If you're British you will have sharply polarized views on upon seeing this: you may of voted for leaving (that's most of us in this district) or may not but we are past the point of talking about the referendum, the bitter impass of the three and a half years in Parliament before last Month's General Election.
Whatever you think, come 11PM tonight we will have left the European Union. Period.
We're on a different journey now, a feeling you may feel elated over or fearful, one some of us can remember from 1973 when we joined the Mk1 EU we knew as the Common Market wondering just how it was going to work out.
I sympathize with those who are fearful although with everything that those who favoured however reluctantly leaving being called obnoxious and toxic names while everything was done to prevent that result from being enacted I can understand a sense of "at last" too.
Point is we need to now get on with making the best of our being out of the EU and we're best starting by dropping all those insults and working together, accepting the result is now to be implemented and working toward that common aim, being prepared to be pragmatic to achieve something that will work for us all even if it may not quite everything we might personally of wanted. Give and take in other words not grandstanding and throwing the toys about.
Let's move on and make the most of where we are.
Well this week there's been a lot of things going on, some of which are continuing such as the uncoupling of Harry, Prince of Wales and Meghan Markle from the Royal family of which I will say few words.
The first is when and if you find something is placing too big a strain on you that you can no longer cope with it, something I can easily understand in Harry's instance, then you do need to bear in mind that in leaving it there are costs involved not just the financial but the emotional.
I've been there. I had to give up a career because what was going on with it could not be properly resolved and I was a emotional wreak breaking down frequently that was cutting into other things I was doing.
Thing is, in doing that I had to accept that 'game' was over, done with, and move on accepting I'd no longer be in those circles, that I could never be back with them and any long term dreams involving that line of work were over with.
It hurt.
Cutting out role duties means those roles as the Queen's representative just go because they whatever they had to offer depended upon that patronage and if fulfilling that with all the media attention that comes with is "too much" or brings back bad memories you struggle to shake off then that's a cost you have to accept.
If you had merely wanted a alteration to take account a period of illness or wanting to spend the first few years more with your child then that's a different thing and could be done but that wasn't in as far as we've been told what they wanted.
There bigger thing which remains unresolved is security.
Harry is a target not just for being formerly a HRH but for being in the military but normally when you in effect leave the 'working royals' then having that paid for goes and it is clear Canadians who weren't asked if they wanted any kind of Royals living there don't see why they should pay for it plus if they are not in the UK, you can't expect much enthusiasm for the UK public paying around Three to Six million a year for it.
This is complicated further still by the idea of earning money commercially so they would be independent financially as apart from restrictions around what they could endorse for monies, the very act of re-raises the interest that lead to the pressure they were struggling with.
And Canadian law is less useful on Privacy than the UK's.
To live they'd need over 6 million a year saying as of yesterday they were prepared to pay for that security which is a long way removed from the ordinary where perhaps Harry might get a paid post in the Military and and Meghan did a bit of acting or office work as 'regular joes' living in modest accommodation with non of the Royal or Celebratory Bubble going on bar the odd charity patronage perhaps.
That's where I get back to what I said at the start. If you find something like that something you have to leave, then there's a cost you have to be prepared to accept and I'm not sure they've got this really sorted out.
In other news my First tumblr has made 10,000 posts!
There are things I could talk about easily but they aren't in any way resolved apart from much of what is referred to isn't clearly fact so rather late in the day I decided to write this.
I was looking for something similar but more your boarding school boy as you see I had this image in my head of "Boris the Bold" leading on with the entire forms tuck box saying "This could be jolly handy later on in my life".
In a way while we do have the ability to change, much of who we are is well established by the time we've left school that there is a lot to said for looking at the kinds of opportunities that can help people develop life skills while at it rather just a preoccupation with the academic as much as I don't give anyone who doesn't value that an easy ride at all.
It may be something like being the Captain of a sports team or say running a club during recess, getting others involved, showing how to do things more effectively or fixing the competitions or presentation for say parents day.
These kinds of things do actually help like for example in my school we had a after school time gym class a friend run, taking the contributions, setting out equipment and exercises.
They were hardly well off, frankly my family was more well off than hers but she did an excellent job of it and so she had something to say about herself for when she left school because she demonstrated skills and abilities that people especially employers are looking for.
She really impressed me and within our school she wasn't alone either.
One thing I tend to think is having either all girl or boy settings means it is more likely everyone will take those opportunities sensing they need to be done rather than just assuming "The girls will do that" or "we'll leave that to the boys of form V" because they will need to take ownership apart from making each group more in tune with what its members want as trying to run something coe-od doesn't always work well.
Dire Straits were formed in the late 1970's of Mark and David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers and immediately caught my ears as someone who does appreciate well performed rock music from the moment I heard them in the Summer of 1978 on the radio which back then coupled with the music press was where you heard about artists and new single and album releases.
I moved from borrowed tapes to getting the original cd versions in the mid 1980's as funds and technology permitted but while newer editions had been issued, many had issues with the tendency to reduce the contrast between soft and louder parts and unlike many rock acts soft ambient moments do feature helping frequent listening.
Thus when it was announced in 2016 that the first four studio albums were to issued on the superior Super Audio cd form by the acclaimed Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs (Mofi) I and several others were excited but it wasn't until October 29th of 2019 that they actually came out.
The delay seemed to be because this issue was also to come out on record and the US company they had the license from to issue them (Warner Bros) had decided to reissue the records NOT wanting any competition so in effect had embargoed the release even though it was agreed in the beginning until October 2019.
The first album came out in 1978 with a simple graphic art cover more akin to Windham Hill's ambient music albums and was exceptionally well recorded in February 1978 containing the hit single Sultans Of Swing.
The follow up Communiqué, came out in the summer of 1979 with rather less of a buzz about it being something of a sleeper sales wise and featured the single Lady Writer and Where Do You're Think Going? This again is an excellent recording.
This album came out just in time for the Christmas market in 1980 featuring the hit single Romeo And Juliet, Skateaway was featured in the UK on a EP in 1983 and seaside flavoured Tunnel Of Love.
This album wasn't nearly as well recorded although this disc does sound better than all previous ones.
1982's Love Over Gold is an astonishing recording being done at 30 I.P.S. rather than usual 15 capturing well the atmospheric effects in breathtaking detail on tracks such as Telegraph Road and the top five UK hit single Private Investigations.
1985's Brothers In Arms was the first album to sell more on compact disc than any other format upon release that year aided no doubt by the cd and tape versions having longer versions of four songs compared to the lp
Indeed it was used by Philips who co-invented cd to promote the format and they sponsored the subsequent tour.
It was the home to four big singles So Far Away which as the lead single, Money For Nothing with its famous video, Walk Of Life from early 1986 and Your Latest Trick.
This super audio cd came out in 2013 which managed to extract more detail and warmth from the early all digital recording which was a bit 'lean' sounding which was common in the mid 1980's.
I had the first four for Christmas, mentioning they were with Mr Claus caused some mirth at a audio website and so out of bounds until Xmas and they sound so much better than the originals.
The card gatefold sleeve and insert is really classy so while getting all four at once was expensive for me they are well worth it being the only versions I need around.
Hello there.
It is the new year so I think we might as well start by saying Happy New Year folks as this blog continues entering its first edition in a new year in a new decade which does take me back to both 2010 and the year 2000 itself with its predictions of computerized system meltdowns.
Last year was a chaotic beeping mess politically which we did keep some track of here as much as that stuff messes my head up because of how a career in politics lead to a nervous breakdown of which the main issue last year was and to a point remains a single six letter word - BREXIT - and the schism that exists between not just people say in families but between areas of country that favoured it such as here in North Staffordshire where almost to a man and woman we favour it being the "Brexit Capital" of the UK and London plus Scotland who very much don't.
The good news of sorts is whatever your personal politics is, we have a Government with a 80 member majority that has passed the withdraw bill so actually after what seemed like an eternal merry-go-round we are leaving with some measures in place until years end while the second piece of leaving - the trade relations with the EU and the means of getting new deals done is resolved which may take a bit longer than a year.
You may not agree it but at least we're going in a direction now.
Many things contributed to the political revolution here where there in the whole of Staffordshire with the Black Country, there only three Labour MP's now:
The feeling Labour had done nothing to tackle our problems nationally for decades in exchange for votes while Independant-Conservative coalition local authorities were doing more plus the wish list of freebies including free internet for all that had us puzzling over how we the people were going to pay for it.
Then there was the character and connections of one Jeremy Corbyn, Labour's leader that couldn't hear the noise and sense the anger of its position on Brexit on our streets but was more focused on radicals who took to social media than everyday Labour supporters plus antisemitism issues in and out the party being main ones.
Politics in the Midlands is always a two horse race.
I did get away for assorted littles events doing some photography which in view of all the above was probably very good thing really as it was driving me mad.
The high street remains a concern where we lost the travel concern Thomas Cook although some shops and staff were transformed to Hays Travel, Poundland shut up shop and HMV almost went but was rescued by Canada's Sunrise Records who want to bring in more Vinyl and a shopping as an experience feel.
If that was the backdrop of the year covered only when I felt up to it, one thing this blog did go on for was reviewing cds specifically Super Audio cds of albums and artists I like aided by cheap and often two album on one cd inexpensive discs that offered better sound quality and often vintage Quadraphonic surround sound mixes that had been out of print for over a quarter century now newly restored by the likes of the Guess Who and Pink Floyd.
I also restored a few choice lps by artists that I regarded as Iconic which in the late 80's and early 90's had been replaced thing lp would just fade away from the collection rather than coming back with new younger fans buying titles rather than downloading them which at one time seemed to be fate of all current popular music.
Despite some issues with artwork quality, the two lp Rhythm Nation 1814 album by Janet Jackson proved to be better than the cheapened "better put it out briefly" original single lp doing justice to her vision.
I did talk a little more on here about the littles community and life although this isn't a littles blog as such because in such a turbulent year with three elections, Age Regression proved to be very needed and its associated activities like colouring and playing with plushies really helped with emotional mess.
