They say you should never start a sentence with so.  So, I find it a little weird that I have no comments to any of my posts, I know you guys are reading them because I have checked the hits I am getting.  Is it because they are so bloody boring that no one finishes reading them?
You comments below would be appreciated, LOL.

​I find myself at this half term sitting in my office wondering what to do with my time, I am struggling with my neck problem so working in my workshop is a no no, maybe I will spend some time with my stamp collection, yes I collect stamps, not cheap everyday ones, I invest a lot of money into rare and valuable stamps, Penny Blacks, Reds & Blues, why?  They are an investment for my son, when I finally leave this world he will have a valuable collection to do with as he pleases.  I find as I get older I tend to buy things that will increase in value as time goes on, I come from a very poor family, in fact so poor that 6 of us shared the same bath water in a tin bath when we were young, in winter we would have to rap in blankets as coal was a luxury, sometimes dad would get hold of scrap wood to burn, I often think of those days when I light my wood burning stove in the workshop, so the investments I make will at least give my son something of value, my siblings and myself were left nothing as my Dad died poor and my Mum will go the same way, although we all pitch in to make sure she has everything she needs..

Anyway 'Enough' I here you cry, so I will end it here.

FFS, someone comment.

Old Man out..............

Music, I love it, it's been a part of my life for so long I would not survive without it,  I started playing piano at 7 or 8, was never any good at it but love playing the Z Cars theme on my parents upright. Now at school I was good at the recorder, ok on percussion, and ok on the ivories, but I wanted a guitar. 
Move on about 9 or 10 years, I am working with a guy called Bob Pond and he plays in a band called Colours with another guy called Paul Lomas on guitar, they blew me away, that was it I wanted to play in a band, so off to the local second hand shop and £15 later I have a semi acoustic guitar, a Columbus , crap guitar but hey it was a piece of wood with a stick and and some strings. 

I managed to get Paul Lomas to give me some guitar lessons a few months later he said that I had progressed enough to go it alone, so I did, playing along to Hendrix, Humble Pie, Moody Blues to name a few, Paul and Bob gave me the oppertunity to play with them on stage in London, I played 3 numbers, the crowd went crazy, well they clapped, I suppose that counts, next step, form a band.

I had a good pal at work called Dave, I asked if he would be interested in starting a band, yeah he said what am I playing, your choice I said, so he got a Bass guitar and we were 50% of a group, next to follow was Tony my younger brother, he was a good player for his age so he was in, next we needed a drummer, Tony girlfriends sisters boyfriend said he said always wanted to play drums, we were now a group, we went through several names but finally agreed on Pearl Dice?

We practiced a couple of evenings a week and weekends in Dave's bedroom, his mum made tea and biscuits, they were good times, it was not too long before we had our first gig, a working mans club, we went down a storm and the bookings came in were were playing every week, we played at the olympic runner Alan Pasco's Birthday party, we won battle of the bands, we were up and running really fast, I was pretty good even if I say so myself, I had a unique style, as a band we were tight and were really very good, then the shit hit the fan, Bell Records came to see us play, everything that could go wrong did, so I split the band and played with another band called Raven for a while but soon got fed up with the singer, so I gave up playing for over 20 years before I got the urge to play again, I purchased a Fender Stratocaster, learnt to play again and was just enjoying bashing out the odd song here and there.  Then in 2009 I had medical problems that have left me with hand issues so no guitar playing for me.

So, who are my Players and Singers, guitarists have to be Joe Bonamassa, BB King, Gary Moore, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Hendrix, Dave Gilmore, Nita Strauss, to name a few,  singers are, Beth Hart, Timi Yuro, Gary Moore, Andy Williams, Nat King Cole, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, there are too many to mention here.

You can see my choices are stretched over a long period of time, it's cos I is old.  Your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

​Old Git out.

4 times, 4 fucking times, that how many cancellations I have had to my operation, I am waiting for surgery on my neck, I am in constant pain, have not slept for years because of this problem, in November last year the surgeon noticed spurs and a lacking cushion for the vertebrae in my neck, the nerves are trapped and I am in agony, but I am told that I am a non essential or urgent case as it is not life threatening?

Explinations are, other more urgent cases and the government issues?  WTF, so it looks like I need to be near to death to get this op, if it carries on I will die of old age before I get this surgery.  

Pissed off, angry, and Fucking annoyed.
​UPDATE

On the 6th attempt to get me into hospital the surgeon doing the op booked me into a private hospital as he could not get me an operating room on the NHS in the near future, so as I rtype this I have had my operation and it seems to have worked (I won't really know for about 6 months), however I am now happy that it's done.  Thank you Mr Rikin Trivedi.

So, I have just found out you should never start a sentence with So, So I have bad grammar, don't blame me I never really went to school, part time more like, anyway.
I have been off work now for 3 months with a neck issue, something to do with a C7 spinal malfunction, LOL, but I have an operation lined up for this Friday, lets see if the NHS cancels or not?
I have been itching to make some guitars, but I have not been able to due to my neck, so getting frustrated quite a bit.

Women, I think I need a new woman, I can't be arsed with dating sites, nor Tinder or any other sort of dating thing, in the old days we would go to the pub and pull a girl, they would be doing the same thing but now it seems to be all about getting blind drunk and making a complete arse of yourself, I passed a pub at midnight recently and noticed several young girls underwear around their ankles laying on the pavement? what the hell is that all about?  most can't stand up and those that can need a friend to assist them.  So where does that leave me, well it looks like a chance meeting or someone at work, neither of those options appeal to me so I will just have to wait and see, I am getting old now so the  chances of me pulling a nice young girl has gone, I will have to do with the 30 somethings.
​

I had my gas and electric meters read last week, the guy reading them said I would be able to have smart meters fitted for free, which means no more visits from SSE and no more estimated bills.  So I said sign me up which he did, today I get an email saying because of a large demand I can't have them fitted, and they don't know when they will be able to fit them?
During the conversation with the meter reader he stated that they were being told to push the smart meters to get them fitted ASAP, saves them having to pay the meter readers (I wonder if the guy will lose his job)?  Anyway, why get the guy to push them when they can't fit them?  I am off work for a while recovering from a couple of operations so they have a small window of opportunity to catch me in, once I am back to work unless they can fit them at weekends then its not gonna happen.

​Moan over.

Where the fuck have you been? I hear you cry, good question, sick, hospital etc.

I have had a torrid time for the last 8 weeks and it would appear that it will continue until February next year, I have a collapsed C7 disc in my neck which basically means I am in agony constantly, 24/7, at that the the problems I already had and I am seriously fucked.  I have already had one operation to be followed by another in 2 weeks, however the next one will be on my new k and could have serious consequences if it does not go right, I won't explain now as even sitting up typing this is making my neck worse.

So watch this space, I will be back very soon, promise.

​

So, its 5pm on a Wednesday evening and I am so close to giving up the day job (Lecturer) and taking some early retirement, but I then think about what I would do, well there is the Guitar building, I could do that, I had 5 weeks off during the summer, you remember summer it was on the 16th of June, but after the first week I was aching to get back to work, the guitars are a hobby, I could do it when ever I liked, not about money, just me having fun, but teaching, I love it, its rewarding (not the pay) and I get home feeling that I may have made a difference to some young persons life in some way or other, but, at the moment the short sighted arse holes i.e. senior management who couldn't manage a piss up in a brewery, just don't see that they are in danger of fucking the college and all of us up, the new Principle tells us 'Enrol as many students as you can, I will give you the staff and resources', lying little shit, we have enrolled 30% more this year, we need extra computers and another member of staff to accommodate the new cohort, what do we get, fuck all, he has lied to us and he don't give a shit.

So, at this moment in time I am thinking enough is enough, maybe its time for me to move on, but then I think what am I going to do?  No one is going to employ someone my age, I am too close to retirement to make it worth their while, so, I need some time to mull over my future stating now................ 

Well it's getting closer, and I never thought I would live to see it, or feel it, I'm talking about armageddon, and possibly the end of the world, well nearly, there will be small pockets of survivors who will be the beginning of the next species, I just hope it's not the French or the Germans, or even worse Jeremy Corbin.
I have thought long and hard as to what the world can do about it, and the answer is very little, if Kim the Loon wants to play with the big boys, he needs to act like one, not like a spoilt child with a new toy, I think the Chinese are more concerned than they make out as are the Russians, both are sabre rattlers but thats about it, they know that if either start a war it will be the end of the world, but the Loon from the North is new to the club and as yet does not know the rules, only time will tell if he is going to piss off Trump enough for that idiot to try and take the Loon out.

SO what happens if the shit does hit the fan, well we can all place our heads between our legs and kiss our arses goodbye, to be honest if it kicks off then they say we will have about 45 minutes in which to say goodbye to loved ones, as most of my family are spread around the south east I would not have time so see them, the mobile or cell phone systems would be the first to go, EMP's from the first bomb would kill all mobiles so it would be once again as in world war 2 for those with transceivers i.e. radio enthusiasts to keep comms open and let those of us with radios that still work know whats going on.

​Anyway, It's time for me to do some real work, putting lecture together and stuff like that.

​

If you have been following my posts will will know I collect watches, some are collectors pieces some are very old, some are at the edge of new technology.
So I have been using a company in the USA for a while, I get good deals, normally, however, I decided to purchase a watch from a company I used once last year, I see a watch at a reasonable price £125 free postage, I pay using PayPal and wait for my watch some weeks later I get an invoice from the courier DHL, £20, for? They tell me it's the taxes etc, so I pay, at this point any real savings I would make have almost disappeared, over a week later the courier is at my door demanding £35? I ask what its for and he says Taxes? hang on I say I have already paid, no he says these are extra and need to be paid before he can leave the watch, WTF, I refuse the watch and tell him to return it to the seller, I spoke to DHL to get my £20 back, they tell me that it has been paid to the seller not them? I tell them you sent the invoice, I paid you, give me my money back, no they say, they tell me to contact the seller, so I contact Creation watches, they tell me they do not have the money its a fee from DHL? at this point I am losing the will to live, I am £145 down with no watch, I contact CW again, they tell me that they will give me a refund minus the postage, WTF I have already paid DHL £20, I ant paying anymore, so I contact PayPal and tell them whats going on, no response, that was 4 weeks ago, so I am short £145, no watch and no help, I think I will need to get a lawyer involved if I hope to recover any of the money.

Since this saga, I have read on several social networking sites that this is becoming a problem with CW, extra cash required on delivery ranging from £35 to £85, I am starting to sense a scam here, so if you are thinking of buying from Creation Watches, DONT, use Island watches, a much better service and I have bought over 20 watches from them with no extra prices for taxes etc.

I will let you know what happens. 

I am back at my desk in the college and it would appear that I am the only person in?  I mean the whole media department are not here?
Anyway, at least it will give me some time to catch up and blog, do some personal stuff online and generally get back into the swing of things.

So what did I do, Well, I spent a lot of time in my new workshop, finding the right places for tools, machines and other bits & bobs, I decided to put all my machines on platforms with wheels, allowing me to move stuff around, I have a small workshop so space is hard to find, moving machines about keeping the centre of the workshop clear works for me, I have so many new toys that I still haven't used them all yet, however, I am sure by Christmas I will have used them all and produced something useful.
I managed to get my first guitar body painted, 5 coats of yellow cellulose paint, just 2 coats of clear to apply then its ready for attaching the neck and hardware.  I have a portable spray booth, its actually a tanning booth from Aldi, but it works great for my needs because its a pop up nylon affair and it only cost me £8.00, I do love a bargain.

What else, oh yeah the big one, I went to Santa Pod with my son to the mini in the park (MITP) event, my son is into these small but beautiful little vehicles, the first stand we bump into is the win a classic mini tent, £3 a ticket, my son says lets get a ticket, I say 'No point I never win anything' but we end up queuing anyway,I buy 2 tickets and get my son to write his name on them, he may have more luck than me, anyway, we have a great day looking at Mini's and he bought a few bits for his car, we are on the way out when he remembers the win a mini draw, so we head back to the tent, it's gone, no trace so we both assume the draw was done and the car was won by someone, we are almost at the the car to leave when over the PA someone says, the draw for the mini is taking place in 5 minutes at the show arena, we are at least half a mile from that so we just stand and wait for the the result.
What happened next will stay in memory for ever, they start the draw, the guy pulls ticket and says the winner is ****** ****************, Holy Crap, it's my son, I look at him and he looks like someone just slapped him around the face, I shout, drop your bags and run, the announcer says, of course to win the car you must be there at the show ground to collect, after 2 minutes and several calls for my son over the PA, a phone tone starts ringing over the PA, I hear my son say 'Hello", the announcer says where are you, my son says at the starting line, he is told, not to rush but to make his way to the show ground to collect his prize.
A great way to end a fabulous day with my son, we don't get much time together because of our respective jobs, but I will remember that day until I die.

So its back to work, the students don't return for another 2 weeks, there is trying for all staff between now and then, and I have some pallets to break up this week for some projects I have planed.