OK – whoever it is from the BBC who is doing a thorough sweep of my site might want to introduce themselves or make themselves known. We could have a chat about old times or make a new friendship? I mean, to go through nearly all my pages in a 24 hour period is getting a little creepy for my liking.
(Oi, Braithwaite! Get back to work – I don’t pay my licence fee so you can sit there searching my website. Haven’t you got some sports results to write up, boy?)
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At the beginning of the week, I made arrangements for a business agent to make a viewing today. The appointment was set for 11am and of course, yesterday I busied myself with preparations for the day, making the place look a little presentable, getting paperwork together, etc.
At 9am, the MIssus received a call from said agent saying that he couldn’t make the appointment because he was on the M11 and his car alarm kept going off and he’d need to go to a garage. The fact that The Missus could hear no evidence of an alarm or a car or motorway left her non-plussed, but she was annoyed that this fellow explained how he would reschedule with us next week but be able to meet his other appointments this afternoon.
I am a bit of an appointment fascist and have a “zero tolerance” towards lateness or flakery of this nature. I wouldn’t have cared if his trousers were on fire or if he drove all the way here with the alarm going, as long as he met the appointment. If he’d called 24 hours earlier, I would forgive, but this Johnny-come-lately approach riles me considerably.
Those who are afflicted with religion ask “What Would Jesus Do?” whereas those of us who are involved in business ask “What would Duncan Bannatyne do?”. So I emailed the company telling them that this man missed his appointment and to send someone else if they wanted to do business with me. If this fellow does turn up, it will be hard for me not to call him Mr Bullshit, instead of his proper name.
So after lunch, the phone rings and it is Mr Bullshit. He got the email, he isn’t happy. But I don’t give him enough time to weave another weft of bullshit in my ear and I just tell him: “It’s very serious that you’ve missed this appointment. I don’t like it when people waste my time. And I don’t want to hear what you have to say. Goodbye”.
Like I said, they created a monster in me…
A miserable seven days is compounded with the news that Jim has got cancer. The weight loss and other issues didn’t make it obvious as his medical condition can be described as “complicated”. It’s pretty rotten. I’ve always tried to talk him up and tell him the positives and now I feel quite upset by it all. Tear for a man I never got on with, until recently. How does that work?
Seeing as the net has become so fluid in terms of data exchange and I can squirt my updates from one site to another from a centralised point and there have been searches come up via Google Analytics that people do look for a “Darren Lock” page on MySpace, I have decided to set up an account there again.
http://www.myspace.com/darrenlock
It’s looking lonely over there as I only have two friends and those are the automated ones you get when you open an account!!!
The Guitar Center in Hollywood has a special place in my heart, mainly because it completely blew my mind when I went their the first time and the second time, I was truly impressed that I could pick up really expensive guitars and play them without a shop assistant jumping on my back and beating me to the ground.
My guitar shopping experience in the UK has always been a negative one where you either get the sniffy muso shop assistant who looks down their nose at you and deliberately tries to undermine you or banjax you in equal measure. I always remember phoning up Holiday Music in Leytonstone in the late 90s and asking if they had a VG-8 in stock. “No,” said the snotty assistant on the end of the phone, “That’s a guitar synthesiser (wrong!) and we don’t stock those”. Meanwhile, I’ve got a copy of Guitarist magazine open in front of me with their advert telling me they had the units in stock and that’s how I got their phone number!
But the Guitar Center is such a laid back place and the staff are friendly and helpful and there are so many different guitars to drool over, it really is Guitar Heaven.
Guitar Heaven 2004
Outside the massive shop front, there is a walk of fame where famous guitar players have left their hand prints. I snapped this picture of Tony Levin’s entry because it made me laugh so much – don’t worry, he’s not deformed or a space alien, he was wearing his funk fingers.
Tony Levin’s Hand Print on Guitar Center Walk of Fame
So where are we going with this? Well this is a stream of consciousness post because my attention was brought to Peter Gabriel’s recent performance at the self-same Guitar Center, and Tony Levin is his long-term bass playing chum and I have good memories of the place. So I thought I’d combine all these elements into one gooey mess.
Enjoy!
Been feeling a little down today so I thought I’d put up a couple of pix of the next generation because they cheer me up no end.
Had a meeting with the men from the bank today. New contracts have been inked and our final obligation is going to be met. We reset the clock back to zero. It is three years ago. Nothing has happened. We start again…