You are allowed to enjoy this…

This is a short interview thing that myself and The Missus recorded a couple of weeks back when we were testing out our new Canon HV-10 digital camcorder. Basically, it’s us talking about the pregnancy and what it means to us. A bit different, but enjoy! (It’s a big download of 50Mb + so be patient)

The download total for August 2007 is another record breaker with a gob-droppingly-big 93Gb of data shifted. Don’t think I’ll ever top that little total…

At last it is all over. Contracts signed, sealed and delivered. Exchange has taken place and our moving date set. I am currently:
happy/sad
relieved/stressed
fearful/calm
I’ve dealt with solicitors many times when buying our previous properties and I’ve always been a little anxious on the day of exchange. You know, going into a dry, airless office and signing your life away is going to make the pulse race and your temples sweat. But yesterday was different. I’ve never felt so calm in my life. I was almost beautific.
I wanted change. I embrace change. Now everything changes all at once. I must me completely mad.

And so our time here is coming to an end. Contracts have been inked, details have been hammered out and a completion date been set. The last couple of days have been particularly stressful for me as I have had to adopt a hard-nosed business persona to get what I want. The person I was dealing with was a little dishonest with the initial draft of the contract and I had to stand firm. Remembering shows such as “The Apprentice” I would ask myself “What would Donald Trump do?” and to a lesser extent “What would Alan Sugar do?”. My doggedness paid off and I got what I had made an offer on.
I might as well come clean now as I am on the home strait. I am quitting the freelance writing business and I am buying a busy shop in a little village. When you’ve achieved all you are going to achieve in your field it is time to change direction and do something completely different, I feel. Plus, I wanted to do something where I could do an honest day’s work (and get paid a decent wage for it, instead of scrabbling for freelance scraps like a dog) and still have time for BabyLockTM (who has yet to make an appearance). So that’s the big secret out of the bag.
The thing is that where we are going to is a small village and I don’t think it prudent to keep the blog going. It might scare off my customers! So maybe it is time to close this place down and only concentrate on my musical noodlings? The alternative is to go anonymous and create a pseudonym. I don’t know – the Internet isn’t as exciting as it used to be. It’s just a million mindless monkeys chattering for attention. I mean who the heck wants to read my self-centred bleatings, let alone download the tuneless drivel I record?
Anyway, let’s end on a positive note. Here’s a message posted on the blog from Luis of Spain:

First of all excuse me for my english. I´m from Spain. A love Robert Fripp like you. I find your music interesting, specially the soundscapes. This of 7/7/6 is extremly beautiful, fantastic, peacefull..
I have a Godin and an Axon (a unit like Roland).
Please tell me what equipment you use in this song and in general. Where do you obtein these sounds from?
Thanks.

Well Luis, thanks for your kind comments. It’s these words that fuel my creative fire. I certainly don’t do it for money, otherwise I’d have starved ages ago! But here’s my list of guitar equipment that I use in my recordings:
Godin xtSA guitar
Roland VG-88 Virtual Guitar System
Roland GR-33 Guitar Synthesiser
Boss DD-20 Giga-Delay
Boss RC-50 Loop Station
Hope this helps!

Apple…

to Pie

Now I am beginning to get nervous. Inventories have been checked. More fear as I realise that I am stepping into the brink and doing something completely different. Before it was just head nerves and now that has turned into gut nerves. You can feel the fear in different parts of your body. I could write loads and loads of posts about what’s really going on but I am still playing my cards to my chest. If I gave you the low-down you’d understand completely but once it is all done I’ll probably come clean and explain the furtiveness. However, this life-changing thing might mean that I’ll need to close the blog part of the site, but does anyone really care? My loyal reader probably will find somewhere else to go, won’t you? Or I could just start again and go anonymous…that would be fun.

As any intelligent person knows, Banks are just well organised parasites. I’ve got this new business account, see. I need it for my new business, naturally, but I have already incurred over £500 debit already. How so? Well my business manager didn’t tell me that the valuation/survey was going to be debited from this new account before we’d even started using it and so I have incurred an overdraft fee. He promised to clear it up, but I’ve still made a little blemish on my credit record. I was expecting the surveyor to send me the bill direct, but no, I get shtumped without even being asked.

This is why I am nervous as I expect to get really shtumped before this whole project is complete. Once the two houses are sold there are still estate agents to pay, mortgages and fees to clear, removal costs and whatever else comes along, as well as Capital Gains Tax. Ouch!

So at least now you all know why I am scared and why I get so easily fucked off these days.
Oh and by the way, my wife is heavily pregnant and is in no condition to move. Why o why do I think that after we sign the contracts the completion date is going to coincide with the due date? And yes, I have told the solicitor many times about the baby’s arrival and to plan around it. In fact, don’t even get me started on the solicitors or even the estate agents who have been a complete pain in the rump…

Grrr…

Deep blue ocean…deep blue ocean…deep blue ocean…

That’s better!

For the first time in a long while, I am completely fucked off. Of course, this happens at the hand of someone else who has thrown reason and sensibility out of the window a long time ago. My only defence is to attack their stupidity but I know this is wrong and that just exascerbates my own sense of helpless exasperation. What to do? I don’t know…no one knows…
Life-changing events move forward: we are at week 38 of the pregnancy, the final stages of the move are coming together, checking of inventories and registering for VAT and sending off a big check for the commercial mortgage means the frown is forever etched on my face.
I keep telling myself that I am doing this for a better life for my family and myself, but sometimes I think I am making a big mistake. It’s either going to the best or the worst thing I ever do and when you have someone who is supposed to be pulling in the same direction as you have a hissy fit at this late stage, it just makes you question yourself.
Oh well, I must remain on course, right?