the card did make to it the supplier because I now have a replacement. The moral dilemma is: should I accept the refund from the Post Office if they decide to pay out? Stupid Royal Mail – no wonder they are always losing money.
In the post (II) – a box of replacement guitar strings. Totally out of guitar strings so I ordered a selection of replacements including my regular Ernie Ball Super Slinky and there’s also a set of Beefy strings for the Yamaha when I need to change those strings. I didn’t realise that with a Floyd Rose tremelo you had to cut the ball end off the strings before fitting them to the guitar. You learn something new everyday! 🙂