A Blast From the Past.

Whilst I was basking in the pale glory of having had a massive 3 readers of my Ebook (An Uneventful Soldier) I was wondering if I should have spent some real money on trying to publish the book in soft back and tried to sell some on line or on Ebay. Perhaps given my low readership that was not really a starter but then my E Mail squawked "there is mail for you", this of course delivered in the voice of the HAL9000 computer from the movie "2001 A Space Odyssey", there was a mail from an old friend and workmate from Scotland!! He casually announced that he had discovered my Book and my Blog! Was this reader 1 or reader 3? In any event this email evoked all sorts of memories from my days at IBM and travel to Greenock when "this friend" of mine one day suggested I may like to accompany him on a night out to his local haunt "The Dugout" in Greenock. How could I refuse when he then told me we had to buy tickets for a show that was on there featuring the USA Calendar Girls. These girls were all famous name lookalikes - the only one I can remember was a Cher lookalike! Well what a night it turned out to be, the club full to bursting with me no doubt the only Englishman there, plus Big Ian, my friend Rab and I am not sure who else now but the beer flowed and the atmosphere more tense as the girls failed to appear on time. By the time they did arrive the packed throng had become a baying gang demanding more and more of the hapless lookalikes who invited various members of the audience to come on stage to be photographed with them for a fiver a time. This proved to be a spectacular disaster for the organisers of the event when the only disabled member of the audience was picked up in his wheelchair and passed up onto the stage for his photograph. He was photographed and charged his fiver and given his polaroid snap and then, still in his wheelchair, passed back into the baying throng but something went wrong. I am not sure what happened at this stage other than for some unaccountable reason the lad in the wheelchair was ejected from the club by the bouncers!!! He was simply picked up in his chair and lifted above the heads of the mob and bounced! Needless to say, we sympathised (not!!!) I am sorry to say that we laughed until we cried. The end of the evening was a bit of an anti climax and it was not until I got back home to England that a friend of mine passed me a copy of the "Daily Star" reporting the "riot at the Dugout" .... fame!

I have to thank Rab K for reminding me about the "riot" - I wonder who started it?

Where it all began

Anyone new to my Blog may need pointing in the right direction, that is forward and not backwards never to return! So, why did I start this Blog and what is it about?

Far back in September 2007 I set about writing an online diary to record our Ibiza adventure. We were retiring, selling our house in the UK and setting off for a life in the sun in Ibiza. I jokingly said that I was going to become a hippy, grow a pony tail and have a tattoo, neither of which I did and never intended to do but some people actually thought I meant it.

Since those days, the good times and the bad my blog has taken a different turn and it has been mainly me having a rant of taking a slanted view of life as I see it these days and that's how its going to stay despite another opportunity to write another “diary”.

Well here goes, my latest eclectic collections of writings, partly about moving home but mainly a damn god rant!

Home Handyman wanted?

I once forcefully stated that I would not be doing any DIY of any sort at this, our new house and that from now on I would get an odd job man to undertake the many tedious and back breaking jobs that turn up all the time around the home.

All I can say is that I have failed to keep this promise and as a result I face all sorts of strange looks, odd comments and downright derision! I seem to have been beset with a series of near disasters but somehow managed to recover myself and be redeemed at the same time.

The really “major” jobs were sorted by the very handy “Bob” who sorted out the tumble dryer position and ventilation, hung the huge mirrors and plumbed in the washing machine plus a couple of other minor jobs.

However, I am now suffering with a very painful “rotator cuff injury” partly due to excessive lifting on our many moves and lots of push pull turn motions of my arm doing some awkward DIY !!

Several anti0inflamatory drugs and a steroid injection dealt with the pain on a purely temporary basis but now it's back and I am going to have to have it sorted..... I can't get out of cutting the grass though!!

Please come back, there is more to come....My next Blog will include:-

* A Blast from the Past, Greenock and the “dugout”
* Eating out - a birthday treat?
* Planting out- painful days
* Spraying paint - Not for for the faint hearted
* The Missing 20%
* “The One Show” on BBC1 (Christine and Adrian – a Rant!)

….... and much much more!