My Feb 26 Rant!

Hi, Well I know I've posted twice today, but..

Here's the thing, I have been ill again, that prompted me to recall a funny story I have to tell you, (see the previous post).

Rants and Raves - I did warn you!

Well, my rant is about people who refuse to look after themselves. That alone makes my blood boil, especially when they start complaining about being ill or overweight, tired all the time or just under the weather!

Look at me, I'm approaching 46 and I actually never develop a cold or develop an illness myself.. I know, I know.. I'm ill... But, annoyingly, like last year (Dec 08 through to end of April 08 ) I was ill similarly, because other people nurse their cold and barking cough to plague level then come 'round to visit.

I've told everyone I know and my eldest kids (22 & 23) not to come and visit if they are ill, because I don't want to catch it. To me it is only common courtesy. I will always cover my mouth when coughing or sneezing. But, you know... people are so uncaring and idiotic...

I have had asthma & bronchitis all my life, it never stops me from doing anything I want to do. Positive mindset and all that! I do wrap-up warm when I need to, but under day to day living I always make sure I'm wearing the same level of clothing insulation on a daily basis.

When I'm home I'll strip to my 'T-shirt' indoors, jumper if it's cold. But I always make sure I've got my Thermal 'Benny Hat' as I call it - and my jacket / leather or fleece on when I'm going out. Even if I'm just going out to put the dust-bin out!

I don't care what the experts and doctors say - 'They say' - you cannot catch a cold or develop a cold, head cold or chest cold, by just being cold for a few minutes (or hours)..

Well, I'm sure they have that wrong, (or maybe I have misunderstood, perhaps they mean catch the Flu, or whatever). All I know is, if I find myself outside without my hat, in the cold, especially if there is a cold or icy wind blowing,, BANG. I catch or develop a head cold.

I get the head-aches and the thumping throbbing pain and runny nose - HOW CAN THAT BE A FIGMENT OF MY IMAGINATION? They say... "Its all in the mind" WELL, THE COLD IS - are they trying to be funny or something, because I don't get the joke!

The other day my daughter visited, she had been walking her dog (30 minutes walk away) and had not intended to come out as far as she did. Wearing only a thin jacket and T-shirt with a naked waist-line, jeans and trainers with no-socks.. When I realised she was sat talking to her mum (my wife Michelle), in the kitchen, I looked in on them..

I had heard her voice, but also the incessant sore-throat tone and coughing and sniffing sound she was making.. LET ME TELL YOU.. You cannot challenge these types of people who have this mentality. -But me being me and 'they' being 'my daughter' and being 'IN MY HOUSE', I rise to the challenge of putting my point across and kicking them out!

Am I being unfair? Am I being RUDE? Am I not a nice person for speaking out as I do?

Well, I think I am justified. She, 'my daughter', had been in the kitchen about half-an-hour before I realised she was there.. She'd been filling my kitchen with smoke from her cigarette, I actually only noticed it when I felt my chest tightening (asthma), from the smell of her smoke, (I was in the living room)!

My point is, if I can smell and breathe in her smoke from the kitchen and indeed smell it all over the house, once I had come out of my work trance, (I'll explain in a later post ' work-trance' but suppose you know what I mean if I just say engrossed in my work). I must surely have been breathing in all her cold and sore-throat germs too. I had inadvertently been breathing it in all that time without really realising it!

Well, today I'm ill. I woke this morning with a sore-throat that I cannot even swallow with, without the aid of water or honey! - My head is banging, my chest is heaving and I won't even tell you what else as you can imagine what I'm coughing up...

OK - So its all in my mind is it? I did this to my-self, its my own fault. LOOK, my throat was prickling up even before I sort of realised my daughter was in the house, I was not thinking of illness nor sore-throats. My mind was away with the fairies on whatever I was working on!

I do agree the mind is a powerful tool, that is the only reason I am able to be sat here typing this now. I'm going off to do some exercise after writing this. One of my self-talk statements is - .

You have to think well, when you're ill!

Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest, after all you're the only-one here for me to talk to! Grumpy old man kicks daughter out of house!

AndyGold.

Happy Birthday - (or not)!

Hi, I want to tell you a little story from my past, get your coffee...



Years ago, working in clubland; (that's the term we old musicians used to use for doing the circuits of the old working-men's-clubs. Like nightclubs, bars, pubs, drinking establishments).




Anyway, working in clubland one night; (I should mention at this point, not wanting to sound too much like Ronnie Corbett, that in clubland, especially in working-men's clubs; everyone, (meaning -'the regulars'), always sat in the same seats).



I'll digress to say... Everyone knew everyone, you couldn't even stand in the wrong place at the bar for fear of upsetting someone. "That's my seat, my stool, my standing spot, even my turn on the pool table" (even though no money was put down and you had already put your coins in the table,- because no-one was using it). I'm sure there are still places like this!


Anyway, back to the story... Many years ago working in clubland one night, a message was passed up to the stage; (sorry about this, but I should explain also that I was playing keyboards / organ and I had a drummer and a 'compere' working with me.. (or MC as they are sometimes called, I should probably also mention that MC means Master of Ceremonies, for those of you that are not into the world of stage and entertainment).



I didn't just want to assume that you knew what I was talking about.. Anyway... I digress again, lets get on with the story..



Many years ago working in clubland one night, a message was passed up to the stage; Someone had jotted down on a thin piece of paper, a request "It's Maureen's Birthday.... 111". We did have a lot of elderly people in, there was some sort of pensioners "do" on. ....



That sounds strange doesn't it? "Do", that's how we use to talk, back then. We're having a "Do". It just meant, a social occasion, event, party.. (Again, I don't want to just assume that everyone knows what I mean)...



Anyway.. getting back to the story... Someone had jotted down on a thin piece of paper, a request "It's Maureen's Birthday.... 111". So we stopped all proceedings! This was something big! You see, in the UK, when a pensioner reaches the age of 100 they get a letter of congratulations from the Queen. That's right, I said the Queen! Queen Elizabeth II.



I don't want to digress again, but I'll have to just to say that, I remember the event, its the reason behind my story, but I don't actually remember the woman's name, so I'll just call her Maureen, it could have easily been someone called "Ida" or "Hilda", I don't think she'll be reading this at any-time in the near future and I'm probably the only-one who remember the event anyway.



So,... the names have been altered, (all except the Queen, of course), so that I can tell this story for you.. Anyway, without further "adoo", (now there's a funny term "adoo" who thought of that). Let's forget that and get on with it! .....



So like I was saying, in the UK, when a pensioner reaches the age of 100 they get a letter of congratulations from the Queen.



Then in many cases they get a letter again and again every year they celebrate a birthday..

So we went into this spiel, about how great it must be to reach the ripe old age of 111, how many wars they must have lived through, all the inventions and changes and prime-ministers they must have seen come and go... Yes we went on and on... Well the compare did!

(Not me, I was innocently sitting at the organ, minding my-own-business).



As the compare announced this birthday, there were a lot of cheers from the packed club, Maureen and her entourage were sitting at the back of the club, they were calling out things, but we could not hear them, nor actually see them properly, (stage lights in your face and all that).



The note was placed on the top of the organ, (we used to use it like an extension of the bar-on-stage. Ash trays, pints of larger and bitter, the odd whisky for the singer and some music from the artist I was backing, the compere's music, etc).. Quietly, I picked up the note and examined it more carefully...



As it turns out, on the other side of the THIN paper it said;

Maureen's 45 today,
try to 'cheer her up' she's
ill.

When you turn the paper over, (you guessed it), all it actually said on the other side was.....

" It's Maureen's Birthday! " (the "ill" part had come through the paper where it had got wet from a spot or drip of spilled drink or something... But - it looked like -

It's Maureen's Birthday!

111

So, we made our apologies, Maureen did feel better because of the laugh it gave every one!



AndyGold

We would have lit the candles on your cake, but we didn't want to speed up global warming!